Photo credit: Toronto Society of ArchitectsThe Toronto Society of Architects (TSA) is rolling out its popular Gingerbread City showcase for the fifth consecutive year. The TSAs Gingerbread City, which consists of both a virtual and in-person exhibit, invites architects and gingerbread lovers to celebrate architecture and city-building through whimsical and edible creations.CN Tower by The Change Bakers (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)This year, the housing crisis was top of mind as bakers submitted a diverse array of housing solutions from mid-rise cooperative projects of all shapes and sizes, to New York style brownstones and single-family detached homes.There is also a thoughtful reminder of the many Torontonians experiencing homelessness and the importance of building housing for everyone.Ace Hotel by Rob Shostak (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)In addition to housing related submissions, the showcase features some local landmarks including two CN Towers and the recently completed Ace Hotel.Kids Main Street, which is returning as part of this years virtual showcase, is a mixed-used streetscape featuring over 30 faades designed and built by children, ages 2 to 11, and completed during in-person workshops held earlier this month.60 Richmond Co-Op by Jol Len Danis (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)The workshops were an opportunity to learn what makes a vibrant streetscape and have some family fun. The result features everything from a fire station to a costume store, cafes, restaurants, toy stores, and a myriad of ice cream shops.TSA Gingerbread Citys virtual showcase and in-person display opened on December 17, 2024, with an in-person preview happening at The Maker Bean Cafe on December 14.The in-person display will remain available until January 10, 2025, at The Maker Bean Cafe, located at 1052 Bloor Street West, Toronto.To visit the virtual showcase, click here.The post Toronto Society of Architects rolls out fifth annual Gingerbread City appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Marie Antoinette and Her Children is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist lisabeth Vige Le Brun, painted in 1787. It shows Marie Antoinette, the consort of King LouisXVI of France, wearing a red velvet gown with a sable lining. Her younger son, the future LouisXVII, sits on her lap, while her daughter Marie-Thrse leans on her arm. Marie Antoinette's elder son, Louis Joseph, at that time Dauphin of France, is near an empty cradle intended for her younger daughter Sophie, who died before the painting's completion. The work was commissioned by LouisXVI in an effort to improve the public perception of Marie Antoinette, after her reputation was tarnished by the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, by focusing on her role as a queen and a mother; she is depicted with little jewellery. The painting was first shown at the Salon in Paris, to mixed reactions, and is now displayed at the Palace of Versailles.Painting credit: lisabeth Vige Le BrunRecently featured: Papaya20232024 Sundhnkur eruptionsMauritius fodyArchiveMore featured pictures

December 20Russian and U.S. Implementation Force troops1852 Led by George Cathcart, British troops defeated Basuto and Taung forces at the Battle of Berea in present-day Lesotho, leading to an offer of peace from King MoshoeshoeI.1940 The superhero Captain America made his first published appearance in the comic book Captain America Comics#1.1980 NBC aired the American football match between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins without announcers.1995 Mandated by the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led Implementation Force (troops pictured) began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.1999 Portugal transferred the sovereignty over Macau, which it had administered since the mid16th century, to China.Ambroise Par (d.1590)Jean Jannon (d.1658)Bill O'Reilly (b.1905)Elizabeth Kekaaniau (d.1928)More anniversaries: December 19December 20December 21ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Thursday, December 19th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerPhotoshop users can now create filters in Substance 3D Designerhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Adobe has added a new set of Parametric Filters powered by Substance 3D materials in the current beta build of Photoshop, its image editing and digital painting software.As well as applying over 20 readymade image-stylization filters, users can create their own custom filters in Substance 3D Designer and import them into Photoshop.Parametric Filters let you author custom Photoshop filters in Substance 3D DesignerThe current Photoshop beta the experimental build of the software, released in parallel to the stable version features a new Parametric Filters panel with over 20 image-stylization filters.Some replicate the effects of existing filters, including halftone, pixelate and scratch effects, but provide more user controls.However, some are completely new: the video above shows filters adding rain or snow to images, and for making source images look like embroidery.If that sounds reminiscent of the filters recently added to Adobes Substance 3D tools, theres a reason for that: the new filters are built as Substance 3D .sbsar files.That