The new AI image generation feature that OpenAI has launched with ChatGPT has gained great popularity, and CEO Sam Altman posted on social media X that "the GPU is melting." it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt. but our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long! chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon. — Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025 Of course, OpenAI's GPUs and servers are not actually melting, but if demand increases, power consumption increases, and requests can be slower. To address the surge in requests, Altman said, "We will introduce temporary rate limits while improving efficiency" and "ChatGPT's free plan will soon allow for three generations per day." This is not uncommon for image generation, and upgrading to a paid plan is usually guaranteed to produce faster and more stable. It's similar to avoiding queues with Disney's fast pass. When this new feature was released, there were no particular restrictions. Within just a few hours of ChatGPT's new image generation capabilities, a trend has emerged, and many users have been generating Studio Ghibli-style images. Altman himself also changed X's profile image to a Ghibli style. However, tensions between creators and AI companies continue to rise. As Brian Merchant, technology writer for Blood in the Machine, points out, Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki said of AI footage that he "feels an insult to life," so OpenAI would say it's an interesting choice. How to use ChatGPT's new image generation feature On the main page, click on the three-point reader next to "Search" or "Deep Research" and select "Create Image." To edit, enter the instructions in the chat bar and send it. To use the generated image, click the down arrow in the top right to download the file. From what I have tried out briefly, it seems that accurate information will likely be used if you present a URL to the primary source and tell it to "use this as a reference." View current sales on Amazon

Amazon Japan will be holding the "Smile New Life Sale FINAL" from March 28th to April 1st. All eligible products can be found on the official page. The products covered range from Apple products such as the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 to beverages, beer, types, and PC software. For reference, this article also introduces genuine Amazon devices, which have been significantly discounted. Fire HD 8 One of the eligible products is "New Amazon Fire HD 8" (released in 2024). The list price is 15,980 yen, but it is on sale for 12,980 yen, a 28% discount. The resolution is HD (1280 x 800) and is a bit rough, but it is a size suitable for watching videos, watching e-books, and manga while commuting. New Amazon Fire HD 8 (check price on Amazon) Fire HD 10 Another more classic is the 10-inch Fire HD 10. It is on sale for 12,980 yen, a 35% discount from the regular price of 19,980 yen. Equipped with a full HD display, it is an ideal device for viewing video and consuming content such as manga. Fire HD 10 (check price on Amazon) Fire Max 11 For users looking for a larger screen, the 11-inch Fire Max 11 is the perfect choice. The list price is 34,980 yen, but it is on sale for 26,980 yen, a 23% discount. The pixel density is high at 213ppi, allowing for higher definition display. It is also suitable for viewing footage on Netflix and Prime videos and viewing magazines. Fire Max 11 (check price on Amazon) The products covered by the Smile Sale range from food and home appliances. You can also check the list of eligible products on the official page.

This series, "Matsuoka Isao's "This Week's Explicit Statement"," covers several words that key people in the ICT industry have stated at press conferences and events every week, explaining their meaning and background. This time, we will introduce the "explicit statements" of Furuichi Riki, Executive Vice President and Head of the Japan Regional Region at Workday, and Adachi Keisuke, Executive Vice President and CEO of KPMG Consulting, Executive Vice President and Rick Transformation Unit Leader/Partner. "Ensuring centralized management of people and AI agents on our platform." (Furuichi Riki, Executive Vice President and Head of the Japan Regional Region, Workday) Workday Executive President and Head of the Japan Regional Manager Furuichi Riki, Workday Executive President and Head of the Japan Regional Manager Furuichi Riki, Workday Executive President and Head of the Japan Regional Manager Furuichi, president of Workday, the Japanese subsidiary of Workday, mentioned the above about his efforts at AI agents at a press conference on business strategies that the company recently held. This is realized through a new solution called "Agent System of Record" (ASOR), and is an evolution of the previous Workday platform. This is a move I would like to pay attention to in the future, so I have taken it into consideration as a clear statement. Workday is a software vendor that provides enterprise applications such as Human Capital Management (HCM) and Financial Management through cloud services, with annual revenue of $8.446 billion (FY2025), over 20,400 employees, and over 11,000 global customers. In terms of enterprise application sales, it has a presence behind Oracle, SAP and Salesforce. Please see the related article for details of the press conference, and here we will focus on Furuichi's opening remarks. He explained the following while showing Figure 1: (Figure 1) The concept of the Agent System of Record (ASOR) (Source: Workday press conference material) (Figure 1) The concept of the Agent System of Record (ASOR) (Source: Workday press conference material) "The Workday platform is used by approximately 70 million users, with approximately 1 trillion transactions moving annually. This is the amount of data accumulated to our company's strength in leveraging AI. By leveraging this data, we currently have eight AI agents listed at the bottom of the diagram." "And the newest new product was ASOR. It is a solution that uses the know-how we have cultivated in human resource management to AI agents. There are three patterns of AI agents: not only what we provide, but what our customers have developed themselves, and what other vendors offer, so there are concerns that these will become increasingly common within companies in the future. Furthermore, in managing these, security, governance, and compliance will become essential. ASOR is trying to meet these needs and enable the management of employees and AI agents in the company to centrally manage employees and AI agents." ASOR is scheduled to be available from the second half of 2025, and it will be a little while before we can see people centrally managing a wide variety of AI agents, but on the other hand, this may be in line with the timing of increasing demand for many companies. Regarding ASOR, please refer to the article "How to manage and utilize a wide variety of AI agents - Exploring Workday's initiatives" published on March 19th in another series by the author on this site, "A Word of Saying," which explains the background and significance. To put it another way, ASOR is an evolution of the Workday platform so far. As Furuichi says, as companies are concerned about the uproaring number of AI agents, the need for solutions like ASOR will undoubtedly increase. We'll be looking forward to seeing if the company can become a person who will spark that movement.

Kirishima Sake Brewery (Miyazaki Prefecture), known for its sweet potato shochu "Kuro Kirishima", is using the low-code development platform "Claris FileMaker" and "iPad" to in-house app development under the leadership of the site. Claris International announced it on March 27th. The amount of shochu shark produced during the process of making shochu is approximately 800 tons per day. The recycling plant undergoes machinery maintenance 2-4 times a week. Previously, inspection records were managed on a handwritten paper basis, and data entered at the site was transferred to spreadsheet software at the office. In addition, photos taken with a digital camera must be saved separately. Along the way, there were issues such as transcription errors, input errors, and lack of photo management. Previous inspection records were handwritten (provided by Claris International) Previous inspection records were handwritten (provided by Claris International) In response to these issues, field staff wanted to prepare reports in real time at the inspection site, and began selecting tools. After comparing and examining several no-code/low-code development tools, we evaluated ease of use, cost performance, ease of manufacture in-house, and scalability, and adopted FileMaker. As a result, by using an iPad or iPhone, it has become possible to complete everything from data entry to photo registration on-site, making it more efficient to write reports and check on-site. Furthermore, the need for transcription reduces input errors and the labor hours have also been reduced by approximately 25%. The email sending function that notifies you of record confirmation has also reduced communication errors. "Plant Daily Report/Equipment Inspection Record Table" App that can be entered on an iPad (provided by Claris International) "Plant Daily Report/Equipment Inspection Record Table" App that can be entered on an iPad (provided by Claris International) The app has a function to color fields that have passed the threshold when a number is entered, allowing you to notice abnormal values ​​on the spot, making it possible to detect problems early. There is no longer any need to use paper forms, making it paperless and highly searchable. This not only made many tasks more efficient, but also made it easier to compare and analyze with past data. Furthermore, by digitalizing input and stamps, there is no need to bring paper, pens, or seals to the production line, avoiding the risk of foreign matter contamination. It is said that this has also led to the achievement of certification for the "FSSC22000" (an international standard for food safety management systems). The alcohol quality management department digitizes "taste" data. Using your iPhone, you enter the numbers that evaluate the quality of the shochu into FileMaker's "Certified Liquor Evaluation App." By linking digital records of "Taste" and preparation data, it is expected that the speed and accuracy of product development will be improved. Liquor Quality Management Department's Certified Liquor Evaluation App (Provided by Claris International) Liquor Evaluation App (Provided by Claris International) Liquor Evaluation App (Provided by Claris International) Following the success of in-app production and digitalization of operations at recycling plants, FileMaker has been adopted as a common tool to drive DX across the organization. Currently, it is used by more than 10 departments, including manufacturing, alcohol quality management, bottling, quality assurance, and supply chain management (SCM), and it is said that a company-wide culture of working on DX has been established.

Garmin will enter the fitness subscription field with the launch of Garmin Connect+, a new service that uses AI to provide sophisticated and personalized insights. This new service, Garmin Connect+, will provide more concrete and practical insights that utilize AI, as well as specialized training advice and enhanced "LiveTrack" capabilities. According to an announcement on March 27th, the existing Garmin Connect app features and data will continue to be available for free in the future. Through day-to-day activities, Garmin Connect+ provides insights and suggestions based on health and activity data, and uses customizable graphs and charts across different periods to give you a broader perspective on progress. The "Live Activity" function allows you to check real-time heart rate and pace information on your smartphone. Additionally, the LiveTrack feature allows you to notify family and friends that an activity has started. Training plans Garmin Run Coach or Garmin Cycling Coach will receive additional professional guidance, including educational content and videos. If you complete it, you will also be unlocked with limited challenges that allow you to earn a badge. Garmin's efforts are part of a major trend in the technology industry to leverage AI to provide an optimized experience for each user. Wearable developers like Whoop, Strava and Oura are already using AI to provide training and summaries tailored to the activity of their users. In oura Ring, an AI chatbot helps interpret the collected data. Samsung and Google are also working on AI-powered insights. Garmin Connect+ costs $6.99 per month (1,180 yen in Japan) and $69.99 per year (11,800 yen in Japan), and also offers a 30-day free trial. From hardware to service David McQueen, director of market research firm ABI Research, said that at present, only a few companies that offer premium devices are using AI in their wearable products. "Many other companies will also be trying to incorporate AI into their wearable products, lower prices, and provide a broader ecosystem to pursue more accurate and personalized services." Garmin's entry into subscription services is also worth noting. This is because paid plans have often been linked to smart rings (especially Oura Rings). "We don't see much of this kind of service on other wearable devices yet," he says. At the same time, the smart ring business model will be diversified, he said, and some manufacturers are looking for ways to provide basic app features that can be used without subscriptions to acquire users and expand the ecosystem. Garmin product list (check it on Amazon)

「Microsoft Office」を頻繁に使っている人なら試したくなるような、よく使うプログラムの高速化を狙った新機能が登場する。それが5月に展開予定の新たなオプション「Startup Boost」で、Officeアプリを起動する時の待ち時間が短縮される。 この機能が最初に導入されるのは「Microsoft Word」で、Officeスイートの他のアプリケージョンについては、今後のアップデートで追加される予定だ。Startup Boostは「Windows Task Scheduler」内のタスクとして表示され、機能の選択は完全にユーザーに委ねられている。そのため、Officeアプリにメモリーを食われることを望まないなら、簡単にオフにできる。 Microsoftは米国時間3月26日付のメッセージで、「MicrosoftはStartup Boostタスクを新たに導入する。これはOfficeアプリケーションのパフォーマンスと読み込み時間を最適化するものだ」と説明している。「展開は2025年5月から開始され、まずはWordが対象となる。このタスクの導入は任意で、Windows Task Schedulerに表示され、アプリ内の設定で無効にできる」 提供：Microsoft 提供：Microsoft Speed Boostはどのような仕組みで起動の高速化を実現しているのだろうか？ ユーザーが「Windows」にログインすると、他のスケジュールされたタスク、プログラム、サービスが自動的に起動する。だがそれと同様に、関連するタスクもひそかに起動している。その後、Officeアプリはユーザーが起動させるまで一時停止の状態に置かれる。また、起動されない場合はシステムがメモリーから削除してリソースを解放する。 Speed Boostがアクティブ化されるのは、使用しているPCのメモリーとリソースが十分で、この機能がオンになってもWindowsのパフォーマンスに影響しない場合のみだ。具体的には、使用可能なメモリーが8GB以上、ディスクの空きスペースが5GB以上必要だ。また「省エネ機能」がオンになっている時も、Startup Boostは無効にされる。 Startup Boostを必要としないユーザーも、問題はない。（展開された後に）Wordで無効にするなら、「ファイル」メニューから「オプション」＞「全般」＞「起動時の設定」と進む。5月になると、ここに「Startup Boost」という新しい設定ができるので、使わない場合はチェックボックスのチェックを外せばいい。ほかにTask Schedulerで表示して無効にすることもできる。 提供：Microsoft 提供：Microsoft 「Startup Boostはオプションのパフォーマンス機能だ」とMicrosoftは説明している。「問題なく無効にできる。無効にしても、Microsoft Officeアプリケーションは完全に機能するが、読み込みにかかる時間は長くなるだろう。顧客はそもそもプロセスが開始されないようにすることで、Startup Boostを完全に無効にできる」

First of all, the unfortunate news is that I can't buy this. However, for those who like Apple TV Plus's Severance, there's good news. "Lumon Terminal Pro" is now available as a new Easter egg, which has been featured in many dramas, at Apple's online store in the US. This fictional computer is displayed at the top of the Mac store page, and even has a dedicated introductory page. Since it is a Lumon device, it is unclear what kind of hardware it is, but the page displays a warning saying "spoiler warning" and also includes a link to the approximately 11-minute making-of footage. Season 2 of the drama has recently ended on Apple TV Plus, and season 3 has already been decided. In the footage on the Apple Online Store's Lumon Terminal Pro page, co-creator Ben Stiller talks about how three editorial staff put together the 83TB footage into the final episode of Season 2. It also explains how to edit the marching band scene in the final episode, as well as video processing for episode 7, where the atmosphere changes dramatically within the work. The third part also tells how much music supports the tone of the drama. Use the Apple Online Store to promote Apple TV Of course, this is also part of the promotion. Through fictional retro devices that appear in Apple-produced dramas, they are promoting the latest Apple hardware to video editors and musicians. Apple is in a unique position to perform these crossover productions without any discomfort, according to Andy Tsai, professor of business analytics at Santa Clara University's Leavy School of Management. This is because it doesn't give the impression of being as "intrusive" as tie-ups with other hardware manufacturers or "reverse product placement," in which products from real companies are introduced. "I think it's a really good idea," Tsai said. "This is a slightly special combination of situations. They produce their own programs while selling iconic hardware, and the audience is integrated into it. They have the perfect conditions." According to Tsai, the model itself has a precedent in which Apple invests billions of dollars in Apple TV Plus to produce content that can be played on its own devices. It goes back to the days when General Electric made radio and television programs and sold receivers and television at the same time. "Apple is trying to build an ecosystem of hardware and content, but they're doing it very well. Many competitors can't get that much profit margin, so it's going to be difficult to make such a wealth of funding strategy," says Tsai. Tsai said Apple TV Plus is just part of Apple's long-term goal of expanding its services division. "Service has a higher profit margin than hardware," Tsai also points out. However, at this point, it is believed that the Apple TV Plus subscription fee alone is not enough to cover production costs. Meanwhile, Tsai says that he is a fan of the Lumon Terminal Pro itself. It's because you can imagine that if Steve Jobs had remade the Apple IIe in a retro style at the time when the iMac was released at its peak, it would have just turned out like this. View current sales on Amazon Anker's mobile battery that can be plugged into an outlet and also used as a charger (check the price on Amazon)

Nintendo has announced that it will offer a new feature, "Virtual Game Cards," in late April. This allows users to lend and borrow from downloaded software, and is eligible for users registered with the family. For example, if there were multiple switches in a home and each family member had an account, they would have to buy another downloadable software if their accounts were different. With this new feature, families can now rent and borrow the same software, just like they're plugging in and out of a Famicom cassette. You will need an internet connection when renting. Furthermore, only three people can lend it. You can only lend one bottle per account, and it lasts for 14 days. You can have it returned at any time during the period, and it will be automatically returned after the period has passed. Save data remains even after the product is returned, so you can purchase the software yourself and play the rest. Also, even if you have two Switches with the same Nintendo account, you can play one game title simply by re-setting the virtual game card on the console you want to play. In addition, a local connection is required for the first communication. The feature will be for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, which will be officially announced on April 2nd. List of Nintendo Switch peripherals (check prices on Amazon) View current sales on Amazon

2019年12月に文部科学省が発表した「GIGAスクール構想」から約5年がたち、各自治体や教育事業を展開する企業は「GIGAスクール構想 第2期（NEXT GIGA）」に向けた取り組みを始めている。本稿では、更新が迫る情報端末と、NEXT GIGAで注目されるデータ活用について取り上げたい。 まずGIGAスクール構想の意義を改めて確認すると、1人1台の情報端末と高速大容量の通信ネットワークを全国の小・中学校に整備すること、そして多様な子どもたちを誰一人取り残すことなく、個別最適化され、資質・能力が一層確実に育成できる教育ICT環境を実現することを目的にしている。 2月に開催された「教育DX推進フォーラム」で文部科学省 初等中等教育局 学校情報基盤・教材課長の寺島史朗氏は、GIGAスクール構想で浮かび上がった課題として、「ICT活用の学校間・自治体間の格差」「通信ネットワーク速度」「校務DX」――の3点を挙げている（関連記事）。NEXT GIGAではこの課題を解消しつつ、学校のICT環境の更新や端末のさらなる活用の促進が求められている。 2019年から児童・生徒に対して1人1台端末が整備され、早い自治体では2024年度から端末の更新が始まっている。2025～2026年にかけては約950万台の端末更新が予定されているという。NEXT GIGAでは都道府県単位での共同調達が進む中、複数の自治体では独自の教育を展開するために市区町村単体での調達をするケースも少なくない。 各社、NEXT GIGAに向けた新たな端末を展開しているが、ここではNECとレノボの新モデルにフォーカスしたい。両社で共通しているのは、「堅牢（けんろう）性・耐久性の強化」だ。端末の故障理由としてさまざまなことが挙げられるが、机や持ち運び時の落下による破損、USBポートに鉛筆を挿すことによる発煙など、児童ならではの理由が多く挙げられた。 NECが提供する学習者用端末の新モデル「NEC Chromebook Y4」では、マザーボードからの電源供給を不要とする回路にするためサブボードの設計を変更し、ショートが起きにくく、発火・発煙に結び付きにくい基盤を設計。また、全ての電源供給ケーブルに保護回路を追加し、発火・発煙の発現を低下しているという。 開口部への鉛筆や消しゴムなどの異物差し込み対策としては、開口部を極力減らし、左側面に集約した。加えて、机上の鉛筆を滑らせても開口部に入らない高さにし、発煙防止対策を徹底している（関連記事）。 NEC Chromebook Y4を閉じたイメージ。鉛筆の芯が開口部に入らないように高さが調整されている。壊れにくい端末を目指すNECの努力が見て取れる（2022年10月3日に開催したNECの説明会より） NEC Chromebook Y4を閉じたイメージ。鉛筆の芯が開口部に入らないように高さが調整されている。壊れにくい端末を目指すNECの努力が見て取れる（2022年10月3日に開催したNECの説明会より） 他方、レノボはハードウェアと各種ソリューションを統合したパッケージ「Lenovo GIGA School Edition」をNEXT GIGAに向けに提供する。同パッケージ内で提供される端末は、米国国防総省の調達基準「MIL規格」に準拠するほか、レノボ独自の教育向け製品用の堅牢性基準を満たすテスト「Lenovo DuraSpec」を実施し、耐久性を検証。76cmの高さからコンクリートまたはスチール板に落下させるテストや、ねじり試験、圧力試験などを行い、端末に破損がないか、全ての機能が動作するかを確認している。 また、ICT活用の格差に対しては「教員が使わせたくなる、生徒が使いたくなるような端末作り」をコンセプトに、利便性を向上させるペンシルタッチ機能と活用を促進する無料ソリューションサービスを用意した。ペンシルタッチ機能では、普段から児童・生徒が利用している鉛筆をタッチペン代わりに使えるようにしている。鉛筆削りで書き心地を調整でき、2B以上の軟らかさの鉛筆に対応する（関連記事）。 レノボが提供する新モデル。ハードペンシルや鉛筆を軽くタッチしただけで滑らかに描ける（2025年2月6日に開催したレノボ・ジャパンの説明会より） レノボが提供する新モデル。ハードペンシルや鉛筆を軽くタッチしただけで滑らかに描ける（2025年2月6日に開催したレノボ・ジャパンの説明会より） 各端末の詳細なスペックは関連記事をご覧いただきたいが、両社ともに“壊れにくさ”を重視した端末の設計に尽力したことがうかがえる。他方、筆者が教育現場に足を運んだ際に印象的だったのが、授業中に端末の電池が切れてしまい、充電器がある棚の上で充電しながら端末を利用している生徒の姿だ。これは高校で見た風景だったので、小・中学校に当てはまるかは分からないが、今後デジタル教科書が普及する中で授業中に端末を使えない状況になるのは致命的だ。教室内だけで端末を利用するとも限らない。改良を重ねた新たな端末が、NEXT GIGAではどのように使われていくのか注目していきたい。

東日本旅客鉄道（JR東日本）は3月27日、「TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY」のまちびらきを実施した。 2020年3月14日に山手線30番目の駅として開業した高輪ゲートウェイ駅を中心とする街が、本格的に始動した。 移動モビリティや限定店舗が登場 高輪ゲートウェイ駅2階の南改札を出ると、東京在住のフランス人建築家のエマニュエル・ムホー氏が手がける「100色の道」で彩られた、街を横断する1km超のストリート「新東海道」が広がる。歩行者のほか、搭乗できる試運転の自動走行モビリティが5台行き交い、移動をサポートする。 南改札を出て左横にあるイベントスペース「マチアイ」では、高輪ゲートウェイ駅から街歩きして地域の魅力を発見するイベントの第1弾「マチアイカフェバル “マチあるキッチン”」に、新たな出店ショップを追加。港区にあるベーカリーレストラン「Le Pain Quotidian」のオーガニック小麦100％のパンや、「高輪はちみつ」と組み合わせた「FETISH CLUB」の限定のオリジナルビール「芝浜ハニー」、「PASSAGE COFFEE」のオリジナルブレンド「タカナワマチアイブレンド（HOTのみ）」などを楽しめる。 マチあるキッチンは5月6日まで実施し、以降も街と街の交流をサポートするイベントを実施予定。イベントの企画などを担当するJR東日本クロスステーション デベロップメントカンパニー 営業部 イベントユニット 副課長の大川優香氏は、直近ではロストフラワーをテーマにしたイベントを計画していると話した。 中心は「THE LINKPILLAR 1」--2026年のグランドオープンに向け TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITYは、2026年春のグランドオープンを予定している。今回の街開きでは駅前のツインタワー「THE LINKPILLAR 1」の利用が始まった。 THE LINKPILLAR 1は、1フロアの床面積が国内最大規模のオフィスフロアを備える。国際的な企業の本社が移転を計画するなどほぼ満床状態で、2025年度中には約2万人のオフィスワーカーが集う予定。そのほか、国際会議も可能な駅直結のコンベンションホールやビジネス創造施設に加え、秋には「JWマリオット・ホテル東京」「NEWoMan TAKANAWA」などが開業する。なお、NEWoMan TAKANAWAの「ブルーボトルコーヒー 高輪カフェ」「ニコライ バーグマン 高輪店」は同日に先行オープン済みだ。 多様なデータ活用するスマートシティ TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITYでは、THE LINKPILLAR 1に入居予定のKDDIと連携し、さまざまなデータを収集、活用できる「TAKANAWA INNOVATION PLATFORM」を構築する。 KDDIの「WAKONX SmartCityソリューション」を採用し、街の設備や人に関するデータを収集・分析する基盤となる“都市OS”「TAKANAWA GATEWAY URBAN OS」により、データを活用したスマートシティを実現する。「一人一人の興味関心にあった情報のアプリへの配信」「状況に合わせて自律的に行動するロボットサービス」「街全体のリアルタイムデータから未来をシミュレーションするダッシュボード」などを提供するという。 具体的には、3月24日に配信を開始した街の独自アプリ「TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITYアプリ」や、さまざまなロボットを制御する「ロボットプラットフォーム」、鉄道の運行情報、セキュリティゲートの通過情報、防犯カメラの映像、「au」「Suica」の位置情報・属性情報・興味関心のデータ、防犯防災、イベント、商業、オフィスなど、異分野の膨大なデータを個人情報保護に配慮しながら融合、分析する。 提供するサービスの一例としては、4月11日にロボットによる「フードデリバリーサービス」を開始する。リアルタイムな街の混雑情報を防犯カメラデータから取得し、人の多いルートを避けて最短で商品を配送するという。 アプリでは、改札やゲート通過時に興味関心にあった情報の配信、状況に応じて生成AIが投稿内容を変化させるまちマップなどを提供する。3月30日まではダウンロードおよびSuicaを登録して高輪ゲートウェイ駅を出札すると「TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITYオリジナル仕様 前田珈琲のドリップコーヒーパック1点」をプレゼントするキャンペーンも実施中だ。 そのほか、リアルタイムの人流データなどから街の未来をシミュレーションするダッシュボードを運用し、イベントや災害時などに活用するという。 なお、ネットワーク環境はサービス追加や環境変化に対して柔軟に拡張・対応できるよう構築する。その上にさらに、高セキュリティ・高拡張性かつ災害に強いサーバー基盤を構築し、都市OSや各サービスのデータを安全に連携させるという。街と「au」のデータによるスマートシティを実現し、利用者に快適なサービスの提供を目指す。 KDDI ビジネス事業本部 プロダクト本部 スマートシティ事業開発部長の保科康弘氏は、「用途に合わせたセンサーを個別に設置する場合コスト面での課題が生じやすく、PoCや実証実験止まりになりやすい。例えば既存の防犯カメラシステムなど、元々あるものを別用途でも活用できるようチャレンジする。皆さんが気持ち悪くならないよう、丁寧に説明しながらやっていきたい」と話す。 100社以上が集うスタートアップ拠点も--「グローバルゲートウェイとして交流生み出す」 THE LINKPILLAR 1では、このほかにもさまざまな企業と共創する。例えば6・7階には、東京大学、NUS、博報堂、リバネス、ジェイアール東日本企画などを運営パートナーに迎えたスタートアップの支援拠点「TAKANAWA GATEWAY Link Scholars’ Hub（LiSH）」を設置する。国内外のスタートアップ100社以上と、アカデミア・アクセラレーター・ベンチャーキャピタルをかけ合わせ、100年先の心豊かな暮らしにつながるサービスを創出を目指す。 JR東日本 マーケティング本部 まちづくり部門 品川ユニット（次世代まちづくり創造）マネージャーの出川智之氏は、「江戸時代、高輪は海であり、江戸と日本各地の交流の玄関口だった。約150年前、日本初の鉄道開業時には、海上に堤を築き、海の上を鉄道が走った。日本の築城土木技術と西洋の機械美術が融合し、イノベーションを生み出した場所だ。このような交流とイノベーションの記憶を受け継ぎ、日本各地および世界への玄関口、グローバルゲートウェイとして交流を生み出していきたい」と、改めて命名意図を説明する。 「TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITYは、100年先を見据えた、心豊かな暮らしのための実験場でもある。この街に関わる多様な共創パートナーが持つアイデアやサービス、そして知を掛け合わせ、より良い未来に資する新たなソリューションを生み出し、国内外からのフィードバックを得て進化させ、多様な社会課題を解決しながら未来へと挑戦し続ける街でありたい。国内外のあらゆる人、文化、テクノロジーをつないで良い未来を創造し、地球も人も健康かつ街で生み出される活動がポジティブに貢献する『地球益』を目指す」と話した。 Amazonで現在開催中のセールを見る

Nintendo has begun offering its own news app, "Nintendo Today," for Android/iOS. Users will consolidate and distribute content such as software release dates, event information, the latest Nintendo news and manga. Anyone with a Nintendo account can use this app for free. The app plans to distribute videos and manga based on Nintendo characters, in addition to the latest information on Nintendo Switch 2 and compatible games. It also features an anime-style calendar based on series such as "Super Mario," "The Legend of Zelda," and "Animal Crossing," and allows you to manage scheduled release dates and events. You can also check the release dates of the next Nintendo Direct, the game, and even the schedule of in-game events. The latest information after the Switch 2 announcement event will also be available through the app. Once you download the app, first link it to your Nintendo account. After logging in, select the Nintendo series you're interested in, such as Mario, Zelda, Xenoblade, Wario, Pikmin, Metroid, Fire Emblem, or classical works, and a feed will be automatically generated to suit your preferences. The system allows you to enjoy a variety of content, including art and character information related to the work, as well as footage from the Legend of Zelda orchestra concert. It also has the ability to set widgets and wallpapers on the home screen. With the official announcement of the Switch 2 approaching April 2nd, there are many things to be curious about, such as which games will be released, when will pre-orders begin, and how much the price will be. In this context, Nintendo Today seems to be useful for keeping track of information. View current sales on Amazon Anker's mobile battery that can be plugged into an outlet and also used as a charger (check the price on Amazon)

締め切りに遅れる人間が自分以外にもいることを知って安心した。Linus Torvalds氏は次のように告白した。「3月23日、通常の日曜日午後のリリーススケジュールに沿って6.14をリリースしなかった理由について、説得力のある言い訳があるといいのだが、実際には、弁解の余地はない。単に私が無能だっただけだ。23日のリリースの間際になって何かが起きたわけでは決してない。私はマージウィンドウに備えるために、今回のリリースとは無関係な作業を処理していた。その過程で、6.14を実際にリリースすることを完全に忘れてしまっていた」 多少の遅れはあったが、「Linux 6.14」には、「Ubuntu 25.04」や「Fedora 42」など、間もなく登場予定のLinuxディストリビューションを強化する最先端の機能と改善が多数含まれている。 デスクトップユーザーにとってのビッグニュースは、改善された「NTSYNC」ドライバーである。Linuxで「Windows」ゲームをプレイしたり、「Windows」プログラムを実行したりしたいユーザーにとっては、特に重要な機能だ。このドライバーは、「Windows NT」の同期プリミティブをエミュレートするように設計されている。この機能によって、「Wine」や「Steam Play」で実行されるWindowsプログラムのパフォーマンスが大幅に向上する、ということを知っておけば大丈夫だろう。 Linuxゲーマーはこのリリースを心待ちにしていた。「YouTube」にLinux関連の動画を投稿しているGardiner Bryant氏は、「NTSYNCによって、Linuxのゲームは永遠に変わるだろう」と宣言した。Redditでは、ある投稿者が次のように述べた。「NTSYNCはすべての要件を満たしている。高速性、ポータビリティー、強力な性能、正確性を備えている。正確性は、『futex/futex2』インターフェースの応急処置や繰り返しを試みるのではなく、Windows風の同期セマンティクスをカーネルモジュールに実装することで実現された」 ゲーマーは常に最高のグラフィックスパフォーマンスを求めるので、Linuxが先ごろ発売されたAdvanced Micro Devices（AMD）の「RDNA 4」グラフィックスカードのサポートを追加したことも歓迎するはずだ。このアプローチには、AMDの「Radeon RX 9070 XT」および「Radeon RX 9070」グラフィックスカードのサポートが含まれる。このサポートと先ごろ改善されたオープンソースの「RADV」ドライバーの相乗効果により、AMDゲーマーはゲームをプレイするマシンで過去最高の速度を体験できるはずだ。 もちろん、このリリースはゲーマーだけを対象としているわけではない。Linux 6.14には、AMDとIntelのプロセッサー関連の機能強化もいくつか含まれている。例えば、電力管理、熱制御、コンピューティングパフォーマンスの最適化などの機能強化が施されている。これらのアップデートにより、システム全体の効率とパフォーマンスが向上するはずだ。 このリリースには、「AMD XDNA」ドライバーも含まれている。このドライバーは、「XDNA」アーキテクチャーをベースとするAMDのNPUの公式サポートを提供する。これにより、サポート対象のAMDハードウェア上で直接、畳み込みニューラルネットワーク（CNN）や大規模言語モデル（LLM）などのAIワークロードを効率的に実行することが可能になる。 「Rust」はこの数カ月、Linuxでいくつかの問題に直面しているが、Linux 6.14では、Rustプログラミング言語の抽象化がさらに進んでおり、Rustで記述されたドライバーを提供する準備が整った。Linuxの安定版カーネルのメンテナーであるGreg Kroah-Hartman氏は先ごろ、次のように述べた。「RustのさまざまなドライバーバインディングとRustのその他の変更により、さまざまなドライバーが実際に可能になった。これが転換点になると思う。これらのバインディングが登場したことで、今後、さらに多くのRustドライバーが登場するだろう」 ドライバーのほかにも、「Rust for Linux」の主任開発者のMiguel Ojeda氏は先ごろ、「Rust 1.84: derive」（「CoercePointee」）でスマートポインターのマクロが導入されたことについて、「安定したRust関数のみを使用するカーネルの構築プロセスにおける重要なマイルストーン」だと述べた。このアプローチにより、「C」とRustのコードの統合も容易になる。われわれは、RustのLinuxへの移植という目標にかなり近づいている。 さらに、Linux 6.14はQualcommの最新の「Snapdragon 8 Elite」モバイルプロセッサーもサポートしており、このチップセットを搭載したデバイスのパフォーマンスと安定性が向上している。このサポートにより、2025年中に極めて高速な「Android」ベースのスマートフォンが登場するはずだ。 Linux 6.14には、いわゆる「GhostWrite」脆弱（ぜいじゃく）性を修正するパッチが含まれている。この脆弱性が悪用されると、一部の「RISC-V」プロセッサーがルート化されるおそれがある。今回の修正により、そのような攻撃がブロックされる。 さらに、Linux 6.14には、コピーオンライトの「Btrfs」ファイルシステム／論理ボリュームマネージャーの改善も含まれている。これらの読み取り分散方法は、さまざまなRAIDハードウェアの構成とワークロードに柔軟性を提供する。さらに、キャッシュされていないバッファーI/Oのサポートにより、高速ストレージデバイスを備えたシステムでのメモリー使用が最適化される。 簡潔に言うと、Linux 6.14はLinuxの進化における大きな前進であり、ゲーム愛好家からAI研究者、開発者まで、さまざまなユーザーのニーズに対応した強力な機能セットを提供する。リリースが少し遅れたとはいえ、Linux 6.14のさまざまな機能強化のおかげで、多用途で先進的なプラットフォームとしてのLinuxの地位はより強固になった。 Linux 6.14を試してみたい人は、今すぐ実行に移すことが可能だ。Linux 6.14はすでにダウンロード公開されている。Torvalds氏によると、「保留中のプルリクエストが山積している」ので、「Linux 6.15」にはさらに多くの変更が施される見通しだという。

Microsoftは3月27日、東京・有明の東京ビッグサイトで、AIのワールドツアーイベント「Microsoft AI Tour－Tokyo」を開催した。基調講演には最高経営責任者（CEO）のSatya Nadella氏が登壇し、同社にとって日本がAI時代でも重要拠点だと位置付け、AIを中心とする投資を強化しているなどと語った。 Microsoft 最高経営責任者のSatya Nadella氏 Microsoft 最高経営責任者のSatya Nadella氏 Microsoftは、2025年に創業50周年を迎える。講演の冒頭でNadella氏は、「Microsoftにとって日本は本質的に重要な存在であり続けている」と切り出し、顧客、パートナーを含む「全ての皆さまに感謝を申し上げたい」と述べた。また、クライアント／サーバー、クラウド、そして現在のAIと、コンピューティングプラットフォームトレンドが大きく変遷する中でも日本の位置付けは同様だと話した。 同社は、2024年4月に日本を対象としてAIおよびデータセンターなどで2900億ドル規模の投資を行うと表明した。「Microsoft Research Asia Tokyo」の開設など既に幾つもの施策を実行しており、Nadella氏はこの投資に基づく取り組みを引き続き進めていくなどと説明。今回のイベントに合わせて新たに、4月中旬から「Microsoft Azure」データセンターの東日本／西日本リージョンでNVIDIA製GPUを含む「Azureハイパフォーマンスコンピューティング」（Azure HPC）を提供することを発表。国内企業・組織がAI処理を含むより高度な計算機資源サービスを利用できるようになるとアピールした。 Azureデータセンターの東日本／西日本リージョンでAI向けの提供リソースを大幅に強化するという Azureデータセンターの東日本／西日本リージョンでAI向けの提供リソースを大幅に強化するという AIのトレンドが生成AIやAIエージェントへと変化する中で、Nadella氏はAIエージェントが個人や企業・組織の生産的な活動に貢献する「エージェンティックな時代が到来しており、このテクノロジーにより世界のあらゆる個人や企業・組織をエンパワーさせるという（Microsoftの）ミッションの実現にフォーカスしている」と述べ、生成AIとAIエージェントが個人の生活から企業・組織のあらゆるビジネスの在り方や体験といったものを変革させていくとした。 ここで同社は、生成AIプラットフォームの「Copilot」「Copilot＆AI stack」「Copilot devices」の3つのプラットフォームアプローチを取っているとした。 まずCopilotは、AIのためのユーザーインターフェース（UI）になり、Nadella氏は日常的な利用やその体験が世界的に広がりつつあると強調。日本でも日経平均株価構成銘柄の「日経225」企業の85％がCopilotを導入済みだとも述べた。AIエージェントに高度で複雑なタスクを実行させる上でもCopilotは、UIとして大きな役割を担うとする。 また、Copilotアプリケーション基盤の「Copilot Studio」でもAIエージェントの作成、構築、運用管理などの機能を拡充し、大規模なAIエージェントの協働環境を実現可能とする。プラットフォームとしてのCopilotは、その“原動力”となるデータをMicrosoftの各種アプリケーションやサービスあるいはコネクターを介したサードパーティーのデータとも接続される。講演の舞台上でNadella氏は、米国時間25日に発表したばかりの新たなAIエージェントの「Researcher」と「Analyst」も披露して見せた。 新型AIエージェント「Researcher」のデモ。高度な調査スキルや専門性を持つ人材と同じようなことをAIエージェントが実行できるという 新型AIエージェント「Researcher」のデモ。高度な調査スキルや専門性を持つ人材と同じようなことをAIエージェントが実行できるという Copilot＆AI stackは、世界で展開する300以上のデータセンターの60以上のリージョンが根幹であり、Nadella氏は、シリコンレベル（半導体）からソフトウェアに至る広範なインフラ領域での投資と最適化によって、顧客に対する高性能なサービスと優れたコスト効率の価値を提供しているなどと説明。データ領域ではMicrosoftの各種データベースサービスや「Oracle Database」「Snowflake」などのエコシステムからなるプラットフォームがあり、AIアプリケーション領域では、1800以上の言語モデルとも接続可能な「Azure AI Foundry」を展開している。AIを活用するツール類も重要であり、例えば、開発プラットフォームの「GitHub」は、日本のユーザーが前年比23％増の355万人に到達したという。 Copilot devicesは、Copilot機能を容易に活用できるPCの「Copilot PC」といったデバイス領域になる。具体的にどのような製品が展開されているのかは未知数だが、Nadella氏はオフライン環境における高度なAI利用といった姿を提示した。ここでの実例が日本航空（JAL）の取り組みになる。 JALでは、航空機に搭乗する客室乗務員のレポート作成の負荷を低減するためにAIの活用を実証。レポート作成を支援するAIアプリケーションや小規模言語モデル（SLM）を開発し、ファインチューニングを重ねて正確性を向上させ、例えば、到着直後のレポート作成に要する時間を従前の40～50分から20分程度に短縮した。Nadella氏は、将来にこのようなことを航空機に搭載可能なデバイスで実現できるだろうとした。 最後にNadella氏は、AI時代では「信頼」の構築が大前提になると述べ、製品やサービスの構想段階から安全性を確立していく「セキュリティバイデザイン」をはじめとして、Microsoftのあらゆる取り組みでセキュリティを最優先に位置付けていると説明した。AIをセキュリティに活用する施策も拡大し、米国時間24日には「Security Copilot」の新機能として、サードパーティー連携を含む11種類のセキュリティAIエージェント群を発表している。 AI時代は「信頼の構築」が大前提とNadella氏 AI時代は「信頼の構築」が大前提とNadella氏 基調講演の後半では、日本マイクロソフト 代表取締役 社長の津坂美樹氏が司会役となり、顧客のAI事例として第一生命保険 代表取締役社長の隅野俊亮氏、ソフトバンク 専務執行役員の藤長国浩氏、東京都副都知事の宮坂学氏が取り組みを紹介した。 第一生命保険の隅野氏は、同社のAI活用の目的を業務効率化だけでなくビジネス価値の拡大などに置いているとし、生成AI関連で約50件のプロジェクトを展開中だという。営業担当者と保険代理店とのコミュニケーション活性化や提案力強化など多くの業務をAIが支援するシステムを開発中で、2026年4月の提供開始を目指しているとした。 ソフトバンクの藤長氏は、法人顧客への営業提案など多彩な業務でAIを活用中だと説明。生成AI／AIエージェントによる顧客対応でも高い顧客満足度を獲得しているし、個人契約者に対応するコールセンターでは約6000席のオペレーターブースを8割削減できるとした。 東京都の宮坂氏は、都庁全職員の業務基盤が「Microsoft 365」に移行し、AIで多くの業務効率化を図ることができるとコメント。例えば、ウェブや電話などで寄せられる毎日数万件規模で“都民の声”をAIで集約、分類することにより、都職員がより都民に寄り添えるようになったほか、Azureには都とのAI開発環境を内製により構築中。都下62区市町村が共同利用でき、自治体ごとに単独開発するような無駄をなくして、各自治体の成果を共有、活用できるようにしていくという。 津坂氏は、同社の日本でのAI関連投資を継続していると述べ、サイバーセキュリティ分野でのAI利用の知識とスキルを育成する新プログラム「CyberSmart AI」を同日から無償提供することも明らかにした。これは日本独自に開発したものといい、今国会で法制化審議中の能動的サイバー防御に関連して、政府機関と基幹インフラ事業者、公営企業などを対象としている。最新のサイバーセキュリティにおける攻撃と防御、サイバーレジリエンスとセキュリティオペレーションにおけるAI活用を体系的に習得できるとしている。

Recording thoughts and memories of animals is anything but easy. After all, you can't just tell us what's going on in your head. In addition, we humans like to interpret too much interpreting too much into the behavior of our pets - a classic is the famous case of "Clever Hans", a horse from the early 20th century, which apparently could calculate. Later it turned out: Hans only reacted to the unconscious signs of his owner. Since then, scientists have been trying to rule out exactly such effects. But despite all caution, it is becoming increasingly clear: dogs (and other animals) have amazing cognitive skills - also with regard to their memory. Two types of memory You have to differentiate between different forms of memory. The so -called semantic memory is responsible for facts and general knowledge - things like "seat" or "stay". Most mammals enclosed, trapped dogs, have this memory. However, the episodic memory is more exciting - reminding of personal experiences that we call it up as people every day. This kind of memory allows us to “play” individual moments again, such as the last walk in the park or the day on the beach. For a long time it was assumed that animals are unable to do so. But new studies raise doubts about this assumption. How dogs think - and remember The neuroscientist Gregory Berns from Emory University has been dealing with the question of how dogs think. In his opinion, dogs have the necessary brain structures for a form of episodic memory - especially through the so -called hippocampus, which works like a kind of "index" for memories. "Our memories are distributed all over the brain. The hippocampus calls them up and plays them again," explains Berns in an interview with Gizmodo. And since all mammals examined so far have such a hippocampus, there are some suggest that dogs can also process memories in this way. Dogs remember - even without training In a study from 2016, a Hungarian research team tested whether dogs can remember human actions. The four -legged friends watched their owners in an action, for example when typing on an umbrella, and should later be commanded "Do it!" Repeat - sometimes completely unexpected and without prior exercise. The result: The dogs were able to imitate the plot, although they were not specially trained on it. This clearly speaks for a form of episodic memory - at least in a weakened form. Another study by the same research group from 2020 went one step further: This time, the dogs should not repeat their own spontaneous actions on command. And that also succeeded - which indicates an amazingly complex self -image and memory. Limits of research - but clear tendencies Of course, such studies are often limited to small groups. And since dogs can't tell us anything, many details remain in the dark. However, the knowledge gathered suggests that the memory of dogs has much more in common with human memory than previously assumed. Rats that "go through" labyrinths in their sleep are now scientifically well documented. And as Berns says: "If this is possible with rats, dogs are sure to be the same." Memories that get under your skin In addition to science, there are of course countless emotional stories that show the long -term memory of dogs - such as the history of Hachiko, the legendary Akita in Japan. After the death of his owner Hidesaburo Ueno, Hachiko continued to wait every day at the Shibuya train station - for nine years until his own death. His loyalty became a legend and still makes him a national hero in Japan. Sure, dogs do not remember exactly like people - their memory span is often shorter, and complex processes are difficult to compare. But the bonds that we build with our dogs are anything but fleeting. Science now provides strong indications that our fur friends not only learn, but also remember - of us, together of shared experiences, of all the little moments that make our lives so special with them. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

An Oakland University research team in Michigan wanted to know more and asked more than 400 cat owners who had lost a pet in the past - an animal companion of the still living cat. The results were published in the Applied Animal Behavior Science journal and bring a breath of fresh air to the debate about the emotional depth of cats. The central knowledge: cats show similar changes in behavior like dogs after the loss of an animal friend. Some eat less, others sleep worse or seek - or avoid - increasingly contact with their human caregivers. Some cats even seem to be looking for the lost animal. The grief in cats who lived with the late animal or built a close bond with it was particularly pronounced. Dogs are also mourned It is exciting: about a third of the cats did not live with other cats, but with dogs. This shows that the bond is not limited to its own way. Whether cat or dog - the familiar animal dies, the remaining house tiger reacts noticeably. Sure, it is not very objective. The study is based on the owners' information - and there is always the possibility that people project their own emotions on the behavior of their pet. Anyone who mourned particularly strongly around the lost four -legged friend also assumed that the cat was sad. The researchers have also observed that. Nevertheless: It is only the second scientific study that deals with the topic of "cat mourning". So there is a lot to suggest that this behavior is real - even if even more data is necessary to clearly prove the connection. Animal grief is not an isolated case The fact that animals can mourn is not a new phenomenon - just so far little researched in cats. In dolphins, elephants and even orcas, it has already been observed how they mourn intensively for deceased group members. Particularly moving: Orca mothers who carry their dead calves' bodies through the water for days. Even dogs are often strikingly different after the death of a person or an animal friend - this is well documented by many studies. It is anything but absurd that cats join this behavior pattern. On the contrary: more and more research shows that cats are very well social beings with emotional depth - even if they do not always show it as openly as other animals. What that means for cat owners For people who live with several pets, the knowledge of the study could be important. For example, if you observe that the remaining cat becomes calmer after the loss of an animal, eats less or withdraws, you should take it seriously - and not simply dismiss as a "mood". Attention, patience and perhaps even targeted employment can help in this phase to help the animal over the grief. End with the cliché of the cold cat The idea that cats are distant loners is increasingly questioned by these and other studies. Of course, every cat is different - but to say that they cannot feel grief, they do not do justice to their emotional complexity. As the researchers write themselves, more examinations are needed to really understand whether and how cats mourn. But the clues are there - and they speak a clear language: cats are more than their cool facade. And yes, you can miss other animals. Maybe even more than we have believed to you so far. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

If you haven't cleaned your microwave for a long time, it could be a good time now. A recent study shows that these everyday devices not only house leftovers - but also hundreds of bacteria, including some that can be dangerous to our health. In the study, 30 microwaves were examined. The result: Almost 750 different bacterial species have been proven - everything was there from harmless to potentially. "Some of the bacterial genres found in household microdes such as Klebsiella, Enterococcus or Aeromonas can be a health risk," explains Daniel Torrent from the Spanish biotech company Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence SL, which was involved in the examination. "However, one has to say that the germs in microwaves are no higher risk than other surfaces in the kitchen." Germs with hospital potential An example: Klebsiella is a bacterium that usually occurs in the human intestine-according to the US disease protection authority CDC, it can also trigger severe pneumonia or blood infections. And that's not all: the germs are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, which makes it difficult to fight. Enterococcus and aeromonas are also considered potentially dangerous-they can cause urinary tract infections or gastrointestinal complaints, especially in people with a weakened immune system. Microwaves - death zone or feel -good zone for germs? One might think that nothing survives in a microwave - after all, food with concentrated radiation is heated. But this is exactly where the sticking point is: microwave radiation belongs to the category of non-ionizing radiation. This means that it can move molecules in motion (and thus generate heat), but do not damage any cells or DNA directly, such as UV or X-rays. According to the US food authority FDA, microorganisms in the microwave are not killed by radiation-but by the heat. And it is often only available where the food is. The interior of the microwave itself usually does not get so hot that germs would die there. Microwave is not the same as a microwave It is also interesting that not all microwaves have the same microbial colonization. The origin and use of the device plays a major role. The study showed that microwaves in private households or shared kitchens had other - and mostly less diverse - bacterial communities than devices in laboratories. "Our results show that household microcelles have a more 'metabolized' microbiome - comparable to other kitchen surfaces. Microwaves in laboratories, on the other hand, are more likely to be colonized by radiation -resistant bacteria," says Torrent. From the kitchen on the solar panel? A strange side aspect: According to the study, the microbiomas in laboratory gnowaves are surprisingly strong in solar panels. The researchers suspect that similar environmental conditions - such as electromagnetic radiation and constant temperature fluctuations - ensure that only particularly resistant microbes survive. In other words, what lives in the laboratory microwaves could also survive outside on a solar park. So quite tough stuff. Do I have to worry now? Before you warm up your chicken casserole this evening - don't panic. The researchers point out that microwaves can be an underestimated playground for germs, but: With regular cleaning, the problem can be put under control. Torrent recommends cleaning the microwave regularly with diluted bleach or a commercially available disinfectant spray - especially after cooking special or spilling -loving food. The best way to remove pollution should be removed before bacteria can spread. Conclusion: Your microwave is not a sterile place - on the contrary. But with a damp rag, some disinfectant and a little routine, it can be prevented from becoming a germ slingshot. If you clean regularly, you don't have to be afraid of Klebsiella or Aeromonas - and you can continue to "nuk" your dinner. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

During a special designer showcase at Shanghai’s Fashion week 2025, Disney put on a celebration of Toy Story designer duds to commemorate the Pixar movie turning 30. Yes, 30… we can’t believe it either. Also staggeringly out of this world are the looks that hit the runway inspired by the vintage toys featured in the film. The Disney Style account on Instagram shared the showcase, offering a look at pieces that made us go “Whooooaaahhhh” many, many times. From elevated cosplay-inspired outfits to minimalist motifs and brazenly bold deconstructions, you have to see how your beloved Pixar pals have been reimagined. Take a look at the gallery here featuring the works of Chinese designers and brands, including Bokh Xuesong, Chin Chin, JE CAI, LELALES, LI-NING, Manufacture, Nan Knits, PONDER.ER, Short Sentence, and ZOON9B00. : The Buzz Lightyear looks are definitely a slay in our io9 eyes, while the Western attire gets a little out there. The one with the glass case and Pixar logo beanie is giving Silicon Valley Al’s Online Toy Barn, if he were a tech bro toy flipper. It’s also fun to see the rest of the franchise get some love with pieces featuring Lotso, Forky, and Key and Peele’s Ducky and Bunny duo. Out of the outfits shown, I think I’d like to rock that Lightyear meets Clueless pleated shirt and jacket. Here’s a video with even more ridiculously ambitious looks:

Researchers from the University of Cologne have set off the chicxulub sauce-that is the name of the culprit, who at the time triggered the great dying. They analyzed samples from the crater and compared them with material from other types of impact that are between 36 and 470 million years old. They came across an extremely rare element: ruthenium. Ruthenium is a precious metal that occurs in tiny quantities in meteorites. The surprising thing: The composition was matched by the asteroid -rich asteroids that are in the so -called asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But the new study, published in Science, continues-it suspects that the dino killer originally comes from much further out in the solar system. And that Jupiter practically "pushed" him. Jupiter on a hike "It was a cosmic coincidence 66 million years ago," says Mario Fischer-Gödde, geochemist at the University of Cologne and the main author of the study, in an interview with Gizmodo. "We don't know exactly what triggered the impact, but it is very likely that the asteroid comes from the outer solar system." What sounds a bit far -fetched can be explained scientifically: About 4.5 billion years ago, the solar system was a wild place. Jupiter, today the fifth planet from the sun, moved significantly more at the time - first towards the sun, then back again. This hike through the young solar system had serious consequences: Due to its huge gravity, Jupiter threw some asteroids out of their stable orbits, including the chicxulub precursor. What Ruthenium tells us Fischer-Gödde and his team used a newly developed method to filter out ruthenium from rock samples. Because this rare metal can provide information on where a celestial body comes from. In the samples from the chicxulub crater, they found ruthenium isotopes, which indicate origin from the colder, further outside regions of the solar system. Why is that important? Asteroids in the inner solar system - closer to the sun - consist of metals and silicates and contain fewer volatile elements such as water or carbon. This is due to the higher temperatures during the development phase of the planets. In the outer solar system, on the other hand, it was cooler - there more carbon -containing celestial bodies with a higher content of ruthenium, hydrogen and other fleeting elements formed. A rare hit According to the researchers, the fact that such a chunk hit the earth is rather unlikely today. The solar system has stabilized - the times when planets and asteroids fly around wildly are over. "The good news is: there are no longer many objects that drive through our solar system without a plan," says Fischer-Gödde. "Everything is now quite stable - there is already a bigger disorder, such as a collision so that an asteroid comes back to the course." Next station: the moon The search for traces is far from over for Fischer-Gödde. Next he wants to turn to the moon. "The moon crust is an archive for impacts that affected both the moon and the earth," he explains. And if you want to know which heavenly bodies in the early days of the earth - that is, around 4 billion years ago - crash on our planet, you have to look there. So the next big discovery may already be waiting in the moon dust. And while we look into the sky dreamy at night, we shouldn't forget: Sometimes it only takes a single cosmic push - and the world as we know it is upside down. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

