The amulet contains an image of King Solomon and a Greek inscription that reads, "Our Lord defeated evil." Karabk UniversityArchaeologists in Turkey have found a unique bronze pendant decorated with an image ofKing Solomon. The ruler is shown on horseback defeating the devil with a spear.Discovered inAnatolia, a region in modern-day Turkey, the two-sided pendant features inscriptions in ancient Greek. One side reads, Our Lord defeated evil. The other spells out the names of four angels: Azrael, Gabriel, Michael and Israfil.The artifact dates to the fifth century C.E., when the area was part of the Byzantine Empire. Ersin elikba, an archaeologist at Turkeys Karabk University, says in a statement that it was likely worn as a protective amulet.King Solomon appears in theHebrew Bible as a ruler of Israel during the tenth century B.C.E. However, there is little archaeological evidence supporting the biblical narrative. The researchers think the pendant was associated with Christianity, though Solomon is also linked to Judaism and Islam.Solomon is an important figure in all three major monotheistic religions, says elikba, per Trkiye Todays Koray Erdogan. His depiction here reflects his significance across these faiths, making this artifact a remarkable discovery for both scholars and religious communities.The artifact was found during a dig at the ancient city of Hadrianopolis, where archaeologists have been conducting excavations for two decades, according to Artnets Richard Whiddington. The pendant is the only item of its kind to be discovered in Anatolia, though it resembles another pendant found in Jerusalem. The amulet was discovered in modern-day Turkey at a site that was once the ancient city of Hadrianopolis. Karabk UniversityThe depiction of Prophet Solomon on this necklace surprised us and revealed the importance of the artifact for Anatolian archaeology, says elikba in the statement, perCBS News Kerry Breen. The presence of similar works in these two distant geographies indicates that Hadrianopolis was an important religious center in ancient times.Hadrianopolis is named after the Roman emperorHadrian, who ruled during the second century C.E. The city became a cultural hub during the Roman and Byzantine periods and is known for its archaeological riches, including baths, churches, burial sites and theaters. elikba tellsLive SciencesMargherita Bassi that the amulet was found in a building that may be linked with military activity.In our previous excavations, we had determined the existence of a cavalry unit here, says elikba in the statement, per Live Science. Prophet Solomon is also known as the commander of armies. We understand that he was also considered as a protective figure for the Roman and Byzantine cavalry in Hadrianopolis.The researchers also hope that the artifact will shed new light on religion in the region during this period.With the pendants inscriptions and unique depiction, it provides us with insights into the beliefs and practices of the time, says elikba, per Trkiye Today.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Artifacts, Bible, Byzantine Empire, Christianity, Cool Finds, History, Islam, Judaism, Religion, Religious History, Rituals and Traditions, Roman Empire, Turkey

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreAI is advancing at breakneck speed, but the regulatory landscape is in chaos. With the coming Trump administration vowing to take a hands-off approach to regulation, a lack of AI regulation at the federal level means that the U.S. is facing a fragmented patchwork of state-led rules or in some cases no rules at all.Recent reports suggest that President-elect Trump is considering appointing an AI czar in the White House to coordinate federal policy and governmental use of artificial intelligence. While this move may indicate an evolving approach to AI oversight, it remains unclear how much regulation will actually be implemented. Though apparently not taking on the AI czar role, Tesla chief Elon Musk is expected to play a significant role in shaping future use cases and debates surrounding AI. But Musk is hard to read. While he espouses minimal regulation, he also has expressed fear around unrestrained AI so if anything, his role injects even more uncertainly.Trumps efficiency appointees Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have vowed to take a chainsaw approach to the federal bureaucracy that could reduce it 25% or more. So there doesnt seem to be any reason to expect forceful regulation anytime soon. For executives like Wells Fargo Mehta Chintan, who at our AI Impact event in January was calling out for regulation to create more certainty, this lack of regulation doesnt make things easier. In fact, regulation around AI was already way behind, and delaying it further meant more headaches. The bank, which is already heavily regulated, faces an ongoing guessing game of what might be regulated in the future. This uncertainty forces it to spend significant engineering resources building scaffolding around things, Chintan said at the time, because it doesnt know what to expect once applications go to market.That caution is well deserved. Steve Jones, executive VP for gen AI at Capgemini, says that no federal AI regulation means that frontier model companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and Anthropic