makes it possible to create node graphs in Substance 3D Designer and export them in .sbsar format, to use in Photoshop as custom filters.The same control parameters exposed inside Substance 3D Designer are exposed in Photoshop.As well as providing a new way for designers to create stylized looks for images, the feature has potential applications to texturing and material-authoring workflows for 3D projects.Other features in the current Photoshop betaOther current beta features in Photoshop include the Substance 3D Viewer plugin, for importing and editing 3D models inside the software.There are also new generative AI features, including the Generative Workspace, for generating multiple variant images from a single text prompt, for quickly exploring different looks.Beta users also get the option to use a reference image to guide the output of Generative Fill and Generative Expand, the new AI-based tools added to the software last year.Pricing and system requirementsBeta builds of Photoshop are available free to current subscribers.You can find details of pricing and system requirements in this story on Photoshop 26.2, the current stable version of the software, which was released earlier this week.Read more about the new Substance-powered parametric filters in Photoshop on Adobes blogRead more about the other current beta features in Photoshop on Adobes websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsPhotoshop users can now create filters in Substance 3D DesignerCurrent beta build of the image-editing app lets users create and import custom image-stylization filters as Substance 3D .sbsar files.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Pixar releases RenderMan 26.3Check out the new features in the production renderer, including tiled denoising, and support for the new versions of Maya and Houdini.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Create game characters with CC Auto Setup for 3ds Max and V-Ray[Sponsored] Discover how Reallusion's free plugin streamlines the transfer of characters from Character Creator 4 to 3ds Max.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Leopoly releases Shapelab 2025 and Shapelab LiteCheck out the new features in the sculpting tool for VR and desktop systems, and its new lower-cost edition for Meta Quest 3 headsets.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Adobe releases Photoshop 26.2Check out the changes to font browsing in the latest workflow update to the image editing and digital painting software.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Check out Blender's experimental anime rendering buildsNew non-photorealistic rendering branch of the open-source 3D app is being developed with input from anime firm DillonGoo Studios.Tuesday, December 17th, 2024More NewsCell Fluids 2.0 for Blender is outUnigine 2.19.1 can now import and export USD filesBoris FX releases Mocha Pro 2025Master Designing Sci-Fi Props for FilmAdobe releases Substance 3D Stager 3.1 in betaNekki releases Cascadeur Mobile 1.2ukasz Czy releases UVPackmaster 3 for MayaBlender add-on ClayPencil turns 2D animation into 3D 'claymation'Foundry releases Nuke 16.0 in betaChaos releases V-Ray 7 for SketchUpThe new V-Ray for Blender is available in betaFoundry releases Katana 8.0Older Posts

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Originally posted on 9 April 2024, and updated with details of RenderMan 26.3.Pixar has released RenderMan 26, the latest major update to its production renderer for visual effects and animation work.RenderMan 26.0 extends RenderMan XPU, the softwares GPU/CPU render engine, adding support for light linking, new light and camera properties, and adaptive sampling.In addition, the AI denoiser can now be used interactively in Blender and Katana, Stylized Looks has been updated, and the software now supports VFX Reference Platform 2023.The integration plugins for Blender, Houdini, Katana and Maya have all also been updated.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_AdaptiveSampling.mp4Support for adaptive sampling improves performance of RenderMan XPU.RenderMan XPU: support for light linking, more camera properties, and adaptive samplingUnlike Pixars recent major releases, RenderMan 26 doesnt add any entirely new toolsets, but it does extend several of the key features from those releases.The most significant changes are to RenderMan XPU, the hybrid GPU/CPU renderer added in RenderMan 24, which now supports a much wider range of lighting and camera features.That includes all of RenderMans analytic light types, light filters, and shadow and light linking; plus camera shutter controls, and tilt shift, lens aberration, and split diopter properties.You can see a list of the remaining features not supported in XPU here, including mesh lights, the Lama layered material system, and some less standard geometry types.Performance has also been improved, with support for adaptive sampling speeding up renders.In addition, Pixar says that interactivity in scenes with many lights is now significantly better, making XPU better suited to shot layout as well as key lighting.Progressive Pixels, XPUs interactive refinement mode, now supports fractional iterations, making it possible to tune performance still further. https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_StylizedLooks.mp4Stylized Looks: new Canvas layer, artistic toon mode and more line rendering controlsThe Stylized Looks non-photorealistic rendering toolset, also introduced in RenderMan 24, gets a workflow-focused update, including a new Canvas layer and better organization of AOVs.The Stylized Control system gets a new artistic toon mode which, unlike the existing toon shading, is not physically based, expanding the range of stylization available.The line rendering system gets new color remapping and filtering controls, the latter making it possible to render smoother lines.