Plastic has long since been everywhere - in our seas, floors, animals ... and, as can now be seen, also deep in our heads. Researchers have found that an average of 0.48 % of the brain weight consists of microplastics. Yes, you read properly - almost half a percent of our thinking center consists of tiny plastic particles that are less than five millimeters. The study comes from a team around Matthew Campen, professor at the University of New Mexico. So far, it has not yet been officially checked by other scientists (Peer Review), but has already been published as a Preprint in the National Library of Medicine - and is already causing a conversation. "It's pretty worrying," Campen told Guardian. "There is significantly more plastic in our brains than I could ever have imagined or could wish for." Microplastics on the rise - especially in the brain Between 2016 and 2024, the researchers examined tissue samples from the liver, kidney and the frontal lobes of the brain-all taken from the state of New Mexico in the U.S. state. And they found that the microplastic content has increased in all organs, but the most dramatic increase in the brain. In 2024, the average plastic content in the brain tissue was 50 % higher than in 2016. Even more blatant: Seven to thirty times higher concentrations have been found in the brains than in the liver or kidney. This indicates that our brain not only gets microplasty, but also stores it. Plastic flood in the head - where does it all come from? The most frequently found material was polyethylene - a plastic that, among other things. in plastic bags and disposable bottles. According to the researchers, the results show that micro and nanoplasty is "selectively accumulated in the human brain- and that the concentration increases over time". By the way, it is not completely new that plastic can get into the brain. Previous studies had already discovered microparticles in the brain of fish - with striking behavioral changes as a result. The same thing now seems to become a reality in humans, only so far there have been no precise numbers. And what does that do with us? The possible consequences? Anything but harmless. Microplastics are suspected of triggering numerous health problems-from neurological disorders to DNA damage to organ dysfunction, metabolic problems and weakened immune defense. In a comprehensive evaluation of medical studies, microplastic particles were associated with chronic diseases. The researchers also point out that the increase in microplastics in the body with the growing number of Alzheimer's and dementia diagnoses coincides worldwide. There is still no direct connection here, but camping wonders: "How much plastic can our brain actually absorb without serious consequences?" We accept it every day - without realizing it Plastic now ends up with countless paths in our body: about drinking water (whether from the line or from bottles), via sugar, salt, honey, beer and even toothpaste. In addition, there are the invisible plastic particles in the air, which we simply inhale. So the recording is omnipresent - and hard to avoid. As if that weren't enough, new studies suggest that microplastics could even influence the weather - for example by changing cloud formation or reflecting on the radiation. Conclusion: plastic in the brain is not just a metaphor What used to sound like a flippant saying ("You have plastic in the brain!") Suddenly becomes bitter serious. Our modern throw -away society leaves not only traces in the environment, but also in the innermost of our body - in the literal and figurative sense. The current study does not yet provide final answers, but it sends a clear warning signal: microplastics is not a cosmetic problem, but one that could affect our health, our brains and possibly our behavior. And we should no longer ignore that. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

A few good stretching exercises a day could do more than we thought so far - at least when it comes to a new study. Researchers have found that middle -aged people who are more agile have a significantly lower probability of dying early. Flexibility not only seems to be something for yoga enthusiasts, but a real health boosters into old age. What the study shows exactly The investigation, which was published in the edition of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, illuminates a little -respected topic: the connection between flexibility and durability. Although flexibility has long been recommended as part of a balanced fitness program, there has so far hardly been any research on how this ability specifically affects our lifespan. In order to close this gap, the scientists have evaluated data from over 3,000 middle -aged Brazilians. These come from a long -term study called Clinimex Exercise Open Cohort, which has been running since 1994. The participants had to undergo regular health and fitness tests- including mobility tests on seven different joints. From this a so -called "flexindex" was created: the higher the value, the more flexible the body. More flexible = live longer? The result: If you had a high flex index, you lived longer on average. The researchers found that a low flex index was associated with a higher risk of death in both men and women - and quite clearly. Men with low mobility had almost twice as often the end of life as their more agile gender comrades. The difference in women was even more blatant: less flexible women died almost five times as often as particularly agile women. Important: Deaths related to Corona pandemic from 2020 were excluded from the analysis in order not to distort the result. "Our results underline how important flexibility is as part of health -related physical fitness," said the research. What does that mean for our everyday life? Even if the study cannot demonstrate a direct cause-effect context, the trend is clear: mobility is hand in hand with better life expectancy. And that also fits other scientific knowledge that regular movement improves our quality of life in old age and can even extend life. It is particularly exciting that, in contrast to many other physical requirements, flexibility can be trained in a targeted manner - for example through yoga, pilates or targeted stretching exercises. The researchers therefore encourage them to examine more precisely in the future whether training programs that aim at more mobility actually have an independent influence on life expectancy. Flexibility as part of the check-up? Another interesting point of the study: The authors ask the question of whether mobility should not be checked as routinely as blood pressure or cholesterol. After all, flexibility can be easily measured - and what it looks like could be an underestimated health indicator. Since our mobility subsides with increasing age, it would also make sense to explore in a targeted manner, whether exercises such as yoga or targeted stretching can help to stay physically and mentally fit - and therefore maybe even live longer. Better stretch than regret Whether in the office, on the yoga mat or after jogging - a little more stretching could have a greater effect in the long term than we thought so far. So if you work regularly on your mobility, you may not only invest in more well -being, but also in a longer life. And honestly: stretching a few minutes a day are more feasible than many other health measures. So maybe it is worth expanding the morning routine to expand a few stretch exercises-for more mobility, fewer visits to the doctor and maybe a few healthy years on top. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

For the first time in general we have a clear picture of how the distant planet of our solar system - Neptune - shines in a mysterious, bright appearance. The James-Webb-Wirraum Telescope has made spectacular recordings that show directly: Neptune also has a nurse-and quite impressive. With its highly sensitive near infrared spectrographer, the WebB telescope was able to capture light signatures that had previously escaped the scientists. Since the Voyager 2 mission in 1989 there has been vague indications of auroral activity on Neptune, but only now is the first tangible evidence. "We owe only the infrared sensitivity of WebB that we could make these northern lights visible at all," explains Henrik Melin, researcher at Northumbria University and the main author of the new study, which has been published in Nature Astronomy. "It was overwhelming - not only to see the Northern Lights, but to recognize them in such incredible clarity." A cold giant with a bright secret Neptune is about 4.8 billion kilometers from the sun - a journey to the extreme end of the solar system. So far, only one spacecraft has ever been there: Voyager 2, which in 1989 delivered spectacular pictures of Neptun's atmosphere, wrestling and moons. Even then, the first indications of magnetically produced light games - so -called Northern Lights, which arise when invited particles hit the upper atmosphere of a planet. As early as the 1970s, the NASA missions Pioneer and Voyager collected the first indications of the Polar lights at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But so far there has been no clear evidence for Neptune - until now. With the new webb data, the last piece of the puzzle is finally here: Now we have a complete picture of the Northern Lights on all gas and ice giants of our system. More than just beautiful: Neptuns magnetic field gives up puzzles The data was collected in June 2023, originally with the aim of analyzing the chemical composition and temperature of the upper atmospheric layers. But the researchers discovered something unexpected: Neptuns Northern Lights behave differently than those on other planets. They not only appear on the Poles - as with Earth, Jupiter or Saturn - but also appear from the middle geographical latitudes. In earthly standards, that would be where South America is. The reason for this lies in the strange magnetic field of the planet. Neptuns magnetic field is over 47 degrees compared to its axis of rotation. That is why the invited particles do not meet the atmosphere at the poles, but further south or north of the middle. A real curiosity under the planet. "If we plan missions to Uranus and Neptune in the future, it will be extremely important to have instruments on board that are specially tailored to infrared light," says Leigh Fletcher, planetary researcher at the University of Leicester and co -author of the study. "Thanks to WebB, we finally have an insight into the previously hidden ionosphere of the external planets." A window to the hidden world The new recordings of the WebB telescope not only open up a scientific milestone-they are also a visual hit. The Northern Lights on Neptune show themselves as bright, detailed structures in infrared, which are amazed at experienced researchers. And it is more than a nice snapshot from space: This discovery provides important indications of how magnetic fields and atmospheres work in extreme conditions - far from the warm, sun -drenched zones of our system. So Neptune remains a fascinating outsider. Now, with his newly unveiled light, the distance gives is getting a completely new dimension - bright, mysterious and finally a piece of tangible. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

These aren’t the unicorns you’re used to in fantasy tales, these are fearsome beasts—because of course they would be, in a movie from A24. Death of a Unicorn brings the laughs as a darkly hilarious creature feature, but it also sharply eviscerates everyday conflicts stirred up by capitalism. Paul Rudd stars as Elliot, a single father trying to move up the ladder with his terminally sick employer Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), who is on his deathbed trying to stave off death with the best medicines in existence to no avail. The Leopold family invites Elliot and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) to spend a weekend in their secluded mansion in the woods in order to determine if Elliot has what it takes to be the financial handler for the family estate once Odell kicks the bucket. But in particular, they want to meet his family in order to see if he’s fit to take care of the surviving Leopolds. Death of a Unicorn takes a turn when Elliot runs over a baby unicorn on the way to the Leopold’s mansion. It’s moment that comes amid family drama played fantastically between father and daughter, contrasting Elliot’s earnest cluelessness with Ridley’s deadpan. Rudd and Ortega’s characters are perfect foils for each other—though both are feeling deep inner conflicts over the loss of Ridley’s mom—and it all comes to a head when they hit the unicorn. Director Alex Scharfman really channels both actors’ strengths in order to anchor such a silly premise to get us on board, and the results are comedy gold. Things escalate once they get to the Leopold estate with the dead unicorn in the trunk of their car. A farce ensues when the duo try to hide it, and it’s here Death of a Unicorn really starts to show its bite, as the Leopolds put on their caring 1% show to try to connect with Ridley and Elliot. Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold and Will Poulter as Shepard Leopold absolutely nail the elitist left mother and tech-bro son archetypes that are rampant on reality shows and the internet to a tee. Comedic fan faves Anthony Carrigan (Barry), Sunita Mani (Spirited), Steve Park (Mickey 17), and Jessica Hynes (Spaced) round out the ensemble, and they deliver on a level that I don’t think any other cast could have really pulled off. Once the Leopolds discover the healing properties of the baby unicorn’s blood, it’s masks off for the rich folks who decide to harvest it. Odell wants it replicated, his wife wants the notoriety, and Shepard—well, he wants to fashion it into a designer drug, much to Ridley’s horror. As the voice of reason, her attempts to appeal to her father to get the baby unicorn away from them fall on deaf ears; the potentially world-changing properties of one drained baby unicorn don’t outweigh her father’s determination to get them out of the rut they’re in. It’s a tale as old as time, and Scharfman cleverly reimagines class commentary that could have happened anytime in a sharp satire of today’s societal struggles against the tone-deaf rich. The unicorn is overly scrutinized for ways to monetize it to, the point where the powerful creature’s existence should have served as a warning. Much like Knives Out, where the interests of those in power stomp all over the sensible thing to do, a looming threat arrives out of the woods, and it’s one that cannot be defeated by humankind, no matter how much money goes into throwing violence at it. With all the build up of how terrible some of these people are, the moment things take a turn into a gratuitously joyful bloodbath, it’s so just so fun and cathartic to watch, a genre mashup that feels like a riff on a Christopher Guest-esque ensemble piece, an Amblin fantasy, and a straight-up John Carpenter creature feature. All the film’s actors work in every genre, and apparently so do unicorns—which, by the way, are both hilarious and viciously scary in a way I truly didn’t know I needed. Death of a Unicorn hits theaters March 28.

In Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest move seemingly targeting the famed studio’s cinema history, one of the original homes of the Looney Tunes is set to be demolished. This, coming right off the new regime’s scrubbing of the cartoons off the platform, is certainly not a good look. It’s also bummer news in the aftermath of the studio’s mishandling of Coyote vs. Acme, which is currently still shelved but may find new life with Ketchup Entertainment, which recently distributed Warner Bros. Animation’s critically acclaimed and certified fresh on RT The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. The majority of the studio’s classic animated shorts are currently streaming not on Max… but on Roku. According to Deadline’s report, it sure seems like it’s the end of the building once lovingly referred to as Termite Terrace; as the trade reports, “Building 131 will be torn down to create more base camp space for the myriad HBO shows that are shooting on the lot.” It’s truly a damn shame and sad day for fans of animation history. The building and its role in Looney Tunes history gets a shout-out on the WB Studio Tour as the tram passes by; visitors are told it’s the cartoons’ original home and that it currently houses production offices of TV shows. Make that soon to be past-tense: “The nondescript building, which is located in the far corner of the lot off of Forest Lawn Drive, will not be replaced,” Deadline writes. Its not entirely surprising that Building 131 is being discarded despite its significance to animation history, much like the Cartoon Network building in Burbank which was sold not long ago. The one-level bungalow building’s nickname, Termite Terrace, came from animators who worked in it; at one time, a termite infestation left many Looney Tunes cartoon short cels smeared with termite outlines. The name stuck because it suited the chaotic energy of creating the antics of the Tunes for its makers. It also served as the the main hub for the Friz Freleng era of the Looney Tunes cartoons, and is the exact location where related productions such as The Bugs Bunny Show (1960) were originally made. It was also the place where Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones made his last short, “From Hare to Eternity,” according to Looney Tunes history platform Of Course You Realize This Means Podcast (full disclosure: my partner is the producer and host). For the studio’s mascot figures it appears the brass is only pushing Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and the rest of the Tunes‘ likenesses for merchandising interests only. In an odd twist, the second half of Steven Spielberg and Amblin’s Tiny Toons: Looniversity season two was added to Max this week after an erratic prior release schedule. Upcoming projects based on the the Looney Tunes universe IP haven’t been announced. io9 reached out to Warner Bros. for comment about Building 131 being targeted for demolition, and will update this post if we hear back.

Neanderthals and modern people may be closely related, but they separated from a common ancestor about 500,000 to 650,000 years ago - and have since been evolved in completely different directions. One of the most striking differences? The faces. Neanderthals had larger, more striking facial features, while our today's faces seem rather petite in comparison. Paleoanthropology has long dealt with why this is so. Now a new study finally brings light into the dark - at least partially. In an investigation published on Monday in the Journal of Human Evolution, an international research team shows: Our faces stop growing much earlier than that of the Neanderthals. And: Bone formation around cheeks and nose was much more pronounced among Neanderthals. The knowledge does not directly provide the "why" behind the different facial forms, but explains the "how" - and emphasizes a unique development path of the modern man. "Our results show that a change in development-especially in late growth phases-has led to smaller faces," explains Alexandra Schuh, first author of the study and postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. "In contrast to Neanderthals and chimpanzees, whose facial growth lasts longer, it stops in modern people in youth - which leads to a smaller adult face." Neanderthal faces grow longer-and more In order to precisely analyze the differences, the research team compared the skulls of a total of 128 modern people, 13 neanderthals and 33 chimpanzees. They not only observed changes in the face shape, but also the activity of the bone -forming cells across the lifespan. The results speak for themselves: The middle facial areas (i.e. the area between the eyes and mouth) are already greater at Neanderthals at birth - and then continue to grow significantly longer. This extended growth phase leads to its characteristically emerging facial structure. Especially in childhood and youth, the Neanderthal face experiences a real growth thrust. In contrast, our faces usually reach their final size in puberty. The result: a smaller, finer medium view area. And while chimpanzees have their own growth patterns that differ from each other, they are more similar to the Neanderthals on this point. "The former growth end is a really unique feature of our species," Schuh told Live Science. "We have identified a development profile that occurs exclusively at Homo Sapiens." Microscopic information: less bone conversion, less grow The difference can also be seen on the microscopic level: In modern humans, the so -called bone absorption - i.e. the natural breakdown of bone tissue - is reduced. This process is part of lifelong bone conversion, in which old tissue is dismantled and replaced by new ones. Less absorption also means less activity in bone formation - which in turn leads to an earlier growth stop. In the case of Neanderthals, on the other hand, bone structure - especially below the eyes and around the nose - was much more active. Combined with a faster growth pace, this explains the striking size of your middle face. Schimpansen, on the other hand, showed a very own bone growth in the region around their striking corner teeth, which differed from both people and Neanderthals. Why do we look like this? The debate continues What the study explains: How we got to our faces. But the question of why remains open. Some researchers suspect that changing nutrition or the development of language could have played a role. Others represent the so-called "self-domestic hypothesis"-the idea that modern people have consciously or unconsciously bred himself in a more peaceful, more social direction through cultural change. "The refinement of the face in modern people could be related to behavior changes, such as increased social cooperation or less aggression," explains Sarah Freidline, co -author of the study and biological anthropologist at the University of Central Florida, to anthropology.net. We are the evolutionary exception It is another evidence of how unique our species in the animal kingdom is. Even compared to our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, we show clear differences that are deeply anchored in our development history. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

is a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge. Nintendo has revealed something new about Switch 2 games on a day it wasn’t planning to talk about the new system. After today’s Nintendo Direct stream, the company revealed the existence of “Switch 2 Edition” games on its webpage about the new Virtual Game Card lending system, VGC reports. The Virtual Game Card system launching next month lets you share your digital games between family members, giving the games similar benefits to physical cartridges that you could already swap between systems. However, Nintendo’s fine print gives away something else (emphasis ours): Compatible systems must be linked to a Nintendo Account to use virtual game cards. Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games can only be loaded on a Nintendo Switch 2 system. It’s no surprise that Nintendo Switch 2-specific titles won’t work on older systems; however, this mention of “Switch 2 Edition” games gives insight into Nintendo’s plans to differentiate original Switch and (likely graphically enhanced) Switch 2 titles of the same name Although Nintendo says Switch 2 will have backward compatibility with older titles, it’s unclear exactly what Nintendo has planned here. Nintendo could follow PlayStation and Microsoft, where PS4 games could get upgraded to “PS5 Enhanced” versions, and the Smart Delivery system downloads system-specific versions depending on if you’re using Xbox One or Series X / S. Or it could have separate enhanced” versions of games that work better on the Switch 2 and are sold separately. We won’t have to wait long to find out how “Nintendo Switch 2 Edition” games really work, as the company’s Switch 2 Direct presentation is happening on April 2nd.

A new billion-dollar deal about an ambitious nuclear fusion power plant called Xinghuo causes a sensation worldwide. Goal: Clean energy from the fusion and division - and all of this before the end of the decade. According to the South China Morning Post, the gigantic project is being built on the Yaohu Science Island in the heart of China. Cost: a whopping $ 27.6 billion. Xinghuo (which means "Funke" in German) combines two technologies: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission - a hybrid approach that could raise energy efficiency to a completely new level. What is behind the fusion and fission? In the core fusion, two light atomic nuclei merge into a more difficult - a process in which gigantic amounts of energy are released. This is exactly what happens in the sun. The problem: On earth, technology has not yet been efficient enough to generate more energy than it consumes. Nuclear fission, on the other hand, is the technology that we already use in nuclear power plants: a heavy atomic nucleus is split, which is released - but also radioactive waste. The big dream of research is a clean, safe and profitable fusion energy - but so far without an economically usable breakthrough. China reaches for the stars The Xinghuo project is by no means China's only move towards merger. As early as 2025, the so -called "artificial sun reactor" East (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) made headlines. He managed to keep a highly connected plasma stable over 1,066 seconds - world record! The previous one was "only" 403 seconds. A lot is happening internationally: the National Ignition Facility of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 2022 achieved a real milestone in the United States. The researchers were able to gain more energy for the first time in a merger than they had put in - at least in relation to the direct reaction (but not on the total energy consumption of the system). Nevertheless: a historical step that could be repeated in 2023. Ambitious goal: Q> 30 The really spectacular to Xinghuo: The reactor is supposed to achieve a so-called Q value of over 30. The explanation: Q stands for the ratio between generated fusion energy and the energy used. For comparison: The worldwide mega project iter in southern France is aiming for a Q value of 10. And the previous record of the Americans was just 1.5. If China achieved this goal, it would be a technological quantum leap. Important to know: Xinghuo is not a pure fusion reactor, but a fusion conductor combination. This could help overcome the existing limits of pure fusion - at least in the transition period. Europe stays tuned - behind Europe also continues to research. The British Jet Tokamak achieved a new record in 2023 with 69.26 megajoules-more than the 59 megajoules of the US test. Although this still didn't mean a net energy gain, it shows that the race for the energy of the future is fully underway. Next Steps Xinghuo is currently undergoing an environmental impact assessment, which, according to media reports, should be completed by the end of the year. After that, the construction could really take speed - with the ambitious goal of being ready for use by 2030. Conclusion: The eternal dream becomes more tangible As early as 2021, scientists told Gizmodo that the nuclear fusion felt like a branch for Tantalus - always within reach, but never really accessible. But what sounded like science fiction for a long time could now become a reality. With Xinghuo, China is making a clear sign: The race for the energy of the future has long since started - and it is more exciting than ever. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Franco Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

Well, there you have it folks. After months of uncertainty over share price falls, major game delays and squabbles with investors, Ubisoft have opened up a new subsidiary to look after their biggest-selling Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry games, with Tencent chucking in a whopping €1.16 billion - meaning that the latter will have a 25% stake in the new spin-off business when all is said and done. Ubisoft's board have been publicly weighing up a major transaction of some kind since January, with Tencent and the company's founding Guillemot brothers tipped to be in cahoots. The deal announced today is essentially about carving out the parts of Ubisoft's business that make the most money, with Tencent pouring cash into those bits rather than other, less prosperous series such as Ghost Recon and Prince Of Persia. The subsidiary will serve as the main business unit for all Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry development teams based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia. The press release announcing the new subsidiary adds that Tencent's investment will "strengthen Ubisoft’s balance sheet by significantly reducing their consolidated net debt position," something the developer has struggled with after a string of flops like XDefiant and Skull and Bones. But how will the relationship between Ubisoft and this new spin-off entity work? According to the release, the subsidiary will have a "dedicated and autonomous leadership team", but it'll still report up to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, which leaves things fuzzy. The release is equally vague about how all this could affect the direction of future Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six games. It claims the new subsidiary will "drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features." As for the parts of Ubisoft that aren't part of the subsidiary, there's talk of "accelerating the growth of top performing titles and leveraging disruptive technologies on selected new IPs, while continuing to deliver state-of-the-art production game engines and online services." Again, all very open-ended for the moment. Only time will tell whether all this will pay off for Ubisoft and Tencent, but Ubisoft's latest Assassin's Creed, at least, has been a big hit since it launched last week, attracting over three million players. I imagine between that and the Tencent deal, Ubisoft management will be sleeping a little easier tonight.

A number of top Trump administration officials—including four who were on a now-infamous Signal group chat—appear to have Venmo accounts that have been leaking data, including contacts and in some cases transactions, to the public. Experts say this is a potentially serious counterintelligence problem that could allow foreign intelligence services to gain insight into a target’s social network or even identify individuals who could be paid or coerced to act against them. The officials in question include Dan Katz, chief of staff at the US Treasury; Joe Kent, President Trump’s nominee for director of the National Counterterrorism Center; and Mike Needham, counselor and chief of staff to the secretary of state. All three were participants in the “Houthi PC small group” chat in which sensitive attack plans were discussed and to which Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally invited. Katz was named in it as a point of contact by Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary; Kent by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to whom Kent serves as acting chief of staff; and Needham by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. A fourth official with an open Venmo account—Brian McCormack, a senior staffer on the National Security Council—also appears to have been in the chat, in which a user with the screen name “Brian” lists McCormack as a point of contact for the NSC. His account went private after WIRED reached out to the NSC for comment. (“Mr. McCormack has made necessary Venmo updates for his personal privacy protection,” says NSC spokesperson James Hewitt.) Morgan Ortagus, a former Fox News personality and deputy to Steve Witkoff—Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, who was himself in the chat—also appears to have left Venmo data exposed. WIRED established that the accounts are almost certainly those of the government officials in question by analyzing the other accounts they were connected to, which in the cases of Katz, Kent, and Needham included accounts appearing to belong to their spouses. The Treasury Department, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Some of the information revealed by the accounts is quite granular. McCormack and the accounts that appear to belong to Katz and Ortagus, for example, left not only their contact lists publicly visible but also their transactions, which are as recent as last autumn. These records reveal specific information like a 2018 payment from Katz with a note consisting solely of an eggplant emoji and how much he paid an overnight cat sitter in 2019. They also reveal McCormack’s contributions to what appears to be a get-together for veterans of the Bush-Cheney administration (“Cheney team reunion! Thank you!!”), who has reimbursed Ortagus for picnic expenses, and Kent’s connection to noted conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself “the secretary of retribution” and once created a deep state target list. WIRED has previously reported on the partially public Venmo accounts of several of the high-ranking officials in the Houthi PC chat, including Vice President JD Vance; Mike Waltz, the national security adviser; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. Waltz and Wiles set their accounts to private only after WIRED reached out to the White House for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered Trump administration officials to preserve communications from the messaging application Signal that featured in the recent scandal stemming from officials’ discussing military operations in a group chat that included a journalist who wasn’t supposed to be there. After a hearing Thursday, the judge issued an order stating that government defendants “shall promptly make best efforts to preserve all Signal communications from March 11-15, 2025.” It further said the defendants need to file a status report by Monday detailing the steps they’ve taken to preserve those messages. Watchdog group American Oversight sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials following the publication on Monday of a shocking report about the chat. The communications occurred over Signal, which can be set up to delete messages automatically. American Oversight’s lawsuit seeks to “prevent the unlawful destruction of federal records and to compel Defendants to fulfill their legal obligations to preserve and recover federal records created through unauthorized use of Signal for sensitive national security decision-making,” according to the group’s legal complaint filed Tuesday. The group moved for a temporary restraining order, asking Boasberg to order Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “immediately desist from unlawfully destroying federal records in violation of the Federal Records Act.” More specifically, the group asked Boasberg to order that officials: (a) take steps to ensure the preservation of any federal records that were created between March 11 and March 15, 2025, regarding and including any messages that are or were contained in “the Signal chat,” as referenced in the Complaint ... ; (b) ... initiate action through the Attorney General for the recovery of any destroyed federal records that were created between March 11 and March 15, 2025, regarding and including any messages that are or were contained in “the Signal chat,” as referenced in the Complaint ... and (c) take steps to confirm that the use of any electronic messaging applications with an auto-delete function by any Defendant individually or within their respective agencies, including Signal, complies with all requirements of the Federal Records Act ... and the related rules and regulations of their respective agencies. Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the government defendants argued in a memo that the group’s claim that officials failed to take measures to prevent the destruction of Signal messages “is not reviewable.” They also argued that a restraining order is unnecessary “because the Defendant agencies are already taking steps to locate and preserve the Signal chat at issue, and at least one agency has already located, preserved, and copied into a federal record keeping system a partial version of the chat.” Before being assigned to preside over this case, Boasberg was already handling another high-profile national security-related matter, over the administration’s deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. Boasberg, the chief federal trial judge in Washington, D.C., issued temporary restraining orders in that case and raised questions about whether officials had violated his orders. Litigation in that case is continuing after a divided federal appeals court panel declined to upend Boasberg’s restraining orders. President Donald Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment after he ruled against the administration in the deportation litigation, which led Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public statement stressing that the proper response to an adverse ruling is an appeal, not an impeachment. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission who were fired earlier this month by President Donald Trump without a specific cause, are suing Donald Trump and FTC leadership over their oustings. The lawsuit sets up a potential showdown regarding presidential authority as it relates to independent agencies. Slaughter and Bedoya, who are represented by the nonprofit anti-authoritarian organization Protect Democracy, are seeking back pay and reinstatement to their role on the commission. But more than that, they are hoping to successfully defend Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling that affirmed FTC commissioners could not be removed at will by the president. Bedoya told Gizmodo that he received the email informing him of his firing while he was at his daughter’s gymnastics class. “What’s extraordinary about that is that there was no cause given,” he said. FTC statute, which was upheld by the Supreme Court back in 1935, states that commissioners can only be dismissed by the president for one of three reasons: inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. None of those were provided in the dismissal of Bedoya or Slaughter. Instead, the termination letters stated the commissioners’ service at the FTC was “inconsistent” with the Trump administration’s priorities. Part of the reason for that decision by the Trump administration may be to challenge the ruling in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which could open the door for the at-will removal of other commissioners on agencies that were designed to operate independently. “By firing the commissioners, the President is engaging in an illegal attempt to strip Congress of its power. If accepted, any future President, whether Republican or Democrat, could wield these powers to punish enemies and reward friends,” Jared Davidson, counsel at Protect Democracy, told Gizmodo. “The consequences are not abstract. They are not theoretical.” Davidson explained that the FTC is part of a constellation of independent agencies created by Congress, all designed in a similar fashion with similar removal protections that, in theory, should insulate commissioners from being removed without cause. Bedoya said that it didn’t occur to him at first that the aim of the administration in firing him and Slaughter may exceed just the president’s control over the FTC. Humphrey’s Executor applies specifically to the FTC, so attacking the protections of the commissioners serves as a logical entry point for challenging the law. But it has implications beyond the agency. “Here’s the key thing, though. It’s not just us that have this language,” Bedoya said. “If the President can break this 90-year-old norm in the American legal system, that doesn’t just matter to us [at the FTC]. It matters to the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, any number of other agencies.” “That’s when I realized they’re not just trying to remove us. They’re trying to break precedent for everyone,” he said. As Davidson pointed out, it has implications for the Federal Reserve and other agencies, too. “If the president’s logic is accepted and he is able to fire members of the FTC at will, there is no principle basis for distinguishing the Federal Reserve whatsoever,” Davidson said. “It opens the floodgates for the president to be able to fire commissioners who historically have exercised insulation and independence.” In the case of the Fed, Davidson said, “The president will be able to directly control monetary policy in ways that may have short-term political benefits for the president but have long-term devastating consequences for the American people.” Project 2025, the political playbook put together by the conservative Heritage Foundation to serve as a guide for the next Republican administration to consolidate executive power, explicitly calls out Humphrey’s Executor as a precedent worth challenging. “The next conservative Administration should formally take the position that Humphrey’s Executor violates the Constitution’s separation of powers,” the document states, describing the law as “ripe for revisiting—and perhaps sooner than later.” The Trump administration has removed other appointees at agencies—including a member of the National Labor Relations Board, who was eventually reinstated after the Trump administration’s actions were struck down as unlawful by a federal judge, though the Trump administration has appealed the decision. But the firing of the FTC commissioners is the most direct attack on Humphrey’s Executor yet, and it seems the intent of the Trump administration is to get the Supreme Court to revisit the protections granted by the law. It will likely have at least a couple of sympathetic justices should its challenge reach the highest court. In a 2020 decision related to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion, “The decision in Humphrey’s Executor poses a direct threat to our constitutional structure and, as a result, the liberty of the American people.” Justice Neil Gorsuch joined that opinion. In the meantime, the FTC, one of the agencies at the forefront of consumer protection, is hampered in some of what it can do—and extremely slanted in the actions that it can still take. There are currently only two commissioners sitting on the board, which usually consists of five: Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, both Republicans. Bedoya warned that the remaining commissioners could choose to end cases that the agency was previously pursuing, including examining privacy rules that apply to Meta and challenging how Amazon treats small businesses that operate on its platform. More importantly, Bedoya says, is the fact that his firing—should it stand—opens up the possibility that the President could effectively decide the outcome of these cases instead of the FTC. “In a world where any of us can be removed for any reason at any time, it doesn’t matter what commissioners think,” he explained. “They can obey and stay or they can not and see what happens to them.”

It took TSMC around five years to build the first module of its Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona, from groundbreaking to production start. This is significantly longer than the company takes to construct a fab in Taiwan. But now that TSMC's executives in the U.S. have learned how to build fabs in America, the world's No. 1 contract chipmaker plans to build its U.S. production facilities at a pace comparable to one it has in Taiwan (about two years), reports Nikkei. As always, there are a couple of caveats. Building Fab 21 module 1 took nearly five years due to labor issues, soaring costs, and cultural barriers. However, now that all the potential construction bottlenecks and reliable contractors have been identified, it should be easier and faster for TSMC to build new Fab 21 modules at a pace closer to its usual two-year timeline in Taiwan. TSMC has not officially confirmed whether it will match its domestic build speed in the U.S. However, Nikkei says the company plans to start constructing its third fab in the U.S. — Fab 21 module 3 — this year. "After a painful learning curve, we have finally connected most of the dots and know which local construction contractors we can work with in building new plants," a TSMC executive told Nikkei. Currently, the company is finishing equipment installation into its Fab 21 module 1 and then plans to move tools into its Fab 21 module 2 once its construction is complete. TSMC expects to start trial production of chips using its 3nm-class process technologies (N3B, N3E, N3P, N3X, etc.) at Fab 21 module 2 sometime in 2026 and then initiate high-volume manufacturing there by 2028, just as planned. Now, if TSMC indeed plans to build its 2nm-capable Fab 21 module 3 in about two years, then it can indeed speed up production of chips on its N2-series and A16 (1.6nm-class) process technologies in the U.S. If the facility is ready and equipped in the second half of 2027, then it can potentially start technology transfer from Taiwan. If everything goes well, trial production could begin sometime in 2028, and volume production could commence in 2029. However, the big question is whether TSMC can get all the necessary tools on time if it significantly speeds up the construction process. Companies like ASML and Applied Materials have backlogs worth billions of dollars, and to speed up their lead times, they need to build new production capacities, so it is not easy for them to ship a tool earlier than initially agreed upon. Although TSMC would certainly like to expand its production facilities in the U.S. (especially when President Trump threatens the industry with tariffs), it can barely get fab equipment significantly faster.

Avocado is an essential ingredient in many everyday recipes, but keeping its freshness can be a real challenge. Exposure to air causes quick oxidation, which loses its characteristic green color and turns into a dark, unsavory mass. Although there are numerous methods to keep them fresh, many are not as effective as they seem. In the following we explain which error is most frequently made when storing avocados and how to avoid it. Why does the avocado oxidize so quickly? The oxidation phenomenon in avocados occurs due to a process known as an enzymatic tan. This happens when an enzyme in the pulp, known as polyphenol oxidase (PPO), comes into contact with oxygen. The result is a chemical reaction that turns the exposed surface into a dark brown tone. Although the color change is not a health risk, it has a negative effect on the taste and appearance of the fruit. In order to minimize this problem, it is important to understand the factors that accelerate the oxidation process and take suitable measures in order to store the cut avocado. The error that accelerates the decay of the avocado One of the most common mistakes in storing the avocado is to simply leave them in the fridge without protecting them from air. Even if the cold helps to reduce the activity of the PPO enzyme, oxidation continues if the fruit remains exposed. As a result, even in the fridge, the avocado loses freshness and accepts a dark color within a few hours. Another frequent mistake is to store the avocado near other foods that hand over ethylene gas, such as apples or bananas. This gas accelerates the maturation process and consequently the decay of the fruit. Does it really work to dive the avocado in water? A popular technique for storing the avocado is immersing in water. Although this strategy limits contact with oxygen and slows down the oxidation process, it can also affect the texture of the pulp and make it softer. This can be useful if you plan to prepare guacamole or spreads is not ideal if you want to consume them in slices or in salads. To use this method effectively, put half of the avocado with the core in a container with cold water and cover it well before put it in the fridge. So you can keep the pulp in better condition for about two to three days. The power of the lemon: How to use them optimally The lemon is one of the most effective means of preserving the freshness of the avocado, thanks to its high content of citric acid. This connection acts as a natural antioxidant that inhibits the activity of the PPO enzyme and slows down the tanning process. To optimally use this technology, apply a few drops of lemon to the exposed surface of the cut avocado and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. The cold in combination with the antioxidant effect of the lemon can double the durability of the fruit and keep it fresh and tasty for longer. How long can an open avocado be durable? Although the above methods help to extend the freshness of the avocado in the fridge for up to three days, it is important to note that none of them stops the oxidation process completely. If the fruit has changes in the texture or provides a strange smell, it is best to avoid eating because it may have lost or spoil her nutrients. [Source: InfoBae] This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Milton Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

Private spaceflight is entering its peak cringe era with the upcoming launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, sending a crew that includes a fallen-off pop star and Jeff Bezos’ partner to the edge of space. Blue Origin has set a date for its next private mission, which will launch a crew of six private astronauts on board the company’s New Shepard rocket. NS-31, Blue Origin’s 11th crewed mission, is set for liftoff on Monday, April 14 from Launch Site One in West Texas, the company announced on Thursday. The mission will launch an all-female crew that includes singer Katy Perry, TV personality and Oprah’s bestie, Gayle King, and Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez. Also on board will be former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. While some of the crew members make sense, the rest are flashy add-ons to a rather expensive trip to suborbital heights where, spoiler alert, they’re just going to float around for about two minutes, with the whole thing lasting no more than 11 minutes. Blue Origin resumed its private spaceflight ventures last year following a two-year hiatus due to a liftoff malfunction of the New Shepard rocket. In September 2022, an uncrewed flight of New Shepard ended in flames around a minute after liftoff. Although those rocket trips are becoming more frequent, they’re still risky. “I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m very nervous, but also very excited,” King said on her daily show CBS Mornings following the announcement. “And I only ask people, when you see me on the street, please don’t tell me not to go … I just want people to cheer me on.” That’s nice—but also, don’t go. In the past, some of these private missions have included scientific payloads to carry out research in the microgravity environment. This one, however, seems to be about touting an all-female crew led by Sánchez to embark on a “mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come,” Blue Origin wrote. It seems like most of the mission goals could be achieved from the ground rather than by paying a hefty price for a seat on New Shepard. The very first seat on Blue Origin’s rocket sold for $28 million through a global auction in 2021. The price for a ticket on the company’s space tourism rides has not been made public, although reports have suggested that a seat on New Shepard costs around $1.25 million. Aside from how expensive it is, spaceflight should not just be open to randos like Perry. Call me a purist, but what does Perry really have to do with space? It’s so frivolous—especially during a time when there is so much scrutiny over NASA’s budget and ongoing efforts by the current administration to reduce the space agency’s workforce. Yes, the goal is to make space more accessible to everyone but we’re definitely not there yet considering how exclusive these trips still are. In the meantime, private spaceflight is headed toward this highly obnoxious era that will likely alienate most people from the natural wonder and interest in exploring the cosmos.

Two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission who were fired by President Trump sued him today, saying their removals are "in direct violation of a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent." "Plaintiffs bring this action to vindicate their right to serve the remainder of their respective terms, to defend the integrity of the Commission, and to continue their work for the American people," said the lawsuit filed by Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in US District Court for the District of Columbia. Trump last week sent Slaughter and Bedoya notices that said, "I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately." They were then cut off from their FTC email addresses, asked to return electronic devices, and denied access to their offices. There are legal restrictions on the president's authority to remove FTC commissioners. US law says any FTC commissioner "may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." The Supreme Court unanimously held in a 1935 case, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, that "Congress intended to restrict the power of removal to one or more of those causes." The case involved President Franklin Roosevelt's firing of Commissioner William Humphrey. Trump's Department of Justice has argued the ruling was incorrect, but it is still in effect. "Congress has continually relied on Humphrey's Executor, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to upset this landmark precedent," the Slaughter/Bedoya lawsuit said. "As Humphrey's Executor recognized, providing some protection from removal at the President's whim is essential to ensuring that agency officials can exercise their own judgment." The lawsuit continued: In short, it is bedrock, binding precedent that a President cannot remove an FTC Commissioner without cause. And yet that is precisely what has happened here: President Trump has purported to terminate Plaintiffs as FTC Commissioners, not because they were inefficient, neglectful of their duties, or engaged in malfeasance, but simply because their "continued service on the FTC is" supposedly "inconsistent with [his] Administration's priorities." “Indefensible under governing law” In addition to Trump, the lawsuit's defendants include FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, and FTC Executive Director David Robbins. The Democratic commissioners asked the court to "declare the President's attempted removals unlawful and ineffective," and "permanently enjoin the FTC Chairman, Commissioner Holyoak, and the FTC Executive Director from taking any action that would prevent Plaintiffs from fulfilling their duties as Commissioners and serving out the remainder of their terms."

Watching the new movie Screamboat, I expected to see Steamboat Willie kill a bunch of people. I didn’t expect those people to be dressed like Disney characters, drop Disney park references, and say movie lines like “Be our guest,” “Let it go,” or “Dead men tell no tales.” But at its heart, the upcoming public domain horror film is both a dumb, funny, gory, horror film as well as a love letter to all things Disney, filled with references big and small, from the first frame to the last. This week, io9 had a video chat with Steven LaMorte, the co-writer and director of Screamboat, and I had to dig into that. Where did the love of Disney come from? Was there a line he wouldn’t cross? How did the references come about? And was it always in the cards that Willie would be about three feet tall and have an extended animated origin? Next week, check back to read about the ins and outs of making a big screen public domain horror film. Below, read about how LaMorte turned a lifetime of Disney fandom into a movie about a killer mouse. Screamboat opens in theaters April 2. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Germain Lussier, io9: I expected this movie to be gory, scary, funny, all these kinds of things. But I didn’t expect it to go so hard on the Disney fandom. My question to start is, what is your history with Disney? Because this could have been just a horror movie, but it’s also such a love letter to Disney as well. Steven LaMorte: When I was born, my mother was gifted a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that was literally the size of me when I was born. So I’ve been living with this mouse since birth. So I’m a deep-cuts Disney fanboy. I got into making movies sort of as a backdoor way to be an Imagineer. I’ve always loved effects and stagecraft and making sort of a spectacle, right? And I’ve sort of felt this kinship, not just with Walt Disney the company or the brand, but with like the guy. Someone who always thought that nothing is impossible. If you have a dream, you should go for it. So being able to do what I’m so glad you noticed [was a] love letter to Disney was so much fun. It was great. io9: So how did you decide on the balance? Because you clearly made the decision to dress characters as Disney princesses, include one-liners that are direct quotes from Disney songs. Tell me a little bit about when that kind of became part of the DNA, how much you wanted to push it, and was there a line? LaMorte: Some people have this preconceived notion that we don’t like Disney or that we have some sort of negative opinion, or that we don’t value the characters and the lore of the IP, but it’s the opposite. I mean, we love this stuff. This is something I’m such a fan of. And it’s been so cool to make something where I threw a bunch of jokes in that I thought were funny. And my co-writer Matthew Garcia-Dunn, it was his idea to incorporate the princesses, because I’d seen this party group on the Staten Island Ferry every Saturday night when I was in my 20s [Laughs]. So we had sort of these things. And then we started looking for these opportunities. Where do you incorporate these moments? Where do you incorporate these jokes? And some of them are very obvious and on the nose, like an actual line from the movie. And some are really, really subtle where we’re filming and I’m like, “Oh, guys, we have to frame this up. That’s the number 33. There’s a thing in Disney, it’s a club, and don’t worry about it. Just make sure you get the 33 in the shot.” We’re doing early fan screenings, and it was interesting to talk to different groups and people who are catching all of them. We were up till all hours of the night, “What’s going to be floating in the water that someone might get?” And I’m like, “Well, we can do this one, we can do this one, we can do this one,” and so the very first time we showed the movie, I had a big guy, he’s covered in tattoos, we’re at a horror convention. He comes up to me and he’s like, “Dude, I just want you to know, I saw your Mary Poppins reference.” And I was like, “Mission accomplished!” I didn’t think anyone was going to get that. So it’s really just, I’m on the inside. I wanted to make something that I loved and that people connected with. And if you don’t like Disney, I think you’ll have fun seeing the movie. But if you do, and you get the references, I think the movie is even more fun. And that was that’s sort of what I wanted to do. Are they Easter eggs? Sure. But they’re also vital to the DNA of the flick, because that’s what people are really connecting with. And if you’re on the inside, if you’re in the club, then you’re gonna have fun seeing them. io9: On the topic of references, I have one specific thing I have to ask about. The lead actress, Allison Pittel, I couldn’t help but notice her character, Selena, looked to me like a super popular Disney YouTuber named Jenny Nicholson. Am I totally off on that? LaMorte: That is not who she is supposed to be. Sorry. io9: Okay, I figured as much but had to ask. That would have been the deepest cut of all time. LaMorte: So there’s one in there that we had to change last minute. There’s some that didn’t make it into the movie, of course. And there are certain things that either we shot and didn’t use, or that we didn’t end up shooting because how many jokes can we tell before [it’s too much]? So there’s some stuff that didn’t make it in. But there’s one where [SPOILER REDACTED] was originally supposed to be, I don’t remember her name, but the first Mouseketeer. We had the name of the woman, but legal wouldn’t clear it because she’s a real person. So we had to change it. But that was one we’re like, “Oh, that’s such a missed opportunity to have the original Mouseketeer [in the movie].” io9: But you did manage to get a very cool Steamboat Willy-esque animated sequence in there. I won’t spoil any specifics of it, but can you tell me a little bit more about the origin of that, how it developed, and got into the movie? LaMorte Definitely. Well, it was important to me the fact that Steamboat Willie was locked away, that this character has been unable to be used for such a long period of time, [and to] factor [that] into the story. And I knew it was an organic way to explain why our character doesn’t look like the cartoon, because he’s got some mileage on him. He’s been locked away for a long period of time. And we had some big ideas as far as what we wanted to show and how we wanted to do it. And of course, we’re at an independent film. And we said, “Well, if he’s an animated character, the best way to connect these two would be to show him as he once was, the version that we all know as he was created back in the early 1900s.” And then use this animated sequence to tell the story, do it in a style that pays homage to the way that he was originally drawn… And while I don’t know if we would have approval about what we’re doing with the character. I think we would at least get some brownie points for bringing back the old animation style and honoring the classic character and his creator. io9: Another style question. When I saw the trailers, for some reason, I thought Willie was a full-sized creature. So I was a little confused watching the movie when I realized he’s actually Mickey Mouse-sized. I know you used a lot of different techniques to achieve that ,but I’m wondering if his size was ever a major consideration? LaMorte: Once we started developing the script, the decision came in pretty early on that he was going to be small. Because once you start looking at character designs, not in terms of how Steamboat Willie exists as a drawing or in a cartoon, but how he exists in the real world, we had to look to that very famous statue, “The Partners,” where Walt Disney is standing and he’s got his arm out and next to him is Mickey Mouse. So that gave us a sense of like, “If he’s going to be small and he’s not going to be a theme park mascot, a human size, then he has to be really small.” And we’ve seen Chucky and we’ve seen Leprechaun, so there have been small killer creatures in the past, and it’s been done very effectively many, many times. But I knew if he was going to be a live-action cartoon character, I thought there were just going to be some limits to doing it anyway, other than shrinking a full-size animated human down. Check back next week for more on LaMorte on the challenges of working within the legal guardrails of public domain characters. Screamboat is in theaters April 2. Learn more here.

Tencent has invested $1.25 billion in a new Ubisoft operating division that includes the core games Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands. Ubisoft, the French video game giant that has struggled to launch hits until its most-recent launch of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, said it is accelerating its transformation with this important step. The company said it is rapidly evolving its operating model with the creation of a dedicated subsidiary based on its Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands. Following the formal and competitive selection process initiated by the Group earlier this year, Tencent will invest €1.16bn ($1.25 billion) for a minority stake in the new subsidiary. This new subsidiary will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform. Backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features. Financial details and legal matters Naoe is a shinobi assassin in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. This transaction values the entity at a pre-money enterprise value of c.€4 billion ($4.3billion), implying a FY23-FY25E average sales multiple of around four times. It highlights the strong value of Ubisoft’s IPs, significantly reinforces its balance sheet, and enables the company to continue its efforts to become a more agile organization, unleash the full creative potential of its teams and better align its resources with the constantly evolving expectations of players. The binding agreement with Tencent follows the formal and competitive process in exploring and assessing different strategic options announced earlier this year. Based on the careful consideration of several expressions of interest received from diverse parties, and its duty to act in the best interests of all Ubisoft stakeholders, the board of directors, upon recommendation from the ad hoc committee, determined that this transaction crystalized the best value for Ubisoft’s assets and unanimously approved the proposed transaction on March 27, 2025. The board of directors has, upon ad hoc committee recommendation, appointed Finexsi acting as independent expert in view of the issuance of a fairness opinion. A new chapter Yves Guillemot introduces the next Assassin’s Creed in 2022. In parallel to the creation of this new entity, Ubisoft will focus on nurturing the development of iconic franchises including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division, accelerating the growth of top performing titles and leveraging disruptive technologies on selected new IPs, while continuing to deliver state-of-the-art production game engines and online services. More details on the group’s future operating model will be shared at a later stage. “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” said, Yves Guillemot, CEO, in a statement. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.” He added, “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.” Guillemot concluded, “We are committed to building a sharper, more focused organization-one where talented teams will take our brands to the next level, accelerate the growth of emerging franchises, and lead innovation in next-generation technologies and services, all with the goal of delivering enriching, memorable games that exceed players’ expectations, and create superior value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.” Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said in a statement, “We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft’s creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry. We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers.” Relationship between the new subsidiary and Ubisoft Entertainment Soaring with an Ikran mount in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The new subsidiary would include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed. The new subsidiary would be granted by Ubisoft a worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license in respect of the intellectual property and similar proprietary rights owned or licensable by Ubisoft in relation to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry in exchange for a royalty. Some reaction “Well it seems like a pretty good deal for Ubisoft which has really struggled,” said David Cole, an analyst at DFC Inteligence, in a message to GamesBeat. ” The three franchises in question are classics but have under performed recently, although I hear the delayed but just released Assassin’s Creed is pretty good. “ He said a couple of things stood out to him. “Tencent is really willing to spend to get into Western markets. They have quite a portfolio and even if they pay top dollar they can afford it,” Cole said. And he added, “It highlights how valuable video game IP has become. Classic franchises can be revived with proper investment and have significant intrinsic value.” Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush, said in a message to GamesBeat that he thinks Ubisoft is hopeful it will somehow ‘unlock’ value. “It’s a hard one to understand. They will have to license their own content from their subsidiary in order to provide a return to the investors in the subsidiary, which means that Ubisoft parent will have less profits and Ubisoft subsidiary will have profits to show for its ‘investors’ and presumably will have to somehow retain those profits,” Pachter said. “It should be all end up zero sum (Ubisoft without the subsidiary’s valuation is worth less; Ubisoft plus the subsidiary’s valuation is worth the same as before). Somehow, they are arguing that the subsidiary is worth €4 billion, but Ubisoft itself is worth only €2.4 billion or so.” Pacter added, “I suppose it is possible that the subsidiary is worth €4 billion and the rest of the company is worth €(1.6) billion, which reflects the company’s debt balance, but I’m not sure that investors will embrace the idea that Ubisoft is worth more overall because they ‘unlocked’ value by moving their IP to a separate subsidiary.” Michael Metzger, partner at M&A firm Drake Star Partners, said in a message to GamesBeat, “By creating a dedicated subsidiary centered around its flagship franchises, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Ubisoft secured a creative structure to bring in a substantial cash injection at an attractive $4 billion valuation. Taking the company private likely proved too complex, especially given that a Tencent-led deal would have faced significant regulatory hurdles.” Main terms of the binding agreement with Tencent Tencent would invest in the new subsidiary which is headquartered in France and 100% owned by Ubisoft immediately prior to the transaction. Specifically, at closing of the transaction, Tencent would invest a total amount of 1.16 billion euros for an approximate 25% economic interest in the new subsidiary, that will be used to strengthen Ubisoft’s balance sheet by significantly reducing its consolidated net debt position, accelerate the Group’s transformation, and sustain growth of selected franchises. After closing of the transaction, the new subsidiary would remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft. Conditions for to the transaction Star Wars Outlaws uses RTX. The deal requires the issuance of a fairness opinion from Finexsi acting as independent expert; completion of the carve-out to create the new subsidiary; obtention of the necessary regulatory clearances; and Ubisoft can unilaterally waive the issuance of the fairness opinion as a condition precedent. Completion of the transaction is expected before the end of 2025. The new subsidiary would have a dedicated leadership team, supervised by a board of directors, focused on enhancing creative vision and streamlining operations, with the authority to make swift, high-impact decisions across development, marketing, and distribution, to ensure these brands continue to evolve, attract new audiences, and deliver groundbreaking gaming experiences for years to come. Tencent would benefit from customary minority protection rights as well as certain consent rights on the disposals of the important new subsidiary assets Other provisions in relation to Tencent’s shareholding in the New subsidiary notably include: A five-year lock-up undertaking on new subsidiary shares held by Tencent, unless Ubisoft no longer owns a majority of new subsidiary voting rights and share capital Ubisoft may not cease to hold a majority of new subsidiary voting rights and share capital for a two-year period. Customary share transfer provisions, including, a right of first refusal to the benefit of Ubisoft, a right of first offer to the benefit of Tencent, tag-along right to the benefit of Tencent, and drag-along right to the benefit of Ubisoft (subject to certain conditions). Call option to the benefit of Ubisoft and put option to the benefit of Tencent in the event of certain change of control of Ubisoft approved by its Board of Directors – Exercise price will be the higher of (i) the fair market value of New subsidiary shares and (ii) the same EBIT multiple as that in the change of control transaction of Ubisoft; it being specified that for the call option there will be a specific minimum price protection during the first 4 years following closing of the transaction with Tencent.

