Amazon has secured a temporary win in its fight with Perplexity over the use of AI shopping bots. Bloomberg reported that a San Francisco federal court has determined that Perplexity must stop using its Comet web browser's AI agent to make purchases for users on Amazon's marketplace. The AI company will have a week to appeal the decision, otherwise it has been ordered to stop accessing any password-protected areas of Amazon's systems and destroy its copies of Amazon's data while the two companies continue to argue their cases.  

"Amazon has provided strong evidence that Perplexity, through its Comet browser, accesses with the Amazon user's permission but without authorization by Amazon, the user's password-protected account," District Judge Maxine Chesney wrote in placing the temporary block.

"The preliminary injunction will prevent Perplexity’s unauthorized access to the Amazon store and is an important step in maintaining a trusted shopping experience for Amazon customers," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity over the AI company's shopping bots in November. According to Amazon, use of the Comet agent to make purchases is a violation of its terms of service. "Perplexity will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want," a representative from Perplexity said of this week's decision.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-wins-a-temporary-injunction-against-perplexitys-comet-browser-184000462.html?src=rss

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People can block the xAI's Grok chatbot from creating modifications of their uploaded images on social network X. Neither X or xAI, both Elon Musk-owned businesses, have made a public announcement about this feature, which users began noticing on the iOS app within the image/video upload menu over the past few days. 

This option is likely a response to Grok's latest scandal, which began at the start of 2026 when the addition of image generation tools to the chatbot saw about 3 million sexualized or nudified images created. An estimated 23,000 of the images made in that 11-day period contained sexualized images of children, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Grok is now facing two separate investigations by regulators in the EU over the issue.

The positive side of the recent feature addition is that X and xAI have taken a step toward limiting inappropriate uses of Grok. This block is a simple toggle and it hasn't been buried in the UI. So that's nice.

The negative side, however, is that this token gesture that doesn't amount to any serious improvement to how Grok works or can be used. It's great that the chatbot won't alter the file uploaded by one person, but as reported by The Verge, the block only limits tagging Grok in a reply to create an image edit. There are plenty of workarounds for those dedicated individuals who insist on being able to use generative AI to undress people without their consent or knowledge. 

Hopefully xAI has more powerful protective tools in the works. The limitations Grok on putting real people in scanty clothing that X announced in January seem to have had only partial success at best. If this additional and narrow use case is all the company offers, then the claims of being a zero-tolerance space for nonconsensual nudity are going to ring hollow. Especially since, as we noted at the time, xAI could stop allowing image generation at all until the issue is properly and thoroughly fixed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/you-can-sort-of-block-grok-from-editing-your-uploaded-photos-215356117.html?src=rss

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The Netherlands’ military intelligence service and domestic intelligence agency have issued a join warning claiming that Russian hackers have launched "a large-scale global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to dignitaries, military personnel and civil servants." According to the Dutch alert, hackers are imitating support chatbots to trick key targets into revealing their PINs for those communication platforms, which allows the bad actors to access incoming messages.

Last year in the US, the Pentagon advised members not to use Signal after the platform was subjected to similar phishing scams by Russian hackers. (Although the same US military leaders proved capable of creating their own security breaches without foreign interference just days prior.) 

Having another national government raise concerns about Signal and WhatsApp phishing scams offers yet another reminder to never provide security details or click links without a check on who is really asking for your info.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/dutch-intelligence-services-warn-of-russian-hackers-targeting-signal-and-whatsapp-203707202.html?src=rss

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Mark Gurman at Bloomberg is back with the latest rumors about what's afoot with Apple's future plans, and how its ongoing difficulties with artificial intelligence seem to be creating further delays for its next wave of product launches. His sources say that Apple is expected to postpone the debut of its smart home display until later in 2026, likely September when it often introduces new gadgets. Although the hardware has reportedly been finished for months, this delay is being credited to the company's AI-centric overhaul of Siri still not being complete.

The device, internally known as J490, has been one of Apple's many poorly-kept secrets. Rumors about a HomePod smart speaker coupled with a screen first emerged back in 2022 and have resurfaced from time to time in the interim, often with promises that the device's arrival was imminent. The latest claims anticipated that the official announcement was coming this spring, possibly as soon as this month. However, appears to Apple once again be hamstrung by an AI strategy that has left it scrambling to catch up to other industry leaders.

Apple has been working to incorporate more AI capabilities into Siri for more than a year as part of its Apple Intelligence package. Gurman reports that the new timeline from Apple aims to have the revamp completed for the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro, which is also expected for September. Apple may unveil this long-awaited Siri-as-chatbot during its WWDC keynote in the summer before it shows up in any devices.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/apple-reportedly-delays-its-planned-smart-display-launch-to-fall-194539082.html?src=rss

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