Kalakshar US

Last year, the most powerful geomagnetic storm in 20 years hit Earth. It produced stunning aurora displays in parts of the US that are normally too far south to see them. Normally, such storms are a headache for energy providers. In 1989, for example, the Canadian province of Québec suffered a nine-hour blackout following a series of plasma ejections from the Sun. This time around, power companies were better prepared, and in the US and Canada, there weren’t significant service disruptions.

The episode highlighted the value of proper preparation against geomagnetic storms, and for the past couple of years, NASA and IBM have been working to give the scientific community and others a better way to predict solar weather. Today, they’re releasing the result of their work, an open-source foundation model called Surya.

Named after the Sanskrit word for the Sun, Juan Bernabe-Moreno, director of IBM Research Europe, UK and Ireland, describes the system as an “AI telescope for the Sun.” IBM trained the model on nine years of high-resolution images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a satellite NASA has been using to study the Sun since 2010.

Effectively, Surya applies machine learning to solar image interpretation and forecasting, and the results are promising. In early testing, Bernabe-Moreno says IBM found the model was 16 percent more accurate at answering the question “will there be a solar flare in the next 24 hours?” than past systems. Additionally, the model can generate visual predictions of what the SDO might see ahead of time. So far, using data from the most recently completed solar cycle, IBM has found Surya can accurately predict what the sun will look like two hours ahead of time. “We’re exploring the accuracy of even longer lead time predictions,” Bernabe-Moreno told me.

Two hours might not seem like a lot, but according to Bernabe-Moreno, who previously worked at one of Europe’s largest energy companies, it could be a game changer for infrastructure providers, which have spent the last few decades building more responsive power grids. Moreover, Surya is a 366 million parameter model, meaning it’s light enough to run on less powerful hardware.

The irony of today’s announcement is that it demonstrates the value of NASA’s science team exactly at a time when its very existence is threatened. If you haven’t been following what’s been going on at the agency, President Trump plans to cut NASA’s science budget by nearly half. The Solar Dynamics Observatory would be among the missions affected by the proposed cuts. It won’t be cancelled like New Horizons and OSIRIS-APEX, but according to an analysis by The Planetary Society, the mission would have its operating budget slashed from $14 million annually to $8 million per year.

Policymakers from both parties have pushed back on the proposal, but with the Senate and House not yet in agreement on the agency’s 2026 operating budget, and the appropriations deadline quickly approaching, NASA’s fate is uncertain. Even if the cuts don’t go through, the agency is on track to lose close to 4,000 employees, or about 20 percent of its workforce, as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to trim the number of workers across the federal government.

Bernabe-Moreno says Surya wouldn’t have come together without NASA’s help. “From the very beginning, the science team at NASA have been informing us what the model should do, how to validate the model, and how to ensure it’s robust,” he said.

If there’s a silver lining to the funding situation, it’s that the science team’s work will live on. “The beauty of this model is that we created a capability — an AI platform, if you want,” said Bernabe-Moreno. “And this capability has applications beyond NASA.”

If you want to check out Surya for yourself, you can download the model from Hugging Face.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ibm-and-nasa-made-an-open-source-ai-model-for-predicting-solar-weather-130013974.html?src=rss 

Capcom’s Onimusha series has been on a long hiatus. Combining Resident Evil-style rendered backgrounds with more agile characters, adding in demons, magic and a feudal Japan setting, the series span multiple sequels — and consoles — til the fourth entry in 2006.

Roughly two decades (and console eras) later, Capcom has returned to the series, even getting the definitive samurai actor, Tom Cruise Mifune Toshiro, to play the hero, the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. At Gamescom, the company is now demoing an early slice of Way of the Sword, which covers most (but not all) of the game shown at SGF 2025 just a few months ago.