Ubisoft announced Thursday it is spinning off three of its biggest franchises – “Assassin’s Creed,” “Far Cry” and “Rainbow Six” – into a new subsidiary backed by Tencent. The new division will be funded by Chinese tech company to the tune of $1.25 billion. According to Ubisoft, the new group will “focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform.” “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” Yves Guillemot, the co-founder and CEO, said. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies. With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success.” News of the new divisions comes months after speculation of Ubisoft’s sale sparked after the gaming company assigned advisors to review strategic options. It also comes a week after the release of the latest entry in the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise – “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.” The new game is set in feudal Japan and received mostly positive reviews among critics. “We are committed to building a sharper, more focused organization — one where talented teams will take our brands to the next level, accelerate the growth of emerging franchises, and lead innovation in next-generation technologies and services, all with the goal of delivering enriching, memorable games that exceed players’ expectations, and create superior value for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” Guillemot concluded.

is Polygon’s entertainment editor. She’s covered film, TV, books, and more for 20 years, including at The A.V. Club, The Dissolve, and The Verge. For fans of Tim Burton’s 1998 comedy Beetlejuice, the 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fun exercise in nostalgia, reuniting characters who haven’t been on the big screen in 35 years. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara revive and evolve their roles from the first movie, even if their characters are underserved and neglected. But Beetlejuice 2 is mostly an exercise in echoing the past: What’s missing is the shock and surprise that came with the first movie, the sense of innovation, novelty, and subversive humor, and the wholly unique world-building around the exasperations of the afterlife. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch. For all those elements, Beetlejuice fans should turn to the horror-comedy Dead Talents Society, now streaming on Netflix. Director John Hsu (the video game superfan behind 2019’s screen adaptation of Detention) channels a wide enough variety of elements in Dead Talents Society to keep viewers guessing, and ensures the social satire will feel different almost from scene to scene. Whether he’s lampooning talk shows, influencer personas and videos, lifestyle reality TV, competition shows, or ghost-chaser programs, though, every story thread comes back to a handful of ghosts pursuing fame and fortune — and avoiding oblivion — by trying to become urban legends. Reigning “ghostress” superstar Catherine (Sandrine Pinna) has earned Golden Ghost awards and wide acclaim as the contortionist diva behind a classic hotel haunting. But her protégé Jessica (Eleven Yao) has recently surpassed her with a fresh new innovation in scaring mortals: a viral internet video that lets Jessica jump out of people’s computers to scare the crap out of them. As their rivalry heats up, a freshly dead young woman identified as “The Rookie” (Gingle Wang) enters the mix, but finds she lacks the presence or confidence to scare people. Rookie’s failure at ghost auditions and her cringey, half-hearted haunting attempts leave her existence at risk. Ghosts are tied to the living world through significant objects, and hers has been lost, so soon she’ll fade into nothing. She can only continue on in the afterlife if she proves profitable to a predatory scare-generating corporation, which will give her a pass to continue interacting with the world of the living. The focus on scares as a form of currency and successful scarers as the world’s biggest celebrities hearkens back to Pixar’s animated favorite Monsters, Inc., but Hsu and co-writer Tsai Kun-Lin are referencing a lot more than that. Drawing equally on real urban legends, decades of Asian horror cinema, viral online videos, pop-idol videos, and reality TV, they veer from one silly mode to the other with manic abandon. They follow the three-way competition between Catherine, Jessica, and Rookie through a variety of lenses, as if it’s mostly a series of TV shows other ghosts are watching. Image: Sony Pictures International Productions It’s a chaotic approach, but also a high-energy one, packed with goofy gags and referential imagery, from the mumbling hair-in-face ghostress who evokes movies like The Ring and Ju-On: The Grudge to Jessica’s fluffy red dress, taken from the final act of Satoshi Kon’s anime classic Perfect Blue. Dead Talents Society is simultaneously a media satire and an underdog story, as Rookie teams up with a group of misfits led by grimly positive talent agent Makoto (Chen Bolin). Together, they try to save Catherine’s career, beat the smirking, patronizing Jessica, and keep Rookie from oblivion. The stakes sound high, but Hsu’s approach of framing the biggest action sequences as reality competition shows or prank shows gives the whole movie an agreeably light, goofy tone and lets it operate at breakneck speed. Good horror-comedy is hard to pull off, but Hsu finds his balance by steering hard into the comedy, while pouring on the fake blood. There are messages at work here about how so many people these days are hungry to be seen, but can only get attention online by chasing trends and employing gimmicks, leaving any recognition and applause they get feeling a little hollow and lonely. But the movie never hits those notes hard enough to make them maudlin, any more than Beetlejuice feels like a serious exploration of loneliness and loss for gothy teenager Lydia. Rookie’s feelings of frustration and fear are authentic enough to give the movie a little sympathetic warmth. Instead, Hsu’s film channels some of Burton’s empathy for the alienated and outcast, alongside his early-career rambunctious weirdness, while mixing in a fair bit of media satire and digs at influencer culture. Without feeling imitative or indebted to Burton’s world, Hsu and Tsai Kun-Lin arrive at a similar place, where one of the biggest frustrations of being dead is how much the afterlife resembles actual life, albeit through a twisted funhouse mirror that turns the whole story into an agreeable carnival ride. Dead Talents Society is now streaming on Netflix.

It's no secret that "driving while black" is a real phenomenon. Study after study has shown that minority drivers are ticketed at a higher rate, and data from speed cameras suggests that it's not because they commit traffic violations more frequently. But this leaves open the question of why. Bias is an obvious answer, but it's hard to eliminate an alternative explanation: Minority groups may engage in more unsafe driving, and the police are trying to deter that. But now, Lyft has given a group of researchers access to detailed data from their drivers. The results confirm that minority drivers get more tickets, and they pay higher fines when they do. And the results also show that minorities aren't in any way more likely to speed or engage in unsafe driving. Which suggests, in their words, that the problem is "animus" against minority drivers. Giving research a Lyft The work was done thanks to cooperation from the ridesharing company Lyft, which provided data on its drivers in Florida, all 222,838 of them, along with a record of all the GPS pings their tracking systems sent into the company's servers. Combined with a detailed map of Florida's roads, along with their speed limits, they could determine when a given driver was speeding. They also obtained Florida police records of any accidents and cross-referenced their locations to any vehicle that experienced a sudden stop in that spot at the same time. In addition, they got ahold of voting registration records of the drivers, about half of whom were registered voters. These included information on the driver's ethnicity. Separately, Lyft receives an image of each driver when they start working with the company. These images were used to infer the ethnicity of the remaining drivers. These were broken down into broad categories, but ultimately the data analysis split people into white and minorities.

The mission of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs has long been to change the world. But, how do you know whether a pursuit is good or bad? ACTS17 collective, a Christian faith-based group of tech entrepreneurs, says a strong relationship with God is the answer. Today on the show, we talk about the people promoting a faith-based approach to tech, we learn what a “good quest” is, and we ask what impact religion will have on the type of ventures the valley pursues in the future. You can follow Michael Calore on Bluesky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Bluesky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com. How to Listen You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts and search for “uncanny valley.” We’re on Spotify too. Transcript Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Michael Calore: Question for the group. When was the last time you went to church? Zoë Schiffer: That's a big question. I'm Jewish, so I think we go to a temple, not church. And I went pretty recently, for the High Holidays. Lauren? Michael Calore: Very nice. Lauren Goode: Lovely. I think I went when I was on vacation. I like popping into churches when I'm traveling to different places. Michael Calore: Nice. Light a little candle? Lauren Goode: Yeah, just look at the architecture. Zoë Schiffer: That's cool. What about you, Mike? Lauren Goode: Yeah. What about you? Michael Calore: I swear I was listening to what you were both saying, but while you were talking, while also listening, I was also racking my brain to try and remember the last time that I was in a church, and I cannot remember the last time. I really just do not know. Zoë Schiffer: That's totally fair. Michael Calore: Well, Silicon Valley has its own relationship with God, and that is what we're going to be talking about this week. Is everybody ready? Zoë Schiffer: I'm very ready. Lauren Goode: I'm ready for confession time. Michael Calore: This is WIRED's Uncanny Valley, a show about the people power and influence of Silicon Valley. I'm Michael Calore, Director of Consumer Tech and Culture here at WIRED. Lauren Goode: I'm Lauren Goode. I'm a senior writer at WIRED. Zoë Schiffer: And I'm Zoe Schiffer WIRED's, Director of Business and Industry. Michael Calore: Power, money and Influence. This has long been part of the allure for many in the tech world, but for a growing group in the Valley, there's a new path to success, God. Today, we're talking about the Silicon Valley Christians who are promoting a faith-based approach to innovation. We'll drop in on a San Francisco party where tech bigwigs and influential figures talk business and the Bible, we'll learn about, quote, unquote, "Good quests," and we'll ask the big question, what impact will religion have on the type of ventures the Valley pursues in the future? So Lauren, tell us about this party you went to.

Ubisoft has announced a partnership with Tencent to form a subsidiary company valued at over $4 billion, and it includes several of the French publisher’s popular IP. Recommended Videos Called Ubisoft’s “three most popular franchises,” the subsidiary will bring together Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry, and gathering teams working out of Ubisoft studios in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia. This info is all according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot’s internal memo to the company, acquired by Insider Gaming. Image via Activision “Tencent will be a 25 percent shareholder of this new subsidiary, with the aim of boosting these franchises so they become undisputed global icons,” Guillemot said. “This historic agreement is above all a recognition of the extraordinary work you have been doing for years: the value of these three brands directly reflects your individual and collective talent and efforts, which have allowed us to create these beloved franchises.” This immediately raises the question of what about Ubisoft’s workers and those who work on other games not mentioned above? Chief studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert followed up in another email to attempt to alleviate those concerns. “I also want to be clear: if you’re not currently working on these brands, it doesn’t mean your work matters any less,” de Waubert said. “This agreement will benefit all of Ubisoft, giving us the means to spark more innovation and creativity across the board. This marks the beginning of a new chapter, and you play a vital role in shaping it. In the coming weeks and months, we will work hard to build the best organization possible – for Ubisoft, for our teams, and for our players.” In the end, though, the subsidiary creation is all about making money, to no one’s surprise when it comes to any sort of company or business in 2025. “This is what will enable us to return to a higher level of profitability,” Guillemot said. Guillemot’s email also mentioned a global livestream sometime tomorrow, during which the news will presumably be made official. Destructoid is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Ubisoft is spinning off Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six into a subsidiary backed by Tencent, according to an announcement on Thursday. The Chinese gaming giant will invest €1.16 billion (~$1.3 billion) for a 25 percent stake in the carveout, which will have a total value of about €4 billion (~$4.3 billion). Ubisoft says the new entity will include the teams working on all three franchises, along with the publisher’s back catalog of games and new titles currently in development. It will work to improve the “quality of narrative solo experiences,” as well as “expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release.” Last year, Bloomberg reported that Tencent, which currently has a 10 percent stake in Ubisoft, was considering a buyout of the French game publisher. Ubisoft responded by saying it “regularly reviews all its strategic options.” The deal is expected to close this year. “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success,” Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, says in the press release. Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Shadows last week, which the publisher says has reached over 3 million players and had the second highest day one sales revenue in the franchise.

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Ubisoft is spinning off Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six into a subsidiary backed by Tencent, according to an announcement on Thursday. The Chinese gaming giant will invest €1.16 billion (~$1.3 billion) for a 25 percent stake in the carveout, which will have a total value of about €4 billion (~$4.3 billion). Ubisoft says the new entity will include the teams working on all three franchises, along with the publisher’s back catalog of games and new titles currently in development. It will work to improve the “quality of narrative solo experiences,” as well as “expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release.” Last year, Bloomberg reported that Tencent, which currently has a 10 percent stake in Ubisoft, was considering a buyout of the French game publisher. Ubisoft responded by saying it “regularly reviews all its strategic options.” The deal is expected to close this year. “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success,” Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, says in the press release. Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Shadows last week, which the publisher says has reached over 3 million players and had the second highest day one sales revenue in the franchise.

In the past, OpenAI has explicitly refrained from allowing users to create prompts and generate images mimicking Studio Ghibli’s art style to avoid potential copyright lawsuits from the anime giant. That is, until the company released a new ChatGPT update earlier this week touting its technological ability to create more “precise, accurate, photorealistic outputs.” The update has led to an online trend where folks are posting AI-generated images using OpenAI to transform themselves into characters from Ghibli films, like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro. Building on that, ChatGPT’s new update has meant verified accounts on X/Twitter have been smarmily patting OpenAI on the back for how its new update is democratizing animation by shitting out prompts transforming photos of their weddings and whatnot into something that Ghibli could have created. What’s worse, OpenAI appears to be leaning into the farcical fad despite its previous reservations. On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to have cosigned the trend by changing his profile picture to a ChatGPT AI-generated image of himself as a Ghibli character. In a post on his official X/Twitter account, Altman wrote “> be me / > grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever / > mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything / > wake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha.'” This also happened Wednesday: The underlying issue in this entire situation is how AI initiatives like the one mentioned above reflect breathless tech bro sentiments about AI “democratizing art” by enabling anyone to input a prompt and receive an image in a distinctive art style. Art styles professional animators put years of work into mastering. It is also the latest (and arguably the most brazen) example of copyright infringement that AI is posing against the professional artists and voice actors who are battling for protections from shit like this. The whole affair is made exceedingly worse when you consider the official White House X/Twitter account jumping on the trend, posting Ghibli-fied images to dehumanize people in President Donald Trump’s massive deportation campaign. co-founder of studio ghibli, hayao miyazaki’s reaction to AI generated art btw https://t.co/w9xHfyLVrG pic.twitter.com/EtPkmsgtZt — kp (@earthlykisssed) March 26, 2025 While Studio Ghibli has yet to issue an official comment or announce legal action against OpenAI’s new update being used to generate images in its art style, famed animator Hayao Miyazaki has already made his feelings explicitly clear about AI: he despises it. In NHK’s 2016 documentary, Never-Ending Man, a production intern showed Miyazaki a demonstration (using “deep learning” AI) of a dismembered zombie using its head to wriggle across the floor. After a pregnant pause, Miyazaki provided feedback on the video in the form of an anecdote, leading to the meme of him calling it, “An insult to life itself.” “Let me just say every morning I used to see a friend who’s disabled. He would walk up to me. One leg’s turned outward, so it’s hard for him to walk. Even a high-five is hard for him. His stiff hand and mine touch. I think of him, and can’t say I like this,” Miyazaki said. “Whoever made it gives no thought to pain. It’s very unpleasant. You can make horrible things if you want, but I want nothing to do with it.” Since Studio Ghibli is trending, worth noting the mind-boggling effort Hayao Miyazaki and his team put into a film. Each has 60k-70k frames, all hand-drawn and painted with water color. This 4-second clip (“The Wind Rises”) took one animator 15 months to do. In the documentary… pic.twitter.com/BwvipsyVCl — Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) March 26, 2025 Miyazaki wanting nothing to do with AI is pretty understandable considering the labor he and his animators put into making scenes in their feature films as awe inspiring as they are. There’s no greater example of this Herculean effort than a clip from NHK’s 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki documentary, which made the rounds online shortly following the Ghibli AI animation trend. The video, which shows a four-second clip of a busy crowd in Wind Rises, took animator Eiji Yamamori 15 months to complete. When Yamamori downplayed Miyazaki telling him good job, saying “It’s so short though,” Miyazaki responded in kind saying, “But it was worth it.” Should Ghibli and Miyazaki wish to pursue legal action against OpenAI and ChatGPT, we’ll bring the popcorn.

After a long and gloomy winter, many people are looking forward to some summer travel. Google has some new tools to help you plan, but like most of what Google does now, the new features lean heavily on AI. And unusually, the most interesting of these additions is launching first on iOS. Google says that lots of people tend to take screenshots when they're planning a trip. Instead of letting those images become lost in your camera roll, Google will let you feed them into Maps. The new screenshot list feature will let you add those images to Maps, where Gemini will scan them to identify locations. This feature is opt-in, and the AI doesn't appear to detect locations with image recognition. Instead, it looks for place names in text, allowing you to review the results before marking them on the map for later perusal. Google confirms to Ars that all Maps image processing happens on device, which is probably why it's only analyzing text. Your screenshots added to Maps in this way will never leave your device. Google says this feature is arriving in the Maps app for iOS this week. Android users will have to wait a bit longer, but Google doesn't have a timeline other than "soon."

Ubisoft has "accelerated its transformation" by developing a new operating model and subsidiary following a $1.25bn cash "injection" from Chinese megacorp Tencent. In a bid to "rapidly" evolve its operating model, Ubisoft has created a subsidiary based upon its Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six brands, arguably the developer/publisher's tentpole franchises. Through a "formal and competitive process," Ubisoft selected Tencent to invest a minority stake of €1.16bn ($1.25bn) to focus on expanding those games' "truly evergreen and multiplatform ecosystems." The new subsidiary has been granted a "worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license" in respect to the IPs listed above, and includes teams developing those franchises in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, although it will be headquartered in France and "100% owned" by Ubisoft. Ubisoft said the $1.25bn investment will be used to "strengthen Ubisoft’s balance sheet by significantly reducing its consolidated net debt position, accelerate the Group’s transformation, and sustain growth of selected franchises." "Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history," said co-founder and CEO, Yves Guillemot. "As we accelerate the company's transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft's operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies. "With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises' long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems. "We are committed to building a sharper, more focused organization-one wheretalented teams will take our brands to the next level, accelerate the growth of emerging franchises, and lead innovation in next-generation technologies and services, all with the goal of delivering enriching, memorable games that exceed players' expectations, and create superior value for our shareholders and other stakeholders," Guillemot concluded. Tencent president Martin Lau added: "We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft's creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry. We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers." Despite a significant 51.8% decline year-on-year in net bookings for Q3, Ubisoft's most recent financial report highlighted that this was in line with its revised expectation of €300 million for the period. Ubisoft remained optimistic about its next quarter, and is expecting net bookings to increase following the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which released on March 20.

At Tom's Hardware, we test a lot of very fast SSDs so it takes a lot to blow us away. However, at the time it came out a few years ago, SK hynix's P41 Platinum raised the bar not just for us but for the industry. In our tests, the 2TB capacity of the drive handily beat high-end competitors such as the WD Black SN850, Samsung 980 PRO and Kingston KC3000, to become the fastest consumer drive of a couple of years ago. While it's no longer the fastest SSD on the market, the P41 is still one of the quicket PCIe 4 drives you can get. For Prime Day, Amazon has the SK hynix P41 platinum for low prices of just $129 for the 2TB capacity or $71 for the 1TB model. These drives are rated for 7,000 MBps sequential reads and 6,500 MBps sequential writes with up to 1.4 million random read IOPS or 1.3 million random write IOPS. SK hynix P41 Platinum PCIe 4.0 SSD (2TB): was $144, now $129 at Amazon One of the fastest SSDs promises 7,000 / 6,500 MBps sequential reads and writes with 1.4 and 1.3 million random IOPs. SK hynix P41 Platinum PCIe 4.0 SSD (1TB): was $92, now $71 at Amazon This drive promises 7,000 / 6,500 MBps sequential reads and writes with 1.4 and 1.3 million random IOPs. In our SK hynix P41 Platinum review, we show that the drive reached a new high in 3DMark's SSD test, which measures gaming storage performance. Its mark of 4,643 was 8 percent better than the nearest competitor, Kingston's KC3000. These sorts of results allowed the P41 to top our list of the best SSDs a couple of years ago, but they are still strong today. (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) SK hynix's drive fairs so well because it pairs the company's Aries controller with 176-layer TLC flash. The Aries controller allows for up to 33 percent faster bus speeds and double the number of channels on the company's prior-gen Cepheus controller. The drive also features a speedy LPDDR4 cache. The SK hynix P41 Platinum is not just fast, but likely to endure for quite a long time. The 1TB model is rated for 750TBW (terabytes written) while the 2TB capacity goes up to 1200TBW.

As the most-watched halftime show of all time—one that exclusively featured Black performers—Kendrick Lamar's historic performance during Super Bowl LIX was bound to draw some complaints. But according to a Federal Communications Commission response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from WIRED, the single biggest source of anger was not about the performance itself. It was that there were not enough white people on stage. WIRED has made this article free for all to read because it is based on reporting from Freedom of Information Act requests. Please consider subscribing to support our journalism. “I think that it’s racist that there aren’t any white people in this event,” one complainant wrote. Another from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, added: “There's something wrong when you can't even put white people on with talent.” In response to WIRED’s FOIA request, the FCC published 125 complaints sent to the agency from some of the more than 133 million people watching. Some complained about the “vulgar” and “obscene” language uses, others focused on their inability to understand “this rap crap,” and some asked why Madonna or Eminem weren’t performing. Despite its detractors, Lamar’s performance was widely considered a cultural feat, coming just a few days after he won five Grammys for the Drake diss track “Not Like Us.” But dozens of complainants were open in their beliefs that featuring the all-Black ensemble at halftime was racist against white people, in a bizarre twist on the wider culture war over diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). For years, right-wing politicians and personalities have been loudly blaming DEI policies for everything from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump to doors falling off planes and bridges collapsing. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump claimed “there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country.” His administration has since cracked down heavily on DEI policies at both public and private institutions. Some of the initial online backlash to Lamar’s February performance accused the entire show of being a form of DEI. But the FCC complaints suggest that some Super Bowl viewers feel white people should have been beneficiaries of more diversity. “No diversity (white, Latin, Native American, etc.) but it seems the black community got their spotlight,” one viewer from Clovis, California, wrote to the FCC. Another complainant alleges the lack of white people was somehow a throwback to a previous era, as if there was another period in history when only Black people performed at Super Bowl halftime shows. “The absence of representation from other races takes us back in time,” a complainant from Monee, Illinois, wrote. Many complainants completely missed what critics said was the point of the show, which was to highlight the struggle of Black artists to achieve proper representation while seeing their art, talent, and culture appropriated by others. Part of Lamar’s message was delivered by actor Samuel L. Jackson, who played the character of Uncle Sam, but this appeared to be too much for some people. “Why was Uncle Sam Black when Uncle Sam is white,” a viewer from Daytona Beach, Florida, complained while appearing to suggest that Uncle Sam was an actual historical character rather than a symbol of military propaganda. “Racist and anti-white NFL show,” another angry viewer wrote. “Samuel Jackson as Uncle Sam mocked white people.” Others attempted to thinly mask their racist comments by using dog whistles, describing the show as “very ghetto” and “low life trash.” The controversy over Lamar’s performance highlights the hypocrisy around the DEI backlash; experts say the term has come to serve as a modern-day slur wielded against people of color, while at the same time, the people offended by it see themselves as being victims of a lack of diversity.

Columbia University student Roy Lee says he’s been suspended after he built an AI program that helped him pass the brutal technical interviews for Meta, Facebook, Amazon, and TikTok. “I just got kicked out of Columbia for taking a stand against Leetcode interviews,” Lee said in a March 26 post on LinkedIn. I spoke with Lee earlier this month after his story went viral on social media. Lee is, or was, a sophomore at Columbia who had an eye towards graduating in 2026. As a computer science whiz, he was all set to matriculate into the world of big tech and land a job for a FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) company. He just needed to pass the technical interview. The tech interview, or “Leetcode” interview is a grueling process where a job candidate is forced into a lengthy and tedious coding test, often while an employee at the company watches. The technical interview usually involves problems the programmer will never face on the job. To hear Lee tell it, practicing for the tests broke him. So he built a simple tool that takes screenshots of his screen during a technical test and asks an AI system to solve the problems for him. He said it worked and he got offers from multiple tech companies. He started selling subscriptions to his software, dubbed Interview Coder, and put up a video on YouTube of him using it to pass Amazon’s technical test. Then someone tattled to Columbia. Lee shared a copy of the letter that the University shared with him. The name of the sender is redacted, but they claim to be an Amazon employee who was upset when they saw Lee’s video on YouTube. Amazon declined to comment on Lee specifically and Columbia wouldn’t comment on the story, saying that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevented them from doing so. “I leaked the letter, and it went super viral on X. That single moment probably protected me more than anything else,” Lee said on LinkedIn. When I spoke with him earlier this month, his disciplinary hearing was days away. He shrugged it off, saying he wouldn’t be in the country and was planning to leave the university. According to his LinkedIn post, he appeared in some capacity. “At the hearing, Columbia forced me into a weird admission that the tool could be used to help students cheat in a Columbia CS class. (It can’t.) and put me on academic probation, scheduling another hearing for leaking all the documents,” he said. “A week and a half later, and I’m completely kicked out from school. LOL!” A copy of the complaint Lee shared with me earlier this month came from Columbia. It had a big watermark overlaid on it that said “Not Distribute.” He had posted this picture on social media as well. Lee also shared copies of notes from his disciplinary hearing on LinkedIn and X. “The hearing officers reviewed the evidence presented and observed that you published documents from your disciplinary record, including correspondence from Student Conduct, case files, a photo, and video recording of your Dean’s Discipline Hearing on February 12, 2025, to the online social media network,” the documents Lee posted said. “Due to the nature of the violation(s), you are suspended from Columbia College effective immediately and eligible to return after May 20, 2026.” Lee is selling subs to the software that got him into so much trouble for $60 a month. Every battle with Columbia raises his profile just a little more. “It’s funny now and an amazing story in hindsight, but the truth is I was tweaking bad throughout this entire process,” he said on LinkedIn. “Taking this much risk tested my mental strength to its absolute limit, but I’m super glad I did it.”

SignalGate, as it's come to be called, may be the biggest scandal to hit the Trump administration in its first months in power. But it's been great for Signal. Since the news broke on Monday that senior Trump administration cabinet members accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in a group chat on the Signal encrypted messaging platform where the officials were making secret plans to bomb Yemen, the ensuing news cycle and the constant mentions of Signal have led to the encrypted messaging platform doubling its usual rate of new downloads, the nonprofit organization that runs Signal tells WIRED. Given that 2025 has already been a “banner year” for Signal's growth, according to Signal's leadership, that makes this week the single biggest bump in US adoption of the app in Signal's nearly 11 years of existence. “In Signal’s history, this is the largest US-growth moment by a massive margin,” says Jun Harada, Signal's head of growth and partnerships. “It’s mind-blowing, even on our side.” Harada declined to give absolute numbers for Signal's user growth beyond saying that its total downloads are in the “hundreds of millions,” which has been the case for several years. But he said that the week’s rate of adoption has been twice that of a typical week for 2025, which in turn was twice that of a typical week the same time last year. “It happened immediately” after The Atlantic broke the story of Signal's use in the Yemeni bombing, Harada says. “And it’s been sustained. We’ve been maintaining that rate every day.” In Signal's history, the only comparable spike in adoption occurred when WhatsApp changed its privacy policy in 2021, Harada says, leading to millions of users abandoning that communications app. But that incident mostly brought non-Americans to Signal, unlike the current, US-focused SignalGate bump. Numbers from the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower largely align with Signal's own analysis of that growth: The company says that Signal downloads in the US increased 105 percent compared to the prior week—and 150 percent compared to an average week in 2024. Outside of the US, Sensor Tower saw only a 21 percent increase in Signal downloads compared to the prior week. The Atlantic's revelation on Monday that secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security adviser Michael Waltz, vice president JD Vance, and other Trump administration officials used a Signal group chat to plan an air strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen—and that Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to that group in a shocking breach of confidentiality—has raised serious questions about the security practices of the Trump administration that are still resonating days later. The scandal has called into question whether the executive branch officials were planning the air strike using vulnerable non-approved or even personal devices rather than the secure machines intended for classified conversations. Screenshots of the group chat published by The Atlantic on Wednesday indicate that the officials were using Signal's disappearing messages feature to delete their communications, potentially in violation of US record retention laws.

Ubisoft and Tencent have announced a new "dedicated subsidiary" that will "will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform" in the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six brands. "As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies. "With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems." The announcement of the new subsidiary follows a review of the company's business strategy and negotiations with Tencent that began in 2024 and took shape earlier this month in rumors that the two were looking at forming a new business entity to manage Ubisoft's biggest properties. It will also seemingly leave the Guillemot family in control, which was reportedly a sticking point in negotiations: Tencent will hold a minority stake in the venture of roughly 25%, with an investment of €1.16 billion ($1.25 billion). The subsidiary will have a "dedicated leadership team" and board of directors, "focused on enhancing creative vision and streamlining operations, with the authority to make swift, high-impact decisions across development, marketing, and distribution." It doesn't sound like OG Ubisoft is going completely hands-off, though: In a conference call, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said the subsidiary's board "will be controlled by Ubisoft, so Ubisoft will continue controlling and consolidating this entity." "We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft’s creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry," Tencent president Martin Lau said. "We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers." Details on how exactly this will impact Ubisoft going forward haven't been revealed: The new subsidiary will include Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six development teams in Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, for instance, but the number of employees who will transfer over to the new entityt—or, it must be said, be laid off—remains to be determined. Ubisoft said it will have more information to share "in the coming months." The agreement is also subject to regulatory approval: The announcement says the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

In a complicated corporate move, Ubisoft has announced it’s creating a new subsidiary to house its most important intellectual properties: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The new company, valued at around €4 billion, will receive a €1.16 billion injection of cash from Chinese giant Tencent, who will gain a 25% stake in the organisation in return. In a statement, the embattled French firm was effusive about the move, claiming it will “drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features”. But what this means for the remaining parts of Ubisoft – and, perhaps more importantly, its thousands of employees – remains unclear. Major franchises like The Crew, Just Dance, and Splinter Cell are not moving to the subsidiary, and it’s hard to shake a sense of cynicism about their futures. The company does explicitly mention it’ll continue to work on The Division and Ghost Recon. But the teams behind Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, including those in Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, will move to the new subsidiary. The rest will remain where they are. “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” boss Yves Guillemot said. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. “We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies. “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalising the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. “With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.” It’s too early to say where this will all go, but it feels like the writing’s on the wall for the rest of Ubisoft’s properties to us. For those who haven’t been following this story, the French firm has been struck by several poor performers and drastic stock price drops recently, forcing it to make these seismic changes to its corporate structure. While the publisher’s certainly sounding bullish in its statement, this move seems designed to shore up its strongest assets, and we’ll simply need to wait and see what that means for the rest of the company and its games.

As previously rumored, Discord, a popular communications platform, is working with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to plan an IPO as soon as this year, according to a recent report by Bloomberg. The report cites people familiar with the matter and notes that more advisors may come on board as the talks progress. This isn't the first we've heard about plans for an IPO; an article in The New York Times claimed that Discord had begun exploratory meetings with bankers earlier this month. Even way back in 2022, Discord was exploring the option of a direct listing, but it now seems the company plans to go with a traditional IPO. Launched in 2015, Discord was initially conceived as an improved way to facilitate communication while playing video games—and gaming-related uses still account for more than 90 percent of its activity. While some previous tools focused mainly on in-game voice chat, Discord supports text, voice, and video, as well as game streaming. It also has robust features for managing communities outside the game and has developer APIs for developing bots, tools, and games that can be used within its channels.

Following French publisher Ubisoft's success with the launch of its new open-world action RPG Assassin's Creed Shadows last week, the firm has officially confirmed a major upcoming structural change for its business operations. Specifically, Ubisoft announced on Thursday morning that it's creating a new gaming subsidiary that encompasses three of its largest franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The multinational Chinese company Tencent will invest €1.16b (roughly $1.2b) for 25% stake in the division, giving it an approximate enterprise value of €4b ($4.3b). This number exceeds Ubisoft's own by a large margin. In exchange for a royalty, Tencent will be granted "a worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license" for Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The new subsidiary will include all of Ubisoft's development teams currently working on these intellectual properties and both previously released and upcoming games, and "will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform." Ubisoft's announcement elaborates on this further, explaining that the group will take advantage of the investment to "drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features" into these brands. The rest of the publisher, meanwhile, will focus on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and The Division (among other projects). This news comes just a week after the launch of Ubisoft's latest single player RPG Assassin's Creed Shadows. (Image credit: Windows Central) "With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success," commented Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in the company's press release. "With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems." Tencent president Martin Lau also provided a statement. "We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft’s creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry," he said. "We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers." Notably, Ubisoft was rumored to be seeking a buyout with Tencent in 2024 following recent struggles with the performance of the publisher's games. A report earlier this year also suggested that the two companies were looking to make a deal over some of Ubisoft's assets; this, evidently, is the result of those discussions. Get the Windows Central Newsletter All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors Completion of this transaction is expected to finish before the end of 2025. Developing... The start of a Ubisoft recovery? A gameplay screenshot of Ubisoft's 2021 open-world game Far Cry 6. (Image credit: Ubisoft Entertainment SA) As previously mentioned, Ubisoft has gone through significant financial struggles in recent years, with several games like Star Wars Outlaws ultimately failing to live up to the firm's performance expectations. The company's free-to-play shooter XDefiant is also scheduled to shut down this June, with the publisher also closing three studios in the US, Japan, and Australia. With that context in mind, this deal with Tencent makes lots of sense for both parties; Ubisoft secures some very crucial funding, while Tencent stands to profit from future successes and gains rights to Ubisoft's biggest properties. This partnership — along with new upcoming releases like The Division 3, Beyond Good and Evil 2, the Splinter Cell remake, and others — has the potential to right the ship for the French publisher. It's worth noting that Ubisoft's 2025 has seemingly started off quite well, with Assassin's Creed Shadows enjoying three million players just a week after its release. That makes it one of the most-played and fastest-selling entries in the series, with it only being surpassed by 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

As Nintendo explains it, these virtual cards work a lot like physical cartridges. You can “eject” a game from one device and then load it onto another, so long as the second Switch is tied to your account or a member of your family plan. Digital games “can also be lent to a Nintendo Account family group member’s system via local wireless connection,” and they’ll be able to play the game for two weeks before it’s automatically returned to you. It’s an extremely Nintendo feature, in that it’s a playful attempt at bringing traditional physical game features into the digital realm, and that it also has some caveats, like the limited two week period, which is nowhere near enough time to make a dent in Tears of the Kingdom. Still, it seems to be a step up from the way sharing currently works, where a secondary Switch can only play games if it’s connected to the internet to verify things, rendering it largely useless while traveling. Nintendo specifies in the fine print that “once a virtual game card is loaded to a system, not only can you play it without an internet connection, but other user accounts on the system can play, too.” More interesting than the feature itself is the timing. It’ll be available as part of a system update for the Switch at some point in April. Also happening in April? The big Nintendo Direct where the company will reveal actual details of the Switch 2, presumably including the price, release date, and line-up of launch games. Expectations are it won’t be much longer after that before the Switch 2 finally launches. And it’s a library that keeps growing: there are still major Switch 1 games in the works for this year, like Metroid and Pokémon Legends: Z-A, while the just-announced Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream doesn’t even launch until 2026. In the press release announcing the virtual game cards, Nintendo made sure to note that they “will also work with Nintendo Switch 2 systems at launch.” Nintendo has always had a complicated relationship with the internet and user accounts (see: Friend Codes). But the new virtual card system at least makes it clear that the company sees the importance of creating a more unified system for users to play things across devices. Because whenever the Switch 2 does launch later this year, there’s going to be a whole lot more people with multiple consoles in their homes.

Ubsioft will spin off its most successful game franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege, into a separate subsidiary thanks to a $1.25 billion investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent. The massive deal allows the founding Guillemot family to remain in control of the publisher despite its recent struggles and cratering share price. Why This Under-the-Radar AAA Title Is More Than Just A Far Cry Clone CC Share Subtitles Off English view video Why This Under-The-Radar AAA Title Is More Than Just A Far Cry Clone Why This Under-the-Radar AAA Title Is More Than Just A Far Cry Clone CC Share Subtitles Off English Why This Under-The-Radar AAA Title Is More Than Just A Far Cry Clone The details of the agreement are complex and it’s not immediately clear how it will all hash out in practice. The new entity doesn’t have a name yet but will have its own board of supervisors and include Ubisoft studios Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia. Those teams will be in charge of the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege franchises moving forward, as well as their back catalogs. But all of it will still report up to Ubisoft proper and its current CEO, Yves Guillemot. Advertisement “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success,” Guillemot said in a press release on Thursday. “With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.” Advertisement On a call with investors following the announcement, however, the company’s leadership clarified that Ubisoft 2, or whatever it ends up being called, will still report up to Guillemot. “There will be a dedicated management under the supervision of a board that will be controlled by Ubisoft,” CFO Frederick Duguet told investors. “So Ubisoft will continue controlling and consolidating this entity.” Advertisement The major deal comes after months of speculation about a possible sale of the French publisher following a year of poor sales for some of its biggest recent blockbusters, including Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, as well as delays and cancellations of other big releases, including free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland. Those rumors included a shareholder report that Ubisoft was even exploring a sale of some of its franchises to Microsoft and others. Under the new structure, series like The Division, Ghost Recon, The Crew, Prince of Persia, and Rayman will remain under the broader Ubisoft umbrella. Ubisoft is a sprawling organization with studios and employees spread out all over the world. The complex web facilitates a co-development process that the company uses to ship massive games in shorter time periods. But that also means that there’s no clean delineation between who works on what. While The Montreal and Quebec studios lead development on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, many employees within those offices still work on other franchises as needed. Advertisement Asked by investors how many of Ubisoft’s over 17,000 employees would be moving to the new group, the company said it was still too early to tell. That sentiment was echoed in an email sent to staff today from Ubisoft head of studios Marie-Sophie de Waubert. This brings some uncertainty and questions,” she wrote in an email obtained by Insider Gaming. “Right now, we may not have all the detailed answers, but we are committed to communicating with you transparently and regularly.” Two key provisions of the new agreement are that Tencent cannot sell its 25 percent equity stake for at least five years and Ubisoft “may not cease to hold a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capital for a 2-year period.” In the near term at least, the $1.25 billion deal sounds more like a financial instrument than anything else, and one that provides Ubisoft’s current ownership with more time to try to improve the company’s financial outlook. Prior to Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s launch, many asked if it would be enough to save the company from being broken up and sold for parts. For now at least, it seems like it won’t need to. Advertisement Update 3/27/2025 2:35 p.m. ET: Added more context from the investor call and internal emails. .

I have been using Gimp (Gnu Image Manipulation Project) since its release (in 1998). Fortunately, the software has not plunged into artificial intelligence (because I do not believe that AI has its place in the creative arts ...). And he remained one of the most powerful image editors on the market. Receive a selection of strategic advice and concrete tips every week in your mailbox with our newsletter practical guides. Learn more about the use of personal data I never wanted another program to create books of books or for other images editing needs. There are certain features on which I depended more than others to do my work. Without these features, the creation of high quality images would have been much more difficult. GIMP - which has just changed version - contains a large number of practical functions. But I reduced the list to five because they are the ones that I depend the most. I also decided to avoid the most obvious functions, such as gum, text tool, brush, etc. So I focused on tools that you may not know and which can help you pass your creative work to a higher level. 1. Layers The layers are essential. Without them, I couldn't do what I do. If you have never worked with layers, consider them as a means of stacking slides on a basic image, each being able to contain a part of the basic image or a completely different element. You can then modify each layer without affecting those below. If you try to modify a complex image without using the layers, you will quickly realize that it is impossible. Opacity, degraded and other effects can be attributed to layers in order to create work with more dimension. It should be kept in mind that if you want to use a background image and modify it, you must create a united background layer underneath. As part of this process, you can add a gradient to the background image to give it a fade quality. The layers are absolutely essential to anyone wishing to create something deep and a certain level of complexity. The layers are essential for me. Jack Wallen/ZDNET 2. Layer masks The layer masks are as essential as the layers themselves in Gimp. With layer masks, you can selectively change the opacity/transparency of a layer. Do you remember that I talked above the use of the gradient to blur a layer (in order to reveal part of what is below)? This technique is not possible without the layer masks. There are two types of layer masks: White for total transparency Black for total opacity In my case, I always create layer masks with total opacity, then I adjust them according to needs. To create a layer mask: Right -click on a layer (in the plays box of the right sidebar) Select Add layer masks After handling the layer, you must not forget to apply the layer mask I use layer masks for almost all the covers of books that I create. The layer masks greatly facilitate the manipulation of a layer to carry out fades and other functions. Jack Wallen/ZDNET 3. The degraded tool is the icing on the superposition cake. This tool allows you to blur the layers so that they reveal what is below or that they blend into what is below. You can sometimes get the same effect using the gum tool and lowering the hardness to around 10-15, but the degraded tool greatly facilitates the task for larger sections. You can also change the colors, but blur a layer to reveal part of the background image. I find that the use of white as a leading color and black as a background color gives the best results. Creation of a melted effect with the degraded tool and layer masks. Jack Wallen/ZDNET 4. G'Mic Qt G'Mic QT is a powerful collection of effects that can handle your images (or layers) so as to combine several filters for a single effect. For example, you can add bokeh, and transform your image so that it seems to have been drawn to the felt or in the cubist style. There are also filters for paintings and tiles, artistic, black and white, colors, contours, deformations, degradations, details, frames, frequencies, layers, lights and shadows, and many other things. You will find hundreds of different looks in G'Mic QT, each of them that can be applied in one click. In addition, almost all filters can be personalized for your creation. G'Mic QT is not installed by default with GIMP, you will therefore need to install it (free of charge) with the package manager of your choice. G'Mic-QT is one of the most powerful additions for Gimp. Jack Wallen/ZDNET 5. The magic wand tool I do not use the magic baguette tool for all the images I create. But when I need this tool, there is nothing like it. The magic baguette tool allows you to select areas of a layer or image based on a similar color, unlike the color selection tool, which selects areas on the basis of a single color. The magic wand works by selecting an area of ​​the image which contains variations of a color. Click on an area and the magic wand selects another part of the image. I recently used the magic wand to create a book cover for a writer who wanted three different covers. Each blanket resumed the same rocky beach scene. But the water rose from one book to another to cover more rocks. I used the fuzzy selection tool to select parts of the ocean, I stuck the selection in a new layer and mixed as needed. This approach was easier than copying a selection of the ocean, adding a layer and blurring with gum. The use of the magic wand tool made it possible to obtain a more natural result. The Fuzzy Select tool facilitates the selection of certain areas of your image. Jack Wallen/ZDNET I cannot imagine obtaining the results I need without the five GIMP functions mentioned above. If you work with GIMP and you do not use any of the above tools, I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with their operation in order to raise your image touch-ups to a higher level. Source: "Zdnet.com"

It is a nice spotlight for Microsoft technologies. The American company announces that it has concluded a non -exclusive partnership with the ITER project. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data The idea? Offer artificial intelligence tools to researchers and employees working in the nuclear merger research program. Microsoft's tools will be made available to research teams, which may freely use Office365 solutions for office automation, or its publisher VSCODE for IT development mentions a press release. Facilitate access to documentation Obviously, the operation cannot ignore the contributions of artificial intelligence technologies. Copilot will be used in programming assistance. And this to allow researchers to easily develop new tools. The partnership with the research project also made it possible to develop an AI chatbot based on Azure Openai Service. It is a question of facilitating the exploration of the database of scientific articles compiled by the ITER teams in the past twenty years. ITER works in collaboration with the Witvio startup to develop other features. The company quotes as an example "a tool specially designed to decipher the hundreds of acronyms used by ITER." "After an initial phase of use of Microsoft 365 Copilot with 50 beta-testers, ITER extends its use to more than 300 Copilot licenses and plans to add others" said the press release. He specifies that "Copilot is also used for administrative tasks such as the initial evaluation of CVs, as well as for purchases and inventory management." The novelty of AI However, using Microsoft tools is not new to the ITER project. The organization has been working for several years with Microsoft. In 2023, the research team, for example, communicated on their calculation experiments in the Cloud of Microsoft and Google. But the use of artificial intelligence tools in several use cases is however a novelty. ITER is an international research project bringing together teams of researchers from more than 35 countries. In particular, several countries of the European Union but also the United States, China or Japan. The objective of ITER is to manage to design a reactor exploiting the nuclear merger technique to produce energy. A feat which materializes in particular by the implementation of a first center in France, near the CEA center of Cadarache in the Bouches du Rhône. The ITER project has had many delays on its initial calendar. But it aims for a full entry into activity by 2034.

Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) don't have to turn over information related to their government cost-cutting operations, at least for now, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. A federal judge previously ruled that 14 states suing the federal government can serve written discovery requests on Musk and DOGE. Musk, DOGE, and President Trump turned to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an attempt to block that order. A three-judge panel at the appeals court granted an emergency motion for a stay in an order issued yesterday, putting the lower-court ruling on hold pending further orders from the appeals court. "Petitioners have satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay," the panel ruling said. "In particular, petitioners have shown a likelihood of success on their argument that the district court was required to decide their motion to dismiss before allowing discovery." Musk, DOGE, and Trump filed a petition to quash the district court's discovery order at the same time that they filed their emergency motion for a stay. The appeals court did not rule on the petition to quash the discovery order. The three-judge panel included judges appointed by George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. The states suing the US alleged that "President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities." They sought "planning, implementation, and organizational documents," but no emails, text messages, or other electronic communications. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request for depositions but otherwise found the states' discovery requests to be "reasonable and narrowly tailored to their request for injunctive relief."

On March 27th, Edion announced that it had developed the IoT home appliance operation app, the Edion Smart App. You can operate a variety of home appliances at once, including home appliances purchased from other than Edion. It is available for free and will be released on April 1st. The Edion Smart App allows you to operate appliances from different models and manufacturers at once. It is said that you can remotely operate the air conditioner from outside the home and check the operating status of the washing machine. If an error is detected in an appliance, the app will notify you. It is said that you can also check the remaining warranty period for Edion products and the repair reception desk. The company plans to develop IoT home appliances that support apps on its private brand "e angle." To commemorate the release, we are running a campaign where you can get free access to the smart app visit setting service "Omakase IoT Pack," which offers a regular price (including tax) for 12,650 yen if you purchase smart app-compatible home appliances during the period. The period is from April 1st to June 15th, and it is said that it can be used once per household. news View current sales on Amazon

Ubisoft has announced that it’s creating a subsidiary which will focus on its main three IPs, and will be partly owned by Tencent. The new subsidiary will be based on the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands, and will be “backed by greater investment and boosted creative capabilities” in an attempt to push each series forwards. The subsidiary has been valued at around €4 billion, and Tencent will be investing €1.16 billion to gain a minority stake of around 25% in it. What exactly this means for fans of the series remains to be seen at this stage, but the investment by Tencent likely gives it a degree of influence over the future direction of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. Ubisoft says the new subsidiary, backed by Tencent’s investment, “will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features.” “The new subsidiary would include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back catalogue and any new games currently under development or to be developed,” it added. “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. “We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies. “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.” Alongside the creation of the new subsidiary, Ubisoft says it will continue working on other IP outside of the three that have moved over. “In parallel to the creation of this new entity, Ubisoft will focus on nurturing the development of iconic franchises including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division, accelerating the growth of top performing titles and leveraging disruptive technologies on selected new IPs, while continuing to deliver state-of-the-art production game engines and online services,” it said in a statement.

I played a lot of Obsidian's Avowed after it came out. I appreciate that the game offers both a whole lot of world-building lore if you want it, but also the ability to skip it all if you want to get back to grimoires, guns, and scarfing food while dodging attacks. But all those gods and races and islands must have sunk in. As I neared the end of Avowed's journey, I find myself wondering about the earlier games in Obsidian's world of Eora in its Pillars of Eternity series, which passed me by entirely. The same thing happened with Baldur's Gate 3, which pulled me in deep and left me wondering if I'd dig the earlier titles. But after an hour or two in the first entry, I was done, for much the same reason as with the first Pillars: I just can't hack it (pun intended) in real-time-with-pause combat. "Real-time-with-pause" has never been a perfect descriptor; technically, Avowed plays out in real time, as do most games, which also offer pausing. But look at a couple videos and you'll get the gist: Your party hacks, slashes, and casts largely on its own, but you can interject to redirect, re-equip, or force a potion on one of your crew. If you have control issues, or don't have the clicking speed you had as a younger gamer, real-time-with-pause can be a humbling experience. Game Design Foundry's video explainer on real-time, turn-based, and hybrid kinds of combat, including Pillars of Eternity. So it is that a patch for Pillars of Eternity (PoE), 10 years old this week, contains a masterfully underplayed bit of great news: "Coming later this year, Watchers will be able to help us test a brand-new feature: Turn-Based Combat." There will be details on how to sign up as a tester "in the near future," with fans advised to watch Obsidian's socials and Discord.

TSMC's plan to spend $165 billion on its American manufacturing capacity and an R&D facility will certainly increase U.S. semiconductor production market share. But it doesn't guarantee that the country will regain leadership in process technologies, said Pat Gelsinger, former chief executive of Intel, in an interview with the Financial Times. "If you do not have R&D in the U.S., you will not have semiconductor leadership in the U.S.," Gelsinger told the Financial Times. "All of the R&D work of TSMC is in Taiwan, and they have not made any announcements to move that [to the U.S.]." If you don't have R&D in the U.S., you won't have semiconductor leadership. Pat Gelsinger Gelsinger argued that manufacturing alone is not enough to regain technology leadership, even though this will undoubtedly improve the semiconductor supply chain in America. Nonetheless, the U.S. cannot lead in this field without designing next-generation process technologies domestically. Under the current plan, TSMC plans to build six Fab 21 modules to process wafers using various fabrication technologies, two advanced packaging facilities, and an R&D center in the U.S. The company hopes to house everything at its Fab 21 site near Phoenix, Arizona, though no final decisions about the locations have been made as of last month, when Tom's Hardware spoke with TSMC. While TSMC's R&D center is certainly planned in the U.S., its focus remains to be seen. TSMC has developed its fabrication processes in Taiwan for decades, although many of its engineers come from the U.S. As manufacturing technologies get more complex and require longer pathfinding processes with each generation, TSMC may offload part of its R&D operations from its Taiwan facilities to the U.S. facility. TSMC has reportedly hinted that its U.S. development will focus only on refining existing processes, though it did not elaborate. Contract chipmakers like TSMC tend to develop performance-enhanced versions of their process technologies for their alpha customers (e.g., N3 => N3P => N3X) as well as specialty versions of their production nodes for customers that prefer to use mature nodes (e.g., N4 => N4e, N4c). This ensures that their fabs are always filled with orders and their utilization rates are high. The former Intel executive also acknowledged that tariff threats by President Donald Trump helped the U.S. semiconductor industry by motivating foreign chipmaker TSMC to build additional U.S. facilities. Still, he suggested this was insufficient without deeper R&D operations in the U.S.

China created a new entity called the "Deep Space Exploration Laboratory" three years ago to strengthen the country's approach to exploring the Solar System. Located in eastern China, not far from Shanghai, the new laboratory represented a partnership between China's national space agency and a local public college, the University of Science and Technology of China. Not much is known outside of China about the laboratory, but it has recently revealed some very ambitious plans to explore the Solar System, including the outer planets. This week, as part of a presentation, Chinese officials shared some public dates about future missions. Space journalist Andrew Jones, who tracks China's space program, shared some images with a few details. Among the planned missions are: 2028 : Tianwen-3 mission to collect samples of Martian soil and rocks and return them to Earth : Tianwen-3 mission to collect samples of Martian soil and rocks and return them to Earth 2029 : Tianwen-4 mission to explore Jupiter and its moon Callisto : Tianwen-4 mission to explore Jupiter and its moon Callisto 2030 : Development of a large, ground-based habitat to simulate long-duration human spaceflight : Development of a large, ground-based habitat to simulate long-duration human spaceflight 2033 : Mission to Venus that will return samples of its atmosphere to Earth : Mission to Venus that will return samples of its atmosphere to Earth 2038 : Establishment of an autonomous Mars research station to study in-situ resource utilization : Establishment of an autonomous Mars research station to study in-situ resource utilization 2039: Mission to Triton, Neptune's largest moon, with a subsurface explorer for its ocean Plans should be taken seriously It would be easy to dismiss these plans as fanciful, and indeed, only the first two missions have been formally approved by China's central government. Some of the concepts are tremendously exciting, but others appear unrealistic. For example, it is unknown how thick Triton's ice shell is, and designing a probe to burn through that ice to reach the ocean would be extremely challenging. Nonetheless, this scope of missions reveals that China is planning to conduct an extensive program to explore Mars and beyond, something that has almost (but not completely) exclusively been the province of NASA historically. And there are good reasons not to doubt the ambitions of China, nor its ability for interplanetary success. With its methodical lunar exploration program, dating to 2007, China has had a string of successes with robotic missions, including last summer's return of samples from the far side of the Moon. Beyond the Moon, the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars, launched in 2020, was no less impressive. No country besides the United States has ever softly landed a spacecraft on Mars and had it survive for more than a handful of minutes. But on its very first mission to Mars, China sent not only an orbiter but also a lander and a small rover that operated for about a year.

