Technologies
What’s the big deal about NFTs? Here’s the madness behind these expensive digital tokens
NFTs are selling out in minutes for thousands of dollars. We’ll explain why.

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, can be tied to a video highlight, a meme or a tweet. But what are they? Think of NFTs as a digital asset that’s expensive but may make you a lot of money in the future (or maybe not) — similar to cryptocurrency but not quite (more below). But it doesn’t quite mean that you own an asset or piece of art (more below).
The tokens are so popular that Time Magazine‘s 4,500 TIMEPieces reportedly sold out in one minute on Wednesday’s release date. And Tiger Woods recently sold NFTs of digital autographed collectibles (more below). If you’re looking to buy an NFT, the starting price may be affordable but the bidding wars for NFTs could make the digital token worth a lot more. The interest has created new levels of hype from Visa, Warner Music Group and Nike.
In short, NFTs offer a blockchain-created certificate of authenticity for a digital asset or piece of art. If this doesn’t make much sense to you, it’s OK. We’ll break down what NFTs really are, how much they cost and how you can bid on a digital asset to have an NFT of your own.
What’s an NFT?
This is the part that takes a bit of open-mindedness. An NFT is a unique digital token, with most using the Ethereum blockchain to digitally record transactions. It’s not a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, because those are fungible — exchangeable for another Bitcoin or cash. NFTs are recorded in a digital ledger in the same way as cryptocurrency, so there’s a listing of who owns each one.
What makes an NFT unique is the digital asset tied to the token. This can be an image, video, tweet or piece of music that’s uploaded to a marketplace, which creates the NFT to be sold.
What kind of NFTs can I buy?
NFTs can be tied to any digital asset. Anything you see online can be an NFT — music, social media posts, clip art and more. Today, Sorare released its «Super Rare» Lionel Messi digital trading card that’s currently bidding at €29,992.75, equivalating to over $35,000. Sorare also announced that it raised $680 million for its next-level sports fantasy game. The funding is currently led by SoftBank.
Tiger Woods is currently thousands of digital collectibles on Autograph on the DraftKings marketplace. The collection starts at $250. Naomi Osaka, Derek Jeter and Tonk Hawk are also releasing digital collectibles on Autograph, which is co-founded by Tom Brady.
But NFTs are going far beyond sports. Recently, Fortune gave its readers a chance to get in on the NFT craze. The company sold 256 copies of the limited edition cover from the graphic artist Pplpleasr for Fortune’s August/September magazine on OpenSea. The copies sold out within five minutes starting at 1 Etherum (estimated $3,000). But the NFTs were available for resale at three times the cost.
And in August, a clip art of a rock, better known as Ether Rock, was sold for $400,000 Etherum (estimated $1.3 million). Two weeks ago, it was valued at $97,716. And in August, Visa announced its NFT CryptoPunks purchase for $150,000 in Ethereum. The financial corporation believes that NFTs play a big role in the «future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce.» And Vine’s co-creator, Dom Hoffman, is reportedly inventing a new way to gamify NFTs with his fantasy gaming console, Supdive.
As the hype for NFTs grows, expect more digital assets to come up for sale and bring in some big money.
Where can I buy an NFT?
While you may not want to jump right in bidding six figures, there are multiple NFT marketplaces out there to check out, with Opensea being the biggest. Buyers can search for art, domain names and random collectibles to bid on without having to break the bank. And Woods’ digital collection is one of the many NFT collections available on DraftKings marketplace, including Tony Hawk’s collection.
And in early October, Christie’s will auction off 200 NFTs of featured Art Blocks art from its Post-War to Present collection, some of today’s most popular NFTs. The live bidding will happen in Ethereum on Oct. 1. The art sale will start at $50,000.
On the other hand, if you want to sell an NFT of your art, you can use NFTify, the Shopify NFT store, to sell NFTs without creating your own store. You’ll also need a MetaMask account to get going. And Burberry recently announced a partnership with Mythical Games to gamify buying, selling and collecting toys as NFTs through the Blankos Block Party game. CNET’s own Chris Parker also made a step-by-step guide on how to make and sell your own NFT, in the video below.
If I have an NFT, do I own the asset?
Nope.
That’s the real kicker to understanding the whole concept. The person who buys the NFT doesn’t own the actual asset.
«NFTs challenge the idea of ownership: digital files can be reproduced infinitely and you do not (usually) buy the copyright or a license when purchasing an NFT,» said Jeffrey Thompson, associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
For example, the creator of the Nyan Cat meme sold an NFT of it for $590,000. The person who bought the token owns the token, but doesn’t actually own the meme. That still belongs to the creator, who held onto intellectual and creative rights.
