Windows 11 wants to know your age, and it plans to find out by looking at your face. A selfie or a government ID will do the job. That prospect drags a familiar question back into the open: what does Microsoft actually do with the image once it has it? Also, it seems Tesla’s Cybercab isn’t taking the right turns, while AI game merch is drowing the real deal.

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Microsoft is preparing to bring age verification directly into Windows 11, requiring users to prove how old they are through their Microsoft account before apps and websites will treat them as adults. The system works through a new Windows Age API that returns age ranges to requesting apps, but unverified ages carry little weight. To earn a verified status, users must submit to one of three options: logging into a government account system, uploading a document such as a driver's license, or taking a selfie that estimates age from facial analysis. The feature is currently available to users in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, with broader rollout expected as laws in California, Colorado, and Illinois begin taking effect, with California's requirement kicking in for most operating systems by 2027.

The stakes are higher than they might first appear. A verified age tied to a Microsoft account would follow a user across every device they sign in to, which raises immediate questions about what happens to people who prefer local accounts. Apps and the operating system itself could default to treating unverified users as minors, effectively pressuring people into linking biometric or government identity data to their Windows login. Congress is also weighing national legislation that could extend these requirements well beyond the three states that have already acted. How Microsoft handles the line between its account ecosystem and legal compliance with these emerging laws will define a significant part of the Windows 11 experience in the years ahead.

A simple search for official Slay the Spire merchandise has become a minefield. When one fan typed those words into Google, the top result was a website plastered with the word "official" that turned out to have no connection to developer MegaCrit whatsoever. The shirts arrived with white borders bleeding around every graphic, a telltale sign of cheap direct-to-garment printing, and the buyer only realized after the fact that AI-generated slop had passed itself off as the real thing. It is a pattern playing out across video game apparel, where print-on-demand services, drop-shippers, and generative AI tools have made it trivially easy to spin up a convincing-looking storefront and flood search results with knockoff designs before any legitimate seller can even begin the licensing process.

The companies doing things properly are working at a fundamental disadvantage on speed and price. Fangamer CEO Reed Young told Kotaku that securing a license and shepherding a design through multiple rounds of approval with developers takes the better part of six months at minimum. The Yetee's co-founder Glenn O'Neill still screen-prints his shirts, a process that produces far superior results but demands specialized equipment, chemicals, and physical space. Meanwhile, a bad actor armed with an AI image generator and a Redbubble account can have a product listed in an afternoon. Both O'Neill and Young confirmed that their own licensed Hollow Knight: Silksong artwork has turned up on third-party platforms, and attempts to pursue takedowns tend to result in the same designs resurfacing elsewhere almost immediately. Young said he believes the glut of AI merchandise will ultimately sharpen consumer appreciation for work made by actual artists with genuine developer approval.

Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi service in Austin got off to a rocky start for at least one early passenger, who reported that a simple ten-minute trip ballooned into a 70-minute ordeal. According to a Reddit post spotted by Electrek, the driverless cab initially headed in the complete opposite direction of the destination before executing a sweeping detour through East Austin. Adding to the frustration, the Tesla app shows only a price estimate rather than a projected travel time, meaning passengers have no clear warning before they climb in that their route may be anything but direct. The underlying reason for the circuitous journey appears to be that Cybercabs are not yet capable of driving on highways, forcing the vehicles onto surface streets and through roundabout paths that can stretch a short trip considerably.

The cars also reportedly avoid railroad crossings, a limitation tied to an ongoing investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving software behaving erratically near train tracks. Together, those constraints put the Cybercab well behind Waymo, which already permits highway driving in some cities, underscoring how much ground Tesla still has to cover in its robotaxi rollout. The irony is not lost on observers that Elon Musk declared back in 2019 that any self-driving system requiring a geofenced area does not constitute "real self-driving," which is precisely the architecture the Cybercab currently depends on. How quickly Tesla can lift these operational restrictions will go a long way toward determining whether its robotaxi ambitions can compete seriously in a market where rivals have a significant head start.

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