AI tools rapidly infiltrated peoples lives in 2024, but AI lawmaking in the U.S. moved much more slowly. While dozens of AI-related bills were introduced this Congresseither to fund its research or mitigate its harmsmost got stuck in partisan gridlock or buried under other priorities. In California, a bill aiming to hold AI companies liable for harms easily passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.This inaction has some AI skeptics increasingly worried. Were seeing a replication of what weve seen in privacy and social media: of not setting up guardrails from the start to protect folks and drive real innovation, Ben Winters, the director of AI and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, tells TIME.Industry boosters, on the other hand, have successfully persuaded many policymakers that overregulation would harm industry. So instead of trying to pass a comprehensive AI framework, like the E.U. did with its AI Act in 2023, the U.S. may instead find consensus on discrete areas of concern one by one.As the calendar turns, here are the major AI issues that Congress may try to tackle in 2025.Banning Specific HarmsThe AI-related harm Congress may turn to first is the proliferation of non-consensual deepfake porn. This year, new AI tools allowed people to sexualize and humiliate young women with the click of a button. Those images rapidly spread across the internet and, in some cases, were wielded as a tool for extortion.Tamping down on these images seemed like a no-brainer to almost everyone: leaders in both parties, parent activists, and civil society groups all pushed for legislation. But bills got stuck at various stages of the lawmaking process. Last week, the Take It Down Act, spearheaded by Texas Republican Ted Cruz and Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, was tucked into a House funding bill after a significant media and lobbying push by those two senators. The measure would criminalize the creation of deepfake pornography and requires social media platforms to take down images 48 hours after being served notice.But the funding bill collapsed after receiving strong pushback from some Trump allies, including Elon Musk. Still, Take It Downs inclusion in the funding bill means that it received sign-off from all of the key leaders in the House and Senate, says Sunny Gandhi, the vice president of political affairs at Encode, an AI-focused advocacy group. He added that the Defiance Act, a similar bill that allows victims to take civil action against deepfake creators, may also be a priority next year. Activists will seek legislative action related to other AI harms, including the vulnerability of consumer data and the dangers of companion chatbots causing self-harm. In February, a 14-year-old committed suicide after developing a relationship with a chatbot that encouraged him to come home. But the difficulty of passing a bill around something as uncontroversial as combating deepfake porn portends a challenging road to passage for other measures.Increased Funding for AI ResearchAt the same time, many legislators253-page report about AI, emphasizing the need to drive responsible innovation. From optimizing manufacturing to developing cures for grave illnesses, AI can greatly boost productivity, enabling us to achieve our objectives more quickly and cost-effectively, wrote the task forces co-chairs Jay Obernolte and Ted Lieu.In this vein, Congress will likely seek to increase funding for AI research and infrastructure. One bill that drew interest but failed to pass the finish line was the Create AI Act, which aimed to establish a national AI research resource for academics, researchers and startups. It's about democratizing who is part of this community and this innovation, Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat andMore controversially, Congress may also try to fund the integration of AI tools into U.S. warfare and defense systems. Trump allies, includingexpressed interest in weaponizing AI. Defense contractors recently told Reuters they expect Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency to seek more joint projects between contractors and AI tech firms. And in December, OpenAI announced a partnership with the defense tech company Anduril to use AI to defend against drone attacks.This summer, Congress helped allocate $983 million toward the Defense Innovation Unit, which aims to bring new technology to the Pentagon. (This was a massive increase from past years.) The next Congress may earmark even bigger funding packages towards similar initiatives. The barrier to new entrants at the Pentagon has always been there, but for the first time, we've started to see these smaller defense companies competing and winning contracts, says Tony Samp, the head of AI policy at the law firm DLA Piper. Now, there is a desire from Congress to be disruptive and to go faster.Senator Thune