Microsoft's conquest operation in the French AI French ecosystem continues. The publisher's hexagonal subsidiary has just formalized the list of 15 winners of the second edition of the Microsoft Genai Studio. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data The program is part of the GAFAM project to support 2,500 French startups by the end of 2027. Until next June, for three months, the winners will benefit from support from the publisher and its technological partners. 75% startups dependent on hyperscalers Announced objective: to offer "tailor-made support to develop innovative solutions based on generative AI." For Microsoft, such an initiative aims of course to use its cloud and AI services from startups and their customers. The strategy is not new or exclusive to the Redmond firm. Google and Meta also adopt comparable approaches. These seduction operations contribute to the development of the technological dependence of startups in France. In January during the Summit of Digital Sovereignty in Bercy, Maya Noël, Director General of France Digital, pointed out that three quarters of the startups were dependent on the services of the American hyperscalers. Up to $ 150,000 in Azure credits Many young tech shoots are shaking up to integrate GAFAM programs. For the new edition of his Genai Studio, Microsoft specifies having received more than 200 applications. For the winners, the publisher is true generous by promising "multiple advantages". Among these, up to 150,000 dollars of Microsoft Azure credits and "access to more than 1,800 AA models via Azure A AI Foundry". However, for AI startups, cloud resources are essential, but also expensive. The publisher therefore offers them facilities, while trying to take its technologies as much as possible in their operation. In addition, Microsoft and its partners provide license winners (including Linkedin Premium, Github and Microsoft 365). Also has a work space dedicated to station F as well as workshops and technical mentoring sessions and business. Danone to train in the relationship with large groups The selected companies operate in different sectors, including marketing, health and retail. Smalk AI specializes in referencing in AI and LLM research applications. Beink Dream, Fater AI, Neuralk AI, Litch, Klaimy, Secondbrain, .omics, Ed.ai, Blify, Leadbay, Rounded Technology, Contractzlab, Thunder Code and Virtualbrain complete the second promotion of the Genai Studio. Besides Microsoft and Station F, the program involves Mistral AI, Nvidia, Github, Celnza and Danone. Already a partner of the first edition, the industrialist has the role of training startups to interact with large groups.

Once a client has hired me, but I was not sure I could trust him. But he paid very well. I accepted the contract, knowing that I should take precautions to protect my information. Instead of a VPN, I opted for an anonymity, confidentiality and security linux distribution. When I treated with this client, I used this specialized Linux distribution. And I did what I had to do. Once the operation was completed, I died the distribution, knowing that I should turn it back soon. Receive a selection of the latest software and hardware products for professionals every week in your mailbox with our newsletter purchasing guides. Learn more about the use of personal data This method worked perfectly. My data and my identity were safe. And I could always be paid for a job well done. The customer had no idea of ​​my suspicions. And everything was fine. You can have a similar need. It is then that you will turn to one of these five Linux distributions. Before you say "I don't know how to install an operating system", understand two things: These distributions are executed as a instances, so you don't need to install them. (Just start them with a USB key). The installation of Linux is as simple as that of an application What differentiates these distributions from other versions of Linux? They are made to preserve the anonymity of users when used. And they leave no trace when they are not used. Let's take a look at each of these distributions. 1. Linux Kodachi Kodachi has a lot of information on the desktop. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Linux Kodachi (more commonly known as Kodachi) is a highly secure, anti-forensic and anonymous computer environment which focuses on anonymity and privacy. It transports all Internet connections through a VPN and then the Tor network. Kodachi includes a series of privacy protection tools and leaves no trace on the computer, unless specific request. With Kodachi, you benefit from the following advantages Any online activity goes through a VPN and then by the Tor network. Network traffic uses DNS encryption to guarantee maximum confidentiality Includes measures to prevent DNS leaks By default, Kodachi leaves no imprint on your computer, unless otherwise indicated Cryptography and confidentiality tools allow you to encrypt files, emails and instant messages Preconfigured firewall to protect from network threats Includes protection against malware. Kodachi can be downloaded and used for free. 2. Tails Tails facilitates the use of the Tor network. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Tails (The Amnesiac Incognito Live System) is one of the most popular distributions on this list. If you have never heard of Tails, know that it is a portable operating system that protects against surveillance and censorship. Tails can be executed in live mode, operating entirely from RAM (like most distributions on this list), leaving no trace of activity when you restart your system. Think about it as follows: Whenever you restart your computer with Tails, this is a whole new instance and there is nothing left of the previous session. All network traffic on tails goes through the TOR network to guarantee confidentiality and anonymity. Applications such as Keepassx and Paperkey are also installed for more confidentiality. If you wish, you can use Tails with persistent storage, but it goes against the lens of absence of trace. The most remarkable features of tails are as follows Integration of Tor Amnesiac design Works from a USB key or DVD without installation Integrated encryption Preinstalled safety applications include GNUPG for email encryption and files, Luks for disc encryption and keepassxc for password management Each start starts from a clean state, minimizing the risk of malware or strike recorders Based on Debian Many preinstalled software Persistent storage option Tails can be downloaded and used for free. Keep in mind that the default download of Tails is an IMG file. Rather download the ISO image for easier use. 3. Whonix You must execute both the bridge and the office for Whonix, or you will not be as sure. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Whonix was designed to be executed as a virtual machine. You download an OVA file and add it to VirtualBox (it's much easier than you think). Whonix has something that other options do not have: SDWDATE, which means "Secure Distributed Web Date". This application is a time synchronization tool designed to prevent time -based attacks. The SDWDATE tool slows the initial use of Whonix, as you must wait until the gateway connects. This is where things get complicated. With the Virtual Appliance Whonix, you must operate two virtual machines - the bridge and the workstation. First start the bridge, then the workstation. Once the gateway is launched, the workstation can connect to the gateway for more security and confidentiality. Whonix includes applications such as Keepassxc (Password manager), a preconfigured firewall, Tor Browser Downloader, and more. Finally, Whonix is ​​built on Kicksecure, an operating system whose security has been reinforced by its developers. Remarkable characteristics of Whonix Whonix uses an architecture for two VMs with a "workstation" for user activities and a "gateway" to transport all traffic via tor A high insulation level protects the real IP address of the user even if the workstation is compromised Integration of the TOR network with forced use of Tor Different applications use different TOR circuits, which improves confidentiality and reduces the risk of correlation Can be executed under Windows, MacOS or Linux as a host operating system Available in different versions, including KVM, VirtualBox and the integration of the QUBES operating system Reinforced nucleus Secure and anonymous temporal synchronization to prevent time -based attacks Anti-supperPrinting measures Updates are checked and delivered via TOR to preserve anonymity Whonix is ​​a great option if you need a live distribution that has been designed from the start to be secure and offer anonymous use. The virtualbox image can be downloaded from the official download page. 4. QUBES OS Qubes is by far the most difficult distribution on this list. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET QUBES OS focuses on safety by insulation. But do not be mistaken, Qubes OS includes very solid confidentiality functions and uses virtualization to isolate certain sections of the operating system in order to prevent malicious software from infecting other sections. QUBES OS makes it possible to securely compartmentalize their digital activities by taking advantage of xen -based virtualization to create isolated compartments called quibes. There are two things to take into account before trying Qubes OS. First of all, it is reserved for advanced users. Second, you must install the operating system, which excludes the option "do not leave traces" found in similar operating systems. That said, Qubes OS is a unique operating system that can guarantee your privacy and safety thanks to another unique feature called "disposable". You can create disposable elements, work there and, when you restart, the disposable element is self -destructing. You can also assign different levels of confidence to the different quotes according to their objective. QUEBE characteristics Use the Xen hypervisor to create several isolated virtual machines called "Qubes" Each task or application can run in its own qube, which makes it possible to isolate potential threats Different colors are attributed to different virtual machines to facilitate the identification of the safety domain used Users can create and customize safety areas according to their needs Use model virtual machines to effectively create and manage similar virtual machines Each Quebe can have its own firewall and its own network parameters Integration of Tor USB insulation Passage through the GPU Split GPG for secure management of GPG keys by insulating them in distinct virtual machines Creation of temporary virtual machines for occasional and potentially risky tasks Provides extra-security virtual machines for storage of sensitive data, without access to the network QUBES OS can be downloaded and installed for free. 5. Parrot OS Parrot OS is suitable for daily use. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET Although Parrot OS is mainly known as a distribution of penetration tests, it also includes solid privacy protection functions and anonymity tools. Parrot OS offers a home version which is designed for daily computer tasks. But it also offers additional privacy protection to meet a wide range of needs for end users. Here are some of the main characteristics of Parrot OS Tor and Tor Browser are preinstalled Anonsurf passes all the system traffic through the Tor network FIREJAIL for Applications Sandboxing Onionshare for anonymous file sharing Richochet for the anonymous cat Based on stable debian with the Linux nucleus 6.1 Mate is the default office environment Requires few system resources (256 MB of RAM, for example) Supports the 64 bit (32 -bit management is gradually abandoned) Preinstalled tools for safety, digital criminalics and privacy Office and multimedia tools are included in certain editions, making it a tool adapted to daily use Focused on security, privacy and light performance, Parrot OS is designed for ethical hacking, penetration tests, digital criminalics and users concerned for privacy. It comes with just enough preinstalled applications and includes general use tools. Which makes it suitable for daily use. You can download and use Parrot OS for free.

Health Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slashing a total of 20,000 jobs across the Department of Health and Human Services—or about 24 percent of the workforce—in a sweeping overhaul said to improve efficiency and save money, Kennedy and the HHS announced Thursday. Combining workforce losses from early retirement, the "Fork in the Road" deferred resignation deal, and 10,000 positions axed in the reductions and restructuring announced today, HHS will shrink from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000 under Kennedy and the Trump administration. The HHS's 28 divisions will be cut down to 15, while five of the department's 10 regional offices will close. "This will be a painful period," Kennedy said in a video announcement posted on social media. Calling the HHS a "sprawling bureaucracy," Kennedy claimed that the cuts would be aimed at "excess administrators." "I want to promise you now that we are going to do more with less," he said in the video. Kennedy and HHS said the cuts will save $1.8 billion each year. That's about 0.027 percent of total federal spending, based on the $6.75 trillion the government spent in 2024, and about 0.06 percent of the $2.8 trillion HHS budget for that year. The downsizing announced today includes significant cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. Cuts upon cuts The FDA will lose 3,500 employees, which The Wall Street Journal reported was about 19 percent of its staff. HHS did not provide current staff levels at the agency level or percentage cuts. The CDC, which will absorb the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), will lose 2,400 employees (1,400 from CDC and 1,000 from ASPR). The Journal reported that to be about 18 percent of the total workforce. NIH will lose 1,200 employees, about 6 percent of its workers.

Protecting your internet traffic should be a priority, whatever the place you are. This is obviously worth in the office, but also and especially when working remotely from public Wi-Fi networks in cafes, airports, stations or even hotels. These unsecured connections present sensitive and communications information, some that can be intercepted and operated by malicious people. But the interest of a VPN is not just about security. It is also a precious tool to bypass online restrictions and preserve your anonymity, sometimes essential assets in the professional world. The VPN, the first bulwark against the cyberrencies Everyone is affected by cybercrime. However, companies and professionals are more profitable prey. Identity usurpation, ransomiciel, and other computer attacks by phishing are now part of everyday life. What is more, thanks to artificial intelligence, these methods are now particularly sophisticated. So many risks that must push professionals to protect themselves, especially when they are at a distance, in vulnerable environments. To guard against these threats, the first step is to use a VPN. The latter acts upstream, preventing cybercriminals from intercepting data or infiltrating. Thus, rather than being in a passive posture, the professional takes the lead in order to prevent them. You have to see the VPN as a shield or an armored door that protects your digital house. © Surfshark A powerful VPN brings a whole series of protections: Data encryption: traffic benefits from an AES-256 encryption, a technology deemed insurmountable. Thus, even in the event of interception by pirates, the data remain unusable. As for chat or video communications, they are also protected. Multi-hop servers: the connection is made via two VPN servers, which involves double encryption of information and therefore reinforced protection. Kill Switch: This feature automatically cuts the Internet connection when VPN protection is interrupted. Preserve your confidentiality and traffic safety. Blocking of trackers: a VPN like Surfshark incorporates a system of blocking advertisements and malware, the objective being to reduce the risk of bans by phishing. Go around geographic restrictions for telework Working remotely under the same safety and comfort conditions as at the office sometimes involves bypassing geographic restrictions, especially when working internationally. In some regions of the world, access to professional services can be limited or even completely blocked. A VPN then becomes essential to bypass blockages while ensuring a secure connection. Access the company's resources from abroad A VPN has the ability to hide the real location of its user by redirecting the connection to a server located in another country. It is thus possible to simulate your presence in the desired area and access the websites, tools and services of the company without any constraints. Freeing itself from digital borders therefore represents a considerable advantage for remote workers. An asset for confidentiality By masking the IP address, the VPN brings a certain level of confidentiality. It protects its user's identity and prevents third parties from following their activities online. For a professional user, this also reduces the risk of attack by avoiding connecting online activity to a specific company. Certain VPN and Surfshark services also adopt a strict "no log" policy, that is to say without newspapers. Whether it is visited IP addresses, navigation history, session information, bandwidth used, or network traffic, nothing is kept. In addition, this service also has a stealth mode which hides the use of VPN in the eyes of the authorities or access providers. The user then browsing the Internet without attracting attention and safely.

Other Good International Phones These phones are worth considering if you have yet to see something you like. Photograph: Simon Hill Oppo Find N5 for £1,106: It’s a real shame that the Find N5 won’t even land in the UK or Europe, because the world’s slimmest book-style foldable (3.6 millimeters open) is a lovely phone. The 6.62-inch cover display and 8.12-inch inner display are excellent, and the Find N5 has top specs all the way (Snapdragon 8 Elite, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB storage, 5,600-mAh battery, 80-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging). The triple-lens camera (50-MP main, 50-MP telephoto, 8-MP ultrawide) is the most obvious compromise, a necessity for this form factor. The slightly buggy software and bloatware are the only other detractors, but the potential pain of importing will be enough to put most folks off. Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra for £649 and F7 Pro for £499: While Poco has traditionally been a budget brand, the aptly named F7 Ultra takes it into new territory. This phone boasts a few flagship-level features, such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with the VisionBoost D7 for graphics, a powerful triple-lens camera, and a lovely, high-resolution 6.67-inch display with a 120-Hz refresh rate. It also scores an IP68 rating and offers up to 50-watt wireless charging. The catch is a price hike over previous Poco F series releases, but at the early-bird price, the F7 Ultra is a compelling bargain. The F7 Pro is more in line with what we expect from the brand, with an older processor, limited camera, and no wireless charging. Both run Xiaomi's HyperOS 2 and have too much bloatware, but Xiaomi now promises four Android version upgrades and six years of security patches. Realme 14 Pro+ for €530: The color-changing finish may be gimmicky, but it's fun, and this phone looks and feels far more expensive than it is. There are more highs than lows on the spec sheet. You get a triple-lens camera, an IP68/69 rating, a 6,000-mAh battery, and a 6.83-inch OLED display with a 120-Hz refresh rate, but the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset is limited, there's no wireless charging support, and no charger in the box. It is still quite a bargain and should be landing in the UK soon. Xiaomi 15 for £899: Folks seeking a more compact phone than the Xiaomi 15 Ultra could do a lot worse than its smaller sibling. The Xiaomi 15 feels lovely, with a 6.36-inch screen, a decent triple-lens camera, and top-notch internals. But it’s a conservative design, kind of pricey, and it has the same software and bloatware issues as the Ultra. Honor Magic 7 RSR for £1,550: Designed with Porsche, this souped-up version of the 7 Pro above has a fancier design with a hexagonal camera module, a slightly improved telephoto lens, 24 GB of RAM (likely largely pointless), 1 TB of storage, and a bigger battery (5,850 mAh). It’s lovely but doesn’t do enough to justify the additional outlay. Oppo Find X8 Pro for £1,099: The last two Oppo flagships didn’t officially make it to the UK and Europe, so the X8 Pro marks a welcome return. This is a polished phone with a quad-lens camera (all 50 MP), but it feels like a downgrade from the Find X7 Ultra I used last year because of the smaller sensor. It is fast, with excellent battery life, speedy wired and wireless charging, IP68/69 protection, and no obvious omissions. But it’s pricey, and flagships should not have bloatware. I’d prefer to wait for the X8 Ultra. Photograph: Simon Hill Honor 200 Pro for £499: I don’t love the design of the Honor 200 Pro (7/10, WIRED Review), but it has a versatile triple-lens camera with a capable portrait mode. There are also some useful AI features, and the battery life is good, with fast wired and wireless charging. It cost £200 more at launch, but at this new lower price, it is a far more attractive option. Xiaomi Mix Flip for £749: Xiaomi’s first flip phone is surprisingly good, with two relatively bright and roomy screens, solid stamina, fast charging, and snappy performance. It’s a shame Xiaomi didn’t craft more flip screen-specific features. It doesn't help that the Mix Flip was too expensive at launch (£1,099), but at this reduced price, it’s a decent shout for folks craving a folding flip phone. Nubia Z70 Ultra for £749: Much like last year’s Z60 Ultra (6/10, WIRED Review), the Z70 Ultra is a value-packed brick with an excellent 6.8-inch display, Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, versatile triple-lens camera, and 6,150-mAh battery. Unfortunately, the camera is inconsistent and poor at recording video, and the software is shoddy (with only three Android version updates promised). Oppo Reno 12 Pro for £395: There are a couple of reasons to consider the Reno 12 Pro: the camera and the battery life. A main camera and a telephoto lens, both rated at 50 megapixels, are rare at this price (there’s also an 8-MP ultrawide and a 50-MP selfie camera). But I don’t like the plastic design, there’s bloatware galore, and the performance is just OK. Photograph: Simon Hill Xiaomi 14T Pro for £470: As the mid-year follow-up to Xiaomi’s flagship 14, the 14T Pro (7/10, WIRED Review) is a bit of a bargain and has dropped in price since I reviewed it. The basics are nailed, with a big screen, good performance, plenty of stamina, and a solid camera. But there is bloatware, Xiaomi’s software, and the lack of wireless charging to contend with. OnePlus Nord 4 for £369: With a metal unibody, the Nord 4 stands out and also boasts an excellent screen, enough processing power for most folks, impressive battery life, and fast charging. The main camera is fine, and there’s a nifty AquaTouch feature that lets you use the phone with wet hands. But there's no wireless charging, the ultrawide camera is disappointing, and there’s some bloatware. Avoid These Phones These aren’t bad phones necessarily, but we think you’d be better served by something above. Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 for £1,085: Only officially released in China, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 is a stylish folding phone with a 6.56-inch outer screen that folds open to reveal a 7.98-inch inner screen. It also offers solid performance and battery life, but despite having a large quad-lens camera module, the camera is underwhelming. The crease is also pronounced, and using a Chinese model is a bit of a pain as various things are not translated, and there’s work in getting the apps you want. Photograph: Simon Hill Realme GT7 Pro for £774: This potential flagship killer has a 6.78-inch OLED screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and an enormous 6,500-mAh battery. You also get a triple-lens camera, but the 50-megapixel main and telephoto lenses are let down by the 8-megapixel ultrawide. It also lacks wireless charging, and you’ll have to import it to the UK, as it only seems to be on sale in Germany. Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ for £369: An attractive, durable design (IP68), a 200-megapixel Samsung camera sensor, and decent battery life with superfast charging (120-watts) must be balanced against middling performance, poor ultrawide (8 MP) and macro (2 MP) lenses, and a ton of bloatware. Ultimately, there’s little improvement over last year’s Redmi Note 13 Pro+ (6/10, WIRED Review), and it’s not just that there are better phones for the same money; there are better Xiaomi phones. Xiaomi Poco F6 for £268 or F6 Pro for £339: A real bargain when first released, the Poco F6 series (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is still tempting with a big screen, decent performance, and a pretty capable camera, but there’s bloatware, shoddy software, and limited long-term support. The F6 is a better value than the Pro. Photograph: Simon Hill Motorola Edge 50 Pro for £399: It may be falling in price, but the Motorola Edge 50 Pro (7/10, WIRED Review) only has a couple of Android upgrades to go. While the design is compact and there’s a lovely display, I found it lacked processing power, with sometimes sluggish camera performance, and there are better options above. Nubia Flip 5G for £419: We had some fun with the Nubia Flip 5G (6/10, WIRED Review), and it was the cheapest flip foldable available for a while. The circular cover screen is cute, but it can’t do much. The performance was average a year ago, and the annoying software and update policy are major strikes against it.

On March 27th, the app version of the Pokemon card, "Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket," added special items to the "Shop" in the app. As a limited-time bonus Poke Gold, "115 Poke Gold with Promo Card "Mewtwo Ex" (paid) x 115" will be offered for 3,200 yen. New items include 115 Poke Gold (paid) and 5 Poke Gold (free), as well as the promo card "Mewtwo ex", a different color Mewtwo (deck shield), a different color Mewtwo (play mat), a different color Mewtwo (Pokemon Coin), a different color Shine (file), and a different color Shine (board). Along with the new expansion pack "Shining High," which began streaming on the same day, different colored Pokemon will also be appearing in the items. In addition, we have also updated the surrounding goods that can be exchanged for Pokecoins. Red Rainbow (Pokemon Coin), Red and Pikachu (Playmat), and Red and Pikachu (Deck Shield) have been added, including Red and Pikachu (Bonus Pokemon Coin) that can be exchanged for 115 coins. Pokemon Card Game Scarlet & Violet Starter Set Terracetal Mewtwo ex (check the price on Amazon)

"My Number Cards" are used to digitalize government administration. The Digital Agency has released a Q&A regarding the expiration date of the card. The Q&A site is making it clear that My Number Cards have the following two expiration dates: ・The expiration date of the My Number card itself: 10 years (from the issuance until the 10th birthday) ・The validity period of the digital certificate installed on the IC chip of the My Number Card: 5 years (from the issuance until the fifth birthday) Of these, the expiration date of the My Number card itself is printed on the front of the card. Additionally, if you are under the age of 18 at the time of issuing your card, any expiration date will be your fifth birthday since your card was issued. Note that updating your My Number card cannot be completed remotely, and in any case you will need to go to the local government counter. In addition, those who have reached these two expiration dates will be sent to their homes two to three months before a "expiration date notification" from the Local Government Information Systems Organization (J-LIS). Details can be found on the Q&A page. View current sales on Amazon Anker's mobile battery that can be plugged into an outlet and also used as a charger (check the price on Amazon)

The Switch 2 images and teaser clips revealed by Nintendo until now have carefully hidden the labeling on that button, even though it’s been referred to in earlier leaks. We still don’t know exactly what it does, although there’s been speculation that C could refer to chat or community features, or that it could tie in to the rumored mouse-like functionality. Mostly, it’s just surprising that Nintendo appears to have revealed anything about its next console outside of the planned launch — we’ll keep an eye on Nintendo Today to see if it has any other secrets waiting.

A new chapter is added to the scandal of unprotected communications in the Trump administration. After the revelations of the last week of The Atlantic on the use of non -safe chat Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, the German weekly Der Spiegel discovered that the personal data of three key figures of American security were freely accessible online. This is the National Security Councilor Mike Waltz, the coordinator of the intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and the Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose private telephone numbers and email addresses were found by German journalists using common tools and available to anyone. The data escape appears even more serious if we consider the fact that these same telephone numbers were connected to Signal profiles still active this week, which suggests that the reserved communications between 11 and 15 March may have been intercepted. As the German newspaper writes: "hostile secret services could use this publicly accessible data to violate the communications of the people involved, installing spyware on their devices. It is therefore plausible that foreign agents had access to the chat group on Signal in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military attack". The origin of the investigation The affair began last week, when it emerged that high officials of the Trump administration, including vice -president JD Vance, the head of the Pentagon Hegseth and the secretary of state Marco Rubio, discussed sensitive plans to carry out attacks against Houthi objectives in Yemen used the Signal messaging app to discuss the attacks against the Houti in the Red Sea without adequate protection measures. Starting from these revelations, Der Spiegel journalists have decided to verify the level of protection of US government communications. Using simple commercial databases, commonly used for marketing, they managed to obtain the private telephone numbers of several officials. In the case of the Minister of Defense and Head of the Pentagon Pete Hegseth, for example, it was enough to contact a "Data Broker" - a company specialized in the collection and sale of personal information - and providing the link to its LinkedIn profile to immediately obtain a Gmail address and a mobile number. For Waltz, it was enough to consult a common search engine specialized in personal data to find similar information. The director of the intelligence Gabbard, despite having attempted to protect his data by blocking them in commercial databases, was unable to prevent his email address from appearing on platforms such as Wikileaks and Reddit, where he was found in more than ten compromised credential collections. Apparently, in fact, the email addresses of the officials would have been involved in numerous "Data Breach", or of the data violations that took place during computer attacks on websites and online services. In the case of Minister Hegseth, his email address was found in more than twenty different data violations, together with the passwords he had used to register for compromised services. This information stolen, collected and organized on databases by criminal groups, were shared on specialized forums and in the Dark Web, the non -indexed part of the Internet.

Something moves on the Pfas (and it was also now), but it could be done better than that. The Chamber of Deputies approved on Wednesday 26 March the motion of the government on the PFAS compounds, also known as Forever Chemicals. There are about five thousand and are considered eternal contaminants-harmful to the health of animals and for people-for their persistence due to the fluoride-carbon bond that makes them practically indestructible. These are chemicals of anthropic origin that have had enormous success, since the 1950s, for the extraordinary chemical-physical characteristics, which have made them an important component in many industrial productions, starting with peaks and non-stick pans. And making it without it is not easy. But they are also harmful to health, increasing the risk of various pathologies, including cancer. For this reason, in many countries there is discussion how to proceed to get rid of it, looking for alternatives and limiting concentrations in the waters. Strangely, on the matter the United States are among the most active, although they are usually wide sleeves with industrial contaminations. Italy is also trying to do its part, also for the protests of the many committees of citizens of polluted areas. In particular, in Veneto, where there is an area of ​​two hundred square kilometers that is the most polluted in the world from this class of substances, and in Piedmont. Here is the first map of the contamination from PFAS of the potable waters in Italy Milan the city more where the situation is more critical. But in Veneto a maxi-environmental planning is about to start Pfas, what a confusion in the classroom Wednesday 26 March, it was said, the text of the motion went to the classroom. In addition to the motion of the majority, approved with 156 favorable votes, 103 contrary votes and five abstentions, the classroom approved some parts of the AVS motions (first signs Luana Zanella), M5s (first signed Ilaria Fontana) and Pd (first signed Chiara Braga) after the reformulations of the government. The problem is that two different initiatives that risk generating chaos are overlapping on the question. In fact, in the examination of Parliament, there is also an urgent legislative decree in the same weeks, approved by the Council of Ministers on 13 March, which aims to reduce the allowed levels of PFAS in potable waters and to insert limits for the TFA (Tripluoroactic acid), the most abundant PFAS molecule on the planet and so far not subject to restrictions, at least in our country. In practice, the majority has voted for a motion of address that engages the government to legislate on the matter, but the government itself has already legislated on it. And it is not excluded that conflicts can be created. Zanella (AVS): "The government's text on the PFAS is still insufficient" "A systematic disorder of the government method", explains to Wired the leader of the Green Green Alliance, Luana Zanella, who adds: "We have dedicated a day to the Chamber to discuss Pfas but there was already a scheme of legislative decree for the limits in the waters of which no news has been given. This is also a way to sterilize the work of the oppositions that have placed the theme of the PFAS on the agenda of the day. It is still insufficient even if it introduces the monitoring of other PFAS substances and a limit value for the TFA equal to 10 micrograms for liters and a new limit value for the sum of four pfas (of which the danger for health is known) equal to 20 nanograms per liter while in Denmark it was 2 and in Sweden 4. There are many corrections to do, we are for the progressive disposal of the Pfas. Organic and definitive way, while the government merely navigates on sight ". The text, transmitted to the Senate, will now have to move on to the examination of the competent parliamentary commissions.

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. Ahead of Star Wars Celebration Japan getting underway on April 18th in Tokyo, Audio-Technica has announced four new limited edition versions of its ATH-CKS50TW2 wireless earbuds that originally debuted at CES 2025. Functionality is the same, but the earbuds have gotten a Star Wars-themed makeover with new colors and details inspired by R2-D2, Grogu, the Mandalorian, and Darth Vader plus custom audio alerts that play sound effects like Vader’s ominous labored breathing or a sad whistle when the Artoo version disconnects from a device. The limited edition Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2 are priced a bit higher than the standard versions: $179 up from $149. They’ll be available at Star Wars Celebration Japan but can also be pre-ordered through Audio-Technica’s online store starting on April 21st with an expected release on May 4th, 2025. The limited edition wireless earbuds include Mandalorian, R2-D2, Grogu, and Darth Vader versions. Image: Audio-Technica

Nintendo is overhauling how digital downloads work on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 with a new feature it’s calling “Virtual Game Cards.” Virtual Game Cards, which the company said during Thursday’s Nintendo Direct livestream will launch in late April, are designed to better mimic the flexibility of physical games. It works like this: After buying a digital version of a game, the virtual card is loaded onto the player’s Switch. Players can load or “eject” these game cards; with two systems, a player could eject a game on one system and load it onto another to play from that handheld. Although players will need a local connection to do so, it allows them to swap multiple games between systems quickly. The feature could fundamentally change the landscape for digitally downloaded games, which have become increasingly popular over the past several years as brick-and-mortar retailers have shuttered and physical copies have become less important to some players. Digital copies offer a fast, easy way to get a new game, as long as players have an internet connection. But ownership of a digital game is far more murky than with physical media. Companies can remove digital games from storefronts at any time, and there’s no fun secondary market for collectors. It’s also not possible to resell a digital game, or loan it out without sharing account details. What Nintendo is doing with Virtual Game Cards does offer some flexibility on that last point. The virtual cards can be lent out to other players via a local connection in Family Groups, which link together several Nintendo accounts. But only one game can be shared between two people at one time for two weeks. It’s unclear if a game that’s been lent out can still be played by the original owner. WIRED has reached out to Nintendo for clarification and will update accordingly. Production and sales of physical games media and consoles stand to take a massive hit in the US if President Trump follows through with proposed tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico, where many video game components are made. The Entertainment Software Association released a statement in February warning that “tariffs on video game devices and related products would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans and would harm the industry’s significant contributions to the US economy.” Tariffs could both increase prices and reduce availability for physical game products, making digital games more attractive to consumers. While Nintendo shared many details about Virtual Game Cards during Thursday’s event, it did not share any news about the Switch 2. Another Nintendo Direct focusing on the new console is planned for April 2. The company did offer a brief look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which will give its heroine Samus mysterious new physic abilities. The game is still expected this year, though it’s possible a firm release date will be announced alongside the Switch 2 news next week.

HIV (Human Immunodficiency Virus) is still considered by WHO as one of the main public health problems globally. In fact, it is estimated that only in 2023 about 630 thousand people died from reasons related to the infection with this pathogen. At the moment there is no decisive cure, but access to strategies of prevention, diagnosis and effective therapies are gradually transforming the disease into a chronic manageable condition. And for medium or low countries, access to these strategies depends largely on international aid. According to the results of a study published in The Lancet HIV, cuts in foreign aid bidd up by the main donor countries risk canceling decades of progress on this front. The question of cuts Since 2015, we read in the publication, international donors have contributed about 40% of all funding intended for the fight against HIV in low and medium income countries. United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands contribute together with more than 90% of international funding. Recently, however, these countries would have announced the intention of implementing significant cuts to foreign aid, which according to estimates could lead to a reduction of 24% of international funding for HIV by 2026 review and an evaluation of 90 days. The study The authors and authors used a mathematical model to estimate the potential impact of the cuts in 26 countries, including Armenia, Colombia, Albania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Uganda, just to name a few. In particular, the model was used to estimate the incidence and mortality related to HIV infections for the next five years according to different scenarios: a "status quo" scenario in which it is assumed that the loans remain constant, plus four other scenarios that instead take into consideration the cuts prevented by the donor countries. According to the analyzes, if the latter are not mitigated, they could occur in low and medium income countries between 4.4 and 10.8 million new HIV infections and between 770 thousand and 2.9 million more deaths than the "status quo" scenario from here to 2030. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa and vulnerable communities, including people who use drugs, would be in particular Worker, children. "The United States are historically the greatest contributor to global efforts for the treatment and prevention of HIV, but the current pepfar cuts and the programs supported by Usaid have already interrupted access to the essential services for HIV, including antiretroviral therapy, prevention and tests - comments Debra Ten Brink of the Burnet Institute (Australia), first author of the study - looking to the future, looking to the future, Other donor countries will reduce funding, decades of progress in the treatment and prevention of HIV could be vanified ".

Nintendo has made official the Virtual Game Cards or a system that tries to reproduce in a virtual way the same comfort as the classic physical cartridges. The goal is twofold: on the one hand it allows you to quickly transfer digital games from one console to another owned by a certain user and on the other to be able to also lend a title to another member of the family group. Here's how the formalized novelty works during the last Nintendo Direct of March 27, 2025, prelude to the launch of the long -awaited Switch 2. The purpose of the Virtual Game Card is therefore to make digital games more flexible and to discharge them from the combination of specific consoles and users to which they are connected. From next April this free use will be active that will allow you to create a virtual cartridge to be connected between one console and another to move digital titles at its discretion. A sort of bridge that will be compatible with all the versions of Switch exits so far and with Switch 2: a title transferred to a second console does not require cancellation from the first, but the simultaneous game is not possible. The communication between Switch will take place locally and wireless and will also extend to its family network up to a maximum of 8 members, to provide a game for a maximum of two weeks, with automatic return to the expiry. During the Nintendo Direct event some new games such as Tomodachi Life were also made official: a dream life, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, while Pokémon Z-A legends was confirmed for the end of the year. The next appointment has been set for some time for April 2, when it will be revealed in a complete and definitive way Switch 2 with the long -awaited information on precise exit and prices.

Microsoft released several updates related to the Xbox gaming ecosystem, including enhancements for the Windows 11 Game Bar. In a recent blog post, the trillion-dollar software giant announced a UI refresh for Game Bar, its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform optimizations, and more. The Windows 10/11 Game Bar UI refresh consists of a newly "refreshed design" and improvements to its navigational functionality with game controllers in compact mode. In Game Bar's "default" mode (compact mode disabled), most of the UI elements for the home bar, capture widget, performance widget, resource widget, widget store, and settings menu have been adjusted to have larger spacing, making them easier to manipulate. For example, the performance monitoring widget now has larger spacing between the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other elements. The same goes for any settings options in the Game Bar; each setting now has larger spacing between them. The color of the Game Bar and its associated widgets has also changed to a slightly different shade of grey. All of these changes make Game Bar's UI aesthetic more and more similar to Windows 11's UI. Additionally, Microsoft has improved controller navigation in the widget store when using compact mode on PCs and Windows Handhelds. It is unknown whether Windows 10 is getting the same update, but at the very least, this update is now available on Windows 11. Microsoft has also pushed new quality-of-life updates to its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform (xbox.com/play). Starting with Assassin's Creed Shadows, players can now launch any of the Assassin's Creed games -- Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Mirage -- from an in-game hub. Previously, players would need to return to the Xbox.com/play page to switch between games. Microsoft is rolling this new feature out exclusively to the Assassin's Creed games, but the company claims the feature will be extended to additional cloud games soon.

is a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge. Luna, the cloud gaming service from Amazon that lets you stream to PC, Fire TV sticks, and more, is getting several Electronic Arts games, including Star Wars titles and sports games, added to its library soon. The first collection of games is available now to Luna Plus subscribers, including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Dead Space. Meanwhile, “more of EA’s popular franchises,” including some unnamed EA Sports games, will be released “over the coming months.” Luna, which launched in the US in 2022, has reached multiple countries over the years, including Canada, Germany, and the UK, but is yet to be available globally. However, Amazon has announced it will now bring Luna to Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, and Luxembourg. You’d be forgiven if you’ve forgotten about Amazon’s Luna service, which had a rocky start and lost many games from its library early on. But it has survived the test of time, outlived Google’s Stadia, and has attracted companies like Ubisoft, and now, EA.

Switch players who buy their games on physical cards are used to being able to share those games with other players simply by handing them the card. Now, Nintendo is planning a process to allow players to share their digital Switch purchases in a similar way. The new "virtual game card" system—which Nintendo announced today ahead of a planned late April rollout—will allow players to "load" and "eject" digital games via a dedicated management screen. An ejected digital game can't be played on the original console, but it can be digitally loaded onto a new console and played there without restriction by any user logged into that system. While an Internet connection is required when loading and ejecting digital games in this way, the Internet will not be required to play the shared digital game after that initial process is complete. And while both Switch consoles will need to be synced up via a "local connection" the first time such sharing is done, subsequent shares won't require the consoles to be in physical proximity. Nintendo's announcement says this virtual game card system allows players to "freely load and arrange which games you play on up to two systems [emphasis added]," suggesting you won't be able to share different games across more than one secondary console. For households with more than two Switch units, though, Nintendo says virtual game card lending will also be available across your Nintendo Switch "family group" accounts. But these "family" loans are limited to one game at a time (per group member) and only last for two weeks (after which the loan can be manually renewed).

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. A Shinichirō Watanabe production wouldn’t be complete without an absolute banger of a soundtrack, and his upcoming Adult Swim series Lazarus is no exception. Ahead of Lazarus’s premiere on April 5th, Adult Swim has released three singles from multi-instrumentalist / composer Kamasi Washington, British DJ Bonobo, and producer Floating Points that each come from different full-length soundtracks the musicians created for the new series. Though Washington’s “Vortex” — a jazzy, chaotic number that evokes the sense of falling — serves as Lazarus’ main theme, Bonobo’s “Dark Will Fall (feat. Jacob Lusk)” and Floating Points’ “Dexion” both give you an idea of the futuristic and imperiled world Watanabe has imagined for his latest project.

A piece of legislation that was written by the law firm representing Elon Musk has been passed by the state of Delaware’s Democrat-controlled legislature. Critics maintain that the bill, which now only needs to be signed into law by the governor, will fundamentally alter the structure of corporate law in the U.S., allowing corporations to potentially engage in malfeasance while leaving little room for legal retaliation by consumers or company shareholders. SB 21 was originally drafted by Richards, Layton & Finger (RLF), a law firm that counts Musk as one of its clients. The contentious legislation, which would re-write corporate regulation in the state, has been a deep source of concern by worker and consumer groups, as critics maintain it will free corporate America up to behave badly and suffer less consequences. Now, Bloomberg reports that the bill was passed Tuesday night, thanks to the help of a large, pro-corporate lobbying effort. The outlet writes: A team of five lobbyists hired by the American Investment Council, which is funded by the likes of Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co., had pressed lawmakers to support the measure. The “billionaires’ bill,” as some detractors called it, eased the standards for insider deals involving controlling shareholders and for rich compensation packages for founders like Musk. An army of professional influencers had been “swarming the statehouse,” as one legislator put it. The drama behind the bill’s passage runs deep. For a very long time, Delaware has been home to a majority of American corporations due to its lenient business laws. Recently, the state’s status as the corporate capital of the country was threatened by pressures—from Musk, but also by other major companies and business personalities—to encourage businesses to leave the state. It appears that, in an effort to stop companies from fleeing, the state legislature has acquiesced to businesses’ priorities. According to critics, SB 21 would fundamentally rewrite the norms of corporate law in the U.S., and would fundamentally alter the balance of power between corporate fiduciaries and shareholders—allowing companies to increase corporate secrecy immensely while making it nearly impossible for shareholders to file lawsuits against them over corporate misbehavior. Of the bill’s ability to rewrite current protections for shareholders, The Lever previously reported: The bill would revoke disclosure requirements for shareholder requests for all kinds of company documents, records, and internal communications. All plaintiffs would be entitled to would be minutes from board meetings, which reveal very little. These alterations would make it almost impossible for shareholders to build any viable lawsuits that could even reach the discovery fact-finding stage of a court case. In other words: corporate secrecy is likely to increase, and the ability of shareholders to hold large corporate institutions accountable will shrink. A key reason that Democrats are thought to have caved to the lobbying campaign around the bill is their fear of a revenue drain. A very large amount of Delaware’s state budget comes from corporate fees, and an exodus of businesses could possibly crater one of its largest sources of public funding. Musk very publicly pulled his businesses out of the state in favor of Texas, and encouraged other companies and businesspeople to do the same. Musk appears to have soured on the state as a result of an ongoing legal case. Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick has repeatedly thwarted Musk’s attempts to secure his massive corporate pay package from Tesla, which was challenged by a company shareholder in court. McCormick has instead sided with the shareholder, claiming that the process that led to the approval of the pay package was deeply flawed and that the compensation represents “an unfathomable sum.” Now, some speculate that the new law could pave the way for Musk to receive his money, as the legal changes may render McCormick’s current legal argument moot.

Leaked photos appear to show a new collaboration between 3D printing manufacturer Snapmaker and laser company Xtool. It’s an interesting team-up, as both companies have made multifunctional devices and stand-alone lasers. Snapmaker’s last 3D printer was the impressive Snapmaker Artisan, which launched in 2022. It is a premium 3D printer with dual nozzles, similar to what Bambu Lab is using in the H2D, as well as a laser and CNC. The company has also made a stand-alone laser, the Snapmaker Ray. xTool makes premium lasers primarily for crafty entrepreneurs. Its most recent multifunctional machine is the M1 Ultra, a device that combines a laser with a blade cutter, embosser, and inkjet printer. The M1 Ultra is currently under review, and we’re quite impressed with its wide range of capabilities. The unnamed xTool/Snapmaker collab recently appeared on Reddit and seems to be a four-color tool changer with a bed about the size of the Bambu Lab X1C. The photo shows the printer in a lab setting with several other machines. We can see four spools outside the machine, similar to the setup used by the Prusa Research XL. The machine has a flat, four-color print on the bed. The tool heads are obscured, but the image clearly shows four of them. The FDM 3D printing market is getting more interesting~ Looking at the history of 3D printing, perhaps this is just the beginning. Interesting~ pic.twitter.com/l58UKeoAVvMarch 26, 2025 I tracked the leak to a Snapmaker J1 Owner's Facebook page, which then linked to French Youtuber Tech Napa. He claimed that someone gave him information from an xTool engineer’s conversation on WeChat. Snapmaker new machine leak…?!4 Toolhead (Tool changer)Klipper based270x268x270mm20KAcc 500mm/s👀👀👀@snapmaker What are you hiding from us ?! pic.twitter.com/6WNGpT8KNQMarch 24, 2025 Since I don’t speak Chinese, I relied on Google Translate, which says “The new SM machine information found so far, 4 heads, klipper, 270x268x270, 2w acceleration, 500mms, slice based on orca two-opening, integrated model library (similar to luban) device management function.” Not all of the translation makes sense, but it would suggest a build volume (270x268x270) slightly bigger than an X1C’s 256x256x256mm, with a similar speed of 500mm/s. Klipper would be needed to aid a speedy printer. Snapmaker’s Artisan did use a Luban-based slicer when we reviewed it. The mysterious 3D printer also appeared on the X feed of Japanese blogger @YuTR0N . However, this time only the Snapmaker logo is seen. Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors Snapmaker new machine pic…I can see this is definitely 4 toolhead tool changer machine. More details…when?!#BambuLabH2D #Snapmaker https://t.co/OmE8FPMi6O pic.twitter.com/sZm3WaAAwmMarch 25, 2025 Only time will tell if this leak is, in fact, true. Snapmaker hasn’t introduced a fast printer yet, and xTool is known for its user-friendly software. If the two companies bring together their best parts, this could lead to significant competition in the world of colorful, crafty 3D printing.

The growing energy use of AI has gotten a lot of people working on ways to make it less power hungry. One option is to develop processors that are a better match to the sort of computational needs of neural networks, which require many trips to memory and a lot of communication between artificial neurons that might not necessarily reside on the same processor. Termed "neuromorphic" processors, this alternative approach to hardware tends to have lots of small, dedicated processing units with their own memory and an extensive internal network connecting them. Examples like Intel's Loihi chips tend to get competitive performance out of far lower clock speeds and energy use, but they require a lot of silicon to do so. Other options give up on silicon entirely and perform the relevant computation in a form of phase change memory. A paper published in Nature on Wednesday describes a way to get plain-old silicon transistors to behave a lot like an actual neuron. And unlike the dedicated processors made so far, it only requires two transistors to do so. Punching through The new work was done by a collaboration between researchers in Saudi Arabia and Singapore. Their goal was to simplify the basic requirements for neuromorphic computing down from the sorts of things being done by Intel, while at the same time keeping it compatible with existing silicon technology. To do so, they relied on a phenomenon that's typically considered a problem during the operation of normal silicon processors. Specifically, the researchers operate a transistor under what are called "punch-through conditions." This happens when charges build up in a semiconductor in a way that can allow bursts of current to cross through the transistor even when it's in the off state. Normally, this is considered a problem, so processors are made so that this doesn't occur. But the researchers recognized that a punch-through event would look a lot like the spike of a neuron's activity.

Technarch said: Last week I lost an entire work day because I copied and pasted a working config from the dev terminal window to the prod terminal window--but there was a line wrap and it introduced a carriage return. Of course it is impossible to distinguish a CR from a wrapped line... Click to expand... My predecessor ,for some reason,Juniper's virtual chassis configurations. I can see a use case in a big NOC or datacenter, but we're a tiny school. I have fewer than 50 switches total ample IP headroom in the vlan and bandwidth needs that can be met with 10 gig fiber between switches.I bring this up because I've had to rebuild one set of two switches in a vchassis. Big wind kicked power out to the building and one of the switches happily said: "unable to find boot configuration."I have to make sure both switches are on an identical os, boot them in a particular order, wait on connecting then make sure the configuration gets pushed from the master to the new switch. If I fuck it up, I get to zero out the os on the repaired switch and start over. If it were just a single switch, I'd've had the OS repaired and the backup config loaded yesterday. Instead, I get to do this again (hopefully correctly) tomorrow morning.

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. Real time day / night cycles have been featured in a lot of Pokémon titles since the Gold and Silver era, but Pokémon Legends: Z-A is going to take the classic mechanic in a wild new direction. During today’s March Direct presentation, Nintendo dropped a new Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer showcasing a few of the game’s returning monsters and revealing more about how battling will work in this new take on Lumiose City. Unlike the franchise’s previous games where you had to catch wild creatures out in, you know, the wild, Legends: Z-A will involve hunting down pokémon found throughout Lumiose itself as the city undergoes a massive redevelopment plan to make it more hospitable to both humans and pokémon. The trailer makes it seem as if, in the daytime, Legends: Z-A’s gameplay will be more focused on catching pokémon, and NPC trainers you encounter won’t necessarily want to fight on sight. At night, however, the city’s “aura” changes and battle-hungry trainers flood its streets to participate in the Z-A Royale, which sounds like a competition to figure out who’s the best. Trainers participating in the Z-A Royale will be found in designated battle zones where making eye contact is all it takes to get things rolling. But, similar to the way you could get the jump on wild pokémon in Legends: Arceus, players will also be able to get the jump on Z-A Royale battlers by sneaking up behind them and sending out a pokémon to initiate a fight. Surprising NPCs will give you an advantage over them, but the trailer also makes it look like timing and dodging within the battle will be key to mastering Z-A. It’s also clear that participating in the Z-A Royale and going from Rank Z to Rank A will be necessary to complete the game’s story. But given how differently the game seems like it will play depending on the time of day, it feels like Nintendo wants this to be a Pokémon game you play how you want.

It allows the execution of malice code outside the Firefox sandbox. Mozilla developers compare the weak point with the latest Zero-Day gap in Chrome. Mozilla has published an unscheduled security update for Firefox. It closes as a critically classified vulnerability. According to the developers, it allows a so -called sandbox escape, i.e. the execution of malice code outside the browser. However, Firefox for Windows is only affected. The error is in all supported versions of the Mozilla Browser: Firefox 136, Firefox ESR 115 and Firefox ESR 128. "Attacker could influence the overarching process so that he passed on to handles to unprivilely subordinate processes, which led to an overcoming of the sandbox," says CVE-2025-2857. According to Mozilla, the weak point was found by several Firefox developers after they apparently dealt with the latest Zero-Day gap in Chrome. They discovered "a similar behavior in our IPC code". The original susceptibility in Chrome also only affected Windows systems and was actively used by hackers for targeted attacks before the publication of a patch. Firefox users should now switch to the error-adjusted version 136.0.4 as soon as possible. The new version 115.21.1 or 128.8.1 are available to users of an extended service release (ESR). The download is automatically via the update function of the browser. The update can also be triggered manually via the point "via Firefox" in the help menu of the browser. At the end of the installation, a restart of Firefox is required.

Samsung launched its new, very fast 9100 Pro PCIe Gen 5 SSD last week, and the prices are pretty high, starting at $199.99 for the 1TB model without a heatsink pre-installed. This had me looking at prices for its predecessor, the still-very-fast 990 Pro, and I was happy to see that its 4TB model is currently selling for $279.99 at Walmart and at Amazon as part of its Big Spring Sale — more or less half off the price of the 9100 Pro’s 4 TB version ($549.99). Why buy the 990 Pro over the 9100 Pro? Well, the 9100 Pro requires PCIe Gen 5-ready hardware to take advantage of its speeds, and that tech is far from being affordable or mainstream at the moment. As we wrote when the 990 Pro launched in 2022, that SSD came close to PCIe Gen 4’s theoretical speed limit, making it among the quicker options out there for PC (its faster speed is wasted on the PS5, though it’ll work fine in one). It’s still a great value today, especially as prices for all storage configurations have dropped considerably. Considering that a 2TB version of the 990 Pro is $170 and doubling the storage costs just about $100 more, we think that the 4TB is the one to get right now. As game install sizes continue to increase, it’ll be a great addition to any PS5, or in any desktop or laptop that supports PCIe Gen 4 speeds. Given that the 990 Pro we’re recommending doesn’t have a heatsink (one’s suggested for use in the PS5, and it’s never a bad idea on PC), it’s cheaper to buy and install your own instead of paying Samsung a $20 premium for the heatsink edition of the 990 Pro.

is a deputy editor and author of thenewsletter. He has been reporting on the tech industry for more than a decade. Nearly two months ago, Elon Musk went on a public crusade against Reddit. On X, he said it was “insane” that subreddits were blocking links to the platform in protest of him appearing to give a Nazi salute. A few days later, he posted that Reddit users advocating for violence against Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees had “broken the law.” As it turns out, Musk wasn’t only using his X platform to call out content on Reddit. He was also privately messaging Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, according to people familiar with the matter. Shortly after the two CEOs exchanged text messages, Reddit enacted a 72-hour ban on the “WhitePeopleTwitter” subreddit that hosted the thread about DOGE employees, citing the “prevalence of violent content.” The specific thread Musk shared on X was also deleted, including hundreds of comments that didn’t call for violence or doxxing. (So far, Reddit doesn’t appear to have intervened in any moderator decisions to ban X links from the subreddits they oversee.) When asked about Musk and Huffman’s correspondence, Reddit spokesperson Gina Antonini sent the following statement: “We take any report of Reddit policy violations seriously, whether on Reddit directly or through other public or private means. We will evaluate content reported to us and take action if violating.” Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment. The news of Musk’s outreach to Huffman quickly made its way to some of Reddit’s moderators, who discussed it together on Discord. After one wrote, “Musk is coming for /r/Comics,” which was one of the subreddits that was banning links to X, another responded by calling him a “giant baby,” according to screenshots of the conversation that were shared with me. (Since he bought Twitter, Musk has blocked links to competitors multiple times, including as recently as last month.) “Elon called out death threats,” wrote another Reddit moderator. “He should not be able to influence Reddit, but if what he calls out is death threats then of course they need to come down.” Yet another responded: “Oh, I don’t have any problem with removing rule-breaking content (and taking the respective admin action on said accounts), but I find it a bit problematic that he’s able to exert influence on both public and private institutions.” Elsewhere Job board Some noteworthy job changes in the tech world: Another personnel change at TikTok, per Chew’s internal note: Khartoon Weiss is now overseeing the entire North American business. Jun Young-hyun Han Jong-hee tragically died of a heart attack. is now the sole CEO of Samsung aftertragically died of a heart attack. Mark Chen to chief research officer and Julia Villagra to chief people officer. COO Brad Lightcap will now “oversee OpenAI’s business and day-to-day operations,” which suggests that Sam Altman is focusing on some big-picture swings. OpenAI promoted to chief research officer andto chief people officer. COOwill now “oversee OpenAI’s business and day-to-day operations,” which suggests thatis focusing on some big-picture swings. Haofei Wang , X’s head of engineering and product, has left without explanation. Dan Neary, Meta’s head of Asia Pacific, is , Meta’s head of Asia Pacific, is leaving the company after 12 years. As always, I want to hear from you, especially if you have feedback on this issue or a story tip. Respond here or ping me securely on Signal.

The US Space Force celebrated its fifth birthday last year, when it boasted an annual budget of $29 billion, about 3.5 percent of the Pentagon's overall funding level. On March 15, President Donald Trump signed a stopgap spending bill that set the Space Force's budget for fiscal year 2025 at $28.7 billion. This was the first cut to the Space Force's budget since Trump created the military's newest service branch in 2019. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the top general in the Space Force, worries that the budget crunch will hamstring the military's ability to match China's fast-growing space architecture. The Space Force is charged with developing and operating satellites, ground systems, and weapons that the Pentagon could use to track and target enemy forces on the ground and in space. Saltzman called the Space Force's budget "stagnant" in remarks Wednesday at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. "In the face of an adversary who is not stagnant, I'm worried that we're not going to be able to keep pace, certainly the way we want to." The Space Force's responsibilities also include defending its satellites from attack and preserving US advantages in space-based communication, navigation, and surveillance—all critical functions in wartime. A fundamental disconnect "Everybody is starting to recognize how much more critical space is becoming to our nation and to our national defense, and in the exact same timeframe, the Space Force is shrinking, and that's just a fundamental disconnect that I think we have to solve," Saltzman said. The Space Force enjoyed a meteoric rise in its budget from the last year of Trump's first term in the White House through most of the Biden administration. Here's a breakdown of the Space Force's annual budget since fiscal year 2021, which began in the final months of Trump's first term: $15.2 billion in fiscal year 2021 $18 billion in fiscal year 2022 $26.3 billion in fiscal year 2023 $29 billion in fiscal year 2024 $28.7 billion in fiscal year 2025 Some of the budget uptick can be explained by the Pentagon's consolidation of space-related projects from the Air Force and other services into the newly created Space Force. Most of that consolidation is now complete. During the first three years on this list, Congress approved more funding for the Space Force than the White House requested. In 2024 and 2025, the congressional appropriation fell short of the Biden administration's request.