face no accountability for any harmful or dubious content generated by their models. As a result, enterprise users are left to shoulder the risks: Youre on your own, Jones emphasized. Companies cannot easily hold model providers accountable if something goes wrong, increasing their exposure to potential liabilities.Moreover, Jones pointed out that if these model providers use data scraped without proper indemnification or leak sensitive information, enterprise users could become vulnerable to lawsuits. For example, he mentioned a large financial services company that has resorted to poisoning its datainjecting fictional data into its systems to identify any unauthorized use if it leaks.This uncertain environment poses significant risks and hidden opportunities for executive decision-makers. Join us at an exclusive event about AI regulation in Washington D.C. on Dec. 5, with speakers from Capgemini, Verizon, Fidelity and more, as we cut through the noise, providing clear strategies to help enterprise leaders stay ahead of compliance challenges, navigate the evolving patchwork of regulations and leverage the flexibility of the current landscape to innovate without fear. Hear from top experts in AI and industry as they share actionable insights to guide your enterprise through this regulatory Wild West. (Links to RSVP and full agenda here.Space is limited, so move quickly.In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, enterprise leaders face a dual challenge: harnessing AIs transformative potential while encountering regulatory hurdles that are often just unclear. is increasingly on companies to be proactive, otherwise, they could end up in hot water, like SafeRent, DoNotPay and Clearview.Capgeminis Steve Jones notes that relying on model providers without clear indemnification agreements is riskyits not just the models outputs that can pose problems, but the data practices and potential liabilities as well.The lack of a cohesive federal framework, coupled with varying state regulations, creates a complex compliance landscape. For instance, the FTCs actions against companies like DoNotPay signal a more aggressive stance on AI-related misrepresentations, while state-level initiatives, such as New Yorks Bias Audit Law, impose additional compliance requirements. The potential appointment of an AI czar could centralize AI policy, but the impact on practical regulation remains uncertain, leaving companies with more questions than answers.Join the conversation: The future of AI regulationEnterprise leaders must adopt proactive strategies to navigate this environment:Implement robust compliance programs: Develop comprehensive AI governance frameworks that address potential biases, ensure transparency, and comply with existing and emerging regulations.Stay informed on regulatory developments: Regularly monitor both federal and state regulatory changes to anticipate and adapt to new compliance obligations, including potential federal efforts like the AI czar initiative.Engage with policymakers: Participate in industry groups and engage with regulators to influence the development of balanced AI policies that consider both innovation and ethical considerations.Invest in ethical AI practices: Prioritize the development and deployment of AI systems that adhere to ethical standards, thereby mitigating risks associated with bias and discrimination.Enterprise decision-makers must remain vigilant, adaptable and proactive to navigate the complexities of AI regulation successfully. By learning from the experiences of others and staying informed through studies and reports, companies can position themselves to leverage AIs benefits while minimizing regulatory risks. We invite you to join us at the upcoming salon event in Washington D.C. on Dec. 5 to be part of this crucial conversation and gain the knowledge needed to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and understand the implications of potential federal actions like the AI czar.VB DailyStay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox dailyBy subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service.Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.An error occured.

Nintendo to close Switch eShop and online services in China in 2026Platform holder is offering free games as compensation News by James Batchelor Editor-in-chief Published on Nov. 26, 2024 Nintendo has announced it will phase out its online store and services for Switch in China by the end of May 2026.The announcement, spotted by Eurogamer, states this will begin with the cessation of digital game sales through the eShop on March 31, 2026. There will also be no free trials offered from this point.After May 15, Switch owners in China will no longer be able to redeem any codes, download any software, and all other network-related services will be shut down.Nintendo has currently not given any reason for this decision.To compensate for Chinese Switch owners, Nintendo is offering up to four free games, which can be redeemed between November 27, 2024 and March 31, 2026.There are 12 titles on offer, including Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the Pokmon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee games.The Nintendo Switch launched in China in 2019, over two years after its worldwide debut, through a partnership with Tencent.

