HP is acquiring parts of Humane's business for $116 million.Humane said it was discontinuing its AI Pin "effective immediately."The company said the devices will stop connecting to their servers at the end of the month.AI startup Humane said on Tuesday that it was discontinuing its AI Pin and selling parts of its business to HP for $116 million.The transaction, which is expected to close at the end of February, will see HP acquire Humane's employees, software, patents, and patent applications, Humane said in a statement on Tuesday.Humane said on the same day that it would be discontinuing the AI Pin "effective immediately." The company said in an update on its website that it was also halting device sales."Your AI Pin will continue to function normally until 12 p.m. PST on February 28, 2025," the company wrote in its update, adding that the devices will stop connecting to its servers thereafter.Humane said in a separate FAQ on the AI Pin that it will offer refunds to customers whose devices were "shipped on or after November 15th, 2024." All refund requests must be submitted by February 27, the company added.Following the acquisition, Humane's employees and co-founders, Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri will become a part of HP's new AI innovation lab, HP IQ. Bongiorno and Chaudhri, who are married to each other, were longtime Apple employees before they left to start Humane in 2019.The new division will be "focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP's products and services for the future of work," HP said in a statement on Tuesday.Representatives for Humane and HP did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.Launched in November 2023, the AI Pin was Humane's first product. Humane pitched the pin as an AI personal assistant to customers. Besides taking calls and answering texts through voice commands, users could also interact with the pin via its laser-projected display.The AI Pin was included in Time magazine's list of best inventions in October 2023, and was hotly anticipated even before its debut.However, the AI Pin was hit with negative reviews over its design and features. In October, Humane lowered the price of the AI Pin from $699 to $499.When asked about the criticisms surrounding the AI Pin, Bongiorno and Chaudhri said in a statement to BI in April that it was only the "beginning of the story.""We have an ambitious road map with software refinements, new features, additional partnerships, and our SDK," Humane's co-founders said. "All of this will enable your AI Pin to become smarter and more powerful over time."

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Theres a new king in town if the town youre talking about is the Egyptian jungle 30 million years ago.Paleontologists unearthed a nearly complete skull of an apex predator, which likely hunted early versions of primates, hippos, and elephants in what is now a desert. The skull included sharp teeth and signs of powerful jaw muscles. The scientists described it as having a hypercarniverous diet in recent study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.The leopard-like animal skull was found in the Fayum Depression. Paleontologists digging in that area have so far unearthed fossils covering about 15 million years of mammalian evolution.Learning About a New PredatorThe team, who go by the name Sallam Lab, were conducting a general dig, working on rocks dating back 30 million years, when one member spotted a large set of teeth protruding from the ground.His excited shout brought the team together, marking the beginning of an extraordinary discovery: a nearly complete skull of an ancient apex carnivore, a dream for any vertebrate paleontologist, lead author Shorouq Al-Ashqar, from Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo, said in a press release. Nodding to Ancient EgyptThe team named the specimen Bastetodon, after the cat-headed ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet. The name gives nods to two sources. The first half of the name recognizes the region, which has produced many Ancient Egyptian artifacts. The suffix '-odon means tooth and refers, of course to the big cats carnivorous nature.Bastetodon fits within a category of carnivorous mammals known as hyaenodonts. This group evolved long before contemporary carnivores like cats, dogs, and hyenas. They hunted with their hyena-like teeth after the dinosaurs went extinct. The find has also triggered the team to re-evaluate another group of hyaenodonts. Researchers found fossils of these lion-sized creatures in the same area about 120 years ago.In their paper, the team coined the genus Sekhmetops to describe those old bones and to pay homage to Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Egyptian mythology (-ops means face). The team that first found, Sekhmetops in 1904 categorized it as belonging with a group of European hyaenodonts. The current team showed that similarities between Bastetodon and Sekhmetops placed them both in a group of hyaenodonts that originated in Africa.Out of AfricaThe paper details how relatives of those two creatures spread in waves to Asia, Europe, India, and North America. Over time, the groups relatives became some of the largest meat-eating mammals on the planet.Eventually climate and tectonic changes helped introduce relatives of modern cats, dogs, and hyenas. Over time, hyaenodonts diversity diminished until the genus reached extinction and they only existed as fossils.For animals, it may be good to be king. For paleontologists, it may be better to unearth an ancient one.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Cranial anatomy of the hypercarnivore Bastetodon syrtos gen. nov. (Hyaenodonta, Hyainailourinae) and a reevaluation of Pterodon in AfricaBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00503-7The virus is related to the pathogen that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome and capitalizes on the same entry receptor used by SARS-CoV-2.

Nature, Published online: 17 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00516-2A new theory on how intelligent life evolved on Earth. Plus, the dark side of the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA.

