In November 2022, retailer Balenciaga launched an ad showing children holding teddy bears that appeared to be wearing what looked like bondage gear. This enraged social media users. As a result, Balenciaga lost 100,000 Instagram followers and saw a decline in sales.Initially, Balenciaga denied responsibility and even levied a lawsuit against its production company, but that didnt quell the backlash. So, the company changed course by issuing an apology and announcing that it would use new content validation techniques to prevent an incident like this from occurring again.Balenciagais one of many companies that have faced a brand crisis in social media. Companies including Kelloggs, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Dove, and KFC have all faced such crises.When brand-damaging incidents on social media occur, those who deal with them include executive management, marketing, and even the board. But since social media is an online technology, does that mean IT has a role to play as well?The answer is unclear in many companies. Often, IT isnt part of the frontline response group, but that doesnt mean that your IT team shouldnt be involved.How IT Should Get InvolvedMitigating a social media brand attack falls under the category of disaster recovery, which means that there should be a step-by-step sequence of responsive actions that are documented in a DR plan. In addition, there is the question of risk management and avoidance. If a risk policy is defined and documented, preemptive steps can be taken that reduce the chances of a brand attack being levied.Related:IT has a role in both scenarios.Risk ManagementVetting Software and vendor.When marketing launches e-commerce and informational websites, it also enlists outside firms to monitor Internet activity concerning the company's online assets, and to report on any unusual or potentially damaging online activities. The goal is to preempt incidents like brand damage, and the monitoring software does this by listening for potentially damaging posts and then reporting them.HR departments also use third-party software for internet monitoring. They use it to check the social media activities and posts of potential job hires and employees.In both cases, IT can help in vetting the vendors of these services before marketing or HR enters into contractual agreements. This can be a value-add because technology vendor vetting is not a well-developed practice in either marketing or HR, and it is possible that they may contract with vendors that cannot meet their goals, or that fall short of corporate security, privacy and governance requirements.Related:Validate Content. As a best practice, IT can encourage marketing to secure content validation software that can vet internally developed messaging before the company publishes it online.Employee message monitoring. The monitoring and surveillance of employee messaging and internet activities while employees are at work is a common and accepted corporate practice today. This right to monitor employee communication and internet activity extends to remote employees who are not in a corporate office.Should there be IT involvement in this seemingly personnel-focused matter? Yes, because in many cases, it is IT that is called upon to select and administer the communications monitoring software and to issue monthly activity reports to user departments and management. Even if IT doesnt do this, its still in ITs best interest to stay involved. Thatsbecause of ITs significant role in corporate governance, and the necessity of weighing policy against employees personal privacy rights.In more than one case, it was IT that first asked the question of whether employees had been informed upfront that their communications and internet activities would be monitored by the company, and if there was a written policy to that effect that employees were required to acknowledge and sign as a condition of employment.Related:Attack Response and MitigationSecurity breaches. Its possible for a bad actor to pass malware into an e-commerce website through a message to the site. Or they could post a fake website of the company that fraudulently resembles the real one.In both cases, IT should be involved with the security and monitoring of corporate online assets to ensure that the assets are free from cyberattacks and fakes. If unusual activities are detected from IT monitoring and management software, they should be promptly reported to management, marketing and other important stakeholders.If a security breach occurs, the DR response should be swift. Threat mitigation and elimination procedures should be written into the corporate DR plan.Failover. When corporate e-commerce sites are taken over, or they are being pummeled by cyberattacks that are disabling the sites functions, a failover plan to an alternate e-commerce site should be executed. It should work in the same way that a physical retail store fails over to a generator when local power service fails.In this way, a smooth failover allows the e-commerce site to keep working, and it reduces the number of social media posts that complain about the company, the site or the brand. Failover is an IT operation, and IT should take the lead by crafting the technical processes of the failover, testing them, and making sure that they work.SummarySocial media crisis management is everybodys business, but all too often, IT gets overlooked. Yet, because social media is an online activity that involves technology, it is almost guaranteed that IT will be called upon to get involved when a brand attack occurs. Consequently, its in CIOs best interests to stay ahead of the issue by assuming an active role in brand protection and defense.Brand protection is more than protection and acts as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, according to De La Rue, a banknote printing firm.It is a multifaceted approach that requires ongoing diligence and adaptability in the face of evolving threats.

