Looking for the perfect biblical character for a prestige TV show? Look no further than King David. The backstory of the guy is loaded with action, drama and political intrigue. He dealt with literally insane, murderous bosses and ungrateful kids. He made his share of mistakes, too, but David was still considered a man after God’s own heart.

Well, Amazon’s Prime Video is now offering its viewers—Christian and secular alike—an opportunity to dive into David’s story (with a bit of extra-biblical material added to the broth) with House of David.

Kennedy Unthank recently had a chance to interview series creator Jon Erwin and some of the show’s stars. We’ll listen to a few of those conversations and talk about the show itself.

Granted, some of you might be a little behind in your television watching. Why? Because you’re in the middle of Plugged In’s 2025 Screen Fast, of course! As a matter of fact, there’s just a couple of days left to go. I went on my own screen fast a few weeks ago and, if you’re like me, you’re ready to pick up your phones again. But you might not want to return to your same old habits. How do you engage with your screens in a more healthy, less obsessive way? We’ll talk about that very subject with Emily Tsiao and Jonathan McKee.

So take a listen, won’t you? And then, chime in with your own thoughts. Are you watching House of David? Are you watching anything at all? How did your own screen fast go? Let us know on Facebook and Instagram, or write us a missive at team@thepluggedinshow.com. You can leave a message at The Plugged In Show homepage, too.

And join us next week when Adam Holz returns to the host’s chair to talk about how to have a family movie night.

The post Episode 277: ‘House of David.’ Plus, the Screen Fast Is Almost Over! Now What? appeared first on Plugged In.

You haven’t heard of those? Yeah, it’s a new AI-powered necklace that listens in on your interactions with others and then tosses in comments to you through text messages. (Some people don’t find that creepy at all.)

But digital hearts and eves-dropping chatbots aren’t what I’m really here to talk about.

For a minute, I want us to think about the idea of artificial intelligence. I mean, how do we want to relate to it today and tomorrow? Will we make it a welcome companion and helper, will we steel ourselves for a fight, or are we just going to pretend we can ignore it?

Oh, and yes, I used the word “pretend” on purpose. After all, at this point AI is all around us and in everything we work with. So, outside ditching your phone and setting up a tent in the middle of nowhere, there’s really no way to give it the cold shoulder. You may have this false sense that artificial intelligence is a relatively new thing that really doesn’t concern you. But it’s been around since it took its first baby steps as Arthur Samuel’s checkers-playing program way back in the early 1950s. And it’s been reaching out with an open hand ever since.

Why does AI seem so new? Well, as AI has grown and gotten more powerful and influential, it has also become more invisible. Not only is it now making our phones more helpful and getting Amazon to push us sales on our favorite dog sweaters, it’s controlling far more than we recognize with far more acumen than we give it credit for.

For instance, when you call your credit card company and that pleasant AI assistant helps you out, do you consider everything that’s going on? As you speak into your phone, that company AI has to perceive speech patterns, nuances, accents, and intonations. It must match your start-stop-mumble of a request against massive amounts of sample data in an attempt to give you a usable answer or send you in the right direction.  

AI also performs data mining through vast reference sets for us and other heavy lifting duties every day. For example, have you ever tried watching Netflix with spotty WiFi? Of course you have. As you watch, there are times when the picture gets all fuzzy as the data stream thins out. Did you know that Netflix’s AI tries to identify how important a scene you’re watching is as it divvies up the bandwidth for a given stream? So the big melting face scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark will be given more bandwidth than, say, the opening credits of a She-Ra episode. And you didn’t even know AI was hard at work to make that runny goo crystal clear.

And there’s more. Much more. Self-driving cars; spam-filtering on emails; opening doors for the disabled; fraud detection on your credit card account; robotic vacuum cleaners; video and image creation; music writing and audio tools; simple medical advice; grammatically corrected rewrites. The list of ways that AI is helping us stretches on and on.

On the other hand, your AI companion isn’t necessarily your best friend. If you’ve been paying attention to our quickly moving world, you’ve seen how incredibly open we humans can be to a well-tailored influencer. And AI is as smartly groomed as it gets because, well, its approach to you is all based on what you and those around you give it.

