Researchers from the the Polytechnic University of Milan are mappingthe castle's subterranean structures. Polytechnic University of MilanBeneathSforza Castle in Milan, researchers have discovered a series of secret tunnelspassageways once sketched by the Renaissance artist and scientistLeonardo da Vinci and traversed by a widower sick with grief.The tunnels were discovered by experts from the Polytechnic University of Milan, who used ground-penetrating radar and laser scanners to map the 15th-century strongholds subterranean structures. The imaging revealed cavities and passageways positioned just a foot or two below the ground.The aim is to create a digital twin of the Sforza Castle, a digital model that not only shows the current appearance of the castle, but also allows us to explore the past, by revealing ancient structures that are no longer visible, saysFranco Guzzetti, a geomatics researcher at the Polytechnic University of Milan, in astatement. Imaging revealed cavities and passageways positioned just a foot or two below the ground. Polytechnic University of MilanWorkers began building Sforza in 1358, but the castle was destroyed during a period of political unrest about a century later. Francesco Sforza, the duke of Milan, ordered a new castle to be rebuilt on the ruins in 1450. After he died, his son, Ludovicoalso known as il Moro, or theMoor, because of his dark complexion and hairsecured the Duchy of Milan and continued renovating the castle.Ludovico hired several artistsincluding Leonardo, Donato Bramante and Bernardino Zenaleto decorate the structures walls. Leonardos frescoes can be seen in the castles Sala delle Asse, or Room of Wooden Boards. During this time, he also documented secret passages built for military purposes under the castles ghirlanda (outer wall).This passageway is immortalized in Leonardos drawings and has long been the subject of legends and considerable speculation, per the statement. But now, thanks to technology, it seems that its existence can be confirmed. Sforza Castle's construction began in 1358. Graziella taibi via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0Historical records suggest Ludovico ordered the construction of an underground passageway to allow him easy access to MilansBasilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where his wife was buried. Ludovico had married Beatrice dEste, the daughter of the duke of Ferrara, in 1491. As Encyclopedia Britannica writes, their marriage was unusually harmonious but short-lived: Beatrice died in childbirth in 1497. Ludovicos secret tunnelwhich may have stretched over half a milewould have provided the widower private visitations and served as anescape route in case of a siege.The researchers scanned the castles grounds withground-penetrating radar, which works by emitting radio waves into the earth and sending back signals to an antenna. Eventually, these scans could be used to create augmented reality experiences or virtual visits for tourists, as Claudio Salsi, historical director of the castles museums, tells ANSA.Francesca Biolo, an architect at the Polytechnic University of Milan, says in the statement that the scans are only the first step in unraveling the secrets of Sforza Castles tunnels.The [ground-penetrating radar] technology has added to our 3D model by providing data about well-known but inaccessible spaces, revealing unknown pathways and suggesting ideas for further research into these secret passages, she adds.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects to spend as much as $65 billion on AI in 2025 as part of a massive effort to further the companys AI ambitions. Part of the plan includes a Louisiana data center that Zuckerberg says is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan, he wrote on Threads today.The announcement reads like a response to the big AI data center news touted by competitors earlier this week.as they announced Project Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture that will build sprawling AI data centers in Texas and other parts of the country. City documents seen by Bloomberg suggest the Texas data center will be as big as New Yorks Central Park.Meta started building its $10 billion AI data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana last December, and its construction is expected to continue through 2030. The data center is one of many Meta started working on last year to power its open-source large language model Llama. Aside from Meta, tech giants including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia are spending billions to scale up their data-hungry AI efforts.RelatedZuckerberg said he expects to end the year with over 1.3 million GPUs, while significantly growing the companys AI team. This will be a defining year for AI, Zuckerberg wrote. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and well build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D [research and development] efforts.

