The iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra are both big phones with big screens, big power, and big price tags. The cameras are also impressive, but which one of these two archrivals takes better photos?

I’ve been using the Galaxy S24 Ultra again over the past few weeks and have put it against Apple’s latest top iPhone to find out. And the results are pretty shocking.

The cameras

Before we look at the phones, let’s look at the numbers behind the cameras, starting with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. There are three cameras on the back, starting with the main 48-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, which can also take 2x zoom photos. It’s joined by a 12MP telephoto camera for 5x optical zoom photos and a 48MP ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has four cameras. It’s led by a main 200MP camera, along with a pair of telephoto cameras — a 10MP camera for a 3x optical zoom and a 50MP periscope zoom for 5x optical shots — plus a 12MP ultrawide camera. Unlike previous Galaxy Ultra phones, the S24 Ultra has “optical quality” 10x zoom shots, which have proven to be just as good as optical zoom shots.

For reference, I used the Standard Photographic Style on the iPhone 16 Pro Max for all the photos below, and each phone’s camera was used in auto mode. All the photos were downloaded onto an Apple Mac mini and examined on a color-calibrated monitor. They have all been resized for friendlier online viewing.

Main camera

When using the main camera, the iPhone 16 Pro Max consistently took more visually pleasing photos than the S24 Ultra, apart from its long-time issue with exposure occasionally rearing its head. In the first photo of the leafy lane, you can see where it causes the camera problems and where the S24 Ultra’s colors are punchier and more vibrant.

However, as you can see in the second photo of the Aston Martin Valkyrie car, the S24 Ultra’s eagerness results in noise, which is entirely absent from the iPhone’s pin-sharp, more accurately colored image. Although its exposure can cause issues sometimes, here, it gets it exactly right — to the point where I can easily read the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the windscreen, which is blurred and jumbled in Samsung’s photo.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra often gets a certain type of photo right, such as the example at the top, but everywhere else, the iPhone improves. The photo inside the church shows the wonderful tone and warmth of the iPhone’s camera, rather than the starkness of the S24 Ultra, right down to the color of the padding on the seats and the wooden beams on the ceiling.

Take a look at our final photo to see how the iPhone’s super-sharp focus and depth of field help it take detailed, emotional shots, even of the simplest subjects. The foam and bubbles on top of the coffee are so sharp, and the depth of field is exactly right, making for a more realistic, attractive photo than the S24 Ultra’s photo, which seems less aware of its subject.

Winner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

Ultrawide camera

On paper, the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s ultrawide camera should easily improve on the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera, but in reality, it’s the opposite. The S24 Ultra’s ultrawide camera shows up the iPhone’s camera really badly. The first photo of the Ferrari FF was taken indoors in good lighting (the same environment as the Aston Martin Valkyrie photo above), and the iPhone’s photo is full of noise and blur, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra avoids most of the same issues to produce a sharper, less blurred image. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than the iPhone’s photo.

Outside, things don’t improve much for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it can still impress with its warm tones. The photo of the fields and sky shows the S24 Ultra’s vibrant colors but overall coldness. However, it has a less noisy foreground and more detail, such as around the fence post. In the distance, the two cameras introduce some blur and noise.

In the final photo of the church, you can see how much sharper the S24 Ultra’s ultrawide photos are, with the stonework on the spire far clearer and less muddy than in the iPhone’s image. Yes, the S24 Ultra does use quite a lot of software enhancement, but it’s easier to forgive it when the balance and sharpness is right.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

2x zoom and 3x zoom

The two phones have different “short” zooms, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max offering a 2x optical zoom and the S24 Ultra a 3x optical zoom. You can see examples of them both here, and we’ll be judging this category as one rather than two separate categories. The 2x zoom is fairly consistent across both cameras for balance and focus, but the iPhone can introduce some noise, while the S24 Ultra’s photos have a softer look.

Move on to the 3x zoom across the two cameras, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max can’t match the S24 Ultra’s performance. Shots are far noisier and less sharp, while the Samsung phone’s 3x zoom produces excellent photos with plenty of life and detail. This is to be expected, given Samsung’s dedicated optical 3x mode.

But because the S24 Ultra’s 2x mode isn’t awful compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 2x shots, it’s going to win this category for being more versatile, as you could realistically use both zooms on it, but would want to stick with the 2x on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

5x zoom

Both cameras have 5x optical zooms, and Samsung continues its run of zoom superiority here too. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a problem with sharpness and focus, resulting in grainy, blurry, or noisy images that look worse the more you crop them down. These issues are missing from the S24 Ultra’s camera, and its photos look great at 5x zoom.