In addition to showing off a bunch of new games including a brief glimpse at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Nintendo also shared some new features coming to the Switch. Coming in an April system update, Nintendo is introducing a new game management system called “virtual game cards.” Virtual game cards are meant to function similarly to physical ones. When the feature goes live, purchases of digital games on the Nintendo eShop will automatically create a virtual game card that you’ll be able to manage from a dedicated screen. Virtual game cards also make sharing games between consoles simpler. Using a local wi-fi connection, you can use virtual game cards to transfer digital games between Switch 1 and Switch 2 consoles. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this feature is that now, you’ll be able to lend games to members of your Nintendo Switch Family account. You can only lend out one game per person and only for two weeks, but its still very neat that Nintendo has replicated the spirit of renting video games from Blockbuster. Since Nintendo already told us the Switch 2 is backwards compatible, it seems like this new virtual game card system was created to ease the transition for players upgrading their consoles. We’ll learn more about the Swtich 2 and all its new features during the Switch 2 direct on April 2nd.

The newest insider builds of Windows 11 are allowing users to create and clean install onto freshly formatted NTFS (Default) or ReFS partitions. Windows Insider sleuth PhantomOfEarth highlighted this new option, which seems to have come along with Build 27823. The arrival of ReFS, which stands for Resilient File System, should be beneficial in several ways, as it can unlock faster performance, improve data integrity, and boost partition handling up to 35 petabytes. However, it has some drawbacks compared to the old established NTFS, and currently can't be used for bootable or removable media, for example. Build 27823 adds a menu for formatting/partitioning unallocated disks with Flexible Storage to Windows Setup pic.twitter.com/apoCikWpwtMarch 26, 2025 In the tweet embedded above, you can see the new dialog option available during a fresh install of Windows 11 Build 27823 (Canary). Another image shared by PhantomOfEarth reinforces feelings that this dialog is somewhat premature. It shows how to summon the 'Format disk with Flexible Storage' dialog via an invisible/empty button, which sits askew of the 'Windows 11 Setup > Select location to install Windows 11' pane. Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: PhantomOfEarth) (Image credit: PhantomOfEarth) This isn't the instance of ReFS features coming from the professional server to the consumer version of Windows 11. Last October, we noticed ReFS Block Cloning was on its way to Windows 11 users to boost file copy speeds. Now it looks like a broader gamut of ReFS advances could come to everyday Windows 11 users. ReFS Recap Microsoft asserts that its newest file system is "designed to maximize data availability, scale efficiently to large data sets across diverse workloads, and provide data integrity with resiliency to corruption." In addition to resiliency, it reportedly improves performance and scalability. In terms of scalability, we see that ReFS supports files and volumes as large as 35 petabytes, whereas NTFS maxes out at 256 terabytes. (Image credit: Future) Microsoft's official ReFS overview page discusses the file system's key benefits and underlying technologies. Designed to replace the creaking NTFS, which was introduced way back in 1993, ReFS is said to be more reliable thanks to the use of checksums for metadata, storage space integration, corrupt data handling, and proactive error correction. ReFS is also interesting in the way it uses Storage Spaces, placing more frequently accessed data on faster media, and its use of Sparse File Support for efficiency. (Image credit: Future) However, there are some drawbacks to ReFS at this time. A table shared in Microsoft's learning resource highlights that ReFS can't be used for bootable disks, and it doesn't support other NTFS features we take for granted, like file system compression, removable media, or disk quotas. Microsoft says that these features aren't available "at this time," which hints that it is working on adding them.

The risk awareness increases with the size of the company. But even in large companies, almost every third employee considers their own company to be an attractive goal for cybercriminals. The security provider G Data warns of a lack of risk awareness among employees compared to cyber threats. According to the “Cyber ​​Security in Numbers”, 43 percent of employees in Germany consider their company to be an attractive target. The survey also shows that the danger is underestimated, especially in small and medium -sized companies (SMEs). The awareness of the cyber risks' awareness therefore increases with the size of the company. For cyber criminals, however, do not count how large or known a company is, but how easily they could penetrate the IT systems. "Attackers do not choose their goals according to the industry or size, but according to weak points," said Andreas Lüning, founder and board member at G Data. "This includes vulnerable structures, poorly secured systems and inattentive employees. In every company, a security strategy is useful that not only relies on technology, but also strengthens the risk awareness of the entire team." In SMEs with 100 to 249 employees, more than half of the workforce estimates that your company is not an interesting destination for cybercriminals. In companies with 250 to 999 employees, however, half of the respondents consider their employer to be a potential target. In large companies with more than 1,000 employees, the awareness of the risk of attack is almost 70 percent of the employees. "This is due to the fact that corporations often have regulated processes or mandatory security measures," added G Data. "Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement: Conversely, it means that almost every third employee in large companies incorrectly assesses the cyber threat."

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works Following multiple rumors of Ubisoft looking for a partner to save it from the ongoing financial troubles it's in, the company has confirmed it has now found a solution with Tencent. The French video game maker is teaming up with the Chinese conglomerate to spin off multiple game IPs into a new subsidiary valued at €4 billion ($4.3 billion). Ubisoft's three biggest franchises currently, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, will be under this subsidiary following the move. The development teams involved in the projects across Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia are all a part of the deal too. Tencent is investing €1.16 billion into the subsidiary and in turn receiving a 25% stake in it. Ubisoft will continue to control the direction of the games and own them as the majority. Interestingly, the new subsidiary even exceeds the value of Ubisoft itself, showing just how much pull its massively popular gaming franchises have in the entertainment landscape. Alongside the announcement, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had also sent a memo to Ubisoft employees, which Insider Gaming has managed to acquire. "I’m pleased to share an important announcement that will mark a milestone in Ubisoft’s history," writes Guillemot in the internal memo. "Following a process to review different strategic options for Ubisoft’s future, we have just signed an exceptional agreement with one of our trusted shareholders, Tencent, with whom we have a solid relationship." "Their €1.16 billion investment will benefit all of Ubisoft. We will be able to firmly take back control of our future and renew with the serenity needed to create the best games," added the CEO. The deal is set to be completed before 2026.

On March 27, Manufacturing DX's Caddy announced that it had raised 4 billion yen for the Series C extension round. A total of three companies, including the European growth investment fund Atomico, have been underwriters of third-party allotment of capital increase. In addition, the four banks also provided 5.1 billion yen loans through long-term debt financing, bringing the total amount of new funds to 9.1 billion yen. As a result, the company's total revenue raised to 25.73 billion yen. The company offers the AI ​​data platform "CADDi" for the manufacturing industry. It is promoting reductions in procurement costs and shortened lead times for domestic and international manufacturing industries. In addition to the Japanese market, the company is also expanding its operations in Vietnam, Thailand and the United States. . This fund will be used to expand the functions of our products, develop AI technology, and expand business, including overseas. The company plans to invest additional rounds by manufacturing manufacturers by the end of the year, and aims to become a platform with annual operating revenue of 100 billion yen by 2030.

WereCatf said: I don't use Discord, but I got simply curious and looked into open source alternatives last night and the closest I could find was that Revolt thing. Alas, their website doesn't mention anything about file transfers, audio chat, video chat, game streaming or other kinds of gaming features or anything, so I have no idea how much of those it is actually missing. Probably most of them. It also doesn't seem like there's much going on in their Github repo. All the other alternatives I came up with? They all tout how great they are for collaboration, enterprise use and all that -- a completely different marget market than Discord. Discord is aimed at the average consumer, with a heavy focus on gamers and streamers, and its feature set is thus very much geared to that market and, well, these open source alternatives seem to lack almost all of that. Sure, there may be basic voice chat and maybe even some video chat, but it seems that that's about all. I might have missed it, but I didn't see any single one mentioning any gaming or streaming specific features at all. Click to expand... I'm a heavy Discord user. I'm on it every single day, I keep tabs on close friends through it, I organize a local community, I moderate a large one, I'm in servers to support niche products, private Patreon stuff, you name it. It's very useful to me.My personal server isn't that big, has 38 people in it. I use it to organize my arcade nights (meeting tonight, waiting for people as I type).But you know, that's big enough. Like if I wanted to move it would be a headache. When I meet someone new I want to welcome into the circle absolutely everyone has a Discord ID already. Like, not once have I told people I'd invite them to the server and they had to make an ID for it, it's just assumed.Now I realize that relying on one thing can turn into a real pain. I get that. But at the same time, having one thing you can use use, and rely on, and everyone has? That's really nice too.And the alternative seem ... a bit shit if I'm being honest.I like theof federation etc, but man, it comes with so many asterisks and issues. Mastodon, the biggest and most successful probably, is so fraught with issues that I really want nothing to do with it. It took Bluesky becoming "an easy place to show up" for me to find another social media I would be willing to actually use.Sigh.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is still alive — and it’s looking good. Nintendo unveiled a new trailer for the game that serves as an introduction of sorts, showcasing the alien world you’ll be exploring along with Samus’ various abilities, including new psychic powers that work both in combat and in puzzle solving. While no specific release date was announced, the game is due out in 2025 for the Switch. Beyond has been in development for a quite a while. It was originally announced in 2017 shortly after the launch of the original Nintendo Switch, but in early 2019, Nintendo announced that it was rebooting the game’s development and bringing on Retro Studios to make it. Last year, Nintendo finally debuted a gameplay trailer for it and announced the Beyond subtitle. That trailer had some clear Metroid Prime DNA — intense firefights and scanning things! But at the time, the company only provided a vague 2025 release date for the upcoming game. The first Switch was actually a great platform for Metroid games, with the thrilling 2D Metroid Dread and a very-good remastered version of the original Metroid Prime. You can also play the original Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission via Nintendo Switch Online.

is a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge. Best Buy in Canada wrote in a now-removed blog post that the company will open pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 on April 2nd so that customers have the chance to secure their console early. Best Buy hasn’t said what time the preorders will open; however, it’s on the same day as the Nintendo Direct presentation that’s all about the new Switch 2, which starts at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT. Nintendo opened the first Nintendo Switch preorders immediately following a presentation in January 2017, and you had to physically go to a Best Buy or Target to secure a preorder before its launch on March 3rd, 2017. US retailers, including Best Buy, have yet to confirm they will have preorders ready for the Switch 2 after the presentation. Nintendo revealed the looks and minimal details about the Nintendo Switch 2 console in January. Some of the most significant information we know about the Switch 2 is that it has a larger screen, is backwards compatible with Switch 1 games, and has magnetically attached Joy-Cons (that will probably have mouse-like control abilities). Nintendo has set up nationwide events running from April through May for customers to try the system. However, all tickets have been given out so you must join a waitlist at this point. The Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to launch this June. Update March 27th: Best Buy Canada has removed the blog post mentioned in this article.

In January, with a nationwide ban on TikTok looming, hundreds of thousands of people in the US began flocking to another Chinese social media app called RedNote—only to find that Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother, had already established a relatively large audience on the platform. Maye, who has become a celebrity in her own right in China over the past few years, had over 600,000 followers on RedNote when the flood of Americans arrived. “I need to find the block button,” one American user commented under Maye’s latest video at the time, which has received over 10,000 likes. “I can’t believe I’m witnessing American people confronting Musk’s mom to her face,” another comment in Chinese reads. Shortly afterward, Maye’s comment section on RedNote was closed for several weeks. New comments didn’t start showing up again until early February. The incident represented a rare moment when the parallel public images Maye Musk has created for herself collided. In China, the 76 year-old has built a largely apolitical reputation as a “silver influencer,” fashion model for local brands, and book author who regularly garners positive coverage in Chinese state media, The New York Times previously reported. Last week, she made another trip to China, this time to the city of Wuxi, where she was invited to watch a drone show, promoted traditional crafts, and posed with a special Tesla model that comes in different colorways sold only in Asia. But in the US, Maye’s career has increasingly converged with Elon’s as her son gained unprecedented power and influence over the US federal government. Since President Trump won reelection, Maye has traveled on Air Force One, sat next to Melania Trump at a Mar-a-Lago dinner party, and attended a luncheon with Ivanka Trump, while also regularly firing off posts on X about US politics, according to a WIRED review of her social media presence. In many ways, Maye appears to be trying to straddle the fine line between her political engagement in the US and her business dealings in China and other foreign countries. That endeavor has become more fraught over the past two months as Trump began radically reshaping US foreign policy, including imposing new tariffs on China. “There’s a heightened risk now for American business people traveling to China and that continues to increase, especially as tensions in the trade war will increase,” says Holden Triplett, cofounder of Trenchcoat Advisors and a former senior FBI official posted in Beijing. Maye Musk’s business manager and Creative Artists Agency, her talent-representative agency in China, did not reply to requests for comment from WIRED. Even before she began traveling regularly to China, Maye publicly supported Elon’s and Tesla’s business endeavors in the country. In 2015, she retweeted a post by Elon in which he mentioned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “Great trip to China seeing President Xi ... Pic w China team in state garden,” the tweet reads, which was later deleted from Elon’s profile.

Yesterday afternoon, once the markets were closed and could no longer react immediately, US President Donald Trump announced that starting on April 2, all imported automobiles and many imported car parts will now be subject to an extra 25 percent tariff. Despite Trump's rhetoric during his election campaign and since taking office, tariffs are paid for by those importing the goods, not the exporters, so we can look forward to most new cars and trucks—and their maintenance costs—getting a lot more expensive. During his first term in office, Trump started trade wars with key US trading partners like Canada, the European Union, and China. Upon his return in 2025, more trade wars have been the name of the game. A 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico was threatened and then implemented at the beginning of March, before being partially reversed just two days later. Additionally, a 10 percent tariff on Chinese exports was also levied. Less than two weeks later, a new 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports also joined the club. Imported cars are a national security threat, apparently In his executive order announcing this latest upcharge on US consumers, Trump repeatedly refers to a report from 2019 from his then-commerce secretary, claiming that "automobiles and certain automobile parts are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States." Since that report, the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the global supply chain, and because only half of the cars and trucks sold in the US are made domestically, that means tariffs are even more justified, the order claims, existing free trade agreements be damned. "This will continue to spur growth like you've never seen before," Trump said during a press conference. The vehicle tariff goes into effect on April 2, with the tariff on car parts—"engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain parts, and electrical components"—coming no later than May 3. There is a partial exemption for vehicles that conform to the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, but only for the percentage of US-made content (so a truck that had 45 percent US parts under USMCA would face a 25 percent tariff on 55 percent of its price).

An RTX 5070 that’s in stock, and at MSRP? Pinch me. If you’re quick, you might be able to snag an MSI-branded RTX 5070 graphics card before they eventually sell out. The two-fan Shadow 2X OC configuration costs $549.99, a price that’s delightful to see given that RTX 50-series cards of all sorts have become difficult to find in stock. Maybe this is a sign that graphics cards’ stock situation is improving? Or, perhaps it’s a sign that more people are buying the 5070’s direct competitor, the similarly priced, yet slightly faster AMD Radeon RX 9070.

Since the US imposition of sanctions prohibiting the sale of high-performance GPUs to China, indigenous manufacturers have taken it upon themselves to mitigate these limitations by modifying existing solutions. One of the results of these modding endeavors is an RTX 4090 with 48GB of GDDR6X memory, which is now becoming commonplace among local circles. Russian YouTuber Мой Компьютер (My Computer) obtained a blower-style edition RTX 4090 48GB, later taking it apart to examine the PCB among other design features. Эта карта лучше RTX 5090 | Обзор RTX 4090 на 48 ГБ | Сколько памяти нужно играм в 2025? - YouTube Watch On Both the RTX 4090 and RTX 3090 Ti's PCBs carry 12 available memory slots, which equate to 24GB of VRAM with one 16Gb IC populating each slot, and that's not the configuration we're looking for. The base RTX 3090, on the other hand, offers 24 memory slots (12 on each side of the PCB), suggesting a modified version of it could be used as a foundation here. It's hard to be certain, however. Either way, the RTX 4090 48GB we're examining today features a board design that strongly resembles RTX 30 series PCBs. Matching the cooler's design, the YouTuber links this card to Peladin, a Chinese mini-PC/GPU manufacturer. The reviewer asserts the GPU's PCB is well-designed, with robust VRMs, and the added memory on the backside is covered with high-quality thermal pads and a backplate to keep temperatures in check. Unlike workstation-grade RTX 6000/5880 Ada GPUs, which stick with GDDR6, this RTX 4090 is equipped with GDDR6X memory, which is faster but also runs hotter. Surprisingly, the GPU was recognized in Windows, and you can even use traditional GeForce drivers instead of relying on potentially risky third-party options. The YouTuber mentions a breach at Nvidia where hackers obtained internal tools, including MATS and MODS. Modders can employ these utilities to modify VRAM, disable non-working channels, and even flash new volumes on the GPU's firmware without violating any checksums or digital signatures. The test bench used for the handful of benchmarks conducted featured the Ryzen 5 7600X3D, and 48GB of DDR5-6000 memory, on the Maxsun Challenger B650M motherboard. Under load, the GPU is quite loud, defined as "sounding like an airplane" at 65dB with fan speeds exceeding 5,000 RPM. That's one of the key drawbacks of blower-style coolers, but it was a necessary tradeoff to enable higher compatibility in servers. Even so, during a half-hour test in Superposition at 8K, the card maintained a relatively stable 2.7 GHz clock speed at 70 degrees Celsius with the memory at 86 degrees Celsius. After extensively testing the GPU in synthetic benchmarks, LLMs, and games, the YouTuber revealed they were provided the GPU by XON, a local store specializing in workstations and servers. At the time of recording, the GPU was listed at $4,400 (370,000 Rubles). While expensive, this might still be one of the most affordable 48GB options on the market, at least until we see Nvidia's Blackwell workstation in action.

We're no strangers to Raspberry Pi -powered fightsticks and have covered our fair share of unique creations over the years, like this gorgeous wooden fightstick . However, this Pico fightstick creation, put together by maker and developer Goblinhan Yıkan adds a new dynamic to the classic fightstick by adding a few extra buttons. Turnuvalarda dayak yemekten BIKTIM. Kendi kendine oynayan kol yapma vakti. - YouTube Watch On What we like about this project isn't the overall design. It's fairly barebones but it's the functionality that excites us the most. The rig works like a normal fightstick, plugging in via USB—which is likely why the Pico was chosen as the main controller. The setup is built on a protoboard and isn't housed in a case at all. But it's got a handy layout of buttons that can be used for playing fighting games like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. The fightstick has your typical buttons that can be used to control movement and manually throw specific attacks. However, Goblinhan Yıkan added some extra buttons that take away all the stress of button mashing and automates the process. Pressing these buttons will trigger a random selection of button presses, some of which will hopefully become combos — adding a great deal of uncertainty and fun to your performance during the fight. The project is essentially automating "mashing the buttons and hoping for a combo" just like we've all done when playing fighting games. (Image credit: Goblinhan Yıkan) Like we mentioned before, the main board powering this operation is a Raspberry Pi Pico. This provides an array of GPIO support for all of the buttons as well as the ability to serve as a Human Interface Device (HID) — necessary for a USB controller like this. It's soldered to a protoboard PCB which also features the various buttons used in its design. Goblinhan Yıkan was kind enough to make the code open source so you can build your own fight stick using his idea. It looks like the code was written in CircuitPython which is also useful for programming HID hardware. If you want to check out the source code and see how it works, you can find it over at Goblinhan Yıkan's GitHub page. To get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project in action, you can check out the demo video shared to YouTube by Goblinhan Yıkan.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s pledge to spend an extra $100 billion on advanced manufacturing plants in the US will do little to help the country restore its global lead in chipmaking, according to Pat Gelsinger, who was forced out as chief executive of Intel late last year. His comments come less than a month after the White House hailed the investment from TSMC, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, as an important milestone in efforts to bring production of the most advanced semiconductors back on to US soil. “If you don’t have R&D in the US, you will not have semiconductor leadership in the US,” Gelsinger said. “All of the R&D work of TSMC is in Taiwan, and they haven’t made any announcements to move that.” The former Intel chief added, however, that President Donald Trump’s tariff threats had at least been “incrementally beneficial” for the US by giving chip manufacturers like TSMC more incentive to locate their facilities in the country. The Trump administration has leaned heavily on TSMC amid doubts about Intel’s ability to regain the global manufacturing lead it lost to the Taiwanese company a decade ago. Gelsinger’s departure late last year was widely seen as a repudiation by the company of his complex turnaround plan, which included trying to rebuild Intel’s manufacturing base. His successor, Lip-Bu Tan, appointed earlier this month, has yet to set out his strategy. The former Intel chief executive would not comment on whether he had fallen out with Intel’s directors over strategy, but indicated he had lost their confidence less than four years into his five-year plan.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X was the flagship Zen 5 CPU for the company’s latest Granite Ridge family of processors before the arrival of the $699 Ryzen 9 9950X3D, but if gaming prowess isn't your main concern, then the 9950X is still king for 16-core workloads. One of the most powerful consumer CPUs around, the 9950X is the perfect processor for multiple-core and multi-threaded workloads and tasks such as content creation and video editing. You can use the 9950X for gaming, but there are better CPU options now available. Hitting an all-time low price in Amazon's Big Spring Sale, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor is only $528. The Ryzen 9 9950X has an impressive 16 cores with 32 threads and uses 80MB of combined L2/L3 cache with only a TDP of 170W. The base clock speed of the 9950X is 4.3GHz, which can boost to a clock speed of 5.7GHz. If you're already on the AM5 ecosystem and looking to upgrade, the Ryzen 9 9950X drops into the existing AM5 LGA1718 socket and is backward-compatible with all 600-series chipsets. The Ryzen 9 9950X shines in multi-threaded performance applications and can still be used for gaming but pales compared to gaming-focused CPU iterations like the 9800X3D and recently released 9950X3D. The 9950X3D is also a 16-core processor, so you're paying $167 more for the 3D V-Cache and gaming performance. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X: now $528 at Amazon (was $649) The Ryzen 9 9950X has 16 cores and 32 threads and uses 80MB of combined L2/L3 cache with a TDP of 170W. The base clock speed of the 9950X is 4.3GHz with a boost clock speed of 5.7GHz. For detailed testing and benchmarking results, please check out our review of the Ryzen 9 9950X. In our testing, we found the Ryzen 9 9950X is up to 23% faster than Intel's Core i9-14900K in heavily threaded workloads but falls slightly behind in single-threaded performance. The same is true when compared to Intel's latest Core 9 285K CPU, which also outperforms in multi-core/threaded workloads but is slightly behind in single-core performance.

A Chinese firm has started to mass produce a 31.2-inch color e-paper display. Local media reports (machine translation) that Guangzhou Aoyi Electronic Technology Co Ltd worked with Shenzhen Jin Yatai Technology Co Ltd to meld display, image processing, and FPGA technologies to realize this new screen which is capable of "smooth video playback" at 18 frames per second. For years the adoption of e-paper displays has been held back by devices with low refresh rates and slow response times. The new 31.2-inch display purportedly manages to overcome these undesirable traits by implementing a handful of technical tricks. "Its core innovation lies in the unified control of split-screen, optimized image processing algorithms and local display functions," explains Hong Kong News. This means that the monitor can "dynamically refresh only local areas of the picture and control the synchronous display of large-screen split-screen, significantly improving the response speed and refresh efficiency." (Image credit: Nanfang Daily) The tech tweaking by Aoyi and Jin Yatai delivers some more worthwhile benefits to the e-paper experience, according to the source. In addition to the improved performance, screen flickering is claimed to be reduced. Moreover, e-paper displays have a reputation for washed-out color, but the new technology is claimed to deliver a wider color gamut, and more vivid visuals. A video of the new 31.2-inch color e-paper display in action was shared on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The video can't be claimed to be awe-inspiring, especially as it seems to be heavily compressed, but the on-screen animation seems smooth enough (it looks like a clip from Ne Zha 2). It still looks like this monitor lacks color depth and contrast compared to mainstream monitor technologies like TN, IPS, VA, and OLED. That lack of color quality isn't anything new for e-paper. Returning to the positives about this new 31.2-inch color e-paper display, any advance in this technology should be welcomed. E-paper and similar screen technologies have several desirable features that the mainstream can't rival. We are talking about how e-paper can reduce the possibility of eye strain, offers the best readability in strong light, and can have very low power consumption. From perusing the development firm's website, we think the resolution of the new panel will likely be 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. The Chinese news source mentions that this new screen might find a home in applications like digital signage, bus stop signs, public information screens and so on. We'd also like to see this 31.2-inch display commercialized by e-paper monitor specialists like Dasung, and others who see an opportunity. Dasung's largest color Paperlike display is a 25.3-inch model, which can be had in curved or flat monitors. However, it also has a 10.3-inch display which can run at up to 60 Hz.

At the beginning of the month, Google presented AI mode, a chatbot that responds to search requests and operates in the same way as Chatgpt Search. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data While it was initially an exclusive feature for users of Google One Ai Premium, who pay 23 euros per month. And it is now accessible to all holders of a Google account. And this at first in the United States. "Today, we are expanding access to AI mode beyond Google One Ai Premium subscribers in the United States, because we are starting to remove people from the Labs waiting list," said Robby Stein, vice-president of Google Search in charge of products. "We know that the first users really appreciate the possibility of obtaining AI answers for the most difficult questions, as well as fresh and high quality information, and the possibility of continuing to explore thanks to useful follow -ups and web links." How does Google AI work When asking a question in AI mode (which is based on Gemini 2.0), you get a response powered by AI. The AI ​​can offer additional questions to deepen the subject, or you can ask your own questions to find out more. An example of this feature shows a user asking: "What is the best time to do an outdoor photo shoot this week in the Boston public garden?" The AI ​​gave the weather forecast for the week and the hours when the park was less frequented, which was the main question, but it understood that a photo shoot is better during the "golden hour" and added the sunset hours. When the user asked for "fun background recommendations", Gemini has created a list of ideal places for photos. "New ways to get useful web content" This context and the possibility of asking other questions are what differentiates this search from a traditional Google search. Instead of being content to access information that exists online, AI can understand the context of what you ask and answer questions that you may not even know that you had to ask. It is a considerable time saving if you do in -depth research on a subject and you feel like you are chatting with an expert. Mr. Stein added that other features will soon be available, including more visual responses, a richer formatting and "new ways of obtaining useful web content". How to try Google AI mode This feature is still part of Google Labs, so you have to register to try it.

American president Donald Trump has announced new duties of 25% on all cars imported to the United States. The decision, which will enter into force on April 2, risks having serious consequences for the world car industry and adds to other taxes on the imports recently imposed by the US government. The new Trump duties "We will pay the countries that make business in our country and that take our jobs and our wealth. We will implement a duty on all the cars that are not produced in the United States. We will start with a base of 2.5%, which is the current rate, and we will reach 25%," said Trump. Are the duties of the United States in Mexico and Canada illegal? The new taxes on imports promised by Trump have entered into force, but according to experts they could violate a free trade agreement between the three countries Even before his re -election, Trump had accused car producers of having moved production from the United States to countries such as Canada and Mexico. "They did not deal with it," said the president talking about North American commercial partners. Mexico is the first country for car exports to the United States, before Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany. The experts of the automotive industry warn that the new duties will increase prices and create problems in the supply chain. At the beginning of the month, Trump decided to postpone the imposition of taxes on Mexico and Canada for 30 days for the American car manufacturers, a postponement that according to Bloomberg was aimed at pushing the US producers to present plans to move a greater share of investments and production in the United States, as promised by Trump in the election campaign. Some anonymous sources mentioned by Reuters reported that in exchange for this commitment, the US car manufacturers would ask for some reassurances on the commercial and environmental policies of the American government. The impact on the car industry The North American car supply chain is highly integrated. The parties necessary for the assembly of vehicles - in turn the subject of the new duties - cross the border in various production stages, an aspect that could display car companies at multiple taxes. John Bozzella, head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a sector association that represents giants such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Stellantis, said that "all car manufacturers will be affected by these duties towards Canada and Mexico". Consequently, the price of some models could also increase by 25%, affecting availability and access for consumers. The national car spare parts industry (ina) has reported that the imposition of rates on Mexican imports will weaken trade, will reduce competitiveness in the region and affect economic stability. In a press release, the body stressed that the automotive sector and car spare parts is a pillar of North American exports, with the ability to generate more than 11 million jobs in the countries that are part of the United-Canada Mexico-State Agreement (T-Mec). For this, the INA provides that assembly companies in Mexico could reduce production of up to one million units this year due to the new taxes, with an impact on the availability of products, on the creation of jobs and on the supply chain. This article originally appeared on Wired En Español.

Available for everyone since March 18, the Vitale Card application, which allows you to dematerialize the famous green card, records a promising start. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data In one week, 150,000 people downloaded it mentioned BFMTV. And since the start of its experimentation, 850,000 French people have already activated their digital vital card. The initiative started in 2023. A gain in efficiency and safety The application works thanks to authentication via the electronic identity card and the France Identity application. This device not only makes it possible to avoid card lobs during medical consultations, but also to strengthen the fight against fraud thanks to authentication means. For health professionals, this digital version represents a significant time saving. For example, in hospitals and clinics, where admissions management is often a source of complexity, dematerialization simplifies the identification of patients and accelerates the transmission of information to insurance and mutual. Finally, according to the CNAM, vital card fraud represents several million euros in losses each year. The digital version would reduce these abuses significantly. Towards the integration of complementary health in 2026 Health insurance already provides changes. From 2026, the application will directly integrate the rights to complementary health insurance, removing the need for patients to juggle between their vital card and their mutual card.

On March 26th, US time, Amazon announced that it will introduce a new generation AI feature called "Interests," which personalizes online shopping experiences. The aim of this feature is to make it easier for users to find products that suit their hobbies and preferences. The company said it could potentially offer new clothing for football fans, golf equipment for enthusiastic golf enthusiasts, and camera equipment for those who like photography. This feature runs constantly in the background and helps users find the right product for them from a large number of options. Users can register conversational prompts such as "brewing tools and gadgets recommended for coffee lovers," and AI will search for products that suit them from Amazon's store. You can also specify a price limit at the prompt. This is the latest upgrade from Amazon's series of AI enhancements, including the more conversational Alexa, an increase in review summary of AI generation, and an enhancement to existing AI shopping assistant Rufus. IT companies are currently looking for ways to use AI systems as more practical assistants and provide beneficial support to users. Sucharita Kodali, an analyst at research firm Forrester, said the feature feels like an extension of the existing personalization system that has been used for many years in the retail industry. "It seems like it's just another recommendation engine with a layer of preference settings," he said, "While it could make people excited with a more engaging user interface, it doesn't seem to be much different from the features that have existed in e-commerce for decades." The new feature is currently available to some US users on Amazon's shopping app and mobile website, and is expected to be rolled out to all users in the country in the coming months. View current sales on Amazon

Good news for subscribers to optical fiber, individuals and professionals, the quality of the networks is improving. According to the latest Arcep Observatory, the telecom sector regulation authority, the average breakdown rate decreased nationally, from 0.19 % to 0.13 % between January and October 2024. Same observation concerning the most degraded networks which saw their rate of breakdowns decrease by 0.51 % to 0.30 % over the same period. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data A map of France disparate ARCEP defines the monthly breakdow rate as the number of failures reported by commercial operators to the infrastructure operator during the month considered, reported to the number of fiber optic lines in service. If quality is more taken into account by operators, in accordance with their commitments, the observatory shows important territorial disparities. The Paris region, Normandy and Southeast host the networks with the most malfunctions. Always the same defective networks Among the top ten defective networks, there are four networks belonging to altitude (Sequantic Telecom, Tutor Europ’Sssonne, Tutor Nancy, Seine Essonne Thd) and six to XPFibre, subsidiary of the Altice group (SFR), (Debitex Telecom, ZP XPFibre Seine Saint-Denis, ZP XPFIBER Val d'Oise, ZP XPFIB XPFIBRE ESSONNE, VALOFIBER). A classification significantly similar to that of the first edition of the Observatory, published in July 2023. Another criterion chosen by ARCEP to assess the quality of service: the rate of failures to the connection to the network. On this criterion, we find the same bad elevated. Tutor Nancy (31.99 %), Tutor Europ'Sssonne (31.40 %) and Sequantic Telecom (31.18 %) affect particularly high failure rates. Conversely, other networks are otherwise more virtuous showing rates less than 2 %, such as Orange two Sèvres (1.95 %), Orange Indre-et-Loire (1.87 %) and Chartres Métropole Digital Innovations (1.73 %). Non-conforming connection rate Beyond breakdowns and connection failures attributable to infrastructure operators, ARCEP is interested in the quality of service of technicians dispatched by commercial operators or more generally those of their subcontractors. After having detected a criminal, the infrastructure operator notifies it to the commercial operator concerned who must take it back within 30 days of contractual period. These are, in this case, the faults observed in the subscriber as a defective catch or a difficulty of access. Orange comes out on top with 94 %of the faults treated in the imparted deadline, followed closely by Bouygues Telecom (91 %) and SFR (79 %). Last of the class, Free, operator held by Xavier Niel, arrives far behind with a rate of poor workmanship of only 49 %. The arcep then zoomed out on the rate of non-complies by typology of criminal. A connection defect may be due to a degraded technical cabinet, the use of the wrong cord or a labeling defect. Again Orange is distinguished positively with 5 % non-component connections last October, followed by Bouygues Telecom (7 %). Between January and October 2024, SFR managed to descend from 19 to 9 %. The drop is less spectacular for Free which goes from 18 to 13 % and ends again last. Visual generated by AI, Microsoft Bing / More buying guides Video guide: which package to choose in 2021 to make the most of the promises of 5G? While 5G is embarking on in Paris and in major French cities, the question is now to know which operator and to which package to turn to. The editorial staff of ZDNET gives you the keys to make the most of 5G. By Pierre Benhamou | December 15, 2020

Chinese chipmakers have been gradually shifting some of their production to tools made in China in a bid to support the local wafer fab equipment ecosystem and reduce reliance on tools produced abroad. China already has several well-known manufacturers of chipmaking tools that specialize in one or two types of equipment, which set sales records in 2024. However, there is a little-known Huawei-linked company, Si Carrier Technologies, that has revealed it has almost all types of wafer processing tools in its catalog published at Semicon China and re-published by Zhininren. SiCarrier Technologies is a startup widely discussed at this year’s Semicon China, but is little known outside of the People’s Republic. The company is closely linked to Huawei and was founded four years ago in Shenzhen to develop world-class fab tools that would compete against front-end chip production equipment made by market leaders ASML, Applied Materials, KLA, and Lam Research, according to Nikkei. SiCarrier's main investor is Shenzhen Major Investment Group, a government-backed fund supporting other chip ventures connected to Huawei, including PengXinWei Integrated Circuit Manufacturing and SwaySure Technology. SiCarrier currently operates R&D centers in Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and overseas. Its end-to-end development chain covers materials, components, and full systems. To support rapid development, the company aggressively recruits senior engineers from top global companies like ASML and Applied Materials. The SiCarrier catalog presented at Semicon China includes a wide range of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, metrology tools, and inspection systems. The catalog does not include any lithography tools (possibly to keep its lithography advancements a secret), but Nikkei reports that the company already has litho tools capable of processing 300-mm wafers on 28nm process technologies and older. Even without lithography machines, the company lists dozens of tools that can perform the vast majority of steps in the front-end semiconductor production flow. The company also has metrology, inspection, and testing tools. On the process side, the catalog includes tools used for atomic layer deposition (ALD) for dielectrics and metal gates, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD) blanket film deposition and metal contact deposition, epitaxy, etching, and annealing. The catalog does not explicitly characterize tools and their capabilities in terms of actual fabrication processes, but it does frequently refer to ‘advanced process nodes’ as well as ‘future advanced nodes.’ On the metrology and inspection front, the catalog includes tools for the optical inspection of both patterned and unpatterned wafers, atomic force microscopy for morphology inspection at nanoscale resolution, and advanced measurement systems for thin film thickness, element composition, and crystallinity. Finally, SiCarrier also has various testing machines, including wafer electrical performance tests, known-good die tests, and functional tests. However, these tools are currently aimed mostly at power semiconductors. Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors For now, it is unclear whether all of the tools that SiCarrier lists can be ordered and acquired. It is also unclear whether these machines are compatible with existing production flows that rely on machines from ASML, Applied, KLA, Lam, TEL, and others. However, Nikkei claims that SiCarrier has partnered closely with Huawei, which has assembled a large internal team focused on semiconductor manufacturing and equipment, and that they are working to improve process implementation and identify technical challenges across production lines. This could mean that SiCarrier and Huawei intend to build tools for a ‘proprietary’ production flow involving exclusively Chinese tools. If this is the case, it could take years before the first fab with such a flow comes online. Nonetheless, given SiCarrier’s pace so far, it could well impress the industry.

The arrival of OpenAI's DALL-E 2 in the spring of 2022 marked a turning point in AI, when text-to-image generation suddenly became accessible to a select group of users, creating a community of digital explorers who experienced wonder and controversy as the technology automated the act of visual creation. But like many early AI systems, DALL-E 2 struggled with consistent text rendering, often producing garbled words and phrases within images. It also had limitations in following complex prompts with multiple elements, sometimes missing key details or misinterpreting instructions. These shortcomings left room for improvement that OpenAI would address in subsequent iterations, such as DALL-E 3 in 2023. On Tuesday, OpenAI announced new multimodal image-generation capabilities that are directly integrated into its GPT-4o AI language model, making it the default image generator within the ChatGPT interface. The integration, called "4o Image Generation" (which we'll call "4o IG" for short), allows the model to follow prompts more accurately (with better text rendering than DALL-E 3) and respond to chat context for image modification instructions. OpenAI An AI-generated cat in a car drinking a can of beer created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. An AI-generated cat in a car drinking a can of beer created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI OpenAI An AI-generated photo of Abraham Lincoln holding an Ars Technica sign created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. An AI-generated photo of Abraham Lincoln holding an Ars Technica sign created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI An AI-generated image of "a muscular barbarian with weapons beside a CRT television set, cinematic, 8K, studio lighting" created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. An AI-generated image of "a muscular barbarian with weapons beside a CRT television set, cinematic, 8K, studio lighting" created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. An AI-generated photo of Abraham Lincoln holding an Ars Technica sign created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI An AI-generated image of "a muscular barbarian with weapons beside a CRT television set, cinematic, 8K, studio lighting" created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI An AI-generated "Queen of the Universe" by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI An AI-generated plate of pickles created by OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model. OpenAI / Benj Edwards Generating a gaming PC with 1,000 RGB lights using OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model in ChatGPT. OpenAI / Benj Edwards Generating a flaming cheeseburger using OpenAI's 4o Image Generation model in ChatGPT. The new image-generation feature began rolling out Tuesday to ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users, with Enterprise and Education access coming later. The capability is also available within OpenAI's Sora video-generation tool. OpenAI told Ars that the image generation when GPT-4.5 is selected calls upon the same 4o-based image-generation model as when GPT-4o is selected in the ChatGPT interface. Like DALL-E 2 before it, 4o IG is bound to provoke debate as it enables sophisticated media manipulation capabilities that were once the domain of sci-fi and skilled human creators into an accessible AI tool that people can use through simple text prompts. It will also likely ignite a new round of controversy over artistic styles and copyright—but more on that below. Benj Edwards 4o IG can change our perception of media reality. Given this actual photo of a dog... 4o IG can change our perception of media reality. Given this actual photo of a dog... Benj Edwards OpenAI / Benj Edwards ...the AI model can change what the dog is doing in a realistic way, such as playing with a fictional puppy inserted into the scene. ...the AI model can change what the dog is doing in a realistic way, such as playing with a fictional puppy inserted into the scene. OpenAI / Benj Edwards 4o IG can change our perception of media reality. Given this actual photo of a dog... Benj Edwards ...the AI model can change what the dog is doing in a realistic way, such as playing with a fictional puppy inserted into the scene. OpenAI / Benj Edwards Some users on social media initially reported confusion since there's no UI indication of which image generator is active, but you'll know it's the new model if the generation is ultra slow and proceeds from top to bottom. The previous DALL-E model remains available through a dedicated "DALL-E GPT" interface, while API access to GPT-4o image generation is expected within weeks.

Tiktok Shop also arrives in Italy from March 31st, allowing users to be able to buy goods directly from the videos displayed and brands and creators to access a new monetization opportunity. As already seen in other countries where the so-called Discovery e-commerce experience is already active, even by us it will therefore be possible to order what is shown during video or live. Here's how it will work. How Tiktok Shop works How will the novelty that concerns not only Italy, but also France and Germany will appear? There are two cases or live content or commercial clips called Shoppable Video. In both cases, brand or Creator show certain products during the various seconds of the movie and the user will have the opportunity to access the online store by ordering what he sees. In the live, a special window will appear at the bottom with the reference to the product that is shown / used at that precise moment, while at the bottom left there is the icon of the shopping cart: TAP will open the list of products with photos, descriptive title, price and key to buy immediately. Tiktok In the videos, there will be a smaller window, which opens a more articulated page to add the product to the cart or buy it immediately. In both cases you can check the virtual trolley at any time to check what is inside, modify quantities or objects and proceed with the transaction. Then there will also be the so -called product showcase, or a special section on the profile with an always accessible store, while the shop card will arrive at a later time or a marketplace for the search for products, with functions such as lists of the recommended, promotions and the inevitable sponsored content. What can be purchased on Tiktok Shop These types of commercial content will appear on the page within the app and try to ride the success of the live shopping that have been depopulating in China for years. Among the products that can be purchased on Tiktok Shop there will be cosmetics, clothing, sports accessories, but also cultural products (Treccani Emporium is mentioned). Among the brands are Nivea, Veralab, Goovi, Nabla Cosmetics, Bi Silver, Gigligrato, Shaftjeans and New Martina.

A reboot full of blood and action After more than fifteen years with complications and change changes, Red Sonja's reboot is finally ready to see the light of day. The film, staged by M.J. Bassett (Solomon Kane) has received an "R" rating from the Motion Picture Association due to its strong violent and bloody content. The project has gone through many hands since production began in 2022. Before Bassett took over the direction, other filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez, Simon West, Bryan Singer and Joey Soloway were involved. In addition, the leading role was vacant for years, with actresses like Hannah John-Kamen, Rose McGowan and Amber Heard being considered. Finally Matilda Lutz (Revenge) was selected to embody the iconic warrior. Inspired by the sword-and-magic comics from Dynamite Entertainment, the figure of the Red Sonja was originally created by Robert E. Howard and adapted by Roy Thomas. This new version promises to honor the brutal and wild being of the character and to raise violence on a level in the franchise that has never been seen before. A star bid for a legendary heroine The line -up of Red Sonja is peppered with well -known faces who accompany Matilda Lutz on her wild path. Rhona Mitra (Doomsday), Wallis Day (Sex/Life), Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy), Michael Bisping (XXX: The return of Xander Cage), Martyn Ford (F9: The Fast Saga), Eliza Matengu (Thor: Love and Thunder), Manal El Feitury (Code Red) and Katrina Durden Strange) complete the main actor ensemble. With such a diverse line -up and an intensive visual approach, the reboot promises to become a cinema experience that will not leave the supporters of brutal action unimpressed. When can we see them? Although a publication date has not yet been confirmed, the fact that there is already an official classification indicates that the publication could soon take place. Red Sonja fans can only look forward to further news when this renewed and bloody story comes to the big screen. Source: Aulidos. This article has been translated from gizmodo us by Milton Nervegna. For the original version, click here.

According to the US magazine Atlantic, senior Trump administration officials were using the messaging app "Signal" to communicate about the military attack on Yemen that took place on March 15th. White House National Security Council Press Secretary Brian Hughes has admitted this to ABC News, which has been criticised within the government. "If true, it's a bold trampling on the laws and regulations that protect the nation's national security and its people who work on the frontline," according to The Guardian. He also said, "These people are fully aware of the catastrophic risks of communicating sensitive information on unprotected systems. If their subordinates had done the same, they would have definitely lost their security clearance and would have been subject to investigation." What is Signal? Signal is an open source encrypted messaging app. It can be used for free on Android and iOS. It also allows for voice and video calls, and in-app transfers can be made using a cryptocurrency called MobileCoin. It was released in 2014, and according to a BBC report, it was used by over 40 million people as of 2022. Is Signal safe? Signal uses end-to-end encryption, and no one knows what messages or calls are made to you and the other party. In other words, it is difficult for third parties or government agencies to intercept messages. However, it cannot be said that it is absolutely safe. Google's Threat Intelligence Group released a report in February that "pro-Russian attackers are targeting Signal users." In many cases, attackers were trying to exploit the "linked device" feature and use fake QR codes to access Signal accounts. If a user reads the QR code, the message will also be delivered to the attacker in real time. However, there have been reports that recent versions of Signal have added features to prevent such attacks, so it is important to update the app to the latest version. Meanwhile, in 2023, another group of researchers discovered a method to estimate the location of Signal users by measuring the time it took from the time it took to send a message to receive a notification that "delivery is complete." The accuracy of the method reaches approximately 82%, and it is said that it could be misused to understand the user's whereabouts. Furthermore, Signal itself does not have the function to prevent accidentally adding another person to group chat or getting the wrong recipient. Do US government officials and staff use Signal? According to PBS, Signals have been used among US government officials to communicate such as scheduling confidential meetings. A former national security official from the Biden administration said some officials had permission to install Signal on White House-supplied mobile phones, but they had very limited opportunities to use it. Their main use was to "contact them to check confidential messages sent via another safe route." View current sales on Amazon Anker's mobile battery that can be plugged into an outlet and also used as a charger (check the price on Amazon)

Finally, Rose87168 would have submitted an email exchange with an account proton email (a Swiss email service protected by encryption - ed) that the Cyber ​​criminal claims is used by one of Oracle's security managers to deal with him. A problem also for Italy? We are still in the field of hypotheses, but the chances that the attack has repercussions in our country are quite low. First of all because the attack concerns the Login.us2.oracloud.com server and, consequently, would have involved a region (as the data centers are called in the cloud area) in the United States. Secondly, the first reconstructions of the attack do not think about a structural problem of Oracle services or a new vulnerability. The attack, according to what reported by the Cyber ​​Security Cloudsek company, may have exploited a vulnerability (CVE-2021-35587) known since December 2022 of Oracle Access Manager authentication systems. Source: cloudsek The researchers, in fact, used Wayback Machine to analyze the version of the software installed on the server and discovered that, at least until February 17, it used an old version of Oracle Fusion Middleware (11G) and the software was not updated since September 2014. The attack, therefore, would have been made possible by a (sensational) forgetfulness and it is quite difficult that other regions have the same vulnerability. The hypothesis of a "loose dog" Who is Rose87168? On the forum where he claimed the attack, the account appeared only last January and it does not appear that he made himself the protagonist of other such actions. Everything suggests that it is not a member of a gang specialized in data theft. Usually, in fact, the groups that are dedicated to extortion use real "representative sites" on the dark web to publish the claims of the attacks. Even the fact that he has "asked for help" to decipher passwords, offering part of the data as a reward, suggests an isolated individual who does not have particular tools to follow up on the first attack. Finally, the vulnerability that has been exploited is described by experts as a bug that allows you to take complete control of the access system and is defined as "very easy to exploit". In short: it is likely that Rose87168 has simply discovered the presence of vulnerable software and took the opportunity on the fly.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang said during a Q&A session at GTC that next-generation process technologies relying on gate-all-around (GAA) transistors will likely bring about a 20% performance boost for the company's processors, reports EE Times. However, the most significant performance uplifts for Nvidia's GPUs are brought by the company's architectures, as well as software innovations. When asked about future generation Nvidia GPU architectures like Feynman, which is expected two generations from now (2028), Huang mentioned that if Nvidia transitions to a process technology that relies on GAA transistors, it should bring a 20% increase in performance. Our own Jarred Walton was at the Q&A, and says Huang seemed to downplay the importance of process node changes, emphasizing that the slowdown in Moore's Law means brand-new process technologies going forward are only likely to bring around a 20% improvement — in density, power, and/or efficiency. It wasn't a definitive statement on what node Nvidia might intend to use, though the answer was in response to an analyst question looking for his comments about the potential for Nvidia to use Samsung Foundry in particular. Huang also noted that while improvements enabled by leading-edge process technologies are welcome, they're no longer transformative. "We'll take it," he said, but indicated other factors were more important. As AI systems scale, the efficiency of managing vast numbers of processors is becoming more important than the raw performance of each processor. Data centers are increasingly looking at performance per watt, Jensen said, nothing that "we're at the limit of physics." Unlike Apple, which is TSMC's alpha customer for all leading-edge nodes, Nvidia is not typically a company that adopts TSMC's latest process technologies first. Instead, it uses proven technologies. Nvidia has used tailored versions of TSMC's 4nm-class process technologies — 4N and 4NP — to produce its Ada Lovelace, Hopper, and Blackwell GPUs for client PCs and datacenters. TSMC's 4nm-class production nodes belong to the company's 5nm-class process development kit and are essentially refined versions of the foundry's 5nm technology. The company's next-generation GPUs for AI (codenamed Rubin, with custom Vera CPUs) are expected next year and are projected to use TSMC's 3nm-class fabrication process (presumably N3P, or a tailored version like "3NP"). To that end, it makes sense to expect Nvidia to adopt a GAA-based process technology for Feynman, which is expected in 2028. TSMC itself expects its first GAA-based process technology — N2 — to increase performance by 10% to 15% compared to N3E, the company's second generation 3nm-class process technology that precedes N3P. Again, Nvidia's Huang likely wasn't even referring to TSMC N2 or Samsung's alternative or even Intel's 18A, but rather just suggesting a 20% improvement in general is what he expects. It's worth noting that since Nvidia does not use first-generation process technologies (or at least has not used in years), we would expect Feynman GPUs to adopt N2P (if it continues to use TSMC), which enhances performance, reduces resistance and stabilizes power delivery, or even A16 that adds backside power delivery and promises an 8% to 10% performance uplift compared to N2. Both N2P and A16 are expected to ramp in 2027. If Nvidia adopts N2P or A16 for its 2028 products, then it's reasonable for the company to expect a 20% performance per watt gain for its Feynman GPUs at N2P or A16 compared to Rubin GPUs at N3P. It could be even more than that, though Nvidia seems to be pushing for maximum performance at times rather than maximum efficiency, given the voracious demands for AI compute right now. While Nvidia is one of the leading developers of processors these days, Jensen Huang emphasized multiple times that his company is not simply a semiconductor company anymore. Instead, he described the company as a provider of large-scale AI infrastructure. He also described it as a leader in algorithm development, especially for computer graphics, robotics, and fields like computational lithography. But while Nvidia has been gradually shifting from development of 'just' compute GPUs to AI servers and now server racks and clusters, Huang believes that Nvidia does not necessarily compete with its own customers. According to him, Nvidia does not build actual solutions for the end user, but rather supplies foundational technologies. Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

The first ever fatal crash involving a fully driverless vehicle occurred in San Francisco on January 19. The driverless vehicle belonged to Waymo, but the crash was not Waymo’s fault. Here’s what happened: A Waymo with no driver or passengers stopped for a red light. Another car stopped behind the Waymo. Then, according to Waymo, a human-driven SUV rear-ended the other vehicles at high speed, causing a six-car pileup that killed one person and injured five others. Someone’s dog also died in the crash. Another major Waymo crash occurred in October in San Francisco. Once again, a driverless Waymo was stopped for a red light. According to Waymo, a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction crossed the double yellow line and crashed into an SUV that was stopped to the Waymo’s left. The force of the impact shoved the SUV into the Waymo. One person was seriously injured. These two incidents produced worse injuries than any other Waymo crash in the last nine months. But in other respects, they were typical Waymo crashes. Most Waymo crashes involve a Waymo vehicle scrupulously following the rules while a human driver flouts them, speeding, running red lights, careening out of their lanes, and so forth. Waymo’s service will only grow in the coming months and years. So Waymo will inevitably be involved in more crashes—including some crashes that cause serious injuries and even death. But as this happens, it’s crucial to keep the denominator in mind. Since 2020, Waymo has reported roughly 60 crashes serious enough to trigger an airbag or cause an injury. But those crashes occurred over more than 50 million miles of driverless operations. If you randomly selected 50 million miles of human driving—that’s roughly 70 lifetimes behind the wheel—you would likely see far more serious crashes than Waymo has experienced to date. Federal regulations require Waymo to report all significant crashes, whether or not the Waymo vehicle was at fault—indeed, whether or not the Waymo is even moving at the time of the crash. I’ve spent the last few days poring over Waymo’s crash reports from the last nine months. Let’s dig in.

