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California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sent a cease and desist letter to xAI, days after his office launched an official investigation into the company over reports that Grok was generating nonconsensual If youll recall, xAI and Grok have been under fire for taking images of real individuals and putting them in revealing clothing like bikinis upon random users requests. Bontas office demands that xAI immediately cease and desist from creating digitized sexually explicit material when the depicted individual didnt consent to it or if the individual is a minor. It also demanded that xAI stop facilitating or aiding and abetting the creation or publication of digitized sexually explicit material of nonconsenting individuals and persons under 18 years of age. X changed its policies after the issue broke out and prevented the Grok account from being able to edit images of real people into revealing clothing. xAI also moved Groks image-generating features behind a paywall and geoblocked paying users ability to edit images of real people into bikinis, but only in regions where its illegal.In his announcement, Bonta said xAI developed a spicy mode for Grok to generate explicit content and used it as a marketing point. The California AG also said that Grok-generated sexual images are being used to harass both public figures and ordinary users. Most alarmingly, news reports have described the use of Grok to alter images of children to depict them in minimal clothing and sexual situations, Bontas announcement reads. The actions above violate California law, including California Civil Code section 1708.86, California Penal Code sections 311 et seq. and 647(j)(4), and California Business & Professions Code section 17200, it said. The states Department of Justice now expects to hear from xAI on the steps its taking to address these issues within the next five days. xAI has been producing deepfake nonconsensual intimate images used to harass women & girls across the internet.This is unacceptable. Were demanding immediate answers on their plan to stop the creation & spread of this content.Well use all tools at our disposal to keep pic.twitter.com/2elGTV0wRq Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) January 16, 2026 This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/california-ag-sends-cease-and-desist-to-xai-over-groks-explicit-deepfakes-140000574.html?src=rss
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I came out of my CyberGhost review with a positive opinion, feeling it had earned its spot in my best VPN roundup. However, even an expert review is subjective, and there's a chance CyberGhost will not work for you. If thats the case, here's how to cancel your subscription.How to stop your CyberGhost subscription renewingCancelling your CyberGhost subscription won't end it right away, unless you delete your account or get the refund (I'll explain how to do both of those later). Instead, the way to cancel CyberGhost is to stop your subscription from renewing at the end of each billing period. Once you've done that, you can keep using CyberGhost until your current period ends.The following steps will cancel auto-renewal if you got CyberGhost through its website. If you bought it through an app store instead, see the next section.Open your browser and go to cyberghostvpn.com.At the top-right of the screen, click the box labeled My Account. Enter your username and password if you aren't logged in already.Look at the top-right corner of the new screen and click the CyberGhost logo next to your email address. From the drop-down menu, select Subscriptions.Find the subscription you want to cancel and select Cancel Subscription.When prompted, click Continue to Cancel.Click the logo at top-right, then click Subscriptions to manage auto-renewal.Sam Chapman for EngadgetThis will turn off automatic billing for your account. The next time you would have been billed, your subscription will expire. You can resubscribe by purchasing another term. If you're within the refund period 14 days for a monthly subscription and 45 days for all others you can now request your money back.How to cancel CyberGhost if you subscribed through an app storeWhen you subscribe to an app through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, the store handles the billing; the app provider doesn't process the money itself. If you bought CyberGhost through an app store and want to cancel, you'll have to ask the app store in question, not CyberGhost. Here's how to do it.If you subscribed through the Apple App Store, you'll need to cancel through your Apple ID. Here are the steps.Open the Settings app on your home screen.At the top of the Settings menu, you'll see your name. Tap it.In your Apple Account menu, tap Subscriptions.Scroll until you find your CyberGhost subscription, then tap on it.Tap the words Cancel Subscription, then follow the prompts.Here's what to do if you subscribed through the Google Play store. Similar to the Apple process, you'll go through the list of subscriptions on your profile.Open the Google Play Store app.Tap the circle in the top-right corner with the first letter of your name.Find the Payments & Subscriptions menu and tap on it. On the next menu that appears, tap Subscriptions.Scroll down until you find your CyberGhost subscription. Tap on it, then click Cancel Subscription.Follow the prompts to complete cancellation.How to delete your CyberGhost accountBefore you set out to delete your CyberGhost account altogether, make sure you've cancelled auto-renew first by following the steps in the previous section. If you don't, you might still be charged for the subscription you're not using, and it's a huge hassle to end that without an account.Once you've done that, log into your account on cyberghostvpn.com and click on your account profile at the top-right, just like when you canceled auto-renewal. Below the username/password window and the message about an activation key, you'll see the words Delete My Account in tiny letters.How to find the button that deletes your CyberGhost account.Sam Chapman for EngadgetClick on them. On the page that appears, select Delete My Account again. Follow any more prompts you're given to annihilate your username for good (note that you can't use it again afterwards).How to get a refund from CyberGhostTo get a refund on your CyberGhost subscription, you have to be inside the window for the plan you chose. With a monthly plan, the refund period is 14 days. For all other plans, it's 45 days. If this time has elapsed, there's unfortunately no way to get your money back.If you are within the refund period, you can get your money by sending a request through customer support. You can email support@cyberghost.ro, submit a ticket through this link or open a live chat conversation by clicking the Live Chat button at the bottom-right of any page on cyberghostvpn.com. No matter what method you