Rigging Isn't Scary: Early Access ends in 24 hours By Todor Nikolov on December 13, 2024 Videotutorials Todor Nikolov has introduced a new course, Rigging Isn't Scary, designed for beginners and intermediate users. The course is structured into three levels, offering a gradual approach to rigging in Blender. While it will be available for free on YouTube once complete, Early Access is now open for a limited time, with additional benefits and a discount for BlenderNation readers.If you'd like to learn rigging in Blender during 2024 /2025, I may have just what you're looking for. I've been working on a new course about Manual Rigging in Blender.It's called "Rigging isn't Scary" and it is a comprehensive Beginner to Intermediate course in 3 Levels. Absolute Beginner Novice Intermediate The idea is to offer a gradual approach to learning rigging that does not suddenly throw you into a hell of Constraints and Drivers but allows you to ease into the subject.I will release the course completely free on my YouTube channel, when it is complete.So far, I have recorded the first two levels. So, I decided to offer Early Access for a limited time (just 48 hours).You can find a lot of details about the course on this page. But here is an overview of Level 1 and 2 in two images to pick your interest.Level 1Level 2What you will get with Early Access Level 1: Absolute Beginner [Get it now with Early Access] Level 2: Novice [Get it now with Early Access] Level 3: Intermediate [Get it as soon as it is available] Early Access BenefitsSo even though the course will be free eventually, heres why you might want to grab Early Access: Start learning now! Get ahead by beginning your 2024/2025 Rigging journey today. Be the first to watch Level 3 Intermediate, as soon as it is done. Premium Support: Receive fast responses to your course questions (free course questions will have lower priority). Influence Advanced Content: Paying students will have more say in shaping the advanced courses I'll work on next.Support CGDive: It boggles my mind, but many people simply like to support us. PRICEI am offering a "Name-your-Price" pricing ranging from $5.99 to $50. The $5.99 deal was limited to 100 copies and by the time you are reading this, it will be already gone. Sorry! :/So here is a special $7.99 offer only for BlenderNation readers (only 50 copies).

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Healthcare giant Optum has restricted access to an internal AI chatbot used by employees after a security researcher found it was publicly accessible online, and anyone could access it using only a web browser.The chatbot, which TechCrunch has seen, allowed employees to ask the company questions about how to handle patient health insurance claims and disputes for members in line with the companys standard operating procedures (SOPs).While the chatbot did not appear to contain or produce sensitive personal or protected health information, its inadvertent exposure comes at a time when its parent company, health insurance conglomerate UnitedHealth, faces scrutiny for its use of artificial intelligence tools and algorithms to allegedly override doctors medical decisions and deny patient claims.Mossab Hussein, chief security officer and co-founder of cybersecurity firm spiderSilk, alerted TechCrunch to the publicly exposed internal Optum chatbot, dubbed SOP Chatbot. Although the tool was hosted on an internal Optum domain and could not be accessed from its web address, its IP address was public and accessible from the internet and did not require users to enter a password.Its not known for how long the chatbot was publicly accessible from the internet. The AI chatbot became inaccessible from the internet soon after TechCrunch contacted Optum for comment on Thursday.Optum spokesperson Andrew Krejci told TechCrunch in a statement that Optums SOP chatbot was a demo tool developed as a potential proof of concept but was never put into production and the site is no longer accessible.The demo was intended to test how the tool responds to questions on a small sample set of SOP documents, the spokesperson said. The company confirmed there was no protected health information used in the bot or its training.This tool does not and would never make any decisions, but only enable better access to existing SOPs. In short, this technology was never scaled nor used in any real way, said the spokesperson.AI chatbots, like Optums, are typically designed to produce answers based on whatever data the chatbot was trained on. In this case, the chatbot was trained on internal Optum documents relating to SOPs for handling certain claims, which can help Optum employees answer questions about claims and their eligibility to be reimbursed. The Optum documents were hosted on UnitedHealthcares corporate network and inaccessible without an employee login but are cited and referenced by the chatbot when prompted about their contents.According to statistics displayed on the chatbots main dashboard, Optum employees have used SOP Chatbot hundreds of times since September. The chatbot also stored a history of the hundreds of conversations that Optum employees had with the chatbot during that time. The chat history shows Optum employees would ask the chatbot things like What should be the determination of the claim? and How do I check policy renewal date?Some of the files that the chatbot references include handling the dispute process and eligibility screening, TechCrunch has seen. The chatbot also produced responses that showed, when asked, reasons for typically denying coverage.A screenshot of Optums AI chatbot, which was exposed to the internet.Image Credits:TechCrunch (screenshot)Like many AI models, Optums chatbot was capable of producing answers to questions and prompts outside of the documents it was trained on. Some Optum employees appeared intrigued by the chatbot, prompting the bot with queries like Tell me a joke about cats (which it refused: Theres no joke available). The chat history also showed several attempts by employees to jailbreak the chatbot by making it produce answers that are unrelated to the chatbots training data.When TechCrunch asked the chatbot to write a poem about denying a claim, the chatbot produced a seven-paragraph stanza, which reads in part:In the realm of healthcares grand domainWhere policies and rules often constrainA claim arrives, seeking its dueBut alas, its fate is to bid adieu.The provider hopes, with earnest plea,For payment on a service spree,Yet scrutiny reveals the tale,And reasons for denial prevail.UnitedHealth Group, which owns Optum and UnitedHealthcare, faces criticism and legal action for its use of artificial intelligence to allegedly deny patient claims. Since the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in early December, news outlets have reported floods of reports of patients expressing anguish and frustration over denials of their healthcare coverage by the health insurance giant.The conglomerate the largest private provider of healthcare insurance in the United States was sued earlier this year for allegedly denying critical health coverage to patients who lost access to healthcare, citing a STAT News investigation. The federal lawsuit accuses UnitedHealthcare of using an AI model with a 90% error rate in place of real medical professionals to wrongfully deny elderly patients care. UnitedHealthcare, for its part, said it would defend itself in court.UnitedHealth Group made $22 billion in profit on revenues of $371 billion in 2023, its earnings show.