What the owner of the token has is a record and a hash code showing ownership of the unique token associated with the particular digital asset. People might download Nyan Cat and use it on social media if they want, but they won’t own the token. This also means they can’t sell the token as the owner can.
Why are NFTs so expensive?
As with physical collectibles such as Beanie Babies, baseball cards and toys, there’s a market for NFTs. The buyers tend to be tech-savvy individuals who understand the idea of wanting to purchase digital goods and likely made a killing this past year with cryptocurrencies. Ethereum, for example, went from just over $100 last March to a current price of about $3,400. In some cases, buyers are just flexing their digital wallets to show off how much crypto they have, but for others, there’s a deeper interest.
«Specifically for art-related NFTs, there is a huge surge in demand due to their novelty and creativity of early artists,» Jason Lau, chief operating officer of crypto exchange OKCoin, said in an email. «Whether it’s a physical work with an attached NFT (think of it as a digital autograph and proof of veracity), or an entirely digital work (where the NFT is the art), this new medium is opening new ways for collectors and artists to explore their relationship with the artwork itself.»
It’s also great for the artists, says Lau. By selling digital art directly to those interested, an artist can begin monetizing work without having to try to sell it in a gallery.
What are the pitfalls of NFTs?
A drawback is the hundreds of dollars in fees required to create an NFT. If you’re making your own token on the Ethereum blockchain, you need to use some Ethereum, which as mentioned earlier is kind of pricey. Then after you make an NFT, there’s a «gas» fee that pays for the work that goes into handling the transaction and that’s also based on the price of Ethereum. Marketplaces simplify the process by handling everything for a fee when an NFT is sold.
There’s also an environmental cost. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum requires computers to handle the computations, known as «mining,» and those computer tasks require a lot of energy. An analysis from Cambridge University found that mining for Bitcoin consumed more energy than the entire country of Argentina. Ethereum is second to Bitcoin in popularity, and its power consumption is on the rise and comparable to the amount of energy used by Libya.
Technologies
Google Takes Aim at Duolingo With AI Tools to Help You Learn New Languages
The tech giant is the latest company to adopt AI tools in order to teach foreign languages — but it isn’t the first.

Google is debuting three new AI experiments that are intended to help users learn foreign languages on the go. The tools utilize Google’s Gemini large language model to identify objects and situations in a user’s immediate environment and provide translations that could help users ask for help or spark a conversation.
If you want to give the new experiments a try, you can find them on the Google Labs webpage. Google experiments aren’t applications, which means you don’t have to download anything to get started. You can just click into the experiment you want to try and begin typing in your prompts.
Read more: Best AI Chatbots of 2025
In debuting these new features, Google is going head-to-head with other foreign language-learning services that are also focusing on AI tools. Duolingo’s CEO recently announced that the company «will be going AI-first,» and OpenAI’s ChatGPT has the ability to begin new foreign-language conversations at any time upon request.
Tiny Lesson: Describe a situation
Google’s new Tiny Lesson tool allows users to describe a situation they’re in to learn vocabulary and grammar that can help describe a problem to the locals. Using the provided context, the tool will provide suggestions that aid users in understanding how to ask for help if they haven’t learned specific phrases tailored to their current issue.
Slang Hang: Casual talk
The Slang Hang tool promotes casual conversation over rigid sentence structure and grammatical agreement, teaching users how to drop the formalities and adapt a more colloquial way of speaking a foreign language. Slang Hang simulates conversations between native speakers and lets users discover what any words or phrases in the series of messages mean. The AI model sometimes misidentifies or hallucinates words, so you’ll need to double-check with another source when using this feature.
Word Cam: Detect items in photographs
The third and final new tool, Word Cam, uses Gemini to detect objects in photographs you take — providing you translations for your surroundings in the foreign language you’re learning. This feature helps you describe the world around you, but it’s possible that Gemini may not accurately label every single object in a picture you take. It’s still worth double-checking the translations you’re provided against another source while using Word Cam.
The language-learning experiments were created as a way to «inspire developers using Gemini for building different use cases and experiences,» Google representative Maggie Shiels told CNET.
This particular set of experiments is meant to focus on using the multimodal LLM as a way to promote bite-sized lessons on the go.
Google’s new features aren’t launching for every language — at least, not yet. Tiny Lesson, Slang Hang and Word Cam currently support translations for the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish languages.
Shiels said that Tiny Lesson, Slang Hang and Word Cam — like other Google Labs experiments — are not products and are not meant to be permanent features.
«This is a limited-time tool that will eventually sunset,» she told CNET. «We hope that developers have fun playing around.»
