Marvel Rivals has garnered plenty of popularity and has revitalized the hero-shooter genre for players as they have an assortment of Marvel heroes and villains for them to control as they fight against other players. Each character within Marvel Rivals has its own unique abilities and role to play within the game, from Vanguards, who take on a tank-like role, Duelists, who work as the DPS in Marvel Rivals, and Strategists, who focus on healing the team.

AI is making inroads across the entire healthcare industry from genomic research to drug discovery, clinical trial workflows and patient care.In a fireside chat Monday during the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang took the stage with industry leaders progressing each of these areas to advance biomedical science and meet the global demand for patient care.Healthcare has a more severe labor shortage than any other field the industry is expected to be short 10 million workers by the end of the decade, according to the World Health Organization. By deploying foundation models to narrow the field of potential drug molecules and streamlining workflows with agentic AI, these innovators are helping meet the global demand by enabling clinicians and researchers to achieve more with their limited time.They include industry luminaries Patrick Collison, cofounder of Stripe and the Arc Institute nonprofit research organization; Christina Zorn, chief administrative officer at Mayo Clinic; Jacob Thaysen, CEO of DNA sequencing technology leader Illumina; and Ari Bousbib, chairman and CEO of clinical research and commercial services provider IQVIA.The four organizations at J.P. Morgan Healthcare announced partnerships with NVIDIA to advance drug discovery, accelerate pathology, enhance genomic research and augment healthcare with agentic AI, respectively.AIs Evolution, From Predicting to ReasoningHuang opened the event by reflecting on the tremendous progress in AI over the past year, spanning large language models, visual generative AI and physical AI for robotics and outlining a vision for a future involving agentic AI models that are capable of reasoning and problem-solving.The future of AI is likely to involve a fair amount of thinking, he said. The ability for AI to now reason, plan and act is foundational to the way were going to go forward.To support the development of these AI models, NVIDIA recently unveiled NVIDIA Cosmos, a physical AI platform that includes state-of-the art generative world foundation models. These models apply the same technique as a language model that predicts the next word in a sentence instead predicting the next action a robot should take.The idea that you can generate the next frame for a video has become common sense, Huang said. And if thats the case, is it possible that generating the next articulation could be common sense? And the answer is absolutely.AI for Every ModalityChanneling a late-night talk show host, Huang called up the guest speakers one by one to discuss their work accelerating biomedical research with AI innovation.First up was Collison, who shared the Arc Institutes mission to help researchers tackle long-term scientific challenges by providing multiyear funding that enables them to focus on innovative research instead of grant writing which he believes will spur breakthroughs that are unfeasible to pursue under todays funding models.A lot of the low-hanging fruit, the stuff that is easier to discover, we did, Collison said, referring to the development of groundbreaking treatments like antibiotics, chemotherapy and more in decades past. Today, its immensely harder.Already, Arc Institutes investments have resulted in Evo, a powerful foundation model that understands the languages of DNA, RNA and proteins. The institute is now working with NVIDIA on foundation models for biology that can advance applications for drug discovery, synthetic biology across multiple scales of complexity, disease and evolution research, and more.Next, Mayo Clinics Zorn shared how the research hospital is applying NVIDIA technology to one of the worlds largest pathology databases to transform cancer care with AI insights.We saw a paradigm shift in healthcare. Youre either going to disrupt from within or youre going to be disrupted, she said. We knew we had to embrace tech in a way that was really going to optimize everything we do.Zorn also shared how Mayo Clinic is approaching the future healthcare worker shortage by investing in robotics.Were going to use, essentially, the robots to be a member of the healthcare team in the healthcare spaces, she said.The evening wrapped with two leaders in healthcare information reflecting on ways multimodal AI models can uncover insights and streamline processes to boost the capabilities of human experts.Combining other information, other modalities, other omicsis going to give us much deeper insight into biology. But while DNA was very difficult itself, when you then combine all the omics, it becomes exponentially more challenging, said Illuminas Thaysen. Its getting so complicated that we do need huge computing power and AI to really understand and process it.IQVIA is working with NVIDIA to build custom foundation models and agentic AI workflows trained on the organizations vast healthcare-specific information and deep domain expertise. Use cases include boosting the efficiency of clinical trials and optimizing planning for the launch of therapies and medical devices.The company is committed to using AI responsibly, ensuring that its AI-powered capabilities are grounded in privacy, regulatory compliance and patient safety.The opportunity here is to try to reduce the dependencies and sequential series of steps that require a lot of interactions, and handle them without human touch, said Bousbib. AI agents will be able to eliminate the white space, that is, the time waiting for humans to complete those tasks. Theres a great opportunity to reduce time and costs.NVIDIA at J.P. Morgan HealthcareThe fireside chat followed a presentation at the conference by Kimberly Powell, NVIDIAs vice president of healthcare. In her talk, Powell discussed the industry collaborations and announced new resources for healthcare and life sciences developers.These include an NVIDIA NIM microservice for GenMol, a generative AI model for controlled, high-performance molecular generation and an NVIDIA BioNeMo Blueprint for protein binder design, part of the NVIDIA Blueprints collection of enterprise-grade reference workflows for agentic and generative AI use cases.For more from NVIDIA at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, listen to the audio recording of Powells session.Subscribe to NVIDIA healthcare news.Main image above features, from left to right, Illuminas Jacob Thaysen, Mayo Clinics Christina Zorn, Arc Institutes Patrick Collison, IQVIAs Ari Bousbib and NVIDIAs Jensen Huang.

