Pain IncomingJames Cameron keeps teasing Avatar 3's evil Na'vi clan and 'brave choices' and I think my boy Jake Sully might be cookedThe Wind Traders sound like chill people though.Image credit: 20th Century Studios News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Jan. 16, 2025 Though its release still feels like yesterday, Avatar: The Way of Water will be three years old this Christmas, which is when us Pandora lovers will be seated for Avatar: Fire and Ash. With less than 12 months to go now, more and more information is starting to pile up, and James Cameron insists that he'll surprise us again with the threequel.Ahead of Empire's next issue, we've been learning a lot about upcoming 2025 blockbusters. It's gonna be a packed year, much more than 2024, but after two ridiculously massive box office hits, the general consensus is that Cameron's third visit to Pandora will clear the competition again.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Were just starting to riff on it and twist it and turn it... Its a tricky thing. We could be getting high on our own supply here, and everybody who looks at it goes, F**k, thats not what I signed up for. But if youre not making brave choices, youre wasting everybodys time and money," the director warns. While some folks might argue the second Avatar remained family-friendly and rather predictable, I'm sure the deceased main villain from the first one coming back all blue thanks to hard sci-fi tech, Sigourney Weaver playing a mystery Ghibli-like teenage girl, and a kid getting coldly smoked weren't on most people's bingo card.As for the recurring delays that have hit the production and post-production process on these sequels, it seems that we shouldn't expect another one this year: "Weve doubled the number of shots finished at this stage of the game than we had on movie two [and] the films are about equal length. So that puts us well ahead of the curve, which is something Ive never, frankly, experienced before." He jokes they might be "getting good at this" like he and his crew didn't reshape CGI and rock the box office twice, all while convincing most critics.Through another chunk from the same interview, we've also learned a bit more about Varang (Oona Chaplin) and her people's role in the third chapter of the story: "Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She's hardened by that... She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil... Were trying to evolve beyond the all humans are bad, all Navi are good paradigm." This might be the most exciting thing about the third Avatar. The introduction of Recoms in The Way of Water worked wonders for the story and its villain, and shaking things up with a new conflict that goes beyond the differences between mankind and Na'vi sounds like the right move at this point of the overarching plot. Still, expect more RDA troops to get absolutely wrecked by Pandora's natives. Image credit: 20th Century StudiosI'm not gonna lie: I'm a bit worried about Jake Sully. After having just lost his older son, you'd expect him to be front and center in the next one, and he might just be, but we know that there's a big time jump planned after Fire and Ash and that Cameron plotted this whole thing out as a generational storyline, so maybe the threequel's hardest turn will be to off our favorite blue family man. All this talk about the Sullys facing even more challenges and the new Na'vi clan being unfriendly only adds wood to that fire.On the other hand, Avatar 3 will also introduce the Wind Traders, who sound like a bunch of chill guys flying around Pandora's skies with giant-jellyfish-powered ships (the coolest thing I've ever heard): "Theyre nomadic traders, equivalent to the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages." There's a reason why these movies work so well, and I think it comes down to the sick worldbuilding executed in spectacular fashion first and foremost.Avatar: Fire and Ash opens on December 19, 2025. We're not expecting a first trailer before late April or early May. After a longer break, Avatar 4 arrives on December 21, 2029, with Avatar 5 hitting two years later, on December 19, 2031.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube792kAmazingly, it's been four years since Rune Factory 5 finally arrived on Nintendo Switch. And while we've had the fabulous Rune Factory 3 Special, a remaster of the popular DS title, we haven't seen a new entry for a minute.Well, that's about to change: Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma will be launching on Switch (and Steam) on 30th May 2025. Check out the launch date reveal trailer above.First unveiled as Project Dragon, Marvelous officially revealed Guardians of Azuma during August 2024's Nintendo Direct Indie World and Partner Showcase. Promised as a "reimagined" take on Rune Factory which was originally a Story of Seasons spin-off you'll play as either Subaru or Kagaya, childhood friends from a village in the north of Azuma, who suffers from amnesia. One day, they become the Earth Dancer, someone who is destined to return live to Azuma and save the world.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube792kWatch on YouTube Images: MarvelousThere are a lot of familiar tropes in Guardians of Azuma romance is back, of course, as is farming (would it be Rune Factory without the crops?) and combat. But we've got a whole new world and a swathe of new features to look forward to this May. Let's dip into the details in our exclusive Western reveal.Villages & Village BuildingYour adventure starts in Spring Village, a settlement affected by blight in the wake of the Celestial Collapse, a past calamity which caused the gods and runes to disappear from the land.Spring Village is just one of four villages the others, fittingly, are called Summer, Autumn, and Winter Village. Like previous Rune Factory games, Guardians of Azuma will follow a similar one-year cycle, but you won't have to wait all year round for a season to return. In Winter Village, for example, it's always Winter, meaning all four seasons are static, and you'll be able to grow all crops all year round. Hurrah!Images: MarvelousHow do you rebuild the villages? Well... by using the new Village Building feature! While you'll start off life by growing crops and nurturing the land, you'll be able to build new structures in all four towns, as well as rearrange the settings to your liking.The more you build up a village, the more villagers will be willing to help you. They'll assist with tending the fields, going mining, cutting down trees and also work in shops that you set up for them.Images: MarvelousDancesAs an Earth Dancer, myriad responsibility is thrust upon you, but you also have many powers to help make life easier for you and the people you meet.Images: MarvelousThree dance powers you'll have early on in the game have different functions depending on whether you use them in the fields or out in the world. We know about three of them, and we can't wait to see what else you'll be able to do, but let's run down the ones we know about so far.Sacred Drum, for instance, will encourage your crops and trees to grow, and help make withered crops grow. Sacred Sword, on the other hand, is used to harvest high-quality seeds. Sacred Parasol, then, is like a big rain shower, spreading water across a wider area.Images: MarvelousAll of these dances have different effects out in the world, however. Sacred Drum can act as a healing spell or as a way of knocking enemies back. Alternatively, you could just use Sacred Sword or Sacred Parasol to deal a huge amount of damage to foes. The parasol can