Beware this dark web face ID farmGetty ImagesA dark web criminal operation that appears to have been farming face ID images along with the genuine identity documents that accompany them has been unmasked, if youll pardon the pun, by threat intelligence researchers. Heres everything you need to know about this sophisticated approach to identity theft that, it would seem likely, has been using information willingly exchanged for financial reward to build the ID farming business.The Dark Web Face ID Farm ThreatResearchers from iProovs biometric threat intelligence unit have uncovered what appears to be a simple yet simultaneously sophisticated identity protection bypass operation being implemented on the dark web. Describing the significant operation as compromising identity verification systems through the systematic collection of genuine identity documents and images, the iProov analysts said that this demonstrates how the nature of identity fraud is evolving.As detailed in the iProov Q4 threat intelligence update for 2024, threat-insights the unnamed criminal dark web threat group behind the operation has amassed a substantial collection of identity documents and corresponding facial images, which, the report said, was specifically designed to defeat Know Your Customer verification processes. Such systems play a key role in preventing identity fraud against banks and other financial institutions, as I reported in a recent article concerning the use of AI to bypass biometric banking security checks.MORE FOR YOUWhat is most interesting to me in this particular case, however, is that this doesnt seem to have been a matter of scraping compromised biometric data from published stolen databases, but rather, it looks like the identities have been obtained by paying users for them.Dark Web Hackers Pay For Face ID And Supporting Identity DocumentsUsers Willingly Participate"What's particularly alarming about this discovery is not just the sophisticated nature of the operation, Andrew Newell, chief scientific officer at iProov, said, but the fact that individuals are willingly compromising their identities for short-term financial gain. And hes not wrong, as this isnt just a matter of selling their identity data but also risking their own security here. They're providing criminals with complete, genuine identity packages that can be used for sophisticated impersonation fraud. What makes this process even more dangerous is that what we are talking about here is the perfect storm of the identity matching pair: genuine documents and genuine matching biometric data, making them extremely difficult to detect through traditional verification methods, Newell warned. Boom.Do I really need to say this? If you are approached by anyone, knowingly from the dark web or, more likely not, offering you cold, hard cash in exchange for your image and copies of your identity documents, dont do it. No matter how much the short-term incentive, it could just as quickly turn into a very costly mistake.

Did you know orcas once turned salmon into quirky headwear in the 1980s? This "fad" disappeared by ... [+] the turn of the decade, but recently, theyve been spotted reviving this playful trend. This may be why.gettyThe 1980s was an iconic era for fashion, defined by bold colors, big hair and daring trends that turned heads. From neon leg warmers and acid-wash jeans to shoulder pads and parachute pants, the decades style was as unforgettable as it was experimental. Many of these looks became fleeting fads, embraced enthusiastically for a time before fading into the depths of pop culture history.Interestingly, humans werent the only ones experimenting with quirky trends in the '80s. Orcas, or killer whales, also adopted a bizarre behavior during this time that could only be described as a fadbalancing dead salmon on their heads like aquatic hats. Just as quickly as this trend appeared, it vanished, leaving researchers baffled and intrigued.All It Took Was For One Brave Orca To Balance A Salmon On Her HeadAnd The Salmon Hat Trend Took OffKiller whales are incredibly social and remarkably intelligent. Known for their advanced hunting strategies, orca pods display exceptional teamwork, planning, and foresight when taking down prey.But their intelligence isnt limited to hunting. Orcas also learn from each other, and this social learning has given rise to fascinating and often playful behaviors. Over the years, researchers have documented several orca fads that have come and gone, much like trends in human culture:Kelp draping. Orcas have been spotted draping strands of kelp over their dorsal fins or tails, seemingly just for fun.Wave surfing. In places like New Zealand, pods ride the waves created by passing boats, enjoying the thrill of surfing.Imitating dolphins. Some pods mimic the leaps and spins of dolphins, possibly as a form of social bonding or play.In 1987, one bold orca off the coast of British Columbia took creativity to a new level by