Its been seven months since the news first broke about sexual assault allegations against The Sandman and Good Omens writer Neil Gaiman. During that time period, Gaiman has largely disappeared from public view, stepping away from his prolific, heavily-trafficked social media channels on Twitter, Tumblr, and his own blog, and turning down requests for interviews. But on Jan. 13, an in-depth New York magazine cover story about the allegations, There Is No Safe Word, caused a stir on social media due to its fuller accounts of participants stories and additional confirmations of graphic details.In response to New York magazines story, Gaiman updated his blog on Tuesday for the first time since June 2024, responding to the allegations:Over the past many months, I have watched the stories circulating the internet about me with horror and dismay. Ive stayed quiet until now, both out of respect for the people who were sharing their stories and out of a desire not to draw even more attention to a lot of misinformation. Ive always tried to be a private person, and felt increasingly that social media was the wrong place to talk about important personal matters. Ive now reached the point where I feel that I should say something.The allegations of violent, coercive, degrading, and nonconsensual sexual behavior involving the author began to emerge in July and August 2024, and Tortoise Media rolled out a four-and-a-half-hour series of audio interviews titled Master: the Allegations against Neil Gaiman. Those podcasts recounted the stories of five women who accused Gaiman of behavior ranging from unwanted touching to physically abusive behavior to rape. More details came to light through interviews in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Representatives for Gaiman denied the allegations, but Gaiman himself disappeared from public view without a statement.His blog post, which does not name the New York magazine piece but is clearly responding to its content, directly denies the stories: I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever. In language familiar from other cases of sexual misconduct from other celebrity figures, he writes about taking a long, hard look at who I have been and how I have made people feel and trying to do the work needed [] Ill continue to grow.He also admits to being emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, couching his role in the relationships as careless with peoples hearts and feelings []something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other peoples.At the same time, he broadly states that the accusations are false or that their context has been misunderstood: I dont accept there was any abuse, he writes. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. He goes on to say: Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. Im not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I cant accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didnt do.Since the accusations first surfaced, Gaiman has exited the production of the TV series Good Omens, an adaptation and expansion of his 1990 fantasy novel written with Terry Pratchett. A planned Disney adaptation of his 2008 novel The Graveyard Book has also been paused. Other Gaiman productions remain underway, including a second season of Netflixs TV adaptation The Sandman, planned for release some time in 2025.

