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AI is coming for us all. Writers, doctors and artists among many others all stand to have their livelihoods decimated by artificial intelligence. And the next potential victim? The Son of God.Peters Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland, recently unveiled Deus in machina, an experimental art installation that features an AI version of Jesus in the confessional booth, according to its website.Videos by VICEThe church has encouraged visitors to share their thoughts and questions with AI Jesus, though it clarified that this shouldnt be considered the Sacrament of Confession.AI Jesus, whose likeness appears on a screen in the confessional, may create a sacred moment, the church said. Peters Chapel added that the installation is meant to encourage visitors to think critically about the limits of technology in the context of religion.A recent video released by German media out Deutsche Welle took viewers inside the unlikely experience. When the reporter entered the confessional, AI Jesus warned, Do not disclose personal information under any circumstances. Use this service at your own risk. Press the button if you accept.Do People Like AI Jesus?About two-thirds of participants told the outlet that they came out of the tech-assisted confessional having had a spiritual experience.He was able to reaffirm me in my ways of going about things, one woman said. And he helped me with questions I had, like how I can help other people understand Him better and come closer to Him.I was surprised. It was so easy, another woman remarked. Though its a machine, it gave me so much advice, also from a Christian point of view. I felt taken care of and I walked out really consoled.Another person told the outlet that AI Jesus, who speaks 100 languages, gave a great answer to their question about being rational and faithful, while another man dubbed the experience a gimmick for sure.Why Turn to AI for Religion?Marco Schmid, a theologian at Peters Chapel, explained why he agreed to give AI Jesus a try.What were doing here is an experiment, Schmid said. We wanted to launch the discussion by letting people have a very concrete experience with AI. That way, we have a foundation for talking about it and discussing it with one another.He also pointed out the practical benefits of AI Jesus, noting, [Hes accessible] 24 hours a day, so has abilities that pastors dont.While ethics Professor Peter Kirchschlger told the outlet that the project goes too far, he agreed that it provides food for thought.We should be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care, when finding meaning in religion, he warned. Thats an area where we humans are actually vastly superior to machines, so we should do these things ourselves.

Rich ininspirationPath of Exile 2 has many inspirations from Elden Ring to Civilization 5, according to game directorIn a roundtable interview with press, Jonathan Rogers reveals some of the game's inspirations.Image credit: VG247 News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 21, 2024 According to Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers the game has a wealth of inspirations from across the video game landscape, including Elden Ring and the wider action genre for its boss fights, and Civilization V for its end-game map.Revealed during an end game presentation, and elaborated on in a press roundtable, the topic first popped up following a story boss fight in which the player character faces off against a massive construct with over a dozen unique attacks and various phases. When asked about wider inspirations in a roubtable press interview following the presentation, Rogers stated the following.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Honestly it would be very hard for me to come up with just one game, becauase we get inspired [a lot] and there are random influences everywhere. The in-game map, right? The thing I said to the artists is that I want it to look like Civiliation V! These are things you wouldn't usually expect to influence an ARPG. We take inspiration from everywhere, and it's hard to even nail down the list.""Obviously, recent action games because it was approaching the combat stuff that we were doing, stuff like Elden Ring. I kind of play jsut about every type of genre of video game, I'm not locked into just ARPGs. But I think probably, strangely enough single player action games are probably my favourite genre.""It's really what I love, so those types of games are what I take a lot of inspiration from in terms of boss design and stuff like that. We really want the bosses in PoE 2 are world class as far as action games go. There's lots of interesting mechanics, a lot of abilties, and it takes a lot of work to make a boss like that. In PoE 2 we also have to take into consideration dodge rolling right? So there are more action game type considerations you have to make. We have to be an action game and a stat game at the same time, which is quite tricky."We noted the merit behind PoE 2's boss design in our preview of the game, which you can read in full here. Path of Exile 2 is set to launch on December 6, on PC and console. Read this next