Dont call your favourite AI doctor just yetJust_Super/Getty ImagesAdvanced artificial intelligence models score well on professional medical exams but still flunk one of the most crucial physician tasks: talking with patients to gather relevant medical information and deliver an accurate diagnosis.While large language models show impressive results on multiple-choice tests, their accuracy drops significantly in dynamic conversations, says Pranav Rajpurkar at Harvard University. The models particularly struggle with open-ended diagnostic reasoning. AdvertisementThat became evident when researchers developed a method for evaluating a clinical AI models reasoning capabilities based on simulated doctor-patient conversations. The patients were based on 2000 medical cases primarily drawn from professional US medical board exams.Simulating patient interactions enables the evaluation of medical history-taking skills, a critical component of clinical practice that cannot be assessed using case vignettes, says Shreya Johri, also at Harvard University. The new evaluation benchmark, called CRAFT-MD, also mirrors real-life scenarios, where patients may not know which details are crucial to share and may only disclose important information when prompted by specific questions, she says.The CRAFT-MD benchmark itself relies on AI. OpenAIs GPT-4 model played the role of a patient AI in conversation with the clinical AI being tested. GPT-4 also helped grade the results by comparing the clinical AIs diagnosis with the correct answer for each case. Human medical experts double-checked these evaluations. They also reviewed the conversations to check the patient AIs accuracy and see if the clinical AI managed to gather the relevant medical information. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox.Sign up to newsletterMultiple experiments showed that four leading large language models OpenAIs GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models, Metas Llama-2-7b model and Mistral AIs Mistral-v2-7b model performed considerably worse on the conversation-based benchmark than they did when making diagnoses based on written summaries of the cases. OpenAI, Meta and Mistral AI did not respond to requests for comment.For example, GPT-4s diagnostic accuracy was an impressive 82 per cent when it was presented with structured case summaries and allowed to select the diagnosis from a multiple-choice list of answers, falling to just under 49 per cent when it did not have the multiple-choice options. When it had to make diagnoses from simulated patient conversations, however, its accuracy dropped to just 26 per cent.And GPT-4 was the best-performing AI model tested in the study, with GPT-3.5 often coming in second, the Mistral AI model sometimes coming in second or third and Metas Llama model generally scoring lowest.The AI models also failed to gather complete medical histories a significant proportion of the time, with leading model GPT-4 only doing so in 71 per cent of simulated patient conversations. Even when the AI models did gather a patients relevant medical history, they did not always produce the correct diagnoses.Such simulated patient conversations represent a far more useful way to evaluate AI clinical reasoning capabilities than medical exams, says Eric Topol at the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California.If an AI model eventually passes this benchmark, consistently making accurate diagnoses based on simulated patient conversations, this would not necessarily make it superior to human physicians, says Rajpurkar. He points out that medical practice in the real world is messier than in simulations. It involves managing multiple patients, coordinating with healthcare teams, performing physical exams and understanding complex social and systemic factors in local healthcare situations.Strong performance on our benchmark would suggest AI could be a powerful tool for supporting clinical work but not necessarily a replacement for the holistic judgement of experienced physicians, says Rajpurkar.Journal reference:Nature Medicine DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03328-5Topics:

People with long covid are advised to pace themselves when it comes to being physically activeREUTERS/Nacho DoceFor many people, the covid-19 pandemic feels like a thing of the past. But for those with long covid, it is far from over. Five years on from when covid-19 turned up, those with lingering symptoms still cant live their lives as they did before.The emergence of long covid in the first few months of the pandemic sparked an explosion of research into why some people develop persistent symptoms after being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Half a decade

