It has become almost impossible to browse the internet without having an AI-generated video thrust upon you. Open basically any social media platform, and it won’t be long until an uncanny-looking clip of a fake natural disaster or animals doing impossible things slides across your screen. Most of the videos look absolutely terrible. But they’re almost always accompanied by hundreds, if not thousands, of likes and comments from people insisting that AI-generated content is a new art form that’s going to change the world.
Technology
Hollywood’s pivot to AI video has a prompting problem
That has been especially true of AI clips that are meant to appear realistic. No matter how strange or aesthetically inconsistent the footage may be, there is usually someone proclaiming that it’s something the entertainment industry should be afraid of. The idea that AI-generated video is both the future of filmmaking and an existential threat to Hollywood has caught on like wildfire among boosters for the relatively new technology.
The thought of major studios embracing this technology as is feels dubious when you consider that, oftentimes, AI models’ output simply isn’t the kind of stuff that could be fashioned into a quality movie or series. That’s an impression that filmmaker Bryn Mooser wants to change with Asteria, a new production house he launched last year, as well as a forthcoming AI-generated feature film from Natasha Lyonne (also Mooser’s partner and an advisor at Late Night Labs, a studio focused on generative AI that Mooser’s film and TV company XTR acquired last year).
Asteria’s big selling point is that, unlike most other AI outfits, the generative model it built with research company Moonvalley is “ethical,” meaning it has only been trained on properly licensed material. Especially in the wake of Disney and Universal suing Midjourney for copyright infringement, the concept of ethical generative AI may become an important part of how AI is more widely adopted throughout the entertainment industry. However, during a recent chat, Mooser stresses to me that the company’s clear understanding of what generative AI is and what it isn’t helps set Asteria apart from other players in the AI space.
“As we started to think about building Asteria, it was obvious to us as filmmakers that there were big problems with the way that AI was being presented to Hollywood,” Mooser says. “It was obvious that the tools weren’t being built by anybody who’d ever made a film before. The text-to-video form factor, where you say ‘make me a new Star Wars movie’ and out it comes, is a thing that Silicon Valley thought people wanted and actually believed was possible.”
In Mooser’s view, part of the reason some enthusiasts have been quick to call generative video models a threat to traditional film workflows boils down to people assuming that footage created from prompts can replicate the real thing as effectively as what we’ve seen with imitative, AI-generated music. It has been easy for people to replicate singers’ voices with generative AI and produce passable songs. But Mooser thinks that, in its rush to normalize gen AI, the tech industry conflated audio and visual output in a way that’s at odds with what actually makes for good films.
“You can’t go and say to Christopher Nolan, ‘Use this tool and text your way to The Odyssey,’” Mooser says. “As people in Hollywood got access to these tools, there were a couple things that were really clear — one being that the form factor can’t work because the amount of control that a filmmaker needs comes down to the pixel level in a lot of cases.”
To give its filmmaking partners more of that granular control, Asteria uses its core generative model, Marey, to create new, project-specific models trained on original visual material. This would, for example, allow an artist to build a model that could generate a variety of assets in their distinct style, and then use it to populate a world full of different characters and objects that adhere to a unique aesthetic. That was the workflow Asteria used in its production of musician Cuco’s animated short “A Love Letter to LA.” By training Asteria’s model on 60 original illustrations drawn by artist Paul Flores, the studio could generate new 2D assets and convert them into 3D models used to build the video’s fictional town. The short is impressive, but its heavy stylization speaks to the way projects with generative AI at their core often have to work within the technology’s visual limitations. It doesn’t feel like this workflow offers control down to the pixel level just yet.
Mooser says that, depending on the financial arrangement between Asteria and its clients, filmmakers can retain partial ownership of the models after they’re completed. In addition to the original licensing fees Asteria pays the creators of the material its core model is trained on, the studio is “exploring” the possibility of a revenue sharing system, too. But for now, Mooser is more focused on winning artists over with the promise of lower initial development and production costs.
“If you’re doing a Pixar animated film, you might be coming on as a director or a writer, but it’s not often that you’ll have any ownership of what you’re making, residuals, or cut of what the studio makes when they sell a lunchbox,” Mooser tells me. “But if you can use this technology to bring the cost down and make it independently financeable, then you have a world where you can have a new financing model that makes real ownership possible.”