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Among the list of Apple TV+'s great original shows, Severance is among my favorites. In fact, Season 2 airs this Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. If you missed the Apple TV+ free weekend earlier this month, you can still sign up for a free trial to catch the show without committing to a subscription. Get the 7-day trialThis is the simplest method to get an Apple TV+ free trial, as you get it directly from the company. You can sign up for Apple TV+ on the company's website, and get a week-long free trial. After that, you'll pay $9.99 per month for the privilege of using the service.Get three months free via Best BuyAt the time of writing, Best Buy is offering one of the best free trials for Apple TV+, as the retailer will get you three months of Apple TV+ for free. This offer is valid for new subscribers and "qualified returning subscribers." As long as you're not an active subscriber of Apple TV+, you should be able to use this offer in the US.Buy a new Apple device for a free Apple TV+ trialApple also offers a three-month free trial of Apple TV+, but to get it, you need to buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV. The only limitation is that your device needs to be compatible with the latest version of its operating system. As long as it meets that criterion, you'll be able to claim the trial and enjoy all the content on the service without paying anything upfront.Students get Apple TV+ free with Apple MusicIf you're a student, you can get an Apple Music student subscription for $5.99 per month. As an additional perk, this plan includes a free subscription to Apple TV+. You can stream the Severance soundtrack right after watching the show, in addition to anything else in the Apple Music library, of course.Get an Apple One free trial for TV+For those who don't subscribe to Apple TV+, upgrading to an Apple One subscription is a way to score a one-month free trial. Apple One is the combined plan that includes iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade at plans starting at $19.95 per month. As long as the Apple One free trial is active, you can use Apple TV+ for free for a month.Apple TV+ free trial via a PlayStation 5If you have a PlayStation 5, you can claim a three-month Apple TV+ free trial. This offer is valid till Jan. 27, 2025, and it's available to new and "qualified" returning subscribers.Roku owners get an Apple TV+ free trialIf you buy a new Roku device, you can also get a three-month free trial for Apple TV+. Be sure to opt-in to receiving Roku emails in order to get the promo code. The offer is valid through Feb. 3, 2025, as noted on Roku's website at the time of writing.T-Mobile Go5G and Sprint offer Apple TV+ free trialsT-Mobile's Go5G plans offer a six-month Apple TV+ trial for free. Similarly, some Sprint plans offer a six-month free Apple TV+ trial, while Sprint MAX customers can get a one-year free trial.Watch limited Apple TV+ shows and movies for freeApple TV+ also lets you watch some of its TV shows and movies for free, even if you aren't a subscriber. You can check out the catalog at Apple TV+'s Free for Everyone page. These shows and movies are free for a limited time and you can expect the free catalog to change in the future. Unfortunately, Severance isn't among these options, which is why I listed this method at the end.

Pixelfed is now available as a mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The open source, decentralized platform offers image sharing similar to Instagram. However, Pixelfed has no advertisements and does not share user data with third parties. The platform launched in 2018, but was only available on the web or through third-party app clients. The Android app debuted on January 9 and the iOS app released today.Creator Daniel Supernault posted on Mastodon Monday evening that the platform had 11,000 users join over the preceding 24 hours and that more than 78,000 posts have been shared to Pixelfed to date. The platform runs on ActivityPub, the same protocol that powers several other decentralized social networks in the fediverse, such as Mastodon and Flipboard.Many Instagram users have been seeking out alternatives to the Meta-owned platform after the company said it would eliminate third-party fact checking and revised its "Hateful Content" policy to allow denigrating comments against women and trans people, among other changes. Meta also blocked some links to Pixelfed on Facebook, treating them as spam and deleting those posts. A representative from the company said this was an error and that the posts would be reinstated.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pixelfed-instagrams-decentralized-competitor-is-now-on-ios-and-android-205059236.html?src=rss

The world's biggest tech show had lots of AI humanoid robots, but also some affordable gadgets you can buy right now too.

Bitcoin bounced on Tuesday, rising with other risk assets as traders digested a light inflation reading.