So, if you’re not paying close attention, AI can deftly change your purchasing decisions, your social values and your political views with just the right social media feed and just the right messaging. For that matter, what happens if over time we start to prefer the consistent and tailored responses of our trusted AI friend over the unpredictable and messy stuff of a real, live human conversation? Will we be sharp enough to see the problem?

We shouldn’t close our eyes to either the potentially good side or the potentially not-so-great side of our AI chum. As Proverbs 4:7 declares: “Get wisdom. Though it costs you all you have, get understanding.” So read about how AI impacts your life. Listen to podcasts and other sources of information on the topic. Pay attention and make wise choices. Realize that even a family dog—mankind’s oldest companion—can sometimes bite.

And let’s face it, AI has sharper teeth. I mean, have you ever played it in a game of checkers?

The post Your AI Companion Has Its Hand Outstretched. Do You? appeared first on Plugged In.

Essentially, she was asking what movies Plugged In would recommend for families, and it was telling her that Plugged In really thought highly of One of Them Days, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and Better Man.

Well. First off, all those movies are rated R—and it’s hard for Plugged In to praise R-rated movies for being family friendly. Second, we don’t really “recommend” movies at all. We have some strong opinions, of course, but our main purpose is to give you, the reader, all the information you need to make a good, strong decision about what’s appropriate for you and your family.

Our own search using Google’s AI turned up similar results. So with that in mind, we thought we’d record a nice, quick little video for you.

Why? Well, we want to let you know that, no, we are not suggesting that you take your 5-year-old to Nosferatu. Also, our own experience with Google’s AI makes us mindful how we should all treat AI—which is still very much in its toddler stage.

So take a look and listen to Bret Eckelberry and Emily Tsiao as they discuss Google’s AI thoughts about Plugged In—and our own thoughts about artificial intelligence.

The post Google AI Doesn’t Understand Plugged In appeared first on Plugged In.

Technically speaking, generative AI apps don’t literally “think.” They scour source material and spit it back out, based on a “prompt,” almost instantly. It reminds me of Trinity and Neo in The Matrix when they need to make a quick escape and fortuitously come across a helicopter.

“Can you fly that thing?” Neo asks Trinity.

“Not yet,” she replies. But then she dials up “mission control,” as it were, and asks him to download that information into her brain. “Tank, I need a pilot program for a B212 helicopter. … Hurry.”

Five seconds later, the information is uploaded into Trinity’s mind. “Let’s go.”

That was science fiction in 1999. And while AI won’t help you fly a helicopter in five seconds just yet, what was once pure fantasy now seems a lot closer to reality.

Is Thinking an “Endangered Species”?

I titled this blog “A Different Kind of Existential Fear About AI.” The main version of that fear, of course, is of the Terminator/Matrix variety, where the machines rise up, hit a point of singularity (creative, independent consciousness) and realize they don’t want us around anymore.

As Agent Smith told Morpheus in the Matrix, “Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are the plague, and we are the cure.”

Now, frankly, if the computers rise up and take us out, well, OK. There’s probably not much I can do about that existential threat. So I’m not going to waste a second thinking about it.

But there’s another threat here worth considering: If AI can instantly and accurately synthesize the information or ideas or images we need, why would we keep doing it the slow, old-fashioned way?

Not surprisingly, this reality is being embraced by people who would rather have an AI app do their thinking for them—especially kids growing up with access to such technology from, basically, birth. An August 2024 survey by the Digital Education Council found that 86% of students reported using AI in their studies, with 24% saying they used it “daily.”

My 18-year-old son put it to me this way recently: “They used to tell us you need to learn how to do math because you won’t always have a calculator with you.” He just laughed. And he’s not wrong. We all have our “calculators” with us constantly—that being our phones. And today’s calculators can do a lot more than multiplication or solving complex equations.

So the existential threat I’m talking about here is thinking itself. Thinking is hard, sometimes. At least, thinking applied to solving a complex problem. And when you’re in high school or college, a research paper certainly feels like a complex problem. Why go through all that pain and effort if you don’t have to?

However, if we never have to think about anything that matters, where does that leave us as a culture, as a species? What gets lost along the way? What are the outcomes and unintended consequences of ceding more and more of our “thinking” to machines?

Look, I know I sound like an old man shaking his fist at the sky. And, yes, certain fears about technology have provoked Luddite pushback time and again throughout history. And I’m well aware that AI, like all revolutionary technology, may yield incredible acceleration on data-heavy projects, such as cancer research. It’s not all bad, and some of it may generate incredibly life-transforming outcomes.

