Reddit temporarily banned a popular community after users threatened staffers at Elon Musk's DOGE.Musk said the members of r/WhitePeopleTwitter had "broken the law."The subreddit is now back with new rules and limited comments.A Reddit community banned after its members threatened staffers at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is back online.Reddit shut down r/WhitePeopleTwitter beginning February 4 after Musk reposted a screenshot from an X account called "Reddit Lies."The screenshots showed members of the subreddit discussing the identities of some of Musk's DOGE staffers. Some of the comments threatened violence. Musk, in his X post, said the Reddit users had "broken the law."The subreddit had been inaccessible to the public for two weeks before it returned earlier this week. While the public can again post, the comment section remains locked.The community's moderators have also introduced new rules, like no harassment or bullying and no violence "even as a joke." The moderators also recommend its users "attack ideas, not people."The r/WhitePeopleTwitter forum is known for sharing humorous or political posts from X, which was known as Twitter before Musk bought the company and rebranded it. In their post announcing the community's reopening, its moderators said the forum has "always been a home for sharp, funny, and insightful social commentary.""We believe Reddit has our back on the external stuff, so we need YOU to help us keep things smooth inside," the moderators said. "By following the rules and reporting violations, we can keep this place thriving."Its members had been critical of DOGE's attempts to access Treasury Department payment systems and other critical data, including the Social Security information of millions of Americans. A federal judge approved a Treasury Department plan on February 6 that prevents sharing personal financial data with DOGE.In an earlier statement, Reddit said it wants its communities to be places for "civil discussion" and "one of the few places online where people can exchange ideas and perspectives.""We want to ensure that they continue to be a place for healthy debate no matter the topic," the company said. "Debate and dissent are welcome on Reddit threats and doxxing are not."Reddit said it takes steps before banning individual communities. When the company discovers a subreddit with "rule-violating" content, like promoting violence, it first contacts its volunteer moderators and places pop-up reminders for the community to follow the rules.Threats against DOGE workers continued on r/WhitePeopleTwitter, however, triggering the ban, the company said. The company called the ban a "cool-down period" and said it would work with moderators to ensure the community is "a safe place for discussion."Musk himself has been critical of moderation online, styling himself a free speech activist. He drastically reduced moderation on X after buying the social media company in 2022."Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," he said in a post at the time.Tensions between Reddit users and Musk grew after the moderators of over 100 subreddits recently moved to ban links to X after Musk's speech at President Donald Trump's inauguration, where he made a gesture that some interpreted as a fascist salute.

Oct 11, 2024Sigal SamuelAI companies are trying to build god. Shouldnt they get our permission first?Getty ImagesAI companies are on a mission to radically change our world. Theyre working on building machines that could outstrip human intelligence and unleash a dramatic economic transformation on us all. Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, has basically told us hes trying to build a god or magic intelligence in the sky, as he puts it. OpenAIs official term for this is artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Altman says that AGI will not only break capitalism but also that its probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity. Read Article >Sep 29, 2024Sigal Samuel, Kelsey Piperand1 moreCalifornias governor has vetoed a historic AI safety billCalifornia Gov.Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference with the California Highway Patrol announcing new efforts to boost public safety in the East Bay, in Oakland, California, July 11, 2024. Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesAdvocates said it would be a modest law setting clear, predictable, common-sense safety standards for artificial intelligence. Opponents argued it was a dangerous and arrogant step that will stifle innovation.In any event, SB 1047 California state Sen. Scott Wieners proposal to regulate advanced AI models offered by companies doing business in the state is now kaput, vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The proposal had garnered wide support in the legislature, passing the California State Assembly by a margin of 48 to 16 in August. Back in May, it passed the Senate by 32 to 1.Read Article >Sep 26, 2024Sigal SamuelOpenAI as we knew it is deadSam Altman. Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua via Getty ImagesOpenAI, the company that brought you ChatGPT, just sold you out.Since its founding in 2015, its leaders have said their top priority is making sure artificial intelligence is developed safely and beneficially. Theyve touted the companys unusual corporate structure as a way of proving the purity of its motives. OpenAI was a nonprofit controlled not by its CEO or by its shareholders, but by a board with a single mission: keep humanity safe.Read Article >Sep 14, 2024Sigal SamuelThe new follow-up to ChatGPT is scarily good at deceptionMarharyta Pavliuk/Getty ImagesOpenAI, the company that brought you ChatGPT, is trying something different. Its newly released AI system isnt just designed to spit out quick answers to your questions, its designed to think or reason before responding. The result is a product officially called o1 but nicknamed Strawberry that can solve tricky logic puzzles, ace math tests, and write code for new video games. All of which is pretty cool. Read Article >Aug 18, 2024Sigal SamuelPeople are falling in love with and getting addicted to AI voicesGetty ImagesThis is our last day together. Its something you might say to a lover as a whirlwind romance comes to an end. But could you ever imagine saying it to software? Read Article >Aug 5, 2024Sigal SamuelIts practically impossible to run a big AI company ethicallyGetty Images for Amazon Web ServAnthropic was supposed to be the good AI company. The ethical one. The safe one.It was supposed to be different from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. In fact, all of Anthropics founders once worked at OpenAI but quit in part because of differences over safety culture there, and moved to spin up their own company that would build AI more responsibly. Read Article >Jul 19, 2024Sigal SamuelTraveling this summer? Maybe dont let the airport scan your face.Passengers enter the departure hall through face recognition at Xiaoshan International Airport in China in 2022. Future Publishing via Getty ImagesHeres something Im embarrassed to admit: Even though Ive been reporting on the problems with facial recognition for half a dozen years, I have allowed my face to be scanned at airports. Not once. Not twice. Many times. There are lots of reasons for that. For one thing, traveling is stressful. I feel time pressure to make it to my gate quickly and social pressure not to hold up long lines. (This alone makes it feel like Im not truly consenting to the face scans so much as being coerced into them.) Plus, Im always getting randomly selected for additional screenings, maybe because of my Middle Eastern background. So I get nervous about doing anything that might lead to extra delays or interrogations.Read Article >Jun 5, 2024Sigal SamuelOpenAI insiders are demanding a right to warn the publicSam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesEmployees from some of the worlds leading AI companies published an unusual proposal on Tuesday, demanding that the companies grant them a right to warn about advanced artificial intelligence. Whom do they want to warn? You. The public. Anyone who will listen. Read Article >May 22, 2024Sigal SamuelThe double sexism of ChatGPTs flirty Her voiceScarlett Johansson attends the Clooney Foundation for Justices 2023 Albie Awards on September 28, 2023 in New York City. Getty ImagesIf a guy told you his favorite sci-fi movie is Her, then released an AI chatbot with a voice that sounds uncannily like the voice from Her, then tweeted the single word her moments after the release what would you conclude?Its reasonable to conclude that the AIs voice is heavily inspired by Her. Read Article >May 18, 2024Sigal SamuelI lost trust: Why the OpenAI team in charge of safeguarding humanity implodedSam Altman is the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which has been losing its most safety-focused researchers. Joel Saget/AFP via Getty ImagesEditors note, May 18, 2024, 7:30 pm ET: This story has been updated to reflect OpenAI CEO Sam Altmans tweet on Saturday afternoon that the company was in the process of changing its offboarding documents.For months, OpenAI has been losing employees who care deeply about making sure AI is safe. Now, the company is positively hemorrhaging them.Read Article >May 8, 2024Sigal SamuelSome say AI will make war more humane. Israels war in Gaza shows the opposite.A December 2023 photo shows a Palestinian girl injured as a result of the Israeli bombing on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Saher Alghorra/Middle East images/AFP via Getty ImagesIsrael has reportedly been using AI to guide its war in Gaza and treating its decisions almost as gospel. In fact, one of the AI systems being used is literally called The Gospel.According to a major investigation published last month by the Israeli outlet +972 Magazine, Israel has been relying on AI to decide whom to target for killing, with humans playing an alarmingly small role in the decision-making, especially in the early stages of the war. The investigation, which builds on a previous expos by the same outlet, describes three AI systems working in concert. Read Article >Mar 21, 2024Sigal SamuelElon Musk wants to merge humans with AI. How many brains will be damaged along the way?Xinmei Liu for VoxOf all Elon Musks exploits the Tesla cars, the SpaceX rockets, the Twitter takeover, the plans to colonize Mars his secretive brain chip company Neuralink may be the most dangerous.What is Neuralink for? In the short term, its for helping people with paralysis people like Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old who demonstrated in a livestream this week that he can now move a computer cursor using just the power of his mind after becoming the first patient to receive a Neuralink implant. Read Article >Jan 18, 2024Adam Clark EstesHow copyright lawsuits could kill OpenAIPolice officers stand outside the New York Times headquarters in New York City. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesIf youre old enough to remember watching the hit kids show Animaniacs, you probably remember Napster, too. The peer-to-peer file-sharing site, which made it easy to download music for free in an era before Spotify and Apple Music, took college campuses by storm in the late 1990s. This did not escape the notice of the record companies, and in 2001, a federal court ruled that Napster was liable for copyright infringement. The content producers fought back against the technology platform and won. But that was 2001 before the iPhone, before YouTube, and before generative AI. This generations big copyright battle is pitting journalists against artificially intelligent software that has learned from and can regurgitate their reporting. Read Article >Jan 11, 2024Pranav DixitThere are too many chatbotsPaige Vickers/Vox; Getty ImagesOn Wednesday, OpenAI announced an online storefront called the GPT Store that lets people share custom versions of ChatGPT. Its like an app store for chatbots, except that unlike the apps on your phone, these chatbots can be created by almost anyone with a few simple text prompts. Over the past couple of months, people have created more than 3 million chatbots thanks to the GPT creation tool OpenAI announced in November. At launch, for example, the store features a chatbot that builds websites for you, and a chatbot that searches through a massive database of academic papers. And like the developers for smartphone app stores, the creators of these new chatbots can make money based on how many people use their product. The store is only available to paying ChatGPT subscribers for now, and OpenAI says it will soon start sharing revenue with the chatbot makers. Read Article >Jan 4, 2024Adam Clark EstesYou thought 2023 was a big year for AI? Buckle up.2024 will be the biggest election year in history. Moor Studio/Getty ImagesEvery new year brings with it a gaggle of writers, analysts, and gamblers trying to tell the future. When it comes to tech news, that used to amount to some bloggers guessing what the new iPhone would look like. But in 2024, the technology most people are talking about is not a gadget, but rather an alternate future, one that Silicon Valley insiders say is inevitable. This future is powered by artificial intelligence, and lots of people are predicting that its going to be inescapable in the months to come.That AI will be ascendant is not the only big prediction experts are making for next year. Ive spent the past couple of days reading every list of predictions I can get my hands on, including this very good one from my colleagues at Future Perfect. A few big things show up on most of them: social medias continued fragmentation, Apples mixed-reality goggles, spaceships, and of course AI. Whats interesting to me is that AI also seems to link all these things together in much the same way that the rise of the internet basically connected all of the big predictions of 2004. Read Article >Nov 22, 2023Sigal SamuelOpenAIs board may have been right to fire Sam Altman and to rehire him, tooSam Altman, the poster boy for AI, was ousted from his company OpenAI. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty ImagesThe seismic shake-up at OpenAI involving the firing and, ultimately, the reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman came as a shock to almost everyone. But the truth is, the company was probably always going to reach a breaking point. It was built on a fault line so deep and unstable that eventually, stability would give way to chaos. That fault line was OpenAIs dual mission: to build AI thats smarter than humanity, while also making sure that AI would be safe and beneficial to humanity. Theres an inherent tension between those goals because advanced AI could harm humans in a variety of ways, from entrenching bias to enabling bioterrorism. Now, the tension in OpenAIs mandate appears to have helped precipitate the tech industrys biggest earthquake in decades.Read Article >Sep 19, 2023Sigal SamuelAI thats smarter than humans? Americans say a firm no thank you.Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT. For Altman, the chatbot is just a stepping stone on the way to artificial general intelligence. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMajor AI companies are racing to build superintelligent AI for the benefit of you and me, they say. But did they ever pause to ask whether we actually want that?Americans, by and large, dont want it.Read Article >Sep 19, 2023Sara MorrisonGoogles free AI isnt just for search anymoreGoogles new Bard extensions might get more eyes on its generative AI offerings. Leon Neal/Getty ImagesThe buzz around consumer generative AI has died down since its early 2023 peak, but Google and Microsofts battle for AI supremacy may be heating up again.Both companies are releasing updates to their AI products this week. Googles additions to Bard, its generative AI tool, are live now (but just for English speakers for the time being). They include the ability to integrate Bard into Google apps and use it across any or all of them. Microsoft is set to announce AI innovations on Thursday, though it hasnt said much more than that. Read Article >Aug 18, 2023Sigal SamuelWhat normal Americans not AI companies want for AIGetty ImagesFive months ago, when I published a big piece laying out the case for slowing down AI, it wasnt exactly mainstream to say that we should pump the brakes on this technology. Within the tech industry, it was practically taboo. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has argued that Americans would be foolish to slow down OpenAIs progress. If you are a person of a liberal-democratic country, it is better for you to cheer on the success of OpenAI rather than authoritarian governments, he told the Atlantic. Microsofts Brad Smith has likewise argued that we cant afford to slow down lest China race ahead on AI.Read Article >Jul 21, 2023Sara MorrisonBiden sure seems serious about not letting AI get out of controlPresident Biden is trying to make sure AI companies are being as safe and responsible as they say they are. Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesIn its continuing efforts to try to do something about the barely regulated, potentially world-changing generative AI wave, the Biden administration announced today that seven AI companies have committed to developing products that are safe, secure, and trustworthy.Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are the companies making this voluntary commitment, which doesnt come with any government monitoring or enforcement provisions to ensure that companies are keeping up their end of the bargain and punish them if they arent. It shows how the government is aware of its responsibility to protect citizens from potentially dangerous technology, as well as the limits on what it can actually do.Read Article >Jul 7, 2023Sigal SamuelAI is a tragedy of the commons. Weve got solutions for that.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at an event in Tokyo in June 2023. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty ImagesYouve probably heard AI progress described as a classic arms race. The basic logic is that if you dont race forward on making advanced AI, someone else will probably someone more reckless and less safety-conscious. So, better that you should build a superintelligent machine than let the other guy cross the finish line first! (In American discussions, the other guy is usually China.) But as Ive written before, this isnt an accurate portrayal of the AI situation. Theres no one finish line, because AI is not just one thing with one purpose, like the atomic bomb; its a more general-purpose technology, like electricity. Plus, if your lab takes the time to iron out some AI safety issues, other labs may take those improvements on board, which would benefit everyone.Read Article >Jul 4, 2023Aja RomanoNo, AI cant tell the futureAI oracles are all the rage on TikTok. John Lund/Getty ImagesCan an AI predict your fate? Can it read your life and draw trenchant conclusions about who you are? Hordes of people on TikTok and Snapchat seem to think so. Theyve started using AI filters as fortunetellers and fate predictors, divining everything from the age of their crush to whether their marriage is meant to last.Read Article >Jun 14, 2023Kelsey PiperFour different ways of understanding AI and its risksSam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testifies in Washington, DC, on May 16, 2023. Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua via Getty ImagesI sometimes think of there being two major divides in the world of artificial intelligence. One, of course, is whether the researchers working on advanced AI systems in everything from medicine to science are going to bring about catastrophe. But the other one which may be more important is whether artificial intelligence is a big deal or another ultimately trivial piece of tech that weve somehow developed a societal obsession over. So we have some improved chatbots, goes the skeptical perspective. That wont end our world but neither will it vastly improve it.Read Article >Jun 14, 2023A.W. OhlheiserAI automated discrimination. Heres how to spot it.Xia Gordon for Vox and Capital BPart of the discrimination issue of The Highlight. This story was produced in partnership with Capital B.Say a computer and a human were pitted against each other in a battle for neutrality. Who do you think would win? Plenty of people would bet on the machine. But this is the wrong question. Read Article >Jun 3, 2023Shirin GhaffaryWhat will stop AI from flooding the internet with fake images?CSA Archive / Getty ImagesOn May 22, a fake photo of an explosion at the Pentagon caused chaos online.Within a matter of minutes of being posted, the realistic-looking image spread on Twitter and other social media networks after being retweeted by some popular accounts. Reporters asked government officials all the way up to the White House press office what was going on.Read Article >

We're wary about being swept up in the hype again, but the team at CD Projekt Red is gearing up for a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and one job listing makes it sound as though it'll be bigger in scaleTech16:32, 20 Feb 2025Will the sequel take us back to Night City?(Image: CD Projekt Red)Cyberpunk 2077 was a mess when it first launched, but its subsequent road to redemption has been nothing short of legendary. Not only did the adventure, which stars Keanu Reeves, get so many patches that it became a fantastic RPG, but the Phantom Liberty expansion made it even better and added Idris Elba.The game is popular enough to have one (fantastic) adaptation on Netflix, and there's a live-action project although it won't be coming anytime soon, but we also know a sequel is in development.And, while it's some way off, one job posting has suggested the game is going to be just as ambitious as the first.A Cyberpunk sequel is years away, but we're excited already(Image: Shared Content Unit)Spotted on the developer's job listings (thanks, VGC), the role for 'lead encounter designer' for the Cyberpunk sequel says the successful applicant will "work in close collaboration with the systems design team to