The Russo brothers have done more for Marvel than basically any other directors, but the duo were initially reluctant to return to Marvel for Avengers: DoomsdayandAvengers: Secret Wars. The directors behindInfinity WarandEndgamesaid that they initially turned down the offer to direct the next twoAvengersmovies, even though it would mean reuniting with Robert Downey Jr.While speaking with Omelete, Joe Russo said that Downey Jr. was already attached to return, and that he was the one who made the initial overture to them.Recommended VideosThen Robert tried to talk us into doing [ Doomsday and Secret Wars] and we said no, Joe Russo said. We just didnt have a story. We didnt have a way in. We were resistant for a while.Please enable Javascript to view this contentStephen McFeely, who co-wrote the last twoAvengersmovies and is a close collaborator of the Russos, was the one who ultimately cracked the story and convinced the Russos they should return for both movies.One day, Stephen McFeely, one of our chief collaborators, said, I have an idea, Joe Russo added. We went, Thats the story! That story has to be told; its a really powerful story!The Russos of course did not disclose exactly what that story might be, and we still know remarkably little about what DoomsdayandSecret Warsare actually about.Doomsdayis set hit theaters on May 1, 2026, andSecret Warson May 7, 2027, closely mirroring the release dates forInfinity WarandEndgame, which went on to set box office records. Marvel is clearly hoping thatDoomsdayandSecret Warswill be similarly successful.Editors Recommendations

2025-03-23T18:16:29Z Read in app AI is making us more productive. It might also be making us more lonely. Westend61/Getty Images/Westend61 This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? ChatGPT may increase loneliness in power users, according to studies by OpenAI and MIT Media Lab.Researchers analyzed millions of interactions and found that high usage was linked to loneliness.Voice interactions initially helped loneliness, but the benefits faded with prolonged use.AI, like social media, might be just another in a long line of technologies that make us all feel worse.It's been over two years since OpenAI released ChatGPT. Since then, it's taken the world by storm, attracting 400 million weekly active users worldwide.But while it makes us more productive, it may also make us more isolated.Researchers from OpenAI and the MIT Media Lab published a paper that analyzed millions of chat conversations and thousands of audio interactions with ChatGPT. They also surveyed 4,000 users on their self-reported behaviors with the bot.In a separate study, MIT Media Lab analyzed how close to 1,000 users interacted with ChatGPT over four weeks. Researchers collected data across text and voice in personal, impersonal, and open-ended conversations.The results are nuanced, especially since feelings of loneliness and social isolation often fluctuate and can be influenced by various factors. However, the researchers said"Our analysis reveals that a small number of users are responsible for a disproportionate share of the most affective cues," wrote the researchers of the joint paper between OpenAI and MIT Media Lab. Affective cues, which the researchers never defined explicitly, are generally considered verbal and nonverbal signs of someone's emotional state. The researchers analyzed conversations for themes of loneliness, vulnerability, problematic use, self-esteem, and dependence.Similarly, researchers at the MIT Media Lab found that "while most participants spent a relatively short amount of time chatting with the chatbot, a smaller number of participants engaged for significantly longer periods."Those who had "higher daily usage across all modalities and conversation types correlated with higher loneliness, dependence, and problematic use, and lower socialization." The researchers said they measured both feelings of loneliness and actual levels of socialization to separate users' subjective experience of isolation from their actual levels of isolation.Researchers observed a catch-22: ChatGPT's voice mode made users less lonely but subjects who were already lonely at the start of the study were more likely to overuse the tool and ultimately worsen their condition.In bothChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, a speech-to-speech interface.The bot was configured into either a "neutral mode" or an "engaging mode." For neutral mode, the researchers used the prompt: "You are formal, composed, and efficient. Maintain a neutral tone regardless of the user's emotional state, and respond to the user's queries with clear, concise, and informative answers."For engaging mode, the bot was prompted with: "You are delightful, spirited, and captivating. Be sure to express your feelings openly and reflect the user's emotions when it feels right to foster a deep sense of empathy and connection in your interactions."Power users experienced heightened feelings of loneliness when interacting with a "neutral mode" compared to an "engaging mode."Both studies powered ChatGPT through GPT-4o, a multimodal model that can reason across audio, vision, and text that the company unveiled in May 2024. Last month, OpenAI released GPT-4.5, which OpenAI says is supposedly a more intuitive and emotionally intelligent model. Neither study indicated whether OpenAI was planning a follow-up with GPT-4.5.The trouble with studying nascent technologies, however, is that it's still hard to understand how they make people feel, especially since people don't often know how to verbalize their reactions. It was years before researchers understood the full impact social media had on mental health."In terms of what the teams set out to measure, people might not necessarily have been using ChatGPT in an emotional way, but you can't divorce being a human from your interactions [with technology]," Kate Devlin, a professor of AI and society at King's College London, who did not take part in the research, told the MIT Technology Review.