Earlier this week, several posts on the Instagram page of Aid Access, an abortion pill provider, were inaccessible to the public. Some images were blurred out, with no option to click through and view the post. Others appeared simply as a gray square with nondescript alt text, as if the image didnt load. Aid Access connects patients with doctors who provide abortion pills via telehealth appointments, and the posts that were blocked from being viewed included instructions for performing at-home abortions using pills. The issues on Instagram first reported by Jessica Valenti also reportedly made it difficult to find the Aid Access account using the apps search function.By Thursday evening, Meta had restored a handful of Aid Access posts, though some appear to still be missing. This latest incident is just another example of how Meta has restricted abortion information online for years. It also comes in the middle of Metas right-wing pivot, as the company has begun allowing more transphobic, racist, and otherwise hateful content on its platforms as it courts Donald Trump.The Aid Access Instagram account as of Wednesday evening. Image: MetaAn example of how Aid Access posts appeared on Instagram. Image: MetaMedication abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy can safely be done at home, according to the World Health Organization. Licensed providers like those working with Aid Access have prescribed abortion pills to hundreds of thousands of patients. Thanks to shield laws, which protect healthcare workers who provide the procedure, patients in states where abortion is banned or restricted can also order abortion medication.Social media is an important place for patients to seek information about abortions, says Rebecca Davis of Hey Jane, which offers virtual reproductive care like abortions and birth control.[Patients] will often turn to social media to just make sure were legit, says Davis, who leads marketing at the company. Weve spent a lot of time and energy to really build up our social presence, so were verified on Instagram, were verified on TikTok.Hey Jane encountered restrictions on Instagram in recent days as well. Davis says the group has gotten messages that its Instagram profile was not easily accessible through the apps search features. The Verge was able to replicate the issue: typing in heyjane or hey jane did not display the account as suggested. Users would need to know the accounts full handle, @heyjanehealth, in order for it to appear as a suggestion.We know that by not showing up in these searches were directly impacting people who are actively seeking this very timely, essential healthcare from getting the information that they need to make decisions, Davis told The Verge.Are you a current Meta employee with info youd like to share? Contact me at mia@theverge.com or on Signal (@miasato.11) using a non-work device. You can be anonymous.Meta spokesperson Erin Logan told The Verge in an email that abortion rights groups are experiencing a variety of issues some due to correct enforcement, as well as over enforcement. Logan said the company prohibits the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on Meta platforms without a LegitScript certification. (Hey Jane is among the providers certified with LegitScript.) Logan said these incidents were not the result of recent Meta policy updates.Weve been quite clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce enforcement mistakes and were committed to doing that, Logan added, though no specifics were mentioned. Regarding issues encountered by Hey Jane, Logan directed The Verge to Metas policies, which state that content promoting the use of pharmaceutical drugs is allowed on the platform but may not be eligible for recommendation. In recent weeks, Meta has rolled back its policies for what users can and cant say on its platforms, opening the floodgates for more hate speech and offensive content under the guise of free expression. But providers have long had information about abortion restricted or removed, according to groups like Amnesty International and Repro Uncensored. Davis from Hey Jane says this isnt the first time the groups Instagram profile has been invisible in search: something similar happened in 2023, when fake Hey Jane accounts were appearing in search instead.Even though abortion access groups have encountered issues on Meta platforms, Davis says its not as simple as moving to another social media site. Many patients use Instagram and other platforms like TikTok to find urgent information.While this moment certainly points to the value in diversifying the platforms that were on, that doesnt necessarily mean that people who are seeking abortion care are going to be off of these platforms, Davis says.