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_Denoising.mp4AI denoiser: support for interactive denoising in Blender and KatanaIn addition, the AI-trained denoiser introduced in RenderMan 25 for RIS, RenderMans CPU-based final-quality render engine, is now available interactively in Blender and Katana.Support for interactive denoising in Maya and Houdini will follow in future releases.Pixar describes the interactive denoiser as capable of removing noise on images with very low average sample counts and as being predictive of the output of the full offline denoiser.Performance improvements, render statistics and pipeline integrationUnder the hood, performance of both RIS and XPU has been improved, particularly when working on scenes with many instances, and when reading in textures, particularly EXR textures.RenderMans statistics system has also been updated, with a new standalone stats portal application for interacting with the data it generates.For pipeline integration, RenderMan 26 now follows the CY2023 spec for VFX Reference Platform, and support for Python 2 has now been deprecated. Pixar also plans to remove its old deep texture format in the next release in favor of DeepEXR.An image from Toy Story 4, used by Pixar on social media to promote RenderMan 26.3.Updated 26 April 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.1.Its primarily a bugfix update, but it adds support for OpenVDB caching in RIS, speeding up renders of volumetric effects where the same VDB grid is used many times.Updated 24 August 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.2.Again, its primarily a bugfix update, but it does include a new advanced configuration for the denoiser, which lets users read and write to/from multiple files and set up custom passes.The denoiser also automatically supports OpenEXR input files with data windows and single channels.OpenEXR exports now include metadata indicating which variant of RenderMan was used to render the image.For Linux users, the update introduces new EL9 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux) builds of the software, alongside the existing RHEL7 builds.Updated 19 December 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.3.Its another bugfix update, but there are workflow improvements to denoising, including the option to denoise images in tiles, reducing memory usage on large images.The update also adds support for the current versions of host DCC applications, including Maya 2025, Katana 8.0 and the latest production build of Houdini 20.5.Price and system requirementsRenderMan 26.3 is available for Windows 10+, RHEL7/EL9 Linux and macOS 12.0+. The plugins are compatible with Blender 3.0+, Houdini 19.5+, Katana 5.0+ and Maya 2022+.RenderMan XPU is supported on Windows and Linux. It requires a NVIDIA Pascal GPU or newer.New node-locked or floating licences cost $595. There is also a free non-commercial edition of RenderMan, which has also been updated to version 26.3.Read a full list of new features in RenderMan 26 in the online release notesRead an overview of the new features in RenderMan 26 on the product websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

These 500-Year-Old Cannons May Help Unravel the Mysteries of the Coronado ExpeditionThe 16th-century artifacts were found during excavations in Arizona. Researchers say they may be the oldest firearms ever discovered in the continental United States During asystematic metal detector survey in southern Arizona, Deni Seymour unearthed a 16th-century cannon likely left behind by Spanish conquistadors. Deni SeymourIn 1541, Spanish explorers established a settlement called San Geronimo III in present-day southern Arizona. Led byFrancisco Vzquez de Coronado, the conquistadors were exploring what is now the American Southwest in hopes of finding riches and gold.But not long after setting up San Geronimo III near the Santa Cruz River, the Spanish explorers encountered an Indigenous community known as theSobaipuri Oodham. The two groups engaged in battle, with the Sobaipuri Oodham ultimately prevailing. The Spanish conquistadors fled, leaving behind some of their weapons and belongings as they made a speedy getaway.Now, archaeologists have unearthed two of the defeated groups 16th-century cannons. They may be the oldest firearms ever discovered in the continental United States.Researchers discovered the first cannon in the fall of 2020 during a systematic metal detector survey of the San Geronimo III site, according to a paper published last month in theInternational Journal of Historical Archaeology.They did not find any evidence of gunpowder residue on the 40-pound weapon, which is in pristine condition and made of bronze, the researchers write in the paper. Archaeologists think the battle may have started so