also be used to glide and explore hidden areas.CombatImage: MarvelousSpeaking of exploring, Azuma is a brand new location to Rune Factory fans, and that means there are plenty of new places, faces, and enemies to discover.You'll befriend many of the villagers of the four locales throughout the game, and some will even join you out in the world for combat. You can eventually take up to six characters out with you three joining the protagonist in battle, with the other three waiting in reserve, and you can swap between them at any point.Images: MarvelousYou've also got two brand new weapons to experiment with: Bows will allow for pinpoint accurate combat, which makes targeting enemy weaknesses much easier, or even take out foes much further away. Talismans, meanwhile, can home in on distant enemies and are fantastic against fast-moving monsters.CharactersWhile you can spend your days fishing, growing crops, and fighting monsters, you probably want to get to know the characters you're playing as and interacting with. Especially because you can romance, marry, and have children with many of them. There are 12 bachelors in all, and you'll even be able to date the protagonist you don't pick!Woobly is your fluffy little friend, a loyal partner who acts as the protagonist's guide. He's like a little sheep, and loves sweets.Image: MarvelousOne early ally you'll meet is Hina, an archaeologist who is half human, half fox. Donning pink hair and, she arrives in Azuma on an airship along with the treasure hunter Mauro. Mauro is extremely sentimental and gets emotional pretty easily.In Spring Village, you'll meet the owner of a Teahouse, Iroha. She's passionate about her home and cares for the villagers, which spurs your character on to helping the residents. Wandering Samurai Murasame will also cross paths with you in the tranquil village of cherry blossoms.Image: MarvelousYou will eventually meet some of the gods during your journey, too Ulalaka, Matsuri, Kurama, and Fubuki represent the four seasons, each one embodying the essence of that season perfectly. And they're led by the official representative of the gods, Kanata, who represents light and the heavens.Kai, an Oni leader, Clarice, a cold-hearted soldier, and Ikaruga, leader of the Jungasa Corps, round out this rather colourful and eclectic cast of characters, each with their own goals and motives. Some want to save the land, others, we're less certain...Images: MarvelousThat's a pretty big blow-out of Rune Factory goodness. And there's more to come. On 22nd January, Marvelous will be holding a Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Deep Dive Stream. Details, and a time, are to be confirmed, but even more gameplay will be shown off alongside some giveaways for Rune Factory fans (for US fans only, though. Sorry!).If you're excited, you should check out that stream, but in the meantime, let us know what you think of Guardians of Azuma so far in the comments below. Sprouts Spring 2025Harvested (and ranked) by youRelated GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesReview: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Switch) - Aping A Retro ClassicThat's what you get for not hailing to the chimpRound Up: The Reviews Are In For Donkey Kong Country Returns HDWorth going bananas over?

Just a day after Google inked a deal with The Associated Press, Mistral is also announcing a content deal with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) to improve the accuracy of answers in Le Chat, Mistrals chatbot product.This is the first deal of this kind for the Paris-based artificial intelligence company. And it indicates that Mistral doesnt want to be considered as just a foundation model maker.It also wants to build appealing products, starting with Le Chat. From what Ive heard, the company is also working on dedicated apps to access Le Chat and better compete with ChatGPT or Claude.Going forward, Le Chat will be able to tap into AFPs daily production of stories. And given that AFP is one of the biggest news agencies in the world, it represents a significant volume of text around 2,300 stories per day in six languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish).Le Chat will be able to query AFPs entire archive since 1983. However, photos and videos arent part of this multi-year agreement. As a reminder, Mistral focuses on large language models and doesnt offer image-generation models.OpenAI has been leading the charge when it comes to content deals. The maker of ChatGPT has inked partnerships with AP, Axel Springer, Cond Nast, El Pas, Financial Times, Le Monde, and others. Its going to be interesting to see whether Mistral has more content partnerships in the works.We believe improving the accuracy of [Le Chats] responses is a key step in the deployment of our technology, particularly for businesses, Mistral co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said in a statement. Through this partnership, we are providing our clients with a unique multicultural and multilingual alternative.Todays partnership is also a first for AFP. And it couldnt come at a better time, as Meta ended its third-party fact-checking program just last week. AFP was one of the key partners in Metas fact-checking system. Through this partnership, AFP is further diversifying its revenue sources, AFP chairman and CEO Fabrice Fries said in a statement.While the AI industry is looking to improve its products with these arrangements, there are two side effects that could be considered as added benefits. First, AI companies can position themselves as (financial) allies to news organizations. Second, these partnerships protect them from potential copyright infringement claims.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the IT landscape, but with an ongoing diversity crisis in the tech sector, it remains to be seen whether the rapid development of these technologies will ultimately help or hinder our lives.Speaking at the annual Computer Weekly and Harvey Nash diversity in tech event, Bev White, CEO of Harvey Nash parent company Nash Squared, highlighted the importance of actively creating opportunities for underrepresented groups to join the technology sector if we want to make the industry a more diverse place.Lamenting how slowly the dial is shifting when it comes to diversity in technology, White urged those in the sector to be proactive in ensuring the tech workforce reflects tech users.Its on us, all of us not just the HR community, not just the CIOs, the CDOs and the CEOs to make a change. Its on all of us, she said.Every time we think about hiring, or promoting, or encouraging someone to step up and represent a department, we need to think about how were doing that and give somebody an opportunity to stand up and shine. We have to do that every single day, in everything we do, or nothing will change.With the rapid development of tech such as artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (GenAI) and machine learning, this sentiment has never been more important.A report from Nash Squared found that 75% of workers are already using GenAI in their work. As this figure increases, it will become ever-more important to make sure the people developing these technologies reflect the people using them. Its on us, all of us not just the HR community, not just the CIOs, the CDOs and the CEOs to make a change Bev White, Nash SquaredAs White pointed out, if the teams developing these tools dont fully represent those using them, how do we ensure they serve their purpose?But rather than ramp up the push for diversity, companies are dialling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as