in the spotlightOne of the key figures shaping AI legislationbill aimed at promoting the transparency of AI systems. While Thune has decried the heavy-handed approach to AI in Europe, he hasspoken very clearly about the need for tiered regulation to address AIs applications in high-risk areas.Im hopeful there is some positive outcome about the fact that the Senate Majority Leader is one of the top few engaged Senate Republicans on tech policy in general, Winters says. That might lead to more action on things like kids' privacy and data privacy.Trumps impactOf course, the Senate will have to take some cues about AI next year from President Trump. Its unclear how exactly Trump feels about the technology, and he will have many Silicon Valley advisors with different AI ideologies competing for his ear. (Marc Andreessen, for instance, wants AI to be developed as fast as possible, while Musk has warned of the technologys existential risks.)While some expect Trump to approach AI solely from the perspective of deregulation, Alexandra Givens, the CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, points out that Trump was the first president to issue an AI executive order in 2020, which focused on AIs impact on people and protecting their civil rights and privacy. We hope that he is able to continue in that frame and not have this become a partisan issue that breaks down along party lines, she says.Read More: What Donald Trumps Win Means For AIStates may move faster than CongressPassing anything in Congress will be a slog, as always. So state legislatures might lead the way in forging their own AI legislation. Left-leaning states, especially, may try to tackle parts of AI risk that the Republican-dominated Congress is unlikely to touch, including AI systems racial and gender biases, or its environmental impact.Colorado, for instance, passed a law this year regulating AIs usage in high-risk scenarios like screening applications for jobs, loans and housing. It tackled those high-risk uses while still being light touch, Givens says. That's an incredibly appealing model. In Texas, a state lawmaker recently introduced his own bill modeled after that one, which will be considered by their legislature next year. Meanwhile, New York will consider a bill limiting the construction of new data centers and requiring them to report their energy consumption.

Rumor mill: AMD is reportedly skipping the Radeon RX 8000 nomenclature for its next-gen RDNA 4 discrete GPU lineup. Instead, the successors to the RX 7000 series are said to be named RX 9000, with a possible launch during CES 2025 next month in Las Vegas. The information was originally shared over the weekend by Chiphell editor Napoleon before being reiterated by multiple other sources. According to the original post (which has since been removed), the next flagship graphics card from Team Red will be marketed as the Radeon RX 9070 XT a naming scheme similar to that of Nvidia's current GeForce RTX lineup. One of AMD's board partners has since unofficially "confirmed" the change.Reliable AMD leaker Hoang Anh Phu confirmed the new name and claimed that the RX 9070 XT will be announced at CES 2025 alongside the Ryzen 9 9000X3D. He added that the company will also announce FSR 4 at the same event. The tipster had earlier hinted that the Ryzen 9 9000X3D will debut by the end of January 2025.In another X post, Phu claimed that an unidentified card seen in a recent AMD ad is the RX 9070 XT. The card was originally spotted last week by an eagle-eyed Redditor who noted that it did not match any recent GPU from the company. The card features a triple-fan design with a black and silver color scheme, and has an LED-backlit Radeon logo on the side.Another new leak has seemingly revealed the identities of all the upcoming Radeon RX 9000 GPUs for desktops and laptops. According to tipster @All_The_Watts, the lineup will include the 9070, 9060, 9050, and 9040 alongside the flagship 9070 XT. On the mobile side of things, the RX 9000 series will have the 9070M XT, 9070M, and 9070S.An early listing by French retailer Grossbill-Pro (via @momomo_us) also seems to have confirmed the 9070 XT and 9070, but the listings have now been removed. Still, with the leaks flowing in from so many sources, it appears that the rumors about the RDNA 4 cards being launched as the RX 9000 series are indeed true, and they will likely debut at CES next month. // Related Stories