Asteria plans to test many of Mooser’s beliefs in generative AI’s transformative potential with Uncanny Valley, a feature film to be co-written and directed by Lyonne. The live-action film centers on a teenage girl whose shaky perception of reality causes her to start seeing the world as being more video game-like. Many of Uncanny Valley’s fantastical, Matrix-like visual elements will be created with Asteria’s in-house models. That detail in particular makes Uncanny Valley sound like a project designed to present the hallucinatory inconsistencies that generative AI has become known for as clever aesthetic features rather than bugs. But Mooser tells me that he hopes “nobody ever thinks about the AI part of it at all” because “everything is going to have the director’s human touch on it.”
“It’s not like you’re just texting, ‘then they go into a video game,’ and watch what happens, because nobody wants to see that,” Mooser says. “That was very clear as we were thinking about this. I don’t think anybody wants to just see what computers dream up.”
Like many generative AI advocates, Mooser sees the technology as a “democratizing” tool that can make the creation of art more accessible. He also stresses that, under the right circumstances, generative AI could make it easier to produce a movie for around $10–20 million rather than $150 million. Still, securing that kind of capital is a challenge for most younger, up-and-coming filmmakers.
One of Asteria’s big selling points that Mooser repeatedly mentions to me is generative AI’s potential to produce finished works faster and with smaller teams. He framed that aspect of an AI production workflow as a positive that would allow writers and directors to work more closely with key collaborators like art and VFX supervisors without needing to spend so much time going back and forth on revisions — something that tends to be more likely when a project has a lot of people working on it. But, by definition, smaller teams translates to fewer jobs, which raises the issue of AI’s potential to put people out of work. When I bring this up with Mooser, he points to the recent closure of VFX house Technicolor Group as an example of the entertainment industry’s ongoing upheaval that began leaving workers unemployed before the generative AI hype came to its current fever pitch.
Mooser was careful not to downplay that these concerns about generative AI were a big part of what plunged Hollywood into a double strike back in 2023. But he is resolute in his belief that many of the industry’s workers will be able to pivot laterally into new careers built around generative AI if they are open to embracing the technology.
“There are filmmakers and VFX artists who are adaptable and want to lean into this moment the same way people were able to switch from editing on film to editing on Avid,” Mooser says. “People who are real technicians — art directors, cinematographers, writers, directors, and actors — have an opportunity with this technology. What’s really important is that we as an industry know what’s good about this and what’s bad about this, what is helpful for us in trying to tell our stories, and what is actually going to be dangerous.”
What seems rather dangerous about Hollywood’s interest in generative AI isn’t the “death” of the larger studio system, but rather this technology’s potential to make it easier for studios to work with fewer actual people. That’s literally one of Asteria’s big selling points, and if its workflows became the industry norm, it is hard to imagine it scaling in a way that could accommodate today’s entertainment workforce transitioning into new careers. As for what’s good about it, Mooser knows the right talking points. Now he has to show that his tech — and all the changes it entails — can work.
Technology
Google’s Pixel Watch 3 and Anker’s two-headed USB-C cable are our favorite deals this week
There are plenty of good smartwatches out there, and Google’s last-gen Pixel Watch 3 is one of them. Right now, the 45mm / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for $199.99 ($100 off), which is a new low price and $150 less than the Pixel Watch 4. In her review, our own Victoria Song noted how impressed she was by the larger size’s lengthy battery life, as well as how versatile a companion it was to Android phones, particularly Pixel devices. For example, you can use the watch as a remote for your Google TV, download offline Google Maps navigation routes, and create voice recordings that automatically sync and are transcribed on a Pixel phone.
The Pixel Watch 3 recently received an overhaul, too, as Google rolled out an update to Wear OS 6, which introduced a refreshed design and Gemini AI to the watch (our initial tests show that it still has a long way to go before becoming vital). On the fitness and wellness side, the Pixel Watch 3 can track your activity, sleep, blood oxygen level, and heart rate. You can also use it to take an EKG from your wrist, if you feel the need.
If you need to charge more than one device at a time, Anker’s 2-in-1 USB-C cable will let you do that. It’s a practical, inexpensive gadget we think you’ll enjoy, and it’s nearly matching its best-ever price at $16.99 ($9 off) at Amazon (with Prime) and Anker’s online storefront (with code WSPDV22SVFBJ). One end of the cable plugs into the power adapter, while the other splits into two USB-C cables that can be plugged into different devices.