they face budget cuts and fears of backlash for taking the wrong approach.This paints a bleak picture for the future of AI development, where unbalanced teams and a lack of consideration for users have already caused problems.While AI adoption is increasing rapidly, the development of AI technology is nothing new.Maria Axente, head of AI public policy and ethics at PwC, said technology development has often hinged on because we can without considering the impact on the users and who needs to be involved in the conversation about design.Her role as a tech ethicist has her considering exactly these issues what purpose technology will serve, who the technology is for, and who should be involved in building it.She explained: AI ethics is a discipline concerned with creating a vision of a good life with AI, whatever a good life with AI means.Alongside a history of technology being developed with bias, from seatbelts to period trackers, Axente highlighted the women who are fighting to make technologies such as AI ethical, useful and fair.It can take a lot of time, effort and evidence to convince some of those developing technologies that what they are creating will have a direct impact on peoples lives, and that in some cases this impact will be negative without having the right best practice in place.Axente said: Weve learned gradually that tech is tangibly harming people.There are a number of ways the development of AI and machine learning has been biased against women and other underrepresented groups. Beckie Taylor, co-founder of Tech Returners, gave an example of a notable tech company that implemented an AI machine learning model for screening job applicants. Taylor explained how the predominantly male software team that built it led to the software having a bias against female applicants.Though this problem was identified and amended quickly, this goes to show the importance of a human in that process, Taylor said.Even though its called AI, its made by people, its built by people, its deployed by people, so it matters who those people are, and whether theyre bringing a wide range of experience and perspectives to their work.There have been other instances where AI has been trained with datasets or developed by non-diverse teams, which makes bias more likely, such as image-based diagnosis being more accurate for white patients and Apple Card allegedly offering men higher credit limits than women. AI is made by people, its built by people, its deployed by people, so it matters who those people are, and whether theyre bringing a wide range of experience and perspectives to their work Beckie Taylor, Tech ReturnersAI ethicist Axente said: We owe it to a lot of great women who have been raising their voices, despite the backlash they have received. They help us understand better how this tech perpetuates these existing harms.Some of these women have been bullied, fired and ignored during their quest to make sure the development of AI will benefit the majority rather than the few, according to Axente, who said were now in a better position to begin changing the mindset around technology development and adoption away from building it for the sake of it and towards building it purposefully.An obvious way to ensure algorithms are representative of the wider population is to attract and retain more tech talent from underrepresented groups, but also to make sure those shaping the future of humanity with AI reflect the greater population of users who will eventually be forced to integrate AI into their everyday lives person-centric AI should be the focus of the future.Axente said: If we want to make AI work for us as individuals and as a collective, collaboration not competition is the way forward.While there are around 5% more women using AI technology than there were 10 years ago, there are 10% fewer women working in technology than there were in 1984, according to Jasmin Guthmann, co-vice-president of the MACH Alliance.This imbalance between the number of women using AI and the number of women developing AI is contributing towards AI bias and tech that isnt suitable for all of its users so much so that the government outlined plans in its recent AI opportunities action plan to increase the diversity of the AI and data science talent pool in the UK.But Guthmann said women are currently trying to solve it all by themselves, and that isnt going to cut it.The diversity of the tech workforce has been stagnant for some time. The 2024 Diversity report from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, stated that if current trends continue, it will take another 283 years for the percentage of women working in the UKs tech sector to match the 48% of women there are in the wider workforce.But as Guthmann pointed out: If I try to change it by myself, Im not going to get anywhere.Shifting the dial at a more reasonable pace will take a collective effort, which Guthmann claimed is one of the reasons she didnt want the MACH offshoot, Women in MACH, to be exclusively about or for women. There needed to be men in the room, she said. We need all of you fantastic allies in the room to help us make it a bigger conversation and to have that conversation on our behalf when were not in the room.And there are a lot of instances where women and other underrepresented groups arent in the room only 13% of IT directors in the UK are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, and women made up only a quarter of CIO positions in FTSE 100 companiesin 2023.All of us need to be involved in any way we can, especially because underrepresented minorities and women are more often than others hesitant to put themselves forward for tech roles and opportunities, said Guthmann.Read more about Computer Weeklys diversity eventsAt the 2023 Computer Weekly diversity in tech event, in partnership with Nash Squared, more than 100 experts from the tech and employment sectors shared their ideas for improving diversity in the technology industry.At the Computer Weekly diversity in tech event in 2022, experts proposed a 15-point plan to improve diversity and inclusion across the industry. The suggestions they made focused on getting people into the sector and keeping them there, especially those currently under-represented in the sector who could solve many of the problems the industry is currently facing.She made some recommendations for underrepresented individuals and allies to push for small changes that when put together will make a big change. These include putting people forward for opportunities, calling out when there are male-only panels at events, making sure the opinion of quieter people is heard, and inviting male allies to women in tech events.Your objective from this day is to be that voice that says is there a better way of doing this, she said. People will only do better if we all hold them accountable. How do we redefine the future of tech? Innovation doesnt happen in silence, it happens when we break boundaries together so go do one small thing today to make the world a better place tomorrow.Collaboration can be a powerful tool when used in the right way.When the government announced plans early last year to raise the income threshold for potential angel investors, Emma Wright, a partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, mobilised a large group of women in tech to get the law reversed.HM Treasury planned to change the criteria for what defines a high net worth individual, meaning a person would either need an income of at least 170,000 in the previous financial year or net assets of at least 430,000 to invest.With