create the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date.Despite Night City's size and population, crowds weren't really a big focus in the first game, although you could interact with just about anyone by firing a gun near them. Will this allow for larger groups of people, or deeper interactions? It's hard to say, but given The Witcher 4 is CDPR's current focus, it could be some time before we know more.That's not to say Cyberpunk's sequel is on the back-burner. The company established studios in both Boston and Vancouver to develop the game, with the aims of making the game feel more authentic to an American audience.The game is currently codenamed 'Project Orion, but the studio is working on multiple projects. The first Witcher game is reportedly getting an Unreal Engine 5 remake via Fool's Theory, while the North American team is also working with The Molasses Flood which was acquired in 2021, working on an untitled Witcher game which could have multiplayer. It's dubbed Project Sirius.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

By Isaac Schultz Published February 20, 2025 | Comments (1) | 2024 YR4 as seen by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. Image: ESO/O. Hainaut et al. The potentially hazardous asteroid 2024 YR4 caused consternation over the last few weeks as its odds of hitting Earth in 2032 dramatically rose. Now, those odds have plummeted to near-zero, as astronomers calculations of the asteroids path have been updated to indicate that Earth is almost certainly not in the space rocks plans. Almost. According to NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroids current chance of hitting the planet in 2032 is 0.28%, or a 1-in-360 shot. That is a far cry from just earlier this week, when models had the asteroids impact probability at a staggering 3.1%, or 1-in-32 odds. Its safe to say were out of the woodsbut perhaps still in the backyard of uncertainty? A beleaguered analogy, but suffice it to say that the odds are not zerobut the sudden plummet from such a (relatively) high probability is a sigh of relief. Though 2024 YR4 isnt a gigantic asteroidits size estimates range from 130 to 300 feet wide (40 to 90 meters)it still is large enough to destroy a large city or region if hit Earth. It just wouldnt cause a global cataclysm. Hardly reassuring stuff. The asteroids impact probability made it a 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, which measures the danger posed by asteroids. Torino 3s have a 1% or greater chance of collision capable of localized destruction, according to CNEOS. Since the asteroids impact odds are now 1-in-360, the asteroids Torino risk is rated 1, meaning a routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger. Current calculations show the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern. When 2024 YR4s odds rose earlier this week, it became more hazardous than the head-turning asteroid Apophis, which was one of the most hazardous asteroids when discovered in 2004, but was found in 2021 to not be at risk of hitting Earth for at least a century.The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) first spotted 2024 YR4 just after Christmas, when the rock was 515,116 miles (829,000 kilometers) from Earth. Within a month, the asteroids odds crept up to a 1.2% chancewhich sounds small, but is still a serious number when were talking about the chances of an asteroid with the potential to raze an entire city or region on our verdant little world. The odds kept growing, from a 1.58% chance of impact on February 2 to a 2.2% chance of striking on February 10. But as experts told Gizmodo, this steady movement in the odds was expected. Thats because, as astronomers narrowed the range of potential paths for the asteroid, Earth remained in it. So while the total pool of paths shrank, Earths placement in the path meant its footprint covered more of the total possible area. Now, the asteroids potential path window has shrunk enough that it seems very unlikely that the rock will hit Earth.The asteroid is moving away from Earth, but will swing by the planet in 2028 with a first potential impact in 2032. By April, astronomers expect the asteroid to be too faint for even the largest ground-based telescopes to see, so it was critical for researchers to make as many observations of the object as possible before thentime was of the essence to make educated guesses about its impact probability. 2024 YR4 still poses the slightest risk to Earth within the next 100 years, but recent estimates from space agency experts suggest theres much less to worry about now.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Adam Kovac Published February 19, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 19, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 18, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 17, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published February 17, 2025 By Passant Rabie Published February 12, 2025

