Some traders made tens of millions off a new cryptocurrency launched by President Trump and his sons. Many others lost out.

Efficient long-context inference with LLMs requires managing substantial GPU memory due to the high storage demands of key-value (KV) caching. Traditional KV cache compression techniques reduce memory usage by selectively pruning less significant tokens, often based on attention scores. However, existing methods assess token importance independently, overlooking the crucial dependencies among tokens for preserving semantic coherence. For example, a model may retain key subject-related words while discarding contextually significant terms, leading to information loss. This limitation highlights the need for a more structured approach to KV cache compression that considers token relationships and semantic integrity.Recent research has explored dynamic KV cache compression strategies to optimize memory usage without compromising performance. Methods like H2O and SnapKV employ attention-based evaluation to selectively retain critical tokens while chunking approaches organize text into semantically meaningful segments. Chunking has been widely used in NLP for pre-training and retrieval-based tasks, ensuring contextual consistency. Additionally, layer-wise techniques such as LISA and DoLa enhance model efficiency by leveraging structural insights from different transformer layers. While these advancements improve memory efficiency, incorporating token dependency awareness in KV cache compression can further enhance long-context retention and inference quality in LLMs.Researchers from Hong Kong University introduced ChunkKV, a KV cache compression method that groups tokens into meaningful chunks rather than evaluating them individually. This approach preserves essential semantic information while reducing memory overhead. Additionally, layer-wise index reuse further optimizes computational efficiency. Evaluated on benchmarks like LongBench, Needle-In-A-Haystack, GSM8K, and JailbreakV, ChunkKV demonstrated superior performance, improving accuracy by up to 10% under aggressive compression. Compared to existing methods, ChunkKV effectively retains contextual meaning and enhances efficiency, establishing it as a robust solution for long-context inference in large language models.With the increasing context length of LLMs, KV cache compression is crucial for efficient inference, as it consumes substantial GPU memory. ChunkKV is an approach that retains semantically rich token chunks, reducing memory usage while preserving critical information. It segments tokens into meaningful groups and selects the most informative chunks using attention scores. A layer-wise index reuse method optimizes efficiency by sharing compressed indices across layers. Experimental results show that ChunkKV significantly improves index similarity across layers compared to previous methods like SnapKV. This structured KV retention aligns with in-context learning principles, maintaining semantic coherence while optimizing memory usage.The study evaluates ChunkKVs effectiveness in KV cache compression across two benchmarks: In-Context Learning (ICL) and Long-Context tasks. For ICL, the study tests GSM8K, Many-Shot GSM8K, and JailbreakV using models like LLaMA-3.1-8B-Instruct and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B. ChunkKV consistently outperforms other methods in maintaining accuracy across various compression ratios. For Long-Context, the study assesses LongBench and Needle-In-A-Haystack (NIAH), showing ChunkKVs superior performance preserving crucial information. Additionally, index reuse experiments demonstrate improved efficiency, reducing latency and increasing throughput on an A40 GPU. Overall, results confirm ChunkKVs capability to optimize KV cache compression while maintaining model effectiveness across different contexts and architectures.In conclusion, the study examines the impact of chunk size on ChunkKVs performance, maintaining the same experimental settings as LongBench. Results indicate minimal performance variation across chunk sizes, with 1020 yielding the best outcomes. Extensive evaluations across LongBench and NIAH confirm that a chunk size of 10 optimally balances semantic preservation and compression efficiency. ChunkKV effectively reduces KV cache memory usage while retaining crucial information. Additionally, the layer-wise index reuse technique enhances computational efficiency, reducing latency by 20.7% and improving throughput by 26.5%. These findings establish ChunkKV as an efficient KV cache compression method for deploying LLMs.Check outthePaper.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitterand join ourTelegram ChannelandLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our75k+ ML SubReddit. Recommended Open-Source AI Platform: IntellAgent is a An Open-Source Multi-Agent Framework to Evaluate Complex Conversational AI System (Promoted)The post ChunkKV: Optimizing KV Cache Compression for Efficient Long-Context Inference in LLMs appeared first on MarkTechPost.

