My Arcade revealed its new line of retro consoles, the Gamestation, which come in multiple form factors and launch later this year.Read More

Salesforce is using structured representation of image semantics to power programs that synthesize instruction datasets for AI training.Read More

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has revealed its nominees for the upcoming 28th annual DICE Awards.Candidates for the ceremony's best game of 2024 include Team Asobi's Astro Bot, Arrowhead's Helldivers II, LocalThunk's Balatro, GameScience's Black Myth: Wukong, and MachineGames' Indiana Jones & the Great Circle. Astro, Helldivers, and Jones have six nominations each in categories such as animation, art direction, and technical achievement.Beyond those three titles, Balatro and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II each picked up five nominations apiece. In total, AIAS says 60 games from 2024 were nominated across its various categories.You can read the full nominee list here, with select examples listed below. The DICE Awards are set to air in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 13.Game of the YearAstro Bot (Team Asobi/PlayStation)Balatro (LocalThunk)Black Myth: Wukong (GameScience)Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios/PlayStation)Indiana Jones & the Great Circle (MachineGames/Xbox)Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction1000xResist (Sunset Visitor/Fellow Traveler)Animal Well (BillyBasso/Big Mode)Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (Simogo/Annapurna Interactive)Riven (Cyan Worlds)Thank Goodness You're Here! (Coal Supper/Panic)Outstanding Achievement in Game DesignAnimal Well (BillyBasso/Big Mode)Astro Bot (Team Asobi/PlayStation)Balatro (LocalThunk)Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios/PlayStation)UFO 50 (Mossmouth)Online Game of the YearCall of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Activision Blizzard)Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred(Blizzard Entertainment)Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios/PlayStation)Marvel Rivals(NetEase Games)Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive)Outstanding Achievement in CharacterWatcher (1000xRESIST)Yuffie Kisaragi (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth)Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle)Indika (Indika)Senua (Senua's Saga: Hellblade II)Mobile Game of the YearBalatro (LocalThunk)Halls of Torment(Chasing Carrots)Monument Valley 3(Ustwo Games/Netflix Games)Paper Trail(Newfangled Games)Wuthering Waves (Kuro Games)Immersive Reality Technical AchievementAlien: Rogue Incursion (Survios)Batman: Arkham Shadow (Camouflaj/Oculus)Skydance's BEHEMOTH (Skydance)Starship Home(Creature)UNDERDOGS (One Hamsa)

TikTok still seems headed for a ban after its Supreme Court argumentsTikTok still seems headed for a ban after its Supreme Court arguments / The justices didnt seem to buy TikToks interpretation of why the law violates its First Amendment rights.By Lauren Feiner, a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Jan 10, 2025, 8:15 PM UTCShare this story Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesAfter the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a law that could ban TikTok, it looks like one of its last possible lifelines is unlikely to save it from the impending ouster.TikTok will be banned from the US unless either the Supreme Court blocks the law from taking effect before the January 19th deadline or its China-based parent company, ByteDance, finally agrees to sell it. A sale and return of TikTok could happen after the deadline, and President-elect Donald Trump may get creative in trying not to enforce the law once hes sworn in the next day. But the longer it takes, the shakier things look for TikTok.Bloomberg Intelligence senior litigation analyst Matthew Schettenhelm gave TikTok a 30 percent chance of winning at the Supreme Court before oral arguments, but he lowered that prediction to just 20 percent after hearing the justices questioning. TikTok made a last-ditch plea for the court to issue an administrative stay without signaling a ruling on the laws merits, something Trump has suggested so he can attempt to broker a TikTok sale. Schettenhelm says thats unlikely the court does not tend to issue that kind of pause just because of a change in administration, he adds, and its unlikely to want to set that precedent.A short order on the case could come as soon as Friday afternoon, after the justices are scheduled to meet. The court is also scheduled to release orders on Monday morning, though Schettenhelm warns not to read into it if nothing is released by then it may just mean theyre fleshing out their reasoning in a longer written order.Trump has said hed like to save the app, and in theory, he could declare he wont enforce the divest-or-ban law. But Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out that even if he chooses not to enforce the law, that may not provide sufficient protection for companies like Apple and Google which could be fined $5,000 per user that accesses TikTok if they maintain it in their app stores. US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the statute of limitations is five years; those companies would still be violating the law as long as it remains on the books, and they could face penalties even after Trump leaves office, should the next administration choose to enforce it.Ithink those companies would