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The biggest AI flops of 2024 The past 12 months have been undeniably busy for those working in AI. There have been more successful product launches than we can count, and even Nobel Prizes. But it hasnt always been smooth sailing. AI is an unpredictable technology, and the increasing availability of generative models has led people to test their limits in new, weird, and sometimes harmful ways. These were some of 2024s biggest AI misfires. Rhiannon Williams If youre interested in the latest developments in the weird and wonderful world of AI, check out the AI Hype IndexMIT Technology Reviews highly subjective take on whats for real and whats just a lot of hallucinatory nonsense. Our latest edition features emotional robotic pets, Pokmon Go, simulated humans, and much more. Why EVs are (mostly) set for solid growth this year It looks as though 2025 will be a solid year for electric vehiclesat least outside the United States. (Inside the US, sales will depend on the incoming administration's policy choices.) Globally, these cleaner cars and trucks will continue to eat into the market share of gas-guzzlers as costs decline, consumer options expand, and charging stations proliferate. But ultimately, the fate of EV sales will depend on the particular dynamics within specific regions. Heres a closer look at whats likely to steer the sector in the worlds three largest markets: the US, the EU, and China. Read the full story. James Temple This piece is part of MIT Technology Reviews Whats Next series, looking across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. How wind tech could help decarbonize cargo shipping Inhabitants of the Marshall Islandsa chain of coral atolls in the center of the Pacific Oceanrely on sea transportation for almost everything. For millennia they sailed largely in canoes, but much of their seafaring movement today involves big, bulky, diesel-fueled cargo ships that are heavy polluters. Theyre not alone. Cargo shipping is responsible for about 3% of the worlds annual greenhouse-gas emissions, and at the current rate of growth, the global industry could account for 10% of emissions by 2050.The islands have been disproportionately experiencing the consequences of human-made climate change: warming waters, more frequent extreme weather, and rising sea levels. Now its residents are exploring a surprisingly traditional method of decarbonizing its fleets. Read the full story.Sofia Quaglia This story is from the forthcoming magazine edition of MIT Technology Review, set to go live on January 6its all about the exciting breakthroughs happening in the world right now. If you dont already, subscribe to receive future copies. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 A Tesla Cybertruck exploded at Trumps Las Vegas hotelAuthorities are investigating if the incident is linked to a similar attack in New Orleans. (The Guardian) + The Cybertrucks driver was killed, while seven others were injured. (Reuters)+ Both vehicles were rented using the same app, called Turo. (Insider $)+ The New Orleans suspect appears to be inspired by the Islamic State. (Economist $)2 What five years of covid has taught us How prepared we are for future pandemics hinges on governments willingness to listen. (New Scientist $)+ Covid exposed how vulnerable global health systems are. (The Guardian)3 Americas tech industry needs imported labor Escalating tensions over the future of the H-1B visa lays that bare. (WSJ $)+ Thousands of overseas workers are trapped by the US immigration system. (Insider $)+ Tech workers had a pretty rough 2024. (Ars Technica)4 Elon Musk has support in his legal battle with OpenAI Two major tech investors have joined his cause. (WP $)5 A science journals editors have resigned over its use of AI The Journal of Human Evolutions board is protesting how owner Elsevier used te technology to format papers. (Ars Technica)+ The worlds most expensive artist isnt a fan of AI, either. (The Guardian) 6 How much will it cost to live forever?Investment in longevity firms has dropped in recent years. (FT $) + Maybe you will be able to live past 122. (MIT Technology Review)7 Podcasts arent restricted to just audio any more Aspiring podcasters better be prepared to appear on video these days. (NY Mag $)8 Were on the verge of living in the ocean Within five years, this ambitious project hopes to establish permanent underwater colonies. (IEEE Spectrum)9 What the year ahead holds for tech Elon Musk attempting to buy TikTok appears pretty inevitable. (The Information $)10 How to spend less time staring at your phone in 2025 Take back control and break the habit. (Wired $)+ How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the day Its nothing other than business as usual for me. Sarah Perl, a Los Angeles-based content creator, tells the Wall Street Journal why shes not worried about the looming prospect of a US-wide TikTok ban. The big story This fuel plant will use agricultural waste to combat climate change February 2022A startup called Mote plans to build a new type of fuel-producing plant in Californias fertile Central Valley that would, if it works as hoped, continually capture and bury carbon dioxide, starting from 2024. Its among a growing number of efforts to commercialize a concept first proposed two decades ago as a means of combating climate change, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration, or BECCS.Its an ambitious plan. However, there are serious challenges to doing BECCS affordably and in ways that reliably suck down significant levels of carbon dioxide. Read the full story.James Temple We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + Feel like times running away with you? To slow it down, you need to shake things up.+ Sicilys cathedral of Monreale houses Italys largest Byzantine-style mosaics, and theyre truly awe-inspiring.+ If youre looking for some sci-fi short stories to get your year off to a literary start, look no further.+ How to teach yourself to love wintereven when its really freezing.