The making of The Last Express: How Prince of Persia's Jordan Mechner created one of the last great classic adventure gamesNot your average Mech game.Image credit: MobyGames/Smoking Car Productions Feature by Jonny Malks Contributor Published on Feb. 9, 2025 On 7th September 1993, Jordan Mechner wrote about The Last Express in his journal. What he had to say was surprising given the context of his creative life to date: "Directing a feature film would be easy compared to the job this is going to be.""This" was an adventure game set on the Orient Express at the dawn of World War 1 four days before Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia, to be precise and it would be an interactive experience that would cost Mechner all his savings and the next four years of his life to make. He was embarking on an adventure nearly as perilous as the one undergone by his protagonist Robert Cath in the game, and he appears to have known it.By this time, after developing Karateka and Prince of Persia, Mechner had taken a break from game design to attend film school and had even worked on a short film of his own. But The Last Express would mark a confluence of his interests as a writer, artist, filmmaker, and game designer. So, why go back to games? Why not tell his thrilling train story via a movie or comic book?Watch on YouTubeI recently sat down with Mechner to discuss these questions, and he recalls his transition from game making to studying film in the early 90s: "It was the chance of doing a different kind of game that drew me back into game design at a moment when I had otherwise been taking a break from games and going to film school. After Prince of Persia, I left San Francisco. I went back to New York. I learned 16-millimeter filmmaking. This is 1991 technology. I was also supervising Prince of Persia 2, and then I'd moved to Paris and made a short film in Cuba that summer. That was when the idea for The Last Express came together."That move to Paris is when Mechner first encountered the world of European graphic novels, specifically Italian creator Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese series, which got him thinking about cinematic experiences in comic book form. A video game seemed like a natural meeting point for the two mediums. One that Mechner couldn't help but explore."I realised that technology had advanced enough that I could make a game that would actually scratch that itch," Mechner says, "to tell a deeper story with more sophisticated themes and dialogue and working with actors while using cinematic techniques. I thought: 'Instead of making a film, why not make a game that's cinematic?' And I realised that I could actually have more resources and more creative control and use a more ambitious canvas with a game in 1993 than I could as a first-time feature filmmaker." The rotoscoping process was painstaking, but created an art style that holds up to this day, even in a 25 year-old game. | Image credit: Jordan MechnerHe founded Smoking Car Productions that same year and started staffing up to make his vision a reality. He had to hire programmers, artists, and designers, in addition to historical contractors and his co-writer on the project, friend and former colleague Tomi Pierce. All of this while starting the creative work, directing shoots for the game's ambitious rotoscoped animation, and fundraising to keep the whole operation afloat. Mechner says it was like balancing three full-time jobs."It was completely all-consuming because I was interested especially in the cinematic and storytelling aspects of the game. I actually wrote all the dialogue and directed the actors in the voice recording, did the casting and directed the film shoot myself, whereas obviously that was a full-time job in itself which kind of meant putting everything else on hold for the three weeks when we did that film shoot. It was very intense."Still, if theres one thing Mechner's proven to us over his forty-plus years of auteurship, it's that he's an expert at turning his visions into world-expanding realities. He pressed forward and, with the help of his writing partner Pierce, dove head-first into The Last Express' boldest promise: to create a story in which NPCs have lives of their own. The actors were made-up and filmed from various angles. Then, Mechner and his team created and processed over 40,000 frames of animation. | Image credit: Jordan MechnerTo pull off this particular magic trick, Mechner and Pierce mapped out the game's broad story beats. In case you're unfamiliar with the story of The Last Express, the protagonist and American adventurer Robert Cath boards the Orient Express via a daring motorcycle stunt to track down his friend, Tyler Whitney. However, when Cath finds Whitney dead in his compartment, he is forced to assume his friend's identity and finish the job he started, which culminates in the discovery of a strange artifact and an investigation into the powers it contains. When the outline of the plot was finalised, Mechner took this plan and wrote dialogue for each of the thirty characters, mapping their actions to a master schedule, and collaborating with Smoking Car's coding team to bring the story to life."We basically had to specify everything that they would do on a timeline, from the time the train leaves the station to the end over the three days and three nights of the trip," he says. "So, I kind of wrote it in a pseudo-code and then gave it to the programmers. They coded it, but they were just down the hall, so they