The bone and tile floor was found in a building in Alkmaar's historic center. Municipality of AlkmaarArchaeologists have made a startling discovery in Alkmaar, a Dutch town famous for its cheese market. In a building under construction, they found a mosaiced floor made of tiles and sawed-up cow bones.According to astatement from the municipality of Alkmaar, it appears the floor was originally made completely of tile. When the tile degraded, the gaps were filled in with livestock bones. All of the bones are eithermetacarpals ormetatarsals, which are part of cows lower legs. Researchers think the floor could date to the 15th century.We were very happy to have the opportunity to see this bone floor with our own eyes, says Nancy de Jong, an archaeologist working at the site, in the statement, per a translation from theNL Times. It is always a privilege to uncover something from the distant past and contribute new information to the history of Alkmaar. Archaeologists were invited to examine the floor during the building's renovation. Heritage AlkmaarAlkmaar, located about 25 miles north of Amsterdam, is known for its traditional Dutchcheese market, which is the countrys oldest. The town had a communalcheese scale as far back as1365, and the earliest known record of its cheese market dates to 1408, perLive Sciences Kristina Killgrove. In the 1600s, the Alkmaar market traded millions of pounds of cheese, exporting it throughout Europe and European colonies. Alkmaar became home to theDutch Cheese Museum in 1983.Researchers saw the cow bone floor when they were invited to examine a house under renovation in Achterdam, Alkmaars red-light district. As archaeologists say in aFacebook post, the house was built around 1609, but the tile and bone floor may be older: The standing house might have been built atop an older foundation. As de Jong says in the statement, the floor was significantly worn down from extensive use.Other cow bone floors have been found in Holland. In fact, a strikingly similar example was unearthed in the nearby city of Hoorn, and others were discovered in Enkhuizen and Edam. All three likely date to the 15th century.The researchers say that tiles were a common and inexpensive material in 15th-century Holland, so they dont know why the floors builders used cow bones. The bovine material may have simply been a quicker, slightly cheaper fix for a crumbling tile floor, according to the statement. Alternatively, the bones could have been included because they were connected to the activities that occurred inside the building. The researchers will continue studying the site to learn more about its origins.The discovery of this floor is incredibly interesting, saysAnjo van de Ven, an Alkmaar heritage councilor, in the statement, per the NL Times. In the historical city center of Alkmaar, it is crucial to treat the soil carefully. There are still many hidden stories waiting to be uncovered.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Bones, Cattle, Cool Finds, European History, Food, Food History, History, Netherlands

Some Whales Live Much Longer Than Previously Thought, a Discovery That Could Change How We Protect ThemIn a new study, researchers use novel techniques to uncover more accurate life expectancy estimates of southern and North Atlantic right whales One in ten southern right whales lives past the age of 131, new research suggests. Paula Ribas / Getty ImagesRight whales are among the rarest whales on Earth, and their populations are highly endangered. Now, scientists say some of the gentle giants may live nearly twice as long as previously thought. The new findings, published December 20 in the journal Science Advances, makesouthern right whalesthe mammal with the second-longest known life span, behind only the bowhead whale. The findingsand the novel methods used to achieve themcould help inform conservation efforts moving forward.We were thinking about these whales all wrong, says study co-author Peter Corkeron, a marine ecologist at Griffith University in Australia, to the Guardians Petra Stock. Its impeded our ability to get it right when it comes to doing the science for conservation to stop these whales from going extinct.Estimating the age of some individual whales is relatively easy. For example, a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) killed in 2007 had a harpoon tip stuck in its blubber that was manufactured in the late 1800s, allowing researchers to surmise it was at least 115 years old.But deducing the average life expectancy of an entire species can be more challenging. For one, past methodssuch as analyzing their earwax, which builds up each year like the rings of a treehave required whales to be dead. In addition, commercial whaling was so intense throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries that most of the largest, oldest animals were likely missing from researchers calculations. Most of todays longevity estimates are probably skewed by an overrepresentation of younger whales, the team writes in the paper.So, for the new study, researchers deployed some new tactics. Using photos of right whales dating back to the 1970s, they identified individual females based on their appearance and noted when they stopped showing up in photos, presumably because they died. Then, they incorporated this information into statistical models that are similar to those used by life insurance companies to estimate human life expectancy.These novel methods are quite impressive, as C. Scott Baker, an ecologist at Oregon State University who was not involved with the paper, tells Sciences Mitch Leslie. They make a good case for the plausibility of their results.The findings suggest southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) have a median lifespan of about 73 years. But up to 10 percent might live to be 131 years oldand a handful may even approach 150. Thats much higher than previous estimates, which suggested the marine mammals had a maximum life expectancy between 70 and 80 years.Researchers used the same techniques for North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis), a critically endangered species with an estimated 372 individuals remaining. The study finds that North Atlantic right whales have a median lifespan of just 22 years, with the longest-living 10 percent surpassing the age of 47.Overall, the findings reinforce the idea that these animals are still bouncing back from the damage wrought by commercial whaling, a practice that ended less than four decades ago.To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years, says study lead author Greg Breed, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in a statement. For animals that live to be 100 or 150 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.Why such a big life expectancy gap between southern and North Atlantic right whales? Scientists suspect North Atlantic right whales are much more vulnerable because of where they live. They primarily inhabit Atlantic coastal waters near Canada and the United Statesa bustling region with lots of commercial activity.This month alone, three North Atlantic right whales were seen tangled in fishing gear off the East Coast of the U.S. Theyre also susceptible to boat strikes and climate change.Its a maze of rope these animals need to get through, and theres huge ports coming into the U.S., theres lots of shipping, Corkeron tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Sam Bradbrook and Samantha Goerling.The Southern Ocean, meanwhile, is not nearly as congested. One takeaway from the study is that its important to keep it that way, Corkeron adds.Moving forward, researchers say their methods could be applied to other species, such as blue, fin, sei, humpback, gray and sperm whales. And, in the meantime, their recent findings could lead to the development of more effective conservation plans.Understanding how long wild animals live has major implications for how to best protect them, Corkeron and Breed write in the Conversation. Animals that have very long lifespans usually reproduce extremely slowly and can go many years between births. Conservation and management strategies that do not plan accordingly will have a higher chance of failure. This is especially important given the expected impacts of climate disruption.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Aging, Animals, Atlantic Ocean, Conservation, Endangered Species, Health, Mammals, New Research, Oceans, Water, Whales, wildlife

Lux Optics has released a loose product roadmap for its next big iPhone photo app, Halide 3.0 (which its calling Halide Mark III). After being more forthright than usual in the development of its Kino video app, which was recently awarded iPhone app of the year for 2024 by Apple, Lux is giving the next version of its popular photo app a touch of the Steam indie dev treatment. Not only is Lux already hyping key upcoming features in a blog post by cofounder Ben Sandofsky, but it also plans to open up the development process via a Discord server, where users can give feedback once they start trying Halide Mark III.RelatedSo far, Lux has detailed three upcoming features for Halide Mark III that subscribers will be able to try early: Color Grades, HDR photos, and an app redesign. Color grades will operate a lot like they do in Kino, with users able to quickly load an aesthetic look / color palette based on Luxs own creations, film stocks, and imported recipes cooked by other users. In addition to what sounds like Luxs take on Fujifilms film emulations, Halide Mark III will also include the developers take on HDR photos now that iOS 18s Adaptive HDR feature is making it easier to view HDR images on more platforms.Not much has been revealed so far about Halide 3.0s redesigned interface, but Sandofsky said in the blog post that form follows function, and if Halides version of Instant Grade goes as smooth as we think it will, well make grade-picking central to the UI, just like Kino.Sandofskys blog post also didnt go into further detail about when Halide Mark III will ship beyond sometime in 2025, and it didnt say how much Halide Mark III will cost. But the @halideapp account on Threads indicated to a commenter that Mark III will be included for Mark II users, and an upgrade for v1 users.

Hyundai announced it will start distributing free CCS to Tesla NACS adapters to its EV customers in the first quarter of 2025. The adapters will enable vehicles such as the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 to connect to 20,000-plus Tesla Supercharger stations. The free adapter is available to those who purchased or leased their Hyundai EVs on or before January 31st, 2025.The NACS adapter deal includes 2024 and earlier Kona Electric, Ioniq hatchback, Ioniq 5, and Ioniq 6. It also includes the 2025 Ioniq 6, 2025 Ioniq 5 N, 2025 Kona Electric, and Genesis brand EVs (a full list will be revealed next year). You can request the free adapter through the My Hyundai owner portal.Hyundais sister brand, Kia, is also giving free NACS adapters to some owners starting in early 2025.Meanwhile, the 2025 Ioniq 5 with a nativeTeslaport will have Supercharger access as soon as it ships to customers. Tesla posted on X that it has already flipped the switch, enabling the 2025 Ioniq 5 to charge at Superchargers. Still, owners with older CCS-native models must wait for the Hyundai-approved adapters to get access.