choose, the conversation will go faster if you have your order number on-hand check your inbox if you don't know it.Start a live chat conversation by clicking the live chat button at the bottom-right of any screen on CyberGhost's website.Sam Chapman for EngadgetIf you went through an app store, you'll need to request your money back from that platform instead. Apple and Google Play handle their own monetary transactions, which means they also process refunds.Best CyberGhost alternativesAfter you've cancelled and/or deleted CyberGhost out of your life, you still need a VPN; the benefits of masking your IP address and changing your virtual location don't go anywhere. You can check out my best list (linked at the top) or best free VPN roundup for ideas, or check out the review for my favorite service, Proton VPN.Proton VPN is my top choice because of its focus on user freedoms and attention to quality in everything it does. If you're willing to pay a bit more for extreme simplicity and total reliability, ExpressVPN is ideal for beginners. If you're a speed demon and just want to keep your downloads fast, go with Surfshark.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-to-cancel-cyberghost-and-get-a-refund-130000311.html?src=rss
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Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. Several neat-looking games arrived this week, we got release dates for several others that I'm really looking forward to and a brand-new Steam festival was announced. The Love, Romance, and Heartbreak Debutante Ball is said to be the first Valentine's Day-themed Steam festival. It'll run from February 13 to 20 and feature more than 100 games, including discounts and demos. A showcase will take place on February 13 at 1PM ET on the Sunny Demeanor Games YouTube channel too.Organizers say the festival includes a wide variety of games about love, including RPGs, puzzle games and (naturally) visual novels. You might play as a cat or someone trying to fish an engagement ring out of a claw machine, as a secret agent or a couple that's run off to another planet. I'm intrigued! There will be some NSFW games involved, for what it's worth.New releasesQuarantine Zone: The Last Check seems like a 3D version of Papers Please but with zombies. At a checkpoint amid a zombie outbreak, your mission is to screen survivors for signs of infection. If you're unsure of their status, you can send an individual to quarantine for further observation or a lab for additional screening. Otherwise, you can let them in or send them to "liquidation." Get things wrong and it could spell disaster, but at least you have a sidearm (and a weaponized drone) to help you deal with sticky situations.It looks like there's a lot going on in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, which is from Brigada Games and publisher Devolver Digital. There are base and resource management aspects as well. It's out now on Steam (usually $20, but there's a 10 percent discount until January 26) and PC Game Pass.Air Hares seems to draw inspiration from classic top-down shoot-'em-ups. But instead of simply blowing up countless ships, your mission is to restore farmland. You'll fire seeds and water to turn barren land into fertile carrot fields. There are still enemies to contend with you (and perhaps a co-op partner) can dodge and ram them as you try to protect the land. Expect boss battles, too.I really like the aesthetic here. It has a '90s-style cartoon look (I suddenly really want a modern Bucky O'Hare game). Also, the song from the trailer is going to live in my head for weeks.Husband-and-wife team Tim and Megan Bungeroth created Air Hares over six years with the help of several contributors. According to a press release, the game is "inspired by the creators personal journey with infertility and the idea of creating life rather than destroying it." Air Hares is out now on Steam. It typically costs $9, but there's a 20 percent discount until January 28.Luckshot Games' Big Hops looks like my kind of 3D platformer: joyous and playful. As a young frog who has been kidnapped, you'll try to find airship parts for a raccoon who has promised to help get you home.There are tons of movement mechanics here, and Hop's tongue plays a major role in those. You can use it to swing across gaps, hookshot your way to higher platforms and solve puzzles. Big Hops is out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch and PS5 for $20. The Switch and Steam versions have a 10 percent launch discount until January 19.Cassette Boy is a pixel-art game that might appear to be a 2D exploration puzzler, but there's more going on here. You can rotate the world to discover new secrets and hide enemies and hazards from view so you can move past them. If you can't see something on your screen, it doesn't exist. There's a bit of a Fez influence here, it would appear.Wonderland Kazakiri and publisher Pocketpair are behind this one, which I'm looking forward to checking out when I have a chance. Cassette Boy is available on Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S for $13.Upcoming /iframe>I really enjoyed the demo for Aerial_Knights DropShot (as well as Aerial_Knights previous games). I'm for sure going to be playing the full game when it hits PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic Games Store on February 17.This is a single-player first-person shooter in which you're skydiving with finger guns. You compete with four enemies to grab the only available parachute as you're falling through the air. Rounds are fast-paced too, generally lasting under a minute.Point-and-click adventure Earth Must Die has been on my radar for a while and we'll all get a chance to try it soon. It's designed to be a playable cartoon (with a runtime of about eight hours) and it has an art style to match. The cast is pretty stellar, with Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II), Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death) and a whole load of British comedy figures on board. There's a demo available on Steam now and the full game from Size Five Games and publisher No More Robots will land on January 27.Let's wrap things up for this week something very silly-looking from Monster Shop Games. Pie in the Sky is a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-inspired action arcade game in which you play as a magpie that terrorizes bystanders. You can knock people off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ram kids off of scooters, actually go skateboarding and, uh, cause havoc from above. In classic THPS-style, there are hidden areas too. This looks like a fun distraction from [gestures at everything]. Pie is the Sky will swoop onto Steam on February 2.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/papers-please-but-with-zombies-a-farming-based-shoot-em-up-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-123000437.html?src=rss
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