In news that in no way made our bodies emit the dark, “filled with the phlegm of basic human misery” kind of chuckle this afternoon, BattleBots announced this week that it’s bringing back its celebration of weaponized robots—but now with an extra dose of AI, and the very public backing of an Israel-based tech company. Absent from TV since its most recent season aired on Discovery Channel back in 2023, the long-running mechanized combat series will soon begin debuting new episodes on YouTube, the better to more readily share the joys of violent robots with the international community. How considerate!
It feels worth pointing out that this news (per THR) first broke back on Thursday, so any connections that your, and our, and everybody’s brains might be making to the intersections between ‘bots and battle today are not actually the series’ fault. Less so: The decision to include in the show’s new roster of death machines a combatant named Orbitron that’s being billed as “the world’s first AI-controlled robot,” or—more pointedly—to repeatedly mention, in the promotional materials for this 20-episode “Pro League” season, that the whole thing is being sponsored by BrightData, an Israel-based tech company that seems to exist largely so it can scrape existing websites for data that it then feeds to AI. All of which is being presented with the franchise’s typical bombast and gusto, which is sometimes charming, and sometimes—depending on the context of any other news that might be kicking around in your skull on any given Saturday afternoon—just sort of horrifyingly grim.
For the uninitiated: BattleBots has a long history both on-and-off TV, having been based off of a series of Robot Wars competitions from the late ’90s that were an early streaming success online. The series proper (which existed for many years in a sort of running arms race with the U.K.’s own RobotWars to see which program could broadcast the better brand of remote-control mayhem) aired its first several seasons on Comedy Central in the early 2000s, before being revived on ABC in 2015; that revival eventually migrated over to Discovery Channel, where the show aired from 2018 to 2023. This new season will, at the very least, debut entirely on YouTube, although THR notes that it may be shopped to networks in international markets after its online debut. Filming for the season will begin in April, provided we all get there.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will live in the headsets used by employees. The voice-enabled chatbot, called "Patty," is part of an overarching BK Assistant platform that will not only assist employees with meal preparation but also evaluate their interactions with customers for "friendliness."
Thibault Roux, Burger King's chief digital officer, tells The Verge that the company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness, resulting in the fast food chain training its AI system to recognize certain words and phrases, such as "welcome to Burger King," "please," and "thank you." Managers can then ask the AI assistant how their location is performing on friendliness. "This is all meant to be a coaching tool," Roux says, adding that the company is "iterating" on capturing the tone of conversations as well.
Amazon is telling people who use its wishlists feature to switch to post office boxes or non-residential delivery addresses if they want to ensure their home addresses remain private, as part of a change in how it processes gifts bought from third-party sellers. The change is especially concerning to many sex workers, influencers and public figures who use Amazon wishlists to receive gifts from fans and clients.
First spotted by adult content creators raising the alarm on social media, the changes open anyone who uses wishlists publicly to increased privacy risk unless they change how they receive packages.
In an email sent to list holders, Amazon said beginning March 25, it will reveal users’ shipping addresses to third-party sellers. The platform added that gift purchasers might end up seeing your address as part of this process, too.
Before this change, the only information visible to sellers and gift purchases was the recipients’ city and state.
“We're writing to inform you about an upcoming change to Amazon Lists. Starting March 25, 2026, we will remove the option to restrict purchases from third-party sellers for list items. When this change takes effect, gift purchasers will be able to purchase items sold by third-party sellers from your lists and your delivery address will be shared with the seller for fulfillment. This change will provide gift purchasers with access to a wider selection of items when shopping from your lists,” Amazon said in the email. “Important note: When gifts are purchased from your shared or public lists, Amazon needs to provide your shipping address to sellers and delivery partners to fulfill these orders. During the delivery process, your address may become visible to gift purchasers through delivery updates and tracking information. To help protect your privacy, we recommend using a PO Box or non-residential address for any list you share with public audiences.”
If you have public wishlists, you can manage individual list settings here and select "manage list." From there you can change your list privacy settings to private or shared to limit who has access, or remove your shipping address entirely by selecting "none" from the dropdown menu.
Most of the popular shipping methods in the US, including UPS, Fedex, and the USPS, don’t show full addresses as part of package tracking. But if a third-party seller shares a gift recipient’s home address with a buyer as part of the tracking process, Amazon is saying that’s out of the platform’s control. And some of those delivery services send photos as part of the tracking process for proof of delivery, which could include more information about one’s home or location than they would want a gift sender to see.
“Those who do a range of work where privacy concerns are top of mind would be left to wonder what problem Amazon is solving with this change,” Krystal Davis, an adult content creator who posted about receiving the email from Amazon, told 404 Media. “Those who use these lists as an opportunity to allow fans to show support and offset expenses will lose that option. The alternatives to Amazon wishlist are significantly lacking.”
Many online sex workers use Amazon wishlists to receive gifts from subscribers and fans. It’s a practice that’s gone on for years. Revealing one’s full address to buyers — especially if they don’t realize this change has gone into effect, or missed the email sent by Amazon with the warning to switch to a P.O. box — puts their safety at serious risk. And like so many privacy and security issues that affect sex workers first, anyone could potentially be affected; lots of people use public wishlists who might want to keep their location private, and should consider checking their settings or switching to a non-residential address if they want to maintain that privacy.
Screenshot via Amazon showing the "Manage List" page, with the option to share shipping address with sellers grayed out and a notice: "This setting will no longer be supported starting February 25, 2026. After this date, third-party sellers will receive your shipping address to fulfill orders. You can review of update your lists' shipping address on this page."
Amazon provides conflicting information on when and how this change will go into effect. The email sent to wishlist holders says it will start on March 25, 2026, but as of writing, a notice on the “Manage List” settings page said starting February 25, third party sellers will see users’ shipping addresses. Amazon confirmed to 404 Media that the option to restrict purchases from third-party sellers for list items is being removed on March 25, one month from today.
Anthropic, the AI company that has long positioned itself as the industry's most safety-conscious research lab, is dropping the central commitment of its Responsible Scaling Policy -- a 2023 pledge to never train an AI system unless it could guarantee beforehand that its safety measures were adequate. "We didn't really feel, with the rapid advance of AI, that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments ... if competitors are blazing ahead," chief science officer Jared Kaplan told TIME.
The overhauled policy, approved unanimously by CEO Dario Amodei and Anthropic's board, instead commits the company to matching or surpassing competitors' safety efforts and to delaying development only if Anthropic considers itself to be leading the AI race and believes catastrophic risks are significant.
The company also plans to publish detailed "Risk Reports" every three to six months and release "Frontier Safety Roadmaps" laying out future safety goals. Chris Painter, director of policy at the AI evaluation nonprofit METR, who reviewed an early draft, told TIME the shift signals that Anthropic "believes it needs to shift into triage mode with its safety plans, because methods to assess and mitigate risk are not keeping up with the pace of capabilities."
A new hobbyist developed app warns if people nearby may be wearing smart glasses, such as Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, which stalkers and harassers have repeatedly used to film people without their knowledge or consent. The app scans for smart glasses’ distinctive Bluetooth signatures and sends a push alert if it detects a potential pair of glasses in the local area.
The app comes as companies such as Meta continue to add AI-powered features to their glasses. Earlier this month The New York Times reported Meta was working on adding facial recognition to its smart glasses. “Name Tag,” as the feature is called, would let smart glasses wearers identify people and get information about them from Meta’s AI assistant, the report said.
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Do you work at Meta or know anything else about its smart glasses? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.
An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.
(Image credit: Department of Justice and Getty Images/Collage by Danielle A. Scruggs/NPR)
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