Yes, Christmas is a couple of days away and yes, we know you have yet to buy a gift. We understand that life gets busy, though, and sometimes it feels like the holidays creep up on you out of nowhere. But before you spiral into a full-blown panic attack, take a deep breath. Luckily for you, the internet is filled with a treasure trove of gift cards, subscriptions, and other great digital gifts you can buy as late as Christmas Day itself.To help make your life a little easier, weve curated a list of some of the best digital gifts weve either used ourselves or gifted to our friends and family. Weve organized the list by interests, too, so you can find the perfect present whether your loved one is into the arts, exercise, or something else entirely. That way, youll at least be able to gift something more thoughtful than a genericAmazon, Best Buy, or Walmart gift card even if those are still totally viable options in our book.RelatedGifts for film and TV buffsRegardless of whether youre shopping for a movie buff or an avid sports fan, there are a number of subscriptions on the market thatll grant your giftee access to a wide range of content. Below are some of the most popular, as well as a few catered toward anime diehards, horror lovers, and those looking for something more niche.Disney Plus Gift Card$25You can get Disney Plus gift cards in increments of $25 up to $200. Theyre usable toward Disney Plus subscriptions and bundles that include access to Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus starting t $10.99 a month. That way, sports fans can watch all the latest games, while the rest of the family streams Percy Jackson and the Olympians,Ahsoka, and The Bear.$25 at DisneyA gift card to a major streaming service like Netflix (Amazon,Target,Best Buy, orWalmart) or Max is a good gift thatll cater to all kinds of passions. On Netflix, they can spend their holiday binging Carol and the End of World, The Crown, Onimusha, and Squid Game: The Challenge. Max viewers, meanwhile, can catch up on everything from BarbieThe Last of Us, Euphoria,and House of the Dragon.A Criterion Channel gift card grants access to over a thousand classic and contemporary Hollywood, international, art house, and independent movies. It also features programming spotlighting directors, stars, genres, and themes, including a 15-minute-a-month film school.For the anime lovers in your life, aCrunchyroll gift cardJujutsu Kaisen, Blue Lock, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. They canRelatedGifts for the gamersIf youre not sure which type of games your giftee prefers, you can gift them an Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo subscription. Not only will these memberships grant him access to free digital titles but they also come with perks such as online multiplayer and cloud-based saves, among other incentives.$29$29$4536% offXbox Game Pass Ultimate offers access to more than 100 titles for PC and Xbox consoles, which you can play on multiple devices. The pass also gives subscribers access to exclusive deals, online multiplayer, and Microsofts cloud gaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming. If your giftee is a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 owner, a membership to PlayStation Plus grants them access to free titles and discounts every month, lets them play games online, and allows them to access cloud-based backups. PlayStation Plus memberships start at$9.99 a month, and you can subscribe directly via PlayStation or buy a subscription with a PlayStation Plus gift card, which is available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target in denominations starting at $10 and going up to $250. Nintendo Switch lovers, meanwhile, might enjoy an annual subscription to Nintendo Switch Online, which starts at $19.99 a year (Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop). The membership lets giftees play with more than 70 retro games released during the NES, SNES, and original Game Boy eras. They can also play online with friends and access cloud saves. If youre willing to fork out extra money, you can also buy an annual Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription. In addition to offering all the same benefits as the Switch Online membership, it also grants access to Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 games, as well as DLC content for some titles. Individual plans cost $49.99 (Walmart), while a family plan which allows for up to eight accounts is currently available via gift card at Walmart for $79.98.Alternatively, you could buy a gift card to a store like GameStop (Amazon, GameStop), which is useful if you dont know which console your giftee prefers or want to give them the option of buying accessories and games.RelatedGifts for the adventurers and globe-trottersIs your giftee in dire need of a screen break? Fortunately, the internet is filled with travel-oriented gifts, ranging from the obvious like airline gift cards to national park passes.America the Beautiful National Park Pass $80The America the Beautiful pass grants entry to all 63 national parks, from the Grand Canyon to Yosemite, along with over 2,000 recreation sites across the country.$80 at US Park PassAGetYourGuide gift cardprovides an easy way to take advantage of guided tours and fun tourist attractions at various destinations around the world, allowing your loved one to explore volcanoes like Italys Mount Etna or swim with sharks in Cape Verde.For aspiring polyglots, a Rosetta Stone membership will make it easy to learn everything from French to Arabic to Japanese from the comfort of their home. Along with lessons, memberships come with helpful extras, including speech recognition tech to get the accent just right. At the moment, Rosetta Stone is offering up to 50 percent off of its plans, with the 12-month tier for learning just one language starting at $126 ($42 off).Finally, a gift card to a rideshare service likeUber(also usable for Uber Eats and available at Amazon,Best Buy,Target) or Lyft (Amazon,Best Buy,Target) will come in handy when they need a ride to the airport or for a ride home if their New Years Eve plans include popping a few celebratory shots.Gifts for health and wellness fansFor health and wellness enthusiasts, many services offer a wealth of streamable fitness classes to help them get fit at home. Other gifts can help your giftee practice self-care and lighten their load with meditation or even massages. Below, weve listed out a range of options thatll help your giftee take care of both their body and mind.Peloton subscription (monthly subscription)$13Pelotons $12.99 monthly subscription offers thousands of streamable fitness classes revolving around a variety of different workouts, ranging from strength training to stretching. Its a service thats available to everybody, so you dont need to own a Peloton device to use it.