Eldamn, That Soon?Wahey, Elden Ring Nightreign is getting a network test that'll let you play a bit of it early next year, and you can sign up very soonYou'll just be helping the devs make sure everything works as intended, but it's still cool.Image credit: FromSoftware News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 13, 2024 Elden Ring Nightreign was one of the big healines at The Game Awards yesterday, as you'd expect from anything with FromSoftware's critically-acclaimed fingertips. Now, Bandai Namco has revealed that it'll be getting a network test early next year, with sign-ups starting in January.If you somehow missed Nightreign being announced, it's a co-op focussed title that will allow multiple players to take on bosses from the FromSofftverse in collaborative environments. So yup, Elden Ring with your mates in a form that's not just leaving each other cheeky notes and occasionally invading to help out with a particular fight or muck s**t up.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This new game is sert to release at some point in 2025, and it'll be getting a network test not long after the calendar flips over into the new year.The test's been penned in for February 2025, and registration for it will start from January 10, so you've really not got long to wait to try your luck at being one of those selected. Only the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are mentioned as platforms for the test though, which means you're seemingly outta luck if you're on PC or last-gen consoles. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.What'll you be doing if you do get in? Well, Bandai writes: "The network test is a preliminary verification test in which the selected testers play a portion of the game prior to the full game launch. Various technical verifications of online systems will be examined by conducting large-scale network load tests."If it helps, just think of those technical bits as the bosses you're fighting while your're battling bosses, with network stability for the full release being the big reward you get for slaying them. You can call it an 'aura of stable network load' if that doesn't sound fancy enough when you brag to your mates about having procured it.For more Elden Ring chatter, make sure to check out what Sony recently said when it confirmed its interest in buying FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa.