Making TMNT: Splintered Fate more than a portSuper Evil Megacorp discusses how it adapted one of the biggest media franchises into a new roguelike co-opImage credit: Super Evil Megacorp Feature by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Nov. 26, 2024 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has been captivating audiences for four decades.Each generation has grown up with different iterations of the characters across mixed media, including comics, animated shows, live-action movies, and, of course, video games.The most recent iteration comes from Super Evil Megacorp, who partnered up with Paramount Game Studios to launch TMNT: Splintered Fate on iOS last year.Super Evil's director of product management Tom Westall tells GamesIndustry.biz that working with Paramount on such a big IP has been very rewarding creatively."Paramount have been really supportive as partners they know what they're talking about when it comes to TMNT and have been investing a lot in the IP recently," says Westall. "They've been interested and keen to get involved with what we're doing." Director of product management Tom WestallSplintered Fate was initially made for Apple Arcade, but Westall says internally the studio "always wanted the game to be something more than that," leading to a multiplatform release this year.Porting Splintered Fate to other platforms began at the beginning of February this year. It was launched on Switch in July and on PC earlier this month.While the timeframe for porting the game may seem short, Westall says there was no external pressure from Paramount. He says any pressure they felt was internal, especially since they self-published the game for these ports."We hold ourselves to high standards. This is the first game for Super Evil on Switch and our first proper foray on PC. We wanted to make sure we made a great impression with the players, so the quality belt was always really high for us."There's always those pressures; being a smaller studio, we have to jump on every opportunity that makes sense for us."Super Evil's lead game designer Daniel Stansens is especially proud of what the team accomplished in successfully producing a cross-platform title."It's great to see a game that we have put a lot of care and time into going onto the PC market. Players can tell we've adjusted how the game controls it's nice to stretch and flex our muscles on the different platforms and feel like the game belongs on all of them, even from day one." Lead game designer Daniel StansensWestall adds that they "couldn't resist" catering to each platform and that each iteration of the game has different quicks for the platform it's running on."Super Evil can't just walk into a new platform," he explains. "We had to really enhance the game each time. On Switch, we put a lot of effort into bringing couch co-op it has to have four controllers and players sitting around the TV playing together. As for PC, it has to have online matchmaking; we need to make sure the game feels great with a mouse and keyboard and to support all the different windowed modes and graphics cards."It was never a case of simply bringing the game to those platforms, we always wanted to make sure it felt great as well."As for the potential pressure that comes with working on such a well-known and established franchise, Stansen clarifies that the joy of making a TMNT game outweighed any anxiety."If you're having fun making what you love in the TMNT universe, it resonates with people. There's obviously pressure to get things right. But it turns out loving and paying attention to the franchise, knowing the turtles, and getting to work with a lot of the folks who have built the franchise [helps ease the pressure]."One such person was Tom Waltz, a senior editor and writer for IDW Publishing. Waltz was one of the leading writers of the ongoing TMNT series that launched in 2011 and worked on Splintered Fate as a consultant."Being a smaller studio, we have to jump on every opportunity that makes sense for us"Tom WestallStansen lights up when talking about Waltz, noting that getting his "stamp of approval" on their vision of the franchise and its characters was a relief."It helps when you've got good partners along the way; you don't feel the pressure if you're having fun. When you bring up ideas, and they're not getting knocked down, it feels like you're in the right place."Westall notes that Waltz is very close to the TMNT fanbase, which provided even more information for Super Evil to use as they could gauge what fans would want to see out of Splintered Fate as the team were developing it.Waltz was also on hand to remind them that, at its core, TMNT is "all about mutated turtles that wield ninja weapons.""It's really wholesome, with stories about family and working together," Westall adds. "But it's also really silly, so you can have a lot of fun with it."With Waltz on board, both Stansens and Westall agree that the IDW world of TMNT was a significant influence on Splintered Fate. However, Stansens emphasises that Super Evil wanted to create its own branch of that universe."We definitely don't go anywhere near as dark as the IDW world does, but we take tones from that universe and go slightly above the [child-orientated] stories that some of the TMNT franchises go for," he explains."We've been able to pick and choose what we want in Splintered Fate, as we're not beholden to one particular TMNT universe we had the freedom to do our own thing."Westall smiles in agreement, adding that they dropped little hints and Easter eggs from their childhood here and there. He continues: "We love games like Shredder's Revenge. But we wanted to make sure that visually and gameplay-wise, we could distinguish ourselves from those."To that end, Splintered Fate is a roguelike instead of a beat-em-up, as are most other recent TMNT