While a movie based on Kojima Productions game Death Stranding is being produced by A24, few details about the adaptation have been revealed so far. On a new episode of his radio show Koji10, series creator Hideo Kojima has revealed that the movie adaptation will be “an unbelievable and strange film”. According to X user Genki_JPN, Kojima referred to director Michael Sarnoski as a nice person and the right director for the movie. He also said that Sarnoski isn’t like a typical Hollywood person. “He says Director Michael Sarnoski is smart, has good taste and is a very nice person so is happy he can direct the film,” posted Genki_JPN. “He says Michael properly played Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid 1 and was going to play MGS2 and MGS3 as well but Hideo Kojima stopped him. Hideo Kojima said he doesn’t seem like a typical Hollywood person.” For context, Michael Sarnoski was brought on to direct the A24 Death Stranding project earlier this month. Sarnoski has previously worked on quite a few movies, including A Quiet Place: Day One, Pig, and upcoming movie The Death of Robin Hood. Alongside Sarnoski, Lars Knudsen and Ari Aster’s Square Peg have also joined the team as co-producers for the movie. A24’s involvement in the production of the Death Stranding movie was revealed all the way back in 2023. A24 has a history of producing indie movies that manage to get quite a bit of critical acclaim. Some of the movies produced by the company include Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lady Bird, and The Whale. The company also has quite a few critically-acclaimed horror movies under its belt, such as Hereditary,The VVitch, and Midsommar. “A24 was born into this world about 10 years ago, their presence is singular within the industry, they are like no other. The films they are delivering to the world are high in quality and very innovative,” said Kojima when announcing the partnership with A24 for the movie. “I have been attracted to their creations and they have even inspired my own work. Their innovative approach to storytelling aligns with what Kojima Productions has been doing for the last 8 years. Now, we are making a Death Stranding movie together. There are a lot of ‘game adaptation films’ out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game. The intention is that our audience will not only be fans of the games, but our film will be for anyone who loves cinema. We are creating a Death Stranding universe that has never been seen before, achievable only through the medium of film, it will be born.” A report from back in 2023 also revealed that Kojima is taking a hands-on approach to the production of the Death Stranding movie. His involvement in the movie includes producing, supervising, plotting, look, design, and content. In the meantime, Kojima Productions is gearing up for the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The game, developed exclusively for the PS5, will be coming out on June 26. Hideo Kojima says the Death Stranding live-action film with A24 will be an unbelievable and strange film! via @koji10_tbs He says Director Michael Sarnoski is smart, has good taste and is a very nice person so is happy he can direct the film. He says Michael properly played… pic.twitter.com/pJXH3kMfMP— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) April 22, 2025

Live from TED2025 Unlimited imagination: The epic interstitials of TED2025 Posted by: TED Staff April 23, 2025 at 2:32 pm EDT The TED Theater during Session 2 of TED 2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 8, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, featuring Jungle’s music video for “Let’s Go Back,” directed by Charlie Di Placido. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED) The interstitials of TED2025: Humanity Reimagined helped answer the question: “What are humans for in the age of AI?” Showcasing the work of creatives from around the world, these shorts offered an uplifting and, at times, humorous response to anxieties around AI and the state of the world, highlighting how humans always find new ways to innovate, create and thrive. The following shorts were curated for TED2025 by TED producer CC Hutten in collaboration with Flux Festival creative director Jonathan Wells. OK Go — “Love” Directed by Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy, Miguel Espada The TED audience got an exclusive first look at OK Go’s brilliant new video the day before its public release. The intricately choreographed “Love” was filmed in a single continuous take (number 39) inside a historic train station in Budapest, using 29 robotic arms and 60 mirrors. “Submerged” Created by Jason Zada based on TED2025 audience prompts Jason Zada is an American filmmaker, creative technologist and creator of the viral “Elf Yourself” holiday season advertising campaign. In an inspired collaboration at TED2025, he took prompts from the audience to create this generative AI video. Featuring a sock with googly eyes, a beaver with a monocle and a steampunk futuristic world, this experiment shows that human creativity matched with AI can have wondrous results. “Ready/Not Ready” — An AI experiment for TED2025  Directed by Ari Kuschnir, founder of m ss ng p eces Ari and m ss ng peces have been connected to TED since 2007, when they were first invited to film and share TED with the world. This year, Ari was commissioned  to create one of his AI short experiments, and he chose to explore the question: “What would happen if an alien came to Earth now (and gave a TED Talk along the way)?” Jungle — “Let’s Go Back” Directed by Charlie Di Placido The official video for Jungle’s “Let’s Go Back” features some very real and very talented human dancers performing electric choreography.  “Tiny Pocket” Performed by Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren Elle Cordova is an American singer-songwriter, lead of the folk rock band Reina del Cid and a former TED speaker. In this short, she sings about the mystery of the tiny pocket on blue jeans, a question many of us might have pondered before. “The Drill” Created by the Dor Brothers Berlin-based AI video production company the Dor Brothers created a playful AI-generated music video starring some familiar faces. In all their work, the Dor Brothers aim to push the boundaries of AI art using recognizable public figures.  “Shackle” (excerpt) Written and directed by Ainslie Henderson A mesmerizing and intricate stop motion animation starring three adorable woodland sprites, this short film explores the very human reasons of why we create and who we create for. WWF — “In Hot Water” (excerpt) Directed by Yannis Konstantinidis, Agency/Production Co.: NOMINT Music: “No Surprises” by Radiohead NOMINT, an award-winning animation production company, delivers a stop motion film shot entirely on a thermal camera. Using Radiohead’s moving “No Surprises”, the short film highlights the urgency of our climate crisis. Coldplay — “We Pray” Various directors Taken from A Film For The Future, the 44-minute visual companion to Coldplay’s tenth studio album Moon Music. In the creation of their visual film, Coldplay also showcased collaboration with AI by partnering with Microsoft to launch an AI-powered remix experience, allowing fans to interact with the film. “Macro Pollock” Animated and directed by Phil Evans A short video showing artist Phil Evans’s unique works of art painted directly onto Super 8 film. Colorful, unique and a reminder of how many ways there are to create. Lawrence — “Whatcha Want (acoustic-ish)” Directed by Gracie Lawrence and Clyde Lawrence As the title suggests, this is an “acoustic-ish” live performance by the band Lawrence. With incredible vocals and wildly mood-lifting beats, this performance is a testament to the power of song. “Ideas Are Like Fish” — David Lynch animated tribute Created by Yuval Haker Animation: Arthur Guttilla & Zoë Kahana Sound design: Joe Basile Featuring an interview sound bite from American Film Institute A sweet animated ode to David Lynch and his incredible impact, featuring his own words on creativity and the true genesis of an idea.  Telefónica — “Neuron” Directed by Nicolás Méndez Production Company: CANADA Agency: &Rosas Beginning with the smallest example — a neuron reaching for connection — this beautiful short film tells a story of humanity, reminding us of the importance of maintaining and creating connections between people.  “Cats Working In The Forbidden City” (excerpt) Created by Ring Hyacinth and Simon Lee Have you ever wondered about a cat’s commute to work? This short film creates a whimsical alternate reality for the felines that inhabit the Forbidden City complex in Beijing, China. Ffern — “A Dance on Wild Ice” Directed by Sam Finney This scenic and breathtaking short was shot on 16mm at Whitegoat Lakes, to the north of Banff National Park. Featuring professional figure skaters Carlotta Edwards and Elladj Baldé, it’s a testament to human athleticism and artistry.  “We flow together like water” Created by James Gerde This animation created with the help of AI depicts characters made out of water enjoying a teeter totter, reminding us of our shared humanity.  “You can abuse a robot” Created by Dan Yang A humorous but timely question: How nice do we have to be to robots? Will we regret not being nice to robots while we still can? This short proves that laughter can be very thought-provoking.  Jeshi — “3210” Directed by Will Dohrn An ode to patience and craftsmanship, this short film is actually comprised of 4,000 photos. Featuring music by Jeshi, the video takes viewers on a strikingly smooth journey through captured movement.  ArtistsCAN — “Lean On Me” Conceptualized by musicians Tyler Shaw and Fefe Dobson Video produced by The Young Astronauts To celebrate the late singer-songwriter Bill Withers, an assembly of some of  Canada’s most influential artists came together to sing his song “Lean on Me.” Filmed during 2020, this short also raised donations to support the Canadian Red Cross and their COVID-19  initiatives. 

This month’s free learning content includes a crash course on making animation in UE, programming tutorials from Unreal Authorized Instructors, HMI design tips, and much more.

A U.K. Man Just Walked 53 Miles Wearing a Giant, Handmade Bird Costume. Here’s Why He Did It As he trekked across the English countryside, 46-year-old Matt Trevelyan caused quite a stir with his attention-grabbing outfit Trevelyan is a former puppet maker, so making the curlew costume was relatively easy for him. Tessa Bunney Residents of northern England did a double take when they spotted an unusually large bird wandering around the countryside last weekend. Measuring ten feet long from beak tip to tail, the enormous creature had a long, slender bill and big brown eyes. “We saw him pass by our field this morning,” one resident wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “Was a bit of a shock.” But the eye-catching bird wasn’t some new, super-sized species. It was a man dressed in costume, trekking conspicuously to raise awareness about the plight of one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic and threatened birds. Matt Trevelyan walked 53 miles in total along a route called the Nidderdale Way—all while wearing a handmade outfit designed to look like a Eurasian curlew, the largest wading bird in Europe. He spent three days creating the costume out of split bamboo, muslin and polystyrene. Trevelyan nicknamed his creation “Cathy.” On April 19, the 46-year-old set off on foot from Pateley Bridge, a small town in North Yorkshire, England. He walked 25 miles before calling it quits for the day. The next morning, he woke up and trekked another 28 miles, alternating between running and walking. He could see where he was going by looking through a peephole in the costume’s neck. “The costume was fairly easy to walk in,” he tells the Yorkshire Post’s Charlie Fenton. “As long as I pointed the beak in the correct direction and ducked underneath the occasional branch, I was fine.”Trevelyan works for Nidderdale National Landscape, a 233-square-mile protected natural area that’s similar to a national park. He supports farmers and landowners who live within the national landscape in his role as a “farming in protected landscapes” officer. Earlier in his career, however, he worked as a puppet maker, so constructing the costume was relatively easy for him. But Trevelyan wanted to make sure his life-sized curlew was perfect before setting off. “I wanted to represent curlews well, because they’re such a beautiful bird,” he tells BBC News’ Grace Wood and Kat Cowan. Trevelyan dreamed up the scheme as a way to call attention to the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata), which is threatened by land-use changes, habitat loss, predators and climate change. He was inspired by Mary Colwell, a conservationist and author who walked roughly 500 miles across the British Isles in 2016 to learn more and raise awareness about the curlew’s decline. Colwell wrote a book about her pilgrimage called Curlew Moon. She also formed Curlew Action, a charity that aims to protect the birds from extinction, and established World Curlew Day, held every year on April 21. Trevelyan timed his walk to align with World Curlew Day. Trevelyan walked 25 miles one day, then 28 miles the next—all while wearing the costume. Alex Ward Eurasian curlews are large, mottled brown birds with long legs and distinctive downward-curving beaks, which they use like tweezers to forage through mud for insects, worms, crustaceans and mollusks. Thousands of the leggy birds return to England’s moors and grasslands each spring to breed. But their eggs and hatchlings can get crushed by tractors; they’re also being eaten by foxes, crows and sheep. If young curlews cannot survive to reproductive age, conservationists fear there won’t be enough breeding birds to replenish the species’ numbers, which could cause the entire population to collapse. “We need something like 10,000 more curlews a year to become a sustainable population,” Trevelyan tells the Independent’s Bryony Gooch. “We need curlews to be fledging one chick every two years, and they lay four eggs a year that generally don’t fledge any chicks. … One chick every other year. That’s all we need to have a sustainable population, but we’re a long way off that.” Eurasian curlews are Europe's largest wading bird. Jo Wright Since 2015, the birds have been listed on the U.K.’s “red list” for threatened species of the highest conservation priority. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists them as “near threatened” throughout Europe. Over the last 25 years, the U.K.’s curlew population has declined by 48 percent, according to a recent statement from Nidderdale National Landscape. Ireland now has just 150 nesting pairs, down from 150,000 in the 1960s. And, in Wales, experts say breeding populations of the birds are on track to disappear entirely by 2033. But organizations like Nidderdale National Landscape are working to reverse the trend. With his attention-grabbing walk, Trevelyan also wanted to raise money for local curlew conservation projects and encourage residents to get involved in looking out for the birds. “Many farmers already take steps to protect nests—cutting around them, delaying mowing or checking fields for chicks,” Trevelyan says in the statement. “However, not all land managers are aware of the curlew’s red-listed status or what they can do to help.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Watch Wild Chimpanzees Share Alcoholic Fruit, a Behavior Just Captured on Video for the First Time Though the reason behind this action is unclear, researchers suggest socially consuming alcohol may have offered evolutionary benefits to a common ancestor of both humans and chimps For the first time known to scientists, a team has documented chimps sharing alcoholic fruit. Anna Bowland / Cantanhez Chimpanzee Project / University of Exeter For the first time, scientists have documented chimpanzees in the wild eating and sharing boozy, fermented fruit. The research team has tentatively compared the behavior to social drinking among humans, suggesting that alcohol consumption may have provided an evolutionary benefit for the common ancestor of our species and chimpanzees. They shared the new findings in a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology. While chimpanzees have previously been observed consuming alcohol and sharing food, this marks the first time scientists have documented it happening simultaneously, reports the Washington Post’s Leo Sands. Nevertheless, “we suspect that this isn’t a rare occurrence and that actually the sharing of fruit that have a level of alcohol is probably relatively widespread,” Anna Bowland, lead author of the study and an ecologist from the University of Exeter in England, tells the Washington Post. Bowland and her colleagues captured the footage by setting up motion-activated cameras in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa. The cameras filmed wild chimps sharing fermented African breadfruit ten separate times. The researchers tested the fruit’s alcohol content between April and July 2022, and they found that the highest quantity would correspond to 0.61 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) in a beverage. That’s a pretty low concentration—an average beer, for example, might be 5 percent ABV. But study co-author Kimberley Hockings, a researcher in ecology and conservation at the University of Exeter, says the chimps “can feed on kilograms of the stuff every day,” as reported by the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “It’s probably analogous to us sipping on a light beer.” Chimps Seen Sharing Boozy Fruit In The Wild For The First Time Watch on “For humans, we know that drinking alcohol leads to a release of dopamine and endorphins and resulting feelings of happiness and relaxation,” Bowland explains in a University of Exeter statement. “We also know that sharing alcohol—including through traditions such as feasting—helps to form and strengthen social bonds. So, now we know that wild chimpanzees are eating and sharing ethanolic [alcoholic] fruits, the question is: Could they be getting similar benefits?” Archaeological evidence of alcoholic beverages goes back thousands of years. If the observed behavior from the recent study does turn out to lend an evolutionary benefit to chimpanzees, it would suggest that both humans and chimps inherited a predisposition for social alcohol consumption from a common ancestor millions of years ago. “If chimpanzees do it and humans do it—and they are our nearest relatives—then the likelihood is, everybody in between did it, too,” Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at England’s University of Oxford who did not participate in the study, tells the Washington Post. “It’s much less likely that two closely related genera have evolved a capacity—even if it’s only a behavioral thing—independently of each other,” Dunbar adds. “It’s much more likely that it’s a common ancestral trait.” While the scientists admit further research is needed, their study indicates that the origins of “feasting” traditions could go back millions of years. Far from humans, however, chimpanzees are unlikely to get drunk, since that would threaten their chances of surviving in the wild. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More People can now natively incorporate Studio Ghibli-inspired pictures generated by ChatGPT into their businesses. OpenAI has added the model behind its wildly popular image generation tool, used in ChatGPT, to its API.  The gpt-image-1 model will allow developers and enterprises to “integrate high-quality, professional-grade image generation directly into their own tools and platforms.”  “The model’s versatility allows it to create images across diverse styles, faithfully follow custom guidelines, leverage world knowledge, and accurately render text — unlocking countless practical applications across multiple domains,” OpenAI said in a blog post.  Pricing for the API separates tokens for text and images. Text input tokens, or the prompt text, will cost $5 per 1 million tokens. Image input tokens will be $10 per million tokens, while image output tokens, or the generated image, will be a whopping $40 per million tokens.  