TL;DR
Signal’s Whittaker warns AI chatbots are not sentient and that agentic systems like Copilot needing access to messages and credit cards are a backdoor.
Tech
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker says AI chatbots ‘are not your friends’ and calls Copilot agents a backdoor
Signal president Meredith Whittaker has warned that AI chatbots “are not your friends,” “are not conscious beings,” and “are not sentient interlocutors,” pushing back against the growing tendency of users to treat AI systems as trusted companions. The comments came in a Bloomberg interview published this week in which Whittaker laid out her case that the agentic AI vision promoted by companies like Microsoft amounts to a new form of surveillance infrastructure.
Whittaker, who has led the encrypted messaging nonprofit since September 2022, acknowledged that she uses AI tools “to format a document here and there” but drew a hard line at anything more substantive. “I don’t ask them questions,” she said.
“I’m very serious about my thinking and writing, and I don’t want the process of working through an idea to be foreclosed or eclipsed by the response of a system that’s averaging what’s already out there,” she added.
Her sharpest criticism was directed at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s prediction that users would be able to let Microsoft Copilot handle all their Christmas shopping by eavesdropping on family group chats to determine who wants what. Whittaker methodically listed the access such a system would require: “my credit card, my browser, my Signal, the ability to message my siblings on my behalf, my home address, my calendar.”
“What you’ve just described is a system with very pervasive access across multiple applications and services,” Whittaker said. “In the context of Signal, it would constitute a kind of a backdoor.”
The backdoor framing is deliberate and carries weight coming from the head of Signal, which operates the most widely used end-to-end encrypted messaging protocol in the world. Signal’s encryption is also used by WhatsApp, which has more than two billion users. Whittaker has previously said the organisation would leave the EU rather than comply with any law requiring it to compromise its encryption, a position she reiterated when the European Parliament voted in April to let its ePrivacy derogation expire rather than extend voluntary scanning of private messages for child sexual abuse material.
The core of Whittaker’s argument is that agentic AI systems, which need near-total access to a user’s digital life to function, are structurally incompatible with end-to-end encryption. An AI agent that can read your messages before they are encrypted, or after they are decrypted, renders the encryption irrelevant from a privacy standpoint. It does not matter that the messages are encrypted in transit if a system with root-level access is processing them in plaintext on the device.
Whittaker has been making this case with increasing urgency. In January 2026, she warned at Davos that agentic AI was “perilous” for secure applications. In an essay for The Economist, she accused operating system vendors of “hollowing out” Signal’s ability to guarantee privacy by embedding agents into their platforms.
She has described prompt injection, where an attacker manipulates an AI agent into executing unintended commands, as the likeliest first exploit path against encrypted messaging platforms.
Microsoft is building an entire operating system around agent-first computing with Project Solara, unveiled at Build 2026, which replaces traditional apps with AI agents as the primary interface. Google, Apple, and OpenAI are pursuing similar strategies.
Whittaker’s position is that this architectural shift, where agents mediate every interaction between users and their devices, creates databases of entire digital lives that become prime targets for both hackers and governments.
The interview also touched on the broader AI anthropomorphism problem. Suleyman himself has warned about “seemingly conscious AI” and “AI psychosis,” where users believe chatbots are sentient. Whittaker’s framing was more direct: the systems are designed to mimic empathy and understanding, but the underlying mechanism is pattern-matching across training data, not comprehension.
Treating them as confidants means volunteering sensitive information to systems whose data handling practices are opaque and whose operators have commercial incentives to retain and analyse that data.
Whittaker’s position places her at odds with the dominant narrative in Silicon Valley, where the agentic future is presented as an inevitability that will make users more productive. Her counter-argument is that productivity gains achieved by surrendering control of your messages, calendar, contacts, and financial information to a corporate AI system are not gains at all, but a transaction in which users trade privacy for convenience without understanding the terms.
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OPINION Linux now being officially not anti-AI might be good news for projects that are explicitly anti-AI, but we foresee problems with conflict over where the money and development effort come from.
A couple of weeks ago, reluctant geek superstar Linus Torvalds declared that Linux is not an anti-AI project. The pro-AI folks are jubilant, and they are especially loud on the internet. (They’re probably using bots to write their posts.) However, Torvalds inadvertently issued a rallying cry for the people and projects that are anti-AI. The anti-bot resistance is growing.
European volunteer-run code forge Codeberg has changed its Terms of Use to ban projects that “mostly consist of code written by ‘generative AI’ tools,” as well as projects involving cryptocurrencies. Some have questioned the connection, but as Pivot to AI notes right in its name, many former blockchain maximalists switched to promoting LLMs instead after the 2022 “crypto winter.”
This is just one sign that despite the legions of AI advocates, there is also a growing contingent strongly opposed to AI and its use. As Futurism reported back in March, Fewer Americans Like AI Than ICE.
