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Just one week into 2025, JPMorgan announced a five-day return-to-office mandate. Mere months before, AT&T, Dell, and Amazon did the same, despite employee pushback. The era of hybrid work appears to have come to a sudden halt for many.Of course, the most senior executives sometimes exercise flexibility about where they work, like Starbucks new CEO Brian Niccol, who negotiated a way to work from Newport Beach in California, rather than relocating to Seattle headquarters. But for many younger employees, there is no such choice.So, how does Gen Z feel about this shift back to the officeespecially since many of them entered the workforce during the pandemic and havent yet experienced five days a week in an office?Doomsdayers say that the young employees are fundamentally unprepared for the office. Positivists say that Gen Z has RTO FOMO, and is buzzing with excitement to get back in-person. Surveys have been equally mixed; a 2023 JobList survey found 57% of Gen Z wanted an in-person job, while a FlexJobs survey found 80% of Gen Z believed they were more productive virtually.Fast Company asked five Gen Z employees across industries about their experiences returning to the office. Some loved the ease of virtual work, while others craved the social connections of the office. But they all agreed: Hybrid is king.The RTO ShockLauren McNamara joined Allianz Life as an intern in 2020. The company was fully onlineher best chance of meeting her coworkers was through virtual happy hours and weekly check-ins. After graduation in 2022, McNamara returned to the company with a new challenge: Adjusting to their new three days in-person schedule.I remember feeling very welcomed, but also overwhelmed, McNamara says. There was such an autonomy to remote work. Coming in, [creating a] schedule structure, commutethat all took some getting used to.Now 25, McNamara eventually found her groove. In fact, she credits her advancement to developing in-person connections: Being face-to-face, being able to build those relationships and built that trust, has helped me move forward in my career, she says. But her experiences reflect a consensus among the Gen Z employees Fast Company spoke with. For those who have had little to no in-office experiences, those first days post-RTO can be shocking.25-year-old Shannon Aryca Chin works virtually from Toronto in her gig as creative coordinator for UTA Next Gen. Shes had some in-person experiences, though, primarily around her creative direction of the convention ZCon. In Chins first year, she gathered with her coworkers in a rented Los Angeles home. This year, she went to the shiny UTA New York office, an experience that she says was a big adjustment.It was, for lack of a better word, weird, Chin says. In the office, I have to have a different sort of composure and professionalism, and make sure that Im presenting myself in the best way possible.Having only ever worked virtually prior to ZCon, Chin says she dreamed of stable, in-person work. When I did go into the office, thats when I realized its definitely not as glamorous as I thought it would be, Chin says. She was happy to return to Toronto, where she continues to work fully remote.Lifestyle changesCreative strategist Ben Fitchett eagerly wanted in-person work. His virtual jobs in New Zealand had left him frustrated and lonely. When the 25-year-old moved to the United States in late 2021, his new companys office was still shut down because of the Omicron surge. Eventually the company scaled up to two days in-person, though Fitchett would often go in three or four days, even when his coworkers werent there.Then his company moved offices. Now, Fitchetts commute has grown to over an hour, requiring him to take two connecting buses. The long commute has extended Fitchetts in-person days, sometimes making them feel tedious. My days can really feel like: wake up, eat, work, sleep, he says. It keeps me busy.All of the Gen Z workers Fast Company spoke to agreed: While in-person work can have its benefits, it requires lifestyle changes, some of which they viewed as negatives. Fitchett has to get his groceries late at night, eating into his rest time. McNamara misses the ability to do household chores like laundry throughout the day.But all emphasized the lifestyle perks to in-office work, too. Chin found that her in-person days kept her social, and liked having a desk buddy to bounce ideas off of. Quinto Melnick, a 25-year-old junior financial specialist, likes to snowboard on the mountain near his office.When 29-year-old Sally Evans started working at Chipotles corporate offices, the company was in-person three days a week. But that policy was flexible, leaving Evans with some difficulty connecting with her