Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft’s latest entry in its long-running historical fiction franchise, is set to receive some big updates over the next few months as explained in a new content roadmap released on April 30. Suggested ReadingThe Week In Games: Pokémon With Guns And More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe Week In Games: Pokémon With Guns And More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishLast month, Assassin’s Creed Shadows launched to rave reviews from fans and critics. I called it one of the best games in the series and the best-looking open-world game I’ve ever played. Set in feudal Japan, Shadows quickly became the second best-selling game of the year so far. And now, after the dust has settled, Ubisoft has revealed a months-long roadmap that includes new features, quests, options, gear, and even big parkour improvements. UbisoftOn Wednesday, Ubisoft published a short video detailing all the upcoming content and updates planned for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Most of the updates will be completely free, including a planned series of regular “Story Drops” that will add new quests, abilities, and activities while also providing more backstory for fan-favorite side characters. The first one lands in early May. For fans of doing sick parkour leaps across buildings and up walls, Ubisoft is improving your parkour toolbox in a later May update that will add height-gaining back-ejects, fully re-animated height-gaining side-ejects, and a completely new parkour move called the Vertical Ledge Jump. This last one will let both characters jump straight up to grab low overhangs without needing a wall. Ubisoft also promises that “more little parkour tricks and improvements” will be added throughout 2025.Another part of Shadows’ roadmap is a series of community-focused updates adding content and options based directly on player feedback, including the ability to toggle different in-game filters on and off as well as certain visual effects and character headgear during cutscenes.Image: UbisoftUbisoft also says it has more surprises to reveal in the future and that this roadmap isn’t everything it has planned, but just the highlights that they wanted to let fans know about. Lastly, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will receive its first paid expansion—Claws Of Awaji—later this year, seemingly sometime after June. It will add a new region to the world as well as a new weapon for Naoi: A bow staff.That’s a lot of content and updates! It sounds like come this time next year—assuming Ubisoft sticks to this schedule—Asssassin’s Creed Shadows will be a much bigger and better game, which is impressive considering how excellent the game was at launch last month. .

“Are we there yet?” What parents wouldn’t give to banish this phrase forever from long car trips, or to have some peace and quiet when driving their family around day-to-day! This was the challenge a team of Valeo software engineers tackled when they developed Valeo Racer, which was unveiled for the first time at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas this year.Valeo Racer is an in-vehicle, extended reality (XR) game that combines the real-world driving environment and virtual 3D elements to create a unique and immersive experience. Passengers compete against each other, playing on their phones or tablets connected to the car’s WiFi. Players control their race car to get as many points as possible by collecting coins while avoiding obstacles, which includes the other real cars on the road.Valeo Racer is the first XR video game to combine live video, vehicle environment perception, and digital gaming elements. The infinite runner game is generated by a new software stack developed by Valeo. It uses the vehicle’s existing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), including cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors, as well as artificial intelligence perception algorithms to process the car’s real-time environment data through the Unity Runtime to generate game elements.Unity Runtime is a proprietary component of the Unity Engine that handles various critical components of the game, rendering high-performance graphics, managing user inputs and interactions, coordinating game components, supporting real-time physics simulation, animation, scripting languages, asset management, and networking – all on the end device. By using Runtime, Valeo was able to give passengers the option to to play a mixed reality game with real-time data harnessed from the car’s sensors on their phone or tablet connected with in-vehicle WiFi – and even compete against each other during trips.Why did an international automotive supplier develop Valeo Racer, beyond just the fun of the game? The automotive landscape is rapidly evolving, from electric vehicles and advanced autonomous functions, to reinventing the driver and passenger experience. In-vehicle entertainment has become an important element of enhancing the user experience.Valeo CTO Geoffrey Bouquot and Unity’s Nick Facey, managing producer for Unity Industry, got together with Elizabeth Hyman, president and CEO of XR Association, at SXSW for a fireside chat titled “Cruising with Augmented Reality: Exploring Entertainment in Autonomous Cars.”Bouquot insisted on the limitless possibilities using automotive sensors and software for applications beyond their primary functions.“By 2030, almost all cars will be equipped with cameras and other sensors. Together with the associated software, these technologies support safety, electrification, and sustainability in the next generations of mobility,” Bouquot said. “Beyond that, it offers a world of opportunities for other applications, such as gaming, education, and so much more. It’s exciting to explore these new frontiers with our partners in automotive, gaming, and other creative industries.”Facey added, “A lot of the focus has been on the driver, such as bringing car signals into better graphics engines, Unity being one of them. Today, we have really good graphics and real-time information going to the driver to make driving safer, better, more efficient. Now we’re bringing the passengers into that experience. This convergence of technology is almost always a good thing for consumers.”Valeo is a world leader in automotive sensors and cameras and has also been working with augmented reality for more than 20 years. The parking guidance displays that you see overlaid on your backup camera video feed and your car’s head-up display? Those are AR features developed by Valeo and already available on millions of vehicles. The company’s new XR software development kit will offer game developers the means to create new types of games that utilize a car’s existing onboard cameras, sensors, perception algorithms, and artificial intelligence to reimagine the in-vehicle gaming experience.“As the leader of the XR Association, the industry trade association for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, I'm always looking for opportunities to identify and showcase the latest advancements and use cases for immersive technology,” Hyman said. “While Valeo Racer is a gaming experience, it is also a platform that will inspire developers to create new products and experiences in a way that marries up the advancements of autonomous vehicles with immersive technology.”Valeo Racer is not a signal that the automotive tech company is entering the gaming space. Rather, it’s a demonstration of what Valeo’s XR software development kit could bring to the automotive industry, and it’s a proof of concept for a new type of in-car entertainment. As vehicles reach more advanced levels of autonomy, XR will offer even more opportunities to create new experiences for both passengers and drivers.Learn more about how Unity can help you with your XR project. Missed out on trying the Valeo Racer XR game at SXSW 2024? Here’s what a few people had to say about it.