A U.S. watchdog is suing Capital One for allegedly misleading consumers about its offerings for high-interest savings accounts and cheating customers out of more than $2 billion in lost interest payments as a result.In a complaint filed Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took aim at Capital Ones promises and handling of its 360 Savings accounts. Despite promoting 360 Savings as an account that provides one of nations highest interest rates, the CFPB alleges that Capital One froze its rate at a low level for at least several years, even as rates rose nationally.At the same time, the CFPB adds, the bank created 360 Performance Savings, which saw a much higher rate grow. But the agency says that Capital One did not notify 360 Savings accountholders about this new offering and instead worked to keep them in the dark alleging that the company marketed the products similarly to obscure their distinction and forbade employees from proactively telling those with 360 Savings accounts about 360 Performance Savings.These actions mean Capital One illegally avoided paying billions in interest to millions of consumers, the CFPB wrote in its Tuesday complaint. The agency says its seeking to impose civil penalties and provide financial relief to those impacted.Banks should not be baiting people with promises they cant live up to, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a prepared statement.In response, Capital One said that it strongly disagreed with the CFPBs allegations and plans to vigorously defend itself in court. The banking giant added that it was deeply disappointed to see the CFPB continue its recent pattern of filing eleventh-hour lawsuits ahead of a change in administration.Capital One also maintained that all of its 360 banking products offer great rates and have always been available in just minutes to all new and existing customers without any of the usual industry restrictions.According to disclosures on the Capital Ones website, 360 Savings accounts currently carry an interest rate of just under 0.50%. 360 Performance Savings accounts have an interest rate of about 3.74%.That means the rate for 360 Performance Savings is nearly 7.5 times higher than that of 360 Savings today. But the CFPB says theyve been farther apart in the past. In July 2024, the agency notes in Tuesdays complaint, the 360 Performance Savings rate was more than 14 times that of 360 Savings.The CFPB alleges that Capital One kept the rate for its 360 Savings accounts at 0.30% between December 2020 through at least August 2024. The rate for 360 Performance Savings, by contrast, climbed from 0.40% in April 2022 to as high as 4.35% at the start of 2024 falling slightly to 4.25% by August, the agency noted Tuesday.The CFPBs complaint against Capital One comes less than one week beforethe Jan. 20 inaugurationof President-electDonald Trump. Despite the change in administration, some say this litigation could still survive. Analyst commentary from TD Cowen on Tuesday noted that the CFPB still brought enforcement actions under Trumps first term, for example, although such litigation may also be easier to settle under the incoming administration.Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has issued an executive order that expedites or negates permit requirements, expands ADU usage and provides for the cataloguing of damage to historical buildings as unprecedented wildfires continue to destroy lives and property.Named Return and Rebuild, the executive order seeks to clear away bureaucratic red tape in order to aid residents who have lost homes or businesses in the wildfires, which have destroyed more than 12,000 structures and caused the deaths of at least 24 people.The order was issued to provide a "streamlined path for the rebuilding of the City of Los Angeles' fire-devastated communities".It deals mostly with the expedition or waiving of permit requirements for rebuilding for those affected by the Palisades, Hurst, Kenneth, Archer, and Sunset Fires, fires that took place fully or partially within the city limitsThe order covers three main categories: clean up, rebuilding, and government assistance programs. It adds details to a state-wide executive order issued by governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday, which "suspended" aspects of California permitting such as the California Coastal Act and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for affected residents.Cleaning and rebuildingFor cleaning up efforts, the Return and Rebuild order establishes a "debris manager" role within the city government office and a Watershed Hazards Task Force to protect infrastructure against flash floods and mudslides.The rebuilding section of the executive order is extensive and provides details on the waiving of environmental reviews first announced by Newsom.Read: "The scale of the damage is unfathomable" say Los Angeles architectsIt also expedites all necessary reviews, including a 30-day limit on any building permit reviews for structures affected by the fires.It substantially decreases limitations of demolition, and waives permit requests for the demolition of affected structures, as long as someone "notifies" the Department of Building and Safety and properly disposes of waste.The order also states that a status report of all historic properties within the affected zones will be released within 10 days of "safe access" to the areas.Tiny homes and temporary occupancyThe order also allows for the unpermitted use of "recreational vehicles, tiny homes, modular structures and mobile homes" on affected properties for three years, or as long as building permits are in effect.It also proposes an "interdepartmental task force" to allow for multi-family projects to obtain Temporary Certificates of Occupancy (TCOs) that would allow occupation of buildings before they are complete in order to "create more available units in the market".The latter is specifically important for many evacuees as reports of spiking rents in the area are being released, despite emergency bans on price gouging in Newsom's executive order.Read: Richard Neutra house among iconic homes lost during LA firesThough the order points to a return home for some, the fires in the city and county are still active, with strong winds and continued droughts worsening conditions in some places with an "unprecedented" extreme fire alert being declared in some areas.In light of the foreseen need to rebuild, a number of organisations and working groups have formed to provide engineering, architecture and legal resources to the community, and are calling for volunteers.The AIA is currently offering a course on how to apply for FEMA relief, while the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority has released a long list of resources that support those affected by the fire.Past executive directivesreleased from Bass' office have revolved around temporary structures relating to the housing and homelessness crisis in the city.The photography is by Kelvin ChengThe post Los Angeles mayor issues executive order for "residents to rapidly rebuild" appeared first on Dezeen.