Take the wooden angel as an example. Not only are the colors and textures far more realistic in the S24 Ultra’s photo, but when you crop it down, there’s detail in the wood that the iPhone struggles to capture. The overall sharpness makes the depth of field pop more, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s photo appears flatter.

Photos taken outside have similar issues, but the iPhone does win a few points with generally more realistic colors. Many will like the S24 Ultra’s fairly saturated colors, which stay consistent across all lenses. The donkey’s fur is sharper and more defined in the S24 Ultra’s photo, and there’s clearly less noise on the wooden fence post and the red strap. Samsung wins the 5x zoom category, so will it make it three-for-three as we move to the 10x category?

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

10x zoom

Neither phone has a 10x optical zoom, but Samsung does make a point of highlighting its optical quality photos at 10x and does include a shortcut in its camera app. The iPhone does not, and things do start out quite well.

The horse photo reveals a similar level of detail, but when you get very close, there’s far more evidence of software enhancements in the S24 Ultra’s photo, with some haloing visible along the horse’s back and ears. This glow is not in the iPhone’s photo at all, giving it a more natural appearance.

But the iPhone does not always win here, as seen in the next photo of the wooden pub sign. The S24 Ultra’s photo has less noise than the iPhone’s photo, particularly on the green board, and its more dynamic coloring means the fall leaves glow more attractively.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is far more consistent when shooting 10x photos, as the final photo of the car proves. The differences are clear — accurate colors, spot-on white balance, and no obvious noise. The iPhone can’t keep up at 10x zoom.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Night mode

When it came to shooting photos in low light, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s preview on the phone made me expect the worst, as it did not show a truly representative image straight after taking it. The iPhone didn’t have any such problem, so when I was collecting photos, I feared for the S24 Ultra’s performance. However, the images looked totally different in the gallery, and at first, the two appeared quite evenly matched.

The outside of the brightly lit pub is a great example. The iPhone overexposes in many places while showing more detail than the S24 Ultra’s photos in others. However, in most other areas — the seating and foliage, for example — both cope with the low light well. The iPhone’s photo does have a little more blur, though, and the overexposure hides details, such as in the pub’s signage.

In the photo of the village shop, the iPhone’s more accurate colors shine through, and it’s also less blurry than the S24 Ultra, where the software smooths out a lot of detail, showing both are very sensitive to lighting conditions when taking photos in the dark. The two trade blows like this in all the lowlight images I took, and while the iPhone’s overexposure often caused problems, the S24 Ultra’s smoothing often did the same.

However, the S24 Ultra was great in difficult, harsh lighting conditions. Shooting into the sunset, the S24 Ultra captured the golden glow in the sky, the blue sky, the green of the grass, and the scene as a whole. The iPhone 16 Pro Max’s photo contains so much shadow that it robs it of emotion and detail. The real-world environment was somewhere in between the two, but the S24 Ultra’s photo is the one I’d keep or share.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Samsung’s flagship comes out on top

It may come as a shock to some, but the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra — a phone released at the beginning of the year — has taken a victory in all but one category against the new Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max. It has by far the superior camera when you want to take any zoom or ultrawide photo.

It couldn’t quite match the iPhone 16 Pro Max in the main camera category, though, and I consistently preferred it to the S24 Ultra. Still, it should be noted the iPhone’s exposure and contrast can still upset the balance of some images, especially in challenging light. This has affected iPhone cameras for several generations, so it is not unique to the 16 Pro Max.

What’s very interesting is that the iPhone 16 Pro comprehensively beat the Google Pixel 9 Pro in a recent test, proving its top camera credentials. It also showed several improvements over the iPhone 15 Pro. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has been a winner from the start by improving on its predecessor, beating the Google Pixel 8 Pro, and equaling the performance of our favorite Android camera phone, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

It may not be the latest on the market, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra continues to take on the very best camera phones and easily holds its own.

The RedMagic 10 series is coming, and the display of one phone has just been detailed. The RedMagic 10 Pro+ will feature a large display which will be ideal for gaming in a number of ways, as this is a gaming smartphone after all. Before we begin, do note that this comes from RedMagic China’s General Manager.

The RedMagic 10 Pro+ display gets detailed ahead of launch

The RedMagic 10 Pro+ will have a 6.85-inch 1.5K display by BOE. That will be an OLED panel with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 95.3% screen-to-body ratio. That screen-to-body ratio is immensely high, how did RedMagic get there?