Pinterest says it’s finally going to do something about the AI slop that’s taken over its platform. After an increasing volume of complaints, the social networking and image pinboarding site announced Wednesday a plan to begin labeling AI-generated and AI-modified images. It will also introduce a new option that allows users to reduce the number of generative AI Pins they see. The new features are an indication of how serious a threat generative AI is to platforms built on top of user-generated content, crowdsourcing, and social sharing. AI technology has made it possible for bad actors to flood these platforms with fake images that drown out the human-made content people came to see, devaluing the overall experience. AI-generated Pins and other low-quality AI content — often referred to as “AI slop” — have created a backlash among Pinterest’s loyal customer base. Now, Pinterest says it will help users more easily identify what’s AI and what’s not. When users click on an image Pin in closeup, they’ll see an “AI modified” label in the bottom left corner. The company says it will analyze the image’s metadata to help determine what’s AI, but has also developed its own system of classifiers that will automatically detect AI content that “doesn’t have obvious markers.” Creators will be able to appeal to Pinterest if their content gets labeled incorrectly, according to the company. Image Credits:Pinterest More importantly, Pinterest says it will give users more control over how much AI content they see in an upcoming feature. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW When launched, users will be able to select a “see fewer” option on Gen AI Pins in certain categories — like beauty and art — that are prone to being overrun with AI content. Over time, it will expand this option to other categories, as well. When available, the option will be found in the three-dot menu on the bottom right of a Pin. Clicking this will send a signal to Pinterest’s systems to recommend less AI content to the users, the company explains in a blog post. Pinterest didn’t say when the new control setting was launching — only that it was arriving “soon.” Image Credits:Pinterest For a site like Pinterest, which attracted users to browse and save aspirational images in areas like fashion, home decor, travel, art, recipes, DIY, beauty, parenting tips, and more, a deluge of AI content could actually kill the site. Some users have already declared the site dead due to the AI imagery that’s taken over. On Reddit, for instance, users have been protesting the encroachment of AI slop on Pinterest for months, noting a huge uptick in this low-value content. They say that AI images found their way across the site, whether they were browsing content, searching, or viewing board suggestions. The media also documented the decline in articles pondering if AI has already ruined the platform or if it can be fixed. Pinterest says it plans to introduce more tools in the months ahead to build upon its AI work, adding that it still believes Gen AI can be inspirational, when thoughtfully implemented. “As people encounter AI-generated content on Pinterest, we are empowering our users to make more informed choices about the content they see,” CTO Matt Madrigal said in a statement. “Gen AI content on Pinterest should enhance users’ ability to discover and act on their inspiration, and we are intentionally approaching this new landscape in a thoughtful way that benefits everyone on Pinterest.”