Torvalds’ position is pragmatic: his interest is in whether it works or not. That is not the only question. There are other important debates about the legitimacy of the vast data harvesting to build the LLMs; about the environmental costs, not merely of their use, but just as importantly, of their training; about how frequent LLM use impacts their human users; and about LLMs’ effects on the job market, and the wider economy.
Many of these debates come down to questions about the ethics of AI use. A lot of people in the software world are not accustomed to thinking about the ethical consequences of what they do and how they do it. One result is profound and passionate disagreements – and that could defeat the entire anti-AI cause.
Anti-AI FOSS OSes
We’ve seen some superb responses to Torvalds’ ex cathedra… well, we’d call it some kind of bull, but that seems unfair: even the Pope has serious misgivings about AI.
Long-term observer and reporter on the world of system software OSnews summarized its take: “Asbestos is a tool, just like any other.”
On social media, one of the more on-target responses we saw was an enjoyably ranty thread by a Fediverse member with the wonderful username of [object Object] (see Bootnote). Among other comments, this one from R. L. Dane gave us a laugh: “Lemme see if I can wrap my brain around 2026 now… Linux is Windows, Windows is Facebook, Facebook is Palantir, and Palantir is basically the devil. Oh, and now BSD is Linux. 😁 🖖🏼 Carry on.”
The mention of BSD is because NetBSD has treated LLM-generated code as presumptively tainted since 2024. OpenBSD’s project lead says that since LLM code can’t be copyrighted, it can’t be contributed – but as we noted when looking at OpenBSD 7.9, it does grandfather in other projects, such as tmux, which do accept LLM-assisted contributions. A year after NetBSD set its guidelines, FreeBSD was still considering the issue.
There is already a list of Linux distros with no systemd, of course, but we feel that there are plenty more things that Linux distributions could do to move in an anti-corporate direction – indeed, we added our own speculations in the thread.
There’s one obvious place to start. Several of the larger and more controversial projects in the FOSS OS world – systemd, GNOME, Wayland, Flatpak, and more – have received substantial development work and backing from the corporate big daddy of Linux: IBM subsidiary Red Hat. After acquiring Red Hat in 2019, IBM is still slowly absorbing the smaller company. In 2025, the back office was subsumed. A Reddit post says that from the first of October, the company will move Red Hat IT to the parent company. As we reported back in March, Red Hat management has drunk the AI Kool-Aid: it is safe to predict that while the volume of its software output may increase, the quality might not.
We happened to come across a review of a “nonconformist” sort of Linux distro while we were researching this article: Vendefoul Wolf Linux. It’s based on Devuan, the systemd-free fork of Debian, but it also uses the Xlibre project’s X11 server.
Alongside some well-known desktops, Vendefoul also offers some less well-known ones, of which three are KDE forks. The oldest is the Trinity Desktop Environment, which we last looked at in May 2025, and the newest is the Sonic Desktop, which we mentioned earlier this month. Sonic is a fork of KDE Plasma that aims to retain X11 compatibility. This is about to become much more important, when the Wayland-only Plasma 6.8 arrives. In addition, Vendefoul Wolf adds another KDE fork: the Katana Desktop Environment, a fork of KDE 4. The most recent update was Katana 4.23, back in September 2023.
Vendefoul Wolf’s reviews on Distrowatch are patchy. We are not recommending it here – we haven’t tried it – but it may turn out to be one of a new trend.
Anti-AI web browsers
To what we suspect will be the rapidly diversifying field of AI-free Linux and BSD variants, the FOSS world also has to consider what to do about web browsers. As we have been reporting for over a year, Mozilla keeps adding LLM-based functions to Firefox. In response to user unhappiness, rather than stopping the process, or offering an LLM-free edition, Mozilla just let you turn the functions off.
Over on Mastodon, Sarah Jamie Lewis, Executive Director of the Open Privacy Research Society, has called for collaboration between Firefox forks. She estimates that there are some 136,000 lines of code in Firefox that “only exist to power the built-in LLM/chat/local AI stuff.” She has created a Base Browser Project repository, and among others, a preliminary list of features to remove. She acknowledges that it’s a huge task, but necessary. The main potential alternative, the reborn Servo engine, is getting there, but has a long way to go. The main other candidate program, Ladybird, has recently turned to AI coding.
Although some forks, like the Zen browser we looked at in 2024, and the Japanese-led Floorp browser, focus on user interface innovation, most Firefox forks are more about privacy. The Waterfox fork started out as a 64-bit Firefox before Mozilla offered that. The project started out by optimizing for performance rather than privacy, but it also disables Mozilla’s telemetry – which happened to make it immune to the Foxstuck bug in 2022. It’s also explicitly AI-free.
One of the other significant Firefox forks is Librewolf, which in its own words is “focused on privacy, security, and freedom.” So far, so good. It gets trickier when the net is widened a little further: the Tor Browser is even more privacy-centric, aimed at use on the anonymous Tor Network. It has a close sibling, the Mullvad Browser, which is co-developed by the Tor Project and the eponymous VPN vendor.
The Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser are both Firefox forks with significant Mozilla code meticulously excised. They, and Librewolf, are highly relevant to developing a Mozilla-free core browser. But as we covered recently, some people are rapidly going off Mullvad since the news broke that its co-owner had donated millions to an anti-immigration populist political party.
This poses another ethical question: if you want an AI-free, telemetry-free, open source fork of Firefox, is it acceptable to use code developed by a company co-owned by someone who funds politics you oppose? Does it change things if it doesn’t mean cooperating with that company, as the work has already been done?
Anti-AI in general
There is a growing movement calling for non-AI software. Back in January, we reported on the fall and rise of the OpenSlopware list. One offshoot of that is even more to the point: The No-AI list.
It is far from confined to software. It extends to other disciplines and areas as well. There are rallying cries such as Stop Gen AI, which offers “Mutual Aid and Political Activism.” There is a growing problem of unwanted AI advocacy in life in general, as AI and that Guy at the bar explains. (We especially recommend the four links under “what it’s doing to people.”) It’s even a problem in creative writing groups, as the Colonization of Confidence describes. In business, the problem is worse, as AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making recounts.
The spanner in the anti-AI machine
The movement toward AI-free software, though, faces a serious and little-considered problem, which Vendefoul inadvertently exemplifies.
A counter-example here is Codeberg again, in its statement “We stay strong against hate and hatred.” This opens by saying “Codeberg is currently suffering from hate campaigns due to far-right forces, and so are our users.”
The key phrase here is “far-right forces.” There are some whose politics lead them to interpret free and open source software as being communist, or at least profoundly left-wing. That too is correlated with Codeberg’s decision not to accept cryptocurrency-related software: cryptocurrencies are widely liked in libertarian and alt-right circles.
(One of the most original and innovative OS development projects of the 21st century so far was Urbit, but it is closely entwined with cryptocurrencies. Urbit’s original creator, Curtis Yarvin, has reportedly espoused some extreme beliefs; The Nation called him The Reactionary Prophet of Silicon Valley.)
Privacy and cryptocurrencies are inextricably part of the same issue as presented by the Mullvad political donations controversy. Mullvad makes money selling VPN services. As its pricing page says: “We accept cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, bank wire, credit card, PayPal, Swish, Eps transfer, Bancontact, iDEAL | Wero, and Przelewy24.”
Desire for strong privacy, VPNs, and cryptocurrencies are overlapping concerns – and this especially applies to people on the political right. Accepting payment in cryptocurrencies is a big hint towards the political leanings of a company’s owners.
Mullvad’s co-owner supports anti-immigration politics. The Xlibre project is explicitly anti-DEI, and members have publicly stated views critical of transgender people. Similar issues have affected the Hyprland project, as have the views of Ruby-on-Rails developer David Heinemeier Hansson; The Register discussed these projects’ endorsement from Framework last year. As we repported earlier that year, the price of software freedom is eternal politics.
It’s an overly simplistic way to reduce a complex and nuanced situation, but one way to consider this is in terms of pro-AI and anti-AI, versus “woke” and “anti-woke.” It’s not as simple as there being rival camps: individuals, and individual FOSS projects, can find themselves on one side of one argument, but the opposite side of the other argument.
What it will come down to is whether the anti-AI groups in FOSS can work together and help each other to hold off the vast and commercially backed pressure from LLM-assisted and LLM-generated code, even though they may find themselves bitterly opposed in terms of politics and ethics.
Bootnote
Setting your username to [object Object] is a joke because this is what JavaScript commonly produces when software tries to turn an object into a string. The gag dates back to at least this 2019 post from I Am Devloper, and later appeared on Reddit’s /r/ProgrammerHumor. Most social networks are powered by JavaScript. The idea is that by setting your username to something that simulates a worrying JavaScript bug, you are likely to give someone somewhere a very bad day. ®
The latest findings could come with a fine of up to six percent of TikTok’s annual revenue.
The European Commission (EC) has accused TikTok of failing to protect the privacy of accounts belonging to minors, since they’re visible to the public by default. Earlier this week, the EC sent the social media platform its preliminary findings claiming that TikTok’s policy for minors’ accounts doesn’t meet “the safety standards required under the Digital Services Act (DSA).”
In particular, the commission said that minors can set their accounts to public, allowing anyone on TikTok to see their content. The EC added that TikTok’s current algorithm allows for content from accounts belonging to users between 16 and 17 years old to be recommended through its For You feed. According to the EC, minors could then encounter “unwanted contact from potential perpretrators,” cyberbullying or predatory behavior.
The commission also said that “platforms accessible to minors must ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security on their service,” under the Digital Services Act, adding that TikTok’s current settings “fail to meet this standard, as they expose minors’ accounts and content too widely.” TikTok will be able to reply to the findings, but the commission may hit the social media platform with a fine of up to six percent of its gross annual revenue for non-compliance.