Well, as you’ll see in the provided image above, the bezels are very thin. That’s not all, though. The company also does not include a display hole or notch on this panel, as it uses an under-display selfie camera.

I’ve mentioned that the bezels are thin, but how thin? Its bezels are only 1.25mm thick, and they’re uniform. The frame thickness is 0.7mm, in case you’re wondering, that’s on top of the black border itself.

It will have thinner bezels than any other phone on the market

That means that this phone will have thinner bezels than the leading flagships now. The OPPO Find X8 trumped the iPhone 16 Pro (Max) with its 1.45mm bezel thickness. The Xiaomi 15 trumped OPPO with its 1.38mm bezels. Well, RedMagic will top both.

It was also mentioned that the display brightness will go up to 2,000 nits, in case you were wondering. All in all, this smartphone will be a sight to behold based on everything listed here.

Its predecessor were some of the nicest-looking phones out there, due to their design. It’s nice to see that RedMagic is sticking with the no display hole rule here too, as that’s the ideal setup for gaming.

This handset will also likely have a high touch sampling rate for gaming. Shoulder triggers will be included, and a fan will be placed on the inside of the phone. A number of gaming software features will also come pre-installed. The Snapdragon 8 Elite will be a part of the package too, and much more. The phone will launch on November 13, along with its siblings.

It’s pretty easy to tell if the PlayStation 5 Pro is for you. If you have no problems with the PS5’s existing performance, if you balk at the $700 price tag, or if you don’t have a modern 4K TV, you can just ignore this console entirely. But if you’ve been annoyed about losing graphical fidelity in 60 fps performance modes, or just want to avoid 30 fps gaming entirely, it could be the console you’ve been waiting for.

There’s no doubt that the PS5 Pro is a niche product, not an upgrade targeted at all PS5 owners. It’s meant for the Sony devotees who want the absolute best PlayStation experience, and who will never upgrade to a gaming PC. After all, those rigs typically run well over $1,000 for similar graphics performance, and they also involve all the complexity of Windows PCs, like driver issues, OS instability and juggling multiple game storefronts.

So sure, if you’re eager to see what Spider-Man 2 looks like in 60 fps with extra graphical flourishes, it may be worth stepping up to the PS5 Pro. And if you haven’t jumped on the PS5 bandwagon yet, it’s a solid option if you just want a no-compromise experience. To echo our preview, you might not need it, but you’ll want it.

While the PS5 Pro certainly lives up to the hype, at least based on my week of testing, it’s also a bittersweet product. When the PS5 debuted in 2020, Sony touted it as a powerful console that could finally give players a taste of PC gaming with features like ray tracing, while also delivering 4K playback. The reality was far more complicated: While some games ran at 4K, they were typically limited to 30 fps in fidelity modes. If you wanted smoother 60 fps gaming, you typically had to give up ray tracing and/or graphical quality for the performance mode.

But of course, the same was true for the Xbox Series X. Both Sony and Microsoft were limited by hardware constraints and the economics of console gaming. But now, Sony is finally able to deliver on the initial promise of the PS5 by swapping in a more modern GPU and pushing for a higher price. The PS5 Pro is certainly great news for anyone who desires more performance, but I wouldn’t blame some PS5 owners for being a bit miffed.

Engadget / Sony

The PlayStation 5 Pro is the most powerful console ever made, but you’ll pay dearly for its performance. Thanks to a faster GPU, it finally delivers 4K and 60 fps performance for PlayStation gamers, with a dash of new ray tracing features.

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Pros

• Faster GPU enables 4K/60 performance
• PSSR AI upscaler works well
• New ray tracing capabilities
• Can slightly upgrade PS4 titles
• Comes with a 2TB SSD

Cons

• Expensive
• So expensive
• No disc drive
• Not all games have Pro enhancements

$699 at Amazon

The PS5 Pro’s new features: A faster GPU and AI upscaling

So what do you get for a $700 gaming console? Sony threw in a new GPU with 67 percent more compute units, alongside 28 percent faster memory. That leads to 45 percent faster rendering performance, according to Sony, and up to triple the ray tracing power of the launch PS5. All of that new hardware is assisted by PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), an AI upscaling technology that can make lower-resolution graphics appear as if they’re natively 4K.

We’ve already seen similar AI upscaling in action with NVIDIA’s DLSS, which has been around since the RTX 20-series cards debuted in 2018. While DLSS wasn’t always perfect early on, NVIDIA steadily improved on it to the point where I prefer it to natively rendering a game in 4K. True 4K gaming is far too resource-demanding for a minor visual upgrade (in my eyes, at least) over 1440p. I’d typically rather play a game that’s upscaled from a lower resolution if it leads to smoother gameplay.