Another PathPath of Exile 2 is a deep, dark, dastardly ARPG that's got what it takes to transcend even the original - hands-on previewI came away from my time with PoE 2 with an urgent sense to play more.Image credit: Grinding Gear Games Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 21, 2024 There are some games, really good games, which are time vampires. They entice you with engaging gameplay, snatch your gaze with beautiful visuals, and trap you in a vice of challenging fights you don't want to give up on.Having played around seven hours of Path of Exile 2 during a preview event - all the way through Act 1 of the campaign and a good way into Act 2 - it's clear to me that this game is the Nosferatu of hour-eaters. The great weekend devourer. I look towards its December 6 release date and know I am screwed. You certainly are, too. Sorry.What Grinding Gear Games has done here is taken the ever-excellent Path of Exile 1 and refined it into a greater, more modern monster. Don't panic! The complexity is still there in spades, as is the challenge. Rather than dilute the sauce, it's a gorgeous revolution of the original. Easier to pick up, but begging to be experimented with. Full of surprises, too - even for those familiar with the team's work.You're thinking maybe you'll be fine, but you won't be. Path of Exile 2 has 12 classes: all very different from each other and with a frankly absurd level of skill customisation which all but confirms that my playstyle and yours will be entirely different. Eat your heart out, Diablo.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This is true even if we play the same base class, by the way. My Warrior could be all about his totems, popping them up and using them to detonate the ground around them in vast AOE clears. Yours might be a fire-centric warrior, using war crys to ignite enemies and enhance their attacks. Maybe you'll grab a unique weapon that boosts bleed attacks? Well, then you can reset everything and build your character around it to superb results. Add on top of this support gems and the legendarily enormous passive skill tree...building a character in Path of Exile 2 is like thrifting for clothes, you could come across a shirt or jacket that totally flips your outfit on its head.This on its own is similar to what Path of Exile 1 offers. The key difference for me is the improved new-player experience when it comes to scaling the daunting wall of complexity that surrounds this series. The Path of Exile 2 approach offers a path to the top of that wall. Any active or support skill gems you get offer you a selection that's broken down into classic and weapon type. You can, if you're more experienced, venture away from the standard options presented to you. But what this approach offers is a streamlined avenue through the games' systems. This way, once a player reaches the end of the campaign, they'll understand how everything works. No lengthy guides needed! It's not hard to get a decent character working here, which is good for the newbies! | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesIf that's the meat and gristle of the game, where do you take all these skills and intricacies to? Well, you take it to the homes of a honestly absurd variety of monsters, ghouls, freaks, and horrors in invigorating combat. It's all well and good writing about how much you can tweak your abilities in Path of Exile 2, but such praise would matter little if these skills flopped about limp and unimpressive. I'm happy to write that nothing could be further from reality. Your attacks erupt outward in VFX-laden blasts and brutal blows that send enemies flying, or scattered and gory.Path of Exile 1 has taken significant steps towards improving the overall combat experience in recent years, but I feel Path of Exile 2 has leaped forward into an exciting direct. No part of the game exemplifies this more than the boss fights. Not just end-of-act bosses either, regular bosses you find all over the gaff. Various phases, heaps of attacks, and very eager to slap you dead. This is a good thing! You shouldn't have to wait until the end game to have to lock in. It's also worth noting that it's incredibly easy to feel radically powerful in PoE2. | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesAs for other notable perks? The tone of this game is extraordinary. Even in Act 1, the various biomes are distinct in nature, so much so that I never got bored of a particular zone nor enemy type. It helps that there are a frankly absurd number of enemies present! Rarely will you see repeated use of foes across your journey through the campaign - a fact which applies to bosses too! Each zone is a fresh slate, a fresh challenge to confront. All these zones share a dread, a malaise. You follow the path of the antagonists and they leave a poison in their wake, one that flavours the entire experience.These zones too are dotted with surprises. Those bosses I mentioned earlier aren't throwaway damage sponges but real, interesting fights. I came across a boss called Crowbell around half way through Act 1. This was a three-phase fight that navigated the map, one with a unique model and attacks. This fight, which could well have ended a side-quest or have acted as a mini-boss with narrative ties, was just left for me to discover. A genuine surprise, and a pleasant one.There's a lot of Path of Exile 2 I didn't see. I only saw a bit of Act 2, but none of Act 3. I haven't had hands-on with the end-game, but have seen how it works through a pre-play presentation. Even so, I can't help but sit here and feel a surge of excitement around Path of Exile 2. It really does feel like a sequel in the truest sense of the word, improving where it can and maintaining the foundation where it's stable. I would recommend it to everyone with a love of ARPGs to try it out next month, and anyone with even a vague taste for a deep, dark, dastardly game you can really sink your teeth into.Path of Exile 2 releases on December 6 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. We accessed Path of Exile 2 via a dedicated Grinding Gear Games preview event, with travel assistance provided by the developer.