By intertwining the development of artificial intelligence combined with large language models with reinforcement learning in high-performance computation, the newly developed Reasoning Language Models may leap beyond traditional ways of limitation applied to processing by language systems toward explicit and even structured mechanisms, enabling complex reasoning solutions across diverse realms. Such model development achievement is the next significant landmark for better contextual insights and decisions.The design and deployment of modern RLMs pose a lot of challenges. They are expensive to develop, have proprietary restrictions, and have complex architectures that limit their access. Moreover, the technical obscurity of their operations creates a barrier for organizations and researchers to tap into these technologies. The lack of affordable and scalable solutions exacerbates the gap between entities with access to cutting-edge models, limiting opportunities for broader innovation and application.Current RLM implementations rely on complex methodologies to achieve their reasoning capabilities. Techniques like Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), Beam Search, and reinforcement learning concepts like process-based and outcome-based supervision have been employed. However, these methods demand advanced expertise and resources, restricting their utility for smaller institutions. While LLMs like OpenAIs o1 and o3 provide foundational capabilities, their integration with explicit reasoning frameworks remains limited, leaving the potential for broader implementation untapped.Researchers from ETH Zurich, BASF SE, Cledar, and Cyfronet AGH introduced a comprehensive blueprint to streamline the design and development of RLMs. This modular framework unifies diverse reasoning structures, including chains, trees, and graphs, allowing for flexible and efficient experimentation. The blueprints core innovation lies in integrating reinforcement learning principles with hierarchical reasoning strategies, enabling scalable and cost-effective model construction. As part of this work, the team developed the x1 framework, a practical implementation tool for researchers and organizations to prototype RLMs rapidly.The blueprint organizes the construction of RLM into a clear set of components: reasoning schemes, operators, and pipelines. Reasoning schemes define the structures and strategies for navigating complex problems ranging from sequential chains to multi-level hierarchical graphs. Operators control how these patterns change so that operations can smoothly include fine-tuning, pruning, and restructurings of reasoning paths. Pipelines allow easy flow between training, inference, and data generation and are adaptable across applications. This block-component structure supports individual access while models can be fine-tuned to a fine-grained task such as token-level reasoning or broader structured challenges.The team showcased the effectiveness of the blueprint and x1 framework using empirical study and real-world implementations. This modular design provided multi-phase training strategies that could optimize policy and value models, further improving reasoning accuracy and scalability. It leveraged familiar training distributions to maintain high precision across applications. Noteworthy results included large efficiency improvements in reasoning tasks attributed to the streamlined integration of reasoning structures. For instance, it demonstrated the potential for effective retrieval-augmented generation techniques through experiments, lowering the computational cost of complex decision-making scenarios. Such breakthroughs reveal that the blueprint allows advanced reasoning technologies to be democratized to even low-resource organizations.This work marks a turning point in the design of RLMs. This research addresses important issues in access and scalability to allow researchers and organizations to develop novel reasoning paradigms. The modular design encourages experimentation and adaptation, helping bridge the divide between proprietary systems and open innovation. The introduction of the x1 framework further underscores this effort by providing a practical tool for developing and deploying scalable RLMs. This work offers a roadmap for advancing intelligent systems, ensuring that the benefits of advanced reasoning models can be widely shared across industries and disciplines.Check out the Paper. 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 our70k+ ML SubReddit. Nikhil+ postsNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

The Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing Algorithm Unraveled 0 like January 24, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Mirko Peters Originally published on Towards AI. The steepest ascent hill climbing algorithm is a potent tool for optimization, yet it faces challenges such as local maxima, evaluation function dependency, and plateaus. By overcoming these hurdles through clever adaptations and real-world applications, we can harness its potential effectively.This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Source: Data & AnalyticsImagine scaling a mountain, wind in your hair, feeling invincible. But as you reach the summit, you realize theres an even taller peak just over the horizon. This metaphor perfectly captures the pursuit of optimization in algorithms, particularly in steepest ascent hill climbing. Join me as I delve into this powerful but nuanced algorithm, its challenges, and its real-world impact, enriched with victory