balancing a dead salmon on her head. Whether it started as a playful gesture or an attempt to engage her pod, the behavior caught on quickly. Other orcas began mimicking the act, turning it into what researchers described as the salmon hat fad.MORE FOR YOUFor a few months, pods in the region could be spotted sporting salmon hats, a curious display of social learning and imitation. Just like fashion trends among humans, the behavior spread rapidly and disappeared just as mysteriously by the end of 1988.Until October 25, 2024, When We Observed An Orca Balancing A Salmon On Its HeadNearly 37 years after the salmon hat fad disappeared, it made an unexpected comeback. On October 25, 2024, a male orca known as J27, or Blackberry, was spotted in Puget Sound balancing a dead salmon on his head.The 32-year-old J27 seemed completely unfazed by his unusual accessory, carrying the salmon proudly, but going by his age, its obvious he is too young to have picked up the salmon hat trend from any of the fashion-forward orcas from the late 80s.The reemergence of this behavior raises fascinating questions. Did J27 independently invent this act, or could it be an echo of cultural memory, passed down within the pod over generations?Then theres the question of whether this can be considered a revival of the salmon hat fad at all. No other orcas were observed mimicking or responding to the behavior, leaving researchers uncertain if this was a one-off display or the beginning of a new trend.One Possible Reason Why Orcas Could Be Playing With Their FoodThe original pod observed playing with salmon in the late 1980s was located off the coast of British Columbia and Washington state, an area home to the southern resident killer whales.These orcas primarily feed on Chinook salmon, which are large, nutrient-rich fish and form a crucial part of their diet. The playful salmon hat behavior may have been a byproduct of their environment and circumstances at the time.Since the late 80s, when the salmon hat fad peaked, salmon populations have been on the decline in many regions around the world, including the waters around British Columbia. This decline, driven by overfishing, habitat degradation and climate change, has placed increasing pressure on orca populations that depend on salmon as a primary food source.Its possible that the salmon hat fad of the 1980s was a goofy response to an abundance of food. With ample access to salmon during that period, orcas may have felt less urgency to focus solely on hunting and instead indulged in playful or experimental behaviors. This behavior could have quickly spread through the pod, much like memes spread between humans today or like shoulder pads, neon leg warmers, and other quirky 80s fads took off among people.Puget Sound, had an healthy population of chum salmon this fall, which strengthens the argument that the recent salmon hat sighting was a goofy killer whales response to abundance of food. That said, there isnt enough data to say for certain that this is the only reason for the one-off observation.There was an abundance of chum salmon in Puget Sound, which is probably why J27 or "Blackberry" felt ... [+] comfortable playing with his food.gettyAnother Possible Explanation Is That Orcas Engage in Play to Strengthen Social BondsThe act of balancing a salmon on ones head could serve as a form of communication, signaling playfulness or camaraderie among pod members. This behavior might have been picked up and mimicked as a way to engage socially, much like other observed fads such as kelp draping or wave surfing.Orcas are intelligent creatures with a penchant for exploration and problem-solving. The salmon hat behavior could simply be an orcas way of interacting with its environment out of curiosity or boredom. Much like how humans invent games or activities, orcas may engage in novel behaviors to stimulate themselves mentally.Another intriguing possibility is that the salmon hat behavior is a display of individuality or skill. By balancing a salmon on its head, an orca might be showcasing its dexterity or attempting to stand out within the group. It might even help orcas attract mates. This could also explain why the behavior may catch on, as other orcas mimic it to demonstrate their own capabilities.While the October 25, 2024 sighting aligns with the theory that food abundance might play a role, behaviors like the salmon hat trend also highlight the complex social dynamics, intelligence and individuality of orcas. With more data and future observations, researchers may uncover a clearer understanding of what drives these fascinating marine mammals to adopt such playful antics.Orcas arent the only animals with unique quirks and playful behaviors. Just like killer whales express their individuality with salmon hats, your pets personality might reveal fascinating insights about their behavior and preferences. Take this Pet Personality Test to discover what makes your animal friend one of a kind.