Marvelous HitMarvel Rivals' secret weapon is its healthy mix of A-listers and overlooked characters, and this may help the brand as a wholeA golden opportunity to up Marvel's brand synergy.Image credit: NetEase Games, Marvel Games Article by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Dec. 13, 2024 "Curse you, Jeff!" That's what I've yelled internally as I was thrown into the nearest abyss at least five times since Marvel Rivals' launch on December 6. Before that, I barely even knew who the hell Jeff the Land Shark was, and this is coming from a pop culture sicko.Look, I'm a reasonably big Marvel fan, but I'll admit that I don't read every single thing the publisher puts out. Hell, I probably check out a very small percentage of what they're doing nowadays. This has been an issue for a while, and not just for Marvel: More people than ever before are aware of comic book universes, but that doesn't mean that most of those same people are reading comics. Even during the Marvel Cinematic Universe's peak days, there was a problem in getting viewers to jump into comic books.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. A theory of mine is that, as solid as Marvel's adaptation efforts were until a few years ago, they never quite capitalized on the weirdness and less popular side of the massive Marvel universe. Now, the MCU is very much trying to tackle such characters and elements, but is failing to consistently execute that vision well enough to make folks stick around beyond surefire hits like Deadpool & Wolverine.When you're presented with well-known characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man over and over again on the big and small screens, a common by-product is not wanting to see much more of their faces on the pages. At this point, I tend to really gravitate towards less popular characters who I know less about. That seems like a far better use of my time. And I'm willing to admit that recent TV shows and video games have a played a big role in getting me to read about characters like Agatha Harkness or Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider (shoutout to Midnight Suns). Image credit: NetEase GamesAfter spending some time with Marvel Rivals' full release, I'm starting to feel the same itch. Sure, having A-listers like Magneto and Venom ready to play as rocks, but I'm having even more fun with characters I wasn't as familiar with. Even if they suck in the current meta, I'm curious to learn more about them, and I feel like Marvel Rivals has done a pretty job of mixing the popular faces with heroes and villains who are traditionally overlooked."No character is off limits," executive producer Danny Koo teased back at Gamescom 2024. It's a refreshing approach to filling out an ever-expanding roster of heroes and villains over doing something as limited as an Avengers live-service looter shooter again. Let's put the Overwatch comparisons aside for a small moment and admit that half (if not more) of the reason why Marvel Rivals has popped off is because it simply looks and feels amazing and also promises the excitement of not knowing who's around the corner due to the source material's richness. Image credit: NetEase GamesMoon Knight or Lin Lie (Marvel Rivals' Iron Fist and currently scariest character) were relative nobodies a few years ago unless you really were into comics. Yeah, Moon Knight has been around forever, but come on, normies didn't give a s**t until the Oscar Isaac-led show came out. New MCU entries and video games aren't just meant to generate money on their own, they're also meant to keep comic books and the overall brand healthy and relevant. While Marvel's Avengers felt like a major stumble, Marvel Snap and Marvel Rivals have completely turned the ship around when it comes to video games. Stuff like Insomniac's Spider-Man games is great and all, but having live-service titles that become this big and constantly go deeper into Marvel's library is excellent value for the powers that be.Yes, I still want Daredevil to enter the arena as soon as Daredevil: Born Again hits in March. Yes, I want more X-Men to show up. But at the end of the day, I'm just grateful for a very solid hero shooter that's making the most of a genuinely colorful and rich multiverse that too often feels underused outside of comic books. Rock-solid systems aside, it's the main reason why I found Firaxis' Midnight Suns so damn appealing; it wasn't afraid to get weird and explore a side of the brand that had barely made it outside of comic books before. We all knew Marvel would have something huge in their hands the moment they managed to successfully mix that with popular, highly profitable genres. Look at us now. Image credit: NetEase GamesNow here's the thing: We know how the video game market works and how publishers and rights holders react to massive hits by now. So, what are the chances of Warner Bros. Games rushing to make a DC alternative to Marvel Rivals that completely misses the point of why it works so well, especially now that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is done for good? It pains me to say that they're quite high.In conclusion, I guess that, in the age of milking huge IPs until they're dry and with some of them potentially set to be around forever in one way or another, we might as well ask for transmedia works that actually make good use of them, especially if they're pushing more people to pick up books instead of doom-scrolling for five hours a day when they're not watching or playing anything.

'Game' is a funny word. On its face, it describes lighthearted, fun, frivolous things. Even a very serious game of snooker, in which people wear waistcoats, is 'just a game' on some level. But of course video games can be very different, and Pine is one such game. The subtitle gives it away A Story of Loss and it does exactly what it says on the tin.You might be inclined to imagine something like Arise: A Simple Story, where some light platforming guides you through allegorical landscapes in between cutscenes. However, Pine could be politely described as 'gameplay-light'. The protagonist is an unnamed man living alone in a forest clearing. He fells trees for firewood, grows vegetables in a small allotment to feed himself, and does little else besides carving little statuettes of a woman he loves but has lost.Clearly prioritising touchscreen controls, you begin the game with plenty of swooping your finger to pre-empt the swing of an axe into wood, lifting and placing to simulate the management of the vegetable patch, or tapping to eat food from a plate, chomp by chomp. Playing with a controller really trivialises this, as the interactions are essentially reduced to pressing down a few times languidly, pressing 'A' a few times lethargically, and so on. That said, even the touch interactions are pretty bog standard. The idea of replicating on-screen actions with similar gestures is one thats been well and truly done, and painting guidelines on the screen so you can put your hand in the way of the lovely artwork is actually kind of anti-immersive. Brief puzzle interludes likewise risk interrupting the narrative flow.While we appreciate this is not painting a thrilling picture of Pine, there is something going on here that is worth a look. The artwork is attractive, and the sounds are evocative of the simplicity of the work our man is doing to keep on going with life in the face of having lost his true love. The music breathes in and out, swelling and fading, driving the sad persistence of the story.And persisting is all the protagonist is really doing. Its a portrait of depression and grieving, so be ready for that if you are going to give Pine a shot. The game only lasts a couple of hours, but it felt longer, sometimes like we could see the paint of the artwork drying in front of our eyes. Thats the point, though, as it leans into the monotony and bleakness of half-heartedly pressing on. The later stages lighten the interaction even further and are more like watching an animated film with only occasional button inputs. It becomes 'Press A to Continue Existing'. Whether you find the resolution of the tale relatable is of course going to be very much a personal matter, but we didnt quite click with it, interpreting a message that loss is to be forgotten more than digested.Pine, then, is part of the video game world, but its far from 'just a game'. With appealing visuals and a haunting atmosphere, it demands patience and introspection. For those eager to explore its ideas of loss and moving on, its worth a look; for others, it might feel like the worlds saddest gardening simulator.

It's not switching it up.Canadian accessory manufacturer Dbrand known for its controversial social media stunts has shared images of what it claims is a case for the upcoming successor to the Nintendo Switch.As VGC reports, the company shared a teaser for the case on Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) along with the statement "We will not be answering any questions at this time."Read the full article on nintendolife.com

A former OpenAI employee, Suchir Balaji, was recently found dead in his San Francisco apartment, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In October, the 26-year-old AI researcher raised concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law when he was interviewed by The New York Times.The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has identified the decedent as Suchir Balaji, 26, of San Francisco. The manner of death has been determined to be suicide, said a spokesperson in a statement to TechCrunch. The OCME has notified the next-of-kin and has no further comment or reports for publication at this time.After nearly four years working at OpenAI, Balaji quit the company when he realized the technology would bring more harm than good to society, he told The New York Times. Balajis main concern was the way OpenAI allegedly used copyright data, and he believed its practices were damaging to the internet.We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchirs loved ones during this difficult time, said an OpenAI spokesperson in an email to TechCrunch.Balaji was found dead in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Police were reportedly called to his residence in the citys Lower Haight district to perform a wellness check on the former OpenAI researcher.I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them, said Balaji in a tweet from October. I initially didnt know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data theyre trained on.OpenAI and Microsoft are currently involved with several ongoing lawsuits from newspapers and media publishers, including the New York Times, who claim the generative AI startup has broken copyright law. Before working at OpenAI, the 26-year-old researcher studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. During college, he interned at OpenAI and Scale AI, the former of which he would go on to work for. Balaji worked on WebGPT during his early days at OpenAI, a fine-tuned version of GPT-3 that could search the web. It was an early version of SearchGPT, which OpenAI released earlier this year. Later on, Balaji worked on the pretraining team for GPT-4, reasoning team with o1, and post-training for ChatGPT, according to his LinkedIn.The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to TechCrunchs request for comment.

In BriefPosted:3:51 PM PST December 13, 2024Image Credits:Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAI helps Telegram remove 15 million suspect groups and channels in 2024Telegram has been under unprecedented pressure to clean up its platform this year, after its founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France and faces charges over the alleged harmful content shared on his messaging app.After announcing a crackdown in September, Telegram now says it has removed 15.4 million groups and channels related to harmful content like fraud and terrorism in 2024, noting this effort was enhanced with cutting-edgeAI moderation tools.The announcement is part of a newly launched moderation page Telegram has created to better communicate its moderation efforts to the public, according to a post from Durovs Telegram channel. According to Telegrams moderation page, theres a noticeable increase in enforcement after Durovs arrest in August:Image Credits:TelegramDurovs French case is still pending, but he is currently out on 5 million bail.Topics

John Cena also stars in the live-action film from Skydance, Apple Original Films, and Mattel Films, inspired by Mattels real-world die-cast toy vehicle line, invented in 1953 by Jack Odell.