be undertaking enormous risk to not comply with the law on the hope that President Trump doesnt enforce it against them, Schettenhelm says. You get into the hundreds of billions of dollars of potential liability. And even if President Trump is saying, dont worry about it, Im not going to enforce it against you, do you really want to take the chance that hes not going to change his mind on that? Do you really want to give him that level of leverage over your company? I doubt it.I dont see another social media company that is similarly situated to TikTok.Schettenhelm doesnt believe a ruling against TikTok would create a precedent that threatens US-based social media companies. I dont see another social media company that is similarly situated to TikTok, he says, pointing out that the arguments largely centered around ownership. Foreign-owned e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu that came up might be another story. But, he says, none of that really jumped out as an imminent risk just because of this argument.By contrast, Cornell University law professor and First Amendment expert Gautam Hans agrees the justices are unlikely to strike down the law, but he worries that such a ruling could have broader implications for other companies. During arguments, the justices and attorneys for TikTok and its users discussed hypotheticals about whether allowing a ban on certain types of corporate structure (like ownership by a Chinese parent company) would allow for backdoor speech regulations including demanding a companys owner sell it off to punish it for protected speech. But these concerns didnt appear to be deal-breakers for the court.What remains unfortunate is the credulity with which many of the justices treated this law, which clearly implicates free speech rights on underspecified national security grounds, Hans said in a statement. I dont think the distinction on foreign and domestic ownership is sufficiently stable to allay my concerns that a ruling upholding the TikTok ban creates a very slippery slope.Most PopularMost Popular

If youre looking for indoor activities to keep you entertained this winter, you might want to check out Amazons ongoing Blu-ray sale. Now through January 20th, you can pick up three 4K Blu-ray titles for $33 when you add them to your cart, regardless of their sale price. That amounts to $11 per film, which is the kind of discount typically reserved for major shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whats more, you can take advantage of the deal as many times as youd like.RelatedThe limited time promo extends to hundreds of movies, including some of the most popular films from the past few years. Never got a chance to watch Denis Villeneuves Dune? Thats okay, because the sale includes bothDuneandDune: Part Two, each of which would normally cost north of $30. Thanks to Amazons sale, though, you can pick up both for $33 alongside a third box office hit whether it be Twisters, Oppenheimer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Batman,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, or even Barbie.Its not all recent hits from the past year or two, either. The sale includes older classics, too, including Jurassic Park, The Shining, Pans Labyrinth, Blade Runner 2049, and much more.Dune: Part Two (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offDune: Part Two is a film adaption of the first book in the Dune series, one that picks up where the first movie left off. Now through January 20th, you can grab it alongside two other films (includingDune) for just $33 as a part of Amazons 4K UHD Blu-ray sale. $11 at AmazonOppenheimer (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offChristopher Nolans latest award-winning film, Oppenheimer, tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who helped develop the worlds first atomic bomb. Read our review.$11 at AmazonThe Super Mario Bros. Movie (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offNintendos latest adaptation of its iconic video game franchise is a nostalgia play if there ever was one, but that doesnt make it any less delightful. Read our review.$11 at Amazon

Meta is eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs because of the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the US, according to a memo to employees seen by Axios. Meta will also roll back representation goals and end its diverse slate approach to hiring.The memo, which was written by Janelle Gale, Metas vice president of human resources, said the company would replace DEI programs with ones that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background, as reported by Axios. The company will also end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses.The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI, Gale wrote. The term DEI has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton confirmed to The Verge that Axios reporting is accurate.The news follows Metas appointment of the Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan. Meta also recently announced its plans to replace third-party fact-checking with a Community Notes system similar to Elon Musks X. Meta also overhauled its Hateful Conduct Policy, making changes that now allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, among other horrible things, and announced plans to move its moderation teams from California to Texas due to concerns about bias. Update, January 10th: Added confirmation from Meta.