In brief: Scientists at MIT have achieved a groundbreaking feat by creating a unique magnetic state in a material using light. By applying lasers, they successfully switched an antiferromagnetic material into an entirely new magnetic state. This discovery holds the potential to revolutionize next-generation memory and data storage technology, paving the way for chips far more advanced than today's standards. The research team, led by physics professor Nuh Gedik, concentrated on a material called FePS, a type of antiferromagnet that transitions to a non-magnetic state at around -247F. They hypothesized that precisely exciting the vibrations of FePS's atoms with lasers could disrupt its typical antiferromagnetic alignment and induce a new magnetic state.In conventional magnets (ferromagnets), all atomic spins align in the same direction, making their magnetic field easy to control. In contrast, antiferromagnets have a more complex up-down-up-down spin pattern that cancels out, resulting in zero net magnetization. While this property makes antiferromagnets highly resistant to stray magnetic influences an advantage for secure data storage it also creates challenges in intentionally switching them between "0" and "1" states for computing.Gedik's innovative laser-driven approach seeks to overcome this obstacle, potentially unlocking antiferromagnets for future high-performance memory and computational technologies.The team's innovative approach involved cooling a FePS sample below its transition temperature and then blasting it with a carefully tuned terahertz laser pulse. These lasers, oscillating over a trillion times per second, perfectly matched the natural vibrational frequencies of the material's atoms.Amazingly, the researchers discovered that these pulses pushed the material into a completely new, magnetized state that lasted for several milliseconds after the laser pulse ended. // Related StoriesWhile milliseconds may seem fleeting, in the quantum world, that's practically an eternity compared to prior attempts, as Gedik emphasized.Looking ahead, the researchers aim to refine and further understand these induced magnetic phases. The ultimate goal is to leverage antiferromagnets in next-generation data storage and processing hardware. Their robust magnetic domains, resistant to stray magnetic noise, could enable denser, more energy-efficient memory and logic chips compared to today's technology.However, significant engineering challenges remain before antiferromagnetic computers can become a reality. The team is optimistic, and their groundbreaking findings, published in Nature, represent a critical step toward that vision.

Universal PicturesTable of ContentsTable of ContentsThe Snowman (2017)Till Death (2021)Carry-On (2024)Collateral (2004)The Hateful Eight (2015)Christmas can be a time to enjoy wholesome movies together with the family. But if youre looking for something to get your blood pumping on Christmas that isnt sentimental or sweet, then Netflix has all of the thrillers you need to make it through to New Years Eve.Three of our picks for the five great Netflix thrillers to watch on Christmas share a snowy setting, but only one of them is explicitly a Christmas-related film. Regardless, all five movies are exciting to watch, especially when the twists in the stories arrive and make the viewer question what theyve seen before.Recommended VideosNeed more recommendations? We also have guides for the 10 best TV shows to watch on Christmas, the 10 best movies to watch on Christmas, the best Christmas movies on Netflix, the best Christmas movies on Disney+, the best Christmas movies on Hulu, the best Christmas movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best Christmas movies on Max, and the best Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel.RelatedUniversal PicturesThe Killers Michael Fassbender headlines The Snowman as Norwegian Police investigator Harry Hole, a man whose personal life is collapsing in a perfect storm of heartbreak and alcoholism. But his life is about to get a lot worse as a serial killer begins sending him taunting messages with enigmatic clues.Katrine Bratt (Silos Rebecca Ferguson) a new recruit to the police has her own reasons for chasing the killer that are personal to her. However, this murderer enjoys the game and revels in his increasingly brutal murders as Harry and Katrine try to catch him.Watch The Snowman on Netflix.Screen Media FilmsMegan Foxs latest film, Subservience, is one currently one of the most popular movies on Netflix. However, Foxs 2021 thriller, Till Death, is even better. Emma Davenport (Fox) discovers the hard way that her husband, Mark (Eoin Macken), knows all about her affair with his colleague, Tom (Aml Ameen). Thats why Mark arranges for Emma to be handcuffed to him before taking his own life in a remote lake house.Mark apparently also made sure there was nothing sharp in the lake house that Emma could use to free herself. That becomes an even more immediate problem when a man arrives who gives Emma reasons to fear for her life. Now, she not only needs to get free, but she also has to survive a murderers wrath.Watch Till Death on