‘Forza Motorsport’ arrives later this year on Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass

Forza Motorsport, the eighth mainline entry in Turn 10 Studios’ long-running simulation racing series, will arrive later this year, the developer announced during Microsoft and Bethesda’s Developer Direct showcase. The release date constitutes something of a delay, as Microsoft announced last June it would release the game in the spring of this year. Moreover, if you were hoping to play the game on an Xbox One console, you’ll need to turn to the company’s Xbox Game Pass service to do so; Microsoft plans to release Forza Motorsport on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam. 

On Wednesday, Turn 10 promised Forza Motorsport would take full advantage of the latest Xbox and PC hardware to deliver the franchise’s most immersive racing experience yet. The game will feature more than 500 cars for players to collect, including 100 vehicles that are new to the series. To make those cars look their best, Turn 10 used a spectrophotometer to scan the paint jobs of the cars featured in the game. “With this new sourcing technique, our paint models have a more realistic light response across colors, metal flake and gloss levels,” the studio said in a blog post published after the showcase. Each car will now also feature context-aware damage and dirt buildup that Turn 10 says is “authentic and unique” to each vehicle.   

During the showcase, the studio showed off Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa, one of the five new racing tracks featured in the game. With the help of photogrammetry and laser-scanned images, Team 10 says the environments in Forza Motorsport feature 10 times more realistic detail than past entries in the series. With the addition of dynamic time of day and weather simulation, Turn 10 says fans can expect no two laps around a track to look or play the same.    

Expect Microsoft to share more details about Forza Motorsport later this year.

CNET had to correct most of its AI-written articles

CNET has issued corrections for over half of the AI-written articles the outlet recently attributed to its CNET Money team. Following an internal audit after it was first notified of an AI-written article with substantial errors, CNET Editor-in-Chief Connie Guglielmo says the publication identified additional stories that required correction. She claims a “small number” needed “substantial correction,” while others had “minor issues” that saw CNET fix things like incomplete company names and language the outlet deemed was vague. In all, of the 77 articles the publication now says were written as part of a trial to test an “internally designed AI engine,” 41 feature corrections.

As The Verge points out, some articles feature corrections that note CNET “replaced phrases that were not entirely original.” In those instances, the outlet says its plagiarism checker tool either “wasn’t used properly” by the editor assigned to the story or it failed to identify writing the tool had lifted from another source. Earlier this week, Futurism, the publication that first broke the news that CNET was quietly using AI to write financial literacy articles, said it found extensive evidence the website’s AI-generated content that showed “deep structural and phrasing similarities to articles previously published elsewhere.” Pointing to one piece on overdraft fees, Futurism noted how CNET’s version featured nearly identically phrasing to an earlier article from Forbes Advisor. It’s worth noting that AI, as it exists today, can’t be guilty of plagiarism. The software doesn’t know it’s copying something in violation of an ethical rule that humans apply to themselves. If anything, the failure falls on the CNET editors who were supposed to verify the outlet’s AI tool was creating original content.

Despite the public setback, CNET appears set on continuing to use AI tools to write published content. “We’ve paused and will restart using the AI tool when we feel confident the tool and our editorial processes will prevent both human and AI errors,” Guglielmo said. “In the meantime, expect CNET to continue exploring and testing how AI can be used to help our teams as they go about their work testing, researching and crafting the unbiased advice and fact-based reporting we’re known for.”

Google is changing how Android works in India in response to landmark antitrust ruling

After a last-ditch attempt to block India’s landmark Android ruling failed last week, Google has detailed how its mobile operating system will change to accommodate orders from the country’s Competition Commission. In a blog post spotted by The Verge, …

Fortnite’s native iOS version won’t allow players to spend V-Bucks after January 30th

The native iOS and macOS versions of Fortnite are about to become even more limited. Since the start of its legal feud with Apple back in the summer of 2020, Epic Games has allowed players who had Fortnite installed on their devices prior to the game’s removal from the App Store to continue playing. However, due to the removal, Epic hasn’t updated those versions of the game, meaning they’ve been stuck on Fortnite’s 13.40 release for more than two years. Effectively, that meant they’ve existed in a sort of limbo. All of the gameplay changes Epic has made to Fortnite since then (and there have been many), as well as all new cosmetics and seasonal passes the company has introduced, haven’t made their way over to the native iOS and macOS releases. Now those versions are about to become even more restrictive.

Starting on January 30th, Epic won’t allow you to spend Fortnite’s V-Bucks currency within the game’s iOS, Mac and Google Play versions. You’ll also need to be over the age of 18 to play. “We want all versions of our games to use the current suite of Epic Online Services including parental controls, purchasing defaults, and parental verification features,” Epic said on Twitter. “We are not able to update the app on these platforms given Apple and Google’s restrictions on Fortnite.”

In December, the company introduced new accounts designed specifically for younger players. They prevent kids from spending money in Fortnite’s in-game store and using voice chat without a parent’s consent. That same month, the Federal Trade Commission announced Epic had agreed to pay $520 million to settle allegations it had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and “tricked millions of players into making unintentional purchases.”

Most players won’t be affected by the restriction since there are ways to access Fortnite without going through the App Store or Google Play Store. On iOS and macOS, for instance, you can play the game through GeForce Now. On Android, meanwhile, it’s possible to download the native version of Fortnite directly from Epic’s website.