The Problem: Why Current AI Agent Approaches FailIf you have ever designed and implemented an LLM Model-based chatbot in production, you have encountered the frustration of agents failing to execute tasks reliably. These systems often lack repeatability and struggle to complete tasks as intended, frequently straying off-topic and delivering a poor experience for the customers.The typical strategies to address these challenges carry their own limitations.One common approach is to use longer and more intricate prompts. Although this can reduce unwanted behavior, it never fully prevents the agent from going off-topic, even slightly, which can have a significant impact and may introduce considerable latency.. Whenever new corner cases arise, modifying a lengthy prompt can inadvertently create additional edge cases, leading to a fragile system.Another widely used method is to implement guardrails. Although this can be effective, it is often a drastic measure because it forces the chatbot to shut down as soon as any violation or deviation from the task is detected, which harms the overall user experience.The Impact is significant :Eroded trust: Users quickly lose confidence in the botand your brandwhen responses are clearly incorrect or incomplete.Compliance risks: A chatbot that makes unauthorized or erroneous statements can pose legal and financial risks.Lost sales: When the agent diverges from the intended script, conversions and sales suffer.Lost customers: An unprofessional or misleading chatbot can drive customers away for good.Some Real-World Examples where these issues matter:A customer service agent at a bank or financial service firm providing inconsistent advice.A sales agent on an e-commerce site that incorrectly describes or prices products.A healthcare services agent offering unverified medical suggestions.A New Open-Source Approach: ParlantParlant introduces a dynamic control system that ensures agents follow your specific business rules. It does this by matching and activating the appropriate combination of guidelines for each situation. Heres a quick look at how it works:Contextual Evaluation:When a chatbot needs to respond, Parlant evaluates the conversation context and loads relevant guidelines (rules you define for your specific use cases).Behavioral Guidelines:These guidelines shape the chatbots tone, style, and allowed content. Parlant re-checks them continuously as new information emerges.Self-Critique Mechanisms:Before generating a final response, Parlant runs a self-critique process, ensuring the answer aligns precisely with the matched guidelines.How Parlant WorksParlants core components include Guidelines, a Glossary, a Coherence Checker, and a Tool Service.Lets explore them:1. GuidelinesGuidelines are the most powerful customization feature in Parlant. They determine how your chatbot should respond in specific scenarios. Parlant automatically injects only the relevant guidelines into the LLMs context in real time, keeping interactions clean and efficient.What Are Guidelines?Guidelines let you shape an agents behavior in three primary ways.First, they help address undesired out-of-the-box responses when they are lackluster or incomplete.Second, they ensure consistent behavior across all interactions.Third, they guide the agent to stay focused on the guided optimized behavior ( no punt intended!)For example, an original response to a room-booking request might be, Sure, I can help you book a room. When will you be staying? Although this response is functional, guidelines can be applied to make it more enthusiastic. A reworked answer could become, Im so happy you chose our hotel! Lets get you the best room for your needs. When will you be staying?Structure of GuidelinesCondition: A trigger or situation (e.g., It is a holiday).Action: An instruction (e.g., Offer a discount).In Parlants shorthand:When it is a holiday, Then offer a discount.2. Ensuring CoherenceParlant validates guidelines for internal consistency and provides visibility into the agents decision-making. This eliminates confusion or contradictions when multiple guidelines could apply simultaneously.3. GlossaryA glossary defines any specialized terms or domain-specific language the chatbot needs to recognize. This helps maintain consistent terminology across conversations.The Tool Service lets the chatbot call external APIs or third-party tools, such as looking up e-commerce product categories or retrieving a users order history. This ensures your agent can act on real data rather than rely solely on the models internal training.Bonus Features: Guardrails and Content ModerationEven with robust guidelines, it can be necessary to add another layer of protection. Parlant integrates with services such as OpenAIs Omni Moderation to pre-filter harmful or sensitive content, ensuring safer interactions. In domains like mental health or legal advice, it is best to hand off users to a professional. Parlants guidelines can automatically redirect users to human agents when these topics arise, preserving compliance and user well-being.Customers may also attempt to harass or manipulate the agent. Parlants content filtering helps keep conversations respectful and ensures the chatbot remains composed in contentious situations. Finally, some users try to jailbreak the agent or expose its internal rules. Parlant offers a paranoid mode, which integrates with Lakera Guard, to maintain the chatbots intended boundaries and prevent unauthorized behavior.The Agent Development Journey evolved!Parlant allows you to build and refine your chatbot step by step. You start with basic guidelines, then evolve your agent as you learn more about your customers needs and behaviors. Because it is open source, you can also leverage community contributions and best practices It enables you to also evolve the guardrail in a dynamic guidevery powerful!Give it a try and experience a new level of control in LLM-based chatbot development.How to Try Parlant?The entire source code, licensed under Apache 2.0, is available on GitHub. We encourage you to check it outthis is will a be growing trends of 2025. We always love open-source project, so a friendly reminder that simple Star on the repository goes a long way in showing your support!Here are the links :GitHub Repo Dive into the code, tutorials, and documentation.Tutorials & Guides Learn how to set up your first Parlant-powered agent.Thanks tothe Parlan teamfor the thought leadership/ Resources for this article.Parlan team has supported us in this content/article. Jean-marc Mommessin+ postsJean-marc is a successful AI business executive .He leads and accelerates growth for AI powered solutions and started a computer vision company in 2006. He is a recognized speaker at AI conferences and has an MBA from Stanford. [Recommended Read] Nebius AI Studio expands with vision models, new language models, embeddings and LoRA (Promoted)

