Apple's Mac mini is on sale this weekend, with current and closeout deals dropping models down to as low as $359.99.Mac mini prices have fallen to as low as $359.99.Kicking off the sale is a blowout special on the last-gen M2 Mac mini, which in refurbished condition is down to $359.99 for the 8GB RAM/256GB SSD spec at Stack Social. Or you can get the 512GB version for $60 more, with Stack's $459.99 deal.Buy M2 from $360 Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Located on a narrow plot in Asunción, Paraguay, a residence defined by its boundary-blurring form and brick composition stands. Image: Federico CairoliDesigned by local studio Equipo de Arquitectura, Intermediate House stands out through its functional flexibility and use of local materials. The architects set out to create a fluid space with natural sunlight, cross ventilation, and a close relationship with nature.  Image: Federico CairoliThe approximately 1,237-square-foot home comprises two blocks divided by a central, outdoor courtyard. Image: Federico CairoliOne block features an open-air entrance space, while the other block located deeper on the site hosts the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Image: Federico CairoliImage: Federico CairoliGlass doors make it possible to close off the back block from the courtyard. Additionally, sliding wooden slats are included to separate the living room from the bedroom. At the rear of the house lies another garden, which can be accessed t...

Roaming Ezo, now known as Hokkaido in Japan, and hunting her family’s killers is quite the task for Ghost of Yōtei’s protagonist, Atsu. While she has some familiar tools like the grappling hook and katana, the latest trailer for the open-world sequel to Ghost of Tsushima showcased more new weapons. There’s the kusarigama, though we didn’t see its chain in action, and the spear, known as the yari, for long-rang stabbing. This is in addition to dual-wielding swords, the odachi and firearms. And while co-creative director Nate Fox says they have the “benefit of gunpowder being part of the combat mix,” the katana is still the focus. “While the Katana is still the most valuable weapon, having some more opportunities to blow things up is never a bad addition for a video game,” he told Variety in a new interview. Co-creative director Jason Connell added, “We’ve teased the kusarigama, and obviously, she’s got two swords, so there’s a cool dual-wielding element there. In this trailer, there’s a frame towards the end where you get to see a spear, which is called a yari. Being able to play with such a different variety of weapons is so new for the game’s feel. Each one of them has their own benefits.” Of course, they exist for more than just gameplay variety. Fox noted how “Mastering a weapon is part of the feeling of samurai cinema. Becoming a master of that blade is integral to it. But we wanted to give players an even bigger connection to the weapons and the land. “So inside of Ezo, you can find teachers who will teach you how to use that weapon in a very organic way that you might see inside these films. So you get to experience what it’s like to grow as a martial artist along with Atsu.” When asked if any particular piece of samurai cinema influenced the title, Fox pointed to Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. “‘Yojimbo‘ by Akira Kurosawa is very, very big in both of our minds as being this tonal jumping-off point for what it’s like to be a wandering sellsword, which Atsu is.” Launching on October 2nd, Ghost of Yōtei will be available for PS5 at $69.99. Head here to learn more about the world design, which Sucker Punch refers to as its “most open” ever.

