Basically no one is using AI agents for their DoorDash orders
But it’s still early days for the relatively new e-commerce use case.
Kyle Orland
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Kyle Orland
Senior Gaming Editor
kyle.orland@arstechnica.com
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, covering topics ranging from retro games to new gaming hardware, business and legal developments in the industry, fan communities, gaming mods and hacks, virtual reality, and much more. More recently, he has also been helping to cover the rise of generative AI and other artificial intelligence topics for Ars.
Based in the Washington DC area, Kyle got his start writing about games back in 1997 when he set up fan site Super Mario Bros. HQ on his parents’ America Online subscription. Since then, Kyle has gone on to obtain journalism and computer science degrees from the University of Maryland and write for dozens of outlets ranging from NPR and MSNBC to Electronic Gaming Monthly and Paste Magazine.
Kyle is the author of Minesweeper from Boss Fight Books as well as two collections of contemporary journalism—The Game Beat and Save Point. You can find his irregular musings on BlueSky: @kyleor.land.
Recent stories by
Kyle Orland
Google AI gets cagey when asked who won the 2020 elections
But the AI responses get more forthright when asked outside the US.
Kyle Orland
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163
Anthropic IPO warns its AI could blackmail people, become sentient, end humanity
Seven potential AI nightmares pulled from Anthropic’s 93-page “Risk Factor” tome.
Kyle Orland
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149
Everybody panic: A Valve developer said “HLX” in public
Sound designer lets Half Life-related codename slip at a conference.
Kyle Orland
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104
Switch 2 security takes a hit as hackers unlock homebrew access
“Userland” exploit relies on integer overflow found in “SmileBasic” interpreter.
Kyle Orland
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Leaked Mass Effect: Universe trailer gives a taste of what we’re all missing
We can’t have nice things, but at least we can get trailers for them.
Kyle Orland
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This emulator reimagines Nintendo’s Virtual Boy with a full color display
Tile-based color palettes go way beyond the four shades of red on original hardware.
Kyle Orland
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Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you already bought
Time-based a la carte charges come on top of the purchase price for the games themselves.
Kyle Orland
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Most Read
RIP BioWare: EA shuts down storied RPG studio after over three decades
Next Mass Effect project canceled as parent company lays off 400.
Kyle Orland
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Microsoft reportedly projects $1,200 to $1,800 price for 2028 Project Helix
Xbox maker is also apparently planning its own gaming handheld for next year.
Kyle Orland
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179
AI game clones are making indie developers afraid to show their work
Delayed Steam Next Fest demo is a sign of a growing problem for indie devs.
Kyle Orland
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237
Epic says its new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher is faster than Steam
But the new “Preview” app “will have some bugs,” Epic warns.
Kyle Orland
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302
Legendary FPS level designer Richard “Levelord” Gray dies at 68
Tributes pour in for the man behind iconic Duke Nukem 3D levels and much more.
Kyle Orland
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40
ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as “superfake” piracy enablers
But third-party sellers, not Anbernic, are the ones routinely selling ROM-filled SD cards.
Kyle Orland
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Epic Games reportedly pivoting to “AI first” game development model
“No more hand-written code” or AI-free art for delayed Marvel/Star Wars shooter.
Kyle Orland
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431
Long-lost horror gaming cult classic P.T. gets a much-needed PC port
Kojima’s discontinued “playable trailer” is no longer stuck on a few aging PS4 hard drives.
Kyle Orland
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40
AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software
Study finds coding efficiency gains get “absorbed” by human review “bottleneck.”
Kyle Orland
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313
“Software is over”: Bold AI developer takes aim at Adobe with open source clones
Opus-built Creative Cloud alternatives are ambitious, free, and nowhere near finished.
Kyle Orland
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403
Someone got Doom in an SQL database
1,300 lines of SQL querying renders accurate bitmapped views of Hell at 35 fps.
Kyle Orland
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PS5 emulation is suddenly making big strides on PC
Games like Astro Bot and Demon’s Souls are running ably without a console.
Kyle Orland
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The PS5 hacking scene just took a big leap forward
New exploit works on all but the most recently updated consoles.
Kyle Orland
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43
Here’s what actually happened in OpenAI’s Australian gov’t server hack
Without a “full set of safeguards,” agent accessed “system information and source code.”
Kyle Orland
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OpenAI says planned GPT-6.1 is too insecure to release
Similar performance, security trade-offs also seen in current public models.
Kyle Orland
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125
Florida invokes extinction fears in legal bid to halt OpenAI development
State says LLMs threaten civilization as “the greatest public nuisance ever created.”
Kyle Orland
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OpenAI halts frontier-model training amid string of agent misalignment incidents
US Government websites among “dozens of third parties” OpenAI has recently notified.
Kyle Orland
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146
AI was supposed to hit new grads hard. So far, unemployment data says otherwise.
“There is no evidence of any significant, widespread displacement or reduction in hiring.”
Kyle Orland
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153
OpenAI agent “didn’t accept no for an answer” in Australian government breach
“There will obviously be legal consequences,” prime minister promises.
Kyle Orland
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124
Shuffling the deck chairs: Xbox continues its “reset” with dramatic restructuring
Activision gets Halo, Obsidian becomes part of Bethesda, and more internal shake-ups.
Kyle Orland
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143
AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US military attack
But the military’s overall use of AI seems to be accelerating.
Kyle Orland
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255
Covert uploads and megalomania: OpenAI details new “misaligned” agent incidents
Model maker commits to new framework for reporting misaligned models.
Kyle Orland
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130
Not just Proton: Getting to know Valve’s new SteamOS compatibility layers
New system-level tools bring Arm chipsets, Android APKs into the Steam ecosystem.
Kyle Orland
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77
AI leaders want to hit the brakes after years of reckless speed
Safety is the watchword, but there could be ulterior benefits for the industry.
Kyle Orland
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157
Steam Frame: The Ars Technica review
Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.”
Kyle Orland
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253
Anthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could “kill us all”
“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!”
Kyle Orland
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262
GOG brings back “big box” PC games, one printable template at a time
Preservation “goodies” also include downloadable 3D models for desktop perusal.
Kyle Orland
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The White House made a “Tetris” clone. The Tetris Company was not amused.
Trump admin’s propaganda “arcade” hits some apparent legal limits.
Kyle Orland
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