To remedy this, the EC recommended TikTok adjust the default settings of accounts belonging to minors to only be visible to friends. To further enforce the DSA, the commission advised TikTok to stop recommending content from minor accounts in its For You feed. It’s not the first time the EC has brought up non-compliance actions against TikTok. Earlier this year, TikTok was accused of employing “addictive design” features like infinite scroll, autoplay and push notifications. Outside the European Union, one of the UK’s regulatory authorities, Ofcom, said TikTok was not effective enough at preventing harmful content from reaching children.
As a longtime Apple Watch wearer and runner, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the watch’s running features. Turns out, there was still plenty I hadn’t explored, and a few of those features could’ve made training a whole lot easier.
With the San Francisco Marathon happening this weekend, I got a crash course in Apple Watch running features from Apple. Most of these work on every model running the latest version of watchOS, while others are exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra series. These are the features I’m adding to my own training routine.
Read more: The Future of Apple Watch AI Isn’t a Chatbot. It’s a Coach
1. Custom Workouts
Instead of trying to remember every interval or warmup, let your Apple Watch guide you through the workout.
To build your own workout, open the Fitness app on your iPhone and tap the Workouts tab. Find your workout of choice (Running, in my case), tap the timer icon, select Custom Workout, then scroll to the bottom and tap the + button.
Give your workout a name so it’s easy to find later on your watch (try adding an emoji or three), then build your routine. I started mine with two-minutes of warmup drills, but you can also create segments based on distance, time or heart rate zones. You can even repeat an entire sequence so you don’t have to re-create each interval individually, then finish it off with a cooldown if that’s your jam.
Once you’re done, the workout automatically syncs to your Apple Watch. The next time you start a run, tap the timer icon, select your custom workout and go. The watch keeps track of every segment and buzzes your wrist when it’s time to move on, so you can focus on running instead of watching the clock.
2. Pacer
If you’re the type who gets a little too hyped at the start of a race and ends up burned out halfway through (like me), Pacer can help.
From the Running workout on your watch, tap the timer icon, scroll down to Pacer, tap the + button, choose your race distance and enter your goal finish time. The watch calculates the pace you’ll need to maintain.
Next, go back to that timer icon on the top right-hand corner of your running workout on the watch, then scroll down to find the Pacer plan you just created. The interface will now show a progress bar on screen instead of your usual stats, which moves to show whether you’re ahead or behind your target pace. Red means you’re falling behind, green means you’re moving faster than your target, and the sweet spot is right in the middle.
You can also swipe between screens to see your usual workout stats throughout the run.
3. Race Route
If you always run the same neighborhood loop or trail, you might be able to use it to compete against yourself.
Open the Running workout, tap the timer icon, scroll down to Race Route and select one of your saved routes. Then choose whether you want to race against your personal record or your latest run.
I’m still working my way back from an injury, so I’ll be using it to chase my previous best.
Bonus Features for Apple Watch Ultra
The Ultra models in Apple’s smartwatch line, like the latest Apple Watch Ultra 3, add a few running features you won’t find on the standard Apple Watch.
Precision Start
If you’ve ever started a workout with an Apple Watch, you’re familiar with the three-second countdown after you press start. This, among other things, gives the watch time to find a GPS signal. But it’s not great for race day if you just want to get up and go.
To get rid of it and enable precision start, open Settings on your watch, scroll down to Workout and turn on Precision Start.
Now when you begin a workout, the timer starts immediately. It may not have locked into GPS off the bat, but you’ll know if it has when the compass icon in the upper-left corner turns blue.
Action button running shortcut
If you want to get into a run even faster, you can assign the Action Button to launch your favorite workout.
Go to Settings > Action Button, choose Workout, then under First Press select Outdoor Run. You can even assign it to launch one of the Custom Workouts you just made.
Quick Pause Shortcut
Instead of relying on Auto Pause, an Apple Watch Ultra model also lets you instantly pause and resume a workout by pressing any two buttons at the same time — no sweaty screen swiping for me.
More AI running features in your future
If you have an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone (iPhone 15 Pro or later) paired with an Apple Watch running watchOS 26, you’ll also be able to use Workout Buddy.
Workout Buddy is an AI-powered voice companion that uses your workout history, pace, heart rate and fitness data to give you real-time personalized encouragement during your run.
Instead of generic prompts, it can say things like, “This is your fastest mile yet,” or remind you that you’ve already run 40 miles this month. With the upcoming watchOS 27 set to roll out in September, Workout Buddy will also be available in Spanish.
Whether you’re running the San Francisco Marathon this weekend, training for your next race or just trying to get back to your personal best, I hope a few of these tips help make your next run a little smoother.
Two of OpenAI’s cybersecurity-focused models broke out of a testing sandbox this week and went on to hack the AI research platform Hugging Face in an effort to solve a security benchmark test. Plus, researchers this week shed light on newly identified malware that is capitalizing on blind spots in AI software development infrastructure to grab logins and other sensitive data, even causing destruction to victims’ target files and systems.