$13 at PelotonA gift card for Headspace, a popular mindfulness app,offers members access to hundreds of expert-taught meditations, each designed to help them relax, sleep better, and improve their mental health. A gift subscription will run you $38.99 for three months, or you can save by getting 12 months for $48.99 ($21 off).Fitbit Premium subscriptions start at $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year (33 percent off) and are available to all, even if your giftee doesnt own a Fitbit (though, theyll be able to enjoy more in-depth metrics if they do). A membership comes with thousands of guided and customizable workouts, which cover everything from martial arts and dance to meditation. Fitbit also offers guided programs covering topics like nutrition, along with the option to one-on-one with a professional health coach for an extra $54.99 per month.For those who prefer in-person classes to virtual, a gift card that goes toward aClassPass subscription will let your giftee try out thousands of gyms and fitness studios in their local area, not to mention nearby salons and spas.If your giftee is too busy to prepare healthy meals every day, a gift card to Blue Apron, HelloFresh, or any meal prep service that offers a healthy selection of meal kits will be very welcome.RelatedGifts for foodies Whether theyre a diehard foodie, a wine connoisseur, or a caffeine addict, the internet is filled with subscriptions and gift cards for all types. Here are just a few of our favorites:Eater Wine Club $70With a subscription to Eaters Wine Club, your giftee will automatically receive either two or four bottles of wine carefully chosen by an Eater expert every month. Past boxes have showcased wines from all over the world. $70 at EaterA Sur La Table gift card (Sur La Table, Kroger, Staples) is a great gift for the beloved chef in your life. They can use it to buy whatever they need for the kitchen, as well as to take online cooking classes where live instructors help students make everything from chicken piccata to tiramisu. Classes start at $29 per household, with each taking between 90 and 120 minutes a pop.For those with a sweet tooth, Goldbellys monthly ice cream subscription allows them to enjoy up to six pints of ice cream or 24 ice cream sandwiches a month, all of which are sourced from small creameries all over the country. Its a pricey subscription, however, with a three-month plan going for an eye-watering $298.95. You can explore other types of subscriptions, too, from BBQ to New York City staples, or get a gift card to let your recipient order whatever they like.These days, it feels like theres a Starbucks pretty much everywhere you look now, meaning a Starbucks gift card (Amazon,Best Buy, orTarget) can help your giftee get their caffeine fix whenever, wherever.Sometimes, its better to leave the cooking to somebody else. For foodies, a gift card to a food delivery service like DoorDash (Amazon, Best Buy,Target) means they can nab some crab rangoons from their favorite Chinese restaurant without leaving home.Gifts for music loversWhether your giftee is a musician or just loves to unwind with some music, there are a lot of digital presents you can buy. We all know about Spotify gift cards (Amazon,Best Buy, orTarget), but there are also other streaming services that you can gift as a subscription, some of which weve highlighted below.Apple Music$25Apple Music is a great gift for the casual listener, offering more than 100 million ad-free songs they can listen to with spatial audio as well as support for Dolby Atmos. Theres no designated gift card for Apple Music, so youll have to buy a regular Apple gift card, but thats not a bad thing as it means they can also use the card to buy the latest pair of AirPods.For the true audiophiles out there, a Tidal gift card (Walmart, PayPal, or Best Buy) is great because it will allow them to stream music in the highest audio quality possible. The ad-free service starts at $10.99 per month and allows giftees to enjoy support for lossless FLAC audio, Dolby Atmos Music, and Sonys 360 Reality Audio formats. If they happen to be a DJ or aspire to become one, paying an extra $9 per month gives them access to the DJ add-on, which offers high-quality catalogs of more than 110 million songs that they can mix on popular DJ software and hardware.If you know somebody whos always wanted to learn to play the guitar, a Fender Play subscription can help them do so thanks to a continuously updated catalog of hundreds of instructor-led video lessons. A subscription typically starts at $19.99 a month, but you can gift them six months for $79.99 or 12 months for $149.99.AVinyl Me, Pleasesubscription is perfect for those who love spinning records. Every month, giftees receive vinyl records from their choice of music genre, whether thats hip-hop, rock, orjazz. The packages also come with booklets so they can learn more about the record, along with access to exclusive discounts. Three-month subscriptions start at $148 and come with a total of four records (one of which is a limited-time bonus).Lastly, a Ticketmaster gift card is a present thatll allow your loved one to buy a ticket to watch their favorite musicians perform live, whether thats Shakira, Garth Brooks, or The Rolling Stones.Gifts for the bookworms Obviously, you could just gift a bibliophile a book and theyd probably be happy. But what if you dont know what your giftee is into or simply want to give them more options? In that case, a gift card to their favorite bookstore or a subscription to something like Kindle Unlimited, which grants members access to millions of ebooks and even select audiobooks, is a good idea. That said, weve rounded up some of our favorite alternatives below.Audible Premium Plus (one-month subscription) $15An Audible Premium Plus subscription grants instant access to thousands of audiobooks and podcasts as well as one premium audiobook a month. $15 at AmazonFor fans of Marvel and DC comics, as well as manga like Fairy Tale, a Comixology Unlimited subscription is perfect. For $5.99 a month, theyll be able to enjoy over 45,000 comics and graphic novels, not to mention more than2,400 manga titles from their phone or tablet. Subscribers also get discounts on select digital books.You can also gift a Book of the Month membership, which currently starts at $59.99 for a three-book plan. The company curates a small selection of five to seven bestsellers and classics for members every month, making it easy to quickly choose something to read. If your giftee prefers to pick up books from brick-and-mortar bookstores, a gift card to Barnes & Noble (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Best Buy) might be a good idea. For those who want to support local bookstores, theres also a gift card for Bookshop.org.For those who prefer traditional newspapers and magazines, you can gift a subscription to The New York TimesThe Washington Post, or publications catered to specific interests like CosmopolitanNational Geographic.Gifts for the creativesMovie buffs and bibliophiles are easy to shop for, but what do you get the creative type? Its actually not that hard just buy them something to help them create, whether thats an online course or access to a new tool. Below are a few subscriptions and gift cards creators will love that you can also buy last minute.Skillshare (three-month subscription)$69A subscription to Skillshare grants subscribers access to over 34,000 online classes related to graphic design, painting, photography, film, music, coding, and more.