Water, some snacks, medicines, a power bank and cash: it is the survival kit for the war in Europe recommended by Brussels to face wars and crisis. This was presented by the vice -president of the European Commission Roxana Mîzatu and the commissioner to equality and management of Hadja Lahbib crises. It is part of the preparedness union strategy, a "preparation" plan of European states and citizens to possible crisis situations such as wars, pandemics, natural disasters but also computer attacks or disinformation campaigns. According to Mîzatu these actions serve to "adjust the roof while the sun is still there". And in fact the air that you breathe globally is not the best, with America that threatens to withdraw its umbrella (also atomic) and Russia that growls on the borders of the Union. Better Safe Than Sorry, English would say. What's in the emergency kit for the first 72 hours To give more information on the survival kit for the war in Europe was the same Hadja Lahbib with an ironic video posted on social media that takes one of the most famous formats of influencers around the world, "What's in My Bag, - but this time - Survival Edition". In the video Lahbib lists the content of a bag in case of emergency: identity documents in a waterproof case, water, a torch, eyeglasses, a Swiss knife, matches and lighter, medicines and canned food. "Obviously of cash, because in the middle of a crisis your credit card can only be a piece of plastic," said the commissioner, also adding a deck of cards, a power bank for the mobile phone and a portable radio. X Content This Content Can Also BE Viewed on the Site It Origintes from. What does the EU strategy includes The Preparedness Union Strategy was presented a few days after Rearm Europe, the European Commission plan to encourage the rearm of the Union and increase the military spending of the member countries. The document includes 30 concrete actions divided the 7 themes: preparation and anticipation of crisis situations, resilience of the vital functions of society, adequate preparation of the population, cooperation between public and private and civil-military, response to crisis situations, resilience through external partnerships. These are guidelines that should be integrated as soon as possible within the policies and programs of European states. Much of the strategy concerns the creation or strengthening of European agencies that deal with coordinating or offering support for Member States in moments of instability. In fact, the Commission intends to create a new crisis coordination center, based on the current Coordination Center for the response to emergencies (ERCC), but also to strengthen the Union civil protection mechanism (EUCPM), which allows you to send rescuers from all over Europe to help a single state or region in difficulty. The plan then provides for a revision of financial instruments for the response to crises, with the aim of making them more flexible, efficient and suitable for evolving situations. One of the recommendations is that every citizen keeps a supply of food and water at home for 72 hours, so that he can face an emergency like a flood or an invasion. But not only that: the suggestions of the plan are worth both for individuals and for governments and also include actions aimed at defending themselves from possible internal or external computer attacks.

It would seem to have come out directly from a science fiction film. Instead, it was simply hidden in the ambrah for 99 million years. It is a kind of Vespa, lived in the Cretaceous and now extinct, which no entomologist had ever seen so far: his body, in fact, resembles half of that of a Vespa of our day, while the other half, and in particular his abdomen, recalls the shape of the carnivorous plant, Venus Vecchiappamosche. This was told by the researchers of the Capital Normal University of Beijing who described this new species of Vespa, called SirenoBethylus Charybdis, in a recently published study on BMC Biology. The new species of Vespa The fossilized remains of 16 adult wasps were found in the Kachin region in northern Myanmar and kept in the ambraus quite well that they can be analyzed and described as a new species. In fact, all were equipped with these rather bizarre -looking addoms. "Nothing similar is known in any other insect," the researchers write. "The rounded abdominal system, combined with bristles along the edges, recalls a Dionaea Viappamosche (Dionaaaea muscipula), a carnivorous plant that uses two opposite specialized leaves to capture prey". His abdomen is similar to Venus Cacciappamosche qiong wu The specialized abdomen Fossilized in different positions in the specimens found, the researchers were able to verify that the strange abdomen of the Vespa was covered with hairy bristles, suggesting its grip function, similar to a jaw. From here, the experts advanced several hypotheses: he could serve in the insect to capture the prey or to retain a male specimen during mating. According to the researchers, however, the most probable hypothesis is that the Vespa was a parasitic species, that is, it laid eggs in the bodies of the guests to incuber them.

The moment comes when the "Ring of Saturn" that is particularly eye-catching in the solar system is no longer visible. However, it doesn't disappear completely and will return again in a few weeks. This phenomenon occurs due to the relationship between the tilt of the axis of rotation of Saturn and Earth. Saturn is tilted approximately 26.73 degrees and Earth is tilted approximately 23.5 degrees, but when both planets are located in a straight line, it feels like Saturn's rings are almost invisible due to perspective relationships. In other words, if you observe the night sky this weekend, it may seem like Saturn's ring has disappeared. However, with a high-performance telescope, it should barely appear as a thin line across the center of Saturn. Check out the price of Smart Astronomical Telescopes on Amazon ●Why does Saturn's ring disappear? The main reason why Saturn's rings are invisible is the tilt of the axis of rotation of Saturn and Earth. To put it in perspective, this is the same logic as a piece of paper looking bigger when viewed from the front, but almost invisible when viewed from the side. In fact, Saturn's ring is thinner than you imagined. "The Saturn ring is surprisingly thin, and even at its thickest part is estimated to be around 1km. Given the diameter of Saturn (over 116,000km), it is incredibly thin," explains Dr. Shannon Schmoll, director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. Furthermore, according to the latest research from NASA, the ring is about 10m thick. Looking at the ring from Earth, 1.5 million km away, it's like looking at thin paper from the side. However, the ring does not disappear completely. High-performance telescopes may be recognized as thin lines across Saturn, but with low magnification telescopes, the lines may not be distinguished, and they may reflect like Saturn without a ring. ●When will the ring return? This peak of "the ring is about to disappear" occurs around the weekend. In reality, this trend has already continued for about a week or two, and until around April it has been difficult to see. As April enters, the ring gradually begins to tilt as Saturn orbits, and slowly returns to its original appearance over a month or two. "Strictly speaking, the moment the ring surface lies right in front of you is only a moment. However, with a large telescope, you'll soon start to see the ring. Conversely, with a typical home telescope, you'll have to wait a few months for it to become clearly visible as a ring," says Dr. Schmol. ●How rare is this phenomenon? According to NASA information, this phenomenon occurs roughly every 13 to 15 years. However, there is no strict cycle, and records occurring in 1980, 1995, and 2009 are still available. "It takes about 30 years for Saturn to orbit the Sun. There are two times in its orbit that the ring angle is exactly the same. However, when Saturn is located across the Sun, sunlight can make it difficult to observe," explained Dr. Schmoll. The next forecast is that the ring will lie directly in 2038 or 2039. It is said that at that time it will be even easier to observe than this time. View current sales on Amazon Check out the price of Smart Astronomical Telescopes on Amazon

Many document management systems are based on their functionality and execution on the needs of large companies and corporations. With the DMS and Archive system SmartDocs, the DMSFactory offers a system that combines all relevant functions in a slim, intuitive user interface - immediately ready for use and already suitable for the single place. "We wanted a central system in which the right-wing management and archiving of large quantities of digital documents and files can be mapped, but at the same time we have the lowest possible implementation and configuration effort and is also efficient from a user- we did this with SmartDocs at the time!" Explains Jörg Loring, Professional Service at DMSFactory. Now there is a new feature: In addition to seamless administration and archiving, SmartDocs also enables visualizing and editing e-bills as X-bills. With the help of an import profile, these are recognized as an e-bill and automatically tagged. In addition to access protection, SmartDocs also offers the possibility of private encryption in order to be able to protect sensitive data with as little effort as possible. Individual archive areas can be encrypted so that only authorized people are given access. "We recorded the challenges that the small middle class is facing and included corresponding license packages in our portfolio," said Jörg Eckhard, sales manager of the DMSFactory.

Schrödinger’s cat, quantum entanglement—the songs on Hikaru Utada’s latest album, Science Fiction, go deeper into the singer-songwriter’s “fascination with science” than they ever have before. Part greatest-hits collection, part reflection on interests they have cultivated for many years, it’s a body of work that shows their breadth as an artist. It only seemed fitting, then, that WIRED Japan would invite Utada to Switzerland to visit CERN, one of the world’s leading research centers for particle physics, an invitation they quickly accepted. “CERN is a place I have dreamed of visiting for the past 10 years or so,” Utada says. “To be honest, being able to go there and talk to the scientists and see the particle accelerator might be even better than performing on the main stage at Coachella [laughs]. I definitely wanted to go.” CERN is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, located on the border between Switzerland and France. Its iconic Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—a gigantic circular accelerator with a circumference of 27 kilometers—made its name in 2012 when it discovered the Higgs boson, the mysterious particle that continues to play a key role in experiments into the origins of the universe. The center’s work is not limited to research about how the universe began and the behavior of subatomic particles; it can also lead to advances that have greater impacts on everyday life. For example, in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist who was then working at CERN, developed a system to provide decentralized, real-time access to information within the organization. It became the foundation for the World Wide Web. Hikaru Utada explores ATLAS, a large general-purpose particle detector located 100 meters underground on the CERN main campus, which detects and measures particles accelerated and collided by the Large Hadron Collider. PHOTOGRAPH: TIMOTHÉE LAMBRECQ In recent years, the organization has also been proactively engaged in outreach efforts that fuse art and science. That’s why University of Tokyo physicist Junichi Tanaka and Kazuki Kojima, a researcher at KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization) are here. CERN asked the Japanese scientists to accompany Utada and WIRED on our CERN visit. Utada asked the two of them more questions than anyone else. While standing in front of ATLAS (the large general-purpose particle detector located 100 meters under the main CERN campus that detects and measures particles accelerated and collided by the LHC), the conversation around the topic of dark matter was a lively one.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” With a sly grin that I’d soon come to recognize, Paul Ginsparg quoted Michael Corleone from The Godfather. Ginsparg, a physics professor at Cornell University and a certified MacArthur genius, may have little in common with Al Pacino’s mafia don, but both are united by the feeling that they were denied a graceful exit from what they’ve built. Nearly 35 years ago, Ginsparg created arXiv, a digital repository where researchers could share their latest findings—before those findings had been systematically reviewed or verified. Visit arXiv.org today (it’s pronounced like “archive”) and you’ll still see its old-school Web 1.0 design, featuring a red banner and the seal of Cornell University, the platform’s institutional home. But arXiv’s unassuming facade belies the tectonic reconfiguration it set off in the scientific community. If arXiv were to stop functioning, scientists from every corner of the planet would suffer an immediate and profound disruption. “Everybody in math and physics uses it,” Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, told me. “I scan it every night.” Every industry has certain problems universally acknowledged as broken: insurance in health care, licensing in music, standardized testing in education, tipping in the restaurant business. In academia, it’s publishing. Academic publishing is dominated by for-profit giants like Elsevier and Springer. Calling their practice a form of thuggery isn’t so much an insult as an economic observation. Imagine if a book publisher demanded that authors write books for free and, instead of employing in-house editors, relied on other authors to edit those books, also for free. And not only that: The final product was then sold at prohibitively expensive prices to ordinary readers, and institutions were forced to pay exorbitant fees for access. The “free editing” academic publishers facilitate is called peer review, the process by which fellow researchers vet new findings. This can take months, even a year. But with arXiv, scientists could post their papers—known, at this unvetted stage, as preprints—for instant and free access to everyone. One of arXiv’s great achievements was “showing that you could divorce the actual transmission of your results from the process of refereeing,” said Paul Fendley, an early arXiv moderator and now a physicist at All Souls College, Oxford. During crises like the Covid pandemic, time-sensitive breakthroughs were disseminated quickly—particularly by bioRxiv and medRxiv, platforms inspired by arXiv—potentially saving, by one study’s estimate, millions of lives. While arXiv submissions aren’t peer-reviewed, they are moderated by experts in each field, who volunteer their time to ensure that submissions meet basic academic standards and follow arXiv’s guidelines: original research only, no falsified data, sufficiently neutral language. Submissions also undergo automated checks for baseline quality control. Without these, pseudoscientific papers and amateur work would flood the platform. In 2021, the journal Nature declared arXiv one of the “10 computer codes that transformed science,” praising its role in fostering scientific collaboration. (The article is behind a paywall—unlock it for $199 a year.) By a recent count, arXiv hosts more than 2.6 million papers, receives 20,000 new submissions each month, and has 5 million monthly active users. Many of the most significant discoveries of the 21st century have first appeared on the platform. The “transformers” paper that launched the modern AI boom? Uploaded to arXiv. Same with the solution to the Poincaré conjecture, one of the seven Millennium Prize problems, famous for their difficulty and $1 million rewards. Just because a paper is posted on arXiv doesn’t mean it won’t appear in a prestigious journal someday, but it’s often where research makes its debut and stays openly available. The transformers paper is still routinely accessed via arXiv. For scientists, imagining a world without arXiv is like the rest of us imagining one without public libraries or GPS. But a look at its inner workings reveals that it isn’t a frictionless utopia of open-access knowledge. Over the years, arXiv’s permanence has been threatened by everything from bureaucratic strife to outdated code to even, once, a spy scandal. In the words of Ginsparg, who usually redirects interview requests to an FAQ document—on arXiv, no less—and tried to talk me out of visiting him in person, arXiv is “a child I sent off to college but who keeps coming back to camp out in my living room, behaving badly.” Ginsparg and I met over the course of several days last spring in Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University. I’ll admit, I was apprehensive ahead of our time together. Geoffrey West, a former supervisor of Ginsparg’s at Los Alamos National Laboratory, once described him as “quite a character” who is “infamous in the community” for being “quite difficult.” He also said he was “extremely funny” and a “great guy.” In our early email exchanges, Ginsparg told me, upfront, that stories about arXiv never impress him: “So many articles, so few insights,” he wrote.

Nintendo announced that it will be holding a presentation called "Nintendo Direct 2025.3.27" from 11pm today (March 27th), but also posted at the same time that "information about Nintendo Switch 2 is not included." The streaming will introduce information about Nintendo Switch software, focusing on titles scheduled to be released in 2025. The delivery time is also short at 30 minutes. Meanwhile, there has been a growing interest in Switch 2 among users and despite the introductory statement that "there is no information about Switch 2," X (formerly Twitter) has also temporarily become a trending trend. Switch 2 is scheduled to be officially announced on Nintendo Direct on April 2nd. "Nintendo Switch" (check price on Amazon)

Many people are now turning to AI chatbots to meet their personal needs, whether it is a regular conversation or emotional support. However, in recent months, concerns have increased as to the disadvantages of using this technology to the detriment of human interactions. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data According to two studies carried out by OPENAI in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the use of chatbots such as Chatgpt can correspond to an increase in loneliness and a decrease in time spent socializing with other people. The analysis relates to the way in which online dialogue platforms influence emotional well-being and user behavior. In the first study, the Openai team carried out an "analysis of nearly 40 million chatgpt interactions without human intervention to guarantee the confidentiality of users". The study combined this research data with targeted surveys with users in order to better understand real applications. Users' opinions on Chatgpt, analyzed in conjunction with user conversations, have made it possible to assess "emotional schemes". Large chatgpt users trust the chatbot more The second study, conducted by the MIT Media Lab team, carried out a randomized trial with around 1,000 participants who used Chatgpt for a month. This study was designed to highlight the way in which the specific characteristics of the platform and the types of interaction can have an impact on psychosocial and emotional well-being declared by users. In particular "loneliness, social interactions with real people, emotional dependence on AI chatbot, and the problematic use of AI". In both studies, participants had a wide variety of chatgpt use experiences in the past. Some participants received the investigation of having non -specific and open conversations, while others have been informed that they could have personal or non -personal conversations with the chatbot. The results revealed that major chatgpt users trust the chatbot more and were more likely to feel more alone and emotionally dependent on the service. The virtual friend's trap However, user results are influenced by personal factors, such as the emotional needs of individuals, their perception of AI and the duration of use. For example, people who tend to emotionally attach themselves to human relationships and who considered AI as a friend are more likely to feel negative effects as a result of the use of a chatbot. "The types of more personal conversations, which include more emotional expression on the part of the user and the model than non -personal conversations, are associated with higher levels of loneliness, but less emotional dependence and problematic use at moderate levels of use," observed researchers. However, "non -personal conversations tend to increase emotional dependence, especially in the event of intensive use". The voice is not more toxic than the text According to the second study, users who use Chatgpt through the text option only showed "more emotional clues" in conversations than users who use the voice. A "more engaging voice" has not led to an increase in negative results for users during the study in relation to a neutral voice or to text -based interactions. Researchers also found that very few people use Chatgpt for emotional conversations. According to the researchers, the results of these two studies constitute a "first crucial step" in understanding the impact of AI models on human experience and will encourage industry and the university world to continue their research. "We do not recommend generalizing the results, as this could mask the nuanced conclusions highlighting complex and non -uniform interactions between people and AI systems," said researchers.

Beware of file conversion sites! Transforming a JPEG file into a PDF and vice versa, or even merge two PDF files into one ... Online sites that allow this kind of services are very practical. But beware however where you put your feet. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data The FBI has just recently reported an increase in scams involving the use of a document conversion tool, whether they are therefore accessible online or via applications. This kind of service makes it possible in some cases to introduce malicious software for the victim. Analysis before opening Admittedly, if they do the task announced well, the malicious services using this kind of process will then hide an intruding program in the final file. This is probably malware of Infostealer type, these software information thieves. According to the Denver FBI, this way of bringing the wolf into the sheepfold can ultimately open the door to much more destructive programs, of the ransomiciel type. "Analyze any file that you receive before opening it," advocates the antenna of the Federal Office of American Investigation. Confidentiality This is not the first time that software of this type has been pinned. As a security researcher recently noted, quoted by Bleeping Computer, the Gootloader malicious program was notably broadcast recently via a site offering the conversion of a Word file to PDF. Beyond these cybercriminal diversions, it is generally necessary to be careful with any tool of this type. These services are not necessarily necessary first. For example, text editors generally offer export in PDF file. Then, it is better to avoid using this type of service for documents whose confidentiality is necessary. Indeed, insurance around the confidentiality of the service ultimately engages those who believe in it.

Possible insights into the development of new functions and updates are taken. Google also strokes the division of external developers via the Android Open Source Project in the development of Android. Google has announced that it will only develop its Android mobile operating system "behind closed doors" and without participation in the public. So far, it was common for developers and interested users to take an insight into the development process at any time. So far, Android has been developed in two main branches: in -house and publicly via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Above the AOSP, everyone was able to participate in the development of Android, even if the main work was done by Google's internal team. In addition, certain internal changes and innovations were only visible to developers in the AOSP with a certain time delay. To Android Authority, Google now confirmed that the entire development is shifted to the internal branch. In the future, the public branch will only receive access to the finished product - updates are only available to the AOSP with general availability. This is primarily intended to avoid problems with the folding of the two branches and the development process is streamlined. A more efficient development of Android should not only save the time required for the consolidation of the two branches. Google also hopes to further accelerate the development of the operating system and minimize possible sources of error. But Google also made it clear that the change does not mean that Android becomes a closed source software. The source code will continue to be disclosed with every new version. Only the insight into the development process and individual progress.

Google plans to entrust the development of Android to third parties so that the process is no longer visible from the public. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data A major change for Android, which has long allowed developers, but also to the general public, to take a look behind the scenes. What changes with Android? So far, Google has developed Android in two main branches: a private internal branch and a public branch called AOSP (Android Open Source Project). AOSP allowed everyone to see and contribute to the development of Android, but the internal team of Google was doing most of the work behind the scenes. The AOSP public branch was often late compared to the private branch, which meant that new features and updates were visible by developers much later than in the private version of Android. Google confirmed to Android Authority that it would transfer entire Android development to its internal private branch. The public branch will always receive the final product, but no new update will be available before their official publication. This will allow Google to rationalize the development process and avoid problems linked to the fusion of distinct branches. Why does Google do this? The main reason for this change is to optimize Android development. Currently, Google spends a lot of time and efforts to the merger of the Public AOSP code with the private code. By consolidating the whole within a single branch, Google aims to accelerate development and reduce potential errors. Let's be clear: this change does not aim to make Android "closed". Google will always publish the source code when the new versions of Android are ready. The progression will simply not be displayed in real time as before. Will you notice something different? Probably not. For most Android users, this change will have no impact on their daily experience. The deployment of Android updates on phones will remain unchanged, and applications will continue to be developed and updated as usual. The only major difference lies in the fact that Android developers and enthusiasts will not be able to follow the development process as easily, at least not before the release of new updates. Developers and specialized journalists will probably be the most affected. Developers who create personalized Android versions or who work with AOSP may find it more difficult to keep up to date with new changes, because they will not be able to follow the development of as close as possible. Specialized journalists, too, will miss the behind the scenes of AOSP, which often suggest to future features or devices. For example, the appearance of "Pixel 10" in the AOSP code is a recent leak that gave us an overview of Google's future projects. When will this change take place? This change is expected to take place next week, and an official Google announcement is expected later in the week. From this date, all the development of the Android operating system will be deprived, and the public will only be able to access the source code its publication.

3Dプリンターはさまざまな用途に使える。高性能な3Dプリンターがあれば、少しの手間はかかるが、ちょっとした修繕用品から複雑なアート作品まで、作れないものはほとんどない。筆者は仕事で3Dプリンターをレビューしているので、サイズも用途もさまざまな3Dプリンターを使える環境にある。レビューでは通常、小さな3Dモデルを使い、複雑さやディテールのレベルを変えながらプリンターの性能を試していく。しかし、時には心から幸せを感じられる作品を作りたくなるものだ。 筆者は新婚旅行で初めてカリフォルニア州のディズニーランドを訪れて以来、城の上に打ち上げられる花火の大ファンだ。家族でカリフォルニアに住んでいた頃は年間パスポートを持っていたが、バージニア州に引っ越してからはディズニーパークを訪れる機会もなくなった。そんな時、Elegooの3Dプリンター「OrangeStorm Giga」をテストする機会を得た。個人ユーザーには勧めにくい巨大なプリンターだが、一家のディズニーパークへの愛を形にするには完璧なプリンターだった。 3Dプリントの城ができるまで ありがちだが、きっかけは「TikTok」だった。DIY動画を投稿しているAlex Carrao氏が3Dプリンターでディズニーの城を作り、そこにYouTube動画を投影する企画に挑戦していた。3Dプリンターで城を作り、その表面に映像を投影することで、ディズニーパークで毎晩繰り広げられている花火ショーを再現する――このアイデアは、比較的容易にまねできそうに思えた。Carrao氏が作った城は3Dプリンターベッドの標準的なサイズ（約250×250×250mm）に合わせたものだったが、筆者が作りたいのは、もっと大きな城だ。そのための道具はすでにあった。 筆者が3Dプリンターで作りたいと考えていたのは、フロリダ州にあるディズニーワールドの城ではなく、カリフォルニア州にあるディズニーランドの城だ。この2つの城は見た目が違う。ディズニーワールドの方は「シンデレラ」の城、ディズニーランドの方は「眠れる森の美女」の城だ。筆者が思い入れのあるのは後者、つまりディズニーランドの城だった。幸い、Carrao氏は好みの違いに配慮し、両方の城の3Dモデルを用意していた。そこでディズニーランドの城の3Dモデルを購入し、自分のイメージに合うようにモデルを調整する作業に取りかかった。花火ショーの映像は城の中央部分のみに投影されるが、Carrao氏の3Dモデルは城を取り囲む城壁も含めて、城の全景を捉えたものだった。今回のプロジェクトでは、ここまで壮大なものは必要ないため、Microsoftの3Dデータ作成・編集ソフト「3D Builder」（手軽に使えるが、すでにサポートは終了）を使って不要な部分は削除した。思い通りのモデルが完成したら、次はいよいよプリントだ。 OrangeStorm Gigaは、説明しにくい3Dプリンターだ。ビルドエリアは800×800×1000mmと広く、400×400mmのビルドプレートを4枚使って印刷する。最初に発表されたときは興奮して、早く試したくてたまらなかった。実際、あれこれ作る作業はとても楽しいのだが、読者諸氏の用途に向いているとは思えない。稼働させるまでの工程が複雑で、正しく印刷するためには細心の注意が求められる上、プリンター自体が大きいため、作業場がなければ置き場所にも困る。とはいえ、十分なスペースと忍耐力、そして2500ドル（約37万円）を払う余裕があるなら、あっと驚くものを作成できることは間違いない。 城を正しくプリントできると思えるレベルにまでプリンターを調整できたら、カットしたばかりの3Dモデルを印刷してみた。3Dモデルはオリジナルのデザインに調整を加え、最終的に横幅が700mmになるように拡大した。3Dプリンターでは「STLファイル」というファイルを使う。このファイルは、かなりの拡大にもたえられるが、細部が粗くなりやすい。ただ今回は、この問題は発生しなかった。映像を投影することが前提なので、城自体は白地のキャンバスであり、細かい装飾はなかったからだ。 3Dプリントに要した時間は合計85時間強だ。長いと思うかもしれないが、3Dモデルの大きさと材料の量を考えれば早い。参考までに、5年前に実物大のマンダロリアン（「スター・ウォーズ」のキャラクター）のヘルメットを印刷したときは125時間かかった。使用した材料は城の5分の1ほどだ。 今回の城の場合、プリントに必要な材料の量も膨大だった。Overtureの3kgのPLAロールを使い、充填形状はジャイロイド、充填率は8％に設定したにもかかわらず、ロールのほぼ全量を使い切ってしまった。重いが、ちょっとした衝撃では壊れない安心感がある。できあがった城は壁に取り付ける予定だったので、頑丈にしたかった。 魔法の粉をひとふり 映像を投影するための下準備も必要だった。プリントした城のレイヤーラインを目立たなくするために、自動車用の下塗りフィラーを使った。レンガの風合いを残しつつ、適切な質感を出すために2缶ほど使った。その後、石材風に仕上げるためのスプレーペイントを2缶使って、質感をさらに高めた。映像を投影することが目的なので、城自体を暗い色で塗ったり、本来の城の色に似せたりすることはできない。城は、あくまでも白紙のキャンバスである必要があった。とはいえ、映像を投影していない時は壁に自然に溶け込み、インテリアを乱さないようにしたい。スプレーペイントで仕上げた色は壁になじみ、ざらざらした質感にすることで、ただのプラスチックのような安っぽい印象も回避できた。 プロジェクター塗料を使った方が花火をきれいに映せるのではないかとも考えたが、いかんせん高い。1缶で100ドル（約1万5000円）以上する。他の材料をすべて合わせたよりも高くなるようでは、コスパが悪すぎる。やはり頼みはプロジェクターだ。 投影がカギ 提供：James Bricknell/CNET 提供：James Bricknell/CNET 映像の投影は、現在でも完璧とは言えず、今後も完璧にはできそうもない。もちろん、現状でも十分にきれいだが、これ以上の調整は、現時点で筆者が利用できる技術ではできない。筆者が使っているのはXGIMIの「Elfin」という小型プロジェクターだ。古いがYouTubeやAndroid TVにもアクセスできるし、何と言っても軽くて、角度も調整しやすい。投影する映像の選択も重要だ。映像は以下の条件を満たしている必要があった。 三脚を使って撮影したもの 解像度は1080p以上 カメラの前を人が横切らない メインストリートは含めず、城だけが映っている あちこち検索して、ようやく見つけたのがDizFeedの撮影したディズニーランドの花火ショー「Disneyland Forever」の動画だった。この動画は、すべての条件を満たしている上に、筆者の幸福な記憶をよみがえらせた。この動画は構図が完璧であるだけでなく、そこに記録されている花火ショーは、筆者と妻が結婚した翌日に観たものだった。人生でも指折りの幸せな日に観たショーを、今は毎日、自宅の壁で観ることができる。 次のステップは、プロジェクターの映像を3Dプリントした城の縮尺に合うように調整することだった。この作業には、プロジェクターの台形補正機能を使った。高性能なプロジェクターには必ず、プロジェクターの設置場所に合わせて、投影する映像の形を調整できる機能がある。スクリーンに映し出された映像が真四角ではなく、台形になっているのを見たことがある人は多いだろう。台形補正は隅を引き出すことで、この問題を解決してくれる。 この台形補正機能を使うことで、映像のサイズを3Dモデルにできる限りフィットさせることができる。プリントした城は壁から突き出すような格好で設置したため、背後に影ができ、ピントが合っていないように見えることもある。まずは、どの部分にピントを合わせるかを決めなければならない。筆者は正面の大きな窓を選んだ。ここが一番、映像の動きが多い場所だからだ。もちろん完璧ではない。完璧にするためには複数のプロジェクターを使って、異なる角度から投影する必要がある。しかし、現在の仕上がりでも十分に満足だ。 さらなる高みを目指すなら さらなる改善を試みるなら追加投資が必要だ。筆者のプロジェクターに搭載されている台形補正機能はシンプルなものだ。つまり、筆者が必要とするほど細かい補正はできない。この問題を解決するためには、より高価なプロジェクターを買う必要がある。もう1つの選択肢は、ノートPCを使ってビデオ出力を調整することだ。この方法は効果があるかもしれないが、そのためにはプロジェクターの背後にノートPCを隠す必要があり、理想的とは言えない。ノートPCの代わりに「Raspberry Pi」を使う方法もあり得る。ノートPCよりはずっと小さいし、存在を隠すためのカバーを3Dプリントで作成することも可能だ。例えば、城へと続くメインストリートのようなデザインの棚を作ってもいいかもしれない。 あるいは、壁に付いている状態の見た目が良くなるように、下部に人工の雲を追加するのもいいかもしれない。それによって城が空に浮かんでいるように見えるだけでなく、投影された動画の下部が拡散され、映像が欠けている部分が隠れるので、より自然な見た目になる。 このプロジェクトを完成させるのはとても楽しかったし、筆者が3Dプリントに夢中になった理由を思い出させてくれた。筆者は、自分の創造性を表現し、生活に楽しみをもたらす方法を探していたが、この城はまさにその両方を実現してくれた。今では、ほぼ1日中この城に花火を投影している。特に懐かしい気分に浸りたいときは音量を上げて、人生で最高の夜の1つを思い出すことにしている。 Amazonで現在開催中のセールを見る

According to a Bloomberg report dated March 26, Openai expects to triple his turnover this year to reach 12.7 billion dollars. For the comparison, last year the company based in San Francisco had generated $ 3.7 billion in revenues, according to an anonymous source. And this growth should not stop there: Openai anticipates a leap in sales at 29.4 billion dollars from 2026. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data OPENAI provides for an explosion of its income This financial flight testifies to the central role occupied by Openai on the generative artificial intelligence market. Its economic model is essentially based on subscriptions to its services, in particular Chatgpt Plus, as well as on the marketing of APIs intended for companies. With the massive adoption of these tools, both by large companies and by SMEs or individuals, OPENAI income should continue to grow. Competition intensifies However, if Openai dominates the sector today, competition is strengthened. Giants like Microsoft, Google and Anthropic redouble their efforts to capture their market share, making the environment more competitive than ever. It remains to be seen whether Openai will be able to maintain his ascendancy in the face of these actors with colossal means. In this context, Openai will not only have to innovate to keep his advance, but also adapt to new requirements in the sector. The regulation and ethical issues surrounding the use of AI will impose itself, in particular within the European Union which is preparing to deploy a legal framework.

For several years, Google has been using “feature drops” that has been expanding features and correcting the bugs of its Pixel phones thanks to regular software updates. All tech news for pros every day in our newsletter learn more about the use of personal data The same policy is applied to Google Workspace, the March update of which has several improvements. From the automatic generation of the following steps to the voices optimized by AI, including automatic translation of chat messages, here is an overview of the new features of Google Workspace. Gemini in Meets can now suggest actions and provide complete transcriptions. "Take notes for me" Based on the "Taking notes for me" feature launched last fall, Google claims that this new Meet option will allow nothing to miss from the important points of the meeting. Gemini will analyze the content of the meeting and generate a report in which the next possible steps will be included for the persons concerned. You can consult and modify these suggestions and assign them to the members of your team. Google adds that its notes taking function will include a complete transcription in the post-reunion email (provided you activate it). The notes refer to the exact part of the meeting if you want to come back. The Video generation tool by Google AI is enriched with voiceover VIDS, the Google AI Video Generation Tool also benefits from an update. Thanks to the "Help me create" function, you can create a fully modifiable video from a single request, including suggested scenes, recommended archive images, text, background music and even a complete script. You can now create voices OFF by AI adapted to each scene in your script. Instead of spending hours finding the perfect socket, Google claims that you can easily add a professional voice for all styles. Cat translation extends to more languages Finally, Google Cat's “Translating for me” functionality extends and can now automatically detect and translate more than 120 languages. When a message is sent to you in another language, Cat ensures that you see it in the language of your choice, thus avoiding having to navigate to another window to translate it.

A phenomenon that also confirms in the trend of other European tech companies, perhaps smaller, but in any case protagonists of significant growth impetus. Little great realities all European For example, in Belgium there is a little -known scaleup called Odoo. Few consider it when they make the lists of the most successful European startups, yet Odoo is solid, constantly growing, well organized and above all global. Its business management software, such as CRM and ERP, are depopulating everywhere in the world because they open source, modular, integrated with third party components, sold in the form of a service, and multilingual. Another case is that of British Nothing, almost unknown until recently, which produces cell phones and its latest 3A and 3APro models have become a phenomenon. They have characteristics comparable to the most famous American or Asian products but are sold at a price that to define competitive is an understatement. Then there are the Scaleup, such as the Italian Bending Spouches that only a few days ago completed the last of a series of acquisitions, including US companies, buying the German Koomot. But also the Eston Bolt who bought, always in these days, the Danish Viggo to extend its non -scheduled urban transport service on the continent (i.e. the response to the American Uber). Is it the beginning of a Renaissance of the European Tech? It is still premature to give for certain that could be a temporary tendency, but it is worth considering that one of the consequences of the current geopolitical scenario is the growth of attention to European suppliers, including those of technologies. There are also portals such as GoEuropean and European Alternatives that offer for each technological product - and not only - which is not Made in Europe, a valid alternative, perhaps less known but absolutely comparable to the technological products of other parts of the world. There is everything: from the cloud services such as those of the French Ovhcloud and the Italian Cubbit, to search engines such as German Ecosia, to automatic translation services based on artificial intelligence such as those of the German Deepl, another company in strong growth, and of the Italian Translated. Until generative artificial intelligence such as Lechat of the French Mistral, this also a company to keep an eye on. These alternatives are already numerous and many others are emerging, giving life to a phenomenon that we could call instant software. A bit like the instant books, designed to intercept readers on the wave of trends and topicality, instant software are born to respond quickly to the new market priorities, which is redefining criteria and motivations of choice. Today, Made in Europe can be an element that makes the difference, not only for European companies and consumers, but also for many other global realities less and less willing to grant the United States further spaces for sovereignty and technological independence.

The current high value of Tesla is not based on the actual sales of the company, but on the sales forecasts of products that have not yet been launched, such as robotaxi and the Optimus humanoid robots, which could be distant years from mass production. "My predictions have a rather positive balance," Musk told Tesla staff during a meeting of all the employees of March 20 (none of those present asked the entrepreneur if he had foreseen the anti-Musk movement that is making Tesla's sales collapse all over the world). And even if at the meeting with the staff Musk has skidded that Tesla is "by far the most innovative company of the automotive industry", the reality is very different. Chinese car manufacturers such as Xpeng, Nio and Li Car are much ahead of Tesla on the front of autonomous driving and in other technologies. For example, Waymo already offers a driver -free taxi service. Tesla is not even the only company that is planning a future for humanoid robots. In a recent podcast, the entrepreneur Peter Diamandis said that another 15 companies are also running in the sector, none of which has such a controversial or divisive leader like Musk.

CNN — A federal judge on Thursday ordered key Trump administration agencies to preserve messages sent on Signal between March 11 to March 15. Judge James Boasberg made the ruling in a preservation lawsuit brought in the wake of the revelation that Cabinet officials were discussing war plans on Signal. The Justice Department says the administration is already working to track down and preserve the Signal texts from that period. Boasberg’s temporary restraining order also directs the administration to file a status report Monday, accompanied with declarations from government officials, explaining the steps the agencies were taking to preserve the messages. The messages in question include exchanges about US military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. The Atlantic reported earlier this week that just hours before the March 15 strikes, top members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet discussed detailed operational plans in a Signal group thread. A day after the revelation, a watchdog group filed a lawsuit accusing the Cabinet officials on the chat of violating federal records law. Sources told CNN that the details shared in the group message by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were classified, though the Trump administration has denied it. American Oversight, the nonprofit advocacy group that brought the records-preservation lawsuit, said Thursday’s ruling “marks an important step toward accountability.” The group had asked in the lawsuit for the federal courts to force Trump administration officials to do better record-keeping. “The public has a right to know how decisions about war and national security are made — and accountability doesn’t disappear just because a message was set to auto-delete,” the group’s interim executive director, Chioma Chukwu, said in a statement. The judge focused Thursday’s 20-minute court hearing on “finding common ground” between the Trump administration and American Oversight so that he could issue a temporary restraining order to which both sides would be amenable. Prior to the hearing, the Treasury Department said it has already tracked down and preserved a “partial” version of the chat for federal record-keeping purposes. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was part of the March 15 Signal chat, and the text of those messages are now preserved, a department official wrote to the court in a sworn statement. Though he didn’t mention it explicitly, Boasberg is also presiding over the high-profile case challenging Trump’s invocation of a rarely used war power to swiftly deport migrants. The Signal case was assigned to Boasberg by chance, the judge said, acknowledging possible questions from the public, explaining in detail how the random case assignment system works in DC’s federal court. During Thursday’s hearing, Boasberg also slyly referenced a major dispute in the deportation case, around whether the administration was obligated to follow an order he issued verbally from the bench before he put it in writing. As he told the DOJ lawyer what he was ordering in the records preservation case, Boasberg said, with a grin, “Don’t worry, it will be in writing.” This story has been updated with additional reporting. CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

Max Buondonno/ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Normally retailing for $699, the Pixel 8 offers a flagship-level experience with Google's latest AI and machine learning features. With fast performance, amazing cameras, and Google's Actua display, it's one of the best smartphone deals available. Compared to similarly priced phones, like the Nothing Phone 2, the Pixel 8 is a far better value. As part of Amazon's 2025 Spring Sale, Google's base Pixel 8 in Obsidian (black) has received a 30% discount. Its price has dropped from $700 to just $487. Other color options, like Hazel, are on sale too, although the price drop isn't as deep. The Google Pixel 9 might be getting all the attention nowadays (especially with its access to Google's new Gemini AI model), but the standard Pixel 8 is still an impressive model among the rest of Google's smartphone catalog. Also: We picked the 155+ best deals for Amazon's Spring Sale That's because the Pixel 8 offers one of the best combinations of specs, features, and premium design at a price considerably lower than the competition. Even at full price, the device is cheaper than contemporaries like the Galaxy S24 ($760) and the OnePlus 12 (which normally retails for $900). Because it balances performance and cost so well, the Pixel 8 is difficult to ignore and perhaps the only phone you should consider if you're shopping on a budget. You won't find another phone like it under $500, and it's only when you sift through the $800-$1,000 options that you find commendable competition. A big reason why this is such a compelling option is the Tensor G3 chip, Google's latest in-house processor that powers all of the Pixel 8's AI and machine learning features. It's not just a solid Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 alternative but a monumental reason why the Pixel 8 is such a great phone. Also: Grab the Samsung Galaxy S25 for as low as $700 at Amazon The chip powers all the Google Pixel-ness of the Pixel 8, from transcribing voices in the Recorder app to letting you edit photos to your heart's content with the AI-powered Magic Editor. The Google Assistant also takes advantage of the G3 to process your voice quicker and even summarize web pages for quickly consuming information. Alongside powering Google's HDR pipeline for photography and ensuring Android 14 is slick and smooth, the G3 is one of the most capable smartphone chips on the market. And when paired with 8GB of RAM, you'll never have a slow day. Max Buondonno/ZDNET The display is another huge reason to get this phone. The Pixel 8's 6.2-inch Actua display is a bit smaller than the screen on the Pixel 7, but that makes it easier to hold in one hand. It's also stunning to look at; with a Full HD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 2,000 nits of peak brightness, it's one of the brightest and clearest displays on the market. Plus, it's OLED, so colors are vibrant, and inky blacks are plentiful. Look beyond the display, and you'll find a good-looking phone crafted out of aluminum and Gorilla Glass Victus. Featuring Google's signature camera bar on the back and thin bezels around the display, the Pixel 8 is a stunner among other sub-$500 phones. It's also IP68-certified for dust and water resistance, and it comes in three nice finishes: Obsidian (black), Hazel (kinda green), and Rose (more of a golden peach, in my opinion). Max Buondonno/ZDNET When it comes to Pixel phones, there are two areas you have to talk about: cameras and software. On the camera front, Google knocked it out of the park. The rear 50MP main shooter and 12MP ultra-wide are both excellent performers in broad daylight and at night. The cameras easily match or outpace what you'd get with an iPhone 15 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra in terms of clarity, detail, and sharpness, while colors are often far more accurate than they ever have been on a Pixel phone. Also: This midrange Galaxy phone can make you forget ever wanting a flagship - and it's on sale You also get all of the camera chops that the Pixel name carries like astrophotography, Super ResZoom, dual exposure controls, and Ultra HDR. That's on top of other features like Best Take and Magic Editor that make these cameras the smartest you'll find. Plus, video quality has been vastly improved over previous Pixels -- it's flat-out comparable to the iPhone. On the software side, Google's Pixel experience atop Android 14 remains my favorite way to interact with Android. It's clean and minimal and gives you a warm, inviting feeling that no other Android skin can mimic. You get all the features of Android 14, like customizable lock screens, better security, larger fonts, and improved notifications, along with all of the Pixel features you could ask for, such as Call Screen, Now Playing, Direct My Call, AI-generated wallpapers, and -- of course --the Pixel Launcher. Max Buondonno/ZDNET But the real kicker in the software department is Google's extended support. The company guarantees seven full years of software support, which means you'll get updates until 2030 if you buy this phone. That's unheard of for an Android phone, and it gives devices like the iPhone a run for their money. Also: Google's latest Pixel phone is so close to being my perfect budget phone - here's why Thanks to the 4,575mAh cell inside, the Pixel 8 can also last all day on a charge. With my medium to heavy usage, I typically end days with 30-40% in the tank, which means anyone using the phone a bit less could stretch it out to last a day and a half. Plus, you get 30W fast charging to juice back up and Qi wireless charging. So, what are the downsides? Honestly, there aren't a lot. The Pixel 8 still gets pretty warm after being used for a while, but that's typical with Google's Tensor processors. I also wish there was a proper telephoto camera on the back; Super Res Zoom is handy for upscaling digitally zoomed photos, but it can only take you so far. Oh, and I still don't trust Face Unlock; Google lets you use it to pay for things now using Google Pay, but it still relies on a flat image of your face to authenticate you. ZDNET's buying advice You're not going to find a much better value than the Pixel 8 - especially at such a deep discount. From the gorgeous display and design to the speedy performance and amazing cameras, Google's standard flagship phone stands on its own with an impeccable balance of high-end features for a lower price than other flagships. Also: This 5-in-1 charging station replaced several desk accessories for me (and it just got cheaper) With its sale price of $487, the closest competition happens to be the Galaxy A35 5G and Nothing Phone (2), two devices that are perfectly worthy of a spot in your pocket but don't offer the same value as the Pixel 8. Google's phone is a proper flagship with seven years of software support, the latest AI features, and the company's latest camera tricks. Anyone shopping for an Android phone under $500 should consider the Pixel 8. Its value is simply incredible, and it's still a formidable device in 2025. When will this deal expire? Deals are subject to sell out or expire anytime, though ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best product deals for you to score the best savings. Our team of experts regularly checks in on the deals we share to ensure they are still live and obtainable. We're sorry if you've missed out on this deal, but don't fret -- we're constantly finding new chances to save and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com. Show more Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.

A federal judge in Washington ordered Trump administration officials Thursday to temporarily preserve records of a leaked Signal group chat where senior officials discussed sensitive information about a military action against the Houthis. Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he would enter the order in a lawsuit that alleges potential violations of the Federal Records Act, which requires agencies to retain records of their deliberations and decisions. The order is set to last for two weeks and could be the start of further court action over whether Trump officials’ use of Signal or other messaging apps runs afoul of the records law. During a hearing Thursday, the Justice Department said Trump officials were already taking steps to preserve the group chat, which apparently inadvertently included a journalist and had senior government officials discussing details of the attack in advance. American Oversight, a watchdog group, filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State and acting National Archives and Records Administrator Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seeking to preserve records of the chat. The Atlantic earlier this week detailed a group chat that discussed details of the attack on Houthis in Yemen and apparently inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the outlet’s editor-in-chief. The group asked Boasberg to order the Trump administration to retain the records. After Trump administration officials said the information included was not classified, Goldberg released messages Wednesday that included advance notice of the timing of attacks and platforms used, such as drones and F-18s. During Thursday’s court hearing, Justice Department attorney Amber Richer said several agencies had taken steps to preserve the messages in the chat and would not object to Boasberg’s proposed order. Ben Sparks, the attorney representing American Oversight, said the messages released so far appear to reference other conversations that federal officials have not disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. “We have serious concerns about the use of this ephemeral messaging system,” Sparks said. Boasberg said that the group may be able to bring further litigation if they “have reason to believe the government is not implementing FRA complaint practices.” Attorney General Pamela Bondi told reporters Thursday the messages included information that “was sensitive information — not classified,” when asked about whether there would be a criminal probe of the leak. During a congressional hearing Wednesday, FBI Director Kash Patel declined to comment on whether there would be an investigation. Overnight, Trump had asserted without evidence that Boasberg had chosen to preside over the cases against the Trump administration. Boasberg is also overseeing the challenge to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to send migrants who are alleged to be in a Venezuelan gang to a prison in El Salvador. “Boasberg, who is the Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court, seems to be grabbing the ‘Trump Cases’ all to himself, even though it is not supposed to happen that way,” Trump said on social media. At the start of the hearing, Boasberg defended the random assignment of cases in the D.C. District. He said that cases are assigned by an automated system that distributes them based on whether it is civil or criminal and subcategories such as antitrust or administrative review. “That’s how all cases continue to be assigned in this court,” Boasberg said. The case is American Oversight v. Pete Hegseth, et al.

On Jan. 9, Ubisoft said it was postponing the launch of "Assassin's Creed Shadows" and had appointed advisors to review strategic options. Ubisoft on Thursday announced that it's creating a new gaming subsidiary with Chinese technology giant Tencent investing 1.16 billion euros ($1.25 billion) into the unit. The subsidiary will focus on Ubisoft's best-known games brands, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, according to the company. It will "focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform," Ubisoft said in a press release Thursday. "Backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features," the company added. The investment from Tencent values the new subsidiary at 4 billion euros, Ubisoft said, implying a 4x multiple based on its average sales from full-year 2023 to 2025. "It highlights the strong value of Ubisoft's IPs, significantly reinforces its balance sheet, and enables the company to continue its efforts to become a more agile organization, unleash the full creative potential of its teams and better align its resources with the constantly evolving expectations of players," Ubisoft said. The move follows months of speculation about Ubisoft's future. In January, Ubisoft appointed advisors to review its strategic options, stoking rumors about a potential sale. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the games publisher was looking to bring in external investment in a new entity including some of its core intellectual property. That followed reporting from Bloomberg last year that Tencent was discussing a possible take-private deal with Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family. News of the transaction also arrives a week after Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Shadows, the latest title in its best-selling franchise. The game was met with generally positive reviews from critics, garnering an average score of 82 on review aggregation site Metacritic.

After years of taking a beating and even speculation as to whether Ubisoft could collapse, the embattled French publisher is creating a new spin-off company dedicated to its three biggest IP: Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six and Far Cry. There had been reports prior from Bloomberg that Ubisoft was considering a move like this. People speculated that it would be a way for the Guillemot family to retain control of their biggest IP should Ubisoft fold, or that it could be the first step in Ubisoft selling off some of its IP. Now, though, we know for sure that Ubisoft is indeed creating a new company. Not only that, but Ubisoft investor Tencent will also play a part in this new venture to the tune of a €1.16bn stake, equating to roughly 25%. According to Ubisoft, they are valuing the spin-off company at €4bn, which is considerably more than Ubisoft’s current market valuation of €1.7. “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot wrote. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.” Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said “We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft’s creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry. We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers.” As for Ubisoft itself, it will focus on “nurturing the development of iconic franchises including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division, accelerating the growth of top performing titles and leveraging disruptive technologies on selected new IPs, while continuing to deliver state-of-the-art production game engines and online services.” That leaves a lot of IP that Ubisoft does not specifically mention , potentially lending credence to the idea that Ubisoft will seek to sell off some of its IP. Ubisoft’s press release also details the following provisions relating to Tencent’s involvement: “A 5-year lock-up undertaking on New subsidiary shares held by Tencent, unless Ubisoftno longer owns a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capital – Ubisoft may not cease to hold a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capitalfor a 2-year period – Customary share transfer provisions, including, a right of first refusal to the benefit of Ubisoft, a right of first offer to the benefit of Tencent, tag-along right to the benefit ofTencent, and drag-along right to the benefit of Ubisoft (subject to certain conditions) – Call option to the benefit of Ubisoft and put option to the benefit of Tencent in the event of certain change of control of Ubisoft approved by its Board of Directors – [Exercise price will be the higher of (i) the fair market value of New subsidiary shares and (ii) the same EBIT multiple as that in the change of control transaction of Ubisoft; it being specified that for the call option there will be a specific minimum price protection during the first 4 years following closing of the transaction with Tencent.

“They have, in my view, completely co-opted NARA and the role of the archivist,” Ms. Weismann said. Concerns over the rising use of Signal and other disappearing messaging apps are not new. They existed during the first Trump administration, when the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit that claimed White House officials were using apps like Signal and Confide to delete messages in violation of the Presidential Records Act. During the Biden administration, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommended the use of Signal, writing that it was a “best practice” to “adopt a free messaging application for secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption, such as Signal or similar apps.” But this week’s news thrust the messaging app to the attention of the public. Top Trump officials had convened a Signal group chat to discuss airstrikes in Yemen, but Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, to the group. In the chat, Mr. Hegseth disclosed specific operational details two hours before U.S. troops launched attacks against the Houthi militia in Yemen. Some messages were set to delete automatically in one week or four weeks, Mr. Goldberg reported. “There were legal obligations on the part of all of the members of that chat to fulfill their record-keeping responsibilities,” said Jason R. Baron, a professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland. He said systems to automatically preserve messages are simply not in place for apps like Signal the way they are for emails. When Congress updated the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act in 2014 to include electronic messaging, ephemeral apps were not used pervasively in government. The records laws leave it to individuals to take steps to ensure that messages are preserved.

The encrypted messaging app Signal is getting some unexpected attention this week. High-ranking officials in the Trump administration, including Vice President J. D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, communicated the plans for an attack on the Yemeni Houthis via a potentially unauthorized group chat on Signal. However, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to the group chat, giving him access to these highly sensitive discussions, which he later published. The Signal app itself did not malfunction or operate in an unintended way. Rather, it is user error to accidentally add a journalist to a chat about U.S. military plans — an error that government security protocols should be able to prevent if they’re actually followed. When the Atlantic’s story broke on Monday, worldwide Signal downloads on iOS and Google Play were up 28% from the daily average over the last 30 days, per app intelligence firm Appfigures. In the U.S., downloads were up 45% on Monday, and in Yemen, they were up by 42%. Before the scandal, Signal was ranked No. 50 among social media apps in Yemen, but it climbed to No. 9 on Monday. Signal did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. All communications on Signal are encrypted, meaning that only the people in a chat can see the texts — not even people who work at Signal can know what users are talking about. But Signal is intended to be a consumer product for secure messaging, not an iron-clad depository for government military plans. Although Hegseth said that there were “no war plans” discussed in the Signal chat, the Atlantic published messages that show Hegseth providing details about the timing of attacks, as well as the weapons and aircrafts that would be used. As of Thursday, the government continues to investigate this monumental security failure.

Abound, a remittance app that was spun off by Times Internet in 2023, has raised $14 million in its first external funding round as it aims to reach more Indian expats in the U.S. Remittance flows to India are rising as the Indian diaspora spreads worldwide. In 2024, the South Asian country recorded $129.1 billion in remittances, accounting for 14.3% share of the global market and topping the charts, according to a World Bank report. Abound aims to tap this growth with its mobile app. “Indians are among the largest immigrant groups in the U.S. The average household income in the U.S. is close to $58,000, and the average Indian household income is about $150,000. That tells you that Indian expats are wealthy, affluent, and yet they’re vastly underserved in terms of products and services that are geared for them,” said Nishkaam Mehta, CEO of Abound, in an interview. Mehta, who worked at Hulu as head of mobile strategy and growth for more than four years, joined Times Internet in 2019 after meeting its vice chairman Satyan Gajwani to create a “super app” for nonresident Indians. The startup was incubated at the tech arm of Indian media conglomerate, The Times of India Group. Initially named Times Club, Abound allows users to send money to India, earn rewards, and get cash back on services, including live sports streaming, grocery shopping, and OTT subscriptions. The firm has plans to explore avenues to let users access high-yield savings, India-focused investments, and cross-border credit solutions. “In our model as a super app, we envision a role for banks themselves to be a part of the platform,” Mehta told TechCrunch. The company claims it has processed over $150 million in remittances in total from its more than 500,000 monthly transacting users and that its revenue has increased by 50% month-over-month since launch. Abound’s remittance volume increased by 15% every month and the startup processed $110 million to $120 million in the past 12 months, Mehta said. Abound generates ad revenue from rewards and foreign exchange spread on money remittances. Foreign exchange presents significant potential for growth, Mehta stated. The startup said The Times of India’s over 50 million monthly online visitors outside India also help it reach new users and offer a range of rewards. “In money remittances, if you purely play the exchange rate game, then you’re always acquiring the user,” said Mehta. “In our case, because we’ve got this rewards layer from the Times of India and other local advertisers, we don’t have that problem. We can always compete on exchange rates, knowing that we don’t have the same customer acquisition cost that the other companies might have.” This seed round was all-equity and was led by NEAR Foundation, with participation from Circle Ventures, Times Internet, and other investors. The company plans to use the fresh cash to expand its presence, increase its offerings, and improve its tech infrastructure. “Traditional banks in the U.S. don’t focus on the financial requirements of this segment because there is no banking product built just for the NRI population. We see that as a large gap and opportunity,” said Gajwani. Following the deal, Times Internet will continue to be the largest stakeholder in Abound. Gajwani told TechCrunch the Times Internet would be “using its strategic assets to help accelerate Abound’s growth.” The market of platforms enabling foreign remittances is crowded with incumbents such as Western Union, PayPal, and MoneyGram, as well as newer players like Remitly and Wise. But Mehta thinks Abound has an edge as it “super serves” users by offering competitive exchange rates as well as rewards and cash back at about 5,000 Indian grocery stores and access to livestreamed cricket — by far the most popular sport in India. Abound currently has a team of 40 people, primarily based in India. It plans to expand its headcount and set up an executive team in the U.S. as well. In time, the firm plans to enter markets such as Canada, Singapore, and the UAE, which all have big populations of nonresident Indians. Nonetheless, Mehta said the immediate focus is to cement its footing in the U.S. and then run pilots in foreign markets.

