Tech

Anker debuts Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earbuds with its Thus AI chip – Engadget

Following the initial tease of its Thus AI chip, Anker announced the first earbuds with the component during its Anker Day event. The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max both utilize the chip for what the company calls Whisper Clear voice performance. Of course, the usual earbud features are here — active noise cancellation (ANC), voice controls and personalized sound — but there are some unique tools available on these models as well. Those include an AI Note-Taker on the Liberty 5 Pro Max and touchscreen charging cases for both.

Let’s start with what the Thus chip does on both sets of Liberty 5 Pro earbuds. The silicon is used alongside eight microphones and two bone conduction sensors to ensure optimal voice performance in noisy locations. By also employing an AI model, the system separates the speaker’s voice from background noise so they’re heard clearly on the other end of calls. Anker says the bone conduction sensors allow the setup to cture the user’s voice a lower volumes, so long as they’re in “moderately quieter settings.” The Thus chip also powers voice commands, offering 20 options for various controls and tasks, with Anker claiming a response time of under a second.

Both the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max have Soundcore’s Adtive ANC 4.0 that uses those eight mics to process audio data at up to 384,000 times per second. This action continuously monitors both external noise and any sounds that may enter the ear canal before adjusting the ANC in real time. Anker says its noise-canceling algorithm can combat a broad range of noises — including human voices. What’s more, the company claims the ANC performance on its new earbuds is up to 2x more effective than the Liberty 4 Pro.

Anker

To customize the sound to your ears, both sets of earbuds offer HearID 5.0. This feature creates a personalized EQ based on a brief hearing test. With the help of AI Sound Enhancement, the earbuds provide audio restoration that can recover up to 65 percent of “the quality” that’s typically lost to Bluetooth compression.

In terms of battery life, both the Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max will last up to 6.5 hours on a charge with ANC enabled. When you factor in the charging cases, the total use time is 28 hours for each model. Multipoint Bluetooth connectivity is also onboard both, as is Bluetooth 6.1, ple Find My and Google Fast Pair compatibility. Plus, both sets of earbuds are IP55 rated for dust and water resistance.

There is one main area where the two new models differ istheir smart cases. The Liberty 5 Pro case has a 0.96-inch TFT touchscreen on its front edge while the Liberty 5 Pro Max case has a much larger 1.78-inch AMOLED display. The Pro Max is also equipped with an AI Note-Taker that’s cable of generating transcripts, including identifying speakers and action items, after meetings in the Soundcore p. This feature isn’t available on the Liberty 5 Pro, but Anker does offer AI-based translation on both models. Translation is available on the earbuds with the Liberty 5 Pro, and it’s available on both the earbuds and the case with the Liberty 5 Pro Max.

Both the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max are available today for $170 and $230 respectively. The Liberty 5 Pro is available in black, blue, pink and white while the Pro Max will come in either black or gold.

Tech

Spotify and Universal Music Group Strike a Deal for AI-Powered Remix and Cover Song Tool

If you’re someone who believes AI should stay out of the arts, and especially your earbuds, you might want to sit down for this news. On Thursday, Spotify announced a partnership with Universal Music Group that will allow you to use AI tools to create cover songs and remixeson the streaming platform.

So imagine At Last by Etta James mixed with the 2010 hit Baby by Justin Bieber, or even mashed up as a country or folk version.

The AI-powered tool will not be included in Spotify memberships by default. Instead, it will be a paid add-on option for Spotify Premium members, the music streaming service said. A launch date has yet to be announced.

It’s unclear whether music artists will have any control over their music being used in fan edits, but we can make an educated guess that artists who own their music outright, such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, will have the most say.

Lucian Grainge, CEO of UMG, said in a statement that the initiative is “designed to support human artistry, deepen fan relationships, and create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters.”

Alex Norström, co-CEO of Spotify, said: “What we’re building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part.”

Recently, numerous music artists have spoken out against the intersection of AI and music creation, includingBilly Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins,Billie Eilish, Jon Bon Joviand more.

In addition to this partnership, the streaming service also announced Reserved, a new ticket initiative that reserves two tickets for top Spotify Premium subscribers, allowing them to buy tickets for select artists a day before they go on sale to the general public.

Tech

Tesla brings Full Self-Driving to China – Engadget

It’s now one of the 10 countries where (supervised) FSD is now available.

Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD)driver-assistance system is now available in China. In a post on X, Tesla listed China as one of the 10 countries wherein FSD is already available. The company is, of course, talking about the supervised version of the technology, seeing as unsupervised FSD is still not available to the public. On Tesla’s Chinese website, the company lists “intelligent assisted driving” as an add-on option for Tesla Model 3. It will cost customers in the countrya one-time fee of 64,000 yuan ($9,410) on top of the vehicle itself. It used to cost $8,000 up front in the US, but the company recently turned it intoa subscription-only service priced at $99 a month.

Unlike the current version of the product, unsupervised FSD will offer fully automated driving, with no need for a human to take control of the vehicle. At the moment, only Tesla’s robotaxis inAustin, Dallas and Houston, Texas are using the technology. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, recently said that unsupervised FSD will be “widespread in the US by the end of this year,” but he is known for being overly optimistic with his timelines across his companies.