Authorities Snipe Hundreds of Koalas From Helicopters in Controversial ‘Aerial Cull’ in Australia Between 600 and 700 of the marsupials were killed from the air, likely for the first time in the country’s history. Officials say the decision, which has prompted backlash, was made to minimize the animals’ suffering after a bushfire Officials say they made the decision to euthanize hundreds of koalas for the creatures' welfare after a bushfire in Victoria. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images Authorities in Australia are facing backlash after euthanizing hundreds of koalas by shooting them from helicopters. Government officials have killed between 600 and 700 koalas in Budj Bim National Park in southwest Victoria, reports Yahoo News Australia’s Michael Dahlstrom. They say they culled the animals because they were suffering as a result of a recent bushfire that swept through the national park in early March, after a lightning strike ignited the landscape. But critics argue that the koalas’ plight was exacerbated by decades of habitat mismanagement. Many koalas endured injuries, burns and smoke inhalation in the blaze, which burned approximately 5,436 acres, according to government officials. In addition, the fire destroyed a swath of manna gum trees, which are a primary source of food for the animals. The area is also experiencing a drought. Based on these factors, authorities say they determined that many koalas living in the national park needed to be euthanized for their welfare. They say they worked with a veterinarian, animal welfare experts and wildlife caretakers to make the decision. “The options were to just leave them to deteriorate or take proactive steps to reduce suffering by using aerial assessments,” says James Todd, the chief biodiversity officer for Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, to the Guardian’s Petra Stock. Authorities chose to kill the koalas by shooting them from helicopters after determining other methods were not feasible or appropriate. The area has rugged terrain, and the animals live high in the trees, which made it nearly impossible to reach them on foot. Officials were also concerned about the risks of falling trees after the fire. During an initial trial of the aerial culling method, a veterinarian studied the bodies of the euthanized koalas and confirmed they were in bad shape before their deaths. Authorities also determined during the test that aerial shooting was accurate and humane, per the Guardian. This marks the first time aerial culling has been used to euthanize koalas in Victoria, and it is likely also a first in all of Australia. “That decision [to perform aerial culling] is not taken lightly and we understand the optics of that,” Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne’s Justin Smith. Wildlife experts and advocates are divided on whether aerial culling was the right thing to do. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images Authorities in helicopters assessed roughly 2,200 koalas individually using binoculars. They were able to fly within roughly 100 feet of the marsupials, Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “What we found … is that a lot of animals are not reacting at all to the aircraft,” Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “They’re showing lots of signs of burnt and singed fur. They’ve got brown, scruffy and matted fur, or missing fur. And they’ve got high levels of kinda non-traditional behavior. So, there were lots of koalas, for example, clustered in trees that have no canopy, and they’re very close to each other. So, all that is saying is that those animals are in a very poor state of health and prolonging their suffering will only just lead to more animal welfare issues.” But critics question whether aerial culling was the right choice. They wonder why government officials didn’t make more of an effort to rescue the koalas, and they’re concerned about the possibility that baby koalas—joeys—are now orphaned and fending for themselves. They also suspect that some of the koalas may have endured even more suffering if they were injured but not killed in the culling. Wildlife advocates also argue that looking at a koala through binoculars is not a reliable way to understand the creature’s health and well-being. “Blood tests need to be taken … they need to be weighed—that is how koalas need to be assessed before they’re euthanized,” Jess Robertson, president of the nonprofit Koala Alliance, tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “There is no way they could tell whether a koala is in a poor condition from a helicopter, and there’s no way that they can ensure that’s actually going to kill the koala, either.” Writing in the Conversation, University of Melbourne legal scholars Liz Hicks and Ashleigh Best raise the question of why Victoria officials didn’t deliver supplementary food, in the form of fresh gum leaves, to the national park while the forests recovered from the blaze. “The state government should take steps to avoid tragic incidents like this from happening again,” they write. However, given the extent of the fire’s devastation and the koalas’ injuries, some experts believe the government did the right thing. “They made the right call,” writes Desley Whisson, a wildlife ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, in a post on LinkedIn. “A call that was politically costly, and one they surely knew would spark backlash. But it was an act of mercy.” Koalas are listed as endangered in some parts of Australia but not others. They are protected in the states of New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. But