the new law removing 70% of the women able to provide angel investment, the change threatened the number of businesses led by women in the UK.Female founders generate more revenue than their male counterparts, Wright explained.Just 1.7% of venture capital funding goes to female funders, and women back other women more than double than men back women.Wrights background is well suited for a challenge such as this. Having previously headed up government and public sector as a partner at Deloitte Legal, she understands how government works, and as well as her role as a tech and data lawyer, she was one of the founders of the Interparliamentary Forum for Emerging Tech (formerly the Institute of AI).Wright launched the investHER campaign, releasing an open letter that called on the government to make a decision by the then-upcoming budget. Many of the women who signed the open letter were from Computer Weeklys list of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech.As pointed out by Wright, any technology that isnt built with everyone in mind acts as a barrier and doesnt enable. This is a dangerous precedent to set when it comes to technology such as AI, which looks to be a very large part of everyones future.While this particular inequity was swerved, the efforts of investHER still only managed to get the problematic law reversed, not increase the potential number of female investors and backers for startups led by women.Wright said: Unless weve got everyone developing the tech solutions, we cannot compete on a global stage, and we will not have inclusive AI.A clear example of how technology adoption can have a negative impact if no one considers the end user is the Post Office scandal.Former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton told the Computer Weekly diversity event she didnt have any problems running her Post Office branch until the Horizon system was introduced.Because she didnt know anything about computers, when errors in her end-of-day accounting occurred on the system she thought she was the one making mistakes, resulting in the Post Office claiming she owed them more and more money due to allegedly unbalanced books despite the computer being at fault.The same happened to hundreds of other subpostmasters across the UK. The system came with no training, no support.Think of us first, think of people who know nothing about tech and using it. We were just little shopkeepers, Hamilton said.She urged those developing technology to consider the people who are going to use [tech] who are not technologically skilled.Incidents like this, and those mentioned previously, will happen more and more if care isnt taken to ensure AI and other technologies are developed with ethical use cases by diverse teams.But this, in turn, can only be ensured by working together from educators to governments, organisations to individuals.Without everyone involved in the shaping of our future in partnership with AI, not everyone will see the benefit.

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This phantom attack is back in the newsbe careful.Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesIt starts with a simple call, a message, a popup but it ends with a potentially life-changing loss. It has now become a dangerous enough threat that Google has updated Android to prevent its users becoming victims. There are many warnings about the apps you should not install onto your smartphone, tablet or laptop, and man times there are nuances around how to tell for sue if an app is safe or not. This is much simpler in this instance, you should never install these apps.The FBI has dubbed this threat the Phantom Hacker, and it has made the news again this week, with the bureau warning that it's growing rapidly and that scammers do not discriminate against anyone they want money from anyone they can take it from." As I reported some weeks ago, it is also an international threat and is proving frighteningly compelling for scammers to redouble their efforts to target more people, as the cash keeps rolling in.The concept of operations is simple, as the FBI explains. Scammers impersonate bank representatives to convince victims that hackers have infiltrated their financial account. Victims are urged to move their money fast to protect their assets. In reality, there was never a hacker, and the money that was wired is now fully controlled by the scammer.There are variations on this theme, as youd expect. We see attacks from scammers claiming to be technical support reps come up regularly. But the most effective attack is the banking attack. You will likely end up speaking to a convincing albeit fake bank rep who helps you move your cash from the hacked account to a safe new account, to stop fraudulent transactions being completed to steal your money. You are told that this is urgent and is happening in real time, giving you no time to think. In reality, you are moving your money to an account controlled by the scammer.MORE FOR YOUWhile these attacks might just require you to approve a transaction within your banking app, many of the calls direct the victim to download a software program allowing the scammer remote access to the victims computer. Youre told this is to stop the hacker in their tracks the hacker that does not exist of course. The scammer requests the victim open their financial accounts to determine whether there have been any unauthorized charges a tactic to allow the scammer to determine which financial account is most lucrative for targeting. The scammer informs the victim they will receive a call from that financial institutions fraud department with further instructions.The rules to staying safe are stupidly simple.Never install an app when a supposed technical support or banking individual who has reached out to you sends a link or points you to a website.Your bank or credit card company will never call and ask for security credentials. If one does, you always have the right to call them back via the usual channels to ensure they work for the institution they claim.Never ever move money anywhere on the say-so of someone who has reached out to you by phone. This is never going to be a real solution. If they work for the bank as they say, they can stop the transactionthink it through.Google has added scam call protection into its latest Android OS that can protect you in multiple ways. It can deploy on-device AI to listen in to calls and flag when it seems too be a scam for example, the supposed banking rep asking you to make a transaction. And from app perspective, as Android AuthorityAbsent those updates, you must never, ever install an app on your phone, table or laptop if youve been asked to do so by a tech support or banking rep. The only exception is when you have reached out to tech or product support using the publicly advertised channels and they ask you to use an app to send photos or run a live video link or diagnose a system fault. But you must ensure you have reached out to them and this is not from any kind of incoming contact.The FBIs full advice to keep Phantom Hackers at bay is as below; if you think you have been a victim of any such crime you can report this to the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which you can find at www.ic3.gov.Do not download software at the request of an unknown individual who contacted you.Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups, links sent via text messages, email links, or attachments.Do not contact the telephone number provided in a pop-up, text, or email.Do not allow an unknown individual who contacted you to have control of your computer.