Commercial real estate sales star says data from his 40-year career is key to unlocking the power of AI.Bob Knakal has sold $22 billion of property, making him one of America's most successful brokers.He says he was fired by property giant JLL in February 2024. Now, he plans a career revival.Bob Knakal climbed to the top of the commercial real estate sales business by focusing not on billion-dollar Manhattan skyscrapers, but on the tens of thousands of ordinary apartment buildings and land sites across New York City.Now, the 62-year-old sales executive is adding a new approach by using artificial intelligence.He says his new sales firm, BKREA, will harness property data and market observations that he has meticulously collected since the mid-1980s and couple it with the blooming powers of AI.Using the much-heralded technology, Knakal believes he can compete with far larger real estate services companies with only a handful of employees. BKREA presently employs 15 workers and Knakal doesn't imagine getting much larger."The extent to which the world is going to change over the next five years is going to blow away what's happened over the last 40," Knakal said. "Realizing that, the first thing I did when I started the new firm my first hire was an AI guy."Many commercial real estate firms and professionals have begun to use AI or have plans to in order to gather market insights and sort through mountains of data, produce promotional and marketing materials, and help organize and manage client relationships and outreach.Knakal says he believes his firm can harness the technology more effectively in its niche because the quality and consistency of his data is better than those of rivals.Although New York City's property records are available to all online, Knakal has gathered reams of proprietary observations over the years, including nuanced information that is often not public. A rental apartment building slated for demolition and redevelopment, for instance, may have had holdout tenants that compromised its value. A vacant land site, meanwhile, may have an access agreement with its neighbor that would allow construction work to proceed more smoothly, enhancing its price tag.If "you're putting bad data in, you're getting bad data out," Knakal said, adding that he spent three years during the pandemic "personally verifying 2,417 development site sales in the city" to further glean such insights."So how do I compete with the big firms?" Knakal asked. "Show me even one of them that's had the same head of research for 10 years."Tenure at JLLIf Knakal, whose outward demeanor comes across as perpetually sunny, seems slightly irked by some of the big corporate real estate firms that dominate the nation's commercial property sales and services businesses, that's because he is.Knakal built his career largely outside of that world, founding the small brokerage company Massey Knakal in 1988 with business partner Paul Massey. In subsequent decades, the pair grew the company into one of New York City's largest and most prolific property sales firms. In late 2014, the two men sold the 250-person business to the global commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield for $100 million.Knakal joined Cushman as part of the sale, but left in 2018 for the rival corporate real estate services giant JLL.Knakal's tenure at JLL came to an end in February 2024 when he was abruptly fired.Recounting his exit, he said that he had been a guest on CNBC early that month to discuss the property market with the news anchor Brian Sullivan. He was subsequently warned by a person from JLL's marketing department that such media appearances first required company approval. Knakal said he explained to the person that his employment contract offered him "unfettered access to the press."Shortly after, Knakal was the subject of a weekend profile in The New York Times. On Monday, he said he received a call from a JLL executive requesting an urgent meeting. Knakal sat down with the executive in a conference room in JLL's Manhattan office."As soon as I walked into the room, the head of HR walked in," Knakal said. "I knew I was being fired."Knakal said his dismissal capped off what had been "the dark ages of my career.""I don't think they appreciated what I brought to the table," he said.A JLL spokesperson said: "We thank Bob for his contributions to the firm and wish him all the best in his future endeavors." Massey, who also departed Cushman in 2018 and remains close with Knakal, said that while Knakal was one of the "most upbeat people" he knows, he had become "honest about how he was feeling: he wasn't having as much fun" in the commercial real estate business.A desire to adapt and competeBKREA mixes in analogue elements as well. In his new office on West 36th Street is an enormous printed map of Manhattan below 110th Street on the west side and 96th Street on the east to the island's southern tip. Propped across 8 tables, the 24-foot-long, 8-foot-wide printout details 27,649 commercial buildings and development sites in a way that both conveys the immensity of the market but is also more comprehensible to the senses. Bob Knakal's map room Daniel Geiger Seth Samowitz, a 30-year old data expert who Knakal hired earlier this year to spearhead BKREA's AI efforts, said that he first thought having the giant map in an overwhelmingly digital world was "crazy." He has since come around."Honestly, it's the best marketing tool in the entire world," Samowitz said.Knakal said he has used the map as a key prop in pitching his services to 26 clients so far. "I've gotten 26 exclusives."Currently, he has been hired to sell about $2 billion of property assets, his largest pipeline in years. Knakal said he has sold 2,342 properties totaling about $22 billion over his career, more than almost any other broker in the country, he believes.James Nelson, 49, now head of tri-state investment sales at Avison Young, began his career at Massey Knakal in the 1990s. He considers Knakal a mentor, saying that he admires Knakal's hunger to continue to adapt, innovate, and compete."Bob talks about what he's going to be doing in 10, 20, 30 years and it's being a broker," Nelson said. "He enjoys the process and the thrill of the hunt."