How University of Texas Medical Branch is using AI to identify patients at high cardiovascular risk, flag for stroke and catch 'basic stuff.'Read More

AI visionaries predict an 'Era of Experience' where AI learns autonomously, and it will have important implications for application design.Read More

Duolingo is “more than doubling” the number of courses it has available, a feat it says was only possible because it used generative AI to help create them in “less than a year.”The company said today that it’s launching 148 new language courses. “This launch makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – available to all 28 supported user interface (UI) languages, dramatically expanding learning options for over a billion potential learners worldwide,” the company writes. Duolingo says that building one new course historically has taken “years,” but the company was able to build this new suite of courses more quickly “through advances in generative AI, shared content systems, and internal tooling.” The new approach is internally called “shared content,” and the company says it allows employees to make a base course and quickly customize it for “dozens” of different languages.“Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we’re able to focus our expertise where it’s most impactful, ensuring every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,” Duolingo’s senior director of learning design, Jessie Becker, says in a statement.The announcement follows a recent memo sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to staff saying that the company would be “AI-first” and that it would “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.” AI use will now be evaluated during the hiring process and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that “headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.”“Our vision has always been to use technology to teach as well as a human tutor, and because of AI, that goal is within our reach for the first time ever,” spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions sent following von Ahn’s memo. “We’ve already been moving in this direction, and it has been game-changing for our company. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI, under the direction of our learning design experts. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses today.”Dalsimer says that Duolingo has been “using and testing AI for years” and that it “would not be rolling out new course content and this AI-first company strategy if we were not confident in AI.” Duolingo is also “constantly testing and improving our models” and has “systems in place” to ensure that output from AI meets its standards for course content and is aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a standard for language proficiency.Dalsimer says that “internally, many teams are already embracing and using AI in their work, and have been for years.” However, Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been “negative reactions” to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo has “no intention to reduce full-time headcount or hiring” and that “any changes to contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”See More:

Ce 29 avril 2025, Meta était au coeur des discussions. Et pour cause : la firme a tenu sa première conférence développeurs sur l'intelligence...

Blender 4.4 Is Here - Stunning Power…For Free!