You can use any USB-C power adapter with this cable, but you’ll take full advantage of its peak power throughput with a 140W adapter — such as Apple’s 140W USB-C Power Adapter, which is also on sale for $74.99 ($25 off) at Amazon. The cable will automatically allocate how much power to send to both devices, but if you plug in two laptops, the first one that’s plugged in gets priority.
Microsoft’s official Xbox Wireless Controller has held the top spot in our guide to the best Xbox controllers for years, and now the black and white versions are selling for a new low of $39.99 ($25 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The wireless gamepad is comfortable to hold, and its buttons, triggers, joysticks, and D-pad feel satisfying to use. I’ve used the one that came with my Xbox Series X for nearly five years, and it still feels new, with no dropped inputs or other signs of wear.
It runs on a pair of AA batteries, which you can easily swap out. You can also purchase a rechargeable battery pack for the controller if you prefer, but be mindful that it’ll lose its charging capacity over time. Xbox’s wireless controller costs as much on sale as many of our wired recommendations, and its wire-free design means you won’t feel tied down when you use it.
A few more deal standouts
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The dark web often feels like a mystery, hidden beneath the surface of the internet that most people use every day. But to understand how scams and cybercrimes actually work, you need to know what happens in those hidden corners where criminals trade data, services and stolen access.
Cybercriminals rely on a structured underground economy, complete with marketplaces, rules and even dispute systems to operate safely away from law enforcement. By learning how these systems function, you can better understand the threats that could reach you and avoid becoming the next target.
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5 SOCIAL MEDIA SAFETY TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY ONLINE
Learn how to protect your personal information from dark web threats with simple cybersecurity habits and tools. (Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Inside the hidden layers of the internet
The internet is often divided into three layers: the clear web, the deep web and the dark web. The clear web is the open part of the internet that search engines like Google or Bing can index, including news sites, blogs, stores and public pages. Beneath it lies the deep web, which includes pages not meant for public indexing, such as corporate intranets, private databases and webmail portals. Most of the content in the deep web is legal but simply restricted to specific users.
The dark web, however, is where anonymity and illegality intersect. It requires special software such as Tor to access, and much of its activity happens behind encryption and invitation-only walls. Tor, short for The Onion Router, was originally developed by the U.S. Navy for secure communication but has since become a haven for both privacy advocates and criminals.
It anonymizes users by routing traffic through multiple encrypted layers, making it almost impossible to trace where a request truly came from. This anonymity allows criminals to communicate, sell data and conduct illegal trade with reduced risk of exposure.
Over time, the dark web has become a hub for criminal commerce. Marketplaces once operated like eBay for illegal goods, offering everything from drugs and stolen credit card data to hacking tools and fake identities. Many of these platforms have been shut down, but the trade continues on smaller, more private channels, including encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram. Vendors use aliases, ratings and escrow systems to build credibility.
Ironically, even among criminals, trust is a critical part of business. Forums often have administrators, verified sellers and mediators to settle disputes. Members who cheat others or fail to deliver are quickly blacklisted, and reputation becomes the main currency that determines who can be trusted.
The criminal economy and how scams are born
Every major cyberattack or data leak often traces back to the dark web’s underground economy. A single attack typically involves several layers of specialists. It begins with information stealers, malware designed to capture credentials, cookies and device fingerprints from infected machines. The stolen data is then bundled and sold in dark web markets by data suppliers. Each bundle, known as a log, might contain login credentials, browser sessions and even authentication tokens, often selling for less than $20.
Another group of criminals, known as initial access brokers, purchases these logs to gain entry into corporate systems. With that access, they can impersonate legitimate users and bypass security measures such as multi-factor authentication by mimicking the victim’s usual device or browser. Once inside, these brokers sometimes auction their access to larger criminal gangs or ransomware operators who are capable of exploiting it further.
Some of these auctions are run as competitions, while others are flash sales where well-funded groups can buy access immediately without bidding. Eventually, this chain of transactions ends with a ransomware attack or an extortion demand, as attackers encrypt sensitive data or threaten to leak it publicly.
Interestingly, even within these illegal spaces, scams are common. New vendors often post fake listings for stolen data or hacking tools, collect payments and disappear. Others impersonate trusted members or set up counterfeit escrow services to lure buyers.