It’s an interesting time to return to the samurai-meets-demonic-threat universe of Onimusha, following a sudden boom in games tapping into feudal Japan. Most recently, the latest Assassin’s Creed was set there, while, Sony’s upcoming Ghost of Yotei (not to mention its predecessor) both tap bushido and swordplay in historical Japan.

While I played through the demo, I made a lot of mental comparisons to Sekiro – a game that’s now several years old and still unbeaten by me. Onimusha draws together similar themes of demon forces run amok, but has a more forgiving approach. Gameplay centers around blocks and parries, plus weak and strong attacks, all while pulling in orbs dropped by dying enemies that act as the game’s currency. (Health orbs are also dropped by certain foes.)

The Oni gauntlet that absorbs these souls can also be used to see invisible demons and unlock areas that are spiritually blocked. It’ll also act like a sort-of demonic movie projector, showing what happened during the demon invasion in the area.

Early enemies were predictably sluggish demon swordsmen and archers, getting me back up to speed with how Onimusha fights play out. Even if it predictably looks lightyears ahead of its predecessors, Way of the Sword doesn’t reinvent how you cut up these demon hordes.

In comparison to other action games, guarding seems very forgiving. You can hold the guard button down, and it’ll block basic projectiles and melee attacks from all directions I spent some time leaning into exhausting stamina gauges, timing parries for one-hit Issen critical attack and batting away arrows back where they came from.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s satisfying and fun, but I’m itching to see how the series will build on what’s pretty basic attack flow. Musashi had acccess to a dual-short sword special attack, Two Celestials, that barrages the enemy with attacks and tops up his health levels. 

This suggests more special attacks and magical flourishes should open up later in the game. The preview during SGF 2025 also showed ways to utilize the environment for defensive attacks, holding up wooden boards to block arrows, for instance, although that didn’t trigger during my playthrough.

The highlight of the demo was a confrontation with Musashi’s rival, Ganryu Sasaki. He’s great villain fodder — and has also been somehow gifted his own Oni gauntlet. The duel was the only time I felt under threat during the demo, and even then, I didn’t die once. There’s enough of a health meter to test yourself against Sasaki’s lavish sword attacks and lunges. Once you wear down more powerful enemies, you can make a single, concentrated attack to either glean more orbs from them or hit for heavy-duty damage.

The early taste of Way of the Sword is a fun, easy romp, so I’m curious to see how Capcom evolves the formula of Onimusha — and where the true challenges might lie.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is set to be released in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/onimusha-way-of-the-sword-might-be-a-more-forgiving-kind-of-samurai-epic-110020221.html?src=rss 

On Tuesday, Meta rolled out its new voice dubbing feature globally. The Reels feature uses generative AI to translate your voice, with optional lip-syncing. Mark Zuckerberg first previewed the feature at Meta Connect 2024.

At launch, the translations are only available for English to Spanish (and vice versa). The company says more languages will arrive later. At least at first, it’s restricted to Facebook creators with 1,000+ followers. However, anyone with a public Instagram account can use it.

The tool trains on your original voice and generates a translated audio track to match your tone. The lip-syncing add-on then matches your mouth’s movements to the translated speech. The demo clip the company showed last year was spot-on — eerily so.

To use the feature, choose the “Translate your voice with Meta AI” option before publishing a reel. That’s also where you can choose to add lip syncing. There’s an option to review the AI-translated version before publishing. Viewers will see a pop-up noting that it’s an AI translation.

Meta says the feature works best for face-to-camera videos. The company recommends avoiding covering your mouth or including excessive background music. It works for up to two speakers, but it’s best to avoid overlapping your speech.

The company frames the feature as a way for creators to expand their audiences beyond their native tongues. As such, it included a by-language performance tracker, so you can see how well it’s doing in each language.

YouTube launched a similar feature last year. Apple has gotten in on the action, too: Messages, Phone and FaceTime apps have live translation tools in iOS 26.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-ai-voice-translation-feature-rolls-out-globally-200945034.html?src=rss