In a nutshell: Apple's Tim Cook is one of the most recognizable and well-known CEOs. But he rarely talks about his daily routine or life outside of the world's most valuable company. Now, Cook has revealed some interesting details about his day-to-day schedule, personal interests, and where he gets his incredible work ethic. He also revealed that an Apple Watch saved his father. Cook spoke to Table Manners podcast hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware when he was visiting London in December. He revealed that he still employs the hardworking values instilled in him as a child, which include waking up before 5 am to start work.Cook's early morning begins with answering emails. He says he responds to employees and customers, noting how several people from the latter group have thanked him after an Apple Watch saved their lives via its feature that detects irregular heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation).Cook also revealed that when his father was alive, the Apple Watch fall detection feature alerted emergency services when Cook senior fell over while alone at home."He didn't respond to the door and so they kicked the door down and it was a good thing they did because he was not conscious at the time."When asked if Cook's dad thanked him for the device that saved his life, he replied, "No, he was focused on the door, to be honest [...] He was more upset, 'they kicked out my door!'" // Related StoriesCook says the reason why he answers emails so early is because "it's the part of the day that I can control the most. As the day starts to unfold, it becomes less predictable.""And so I love the part of the day that I can kind of block out the world and focus on a few critical things and just be silent for a while."Cook also talks about how Covid changed the global view of working from home. Apple was one of the first companies to tell employees to return to the office after the lockdowns, leading to a petition from workers. Cook says Covid taught us that people can do the same amount of work online but also "taught us the value of being together."Apple now asks most employees to be in the office three days per week. Cook says he's in there four times a week and off Friday as it's the day most people stay home. He reasoned that the office is "depressing when nobody's there."Apple Park: pretty empty on FridaysCook has been working since he was 11 or 12, back when he started a paper route. His next employment was flipping burgers for a local fast-food restaurant, called Tastee Freez, at the age of 14. "I wore a little hat, and I wore an apron, and I was making $1.10 an hour at the time, it was sub-minimum wage, which was legal at that point in time."Cook has come a long way since then. His total compensation from Apple rose 18% last year to $74.6 million, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the world.Talking about some of the things he enjoys, Cook said he often eats at a Palo Alto restaurant called Ethel's Fancy, where he enjoys the octopus he eats a lot of fish in general.Other details Cook revealed include his love of dark chocolate and Chardonnay. He eats most of his meals during the week at Apple Park's Caff Macs, and likes to vacation at national parks. In the podcast tradition of asking guests about their last meal, Cook said he would choose an appetizer of hamachi crudo with jalapeo, a branzino for a main dish, broccolini as a side, and anything chocolate for dessert.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsWhats happening?What is RedNote?Is RedNote safe?Does China own RedNote?Should you download RedNote in the U.S.?Are there other TikTok alternatives?When is TikTok being banned?In the U.S., TikTok could soon be removed from the market. In its place, many TikTok users are preemptively turning to a similar app called RedNote and other alternatives.What is RedNote, and is it better than TikTok? Could it also be removed from the U.S. market? We have the answers.Recommended VideosTikTok is facing a potential ban in the U.S. mainly due to concerns regarding its connections to China and the associated national security risks. U.S. officials are worried that ByteDance, TikToks Chinese parent company, could be required by the Chinese government to provide access to American user data, which might then be used for espionage or surveillance. This concern is heightened by a 2017 Chinese law that mandates companies to cooperate with national security investigations.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThere are also worries about content moderation and the possibility of the Chinese government influencing TikToks algorithm to disseminate misinformation or censor content critical of China. Although TikTok asserts that it operates independently and prioritizes protecting U.S. user data, these issues have prompted bipartisan support for banning the social network in the U.S., beginning on Sunday, January 19.XinginRedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) in China, is often described as a mix of Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. Regarding its similarities with TikTok, RedNote enables users to create and share short videos on various topics, including fashion, beauty, food, travel, and lifestyle.The platform is also particularly well-known for its in-depth product reviews, often featuring videos and photos. Users can share their experiences with various products and services, helping others make informed purchasing decisions.Additionally, RedNote includes a built-in e-commerce platform, allowing users to purchase products directly through the app. This feature makes it easy for users to buy items they see highlighted in videos and reviews.RedNote also offers social networking capabilities, allowing users to follow others, like and comment on posts, and share content with friends.Interestingly, RedNote is older than TikTok; it launched in 2013, three years before TikTok.Whether RedNote is safe to use depends on what aspects youre most concerned about as a user. First, theres no denying that, like TikTok, RedNote is Chinese-based. As such, familiar concerns are being raised about how user data is handled and whether it could be shared with the Chinese government. Adding to the confusion is that the apps privacy policy is in Mandarin and was not written for the U.S. market.Another issue is that RedNote is available everywhere in the same format with the same information, whether the user is in the U.S., China, or elsewhere. In contrast, TikTok is not accessible in China, which may come as a surprise to many.The ability to connect with anyone globally gives RedNote the appearance of taking a for the people approach. However, (again) it remains unclear how involved the Chinese government is in RedNotes operations and its collection of user data.RedNote is owned by