Despite all the encryption and reputation systems, no one is truly safe from fraud, not even the criminals themselves. This constant cycle of deception forces dark web communities to build internal rules, verification processes and penalties to keep their operations somewhat functional.
What you can do to stay ahead of dark web-driven threats
For ordinary people and businesses, understanding how these networks operate is key to preventing their effects. Many scams that appear in your inbox or on social media originate from credentials or data first stolen and sold on the dark web. That is why basic digital hygiene goes a long way. Below are some steps you can take to stay protected.
MAJOR COMPANIES, INCLUDING GOOGLE AND DIOR, HIT BY MASSIVE SALESFORCE DATA BREACH
From password managers to antivirus software, experts share practical ways to keep hackers out of your data. (Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images)
1) Invest in personal data removal services
A growing number of companies specialize in removing your personal data from online databases and people search sites. These platforms often collect and publish names, addresses, phone numbers and even family details without consent, creating easy targets for scammers and identity thieves.
While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
2) Use unique passwords and a password manager
One of the easiest ways to stay safe online is to use unique, complex passwords for every account you own. Many breaches happen because people reuse the same password across multiple services. When one site is hacked, cybercriminals take those leaked credentials and try them elsewhere, a technique known as credential stuffing. A password manager eliminates this problem by generating strong, random passwords and securely storing them for you.
Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager (see Cyberguy.com) pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.
Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 at Cyberguy.com.
3) Install strong antivirus protection
Antivirus software remains one of the most effective ways to detect and block malicious programs before they can steal your information. Modern antivirus solutions do far more than just scan for viruses. They monitor system behavior, detect phishing attempts and prevent infostealer malware from sending your credentials or personal data to attackers.
The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.
Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.
4) Keep your software updated
Outdated software is one of the biggest entry points for attackers. Cybercriminals often exploit known vulnerabilities in operating systems, browsers and plugins to deliver malware or gain access to systems. Installing updates as soon as they are available is one of the simplest yet most effective forms of defense. Enable automatic updates for your operating system, browsers and critical applications.
5) Enable two-factor authentication
Even if your password gets leaked or stolen, two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an additional barrier for attackers. With 2FA, logging in requires both your password and a secondary verification method. This includes code from an authentication app or a hardware security key.
6) Consider identity theft protection services
Identity theft protection can provide early warnings if your personal information appears in data breaches or on dark web marketplaces. These services monitor your sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers, bank details or email addresses. If anything suspicious is detected, they alert you. Many providers also offer recovery assistance, helping you restore stolen identities or close fraudulent accounts. While no service can prevent identity theft entirely, these tools can shorten your response time and limit potential damage if your data is compromised.
See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com.
SCAMMERS NOW IMPERSONATE COWORKERS, STEAL EMAIL THREADS IN CONVINCING PHISHING ATTACKS
Protecting your identity starts with strong passwords, two-factor authentication and regular software updates. (Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Kurt’s key takeaway
The dark web thrives on the idea that anonymity equals safety. But while criminals may feel protected, law enforcement and security researchers continue to monitor and infiltrate these spaces. Over the years, many large marketplaces have been dismantled, and hundreds of operators have been caught despite their layers of encryption. The takeaway for everyone else is that the more you understand how these underground systems function, the better prepared you are to recognize warning signs and protect yourself.
Do you think law enforcement can ever truly catch up with dark web criminals? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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There haven’t been a lot of opportunities to catch Switch 2 games on sale since the console launched in early June, but that’s changing thanks to Woot. The store is having a sale on new video games and game accessories that’s live now, and runs through November 8th at 11:59PM CT. Dozens of games for all three current-generation systems are on sale, but the Switch 2 titles caught our eye because of how new they are. Woot’s deals are especially enticing because first-party Nintendo games don’t go on sale very often.
Woot’s sale also includes discounts on Switch 2 exclusives, including Donkey Kong Banaza and Mario Kart World, and Switch 2 Edition versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Kirby and the Forgotten Land Plus Star-Crossed World. The latter are enhanced versions of games released for the original Switch that have new exclusive content, a boost in performance, or both. If you already own the original versions of these games, Nintendo allows you to download a paid upgrade pack to get the enhancements instead of paying full price for the entire game.
There are also some respectable discounts on games released for the original Nintendo Switch, which can be played on the Switch 2, so we’ve included them here. In some cases games are listed as being an “international version” of the title, which is fine because the Nintendo Switch 2 is a region free console that’s able to play them.
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