The popular and well-reviewed Black Myth: Wukong game is on sale at Amazon. Right now you can get it a physical PlayStation 5 copy for $56.99, a 13% off discount from its original $65 price. Black Myth: Wukong was one of the few recently released games that didn't see any discount during Black Friday. At this price, it's also less expensive than getting the digital only edition at the PlayStation Store.Black Myth: Wukong (PS5) for $56.99PS5Black Myth: WukongBlack Myth: Wukong was released on August 17 of 2024 and was an immediate success. This game from Game Science is built on Unreal Engine 5 and is easily one of the best looking PlayStation 5 games. The grand, sweeping story is inspired by the Monkey King lore with a main campaign that takes about 35 hours to complete according to howlongtobeat. It boasts punishingly difficult Souls-like gameplay (I personally found it harder than Elden Ring) and epic boss battles. It didn't make it into our list of best PS5 games of 2024, but only because it was too new (had to be out for 6 months or longer).Black Myth Wukong review by Mitchell Saltzman"As GameSciences debut action game, Black Myth: Wukong is mostly a great success, despite some major technical black marks and localization issues that are likely to cause some frustrations at launch. Combat is fantastic thanks to a great balance of careful resource management and lightning-fast, twitch-reaction gameplay that tested my skills as much as Elden Ring ever has, despite being a more traditional action game than FromSoftwares style. Not only that, but there are a ton of exciting boss battles, a great variety of enemies, and the world they inhabit is an absolute treat for the eyes and ears. Its story has its moments but relies a bit too much on having prior knowledge of the events of Journey to the West, and it really could have used a map to make its rewarding exploration measure up to the strength of its combat. That said, its strengths more than carry it through, making Black Myth: Wukong a great action game that could be even greater if GameScience can squash the bugs."PlayFor more big tech news for this month, check out our CES 2025 hub for all of the latest updates.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera doesn't strive to go much higher than the bar set by the cat-and-mouse game of its predecessor, nor does it land too far beneath the original Den of Thieves. Its the very definition of a lateral move, which will likely satisfy the fanbase that has built up around the first face-off between criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (OShea Jackson Jr.) and determined cop Big Nick OBrien (Gerard Butler). That said, it does suffer from the same inflated-runtime problems while taking too long to get to the showcase heist sequence that we really want to see.Recognizing what worked previously, returning writer/director Christian Gurdegast leans into Butler's endearingly hambone persona, with the increasingly shaggy Scottish actor again breaking out his mush-mouth American accent in service of f-bomb-laden tough-guy talk. New in Pantera is a fun 48 Hours-style buddy dynamic between Butler and Jackson. When OBrien learns that Wilson and a new criminal crew have taken up residence in France for another potential score, he heads overseas to bring them down, with the Pantera of the title referring to the French task force assigned to assist him. This is where the various intricacies of who's who in the hierarchy of Gallic organized crime threaten to topple over in a sea of rushed foreign dialogue (with no subtitles!) and impenetrable accents. Like Den of Thieves, Pantera is very much a reflection of its influences, with DNA from Fast & Furious, Donnie Brasco, and The Town in evidence. Unlike the first chapter, which restricted its action to L.A. and garnered an air of grounded authenticity as a result, the sequel is more of a globetrotting affair, which adds a sense of scope but robs this burgeoning franchise of some of its identity. Though props to Gurdegast for making OBrien the butt of several "Ugly American" jokes as opposed to using his man's man persona as a vehicle to constantly dunk on his French colleagues.It really isn't until about 90 minutes in when the central heist begins that things start to hum along in earnest. From that point, Pantera relies on the tried-and-true pleasures of a ticking-clock scenario, with characters having to move quickly to avoid detection by motion sensors, cameras, etc. It's worked wonders for Mission: Impossible series and Ocean's Eleven, and while Pantera isnt entirely in their league, it still manages to entertain with several last-second escapes as our characters dart the labyrinthine vault.The 25 Best Action Movies of All TimeOne complaint about Pantera also applied to the original Den of Thieves: Both movies clock in at roughly 140-ish minutes. Gurdegast may have aspirations for a crime saga in the vein of the similarly lengthy Heat, but these are ultimately pulpy confections at heart, and there isn't enough story to justify the extra-sized frame. Regardless, while the previous film came to a bittersweet conclusion that didn't immediately call out for a continuation, Pantera is very clearly telegraphing another Den down the line. Here's hoping they trim some of the setup in the next one and go straight for the caper.