Netflix.NetflixTSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) picked the wrong day to angle for a promotion in Carry-On. On Christmas Eve, Ethan convinces his superior to assign him to a security check lane on one of the busiest days of the year. No sooner does that happen than Ethan is blackmailed by the Traveler (Jason Bateman), who wants him to wave a dangerous piece of luggage past the security scan without alerting his fellow TSA agentsWhoever the Traveler is, he already has a good deal of info about Ethan. He also employs a hit man who has been sent to kill Ethans girlfriend, Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), if he doesnt go along with the terrorist plot. Up to this point in his life, Ethans been timid with his choices. But if he wants to live through the night and save his girlfriend, Ethan has to make some bold moves and fast.Watch Carry-On on Netflix.DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount PicturesMagnolias Tom Cruise gives an arresting turn as a hit man in Michael Manns Collateral. Jamie Foxxs Max Durocher a cab driver in Los Angeles, and Vincent (Cruise) seems like a good client to ferry around town all night. But after Vincents first stop, Max realizes that Vincent is a contract killer and hes not likely to let Max live through the night given what he knows.Max finds it extremely difficult to get away from Vincent, and he also feels an obligation to save Vincents victims if he can. In this battle of wits, Vincent may have superior fire power, but hes also underestimated Maxs resolve. Netflix subscribers only have until December 31 to watch this movie before it heads off into the streaming sunset.Watch Collateral on Netflix.Lantern EntertainmentQuentin Tarantinos The Hateful Eight is a Western, but its also a thriller that creates amazing tension by placing its characters in the same room with each other. Just over 12 years after the Civil War, bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) finds himself sharing a carriage ride with another bounty hunter, John The Hangman Ruth (Kurt Russell); Ruths prisoner, Crazy Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh); and Chris Mannix (Fallouts Walton Goggins), the man who is supposedly the new sheriff of Red Rock.In the middle of a deadly winter storm, this unlikely group of companions takes shelter at a haberdashery. Warren doesnt really trust Mannix, but hes got bigger things to worry about. Few of the people waiting for them at the haberdashery are who they sayb\ they are, and this winter journey may turn into a one-way trip for everyone involved.Watch The Hateful Eight on Netflix.Editors Recommendations

Nosferatu Score DetailsVisually, sonically, atmospherically, Nosferatu is another bottomless banquet from Eggers. It's a gothic horror movie of classical grandeur with a touch of madness.ProsIt's a visual feastEggers knows how to ratchet up the dreadLily-Rose Depp supplies a kinky new edge to the storyConsBill Skarsgrd isn't the scariest OrlokDracula is still just DraculaDracula has always been the most erotic of monsters, an insatiable freak in the streets and between the sheets. Bram Stoker introduced the character in the 1890s, the same decade English speakers began using the expression little death (from the French petite mort) to equate orgasm to demise. Every movie made from Stokers landmark of gothic fiction (there are too many to, ahem, count) has acknowledged the seductive allure of the vampire. But to find its purest expression, you have to go back to one of the first to Count Orlok, the grotesquely murine menace of F.W. Murnaus unauthorized, silent-era Nosferatu. This creeping abomination is a far cry from the tall, dark, and handsome Draculas who stylishly slinked down winding staircases in the years (and adaptations) to come. All the same, he is a creature of morbid magnetism, attractive in the way that oblivion is attractive, in a way only Freud could really explain.How Robert Eggers' Past Truly Crafted Nosferatu | Origin StoryNosferatu, an elegantly sinister remake of Murnaus 1922 classic, is at its best when suckling at the same vein of psychosexual desire. Its written and directed by Robert Eggers, who couldnt be a better fit for the material because of his obsession with the look and the language of the old world, yes, but also because of how his movies so often and so perversely present evil as a forbidden fruit ripe for the picking. Doth thou wish to live deliciously? beckoned a different Prince of Darkness in the first of his bespoke nightmares, The Witch. It was a promise of pleasures, carnal and otherwise, awaiting those willing to barter with their soul for them. And who could forget Robert Pattinson furiously masturbating in The Lighthouse, conjuring the supernatural from his very wet dreams of slimy, tentacled sensuality?Focus FeaturesEggers foregrounds a tango of sex and death immediately. Like the original Nosferatu, his spares more time than the average Dracula on the prologue portion of Stokers tale, though in this case, the throat clearing before the throat biting is devoted more heavily to Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), a German frau disturbed by her arousing nocturnal visions of