in the southern states of South Australia and Victoria, officials say they are grappling with an overabundance of the marsupials. They say these large populations are harming the environment by over-browsing certain trees; the animals also face problems like low genetic diversity and disease. But wildlife advocates argue southern koalas do not have enough habitat because the government has allowed too much land to be cleared for logging and development. Victoria has more than 450,000 koalas, reports BBC Wildlife Magazine’s James Fair. In recent years, koalas living in the state have been gravitating toward commercial blue gum eucalyptus plantations for food. But when the plantations are harvested every 14 years, their resident koalas have few places left to go. Many end up crowding into Budj Bim National Park, which makes the impact of bushfires even worse. Spots like the national park are known as “habitat islands,” and they can easily become overpopulated, per the Conversation. The aerial culling incident is “just another one in the long line of mismanagement of the species and its habitat,” says Rolf Schlagloth, an ecologist at CQUniversity Australia, to Vox’s Benji Jones. “We can’t eliminate bushfires altogether, but more continuous, healthy forests can assist in reducing the risk and severity of fires,” he adds. “Koala habitat needs to be extensive and connected and the management of blue gum plantations needs to consider the koala as these trees are very attractive to them.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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Switch 2 publishers quietly step away from "real" physical game carts | Opinion Many Switch 2 launch titles will appear on Nintendo’s new game-key cards, which look like real cartridges but contain no software – how consumers will respond to them remains to be seen. Image credit: Nintendo Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on April 25, 2025 With pre-orders for the Switch 2 finally open in most major markets, most of the attention this week has been focused on questions of launch supply and demand – with the basic assessment being that demand is sky-high despite the widespread grumbling about the price, while supply is clearly going to be heavily constrained for quite some time. In the US, where feared price bumps due to tariffs have seemingly been limited to accessory prices (for now, at least), major retailers sold out of their pre-order allocations within minutes, widespread technical problems notwithstanding; in Japan, more than two million people reportedly entered a pre-order lottery for the system. A summer (and likely autumn, and winter) of empty shelves and price-inflating scalpers seems a near-certainty at this point – prepare for an unwelcome sense of déjà vu throwbacks to the PS5’s torrid launch year. In the midst of the excitement over the pre-orders and nervous speculation about the impact of tariffs, something that has slid a little bit under the radar is a curious little wrinkle concerning a large swathe of the third-party software being launched with the Switch 2. Quite a few of those games appeared in retail listings alongside the pre-orders, which revealed that many publishers have opted to ship their software using Nintendo's new "game-key cards" rather than conventional game cartridges. The decision making on this seems a little arbitrary in places, with some games seemingly shipping on game-key cards in certain territories and real cartridges in others, but the overwhelming trend among third-party publishers seems to be towards preferring game-key cards. In Japan, for example, almost every third-party game announced thus far is launching as a game-key card. Switch 2 was a perfect example case for the media to use to demonstrate the impact of tariffs on consumers In essence, what this means is that when you buy a physical Switch 2 game from a third-party publisher, you're most likely not going to get an actual game in the box. The game-key card is a new idea Nintendo has introduced for this console, seemingly in response to complaints from publishers about the high cost of manufacturing cartridges for the original Switch. It looks like a conventional Switch 2 cart, and it plugs into the console in the same way, but it only stores a license key for the software, not a copy of the game itself. To actually play the game, you’ll have to connect to the Internet and download it to the console’s own storage. Image credit: Square Enix When the existence of this option was first mentioned, the suggestion appeared to be that this would be a "third way" for publishers to launch physical versions of games that would otherwise have been digital-only. In a sense it’s an evolution of a system Nintendo has been using for years in Japan – game cards for popular titles are sold in stores around the country, but contain just a plastic card with an e-Shop code on it rather than an actual game cartridge. The benefit is that it allows people to buy digital games and give them to others as gifts, or to buy games without needing a credit card. The downside, of course, is that these games remain purely digital, the physical card component being useless once the code is redeemed. Game-key cards are an improvement on this in key ways, offering some of the advantages of physical games. They're just as portable as physical games, meaning that owners can lend or resell them freely, which is a major consideration for many consumers (and especially for younger gamers who are perhaps the most likely to be the recipients of games as gifts). In other respects, however, these are still digital