coworkers. She wanted more face-to-face ways to engage.I decided that first year I wanted to say yes to everything, Evans says. I found myself in an intramural basketball team. I dont play basketballI was just throwing myself into it to find community and to connect in such a big workplace. The ploy worked; Evans is now closely knit with her coworkers, also playing pickleball with them every week.Chipotle has since upped their RTO policy to four days a week. And since Evans team puts out an internal morning newsletter, more days in-person means fewer late wakeups, and less time writing that newsletter from her couch with her dog. But Evans describes herself as a social person, explaining that adding the extra day was not a challenge.Hybrid is idealFor young workers, in-person work may be crucial for skill-building. Financial analyst Melnick found that face time with his colleagues was especially important when he was an intern learning the ropes. It makes for a better learning environment, because its easier for someone to show you something right away, he says. Gen Z workers have also reported facing proximity bias, where managers favor in-person employees over their virtual counterparts, making in-office learning all the more crucial.All five Gen Z employees agreed that their preferred workplace would be hybrid. Most of the young workers we spoke with thought a five-day RTO would be manageableexcept Chin, who says shell never take a full-time in-person gig. When asked about the possibility of going five-days remote, most said they would seek other work, or at least try to find a social coworking space.Gen Z at large has been very receptive to the hybrid work model. Per Gallup, 65% preferred hybrid work, a rate thats higher than millennials (60%) or Gen X (58%). To keep Gen Z happy, employers will likely have to remain flexible. And Gen Z might just need a bit of time to adjust.Correction: An earlier version of this piece mischaracterized Victorias Secrets current RTO policy.

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Instagram on Sunday rolled out Edits, a video-editing product that appeared similar to CapCut, which is owned by TikToks parent company, ByteDance.

No matter what TikTok says in its laudatory pop-up messages, President-elect Donald Trump cannot simply declare an extension of the TikTok ban deadline and protect American companies that support it from billions of dollars in fines.Trump seems to want TikTok available for his inauguration on Monday, because Americans deserve to see the event. But TikTok is officially banned starting today until it sells to a non-Chinese company, and theres no deal in sight. Flouting that ban could get Apple and Googles app stores, as well as service providers Akamai and Oracle, dinged for potentially $850 billion in penalties. Despite all this, Trump has reportedly assured companies they wont face these fines if they let TikTok keep operating. Now, the question is simple: will Trump-friendly companies risk breaking the law to make the president happy?TikToks status has been uncertain since last night. President Joe Biden said he wouldnt enforce the law on the last day of his presidency, but TikTok declared it would go dark anyway. App stores removed it in accordance with the law. Then, Trump promised hed extend the deadline, telling companies they wouldnt face penalties and TikTok promptly came back online with a thank-you note to the President-elect. The problem is that its not clear Trump can do what hes promised.Congress passed a law directly demanding TikTok divest itself from parent company ByteDance or face a ban. It included an option for President Joe Biden to extend the deadline by 90 days if a deal was announced; Biden declined to use it. There are only a few options for TikTok to legally keep operating now. The app could be sold and come back under different ownership. Congress could pass a new law extending the deadline or ending the ban. Or Trump could try to extend it by certifying a deal to change TikToks ownership is in place but unfortunately for him, he cant simply sign an order saying a law no longer exists.This puts companies in a legal bind. TikToks US service providers risk $5,000 in penalties per person who uses their service to access the app. The government told the Supreme Court it could be enforced up to five years later, so they could be penalized under a future president (or Trump himself).Trump needs to take action in a way that convinces them this wont happen. Perhaps his best option would be certifying to Congress that TikTok has agreed to sell, then attempting to trigger the 90-day extension Biden didnt use. (Its debatable whether this can be done after the ban kicks in, but legal experts say its at least possible to argue for it.) To