But I worry, still, for my kids and for those growing up in a world in which the answers are so readily available at the click of a “prompt.” What happens when our capacity and ability to do complex intellectual synthesis atrophies? I think it’s a question worth pondering.

The post A Different Kind of Existential Fear About AI appeared first on Plugged In.

It’s true. They’re real. They’re called the Master & Dynamic x Neurable MW75 Neuro
Headphones. (Which is quite a mouthful.) And just in case you’re thinking they’re the equivalent of a pair of “Amazing X-Ray Glasses” you’d see in the back of an old comic book, let me stop you. The reviews are in, and these techy gizmos are actually supposed to read your brain waves accurately while delivering high-quality sound.

How? Why? Well, let’s see.

First off, I should note that these new headphones won’t read your mind and decide that: Bobby needs a Coke right now, so notify the refrigerator AI to get on the stick. No, we haven’t gotten to that point yet. But we’re well past the point of having to wear a skull cap full of woven wires and electrodes and then interpreting a graph full of squiggly lines.

If we break this technology down to its basic functions, the headphones work like this:

Our wonderful little brains and their billions of neurons are constantly pumping out electrical signals. They zap out our highs, our lows, our concentrated moments, our stress points. With a press of a button, the MW75 Nuero leaps into action and uses its soft, impulse-sensing fabric ear covers to gather info through electroencephalography (EEG). (So yeah, these are no corner drugstore earbud knockoffs.)

Then the data is processed by some internal electronic wizardry and interpreted by artificial
intelligence to determine our “focus level.” (More on that in a bit.)

Next, with the Neurable phone app, you can read the results of your session and gain insights and suggestions that are designed to help you work smarter. And that’s the real purpose of the device’s mind-reading: finding out when in the day, and in what situations, you’re most productive; determining when to give your little brain buddy a rest; and figuring out how you can potentially reduce your stress levels.

According to the manufacturer, the headphones can even turn active noise canceling on and automatically put your phone in “Do Not Disturb” mode when the headphones sense that you’re deep in your “high focus” mode.

OK, so now let’s talk about these focus levels and what they mean.

High focus is the primo spot you’re shooting for. And Neurable defines that as “a state where you’re mostly focused on a single task that’s highly engaging and challenging. When you work on a single task, you give it your full attention and don’t waste mental energy switching tasks. With some practice, maintaining focus on your goals will become a habit.”

Now that all sounds super peachy, but people who have used these headphone report that we cubicle-bound worker bees rarely get to that totally focused state without a lot of practice and some shut-out-the-world help.

Medium focus is the next level, and it’s described as “a state where you are focused on a task that requires a moderate amount of skill. Or you may be switching between related tasks, such as assembling information to generate a report.”

Lastly comes the lowly low focus: “A state where you may be jumping from idea to idea, like a brainstorm. Short periods of low focus may be caused by a distraction, or a context switch unrelated to a task.”

In other words, this last level is … business as usual. Messages are popping up on your phone, emails are grabbing your attention, meeting times are suddenly switched, coworkers are chatting loudly … etc.

But all that is what the Master & Dynamic x Neurable MW75 Neuro Headphones are designed to help us work on and improve. Will they catch on and aid us in getting our brains working at maximum efficiency? Maybe.

In fact, it seems that all our phones, computers and smartglasses are pulling together with AI charged gusto to get us working harder than ever before. And when we finally hit that vaunted creative plateau, then we can sit back and muse: Oh, for the days when my headphones just helped me relax with some good music. I need a Coke.

The post Your Mind-Reading Headphones Are Ready to Serve appeared first on Plugged In.

And yet, sandwiched between the other advertisements hoping to capitalize on the attentions of football fanatics everywhere, one particular commercial caught my eye. This ad for Coca-Cola:

A Christmas commercial from Coca-Cola. Red trucks, Christmas trees and polar bears. Pretty standard stuff from the soda giant. So, what’s the big deal?

Well, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed just a little off about this commercial. To be honest, I thought it looked like it had been made with AI.

Turns out, it was.

To be fair, Coca-Cola wasn’t totally trying to hide that fact: There’s a tiny disclaimer that pops up at the start of the video, acknowledging that the ad was made by artificial intelligence (“Real Magic AI,” in this case). But that notice isn’t prominently featured, either.

Others picked up on this artificially created commercial, too, and I think it’s fair to say that the public response probably hasn’t been what Coca-Cola had hoped for. Still, it serves as a glimpse into the power AI video generators wield and how even major corporations—businesses that certainly have the resources to hire actual flesh-and-blood creators—intend to use them.

But these AI tools aren’t only available to big companies. There are plenty of free AI video generators that can be found online—and they’re pretty popular. According to Semrush, “ai video generator” is searched for online nearly 75,000 times a month! And that’s to say nothing of deepfakes, which is its own branch of AI-generated video.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick to AI generators that “create” videos seemingly from scratch, like that Coca-Cola commercial. Because these tools are easily accessible online, both for adults and kids.

How Do AI Video Generators Work?

Videos created by artificial intelligence falls under the banner of “generative AI.” According to Harvard University, generative AI is “a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from and mimic large amounts of data to create content such as text, images, music, videos, code and more, based on inputs or prompts.”

A few weeks ago, we talked about how generative AI works when creating images. AI videos work in a similar way. That is to say, the AI video models use a huge deposit of reference data to form their “creations.” But there is a major hurdle that the model must account for when doing video instead of images—movement.

Generative AI & Video

To create movement, the AI model looks at the connection between multiple images in a sequence and how the subjects in those images transform. For instance, imagine multiple snapshots of a person running on a track. Each picture would show the person in a different position as they ran. Now, you or I would have a general understanding of how that person moved from one position to the next. That’s because we understand the function of running—what it should look like and what it shouldn’t.

But an AI model doesn’t have that understanding. It can’t run for itself. It can’t even use its eyes to watch somebody run because it doesn’t have eyes to see. The best it can do is process the given images—analyze the difference between individual pixels—and try to decipher how a running person moved from one position to another. It follows the same process when trying to replicate any movement in generated videos.

Sometimes, the AI will get close to accurate. In the aforementioned Coca-Cola ad, the generated video could easily pass as a schmaltzy Christmas commercial to those either unfamiliar with AI or not paying close attention. The ad cuts quickly between scenes so as not to tax the limits of believability, but its peculiarities are not glaringly obvious—at least, not at first.

Other times, though, a generated video might seem downright inhuman—especially when featuring, well, humans. Characters morph into different versions of themselves from scene to scene (as exemplified by the following AI-generated Toys “R” Us ad from earlier this year). Objects don’t function as they should—such as a car rolling down the road despite its wheels remaining perfectly stationary. And, at times, it can also seem that the subjects of AI videos are unconstrained by the laws of physics.

Kids & AI Video Generators

It’s important to be able to distinguish between what’s real and what’s generated by AI because AI video generators are not going away anytime soon. Likewise, it’s important for parents to know if their children are using these tools.

According to Common Sense Media, approximately 70% of teens have used generative AI tools, and most teens have done so without their parents’ knowledge.

Potential Benefits

Similar to AI-generated images, children can use AI tools to create videos in seconds. They can play around with many different scenes, characters and styles in short videos, which could spur their imagination and lead to other creative ideas. Generative AI could allow them to create and share something which only existed in their minds before, which can be an encouraging experience.

And, depending on the user, the dreamlike quality of some AI-generated videos is a feature, not a bug. If your child delights in more fantastical images and stories, AI videos could encourage them to expand their imagination in creative and interesting ways.

Potential Concerns

Unfortunately, AI video generators share many of the same concerns as their algorithmic cousins. Research is still being conducted on how the use of AI can affect a child’s creative process—it would be awful for a creative tool like generative AI to negatively impact kids’ creativity.

Additionally, AI is no replacement for experience. After all, that’s what AI struggles with, right? It makes mistakes because it can’t understand function: It has never physically experienced what a human being has. So, you should encourage your kids to experience things that they can then draw from when creating their own videos.

Finally, as with other generative AI tools, bad actors may misuse video generators to create disturbing or explicit content. Most tools have some sort of safeguards in place, but those are far from foolproof. A child who is interested in AI video generators could be exposed to harmful videos if they take a wrong turn.

What Can Parents Do?

So, as a parent, how should you approach this topic with your kids? First, make sure the lines of communication between you and your child are in good shape. You’ll want to ask them if they’re aware of AI video generators. If they seem interested, offer to explore some of the AI tools together.