pestilence and decay. A dear friend (Deadpool & Wolverine scene-stealer Emma Corrin) reassures her that its God whose overpowering presence shes feeling. Soon after, Ellens husband, Thomas (The Orders Nicholas Hoult), heads for the mountains of Transylvania to broker a real estate deal with a reclusive nobleman, just as all iterations of Jonathan Harker must.Focus FeaturesUp in the Carpathians, within that ruined castle, the story is always the same, give or take a harem of bloodsucking maidens. (Its Hoults second run through this iconic, endlessly restaged passage, after the monochromatic flashbacks of his noxious Renfield.) Of course, you dont explicitly remake Nosferatu as opposed to simply going back to the source material unless youre eager to play with the specific, loathsome image of Orlok, the rodent-like personification of death that Max Shreck immortalized in the original. Who but Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgrd, could fill those shoes and approximate those sunken, cadaverous features? For a while, Eggers keeps Orlok shrouded in darkness a silhouette of malevolence, croaking out lines in a halting, unnatural manner that recalls the apocryphal rumor that Bela Lugosi delivered his Dracula dialogue phonetically.Focus FeaturesTruthfully, Skarsgrd is more fearsome before we get a good look at him. To distinguish his Orlok from Shrecks, the ghoul has been supplied with a curious affectation: a bushy mustache that makes him resemble (less than horrifyingly) the ghost of Joseph Stalin. And the actor struggles to put a memorable new spin on the most frequently portrayed character in all of literature. His performance is overshadowed by the Draculas and Orloks of old: by the offbeat theatricality of Lugosis, the otherworldly uncanniness of Shrecks, the predatory seething of Christopher Lees. And then there was the intense Klaus Kinski, who was done up to look like Shreck, but gave the count a rather pathetic and oddly sympathetic makeover in Werner Herzogs remake, Nosferatu the Vampyre.NOSFERATU - "Held Hands With Death" Official Clip - Only In Theaters Christmas DayEven without an instantly immortal villain, this Nosferatu casts a spell. Visually, sonically, atmospherically, its another bottomless banquet from Eggers, a gothic horror movie of classical grandeur and a touch of madness. The cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, whos shot all the directors previous treks into dark history, leeches the imagery of luster, giving it a bluish, nearly black-and-white pallor that suggests a corpse drained dry. If his palette is pointedly stark, his compositions are breathtaking, especially when the environments are looming over the characters, threatening to swallow them like the gathering forces of darkness.Recommended VideosLinguistically, the film is less flavorful than Eggers other creepshows, which studiously reproduced the exaggerated vernacular of their respective old-world settings. Naturally, he saves his most purple dialogue for his Lighthouse star, Willem Dafoe, who summons some properly playful gravitas as the Van Helsing analogue, a doctor brought in once Orlok leaves his homeland and Ellen falls further under the sway of his supernatural death-drive pheromones. (Having previously played a bloodthirsty Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, a fanciful thriller about the making of Nosferatu, Dafoe now joins Rutger Hauer on the very small list of actors with versions of both Dracula and his nemesis on their rsum.)Focus FeaturesDread is always oppressive in this filmmakers work a blanket thickly and heavily draped over the characters, over the audience, over every moment. That suits Dracula well, as the story draws its power from the depiction of evil as a spreading threat. Eggers strikingly visualizes that idea with a shot of Orloks shadow reaching, finger by crooked finger, across spires and cobblestone. Scholars have long written of the racist undertones of Stokers invasion plot, but the panic here is more viral in nature. Arriving in the wake of a global pandemic, just as the original did, Eggers Nosferatu is awash in signs of the plague. The monster is often flanked by scurrying rats a haunting image shared with Herzogs oddball take.At a certain point, Dracula is still just Dracula, regardless of what its called. Murnau found that out the hard way when he was hit with a lawsuit by the Stoker estate, even though he changed the names of the characters and a few key details of the plot. A century later, its a challenge to get any fresh drops of dramatic lifeblood out of this material. It takes a true visionary like Francis Ford Coppola to do something new with a story thats been brought to the screen literally dozens of times. Though its title implied strenuous fidelity, Bram Stokers Dracula daringly twisted the authors work into a lavish, tragic romance. Nosferatu, as Eggers has conceived it, is more like a very tuneful cover of a song youve heard many, many times before.NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25Only when he flirts, like Coppola, with a kinkier kind of lunacy does the director threaten to really put his mark on what Murnau subtitled the symphony