Meta has spent the better part of a year integrating Meta AI with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and its other existing services, but hadn’t yet launched a standalone experience for Meta AI fans. That all changed yesterday at LlamaCon, the company's inaugural AI developer conference, when the company finally launched the Meta AI app.The new app is built with Meta's Llama 4 model. It's a full-fledged competitor to ChatGPT, which became the fastest-growing app in history after its launch.Already, AI enthusiasts are digging into the app to see what sets it apart from the competition. Per Meta’s press release, the big takeaway is personalization. Not only does the app integrate with your Facebook and Instagram accounts to give you more personalized responses, but it also has a memory feature, so it can reference past discussions and add more context to future ones. This isn’t necessarily unique to the Meta AI app since Grok also does this with people’s X accounts, and every other major AI chatbot has the memory feature. However, we would argue the ability to work with both Facebook and Instagram is fairly significant, considering their widespread popularity. That also gives Meta AI more potential data to draw from to make its answers more personalized.With that said, there’s more to the Meta AI app than just its personalization and memory capabilities, and some of those features are fairly unique to the Meta AI experience. So, after downloading and experimenting with the new Meta AI app, here are three big features to check out. A social Discover feed to give you ideas Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Meta Let’s start with the most obvious one, and that’s the Discover feed. Upon opening the app, you’ll be able to engage with it by tapping on the compass icon. It works almost exactly as you would expect. People use Meta AI to generate answers to questions, images, and other such things, and then those posts are shared to the feed for you to engage with.  Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! You can like, comment, or share anything you see there. A fourth button appears to load the same prompt into your own Meta AI conversation, so you can see what you get when you ask Meta AI the same question. During my testing, I saw someone post an image with the prompt “imagine me Miley Cyrus at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour.” The image it generated for me was different from the one in my Discover feed. Now, whether Meta's AI is supposed to be generating quasi-photorealistic images of public figures is another question entirely.Near as I can tell, the Discover feed has two important uses. The first is showing off what Meta AI can do while giving you yet another thing to doomscroll. The other is giving users fresh ideas on what they can ask Meta AI about. During my brief time on Discover, I found people asking about Mars colonization, what colors would work for their wardrobe, and loads of stuff about the Catholic Church in the wake of Pope Francis' passing. In short, it not only serves entertainment value, but also as an idea generator, especially when the next wave of AI trends hits the market.Hardware supportThe Meta AI app also supports the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. In fact, Meta is replacing the existing Meta View companion app with the Meta AI app, so this is the app you’ll need to use moving forward for your smart glasses. It’s easy enough to get to. Just open up the app and click the glasses icon to add your smart glasses, and then continue using them as normal from there. Per Meta, once you get everything synced up, you’ll be able to start a conversation on the glasses and continue it on the app. Chat history will also be accessible through the Meta AI app, and it’ll all be integrated with conversations you have on the app natively. Meta does note that you won’t be able to start a chat from the app and then continue on the glasses. Even so, OpenAI, xAI, and Google certainly don't have this type of hardware integration. Related Stories I don’t personally own a pair of the smart glasses, so there are likely some extra little things that I haven’t seen that Meta didn’t put in the press release. Even so, direct hardware support is something ChatGPT doesn’t boast. Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Meta Full-duplex Voice ModeThis one isn’t particularly new or unique, but it's the first such implementation for Meta’s AI. For the uninitiated, full-duplex voice mode describes the feature when you can chat with AI in real-time. You talk, it responds, you respond back, so on and so forth. A few AI chatbots have this feature already. Meta uses it differently, though. While you can still chat with Meta’s AI in both directions, full-duplex voice mode also changes how the AI talks back. It integrates natural human language, like pauses, along with filler words like “umm.” This is demonstrably different from how the AI typically talks to you, so it’s something different for people who want that. The app says that the feature is in beta and doesn’t use the most updated knowledge base like the regular AI voice, so you’ll likely get worse answers if you use it. Once it hits primetime, it’s a neat little addition. In the meantime, the regular AI voice has options for John Cena, Awkwafina, Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell. Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Meta