tales and pitfalls from my own experiences. The Hero and the Villains: Introduction to Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing The Local Maxima Dilemma The Pitfalls of Poor Evaluation Functions Facing Flat Regions and Plateaus Innovations and Solutions in Optimization Real-World Applications of Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing The Future: Building Smarter AlgorithmsHow to optimize the steepest ascent hill climbing algorithm?When I first dove into the steepest ascent hill climbing algorithm, I was struck by how similar it is to climbing a physical hill. Youre trying to reach the top, but the path isnt always clear. The algorithm works by evaluating neighboring solutions and moving toward the one that offers the best improvement. Simple, right? But its not just a linear climb; its a journey filled Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

GenAI for Better NLP Systems II: Social Media Analytics 0 like January 24, 2025Share this postLast Updated on January 24, 2025 by Editorial TeamAuthor(s): Nabanita Roy Originally published on Towards AI. Leveraging GenAI for Social Media Analytics for swifter text processing and inferences as well as improving traditional NLP models with the aid of LLMsThis member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Photo by Adem AY on UnsplashGenerative AI, especially OpenAIs ChatGPT, has revolutionized how we approach data. Leveraging this modern tool (or should I call it futuristic), we can overcome many challenges in data-driven systems if used intelligibly. In my previous article, I demonstrated how we can use GenAI to generate synthetic data to boost performance for machine learning models for unbalanced data for Natural Language Processing (NLP) use-cases. This article shifts focus to social media analytics, exploring how GenAI can:Accelerate NLP inferencesEnhance datasets for traditional modelsOvercome limitations of traditional NLP techniques with easeHere, I have expanded on the most common NLP tasks in social media analytics and demonstrated the usage of prompting techniques to get LLMs to do the job. However, Large Language Models (LLMs) can either be used to solve the problem end-to-end or can be used for auxiliary tasks such as data labeling, feature extraction, or preliminary analysis, thus enhancing the process of building traditional models.In each segment of this article, Ive included a How to Use section that highlights how tasks performed using LLMs can be leveraged to support the development of traditional NLP models. Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

Will Smith, whose career has deep ties to The Matrix, teased something involving the sci-fi franchise earlier this month, but it turns out it's just a song from him and rapper Big Sean.The actor posted on Instagram to announce a song called Beautiful Scars from "Mr Anderson and Mr Smith," which releases January 30. The image for the song features both artists in The Matrix attire and their names in the classic computer font.Smith appears to be portraying Neo, which is perhaps a reference to his turning down of the role in the 1990s before it was picked up by Keanu Reeves. Big Sean, meanwhile, is wearing the suit, jacket, and iconic glasses of Morpheus.A tease from Smith on January 7 recreated the iconic scene from the film, showing a black screen with the words "Wake up, Will..." typed up. Fans therefore theorised his connection to The Matrix was about to come full circle with his starring in The Matrix 5, but Hollywood Reporter said this wasn't the case.The Matrix 5 is still shrouded in mystery, however. It was announced in April 2024 from Warner Bros. with The Martian and The Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard set to write and direct. It will be the first film not to have either of The Wachowskis, Lana or Lilly, at the helm, though the former will executive produce.While the original The Matrix is among the most beloved films of all time, its sequels were less well received and even reboot film The Matrix Resurrections was widely panned upon its release in 2021. "The Matrix Resurrections is a bunch of really good ideas stacked together to make a bad and sometimes ugly film," IGN said in our 4/10 review.Photo by DANIEL RAMALHO/AFP via Getty Images.Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

News Link Tank: Death of the Author Is Nnedi Okorafors Best Novel in an Already Stellar Body of Sci-FiThe latest meta novel from Nnedi Okorafor, the ascension of Dreamworks, a Star Wars mystery solved, and more in the Link Tank!By Michael Ahr | January 24, 2025 | | Photo: Mark PetermanNnedi Okorafor has earned her status as a trailblazer in modern science fiction, but her latest work, Death of the Author, is on another level.Death of the Author is a masterwork of modern speculative fiction, and arguably Nnedi Okorafors best book yet. Its an unusual novel that defies easy definition, combining Africanfuturism, speculative fiction, and literary fiction; the result is magnificent, weaving multiple narratives into an incredibly unique and powerful rumination on family, storytelling, and life.Read more at Winter is ComingFlight Risk, the Mel Gibson film starring Mark Wahlberg, presents a promising premise, but the execution is lacking.Flight Risk, the new Mel Gibson directorial outing, [follows] characters trapped in a dangerously small plane with even more of a dangerous man. Some elements and moments are effective, but theyre layered with subplot details, character performances, and related choices that dont work as well as