Mexico City-Based Mendel Has Raised $ 35 Million in a Series B Round of Funding, It Tells Techcrunch Exclusive. Corporate SPEND Management Platform Mendel Last Raised in December 2021 - A $ 15 Million Series in Round and $ 20 Million in Debt - After Participation in and Combinator's Winter 2021 Cohort. With This Latest Capital Infusion, The Startup Has Brought in A Total Of $ 60 Million In Equity Funding and $ 50 Million Via Venti Facility. Mendel's Mission is Straightforward: to reinvent corporate spend management by automing must of the operations for an enterprise cfo that are currently dona manly. Golden Even More Simply, It Wants to Be a One-Stop Shop for All B2B Spend. ITS OFFERing Integrated Expense Management, Payments, and Corporate Travel. "Our goal is to give cfos and finante teams in latin America real-time visibility and control over their spend-be it filling expenses, sell payments, or business travel bookings," said co-che and co-founder alan karpovsky. Karpovsky and Alejandro Zecler (Who Both Previusly Founded and Sold Other Startups) Started Mendel in Early 2021, and Helena Polyblank (CPO) and Gonzalo Castiglione (CTO) Later Joined as Co-Founders. Mendel Decline to Reveal Valuation, with Karpovsky Saying Only the Round reflected "A signifant Step Up" From the Company's Previous Raise. The fellow Alo Decline to Reveal Hard Revene Figures, with Karpovsky Noting Only That Its Annual Recurring Revene (Ar) Grew Almost 2.5x Year-Our-Year, with Gross Margins of Over 75%. "We not Yet Propisit, but early reactability by late 2025," I have Told Techcrunch. BASE10 PARTNERS LED Mendel's Latest Round, Which included Participation from New Investors Paypal Ventures and Endavenz Catalyst, as Well As existing Backers Infinity Ventures, Industry Ventures, and Hi.vc. Knows how to concur meets amex The Company Says That Since It is "Software First" and Focused on Enterprises, It is able to charge recurring saas fees racheing exclusively on interchange revenge or lending-baseed models. ITS REVENUE COMES From to Combination of Saas Fees (Over 50%) for Its Expense Management and Travel Tool and Interchange Fees From Credit Cards As Well As a Take Rate From Its Bill Pay Product. Karpovsky believes That latam focus gives it an Advantage Over Over Global Players in That It's Able to Address "Complex, Country-Specific Regulations" Such As Tax Codes, Invoicing requirements, and Multi-Currency Workflows, Among Other Things. "We like to say 'Mendel is like it knows how to have a child,' Karpovsky Quipped. As for comparisons to New York-Based Decacorn Ramp, He Said That In Many Ways, "Mendel Is Like Ramp for Latin American Enterprises" With a Faw Differentiators, Including the Fact That It Is Focused on "Large, Complex Organizations That Require Multi-Lenity, Multi-Currency, Multi-Credit-Line and Deep Erp Erp and Deep Erp Erp. Integration. ” Introduce, Mendel Has 80 Employees, compared to 64 Employees a Year Ago. Looking Ahead, The Company Plans to Expand Geographically. It's already operating in Mexico and Argentina with About 500 customers, including merchated book, fema, Adecco, and McDonald's. It's looking to expand into chile, Colombia, and Peru in 2025, and Brazil in 2026. "Our Approach from Day Zero Was First Consolidating the Largest Spanish-Speaking Market In Latam Before Starting the Geo-Expansion," Karpovsky Said. BASE 10 PARTNER JASON KOND TOLD TECHCRUNCH THAT HIS FIRM WAS ATRACTRACTED TO WHAT IT VIEWED AS MENDEL'S "UNIQUE POSITIONING" AS A SPEND MANAGEMENT Platform for Large Companies in Undersaved - But Growing - Latin America. "The Company's High Capital Effectivety-Being Cash-Flow Positive in Decrember 2024-Stood Out in a Sector Where Many Players Struggle with United Economics," Kong Added. "Additionance, Mendel's Ability to Replace Legacy Solutions Like Sap Concur and Win Large Enterprise Customers At a Fast Sales Velocity (Under-3 Months for 3,000+ Employee Enterprises) Demonstrated Clear Product-Market Fit." Other Companies Alo Operating in this Space in Latin America Include Clara and Jeeves - Another YC Alum - Butch Target More Smbs and Relly More on Transactional Fees, Noted Kong.

UBISOFT ACCELERATES ITS TRANSFORMATION BY LAYING FOUNDATION FOR NEW OPERATING MODEL WITH THE CREATION OF A SUBSIDIARY AND INJECTION OF €1.16BN OF CASH FROM SELECTED INVESTOR TENCENT PARIS – March 27, 2025 – Today, Ubisoft announced that it is accelerating its transformation by taking an important step in rapidly evolving its operating model with the creation of a dedicated subsidiary based on its Assassin’s Creed®, Far Cry®, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® brands. Following the formal and competitive selection process initiated by the Group earlier this year, Tencent’s will invest €1.16bn for a minority stake in the new subsidiary. This new subsidiary will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform. Backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features. This transaction values the entity at a pre-money Enterprise Value of c.€4bn, implying a FY23-FY25E average sales multiple of around 4x. It highlights the strong value of Ubisoft’s IPs, significantly reinforces its balance sheet, and enables the company to continue its efforts to become a more agile organization, unleash the full creative potential of its teams and better align its resources with the constantly evolving expectations of players. The binding agreement with Tencent follows the formal and competitive process in exploring and assessing different strategic options announced earlier this year. Based on the careful consideration of several expressions of interest received from diverse parties, and its duty to act in the best interests of all Ubisoft stakeholders, the Board of Directors, upon recommendation from the ad hoc Committee, determined that this transaction crystalized the best value for Ubisoft’s assets and unanimously approved the proposed transaction on March 27, 2025. The Board of Directors has, upon ad hoc Committee recommendation, appointed Finexsi acting as independent expert in view of the issuance of a fairness opinion. In parallel to the creation of this new entity, Ubisoft will focus on nurturing the development of iconic franchises including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® and The Division®, accelerating the growth of top performing titles and leveraging disruptive technologies on selected new IPs, while continuing to deliver state-of-the-art production game engines and online services. More details on the Group’s future operating model will be shared at a later stage. “Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” said, Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.” “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.” Guillemot concluded, “We are committed to building a sharper, more focused organization-one where talented teams will take our brands to the next level, accelerate the growth of emerging franchises, and lead innovation in next-generation technologies and services, all with the goal of delivering enriching, memorable games that exceed players' expectations, and create superior value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.” Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said “We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with Ubisoft through this investment, which reflects our continued confidence in Ubisoft’s creative vision and exceptional talent to drive sustained success in the industry. We see the immense potential for these franchises to evolve into long-term evergreen game platforms and create engaging new experiences for gamers.” Relationship between the new subsidiary and Ubisoft Entertainment: The new subsidiary would include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed. The new subsidiary would be granted by Ubisoft a worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license in respect of the intellectual property and similar proprietary rights owned or licensable by Ubisoft in relation to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry in exchange for a royalty. Main terms of the binding agreement with Tencent: Tencent would invest in the new subsidiary which is headquartered in France and 100% owned by Ubisoft immediately prior to the transaction. Specifically, at closing of the transaction, Tencent would invest a total amount of EUR1.16bn for an approximate 25% economic interest in the New subsidiary, that will be used to strengthen Ubisoft’s balance sheet by significantly reducing its consolidated net debt position, accelerate the Group’s transformation, and sustain growth of selected franchises. After closing of the transaction, the new subsidiary would remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft. Conditions precedent to the transaction: Issuance of a fairness opinion from Finexsi acting as independent expert Completion of the carve-out to create the new subsidiary Obtention of the necessary regulatory clearances Ubisoft can unilaterally waive the issuance of the fairness opinion as a condition precedent. Completion of the transaction is expected before the end of 2025. The new subsidiary would have a dedicated leadership team, supervised by a Board of Directors, focused on enhancing creative vision and streamlining operations, with the authority to make swift, high-impact decisions across development, marketing, and distribution, to ensure these brands continue to evolve, attract new audiences, and deliver groundbreaking gaming experiences for years to come. Tencent would benefit from customary minority protection veto rights as well as certain consent rights on the disposals of the important new subsidiary assets Other provisions in relation to Tencent’s shareholding in the New subsidiary notably include: A 5-year lock-up undertaking on New subsidiary shares held by Tencent, unless Ubisoft no longer owns a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capital Ubisoft may not cease to hold a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capital for a 2-year period Customary share transfer provisions, including, a right of first refusal to the benefit of Ubisoft, a right of first offer to the benefit of Tencent, tag-along right to the benefit of Tencent, and drag-along right to the benefit of Ubisoft (subject to certain conditions) Call option to the benefit of Ubisoft and put option to the benefit of Tencent in the event of certain change of control of Ubisoft approved by its Board of Directors – [Exercise price will be the higher of (i) the fair market value of New subsidiary shares and (ii) the same EBIT multiple as that in the change of control transaction of Ubisoft; it being specified that for the call option there will be a specific minimum price protection during the first 4 years following closing of the transaction with Tencent. Conference call Ubisoft will hold a conference call today, Thursday March 27, 2025, at 6.45 Paris time/5.45pm London time/1.45pm New York time. The conference call can be accessed live and via replay by clicking on the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/bqofn6dx/ Contacts Ubisoft Investor Relations Alexandre Enjalbert Head of Investor Relations + 33 1 48 18 50 78 alexandre.enjalbert@Ubisoft.com Press Relations Michael Burk VP, Corporate Communications +33 1 48 18 24 03 michael.burk@Ubisoft.com Tencent Investor Relations PH Cheung Investor Relations +852 3148 5100 ext. 868919 ir@tencent.com Press Relations Emma Richard Head of Corporate Communications, Europe +44 7852 215 311 gc@tencent.com Advisors Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank SA and J.P. Morgan acted as lead financial advisors to Ubisoft and Commerzbank acted as joint advisor to Ubisoft. Bredin Prat, White & Case and Deloitte Société d’Avocats acted as legal advisors to Ubisoft. Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Tencent. Davis Polk & Wardwell and Gide Loyrette Nouel acted as legal advisors to Tencent. Disclaimer This press release may contain estimated financial data, information on future projects and transactions and future financial results/performance. Such forward-looking data are provided for information purposes only. They are subject to market risks and uncertainties and may vary significantly compared with the actual results that will be published. The estimated financial data have been approved by the Board of Directors, and have not been audited by the Statutory Auditors. (Additional information is provided in the most recent Ubisoft Registration Document filed on June 20, 2024 with the French Financial Markets Authority (l’Autorité des Marchés Financiers)). About Ubisoft Ubisoft is a creator of worlds, committed to enriching players’ lives with original and memorable entertainment experiences. Ubisoft’s global teams create and develop a deep and diverse portfolio of games, featuring brands such as Assassin’s Creed®, Brawlhalla®, For Honor®, Far Cry®, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon®, Just Dance®, Rabbids®, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six®, The Crew® and Tom Clancy’s The Division®. Through Ubisoft Connect, players can enjoy an ecosystem of services to enhance their gaming experience, get rewards and connect with friends across platforms. With Ubisoft+, the subscription service, they can access a growing catalog of more than 100 Ubisoft games and DLC. For the 2023–24 fiscal year, Ubisoft generated net bookings of €2.32 billion. To learn more, please visit: www.Ubisoftgroup.com. © 2025 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are registered trademarks in the US and/or other countries. About Tencent Tencent creates innovative technologies that connect and create memorable experiences for people around the world. Founded in 1998, Tencent is driven by its mission to create "Value for Users" and use "Tech for Good". Tencent is a global leader in communications, entertainment and enterprise services. It develops and publishes some of the world's most popular video games and other high-quality digital content, providing rich and immersive interactive entertainment experiences. Tencent is a global technology company headquartered in Shenzhen. It has been listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since June 2004. Attachment

AI web-crawling bots are the cockroaches of the internet, many software developers believe. Some devs have started fighting back in ingenuous, often humorous ways. While any website might be targeted by bad crawler behavior — sometimes taking down the site — open source developers are “disproportionately” impacted, writes Niccolò Venerandi, developer of a Linux desktop known as Plasma and owner of the blog LibreNews. By their nature, sites hosting free and open source (FOSS) projects share more of their infrastructure publicly, and they also tend to have fewer resources than commercial products. The issue is that many AI bots don’t honor the Robots Exclusion Protocol robot.txt file, the tool that tells bots what not to crawl, originally created for search engine bots. In a “cry for help” blog post in January, FOSS developer Xe Iaso described how AmazonBot relentlessly pounded on a Git server website to the point of causing DDoS outages. Git servers host FOSS projects so that anyone who wants can download the code or contribute to it. But this bot ignored Iaso’s robot.txt, hid behind other IP addresses, and pretended to be other users, Iaso said. “It’s futile to block AI crawler bots because they lie, change their user agent, use residential IP addresses as proxies, and more,” Iaso lamented. “They will scrape your site until it falls over, and then they will scrape it some more. They will click every link on every link on every link, viewing the same pages over and over and over and over. Some of them will even click on the same link multiple times in the same second,” the developer wrote in the post. Enter the god of graves So Iaso fought back with cleverness, building a tool called Anubis. Anubis is a reverse proxy proof-of-work check that must be passed before requests are allowed to hit a Git server. It blocks bots but lets through browsers operated by humans. The funny part: Anubis is the name of a god in Egyptian mythology who leads the dead to judgment. “Anubis weighed your soul (heart) and if it was heavier than a feather, your heart got eaten and you, like, mega died,” Iaso told TechCrunch. If a web request passes the challenge and is determined to be human, a cute anime picture announces success. The drawing is “my take on anthropomorphizing Anubis,” says Iaso. If it’s a bot, the request gets denied. The wryly named project has spread like the wind among the FOSS community. Iaso shared it on GitHub on March 19, and in just a few days, it collected 2,000 stars, 20 contributors, and 39 forks. Vengeance as defense The instant popularity of Anubis shows that Iaso’s pain is not unique. In fact, Venerandi shared story after story: Founder CEO of SourceHut Drew DeVault described spending “from 20-100% of my time in any given week mitigating hyper-aggressive LLM crawlers at scale,” and “experiencing dozens of brief outages per week.” Jonathan Corbet, a famed FOSS developer who runs Linux industry news site LWN, warned that his site was being slowed by DDoS-level traffic “from AI scraper bots.” Kevin Fenzi, the sysadmin of the enormous Linux Fedora project, said the AI scraper bots had gotten so aggressive, he had to block the entire country of Brazil from access. Venerandi tells TechCrunch that he knows of multiple other projects experiencing the same issues. One of them “had to temporarily ban all Chinese IP addresses at one point.” Let that sink in for a moment — that developers “even have to turn to banning entire countries” just to fend off AI bots that ignore robot.txt files, says Venerandi. Beyond weighing the soul of a web requester, other devs believe vengeance is the best defense. A few days ago on Hacker News, user xyzal suggested loading robot.txt forbidden pages with “a bucket load of articles on the benefits of drinking bleach” or “articles about positive effect of catching measles on performance in bed.” “Think we need to aim for the bots to get _negative_ utility value from visiting our traps, not just zero value,” xyzal explained. As it happens, in January, an anonymous creator known as “Aaron” released a tool called Nepenthes that aims to do exactly that. It traps crawlers in an endless maze of fake content, a goal that the dev admitted to Ars Technica is aggressive if not downright malicious. The tool is named after a carnivorous plant. And Cloudflare, perhaps the biggest commercial player offering several tools to fend off AI crawlers, last week released a similar tool called AI Labyrinth. It’s intended to “slow down, confuse, and waste the resources of AI Crawlers and other bots that don’t respect ‘no crawl’ directives,” Cloudflare described in its blog post. Cloudflare said it feeds misbehaving AI crawlers “irrelevant content rather than extracting your legitimate website data.” SourceHut’s DeVault told TechCrunch that “Nepenthes has a satisfying sense of justice to it, since it feeds nonsense to the crawlers and poisons their wells, but ultimately Anubis is the solution that worked” for his site. But DeVault also issued a public, heartfelt plea for a more direct fix: “Please stop legitimizing LLMs or AI image generators or GitHub Copilot or any of this garbage. I am begging you to stop using them, stop talking about them, stop making new ones, just stop.” Since the likelihood of that is zilch, developers, particularly in FOSS, are fighting back with cleverness and a touch of humor.

President Trump is slapping 25% tariffs on all cars imported to the United States, including from our immediate North American neighbors. He’s also placed a 25% tariff on certain parts used to build cars. It’s a decision that will likely supercharge the cost of new and used cars, but it’s also a gift to Tesla, the company run by Elon Musk, his biggest financial supporter in the presidential election. The new tariff regime comes at an auspicious time for Tesla. The company is dealing with the fallout of Musk’s promotion of far-right ideology and his involvement with the unpopular Department of Government Efficiency, which has sparked protests around the world. Tesla has recently relied on promotions and price cuts to boost sales, and yet it still sold fewer EVs in 2024 than it did in 2023 and is off to a rough start in 2025. New tariffs could shift that calculus, at least in the U.S. Tesla builds all of its cars destined for the North American market in the U.S. at factories in Fremont, California, and Austin, Texas. That means none of the cars it sells in the U.S. will be subject to the 25% vehicle import tax. Tesla does import around 20% to 30% of the components used to build those cars, so that will cause some headache. Musk admitted on X that Tesla is “NOT unscathed” by these tariffs and claimed they will have a “significant” impact. But the company’s long-standing effort to establish local supply chains near its factories is now being rewarded. Essentially every other automaker is in a worse position than Tesla, and the tariffs will especially affect competing EVs. Around 80% of the cars Ford sells in the U.S. are built domestically. But it makes the all-electric Mustang Mach-E and the popular (and far more affordable) Maverick hybrid pickup truck in Mexico. General Motors, meanwhile, builds its Blazer and Equinox EVs in Mexico. Hyundai has found increasing success with its electric vehicles in the U.S. market, but nearly all of those are built in South Korea. Much like Tesla, upstart electric automakers like Rivian and Lucid Motors won’t have to worry about the vehicle import tariffs because they make their EVs in Illinois and Arizona, respectively. Like Tesla, they import parts that will be subject to tariffs — but they are in a worse position to absorb those costs since both companies are still losing buckets of money on every EV they sell. This sets up a scenario where other EVs may see price increases greater than any Tesla might implement. That price separation could become even more of a boon to Tesla when it rolls out its mysterious new lower-cost EV this year — something the company has said will happen in the next few months. Of course, Trump announced these tariffs after weeks of waffling on whether he would implement them in the first place. The president has claimed these will be “permanent.” But like so many other things he proposes, that could always change.

After teasing a return to “OG Facebook” earlier this year, the social network on Thursday announced an update that will give users a simple way to connect with friends. The company is introducing a new Facebook Friends tab that will only showcase updates from friends, without any other recommended content. Meta explains in a blog post that the idea is to bring back features focused on Facebook’s original mission of connecting people with friends through a social networking experience. The tab, which is initially available only in the U.S. and Canada, will feature friends’ content, including their posts, Reels, stories, birthdays, and friend requests. Previously, the tab had only provided a place to view your friend requests and other “People You May Know.” Image Credits:Meta The company in October launched a Gen Z-focused redesign of its flagship social network, hoping to attract a younger crowd that has largely abandoned or ignored Facebook in favor of other social apps, like Meta’s Instagram or TikTok. Those earlier changes focused on connecting users to community information, Facebook Groups, and video. However, in January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company’s Q4 earnings call that a “return to OG Facebook” was part of his key goals for 2025. “I think there are a lot of opportunities to make [Facebook] way more culturally influential than it is today,” he told investors, adding, “I think some of this will kind of get back to how Facebook was originally used back in the day.” The CEO didn’t say at the time what sort of changes would be in store, but the Friends tab update is the first of many that will roll out this year. Image Credits:Meta In a blog post, the company admitted that the social network needed to return to its roots. “Over the years, Facebook evolved to meet changing needs and created best-in-class experiences across Groups, Video, Marketplace and more, but the magic of friends has fallen away,” the post states. The new Friends tab is available through the navigation bar on Facebook’s Home Feed and will be accessible through the Bookmarks section of the app, the company says. Users can also opt to pin their Friends tab to their Home Feed to make it even more convenient. To do so, click Settings & Privacy > Settings > Tab bar. You then can choose to customize your tab bar and can pin the new tab there.

Nintendo announced on Thursday that it is working on Virtual Game Cards, a feature that makes digitally downloaded games more portable across different devices. With the highly awaited Nintendo Switch 2 on the horizon, these Virtual Game Cards will make it easier for users to port over their existing Switch games to their new devices. As it stands, Switch games can be purchased either as a physical game card — like a traditional video game cartridge — or as a digital download. While physical game cards can easily be ejected and reinserted into another Switch for easy play, digital downloads have been a bit harder to port from device to device. Image Credits:Nintendo Available in late April, Virtual Game Cards are intended to make digital games operate more like physical ones. Players can easily migrate games between two devices, so long as they connect locally the first time a game is transferred. The Virtual Game Cards also come with the functionality to lend games to anyone in your Nintendo Family Group, which includes up to eight people, via local Wi-Fi. Users can only lend one game at a time to a particular person, and at the end of a 14-day borrowing period, the games return automatically to the lender. While there’s no official word yet on when the Switch 2 will come out, fans are looking forward to more information about the console on a Nintendo Direct livestream scheduled for April 2.

When Twin came out of stealth in January 2024, AI agents were more of a theoretical concept than a reality. Today, the Paris-based company is releasing an automation agent in partnership with Qonto, the fintech startup that offers business bank accounts to more than 500,000 customers across Europe. If you want to automate repetitive tasks, there are already several ways to tackle these problems. Some companies use API-based, no-code or low-code automation products like Zapier. Others rely on RPA software, such as UiPath. With its team of nine people, Twin thinks there’s a much more efficient way to handle automation. As you may have guessed, it involved artificial intelligence and computer use models. Invoice Operator, Twin’s first product designed for Qonto, is a good example of why it makes sense to use artificial intelligence. Qonto handles millions of invoices per month. And customers spend several hours per month gathering invoices and uploading them to Qonto. Over the past three months, Twin has created an automatic invoice-retrieval tool that can speed up this process. When users launch Invoice Operator, Twin first fetches the list of transactions with missing invoices. It then shows the list of services that it needs to access to download invoices next to a browser window showing the agent’s actions. If you need to log in to a service to download invoices, the browser pauses and asks you to enter your credentials manually. Once you do this, you can click on a button to let the agent continue its work. After that, Twin’s Invoice Operator automatically finds your list of past transactions, downloads invoices, and attaches the PDFs to the transactions in your Qonto account. “When you do that at the scale of Qonto, you basically need to cover a very, very long tail of services. Thousands, tens of thousands and soon hundreds of thousands of different services that everyone is using,” Twin co-founder and CEO Hugo Mercier said during a demo of the product. “And that would be completely impossible with RPA because you would need to create a single custom script per website and then every time the website changes, you would have to modify the script,” he added. As for API-based automation products like Zapier, Mercier said that it took Zapier 10 years to support 8,000 applications on its platform. Twin already supports thousands of applications for its Invoice Operator just a couple of months after starting work on the product. Behind the scenes, Twin runs a Chromium-based web browser on a server. The startup uses OpenAI’s CUA (computer-using agent) model. In fact, Twin was one of the 15 companies that got to try CUA in beta. CUA is also the model that powers OpenAI’s Operator, its prosumer product that lets you enter a prompt to let an agent perform an action for you. In addition to better performance, Twin believes it should be easier to use agents that browse the web for you. “We worked a lot on making the experience extremely simple. We are really targeting the end user, maybe people who are not tech-friendly. They don’t have to prompt or configure anything. You just log into your accounts, launch it, and it navigates to find the invoices,” Mercier said. After invoice retrieval, Twin thinks there are many industries that could benefit from B2B agentic applications. For example, agents could automatically manage orders for an e-commerce company, classify the catalog of a marketplace, or retrieve information for call center agents. Twin is pitching a future in which AI agents become cheaper, faster, and more accurate across a wide variety of tasks. Now let’s see if the startup can turn the core agent platform that powers Invoice Operator into a product that developers can start using in their own applications.

A fledgling open source startup that’s setting out to tackle API sprawl in the GraphQL ecosystem has secured the backing of e-commerce giant eBay. WunderGraph, as the company is called, today said it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round of funding to “scale its open source GraphQL federation.” Investors include eBay’s VC arm eBay Ventures, Karma Ventures, and Aspenwood Ventures. In addition to investing in the startup, eBay is also serving as a core design partner as WunderGraph has set about building an open source alternative to rival products from GraphQL company, Apollo. “Our investment in WunderGraph’s highly performant open source platform will help boost eBay’s API ecosystem and enable our teams to work faster and smarter in building products that help our sellers thrive,” Bryan Woodruff, eBay’s VP of seller experience engineering, said in a statement. Founded in 2020, WunderGraph is the handiwork of CTO Dustin Deus, CEO Jens Neuse, COO Björn Schwenzer, and CCO Stefan Avram (pictured above, left to right). While three of the company’s founding quartet are based in Germany, the company has been incorporated in the U.S. since its inception. Miami-based Avram joined the ranks in 2022 to ensure the firm has on-the-ground leadership in the U.S. The WunderGraph team Image Credits:WunderGraph There’s an API for that GraphQL, for the uninitiated, is a data query language for APIs (application programming interfaces) that was developed at Meta (then Facebook) back in 2012 as part of its transition from web wrappers to native mobile apps. The company open sourced GraphQL in 2015, and later transitioned the project to its own namesake foundation under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. In simple terms, GraphQL lets clients (i.e., applications) request the exact data they need instead of over-fetching data, which increases bandwidth usage and costs, or under-fetching, which may require it to make multiple requests to get all the required data. This makes it more efficient compared to traditional REST APIs. More broadly, GraphQL supports the API economy as software gravitates toward microservices — applications put together with purpose-built components that are easier to maintain than monoliths of code. But as an application grows and the number of APIs grow, this can create an unwieldy mess that’s difficult to orchestrate at scale. WunderGraph has gone through a few iterations over the years. It initially built a software development kit (SDK) to enable developers to unify multiple APIs, including GraphQL, REST, SOAP, and databases such as MySQL. Fast-forward to 2023, and the company raised a $3 million seed round to power the API revolution by building what it called a “GitHub for APIs” — a platform for people to collaborate, share and explore APIs. Meanwhile, Apollo had raised a huge amount of money to fuel its GraphQL federation efforts, which is all about helping multiple teams work and build graphs together on larger applications as part of a distributed architecture. At the tail-end of 2021, however, Apollo also changed its federation product from an open source MIT license to a proprietary “source available” Elastic License. This is where WunderGraph saw its opportunity to pounce. “By the summer of 2023, it was getting tough, because we weren’t getting the deals we needed and the whole operation wasn’t going in the direction we wanted it to,” Neuse told TechCrunch. As the founders scrambled to turn things around, they looked at various sales notes and noticed that customers kept mentioning the Apollo license change. “Our data showed that some people were really looking for an open source alternative to Apollo Federation,” Neuse said. “We figured our current approach is not working, so let’s just put out an open source alternative to Apollo Federation.” So in late 2023, WunderGraph debuted Cosmo for that express purpose. The eBay factor As with just about every vendor-led open source project, WunderGraph is the core maintainer and contributor of its open source effort. On top of Cosmo, the company sells hosting and premium support and services, which might include help with integrating databases, analytics, authentication, and observability. Larger companies can, of course, build their own version of Cosmo in-house. But if a company’s core focus is, say, building an e-commerce marketplace, it would probably rather not have to develop and maintain every facet of its stack — it would use Cosmo instead, and pay WunderGraph for support backed by robust service-level agreements (SLAs). This is where WunderGraph’s partnership with eBay has proven fruitful. It’s basically a two-way process whereby eBay gets the flexibility of an open source GraphQL federation that suits its needs, and WunderGraph gets the direct design input from a global-scale juggernaut. “I would say we are experts in federation, but we don’t have experience in eBay-scale problems,” Neuse explained. “And so by having this very close relationship, they taught us everything in terms of how we need to build our product so that it can be integrated into companies like eBay, because they have very specific requirements.” Such requirements might involve integrating a company’s own systems and tools with Cosmo, for example if it only wants to use parts of the product. This also convinced Neuse and team that open source is the way to go if they wanted to attract big-name customers that don’t want to be locked into a proprietary product. “They [eBay] really helped us turn Cosmo into a product that can be used by any large enterprise, because proprietary alternatives try to move you into a walled garden ecosystem,” Neuse said. “This market needs to be as wide as possible. How can we attract everybody? It must be open source. We cannot limit how people use it.” With the fresh $7.5 million in the bank, WunderGraph says it’s planning to grow its existing 20-strong workforce and double down on its open source GraphQL federation with additional tools that help distributed teams work more smartly — this means better support for collaboration and governance for larger enterprises. “Open source is the future of API management, and enterprises are demanding transparency, flexibility, and control,” co-founder Stefan Avram added. “We’re building the essential plumbing for the world’s biggest platforms, and this funding allows us to scale while keeping our commitment to open source development.”

Google is rolling out a slew of new features — some powered by AI — across Search, Maps, and Gemini that are designed to help people plan their summer vacations. The new features arrive as users have been turning to tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT for help with planning trips. Google Search’s AI Overviews, which display a snapshot of information at the top of the results page, can now help users get trip ideas for certain regions or countries. Starting this week, users can search for something like “create an itinerary for Costa Rica with a focus on nature.” From there, you will be able to browse through photos and reviews and see locations on an expandable map. When you’re ready to save an itinerary, you can tap “Export” to share the recommendations through Docs or Gmail. Or, you can save them as a custom list in Google Maps. Image Credits:Google The new feature is available for English language queries in the U.S. on mobile and desktop. Google is also making Gemini’s Gems feature available to everyone for free. A Gem is a tool that lets you create custom AI experts for any task within Gemini. This means that users can now set up a trip planner that can help them pick a destination to go to and suggest what to pack. In addition, while Google has allowed users to get alerts on price drops for flights for quite some time now, it’s now going to do the same with hotels. Users will now see a new option to track hotel prices for chosen dates and destinations. You can select filters for your hotel search, such as star ratings or beach access, for a specific area. If prices go down, Google will send you an email. Hotel price tracking is launching globally this week on mobile and desktop browsers. Image Credits:Google As for Maps, Google is rolling out the ability for users to turn their screenshots into solid vacation plans. When planning a vacation, people often take screenshots to bookmark places they want to visit, but can sometimes forget about these photos in their camera roll. Now, users can give Maps access to their photos to allow the app to automatically identify places mentioned in your screenshots so you can review and save the ones you want to a list. The places that you save will show up on the map so you can get an overview of your plans. This feature is rolling out this week in the U.S. in English on iOS, and will launch on Android soon.

Krafton, South Korea’s gaming giant known for titles including PUBG: Battlegrounds and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has acquired a controlling stake in 12-year-old Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million in an all-cash deal. On Friday, the South Korean gaming company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has acquired a “north of 75% stake” in Nautilus, the gaming studio popular for its cricket enthusiast-focused Real Cricket franchise. The Pune-based studio will continue to operate independently after the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the month, with all its 45 employees remaining on Nautilus’s payroll, Krafton told TechCrunch. Founded in 2013, Nautilus has garnered millions of downloads for its Real Cricket franchise, which currently has five titles, including Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Premier League. Real Cricket 24 Image Credits:Nautilus Mobile Krafton aims to strengthen Nautilus’s “core competence” in mobile cricket games — where demand is high in cricket-loving India — by refining its existing titles in the short term and exploring new genres in the long term, Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO at Krafton India, said in an interview. “Our development capability in Nautilus will help Krafton double down on its India gaming strategy, and together, we can probably build more games, more genres, both for the Indian market and global market going forward,” Nautilus CEO Anuj Mankar told TechCrunch. Nautilus CEO Anuj Mankar Image Credits:Nautilus The company plans to expand Nautilus’ presence to other geographies over time. India’s mobile gaming market is growing steadily, driven by a large base of young smartphone users. Mobile games dominate the country’s overall gaming industry by spending, accounting for 77.9% of total revenue, per market intelligence firm Niko Partners. The firm also estimates that the country’s mobile gaming revenue will grow from $640 million in 2023 to $1.1 billion by 2028. Krafton, which saw 119.3% year-over-year growth in its net profit last year to roughly $889 million (KRW 1.3 trillion), sees India as a promising and key market to continue its success. However, most of the growth from India has so far come from its flagship title for the local audience, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which hit its highest-ever sales last year and surpassed 200 million downloads. The company has other titles, including Bullet Echo India, Road To Valor, and CookieRun. However, they have not yet helped repeat the success story of the battle royale game, a localized version of PUBG. The deal could help Krafton move beyond BGMI and explore new avenues of success, including cricket and other sports games, to attract new gamers. Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO, Krafton India, Image Credits:Krafton In 2020, Indian digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys acquired a 100% stake in Nautilus Mobile. That was followed by Krafton’s strategic investment of $5.4 million in 2022. Sohn told TechCrunch that while Nautilus’ potential was the reason for the initial investment, Krafton found its role as a minority stakeholder limiting in terms of supporting the studio’s content development. Gaining a controlling stake, he said, would allow for deeper collaboration and greater involvement in core development efforts with Nautilus. “We strongly believe that cricket games have a lot of potential. And we want to work with Nautilus to make the best effort possible to really realize the potential of this market, not just in India, but in other cricket-playing nations and other countries, which are becoming more active in cricket,” said Nihansh Bhat, corporate lead development at Krafton India, told TechCrunch. JetSynthesys will remain a “significant minority” investor in Nautilus Mobile and will continue to work with the studio on areas, including eSports. The company has already worked with the studio to help partner its Real Cricket game with cricket teams, including those associated with the Indian Premier League, the world’s most lucrative cricket tournament in India. “We will, over a long period of time, want to look at, of course, increased revenue, increased user base, improved retention, all the usual things, and hopefully new deals as well,” Bhat said on the question of how Krafton would measure the deal’s success post its completion. Until now, Krafton has invested over $200 million in India, excluding the Nautilus Mobile. Krafton’s 20% investments in India have been in gaming and gaming-adjacent companies, though the company also invested in Indian startups, including the payments platform Cashfree, audio platform Kuku FM, and influencer marketing platform One Impression. It also backed funds, including gaming-focused Lumikai and IMM Investment’s first India fund. “We are looking at the opportunity for acquisitions, moderate investments, and even business collaboration with notable players in the country,” Sohn said. Nautilus will join the 14 other game studios Krafton operates in markets around the world.

Certification platform Certiverse raised an $11 million Series A led by Cherryrock Capital, it announced this week. The company was founded by Ruben Garcia, Pablo Meyer, and Federico Lopez in 2023. It lets organizations develop certification exams at, its founders say, far less cost than traditional methods. Certifications are an age-old method to gain technical skills to boost job prospects, as well as gain mastery over a particular subject. The company says it works with a range of companies, from the technology nonprofit The Linux Foundation to the software company HashiCorp. CEO Garcia is not new to the certification industry. He previously co-founded (and sold) Innovative Exams, a testing-service company that also provided exam delivery services. Becoming certified can be “life changing events for leaders and professionals,” he said, but added that it can cost a company as much as $150,000 to develop certification programs and exams. “Our clients have developed up to 10 in one year on our platform for less than $10,000 per exam,” he continued. He added that it usually takes about a year to create an exam using legacy providers (such as Pearson, Vue, and Prometric). “Our business model is aligned with our clients’ interests and we generate the majority of the revenue once their exams are launched and professionals are taking them,” Garcia continued. He used the word “focused” to describe his fundraising efforts. Certiverse started fundraising in early January, pitching to around 50 firms over the course of 45 days. “I stayed focused on the outcome,” Garcia said. “Find the right investors, quickly, who believe in the vision and can help us scale from here.” He met the Cherryrock team through one of his existing investors. Chingona Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Zeal Capital Partners also participated in the round. Certiverse has raised a little more than $16 million in total to date, the company told us. Garcia said the fresh capital will be used to add more automation to the platform, making it easier for anyone to create exams. “Our goal is to focus on scale and build out the platform to launch 1,000 new clients and partners on Certiverse,” he said.

HoneyBook, a startup last valued in late 2021 at $2.4 billion, told TechCrunch that it hit $140 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR). This makes HoneyBook one of the few startups with peak-VC-era valuations to report their financials after the market cooled. Many startups that raised in 2021 and have not raised since then remain under pressure to generate the revenue needed to validate their previously inflated valuations, and many may not survive much longer. But HoneyBook is doing so well, it sees no reason to still keep its revenue metrics secret. HoneyBook offers business management software for independent service-based entrepreneurs such as photographers, event planners, and interior designers. Its last raise was a $250 million Series E from Tiger Global Management about three and a half years ago. Given that HoneyBook is still valued at $2.4 billion, the latest ARR figure implies a valuation multiple of about 17 times ARR. While there are no hard-and-fast rules for valuing private companies, investors say that late-stage pre-AI era software companies are generally priced not much differently from their public market comparables. Meritech SaaS Index shows that companies growing at 25% or more a year are now priced at a median of 13 times their ARR. So what could possibly justify the slightly higher-than-average multiple for HoneyBook? One word: AI. This week, the company introduced new AI functionality that helps users decide how to price services and serve their customers better. The company claims it is uniquely positioned to help entrepreneurs make business decisions with AI because it has data on how similar small business owners price their services and grow their client lists. HoneyBook’s AI is embedded into its current offering that includes a CRM, handles billing and payments, and gives eligible users access to the funds for business growth. Jeff Crowe, senior managing partner at Norwest and a HoneyBook investor, believes the company can turbo-charge its business with AI. “Solopreneurs, like photographers, don’t have the time or the business savvy” to think strategically about how to grow their business, Crowe said. The hope is that the new functionality will help HoneyBook’s existing users grow their own businesses, and as a result, the startup will make more money from the larger volume of transactions it processes.

Meta-owned Instagram is copying yet another feature from TikTok. This time, it’s the ability for users to play a reel at 2x speed by long pressing on the right or left side of their screen. When TikTok first launched, videos could only be 15 seconds long. As the years passed and TikTok rose in popularity, the social network rolled out support for longer videos. With this, TikTok introduced the option for users to speed up videos, as they had been trained to consume content more quickly. Image Credits:Instagram Instagram Reels also started off by allowing users to post videos that were only up to 15 seconds in length. Today, users can share videos that are up to 3 minutes long. Like TikTok, Instagram wants to give users the option to watch more content quickly with the new fast-forward option. The ability to fast-forward a video increases the chances of a viewer actually reaching the end of longer videos, especially since the idea behind Reels is to offer users quick, bite-sized pieces of entertainment. This can be attributed to concerns that the rise of short-form video content may be negatively impacting our attention spans and ability to focus on longer-form content. Given that Instagram Reels is a direct clone of TikTok, it’s not surprising that the platform is borrowing specific features from the short-form video platform. It’s not the first time Instagram has done so either, as its Remix feature is a copy of TikTok’s Duet tool.