$69 at SkillshareAMasterClass membership (which normally starts at $10 a month but is currently 50 percent off for all tiers) provides access to classes taught by world leaders and other subject matter experts, including screenwriters, musicians, and business experts. Going for a Masterclass Plus or Premium subscription allows concurrent viewing on two or six devices, respectively, and also unlocks offline viewing.AnAdobe Creative Cloud subscription ($59.99 per month) is a good gift for both aspiring and experienced creative professionals alike, providing access to popular services like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, InDesign, and other Adobe apps. Adobe doesnt yet support gifting subscriptions, so youll need to create a new account or login to an existing account your recipient may have. You can also purchase digitally redeemable Creative Cloud subscription codes from partner retailers like Best Buy, which has a 12-month plan on sale for $428.92 (about $231 off) right now.If you know somebody trying to learn how to code, a subscription to the coding educational platformCodecademy ($29.99 per month) can help them build their portfolio with online courses, a community, fun events, cheat sheets, and other resources. Theres even a $39.99 a month plan for those looking to change career paths, one that offers all the above as well as technical interview help.For giftees into arts and crafts, a Craftsy membership ($123 a year) grants access to more than 2,000 live and on-demand classes led by experts covering everything from baking and cake decorating to woodworking and painting. Members also get to connect with other crafters in the Craftsy community and attend live events.Gift cards for pretty much anyoneAmazon gift card$25Amazon gift cards start at $25 and can be used toward purchases across a variety of departments. Theyre also good for various Amazon services, including Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music Unlimited.Sometimes the best gift card is one thatll give your giftee a ton of options, especially if youre having a hard time figuring out what they want. Gift cards from major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are perfect in these situations, namely because theyll let your giftee choose whatever they like from a wide range of departments.Update, December 23rd: Updated links, pricing, and info for several digital gifts.

The evolution of speech and language technology has led to improvements in areas like voice assistants, transcription, and sentiment analysis. However, many models struggle to capture the nuances of human emotion and intent. These systems often focus on accuracy in tasks like transcription or translation, neglecting the emotional context that underpins effective communication. This gap limits their usefulness in areas where understanding human emotions is essential, such as mental health, customer support, and immersive virtual experiences. As the need for emotionally aware AI grows, there is a clear demand for models capable of both understanding and generating speech with emotional depth.To address these challenges, Hume AI has introduced OCTAVE (Omni-Capable Text and Voice Engine), a speech-language model designed to balance linguistic accuracy with emotional understanding. OCTAVE combines the capabilities of Hume AIs EVI 2 speech-language model with those of advanced systems like OpenAIs Voice Engine, ElevenLabs TTS Voice Design, and Google DeepMinds NotebookLM. By leveraging these capabilities, OCTAVE aims to improve the authenticity and richness of AI-driven interactions. Its potential applications include virtual assistants, interactive storytelling, and tools to support emotional well-being.Technical Details and BenefitsOCTAVE employs a multi-modal neural architecture that integrates acoustic, linguistic, and emotional signals. It has been trained on diverse datasets of over a million emotional speech samples, each annotated with detailed labels to reflect the type and intensity of emotions. This training enables the model to detect subtle emotional cues, such as sarcasm, joy, or frustration, that are often missed by traditional models.A notable feature of OCTAVE is its ability to perform well in zero-shot and few-shot learning scenarios. This allows the model to adapt to new emotional contexts or languages with minimal additional data, enhancing its versatility. Furthermore, OCTAVE is designed for efficient deployment on edge devices, making it suitable for real-time applications where computational resources and latency are critical concerns.Results and Insights: OCTAVEs Performance MetricsHume AI has shared data on OCTAVEs performance, providing detailed comparisons against leading models such as Llama. Evaluated using EleutherAIs LM harness, OCTAVE demonstrated competitive results:While OCTAVE 8B trails slightly behind Llama 3.1 8B in certain benchmarks like MMLU and PIQA, it delivers comparable or superior performance in others, such as ARC (easy) for its 3B variant. These results highlight OCTAVEs strong adaptability and efficiency, particularly given its focus on emotional understanding alongside linguistic precision.These findings underscore OCTAVEs ability to create more engaging and emotionally aware human-computer interactions.Conclusion: A Step Toward Emotionally Intelligent AIHume AIs OCTAVE represents an important development in speech-language modeling by addressing both linguistic and emotional dimensions. Its ability to detect and generate emotional nuances opens the door to more meaningful applications, from supporting mental health to improving customer interactions and creating immersive virtual experiences. By integrating the strengths of leading technologies, OCTAVE sets a precedent for future AI systems that aim to connect with users on a deeper level. This model offers a glimpse into a more empathetic and inclusive technological future, where AI enhances, rather than replaces, human communication.Check out the Details. 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. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Trending: LG AI Research Releases EXAONE 3.5: Three Open-Source Bilingual Frontier AI-level Models Delivering Unmatched Instruction Following and Long Context Understanding for Global Leadership in Generative AI Excellence.The post Hume AI Introduces OCTAVE: A Next-Generation Speech-Language Model with New Emergent Capabilities like On-The-Fly Voice and Personality Creation appeared first on MarkTechPost.