Apples biggest upcoming AI features will arrive in iOS 18.4, with a heavy focus on Siri upgrades. But its the Vision Pro that Im most excited to use those capabilities on. Heres why.Siris new era is bringing progressive changeSiri is in the midst of a transition period. Apple says weve entered a new era for Siri, but that change is taking place over time.iOS 18.1 launched a new Siri design and some minor improvementsiOS 18.2 brought powerful ChatGPT integrationbut iOS 18.4 is where some of the biggest upgrades will comeSo far, ChatGPT support has by far been the best part of this new Siri era.But in some respects, the need for Apple to integrate OpenAIs chatbot is only further evidence of Siris own shortcomings.However, many of those shortcomings will be addressed by iOS 18.4 soon.Three new Siri superpowers coming in iOS 18.4iOS 18.4 will launch to all users in April, and release in beta as early as next month.When it arrives, Siri will gain three new superpowers:New app actions: Apple says Siri will be able to perform hundreds of new actions in Apple apps, without the need to ever open those apps. App Intents will bring the same capability to supported third-party apps, too.Personal context knowledge: Like a real-life assistant, youll be able to reference texts you received, past calendar events, and more personal data to get truly intelligent assistance from Siri.Onscreen awareness: Siri will know whats on your display, so you can easily ask it to take action on whatever youre looking at.If these features work as intended, and with the level of reliability we would all hope for (and yes, Im skeptical), they could be game-changers.Siri might finally become the kind of intelligent assistant it was always meant to be.But let me now pivot to the Vision Pro, because thats where Siris changes could be especially appealing.Spatial computing works best when Siris at its bestIm a pretty new Vision Pro owner. Ive had the device less than a month, and havent used it a ton yet due to holiday travels and busyness.But one thing I discovered very quickly is how important Siri is to the platform.Spatial computing makes voice computing more important than ever.On my iPhone and iPadmy main computing devicesI use Siri regularly, but I dont depend on the assistant.Siris nice for quickly starting timers, setting reminders, and other small tasks.But on Vision Pro, Ive found myself relying on Siri for a lot more things.For example, Siris my preferred method for opening apps in visionOS.Maybe its just part of my visionOS learning curve, but I find it much faster and more intuitive to use Siri to navigate the system.I never open apps with Siri on my other devices, but it works extremely well on Vision Pro.Siris my go-to for dictating replies inside Messages and Mail too. Even though I often have a hardware keyboard connected via Bluetooth, it just feels more natural to dictate a response.iOS 18.4s features on Vision Pro could prove transformativeApple Intelligence isnt yet supported on Vision Prothough its likely coming this year.But imagine what iOS 18.4s Siri capabilities could be like on Vision Pro. When Siri can perform hundreds of advanced app actions, and understand what youre looking at and your personal context, spatial computing can truly start to deliver on its sci-fi promise.Siris upgrades will be great for the iPhone, but they could be crucial to Apples spatial computing finding success.The dream of just speaking out loud to your computer, and having it take intelligent action for you, is starting to get more real.Do you use Siri much on Vision Pro? What do you think about iOS 18.4s upgrades coming to visionOS? Let us know in the comments.Best Vision Pro accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel