SpaceXs satellite-to-cell Starlink texting service can now operate throughout New Zealand, thanks to the telecommunications company One NZ. The New Zealand-based provider says this is the first time that a nationwide satellite text messaging service has been powered by Starlink. T-Mobile has been making a lot of noise about getting this going, but it looks like One NZ beat it to the punch.Whats the benefit here for New Zealand residents? Its a country with many rural areas without access to mobile towers, resulting in weak or no signals. This should even the playing field for people who dont live near big cities.Now onto the caveats, and there are a couple of big ones. Starlink texting is incredibly slow when compared to traditional methods. One NZ says that most messages should be sent and received within three minutes during the initial rollout, but admits that timeframe could increase to 10 minutes or longer. It is for this reason that the company continues to urge folks to carry a personal locator beacon when traveling to a remote area.The service is also only supported by four smartphone models, which includes the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and OPPO Find X8 Pro. This list of eligible devices is expected to grow next year. The company also intends to eventually expand the service to include voice calling and data.The satellite service is free for existing One NZ customers on paid-monthly plans, but we dont know the pricing scheme for new customers or for those signed up for other types of contracts. Starlink has partnered with other telecommunications companies to bring comprehensive coverage to Japan, Peru, Switzerland and Chile. As previously mentioned, its also working with T-Mobile to do something similar in the US.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/starlinks-first-nationwide-satellite-texting-service-goes-live-in-new-zealand-182343142.html?src=rss

Sony has acquired a major stake in FromSoftwares parent company Kadokawa. This follows reports that Sony was in talks to purchase the company outright. It looks like that isnt happening, but Sony has boosted its total ownership of Kadokawa up to ten percent after spending around $300 million on more shares. This makes Sony the largest shareholder of the Japanese publisher.Sony likely made this move to get its hands on some of Kadokawas IP, which includes the entire roster of FromSoftware games and franchises created by Spike Chunsoft and Gotcha Gotcha Games. Kadokawa also publishes a boatload of anime and manga. A press release noted that the two companies will now discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, which will include live-action films and TV drama.Does this mean that well soon get an Elden Ring or Dark Souls movie? These are some of Kadokawas most prominent franchises, so its certainly possible. The companies have also promised to promote the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games.As for console exclusivity, dont hold your breath. Sony already owns a 14 percent stake in FromSoftware and games like Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are available on PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles and for PCs. To that end, there's some co-op DLC coming to Elden Ring sometime next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-is-now-the-largest-shareholder-of-fromsoftwares-parent-company-165934956.html?src=rss

There's no arguing that AI still has quite a few unreliable moments, but one would hope that at least its evaluations would be accurate. However, last week Google allegedly instructed contract workers evaluating Gemini not to skip any prompts, regardless of their expertise, TechCrunch reports based on internal guidance it viewed. Google shared a preview of Gemini 2.0 earlier this month.Google reportedly instructed GlobalLogic, an outsourcing firm whose contractors evaluate AI-generated output, not to have reviewers skip prompts outside of their expertise. Previously, contractors could choose to skip any prompt that fell far out of their expertise such as asking a doctor about laws. The guidelines had stated, "If you do not have critical expertise (e.g. coding, math) to rate this prompt, please skip this task."Now, contractors have allegedly been instructed, "You should not skip prompts that require specialized domain knowledge" and that they should "rate the parts of the prompt you understand" while adding a note that it's not an area they have knowledge in. Apparently, the only times contracts can skip now are if a big chunk of the information is missing or if it has harmful content which requires specific consent forms for evaluation.One contractor aptly responded to the changes stating, "I thought the point of skipping was to increase accuracy by giving it to someone better?"Shortly after this article was first published, Google provided Engadget with the following statement: "Raters perform a wide range of tasks across many different Google products and platforms. They provide valuable feedback on more than just the content of the answers, but also on the style, format, and other factors. The ratings they provide do not directly impact our algorithms, but when taken in aggregate, are a helpful data point to help us measure how well our systems are working."A Google spokesperson also noted that the new language shouldn't necessarily lead to changes to Gemini's accuracy, because they're asking raters to specifically rate the parts of the prompts that they understand. This could be providing feedback for things like formatting issues even if the rater doesn't have specific expertise in the subject. The company also pointed to this weeks' release of the FACTS Grounding benchmark that can check LLM responses to make sure "that are not only factually accurate with respect to given inputs, but also sufficiently detailed to provide satisfactory answers to user queries."Update, December 19 2024, 11:23AM ET: This story has been updated with a statement from Google and more details about how its ratings system works.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-accused-of-using-novices-to-fact-check-geminis-ai-answers-143044552.html?src=rss

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Saturday Night Live is a cultural institution. In an era when everything is streamed and nothing seems real, NBCs landmark live sketch comedy show proves that50 years on, it can still offer a thrill to anyone stuck home on the hottest night of the weekend.After five decades, the premise could be dull and anachronistic. Instead, its as fresh as ever, earning its highest rated season premiere in four years. And while its cast is ever-changing, so much of what makes SNL work comes down to its design. From its logo to its photo bumpers to its unmistakable opening montage of New York City.For the past few decades, two friendsSNL photographer Mary Ellen Matthews and Pentagram partner Emily Obermanhave influenced the creative direction of so much of what makes SNL feel like SNL. Its a sensation encapsulated best in the two-minute intro, which transports the viewer from their house in Kansas to glitzy Manhattan. Shot over the course of just a few nights by different directors leading up to each season premiere, the opening credits involve late shoots that often stretch into sunrise, elbowed inside everyones workload for the show. But its also become the mise en scne of SNL itself, the anchor thats bridged half a century of live televised comedy into one cohesive vibe.The brief is always the same: Its the city you love, the party you wish you were at, and the cast you wish you were hanging out with. Thats it, says Oberman. And Lorne Michaelss directive is always, whenever we redo the open, it should feel completely new and completely the same at the same time.[Image: NBC]Rebuilding the SNL brandOberman got her first chance to help on SNL in 1994, when Jim Signorelli gave her a call. Signorelli technically ran the shows film unit, but Oberman describes him as the Capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) given his seniority on the production, which included overseeing both SNLs intro and its parody commercials that used to always follow the monologue.[Images: NBC]He invited Oberman and her then studio partner Bonnie Siegler to help on a special project. Clear Crystal Pepsi had just come out. He was filming a spot for Crystal Gravy and needed a high-end, corporate graphics treatmentthe work of what he called a type jockey. That was when Oberman learned the rules of normal life didnt apply at SNL, and the buzz of working in an edit bay at 1:00 a.m. with brilliant comedic minds. Oberman and Siegler created several spots over the years, including Cookie Dough Sport and Live Action Smurfs.By 1995, Signorelli asked if the duo wanted to create a new logo. The answer was obviously yes. Their design signaled a seachange in SNLs identity, replacing the manhole-inspired logo from 1988 with a confident SNL sitting atop the shows full name without any spaces in it.SNL logo evolution (from top): 1988, 1995-2005, 2006-2014, 2014-2021, 2022-present.Our big idea was Saturday-Night-Live! You just say it as one word like Don Pardo did the voiceover, says Oberman. Along with the logo work, Oberman began working on the intro titles. One thing that Jim said to us that has always stuck with me was the show should be funny; the titles should not.The titles had always been shot like it was very downtown, gritty, scrappy, she continues. But Saturday Night Live had been around for almost 25 years at that point, and wasnt that scrappy little thing. It was the biggest late night sketch comedy show of all time. So we wanted to make it cool, like Blue Note jazz, which is why the logo looked like this.Since then, Oberman has reimagined the logo four more times (SNL now even has its own typeface called Bass-o-matic) and contributed to the typography of the opener for 30 years now. But thats only a slice of how Oberman has impacted the visual design of the show.1975 [Image: NBC]How credits evolved over 50 seasonsOver the course of season one of NBCs Saturday Night (the original name for SNL), you can watch the show slowly home in on the skeleton of the contemporary opener. From episode one, creatives set the tone as photographer Edie Baskens hand-painted photos of New York nightlife montaged atop a still-familiar, sax-rich theme song by Howard Shore. The biggest difference was that the first week listed the cast in one pile on a single screen. By mid-season, the names were read out over two. And finally, toward the end, the cast was given a full hero treatment as each member was listed with their photo, one at a time.1996 [Image: NBC]That straightforward approach to listing the talent is in line with a core purpose of the SNL opener. Its a place for the cast to be presented, says Matthews. I dont know how else you would do it.But while the season 1 cast had only nine people, it has since ballooned to 17 members.Theres a lot more to get through, which is a reason the opener has doubled in length while also accelerating its pace of presentation. The