Ubah Hassan moved to New York City with only $150 in her pocket. Now she’s one of the stars of the ‘RHONY’ reboot — and she wants her story to inspire everyone watching.
Ubah Hassan moved to New York City with only $150 in her pocket. Now she’s one of the stars of the ‘RHONY’ reboot — and she wants her story to inspire everyone watching.
Remember Twitter Notes? It was supposed to be the feature that let Twitter users write whatever they want, blowing past the typical Twitter character limit. At the time, that limit was only 280 characters. After several updates this year, Twitter Blue subscribers can tweet up to 25,000 characters. Now, CEO Elon Musk has seemingly confirmed that the company is still working on the Notes feature, but is rebranding it to Twitter Articles.
In a reply to a tweet noting the name change, Musk confirms that Articles will be the place to post “long, complex articles with mixed media.” He goes on to say that “You could publish a book if you want.”
This will allow users to post very long, complex articles with mixed media. You could publish a book if you want.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2023
Officially announced last year, Notes was pitched as “a way to write longer on Twitter,” and was initially limited to select users in Canada, Ghana, the United Kingdom and the United States. Notably, this was announced before the Elon Musk takeover later that year, but after he announced his intention to buy the company. This is the first time Twitter has acknowledged the feature since then.
As for what this feature will look like, think blog posts but on Twitter. Articles, which will be separate from the main timeline, is an area where users can post long-form content without the typical limitations of a tweet. That means you’ll be able to embed photos, videos and other tweets within an Article. Users can share Articles in tweets, and published Articles will show up in your Twitter profile.
It’s unclear at this time when or if Articles will be available to the public. The feature is still in the experimental stage it has been in since last year, and is only available to a select number of users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-is-working-on-new-publishing-tools-for-long-form-articles-185302573.html?src=rss
Nearly a month after Madonna was hospitalized with a severe bacterial infection, she shared her gratitude for all the love and photos of her as she recovered.
Nearly a month after Madonna was hospitalized with a severe bacterial infection, she shared her gratitude for all the love and photos of her as she recovered.
The ‘All The Way Up’ rapper opened up about battling depression among his 15-year weight loss journey in a new profile. Find out everything you need to know about Fat Joe’s weight loss journey here.
The ‘All The Way Up’ rapper opened up about battling depression among his 15-year weight loss journey in a new profile. Find out everything you need to know about Fat Joe’s weight loss journey here.
Framework’s modular Laptop 16 is available for preorder in the US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Netherlands, Austria, Ireland and Australia. The company’s first gaming notebook starts at $1,399 for a DIY system (sans operating system). Pre-built variants start at $1,799.
The machine ships with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS or AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor; the DIY versions start at $1,399 and $1,699, respectively. You can use it with the processor’s integrated graphics or pay $1,799 or $2,099 for a ready-to-go model with Radeon RX 7700S discrete graphics.
Of course, the company’s modular focus is what differentiates the Laptop 16 from the multitude of same-y notebooks at your local electronics store. The plan is for its expansion bay system to let you upgrade its graphics (and other hardware) over time without buying an entirely new machine. Its top deck, including the keyboard and numpad, is also user reconfigurable. It adds up to an ambitious plan for a gaming laptop, but the company has so far followed through on supporting its less powerful (but also modular) Laptop 13, the first version of which launched in 2021.
The Framework Laptop 16 machine has a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display with a 165Hz refresh rate (with FreeSync). The screen can reach 500 nits brightness, and it’s rated for 1500:1 contrast and 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The laptop has an 85Wh battery, which Framework says will retain 80 percent capacity after 1,000 charging cycles. (The company says it’s “easy to replace” if needed.) It supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 and has a 1080p webcam with dual mics and hardware privacy switches. It also includes a fingerprint reader, compatible with Windows and Linux.
The company will follow a batch ordering system, and it expects the first round to ship in Q4 2023. Framework says a limited supply of pre-orders that include an eligible AMD Radeon GPU will receive a free download code for the highly anticipatedStarfield: Premium Edition. (CEO Nirav Patel says game codes will arrive before its early access launch.) You can preorder the Laptop 16 now from the company website.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-pre-order-frameworks-modular-gaming-laptop-16-today-183702718.html?src=rss
Following her split from Joe Manganiello, Sofía Vergara shared sexy bikini photos that caught the attention of her pal Julie Bowen.
Following her split from Joe Manganiello, Sofía Vergara shared sexy bikini photos that caught the attention of her pal Julie Bowen.
