Valve’s new Steam Families feature is now available for everyone following a beta launch earlier this year. With Steam Families, parents are able to share games with their families, manage parental controls for their kids, and approve requests from their kids to buy Steam games.

The big improvement with Steam Families over Valve’s previous Family Sharing setup is that multiple people can play games from a shared library at one time. So if I’m playing Balatro, and my partner, who is part of my Steam Family, wants to play Arranger, we can both play those games at the same time. However, if my partner wants to play Balatro while I’m already playing it, she’ll need to buy an additional copy. With Steam Families, you can play shared games offline, too.

Valve says that Steam Families are “intended to contain your immediate family” and that they can include “up to 6 close family members.” Each member of a Steam Family will have their own save games and earn their own achievements. Adults can leave a Steam Family at any time, but if they do, they’ll have to wait a year before they can start or join a new Family. Children can only be removed by a Steam Family by an adult or with the help of Steam support.

In a video, Valve says that the old Family Sharing feature will be retired “eventually,” so if you’ve been using that, you might want to set up Steam Families instead.

You can start using Steam Families by updating Steam. The newest Steam client update has a handful of other updates, too, including a redesigned screenshots manager.

It’s meant to build on NotebookLM’s existing features that help you interact with all your notes, transcripts, and other research documents. The app already uses Google’s Gemini AI model to help summarize your research, and this is sort of like an audio version of that.

Google isn’t making things up when it says the AI hosts will “banter” with each other, either. When trying out Audio Overview for myself, I plugged in one of the sample notebooks about the invention of the lightbulb, and the results were… a bit uncanny. During the 10-minute-long overview, the two hosts had a lighthearted discussion about how Thomas Edison wasn’t the only person behind the lightbulb and that “in the end, it’s actually a story about teamwork, making the dream work.”

The hosts could almost be mistaken for human podcasters, from the way they emphasized “bam!” when tossing it in the middle of a sentence, to using modern phrasing like “messy as heck.” There were still a couple of quirks, as I noticed the AI spelling out certain words and phrases, like “P-L-U-S.” Some of the writing wasn’t exactly what a human would say, either, with one AI host calling platinum “bling bling metal.”

The feature makes learning about research more engaging, but I’m wondering whether the hosts would maintain their lighthearted, somewhat jokey tone when discussing more serious topics, like cancer or war. There’s quite a bit of filler during the conversation as well, so it might not be the best way to quickly and clearly distill all your information. That’s something Google mentions in its announcement, as it says the feature is “not a comprehensive or objective view of a topic, but simply a reflection” of your notes.

There are some other limitations to Audio Overview as well, as Google says it could take several minutes to generate a podcast-like discussion, and it’s only available in English. Like many AI tools, it isn’t always accurate.

You can try out the feature for yourself by opening up a notebook in NotebookLM. From there, select the Notebook guide in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and then hit Load beneath the “Audio Overview” heading. I know I’m going to be doing some research on a random topic just so I can hear what the AI podcasters have to say.

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

– Apple’s bold move into AI: New iPhone 16, AirPods and watches

– OpenAI co-founder raises $1B for startup with single goal: safe superintelligence

– US indictments reveal AI use in Russia disinformation campaign targeting 2024 election

APPLE’S BIG REVEAL: With slightly larger, slimmer bezels and a new camera system, these devices are designed to attract both casual and professional users alike.

1 GOAL, 1 PRODUCT: A new tech startup co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has raised $1 billion in cash to help fund the development of a safe artificial intelligence system, the startup said last week.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, right, speaks during a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force at the Department of Justice, on  Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Washington, as Attorney General Merrick Garland, left, looks on.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

MIXED MESSAGE: Experts say the Kremlin could include artificial intelligence in efforts to manipulate November’s presidential elections through influence schemes. 

NO MORE CHORES: Chinese startup Astribot has officially launched its latest creation, the S1 humanoid robot, in a video that showcases its impressive range of household capabilities. The S1 can be seen making waffles, feeding a cat, serving tea and even shooting hoops. This launch follows the robot’s initial reveal in April, where only the upper half was shown, leaving many curious about its complete design.

S1 humanoid robot (Astribot) (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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