intended, firmly grounding an otherwise promising concept.Read more at ColliderMove aside, Pixar! Dreamworks is slowly taking over the 3D animation space.Long considered Pixars lesser cousin, Dreamworks didnt do itself many favors when it doubled down on the winking meta-commentary of its mega-hit Shrek. For years, thats what you could expect from Dreamworks movies: the smirking Dreamworks face and desperately hip pop culture references that aged like milk. Ironically, it was a Shrek spinoff that signaled a turning point for Dreamworks, and a recent critically acclaimed sci-fi fable cemented the studio as the major U.S. studio making hybrid 3D/2D the standard.Read more at InverseBetween Robert De Niros Zero Day and Captain America: Brave New World, it seems February will be the month of America has a problem storytelling.Following last weeks debut of The Alto Knights trailer which featured two De Niros for the price of one we now have a fresh teaser for his upcoming Netflix limited series, Zero Day He plays George Mullen, a former POTUS who after a devastating cyber attack on US soil known as Zero Day is forced with hunting down the perpetrators. Thats because the attackers have promised more violence, a ticking clock element as Mullen looks for the truth.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Read more at EmpireAn upcoming Star Wars comic may very well answer a long held question for many fans: whatever happened to Watto?As revealed in a trio of teasing previews from Legacy of Vaders second issue, due out in March, by Marvel Star Wars editor Mark Paniccia on social media today, Kyloapparently joined by Vaders former attendant Vane, who has lopped his head off and put it in a droid body, bomarr monk-stylewill venture to Tatooine in some capacity to explore Vaders history with his home planet and realize that at some point he showed back up just to pay Watto a violent visit.Read more at Gizmodo

Amazing games are at the heart of our mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. Now, more screens than ever can be an Xbox, and those screens are lit up by the incredible portfolio of games brought to life by talented developers around the world. These teams create unforgettable gaming experiences that engage and inspire players of all ages.As a thank you to the creators of those games, and to shine a light on the games that players loved in 2024, today were announcing the recipients of the 2024 Xbox Excellence Awards.With over a thousand games launching annually on Xbox consoles, PC and cloud, this could be a case of simply picking a panel to decide but the Excellence Awards are all about how you engaged with Xbox over the last year. To assemble the list, we selected four key categories which are indicators of players passion, engagement, and love for these games. Those four categories are:Store Rating: Highest-rated content across our stores released in 2024, with a minimum of 500 ratings.Player Engagement: Games with the highest average hours per player within the first six weeks of release.Daily Active Users: Games, expansions, or major updates with the highest single-day active users in 2024. You may notice games that werent released in 2024 in this list thats because they got a significant update last year.Units Sold: Top-selling content across Xbox and Microsoft stores.The final list represents a diverse collection of titles producedby studios comprised of anywhere from tens to thousands of developers, located in 15 different countries worldwide.You can find the titles for each category listed alphabetically below.Store RatingPlayer EngagementDaily Active UsersUnits SoldBalatroDragon Age: The VeilguardApex Legends7 Days to DieBanishers: Ghosts of New EdenDragons Dogma 2Call of Duty: Black Ops 6Avatar: Frontiers of PandoraBotany ManorEA Sports College Football 25Dead Island 2Call of Duty: Black Ops 6Like a Dragon: Infinite WealthEA Sports FC 25Diablo IV: Vessel of HatredDragon Age: The VeilguardLittle Kitty, Big CityF1 Manager 2024EA Sports College Football 25Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZeroLollipop Chainsaw RePopFarming Simulator 25EA Sports FC 25Dragons Dogma 2Metaphor: ReFantazioFinal Fantasy XIV: DawntrailElden Ring Shadow of the ErdtreeEA Sports College Football 25Nobody Wants to DieHouse Flipper 2Fallout 4EA Sports FC 25Persona 3 ReloadLike a Dragon: Infinite WealthFortniteEA Sports Madden NFL 25Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1, 2, 3Metaphor: ReFantazioForza Horizon 5Farming Simulator 25Return to GraceMLB The Show 24Grand Theft Auto OnlineMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024RoundsNBA 2K25Indiana Jones and the Great CircleMLB The Show 24Senuas Saga: Hellblade IINew World: AeternumMarvel RivalsNBA 2K25Shin Megami Tensei V: VengeanceNHL 25MinecraftNHL 25Sonic x Shadow GenerationsPath of Exile 2MLB The Show 24PalworldStill Wakes the DeepShin Megami Tensei V: VengeancePalworldPhasmophobiaThe Lord of the Rings: Return to MoriaSkull and BonesRobloxStar Wars OutlawsThe Outlast TrialsStar Wars OutlawsRocket LeagueThe Lord of the Rings: Return to MoriaUnicorn OverlordWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of ChornobylWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2WWE 2K24Tom Clancys Rainbow Six SiegeWWE 2K24Developers and publishers will receive their trophies shortly, so be on the lookout to see how they celebrate! Thinking of joining the many players that helped these games become award winners? Take a look at our collection of games that have received an Xbox Excellence Award for 2024 on the Xbox Store.