be clear, he would be lying about the deal, says University of Minnesota Law School professor AlanRozenshtein. Hed be lying to Congress, and that would be Congress problem. But he would still have certified, and so until the court would declare that that certification is invalid, I think the companies would be safe.This would suggest that a post on Truth Social is enough for some companies to proceed to voluntarily violate federal lawFor now, however, Trumps assurances that its safe to support TikTok are legally flimsy. TikTok began coming back online in the US mid-day Sunday, suggesting its service provider Oracle might be relying on Trumps assurance on Truth Social that hed delay the ban, though the company has not confirmed or commented. This would suggest that a post on Truth Social is enough for some companies to proceed to voluntarily violate federal law, says Bloomberg Intelligence litigation analyst Matt Schettenhelm. Thats in an astonishing development in my view, if thats whats happening. If companies are breaking the law, they would likely have a strong due process defense given Trumps promises not to enforce it, Schettenhelm says. But anytime youre voluntarily violating the federal law, youre forcing yourself into a fight over the issue, he says. Yes, its probably a winnable fight, but when its a fight over $850 billion in exposure,its probably better to not have to get into that fight at all.Rozenshtein says the move could invite shareholder lawsuits something that Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned of, even though Trump encouraged service providers to bring TikTok back online in time for his inauguration.Its probably a winnable fight, but when its a fight over $850 billion in exposure, its probably better to not have to get into that fight at allThat said,If Trump tries to overrule Congress in a way thats illegal, someone with standing to sue could challenge him in court. Who might this be? One option is TikTok users who supported the ban and fear the Chinese government getting their data. Of course, the courts might say, well, then dont use TikTok, Rozenshtein points out. A competitor like Meta also might be able to bring a claim, he says. Or a service provider like Apple or Google could try to get a court to clarify their legal liability, without actually challenging the arrangement. But given tech companies attempts to avoid antagonizing Trump, that route seems unlikely.If TikToks service providers really want legal cover, then short of a true qualified divestiture which would take time to hash out, if China even agrees to sell the app their best option is Congress. That still seems like a long shot, especially on short notice. But now that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) endorses an extension, Schettenhelm says, it starts to be conceivable that maybe Congress would agree to at least delay the ban or push it back. That would be the most legally sound way to do this.

Vision-language models (VLMs) play a crucial role in multimodal tasks like image retrieval, captioning, and medical diagnostics by aligning visual and linguistic data. However, understanding negation in these models remains one of the main challenges. Negation is critical for nuanced applications, such as distinguishing a room without windows from a room with windows. Despite their advancements, current VLMs fail to interpret negation reliably, severely limiting their effectiveness in high-stakes domains like safety monitoring and healthcare. Addressing this challenge is essential to expand their applicability in real-world scenarios.The current VLMs, such as CLIP, use shared embedding spaces to align visual and textual representations. Though these models excel in tasks such as cross-modal retrieval and image captioning, their performance falls sharply when dealing with negated statements. This limitation arises due to pretraining data biases because the training datasets contain mainly affirmative examples, leading to affirmation bias, where models treat negated and affirmative statements as equivalents. Existing benchmarks such as CREPE and CC-Neg rely on simplistic templated examples that dont represent the richness and depth of negation in natural language. VLMs tend to collapse the embeddings of negated and affirmative captions so it is extremely challenging to tease apart fine-grained differences between the concepts. This poses a problem in using VLMs for precise language understanding applications, for instance, querying a medical imaging database with complex inclusion and exclusion criteria.To address these limitations, researchers from MIT, Google DeepMind, and the University of Oxford proposed the NegBench framework for the evaluation and improvement of negation comprehension over