The PS5 and Xbox Series consoles already support AMD’s FSR upscaling, but in my experience on PCs, it’s not as effective as DLSS. FSR upscaling places dead last in comparisons among PC upscalers, and a recent Digital Foundry deep dive had PSSR (which I just love to pronounce phonetically) beating out FSR, since it delivers a more stable and detailed image with better anti-aliasing around edges. When using the PS5 Pro, PSSR essentially replaces FSR upscaling, making it yet another selling point for fidelity obsessives.

The two other big upgrades are 2TB of storage — 1.86TB is available out of the box, though you can claw some back by deleting Astro’s Playroom — and Wi-Fi 7 support. While your best bet will always be a direct, wired connection to your router, Wi-Fi 7 is a meaningful upgrade for those who can’t or don’t want to use a network cable. We didn’t have a Wi-Fi 7 router on hand, but the Pro was slightly faster than a launch edition PS5 when connected to a Wi-Fi 6 Nighthawk router. The standard PS5 had max download speeds of 401 Mbps and upload speeds of 53 Mbps. The Pro (in the same location and time of day), clocked 484 Mbps down and 53 Mbps up.

What you don’t get with the PS5 Pro, oddly enough, is a disc drive. You’ll have to pay $80 to add on Sony’s disc drive, which was released alongside the PS5 Slim last year, or just rely entirely on digital downloads. With its 2TB SSD, plus room for an additional drive, the PS5 Pro certainly has enough room to hold a decent library of games.

But why give up on the disc drive? Sony is likely just reading the tea leaves: A report by the gaming analytics firm NewZoo (via Destructoid) noted that 72 percent of console title sales in 2022 were digital. Still, it’s odd to see what’s ostensibly the ultimate PS5 missing a feature that was included in the launch model four years ago. Without a bundled disc drive, players will have to pay extra to take advantage of cheaper used games and watch 4K Blu-ray titles.

The PS5 Pro in action: The most powerful gaming console yet

The PlayStation 5 Pro is a beast, simply put. Sony makes that clear the moment you power it on, when you’re welcomed by a bombastic opening sequence that’ll give your surround sound speakers a workout. (Remember when The Simpson’s Milhouse played Bonestorm for the first time? It’s basically that.) It’s a minor thing, but it’s one way to impress someone who just spent $700 on a console.

I jumped right into Spider-Man 2‘s Performance Pro mode, and I was knocked out by how clear and smooth the game looked. It brings over all of the features from the game’s standard Fidelity mode, including ray-traced reflections across windows and water, but it also delivers 60 fps with higher-res textures, thanks to PSSR. It was as if I were playing Spider-Man 2 on a gaming PC. Swinging around the city was silky smooth and the reflections on buildings were simply stunning. I found myself just wandering around the streets of NYC or hanging out on rooftops just to drink in the additional detail.

Spider-Man 2‘s Performance Pro mode basically delivers everything I wanted from the game on the original PS5, where you had to choose between a less graphically intense, 60 fps Performance mode, or the 30 fps Fidelity setting with ray tracing. But, as if to constantly rub compromise in our face, there’s also a new Fidelity Pro mode that once again brings the frame rate down to 30 fps to make room for new graphical features, including ray-traced ambient occlusion, key light shadows, and enhanced reflections and interiors.

Much like a gaming PC, you can tweak the levels of those new ray tracing settings to your liking. The Fidelity Pro mode looked fine when there wasn’t much action on the screen, but swinging around NYC was far less thrilling at a sluggish 30 fps. It also made me feel a bit dissatisfied with the graphics of the Performance Pro mode. While some console gamers probably won’t mind, I can’t see myself playing a modern title at 30 fps when I know the same hardware can deliver a more fulfilling 60 fps experience.

In The Last of Us Part 2, the new 4K/60 fps Pro mode is a striking upgrade over when I originally played it on the PS4. It also looks noticeably more fluid and realistic than the previous PS5 revamp. While the game is being rendered at 1440p and relies on PSSR to hit 4K, textures and skin tones appear sharp, and characters’ hair is far more natural. I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Last Of Us Part 2 when it debuted (the revenge narrative felt a bit simplistic), but the visual leap on the PS5 Pro is enough to make me want to replay the entire campaign.

