Streaming deals are hard to come by nowadays, especially after all of the price hikes that have happened in recent months. But Cyber Monday tends to be the time of the year when streaming deals could pop up the most. This year is no different, and one of the best streaming deals we found is on one year of Peacock. You can snag it for only $20, which represents a 75 percent discount. But the offer ends December 2, so you have just a few more hours to sign up if you haven't already. Peacock doesnt have the name recognition of Netflix or Hulu, but its still home to plenty of good shows and movies. Theres a reason, after all, that the platform made our list of the best streaming services. Peacock isnt just home to the aforementioned Love Island and other reality shows about love not set on islands. The streamer also airs some top-notch content like the AI-centric Mrs. Davis and the surprisingly-decent video game adaptation Twisted Metal. A Peacock subscription also allows access to SyFy shows like the underrated The Ark. Other worthwhile programs include Hysteria!, We Are Lady Parts and Killing It. There are a few little caveats. First, this subscription is the one with ads. Also, the offer is only available to new subscribers who are not currently paying for Peacock Premium or Premium Plus. Finally, its only available directly from Peacock, and not from third-party billers like Apple or Amazon. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/peacock-cyber-monday-streaming-deal-last-chance-to-get-a-one-year-subscription-for-only-20-080004595.html?src=rss

Check out ReDefine's VFX breakdown of the destruction of the underground base from The Batman spin-off series PenguinWatch the full video on the ReDefine YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFsQpwl_voI

You have hours left to score the best streaming deal of the year

Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.

Shares of major Asian chip stocks mostly rose on Tuesday, shrugging off the U.S. announcing new emiconductor export controls on China.

Kai Cenat, a 22-year-old live streamer, completed a so-called subathon on Saturday, streaming 24 hours a day for the entire 30 days of November.

MPC Paris, with Excuse My French, brought a visual dimension that is nothing short of extraordinary for the second season of The Serpent Queen. The team delivered 310 VFX shots across eight episodes, and it seamlessly blended artistry and technology to elevate STARZs acclaimed historical drama.The production ran from July 2023 to March 2024 and was a testament to the unbridled expertise of MPC Paris in creating visually beautiful sequences that enhanced the immersive storytelling of the narrative. Coupled with STARZs high production values, the VFX elevated the shows gripping portrayal of intrigue, power, and ambition.As The Serpent Queen continues to be screened for audiences across the world, the partnership between MPC Paris and Excuse My French will prove the visual strength of changing the paradigm of period storytelling.The post The Serpent Queen Season 2 VFX Breakdown by MPC appeared first on Vfxexpress.

LinkedIn is covered in unreadable corporate garble. AI could be to blame.A new study by AI detection startup Originality AI reveals just how thoroughly AI-assisted content has invaded LinkedIns feed. According to the study (which was first shared with Wired), more than half of long-length, English-language LinkedIn posts showed signs of AI usage. Sure, LinkedIn was an easy target for AI, specifically because of its now infamous professional-speak. But the company also built the problem themselves, introducing AI tools rapidly without setting up guardrails for authenticity.How much LinkedIn content is AI-assisted?For their study, Originality analyzed 8,795 public LinkedIn posts over 100 words long that were published from January 2018 to October 2024. In the first five years, AI-assistance was negligible. But the platform saw a spike in early 2023, with the sudden availability of ChatGPT, leading to a 189% increase in AI-use from January to February. Since then, AI use has plateaued.But the lingering point of AI-assisted content is still notable. Isolating October 2024, Originality found 54% of posts showed signs of being AI-assisted. That means its more likely than not that the post was touched by an AI tool.Adam Walkiewicz, LinkedIns Head of Feed Relevance, notes that they dont internally track how often AI is used in posts. We do have robust defenses in place to proactively identify low-quality, and exact or near-exact duplicate content, Walkiewicz writes in a statement. When we detect such content, we take action to ensure it is not broadly promoted.AI could be changing the composition of a LinkedIn post, too. Since the advent of ChatGPT, the word count of LinkedIn posts has also risen. In fact, the post length has moved parallel to AI usage; it spiked in early 2023, before lingering around a stable midpoint. Just three years ago, the average LinkedIn post was far below 500 words. Now, congruently with the rise of AI-generated text, the average has reached just under 1,500 words.Whats unclear from this data is the extent of AI manipulation. While LinkedIn is host to its fare share of AI slop, cut and paste from a chatbot into the platform, theres also a significant amount of AI-powered editing. The 54% figure combines these two functions, though one is certainly more destabilizing than the other. The extent to which human-written posts have been replaced by AI, compared to merely being modified, remains a mystery.LinkedIn opened the AI floodgatesOf all the social media apps, LinkedIn was one of the most primed platforms for an AI content takeover. The apps language is intentionally stilted and edited, conveying a tone of professionalism. That compares to somewhere like TikTok, which demands a level of originality or humor not easily achieved by a large language model.Still, LinkedIn itself may be partially to blame. The company has been working fast to incorporate AI into its interface, beyond that of many other social media companies. LinkedIn premium members can prompt AI to write their posts in-app, and can use their AI to think up smart comments about a linked article. They can even use AI to enhance their profiles. This isnt slop, but it is artificialby now, its impossible to tell whether a piece of commentary was written by a human or an in-app bot. While Meta and X have opted for alternate chatbots, LinkedIn has introduced AI to the posting problem itself, fueling that 54% figure. All these platforms are dealing with AI overflow. Facebook is drowning in AI shrimp Jesuses, and Instagrams infographic industry has been taken over by shoddy AI recreations. But 54% of LinkedIn posts is a particularly high figureand a sign that you might want to scrutinize your LinkedIn feed more closely.