Xingyin Information Technology Co., Ltd., based in Shanghai. Therefore, technically, it isnt owned by the Chinese government. However, Chinese law grants the government substantial oversight over all company operations.The 2017 law mentioned above allows the government to request access to user data and requires companies to comply with strict censorship regulations. Additionally, the government can influence company policies and decisions through various means, including direct pressure and financial incentives.Therefore, while RedNote is not state-owned, it operates within the Chinese legal and regulatory framework, which gives the government significant leverage over its operations.Whether or not to download and use RedNote depends on your risk tolerance. On the positive side, RedNotes format closely resembles that of TikTok, particularly regarding short-form videos and focusing on product discovery. It also includes several unique features worth your time, such as emphasizing product reviews.However, there are notable drawbacks. In addition to data privacy concerns, it is important to point out that RedNote currently has minimal English language support, with much of the content available primarily in Mandarin.Given the apps location, its also crucial to consider that, similar to TikTok, RedNote could potentially face a ban in the U.S. This would undermine the long-term benefits of using the app in case of a TikTok ban.Several apps are not based in China that you might consider as alternatives to TikTok. While none of these apps are exactly like TikTok, they offer similar features. Popular options include Snapchat, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and less familiar ones like Triller.Additionally, you may have heard of Lemon8 as a potential TikTok alternative. However, its important to note that Lemon8 is also owned by ByteDance, which means it could also face a ban.ByteDance has announced it will comply with U.S. law and remove TikTok from the U.S. market on Sunday. However, the specifics of how this removal will be executed remain unclear. For instance, one possibility is that ByteDance could take down the TikTok app from the U.S. App Store and Google Play while allowing existing users continued access to their accounts and content until they choose to delete the app themselves.Nonetheless, it is more probable that starting on Sunday, ByteDance will enact a complete restriction on U.S. users access to the service. This means that users may find themselves unable to log in or use the platform altogether, leading to a significant disruption in the apps user base and community engagement, particularly given TikToks popularity among younger audiences.In the meantime, there exists the potential for some factions within the U.S. government to intervene and either block the ban, at least temporarily or amend the law that mandates the prohibition, thereby allowing TikTok to remain operational in the country. Such intervention could center around the apps economic impact, its role in social connectivity, and the broader implications for digital privacy and user freedoms.Additionally, ByteDance might explore the option of divesting TikTok to a buyer outside of China, possibly nurturing a sale to American or European interests before the deadline. This could involve negotiations that address the necessary regulatory concerns and ensure that user data is protected from international scrutiny, thereby enabling the app to continue serving its users under new ownership while adhering to U.S. laws. Such a step could reshape the social media landscape and influence competition with other platforms.Theres one final wild card: Donald J. Trump. The former president will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States just hours after TikTok is scheduled to be banned. He has previously expressed a preference for the ban to not take effect until after he takes office so he can more effectively assess the situation. While this is a possibility, it is certainly not a likely outcome that his position could sway the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress to reconsider and halt the ban.Instead of finding a TikTok alternative, you could use a VPN to continue to use the app in the U.S.Editors Recommendations

Can it handle metaphors? Meta takes us a step closer to Star Treks universal translator The computer science behind translating speech from 100 source languages. Jacek Krywko Jan 15, 2025 11:00 am | 64 Interpreters work during the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 2021 in New York, United States. Credit: Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images Interpreters work during the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 2021 in New York, United States. Credit: Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIn 2023, AI researchers at Meta interviewed 34 native Spanish and Mandarin speakers who lived in the US but didnt speak English. The goal was to find out what people who constantly rely on translation in their day-to-day activities expect from an AI translation tool. What those participants wanted was basically a Star Trek universal translator or the Babel Fish from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: an AI that could not only translate speech to speech in real time across multiple languages, but also preserve their voice, tone, mannerisms, and emotions. So, Meta assembled a team of over 50 people and got busy building it.What this team came up with was a next-gen translation system called Seamless. The first building block of this system is described in Wednesdays issue of Nature; it can translate speech among 36differentlanguages.Language data problemsAI translation systems today are mostly focused on text, because huge amounts of text are available in a wide range of languages thanks to digitization and the Internet. Institutions like the United Nations or European Parliament routinely translate all their proceedings into the languages of all their member states, which means there are enormous databases comprising aligned documents prepared by professional human translators. You just needed to feed those huge, aligned text corpora into neural nets (or hidden Markov models before neural nets became all the rage) and you ended up with a reasonably good machine translation system. But there were two problems with that.The first issue was those databases comprised formal documents, which made the AI translators default to the same boring legalese in the target language even if you tried to translate comedy. The second problem was speechnone of this included audio data.The problem of language formality was mostly solved by including less formal sources like books, Wikipedia, and similar material in AI training databases. The scarcity of aligned audio data, however, remained. Both