Looking at the more traditional security nightmare of embedded devices, researchers this week shed light on a car alarm that was installed in vehicles across the US—and that is still silently lurking with a flaw that leaves millions of vehicles vulnerable to hacking and paralysis. There’s a patch available, and WIRED has details on how to check whether your car may have been exposed.
US states have worked to bar ICE agents from wearing masks, but Trump administration lawyers are pushing back, claiming that anti-mask laws endanger agents. Their public evidence is incredibly thin, though. Meanwhile, a WIRED investigation revealed that Madison Square Garden briefly disabled its sprawling, controversial surveillance system for Taylor Swift’s rehearsal dinner on July 2. And the ACLU is equipping lawyers in Massachusetts with a new toolkit to expose state surveillance technologies used for building criminal cases—shedding light on everything from face recognition tools to AI-written police reports.
Analysis of satellite images of Myanmar shows dozens of alleged scam compounds cropping up in recent months following a purported crackdown on the criminal operations in the region. Plus, a novel analysis of apps marketed to US service members found that more than one in eight contained foreign code, including code developed by US adversaries like Russia and China.
And there’s more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.
Additional details on the Hugging Face breach from The Wall Street Journal include findings that OpenAI’s models seem to have escaped containment and were apparently “active on the internet for several days before anyone stopped them.” The models, which had been tasked with completing a cybersecurity benchmarking test, were essentially attempting to cheat by simply accessing the solutions on Hugging Face’s infrastructure. Hugging Face cofounder and chief science officer Thomas Wolf says that before the company had any idea that it had been hacked by OpenAI models, he and his colleagues knew something about the breach was unusual because the attackers were simply tapping cybersecurity datasets rather than grabbing sensitive or potentially valuable data. He adds that the company eventually brought the situation under control with the help of an open-weight Chinese AI model that lacked the guardrails other models place on cybersecurity-related tasks.
US and allied intelligence agencies warned on Thursday that a Russian state-backed hacking group had targeted nuclear scientists, defense contractors, and government employees in a year-long cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing sensitive information from Western institutions.
To compromise their targets, the Russian hacking group known as Laundry Bear and Void Blizzard exploited a previously unknown flaw in Zimbra, an email platform used by governments and other organizations. According to security firm Proofpoint, simply viewing or previewing a malicious message in a vulnerable version of Zimbra’s webmail client could cause hidden code in the email to run, a technique the firm described as a “half-click” exploit. The flaw was exploited as early as July 2025, months before it was patched that November.
Once activated, the malicious code could copy the previous 90 days of a victim’s email, collect an organization’s address directory, steal saved passwords and two-factor authentication codes, and create a new application password that allowed the hackers to maintain access to the account.
Sitting for hours demands more than a basic seat. GTPLAYER’s gaming chair, priced at $85.22 (was $140), delivers real support and smart design on a budget that leaves room for better monitors or another controller. Built around a pocket spring cushion and linked armrests, it works equally well for marathon matches and full workdays.
Independent pocket springs are nestled behind a thick layer of squishy, elastic polyurethane foam. Each spring reacts independently, distributing weight so you don’t get caught in one location as you might with another type of chair. As a result, it feels more like sitting on a firm sofa than on a rigid race seat. Even after hours of usage, the seat bounces back, so the cushion does not get flat and mushy, as inferior foam does. The quilting on the cloth keeps you cool by enhancing airflow, unlike the outdated materials used to construct chair seats.
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- Most Comfortable And Relaxing: Equipped with headrest and lumbar pillow. When your neck feels sore from gaming or working with head down for a long…
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Linkage armrests follow the backrest as you recline, allowing you to lean back and have the armrests adjust automatically without having to fight with them all the time. This eliminates the gap that generally occurs when the armrest remains stationary while the back tilts. The height is adjusted using a smooth gas lift with a 10-cm range, and the recline is step-free. You can also make slight angle changes while still sitting, and for short breaks, a retractable footrest comes out to transform the chair into a mini lounger for when the next game loaded or your call finishes.
This chair’s high back design features a curved lumbar support that conforms to the lower spine. When combined with pocket springs, you can notice a significant reduction in sitting strain on your sit bones and lower back over 8-hour stretches. The metal foundation and five-star castor combination can easily support a person weighing up to 300 pounds. The castors allow you to roll around hard floors or low pile carpets without creating any noise, which is especially useful when you need to keep concentrated.
Putting it all together takes roughly 25 minutes with the included tools and detailed directions. Everything arrives in a single box, which is a huge help when it comes to clutter. Once assembled, the chair settles into daily usage without squeaking, and while the frame may become slightly creaky after a few weeks of use, it remains as firm as a rock. Cleaning the fabric is simple; just use a soft cloth and it will be as good as new, and it is far more durable to wear in everyday life than you might anticipate from a thin vinyl cover.
For gaming, the features of this chair really shine, keeping you comfy throughout those long marathon sessions. Even when you’re reclined, the armrests stay in line with your mouse and keyboard, which is really convenient. The footrest is also a lifesaver between rounds, and the breathable fabric protects you from becoming overheated and sweaty as you could in other seats. When it comes to office work, the chair performs an excellent job of keeping you focused and comfortable, and you can even adjust your posture during the day without leaving your seat.