If they happen to have already used generative AI for videos, ask them to show you what they’ve done with it. Foster an open and honest dialogue with your child and try to help them understand when an AI video generator might be appropriate to use and when it wouldn’t.

At the end of the day, if you choose to allow your kids to use video generators, be sure to encourage their own individual creativity apart from AI. Every child is unique, so decide for yourself what’s best for your family when it comes to generative AI.

The post Should Kids Use AI Video Generators? appeared first on Plugged In.

Answers will vary, but several great pieces of literature admittedly took a long time to write:

Margaret Mitchell spent 10 years penning her Southern epic, Gone with the Wind. Les Misérables—one of the longest novels ever written at a whopping 655,000 words—took Victor Hugo 12 years to write. And it was 17 years before J.R.R. Tolkien put a bow on his genre-defining Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Certainly, the length of time that it takes to write something isn’t a surefire indicator of its quality—after all, Charles Dickens crafted his timeless A Christmas Carol in only six weeks! But the commitment of time often speaks to the care and consideration that an author puts into his or her work.

Now, how long would it take artificial intelligence to write The Lord of the Rings? Or perhaps Moby Dick?

Forever, some might say, infinity plus one. Meaning, AI could never hope to create such resonant, enduring and, dare I say, human tales. I would tend to agree. But in terms of actually putting words on the page—er, computer screen—a generative AI text generator could likely pump out a couple thousand pages a day. To state the obvious, that’s a lot faster than 10 years.

This is the reality of AI text generators today. There’s a good chance you’ve at least heard about one of the bigger AI text generators on the market. ChatGPT alone had approximately 3.6 billion visits to its site just in October.

And not all these visits are from adults. Kids are using these free and easily accessible programs, too.

How Do AI Text Generators Work?

ChatGPT and other similar tools fall under the classification of “generative AI.” Generative AI, according to Harvard University, is “a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from and mimic large amounts of data to create content such as text, images, music, videos, code and more, based on inputs or prompts.”

To fulfill its function, an AI text generator must have a library of data to draw from—essentially, a collection of reference points. For text generators, that library would be filled with all sorts of writing samples, various styles to mimic and iterate on. When a user submits a request, the AI will use its references to output something to fulfill said request.

Generative AI & Writing

For the below example, I used the free version of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) available on the OpenAI website. I submitted the following prompt: “Write the first few sentences of an original fantasy story in the style of C.S. Lewis.”

Here’s what was provided:

“In the farthest corner of a world not so different from our own, where the trees whispered secrets only the wind could carry and the hills seemed to lean forward as if listening, there stood an ancient, ivy-covered tower. No one remembered who had built it, or why, but the people of the village below spoke of it in hushed tones, as though it might overhear them. Some said it was the dwelling of a forgotten king; others believed it to be a gateway to realms beyond imagining. For most, these stories were enough to keep them at a safe distance. But for Clara Wetherby, whose curiosity was always a little too big for her small boots, the tower was not just a mystery—it was an invitation.”

On the whole, not bad! The writing feels appropriate for a fantasy setting, with mentions of forgotten kings and ancient towers. And the characterization of Clara, with her big curiosity and small boots, feels like something that wouldn’t be out of place in one of Lewis’ Narnia books.

There are a few things that the AI text generator homed in on from my prompt to fulfill my request. The most important are that I was asking for a “fantasy story” and that it be “in the style of C.S. Lewis.”  The generator focused on those details, found references (including, presumably, the works of C.S. Lewis), mixed them together and then created an output to match my prompt.

This is important to note, because the capacities of AI text generators expand beyond just fiction. For instance, you could ask it to write essays or book reports in the style and grade level of your choosing. Knowing this, you can see why there have been concerns about kids using AI for their schoolwork.

Kids & AI Text Generators

We’ve referenced this a few times already, but it remains relevant: Common Sense Media put out a recent report stating that approximately 70% of teens have used generative AI tools. Not only that, but most teens have done so without their parents’ knowledge.

Parents should know if their children are using these tools and for what. Because ChatGPT and other AI text generators have a lot of potential, for good and bad.

