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Spoilers follow for "Joy to the World."
If there's one thing Steven Moffatt loves to do with Doctor Who, it's to find a monster buried in the mundane. He's made statues, shadows, lost children and even the idea of silence into some of the show's most terrifying villains. Sadly, the mysterious extra door you often find in older hotel rooms isn't as universal a concern, but it's still a rich seam for him to mine. That's the inspiration for "Joy to the World," Doctor Who's 2024 Christmas Special. Which is light, fun and a little bit scattershot, much like Christmas is meant to be, right?
When Doctor Who returned, the show was woven back into the UK's cultural firmament in a way it never had been before. Part of that process was adding the show to the BBC One Christmas Day schedule, making it a universal cultural touchstone. For most of its post-2005 run, it has aired an episode next to the Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders' festive specials. Imagine the British equivalent to those everyone-gathered-around-the-TV events like the Super Bowl or the Macy's Day Parade, but on Christmas Day. Even if you don't like any of the fare on offer, you're still expected to sit with the family and consume it.
With these specials, the prestige timeslot, longer runtime and bigger budget are burdens as much as they are benefits. The show has to play to a far broader audience than normal, with diehard fans sitting elbow-to-elbow with elderly relatives filling every silence with gossip about their neighbor's garden project. Consequently, the story needs to be a little looser, with less need for the
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You're scrolling through social media. A video appears from a celebrity you follow. In it, they ask for contributions toward their latest project.
You receive a video of yourself, showing you in a physically intimate situation.
Just a few years ago, these situations would be likely genuine. But now, thanks to artificial intelligence, a scammer could be contacting you and if you don't have the ability to tell real from fake, you may easily fall for a plea for cash or a blackmail threat.
For 2025, experts are sounding the alarm about AI and its effect on online security. The technology is supercharging the speed and sophistication of attacks—and in particular, it's making scamming others using likenesses of both famous people and everyday citizens far, far easier. Worse, security groups say this trend will continue to accelerate.
Here's what to watch out for, why the landscape is changing, and how to protect yourself until more help arrives.
The ways AI can pretend to be us
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 Following our report that Apple is internally testing iOS 18.2.1 for the iPhone, an anonymous social media account with a proven track record of sharing iOS-related information has revealed the upcoming software update's build number: 22C161.
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For Christmas 2024, NORAD has added an AI chatbot to its tracking site, although its AI capabilities are quite limited in scope, according to an initial test. NORAD Tracks Santa officially started on December 1, but the actual simulation starts at midnight on December 24.
Check out the NORAD Tracks Santa site in advance to play web games, watch videos about Santa and NORAD, listen to Santa's favorite holiday songs, learn more about Santa and his traditions, discover what NORAD does, and chat with Radar (the AI chatbot).
The real-time simulation can take on martial proportions, as this video from Christmas 2013 shows. In the video, Santa's reindeer sleigh is referred to as "The Big Red One" (which is also the name of the famous 1st Infantry Division of the US Army):
NORAD is a joint command of the United States of America and Canada that monitors the airspace over North America and provides "early warning of missile, air, and spacecraft attacks on North America." Ba
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