of horror. Between the stuff of every Dracula that trip up the winding mountain, the doomed Demeters last voyage, Renfield babbling away in the asylum percolates a portrait of a lonely Victorian woman seized by a horniness for more. To a much greater extent than Skarsgrd, its Depp, feverishly possessed in the Mina Harker role, who makes us believe in Orlok as a force of hypnotic, destabilizing sexual enticement. No scene with the vampire is as hair-raising as the one where Ellen describes, with a mixture of joy and terror, her dreams of unholy matrimony. And when she growls, You could never please me as he does, at her shaken husband, its hard not to wonder if shes conjured the devil to liberate herself from a life devoid of excitement. Shes down bad for the baddest of them all, and ready to live deliciously.Nosferatu is now playing in theaters everywhere. For more of A.A. Dowds writing, visit his Authory page.Editors RecommendationsRobert Eggers Nosferatu is going to break one iconic vampire movie trope

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsOpenAI releases GPT-4oAdvanced Voice Mode helps computers speak like humansGenerative AI comes to the edgeThe resurgence of nuclear power productionAgents are poised to be the next big thing in generative AIThe rise of reasoning modelsAI-empowered search spreads across the internetAnthropics Artifact kicks off a collaborative revolutionImage and video generators finally figure out fingersElon Musks $10 billion effort to build the worlds biggest AI training clusterWeve officially passed the second anniversary of the start of the AI boom, and things havent slowed down. Just the opposite. Generative AI is ramping up at a pace that feels nearly overwhelming, expanding into new platforms, mediums, and even devices at a relentless pace.Here are the 10 announcements that made 2024 a monumental year in the world of AI.Recommended VideosOpenAIWhen ChatGPT (running GPT-3.5) first arrived in November 2022, it was basically a fancy, computer-controlled game of Mad Libs. Dont get me wrong, even that capability was revolutionary at the time, but it wasnt until the release of GPT-4o in May 2024 that generative AI systems truly came into their own. Building on its predecessors ability to analyze and generate both text and images, GPT-4o provides a more comprehensive contextual understanding compared to GPT-4 alone. This translates to better performance in everything from image captioning and visual analysis, to generating both creative and analytical content like graphs, charts, and images.RelatedOpenAIIn September, OpenAI once again showed why it is the leading artificial intelligence firm by releasing its Advanced Voice Mode to ChatGPT subscribers. This feature eliminated the need for users to type their questions into a prompt window, instead enabling them to converse with the AI as they would another person.Leveraging GPT-4os human-equivalent response times, Advanced Voice Mode fundamentally changed how people can interact with machine intelligence and helped users unleash the AIs full creative capacity.Visual Intelligence on iPhones relies on the camera to make sense of the world around. Christine Romero-Chan / Digital TrendsWhen ChatGPT debuted in 2022, it was the only AI in town and available in precisely one place: ChatGPT.com. Oh, what a difference two years makes. These days, you can find generative AI in everything from smartphones and smart home devices to autonomous vehicles and health-monitoring gadgets. ChatGPT, for example, is available as a desktop app, an API, a mobile app, and even via an 800 number. Microsoft, for its part, has integrated AI directly into its line of Copilot+ laptops.Perhaps the most significant example, of course, is Apple Intelligence. It might not have been the most successful launch (many of the features we are still waiting for), but in terms of making the powers of generative AI as accessible as possible, nothing was as important as Apple Intelligence.Now, neither Copilot+ PCs or Apple Intelligence panned out how the companies involved probably wanted especially for Microsoft but as we all know, this is only the beginning.Before this year, nuclear power was seen as a losing proposition in America. Deemed unreliable and unsafe, due in large part to the Three Mile Island incident of 1979 in which one of the plants primary reactors partially melted down and spewed toxic, radioactive material into the atmosphere. However, with the rapidly increasing amounts of electrical power that modern large language models require and the massive stress they place on regional power grids many leading AI firms are taking a closer look at running their data centers using the power of the atom.Amazon, for example, purchased a nuclear-powered AI data center from Talen in March, then signed an agreement to acquire miniaturized, self-contained Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) from Energy Northwest in October. Microsoft, not to be outdone, has purchased the production capacity of Three Mile Island itself and is currently working to get Reactor One back online and generating electricity.Turns out, theres only so much training data, power, and water you can