would come back to me and ask for clarification and so forth. It was really quite detailed, trying to anticipate every possible encounter and then find these opportunities to use little moments of action and dialogue. Some of them are critical to advance the plot, others are not, but they still fill out the story." Image credit: Smoking Car Productions Image credit: Jordan Mechner Mechner and his team chose actors with distinct physiognomy to make sure each rotoscoped scene could be compiled to full effect.But while the story takes place aboard the Orient Express and concerns the unraveling of a high-stakes mystery, Mechner doesnt claim Agatha Christie's foundational piece of detective fiction Murder on the Orient Express as an influence. In fact, he says, "the real models" for The Last Express were old Alfred Hitchcock films and Indiana Jones rather than Christie's novel, citing North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, and The Lady Vanishes as particular touchstones. "The film The Third Man about an American in Europe was a big one" as well, he says, along with John Huston's The Maltese Falcon. This makes sense, given Mechner's obvious love for classic films and the craft of movie-making. However, it came as a bit of a shock to me. Mechner chuckles when I admit this to him."I probably walked into that one," he says. "Like, I asked for it by calling it the Orient Express because that story is so famous. But Christie's version is a locked room murder mystery. It just happens to be on a stopped train. Whereas, in The Last Express, it's a train that's moving. It crosses Europe, and then by the end, it becomes a runaway train. There's a hijacking. You're fighting the hijackers, trying to save the train, and, of course, war is breaking out around you."When he puts it that way, it's easy to see the game's actual inspirations shine through. "I was also heavily influenced by European graphic novels," Mechner continues. "This was 1993. I was an American who loved comics but didn't know this whole other universe. I had just discovered Hugo Pratt, and Corto Maltese was one of the main, one-to-one influences when it came to the game. Corto Maltese was the hero of a series of graphic novels that are much loved in France, not really known in the US so much, but he travels and goes on adventures in the early 20th century, often getting mixed up in revolutions and historical events. So, I think maybe kind of a mix of Corto Maltese, Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, The Third Man that was really the model." Creating the suggestion of movement in action scenes like the one depicted here was but one of The Last Express' many magic tricks. | Image credit: Jordan MechnerOne of the more fascinating ways that Mechner's influences bleed through in his game is in his desire to develop an emotional response in the player that goes beyond the typical "good guys versus bad guys" trope that a lot of mainstream media was falling into at the time. Again, his commitment to screenwriting and film drew him toward complex characters, like the ones he studied so intently in his favorite movies."What's interesting about adventure stories, like The Third Man or a Hitchcock film, is the ambiguity, the nuance, the irony," he says. "So, there was all of the opportunity to do that in a story about a naive American trying to get involved in this very complex European situation with the espionage and different factions on the eve of World War I and trying to do good. It's a very interesting and rich historical period. And I think that to tell a story like that, an author has to embrace complexity and multiple points of view."Indeed, understanding The Last Express' plot in full requires a fairly in-depth knowledge of European politics and perception leading up to the war, as much of the game's conflict is driven by the heightened tensions that existed between national interests during this time. However, when I first played it with my dad at age 12, I knew next to nothing about the time period and still had a great time. This speaks to Mechner's writing and vision for the game, in addition to its superb voiceover, acting, and art style, which all hold up to this day. That's pretty amazing considering the fact that it's been nearly 25 years since The Last Express hit store shelves in 1997. Actors were filmed on-set and then drawn directly into the game with proprietary software. | Image credit: Jordan MechnerStill, to make sure that audiences could engage enthusiastically with the story he was endeavoring to tell, Mechner had to be meticulous with his vision. He knew he wanted to push rotoscoping the act of drawing over live footage to create animated key frames to its limit. However, staying away from the look of other full-motion video (FMV) games of the 90s would be key to making sure his story stood the test of time."I wanted to get away from the digitized video FMV look of the 90s for several reasons," he tells me. "First, I just thought it was ugly. I also thought there was something about full motion video that kind of worked against the illusion of interactivity. Because the minute that you realize that you're watching actors who've been filmed, you kind of sit back and just watch the video play because that's a cue that you can't do anything that's going to cause the characters to act differently."Mechner had used rotoscoping to great effect in Karateka and Prince of Persia to rig and animate a small figure with an emphasis on action platforming. But The Last Express would be entirely different. In order to achieve his desired look for the game, Mechner decided to rotoscope each character in much greater detail, including close-ups of their faces and the natural movements of their bodies in all sorts of situations, from eating in the dining car to jumping through the window of a moving train. It was a gargantuan effort, and Mechner directed it all from start to finish. Mechner chronicles some of his research for The Last Express in his 2024 graphic memoir Replay. Above, Mechner researches a pre-WW1 train car. Image credit: Macmillan Publishers"It was particularly important to us to capture the nuances of facial expressions and gestures. Everybody has their own way of walking, so that you can recognize them even at a distance. And the faces of the characters are very distinctive - we cast actors who had very specific looks and physiognomy. So, really the idea was to try to do a comic book come-to-life and to also evoke the pen and ink drawings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the French-European art nouveau style that we associate with things like French poster art of the time the Moulin Rouge and so forth."Suffice to say, it worked. In spite of the game's flopping sales at the time of its release, The Last Express still holds its own compared to a lot of modern games, so you can imagine the extent to which it blows its contemporaries out of the water when we look back on them today. Mechner agrees: "FMV games published around the same time as The Last Express looked dated two years later, whereas our game though it's 25 years old in a way it hasn't aged. The resolution is low, and you can see that, but artistically I think it still holds up today."The game's story also has legs, and Mechner spent a year between 2010 and 2011 adapting The Last Express into a feature film with Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. Though it was never made, you can still view the original script that Mechner wrote right here for free. Image credit: Smoking Car ProductionsThroughout our conversation, I get the impression that Mechner is nothing if not humbly generous. He's got a mind full of bright ideas for emerging media, and this more than anything is what allowed him to ride the cutting edge of video games all the way to successful careers in the fields of game design, screenwriting, and graphic novel creation. He lives the art life to this day in France and still looks back fondly on the entire undertaking that was The Last Express."Yeah, we really swung for the fences," Mechner says. "I'm very proud that the story and characters work. That, even though it was very ambitious in its scope and its themes, I think it really comes across and players appreciate that. I still get people telling me today how much the game meant to them and that it was an experience unlike any other they had."I'm one of those very people. The Last Express was my first memorable video game experience. Playing it on the couch on my father's iPad during the holidays spawned a life of writing and thinking about interactive media. That's the power that a well-rendered story can contain, and Mechner has dedicated his own life to the art of harnessing this force.

BlenderKit 3.14.0 is here By Vilem Duha on February 9, 2025 Add-ons The newest version of our huge the BlenderKit 3D asset library focuses on automatic port switching, improved compatibility with the latest Blender alphas, better brush handling, and more responsive polling intervals.Improvements Brush Appending ImprovementsResolved compatibility problems with brushes from pre-Blender 3.5, ensuring they work correctly in Blender 4.3, 4.4-alpha, and beyond. Automatic Client Port SwitchingThe add-on now attempts different ports when the Client fails to start on the default one, eliminating manual port changes in Preferences. Blender 4.4.0-alpha CompatibilityFixed issues where the Asset Bar, drag-and-drop, and disclaimers were not functioning in Blender 4.4.0-alpha, ensuring a seamless experience even in cutting-edge Blender builds. Better ThumbnailsThumbnails with alpha channels are now handled more gracefully in the asset detail window, resolving the problem with sometimes glitchy thumbnail previews. Configurable Client Polling IntervalThe add-on now polls the Client more frequentlyevery 200ms by default instead of 500msmaking searches and online interactions snappier. If you encounter timeouts or find this too CPU-intensive, adjust the polling interval in the add-on preferences to suit your needs.See all updates and have a ball:-)

Automakers Sue To Kill Maines Hugely Popular Right To Repair Lawfrom the good-intentions,-hot-messes deptFri, Feb 7th 2025 02:25pm - Karl BodeA little over a year ago, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly (83 percent) topass a new state right to repair lawdesigned to make auto repairs easier and more affordable. More specifically, the law requires that automakers standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical datato consumers and third-party independent repair shops.But as weve seen with other states that have passed right to reform laws (most notably New York), passing the law isnt the end of the story. Corporate lobbyists have had great success not just watering these laws downbeforepassage, butaftervoters approve them. Theyve also been swarmed by coordinated industry lawsuits and falsehood-spewing attacks.Maines popular right to repair law just took effect after a year of hashing out the fine details, but the bills still being changed as the state tries to sort out enforcement. Large automakers have been looming over that process to try and weaken the law. But the Alliance For Automotive Innovation also just filed a new lawsuit saying the law isnt fully cooked and therefore violates the law:This is an example of putting the cart before the horse. Before automakers can comply, the law requires the attorney general to first establish an independent entity to securely administer access to vehicle data. The independent entity hasnt been established. Thats not in dispute. Compliance with the law right now is not possible.The group is correct that Maines right to repair law isnt fully cooked yet. What they dont say is theyre one of the reasons the law isnt fully cooked. Or that they oppose the popular law either way. The groups statement makes some false claims that the law wasnt necessary because the freedom to repair your own vehicle already exists. Thats simply not true, and its important to remind folks that the auto industry has some of the worst privacy and security ratings of any tech-based industry. Automakers also routinely falsely claim that right to repair laws are a threat to consumer privacy and security. Mainesoriginal and vague lawrequires manufacturers to give car owners, independent repair shops, and licensed dealers transparent access to vehicle data for repair and diagnostic purposes. It also demanded the creation of aMaine Automotive Right to Repair Working Groupto determine the contours of the law and help build an independent entity to govern vehicle data transmitted to independent repair shops.That process has been a mess, in part, because the original law was vague. But also because auto lobbyists have been applying constant pressure to weaken the law. And because crafting a useful law, with functional privacy measures, that automakers cant just tap dance around, simply isnt easy. So yes, the law is unfinished. Its also not being actually enforced. Once Maines law is finally fully cooked, assumingit has any actual teeth left by that point, consistent enforcement becomes another issue. In all of the states where new right to repair laws have been passed, most corporationsare simply ignoring the laws. Im not sure Ive seen a single enforcement action yet in any of the eleven states that have passed various right to repair protections.Now, with Trumpisms assault on everything throwing state courts into absolute chaos on subjects ranging from immigration to public safety, I suspect enforcement of extremely popular right to repair laws wont be at the top of the priority list for cash-strapped states.

Image: Nintendo LifeHello dearest pals, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!Before we dive into this week's battle, let's see how things panned out last time. The lovely Jim took the opportunity to crank out a few LotR quotes with a look at the GBA version of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Unsurprisingly, the Western design absolutely crushed it with 90% of the vote. Sheesh... Normally Japan provides us with some rather tasty box art designs, but this one was a bit naff, right?This week, to celebrate the upcoming addition of Wario Land 4 to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack (which, sadly, has the same box art design across all regions bar the added landscape orientation in Japan), we're going to be looking at the rather lovely GameCube entry titled Wario World.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube795kWatch on YouTube Developed by Treasure, of all teams, and released in 2004, Wario World took the series in a new direction that kind of, sort of worked. It was very much one of those "good, but not great" games, but it's certainly got its fans, including us.It's another Duel this week, and we've a feeling this will be quite a close one. The Western design is rather tasty, but we had no idea just how flashy the Japanese box art was. Ooof. The perfect Valentine's Day giftWish you weren't hereBe sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.North America / EuropeImage: Nintendo / LaunchboxAw, just look at that lovable oaf.Yes, here we can see Wario gleefully chucking a bunch of coins up in the air as he basks in the glory of his treasure haul. It's a simple, straightforward image, but an impactful one nonetheless, and we love how Wario's pose works in tandem with the game's logo too. Lovely stuff.JapanImage: Nintendo / LaunchboxJapan's approach simply couldn't be more different, and utilises a golden composition not entirely dissimilar to that of Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii. You've got Wario in the centre with the words "Powerful Wario Game 2004" surrounding his head, while the Wario World logo sits comfortably below.We love how the golden design extends to the GameCube logo at the top too.Which region got the best Wario World box art? (68 votes)North America / Europe53%Japan47%Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch Games... and the Switch 2!Opinion: With Forecasts Slashed (Again), Absolutely Everyone's Antsy For Switch 2 ASAPSobering sales, analyst angst, obvious answerTalking Point: Where Should 'Luigi's Mansion 4' Take Place?"M-M-M-Maaaaario?"Opinion: Miiverse Was Fine, But Does Anybody Really Want It Back In 2025?Stuck in Miiverse