games. The team felt that the genre fit well with the story they wanted to tell, especially the multiplayer aspect."There's a lot that goes into considering how to implement co-op in a game like this"Daniel Stansens"Making co-op action games is in our DNA at Super Evil," says Westall. "As we were exploring the co-op genre, roguelikes really stood out. We felt that at the time, there certainly hadn't been any great co-op roguelike experiences that was an area we thought we could explore and make our own mark."Stansen notes that while they're certainly not the only studio with a co-op roguelike, they like to call themselves "pioneers" of the genre."Our game, in particular, works really well with the turtles. You'll find that when you play with friends, there's a brawler element to it that you don't get in some of the other action roguelikes where it's still pretty difficult. For us, it's really nice to evoke that arcade brawler feel."Adding co-op to Splintered Fate came with its own challenges, however particularly since it was added towards the end of development."It's always a challenge to make sure that the overall game holds up the same way," Stansens adds. "It's not just the online and control scheme considerations, but now you've got four characters on the same camera, so you have to consider what's going on with the setup."Then there's the gameplay itself the difficulty changes as you play together. There's a lot that goes into considering how to implement co-op in a game like this. We took a lot of time and care to think about what adding co-op would do, and we're really pleased with the result. Because it does take a lot of careful thinking to add such a huge feature after we've completed the core gameplay and as we're taking it to more platforms."Following the success of Splintered Fate, Stansens and Westall agree that co-op and crossplay are something that Super Evil wants to continue to implement in their games."I'm sure we will do it better every time, but I'm really proud of what we produced in this situation," Westall concludes.

Rebellion Developments has reportedly scrapped a battle royale spinoff for its Sniper Elite series.Per Insider Gaming, the spinoff, codenamed 'Project Archipelago,' was axed after Tencent chose to halt funding. The project was first announced in August amid alpha playtests and would have been the first proper multiplayer entry in the franchise.According to Insider Gaming, Rebellion leaders indicated the project was scrapped in response to the disastrous launch of Concord, which caused Tencent to think twice about proceeding with Archipelago.The outlet said developers working on the title have been moved to other projects and noted the cancellation didn't result in layoffs.Rebellion declined to comment on the matter when approached by Game Developer.During a March earnings call, Tencent CSO James Mitchell said the company intended to "focus on fewer bigger budget games." Live-service titles can be a costly endeavor and don't always succeed, with Tencent itself pulling the plug on its year-old multiplayer shooter Synced earlier this year.In the past year, other companies have ended their live-service games that had been around for at least a year, or were actively in mid-development. The reasons vary: Behaviour Interactive's Project T was killed because development wasn't coming together, while Synced ended because its player base seemingly wasn't there. Conversely, Naughty Dog's multiplayer Last of Us game ended when the studio realized it would be too great of an undertaking.

Today I would like to share one of the template projects, the settings and modules of which I use from project to project. With its help I will show one of the options for setting up a Unity game that will work on many platforms, including Steam, Android platforms (Google Play), Web platforms (platforms supported by Playgama (Instant) Bridge, for example, CrazyGames, Game Distribution, Playgama, Yandex Games etc.). This template project covers the following topics:- Working with basic project classes- Saving game data- Importing textures, working with sprites and Sprite Atlas- Transitions between scenes- Project build settings- Project .gitignore file- Video playback- Playing music and sounds- Input System- Working with metrics- Classes for monetization via advertising- LocalizationIn this article, we will analyze the first few topics, the rest will be described in upcoming articles.The template project is available for download at the following link.A small disclaimer: using this template does not guarantee passing the moderation of specific platforms, each game has its own nuances that, one way or another, affect the successful overcoming of the obstacle in the form of moderation.In this project, I tried to collect the most frequently used mechanisms that are necessary in almost any game.So, let's get started...Working with basic project classesFirst of all, a few words about the project structure. If everything is pretty clear with most of the folders (but one way or another, we will analyze everything in the corresponding chapters), then the Scripts folder is worth a special mention. The root of this folder contains all the scripts that are inherited from the MonoBehaviour class, and which, accordingly, can be added to game objects as components.The Services folder contains classes for working with localization, metrics, sound and advertising.The Settings folder contains everything you need to successfully save and load game data.The Utility folder contains several constant classes, as well as a number of static utility classes with auxiliary methods.In this chapter, we will focus on two main classes of the Scripts folder, namely SingletonServices and GameServices.Let's start with the first and most frequently used. SingletonServices, as the name suggests, works on the