throw at the task of growing your large language model until you run into the issue of diminishing returns. The AI industry experienced this firsthand in 2024 and, in response, has begun to pivot away from the massive LLMs that originally defined the generative AI experience in favor of Agents; smaller, more responsive models designed to perform specific tasks, rather than try to do everything a user might ask of it.Anthropic debuted its agent, dubbed Computer Use, in October. Microsoft followed suit with Copilot Actions in November, while OpenAI is reportedly set to release its agent feature in January.OpenAIMany of todays large language models are geared more toward generating responses as quickly as possible, often at the expense of accuracy and correctness. OpenAIs o1 reasoning model, which the company released as a preview in September and as a fully functional model in December, takes the opposite approach: It sacrifices response speed to internally verify its rationale for a given answer, ensuring that it is as accurate and complete as possible.While this technology has yet to be fully embraced by the public (o1 is currently only available to Plus and Pro tier subscribers), leading AI companies are pressing ahead with versions of their own. Google announced its answer to o1, dubbed Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, on December 19, while OpenAI revealed that it is already working on o1s successor, which it calls o3, during its 12 Days of OpenAI live-stream event on December 20.Joe Maring / Digital TrendsGenerative AI is seemingly everywhere these days, so why wouldnt it be integrated into one of the internets most basic features? Google has been toying with the technology for the past two years, first releasing the Search Generative Experience in May of 2023 before rolling out its AI Overview feature this past May. AI Overview generates a summary of the information that a user requests at the top of its search results page.Perplexity AI takes that technique a step further. Its answer engine scours the internet for the information a users requests, then synthesizes that data into a coherent, conversational (and cited) response, effectively eliminating the need to click through a list of links. OpenAI, ever the innovator, developed a nearly identical system for its chatbot, dubbed ChatGPT Search, which it debuted in October.AnthropicTrying to generate, analyze, and edit large files whether theyre long-form creative essays or computer code snippets directly within the chat stream can be overwhelming, requiring you to endlessly scroll back and forth to view the entirety of the document.Anthropics Artifacts feature, which debuted in June, helps mitigate that issue by providing users with a separate preview window in which to view the AI-crafted text outside of the main conversation. The feature proved to be such a hit that OpenAI quickly followed suit with its own version.Its latest models and features have developed Anthropic into a formidable opponent to OpenAI and Google this year, which alone feels significant.Use Camera Control to direct every shot with intention.Learn how with today's Runway Academy. pic.twitter.com/vCGMkkhKds Runway (@runwayml) November 2, 2024Used to be that spotting an AI generated image or video was as simple as counting the number of appendages the subject shows anything more than two arms, two legs, and 10 fingers were obviously generated, as Stable Diffusion 3s Cronenberg-esque images demonstrated in June. Yet, as 2024 comes to a close, differentiating between human and machine-made content has become significantly more difficult as image and video generators have rapidly improved both the quality and physiological accuracy of their outputs.AI video systems like Kling, Gen 3 Alpha, and Movie Gen are now capable of generating photorealistic clips with minimal distortion and fine-grain camera control, while the likes of Midjourney, Dall-E 3, and Imagen 3 can craft still images with a startling degree of realism (and minimal hallucinated artifacts) in myriad artistic styles.Oh yeah, and OpenAIs Sora finally made its debut as part of its December announcements. The battle for AI-generated video models is heating up, and they got shockingly impressive in 2024.Digital TrendsxAI launched Grok 2.0 this year, the latest model built right into X. But the bigger news around Elon Musks AI venture is around where this headed in the future. In 2024, Elon Musk set about constructing the worlds largest supercomputer just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, which came online at 4:20 a.m. on July 22. Driven by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, the supercluster is tasked with training new versions of xAIs Grok generative AI model, which Musk claims will become the worlds most powerful AI.Musk is expected to spend around $10 billion in capital and inference costs in 2024 alone but is reportedly working to double the number of GPUs powering the supercomputer in the new year.Editors Recommendations

An exhibition at Londons Royal Academy focuses on a time when the three Renaissance artists were all in Florence, developing their ideas and responding to each others work.