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - JANUARY 26: The Alpine ski resort of Davos where the World Economic Forum is ... [+] taking place January 26, 2008 in Davos, Switzerland. Some of the World's top business people, heads of state and representatives of NGOs will meet at the forum until Sunday. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)Getty ImagesIts still January, and theres already been quite a lot of discourse in and around MIT about the state of technology right now.Breaking news includes this concern about DeepSeeks new model and how it affects the U.S. tech industry. Theres also quite a lot of talk about AI models themselves, and how they integrate into our lives. Most of us expect 2025 to be a banner year for artificial intelligence technology.Here are four aspects of AI that many of our educators and presenters are talking about at MIT events and elsewhere.The Universality of AIOne of the points that speakers and prisoners keep driving home is that AI is changing all industries and all parts of life. Its not just one narrow transformation that happens with an innovation like, well, sliced bread, or even the telephone, which was arguably a broad communications upgrade. AI is different in that it is likely to be a universal labor-saver, especially when paired with dexterous robotics.In these ways, AI is likely to penetrate all of the processes that contribute to enterprise and human relationships. So we can expect this sea change to be rather large and all-encompassing. Contrast it to something like cloud computing, which was transformative to business, but not so disruptive to business as usual every single day, as the technology evolved. Its one thing to be able to send data off-premises: yes, it can be applied to almost any type of business. But its a whole other thing to have technologies able to cogitate and converse like humans. We havent yet really plumbed the capabilities of artificial intelligence, and it will undoubtedly take a while.Its a good idea for us to think about how we will integrate these technologies into our lives this year, and in the years to come.Quotes from the recent IIA event:MORE FOR YOUAI will influence all aspects of life - Yossi MatiasThe power of connecting everythingWe are at an extraordinary moment in the time of reengagementThe improvement is not just about connecting more data; we want things to work autonomously. - Cyril PerducatWe have introduced a creature more powerful than us that competes with us and that has emerging capabilities which designers dont understand - Yoshua Bengio and Dawn SongThe Need For Data OwnershipThis is another one thats a big deal for people who are looking at the state of the industry today.Simply put, it comes down to who owns the data in question. LLMs are trained on human data of some kind. That might be a general survey of the web, or specific proprietary data sets from publishers or other companies. It might even consist of peoples private data data about how they do their jobs, data about how they shop or live, data about their demographics.So its important that people own their own data. Its important that the people who own data profit from it, and that information is not just stolen to feed corporate products.Quotes from the recent IIA event:There is a whole new renaissance coming in creativity. It is exciting to be creative at this moment. We are living in the wild, wild westWho is the sheriff?...We need to protect individuals and creatives...Every person on earth needs to have their data protected, just like credit is. Will.i.amI want an AI that works for me. - Tim Berners-leeThe Threat of Job DisplacementAnother major concern is the phenomenon of AI taking over from human labor, and costing our societies jobs. We know that theres always been a push to create jobs in order to keep people employed. Sometimes it seems like that system is breaking down, and we have a serious threat from automation, a threat to our livelihoods. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to think this through, and come up with solutions.Quotes from the recent IIA event:39% of skills or tasks might get automated in the next five yearsEvery individuals needs to think about how they might get displaced - Jeremy WerthimerAI changes the calculus of global competitionThe geopolitical map is being rewrittenBasic AI will be the foundational skills set. - Keith StrierWill we have a large data divide at the same time as we have an energy divideCan AI left all boats - Mary de WysockiProceed with CautionSome of the above points relate to this one, which is that we need to be deliberate about how we integrate AI.There will be unanticipated side effects of putting these technologies in place anywhere in the business world, or in our personal lives. We have to be cognizant of how AI works, and think about how to interact with it in the most healthy and positive ways.Quotes from the recent IIA event:It is a critical mistake to trade your cognitive capital for cheap goods and services. The scale economies of search are clearYou can never catch someone who is running. We need to move at the rate of calculus not algebra. - John SviokiaI am a cautious optimist if we have enough time. I worry about competitive race dynamics which compress the time and focus less resources on safetyColleagues who say there is nothing to worry about are insaneWe are entering an agentic erabuilding agents is a threshold moment for the system becoming more risky. - Demis HassabisThose are some of the main points that Ive heard talked about as we move into a new year. Look for more while I am involved in bringing you news from the MIT community and the AI industry as a whole.