quickly that the Spanish conquistadors didnt have time to fire the 3.5-foot-long cannon.This cannon and the battle that occurred around it are significant in that they represent the earliest successful Native American uprising in the continental U.S. since the Spaniards did not come back for 150 years, says study co-authorDeni Seymour, an independent archaeologist who leads the excavations at San Geronimo III, toGizmodos Isaac Schultz.Archaeologists found a second cannon in March 2024, reportsLive Sciences Owen Jarus. Theyre still investigating the find, but they can already see that the cannons barrel was blown off.It was fired in the battle, which is when and why the barrel blew out, Seymour tells Live Science. [The Spanish explorers] probably put too much powder in trying to repel an onslaught of attackers who were overrunning them.The two cannons are also known as hook guns or hackbuts. These were lightweight weapons that were relatively easy to transport on the backs of horses, mules or humans. When used in battle, they were typically placed on large, wooden tripods and probably fired by two men.The cannons likely fired buckshot, a type of ammunition that consisted of 86 small pellets. Researchers likened this style of ammunition to a swarm of hornets, they write in the paper.Even a single pellet, depending on where it hits, can put an aggressor out of action, they write. The cannon weighs roughly 40 pounds and measures 3.5 feet long. Deni SeymourSeymour and her colleagues also found other artifacts at the site, including crossbow bolts, lead bullets, swords, daggers, chain mail and plate armor. They also unearthed European pottery, pieces of olive jars and arowel spur.The discovery of the weapons in Arizona shows that the Spanish conquest, like the English and Dutch ones that came later, were precisely that: conquest and violence first; discovery second,Sharonah Fredrick, a scholar of Hispanic studies at the College of Charleston who was not involved with the project, tells Live Science.With her research in Arizona, Seymour hopes to learn more about Coronados expedition. Coronado had been serving as the governor of a province in Mexicothen calledNew Spainwhen he first learned about the fabledSeven Cities of Cbola. Lured by the promise of vast treasures, he launched an expedition to these mysterious destinations to the north.Coronados crew of 300 Spaniards and more than 1,000 Native Americans headed north in February 1540. They never found the riches theyd been promised, but they did explore present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. In 1542, the group returned to Mexico.Many aspects of the Coronado expedition remain a mystery to historians. But the recent excavations in Arizona may help fill out some of the missing details, says Matthew Schmader, an archaeologist at the University of New Mexico who is not involved with the project, to theWashington Posts Kyle Melnick.That particular area, that portion of the expeditionary route, is really pretty unknown, he adds.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American History, Archaeology, Artifacts, Colonialism, Explorers, History, Indigenous Peoples, Mexico, New Research, Spain, Weapons

A recently excavated mastodon tooth found in a backyard, still embedded in the jaw New York State MuseumWhile mowing the lawn back in September, a homeowner in Orange County, New York, spotted strange objects poking through the plants. At first, the resident thought they were baseballs. But after picking them up, it became clear they were something much rarer: giant fossil teeth.The homeownerwho, according to the Associated Press, wishes to remain anonymousalerted the appropriate experts, leading researchers from the state museum and SUNY Orange to descend upon the backyard and begin an excavation. As they unearthed the remains, they revealed a complete mastodon jaw.The prehistoric finding, which is the first of its kind uncovered in New York in more than 11 years, was announced in a New York State Educational Department statement on Tuesday.Mastodons were large, tusked, elephant-like mammals distantly related to woolly mammoths and modern elephants. Slightly smaller than mammoths, they existed around the world from the early Miocene (2.6 million to 23 million years ago) through the Pleistocene (11,700 to 2.6 million years ago). In North America, however, the enormous mammals likely survived even longer, meaning their presence likelyoverlapped with the arrival of humans on the continent. Like mammoths, mastodons disappeared toward the end of the last ice age, when a series of factors, including climate change and human hunting, drove many large animals to extinction, as Jess Thomson reports for Newsweek. The excavated mastodon teeth New York State Educational DepartmentThis discovery is a testament to the rich paleontological history of New York and the ongoing efforts to understand its past, Robert Feranec, the New York State Museums director of research and collections, says in the statement. This mastodon jaw provides a unique opportunity to study the ecology of this magnificent species, which will enhance our understanding of the Ice Age ecosystems from this region.Fossils are resources that provide remarkable snapshots of the past, allowing us to not only reconstruct ancient ecosystems but also provide us with better context and understanding of the current world around us, he adds.In addition to the well-preserved jaw, the researchers also uncovered a part of a rib and toe bone. They plan on further analyzing the jaw and bone fragments, including through carbon dating, to better understand the animals age, diet and prehistoric habitat, according to the statement. For now, the researchers have identified the remains as belonging to an adult mastodon.The magnitude of the find surprised even the museum experts. Initially I just thought we would kind of poke around and grab the other tooth and pull it out of the ground, and that would be it, Feranec says to ABCs Eyewitness News. But as we poked around that other tooth, it wasnt moving, and we kind of poked around a little more and realized that it was stuck in something. The recently excavated mastodon toe (bottom) compared with a toe from the Temple Hill Mastodon (top), which was previously uncovered in Orange County, New York New York State MuseumIm thrilled that our property has yielded such an important find for the scientific community, the homeowner says in the statement.Orange County is well-known for its mastodon fossilsin fact, about a third of the 150 mastodon fossils unearthed in New York state were discovered in Orange County.This might be due to the fact that retreating Ice Age glaciers left behind a kind of Ice Age lake with biologically rich land that attracted animals to the region, Cory Harris, chair of SUNY Oranges behavioral sciences department, tells the Times Unions Lana Bellamy and Phillip Pantuso. He adds that modern human activities in the area, like land development, also increase the chance of finding fossils.However, even though Orange County has a lot of mastodons relative to the rest of the state and, really, the rest of the country, as Harris tells ABC, that still doesnt mean you find it every day.The recent mastodon discovery will be included in public programming next year, according to the statement, and the researchers hope to continue exploring the area around the fateful Orange County backyard for future excavations.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Bones, Cool Finds, Elephants, Fossils, Mammals, Paleontology, Teeth

Sombrero ground lizards (Pholidoscelis corvinus) are endemic to Sombrero Island, north of Anguilla, which means they're found nowhere else on the planet. Jenny Daltry / Re:wild / Fauna & FloraA cheeky and charismatic lizard found only on a small Caribbean island has bounced back from the brink of extinction, according to a new survey.Biologists are celebrating the recovery of the Sombrero ground lizard (Pholidoscelis corvinus), a critically endangered reptile thats endemic to Sombrero Islandmeaning it cant be found anywhere else on Earth. And, just years ago, the creature had been nearly wiped out from its home.The species population had dwindled to fewer than 100 individuals in 2018. But, thanks to targeted conservation efforts, more than 1,600 of the scaly, black-blue reptiles are now scampering across the arid, limestone island. The nonprofit conservation group Flora & Fauna announced the latest numbers this week, in partnership with the Anguilla National Trust and Re:wild.We were absolutely ecstatic when we analyzed the results of our population surveys and found this enormous increase in their numbers, says Farah Mukhida, the executive director of Anguilla National Trust, to Popular Sciences Laura Baisas. Conservationists are working to rebuild the soil and plant life on Sombrero Island. Flora & FaunaSombrero Island is a rocky, uninhabited outpost located roughly 34 miles northwest of Anguilla. The 94-acre island is situated within the Anegada Passage, a channel between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Its home to the remains of an old lighthouse, as well as a newer lighthouse that was automated in 2001, reports National Park Travelers Jennifer Bain.Despite its diminutive size, the island provides habitat for many creaturesincluding brown boobies, the Sombrero Island bee, a pygmy gecko and the Sombrero Island wind scorpion. Migratory birds stop at the island in the spring and fall, and several species breed there, including sooty terns and laughing gulls. The waters surrounding the island also support coral reefs, sargassum and seaweed; endangered green sea turtles often visit to forage.Starting in the 1800s, however, American and British miners began flocking to Sombrero Island to take advantage of its abundant seabird guano, which can be used as fertilizer. In the process, they introduced invasive mice and ravaged the ecosystem. The island was once covered in trees and even had its own endemic giant tortoise speciesbut it was pillaged to the point of being nothing more than a barren moonscape, wrote the Guardians Patrick Greenfield in 2022.Sombrero Island has been so degraded by human activity that it no longer looks like a hat to approaching sailors, per the Guardian.More recently, devastating hurricanes have further damaged Sombrero Island, and such storms in 2018 ledthe ground lizards population to crash. The whole island was on the verge of ecological collapse, according to a statement from Flora & Fauna.But since 2021, conservation groups have been working to reintroduce native plants and remove the invasive mice. The past three years have seen