Noam Shazeer, one of the inventors of the transformer models that caused the current AI boom, is now leading the charge at Google toward artificial general intelligence (that is, AI thats generally smarter than human beings). Initially, Google was less aggressive than its peers when it came to and releasing generative AI to the world. But the company finally appears to have caught up, and that its Gemini models are at the very front of the cutting edge in large language models.Despite facing stiff competition from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, Shazeer says Google is in a strong position to emerge as the leader in large frontier models. Google is recommitting to our core values, he says. In practice, that means putting the user in control of the AI, and committing the personnel and resources required for breakthrough tech development.Google has the most brilliant group of researchers in the world, as well as excellent, good-hearted leaders whom I know, love and respect, Shazeer says. Google developed and owns much of the technology behind the LLM revolution; bringing it back to Google is the right thing to do.Shazeer actually left Google in 2021 to start his own transformer-based chatbot company, Character.AI. At the time of his exit, Shazeer criticized Google for being too cautious about releasing new products based on transformer-based large language models, including the companys Bard chatbot. But by mid-2024, the race to productize LLMs was in full swing, and Google wasnt winning. Thats when the search giant decided to pay a reported $2.7 billion to license the Character.AI software and, most importantly, get Shazeer back at Google. Hes now a vice president at Google, and one of a very small group of people tasked with guiding the development and application of the companys Gemini models.Still, Google now faces some of the biggest challenges in its history. The arrival of AI in the internet search business (plus regulatory efforts in both the U.S. and EU) could seriously challenge the companys dominance in search advertising.But Shazeer expects a paradigm shift coming in AI, where Googles experience in both internet search and AI research will only increase its relevance, and profitability. Google has a culture of empowering every human with all the worlds information, creating trillions of dollars of value for the company and tens of trillions of dollars of value for the world, he says.Replace information with intelligence and trillions with quadrillions, and this is my goal for Googles future.This story is part ofAI 20, our monthlong series of profiles spotlighting the most interesting technologists, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and creative thinkers shaping the world of artificial intelligence.

For the V&A museum's 2024 Make Good installation, design and research studio Material Cultures has developed alternatives to plywood and OSB made from underused woodland resources including pine needles and birch bark.The Woodland Goods project was developed for the V&A's Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures programme, which investigates the use of natural, renewable materials in design and architecture.Material Cultures has created alternatives to plywood and OSBMaterial Cultures was invited to explore how British woodlands might be able to supply the construction industry with environmentally responsible materials beyond standard processed timber.The studio focused on exploiting the natural properties of three underused materials: bark, natural glues and pine needles. These formed the basis for research into building materials for a post-carbon future.Alvar Aalto's Stool 60 was reimagined with pressed birch and sequoia topsMaterial Cultures collaborated with woodland experts Evolving Forests to identify suitable tree species for the project, while fabricator Erthly helped transform the materials into products that could be used as alternatives to plywood or chipboard.One of the issues the studio identified in its research was the reliance on coniferous trees for construction, which can lead to monoculture forestry that harms biodiversity, depletes water systems and destroys native species.The designers proposed a different approach that makes the most of the varied building materials that could be harvested from more regenerative and biodiverse woodlands.The designers proposed using building materials from regenerative woodlands"These exciting materials centre ecological thinking, showing how the status quo can be transformed," said the studio, which has previously focused on using multi-species timber and hemp-based materials for projects such as an experimental low-carbon house in Somerset, England."Changing the way we grow trees could affect how we make buildings, for example by shifting to using mixed species that might be lower yield but more sustainable," Material Cultures co-founder Summer Islam told Dezeen.Read: Kvadrat launches first recycled polyester textile actually made from polyesterSome of the panels produced for the exhibition are made from silver birch and redwood bark, which both have naturally waterproof properties that make them suitable for use as cladding.The solid sheets were made by layering strips of bark in alternating directions before compressing and heating them. This process activates the lignin in the bark, which acts like a natural glue and binds the material to itself.Solid sheets were formed by layering and compressing strips of barkThe studio also experimented with bark chips and pine needles, which did not respond to heat and pressure so were instead combined with bio-resins to produce composite sheet materials."These are materials that are typically regarded as waste in wood production," Islam pointed out. "In sawmills, bark is just chipped off and discarded but the sap it contains is a great natural adhesive so we found a way to use it."Bark chips and pine needles were combined with bio-resinsBark would typically be sold off as mulch, biofuel or composted, while pine needles left to decompose after tree felling can make the soil in single-species forests overly acidic.Responsibly harvesting these materials and giving them a practical purpose in construction could support the creation and management of resilient woodlands capable of surviving the changes currently impacting our climate.To demonstrate how their sheet materials could be used, the designers adapted Alvar Aalto's iconic Stool 60, adding tops made from pressed birch and sequoia.The project is on show at the V&AThe prototype sheet materials are being presented at the V&A until autumn 2025, alongside some of Material Cultures' experiments and a film documenting the studio's research.Material Cultures was shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2023 emerging architect of the year and previously collaborated with Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari on a pavilion made from wood and reeds that demonstrates flood-resilient building methods.The photography is courtesy of the V&A Press Office.The post Material Cultures transforms woodland waste into sustainable sheet materials appeared first on Dezeen.