Or just misunderstood?It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the Nintendo DS launched, yet here we are. It's been even longer since it was revealed too, with the newly-appointed VP of sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aim taking to the stage at E3 2004 to showcase Nintendo's vision for the future of handheld gaming.We know now, of course, that the console clutched in Reggie's hands was a mere prototype. At the time, however, as far as many prospective customers were concerned, this was it. This was going to be the Nintendo DS that would wind up in millions of homes across the globe.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Upgrade your Switch's storage.Black Friday doesn't officially kick off until Friday 29th November, but that hasn't stopped the likes of Amazon and even Nintendo itself from starting the party early.If you've been hoovering up games left, right and centre in Nintendo's eShop sales (US here, UK here), you'll probably be on the lookout for a bigger microSD card to help you store them all. Thankfully, the best early gaming Black Friday deals just so happen to be within that very category.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

In BriefPosted:4:22 PM PST November 21, 2024Image Credits:Manabu Takahashi / Getty ImagesAmerican Airlines is deploying new tech to shame boarding line cuttersAmerican Airlines has a new tactic for shaming boarding line cutters: A loud beeper.CNBC reports that the airline is rolling out a system that emits two loud beeps when a traveler tries to get on an airplane before their boarding group is called.As of Wednesday, the new tech was in over 100 airports around the U.S. following tests at Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Tucson International Airport.CNBC notes that other airlines have experimented with less, well, audible ways to prevent gate crowding, which can interfere with the boarding process for flyers who pay a premium to get seated early. United, for example, texts customers when its time to board, provides a countdown-to-boarding clock via its iOS app, and has digital signs showing which boarding group has been called. Topics

In BriefPosted:3:30 PM PST November 21, 2024Image Credits:Daniel Mihailescu / AFP / Getty ImagesHackers break into Andrew Tates online university, steal user data and flood chats with emojisHackers have breached an online course founded by ostensible influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, leaking data on close to 800,000 users, including thousands of email addresses and private user chat logs.The Daily Dot, which broke the news Thursday, reported that the hackers accessed the user data, then flooded the online courses chatroom with emojis that included a transgender flag, a feminist fist, an AI-generated image of Tate draped in a rainbow flag, another where his buttocks are enlarged, among others.The hacktivists provided the hacked data on the courses users to The Daily Dot, which handed the records to data breach notification site Have I Been Pwned, and DDoSecrets, a nonprofit collective that stores leaked datasets in the public interest.Per the BBC, Tate remains under house arrest in Romania awaiting trial on charges on allegations of human trafficking and rape.Topics

The Creative Spirit of the WorkWhere aesthetics and real-world decision-making meet is where vehicle concept design thrives and brings into view a creation.UK-based vehicle concept designer Chris Beatty has been working in the industry for 25 years and, as such, has brought significant experience to bear on his tutorial for The Gnomon Workshop.Our conversation begins with Chris reflecting on his creative practice and professional profile, explaining that he works predominantly around Vehicle styling and a lot of work around motorsport. Thats always been my passion. Im a designer and a 3D artist, so there are two elements to that: One is the design itself, which led me to The Gnomon Workshop. In my work, I get involved with companies like Indycar in America and design for the Indy500. For my work with Indycar, I was responsible for steering the aesthetic of that vehicle and that was really about repurposing an old car, giving it a new body and making it look more grand.0:00 /0:24Chris Beatty's 'Race Vehicle Concept Design' Workshop shows his complete Blender, Photoshop, Illustrator & After Effects workflow. Creating a Gnomon Workshop TutorialIn his recent collaboration with The Gnomon Workshop, delivering a race vehicle concept-design tutorial, Chris recalls: My involvement came out of nowhere. Dan Hale at Gnomon Workshop reached out to me and said, Ive seen your stuff on social media, and with the work youve done on the racing side of