AI Text Generators Can Be a Useful Tool …

AI text generators allow for the dissemination of information at incredible speed. Because of this, kids can learn a lot through a conversation with a tool like ChatGPT. Would they like to know about the layers of the rainforest? Or the day-to-day schedule of a medieval knight? AI generators are happy to answer those questions and more. Not only that, but they are extremely flexible, able to switch topics on a dime to keep pace with the vibrant curiosity of a young mind.

Now, whether the information the AI presents is totally correct is another question. Tools such as ChatGPT can be a helpful for research … within the right context. Generative AI is not perfect; at times it can become confused and “hallucinate” misinformation. It’s drawing from existing data, after all, and if some of those sources are incorrect, AI might output something faulty as well. So while you shouldn’t be citing anything you get from an AI text generator—they even make up nonexistent references at times—it can give kids a place to start. These tools often point in some good directions, if the user is willing to do their own further examination on the suggested topics.

Finally, kids could get some basic help from AI text generators to improve their own writing. Since these tools pull from a large dataset of writing samples, it can offer good suggestions, especially with grammar and sentence structure. That said, AI shouldn’t be the final or dominant voice. It should be supplementary. Just because a text generator made a suggestion doesn’t mean it’s “right.” Writing can be very subjective, and the changes an AI offers may not fit your child’s style, storyline or creative process.

… But Don’t Let Your Child Lose Their Voice

Working with a huge, melting pot of writing data is a double-edged sword. It can cause AI text generators to have a “lowest common denominator” effect, boiling down an author’s language into an algorithmic gumbo that, while technically sound, loses a lot of the flavor. God has given us all unique giftings. For those of us who write, we have a distinct “writing voice.” And children who have an overreliance on text generators might lose that unique writing voice—or never develop one in the first place.

Additionally, there is the danger to misuse these tools to create explicit or even dangerous content. While text generators generally have safeguards like other mainstream generative AI tools, they can be tricked into providing inappropriate responses, such as instructions on how to build a homemade bomb.

What Can Parents Do?

In short, get to know what programs your kids are using. Ask them about their thoughts on ChatGPT and similar tools, and if they have used them. If they have, ask about their experiences—what worked well and what didn’t. Offer to explore these tools together. You could come up with a story idea, or use the text generator to research a particular topic you’re both interested in. Get a sense for how the tool works and how your child is responding to it. This will give you an opportunity to establish intentional boundaries according to what you’ve observed.

Another benefit of familiarizing yourself with AI text generators is that it may help you spot AI-generated text in other areas. Generative AI is not going away any time soon, so it can be beneficial for you (and your kids) to be able to recognize when you’re reading something written by AI.

As a parent, you can help your child take a successful approach to artificial intelligence—how and when to use it, or whether to use it at all.

The post Should Kids Use AI Text Generators? appeared first on Plugged In.

Yep, artificial intelligence was gonna be working for me instead of just endangering kids online. After seeing that first ad, I definitely planned on renaming my phone Monique and scheduling her to write my reviews and do my taxes. This new Apple Intelligence revolution was going to make my life a lot easier.

… And then I woke up.

I’ve had the new iPhone 16 for several weeks and in that time period I sorta got the feeling that the new Siri wasn’t all that different from the old one. She patently refused to be called Monique. And it’s really only recently that I’ve seen some new iOS features (the latest update being iOS 18.2 as of this writing) that I’ve thought might be kind of cool.

So, let’s take a minute and chat about some of the ways that Apple Intelligence may or may not be what you need in your life.

First of all, as I look at the new features that Apple is currently wrapping up in a bow and calling Apple Intelligence, they tend to fall into three categories: Things that can summarize my phone life. Things that can make my phone life more creative. And ways in which Siri can be a better phone life assistant.

Summarize Me

On the condensing and organizing front, Apple Intelligence has been crafted to help you winnow through the acres of flotsam that come your way on a daily basis. It can slap your Notification Center into shape, for one thing. And I found that to be most helpful with news articles. Apple Intelligence can effectively give me a condensed sentence or two that fills me in on a topic. And if I go to the article itself, it can also give me an AI generated “Reader” mode—a condensed version of the content that delivers “just the facts, ma’am.”

Apple Intelligence is also happy to help sort and summarize your messages into short little thumbnails. It can categorize your emails, prioritizing urgent messages and bundle less critical missives for later review. That can be useful.