OpenAI may be preparing to slap a new coat of paint on ChatGPT with an updated AI model, GPT-4.5, as early as next week. If thats not enough to get users excited, the Sam Altman-led company is on the path toward its ultimate model while trying to hint that this next step will finally achieve AGI. Spoiler alert: it wont. Based on anonymous sources, the Verges Tom Warren first reportedthat OpenAIs next model could hit the scene sometime this month. Microsoft reportedly plans to host the companys new model next week, though it may be longer before either company makes any official announcement. More importantly, for the next big thing, We may see the GPT-5 model as early as May, according to The Verge. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post on Xon Feb. 12 thatChatGPT users will get unlimited chat accessto the standard intelligence setting of GPT-5 when it eventually drops, completely for free. GPT-5 will also integratethe o3 reasoning model for better fact-checking capabilities, which will be pretty important considering OpenAIs leadership has indicated they want to make the next big GPT release as widely availableas possible.Microsoft has a good reason to want GPT-5 in May. Microsoft Build is the companys annual developer conference on May 22. Last year, Microsoft debuted the Copilot+ line of PCs with their set standard for on-device AI processing. The tech giant has been modifying its Copilot experience, adding extra features over time while sticking its chatbot UI in every 365 app, Github, Dropbox, and into Windows 11 itself. Altman only offered some vague promises of how it will structure access to GPT-5. Current Plus subscribers will access a higher level of intelligence of GPT-5, while big-money Pro subscribers will run it at an even higher level of intelligence. We have a clearer idea about the companys current AI products, like Deep Research, which are made for producing long-form reports based on prompts and some clarifying questions. OpenAI has promised to release that feature more widely, but youll still have to deal with a chatbot that is more prone to citing Wikipedia than hard, fact-based research.GPT-4.5, or Orion, is the companys last non-chain-of-thought model. That relates to the idea that AI can break down a larger problem into more immediate steps, which AI developers claim mirrors how humans handle reasoning. With o3 integrated with GPT, OpenAI may start to make claims about reaching some milestone for AGI, or artificial general intelligencean algorithm that can actually think. Of course, Altman and the companys definition of AGI differs from what most people would call intelligent. Color me skeptical about whether the next big GPT model is truly revolutionary. It may hit new reasoning benchmarks, but the big question is whether it creates new, tangible results that change how most people use and/or abuse the chatbot. If GPT-5 is more capable and efficient, as OpenAI suggests, it doesnt necessarily mean well finally find a new use case for AI.Less than a month ago, OpenAI and many other AI-centric companies were put on the back foot by DeepSeek, an AI model from China created for a fraction of the cost to develop GPT-4o, though with similar or better benchmarks than the leading models. OpenAI and Microsoft accused DeepSeek of copying their homework (a laughable irony considering GPT is trained on a mountain of copyrighted text taken without permission). The ball is now in OpenAIs court and needs to prove it has the stuff with GPT-4.5 and GPT-5. Thats not necessarily for the sake of regular users but for investors.

Forbici Academy / Hargar StudioSave this picture! Lus BarandiarnWellbeingLa Plata, ArgentinaArchitects: Hargar StudioAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:300 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2022 PhotographsPhotographs:Lus BarandiarnSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Forbici Academy is a renovation project of an existing building that lacks a faade in the center of the city of La Plata. A foundational "chorizo" house that over time has filled its remaining patios, occupying 100% of the lot and depriving most of its rooms of air and light.Save this picture!Save this picture!Understanding the potential of the built heritage, minimal interventions are made, and existing structures such as load-bearing exposed brick walls and brick vaults on IPN profiles are valued and recovered.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The strategies involved creating a lung of air and light in the center of the lot, an internal patio that also articulates the circulation between floors. On the other hand, a new faade towards the city was constructed, a neutral and translucent envelope of glass bricks that matches the height of the neighboring buildings to create a new space in an old, unused terrace. Finally, inside, the spaces are stripped down to create generous and flexible rooms, enhanced perceptually by optical effects of mirrored planes and movable objects.Save this picture!Save this picture!Programmatically, the project organizes mixed hairdressing salons on the ground floor and a hairdressing academy on the upper floor.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:La Plata, ArgentinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeHargar StudioOfficePublished on February 20, 2025Cite: "Forbici Academy / Hargar Studio" [Academia Forbici / Hargar Studio] 20 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027160/forbici-academy-hargar-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

It's the age old question: what's the real cost of virtual production? Josh dives into the various factors that can affect cost, with help along the way from Philip Galler (Seismiq, Co-Founder of Lux Machina) and Mike Smith (ROE Creative Display).- CoPilot Co. is a global, tech-driven production studio that specializes in XR virtual production, film production, and AI tool development. We are committed to helping people realize their boldest ideas through sharing our expertise, consulting on virtual production studio builds, and creating AI tools for XR environment building. CONNECT: copilotco.iocollabs@copilotco.iohttps://www.instagram.com/copilotco/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/copilotxr/ https://www.tiktok.com/@copilotco