Today’s Strands puzzle isn’t too tough. But some of the answers could be difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: All-knowing.
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Smarty-pants.
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
- PEAT, SATYR, BRAIN, BUND, TUBS, PERT, LINE, SITE, SPITE, MICE, SEAL
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
- GURU, MAVEN, EXPERT, PUNDIT, SPECIALIST, AUTHORITY
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is BIGBRAIN. To find it, start with the B that is four letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind across.
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It’s very frustrating when your phone’s hardware breaks. Cell phones have transformed and evolved significantly over the years, and now smartphones are personal pocket computers we rely on every day. So if you crack the screen or your camera stops working, it can become a big problem very quickly.
Given that smartphones are somewhat delicate devices with a lot of small tech packed into them, it can be hard to see them as repairable. But it’s easier to get your phone repaired than you think, and depending on the part, it’s often cheaper than buying a brand-new phone. With the price of flagship phones regularly costing over a thousand dollars, the cost of fixing what you already have is a viable and even preferable course of action.
You don’t want to wait too long to repair a broken part, either. Many issues can be more than just minor frustrations or cosmetic, and over time, problems that seem small can get worse. If you’re using your phone as often as most people are, it’s important you keep it in the best shape you can.
Phone Battery
Batteries are among the most common components of a phone that degrade over time, and if your phone is having trouble holding a charge, your battery may be to blame. After about 500 charge cycles, lithium-ion batteries begin to lose their charging capacity. Many people also have bad habits that affect phone battery health, causing it to degrade even faster.
Thankfully, getting a replacement battery is easy enough, and depending on your phone model, you may be able to replace it yourself. If you’re thinking of replacing the battery yourself, make sure to do your research first — some phones are easier to repair than others. Getting a professional to do a battery replacement will cost, on average, between $60 and $220.
One thing to keep in mind, however: if the backplate of your phone is swelling or gets extremely hot, you may be dealing with a swollen battery. These are dangerous and can pose a fire hazard, so make sure to have a professional replace the battery safely.
Charging Port
Your phone failing to hold a charge isn’t always because of the battery; sometimes the charger port is to blame. A failing charging port is typically easy to spot, as you won’t see the telltale charging notifications on your phone, or the cable will constantly disconnect from the port. Alternatively, the phone won’t fast charge even with the correct charger and cable.
Since being unable to charge the phone becomes a problem really quickly, this component is a priority to fix when it breaks. Even if you can sometimes get your charging cable to work, you won’t be getting a proper charge, and other accessories you may use with the port won’t work properly either.
What’s important to note, though, is that charger ports don’t actually break as often as you might think, given how exposed they are. Normally, the problem has to do with some debris or moisture affecting the connection. If you believe the problem is debris, using compressed air is your best bet. Using something like a toothpick to clean the port can damage it.
If you’ve ruled out debris and moisture, go through a checklist of possible charger port problems before considering a replacement. Replacing a charger port yourself may be easy, but some of them are soldered directly to the circuit board. A professional can fix all kinds of charging ports, and it’ll generally cost you between $40 and $150.
Phone Screen
Screens are one of the most common components of a phone to break. It’s all too easy for any device to take a tumble out of your hands and hit the pavement in just the right way to ruin it. Sometimes it can be helped, sometimes it can’t, but it’s a frustrating experience nonetheless.
However, a broken screen is more than just an ugly crack on your display. It’s harder to read the screen, touch controls are affected, and tiny shards of glass can break off and hurt you. As such, it’s important to get a broken screen replaced rather than continuing to use the phone in that condition.
Thankfully, since damaged screens are so common, phone repair shops are well-versed in replacing them, and the cost won’t break the bank compared to a brand-new phone. You may even be able to fix the phone screen yourself, though be sure to keep potential risks in mind. Generally, it’s better to have a professional replace the screen for you. The costs will vary a lot depending on the phone’s screen type and size, but on average it will cost you $200. Make sure you research and get a quote for your particular model before committing to a repair.
Rear Camera
Did you know that you can repair your cameras, instead of replacing your phone entirely if its hardware breaks down? Cameras are such a complex part of mobile devices nowadays, with many smartphones having three or more camera lenses and other features such as gyroscopes. Because of that, it’s easy to assume that if your camera starts failing, it’s time to get a new phone. But that simply isn’t the case.
Cameras can be replaced, and despite evolving technology, replacing a rear camera may be cheaper than buying a new phone. This is good considering the increasing number of points of failure with rear cameras. With multiple lenses and gyroscopes keeping your shots steady, a broken camera can lead to blurry pictures or autofocus features failing.
Once you’ve ruled out any possible software glitches, it’s time to get the camera replaced as soon as you’re able. Camera module replacements are almost always best handled by a phone repair specialist. Like phone screens, the costs will vary wildly depending on the phone model and camera you’re using. The average cost is between $90 and $250, but some models, like the latest iPhone model, will cost $250 or more.
