As spotted by SamMobile, the exact text reads: “Fees may apply to certain AI features at the end of 2025.” That’s not particularly specific or definitive, but it does suggest that the Galaxy AI experience isn’t going to be completely free beyond the end of next year.
This isn’t new: the same disclaimer was included in the information we got alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series at the start of this year. This isn’t a surprise then, but it shows Samsung hasn’t changed its plans for charging for AI.
We don’t yet know which features might come with a price tag attached, or what that price tag might be – Samsung hasn’t said anything about that yet, but has gone on the record to say more Galaxy AI features are on the way.
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The cost of AI
ChatGPT has a paid-for tier (Image credit: OpenAI)
It’s not a huge shock that Samsung wants to start making some money from all the AI tools it’s stuffed into its devices: generative artificial intelligence requires a huge amount of computing power, and a huge amount of energy to run.
Both Google and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, offer users more advanced features and more powerful AI models for $20 (about £15 / AU$29) a month – although there are rumors that the price of ChatGPT Plus could more than double in the next five years.
Then there’s Apple: Apple Intelligence is rolling out over the next few months, free of charge, but there has been talk that more advanced features are eventually going to have a price attached, perhaps as part of an Apple One bundle.
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For now, you can still use the AI features – covering image editing, live translation, note summaries, and plenty more – free of charge. If you start to reply on them regularly though, bear in mind that there might eventually be a cost attached.
An origami logic gate could form the basis of a computer
Michael Assis
Paper folded according to the rules of origami can theoretically perform any computation imaginable, from adding numbers to running the latest artificial intelligence software, though in practice this is unlikely to be useful.
While we normally think of computation as something done using silicon chips, anything capable of representing and manipulating information can be used as a computer– for example, dominoes arranged in the correct pattern are able to add together two numbers.
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If you want to cut the cable but you aren’t ready to let go entirely, one of the best live TV streaming services out there is Hulu Plus Live TV. Billed as a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD), Hulu Plus Live TV (also referred to as Hulu With Live TV) provides many of the features you’ve come to expect from your cable package. Along with live TV, you get access to Hulu’s streaming library which includes thousands of hours of video including existing favorites, alongside original programming like The Bear and The Handmaiden’s Tale. Since Hulu is owned by Disney, you can even bundle Hulu Plus Live TV with Disney Plus and ESPN+ for even more content.
There’s plenty to learn about Hulu Plus Live TV, and we’ve compiled all the most salient information into this helpful explainer. And do be sure to check back often, as Hulu With Live TV pricing and capabilities have been known to change in the blink of an eye.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
As of this writing, Hulu Plus Live TV’s 90-plus channel base plan costs $77 a month, and includes Hulu (with ads) + Live TV, and actually comes with a couple of pretty huge incentives — ESPN+ (with ads) and Disney+ (with ads). However, be mindful that Hulu is raising prices in October 2024.
Your Hulu Plus Live TV subscription also comes with unlimited recording. That matches what’s available on YouTube TV with 100 channels and which costs $73 per month.
There are channel add-ons available, too, so you’re able to watch more from within the Hulu app itself. They include:
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Max (with ads) at $10 per month
Max (no ads) at $17 per month
Paramount+ with Showtime at $13 a month
Cinemax at $10 a month
Starz at $10 a month
There’s also a trio of “network add-ons” that add even more channels to your Hulu With Live TV experience. Here’s how they break down:
Unlimited Screens ($10 a month): You are able to watch two screens at the same time on the base plan, but this upgrade allows you to watch on as many devices as you want on your home network and up to three at once while you’re on the road (with the exception of five devices at once at home for the four add-ons below).
Sports Add-on ($10 a month): You’ll get NFL RedZone, MAV TV, Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, FanDuel Racing, FanDuel TV, Strike Zone, and the Tennis Channel.
Entertainment Add-on ($8 a month): American Heroes Channel, BET Her, Boomerang Channel, CNBC World, Cooking Chanel, Crime + Investigation, Destination America, Discovery Family, Discovery Life, Hallmark Drama, Nicktoons, Great American Country, Military History, Science, TennNick, MTV Classic, and MTV2.
Español Add-on ($5 a month): CNN Español, Discovery en Español, Discovery Familia, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Hogar de HGTV, NBC Universo, The Weather Channel en Español, and History en Español.
Currently, when you subscribe to Hulu Plus Live TV, you also get ESPN+ (with ads) and Disney+ (with ads) included with that $77-a-month fee. But there are a couple of additions you can make to this base bundle. Of course, this jacks the price up for each package. Here’s what that looks like:
Hulu (no ads) + Live TV, ESPN+ (with ads), and Disney+ (no ads): $90 per month
Hulu (with ads) + Live TV, Disney+ (no ads), and ESPN+ (with ads): $82 per month
The Hulu Live TV guide looks the same no matter what device you’re using.Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
Hulu With Live TV has over 90 channels as of the autumn of 2024. That’s a decent amount, though not the biggest number you’ll find in the streaming world.