cuts are faster, and so is the musicwhich has increased by around 100 beats per minute over five decades.1997 [Image: NBC]Its a very long intro, and [we] try to make it speak to an audience whos used to flipping through TikTok, says Mike Diva, who directs shorts on SNL. You look at old SNL sketches from even 10 or 15, years ago. And its like, everything moved so much slower. People had so much patience, and man, now all of our patience has worn thin.All that time is well-used, buying time for the cast and crew to set up behind the scenes. But the viewer is distracted in an ever-modernized media spectacle. Every two or so years since SNLs debut, the opener is reshot with a shift in tone. By 1996, the scrappy live sketch show had a high-style, ritzy NYC makeover. Around the same time (1999), SNL photographer Mary Ellen Matthews took over for Basken following six years of working as his assistant, ushering in the shows modern artistic viewpoint.Matthewss celebrity host portraits shot in Studio 8H each weekranging from beautiful to zany to surrealistserve as the essential bumpers of SNL, offering micro liminal space between the real commercials. They bring a touch of class and visual levity to transition the viewer back from a commercial to live comedy. What I want to bring to my work is joy, she says.[Images: courtesy Emily Oberman]As Oberman continued working at SNL, and Matthews worked closer with Signorelli, the two women gradually discovered a creative chemistrythough Oberman notes, Its all very collaborative, everyone [at SNL] feels like they do the titles. In 2012, they played with segmenting and slicing visuals and, in 2014, they brought NYC to light with influences from Picassos light painting.[Images: NBC]Ive always been a fan of opening credits and titles, and I find it is own art form for sure. I go back to the James Bondness of these things, says Matthews. [Though] funnily enough . . . just started watching something on Netflix with a skip intro, and Im like, Skip! I dont even watch them! But something like the ones weve done, it involves so much, and so many people.In 2010, Matthews asked a simple question that would flip the SNL intro upside-down: What the heck was the cast actually doing in the opener?[Image: NBC]The musics fast-paced, and you really cant just have somebody sitting there having a drink anymore, because Its like the music and that action dont go together, she says. So Matthews asked the cast, What is your New York life like? That led to Fred Armisen poking through records in the West Village and Jason Sudekis playing basketball in Washington Square.Cecily Strong wanted to have her dog in a couple of the opens. And her dog is adorable, so she got to have her dog in them, recalls Obermann. And those are conversations that Mary Ellen handles and deals with. I dont meet with the cast members.Since then, openers have had a touch more vibe of actually doing stuff in NYC, but theyre updated every few years with a new creative brief born from a brainstorm between Matthews and Oberman. Between 2020 and 2022, for instance, the cast was captured making their way back into the studio during the pandemic. Each members name was written by hand in a time when celebrities Zooming from home had introduced a new era of authenticity in entertainment. Then in 2022, they captured the entire cast inside the Chelsea Hotel (look closely and you can appreciate the logistical nightmare that is having multiple cast members together in a single shotgiven that each member of the cast is juggling their own hectic schedule to kick off the season).[Images: courtesy Emily Oberman]In 2018, Matthews and Obermann brainstormed a mashup between French New Wave cinema, a 1960s film movement known for its charming black-and-white surrealism, and New York New Wave, a 1980s art movement mixing media as it is today. They cut inspiration footage together to pitch the idea, and executed what is the most beautiful of the SNL intros to date.Sometime around 2 a.m., Kate McKinnon was standing inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Shes glammed out to the max despite the late hours, looking more like an A-lister than a not quite ready for prime time player. And that single frame was so stunning to producer Steve Higgins that Oberman was given more creative license, and the SNL team approved something it never had before: graphics that, instead of ducking and weaving around the cast, were placed right over someones face.[Image: NBC]The idea of putting type on top of your heros face was a hard sell, says Obermann. By showing this one frame where Kate just looks so beautiful, even with type on her face? They were like, Okay, you can do it.[Image: NBC]Making season 50As SNL entered its 50th season this year, the team already knew they wanted to do something special with the opening credits.The piece kicks off with a flash of five decades of SNL logos in bold redthe color is a preference from Michaels to buck SNLs traditional penchant for aforementioned blue note jazz. And what ensues is a frantically paced, color corrected fever dream that blends type and place, eviscerating the fourth wall.[Images: courtesy Emily Oberman]Lorne really wanted to do something big and different and modern was his thing, because he kept saying, This isnt a nostalgia play, this cast the future of the show . . . this open should be spectacular, recalls Oberman. Mary Ellen and I were sort of charged with, what will this be? But Mike [Diva] had this vision.[Image: NBC]Diva films most of the big pre-taped segments you see on SNLlike Gladiator 2: The Musical and HBO Mario Kartand has been working alongside Matthews and Oberman on the openers since the Chelsea Hotel shoot in 2022.I thought about it a lot over the summer, says Diva. I came up with this idea of playing around with peoples perception of what they have come to know as the format of the SNL intros, while simultaneously wanting to celebrate how the sausage is made. Until I started working here almost four years ago, I didnt fully appreciate how, at the very last minute, these sets are coming together, and theres people flying in chairs and tables and stuff, truly, five seconds before the camera goes on and we see the set. Its magic.What Diva produced is the most ambitious opener SNL has ever run, somehow assembled in a mere five days. Yes, it has all of the tropes weve come to expect in an SNL opener. But it also mixes cast members spending time in real locationsMichael Che eating at a restaurant, Chloe Fineman dancing on a subway, Marcello Hernandea leaping down a fire escapeand then breaks your brain by seamlessly cutting between the real world and a set lovingly reproduced in studio 8H.Its a magic trick, but the show is a magic trick, says Matthews. So that it was a close comparison to what actually happens.Other pieces of the shoot take SNLs love for New York to new heights. The crew pulled a double decker bus into Times Square for Ego Nwodims party scene. Much of the visual energy comes from Divas inspirationMichel Gondry meets Wong Kar-waiand his use of a new DJI Ronin camera, which has a lens that detaches from the main body, allowing him to take us inside a cab with Mikey Day and right up to the bus window with Sarah Sherman.[Image: NBC]For the Times Square beat with Kenan [Thompson], we shot that in like 16 minutes. We literally popped up a green screen in the middle of Times Square and shot Kenan doing different poses, says Diva. We had all these barriers and stuff, but you can imagine Times Square with Kenan Thompson is pretty chaotic.[Image: NBC]The opener was coming together well, but toward the end of a week of sleeping in the studio, Diva realized that while he had all of this amazing footage of the cast, he didnt have enough of the everyday New York B-roll that grounds an SNL intro. Matthews, who Diva describes as a machine gun of ideas, offered him a simple solution filmed in three beats: a woman walking a dog, a guy with a guitar on his back, and someone riding a Citi Bike. Diva called up three of his friends and filmed these scenes with a high end, 360-degree Grand Theft Auto production style. He also grabbed some shots on his iPhone. Realizing his first plan was over-the-top, the iPhone footage was what made it in.Like so much of what makes SNL wonderful, the low-fi solution sneaks by for one reason and one reason alone:You would never know, he laughs.

Around the time that MIT economist Daron Acemoglu became one of AIs most prominent hype-busters, he also won a Nobel Prize.While those two things are not directly related, Acemoglu says theres a common thread. Acemoglu and his co-laureates, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, were recognized for their research on how societies with extractive political systems are less prosperous over time than those that emphasize individual rights. Likewise, Acemoglu believes there will be limited financial return from AI that aims to replace human judgment.We need investment for alternative approaches to AI, and alternative technologies, those that I would say are more centered on making workers more productive, and providing better information to workers, Acemoglu says.In a research paper published in May, Acemoglu projected that generative AI will only automate about 4.6% of tasks over the next decade, with an average cost savings of 14.4%. Multiply those factors, and the total productivity gain is a paltry 0.66%, which Acemoglu says is a generous estimate, based on the idea that AI will become better at performing some hard-to-learn tasks. He projects that the true productivity gains from AI will be a mere 0.53%, and that GDP will only grow by about 1% over the next decade.Although hes been reiterating these points in numerous interviews, articles, and research reports, Acemoglu says hes not an AI pessimist. Hes just dismayed by the amount of hype around AIincluding in the mediathat can lead to wasteful spending by businesses.Theyre telling you, Oh look at ChatGPT, it passed the bar exam, theres going to be no need for lawyers, and all that crap, which has nothing to do with reality, he says. And that creates this environment, which I think is very, very bad, where CEOs and business leaders are feeling, Oh, if Im not investing in AI, Im falling behind my competitors, I should just go ahead to find something to do with AI.'Acemoglu says hes now putting his money where his mouth is, working on the development of more targeted AI technologies that dont rely on expensive large language models from big tech companies. One example, he says, will provide better information to lawyers, so they can encourage better settlements and make the legal system more efficient.Were hoping to design things that give information to individual actors by empowering individuals, he says, rather than taking tasks away from them, or coming from the top and telling them what to do.This story is part ofAI 20, our monthlong series of profiles spotlighting the most interesting technologists, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and creative thinkers shaping the world of artificial intelligence.