Nick KrollNick Kroll, pictured with his parents, Jules B. Kroll and Lynn Kroll, in 2016, told The New Yorker he would be embarrassed when his dad would arrive at his games in a limousine. Noam Galai/Getty Images Kroll is an actor, comedian, writer, and producer known for Comedy Central's "The Kroll Show" and for creating and starring in Netflix's "Big Mouth" and "Human Resources," among other hit shows, but he's not the only success story in his family.His father, Jules Kroll, founded a corporate investigation company, Kroll Inc., which he sold in 2004 for almost $2 billion, Forbesreported in 2014.Nick Kroll grew up in Westchester County, New York. In 2009, he told The New Yorker that he and his siblings had a relatively normal childhood. He also said that although he was grateful that his father made time for him despite his job, he felt embarrassed when Jules would arrive at his Little League games in a limousine. Anderson CooperAnderson Cooper is a descendant of the Vanderbilt family. ANGELA WEISS/Getty Images Journalist and commentator Anderson Cooper is a direct descendant of the Vanderbilts, whom Britannica describes as"one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the United States."His great-great-great grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt, built his fortune primarily through investing in steamships and railroads. Upon his death in 1899, Cornelius had amassed $100 million over $3 billion in today's money."He had more money than the US Treasury," Cooper told CBS in 2021.Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, grew up as an American socialite due to her family's status. She later became an artist, actor, designer, and author. She died in 2019.His father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, was Vanderbilt's fourth husband. Before he died at the age of 50, he worked as an author and an actor. Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow describes herself as "completely self-made" despite having been raised by parents in the entertainment industry. Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images Gwyneth Paltrow comes from a family of entertainment-industry natives. She spent her childhood at prestigious private schools in Los Angeles and New York City before dropping out of college to act.Bruce Paltrow, her father, was a nine-time Emmy-nominated director and producer. His most notable titles include "St. Elsewhere" and "White Shadow." Meanwhile, her mother is Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Blythe Danner of "Meet the Parents," "Meet the Fockers," and "The Last Kiss."Despite her parents' success, Paltrow refers to herself as "completely self-made.""People think, 'She's just a rich kid.' Until I was 18, I was. Then I was broke. I've never taken a dime off my parents. I'm completely self-made," she told Glamour in 2016. Cara DelevingneCara Delevingne's family has ties to the royal family, thanks to her maternal grandmother, Janie Sheffield, who was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Pictured here is Delevingne with her parents, Charles and Pandora Delevingne, in 2014. David M. Benett/Getty Images Supermodel andactor CaraDelevingne is the daughter of Charles Delevingne, a successful real-estate developer, and Pandora Delevingne, a socialite. Her paternal grandmother was a socialite, and her paternal grandfather was a notable lawyer and politician.But that's not where it ends. According to Vogue, Cara's maternal grandfather, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, owned Queen magazine, which is now Harper's Bazaar. Further, her maternal grandmother, Janie Sheffield, was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Julia Louis-DreyfusWilliam Louis-Dreyfus, actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus's father, was a businessman who was reportedly worth $3.4 billion at one point. Pictured here is Julia Louis-Dreyfus with her father in 2014. Mike Pont/Getty Images Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the great-great-granddaughter of Lopold Louis-Dreyfus, who founded the Louis Dreyfus Company, a merchant firm that deals primarily with agriculture, food, and shipping.Her father, Gerard Louis-Dreyfus, eventually becamechairman of the company. In 2006, about 10 years before his death,Forbes estimated his net worth to be $3.4 billion and named him the 200th richest billionaire in the world.In 2018, the"Seinfeld" star toldThe New Yorker that her father's wealth is overestimated by the press and that she finds the term "billionaire heiress" to be "heinous." Jake and Maggie GyllenhaalJake and Maggie Gyllenhaal's parents were prominent figures in the entertainment industry. Pictured here are Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Naomi Foner, and Jake Gyllenhaal in 2005. Donald Weber/Getty Images Their father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, is an Emmy-winning director who has worked on films such as "Paris Trout," "Homegrown," and "A Dangerous Woman." Their mother, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning screenwriter whose most notable film is "Running On Empty."The