Entertainment
Perfect, Unrated Comedy Thriller Will Help You Reach Your Final Form
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you’re of a sound mind and in good health, and everything is going great in your life, you probably won’t ever find yourself manipulated into joining a cult. Or, if you’re like Ansel Roth (Leland Orser) from 2014’s Faults, you’re so against the idea of cults separating families and ruining lives that you devote your own life to seeking out victims and reprogramming them so they can go back to the way things were before running away from home.
This is where things get messy, because what if you also owe a ton of money to your loan shark publisher at the same time a desperate family tracks you down so you can reunite them with their estranged daughter? You have no guarantees that you can help them, but you can probably get the cash you need, put on a good show, walk away relatively unscathed, and move on with your life.
At least that’s what Ansel thinks will happen in Faults, but it’s only a matter of time before his reckless behavior catches up with him.
One Sad, Sad Man’s Disingenuous Redemption Arc
In Faults, Ansel Roth is living a very sad life, traveling from cheap hotel to cheap hotel, trying to push his new book. Though his first published work was a highly successful tome about deprogramming cult victims so they could go back to their old lives, his new book is simply a cash grab meant to recoup losses from his recent divorce and other life failings.
Though he has trouble selling his new book, he’s at least able to work out a free room and meal per hotel visit, and otherwise lives out of his car. It’s all really pathetic, but there’s also a sense of entitlement that makes the whole situation disproportionately funny, particularly when he argues over fraudulent meal vouchers and steals all the towels and remote batteries from whatever room he’s about to get kicked out of.
To make matters worse for Ansel, his manager, Terry (Jon Gries), not only severs ties with him because he’s not moving any units, but demands payment for past debts within a week, or else. He even sends one of his goons, Mick (Lance Reddick), to threaten him in person as Ansel travels the country on his increasingly pathetic book tour.
Desperate for cash, and considering the possibility that his entire career is a joke, Ansel is approached by Evelyn (Beth Grant) and Paul (Chris Ellis) about their daughter, Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who ran away to become a member of Faults, an elusive cult that preys on the innocent. Ansel, in his infinite wisdom, agrees to help deprogram her for the exact amount of money he owes Terry so he can put all of his failures behind him and move on with his life.
The plan is simple at first. Ansel, with Evelyn and Paul’s permission, hires actors to stage Claire’s abduction. Staying at yet another seedy motel, Ansel gets to work with Claire, who doesn’t know her parents are staying in the adjoining room, waiting for her breakthrough. Matters are continually complicated by Claire’s resistance to treatment, along with Mick making surprise appearances to collect the rest of the money Ansel owes Terry.
A Masterclass In Manipulation
Faults takes a deep dive into the exact kind of cult level manipulation you’re familiar with if you’ve watched any documentaries on the subject, but subverts expectations every step of the way. Ansel knows all the methods used to deprogram someone and has had mixed results in the past. He believes he needs to break Claire’s spirit and rebuild her from the ground up so she can assimilate back into her family and put Faults behind her.
Claire, on the other hand, has her own ideas about how things should work. She’s incredibly stubborn, and her behavior, along with external forces beyond her control like Terry and Mick’s looming presence, pushes Ansel into increasingly compromising positions. Constant money runs and impromptu detours during deprogramming sessions leave him sleep deprived, slowly wearing away his resolve and, in many cases, giving Claire the upper hand.
What’s so enthralling about Faults is just how deeply everybody digs themselves in for their own selfish reasons. Ansel needs money. Claire doesn’t want to leave her cult. Her parents want everything to go back to the way it was, even if the way things were years ago no longer serve Claire, who is now an adult.
On some level, everybody is manipulating everybody else, and Faults makes you question who’s actually the real article. Half the fun is figuring out who’s pulling one over on who, and this feeling of distrust and animosity is pushed onto the audience in ways that make you never really want to root for anybody, while also hoping the right party gets what they’re looking for.
As of this writing, Faults is streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Last week, OpenAI managed to stop ChatGPT from talking about goblins all the time. This week, there’s a whole new model for users to play with.
The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that ChatGPT 5.5 Instant has begun rolling out to all users as the new default model for the popular AI chatbot. The new model is a follow-up to GPT 5.5, which was released in April.
GPT-5.5 Instant replaces 5.3 Instant, which will remain available for the next three months for paid users but will otherwise be sunsetted.
Unlike Claude Opus 4.7 from Anthropic and GPT-5.5, which are only available to paid customers, GPT-5.5 Instant is “available to everyone.” OpenAI says it should produce fewer hallucinations and better overall results for everyday ChatGPT usage.
“This update makes everyday interactions more useful and more enjoyable: stronger and tighter answers across subject areas, a more natural conversational tone, and better use of the context you’ve already shared when personalization can help,” OpenAI’s blog post said.
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According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in “high stakes” topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model “reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual errors.”
The company also says the new model is better at deciding when to use web search for a prompt and analyzing image uploads than before. The new model is also allegedly more concise in its answers, while also maintaining something of a personality in how it talks to the user. GPT-5.5 Instant should also be better at understanding and referencing context from a connected Gmail account and other integrations to provide quality answers.