Paddington returns to deepest, darkest Peru, Idina Menzel hikes back to Broadway in Redwood, videogamers reshape history in Civilization VII, and more.

MathematicsBarcodes contain a checksum an ingenious use of mathematics that even lends itself to a fun way to surprise your friends, says Katie Steckles 5 February 2025 Shutterstock/Scott RothsteinSometimes there are hidden patterns in numbers you might not immediately notice. One example of this is in barcodes, the sequences of digits we use to identify products.Try it yourself find an object with a 13-digit barcode. (If you are in the US, a 12-digit barcode will also work, if you imagine an extra 0 on the front of it.) Books wont work, since they use a slightly different system, but magazines do, so you can use a copy of New Scientist. Add together the first, third, and fifth digits and so on, to get the sum of

I always say that money is a tool we use to shape our lives and the world around us.And I'm not afraid to put some of it toward helping my friends when they're in need.There is no sacred rule that says you can't pay your friend's light bill. I did.During the pandemic, many of my friends hit hard times. One of my oldest friend's mother fell down the stairs and was hospitalized in February 2020. A few months later, another friend broke up with their partner of three years.Because of lockdowns, I was unable to see my friends and offer support in person, which was difficult. It pushed me to search for another solution, and in Spring 2020, I started my "Friend Emergency Fund" savings account.I wanted to help my friends when I couldn't be there in personI work from home as a financial educator and talk about money all day, every day. Even if I couldn't be with my friends physically to comfort them, that didn't mean I couldn't use my money to help them get through these days.For my "Friends Emergency Fund," I transferred about $300 to a new high-yield savings account. My idea was simple: This money would be dedicated to helping my friends and loved ones when they were at their lowest.I spent $80 to send a ham and several side dishes to my friend whose mother was hospitalized, so she didn't have to think about food for a week. I sent $20 to buy pizza one night for my friend going through that breakup.Five years later, I still have this savings account and maintain the balance at $300. It's become a permanent part of my financial life.I've used it off and on throughout the years. Most recently, in January, I used it to send my best friend from college $60 to pay her share of the electric bill. She's recently made a big move to open her own business, and I know money is a stressor.As a financial educator, I teach that money is a tool we use to shape our lives and the world around us. There is no sacred rule that says you can't pay your friend's light bill or use your money to make your loved ones' lives easier where and when you can.I help pay for my friends because I know what money struggles are likeIn my 20s, I lived at the poverty line for a couple of years while struggling to pay off my student loan debt.I'm 36, but I have never had a full-time salaried job. Instead, I strung together part-time roles before starting my own business. This has meant that, for most of my life, money was something that was painful in my life. I know what it feels like to not have enough of it to feel secure.Now that I am finally secure, I want to use my money to smooth other people's paths. This account has helped me do that and had a surprising reach.When I first shared that I had started this account in 2020, my social media followers were enthusiastic about it, with several sharing that they would start doing the same thing. And when I shared about it again more recently many people said that this was how money was meant to be used.I've been touched by the positive response it's gotten online, and I hope more people will consider creating one of their own.