A Disney+ subscription is your ticket to the complete Star Wars franchise. This includes the original trilogy, prequel movies, and sequels, plus the standalone films. Want even more from the galaxy far away? Try original series like The Mandalorian, Andor, and Clone Wars. Andor season 2 hit the video-streaming service on April 22, with new episodes through May 13.It's never been easier to marathon the whole franchise, but before you press play on the first movie, it's important to decide your preferred viewing order. Do you start with the original trilogy or the prequel movies? What about the standalone films and the television shows? Whichever order you choose, here's how to watch.Theatrical Release OrderThe most obvious answer is theatrical release order, since this was what George Lucas originally intended. It starts with the original trilogy, then takes us back to the prequel movies, before finishing with Disney's sequel films. Following this order, you get Luke overcoming Darth Vader, Vader's origin story, and then Rey picking up the legacy Luke left behind. It can get a bit awkward if you add the standalone Star Wars films, since Rogue One and Solo would interrupt the sequel trilogy.If you're doing a re-watch and are interested in preserving the storyline of the core movies, just skip those two films. They have no impact on the overarching narrative, anyway. First-timers who want the full experience can certainly watch them in release order, or place the standalone films before or after the sequel trilogy. If you want to go by release order, your marathon should look like this:Chronological OrderGeorge Lucas had always intended for the original film to be a small part in a larger narrative. So just because it was the first to be released doesn't mean it's the start of the story. Instead of going with release order, you can also try chronological order, based on when the movies are supposed to take place. This would mean watching Episodes I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX in numerical order. If you're adding the standalone films, Rogue One and Solo can fit between Episodes III and IV, and it should work fine.However, since this order completely ruins the Darth Vader reveal in the original films, it's not advisable that anyone should watch these movies for the first time in this order. Watching Star Wars in chronological order is more of a fun experiment for longtime fans to see the series from a new perspective. If you were to watch the Star Wars films in chronological order, it would look like this: Machete OrderIf you've already experienced release and chronological order, there's another option to try: Machete Order. This order splits the difference and has you watch Episodes II and III between Episodes V and VI. You start with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, but then things get wonky. Just after Luke discovers the truth about Darth Vader, turn to the prequels as a flashback sequence. Watch Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith to witness how Anakin Skywalker was consumed by the Dark Side, before finishing with Return of the Jedi.The Machete Order cuts out Phantom Menace entirely, since almost everything in the movie is self-contained and has no effect on the other prequels. Qui-Gon Jinn plays no importance to the greater story. Midi-chlorians are barely mentioned again. You also basically avoid Jar Jar Binks entirely. It isn't perfect, though, so watch at your own risk.Recommended by Our EditorsIf you're not happy about removing Episode I and are also wondering where the sequel movies fit in here, the original creator of the Machete Order, Rod Hilton, suggests watching Episodes VII, VIII, and IX after the other movies. You can then treat Episode I as an anthology, like Rogue One and Solo. So if you go by the Machete Order, you would watch the movies as follows: Disney's Narrative TimelineBut what about the television shows? Star Wars has become more than just movies, with The Clone Wars, Rebels, Andor, and The Mandalorian taking over the conversation in recent years. While there's no specific watch order for all these different pieces of the Star Wars universe, Disney has released an official timeline.You probably assumed that The Clone Wars animated series takes place between Episodes II and III, but what about the others? According to Disney, Star Wars: Rebels is set before the events of A New Hope. The Mandalorian takes place after Return of the Jedi but before the Star Wars: Resistance animated series. If you happen to be crazy enough to watch every movie and show in chronological order, here's what that would look like: The AcolyteTales of the Jedi (set at various times from before Episode I, right up to Rebels)Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom MenaceStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the ClonesStar Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 film)Star Wars: The Clone WarsTales of the Empire (set at various times between Clone Wars and The Mandalorian)Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the SithThe Bad BatchSoloObi-Wan KenobiStar Wars: RebelsAndorRogue OneStar Wars Episode IV: A New HopeStar Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes BackStar Wars Episode VI: Return of the JediThe MandalorianThe Book of Boba FettAhsokaSkeleton CrewStar Wars: ResistanceStar Wars Episode VII: The Force AwakensStar Wars Episode VIII: The Last JediStar Wars Episode IX: The Rise of SkywalkerStar Wars: Visions (set at various points in the timeline)Star Wars VintageDisney may be pushing Star Wars TV hard, but it's not the first time the franchise has been on the small screen. Old TV movies and animated series were hard to find, until they were added to Disney+ under the Star Wars Vintage banner. While you still can't stream the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special in its entirety, a few classics have been made available to watch:The Story of the Faithful Wookie - The animated portion from the 1978 Holiday Special that introduced Boba Fett.Caravan of Courage - A 1984 made-for-TV film about two children who meet a band of Ewoks while searching for their missing parents.Ewoks: The Battle For Endor - The 1985 sequel to the first Ewok film, which sees a young child and her Ewok companions fight a group of invading marauders.EwoksStar Wars: Droids - An animated series starring R2-D2 and C-3PO that ran for one season in 1985.Star Wars: Clone Wars - An animated micro-series about the Clone Wars, created by Genndy Tartakovsky and lasting for three seasons between 2003 and 2005.Everything Still to ComeDisney has announced a million different Star Wars projects, but most of these productions have yet to surface. Rian Johnson, Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Donald Glover, and James Mangold have all been attached to films (or full trilogies) that have either floundered or are not yet officially announced. We know that Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian & Grogu film, which continues the story of The Mandalorian, is expected to release on May 22, 2026. It was also just announced that Shawn Levy will direct Ryan Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter, which is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker and expected to release on May 28, 2027.As for TV, Andor Season 2 debuted on April 22, with two additional episodes released each week until May 13. Tales of the Underworld is a new anthology of animated shorts that follows Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane during the Imperial Era, and will premiere in Fortnite, of all places, on May 2, 2025, before it debuts on Disney+ for May 4. Season 2 of Ahsoka is supposed to begin filming in April 2025, and Star Wars: Visions Season 3 has a 2025 release date.