principle of the singleton template, accordingly, when initializing project objects, only one such object of the SingletonServices class will be created. This class provides access to all available auxiliary services of the game that may be needed on any scene. I emphasize the word "any", because if, for example, we compare this class with GameServices, which use cases are limited to game scenes only, excluding the initialization scene. But we will discuss it a little bit later.The SingletonServices class stores links to services for working with localization, music, advertising and metrics. Here you can also find methods for loading and saving game settings, as well as a method for getting sprites by their name. For example, saving game settings using this class will look like this:_singletonServices.SaveSettings();where the _singletonServices variable was previously initialized as follows:SingletonServices _singletonServices = SingletonServices.Instance;In order to work appropriately SingletonServices must be added to the game object on the initialization scene (InitScene).The second most important class GameServices is also a singleton and is used to combine classes and methods for working with game objects. For example, hide the game menu and show the game itself, and vice versa, as well as change the language and others. With a significant expansion of the project, I still recommend separating, for example, work with the game UI to a separate script and using GameServices only as an intermediate class for access to the UI controller. There is not much need for this in our template project. In order to work appropriately GameServices must be added to the game object on the scene immediately following the initialization one (in our case, this is MainScene). In addition, since GameServices uses SingletonServices methods inside itself, it must be initialized after the latter. To do this, go to the project settings and set the order of script execution as follows:Saving game dataAs I mentioned earlier, all scripts for saving game data are located in the Scripts/Settings folder.GameSettings is the main object for game data. I have added several fields for saving in it, for example, the selected language and the number of button clicks.The file that is directly involved in loading and saving GameSettings is called FileSettingsAdapter. It implements the ISettingsAdapter interface, which contains only two methods: loading and saving.Saving data is probably quite obvious, but it is worth saying a few words about the signature of the loading method. Now it looks like this:void LoadSettings(Action<GameSettings> callAfterLoad);The method does not return anything, but only accepts a delegate as a parameter, a reference to the method that should be called after the data loading is complete. In the general case (for example, for PC and Android builds), such a design is not necessary. This is done in order to support the web version, which we will talk about separately in one of the upcoming articles.The entire process of loading game settings can be viewed in SingletonServices.Start method, the saving process can be viewed, for example, in the GameServices.IncreaseCounter.Importing textures, working with sprites and Sprite AtlasLet's now discuss the components of the Sprites folder and start with a small, optional TextureImporter file. For some unknown reason, Unity decided to change the default behavior of the sprite importer and began to set the Sprite Mode to Multiple by default (previously it was Single), which means that the added image contains more than one sprite, for example, it can be a sprite sheet with character animation. So, if your project has much fewer sprite sheets than regular single sprites, then you can create a TextureImporter and set sprite settings for it, which will be applied to all imported textures by default. To do this, in the importer settings, you need to click on the preset selection button and create a new one with the desired import parameters.We change all the necessary parameters of the created preset (in the case of this particular template project, the Sprite Mode was changed to Single and compression was turned off) and add the preset to the default ones.Now when adding new sprites, their settings will match the settings of the created TextureImporter.Now let's look at the SpriteAtlas file, which not only allows you to reduce the number of draw calls, but also provides a convenient way to get sprites by their name in the code. You can create a sprite atlas in the following way:Now about the atlas settings.You need to be extremely careful with the Allow Rotation and Tight Packing parameters. They are enabled by default, but this sometimes leads to various distortions, flips and artifacts if you change component sprites on the fly from the code.And of course, don't forget to add folders that will be nested in the created sprite atlas. In our case, this is one folder named Atlas. In the Sprites directory, there is also a NonAtlas folder, which, as you can judge by the name, we do not add to the sprite atlas. For example, you can store icons, a cursor, etc here.An example of getting sprites from a sprite atlas by name can be found in the SoundsButtonController.Start method.Transitions between scenesAn example of transition from the initialization scene to the main one can be seen in the InitSceneLoader class. I need to mention that this script should be added as a component to the game object on the InitScene scene.In the LoadingCheck method of this script, we wait for the initialization of all the main services, without which our game cannot work, and if everything is successful, in this case the intro video is launched, after which the transition to a new scene is carried out by the SceneManager.LoadScene method. Playing the video, of course, is not necessary