titles masquerading as physical games. It's impossible to play them without going online for a very large download (which is going to cause immense disappointment for anyone buying one of these games before a long flight, for example), and since they aren't stored on the game card itself, management of your console's storage remains a major headache. There’s also a reasonable if quite distant concern over persistence of access. At some point, based on past form and hopefully a very long way down the line, Nintendo is likely going to announce that it's ending online service support for Switch 2 consoles, and these game-key cards are going to become useless wafers of plastic and silicon trash, while "real" game cartridges remain playable. "This is a change being driven by more fundamental economic factors, and few publishers will be willing to pass up the chance to save such a large chunk of costs in getting a game to market." If game-key cards were just replacing the e-Shop codes sold in convenience stores all around Japan, that would barely merit a mention – but from the launch details that have emerged, it's clear that many publishers are actually treating them as the default way to release games on the Switch 2. While disappointing, this is not surprising. The other major advantage of the key-cards, of course, is that they're significantly cheaper than actual game cartridges, which reportedly run publishers around $15 in manufacturing costs due to the Switch 2's requirement for high-spec flash memory. Image credit: Capcom The risk of these being subject to tariffs will also be weighing on some publishers' minds, but the decision to switch to key-cards clearly predates the tariff situation and applies far outside the United States. This is a change being driven by more fundamental economic factors, and few publishers will be willing to pass up the chance to save such a large chunk of costs in getting a game to market. This situation is far from the biggest concern for Switch 2 as its launch approaches, but it does threaten to add quite an unpleasant wrinkle to the experience of using the console. Physical games will essentially become a two-tier experience: there will be games that you buy and can play instantly as soon as you insert them into the console, which is the real promise of a cartridge-based system, and then there will be games that you insert and are instead confronted with a long download time and the need to free up space on your device. Nintendo's packaging does at least label the game-key cards very clearly, but many consumers are unlikely to know what that actually means – especially those buying games as gifts for grandchildren, for example. One could argue that this is just Nintendo's user experience moving into line with what has been the norm on other systems for many years. After all, when you buy a physical game for your PS5, there's generally a long installation process (because Blu-ray drives aren’t actually fast enough to run games from) and a large download to wait for (because modern games are never actually finished when they’re sent off to manufacturing). This was deeply unpopular when it first became the norm but consumers quickly got used to it, even though it undermines a major part of the console user experience and value proposition. Switch 2 users will no doubt get used to a similar process, but publishers weighing up the pros and cons of game-key cards should be aware of how much the game-key card erodes one of the key differentiators of the Switch platform and should not kid themselves about the likelihood that this is creating a two-tiered perception of games on the system. If the game-key card icon comes to be seen as a red flag for shovelware, the cost savings associated with it may be a pyrrhic victory indeed.

Google is rolling out Gmail updates for mobile users across Android and iOS, with some design updates and new access to AI features. Android tablet and foldable owners will have a more flexible Gmail app interface that lets them drag the divider to adjust the list and conversation panes to whatever size they want in landscape view. You can also drag the divider all the way to one side to switch to a single pane view if preferred. The update is rolling out now for Workspace and personal accounts. Google is also pushing a Material Design 3 update to Gmail on iOS that puts it in parity with the Android and redesigned web versions, including the pill-shaped buttons on the bottom and a rounded search bar on top. The update is rolling out now to both Workspace and personal accounts. Additionally, Google Calendar on iOS will now let you create and modify birthday events like you already can on Android. Finally, Gemini’s image generator is coming to the Gmail app sidebar on both Android and iOS for Workspace users. Like in Google’s Workspace apps on the web, you can generate images within the Gmail app and then save them, copy them, or insert them directly into your email draft.

Recent advancements in multimodal AI have highlighted a persistent challenge: achieving strong specialized reasoning capabilities while preserving generalization across diverse tasks. “Slow-thinking” models such as OpenAI-o1 and Gemini-Thinking have made strides in deliberate analytical reasoning but often exhibit compromised performance on general visual understanding tasks, with increased tendencies toward visual hallucinations. As the field progresses toward building general-purpose AI systems, reconciling this tradeoff remains a critical research problem. Skywork AI Introduces Skywork R1V2 Skywork AI has released Skywork R1V2, a next-generation multimodal reasoning model designed to address the reasoning-generalization tradeoff systematically. Building upon the foundation of Skywork R1V, R1V2 introduces a hybrid reinforcement learning framework, combining reward-model guidance with structured rule-based signals. The model bypasses the conventional reliance on teacher-student distillation by learning directly from multimodal interactions, offering an open and reproducible advancement through its release on Hugging Face. Technical Approach and Innovations Skywork R1V2 incorporates Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) alongside a Selective Sample Buffer (SSB) to enhance training stability and efficiency. GRPO enables relative evaluation among candidate responses within the same query group, but convergence issues can diminish effective learning signals. The SSB mechanism addresses this by maintaining a cache of informative samples, ensuring continuous access to high-value gradients. Additionally, the model adopts a Mixed Preference Optimization (MPO) strategy, integrating reward-model-based preferences with rule-based constraints. This hybrid optimization allows Skywork R1V2 to strengthen step-by-step reasoning quality while maintaining consistency in general perception tasks. A modular training approach, utilizing lightweight adapters between a frozen Intern ViT-6B vision encoder and a pretrained language model, preserves the language model’s reasoning capabilities while optimizing cross-modal alignment efficiently. Empirical Results and Analysis Skywork R1V2 demonstrates robust performance across a range of reasoning and multimodal benchmarks. On text reasoning tasks, the model achieves 78.9% on AIME2024, 63.6% on LiveCodeBench, 73.2% on LiveBench, 82.9% on IFEVAL, and 66.3% on BFCL. These results represent significant improvements over Skywork R1V1 and are competitive with substantially larger models, such as Deepseek R1 (671B parameters). In multimodal evaluation, R1V2 achieves 73.6% on MMMU, 74.0% on MathVista, 62.6% on OlympiadBench, 49.0% on MathVision, and 52.0% on MMMU-Pro. The model consistently outperforms open-source baselines of comparable or larger size, including Qwen2.5-VL-72B and QvQ-Preview-72B, particularly excelling in tasks that require structured problem-solving across visual and textual inputs. When compared against proprietary models, R1V2 demonstrates narrowing performance gaps. It surpasses Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Gemini 2 Flash on critical multimodal benchmarks such as MMMU and MathVista. Importantly, hallucination rates were substantially reduced to 8.7% through calibrated reinforcement strategies, maintaining factual integrity alongside complex reasoning. Qualitative assessments further illustrate R1V2’s systematic problem-solving approach, with the model demonstrating methodical decomposition and verification behaviors in complex scientific and mathematical tasks, reinforcing its alignment with reflective cognitive patterns. Conclusion Skywork R1V2 advances the state of multimodal reasoning through a carefully designed hybrid reinforcement learning framework. By addressing the vanishing advantages problem with the Selective Sample Buffer and balancing optimization signals through Mixed Preference Optimization, the model achieves notable improvements in both specialized reasoning tasks and general multimodal understanding. With benchmark-leading performances such as 62.6% on OlympiadBench and 73.6% on MMMU, Skywork R1V2 establishes a strong open-source baseline. Its design principles and training methodology offer a pragmatic approach toward developing robust, efficient multimodal AI systems. Future directions for Skywork AI include enhancing general visual understanding capabilities while preserving the sophisticated reasoning foundations laid by R1V2. Check out the Paper and Model on HuggingFace. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Channel and LinkedIn Group. Don’t Forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. Sana HassanSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions.Sana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Microsoft Research Introduces MMInference to Accelerate Pre-filling for Long-Context Vision-Language ModelsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Meet Rowboat: An Open-Source IDE for Building Complex Multi-Agent SystemsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/A New Citibank Report/Guide Shares How Agentic AI Will Reshape Finance with Autonomous Analysis and Intelligent AutomationSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Sequential-NIAH: A Benchmark for Evaluating LLMs in Extracting Sequential Information from Long Texts

Latest   Machine Learning The Future of Work: How Microsoft 365 Office Solutions Are Evolving with AI Integration 0 like April 25, 2025 Share this post Last Updated on April 25, 2025 by Editorial Team Author(s): Sefali Warner Originally published on Towards AI. The Future of Work: How Microsoft 365 Office Solutions Are Evolving with AI Integration Image by author The future of work is upon us, and one of the key driving forces behind this transformation is artificial intelligence (AI). As businesses evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital landscape, AI significantly reshapes how we work. Among the tools that are leading this revolution is Microsoft 365. Known for its robust suite of productivity tools, Microsoft 365 is evolving in ways that integrate AI to enhance user experiences, improve efficiency, and enable better collaboration. In this post, we’ll look at how Microsoft 365 Office solutions are evolving with AI integration and what that means for the future of work. AI Integration: A Paradigm Shift for Productivity Microsoft 365 has been synonymous with essential office productivity tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. These tools have been at the heart of business operations across industries. However, as businesses strive for greater efficiency, AI becomes increasingly integrated into these tools, making them smarter and more intuitive. AI is shifting the focus from manual processes to automation, from static tools to dynamic, adaptive systems that learn from user behaviour. In this new world of AI-enhanced productivity, Microsoft 365 is not just a set of static tools; it’s an evolving platform designed to adapt to the needs of users and businesses alike. 