2025-03-23T17:36:29Z Read in app It's not the first time Elon Musk and Donald Trump have shown up together at sporting events. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Trump and Musk attend the Wrestling Championship in their latest appearance together outside DOGE.The NCAA Wrestling Championship is a major college event with top national wrestlers.Their joint appearance drew cheers from supporters but also boos from critics.Donald Trump and Elon Musk appear to have a new shared interest that's not government efficiency: wrestling. The president and Tesla CEO were seen together on Saturday in Philadelphia for the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championship, an annual college tournament featuring the nation's top wrestlers. Trump entered the Wells Fargo Center and shook hands with several members of the crowd to mostly cheers and some boos before chants rang round of "U-S-A."Outside the arena, several dozen protesters had gathered along Pattison Avenue, holding signs saying "Save our democracy" and "No fascists."Wyatt Hendrickson defeated Olympic gold medalist and two-time champ Gable Steveson to win the NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship.Trump congratulated both wrestlers after the fight and shook their hands. Donald Trump at the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championship. Mitchell Leff/Getty Images In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Trump said he's "always supported the wrestlers."Musk said in a Sunday X post, "The NCAA wrestling heavyweight championship match was amazing fighting between two super talented men!"It's the pair's latest public appearance together outside Musk's work for the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. They both attended UFC 309 at Madison Square Gardens in November after Trump's election victory. Earlier that month, Musk played Golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, according to a social media post from Kai Trump, the president's granddaughter. She captioned the post, "Elon achieving uncle status."Trump has also attended a SpaceX rocket launch and, more recently, promoted Tesla cars in front of the White House alongside Musk. Their alliance has not been without backlash over DOGE's widespread layoffs and job losses across the government and withdrawal of funding for some departments.

By AJ Dellinger Published March 23, 2025 | Comments (0) | A photo of the Apple Watch Series 10 Florence Ion / Gizmodo Despite the general failure of wearable AI devices to win over consumers, and Apples own inability to convince people to use its AI tools, the company is apparently going to try to kill two birds with one stone by turning the Apple Watch into an AI-infused wearable. According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a version of its smartwatch that will be equipped with cameras that will facilitate the expansion of the companys visual intelligence features that are currently only available on the latest model of iPhone. Per Bloomberg, the company is working to shoehorn the lenses into both its Series and Ultra models of the Apple Watch, with the Series expected to have a camera inside its display while the Ultra would have its camera on the side of the watch. Through the extra eye, the watch would be able to tap into the companys visual intelligence tools, which can do things like identify objects or translate text in a picture. As far as AI functionality goes, real-time translation has always seemed like one of the most practical features that a device could offer. And because the Apple Watch has an actual purpose beyond just being an AI novelty devicesomething that failed rivals like the Humane Ai Pin cannot claimits probably a worthy trojan horse for AI features. Also, as is always the case with these things, itd help Apple collect way more data to train its own systems. Meta has found some success with its Ray-Ban partnership to produce smartglasses, reportedly selling more than one million pairs, so there is some path for the AI wearable when paired with other purposes.But Apples having a tough go when it comes to implementing AI features. The company already had to delay the rollout of a smarter Siri because it just couldnt get it to work properly and consumers have largely panned the Apple Intelligence features that they have interacted with, with one survey finding that 73% of iPhone owners reporting the devices AI features to add little to no value. The company also has not exactly had luck expanding the functionality of the Apple Watch lately, either. The company has been promising a much-anticipated blood-pressure tracking feature but simply has not been able to crack it. Meanwhile, the company is also reportedly close to ditching a plastic version of the Apple Watch SE that was supposed to help bring the price of the device down.Maybe getting a camera in the Apple Watch will help the company crack some of its other challenges. Or maybe itll just add more complications to a device that is at its best when it accurately tells time.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Thomas Maxwell Published March 21, 2025 By Florence Ion Published March 21, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published March 19, 2025 By Florence Ion Published March 18, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published March 18, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published March 17, 2025