here, and serves only as an example. Alternatively, you can launch any animation or immediately go to the main scene without additional steps.Project build settingsThe main branch of the project is currently configured for the Android build, so in this article I will show the main settings for this platform, and I will describe the remaining settings in upcoming articles.So, when creating an Android project, I first go to the Project Settings -> Player -> Publishing settings section and check the following files: Custom Main Gradle Template, Custom Gradle Properties Template and Custom Gradle Settings Template.Believe me, this will save you from a painful headache when it comes to importing and using third-party packages, for example, the EDM package, also known as external dependency manager, which is needed for the Firebase, Appodeal, and other packages.Next, I go to the Other Settings settings, set the package name and set the Target API Level.By default, the Target API Level is set to Automatic (highest installed), which means that when building an Android project, Unity will rely on the Android SDK and NDK already installed on the computer, so if, for example, version 33 is installed on the computer, then after building the package you will not be able to upload it to the Google Play Console, since at the moment the minimum value of Target API Level should be 34. But I would not recommend rushing and setting the highest version either, or at least have the opportunity to test your application on more than one device. Otherwise you could catch something like this:In short, not long ago, if you set the Target API Level to 34, the game crashed when it launched on devices with API level 34 (it worked successfully on the rest). The solution here, unfortunately, is not the most pleasant and you will have to update Unity to a more recent version with that fix on board, which is not always possible and/or painless.Project .gitignore fileI would like to finish today's part of the article with a short mention of the .gitignore file. There is nothing special here and at the moment it contains all the files and directories that should not be added to the repository. I will only add that it ignores folders web_build and PCBuild. I usually add these folders myself and they serve, apparently, exclusively for builds of the corresponding platforms.That's all for today, we will continue to analyze this template project in the upcoming articles, but you can download it and analyze it yourself right now at the following link.I am collecting wishlists here and here.Thank you for your attention!Link to my website

OpenAI first teased its text-to-video AI model, Sora, back in February and hasnt provided any meaningful updates on when it will be released since then. Now, it looks like some artists leaked access to the model in protest of being used by the company for what they claim is unpaid R&D and PR.On Tuesday, a group of Sora beta testers claimed to have leaked early access to Sora with a working interface for generating videos. In a post on Hugging Face, a public repository of AI models, they say that people were able to create lots of AI videos all of which resemble OpenAIs own Sora demos before the company intervened to shut down access. (TechCrunch first reported on the alleged leak.)From the groups open letter:DEAR CORPORATE AI OVERLORDSWe received access to Sora with the promise to be early testers, red teamers and creative partners. However, we believe instead we are being lured into art washing to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists.ARTISTS ARE NOT YOUR UNPAID R&D we are not your: free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, validation tokens The letter goes on to say:We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldnt have been invited to this program). What we dont agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release. We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.The authors say that OpenAIs early access program to Sora exploits artists for free labor and art washing, or lending artistic credibility to a corporate product. They criticize the company, which recently raised billions of dollars at a $150 billion valuation, for having hundreds of artists provide unpaid testing and feedback. They also object to OpenAIs content approval requirements for Sora, which apparently state that every output needs to be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing.Do you work at OpenAI? Id love to chat. You can reach me securely on Signal @kylie.01 or via email at kylie@theverge.com.When contacted by The Verge, OpenAI would not confirm on the record if the alleged Sora leak was authentic or not. Instead, the company stressed that participation in its research preview is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool.Sora is still in research preview, and were working to balance creativity with robust safety measures for broader use, OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix said in a statement. Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Soras development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards. Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. Weve been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs. We believe AI can be a powerful creative tool and are committed to making Sora both useful and safe.Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati told The Wall Street Journal in March that Sora would be available by the end of the year but that, we will not release anything we dont feel confident on when it comes to how it might affect global elections or other issues. And in a recent Reddit AMA, CPO Kevin Weil said Sora hadnt been released yet because OpenAI still needed to scale the compute required to power it and get safety/impersonation/other things right.