Technologies
With ‘Hey Meta,’ Ray-Ban Wearers Will Unlock All-New AI Abilities — and Privacy Concerns
The Meta smart glasses from Ray-Ban will soon be able to hold conversations about exactly what you’re seeing or hearing

As Google starts to revive its Google Glass concept, Meta is already a step ahead with new artificial intelligence functions coming to glasses this summer. The Ray-Ban smart glasses, in partnership with Meta, are getting several powerful AI updates for US and Canadian users.
Operating the Meta View app on a connected smartphone, users of Ray-Ban smart glasses will also be able to use the «Hey Meta, start live AI» command to give Meta AI a live view of whatever they are seeing through their glasses.
Similar to Google’s Gemini demo, users will be able to ask Meta AI conversational questions about what it sees and how it might solve problems. Meta provided the example of Meta AI giving possible substitutes for butter based on what it sees when you look in the pantry.
Even without live AI, you’ll be able to ask specific questions about objects that you’re looking at.
In addition to new seasonal looks, Ray-Ban’s smart glasses also will be able to use the «Hey Meta, start live translation» command to automatically translate incoming languages including English, French, Italian and Spanish. The glasses’ speakers will translate as other people talk and you can hold up your phone so the other party can see a translated transcript too.
Meta AI and concerns about being filmed
When I reached Inna Tokarev Sela, CEO and founder of AI data company illumex about privacy issues with smart glasses like these, she mentioned that in her own experience with Ray-Ban smart glasses, people usually reacted when they noticed the recording indicator light, which meant the glasses were watching. That can make some people uneasy, whether they are concerned about being filmed by a stranger or by what Meta may be doing with all that visual data it’s collecting.
«In the new models you can control the notification light, which could pose a privacy risk,» Sela said. «But everyone films everyone all the time anyway at touristy landmarks, public events, etc. What I expect is that Meta will not divulge any information on anyone, unless they register and explicitly give their consent.»
This could lead to other consent headaches too, depending on if users are recording for other purposes. «For example, users should be able to opt in and choose the type of information to expose when they’re in someone’s frame — similar to LinkedIn, for example,» Sela said. «Of course, any recording resulting from the glasses should not be admissible to use in a court of law, as with any other kind of recording, without explicit permission.»
Additional updates and rollout schedules
Along with the AI upgrades, Ray-Ban’s smart glasses will be able to post automatically on Instagram or send a message on Messenger with the right voice commands. New compatibility with music streaming services also will allow you to play songs through Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify on your glasses in lieu of earbuds.
Meta reports that the rollout of these new features will happen this spring and summer, along with object recognition updates for EU users arriving in late April and early May.
Meta and Ray-Ban didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Technologies
Amazon Prime Day Is Coming Back in July, With Tariffs Looming Large
Amazon’s big annual sales event for Prime members could be dampened by price hikes on imported goods. Here’s what to look for.

Amazon Prime Day will return in July. Amazon on Tuesday announced the 2025 edition of the summer shopping event, which typically brings some of its best Amazon deals of the year.
The mega retailer isn’t yet announcing specific dates, according to Amazon spokesperson Alicia Hopkins, who responded via email to questions about the timing. The two-day sales event, which is exclusively for Prime members, took place last year July 16-17.
Looming price hikes due to tariffs could impact how much savings shoppers can expect.
According to some reports, Amazon will start displaying the original prices of products alongside how much the Trump administration’s tariffs add to a product’s price, although the company denied this to Reuters.
The White House immediately denounced any such plan by Amazon.
«This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,» Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a White House press briefing on Tuesday. Amazon did not immediately respond to a follow-up request.
So what could tariffs mean for your Prime Day shopping?
How could tariffs affect Prime Day deals?
Prices on everything, including electronics, are expected to rise as a result of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which he originally announced on April 2. He quickly followed with a 90-day pause for most of the tariffs, but left triple-digit tariffs in place for China and a 10% baseline tariff for goods imported from other countries.
The administration has since said that it’s in the process of making deals with many countries to ease tariffs, but no official announcements have been released yet. Some companies, including Apple, have taken steps to reduce the impact of tariffs on their products, including reportedly moving some manufacturing operations to India.
If the 90-day tariff pause is lifted before agreements can be reached, they would take effect in July — the same month as Amazon’s Prime Day event.
If retailers pass along the full cost of the tariffs, it could mean we’ll be paying double (or more) for products manufactured in other countries. Shoppers on bargain sites Temu and Shein have already seen prices skyrocket as much as 377% ahead of the tariffs.
After launching the original Prime Day in 2015, the retailer has expanded the number of its sales events, including a Big Spring Sale in March and Prime Big Deal Days in October.
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