things, we want to do a workshop on vehicle design. What can we come up with for that? And so, we talked about various ideas. First, we looked at doing a racing car and then decided on doing a flying vehicle. The Gnomon Workshop wanted a road-going thing, so we came up with the idea of a race bike and what we could do to make that more unique. The idea was that it would be canopied, that it would work with gyros, and that it would have some Tron-like wheels. That element of uniqueness would differentiate it from what was out there on the track in reality. We wanted something from 20 years ahead.Exploring Creative IterationsChris is keen to emphasize that the creative process and its demands, opportunities, and iterations were at the heart of his tutorial for The Gnomon Workshop. I was given a blank sheet of paper to develop the design and take students through my process, warts and all. There are some screw-ups in there, and I talk about what was wrong with them and how wed either do them again in the future or how wed fix them. I really wanted to give the students that view on it. My session for The Gnomon Workshop was effectively live and was focused on me trying to figure out what this thing was going to look like. For instance, we did the frame in one session, but it just didnt look good enough so I cut and I just said, Ive done a new frame. Heres what Ive done. I explained that a key part of the design process is making mistakes, improving on them, and progressing; its not about having a perfect run-through to the end it just doesnt work like that. I wanted to engage the students in a mindset where its okay to experiment and not get it right the first time.0:00 /0:05Watch how Chris Beatty designed this futuristic-yet-realistic machine in his 'Race Vehicle Concept Design' Workshop available now at thegnomonworkshop.com.Chris further discusses how his tutorial for The Gnomon Workshop was about embracing revisions to a piece of work to find its best version. Chris says, I come back to some of the stuff thats available online: I get the impression that its very linear: Its very much a start to finish with no mistakes approach. I wanted the takeaway from my class to be that in the real world, thats not how it works. Something will throw a spanner in the works, so you have to innovate to overcome that rather than prescribe something. I didnt want to go into software specifics as I wanted it to be more about the process. When you look at software specifics, youre narrowing down who can get anything from this. Ill be using Blender, and someone else will use Maya, for example. It was more about This is my process of how I create and how I get to this end result, and its not always pretty the whole way through. It doesnt have to be. It doesnt have to be about amazing presentation-renders at different stages. Its about getting from here to here with the minimal amount of kerfuffle, but there will always be bits in there that you have to untie and untangle. I talk a lot about what the client will bring back to you in terms of their feedback and criticism and how to steer that. Its a team effort and a collaboration. Chris BeattyEngaging with FeedbackIn discussing his career and its day-to-day requirements and how that relates to his Gnomon Workshop tutorial Chris notes how he wanted the session to acknowledge the importance of feedback in a creative collaboration: I talk a lot about what the client will bring back to you in terms of their feedback and criticism and how to steer that. Its a team effort and a collaboration. With The Gnomon Workshop tutorial, I had to provide that assessment of where it was going and in the conclusion to my session, I said that it had made me look at where I could improve. Because you dont often record yourself and commentate over the top of it and analyze what youre doing, it was fascinating to do that with The Gnomon Workshop. This is the first tutorial Ive ever done, so for me, it was a learning experience. If people like it, maybe theres scope to do more.'Velocity' concept design by Chris Beatty showing the canopy removed.Theory & Practice in Motion: Learning from TeachingChris turns his observations to the creative scope that his Gnomon Workshop tutorial offered him, explaining that: When I did the project for The Gnomon Workshop, it gave me a bit more free rein than I normally would have on this sort of thing: I could inject a little bit of sci-fi into it, and that was interesting because Im usually working with something thats already in existence in terms of the engineering side of it. Usually, its already been worked out, and everything has to fit on this chassis, that wheelbase, or whatever it happens to be. The Gnomon Workshop was good fun