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Over the past few hours, dozens of headlines have emerged online about significant layoffs at NetEase Games, the developer behind the blockbuster third-person hero-shooter Marvel Rivals, that, according to some reports, affected a bunch of the games developers.While its always unfortunate when talented developers lose their jobs without warning even more so when the game projects they worked on were successful, profitable, and beloved by the gaming community the true scale of the layoffs has been somewhat distorted by sensationalist reporting, with some articles suggesting uncertainty about the future of Marvel Rivals as a whole. So today, lets do our best to separate facts from fiction and assess what actually happened at NetEase earlier this week.NetEaseThe news first broke when the community noticed a series of LinkedIn posts from developers at NetEases US office stating that their entire team had been terminated in one fell swoop, with the most notable of these being a post made by Marvel Rivals Game Director Thaddeus Sasser, who was also laid off. This is such a weird industry My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games and were just laid off, Sasser wrote.As I mentioned above, it didnt take long for the announcement to become the topic of the day, with numerous outlets reporting on the layoffs and, understandably, pointing out the contrast between Marvel Rivals immense success 310,000 players on Steam alone at the time of writing and the studio cutting its Game Director, of all people. However, in the following hours, various clarifications surfaced online, painting a clearer picture of the situation and showing that while most reports correctly stated that NetEase had a round of layoffs, their actual scope was exaggerated.Firstly, according to Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, this round of layoffs has only affected the team in the US, while the core development team in Guangzhou, China has not been impacted. Allegedly, the terminations are part of a broader reconsideration of NetEases overseas investments and studios, and while this decision is undeniably a bad look for the company, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on Marvel Rivals as a whole.Regarding Sassers role as Rivals Game Director, in VideoGamers podcast from November 2024, first spotted by Mark Kern, Sasser himself highlighted the distinction between the Game Director and the Creative Director, pointing out that the main creative mind behind Marvel Rivals was Guangyun Chen, while his own role focused on manpower and budgets. With that in mind, it seems that while Sassers departure may impact the production side of things, it is unlikely to be felt by players, as Guangyun Chen will continue to serve as the face of the game.Lastly, concerning the true scope of the layoffs, according to Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Second Wind Nick Calandra, NetEases latest round of eliminations only affected a total of six individuals the entire American Division for Marvel Rivals. For comparison, NetEase Games About page on LinkedIn states that the company has over 10,000 people under its employ, meaning that in terms of numbers (only numbers, not necessarily impact), the layoffs barely made a dent. However, its no secret that a headline like NetEase fires the entire US branch, including Marvel Rivals Game Director would attract far more clicks than NetEase lays off six developers, which explains why the situation was blown out of proportion.As it stands, the only puzzling aspect of all this is the exact reason why NetEase decided to cut the developers when Marvel Rivals is still widely popular and remains one of the most played games at the moment. 80 Level has contacted the NetEase team to find out the reason and will provide an update once a response is received.Dont forget to join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Marvel Rivals Recent Layoffs Affected 6 People From NetEases US Office appeared first on CG SHARES.

Overwatch 2 Season 15, Honor and Glory, is now live with the release of the game's latest update, bringing with it a huge change to how it is played: Perks. It also sees the return of loot boxes, updates to Overwatch 2's competitive mode, and more. You can see the full patch notes below.The addition of Perks is by far the biggest feature of Season 15. There are basically no balance changes, aside from the game-altering addition of four perks for each hero. Over the course of a match, players will earn XP from dealing damage, earning eliminations, and healing allies. As players level up, they'll get to choose between one of two minor Perks at level two and one of two Major Perks at level three. Minor Perks augment existing abilities in smaller ways, while Major Perks are designed to be a game-changing moment that can massively change how an ability works or even grant a hero an entirely new one. Blizzard says the feature will add more player choice and strategy to matches. For a full breakdown of all the new Perk abilities for each hero, check out the patch notes at the bottom of this article.Continue Reading at GameSpot

NetEase has released the first look at The Thing gameplay in Marvel Rivals, the latest Vanguard joining the hero shooter roster. The Thing arrives alongside Human Torch on February 21 and will be free-to-play, just like all current and future heroes.The new trailer shows off The Thing's abilities as a tank, which mostly involve clobbering enemies. His main attack combo is a series of punches, and he has a more powerful punch with better range as an ability. The Thing can also sprint, knocking enemies up in his path and finishing with a powerful ground pound.The Thing also has a support-focused ability, which allows him to leap to a nearby teammate, giving himself bonus health when he reaches them. The bonus health comes from rocks that float around The Thing and give bonus health when destroyed by enemies. This was paired with his team-up with Wolverine, which allows him to throw Wolverine as part of the fastball special, a team-up already in the game with Hulk. His ultimate is a large ground pound, which deals damage in an outward cone, knocking up enemies hit, leaving them vulnerable to other attacks.Continue Reading at GameSpot