However, letting AI decide what is important and what isn’t can be a tricky thing. Winking nods and jokes don’t translate well through the Apple Intelligence lens, for example. For that matter, the minute Ms. Siri Intelligence leaves something important out of a summary—or shuffles it off for later—is the minute you rethink her helpfulness.  

Make Me Creative

There are some new creative tools in the Apple Intelligence mix that you might find helpful. The built-in writing tool, for instance, can quickly look over your typed out notes and missives and point out typos, make suggestions on your grammar and help you focus your verbiage. But, again, it comes with a good and bad side. On the plus, it’s very simple to work with. On the negative, it’s rather stiff. Don’t expect Hemmingway.

ImageWand is another sweet tool that can pep up your notes. This cool little feature can translate your rough scribble (sketched out with an Apple Pencil) into a nice little polished image. If you’re not the doodling type, it likely won’t be your cup of tea, but it’s still a fun little creative tweak.

Those picture-snapping fiends out there will also find the photo tools to be top shelf. AI will help you easily clean up your photos with intuitive abilities that erase background objects or people that you tap in photos. And you can very quickly pluck someone out of a photo or plop yourself down in a completely different background. Hey, those great pre-break-up vacay photos can live on problem- and ex-free.

Oh, and if you really like the idea of generating your own AI images and emojis, Apple Intelligence has you covered. When you download iOS 18.2 you can access Genmoji and Apple Image Playground. Genmoji lets you use pictures from your phone or typed-in descriptions to create your own custom emojis. So if you’ve always wanted that Christmas tree on fire with an elf roasting marshmallows emoji, you’re in luck.

Apple Image Playground is very similar, but it’s designed to create an image that you can use for your presentation, review, screen background, social media post, etc. Again, you start with a picture or type in a description that you want and then experiment with extras such as locations, costumes and the like. It’s much like the AI image generators you may have experimented with in the past, but it’s all done on your phone for private use. (And no subscription required.)

Assist Me

The last Apple Intelligence area where your faithful Siri steps up to get a boost is in the digital assistant arena. And let me just say that if you’re expecting your personal phone assistant to give and take in conversation like the AI woman in the movie Her, well, don’t. Siri won’t verbally walk you through a public presentation or discuss the intricacies of child rearing.

What Siri can do these days is some light organization and scheduling work. She’ll check your schedule, make a reservation, steer you toward a good local restaurant or even suggest the best time to start a road trip. And,at the very least, Siri will hang in there and grab the gist of your requests better than in the past. She’s much more capable of understanding you if you stumble or start over in the middle of your questions. And she’ll be ready for a follow up.

Tougher requests, beyond calendar scheduling and weather reports, are still a challenge, though. Apple has promised sweeter interaction abilities by the time they release iOS 18.4, so we’ll see how that plays out. For now, though, Apple has given Siri the ability to connect with ChatGPT for any deep-dive questions you may have. Of course, you can connect to ChatGPT on your own and on any phone. So that’s a mixed benefit.

Oops, Monique, er, Siri is reminding me through my Apple Watch that I have a meeting coming up, so I’ll finish my commentary on her abilities here. I’m sure there are lots of other little Apple Intelligence bits I could touch on, but the things above are the new tools and tweaks that I’ve been tinkering with.

Yep, there are interesting things on the horizon. And some creative ways that this new Apple Intelligence can aid your life. Just don’t believe every ad you see and don’t expect the moon quite yet.

Yes, I heard you, I heard you.

Gotta go.

The post What Apple Intelligence Is … and Isn’t appeared first on Plugged In.

What? A new study by the University of Cambridge found that teens who are physically isolated for just a few hours experience a heightened “threat alert” or “threat vigilance,” increasing feelings of loneliness and anxiety even if they’re socializing with friends and family online.

So What? This goes against pro-social media advocates who claim that platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can help mitigate those feelings. And the authors of the study say, “It could contribute to the persistent and exaggerated fear responses typical of anxiety disorders on the rise among young people around the world.”

Now What? God did not create us to “go it alone.” In fact, we are commanded to love one another and to fellowship together. But teenagers—especially those who might feel misunderstood or friendless—often seek isolation. Try to discourage this behavior, reminding your teen that God doesn’t want them to feel lonely. Instead he tells us: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20 ESV).

Influencers Claim Castor Oil Aids in Weight Loss

What? In the latest social media trend, influencers are putting castor oil on their stomachs before bed, touting it as a “natural” weight loss alternative.