Shortly after news broke that Gigi Hadid was recently arrested in the Cayman Islands, she subtly addressed the situation on Instagram.
Shortly after news broke that Gigi Hadid was recently arrested in the Cayman Islands, she subtly addressed the situation on Instagram.
The rumors of a commercially-oriented Meta AI model were true. Meta and Microsoft have teamed up to unveil Llama 2, a next-generation large language (very generalized) AI model intended for both commercial and research purposes. The upgraded open source code places a greater emphasis on responsibility. Developers “red-teamed” models (that is, tested them for safety) and created a transparency schematic to detail potential issues. They also include a responsible use guide, and there’s an acceptable use policy to prevent abuses like criminal activity, misleading representations and spam.
Meta is releasing both pre-trained and conversation-oriented versions of Llama 2 for free. Microsoft is making it available through the Azure AI catalog to use with cloud tools, such as content filtering. The tool can also run directly on Windows PCs, and will be available through outside providers like Amazon Web Services and Hugging Face.
The original AI model was open source, but intended strictly for academics and researchers. Llama 2 lets companies customize the technology for their own purposes, such as chatbots and image generators. Ideally, this lets companies benefit from the modelling while providing outsiders a way to check for biases, inaccuracies and other flaws. Open source code isn’t new in the AI world — Stability’s Stable Diffusion is a notable example. However, major rivals like OpenAI’s GPT-4 tend to be locked down for the sake of subscription or licensing revenue. There are also concerns that hackers and other bad actors may ignore open source licenses and use those tools for dangerous purposes.
As with GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude 2, the emphasis on responsible use isn’t surprising. The tech industry is concerned that large language AI models may get out of control, leading to killer robots or the further spread of misinformation. Experts and company leaders have even called for a six-month freeze on experimentation to ensure developers tackle ethical and safety concerns. Politicians also hope to regulate AI, with one Senate bill intended to hold AI creators liable for damaging content.
For Microsoft, Llama 2 represents another bid to stay ahead of AI rivals like Google. Microsoft already makes use of OpenAI systems in products like Azure and Bing. The Meta collaboration gives Microsoft’s business customers more choices, particularly if they’re interested in fine-tuning a model to suit their needs.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-and-microsoft-release-llama-2-an-ai-language-model-for-commercial-use-163615807.html?src=rss
Streaming service Peacock is raising the prices of its subscription plans, if you have an inclination to rewatch The Office for the hundredth time. The ad-supported Premium subscription goes up by a buck, to $6 per month, while the ad-free Premium Plus option shoots up two bucks to $12 per month. An annual Premium subscription is going up $10, so $60 per year, while the Premium Plus subscription increases $20, making it $120 per year. This all goes into effect on August 17th, according to an email sent to current subscribers.
This is actually the first price hike for the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service since launching back in 2020. The increase impacts both current and incoming subscribers. The streamer nixed its free tier earlier this year, so you have to pay up to learn if Jim and Pam ever share that paper-drenched kiss.
Why the price hike? Peacock is hemorrhaging money, despite a rapidly-increasing subscriber base. As of April, the streamer boasted 22 million paying subscribers, but increased programming costs led to a loss of more than $700 million. NBC’s golden child was the last holdout, as every other major streaming platform already slapped subscribers with price bumps. Paramount+ prices shot up in February and the same goes for Max, Disney+, Apple+ and all the rest.
This could all be moot if those dual Hollywood strikes aren’t resolved in the short-term, as the streamers will run out of content quicker than you can say “go outside and touch grass.” Shows premiering now were filmed last year, thereabouts, so expect a serious dry spell next year around this time.
As for Peacock, there’s a reason it reached over 20 million subscribers in just a couple of years. It’s not just home for The Office and other beloved, though ancient, sitcoms. The service streams tons of live sports, including NFL football, Premier League soccer and WWE wrestling. It’s also gotten itself a stable of decent original programming, from the absolute lunacy of Mrs. Davis to the critically-acclaimed old-school sleuthing of Poker Face.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peacock-raises-subscription-prices-for-the-first-time-164405324.html?src=rss
It was just another day in South Park. The kids were making fun of each other on the playground, while the parents were all doing their best to maintain their sanity in the small Colorado town. And then there was me, a tech journalist going door-to-door warning about the impending AI apocalypse. No, I wasn’t actually guest starring on the long-running TV series — I was thrust into an episode entirely produced by the Showrunner AI model from The Simulation, the next iteration of the VR studio Fable.