from that standpoint, and I tried to bring some real-world experience into that tutorial in terms of the way that the bike was made up. It had a chassis that would probably work, but an engineer would probably look at it and ask, What the hell are you doing ? But, from a laymans standpoint, it was a feasible frame. You then get to that point where youve worked out the volume, and what Ill tend to do is bring it into drawing software and just draw over the top of it and draw in the little details and see what is going to work and what isnt going to work. Ill then pull them into 3D and model them in detail because you can render a rough form and smooth it off. Its a bit rough and ready, but, again, you can put stuff in front of a client and say, Is this what youre thinking? without taking it too far and committing too early on.Striking a balance between whats practically feasible and what the imagination suggests is a fundamental dynamic in Chriss work, and he observes that I tend to take a less-is-more approach to what Im doing and not to overcomplicate or over-style things. Youve got to get that underlying form right before you put anything else on it. You look at any classic car design: its simple.'Velocity' vehicle design render by Chris Beatty.Everything that I design especially a racing car or a sci-fi project, like the bike project for my Gnomon Workshop tutorial has got to be a balance of elegance and aggression. Chris BeattyReality & FantasyWhile work in vehicle concept design is Chriss professional focus, he notes that he has long been interested in movies, explaining that: The movie side has always intrigued me. Ive always been a bit of a Star Wars nut. When Ive got some downtime, and I do a project just for myself, with a learning element to it, the main part of that was very much about the lived-in, weathered, Star Wars aesthetic.Chriss observation then brings him full circle, and he reconnects his aesthetic notes with his Gnomon Workshop tutorial: Whenever youre designing anything, youve got to design it so it could actually work or function; even if its sci-fi like making the bike work for The Gnomon Workshop.Vehicle concept designs by Chris Beatty.Chris brings our conversation to a close by restating his fundamental creative aspiration: Everything that I design especially a racing car or a sci-fi project, like the bike project for my Gnomon Workshop tutorial has got to be a balance of elegance and aggression.From left to right: John Norton, Andrea Toso, Chris Beatty (designer), Will Power (driver), Pat Wildermann, with the Wills Borg-Warner Trophy Pictured at the Indy500 2018.Chris Beatty's 'Race Vehicle Concept Design' Workshop is streaming now at thegnomonworkshop.com.

Miramaxs recently released feature, Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, portrays multiple families over time, in the special place they inhabit.To help convey the characters at various ages throughout their lives, VFX Supervisor Kevin Baillie enlisted creative studio Metaphysic to digitally augment performances via its proprietary generative AI technology. The process involved a talented team of digital characters artists led by Metaphysics VFX Supervisor, Jo Plaete.Working with forward-thinking filmmakers like Bob Zemeckis and Kevin Baillie was a privilege, said Plaete. Their faith in this novel technology pushed us to new heights and allowed us to deliver on their ambitious vision.Metaphysics proprietary process involves training a neural network model on a reference input with artist refinement of the results until the model is ready for production. Multiple models were trained for each actor to meet the diverse needs of the film; Tom Hanks is portrayed at five different ages, Robin Wright at four ages, and Paul Bettany and Kelly Riley at two ages each. Plaete and his team were able to run the workflow in real-time during the filming, providing a visual reference of what the performers would look like. This allowed Zemeckis to view both the raw camera feed and the digitally augmented feed with the actors younger faces while on-set, with only about a six-frame delay, and provide direction accordingly.Metaphysic also set up a camera and monitor system during the shoot that allowed the actors to rehearse while seeing themselves as their younger selves in real-time. The youth mirror system only had a two-frame delay and provided the actors with feedback that helped them fine-tune their performances to better match their younger selves.While the neural network models used for the real-time outputs generated photoreal results, Metaphysic artists then further enhanced them to hold up to cinematic 4K standards.Source: Metaphysic Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.