Something to look forward to: The streaming revolution has hit the gaming industry well and truly. Encouraged by major players like Microsoft and Sony, other companies are now looking to make a dent in the market, too. The latest to join the fray may be Sega. In a recent chat with the BBC, Sega's newly appointed president Shuji Utsumi indicated that the company is exploring a Netflix-esque subscription model for its titles. He stated that subscription services are interesting to Sega, and the company is evaluating opportunities that such a model would provide.While he did not provide specific details, Utsumi made it clear that some kind of streaming gaming service is under consideration.The move makes sense from a business perspective. With the likes of Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus already dominating the market, Sega is likely realizing that its best shot at competing is by throwing its own hat into the ring with a dedicated service for its iconic games and franchises.Sega earlier this month also removed over 60 of its classic games from digital storefronts across PC and console platforms, which left many scratching their heads. Hopefully, those titles will make a comeback through this subscription service if and when it arrives.That said, there are also concerns brewing that a Sega streaming platform could just end up fragmenting the market even further and forcing gamers to shell out for yet another monthly subscription on top of everything else. Some industry insiders warned the BBC that it could even lead to Sega pulling its games from existing services to make its own platform more enticing. // Related StoriesThen again, for the legions of die-hard Sega fans out there, having a one-stop subscription shop for all their favorite Sonic, Yakuza, and other classic titles could be a dream come true.Beyond teasing this new subscription, Utsumi suggested that the legendary gaming brand may have overemphasized cost-cutting and lost its way when he took the helm, adding that he's aiming to restore some of that old "rock and roll mentality."He even teased that the company is hard at work on "a quite challenging, quite exciting" new Sonic game, though he didn't reveal whether it'll be a follow-up to the beloved Sonic Adventure series or something new entirely.

Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Warner Bros. / Warner Bros.Its pretty silly to get hung up on how much money a movie makes. To obsess over box office is to think like a studio executive or maybe worse, like the analysts who fill trade columns with their salivating desire to see, say, Kevin Costner lose his shirt on an ambitious, big-swing passion project like Horizon: An American Saga. Movies live forever, the actor-director told IndieWire this past summer. Its not about the opening weekend. Amen to that, brother.All the same, dismay is a totally natural response to seeing something you love greeted with a big, fat shrug. Horizon fans felt that pain once the first chapter of Costners planned multipart epic landed with a thud back in June. Yours truly, meanwhile, has reserved his sympathy pangs for a different Saga another Western of sorts, and another meaty prologue released by Warner Bros. How, in a year when every major hit was a franchise play, when people saw almost nothing but sequels and prequels and part whatever of bifurcated stories, could so many have slept on a movie as magnificent as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?FURIOSA : A MAD MAX SAGA | OFFICIAL TRAILER #2To be clear, George Millers latest trip to the grungy, burning-rubber nightmare tomorrow wasnt entirely neglected. Reviews were mostly admiring, if qualified in their praise. And a quick search of X and Letterboxd will reveal a flurry of reverently posted screenshots and pithy praise. But by the cold calculus of receipts, Furiosa is a flop. Globally, it barely recouped its $160-plus million budget, and it fell well short of what its predecessor the 2015 death-race extravaganza Mad Max: Fury Road had made in theaters nine years earlier.Recommended VideosThat nearly decade-long gap between entries is probably one big reason the turnout for Furiosa was soft. Not that the R-rated fifth installment of a franchise that ignited back in the 1980s would have been a sure thing even in the immediate wake of the last installment. Were talking, too, about a Mad Max movie without Mad Max or, for that matter, any of the same stars. And people tend to forget, after the Oscar wins and the best-of-the-decade hosannas, that Fury Road didnt exactly make a fortune either. Just how much of a halo effect could be expected from it?The public indifference to Furiosa stings, at least for those of us who regard it as one of the true visions of 2024 a blazing fallen-world opus with soul and style and flabbergasting visual imagination to burn. An absolute spectacle. How did this grand production come nowhere near the money made by Dune, to name yet another Warner Bros. epic of death and sand? What really stings, though, is the nagging feeling that Furiosas box office performance was disappointing, in part, because the people who did see it found the movie kind of disappointing.Even if you disagreed, even if you adored Millers sprawling prequel, you could see the logic of their lukewarm takes. After all, Fury Road is a very hard act