And, again, most importantly, it should avoid mentioning goblins unless absolutely necessary.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Entertainment
The Bears Gary cliffhanger explained: What just happened to Richie?
There’s only one thing more shocking than The Bear dropping surprise episode “Gary,” and that’s the ending of the episode itself.
Written by The Bear stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, “Gary” flashes back to a work trip Richie (Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Bernthal) once took to Gary, Indiana. Their worst impulses soon derail their mission, culminating in Mikey drunkenly (and publicly) dressing down Richie’s penchant for fucking up, and Richie missing the birth of his daughter.
The entire episode takes place long before The Bear Season 1, except for one somber coda that could have massive repercussions for The Bear Season 5. “Gary”s final scene cuts from Richie and Mikey sitting in Mikey’s car to Richie sitting alone in his car in the present day. He stares at his empty passenger seat, reminiscing about Mikey. Then, as he pulls forward into an intersection, another car careens straight into him. Cue the credits, along with my incredulous yell, “Did Richie just die?”
So, did Richie really just die in The Bear?
Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “The Bear.”
Credit: FX
Here’s the thing: The Bear probably isn’t going to kill off Richie, one of its most beloved leads, during a surprise episode that dropped between seasons. Especially not when the show is gearing up for its fifth and final installment. However, Richie’s car crash could be the major event that sets Season 5 in motion.
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At the end of Season 4, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) quit The Bear, choosing to step away from the kitchen in the hopes of healing himself. He turned full control of the restaurant over to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), along with Richie and Natalie (Abby Elliott). What does Carmy’s upcoming journey of self-discovery look like? Even he’s not sure. He just knows it should take place far, far away from the stressful environment of any restaurant kitchen. That includes his family, both work and blood-related.
But you know what could bring Carmy back into the fold in Season 5? A need to be there for an injured Richie, and to support the rest of the reeling restaurant staff. Basically, the end of “Gary” appears to be a bridge to the start of Season 5, and the catalyst that will reunite Carmy with the people he walked away from in Season 4.
It’s a bit of a bizarre move on The Bear‘s end, in no small part because a car-crash cliffhanger sends the show skidding into soap territory. But it’s also a strange choice heading into Season 5. Why relegate such a key incident to a standalone episode, instead of keep it as part of the season itself? Plus, in tacking such a shocking moment onto the end of “Gary,” the episode loses some of its power. Instead of leaving viewers contemplating Mikey and Richie’s dynamic, they’re left with the WTF factor of the car crash and questions about what’s next. There’s no meditation on The Bear‘s past, just a collision with its future.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
Entertainment
Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI for allegedly practicing medicine without a license
Pennsylvania has taken the unusual step of suing an AI company for practicing medicine without a license.
In a lawsuit filed May 1, the state is targeting Character.AI after an investigator found a chatbot on the platform posing as a licensed psychiatrist and providing what the state characterizes as medical advice.
According to the complaint, filed by the Pennsylvania Department of State and State Board of Medicine, a Professional Conduct Investigator for the state created a free account on Character.AI and searched for psychiatric characters. He selected one called “Emilie,” described on the platform as a “Doctor of psychiatry.”
The investigator told Emilie he had been feeling sad, empty, tired, and unmotivated. The chatbot mentioned depression and offered to conduct an assessment to determine whether medication might help.
When pressed on whether she was licensed in Pennsylvania, Emilie said she was and even provided a specific license number. The state checked and found that the number doesn’t exist.
The complaint also states Emilie claimed she attended medical school at Imperial College London, has practiced for seven years, and holds a full specialty registration in psychiatry with the General Medical Council in the UK.
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In a similar case, 404 Media reported last year that Instagram AI chatbots were pretending to be licensed therapists, even inventing license numbers when prompted for credentials by the user.
Pennsylvania is seeking an injunction ordering Character.AI to stop allowing its platform to engage in the unlawful practice of medicine. The company has more than 20 million monthly active users worldwide and hosts more than 18 million user-created chatbot characters, according to the complaint.
In an email to Mashable, a Character.AI spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit. Further, they added that “our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users. The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying.”
The spokesperson added that the company “prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.”
A much bigger legal battle looms over AI health
The Pennsylvania lawsuit lands in the middle of an already messy legal debate over what AI is actually allowed to tell you — and whether any of it is even admissible in court.
As Mashable’s Chase DiBenedetto reported, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly advocated for “AI privilege,” arguing that chatbot conversations should be afforded the same legal protections as conversations with a therapist or an attorney. Courts have so far been split, with two federal judges reaching opposite conclusions on the question within weeks of each other earlier this year.
The stakes are high on both sides. Legal experts warn that sweeping AI privilege protections could effectively shield companies from accountability, making it harder to subpoena chat logs and internal records when something goes wrong. Meanwhile, health AI is booming — $1.4 billion flowed into healthcare-specific generative AI in 2025 alone, according to Menlo Ventures — and much of it operates outside of HIPAA protections.
Pennsylvania is one of several states to have introduced an AI Health bill this year, following a trend of states that aren’t waiting for Washington to act.
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone open a restaurant