If youve ever been in labor, or know someone who has, youve heard of an epidural. The term is an adjective that has also become a noun, describing one of the most common analgesic procedures available in modern medicine. But epidurals are used widely and effectively outside of the delivery room as well. Decades of practice, refinement of the tools and drugs used in the procedure, and significant amounts of research have shown epidurals to be a safe and effective way of easing severe pain associated with childbirth, chronic back pain, surgery, and more.Nevertheless, plenty of people are understandably leery of the idea of a needle being jabbed into their spine without fully understanding where exactly that needle goes, or how the drugs administered during the procedure are supposed to work. Heres the backstory on epidurals.From Operating Room to Delivery RoomEpidural administration (Credit: Sakurra/Shutterstock)First devised more than a century ago, doctors in France realized that they could temporarily ease pain or numb sensation by injecting a painkilling drug (initially cocaine, and later, other analgesics and anesthetics) into the epidural space of the spine.This spinal area lies just outside the dura mater, and is a tough membrane that encases the spinal cord and the system that allows cerebrospinal fluid to circulate. The procedure was initially viewed as a method to help numb a patient for surgery, after an injury (as in the case of soldiers wounded in battle), or to ease chronic pain conditions, such as sciatica. Epidurals to ease labor werent really used in the delivery room until the 1940s; during the next couple of decades, the procedure gradually began to supplant other methods used to ease birthing pains.The Epidural Procedure TodayOver time, doctors and anesthesiologists refined epidural procedures to include the use of catheters for more controlled delivery of pain-relieving drugs. Pain experts also developed procedures to mitigate chronic spinal or neck pain by administering steroids (rather than a narcotic) to ease inflammation. In fact, epidural injections for such conditions are far more common some 9 million are performed per year than epidurals used during childbirth. That said, epidurals today are the gold standard for pain management in the delivery room in the U.S. alone, as many as 75 percent of women in labor opt for the procedure, which is considered safer for expectant moms and their babies than oral or IV painkillers.Read More: Scientists Debate Why Childbirth is So BrutalEpidural Risks and ResearchUnfortunately, myths and out-of-date information continue to inspire fear and dread of the procedure. Its been suggested that epidurals can cause permanent back pain or spinal cord damage. But such risks are negligible when the procedure is performed properly under the care of a qualified professional (typically an anesthesiologist, but orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, radiologists, and other specialists may perform epidurals as well). While there may be temporary discomfort at the injection site, this goes away quickly. Moreover, epidural needles do not penetrate the dura mater and so do not come in contact with the spinal cord.Another persistent concern is that epidurals may extend labor, since mothers who receive the treatment may lose lower-body sensation and may not be able to push as strongly as they might without the epidural. The concern here, of course, is that extended labor might necessitate more aggressive delivery methods, including the use of forceps, a vacuum, or even increase need for Caesarian section. There may have been some truth to these concerns, but in the early decades of the epidurals use during labor, the refinement of the drugs used during the procedure and the greater ability to control the level of drugs being administered (via catheter) have greatly minimized this risk. Today, the odds of any serious complications from receiving an epidural are less than 1 percent, to both the mother and the baby.Managing PainOf course, epidurals for any kind of pain relief are still very much an individual choice, and people with some medical conditions bleeding disorders, or a history of certain spinal conditions or injuries, for example may not be good candidates to receive an epidural. Either way, todays pain-management experts are well-trained and prepared to discuss alternatives. But if youre concerned about excessive labor pain, or are in agony from a chronic, otherwise intractable pain issue, talk to your doctor about the benefits of an epidural procedure. It just might be worth a shot.This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only. Read More: Chronic Pain Makes You Think DifferentlyArticle 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:American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology: Modern labor epidural analgesia: implications for labor outcomes and maternal-fetal healthCleveland Clinic: Epidural Steroid Injection (ESI)European Neurology: The Epidural Treatment of Sciatica: Its Origin and EvolutionBefore he became editor of Discover in 2012, Steve spent more than 20 years as a writer and editor, specializing in health and medicine. He began his career at a scientific, technical and medical publisher, then moved to consumer-oriented publications, where his work has appeared in Mens Health, Mens Journal, Prevention, Outside and dozens of other magazines and web sites.