to follow. With that Mad Max saga, Miller sped to a new Valhalla of virtuosic vehicular mayhem. By tethering a two-hour chase sequence to Charlize Therons star performance as a metal-armed, big-rig liberator, the mighty Furiosa, he made a Mad Max every bit as allegorically resonant as it was bewilderingly exciting. Racing towards its 10th anniversary, it doesnt seem hyperbolic at all to identify it as one of the greatest action movies ever banged into improbable existence.Warner BrosThats a lot to top, and even critics who liked Furiosa couldnt resist drawing unflattering comparisons. The carnage, they noted, was much more digital, with Miller cutting back a little on the daredevil stunt driving and practical effects work of Fury Road two elements that contributed to its downright mythologized reputation as a masterpiece forged from a troubled production. What really vexed the underwhelmed was how Miller had followed an action movie of ruthless forward momentum with something baggier: a deliberately paced chronicle with only intermittent glimmers of Fury Roads gas-guzzling lunacy.Furiosa, it must be confessed, does not reach the same heights of jaw-dropping splendor. Truly, the worst that can be said of it is that its not Fury Road. But isnt that also whats special about the film? Its not trying to be a movie youve seen already. Miller, whos never really repeated himself with this series (every Mad Max is kind of its own eccentric thing), draws a direct line of continuity to Fury Road without mimicking its tight time frame and daisy-chained set piece structure. Having already perfected that form, what would be the point of recycling it?FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA [ 4K - HDR ] Octoboss assault on the War Rig Part 1 of 2 (2024)The opportunity to fashion an origin story for Therons instantly iconic action heroine (played, this time, by Anya Taylor-Joy with the radiant ocular expressiveness of a silent-era starlet), became a chance to take a longer, wider view of The Wasteland to make a kind of Dickensian epic about growing up in the franchises dystopian outlaw Outback. Told in chapters and across several decades, Furiosa forgoes the speed-demon gallop of its predecessor in favor of a leisurely, novelistic burrow into the politics and culture of this dead-end world. That may not be what everyone wants from a Mad Max movie, but its remarkable to see Miller once more rethink the franchise he launched 45 years ago.Furiosa is the longest Mad Max movie by a long shot. Its also maybe the weirdest and the saddest and the bleakest. There are times where it barely plays like an action movie another bold gambit on Millers part. Because its laying out the tortured backstory of its title character, Furiosa cant deliver the kind of cathartic happy ending of sorts that Fury Road offered. Miller pointedly undercuts the primitive satisfaction of his revenge-movie plot, in which Taylor-Joys orphaned Furiosa eventually confronts her mothers killer, the ruthless desperado Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, delivering the darkly charismatic performance of his muscle-man career). One might wager that the deliberate anticlimax of this hefty film is one reason audiences and critics didnt embrace it quite as heartily.Warner Bros. PicturesBut anyone with working eyes should have been able to appreciate Furiosa on the most basic, right-brain level. Did the fixation on Millers heavier deployment of CGI blind folks to the staggering, undiminished beauty of his imagery? On the cusp of his 80th birthday, the Aussie legend is still operating at a pinnacle of grand canvas blockbuster craftsmanship. The movie unfurls one great shot, moment, or sequence after another. An opening nocturnal pursuit through the desert. A siege on a war rig every bit as amazing as Fury Roads best pageants of blood and steel. The crucifixion of Furiosas mother as seen in the reflection of our heroines welling adolescent eye. The film uses the desert as strikingly as David Lean and Sergio Leone did.Warner Bros.Some objected to Furiosa on principle to the notion that Therons character and her history needed to be fleshed out further. Owen Gleiberman, in a on Hollywoods franchise obsession, called it an epic prequel to a movie that was better off not having one. Its a sentiment shared by critic Mike DAngelo, who wrote that none of that backstory is necessary to us, the viewers seeking insane automotive thrills. Did Fury Road demand two-and-a-half hours of retroactive setup? Not really it worked splendidly in isolation, with the characters redemption arc implied rather than explicated. But the two films nonetheless inform each other in a rather dramatically productive way; they feel of a piece, even in their stylistic disparity. Returning again to Mad Max, Miller justifies Hollywoods relentless exploitation of old IP through the sheer force of his