Demon’s Souls, a game that already looked great on PS5, also gets an impressive update. The new Pro mode looks sharper than the old Performance option, it still runs at 60 fps and it features a more lifelike contact shadow system. While it’s arguably a game that didn’t need a huge graphical bump, the improvements are still welcome. Once again, it feels reminiscent of playing Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring on my gaming PC.

I spent most of this review playing the PS5 Pro on my Formovie UST 4K projector, which was outputting to a 120-inch screen around eight feet away from my seat. So, as you can imagine, I had a pretty close look at graphical details. It’s often annoying to play console games on such a large screen, where every imperfection is magnified to an obscene degree. But the PS5 Pro felt similar to projecting from my RTX 4090 gaming PC: Gameplay looked wonderful at 60 fps and it was all delivered in scrumptious detail.

The author of our PS5 Pro preview, Jessica Conditt, tested out the new console on a 55-inch LG OLED C2. Her impressions are as follows:

PSSR certainly isn’t without fault, though. Sometimes while playing Spider-Man 2, objects like spinning fans or signs with fine text would get distorted. Some textures would start shimmering for no reason. I remember coming across similar issues in the early days of DLSS, and I still frequently see these issues while using AMD’s FSR technology on PS5 and PC titles. There’s still room for Sony to improve PSSR down the line, so hopefully obvious problems will get ironed out soon.

The PS5 Pro can enhance the quality of PS4 titles, similar to the PS4 Pro’s boost mode. Bloodborne was the only older game I was eager to try out, and I can confirm that it looks a bit more detailed, particularly when it comes to the intricacies of your wardrobe. But while the facelift is nice to see, and it’s the best we’ll get until Sony listens to fan demands and remakes Bloodborne, it’s still not running at 60 fps.

Should you buy the PlayStation 5 Pro?

A $700 game console isn’t for everyone — that much is obvious. Most players would be better off with the $450 all-digital PS5, or the standard $500 model if you need disc support. Given how long the console has been around, you can also often find used or refurbished PS5s for $400 or less.

The PS5 Pro clearly isn’t meant for anyone who is prioritizing value — unless, of course, you’re comparing it to a full-fledged gaming PC. If you want 4K-like graphics with ray tracing at 60 fps, the PS5 Pro is simply your best choice under $1,000.

South Korea’s Smilegate announced the survival RPG adventure IfSunSets will launch globally in early access today for PC via Steam for $20.

I got a look at the game and interviewed the CEO of the indie game studio Polymorph, which made the pirate survival role-playing game, during the Tokyo Game Show recently.

IfSunSets takes place on the island of Luminora, and it has immersive day-and-night cycles, each offering distinct gameplay experiences. During the day, players must make the most of every moment as they explore the abundant island to hunt, farm, fish, gather resources, craft materials, build fortifications, and level up through combat against ancient bosses and cursed monsters.

As night falls, gameplay transforms from RPG adventure to survival horror, unleashing swarms of zombie-like monsters that relentlessly stalk the player in an undead invasion. Surviving until the morning becomes the sole objective once the sun sets, with every decision made during the day being essential to achieving this goal.

The game is still in development, but it looked pretty good when I played it. My favorite thing was swinging a huge pirate sword around and killing zombies by the dozens as they swarmed around me. It had a Pirates of the Caribbean look to me. I enjoyed that part, but the tables were turned as I fought a giant boss in the shallows.

“It’s a game where you can get rid of some stress,” said Byunghun Cho, CEO of Polymorph, in an interview with GamesBeat, speaking through a translator. “You are fighting through the horde.”

A 10% Early Access discount ($17.99) will be available until November 18. The debut release from indie studio Polymorph, IfSunSets’ early access period will include both single-player and online co-op, with English, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages supported.

“Our small team of eight is dedicated to building a polished game that provides something truly new within the survival genre.” said Cho, in a statement. “In September, we conducted a Playtest for IfSunSets and gathered valuable user feedback. Based on these insights, we will be incorporating various improvements and new content into the Early Access version. Key features and updates to be added in Early Access include the World Selection Mode, skill system improvements, night defense improvements, bug fixes and more.”

“We’ve ensured there’s a satisfying amount of content available at launch and plan to expand it further throughout Early Access,” said Cho. “We’ll continue optimizing and improving the game while prioritizing community feedback. Our aim is to expand both the depth and breadth of the experience to make IfSunSets truly shine.”

Early Access for IfSunSets, specifically, will feature five different game modes: “Standard mode,” in which zombies appear; “Safe Night Mode,” a world without zombies; “Custom Mode,” which allows players to tweak the world to their liking; and two additional modes—easy and hard—with zombies present.