I think about this year-end list of design books all year long, collecting stacks, reading hundreds of pages, pouring over countless images. I keep a list of the books that stick with me and feel like they show me something new. But its only when I narrow that long list down for publication that I can see the trends that emerged over the year. Regardless of circumstance, it seems there are always threads connecting the books that have meant the most to me. As I look over my favorite books of 2024, Im struck by their optimism. The books I couldnt seem to get out of my head this year feel the opposite, in many ways, of how the year felt. This list, then, is a list filled with color, with inspiration, with excitement, and with joy.[Cover Image: Princeton University Press]The Architecture of Urbanity by Vishaan Chakrabarti (Princeton University Press)In his first book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, the architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti made the case that better designed cities could help solve the countrys challenges from public health to climate change. His follow up book, The Architecture of Urbanity, coming ten years later, builds upon this thesis to show how we can think about designing our communities for nature, culture, and joy. Moving through history to the present day and packed with graphics, maps, and drawings, Chakrabartis book is a hopeful and inspiring mandate for todays designers and architects.[Cover Image: Phaidon]Alexander Girard: Let The Sun In by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee (Phaidon)When we think of mid-century design, we often think of a simplified aesthetic of steel and glass and blond woods. This representation can often seem sterile, serious, cold. But the design of the mid-century, of course, was much more varied: warmer, more colorful, and more playful. There are many mid-century designers to admire, from the Eames to George Nelson to Florence Knoll, but no one, perhaps, embodies the playfulness of the era than Alexander Girard. Showcasing his work across interior design, furniture, textiles, graphic design, and architecture, this stunning monograph captures the spirit and playfulness of one of the most important figures of mid-century design.[Cover Image: Phaidon]Atlas of Never Built Architecture by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin (Phaidon)Sometimes I think my favorite architecture is the architecture that doesnt exist. The buildings that never got built but remain alive through drawings, renderings, and plans become a type of speculative design, caught between reality and fiction. It seems architecture writers Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin feel similarly because their new book is packed with these never-built buildings. Packed with gorgeous renderings and organized geography, this book becomes an alternative history of some parallel architectural world.[Cover Image: Letterform Archive]The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928-1930 by Gennifer Weisenfeld (Letterform Archive)Over the last decade, theres been an effort across the design fields to uncover the often-overlooked areas of design history, expanding our understanding of the canon of what design is and can be. One of my favorite recent additions to this expanded design history is Gennifer Weisenfelds serious and inspiring look at The Complete Commercial Artist, a 24-volume publication released in Japan from 1928 to 1930. It was during these years, it turns out, that Japanese designers began to rethink the design profession, blending modernist methodologies with local vernacular creating an expressive, colorful, and wholly unique visual style. And it was all documented and discussed in The Complete Commercial Artist. Here, Weisenfeld looks at the history of the publication and the influence of this work on designers today, around the world.[Cover Image: Princeton Architectural Press]Building Culture by Julian Rose (Princeton Architectural Press)Over the last few years, there has been a series of books on the role of architecture in shaping museum experiences. The latest of the genre is art critic Julian Roses collection of sixteen interviews with leading architects about the museums theyve designed, the ideas behind them, and the relationship between art and architecture. Rose is a knowledgeable and generative interlocutor that makes for rich and engaging conversations.[Cover Image: Draw Down Books]Superstorm by Noemi Biasetton (Onomatopee)In an election year that sometimes felt like it was hard to make sense of, I found Italian design researcher Noemi Biasettons book to be an anchor. Born out of her PhD work at the University of Venice, Biasetton explores the relationship between communication design, media theory, and political discourse from the 1960s to 2020. Filled with case studies that range from the first televised debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to Michael Bieruts 2016 Hillary Clinton logo, the film work of Steve Bannon to the now-iconic Obama O, Biasetton makes the case that our politics has become media, and that design has fallen behind in the increasingly chaotic superstorm of the Information Age.[Cover Image: Princeton Architectural Press]Here: Where the Black Designers Are by Cheryl D. Miller (Princeton Architectural Press)In 1987, Cheryl D. Miller wrote the now-canonical article Black Designers Missing In Action for Print Magazine that reported on the spaces for Black graphic designers. That piece helped kickstart more recent movements in design around diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. In the nearly-40 years since, Miller, a designer, writer, teacher, and theologian, has been at the center of these movements. This new book is a thoughtful memoir of her lifelong quest to answer the question where are the Black designers?