Competitors like Stability AI offer a credit-based system for its API where one credit is equal to $0.01. Using its flagship Stable Image Ultra costs eight credits per generation. Google’s image generation model, Imagen, charges paying users $0.03 per image generated using the Gemini API. Image generation in one place OpenAI allowed ChatGPT users to generate and edit images directly on the chat interface in April, a few months after adding image generation into ChatGPT through the GPT-4o model.  The company said image generation in the chat platform “quickly became one of our most popular features.” OpenAI said over 130 million users have accessed the feature and created 700 million photos in the first week alone.  However, this popularity also presented OpenAI with some challenges. Social media users quickly discovered that they could prompt ChatGPT to generate images inspired by the Japanese animation juggernaut Studio Ghibli, and as a result, my social media feeds were filled with the same photos for the entire weekend. The trend prompted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to claim the company’s GPUs “are melting.”  OpenAI previously added its image model DALL-E 3 on ChatGPT. That model was a diffusion transformer model rather than the native multimodal understanding that GPT-4o has.  Enterprise use cases  Enterprises want the ability to generate images for their projects, and many don’t want to open a separate application to do so. By adding the image model to its API, OpenAI allows enterprises to connect gpt-image-1 to their own ecosystems.  OpenAI said it’s already seen several enterprises and startups use the model for creative projects, products and experiences, naming several well-known brands in its blog post.  Canva is reportedly exploring ways to integrate gpt-image-1 for its Canva AI and Magic Studio Tools. GoDaddy has already begun experimenting with image generation for customers to create their logos, and Airtable now enables enterprise marketing and creative teams to easily manage asset workflows at scale. OpenAI said gpt-image-1 will get the same safety guardrails on the API as in ChatGPT. The company said images generated with the model natively include metadata from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) that labels content as AI-generated and tracks ownership. OpenAI is part of C2PA’s steering committee.  Users can also control content moderation to generate images that best align with their brand.  OpenAI promised that it will not use customer API data, including any images uploaded or generated by gpt-image-1 to train its models.  Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Swissport ditches legacy tech, deploying a global, Zero Trust SASE architecture with Cato Networks securing 26,000 users, unlocking real-time control.Read More

Discord CEO and co-founder Jason Citron steps down "Building Discord over the last decade has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life," the departing CEO says News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on April 23, 2025 Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron has stepped down after a decade leading the gaming instant messaging and VoIP platform. Former King president and Activision Blizzard vice chairperson, Humam Sakhnini, will assume the CEO role from April 28, whilst Citron will remain on the board and "transition to a role as advisor to the CEO." Co-founder, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, will remain in his position as chief technology officer. "Building Discord over the last decade has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. From the very beginning, our mission has been about bringing people together around games," Citron said. "It's a mission I've dedicated my career to, and I'm confident that passing the torch to Humam is the right evolution for Discord's future. His deep gaming industry expertise and proven track record of scaling businesses while fostering genuine friendships through play and shared experiences positions us perfectly for our next phase of growth. I believe this transition will accelerate our momentum and unlock even greater possibilities for Discord, our consumers, partners, and the overall gaming ecosystem in the years ahead." "I'm incredibly excited to join Discord at such a pivotal moment. Discord stands as a massive, foundational part of the gaming ecosystem that millions of players, developers, and publishers rely on every day," Sakhnini added. "What Jason and Discord co-founder and CTO Stan Vishnevskiy have built is truly remarkable - a platform with an undeniable product-market fit where hundreds of millions of people connect around their passion for gaming and shared interests. I look forward to working with Stan and Discord's talented team to scale our business while staying true to the company's core mission and the special connection it has with player communities." Earlier this week, GamesIndustry.biz reported that Nintendo of America has requested a subpoena for online community platform Discord as it attempts to reveal the identity of the person behind October 2024's Pokémon "teraleak".