The game has a big open world where players can collect mystical ores, Cthugha Stones, and uncover hidden secrets across the island. You can also build your own custom fortress with traps to stop invading enemies. You can increase your power by defeating the beasts and bosses across the island.

You can gather resources on the island to craft enhanced weapons and armor, and use various skills in action-packed battles to defeat enemies and level up.

Smilegate has more than a billion registered users to date, and its flagship franchise is Crossfire, one of the most successful shooter games in history.

Polymorph is a VFX creative studio founded with just two people in 2019 and based in Seoul, South Korea, with expertise in 3D content for films, TV, commercials, VR, and virtual humans. Now the company has eight people, and it has been working on the game since 2021. It is built with Unreal Engine 5.

The team started with a focus on creating a survival game, as that was one of the popular genres on Steam. Early on, they saw the game as having a dual-time period, with a daytime mode and a night mode. During the night, you have to fight zombie hordes. While that sounds like Dying Light, Cho said the inspiration was more like Seven Days to Die. A full release is expected next year.

“Move cautiously and red-team things” is sadly not as catchy as “move fast and break things.” But three AI safety advocates made it clear to startup founders that going too fast can lead to ethical issues in the long run.

“We are at an inflection point where there are tons of resources being moved into this space,” said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “I’m really worried that right now there’s just such a rush to sort of push product out onto the world, without thinking about that legacy question of what is the world that we really want to live in, and in what ways is the technology that’s being produced acting in service of that world or actively harming it.”

The conversation comes at a moment when the issue of AI safety feels more pressing than ever. In October, the family of a child who died by suicide sued chatbot company Character.AI for its alleged role in the child’s death.

“This story really demonstrates the profound stakes of the very rapid rollout that we’ve seen of AI-based technologies,” Myers West said. “Some of these are longstanding, almost intractable problems of content moderation of online abuse.

But beyond these life-or-death issues, the stakes of AI remain high, from misinformation to copyright infringement.

“We are building something that has a lot of power and the ability to really, really impact people’s lives,” said Jingna Zhang, founder of artist-forward social platform Cara. “When you talk about something like Character.AI, that emotionally really engages with somebody, it makes sense that I think there should be guardrails around how the product is built.”

Zhang’s platform Cara took off after Meta made it clear that it could use any user’s public posts to train its AI. For artists like Zhang herself, this policy is a slap in the face. Artists need to post their work online to build a following and secure potential clients, but by doing that, their work could be used to shape the very AI models that could one day put them out of work.

“Copyright is what protects us and allows us to make a living,” Zhang said. If artwork is available online, that doesn’t mean it’s free, per se — digital news publications, for example, have to license images from photographers in order to use them. “When generative AI started becoming much more mainstream, what we are seeing is that it does not work with what we are typically used to, that’s been established in law. And if they wanted to use our work, they should be licensing it.”

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Artists could also be impacted by products like ElevenLabs, an AI voice cloning company that’s worth over a billion dollars. As head of safety at ElevenLabs, it’s up to Aleksandra Pedraszewska to make sure that the company’s sophisticated technology isn’t co-opted for nonconsensual deepfakes, among other things.

“I think red-teaming models, understanding undesirable behaviors, and unintended consequences of any new launch that a generative AI company does is again becoming [a top priority],” she said. “ElevenLabs has 33 million users today. This is a massive community that gets impacted by any change that we make in our product.”

Pedraszewska said that one way people in her role can be more proactive about keeping platforms safe is to have a closer relationship with the community of users.

“We cannot just operate between two extremes, one being entirely anti-AI and anti-GenAI, and then another one, effectively trying to persuade zero regulation of the space. I think that we do need to meet in the middle when it comes to regulation,” she said.

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This version of the Steam client is also the first to drop support for Windows 7 and 8 machines, as well as Macs running macOS 10.13 and 10.14 after Valve announced the move at the beginning of this year.

After an automatic update, players can start recordings manually using a hotkey (Ctrl + F11 is the default) or set it to trigger automatically, with options to restrict the length, quality, and storage space that Steam can use. Valve says it works with any game, including non-Steam games that allow Steam Overlay to run. Recording is off by default — you’ll find its settings in a new Game Recording tab in Steam’s settings.

Valve has updated Steam Game Recording with a handful of new features that weren’t there when the beta period began in June, including adding “advanced” export options and the ability to configure game-specific settings. The company also added Session View, which includes a “Recordings & Screenshots manager with game-specific tags and data.”