1. AI in Word: Smarter Document Creation and Editing One of the most significant innovations in Microsoft 365’s AI integration can be seen in Word. Traditionally, Word was known for its word processing features, but with AI, it is transforming into a smarter, more helpful tool for document creation and editing. The AI-powered “Editor” tool in Word helps users improve the quality of their writing by providing advanced grammar, punctuation, and style suggestions. It goes beyond basic spellcheck to offer suggestions for improving readability, tone, and clarity. The AI even considers the context of the writing, offering personalized recommendations to fit the tone and style of the document. For example, if you’re writing a professional email or a report, Word’s AI can ensure that your language is appropriate for the audience, enhancing your communication efficiency. Moreover, AI assists with summarizing long documents, highlighting key points, and even generating suggestions for content based on the initial context. These capabilities free up valuable time, enabling users to focus on creativity and strategic tasks instead of manual revisions. 2. AI in Excel: Accelerating Data Analysis and Decision-Making Excel has always been the go-to tool for data analysis, and its power has only increased with AI integration. Microsoft 365 brings intelligent automation to Excel, allowing users to analyze data faster and more accurately. One of the standout features is “Ideas,” an AI-powered tool that automatically analyzes data and generates insights, trends, and visualizations. Whether you’re working with sales data, financial reports, or customer information, Ideas helps users uncover valuable insights in just a few clicks. It highlights key trends, outliers, and correlations, reducing the need for complex formulae and manual data manipulation. The “Analyze Data” feature also allows users to input natural language queries, such as “What are the sales trends in the last quarter?” and Excel will instantly respond with relevant data visualizations. This capability empowers businesses to make informed, data-driven decisions quickly without spending hours sorting through rows and columns of data. 3. PowerPoint: Designing Smarter Presentations with AI PowerPoint has been the go-to tool for creating presentations for decades, but AI integration is taking presentations to the next level. AI is helping users design visually appealing slides and improve their delivery and impact. The “Design Ideas” feature in PowerPoint uses AI to automatically suggest slide layouts and design elements based on the content of your presentation. This eliminates the need for users to manually adjust formatting, ensuring that presentations are visually appealing and professional-looking. The tool considers best practices in design to recommend layouts that enhance the presentation’s clarity and impact. AI in PowerPoint is also revolutionizing presentation delivery. The “Presenter Coach” feature uses AI to analyze pacing, tone, and filler words during practice. It offers feedback on speech rate, use of filler words, and tone, enabling presenters to refine their delivery for greater engagement. Whether you’re preparing for a board meeting or a client pitch, these AI-driven features make it easier to create and present compelling slideshows. 4. Teams: The Hub for AI-Enhanced Collaboration Microsoft Teams has quickly become the central hub for communication and collaboration in the modern workplace. By integrating AI, Teams is revolutionizing how teams work together, whether in the same office or across the globe. One of the key AI features in Teams is the integration of Cortana, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Cortana helps users by scheduling meetings, sending reminders, and organizing tasks. It can also answer queries and summarize meeting discussions, making it easier for teams to stay on top of their schedules and tasks. AI also enhances collaboration by improving accessibility. Real-time transcription and translation of meetings help ensure that all team members, regardless of language or hearing ability, can participate fully in discussions. This is especially important in global teams, where communication barriers can be challenging. With AI, Teams is breaking down these barriers and ensuring that collaboration is seamless and inclusive. 