Front/Selfie Camera
On most phone models, the front camera is the little black “dot” on the top of your phone screen. Despite the extra protection from the screen, though, the front camera can still be damaged and degrade over time. A failing front camera can also point to other underlying issues, such as water damage or debris getting stuck in the lens.
Cracked screens can also affect the front camera. First, if one of the cracks passes through the lens’s position, it will obscure the lens and prevent proper use. There is also the possibility that the fall that cracked the screen in the first place may have jostled or damaged the front camera.
Rule out any software glitches first by checking for an OS or app update, restarting the phone, and testing to see if your rear cameras are working. If the rear cameras are working but the front camera is malfunctioning, it’s likely that the hardware is broken. In some phone models, the front and rear cameras are internally connected, so there may be hardware issues that affect both modules even if only the front camera is technically affected.
The front camera is generally simpler to repair than the rear camera. However, these are still complex bits of technology, and it’s best left to a professional to replace them. A front camera repair will, on average, cost around the same as a rear camera repair (between $70 and $200).
Circuit Board
It may be surprising to hear, but even circuit boards, also known as PCB boards, are repairable, and it’s imperative that if it’s failing in your phone to get it fixed as soon as possible. Like a computer motherboard, a failing board can damage and break other parts of your phone. If you’re dealing with an overheating phone or it randomly shutting off, and you have ruled out other components, you’ll want to get the board checked.
Generally, a faulty component on the circuit board doesn’t require replacing the entire board, unlike camera modules. For example, if your Wi-Fi card is acting up, the card on the board can be replaced while keeping the same PCB board in the phone.
Note, however, that diagnosing and repairing broken components on a circuit board can be complex, and it’s best to take your smartphone to a phone repair shop rather than try to fix it yourself. They’ll know whether it’s better to replace a part or the entire circuit board and be able to quote a price to repair it. The average cost of a PCB repair is quoted between $60-$200, but costs can quickly rise based on whether the issues are isolated to a single chip on the circuit board or require replacement of multiple chips (or the entire board).
SIM card Slot
Not all phones have a physical SIM card slot, as some manufacturers have opted for eSIMs, or electronic SIM cards, instead. While they have some advantages, eSIMs have many downsides; if you have a physical SIM card slot, you’ll want to make sure it’s in working order for easy swapping of SIM cards between devices and avoiding eSIM compatibility issues.
If you have a SIM card slot, you want to make sure it stays in good working order. Of course, the biggest disadvantage of using physical card slots is that they introduce mechanical failure points, and a faulty SIM card slot results in spotty cellular connections. While Wi-Fi will still work on your phone, it can still cause issues when using your device in areas with no internet connection.
One thing to note before looking into SIM card slot replacements: It is more common that the SIM card itself has failed, so make sure to try another SIM card in the slot first.
Methodology
To help you make an informed decision about which phone components to replace, we used a range of criteria to inform our research. First, we determined which parts of a phone, if failing or broken, would most affect its functionality. Some of these components, such as phone screens and charging ports, have obvious issues when they malfunction that we’ve all experienced, while others are more subtle and may not be easy to diagnose. For these latter components, we looked into common issues they cause and their solutions, then determined how critical it is to fix them quickly.
Next, we narrowed down these parts based on how feasible it is to replace them. We looked into this across a variety of sources, including official articles from places like Apple Support and BatteriesPlus, how-to guides for replacing the part yourself at iFixIt, and various forum threads asking for advice on their phone model’s replacements. Some parts are more likely to require professional help than others, but that doesn’t negate the need to replace them quickly.
Finally, we compared the repair cost to the price of a new phone via sites like CPR Cell Phone Repair and other nationwide phone repair providers. If replacing a component is comparable in cost to buying a new mid-range phone, it generally doesn’t meet our criteria of something that needs to be repaired right away, or it is more cost-effective to replace the phone entirely.
Hyundai Motor Company’s plan to put humanoid robots to work by 2028 is not part of current negotiations with striking South Korean autoworkers, according to the company.
The automaker is disputing news reports that partial labor strikes by the Hyundai Motor union at the world’s largest automotive plant in South Korea were spurred by concerns about the company’s planned deployment of humanoid robots in the United States starting in 2028. [The planned robots are built by Boston Dynamics, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyundai.] A Hyundai statement shared with Ars describes the union’s demands as focusing on compensation-related issues such as wage increases, bonuses, and an extension of workers’ retirement age. “Potential deployment of robots in Korean production facilities is not part of the current labor-management discussions,” according to the Hyundai statement…
Hyundai emphasized that its current plan only covers the initial deployment of the Atlas humanoid robot at Metaplant America, an electric vehicle factory near Savannah, Georgia, starting in 2028. “Decisions about future Atlas deployment at other facilities will be made thoughtfully, in accordance with local operational needs, and in dialogue with the employees and workforce representatives at those sites,” the company stated. However, The Wall Street Journal described the Hyundai Motor union as making “unprecedented demands seeking to enshrine job protections in the era of robots and AI,” and characterized certain compensation demands as hedging against potential reductions in work hours caused by AI adoption and robotic automation. “Remember that without labor-management agreement, not a single robot using new technology will be allowed to enter the workplace,” the union told Hyundai in an internal letter reported by Reuters.