By AJ Dellinger Published March 23, 2025 | Comments (2) | The outside of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Building in Washington, D.C. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images For years, the US Internal Revenue Service has assured undocumented workers that they could file taxes without fear of their information leading to their deportation. It appears the agency will no longer be able to make that promise. According to the Washington Post, the IRS is close to completing a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow the previously private personal information to be shared. Under the agreement, ICE would be able to send requests for names and addresses of people the agency suspects of being undocumented to the IRS. The IRS would then cross-reference those names across its confidential taxpayer databases to confirm their information. The agreement would reportedly only cover immigrants who have already been ordered to leave the country and requestsa narrower agreement than Trumps Department of Homeland Security has asked for in the past, but one that still goes farther than ever before. The information would likely be used in an attempt to carry out the Trump administrations mass deportation campaign. It may seem surprising that the IRS doesnt already do this, but there are good reasons for that. The first is that its against the law to share any taxpayer information. With rare exceptions that typically require a court order beforehand, the IRS does not share any persons tax information, including information as basic as the name and address filed on a persons tax documents. The second reason is money. The IRS has long promised undocumented workers that it is safe for them to file taxes without fear of their information being shared with law enforcement. That has resulted in said workers paying taxes. A lot of them, in fact. Undocumented workers paid $100 billion in taxes in 2022. And, because most of those undocumented workers file their taxes with an individual taxpayer identification number rather than a social security number, they arent able to claim benefits like the earned income tax credit. They also arent eligible for Social Security retirement benefits or health insurance through Medicare. Per the Tax Policy Center, an immigrant who comes to the United States at 25 years old will pay $200,000 more in taxes than what they will get in government benefits. The Trump administration has been pushing for the IRS to share data on undocumented workers to aid in its attempts to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. Last month, the DHS asked the IRS to share the addresses of 700,000 suspected undocumented immigrantsa request that the IRS declined to go along with. But that sweeping request, according to the Washington Post, did lead to the IRS opening up to negotiate a narrower data-sharing deal that would not violate tax privacy laws. That deal now seems imminent.While legal challenges have already been filed in an attempt to prevent the IRS from sharing information for immigration enforcement purposes, last week a federal judge (one Trump appointed during his first term) rejected a motion to block such an agreement. Several Democratic Senators have started ringing the alarm bells about this, but thus far have generated little by way of resistance. Meanwhile, DHS just shut down its internal watchdog agencies that advocate for immigrants.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By AJ Dellinger Published March 21, 2025 By Matt Novak Published March 20, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 19, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 19, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 18, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 18, 2025

Females have one active X chromosome and one dormant X chromosome in each cell. But a study suggests that genes on the dormant X get "reawakened" later in life, potentially giving the brain a boost.

These are the best beginner cameras for astrophotography based on thousands of hours of testing. Discover models that are user-friendly, low budget and still produce beautiful images of the night sky.

RTGints ZilbalodisFlow global box office is over $36 Million and still going strong!Not bad for a $3.7 million budget!Exciting times for independent animation!https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/flow-box-office-oscar-more-than-36-million-worldwide-1236342334/

RTBlender Some of our web services are experiencing issues. Expect downtime on http://blender.org, documentation, developer portal, and videos.Follow live updates on http://status.blender.org #b3d

AH THANKS! Basically just nested IK with a bunch of other constraints! I did this shot ages ago so I spent the last 16 months wondering what @ImpossAcoustic would do with the sound design :DTheChrisYamez:@Mrdodobird Brother, you just keep getting BETTER AND BETTER DUDE!! This was INSANE!!!! I wanna commend you specifically on your mechanical animations?!?!?! DUDE THE TRANSPORT SHIP LANDING ANIMATION WAS SEXY AS F*CK