Gyllenhaal siblings, Maggie and Jake, have had prolific careers since their costarring breakout roles in "Donnie Darko" in 2001.In 2010, Jake told The Guardian, "My mother would say that there are people who have so much money who don't give any of it away, and there are other people who have much less money, who give more than the richest people in the world. It should all be about giving something back." King PrincessKing Princess' great-great-grandfather owned Macy's, and her father owns a well-known recording studio. NBC/Getty Images Pop artist King Princess or Mikaela Mullaney Straus is the great-great-grandchild of Isidor and Ida Straus.Before the couple fell victim to the Titanic sinking, Isidor served as a member of the United States Congress and co-owned Macy's with his brother.Isidor and Ida Straus have been depicted in multiple movies and have a memorial garden in New York City.In 2019, King Princess told Rolling Stone that she didn't inherit their money."They were very rich and Jewish, [but] I didn't inherit any of this money. It was a little frustrating, but whatever," she said.The pop star's father, Oliver Straus, is also successful. He owns a recording studio in Brooklyn called Mission Sound, where world-famous bands like the Arctic Monkeys have recorded music. Armie HammerActor Armie Hammer's great-grandfather, Armand, was an oil tycoon and, like his great-grandson, was a controversial figure. Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images Armand Hammer, Armie Hammer's grandfather, was an oil tycoon who managedOccidental Petroleum Corporation. According to Britannica, under Armand Hammer's leadership, Occidental went from the brink of bankruptcy to bringing in billions of dollars annually. In 1986, Forbes estimated Armand Hammer's net worth to be $200 million.However, Armand Hammer's biographer, Neil Lyndon, referred to him as "the most satanic man of the second half of the 20th Century" and the "embodiment of sin [and] ruthless ego" in a 2022 docuseries, "House of Hammer.""In terms of corrupting the political process, in terms of controlling people, and making them dance his tune, there is no comparison," said Lyndon.Armie Hammer has also been mired in controversy. In 2021, multiple women accused him of sexual and emotional abuse. At the time, Armie said any interactions with his partners were consensual and denied the allegations. The Los Angeles Police Department investigated a claim of sexual assault but he was not charged. In 2023, he told Air Mail he'd been emotionally abusive to his accusers.Armie Hammer's fall from grace also appears to have impacted his wealth. In August 2024, he said he had to give up his truck because he couldn't afford gas. Lana Del ReyLana Del Rey's father, Robert Grant, founded a successful company, WebMediaProperties.com. Marc Piasecki/Getty Images Lana Del Rey, whose given name is Lizzy Grant, is the daughter of Rob Grant, the founder of WebMediaProperties.com. According to Who API, Grant's company operated 1,600 websites and owned about 800 domain names as of 2012.A 2012 article in The Guardian by Paul Harris discusses how Lana Del Rey hid her real identity as she emerged as a star."People were suspicious of the way Grant's failed album, and all her social media websites appeared to have been scrubbed from the internet just before Del Rey appeared," Harris wrote.The same article also claims that her father backed her career when she was just starting out.Grant released his first album, "Lost at Sea, " in June 2023. Although Del Rey has not commented on her father's success as a businessman, she has discussed his budding music career."This is either gonna be the beginning of something beautiful or take us all down," Del Rey said in Instagram comments in February last year, per Virgin Radio UK. Nicola Peltz BeckhamNelson Peltz, Elon Musk, and Nicola Peltz Beckham at the Premiere of "Lola" on 3 February 2024 in Los Angeles. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images Actor Nicola Peltz Beckham, who has appeared in TV shows like "Bates Motel" and "Welcome to Chippendales" and movies including "Transformers: Age of Extinction," married Brooklyn Beckham son of Victoria and David Beckham in 2022. But even before her wedding day, she was part of a high-profile family known for its influence in business and social circles.She was born in 1995 to parents Claudia Heffner and Nelson Peltz in Westchester, New York her fatheris the founder of the investment firm Trian Fund Management, which, according to Forbes, is worth $1.6 billion.She began her acting career in 2006 with the film "Deck the Halls," and, most recently, wrote, directed, and starred in the film "Lola," which received negative reviews from several prominent film critics. In the film, she starred as a stripper.In a 2024 interview with WWD, Peltz Beckham acknowledged that she didn't have an unbringing like her character's."I wanted to write a story from a person's perspective and another point of view that was not my personal view and not my upbringing. I am an actress and my dream is to get to look at the world from different perspectives," she said.