Visual generative models have advanced significantly in terms of the ability to create high-quality images and videos. These developments, powered by AI, enable applications ranging from content creation to design. However, the capability of these models depends on the evaluation frameworks used to measure their performance, making efficient and accurate assessments a crucial area of focus.Existing evaluation frameworks for visual generative models are often inefficient, requiring significant computational resources and rigid benchmarking processes. To measure performance, traditional tools rely heavily on large datasets and fixed metrics, such as FID and FVD. These methods lack flexibility and adaptability, often producing simple numerical scores without deeper interpretive insights. This creates a gap between the evaluation process and user-specific requirements, limiting their practicality in real-world applications.Traditional benchmarks like VBench and EvalCrafter focus on specific dimensions such as subject consistency, aesthetic quality, and motion smoothness. However, these methods demand thousands of samples for evaluation, leading to high time costs. For instance, benchmarks like VBench require up to 4,355 samples per evaluation, consuming over 4,000 minutes of computation time. Despite their comprehensiveness, these frameworks struggle to adapt to user-defined criteria, leaving room for improvement in efficiency and flexibility.Researchers from the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Nanyang Technological University introduced the Evaluation Agent framework to address these limitations. This innovative solution mimics human-like strategies by conducting dynamic, multi-round evaluations tailored to user-defined criteria. Unlike rigid benchmarks, this approach integrates customizable evaluation tools, making it adaptable and efficient. The Evaluation Agent leverages large language models (LLMs) to power its intelligent planning and dynamic evaluation process.The Evaluation Agent operates through two stages. The system identifies evaluation dimensions based on user input in the Proposal Stage and dynamically selects test cases. Prompts are generated by the PromptGen Agent, which designs tasks aligned with the users query. The Execution Stage involves generating visuals based on these prompts and evaluating them using an extensible toolkit. The framework eliminates redundant test cases and uncovers nuanced model behaviors by dynamically refining its focus. This dual-stage process allows for efficient evaluations while maintaining high accuracy.The framework significantly outperforms traditional methods in terms of efficiency and adaptability. While benchmarks like VBench require thousands of samples and over 4,000 minutes to complete evaluations, the Evaluation Agent achieves similar accuracy using only 23 samples and 24 minutes per model dimension. Across various dimensions, such as aesthetic quality, spatial relationships, and motion smoothness, the Evaluation Agent demonstrated prediction accuracy comparable to established benchmarks while reducing computational costs by over 90%. For instance, the system evaluated models like VideoCrafter-2.0 with a consistency of up to 100% in multiple dimensions.The Evaluation Agent achieved remarkable results in its experiments. It adapted to user-specific queries, providing detailed, interpretable results beyond numerical scores. It also supported evaluations across text-to-image (T2I) and text-to-video (T2V) models, highlighting its scalability and versatility. Considerable reductions in evaluation time were observed, from 563 minutes with T2I-CompBench to just 5 minutes for the same task using the Evaluation Agent. This efficiency positions the framework as a superior alternative for evaluating generative models in academic and industrial contexts.The Evaluation Agent offers a transformative approach to visual generative model evaluation, overcoming the inefficiencies of traditional methods. By combining dynamic, human-like evaluation processes with advanced AI technologies, the framework provides a flexible and accurate solution for assessing diverse model capabilities. The substantial reduction in computational resources and time costs highlights its potential for broad adoption, paving the way for more effective evaluations in generative AI.Check out the Paper and GitHub Page. 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. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Nikhil+ postsNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute. [Download] Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities Report (Promoted)

This article contains spoilers for the Sonic the Hedgehog film & game franchise. Ever since Paramount's animated take Sonic debuted on our screens Gerald RobotnikParamountJim Carrey has been offering up laughs as the often grotesque Ivo Robotnik since the first Sonic movie in 2020, but he returns in dual roles here playing the original villain and his nefarious grandfather Gerald. Not only is the performance the best thing about the film according to our reviewer, but it also introduces a key player in Sonic lore and one of the franchise's most evil but tragic villains. First appearing in the 2001 3D platformer Sonic Adventure 2, Gerald Robotnik is another super-intelligent scientist behind the mysterious "Project Shadow." Through the gameplay and numerous character flashbacks, players learn that the project was his scheme to find immortality. At first, it seemed like a selfish mission, until it was revealed that he was actually trying to save his granddaughter Maria who was terminally ill. We'll get to her in a moment, but otherwise his story is relatively similar to what we saw in Sonic 