issues were at least theoretically manageable in high-resource languages like English or Spanish, but they got dramatically worse in low-resource languages like Icelandic or Zulu.As a result, the AI translators we have today support an impressive number of languages in text, but things are complicated when it comes to translating speech. There are cascading systems that simply do this trick in stages. An utterance is first converted to text just as it would be in any dictation service. Then comes text-to-text translation, and finally the resulting text in the target language is synthesized into speech. Because errors accumulate at each of those stages, the performance you get this way is usually poor, and it doesnt work in real time.A few systems that can translate speech-to-speech directly do exist, but in most cases they only translate into English and not in the opposite way. Your foreign language interlocutor can say something to you in one of the languages supported by tools like Googles AudioPaLM, and they will translate that to English speech, but you cant have a conversation going both ways.So, to pull off the Star Trek universal translator thing Metas interviewees dreamt about, the Seamless team started with sorting out the data scarcity problem. And they did it in a quite creative way.Building a universal languageWarren Weaver, a mathematician and pioneer of machine translation, argued in 1949 that there might be a yet undiscovered universal language working as a common base of human communication. This common base of all our communication was exactly what the Seamless team went for in its search for data more than 70 years later. Weavers universal language turned out to be mathmore precisely, multidimensional vectors.Machines do not understand words as humans do. To make sense of them, they need to first turn them into sequences of numbers that represent their meaning. Those sequences of numbers are numerical vectors that are termed word embeddings. When you vectorize tens of millions of documents this way, youll end up with a huge multidimensional space where words with similar meaning that often go together, like tea and coffee, are placed close to each other. When you vectorize aligned text in two languages like those European Parliament proceedings, you end up with two separate vector spaces, and then you can run a neural net to learn how those two spaces map onto each other.But the Meta team didnt have those nicely aligned texts for all the languages they wanted to cover. So, they vectorized all texts in all languages as if they were just a single language and dumped them into one embedding space called SONAR (Sentence-level Multimodal and Language-Agnostic Representations). Once the text part was done, they went to speech data, which was vectorized using a popular W2v (word to vector) tool and added it to the same massive multilingual, multimodal space. Of course, each embedding carried metadata identifying its source language and whether it was text or speech before vectorization.The team just used huge amounts of raw datano fancy human labeling, no human-aligned translations. And then, the data mining magic happened.SONAR embeddings represented entire sentences instead of single words. Part of the reason behind that was to control for differences between morphologically rich languages, where a single word may correspond to multiple words in morphologically simple languages. But the most important thing was that it ensured that sentences with similar meaning in multiple languages ended up close to each other in the vector space.It was the same story with speech, tooa spoken sentence in one language was close to spoken sentences in other languages with similar meaning. It even worked between text and speech. So, the team simply assumed that embeddings in two different languages or two different modalities (speech or text) that are at a sufficiently close distance to each other are equivalent to the manually aligned texts of translated documents.This produced huge amounts of automatically aligned data. The Seamless team suddenly got access to millions of aligned texts, even in low-resource languages, along with thousands of hours of transcribed audio. And they used all this data to train their next-gen translator.Seamless translationThe automatically generated data set was augmented with human-curated texts and speech samples where possible and used to train multiple AI translation models. The largest one was called SEAMLESSM4T v2. It could translate speech to speech from 101 source languages into any of 36 output languages, and translate text to text. It would also work as an automatic speech recognition system in 96 languages, translate speech to text from 101 into 96 languages, and translate text to speech from 96 into 36 languagesall from a single unified model. It also outperformed state-of-the-art cascading systems by 8 percent in a speech-to-text and by 23 percent in a speech-to-speech translations based on the scores in Bilingual Evaluation Understudy (an algorithm commonly used to evaluate the quality of machine translation).But it can now do even more than that. The Nature paper published by Metas Seamless ends at the SEAMLESSM4T models, but Nature has a long editorial process to ensure scientific accuracy. The paper published on January 15, 2025, was submitted in late November 2023. But in a quick search of the arXiv.org, a repository of not-yet-peer-reviewed papers, you can find the details of two other models that the Seamless team has already integrated on top of the SEAMLESSM4T: SeamlessStreaming and SeamlessExpressive, which take this AI even closer to making a Star Trek universal translator a reality.SeamlessStreaming is meant to solve the translation latency problem. The baseline SEAMLESSM4T, despite all the bells and whistles, worked as a standard AI translation tool. You had to say what you wanted to say, push translate, and it spat out the translation. SeamlessStreaming was designed to take this experience a bit closer to what human simultaneous translator doit translates what youre saying as you speak in a streaming fashion. SeamlessExpressive, on the other hand, is aimed at preserving the way you express yourself in translations. When you whisper or say something in a cheerful manner or shout out with anger, SeamlessExpressive will encode the features of your voice, like tone, prosody, volume, tempo, and so on, and transfer those into the output speech in the target language.Sadly, it still cant do both at the same time; you can only choose to go for either streaming or expressivity, at least at the moment. Also, the expressivity variant is very limited in supported languagesit only works in English, Spanish, French, and German. But at least its online so you can go ahead and give it a spin.Nature, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08359-zJacek KrywkoAssociate WriterJacek KrywkoAssociate Writer Jacek Krywko is a freelance science and technology writer who covers space exploration, artificial intelligence research, computer science, and all sorts of engineering wizardry. 64 Comments