Tesla revealed Thursday that it sold 1,789,226 cars in 2024.It's the automaker's first year-over-year decline ever.Shares fell about 3% in early trading following the releaseTesla's annual sales dropped for the first time in 2024 as it battled industry-wide headwinds and increasing competition.Elon Musk's electric automaker sold about 1.78 million cars in 2024, falling just short of the previous year's 1.8 million and rounding out a difficult year for electric vehicles overall, the company said Thursday.During the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla delivered 495,570 cars to customers. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected about 510,000. Shares fell about 3% in early trading.Sales could get even tougher for Tesla and its competitors. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end consumer tax credits, which effectively lower vehicle prices by up to $7,500. Sticker prices remain stubbornly high compared to traditional gas-powered options.Many consumers have turned to hybrids over pure EVs. Hybrids can offer many of the gas savings and environmental benefits for cheaper and without any lifestyle changes.Ominous signals in the market haven't shaken Musk, however, who has repeatedly hyped autonomy as the latest competitive edge for Tesla and said buying any other car would be a financial mistake.In the coming year, Tesla has promised an autonomous "cyber cab" and a new, cheaper car model.

The Nintendo Switch 2 leaks are back with a vengeance as someone has seemingly seen the chip that will power the new console, seemingly confirming DLSS upscalingTech13:28, 02 Jan 2025Is this the Nintendo Switch 2?(Image: @KirPinkFury/X)The Nintendo Switch 2 is likely to be one of the most anticipated gaming releases for 2025, and while an unsubstantiated rumour earlier this week suggested we were looking at PS4 Pro levels of power, we now have a better idea of what to expect from the successor to one of the best-selling consoles of all time.Leaked pictures purporting to allegedly show the new console's motherboard began cropping up yesterday (January 1), and that's led to internet sleuths digging through what's under the hood.It appears that not only will the system seemingly run on a 5nm chip, but it'll seemingly utilise NVIDIA's DLSS to offer 4K visuals.NVIDIA's DLSS essentially uses machine learning or AI to help output visuals at a higher resolution, meaning it could help bump titles up to 4K from the max output of the Switch which is 1080p when docked.That's backed up by a patent spotted by Laura Kate Dale, which seemingly confirms the use of AI upscaling.As Dale explains, this would seemingly mean Switch games on cartridges could fit into smaller file sizes, reducing the cost of cartridges for developers since the console would do the upscaling itself.It'll be fascinating to see if this all comes to fruition, essentially leaning on NVIDIA's industry-leading tech to ensure the next Zelda, Mario, or Pokemon run at 4K on your telly without the developers having to pack reams of 4K assets onto a cartridge.Sony's PS5 Pro uses a similar technique called Playstation Spectral Super Resolution, which essentially works in the same way, using AI to sharpen images. While there are some edge cases, it is, for the most part, an impressive step forward.The leaks are coming thick and fast now for Switch 2, with a render circulating earlier this week that hints at what the console could look like. Nintendo will announce the console in the current financial year, with some reports suggesting it'll unveil it this month.For more on handheld consoles, be sure to check out why your next system should be a Steam Deck OLED.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED

A message as mysterious as the G-Man himself (Valve)A New Years message from Half-Lifes G-Man mentions unexpected surprises, sparking hopes of a Half-Life 3 reveal in 2025.Could 2025 finally be the year of Half-Life 3? Rumours of a new sequel have admittedly persisted for years even before Valve returned to the series with Half-Life: Alyx, but theyve notably been getting bolder lately.Valve insiders have repeatedly claimed Half-Life 3 is in development based on evidence datamined from other Valve games. Right before the end of 2024, it was also said the game had been in the playtesting phase for months.There was chatter of a Half-Life 3 reveal at The Game Awards 2024, which obviously didnt happen, but some fans are now thinking an announcement will happen later this year thanks to the actor behind Half-Lifes G-Man.For context, the G-Man is an iconic recurring character in the Half-Life games, known for being a mysterious individual whose motives still have yet to be explained.He has been voiced by one Mike Shapiro since his first appearance in the original Half-Life. And on December 31, Shapiro posted an audio message to his X account; one in which he uses his G-Man voice and talks of unexpected surprises.Specifically, Shapiro says, May the next quarter-century deliver as many unexpected surprises as did the millenniums first. Then again, time is fluid, like music. See you in the new year.While it could be written off as a simple New Years