All it took was some audio of my voice (recorded during a call with The Simulation’s CEO Edward Saatchi), a picture and a two-sentence prompt to produce the episode. And while it wasn’t the best South Park episode I’ve seen, I was shocked by how watchable it was. It begins with my AI character popping into Sharon and Randy Marsh’s house in the morning, warning them about the AI uprising. Randy is intrigued, but Sharon is annoyed by my arrival (both of which were set up in one sentence of the initial prompt).
“They’re [AI] infiltrating every aspect of our lives,” my AI character says. “They’re in our cars, our phones… even our toasters.”
“Our toasters, really? I always knew that little bastard was up to something,” Randy replies.
Sure, that’s not exactly a tightly crafted joke, but it was enough to make me chuckle. And again, it didn’t take much for Showrunner AI to piece that conversation together. Watching this episode made it clear that generative AI can actually produce watchable content (certainly more so than that AI Seinfeld project), but it also made me even more worried about the role of AI in media.
At this moment, writers in the WGA and performers in the SAG-AFTRA unions are striking for better residual pay and protections against potential AI exploitation. A tool like Showrunner AI, which can produce decent content without much effort, threatens creatives everywhere. The WGA strike and the fears around AI-generated content is also the main plot line in the demo South Park episode, “Westland Chronicles.”
“Maybe it’s a mistake to release it, I’m not sure,” Saatchi said over email, when I asked if it’s really the best time to launch Showrunner AI. “If our focus was becoming ‘the AI TV studio’ and gloating that we can make shows with no staff I’d feel very queasy — but we’re trying to build a simulation and we need infinite story to make that work.”
He added: “Now is the moment, in the biggest strike in 60 years, before AI has achieved takeoff, to negotiate the most aggressive protections possible for writers and actors from producers’ use of AI — negotiations now so that these tools are in the hands of artists and creators only and not the hands of producers trying to become Griffin Mill Robert Altman’s The Player.”
(That character famously said, “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we’ve got something here.”)
The idea of building intelligent characters isn’t new for Saatchi. In 2018, we discussed Fable Studio’s VR adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Wall, which centered on an interactive character named Lucy. Even then, he thought AI-powered beings were more intriguing than the notion of VR storytelling. Now, thanks to the proliferation of generative AI models, he can finally make that happen.
His goal with The Simulation is right there in the name: He wants to create simulations of characters living their lives in specific environments, similar to The Truman Show. That content could be cut down into episodic summaries with Showrunner AI. Like so many in the AI field, Saatchi eventually wants to build AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, “an AI that reaches and surpasses human intelligence and is, ultimately, a new lifeform.”
While many AI experts remain skeptical about the viability of AGI, Showrunner could still end up being a powerful tool. But of course, like any tool, it could end up being used for good or evil. Saatchi envisions it being helpful for creators to build their own shows without a huge budget, but he also admits it could be used by studios to “undermine artistic expression.”
After watching myself starring in a South Park episode, though, I’m more worried than hopeful. The tech isn’t perfect yet — my voice sometimes sounds overly robotic, and characters pronounce my name differently almost every time — but it’s close enough. Saatchi and his team, including the AI research Philipp Maas, who developed the South Park simulation, still preview every episode to ensure they make sense. But with no end in strike for the Hollywood union strikes, it’s hard not to imagine some studio looking at this tool as a potential savior.
“We aren’t releasing the Showrunner commercially and aren’t in talks with the South Park people (though we are with several studios about their IP, as well as creators to make original IP) but we used South Park only so that people have a comparison point between a super high quality human show and an AI show,” Saatchi said. “If the showrunner was ever released with the permission of an IP (letting fans create their own episodes) we believe all the revenue should go to the IP holders — these are just remixes after all!”
Currently, The Simulation is developing showrunners around other animated concepts, like a space exploration series, and a Silicon Valley satire dubbed “Exit Valley.” The technology can’t produce live action content yet. The company is also releasing a research paper explaining how its showrunner AI technology works, with the hopes of encouraging more AI workers to build on it.
The most striking thing about my South Park episode is that it actually feels like an episode of the show. Over the course of five minutes, I visited the local school, where all of the kids proceeded to make fun of me. One wisely lectured me about overhyping claims about the AI apocalypse, while I was also warning them to watch out for clickbait. By the end, I was eager to see more. And that was the most worrying thing of all.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-simulation-ai-put-me-in-a-south-park-episode-170002565.html?src=rss