So What? According to Mamamia, health experts have debunked this method, stating that, at best, castor oil will just hydrate your skin. They link the before-and-after results to the abdominal massages users perform as they apply the oil (which is proven to aid in relieving bloating and constipation), as well as the “castor oil packs” being sold. The packs are essentially a strap you wrap around your stomach, and it’s the pressure of that strap, not the castor oil, that helps reduce gas and create the illusion of “overnight weight loss.”

Now What? Trends such as “Oatzempic,” berberine (a supplement advertised as “nature’s Ozempic” that doctors warn against), chia seed drinks and celery juice cleanses all contribute to toxic diet culture. And experts warn that these sort of “quick fixes” can lead to a cycle of unrealistic body expectations or even dangerous eating and exercise behaviors. But their prevalence on social media and among influencers may mean that mom and dad need to help debunk these exaggerated claims.

What Parents Need to Know About Bluesky

What? Bluesky, a newish text-based social media app, gained 2.25 million new users this month as people sought an alternative to X (formerly Twitter).

So What? Bluesky gained popularity due to its reverse-chronological feed, as opposed to an algorithm-based one. It also prioritizes user safety over user engagement, with robust moderation features. But parents shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security.

Now What? As one journalist described it, Bluesky is “frequently horny.” The platform is reminiscent of “Old Twitter” with a “seemingly inevitable leftist tilt” and a subcommunity of NSFW posters. The aforementioned moderation tools may help to cull these posts from younger users’ feeds, but the platform still has plenty of holes in its security that could be exploited.

The post On the Radar: Teen ‘Threat Alert,’ the Castor Oil Trend and Bluesky appeared first on Plugged In.

What? How long does it take to become addicted to TikTok’s short-form videos? According to information released in an ongoing suit by 13 attorneys general against the social media platform, TikTok’s internal answer to that question is 260 videos.

So What? How long does that take? Not very long at all. Kentucky’s Attorney General official said, “While this [number] may seem substantial, TikTok videos can be as short as 8 seconds and are played for viewers in rapid-fire succession, automatically. Thus, in under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform.”

Now What? The lawsuit against TikTok alleges that the social media company not only knows the risks to young users, but actively targets young users with features that keeps them constantly engaged. Regardless of the threshold at which someone is or isn’t addicted, families must reckon with the reality that compulsive engagement habits aren’t formed in weeks or days, but possibly in minutes. 

Four Hours of Screentime Daily Linked to Higher Teen Depression and Anxiety

What? A new study by the National Center for Health Services suggests that four or more hours of daily screen use by teens correlates with a higher incidence of depression and anxiety.

So What? For more than a decade, concerned social scientists have hypothesized that excessive screen-time and social media use strongly correlate with mental health problems among adolescents. Each new study reinforces a growing consensus among researchers that social media’s adverse effects among young users merit serious attention.

Now What? We hear lots of news about rising rates of anxiety and depression among our kids. But we may not automatically recognize those issues when they begin to emerge. Focus on the Family’s Parenting ministry can help you identify what teen depressions looks like and begin to take action to help your adolescents in this area as well.  

Australia Mulls Under-16 Social Media Ban

What? Governments worldwide are grappling with how to protect kids and help families deal with the ubiquitous issue of too much screen time. Australian lawmakers are hearing from both parents and tech companies as they consider an under-16 ban on social media for all teens.

So What? Advocates of the ban believe that if Australia enacted this law, it would make it easier for parents to enforce social media limitations in their families. Anthea Dare, an advocate for the organization Heads Up Alliance, said, “It’s actually a signal to parents to say, it’s OK to say no. If both parents are working and are stressed out, trying to put your mind to having this battle with this persistent middle-schooler is really hard.”

Now What? While lawmakers around the world ponder stricter social media use policies, the reality is that individual families are where limits, boundaries and habits are shaped and formed. What parameters do you have in place for your family members? Do you need to revisit or reset those “house rules” when it comes to smartphone and social media use? As much as this is often framed as an issue for our kids, our perspective, habits and discipline as parents likely remains the most important influence when it comes to our kids’ interaction with screens.  

The post On the Radar: Addicted to TikTok in 35 Minutes, The Screen-Time/Anxiety Tipping Point, Oz Mulls appeared first on Plugged In.