I find something weirdly captivating about tech products that come with transparent cases that let you see the works inside. We all know that there are all sorts of chips and wires in there that make the product do what it does, but unless we plan to break the thing open (and void the warranty), those items are usually hidden. If you also find this kind of thing fascinating, then Sharge’s charging gear might be right up your alley — and you may want to try out the Shargeek 170 Power Bank, which is currently available from Amazon (for Prime members) and Sharge for $99, a savings of a $100.Shargeek 170 power bank$99$19950% off$99A see-through case protects a 24,000mAh battery, 170W maximum output, and the ability to charge three devices simultaneously via a pair of 140W USB-C ports and a single USB-A port.$99 at Amazon (with Prime)$99 at SchargeThe Shargeek 170 doesn’t just look good, either. It features a 24,000mAh battery, 170W maximum output, and can charge three devices simultaneously via a pair of 140W USB-C ports and a single USB-A port. Meanwhile, a smart display keeps you up to date on recharging time and percentage, along with the Shargeek’s current output and input. The Verge’s Sean Hollister saw it at CES last year, and thought it looked “pretty sweet.” You might, too.RelatedMore sales to play and clean withA real classic, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now available, and if you’ve always wanted to try out the 20-year-old game — but were reluctant to use an old game on new tech — now is your chance. The remastered version features overhauled graphics optimized for modern hardware and includes both the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions. And it’s on sale at Fanatical: you can get the Standard PC version for $41.49 (about $9 off), while the Deluxe edition — which comes with new quests, a digital artbook, and a soundtrack app — can be had for $49.79 ($10 off).Let me be really honest here: I tend to eat at my desk a lot. That’s why my keyboard — and desktop — is often littered with crumbs, and why I could probably use something like the Hoto Compressed Air Capsule. The handheld vacuum cleaner provides 15,000Pa of suction power and includes five attachments, allowing it to handle crumbs, dust, and other detritus in tight corners. It can even be used to clean your coffee grinder! It’s now on sale at Amazon for $57.99 ($52 off), which, although not as low as its recent price of $31, is still a reasonable drop.If you’re in the market for the latest iPad with Apple’s A16 chip, the 11-inch base configuration is matching its all-time low of $319.99 at Amazon in blue and yellow, down around $29 from its usual price of $349. If color is important to you, you can also get it in silver for $327 and in pink for $339. Read our review.See More:

WhatsApp is launching a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature that aims to prevent people from taking conversations outside the app. When the setting is turned on, you can block others from exporting your chat history and automatically downloading photos and videos sent in the app. The feature will prevent people from using messages for Meta AI as well, which you can currently use to ask questions within a chat and generate images. By default, WhatsApp saves photos and videos in a chat to your phone’s local storage. It also lets you and your recipients export chats (with or without media) to your messages, email, or notes app. The Advanced Chat Privacy setting will prevent this in group and individual chats. This feature still doesn’t stop people from taking screenshots of your messages or manually downloading media from chats, WhatsApp spokesperson Zade Alsawah confirmed to The Verge. However, WhatsApp says this is its “first version” of the feature, and that it plans to add more protections down the line. “We think this feature is best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature,” WhatsApp says in its announcement. WABetaInfo first spotted this feature earlier this month, and now it’s rolling out to the latest version of the app. You can turn on the setting by tapping the name of your chat and selecting Advanced Chat Privacy. Update, April 23rd: Added information from WhatsApp.