Trade associations involved in US broadband and wireless service say competition forces them to have good customer service, which may be news to many customers. The comments are in response to the FCCs October inquiry reviewing the quality of internet and phone providers customer support. Ars Technica quotes a filing from NCTA The Internet & Television Association, which says that in order to attract and retain customers, NCTAs cable operator members continuously strive to ensure that the customer support they provide is effective and user-friendly. USTelecom, which has AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and SpaceX among its members, says customers already get high-quality customer service because of the competitive broadband market. USTelecom is also high on the promise of AI improving customer service triaging and routing issues:AI chat agents will only get better at addressing customers needs more quickly over time and if providers fail to provide the customer service and engagement options that their customers expect and fail to resolve their customers concerns, they may soon find that the consumer is no longer a customer, having switched to another competitive offering.Groups advocating for accessibility for those with disabilities cautioned against relying on AI too much in a filing noted by Ars, writing, ...we do not believe they are fully capable of replicating the nuanced communication experience provided by live agents, particularly for complex inquiries or those requiring cultural and linguistic sensitivity.According to a filing from ACA Connects, which mostly represents smaller, more rural communications providers, those companies are incentivized to give good service by the cost of building and operating networks. They claim it makes members and other broadband and cable providers strive to sign up every household they pass and retain each and every one.The CTIA (which represents AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and others in wireless) insists in its comments that customers are well-informed and empowered to pick wireless services and switch providers as their preferences evolve. One common theme? Each of these groups insists that competition is one of the things that keeps them honest. Yet its hard to square that with recent history like T-Mobiles acquisition of US Cellular, Verizons agreement to buy Frontier or the endless rats nest of media mergers.

Computer vision is revolutionizing due to the development of foundation models in object recognition, image segmentation, and monocular depth estimation, showing strong zero- and few-shot performance across various downstream tasks. Stereo matching, which helps perceive depth and create 3D views of scenes, is crucial for fields like robotics, self-driving cars, and augmented reality. However, the exploration of foundation models in stereo matching remains limited due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate disparity ground truth (GT) data. Many stereo datasets exist, but using them effectively for training is difficult. Moreover, these annotated datasets cannot train an ideal foundation model even when combined.Currently, Stereo-from-mono is a leading study focusing on creating stereo-image pairs and disparity maps directly from single images to address these challenges. However, this approach resulted in only 500,000 data samples, which is relatively low compared to the scale required to train robust foundation models effectively. While this effort represents an important step towards reducing the dependency on expensive stereo data collection, the generated dataset is still insufficient for building large-scale models capable of generalizing well to diverse real-world conditions. Early Stereo-matching methods mainly relied on hand-crafted features but shifted to CNN-based models like GCNet and PSMNet, improving accuracy with techniques like 3D cost aggregation. Video stereo matching uses temporal data for consistency but struggles with generalization. Cross-domain methods address this by learning domain-invariant features using techniques like unsupervised adaptation and contrastive learning, as seen in models like RAFTStereo and FormerStereo.A group of researchers from School of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Xian Jiaotong University, Waytous, University of Bologna, Rock Universe, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of California, Berkeley conducted detailed research to overcome these issues and proposed StereoAnything, a foundational model for stereo matching developed to produce high-quality disparity estimates for any pair of matching stereo images, no matter how complex the scene or challenging the environmental conditions. It is designed to train a robust stereo network using large-scale mixed data. It mainly consists of four components: feature extraction, cost construction, cost aggregation, and disparity regression.To improve generalization, Supervised stereo data was used without depth normalization, as stereo matching relies on scale information. The training began with a single dataset and combined top-ranked datasets to improve robustness. For single-image learning, monocular depth models predicted depth converted into disparity maps to generate realistic stereo pairs via forward warping. Occlusions and gaps were filled using textures from other images in the dataset.The experiment showed the evaluation of the StereoAnything framework using OpenStereo and NMRF-Stereo baselines with Swin Transformer for feature extraction. Training used AdamW optimizer, OneCycleLR scheduling, and fine-tuning on labeled, mixed, and pseudo-labeled datasets with data augmentation. Testing on KITTI, Middlebury, ETH3D, and