conviction.Fury Road was a miracle. Somehow, Miller had convinced a risk-averse Hollywood studio to give him $150 million to crash cars in the desert. The very existence of such an idiosyncratic blockbuster a personal vision in the guise of a shameless reboot, blown up to IMAX scale is difficult to fathom. Furiosa undeniably sits in that films shadow, in multiple respects. But its a miracle, too: a weird, moving, operatic addition to the mythology Miller has been unfurling, on and off, since the late 1970s. The muted reaction to Furiosa makes you wonder if, in a weird way, people are now taking for granted the directors ability to get these crazy-ambitious genre reveries off the ground. Another decade, another Mad Max. Yawn!Warner Bros.It seems increasingly unlikely, though, that Miller will pull it off again, and not just because hes getting older. Furiosa bombing all but kills the prospects of The Wasteland, another Mad Max prequel he was kicking around just as the first chapter of Horizon bombing will probably dry up all studio funding for more. This is the real and maybe the only reason to care about how much money a movie makes: When audiences ignore something audacious, a door closes.But Furiosa will endure, shiny and chrome. This writer suspects that its fan base and reputation will only expand with time, and that down the road, further removed from Fury Road, cinephiles will feel perplexed that it wasnt celebrated more upon release. One day, the films opening weekend will be just a speck in the rearview mirror. As Costner put it, movies especially ones this special live forever.Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now streaming on Max, and available to rent or purchase from the major digital services. For more of A.A. Dowds writing, visit his Authory page.Editors Recommendations

I played a lot of video games when I visited Los Angeles for The Game Awards. I dove into the corporate satire of Revenge of the Savage Planet, got a feel for the furiously fun Crimson Desert, and even played To a T with Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. Theres one game that Im still thinking about weeks later, though, and its much smaller than any of those.Faraway is the latest game by Sonos Beam vs. Sonos Ray: Which soundbar is best for you?, the creator of 2009 puzzle classic Eliss. The project, set to launch in 2025 for PC, is another retro arcade game set in the trippy reaches of a digitized outer space. Its a follow-up thats been 15 years in the making, which may sound surprising when looking at its minimalistic gameplay. You cant rush great art, though, and Faraway already has all the markings of a simple cult hit.Recommended VideosIn Faraway, players simply guide a shooting star through space and make constellations with it. When I sit down to try it out, it takes me a few minutes to figure out how it all works even though its essentially a one-button game. When a level begins, my star automatically begins flying through the black of space. As it passes other stars, I can tap a button to magnetize it to one and swing it around to change its direction. The longer I hold the button, the more it turns.FARAWAY | Reveal TrailerEventually, I come across a set of stars that needs to be connected into a constellation using my bright buddys tail. All I need to do is guide myself from star to star to connect them, all while making sure not to break my chain by passing through a line Ive created. It sounds simple enough, but I quickly discover that theres a lot of patience and nuance required to get it right.RelatedThe first skill I learn is to make gentle turns rather than holding down the button for too long and completely throwing off both my momentum and direction. Navigating between stars almost feels like learning a playing simulator like Forza Motorsport for the first time and discovering that the key to success is pumping the brakes instead of slamming on them. Once I accept that, Im able to sink into a state of Zen as I play a cosmic game of connect the dots.As Thirion showed me the ropes, he explained that his north star for the project is Tetris. Hes aiming to make an arcade-style puzzle game that has the same kind of entrancing flow state. I can feel the influence of something like Tetris Effect here the more Im able to lock in and move my star around with finesse.Annapurna InteractiveWhile the constellation puzzles I played were a good way to learn the ropes, they arent the main attraction. The core mode, as Thirion calls it, is a timed challenge where players are given a mess of stars and need to create the biggest constellation possible to rack up a high score. It seems simple, but I instantly discover the depth in that task. If I start forming lines in the center of the star system and working my way out, Im able to form loops using further stars. The goal is to use spatial reasoning on the fly to keep an uninterrupted connection going as long as possible without passing through the line between two already connected stars.Thirion seems thrilled as he watches me play, excited to see someone get the hang of that strategy within 20 minutes of play and with no tutorial whatsoever. That speaks to the potential power of Faraway. Its the kind of arcade puzzler that you can pick up and learn in an instant, but one that rewards players who naturally unravel its depth. It may look tiny next to enormous games coming next year like Monster Hunter Wilds, but it might just be one of my most anticipated games of the year at the moment.Faraway launches in 2025 for PC.Editors Recommendations