Genuss gene-edited pigs with resistance to the virus that causes PRRSGenus PICThirty years after the first genetically modified tomato went on sale, the promise to revolutionise farming with genetic technologies remains largely unfulfilled. But 2025 could be a turning point, with new products demonstrating the untapped potential to reduce the losses of animals and crops to diseases.In the coming year, regulatory authorities in the US are expected to approve a pig gene-edited to make it resistant to a common and devastating disease. That approval could open the door to a much wider use of the

SupertottoImagine taking a hammer to your laptop. You smash it apart and shards of plastic, batteries and circuit board go flying. It would be an act of vandalism, a shocking waste of money and resources, so much so that it sounds absurd. But the truth is that, every time we use a computer, we are dealing with a machine that is, at the fundamental level, even more wasteful than this.It all goes back to a decision made decades ago about the deep workings of computer logic and how these machines delete data, a process that inevitably produces a large amount of waste heat. For a long time, we have muddled through with wasteful computers. But with the rise of artificial intelligence, which has pushed the power demands of computing to new heights, this seemingly inconsequential decision might be about to bite us. We may need to redesign computing from scratch.Thankfully, we know exactly what to do. It involves a trick that might sound a touch unlikely: getting processors to do everything twice, once forwards, then in reverse. Reversible computing can be so much more energy efficient than conventional computing, and its potentially the way we should have originally built computers, says Hannah Earley at UK-based reversible computing company Vaire Computing.The increased energy efficiency is the result of a thermodynamic trick that we have known about since the 1970s, but was never put into use because of the

Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, likely has dementia, his lawyers say.Jeffries stands accused in an international sex-trafficking case.The illness means Jeffries won't be able to contribute to his own defense, his lawyers say.Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries likely has dementia and possible Alzheimer's disease, casting doubt on his ability to stand trial in a sex-trafficking case, his lawyers have said.According to court papers filed Monday and seen by Business Insider, a neuropsychologist has assessed that "the combination of Mr. Jeffries' cognitive impairments" means that he would be unable to contribute to his own defense.Jeffries, 80, along with his partner Matthew Smith and a third man, were arrested in October on federal sex-trafficking charges.Earlier this month, lawyers for Jeffries filed a motion to determine his competency to stand trial.The neuropsychologist found "a significant neurological deficit" after examining him in October last year and said her "initial diagnostic impressions" were consistent with dementia, the latest filing states.Follow-up tests this year gave further "diagnostic impressions" of dementia and "probable" late-onset Alzheimer's, it says.A diagnostic impression is a preliminary assessment of a patient rather than a final diagnosis."The Michael Jeffries who presented himself did not even come close to resembling a Master's degree-educated individual," the filing said.The issues include "impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness, and ease of confusion," it continued.The doctor has deemed his disease to be "irreversible" and said it will worsen over time, the filing said.A so-called competency hearing has been scheduled for June next year, the BBC reported.Jeffries, who left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014, has pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges, as have Smith and the third accused man.Prosecutors say that they ran an international sex trafficking and prostitution business, coercing vulnerable men connected to the company into taking part in "sex events."Between about 2008 to 2015, the accused men used the "so-called casting couch system" in their scheme, Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, alleged in a news conference announcing the charges in October.The indictment states that the men used Jeffries' power and wealth "to run a business that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret, thereby maintaining Jeffries' powerful reputation."His arrest came after a high-profile BBC investigation cited a number of men who said they were exploited or abused as part of the events Jeffries is accused of.Jeffries was hired as CEO in 1990, ushering in a period in which the brand relied heavily on sex appeal to sell its preppy outfits. Huge popularity came alongside a 2003 class-action lawsuit that alleged racialized and looks-based discrimination against staff and prospective employees, which was settled in 2004 without admission of wrongdoing.