The following are the channels that are currently available on Hulu With Live TV. Note that it’s possible that some channels may be unavailable where you live — that’s a pretty standard caveat amongst all the providers. And while we’ll do our best to keep this list up to date, channels do come and go as contacts expire.
A&E, ABC, ABC News Live, ACC Network, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, BET, Big Ten Network, Bloomberg Television, Boomerang, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CBS, CBS News, CBS Sports Network, Cheddar News, CMT, CNBC, CNN, CNN International, Comedy Central, COZI, Crime & Investigation, CW, DABL, Discovery, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, E, ESPN, ESPN College Extra, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Food Network, Fox, Fox Business, Fox News, Freeform, FS1, FS2, FX, FXM, FXX, FYI, Golf Channel, HGTV, History, HLN, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, Lifetime Movies, Localish, Military History, MotorTrend, MSNBC, MTV, NASA, Nat Geo Wild, National Geographic, NBC, NBC News Now, NBCLX, News Nation, NFL Network, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Olympic Channel, OWN, Oxygen, Paramount Network, Pop, QVC, SEC Network, Smithsonian Channel, Start TV, SYFY, TBS, TCM, Telemundo, TLC, TNT, Travel Channel, Tru TV, TV Land, Universal Kids, USA, VH-1, Vice.
The short version is that you can watch Hulu With Live TV on any device that you also can use to watch Hulu proper, and that means basically any modern piece of hardware. (Hulu’s website has the full list, of course.)
That includes Android and iOS devices (for example, iPhones and iPads), plus Android TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and various smart TV platforms.
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And you can always watch in a web browser if that’s your thing. In other words, Hulu With Live TV is available pretty much everywhere.
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Live shows that also are available on-demand will give more info.
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You’ve got a few options for shows on Hulu With Live TV.
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A selection of Kids shows on Hulu With Live TV.
At its simplest level, Hulu Plus Live TV is pretty much like every other internet-based live TV service. You’ve got access to all sorts of channels, and so long as it’s got the channels you actually want to watch, you’re good to go. It’s not as fast as some cable TV experiences, but it’s also not so slow to change channels that you’ll be overly frustrated.
The whole thing has the overall look and feel of the rest of the Hulu app, which is great — until it isn’t. While the user experience is great when it comes to on-demand material, there are some speed bumps when it comes to the live side.
The live guide itself is fine. It’s nicely designed and easy to read. It defaults to recently watched channels, which isn’t awful. The full list of available channels is just one click away in the menu. But that list of channels is in alphabetical order, and that can leave you clicking a whole lot to get to something farther down the alphabet. There is a “Favorites” list, but it’s pretty impossible to figure out on your own how to add a channel to that list. Nor is there any option to customize the full channels list. For comparison, YouTube TV allows you to reorder channels any way you want and even hide channels you never want to see.
The overall experience is mostly fine on platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, which takes care of the two biggest in the world. Press the Down button on the directional pad, and it’ll take you back to the live guide. There’s no method of simply jumping from one channel to another.
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Things get a good bit messier on Apple TV. At some point, you’ll see a little note on the screen instructing you to swipe up (not down) to get to the guide. However, more often than not, that doesn’t actually take you to the guide. Instead, what you need to do is press the Back button first so that the top-level navigation items show up in the menu options like Home, Live, TV, Movies, Sports, My Stuff, etc. Then, you can swipe up on the directional pad to get back to the live guide. It’s messy. And like many other times on Apple TV, it’s too easy to accidentally swipe the wrong way at the wrong time. Frankly, it’s a much worse experience than what you get on the other platforms, and that’s too bad.
Hulu Plus Live TV serves video at either 720p or 1080p resolution, at up to 60 frames per second. That’s standard, though actual resolution will depend on the video source itself, as well as what device you’re watching on. The list of hardware that supports Hulu Live in 1080p is fairly short. There’s Apple TV (4th-generation and up), Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, PlayStation 4 and 5, select models of Samsung TV, and the Xbox One and Series line.
Otherwise, 720p is what you’ll get.
Missing from that conversation altogether is any sort of 4K content. While there is some on-demand content available from Hulu 4K resolution, you’ll not find anything live in 4K. YouTube TV, meanwhile, has a 4K option available for more money.
Apple is readying a smart home display with an iPad running a tweaked version of tvOS, claims a new report. The smart home display from the iPhone maker could be marketed under the category “HomeAccessory” and it could support voice and hand gestures.