message, Shapiro included hashtags for both Valve and Half-Life. Plus, his X account has been inactive since December 2020. Valve celebrated Half-Life 2s 20th anniversary back in November (Valve)The message is also accompanied by the sound of a ticking clock and a close-up of some artwork that fans have identified as the cover art for Shapiros latest single Best Long Dog, which released on services like Spotify on December 16, 2024, and doesnt seem to have any relation to Half-Life.More TrendingVoice actors typically arent the most reliable sources of information when it comes to new game announcements. But, between the phrasing, use of hashtags, and the fact this is the first thing Shapiro has shared to X in over four years, its easy to believe hes explicitly teasing something related to Half-Life is happening in 2025.Its entirely plausible Shapiro has recorded dialogue for a new game. After all, he did return as the G-Man in Half-Life: Alyx, though if thats the case, is it for Half-Life 3 or something else?There has been chatter of Half-Life: Alyx getting a sequel as well, which would make sense considering the game was a commercial success for Valve. At the very least, Half-Life: Alyx was described by Valve as our return to this world, not the end of it, suggesting more Half-Life games would follow.Still, its near impossible to predict what Valve has planned. Even if it does have a new Half-Life game in the works, theres no guarantee Valve wont wind up cancelling it like its done with past iterations of Half-Life 3. Half-Life: Alyxs story certainly teased more adventures would follow (Valve)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Jurassic World: Rebirth writer David Koepp discusses his rules for writing the new movie. A wild rumor suggests a very odd framing device for theHe-Man movie. Plus,Sonic 4 could jokingly explore a wild Tails plotline, and get another new glimpse atYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Spoilers get! Jurassic World: Rebirth In conversation with The Wrap, David Koepp revealed he had three rules for himself while writing Jurassic World: Rebirth. Number one was the events of the previous six movies cannot be denied or contradicted, because I hate a retcon. All science must be real [and] humor is oxygen. I thought, Okay, if we can stick to those He-Man and The Masters of the Universe According to a recent report from insider Daniel Richtman (via Comic Book Movie), the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie will reintroduce Adam as a regular guy in the real world, working a boring office job. Apparently, the whole He-Man and Masters of the Universe story are tales he heard as a little kid. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina Speaking with Collider at CCXP, Ian McShane confirmed Winston already knows Ana de Armass character at the start of Ballerina, describing her as the Baby Yaga. I know secrets about her that she will try to find out later on. Obviously, I kept tabs on her over the years since shes been under the ballet tutelage of the character of Anjelica Huston. But Winston, you still dont know who he is, which is kind of nice. Hes the more enigmatic character. At the end of the movie Im not giving anything away you still dont know more about the relationship. All I can say is that he admires her. I mean, a ballerina and an assassin? Thats a lethal combination. He tries to warn her, but of course, she ignores him completely. But itll be interesting. She is the Baby Yaga; John Wick is the Baba Yaga. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Speaking with IGN, Sonic the Hedgehog co-screenwriter Pat Casey jokingly suggested a future sequel maybe should explore Tails functionally immortality exhibited in the games.You got to use real teamwork because when youre fighting a boss, its Sonics job to stay alive and its Tails job to just fling his corpse at the bad guy over and over again and die as many times as it takes. Maybe we should explore that in the movie sometime, the fact that Tails is immortal. It: Welcome to Derry During his recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Fangoria), Bill Skarsgard stated Pennywise will remain pretty hardcore when asked if his antics would be toned down for television. It was fun. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, actually, and theres parts of it where we got to explore sides of old Pennywise that we havent seen. And thats fun. I remembered how much I enjoy working with Andy and we do have a lot of fun together. I think theres some cool stuff in there that we havent seen that Im excited for the people to watch and enjoy hopefully. Goosebumps: The Vanishing/Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man A promo for whats releasing on Disney+ this month includes a new clip from Goosebumps: The Vanishing and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Common Side Effects Adult Swim has released another trailer for Common Side Effects premiering next month. Creature Commandos Finally, Ninas tasked with killing the princess in the trailer for A Very Funny Monster, next weeks season finale of Creature Commandos. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.