painstaking restoration activity, Mukhida says in the statement. That type of work is not an easy feat on such a remote and rocky island.Now, their efforts are paying off: The island is considered pest-free and is brimming with green plants like sea bean, seagrape and prickly pear. And as for the Sombrero ground lizards, their numbers have ballooned by 16 times in six years.The island isnt the lush, tree-covered landscape it once wasthat will likely take years. But conservationists are hopeful that within the next decade or so, theyll be able to build the soil back up enough to support trees and bushes, per the Guardian.Conservationists say their work is important not only to protect the islands animals now, but also into the future. Sombrero Island, which has a maximum elevation of 39 feet, is susceptible to new threats with climate change, including sea-level rise, higher temperatures, more intense storms and longer droughtsand so are Sombrero ground lizards.Already there are reports that the island has been completely inundated by storm surges from major hurricanes, and modelling indicates that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Caribbean will continue to increase, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Caribbean, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Good News, Hurricanes, Lizards, Plants, Reptiles, Water, wildlife

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreOpenAI has expanded the number of applications its desktop apps can work with, including allowing Advanced Voice Mode to work with other apps, and is moving closer to ChatGPT using computers.The desktop app introduced integrations in November with an initial four applications. During Day 11 of its 12 Days of OpenAI event, OpenAI announced several new integrated development environments (IDEs), terminals and text apps it will support.ChatGPT now supports BBEdit, MatLab, Nova, Script Editor, TextMate as IDEs, VS Code for VSCode Insiders, VSCodium, Cursor, WindSurf, the JetBrains family of IDEs of Android Studio, AppCode, CLion, DataGrip, GoLand, IntelliJ IDEA, PHPStorm, PyCharm, RubyMine, RustRover and WebStorm. It also added the Warp and Prompt terminal apps as integration. These applications join VS Code, Xcode, Terminal, iTerm 2 and TextEdit as integrated apps.But coding applications wont be the only applications that ChatGPT desktop apps can access. OpenAI also added Apple Notes, Notion and Quip to its integrations. Advanced Voice Mode can work with these applications, considering the context of projects in the integrations.OpenAI emphasized that users must give ChatGPT permission to access these applications.Letting ChatGPT use your computer for youApp integrations with AI chatbots are, of course, nothing new. In October, GitHub Copilot added coding platform integrations. Connecting applications to ChatGPT or Copilot brings context from those platforms into the chat experience. Developers can prompt ChatGPT for some coding help for a project they have on VS Code, and the chatbot understands what theyve been working on.Kevin Weil, chief product officer at OpenAI, said during a live stream that improving the desktop app will help the company get closer to a more agentic user experience for ChatGPT.Weve been putting a lot of effort into our desktop apps, said Weil. As our models get increasingly powerful, ChatGPT will more and more become agentic. That means well go beyond just questions and answers; ChatGPT will begin doing things for you.He added that the desktop apps are a big part of that transformation.Being a desktop app you can do much more than you can than just a browser tab, he said. That includes things like, with your permission, being able to see whats on your screen and being able to automate a lot of the work youre doing on your desktop. Well have a lot more to say on that as we go into 2025.If OpenAI lets ChatGPT see more of your computer, ChatGPT will get closer to Anthropics Claude Computer Use feature, which allows Claude to click around a persons computer, navigate screens and even type text.OpenAI already announced a fairly similar feature for the mobile version of ChatGPT, although the chatbot cannot yet access computers or phones the same way. Users can share their screens with the chatbot so it can see what theyre reading or looking at. Microsoft and Google also developed comparable features with Copilot Vision and Project Astra.How to accessOn MacOS, users who want to open ChatGPT while using other applications can use option + space to pull up ChatGPT and choose the application they need through a button on the chat screen. Another shortcut, option + shift + 1, brings up the topmost application used.From that window, users can also access Advanced Voice Mode in the same way. Voice mode automatically detects context from the application.Integrations are available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise and Edu users. However, Enterprise and Edu subscribers must ask their IT administrators to turn on the feature.Daily insights on business use cases with VB DailyIf you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.Read our Privacy PolicyThanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.An error occured.

Zoned and Paramount have brought SpongeBob to Fortnites UEFN platform in four new UGC-based experiences.Read More