VLMs. The framework assesses two fundamental tasks: Retrieval with Negation (Retrieval-Neg), which examines the models capacity to retrieve images according to both affirmative and negated specifications, such as a beach without people, and Multiple Choice Questions with Negation (MCQ-Neg), which evaluates nuanced comprehension by necessitating that models select appropriate captions from slight variations. It uses enormous synthetic datasets, like CC12M-NegCap and CC12M-NegMCQ, augmented with millions of captions that contain a wide range of negation scenarios. This will expose VLMs to somewhat challenging negatives and paraphrased captions, improving the training and evaluation of models. Standard datasets, such as COCO and MSR-VTT, were also adapted, including negated captions and paraphrases, to further expand linguistic diversity and test the robustness. By incorporating varied and complex negation examples, NegBench effectively overcomes existing limitations, significantly enhancing model performance and generalization.NegBench leverages both real and synthetic datasets to test negation comprehension. Datasets like COCO, VOC2007, and CheXpert were adapted to include negation scenarios, such as This image includes trees but not buildings. For MCQs, templates like This image includes A but not B were used alongside paraphrased variations for diversity. NegBench is further augmented with the HardNeg-Syn dataset, where images are synthesized to present pairs differing from each other based on the occurrence or absence of certain objects only, hence constituting difficult cases for negation understanding. Model fine-tuning relied on two training objectives. On one hand, contrastive loss facilitated the alignment between image-caption pairs, enhancing performance in retrieval. On the other hand, using multiple-choice loss helped in making fine-grained negation judgments by preferring the right captions in the MCQ context.The fine-tuned models showed considerable improvements in retrieval and comprehension tasks using the negation-enriched datasets. For retrieval, the models recall increases by 10% for negated queries, where performance is nearly at par with standard retrieval tasks. In the multiple-choice question tasks, accuracy improvements of up to 40% were reported, showing a better ability to differentiate between the subtle affirmative and negated captions. Advancements were uniform over a range of datasets, including COCO and MSR-VTT, and on synthetic datasets like HardNeg-Syn, where models handled negation and complex linguistic developments appropriately. This suggests that representing scenarios with diverse kinds of negation in training and testing is effective in reducing affirmation bias and generalization.NegBench addresses a critical gap in VLMs by being the first work to address their inability to understand negation. It brings significant improvements in retrieval and comprehension tasks by incorporating diverse negation examples into trAIning and evaluation. Such improvements open up avenues for much more robust AI systems that are capable of nuanced language understanding, with important implications for critical domains like medical diagnostics and semantic content retrieval.Check out the Paper and Code. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit. Aswin Ak+ postsAswin AK is a consulting intern at MarkTechPost. He is pursuing his Dual Degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is passionate about data science and machine learning, bringing a strong academic background and hands-on experience in solving real-life cross-domain challenges. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Shootin' stuffit's a sacred gaming tradition that's not to be discounted. Except I totally am today. For a measly 9 or so bucks, you can score three noteworthy AAA FPSes, and there's the option to expand the savings to include some indie gems of the genre as well. Beyond that, I've found the best price on the early access Assetto Corsa EVO, plus some of the best titles from 2024. Get scrolling to get saving.In retro news, I'm celebrating the 14th birthday of LittleBigPlanet 2, a sacktacular PS3 classic that elevated 2.5D platforming and user-generated content to new heights. At the shallow end of this pool you had a wonderful, co-optional story campaign for up to four floaty sackpersons. Waiting beyond that, however, was a black hole Create mode whose enhanced logic and Move support delivered mind-boggling community-built gems. My mates and I sunk way too many hours into the hilaribad physics of Super LBP Fighter II Turbo and the professional indie level Sealed Fate. Truly, LBP2 was a golden age of UGC where innovators (and not shameless copiers and half-arsed memers) were king. It pains me to think that those creations died with server shutdown. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games.- NHL 2K6 (PS2,XB) 2006. eBay- LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3) 2011. eBay- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) 2011. eBay- Back to the Future: The Game (PS3) 2011. eBayTable of ContentsNintendo SwitchPCXboxPlayStationLEGONice Savings for Nintendo SwitchCrash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (-49%) - A$36.38Overcooked! 2 (-75%) - A$9.37Tales of Vesperia: DE (-80%) - A$15.99Cat Quest III (-30%) - A$21Mario & Luigi: Brothership (-15%) - A$68Klonoa Phantasy Reverie (-75%) - A$17.48Katamari Damacy Reroll (-75%) - A$7.48Expiring Recent DealsGetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon (-33%) - A$46.55MySims: Cozy Bndl (-18%) - A$49New Super Mario Bros Del. (-14%) - A$69Children of Morta (-80%) - A$6.59This War of Mine Complete (-95%) - A$3Moonlighter (-90%) - A$3.74Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Back to topPurchase Cheap for PCAssetto Corsa EVO (-33%) - A$39.49Corsair M75 Air mouse (-45%) - A$99Skyrim Anniversary (-75%) - A$19.98Just Cause 4: Comp. (-85%) - A$16.97Slay the Spire (-66%) - A$12.57Expiring Recent DealsLogitech G502 X Plus (-68%) - A$178Age of Darkness: Final Stand (-65%) - A$14.34FC 25 (-60%) - A$43.98Frostpunk GOTY (-78%) - A$15.49Empire of the Ants Del. (-35%) - A$48.69Ready or Not (-40%) - A$47.99Or just get a Steam Wallet CardPC Hardware PricesSlay your pile of shame.Back to topExciting Bargains for XboxSonic Frontiers (-63%) - A$37The Witcher 3 Complete (-45%) - A$43.73Lords of the Fallen Del. (-67%) - A$39.95LEGO Marvel Collection (-44%) - A$49.95Hogwarts Legacy (-55%) - A$49Expiring Recent DealsThrustmaster Ferrari 458 (-18%) - A$220Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot (-18%) - A$204FC 25 (-55%) - A$49Elden Ring: Erdtree Ed. (-17%) - A$99.99Senua's Saga Hellblade II (-15%) - A$59.46Assassins Creed Shadows (-19%) - A$89Or just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box?Back to topPure Scores for PlayStationTop Spin (-40%) - A$36Need for Speed Unbound (-82%) - A$19Undisputed (-33%) - A$59.95Wreckfest (-75%) - A$9.98Logitech Shifter (-32%) - A$77Borderlands 3 Ult (-68%) - A$47Expiring Recent DealsPac-Man World Re-Pac (-23%) - A$42.55Gran Turismo 7 (-28%) - A$89.95Assassins Creed Shadows (-19%) - A$89FC 25 (-50%) - A$54.95Spidey Miles Morales Ult. (-45%) - A$69Persona 5 Royal (-50%) - A$49.75PS+ Monthly FreebiesYours to keep from Jan 7 with this subscriptionSuicide Squad: KTJL [PS5]NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered [PS4]The Stanley Parable: Ultra [PS4/5]Or purchase a PS Store Card.What you'll pay to 'Station.Back to topLegit LEGO DealsStar Wars: Onyx Cinder (-31%) - A$159 City: Tow Truck / Sports Car (-27%) - A$22Wicked: Emerald City (-24%) - A$129Expiring Recent DealsTechnic: Monster Jam (-37%) - A$39.99City: Space Construction Mech (-33%) - A$10City: Burger Van (-27%) - A$22Back to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.

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Instagram head Adam Mosseri just announced a video editing app called Edits. Mosseri said the app is meant to rival CapCut, a video editing app that went offline along with TikTok. Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store.Theres a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens, its our job to provide the best possible tools for creators, Mosseri said in a video posted to Instagram. He goes on to describe the app:Edits is more than a video editing app; its a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools youd expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and if you decide to share your videos on Instagram powerful insights into how those videos perform.This is what Edits will look like. Image: MetaThe insights he mentions include a live insights dashboard, a breakdown of follower and non-follower engagement, and metrics for how often users skip specific ones. It will also include editing tools that let people use green screens and video overlays, both common features of TikTok videos, according to its App Store listing.In a reply to The Verges Chris Welch on Threads, Mosseri said Meta has been working on the app for months. He also said it will end up pretty different than CapCut, adding that Edits will have a much broader range of creative tools and probably a smaller addressable audience.While Mosseri doesnt say as much in his video, the announcement feels like a clear push to get the app into peoples minds as the future of TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps like CapCut remains in question. Edits will be available starting March 13th, 2025.Update, January 19th: Added a reply from Mosseri.