5. Cloud AI: Scalable Solutions for a Hybrid Workforce The cloud further enhances the integration of AI within Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure provides scalable computing power that ensures AI features are accessible to businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. As businesses adopt hybrid work models, the flexibility and scalability offered by Microsoft’s cloud-powered AI tools are crucial. Teams can access their work, data, and AI-driven insights from anywhere, ensuring that productivity remains high regardless of location. Whether employees work from home, in the office, or on the go, cloud-based AI ensures that tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams are always available and ready to enhance productivity. Moreover, cloud AI makes it easier for businesses to scale their operations. With virtually limitless resources available, companies can grow without worrying about hardware limitations. AI in the cloud can automatically adjust resources based on demand, ensuring that performance remains optimal even as the company’s needs evolve. The Future of AI in Microsoft 365 As AI technology advances, the future of Microsoft 365 looks promising. We can expect even more personalized experiences as AI better understands individual users’ needs and preferences. AI may anticipate what users need before they ask, proactively suggesting tasks, automating processes, and even drafting documents based on the user’s previous work. Additionally, integrating AI with Microsoft 365 will continue to enhance collaboration. As remote work becomes more widespread, AI-powered tools will help businesses maintain smooth communication and foster innovation, regardless of physical location. Features like real-time language translation, intelligent meeting summaries, and automated task assignments will ensure that teams remain productive, creative, and cohesive. Conclusion AI is shaping the future of work, and Microsoft 365 is at the forefront of this transformation. By integrating AI into its suite of productivity tools, many MS 365 Partners now offer Microsoft Consulting with smarter, more efficient, and more collaborative ways. You can easily reach out to a Microsoft 365 Consultant in the US and get a Free Online Consultation today. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect Microsoft 365 to offer even more innovative features that will empower users, streamline workflows, and drive business success. In the future, AI will not just be a tool — it will be a co-worker, helping businesses adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the modern workplace. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

Video game adaptations seem to be the trend of the hour. Just this month we’ve had A Minecraft Movie, the Devil May Cry anime, and the ongoing The Last of Us Season 2. Now we're getting the movie inspired by Sony's 2015 survival horror game Until Dawn. I remember Until Dawn releasing at the height of the YouTube “Let’s Play” era and was a game that was as much fun to watch other people play as it was to play yourself. The game featured high-quality cinematics, in-game choices with real consequences and, most importantly, some pretty darn good jumpscares. It’s not worth talking too much more about the original game because the movie seems to take inspiration mostly from the name and not much else. IGN’s Until Dawn review says it "shares a title and some key details with the game that inspired it, though it mostly tries to do its own thing – to mixed results.” Still, curiosity and a general love of horror is enough for me to still be interested. If you’re planning to watch Until Dawn in theaters or want a sense of how long you’ll have to wait until it’s available to stream, check out the details below. PlayHow to Watch Until Dawn Until Dawn just released in theaters on Friday, April 25. You can check for showtimes near you at the main theater links below: Until Dawn Streaming Release Date Until Dawn will eventually stream on Netflix, which has a licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recent Sony movies, like Venom: The Last Dance and Saturday Night, landed on Netflix exactly four months after their initial release dates. Assuming this same trend holds, Until Dawn will be available to stream on Netflix around August 25. What About VOD? Until Dawn will be available through digital marketplaces like Prime Video before it comes to streaming. VOD release dates vary, often based on box office performance, but generally shorter theatrical release windows mean Until Dawn could be available to rent by the end of May. What Is Until Dawn About? While the Until Dawn movie is technically inspired by the 2014 survival horror game, it features different characters and a standalone storyline. Here's the movie's official synopsis: "One year after her sister disappeared, Clover and her friends head to the remote valley where she vanished to search for answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they soon encounter a masked killer who murders them one by one. However, when they mysteriously wake up at the beginning of the same night, they're forced to relive the terror over and over again."From IGN’s Review of the Original Until Dawn Game: "At its best, Until Dawn is a gleefully cheesy homage to horror movies, set in a world built by a developer that clearly adores the genre. Although its thrills are tempered by a lack of story cohesion, its robust choice-and-consequence system and keen eye on horror’s most ridiculous tropes makes Until Dawn ultimately worth playing."Until Dawn Cast and CharactersThe Until Dawn movie was written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler and directed by David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation). The movie stars the following cast: Ella Rubin as CloverMichael Cimino as MaxOdessa A'zion as NinaJi-young Yoo as MeganBelmont Cameli as AbelMaia Mitchell as MelaniePeter Stormare as HillUntil Dawn Rating and Runtime Until Dawn is Rated R for bloody horror violence, disturbing/grisly images, brief strong language, and sexual material. The movie runs for a total of one hour and 43 minutes.