Apple smart home display would have an iPad running “homeOS”
Apple has been leading the smartphone and tablet market with the iPhone and the iPad respectively. It has a strong presence in the personal computing space with the iMacs and MacBooks.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is now shifting its attention to the smart home market. He claims the as-yet-unannounced smart home display would have a new operating system, called homeOS.
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Apple TV’s tvOS currently drives HomePods. This OS could be customized for smart home sensors, IoT, and smart gadgets. It would run core Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and Home.
The smart home display would have Apple’s Generative Artificial Intelligence, Gurman has indicated. This feature would place this product above Apple’s HomePods.
If Gurman’s predictions are accurate, Apple’s next big product for the smart home market could have an iPad as a display. It seems Apple has already tested a few prototypes, one which had magnets for wall mounting and the other sat on a dock placed on a desk.
Apple working on a ‘HomeAccessory’?
Apple Intelligence has still to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, X’s Grok, and other popular Gen AI platforms. The iOS developer was a little late to the AI arena, but it is catching up quickly.
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Apple would surely want homeOS to work well with Apple Intelligence on the upcoming product. Needless to say, this would involve a lot of coding, testing, and experimentation with software and hardware.
Apple does have an iPad, a HomePod, tvOS, and several other elementary components needed for a smart home display. A recent rumor even suggested Apple is readying to unveil a “HomeAccessory”. This square-shaped device would accept voice and gesture inputs. According to The Verge, Apple could introduce the smart home display with an iPad running homeOS next year.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed bill SB 1047, which aims to prevent bad actors from using AI to cause “critical harm” to humans. The California state assembly passed the legislation by a margin of 41-9 on August 28, but several organizations including the Chamber of Commerce had urged Newsom to veto the bill. In his veto message on Sept. 29, Newsom said the bill is “well-intentioned” but “does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data. Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions – so long as a large system deploys it.”
SB 1047 would have made the developers of AI models liable for adopting safety protocols that would stop catastrophic uses of their technology. That includes preventive measures such as testing and outside risk assessment, as well as an “emergency stop” that would completely shut down the AI model. A first violation would cost a minimum of $10 million and $30 million for subsequent infractions. However, the bill was revised to eliminate the state attorney general’s ability to sue AI companies with negligent practices if a catastrophic event does not occur. Companies would only be subject to injunctive relief and could be sued if their model caused critical harm.
This law would apply to AI models that cost at least $100 million to use and 10^26 FLOPS for training. It also would have covered derivative projects in instances where a third party has invested $10 million or more in developing or modifying the original model. Any company doing business in California would be subject to the rules if it meets the other requirements. Addressing the bill’s focus on large-scale systems, Newsom said, “I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.” The veto message adds:
By focusing only on the most expensive and large-scale models, SB 1047 establishes a regulatory framework that could give the public a false sense of security about controlling this fast-moving technology. Smaller, specialized models may emerge as equally or even more dangerous than the models targeted by SB 1047 – at the potential expense of curtailing the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good.
The earlier version of SB 1047 would have created a new department called the Frontier Model Division to oversee and enforce the rules. Instead, the bill was altered ahead of a committee vote to place governance at the hands of a Board of Frontier Models within the Government Operations Agency. The nine members would be appointed by the state’s governor and legislature.
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The bill faced a complicated path to the final vote. SB 1047 was authored by California State Sen. Scott Wiener, who told TechCrunch: “We have a history with technology of waiting for harms to happen, and then wringing our hands. Let’s not wait for something bad to happen. Let’s just get out ahead of it.” Notable AI researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio backed the legislation, as did the Center for AI Safety, which has been raising the alarm about AI’s risks over the past year.
“Let me be clear – I agree with the author – we cannot afford to wait for a major catastrophe to occur before taking action to protect the public,” Newsom said in the veto message. The statement continues:
California will not abandon its responsibility. Safety protocols must be adopted. Proactive guardrails should be implemented, and severe consequences for bad actors must be clear and enforceable. I do not agree, however, that to keep the public safe, we must settle for a solution that is not informed by an empirical trajectory analysis of AI systems and capabilities. Ultimately, any framework for effectively regulating AI needs to keep pace with the technology itself.
SB 1047 drew heavy-hitting opposition from across the tech space. Researcher Fei-Fei Li critiqued the bill, as did Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun, for limiting the potential to explore new uses of AI. The trade group repping tech giants such as Amazon, Apple and Google said SB 1047 would limit new developments in the state’s tech sector. Venture capital firm Andreeson Horowitz and several startups also questioned whether the bill placed unnecessary financial burdens on AI innovators. Anthropic and other opponents of the original bill pushed for amendments that were adopted in the version of SB 1047 that passed California’s Appropriations Committee on August 15.
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