Ukraine said one of its F-16 pilots downed a record-breaking six cruise missiles in one mission.That shows how much Ukraine's air force has developed, a former US F-16 pilot told BI.All of its systems had to work well, and it showed how Ukraine is fighting more like the West.A Ukrainian pilot's record-breaking shootdown of six missiles with an F-16 offers insight into how much its air force has developed as it fights back against Russia's invasion.Throughout much of the war, Ukraine's air force faced one of the world's biggest air forces with a fleet of older, Soviet-designed combat aircraft while begging the West for F-16s readily available in NATO arsenals.The US, however, refused to allow the transfer, even as other allies pushed to give Ukraine the aircraft. Washington felt they would arrive too late, that training would take too long, and the jets could prompt Russian escalation. But it eventually relented.Early usage of the aircraft in combat saw the loss of an airframe and the Ukrainian pilot, raising questions about how much of an impact the jets could make.But Ukraine's assertion that one of its F-16 pilots downed six Russian cruise missiles in one mission which it said is a record for the American-made fighter jet shows how much Ukraine's air force has developed, a former American F-16 pilot told Business Insider.Responding to missile threats requires coordination and quick reaction. Ret. Col. John Venable, a 25-year veteran of the US Air Force and a former F-16 pilot, told BI the pilot being alert, able to get a notification, and get out in time to intercept all of those missiles "says a lot" about "the capabilities are of the Ukrainian Air Force." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands against the background of Ukraine's Air Force's F-16 fighter jets in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky The reported intercept spoke to "their ability to actually detect" cruise missiles and "then scramble fighters in order to successfully intercept them." he said. Cruise missiles do not fire back like a Russian jet would, but it was a very impressive showing of Ukraine's air force.Responding like this was "no simple task," Venable said, which required all of Ukraine's command and control systems, as well as its sensors and radars, to work together. He said that to "actually find, fix and engage threats that are inbound to your nation, that says a lot about their command and control."Fighting like the WestVenable said the event shows how much Ukraine has been fighting like the West does.He said Russia's "command and control apparatus is basically scripted," which means they have an issue letting pilots "go out and actually do what you are required to do without someone doing a puppeteer thing over the top of you."The Ukrainian F-16 pilot pulling off what Ukraine says they did "says a lot about how far the Ukrainians have come" from their Soviet start and that "scheme of close control."Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told BI the intercept showed the pilot had "good training" since he was "able to react quickly to a changing situation.""Russian pilots have a reputation of needing to receive orders from their ground controllers,'" he said. This event demonstrates Ukrainian pilots "have adopted Western methods of operating both independently and aggressively when the situation is right." A US Air Force F-16. US Air Force photo/ Senior Airman Rachel Pakenas For instance, Ukraine said the pilot, who said he was out of missiles and short on fuel, made a quick decision to keep fighting, pursuing two more of the Russian missiles with guns, a riskier engagement requiring control of the plane and confidence a safe airfield was nearby.Ukraine, generally, has adopted a more Western style of fighting, with individuals and leaders making quick decisions away from the central command. But Russia, though it has been learning, has been hampered by not delegating such responsibility, making it slower to respond to battlefield developments and even losing commanders as a result.Ukraine's F-16 pilots have received training from a coalition of countries, including the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, the US, and Romania.The exchange is not one-sided. While many of Ukraine's soldiers have received training from Western allies, those allies say Ukraine is teaching them about tactics and how to fight Russia, too.Western officials and warfare experts say Ukraine's tactics and successes reveal lessons that the West should learn for fighting Russia.These lessons have been something of a trade-off as the West provides more gear and as Ukraine signs agreements with countries like the UK, Denmark, and France, with the war showing vulnerabilities in systems and tactics.The Westernization of Ukraine's army aids its ambition to join NATO, an uncertainty while the country is at war with Russia and a question in the aftermath.A small air forceBefore Russia's full-scale invasion, some expected Ukraine's air force would be immediately destroyed in a war with Russia.Russia attempted to wipe out Ukraine's air force at the start but failed, with Ukraine able to disperse many jets and keep them intact. Those surviving aircraft have played key roles in its defense, even as the skies remain heavily contested. A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky Ukraine's air force is expanding and becoming more Western with the arrival of F-16s and a pledge from France to send Mirage aircraft.Warfare experts say Ukraine has nowhere near enough F-16s to make a difference against Russia, and the few it does have are older versions, less powerful than what many allies have and Russia's best jets. Ukraine appears to be using its few F-16s primarily to help its air defenses battle missile threats rather than sending them on risky missions against Russian jets or critical ground targets.The Ukrainian jets, 50-year-old aircraft made by Lockheed Martin, typically fly with a loadout of four air-to-air missiles and are equipped with bolt-on self-defense pylons for detecting incoming missiles.Venable said the air-defense mission has met his expectations for how Ukraine would use them.Ukraine, Venable said, does not have enough F-16s, nor does it have the support systems or upgrades, to be able to use them aggressively to change the shape of the war.Ukraine's air force is not perfect, Venable said. But the progress so far is clear. "As far as being able to intercept inbound missiles and being able to engage them, this says a lot about their capabilities."