3. Though, while it appears Gerald died at the end of the film his video game history hints at a potential comeback for the villain in the already announced Sonic 4. After he disappears in the games, Gerald was forced to work for G.U.N to continue his experiments, and also ended up in Prison Island which we saw briefly in this film before being executed. Seems unlikely that the PG film franchise will adapt that bleak part of his lore but, seeing as they did bring to life the deeply controversial murder of a child this time round, never say never. MariaParamountSpeaking of the famously celebrated Sonic franchise child murder, we finally meet Maria (Alyla Browne), Shadow the Hedgehog's (Keanu Reeves) best friend, cousin of Ivo Robotnik, and the tragically sick granddaughter of Gerald who inspired his genocidal rage in the movie and games. Via an extensive sequence of flashbacks, we witness the happiness Maria brought to Shadow's life and the sadness that her untimely demise at the hands of G.U.N caused Shadow and Gerald which, essentially the same lore as in the games. There though, she was actually shot by a G.U.N agent marking a dark moment for the franchise as a whole as she attempted to help Shadow escape the military group's clutches. While Maria won't be getting resurrected in the next movie her impact will still be felt. Shadow is still alive at the end of the movie meaning that her loss will likely still be driving him especially as he takes on a more heroic role in the next film. So don't count out more Maria flashbacks even as the franchise moves on from her untimely death. ShadowParamountThe Ultimate Life Form has long been seen as one of the coolest characters in Sonic canon so, when Keanu Reeves one of the coolest actors on Earth was cast to play him, it felt like a match made in heaven. The inclusion of Shadow immediately meant that the film would hit on some of the darker lore we've already mentioned, as well as setting up a recurring rival or ally for Sonic. We get an interesting reimagining of his origin here, where he's an organic lifeform like Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails rather than a creation of Gerald Robotnik's like in the game. In that original lore, Shadow was created as part of the elder Robotnik's plan to save his granddaughter Maria's life and struggled with a heavy existential crisis when he couldn't help cure the young girl. As we mentioned above, Maria comes to a fateful end in both the games and the films, shaping his future as both an antagonist and ally to Team Sonic. Another vital Sonic Adventures 2 addition, Shadow is an incredibly powerful character who was inspired by famed anti-heroes like Todd McFarlane's Spawn. Just like the end of Sonic 3, Sonic Adventures 2 ended with Shadow's apparent death but, since that game, he's reappeared multiple times, becoming one of the franchise's most popular characters. When it comes to what we can expect for Shadow in Sonic 4, we wouldn't be surprised to see the aliens known as the Black Doom, who are part of his classic origin. We could also see the evil Phantom Copy of the anti-hero come into play as a potential antagonist for him and Sonic to team-up against once again. Super ShadowSegaJust as Sonic 2 finally bought the golden-hued super-powered heroic evolution of Sonic Super Sonic Sonic 3 introduces the souped up version of Shadow too. The action happens in the third act as the pair use the Chaos Emeralds to go Super in order to save the day and defeat Robotnik Sr. In the original game, this is more aesthetic than actual power-based but, in the movie, we saw the Super transformations of the characters gave them extra speed, power, and immense hit impact. Its another nice nod to his game origins as well as an epic final act battle, and we'll surely see Super Shadow and Sonic when Sonic 4 hits in 2027. Metal Sonic SegaThe first of the film's post-credits scenes reveals that one of Sonic's most dangerous foes has arrived in the Paramount Sonic universe. Metal Sonic a futuristic evolution of Eggman's badnik bots has been haunting gamers and the titular hero since Sonic the Hedgehog CD in 1993. The super-powered, high tech menace is like a Bizarro version of the heroic hedgehog, instead of kind and fun loving hes cold and brutal. And even more terrifying here is that in the post-credit scene we actually get multiple Metal Sonics, ready to take down the blue blur. Metal Sonic is regarded as one of Sonic's most fearsome and ferocious enemies, imbued with sentience thanks to his AI chip. Metal Sonic is often allied with Eggman. But will that be true in Sonic 4 even though it seems that Jim Carrey's vivacious villain has seemingly been vanquished? We would love to know the answer! However, what we can say for certain is that the metal menaces have a serious problem on their cold-shiny hands...Amy RoseSegaA mysterious ally arrives just in time to aid Sonic against the barrage of Metal Sonics in the mid-credits scene. Swinging around a giant weapon with sleek efficiency, the hooded helper reveals herself to be none other than one of Sonic's oldest friends and biggest fans, Amy Rose! That weapon is, of course, her Piko Piko Hammer, probably the most legendary of all weapons in Sonic cannon canon (pun intended). Amy Rose also first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, and she's since become a staple of nearly all Sonic games as well as the female lead of the franchise (sorry Rouge fans, maybe one day soon she'll get some proper respect from Paramount). Amy's not just a fighter she has a mystical side as well thanks to her love of fortunes and tarot and hopefully Sonic 4 will show us all the facets of this fascinating and funny heroine.Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.