The automaker has been testing FSD and mping China’s roads for a while now with help from local partners. It’sbeen working to release the technology in the country for years, but it faced significant regulatory delays. Musk announced in January that Tesla was close to getting an proval from China’s authorities. While Chinese state media debunked his claim — and he has been saying that FSD was close to getting regulatory proval in China since 2024 —it looks he was right this time around. Before this, Chinese Tesla owners only had access to FSD’s predecessors, Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot.

FSD Supervised is now available in:
– United States
– Canada
– Mexico
– Puerto Rico
– China
– Australia
– New Zealand
– South Korea
– The Netherlands
– Lithuania

— Tesla (@Tesla) May 20, 2026

Tech

Meta has reportedly laid off 8,000 employees – Engadget

That’s around 10 percent of the company, according to a memo from yesterday seen by multiple outlets.

A photo showing Meta's sign at 1 Hacker way with cars driving by

Mattgush/

The layoffs and transfers will affect around 20 percent of the company’s workforce, making it one of the more significant cost-cutting measures in Meta’s history. The news confirms a previous report about a memo from Meta’s HR head Janelle Gale notifying employees that 7,000 of them would be moved to new organizations focused on building new AI tools and ps. It also verifies news from last month when Gale told employees that Meta would be cutting 8,000 jobs as “part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently.” The company previously said that around 6,000 job vacancies would be left unfilled.

The memo from yesterday confirms people’s worst fears about how AI will affect employment at large tech companies. “AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes,”Zuckerberg wrote. “Success isn’t a given. The companies that lead the way will define the next generation.”

In January 2026, Meta said it had earmarked $115 billion to $135 billion in 2026 cital spending, double what it spent the year before, to “support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business.”That’s a dominant part of its total expenses next year, projected to be between$162 billion and $169 billion

In the memo, Meta laid out guidance for areas like severance and visas. “We want to say again that we’re grateful for your contributions. Your impact at Meta has been an important part of our story,” Meta said in the memo. Engadget has reached out to the company for comment.

Tech

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, May 21

Looking forthe most recentMini Crossword answer?Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? The clue that threw me off was 7-Across, but I eventually figured it out. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visitCNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

The completed NYT Mini Crossword puzzle for May 21, 2026.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Not such a wild place to see an elephant
Answer: ZOO

4A clue: Mark who wrote “Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired”
Answer: TWAIN

6A clue: Symbol on the U.S. quarter
Answer: EAGLE

7A clue: Parts of a dental exam
Answer: XRAYS

8A clue: What Wile E. Coyote is always exploding himself with
Answer: TNT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Big name in restaurant ratings
Answer: ZAGAT

2D clue: Like your hands after eating potato chips, perhs
Answer: OILY

3D clue: Lowest numbers in sudoku
Answer: ONES

4D clue: Reach out with your fingers?
Answer: TEXT

5D clue: Give an alert
Answer: WARN

Tech

Scientists Warn AI Slop Is Wreaking Havoc in the Research World

Scientific pers rely on readers trusting their information. That’s why it’s disturbing that anew studyby researchers connected with Cornell and UCLA found 146,900 AI-generated fake citations in scientific pers hosted across four major research databases.

A key limitation of large language models such as Gemini and ChatGPT is their tendency to produce plausible-sounding but incorrect information, a phenomenon known as hallucination. If a researcher relies on a chatbot to draft citations without verifying them, the model may generate references that are entirely fabricated.

While scientific pers are often hidden from the public eye, the research they report has a profound impact on our lives. Everything from the internet to lithium-ion batteries began as a research per.

But when scientists submit pers that cite AI hallucinations, it can erode faith in the quality of the research.

Sloppy science

The research team analyzed 111 million references from 2.5 million scientific pers. They looked for citations with titles that the team could not match to any publication. While some of these instances were just spelling errors, the team also found hallucinations.

Unscrupulous researchers had faked citations long before the rise of chatbots, so the team also examined the rates of unmatched citations in research published before 2023, when chatbots hadn’t yet become ubiquitous.

“We find a sharp rise in non-existent references following widespread LLM adoption,” the authors write in the per.

The team also found that the bad citations were spread across many pers rather than concentrated in just a few. That suggests the problem is widespread, with many researchers relying on AI-generated references without fully verifying them.

Warning signs

Usha Haley, professor of management at Wichita State University, told CNET via email that she sees the proliferation of fake citations as a serious warning.

“Fake or AI-generated citations undermine trust in the scholarly record that provides the foundation on which peer review and cumulative knowledge rest,” Haley said. “Disturbingly, this skepticism is now coming from within academia itself and from early career scholars.”

The four databases where the researchers found the fake citations are arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN and PubMed Central. These organizations, known as scientific repositories, play a major role in the research world.

Before a per is published in a scientific journal, the authors often upload it to a scientific repository, increasing its visibility and allowing the global scientific community to access it immediately. The new per on AI hallucinating citations is currently hosted on arXiv.

Recently, arXiv has taken steps to stem the flow of false citations. The organizationannounced Tuesdaythat it will ban authors who submit work with hallucinated citations or with any sign of AI content that hasn’t been carefully checked.

“The corpus of science is getting diluted. A lot of the AI stuff is either actively wrong or it’s meaningless. It’s just noise,” arXiv scientific director Steinn Sigurdsson told CNET’s Katelyn Chedraoui back in February. “It makes it harder to find what’s really hpening, and it can misdirect people.”