In Brief TikTok is set to expand its TikTok Shop e-commerce platform to users in France, Germany, and Italy on Monday, Reuters reports. TikTok Shop has been available in the United Kingdom since 2021, and now the company is ready to expand farther into Europe. While TikTok Shop is also available in the United States and saw strong sales over the holiday season, TikTok’s fate in the country remains uncertain. Reuters states that TikTok has been looking to onboard more Europe-based sellers onto TikTok Shop, as many sellers on the platform sell products directly from China. “In France, Germany, and Italy, we are already working with merchants to get their products listed on the platform, and TikTok Shop will be available to our TikTok users from next Monday,” Jan Wilk, head of operations at TikTok Shop UK, told Reuters. Wilk says TikTok is seeking to broaden its product offerings and prices on TikTok Shop, which is mostly known for discounted prices. For example, Wilk noted that there is a U.K.-based luxury goods store on TikTok Shop that sells secondhand Birkin bags.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati. OpenAI has also been hit with lawsuits from Alden Global Capital-owned newspapers alleging copyright infringement, as well as an injunction from Elon Musk to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit. In 2025, OpenAI is battling the perception that it’s ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese rivals like DeepSeek. The company has been trying to shore up its relationship with Washington as it simultaneously pursues an ambitious data center project, and as it reportedly lays the groundwork for one of the largest funding rounds in history. Below, you’ll find a timeline of ChatGPT product updates and releases, starting with the latest, which we’ve been updating throughout the year. If you have any other questions, check out our ChatGPT FAQ here. March 2025 ChatGPT has upgraded its image-generation feature OpenAI on Tuesday rolled out a major upgrade to ChatGPT’s image-generation capabilities: ChatGPT can now use the GPT-4o model to generate and edit images and photos directly. The feature went live earlier this week in ChatGPT and Sora, OpenAI’s AI video-generation tool, for subscribers of the company’s Pro plan, priced at $200 a month, and will be available soon to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and developers using the company’s API service. The company’s CEO Sam Altman said on Wednesday, however, that the release of the image generation feature to free users would be delayed due to higher demand than the company expected. Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, will lead the company’s global expansion and manage corporate partnerships as CEO Sam Altman shifts his focus to research and products, according to a blog post from OpenAI. Lightcap, who previously worked with Altman at Y Combinator, joined the Microsoft-backed startup in 2018. OpenAI also said Mark Chen would step into the expanded role of chief research officer, and Julia Villagra will take on the role of chief people officer. OpenAI’s AI voice assistant now has advanced feature OpenAI has updated its AI voice assistant with improved chatting capabilities, according to a video posted on Monday (March 24) to the company’s official media channels. The update enables real-time conversations, and the AI assistant is said to be more personable and interrupts users less often. Users on ChatGPT’s free tier can now access the new version of Advanced Voice Mode, while paying users will receive answers that are “more direct, engaging, concise, specific, and creative,” a spokesperson from OpenAI told TechCrunch. OpenAI, Meta in talks with Reliance in India OpenAI and Meta have separately engaged in discussions with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries regarding potential collaborations to enhance their AI services in the country, per a report by The Information. One key topic being discussed is Reliance Jio distributing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Reliance has proposed selling OpenAI’s models to businesses in India through an application programming interface (API) so they can incorporate AI into their operations. Meta also plans to bolster its presence in India by constructing a large 3GW data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat. OpenAI, Meta, and Reliance have not yet officially announced these plans. OpenAI faces privacy complaint in Europe for chatbot’s defamatory hallucinations Noyb, a privacy rights advocacy group, is supporting an individual in Norway who was shocked to discover that ChatGPT was providing false information about him, stating that he had been found guilty of killing two of his children and trying to harm the third. “The GDPR is clear. Personal data has to be accurate,” said Joakim Söderberg, data protection lawyer at Noyb, in a statement. “If it’s not, users have the right to have it changed to reflect the truth. Showing ChatGPT users a tiny disclaimer that the chatbot can make mistakes clearly isn’t enough. You can’t just spread false information and in the end add a small disclaimer saying that everything you said may just not be true.” OpenAI upgrades its transcription and voice-generating AI models OpenAI has added new transcription and voice-generating AI models to its APIs: a text-to-speech model, “gpt-4o-mini-tts,” that delivers more nuanced and realistic sounding speech, as well as two speech-to-text models called “gpt-4o-transcribe” and “gpt-4o-mini-transcribe”. The company claims they are improved versions of what was already there and that they hallucinate less. OpenAI has launched o1-pro, a more powerful version of its o1 OpenAI has introduced o1-pro in its developer API. OpenAI says its o1-pro uses more computing than its o1 “reasoning” AI model to deliver “consistently better responses.” It’s only accessible to select developers who have spent at least $5 on OpenAI API services. OpenAI charges $150 for every million tokens (about 750,000 words) input into the model and $600 for every million tokens the model produces. It costs twice as much as OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 for input and 10 times the price of regular o1. OpenAI research lead Noam Brown thinks AI “reasoning” models could’ve arrived decades ago Noam Brown, who heads AI reasoning research at OpenAI, thinks that certain types of AI models for “reasoning” could have been developed 20 years ago if researchers had understood the correct approach and algorithms. OpenAI says it has trained an AI that’s “really good” at creative writing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, in a post on X, that the company has trained a “new model” that’s “really good” at creative writing. He posted a lengthy sample from the model given the prompt “Please write a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief.” OpenAI has not extensively explored the use of AI for writing fiction. The company has mostly concentrated on challenges in rigid, predictable areas such as math and programming. And it turns out that it might not be that great at creative writing at all. we trained a new model that is good at creative writing (not sure yet how/when it will get released). this is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI; it got the vibe of metafiction so right. PROMPT: Please write a metafictional literary short story… — Sam Altman (@sama) March 11, 2025 OpenAI rolled out new tools designed to help developers and businesses build AI agents — automated systems that can independently accomplish tasks — using the company’s own AI models and frameworks. The tools are part of OpenAI’s new Responses API, which enables enterprises to develop customized AI agents that can perform web searches, scan through company files, and navigate websites, similar to OpenAI’s Operator product. The Responses API effectively replaces OpenAI’s Assistants API, which the company plans to discontinue in the first half of 2026. OpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI ‘agents’ OpenAI intends to release several “agent” products tailored for different applications, including sorting and ranking sales leads and software engineering, according to a report from The Information. One, a “high-income knowledge worker” agent, will reportedly be priced at $2,000 a month. Another, a software developer agent, is said to cost $10,000 a month. The most expensive rumored agents, which are said to be aimed at supporting “PhD-level research,” are expected to cost $20,000 per month. The jaw-dropping figure is indicative of how much cash OpenAI needs right now: The company lost roughly $5 billion last year after paying for costs related to running its services and other expenses. It’s unclear when these agentic tools might launch or which customers will be eligible to buy them. ChatGPT can directly edit your code The latest version of the macOS ChatGPT app allows users to edit code directly in supported developer tools, including Xcode, VS Code, and JetBrains. ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers can use the feature now, and the company plans to roll it out to more users like Enterprise, Edu, and free users. ChatGPT’s weekly active users doubled in less than 6 months, thanks to new releases According to a new report from VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), OpenAI’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, experienced solid growth in the second half of 2024. It took ChatGPT nine months to increase its weekly active users from 100 million in November 2023 to 200 million in August 2024, but it only took less than six months to double that number once more, according to the report. ChatGPT’s weekly active users increased to 300 million by December 2024 and 400 million by February 2025. ChatGPT has experienced significant growth recently due to the launch of new models and features, such as GPT-4o, with multimodal capabilities. ChatGPT usage spiked from April to May 2024, shortly after that model’s launch. February 2025 OpenAI cancels its o3 AI model in favor of a ‘unified’ next-gen release OpenAI has effectively canceled the release of o3 in favor of what CEO Sam Altman is calling a “simplified” product offering. In a post on X, Altman said that, in the coming months, OpenAI will release a model called GPT-5 that “integrates a lot of [OpenAI’s] technology,” including o3, in ChatGPT and its API. As a result of that roadmap decision, OpenAI no longer plans to release o3 as a standalone model. ChatGPT may not be as power-hungry as once assumed A commonly cited stat is that ChatGPT requires around 3 watt-hours of power to answer a single question. Using OpenAI’s latest default model for ChatGPT, GPT-4o, as a reference, nonprofit AI research institute Epoch AI found the average ChatGPT query consumes around 0.3 watt-hours. However, the analysis doesn’t consider the additional energy costs incurred by ChatGPT with features like image generation or input processing. OpenAI now reveals more of its o3-mini model’s thought process In response to pressure from rivals like DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its o3-mini model communicates its step-by-step “thought” process. ChatGPT users will see an updated “chain of thought” that shows more of the model’s “reasoning” steps and how it arrived at answers to questions. You can now use ChatGPT web search without logging in OpenAI is now allowing anyone to use ChatGPT web search without having to log in. While OpenAI had previously allowed users to ask ChatGPT questions without signing in, responses were restricted to the chatbot’s last training update. This only applies through ChatGPT.com, however. To use ChatGPT in any form through the native mobile app, you will still need to be logged in. OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’ OpenAI announced a new AI “agent” called deep research that’s designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT. OpenAI says the “agent” is intended for instances where you don’t just want a quick answer or summary, but instead need to assiduously consider information from multiple websites and other sources. February 2025 OpenAI used a subreddit to test AI persuasion OpenAI used the subreddit r/ChangeMyView to measure the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models. OpenAI says it collects user posts from the subreddit and asks its AI models to write replies, in a closed environment, that would change the Reddit user’s mind on a subject. The company then shows the responses to testers, who assess how persuasive the argument is, and finally OpenAI compares the AI models’ responses to human replies for that same post. OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest ‘reasoning’ model OpenAI launched a new AI “reasoning” model, o3-mini, the newest in the company’s o family of models. OpenAI first previewed the model in December alongside a more capable system called o3. OpenAI is pitching its new model as both “powerful” and “affordable.” ChatGPT’s mobile users are 85% male, report says A new report from app analytics firm Appfigures found that over half of ChatGPT’s mobile users are under age 25, with users between ages 50 and 64 making up the second largest age demographic. The gender gap among ChatGPT users is even more significant. Appfigures estimates that across age groups, men make up 84.5% of all users. OpenAI launches ChatGPT plan for US government agencies OpenAI launched ChatGPT Gov designed to provide U.S. government agencies an additional way to access the tech. ChatGPT Gov includes many of the capabilities found in OpenAI’s corporate-focused tier, ChatGPT Enterprise. OpenAI says that ChatGPT Gov enables agencies to more easily manage their own security, privacy, and compliance, and could expedite internal authorization of OpenAI’s tools for the handling of non-public sensitive data. More teens report using ChatGPT for schoolwork, despite the tech’s faults Younger Gen Zers are embracing ChatGPT, for schoolwork, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. In a follow-up to its 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among young people, Pew asked ~1,400 U.S.-based teens ages 13 to 17 whether they’ve used ChatGPT for homework or other school-related assignments. Twenty-six percent said that they had, double the number two years ago. Just over half of teens responding to the poll said they think it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for researching new subjects. But considering the ways ChatGPT can fall short, the results are possibly cause for alarm. OpenAI says it may store deleted Operator data for up to 90 days OpenAI says that it might store chats and associated screenshots from customers who use Operator, the company’s AI “agent” tool, for up to 90 days — even after a user manually deletes them. While OpenAI has a similar deleted data retention policy for ChatGPT, the retention period for ChatGPT is only 30 days, which is 60 days shorter than Operator’s. OpenAI launches Operator, an AI agent that performs tasks autonomously OpenAI is launching a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform certain actions. Operator promises to automate tasks such as booking travel accommodations, making restaurant reservations, and shopping online. OpenAI may preview its agent tool for users on the $200-per-month Pro plan Operator, OpenAI’s agent tool, could be released sooner rather than later. Changes to ChatGPT’s code base suggest that Operator will be available as an early research preview to users on the $200 Pro subscription plan. The changes aren’t yet publicly visible, but a user on X who goes by Choi spotted these updates in ChatGPT’s client-side code. TechCrunch separately identified the same references to Operator on OpenAI’s website. OpenAI tests phone number-only ChatGPT signups OpenAI has begun testing a feature that lets new ChatGPT users sign up with only a phone number — no email required. The feature is currently in beta in the U.S. and India. However, users who create an account using their number can’t upgrade to one of OpenAI’s paid plans without verifying their account via an email. Multi-factor authentication also isn’t supported without a valid email. ChatGPT now lets you schedule reminders and recurring tasks ChatGPT’s new beta feature, called tasks, allows users to set simple reminders. For example, you can ask ChatGPT to remind you when your passport expires in six months, and the AI assistant will follow up with a push notification on whatever platform you have tasks enabled. The feature will start rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users around the globe this week. New ChatGPT feature lets users assign it traits like ‘chatty’ and ‘Gen Z’ OpenAI is introducing a new way for users to customize their interactions with ChatGPT. Some users found they can specify a preferred name or nickname and “traits” they’d like the chatbot to have. OpenAI suggests traits like “Chatty,” “Encouraging,” and “Gen Z.” However, some users reported that the new options have disappeared, so it’s possible they went live prematurely. December 2024 ChatGPT Search can be tricked into misleading users, new research reveals ChatGPT Search can be fooled into generating completely misleading summaries, The Guardian has found. They found ChatGPT could be prompted to ignore negative reviews and generate “entirely positive” summaries by inserting hidden text into websites it created and that ChatGPT Search could also be made to spit out malicious code using this method. Microsoft and OpenAI reportedly have a finance-centric definition of AGI Microsoft and OpenAI have a very specific, internal definition of AGI based on the startup’s profits, according to a new report from The Information. The two companies reportedly signed an agreement stating OpenAI has only achieved AGI when it develops AI systems that can generate at least $100 billion in profit, which is far from the rigorous technical and philosophical definition of AGI many would expect. OpenAI trained o1 and o3 to ‘think’ about its safety policy OpenAI released new research outlining the company’s approach to ensure AI reasoning models stay aligned with the values of their human developers. The startup used “deliberative alignment” to make o1 and o3 “think” about OpenAI’s safety policy. According to OpenAI’s research, the method decreased the rate at which o1 answered “unsafe” questions while improving its ability to answer benign ones. OpenAI announces new o3 reasoning models OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the successors to its o1 reasoning model family: o3 and o3-mini. The models are not widely available yet, but safety researchers can sign up for a preview. The reveal marks the end of the “12 Days of OpenAI” event, which saw announcements for real-time vision capabilities, ChatGPT Search, and even a Santa voice for ChatGPT. OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline In an effort to make ChatGPT accessible to as many people as possible, OpenAI announced a 1-800 number to call the chatbot — even from a landline or a flip phone. Users can call 1-800-CHATGPT, and ChatGPT will respond to your queries in an experience that is more or less identical to Advanced Voice Mode — minus the multimodality. OpenAI is offering 15 minutes of free calling for U.S. users. The company notes that standard carrier fees may apply. OpenAI brings its ChatGPT Search to more users OpenAI is bringing ChatGPT Search to free, logged in users. Search gives ChatGPT the ability to access real-time information on the web to better answer your queries, but was only available for paid users when it launched in October. Not only is Search available now for free users, but it’s also been integrated into Advanced Voice Mode. OpenAI blames massive ChatGPT outage on a ‘new telemetry service’ OpenAI is blaming one of the longest outages in its history on a “new telemetry service” gone awry. OpenAI wrote in a postmortem that the outage wasn’t caused by a security incident or recent product launch, but by a telemetry service it deployed to collect Kubernetes metrics. You can make ChatGPT sound like Santa for a limited time OpenAI announced that ChatGPT users could access a new “Santa Mode” voice during December. The feature allows users to speak with ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode, but with a Christmas twist. The voice sounds, well, “merry and bright,” as OpenAI described it. Think boomy, jolly — more or less like every Santa you’ve ever heard. OpenAI adds vision to Advanced Voice Mode OpenAI released the real-time video capabilities for ChatGPT that it demoed nearly seven months ago. ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers can use the app to point their phones at objects and have ChatGPT respond in near-real-time. The feature can also understand what’s on a device’s screen through screen sharing. There’s more to come from OpenAI through December 23. Tune in to our live blog to stay updated. ChatGPT and Sora hit with a major outage ChatGPT and Sora both experienced a major outage Wednesday. Though users suspected the outage was due to the rollout of ChatGPT in Apple Intelligence, OpenAI developer community lead Edwin Arbus denied it in a post on X, saying the “outage was unrelated to 12 Days of OpenAI or Apple Intelligence. We made a config change that caused many servers to become unavailable.” ChatGPT, API, and Sora were down today but we've recovered. https://t.co/OKiQYp3tXE — OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 12, 2024 Canvas rolls out to everyone Canvas, OpenAI’s collaboration-focused interface for writing and code projects, is now rolling out to all users after being in beta for ChatGPT Plus members since October 2024. The company also announced the ability to integrate Python code within Canvas as well as bringing Canvas to custom GPTs. OpenAI pauses Sora sign-ups due to high demand OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that due to higher than expected demand, they are pausing new sign-ups for its video generator Sora and that video generations will be slower for the time being. The company released Sora as part of its “12 Days of OpenAI” event following nearly a year of teasing the product. demand higher than expected; signups will be disabled on and off and generations will be slow for awhile. doing our best! https://t.co/JU3WxE5bGl — Sam Altman (@sama) December 9, 2024 OpenAI has finally released its text to video model, Sora. The model can generate videos up to 20 seconds long in 1080p based on text prompts or uploaded images, and can be “remixed” through additional user prompts. Sora is available starting today to ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers (except in the EU). In Monday’s “12 Days of OpenAI” livestream, CEO Sam Altman said that ChatGPT Plus members will get 50 video generations a month, while ChatGPT Pro users will get “unlimited” generations in their “slow queue mode” and 500 “normal” generations per month. There are still more reveals to come from OpenAI through December 23. Tune in to our live blog to stay updated. OpenAI launches $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro subscription — and full version of o1 On day one of its 12 Days of OpenAI event, the company announced a new — and expensive — subscription plan. ChatGPT Pro is a $200-per-month tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI’s models, including the full version of its o1 “reasoning” model. The full version of o1, which was released as a preview in September, can now reason about image uploads and has been trained to be “more concise in its thinking” to improve response times. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be updating all the news from OpenAI as it happens on our live blog. Follow along with us! OpenAI announces 12 days of reveals for the holidays OpenAI announced “12 Days of OpenAI,” which will feature livestreams every weekday starting December 5 at 10 a.m. PT. Each day’s stream is said to include either a product launch or a demo in varying sizes. 🎄🎅starting tomorrow at 10 am pacific, we are doing 12 days of openai. each weekday, we will have a livestream with a launch or demo, some big ones and some stocking stuffers. we’ve got some great stuff to share, hope you enjoy! merry christmas. — Sam Altman (@sama) December 4, 2024 ChatGPT surpasses 300M weekly active users, Sam Altman says At the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that ChatGPT has surpassed 300 million weekly active users. The milestone comes just a few months after the chatbot hit 200 million weekly active users in August 2024 and just over a year after reaching 100 million weekly active users in November 2023. November 2024 Users discovered the name ‘David Mayer’ crashed ChatGPT ChatGPT users discovered an interesting phenomenon: the popular chatbot refused to answer questions asked about a “David Mayer,” and asking it to do so caused it to freeze up instantly. While the strange behavior spawned conspiracy theories, and a slew of other names being impacted, a much more ordinary reason may be at the heart of it: digital privacy requests. Ads might be headed to ChatGPT OpenAI is toying with the idea of getting into ads. CFO Sarah Friar told the Financial Times it’s weighing an ads business model, with plans to be “thoughtful” about when and where ads appear — though she later stressed that the company has “no active plans to pursue advertising.” Still, the exploration may raise eyebrows given that Sam Altman recently said ads would be a “last resort.” Canadian news companies sue OpenAI A group of Canadian media companies, including the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The companies behind the suit said that OpenAI infringed their copyrights and are seeking to win monetary damages — and ban OpenAI from making further use of their work. GPT-4o gets an upgrade OpenAI announced that its GPT-4o model has been updated to feature more “natural” and “engaging” creative writing abilities as well as more thorough responses and insights when accessing files uploaded by users. GPT-4o got an update 🎉 The model’s creative writing ability has leveled up–more natural, engaging, and tailored writing to improve relevance & readability. It’s also better at working with uploaded files, providing deeper insights & more thorough responses. — OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 20, 2024 OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode to the web ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode feature is expanding to the web, allowing users to talk to the chatbot through their browser. The conversational feature is rolling out to ChatGPT’s paying Plus, Enterprise, Teams, or Edu subscribers. Rolling out to ChatGPT paid users this week: Advanced Voice Mode on web! 😍 We launched Advanced Voice Mode in our iOS and Android apps in September, and just recently brought them to our desktop apps (https://t.co/vVRYHXsbPD)—now we’re excited to add web to the mix. This means… pic.twitter.com/HtG5Km2OGh — Kevin Weil 🇺🇸 (@kevinweil) November 19, 2024 ChatGPT can now read some of your Mac’s desktop apps OpenAI announced the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code in a handful of developer-focused coding apps, such as VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2 — meaning that developers will no longer have to copy and paste their code into ChatGPT. When the feature is enabled, OpenAI will automatically send the section of code you’re working on through its chatbot as context, alongside your prompt. OpenAI loses another lead safety researcher Lilian Weng announced on X that she is departing OpenAI. Weng served as VP of research and safety since August, and before that was the head of OpenAI’s safety systems team. It’s the latest in a long string of AI safety researchers,policy researchers, and other executives who have exited the company in the last year. After working at OpenAI for almost 7 years, I decide to leave. I learned so much and now I'm ready for a reset and something new. Here is the note I just shared with the team. 🩵 pic.twitter.com/2j9K3oBhPC — Lilian Weng (@lilianweng) November 8, 2024 ChatGPT told 2M people to get their election news elsewhere OpenAI stated that it told around 2 million users of ChatGPT to go elsewhere for information about the 2024 U.S. election, and instead recommended trusted news sources like Reuters and the Associated Press. In a blog post, OpenAI said that ChatGPT sent roughly a million people to CanIVote.org when they asked questions specific to voting in the lead-up to the election and rejected around 250,000 requests to generate images of the candidates over the same period. OpenAI acquires Chat.com Adding to its collection of high-profile domain names, Chat.com now redirects to ChatGPT. Last year, it was reported that HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah acquired Chat.com for $15.5 million, making it one of the top two all-time publicly reported domain sales — though OpenAI declined to state how much it paid for it. Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI The former head of Meta’s augmented reality glasses efforts is joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware. Kalinowski is a hardware executive who began leading Meta’s AR glasses team in March 2022. She oversaw the creation of Orion, the impressive augmented reality prototype that Meta recently showed off at its annual Connect conference. Apple users will soon be able to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in the Settings app Apple is including an option to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus inside its Settings app, according to an update to the iOS 18.2 beta spotted by 9to5Mac. This will give Apple users a direct route to sign up for OpenAI’s premium subscription plan, which costs $20 a month. October 2024 Sam Altman says a lack of compute capacity is delaying product releases In a Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that a lack of compute capacity is one major factor preventing the company from shipping products as often as it’d like, including the vision capabilities for Advanced Voice Mode first teased in May. Altman also indicated that the next major release of DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generator, has no launch timeline, and that Sora, OpenAI’s video-generating tool, has also been held back. Altman also admitted to using ChatGPT “sometimes” to answer questions throughout the AMA. OpenAI launches its Google search challenger OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search, an evolution of the SearchGPT prototype it unveiled this summer. Powered by a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, ChatGPT Search serves up information and photos from the web along with links to relevant sources, at which point you can ask follow-up questions to refine an ongoing search. 🌐 Introducing ChatGPT search 🌐 ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before so you get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources.https://t.co/7yilNgqH9T pic.twitter.com/z8mJWS8J9c — OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 31, 2024 Advanced Voice Mode comes to Mac and PC OpenAI has rolled out Advanced Voice Mode to ChatGPT’s desktop apps for macOS and Windows. For Mac users, that means that both ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode can coexist with Siri on the same device, leading the way for ChatGPT’s Apple Intelligence integration. Big day for desktops. Advanced Voice is now available in the macOS and Windows desktop apps.https://t.co/mv4ACwIhzA pic.twitter.com/HbwXbN9NkD — OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 30, 2024 OpenAI is reportedly planning to build its first AI chip Reuters reports that OpenAI is working with TSMC and Broadcom to build an in-house AI chip, which could arrive as soon as 2026. It appears, at least for now, the company has abandoned plans to establish a network of factories for chip manufacturing and is instead focusing on in-house chip design. You can now search through your ChatGPT history OpenAI announced it’s rolling out a feature that allows users to search through their ChatGPT chat histories on the web. The new feature will let users bring up an old chat to remember something or pick back up a chat right where it was left off. We’re starting to roll out the ability to search through your chat history on ChatGPT web. Now you can quickly & easily bring up a chat to reference, or pick up a chat where you left off. pic.twitter.com/YVAOUpFvzJ — OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 29, 2024 With the release of iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence features powered by ChatGPT are now available to users. The ChatGPT features include integrated writing tools, image cleanup, article summaries, and a typing input for the redesigned Siri experience. OpenAI says it won’t release a model called Orion this year OpenAI denied reports that it is intending to release an AI model, code-named Orion, by December of this year. An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that they “don’t have plans to release a model code-named Orion this year,” but that leaves OpenAI substantial wiggle room. ChatGPT comes to Windows OpenAI has begun previewing a dedicated Windows app for ChatGPT. The company says the app is an early version and is currently only available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users with a “full experience” set to come later this year. OpenAI inks new content deal with Hearst OpenAI struck a content deal with Hearst, the newspaper and magazine publisher known for the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, and others. The partnership will allow OpenAI to surface stories from Hearst publications with citations and direct links. ChatGPT has a new ‘Canvas’ interface for writing and coding projects OpenAI introduced a new way to interact with ChatGPT called “Canvas.” The canvas workspace allows for users to generate writing or code, then highlight sections of the work to have the model edit. Canvas is rolling out in beta to ChatGPT Plus and Teams, with a rollout to come to Enterprise and Edu tier users next week. When writing code, canvas makes it easier to track and understand ChatGPT’s changes. It can also review code, add logs and comments, fix bugs, and port to other coding languages like JavaScript and Python. pic.twitter.com/Fxssd5pDl0 — OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 3, 2024 OpenAI raises $6.6B and is now valued at $157B OpenAI has closed the largest VC round of all time. The startup announced it raised $6.6 billion in a funding round that values OpenAI at $157 billion post-money. Led by previous investor Thrive Capital, the new cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion, per Crunchbase. Dev Day brings Realtime API to AI app developers At the first of its 2024 Dev Day events, OpenAI announced a new API tool that will let developers build nearly real-time, speech-to-speech experiences in their apps, with the choice of using six voices provided by OpenAI. These voices are distinct from those offered for ChatGPT, and developers can’t use third party voices, in order to prevent copyright issues. September 2024 OpenAI might raise the price of ChatGPT to $44 by 2029 OpenAI is planning to raise the price of individual ChatGPT subscriptions from $20 per month to $22 per month by the end of the year, according to a report from The New York Times. The report notes that a steeper increase could come over the next five years; by 2029, OpenAI expects it’ll charge $44 per month for ChatGPT Plus. Mira Murati exists OpenAI OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced that she is leaving the company after more than six years. Hours after the announcement, OpenAI’s chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and a research VP, Barret Zoph, also left the company. CEO Sam Altman revealed the two latest resignations in a post on X, along with leadership transition plans. i just posted this note to openai: Hi All– Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth the last 6.5 years; she has been a hugely significant factor in our development from an unknown research lab to an important company. When Mira informed me this morning that… — Sam Altman (@sama) September 26, 2024 OpenAI rolls out Advanced Voice Mode with more voices and a new look After a delay, OpenAI is finally rolling out Advanced Voice Mode to an expanded set of ChatGPT’s paying customers. AVM is also getting a revamped design — the feature is now represented by a blue animated sphere instead of the animated black dots that were presented back in May. OpenAI is highlighting improvements in conversational speed, accents in foreign languages, and five new voices as part of the rollout. OpenAI is rolling out Advanced Voice Mode (AVM), an audio feature that makes ChatGPT more natural to speak with and includes five new voices pic.twitter.com/y97BCoob5b — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 24, 2024 YouTuber finds a way to run ChatGPT on a graphing calculator A video from YouTube creator ChromaLock showcased how to modify a TI-84 graphing calculator so that it can connect to the internet and access ChatGPT, touting it as the “ultimate cheating device.” As demonstrated in the video, it’s a pretty complicated process for the average high school student to follow — but it might stoke more concerns from teachers about the ongoing concerns about ChatGPT and cheating in schools. OpenAI announces OpenAI o1, a new model that can fact-check itself OpenAI unveiled a preview of OpenAI o1, also known as “Strawberry.” The collection of models are available in ChatGPT and via OpenAI’s API: o1-preview and o1 mini. The company claims that o1 can more effectively reason through math and science and fact-check itself by spending more time considering all parts of a command or question. Unlike ChatGPT, o1 can’t browse the web or analyze files yet, is rate-limited and expensive compared to other models. OpenAI says it plans to bring o1-mini access to all free users of ChatGPT, but hasn’t set a release date. OpenAI o1 codes a video game from a prompt. pic.twitter.com/aBEcehP0j8 — OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 12, 2024 A hacker was able to trick ChatGPT into giving instructions on how to make bombs An artist and hacker found a way to jailbreak ChatGPT to produce instructions for making powerful explosives, a request that the chatbot normally refuses. An explosives expert who reviewed the chatbot’s output told TechCrunch that the instructions could be used to make a detonatable product and was too sensitive to be released. OpenAI reaches 1 million paid users of its corporate offerings OpenAI announced it has surpassed 1 million paid users for its versions of ChatGPT intended for businesses, including ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise and its educational offering, ChatGPT Edu. The company said that nearly half of OpenAI’s corporate users are based in the US. Volkswagen rolls out its ChatGPT assistant to the US Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment to vehicles in the United States. Its ChatGPT-integrated Plus Speech voice assistant is an AI chatbot based on Cerence’s Chat Pro product and a LLM from OpenAI and will begin rolling out on September 6 with the 2025 Jetta and Jetta GLI models. August 2024 OpenAI inks content deal with Condé Nast As part of the new deal, OpenAI will surface stories from Condé Nast properties like The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit and Wired in ChatGPT and SearchGPT. Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch implied that the “multi-year” deal will involve payment from OpenAI in some form and a Condé Nast spokesperson told TechCrunch that OpenAI will have permission to train on Condé Nast content. We’re partnering with Condé Nast to deepen the integration of quality journalism into ChatGPT and our SearchGPT prototype. https://t.co/tiXqSOTNAl — OpenAI (@OpenAI) August 20, 2024 Our first impressions of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff has been playing around with OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, in what he describes as “the most convincing taste I’ve had of an AI-powered future yet.” Compared to Siri or Alexa, Advanced Voice Mode stands out with faster response times, unique answers and the ability to answer complex questions. But the feature falls short as an effective replacement for virtual assistants. OpenAI shuts down election influence operation that used ChatGPT OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election. OpenAI identified five website fronts presenting as both progressive and conservative news outlets that used ChatGPT to draft several long-form articles, though it doesn’t seem that it reached much of an audience. OpenAI finds that GPT-4o does some weird stuff sometimes OpenAI has found that GPT-4o, which powers the recently launched alpha of Advanced Voice Mode in ChatGPT, can behave in strange ways. In a new “red teaming” report, OpenAI reveals some of GPT-4o’s weirder quirks, like mimicking the voice of the person speaking to it or randomly shouting in the middle of a conversation. ChatGPT’s mobile app reports its biggest month yet After a big jump following the release of OpenAI’s new GPT-4o “omni” model, the mobile version of ChatGPT has now seen its biggest month of revenue yet. The app pulled in $28 million in net revenue from the App Store and Google Play in July, according to data provided by app intelligence firm Appfigures. OpenAI could potentially catch students who cheat with ChatGPT OpenAI has built a watermarking tool that could potentially catch students who cheat by using ChatGPT — but The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is debating whether to actually release it. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is researching tools that can detect writing from ChatGPT, but said it’s taking a “deliberate approach” to releasing it. July 2024 ChatGPT’s advanced Voice Mode starts rolling out to some users OpenAI is giving users their first access to GPT-4o’s updated realistic audio responses. The alpha version is now available to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users, and the company says the feature will gradually roll out to all Plus users in the fall of 2024. The release follows controversy surrounding the voice’s similarity to Scarlett Johansson, leading OpenAI to delay its release. We’re starting to roll out advanced Voice Mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Advanced Voice Mode offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions. pic.twitter.com/64O94EhhXK — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 30, 2024 OpenAI announces new search prototype, SearchGPT OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a new AI search experience to compete with Google. SearchGPT aims to elevate search queries with “timely answers” from across the internet, as well as the ability to ask follow-up questions. The temporary prototype is currently only available to a small group of users and its publisher partners, like The Atlantic, for testing and feedback. We’re testing SearchGPT, a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources. We’re launching with a small group of users for feedback and plan to integrate the experience into ChatGPT. https://t.co/dRRnxXVlGh pic.twitter.com/iQpADXmllH — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 25, 2024 OpenAI could lose $5 billion this year, report claims A new report from The Information, based on undisclosed financial information, claims OpenAI could lose up to $5 billion due to how costly the business is to operate. The report also says the company could spend as much as $7 billion in 2024 to train and operate ChatGPT. OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini OpenAI released its latest small AI model, GPT-4o mini. The company says GPT-4o mini, which is cheaper and faster than OpenAI’s current AI models, outperforms industry leading small AI models on reasoning tasks involving text and vision. GPT-4o mini will replace GPT-3.5 Turbo as the smallest model OpenAI offers. OpenAI partners with Los Alamos National Laboratory for bioscience research OpenAI announced a partnership with the Los Alamos National Laboratory to study how AI can be employed by scientists in order to advance research in healthcare and bioscience. This follows other health-related research collaborations at OpenAI, including Moderna and Color Health. OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboratory announce partnership to study AI for bioscience research https://t.co/WV4XMZsHBA — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 10, 2024 June 2024 OpenAI makes CriticGPT to find mistakes in GPT-4 OpenAI announced it has trained a model off of GPT-4, dubbed CriticGPT, which aims to find errors in ChatGPT’s code output so they can make improvements and better help so-called human “AI trainers” rate the quality and accuracy of ChatGPT responses. We’ve trained a model, CriticGPT, to catch bugs in GPT-4’s code. We’re starting to integrate such models into our RLHF alignment pipeline to help humans supervise AI on difficult tasks: https://t.co/5oQYfrpVBu — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 27, 2024 OpenAI inks content deal with TIME OpenAI and TIME announced a multi-year strategic partnership that brings the magazine’s content, both modern and archival, to ChatGPT. As part of the deal, TIME will also gain access to OpenAI’s technology in order to develop new audience-based products. We’re partnering with TIME and its 101 years of archival content to enhance responses and provide links to stories on https://t.co/LgvmZUae9M: https://t.co/xHAYkYLxA9 — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 27, 2024 OpenAI delays ChatGPT’s new Voice Mode OpenAI planned to start rolling out its advanced Voice Mode feature to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users in late June, but it says lingering issues forced it to postpone the launch to July. OpenAI says Advanced Voice Mode might not launch for all ChatGPT Plus customers until the fall, depending on whether it meets certain internal safety and reliability checks. ChatGPT releases app for Mac ChatGPT for macOS is now available for all users. With the app, users can quickly call up ChatGPT by using the keyboard combination of Option + Space. The app allows users to upload files and other photos, as well as speak to ChatGPT from their desktop and search through their past conversations. The ChatGPT desktop app for macOS is now available for all users. Get faster access to ChatGPT to chat about email, screenshots, and anything on your screen with the Option + Space shortcut: https://t.co/2rEx3PmMqg pic.twitter.com/x9sT8AnjDm — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 25, 2024 Apple brings ChatGPT to its apps, including Siri Apple announced at WWDC 2024 that it is bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. The ChatGPT integrations, powered by GPT-4o, will arrive on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia later this year, and will be free without the need to create a ChatGPT or OpenAI account. Features exclusive to paying ChatGPT users will also be available through Apple devices. Apple is bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems #WWDC24 Read more: https://t.co/0NJipSNJoS pic.twitter.com/EjQdPBuyy4 — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 10, 2024 House Oversight subcommittee invites Scarlett Johansson to testify about ‘Sky’ controversy Scarlett Johansson has been invited to testify about the controversy surrounding OpenAI’s Sky voice at a hearing for the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation. In a letter, Rep. Nancy Mace said Johansson’s testimony could “provide a platform” for concerns around deepfakes. ChatGPT experiences two outages in a single day ChatGPT was down twice in one day: one multi-hour outage in the early hours of the morning Tuesday and another outage later in the day that is still ongoing. Anthropic’s Claude and Perplexity also experienced some issues. You're not alone, ChatGPT is down once again. pic.twitter.com/Ydk2vNOOK6 — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 4, 2024 May 2024 The Atlantic and Vox Media ink content deals with OpenAI The Atlantic and Vox Media have announced licensing and product partnerships with OpenAI. Both agreements allow OpenAI to use the publishers’ current content to generate responses in ChatGPT, which will feature citations to relevant articles. Vox Media says it will use OpenAI’s technology to build “audience-facing and internal applications,” while The Atlantic will build a new experimental product called Atlantic Labs. I am delighted that @theatlantic now has a strategic content & product partnership with @openai. Our stories will be discoverable in their new products and we'll be working with them to figure out new ways that AI can help serious, independent media : https://t.co/nfSVXW9KpB — nxthompson (@nxthompson) May 29, 2024 OpenAI signs 100K PwC workers to ChatGPT’s enterprise tier OpenAI announced a new deal with management consulting giant PwC. The company will become OpenAI’s biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users, and will become OpenAI’s first partner for selling its enterprise offerings to other businesses. OpenAI says it is training its GPT-4 successor OpenAI announced in a blog post that it has recently begun training its next flagship model to succeed GPT-4. The news came in an announcement of its new safety and security committee, which is responsible for informing safety and security decisions across OpenAI’s products. Former OpenAI director claims the board found out about ChatGPT on Twitter On the The TED AI Show podcast, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner revealed that the board did not know about ChatGPT until its launch in November 2022. Toner also said that Sam Altman gave the board inaccurate information about the safety processes the company had in place and that he didn’t disclose his involvement in the OpenAI Startup Fund. Sharing this, recorded a few weeks ago. Most of the episode is about AI policy more broadly, but this was my first longform interview since the OpenAI investigation closed, so we also talked a bit about November. Thanks to @bilawalsidhu for a fun conversation! https://t.co/h0PtK06T0K — Helen Toner (@hlntnr) May 28, 2024 ChatGPT’s mobile app revenue saw biggest spike yet following GPT-4o launch The launch of GPT-4o has driven the company’s biggest-ever spike in revenue on mobile, despite the model being freely available on the web. Mobile users are being pushed to upgrade to its $19.99 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Plus, if they want to experiment with OpenAI’s most recent launch. OpenAI to remove ChatGPT’s Scarlett Johansson-like voice After demoing its new GPT-4o model last week, OpenAI announced it is pausing one of its voices, Sky, after users found that it sounded similar to Scarlett Johansson in “Her.” OpenAI explained in a blog post that Sky’s voice is “not an imitation” of the actress and that AI voices should not intentionally mimic the voice of a celebrity. The blog post went on to explain how the company chose its voices: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky. We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them. Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024 ChatGPT lets you add files from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive OpenAI announced new updates for easier data analysis within ChatGPT. Users can now upload files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, interact with tables and charts, and export customized charts for presentations. The company says these improvements will be added to GPT-4o in the coming weeks. We're rolling out interactive tables and charts along with the ability to add files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive into ChatGPT. Available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users over the coming weeks. https://t.co/Fu2bgMChXt pic.twitter.com/M9AHLx5BKr — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 16, 2024 OpenAI inks deal to train AI on Reddit data OpenAI announced a partnership with Reddit that will give the company access to “real-time, structured and unique content” from the social network. Content from Reddit will be incorporated into ChatGPT, and the companies will work together to bring new AI-powered features to Reddit users and moderators. We’re partnering with Reddit to bring its content to ChatGPT and new products: https://t.co/xHgBZ8ptOE — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 16, 2024 OpenAI debuts GPT-4o “omni” model now powering ChatGPT OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new omni model, GPT-4o, which has a black hole-like interface, as well as voice and vision capabilities that feel eerily like something out of “Her.” GPT-4o is set to roll out “iteratively” across its developer and consumer-facing products over the next few weeks. OpenAI demos real-time language translation with its latest GPT-4o model. pic.twitter.com/pXtHQ9mKGc — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 13, 2024 OpenAI to build a tool that lets content creators opt out of AI training The company announced it’s building a tool, Media Manager, that will allow creators to better control how their content is being used to train generative AI models — and give them an option to opt out. The goal is to have the new tool in place and ready to use by 2025. OpenAI explores allowing AI porn In a new peek behind the curtain of its AI’s secret instructions, OpenAI also released a new NSFW policy. Though it’s intended to start a conversation about how it might allow explicit images and text in its AI products, it raises questions about whether OpenAI — or any generative AI vendor — can be trusted to handle sensitive content ethically. OpenAI and Stack Overflow announce partnership In a new partnership, OpenAI will get access to developer platform Stack Overflow’s API and will get feedback from developers to improve the performance of their AI models. In return, OpenAI will include attributions to Stack Overflow in ChatGPT. However, the deal was not favorable to some Stack Overflow users — leading to some sabotaging their answer in protest. April 2024 U.S. newspapers file copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft Alden Global Capital-owned newspapers, including the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Denver Post, are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the companies stole millions of copyrighted articles “without permission and without payment” to bolster ChatGPT and Copilot. OpenAI inks content licensing deal with Financial Times OpenAI has partnered with another news publisher in Europe, London’s Financial Times, that the company will be paying for content access. “Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and rich links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries,” the FT wrote in a press release. OpenAI opens Tokyo hub, adds GPT-4 model optimized for Japanese OpenAI is opening a new office in Tokyo and has plans for a GPT-4 model optimized specifically for the Japanese language. The move underscores how OpenAI will likely need to localize its technology to different languages as it expands. Sam Altman pitches ChatGPT Enterprise to Fortune 500 companies According to Reuters, OpenAI’s Sam Altman hosted hundreds of executives from Fortune 500 companies across several cities in April, pitching versions of its AI services intended for corporate use. OpenAI releases “more direct, less verbose” version of GPT-4 Turbo Premium ChatGPT users — customers paying for ChatGPT Plus, Team or Enterprise — can now use an updated and enhanced version of GPT-4 Turbo. The new model brings with it improvements in writing, math, logical reasoning and coding, OpenAI claims, as well as a more up-to-date knowledge base. Our new GPT-4 Turbo is now available to paid ChatGPT users. We’ve improved capabilities in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding. Source: https://t.co/fjoXDCOnPr pic.twitter.com/I4fg4aDq1T — OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 12, 2024 ChatGPT no longer requires an account — but there’s a catch You can now use ChatGPT without signing up for an account, but it won’t be quite the same experience. You won’t be able to save or share chats, use custom instructions, or other features associated with a persistent account. This version of ChatGPT will have “slightly more restrictive content policies,” according to OpenAI. When TechCrunch asked for more details, however, the response was unclear: “The signed out experience will benefit from the existing safety mitigations that are already built into the model, such as refusing to generate harmful content. In addition to these existing mitigations, we are also implementing additional safeguards specifically designed to address other forms of content that may be inappropriate for a signed out experience,” a spokesperson said. March 2024 OpenAI’s chatbot store is filling up with spam TechCrunch found that the OpenAI’s GPT Store is flooded with bizarre, potentially copyright-infringing GPTs. A cursory search pulls up GPTs that claim to generate art in the style of Disney and Marvel properties, but serve as little more than funnels to third-party paid services and advertise themselves as being able to bypass AI content detection tools. The New York Times responds to OpenAI’s claims that it “hacked” ChatGPT for its copyright lawsuit In a court filing opposing OpenAI’s motion to dismiss The New York Times’ lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, the newspaper asserted that “OpenAI’s attention-grabbing claim that The Times ‘hacked’ its products is as irrelevant as it is false.” The New York Times also claimed that some users of ChatGPT used the tool to bypass its paywalls. OpenAI VP doesn’t say whether artists should be paid for training data At a SXSW 2024 panel, Peter Deng, OpenAI’s VP of consumer product dodged a question on whether artists whose work was used to train generative AI models should be compensated. While OpenAI lets artists “opt out” of and remove their work from the datasets that the company uses to train its image-generating models, some artists have described the tool as onerous. A new report estimates that ChatGPT uses more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day ChatGPT’s environmental impact appears to be massive. According to a report from The New Yorker, ChatGPT uses an estimated 17,000 times the amount of electricity than the average U.S. household to respond to roughly 200 million requests each day. ChatGPT can now read its answers aloud OpenAI released a new Read Aloud feature for the web version of ChatGPT as well as the iOS and Android apps. The feature allows ChatGPT to read its responses to queries in one of five voice options and can speak 37 languages, according to the company. Read aloud is available on both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 models. ChatGPT can now read responses to you. On iOS or Android, tap and hold the message and then tap “Read Aloud”. We’ve also started rolling on web – click the "Read Aloud" button below the message. pic.twitter.com/KevIkgAFbG — OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 4, 2024 January 2025 OpenAI partners with Dublin City Council to use GPT-4 for tourism As part of a new partnership with OpenAI, the Dublin City Council will use GPT-4 to craft personalized itineraries for travelers, including recommendations of unique and cultural destinations, in an effort to support tourism across Europe. A law firm used ChatGPT to justify a six-figure bill for legal services New York-based law firm Cuddy Law was criticized by a judge for using ChatGPT to calculate their hourly billing rate. The firm submitted a $113,500 bill to the court, which was then halved by District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who called the figure “well above” reasonable demands. ChatGPT experienced a bizarre bug for several hours ChatGPT users found that ChatGPT was giving nonsensical answers for several hours, prompting OpenAI to investigate the issue. Incidents varied from repetitive phrases to confusing and incorrect answers to queries. The issue was resolved by OpenAI the following morning. Match Group announced deal with OpenAI with a press release co-written by ChatGPT The dating app giant home to Tinder, Match and OkCupid announced an enterprise agreement with OpenAI in an enthusiastic press release written with the help of ChatGPT. The AI tech will be used to help employees with work-related tasks and come as part of Match’s $20 million-plus bet on AI in 2024. ChatGPT will now remember — and forget — things you tell it to As part of a test, OpenAI began rolling out new “memory” controls for a small portion of ChatGPT free and paid users, with a broader rollout to follow. The controls let you tell ChatGPT explicitly to remember something, see what it remembers or turn off its memory altogether. Note that deleting a chat from chat history won’t erase ChatGPT’s or a custom GPT’s memories — you must delete the memory itself. We’re testing ChatGPT's ability to remember things you discuss to make future chats more helpful. This feature is being rolled out to a small portion of Free and Plus users, and it's easy to turn on or off. https://t.co/1Tv355oa7V pic.twitter.com/BsFinBSTbs — OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 13, 2024 OpenAI begins rolling out “Temporary Chat” feature Initially limited to a small subset of free and subscription users, Temporary Chat lets you have a dialogue with a blank slate. With Temporary Chat, ChatGPT won’t be aware of previous conversations or access memories but will follow custom instructions if they’re enabled. But, OpenAI says it may keep a copy of Temporary Chat conversations for up to 30 days for “safety reasons.” Use temporary chat for conversations in which you don’t want to use memory or appear in history. pic.twitter.com/H1U82zoXyC — OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 13, 2024 January 2024 ChatGPT users can now invoke GPTs directly in chats Paid users of ChatGPT can now bring GPTs into a conversation by typing “@” and selecting a GPT from the list. The chosen GPT will have an understanding of the full conversation, and different GPTs can be “tagged in” for different use cases and needs. You can now bring GPTs into any conversation in ChatGPT – simply type @ and select the GPT. This allows you to add relevant GPTs with the full context of the conversation. pic.twitter.com/Pjn5uIy9NF — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 30, 2024 ChatGPT is reportedly leaking usernames and passwords from users’ private conversations Screenshots provided to Ars Technica found that ChatGPT is potentially leaking unpublished research papers, login credentials and private information from its users. An OpenAI representative told Ars Technica that the company was investigating the report. ChatGPT is violating Europe’s privacy laws, Italian DPA tells OpenAI OpenAI has been told it’s suspected of violating European Union privacy, following a multi-month investigation of ChatGPT by Italy’s data protection authority. Details of the draft findings haven’t been disclosed, but in a response, OpenAI said: “We want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals.” OpenAI partners with Common Sense Media to collaborate on AI guidelines In an effort to win the trust of parents and policymakers, OpenAI announced it’s partnering with Common Sense Media to collaborate on AI guidelines and education materials for parents, educators and young adults. The organization works to identify and minimize tech harms to young people and previously flagged ChatGPT as lacking in transparency and privacy. OpenAI responds to Congressional Black Caucus about lack of diversity on its board After a letter from the Congressional Black Caucus questioned the lack of diversity in OpenAI’s board, the company responded. The response, signed by CEO Sam Altman and Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor, said building a complete and diverse board was one of the company’s top priorities and that it was working with an executive search firm to assist it in finding talent. OpenAI drops prices and fixes ‘lazy’ GPT-4 that refused to work In a blog post, OpenAI announced price drops for GPT-3.5’s API, with input prices dropping to 50% and output by 25%, to $0.0005 per thousand tokens in, and $0.0015 per thousand tokens out. GPT-4 Turbo also got a new preview model for API use, which includes an interesting fix that aims to reduce “laziness” that users have experienced. Expanding the platform for @OpenAIDevs: new generation of embedding models, updated GPT-4 Turbo, and lower pricing on GPT-3.5 Turbo. https://t.co/7wzCLwB1ax — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 25, 2024 OpenAI bans developer of a bot impersonating a presidential candidate OpenAI has suspended AI startup Delphi, which developed a bot impersonating Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) to help bolster his presidential campaign. The ban comes just weeks after OpenAI published a plan to combat election misinformation, which listed “chatbots impersonating candidates” as against its policy. OpenAI announces partnership with Arizona State University Beginning in February, Arizona State University will have full access to ChatGPT’s Enterprise tier, which the university plans to use to build a personalized AI tutor, develop AI avatars, bolster their prompt engineering course and more. It marks OpenAI’s first partnership with a higher education institution. Winner of a literary prize reveals around 5% her novel was written by ChatGPT After receiving the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for her novel The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy, author Rie Kudan admitted that around 5% of the book quoted ChatGPT-generated sentences “verbatim.” Interestingly enough, the novel revolves around a futuristic world with a pervasive presence of AI. Sam Altman teases video capabilities for ChatGPT and the release of GPT-5 In a conversation with Bill Gates on the Unconfuse Me podcast, Sam Altman confirmed an upcoming release of GPT-5 that will be “fully multimodal with speech, image, code, and video support.” Altman said users can expect to see GPT-5 drop sometime in 2024. OpenAI announces team to build ‘crowdsourced’ governance ideas into its models OpenAI is forming a Collective Alignment team of researchers and engineers to create a system for collecting and “encoding” public input on its models’ behaviors into OpenAI products and services. This comes as a part of OpenAI’s public program to award grants to fund experiments in setting up a “democratic process” for determining the rules AI systems follow. OpenAI unveils plan to combat election misinformation In a blog post, OpenAI announced users will not be allowed to build applications for political campaigning and lobbying until the company works out how effective their tools are for “personalized persuasion.” Users will also be banned from creating chatbots that impersonate candidates or government institutions, and from using OpenAI tools to misrepresent the voting process or otherwise discourage voting. The company is also testing out a tool that detects DALL-E generated images and will incorporate access to real-time news, with attribution, in ChatGPT. Snapshot of how we’re preparing for 2024’s worldwide elections: • Working to prevent abuse, including misleading deepfakes • Providing transparency on AI-generated content • Improving access to authoritative voting informationhttps://t.co/qsysYy5l0L — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 15, 2024 OpenAI changes policy to allow military applications In an unannounced update to its usage policy, OpenAI removed language previously prohibiting the use of its products for the purposes of “military and warfare.” In an additional statement, OpenAI confirmed that the language was changed in order to accommodate military customers and projects that do not violate their ban on efforts to use their tools to “harm people, develop weapons, for communications surveillance, or to injure others or destroy property.” ChatGPT subscription aimed at small teams debuts Aptly called ChatGPT Team, the new plan provides a dedicated workspace for teams of up to 149 people using ChatGPT as well as admin tools for team management. In addition to gaining access to GPT-4, GPT-4 with Vision and DALL-E3, ChatGPT Team lets teams build and share GPTs for their business needs. OpenAI’s GPT store officially launches After some back and forth over the last few months, OpenAI’s GPT Store is finally here. The feature lives in a new tab in the ChatGPT web client, and includes a range of GPTs developed both by OpenAI’s partners and the wider dev community. To access the GPT Store, users must be subscribed to one of OpenAI’s premium ChatGPT plans — ChatGPT Plus, ChatGPT Enterprise or the newly launched ChatGPT Team. the GPT store is live!https://t.co/AKg1mjlvo2 fun speculation last night about which GPTs will be doing the best by the end of today. — Sam Altman (@sama) January 10, 2024 Developing AI models would be “impossible” without copyrighted materials, OpenAI claims Following a proposed ban on using news publications and books to train AI chatbots in the U.K., OpenAI submitted a plea to the House of Lords communications and digital committee. OpenAI argued that it would be “impossible” to train AI models without using copyrighted materials, and that they believe copyright law “does not forbid training.” OpenAI claims The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit is without merit OpenAI published a public response to The New York Times’s lawsuit against them and Microsoft for allegedly violating copyright law, claiming that the case is without merit. In the response, OpenAI reiterates its view that training AI models using publicly available data from the web is fair use. It also makes the case that regurgitation is less likely to occur with training data from a single source and places the onus on users to “act responsibly.” We build AI to empower people, including journalists. Our position on the @nytimes lawsuit: • Training is fair use, but we provide an opt-out • "Regurgitation" is a rare bug we're driving to zero • The New York Times is not telling the full storyhttps://t.co/S6fSaDsfKb — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 8, 2024 OpenAI’s app store for GPTs planned to launch next week After being delayed in December, OpenAI plans to launch its GPT Store sometime in the coming week, according to an email viewed by TechCrunch. OpenAI says developers building GPTs will have to review the company’s updated usage policies and GPT brand guidelines to ensure their GPTs are compliant before they’re eligible for listing in the GPT Store. OpenAI’s update notably didn’t include any information on the expected monetization opportunities for developers listing their apps on the storefront. GPT Store launching next week – OpenAI pic.twitter.com/I6mkZKtgZG — Manish Singh (@refsrc) January 4, 2024 OpenAI moves to shrink regulatory risk in EU around data privacy In an email, OpenAI detailed an incoming update to its terms, including changing the OpenAI entity providing services to EEA and Swiss residents to OpenAI Ireland Limited. The move appears to be intended to shrink its regulatory risk in the European Union, where the company has been under scrutiny over ChatGPT’s impact on people’s privacy. FAQs: What is ChatGPT? How does it work? ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to generate text after a user enters a prompt, developed by tech startup OpenAI. The chatbot uses GPT-4, a large language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. When did ChatGPT get released? November 30, 2022 is when ChatGPT was released for public use. What is the latest version of ChatGPT? Both the free version of ChatGPT and the paid ChatGPT Plus are regularly updated with new GPT models. The most recent model is GPT-4o. Can I use ChatGPT for free? There is a free version of ChatGPT that only requires a sign-in in addition to the paid version, ChatGPT Plus. Who uses ChatGPT? Anyone can use ChatGPT! More and more tech companies and search engines are utilizing the chatbot to automate text or quickly answer user questions/concerns. What companies use ChatGPT? Multiple enterprises utilize ChatGPT, although others may limit the use of the AI-powered tool. Most recently, Microsoft announced at its 2023 Build conference that it is integrating it ChatGPT-based Bing experience into Windows 11. A Brooklyn-based 3D display startup Looking Glass utilizes ChatGPT to produce holograms you can communicate with by using ChatGPT. And nonprofit organization Solana officially integrated the chatbot into its network with a ChatGPT plug-in geared toward end users to help onboard into the web3 space. What does GPT mean in ChatGPT? GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. What is the difference between ChatGPT and a chatbot? A chatbot can be any software/system that holds dialogue with you/a person but doesn’t necessarily have to be AI-powered. For example, there are chatbots that are rules-based in the sense that they’ll give canned responses to questions. ChatGPT is AI-powered and utilizes LLM technology to generate text after a prompt. Can ChatGPT write essays? Yes. Can ChatGPT commit libel? Due to the nature of how these models work, they don’t know or care whether something is true, only that it looks true. That’s a problem when you’re using it to do your homework, sure, but when it accuses you of a crime you didn’t commit, that may well at this point be libel. We will see how handling troubling statements produced by ChatGPT will play out over the next few months as tech and legal experts attempt to tackle the fastest moving target in the industry. Does ChatGPT have an app? Yes, there is a free ChatGPT mobile app for iOS and Android users. What is the ChatGPT character limit? It’s not documented anywhere that ChatGPT has a character limit. However, users have noted that there are some character limitations after around 500 words. Does ChatGPT have an API? Yes, it was released March 1, 2023. What are some sample everyday uses for ChatGPT? Everyday examples include programming, scripts, email replies, listicles, blog ideas, summarization, etc. What are some advanced uses for ChatGPT? Advanced use examples include debugging code, programming languages, scientific concepts, complex problem solving, etc. How good is ChatGPT at writing code? It depends on the nature of the program. While ChatGPT can write workable Python code, it can’t necessarily program an entire app’s worth of code. That’s because ChatGPT lacks context awareness — in other words, the generated code isn’t always appropriate for the specific context in which it’s being used. Can you save a ChatGPT chat? Yes. OpenAI allows users to save chats in the ChatGPT interface, stored in the sidebar of the screen. There are no built-in sharing features yet. Are there alternatives to ChatGPT? Yes. There are multiple AI-powered chatbot competitors such as Together, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, and developers are creating open source alternatives. How does ChatGPT handle data privacy? OpenAI has said that individuals in “certain jurisdictions” (such as the EU) can object to the processing of their personal information by its AI models by filling out this form. This includes the ability to make requests for deletion of AI-generated references about you. Although OpenAI notes it may not grant every request since it must balance privacy requests against freedom of expression “in accordance with applicable laws”. The web form for making a deletion of data about you request is entitled “OpenAI Personal Data Removal Request”. In its privacy policy, the ChatGPT maker makes a passing acknowledgement of the objection requirements attached to relying on “legitimate interest” (LI), pointing users towards more information about requesting an opt out — when it writes: “See here for instructions on how you can opt out of our use of your information to train our models.” What controversies have surrounded ChatGPT? Recently, Discord announced that it had integrated OpenAI’s technology into its bot named Clyde where two users tricked Clyde into providing them with instructions for making the illegal drug methamphetamine (meth) and the incendiary mixture napalm. An Australian mayor has publicly announced he may sue OpenAI for defamation due to ChatGPT’s false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery. This would be the first defamation lawsuit against the text-generating service. CNET found itself in the midst of controversy after Futurism reported the publication was publishing articles under a mysterious byline completely generated by AI. The private equity company that owns CNET, Red Ventures, was accused of using ChatGPT for SEO farming, even if the information was incorrect. Several major school systems and colleges, including New York City Public Schools, have banned ChatGPT from their networks and devices. They claim that the AI impedes the learning process by promoting plagiarism and misinformation, a claim that not every educator agrees with. There have also been cases of ChatGPT accusing individuals of false crimes. Where can I find examples of ChatGPT prompts? Several marketplaces host and provide ChatGPT prompts, either for free or for a nominal fee. One is PromptBase. Another is ChatX. More launch every day. Can ChatGPT be detected? Poorly. Several tools claim to detect ChatGPT-generated text, but in our tests, they’re inconsistent at best. Are ChatGPT chats public? No. But OpenAI recently disclosed a bug, since fixed, that exposed the titles of some users’ conversations to other people on the service. What lawsuits are there surrounding ChatGPT? None specifically targeting ChatGPT. But OpenAI is involved in at least one lawsuit that has implications for AI systems trained on publicly available data, which would touch on ChatGPT. Are there issues regarding plagiarism with ChatGPT? Yes. Text-generating AI models like ChatGPT have a tendency to regurgitate content from their training data.

In Brief NHS vendor Advanced will pay just over £3 million ($3.8 million) in fines for not implementing basic security measures before it suffered a ransomware attack in 2022, the U.K.’s data protection regulator has confirmed. It’s half the fine that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had initially sought in August 2024, when the data watchdog said it was going to fine Advanced more than £6 million for its security failings. The ICO said Wednesday that Advanced “broke data protection law” by not fully rolling out multi-factor authentication prior to its breach, which allowed hackers to break in with stolen credentials and steal the personal information of tens of thousands of people across the United Kingdom. The LockBit ransomware attack on Advanced caused widespread outages across the NHS, including patient data systems that Advanced maintains on behalf of the NHS. In a statement, Advanced confirmed that it had settled the matter. Advanced declined to name a spokesperson when asked by TechCrunch.

Time’s running out — 4 days left to save over $300 on Founder and Investor Passes for TechCrunch All Stage! Founders, accelerate your journey. Investors, fuel their success. Join us on July 15 at SoWa Power Station in Boston, Massachusetts, for TC All Stage, where 1,200 founders and VCs come together to scale from seed to IPO. Don’t miss the chance to save — offer ends March 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT! Lock in your $300+ ticket savings here. What’s at TC All Stage Take your startup from traction to exponential growth at TC All Stage, where founders gain actionable insights from elite VCs and scaling experts through immersive breakouts, roundtables, and targeted networking opportunities. Early-stage and growth-stage breakout sessions Early-stage founders, gain the inside track on launching successfully at the Foundation Stage. Learn firsthand from top investors and experienced entrepreneurs: What VCs really look for in pre-seed startups AI-driven MVPs: knowing when to automate (and when not to) Creating a pitch deck that secures funding Growth-stage founders, we’re introducing the Scale Stage — a full-day, high-impact track focused on: Building & scaling sustainable companies Raising a Series C & beyond in today’s market Preparing for IPOs & hitting $10 million ARR Get to know the experts driving the breakout sessions Our roster of scaling experts continues to expand — check out the speaker page for the latest additions. Cathy Gao, partner at Sapphire Ventures, will be on the Scale Stage at TechCrunch All Stage on July 15 in SoWa Power Station to discuss how to win at raising a Series C and beyond. Image Credits:Sapphire Ventures Chris Gardner, partner at Underscore VC, will be on the Foundation Stage at TechCrunch All Stage on July 15 in SoWa Power Station to discuss when and how to use AI to advance your startup growth. Image Credits:Underscore VC Interactive, deep-dive roundtables Engage in immersive, small-group roundtables with seasoned scaling professionals. This is your chance to connect directly with fellow founders and investors, exchange advice, and discuss your growth journey in a collaborative setting. Impactful networking between founders and investors Connect directly with driven founders and investors in intimate 1:1 or small-group settings. Collaborate on challenges, share insights, and build meaningful relationships with fellow founders shaping the future. Keep the momentum going! Join Side Events across Boston during TC All Stage Week and keep the conversation going long after the event ends. Catch the exciting startup pitches in action So You Think You Can Pitch is the ultimate learning experience for founders. Watch startups pitch, hear valuable insights from VCs, and evaluate how your pitch compares. Get exclusive front-row access to expert feedback that could elevate your next pitch to investors. Ignite your growth at the best price Spend a day propelling your startup’s growth or, as an investor, uncover your next game-changing investment. Save over $300 before March 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT — these unbeatable rates won’t come back. Secure your ticket at this special rate now. Interested in boosting your brand visibility at TC All Stage? Take your presence to the next level by exhibiting your brand and innovation in front of 1,200 founders and investors. With limited space available, don’t wait — grab your exhibit table before they’re gone! TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 at SoWa Power Station Image Credits:Halo Creative Or, explore sponsorship opportunities and activations at TC All Stage. Get in touch with our team by filling out this form. Don’t miss out on the best deals for TechCrunch events Subscribe to the TechCrunch Events newsletter and be the first to know about special deals and event announcements.

Meta, X, and Snap are celebrating a new Utah law that will require Apple and Google to take responsibility for verifying users’ ages on their app stores and obtain parental consent for minors. The tech giants have been battling to determine which party should be responsible for age verification on the app stores. Companies like Meta believe the app stores themselves should verify users’ ages because these entities host and distribute the apps. The app stores, however, argue that companies making the apps should bear the responsibility as they’re the ones offering the product to end users. Utah isn’t the only state considering some such legislation around age verification; it is the first to enact a law of this kind. The App Store Accountability Act, as the new law is called, was passed by Utah’s legislature earlier this month, then headed to Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk for a signature to make it official. Ahead of the law’s passing, Apple announced a new set of child safety initiatives for its App Store, which include an age-checking system for apps. Its implementation would allow app developers to use a new Declared Age Range API to access age range information provided by the parent. This information doesn’t provide the app developer with the minor’s exact age or birthdate, but allows them to customize their app experiences appropriately based on the age range provided. Apple’s system requires the app developers to do the work of requesting the age range before an app is used, rather than the App Store verifying the age at the time of download. Not surprisingly, social media companies are thrilled the new Utah law would require app stores to verify users’ ages before apps can be downloaded onto their devices. In a joint statement, Meta, X, and Snap praised Utah’s move, saying: We applaud Governor Cox and the State of Utah for being the first in the nation to empower parents and users with greater control over teen app downloads, and urge other states to consider this groundbreaking approach. Parents want a one-stop-shop to oversee and approve the many apps their teens want to download, and Utah has led the way in centralizing it within a device’s app store. This approach spares users from repeatedly submitting personal information to countless individual apps and online services. We are committed to safeguarding parents and teens, and look forward to seeing more states adopt this model. In total, 16 U.S. states, including California and Texas, have introduced their own versions of app store legislation focused on age verification and youth safety.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s US-listed shares soared as much as 20% after the video game maker said it will carve out a unit including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six into a subsidiary with an enterprise value of about €4 billion ($4.3 billion). Tencent Holdings Ltd. will invest €1.16 billion to acquire a 25% stake in the new entity, which will hold licenses for the intellectual property of the games in exchange for a royalty, the Paris-based video game maker said in a statement Bloomberg Terminal on Thursday.