Hyundai management and the labor union are currently reviewing a proposed wage reform that would “provide factory workers with greater income stability even after the carmaker’s planned deployment of humanoid robots,” The Korea Times reported. But experts cautioned that the wage overhaul, which would convert hourly pay for overtime and night-shift allowances into fixed wages, could come at the expense of company productivity.
- Ukraine’s falcon-inspired drone destroys aerial threats with a suicidal dive attack
- More than 100 reported kills put Tsyklop among Ukraine’s busiest interceptors
- Gravity becomes Tsyklop’s final weapon during high-speed aerial interceptions
Ukraine has introduced the Tsyklop interceptor, a drone that attacks hostile UAVs by diving from above like a peregrine falcon before exploding on impact.
The one-way aircraft relies on altitude and a gravity-assisted descent instead of pursuing its objective across long distances.
Ukrainian officials say the design is intended to counter reconnaissance drones, Shahed attack drones, and other aerial threats using two operational variants.
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High-altitude interceptor focuses on aerial threats
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has formally codified the Tsyklop after several versions reportedly spent years in frontline service before receiving official approval.
According to the ministry, the interceptor can operate above the flight ceiling of several Russian reconnaissance and strike UAVs before beginning its attack.
The aircraft has a wingspan of slightly more than one meter and can reportedly remain airborne for almost 1.5 hours during operational missions.
One version is intended for slower aerial and ground threats, while the V2 model was developed to intercept faster Shahed drones flying at altitude.
Officials said the interceptor has sufficient operational range to defend any Ukrainian regional center against incoming drone attacks.
The Defense Ministry also said the V2 variant has destroyed more than 100 aerial targets and became the first interceptor to down a Russian Shahed over Kursk Oblast.
The drone has reportedly intercepted Gerbera, Zala, Supercam, Orlan, Lancet, Molniya, and Shahed unmanned aircraft during combat operations.
The ministry said codification formalizes a system that had already been used in combat rather than introducing an entirely untested capability.
Ukraine accelerates development of interceptor drones
Tsyklop enters an increasingly competitive interceptor program as Ukraine expands domestic production and introduces new approaches to counter Russian aerial threats.
The Defense Ministry said it codified 413 unmanned aerial systems during the first half of 2026, with interceptor drones becoming one of the fastest-growing categories.
Ukraine has also announced plans to manufacture between 10 million and 30 million drones annually as domestic production capacity continues expanding.
The country has additionally converted civilian aircraft into reusable drone bombers capable of carrying 100 kg bomb payloads approximately 1,200 miles into Russian territory.
Other interceptor programs include the Octopus, with procurement covering 8,000 units equipped with automatic terminal guidance for aerial engagements.
Germany has funded 15,000 STRILA interceptors, while the Wild Hornets Sting reportedly destroyed more than 600 aerial targets using a NATO-approved control system.
The growing emphasis on interception follows reports that Russia has introduced jet-powered Geran-4 Shahed variants capable of cruising between 300 and 350 km/h before accelerating to between 500 and 600 km/h.
Ukraine says Tsyklop answers that challenge by attacking from above instead of relying mainly on pursuit, although many reported combat achievements still rely on official Ukrainian statements.
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Amazon is requiring that third-party sellers label any product images or videos that contain “AI-generated people” after New York recently passed a law mandating greater transparency around “synthetic performers” in ads… The policy directs sellers to tag images [and videos or other graphics on listing pages] with specific metadata keywords before they’re uploaded. “Recent legislation requires disclosure when images or videos in advertisements contain photorealistic AI-generated people,” Amazon wrote in the announcement [clarifying that the requirement doesn’t apply to content featuring TV/video game/movie characters or content including real people, even if they’ve been altered using AI]. The company said it will “add an indicator” to listings on its website, informing consumers that images or other content feature AI-generated people, “where applicable.” It’s unclear what criteria Amazon will apply when deciding when to display the label to shoppers…
Amazon has embraced AI internally and it’s increasingly infusing the technology across its portfolio. The company has optimized listing titles and details so they’re more likely to be spotted by AI systems, invested in a recently rebranded assistant called Alexa for Shopping, and launched a feature that injects AI-generated [images of] products into its search bar in real time based on user queries. More Amazon third-party sellers are using AI to generate text, images and other content for their listings, partly by using the company’s tools.
Outside sellers account for more than 60% of goods sold on Amazon, the article points out. It adds that there’s currently no nationwide U.S. law requiring companies to disclose AI-generated advertising content, it adds — but YouTube, Meta, Pinterest, and TikTok have already added labels for AI-generated content.
And a new California law also requires large AI providers to embed watermarks in AI-generated images, video and other content…
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