DrivingStereo showed StereoAnything significantly reduced errors, with NMRF-Stereo-SwinT lowering the mean error from 18.11 to 5.01. Fine-tuning StereoCarla on more diverse datasets lead to the best mean metric of 8.52%. This showed the importance of dataset diversity when concerning stereo-matching performance.In terms of results, the StereoAnything showed strong robustness across various domains in both indoor and outdoor scenes. This approach constantly delivered a disparity map that was more accurate than with the NMRF-Stereo-SwinTmode. Thus, this approach shows strong generalization capabilities and performs better across domains with numerous visual and environmental differences.It is safe to conclude that StereoAnything provided a highly useful solution for robust stereo matching. A new artificial dataset called StereoCarla is used to better generalize across different scenarios and enhance performance. Also, the effectiveness of labeled stereo datasets and pseudo stereo datasets generated using monocular depth estimation models was investigated. In terms of performance, StereoAnything achieved competitive performance across various benchmarks and real-world scenarios. These results show the potential of hybrid training strategies, including diverse data sources to enhance stereo model robustness, and can be used as the baseline for future improvement and research!Check out the Paper and GitHub. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. If you like our work, you will love ournewsletter.. Dont Forget to join our55k+ ML SubReddit. Divyesh Vitthal Jawkhede+ postsDivyesh is a consulting intern at Marktechpost. He is pursuing a BTech in Agricultural and Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is a Data Science and Machine learning enthusiast who wants to integrate these leading technologies into the agricultural domain and solve challenges. [Download] Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities Report (Promoted)

The best Black Friday AirPods deal has arrived and it's better than I predicted. As part of the Walmart Black Friday Sale, the price of the second-generation Apple AirPods Pro wireless noise-canceling earbuds has dropped to $153.99. Both Amazon and Target have been quick to price match this incredible deal, giving you plenty of options to buy from. This is the lowest price I've seen all year long, and it's very unlikely to drop further. This discount brings the price down to the same level as the Apple AirPods 4 with noise cancelation. Between the two, the AirPods Pro is still Apple's best earbuds because it offers better sound quality and better noise cancellation performance.Apple AirPods Pro for $153.99Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB)The AirPods Pro is the best-sounding "truly wireless" earbuds for iPhone users thanks to its passively isolating in-ear design, low-distortion driver and amp, and the newer Apple H2 chip. In addition to being only one of two AirPods earbuds with active noise cancellation, the AirPods Pro has useful features like "Adaptive Transparency Mode" to hear your surroundings without removing the earbuds and "Conversation Mode" that automatically enhances the voices of people you're talking to. The newer second-generation AirPods Pro replaces the Lightning port with a more universal USB Type-C port so you don't have to mix and match cables, and also includes a MagSafe charging case by default.Should you get the AirPods Pro over AirPods 4 with ANC?Normally, I would suggest going with the AirPods 4 ANC because it's usually $70 cheaper. However, if the price is taken out of equation, the AirPods Pro is a superior earbud. Both feature active noise cancellation, but the AirPods Pro produces better sound and more effective noise cancelling because of its design. The AirPods 4 ANC is an open-ear style earbud with non-adjustable tips. They're designed to sit right outside of the ear which while comfortable means you get plenty of sound leakage and ambient noise intrusion. On the other hand, the AirPods Pro is an in-ear style of earbud that sits right inside your ear canal, sealing the passage and passively isolating it from the ambient air. Adjustable tips are included to accomodate different sized ears and ensure you get that proper sealing fit, which is very important to squeeze out the best performance. At this price, the only compelling reason to still go for the AirPods 4 ANC is if you don't like the intrusive nature of in-ear style earbuds in general.This is just one of Apple's Black Friday deals, so check out the rest if you're in the Apple ecosystem. If particular, if you're looking for an iPad, there are plenty of amazing Black Friday iPad deals going on right now. If you're planning to upgrade your smartphone in the near future, the new iPhone 16 is a solid contender. In our iPhone 16 review, Mark Knapp wrote that, "The iPhone 16 performs great, looks good, and snaps nice photos while offering a big discount to the Pro models."Should I wait for better prices on Black Friday?TLDR; dont wait. Black Friday is the best opportunity to score some great deals on electronics, and Apple products are no exception. However in this case, I think you should grab this deal if you're planning to pick up a pair of AirPods Pros. I can't imagine these earbuds to go down any further. In the slimmest of chances it does, I'm certain that no one will drop it below $149.99, and that's only $4 less than what it is right now. There is an equal chance that the AirPods Pro will actually go up in price slightly and stay that way through Black Friday. The Apple Store is also hosting its own Black Friday Sale, although their deal isn't nearly as good.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.