Guerilla bus stop ads are taking aim at Meta's AI glasses, and the la…

Acerbic activism group Everyone Hates Elon (EHE) don't just aim their ire at Mr. Musk. The group's latest guerilla effort involves two bus stop ads lampooning Meta's latest smart glasses offering, taking aim at the wearables' capacity for covert surveillance. sweetbonanza.qpon

The first ad was unveiled last week, and describes Meta's AI glasses as "The biggest advance in pervert technology since the trenchcoat." The most head turning of these guerilla marketing stunts cropped up a few days ago: Co-opting an image from Kylie Jenner's recent collaboration with Meta AI, a lenticular design is leveraged to give Jenner a They Live makeover when viewed from certain angles, complete with the words 'Meta: We're always Watching' (via Hyperallergic).

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The activism group has pulled similarly pointed stunts on both sides of the Atlantic, though these two ads were unveiled in the UK. Kylie Jenner's They Live transformation was specifically erected "down the road from Meta's London HQ".

I'll spare you a former print professional raving about lenticulars, and instead explain the reference for the young'uns. They Live was written, directed, and scored by John Carpenter back in 1988. It stars late pro-wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as a drifter who, with the help of a pair of sunglasses, uncovers the subliminal messages hidden within advertising and that the world is being controlled by camouflaged aliens (hence Kylie Jenner's sci-fi makeover).

It is, as the kids say, 'a wild ride' that features one of the greatest fight scenes ever committed to film.

EHE's latest stunt was inspired by news that Meta is prototyping ‘super sensing’ AI glasses that record the wearer's every waking moment over video and audio. A little LED light usually denotes when Meta's already released smart glasses are recording, but sources say the prototyped 'super sensing' feature won't trigger this. Criticism centres on the fact that, not unlike a Ring doorbell, folks passing by won't necessarily know they're being recorded.

A report earlier this year revealed that footage captured by Meta's AI smart glasses is reviewed by human contractors who see far more than they bargained for. However, in one proposed system for the 'super sensing' feature, Meta wouldn't hold on to the footage captured and it wouldn't be available to the user either—instead, the metadata of recorded images and audio would be fed to Meta’s AI. It's argued this approach would sidestep a number of privacy concerns.

However, I still wouldn't be comfortable allowing an AI model to absorb even this personal data, especially since security researchers were able to leverage bad maths to get AI agents to cough up user personal data. Considering AI safety guard rails can also be bypassed with 'adversarial poetry,' I'm not eager to trust Meta's AI with even vaguely sensitive information.

There's been a new patch for StarCraft 2 from Blizzard, and you might think after 16 years there isn't much the studio can do to truly disrupt the game or its community. Well, you'd be wrong, because a tweak in the latest update is sending shockwave through the player base right now.

The alterations listed are based around both Proton and Terran against Zerg, and there aren't all that many. "We are making changes based on player data and feedback," writes Blizzard in the intro. And right at the top of the Terran list is the biggie: Command Centers now cost 300 minerals instead of 400.

This is rather significant, because it's the main strategic hub of the Terran forces, presenting quite a lot of strategic value for a comparatively low price. The immediate comparison is to Supply Depots, which are 100 minerals, because although Command Centers are still three times more, you get 15 supply. Building one much earlier in a round is a no-brainer, and you can make a bunch of them later with considerable ease.

"This is the most impactful change that we've had in StarCraft 2 since Legacy of the Void," StarCraft 2 YouTuber Harstem says in a video going through the patch. "This is such an insanely big buff to Terran."

To him, this will impact the early, middle and late stages of any confrontation, because of how it subsumes Supply Depots as a choice now. He echoes the sentiments of many fans. "Might be a way to fix Terran early game economy but ultra late game will be even more broken," one Redditor observes.

"Holy [fuck] what are they doing in Anaheim," another incredulously asks. "I feel like this was an accident," a third commenter on Reddit says.

This is very much the kind of change that gets tempered post-rollout, because it's either an error, or the impact is greater than the devs anticipated. One player tells the community to make use of it while it's available. "That shit is 100% getting reverted. Gotta abuse it while you can!" they exclaim. I don't think they're wrong.

StarCraft 2 devs take another swing at getting the RTS game's surprise new update right, but Blizzard still hasn't rolled back the one change fans most want undone.

When I heard the that Team 4 would be stopping work on Overwatch's Stadium, I didn't feel very surprised. Then when I learned that only 6% of the playerbase actually engaged with the game mode, and I was even less so. But that doesn't mean I'm not really sad to hear the news.

I didn't take to Stadium at first, I found its third person perspective to be a bit jarring, and its huge number of items were something of a hurdle to get over. But that quickly changed after some time spent in the mode, figuring out its intricacies.

I spent 100 hours in Stadium—even with its ridiculously long support queues—it became something more than just a game mode I'd dip into when I was bored of the regular queue. I appreciated how it offered something else for players to enjoy, and how it showcased all the creative and innovative ideas that Team 4 has to offer, but didn't have a chance to add to the game.

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See, much of Stadium was made from ideas Team 4 had been mulling over for years before it was announced. There were even elements included which were initially meant to be a part of Overwatch's now controversial PvE mode. I was just happy to have these fun and creative ideas recycled into something fans could appreciate and experience, but it seems like history is repeating itself.

I didn't mourn the loss of PvE as much as others. I always preferred the competitive side, so I didn't give much thought to the story modes—playing against bots just wasn't as fun. But I was sad to see it go, because I saw it as one less area of experimentation and opportunity the devs could use to better showcase the great attributes of Overwatch—in this case, its story and characters.

But it's easier not to miss something we never really had, which is why I feel that this is an even bigger fumble—Stadium got much further than PvE ever did, and it had proven traction. It became Overwatch's most popular mode with 2.3 million matches played during launch week. Even with scaled back involvement, I think a different approach to balancing and more time would've been good for Stadium as extra heroes (aka reasons to play) would be added and players got a better feel for it.

More leeway may have also given the devs time to iron out some of its discrepancies, namely how bloody long a match takes. Team 4 did change the format a few seasons ago to be first to three, but switched it back to best of seven quite quickly after the change.

I'd love to see Team 4 build on what it's created over the last 10 years, and not just be tied to the same old modes. But that's a wish that isn't realistic, especially given that there's been so much pressure on Xbox-owned studios, especially over the last few weeks, to capitalise off the best areas on the game. I'd wager it'd be harder to justify hard work on such a small area of the game now more than ever.

It's the loss of this creativity and innovation that I'm sad to see dialled down, more so than the game mode itself. I also don't think this kind of experimentation can be undervalued, not at a time when Overwatch has more competition to deal with and players to keep engaged. But I'm sure we'll still see it in other areas of the game, not least the Hacked Quickplays, the most recent of which carries the promise of a new kind of 6v6.