Dell just dropped the price of one of its best gaming monitors to the lowest price ever, even lower than the deals we saw during Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Right now you can pick up an Alienware AW3423DWF 34" QD-OLED gaming monitor for just $552.49 after 15% off coupon code "MONITORS15". This is one of Alienware's highest end monitors, with a gorgeous QD OLED panel, WQHD resolution, and a respectable 165Hz refresh rate.34" Alienware AW3423DWF QD OLED Gaming Monitor34" Alienware AW3423DWF WQHD 165Hz QD OLED Gaming MonitorThe Alienware AW3423DWF is a curved 34" with a 3440x1440 WQHD resolution, 0.03ms response time, and 165Hz refresh rate. It uses a Samsung quantum dot OLED panel that's brighter and supports a wider color range than traditional OLED panels without losing the incredible black levels and instantaneous response times that OLEDs are known for. The AW3423DWF features a 99.3% DCI-P3 color range and is factory calibrated with a Delta E less than 2. It is HDR True Black 400 certified and boasts up to 1,000nits of peak brightness.If you're not looking for a true 4K monitor, this is one of the best monitors out there. The ultrawide WQHD resolution of this monitor measures out to a respectable 109ppi. You can get something like an RTX 4060 Ti or RTX 4070 GPU and achieve perfectly playable framerates. A true 4K monitor, on the other hand, would require a more powerful and pricier GPU.In our Alienware AW3423DWF review, Chris Coke compared it to its more expensive predecessor, the AW3423DW. He wrote that "Though $1,099 (its MSRP) is far from cheap, the Alienware AW3423DWF feels like a great value compared to the original. It offers the same stunning picture, and dropping G-Sync Ultimate really makes no noticeable difference in actual gameplay. Whats left is a monitor that is extremely similar for $200 less than it was earlier this year. Thats a win and an easy recommendation to make if youre in the market for a high-end display with a spectacular picture."Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.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.

Lenovo has dropped the price of its powerful Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 RTX 4080 SUPER gaming PC to only $1,979 after coupon code: "HOLIDAYT7". This is slightly better than the best Lenovo deal I saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In our Legion Tower 7 review, Jacqueline Thomas wrote that "The Legion Tower 7i is an incredibly powerful gaming PC, especially for the money youre likely going to be paying for it. If all you want is a powerful, upgradeable machine without having to go through the trouble of building it yourself, its hard to find many gaming PCs better than this one."Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 RTX 4080 SUPER Gaming PCLenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 Intel Core i9-14900KF RTX 4080 Super Gaming PC with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSDThe Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 is equipped with an Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU, GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER GPU, 32GB of DDR5-4000MHz RAM, and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. The unlocked 14th gen Intel Core i9-14900KF Raptor Lake "Refresh" CPU boasts a max Turbo clock of 6GHz with 24 cores, 32 threads, and a 36MB cache. It's still one of the most powerful Intel CPUs available (in many cases it even beats out the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K). It's cooled by a robust 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system that rivals many enthusiast setups.The RTX 4080 Super is Nvidia's second most powerful card. You'll be able to handle any game in 4K at high framerates, even with ray tracing enabled. It's 5%-10% faster in performance than the RTX 4080 thanks to its higher base clock speed, higher CUDA core count, and higher memory bandwidth. It trades blows with AMD's most powerful GPU, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but the RTX 4080 Super pulls ahead in ray tracing performance and where DLSS 3.0 is supported. In our RTX 4080 Super review, Jacqueline Thomas writes "If you're in the market for a 4K graphics card around $1,000, it's hard to think of any GPU that's a better purchase right now. This is the RTX 4080 that should have launched in 2022."Why Choose Lenovo?Lenovo Legion gaming PCs and laptops generally feature better and more rugged build quality than what you'd find from most other prebuilt PCs. For desktop PCs in particular, people like the fact that Lenovo does not use many proprietary components in their rigs, so the PCs are much easier to upgrade with easiy obtainable, off-the-shelf parts. For laptops, Lenovo generally does not throttle the GPU on most of their Legion laptops, so you should expect maximum performance from a given GPU. Lenovo generally includes a solid 1 year warranty with the option to extend.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.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.