A far infrared image of the Small Magellanic Cloud as observed by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory. Circles indicate the positions observed by the ALMA telescope, with the corresponding enlarged image of the observed molecular cloud from radio waves emitted by carbon monoxide. The enlarged pictures framed in yellow indicate filamentary structures. The pictures in the blue frame indicate fluffy shapes. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Tokuda et al., ESA/Herschel)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsThe song Little Fluffy Clouds was a breakout hit during the dawn of techno music. Turns out, it may also be an apt description of stellar nurseries the birthplace of stars.These nurseries contain high concentrations of gas and dust and are also called molecular clouds. A study now provides evidence that some stars may have been born from some fluffy versions of these clouds in the early years of our universe, they report in The Astrophysical Journal.Even today our understanding of star formation is still developing, comprehending how stars formed in the earlier universe is even more challenging, Kazuki Tokuda, a research fellow at Kyusha University and an author of the study, said in a press release. Stars Dancing into FormationIts apt to reference a techno song, because star formation in these clouds could be described as a sort of stellar dance. These star-forming molecular clouds start off with a long, slow stretch ultimately forming what astrophysicists describe as a filamentary structure about 0.3 light-years wide. From that formation, individual clouds break off in a clump. Over time, that single clump (sometimes described as an egg) draws dust and gas to it, ultimately becoming a star.Imagine the filament as a line of Broadway dancers, with one eventually moving away. Then that soloist attracts a host of tiny dancers, who pack together in a tight group.Researchers from Kyushu University and Osaka Metropolitan University essentially documented the dance of the Small Magellanic Cloud. In doing so, they add insight to star formation, which is a relatively little-understood phenomenon.The early universe was quite different from today, mostly populated by hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements formed later in high-mass stars. We cant go back in time to study star formation in the early universe, but we can observe parts of the universe with environments similar to the early universe, said Tokuda in the release.Thats why the team focused on the Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Since that particular dwarf galaxy only contains about 20 percent of heavy elements the Milky Way holds, it serves as a good proxy for early universe conditions from about 10 billion years ago.Better ResolutionEarlier instruments provided insufficient resolution to capture the star birth dance. However, the powerful ALMA radio telescope in Chile provided enough resolution to witness the performance. It determined the presence or absence of filamentary clouds. The researchers analyzed data from 17 molecular clouds. Each was nurturing baby stars 20 times the mass of our Sun. About 60 percent of the molecular clouds they observed formed a filament. The remaining 40 percent had a fluffy shape.The filament clouds were hotter than their fluffy companions. That temperature difference may be due to how long ago the cloud was formed. That makes sense, because the filaments were formed due to near-constant-cloud collisions, which emit energy. When the temperature is high, the turbulence in the molecular cloud is weak. But as the temperature drops, the kinetic energy of the incoming gas smoothens the filamentary structure, resulting in the fluffy cloud.Crucial Breaking PointClouds that maintain their filamentary shape are more likely to result in clumps breaking off, which eventually become stars. If the filamentary formation fails to hold, that cloud system is less likely to produce stars.This study indicates that the environment, such as an adequate supply of heavy elements, is crucial for maintaining a filamentary structure and may play an important role in the formation of planetary systems, Tokuda said. In the future, it will be important to compare our results with observations of molecular clouds in heavy-element-rich environments, including the Milky Way galaxy. Such studies should provide new insights into the formation and temporal evolution of molecular clouds and the universe.They could also inspire a sequel to the dance club hit, perhaps entitled Long Molecular Clouds.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:Before 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.1 free article leftWant More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/monthSubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In1 free articleSubscribeWant more?Keep reading for as low as $1.99!SubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In

You dont need to spend thousands of dollars upgrading your TVs audio (though it is fun to do so if you have the cash). Right now, you can get a Bose Solo soundbar for just $99 as part of the Bose refurbished program. Bose refurbishes these devices in-house and offers a warranty as well as a 90-day return window so you can try it out for three months before returning it. You probably wont, though, because it sounds great for the price.Last time we posted this deal, it sold out, so dont sleep if you want one.Bose Solo Soundbar 2 Refurbished $99 (was $199)BoseSee ItThis compact soundbar stands less than three inches tall, which makes it easy to place under just about any TV in any setting without blocking the picture. Its easy to connect with a single cable and has built-in Bluetooth so that you can use it as a music speaker, not just as a home theater system. Im particularly fond of the Dialogue Mode, which emphasizes speech so you can actually hear what actors are saying without the subtitles turned on.Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar Refurbished $599 (was $899)BoseSee ItUpgrade to Boses top-of-the-line model if that tax return has already hit your account and you have some extra cash to spend. This version gets you Dolby Atmos support, more built-in speakers, automatic setup, and a punchier overall sound. It will bother your neighbors in the best possible way.More Bose refurbished dealsBose QuietComfort Headphones Refurbished $179 (was $349)Bose Ultra Open Earbuds Refurbished $179 (was $299)SoundLink Flex Bluetooth SE Speaker Refurbished $89 (was $129)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Refurbished $179 (was $299)Bose Portable Smart Speaker Refurbished $249 (was $399)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Refurbished $329 (was $449)The post This Bose soundbar is back down to just $99 until it sells out appeared first on Popular Science.