Thanks to all the leaks, I thought I knew what to expect with AMDs upcoming RDNA 4. It turns out I may have been wrong on more than one account.The latest leaks reveal that AMDs upcoming best graphics card may not be called the RX 8800 XT, as most predicted, but will instead be referred to as RX 9070 XT. In addition, the first leaked benchmark of the GPU gives us a glimpse into the kind of performance we can expect, which could turn out to be a bit of a letdown.Recommended VideosFirst, lets talk about the naming scheme for RDNA 4, because that one came as a surprise. Over the weekend, several leaks popped up, revealing that the presumed flagship of AMDs next-gen lineup isnt going to be the RX 8800 XT. VideoCardz spotted a Reddit ad by the official AMD account, which, coincidentally, appears to have leaked the official render for the GPU. In turn, frequent leaker Hoang Anh Phu responded, confirming that this GPU is indeed the RX 9070 XT. Thats not all.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming Confirmed, this is RX 9070 XT. Hoang Anh Phu (@AnhPhuH) December 23, 2024RelatedA leaker on the Chiphell forum also said as much, as shared by HXL on X (Twitter). VideoCardz also cites an anonymous motherboard vendor as it claims that the RDNA 4 lineup is referred to as the Radeon 90-series. All of this adds up to a sudden change in naming scheme, as most sources believed that wed be dealing with the RX 8000 series. Personally, I was especially excited about the RX 8800 XT, which by all accounts might actually be the RX 9070 XT. pic.twitter.com/TbvuyV0uLu All The Watts!! (@All_The_Watts) December 23, 2024This brings me to the leaked benchmark, shared by All_The_Watts on X. This leaker, who has a good track record, also confirmed the new naming convention but they also shared a Time Spy benchmark for the RX 9070 XT. This is a synthetic benchmark and not a great indicator of real-world GPU performance, but it helps us see how it stacks up against the competition.The RX 9070 XT scored 22,894 points in the Time Spy test, which makes it a competitor to cards like the RX 7900 GRE and the RTX 4070 Ti. Its considerably slower than the RX 7900 XT, though by over 15%. Considering that many claimed AMDs new flagship to be comparable to the RTX 4080, its hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment at this first score.However, its important to remember that this is just one isolated benchmark, so its too early to say just how fast the rumored RX 9070 XT may turn out to be. I expect therell be more benchmarks leaking out in the lead-up to January 6, when AMD is said to announce RDNA 4 and put an end to all the rumors once and for all.Editors Recommendations

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A humpback whale breachingZack MetcalfeHuman musicians must practise for thousands of hours to perfect their performance skills, and the same may be true for humpback whales.It is widely believed that male humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing to attract mates, but zoologists have recently come to realise that they also sing at high-latitude feeding grounds, months before they migrate to the low-latitude breeding grounds where they pair up with a mate.Were drowning in song, says Erin Wall at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, a non-profit group based in

Sam Raskin at Yale University and his colleagues have proved the geometric Langlands conjectureYale University/Dan RenzettiA mathematical breakthrough made this year is so complex that other mathematicians struggled to understand it, but it has already led to progress in other areas of maths.In May, Sam Raskin at Yale University and his colleagues published a series of five papers, totalling more than 1000 pages, that proved the geometric Langlands conjecture, in a culmination of decades of work. The problem is actually a simpler formulation of an even grander mathematical project, the Langlands programme, which seeks to make

Nature, Published online: 23 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04123-5Pupil contractions in a talking parrot, and how ancient numerals were derived from counting on fingers, in our weekly dip into Natures archive.