Entertainment
Starfleet Academy Lifted Avery Brooks's Voice For Their Show, He Did Not Participate At All
By Joshua Tyler
| Updated
Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy dropped an episode centered entirely around the commander of Deep Space Nine, Captain Benjamin Sisko. It’s titled “Series Acclimation Mil” and the plot involves Cirroc Lofton returning as Jake, in hologram form, and it ends with a voiceover that sounds like a cameo from Sisko himself, Avery Brooks. It’s not. It’s a lie.
Avery Brooks did not participate in this episode of Starfleet Academy and has, in fact, retired from acting in general and Star Trek specifically. He has no intention of returning, let alone for a show like this.
The voice you heard at the end of Starfleet Academy was Avery Brooks’s voice, but it wasn’t something he recorded for the series. Instead, the show’s producers lifted Avery’s voice off a spoken word album he once did, and they’re now passing it off as the return of the Sisko.
Here’s what Avery Brooks said in the stolen dialogue: “Divine laws are simpler than human ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words as they were meant to be interpreted.”
If you watched the episode, you probably thought that dialogue sounded weird, out of place, and didn’t obviously fit exactly what was going on in the show. Now you know why. It wasn’t meant for the show.
Avery Brooks Was A Not Part Of This And Likely Did Not Speak With Producers At All
The show’s producers are trying to make it seem like the theft of Avery’s voice was done with his blessing, but that doesn’t seem to be strictly true. Alex Kurtzman claims, “I had a very beautiful interaction with Avery.” Who knows what that means? It could have been an email or a call from his lawyer.
The rest of what the Starfleet Academy team is telling the media suggests that Cirroc Lofton spoke with Brooks about it for them. Lofton and Brooks have maintained a close relationship over the years since the end of DS9, with Brooks becoming something of a surrogate father to Lofton.
Other than whatever private discussions Cirroc may have had with him, Avery Brooks had nothing to do with Starfleet Academy. Writer Tawny Newsome says Brooks was “aware of the project.” Being “aware” the show exists is the full extent of Brooks’s involvement, according to the show’s creative team. Cirroc Lofton seems to indicate that when they talked about it, Avery was OK with it. Not involved, but not going to sue them either.
Aside from lifting Avery Brooks’s voice from some unrelated material to capitalize on his legacy, most of the episode was terrible and involved an annoying girl reducing his role as the Emissary to some sort of superhero trope that would spawn a legion of Emissaries, or something equally ridiculous. It was dumb and childish, but didn’t trample on the excellence of Deep Space Nine, which is a win.
Cirroc Lofton Is Still Excellent As Jake Sisko
If there’s a positive in the episode, it’s Cirroc Lofton, who was dignified and insightful. I have a hard time believing all of his dialogue was written by the Starfleet Academy crew; much of it sounded very different from the usual dreck they spew, and I found myself wondering if he’d come up with some of it himself.
We learn that Jake Sisko never published the novel he was writing. The reason given is some strange justification about how not publishing it made him feel close to his father. That’s a shame, since there’s nothing Ben Sisko would have liked more than to see Jake publish his book.
However, Lofton delivers the best performance we’ve seen from anyone on Starfleet Academy so far while focusing his discussion of Benjamin Sisko on Sisko’s role as a great father. That was always a key to the character, and one of the most beautiful and unique things about Deep Space Nine.
Cirroc Lofton proved he’s grown into the kind of man that both Ben Sisko and Avery Brooks would be proud of. Unfortunately, the episode itself ruined it by robbing Avery Brooks of his voice and using it to trick viewers into putting up with their streaming service.
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
