AdobeThe key features of the latest major update of Substance 3Ds software for converting photo captures and scanned images into 3D textures and material assets are a new path tracing viewport renderer and native support for HPs Z Captis material scanner, available to non-individual users.With Substance 3D Sampler 5.0, you can switch between real-time and path-tracing modes when previewing assets, enhancing the appearance of your creations with properties such as coating, sheen, translucency, and subsurface scattering.AdobeAnother major change is the support for HPs Z Captis material capture device, which allows you to bring real-world materials into the digital world in minutes. Now, Substance 3D Sampler integrates with Captis to preview and launch the capture, automatically process the PBR channels, and export digital material. This feature is available for Enterprise, Teams, and Education accounts only.AdobeSubstance 3D Sampler 5.0 also includes quality-of-life improvements, such as Quick Actions, which allow you to access the main workflows with a single click, and a new home screen layout where you can easily find all your projects and tutorials and start your work.Read the full list of changes in the release notes here and join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us on Instagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Adobe Launched Substance 3D Sampler 5.0 appeared first on CG SHARES.

Panty & Stocking had their spike in popularity back in the day, but I wont blame you if you dont know about them. The first season was released in 2010, and the second had to wait 15 years, but fans can finally start celebrating as the animation studio Trigger is planning to continue the show this year.3D Animator and Artist Crashsune was one of those happy about the comeback and created a colorful animation of Panty using Blender and some Photoshop.It looks simple, but the process was a little more complex than might seem. Thankfully, Crashsune shared a breakdown of the project, explaining how the different parts were made, including modeling, UVs, texturing, rigging, and animation.If you want to see Crashsunes other works, welcome to their X/Twitter, which is full of anime characters.Also, 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 Enjoy Animated 3D Panty from Panty & Stocking as Treat for Season 2 appeared first on CG SHARES.

Earlier this week, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 had an update that teased the return of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. In a skate park map called The Grind, there is a banner with the THPS logo and the date "03.04.25." Now, the official site for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater has a countdown clock to March 4, 2025, which may mean an announcement is imminent.The very first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game was released by Activision in September 1999. Although the 25th anniversary has come and gone, Hawk revealed last year that he has been in contact with Activision about doing something to celebrate that quarter century milestone. Hawk later confirmed that the long-running franchise will continue.If there's news coming soon regarding the future of THPS, there are two likely options. The first is another remake like 2020's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, which helped revitalize interest in the games. There have been some predictions that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 could follow. However, a more enticing prospect would be a brand-new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The last fully original game in the series to hit consoles was 2015's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Additionally, there was a previous report that the next Tony Hawk game could arrive as soon as this summer. Given the timing of the announcement, that seems very plausible.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Riot's League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO, won't receive a big March playtest as originally planned. Instead, it will receive a "much smaller one" while the team looks to "build out the infrastructure" for a much larger test "later this year."The news comes from 2XKO game director Shaun Rivera on X, whose response came after leaks regarding the cancelation of the March playtest and new features began circulating on the 2XKO subreddit, prompting the team to "clear up some misinformation." Although a big playtest similar to the 2XKO Alpha Lab 1 playtest now won't be coming until later this year, the update isn't all bad news. Rivera also officially revealed some new features coming to 2XKO. One major change will see the game's Pulse Fuse (which enables beginner-friendly autocombos) removed. However, autocombo functionality will instead be added as a toggleable option in the game's settings.Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Sims 4: Life and Death is the seventeenth expansion pack in the Sims 4 franchise, delving into the profound themes of existence, mortality, and the delicate balance between life and death. This expansion offers a deeply emotional journey, allowing Sims to experience significant life events, confront mortality, and cherish the fleeting moments that define their existence. From birth to death, The Sims 4: Life and Death introduces new mechanics that add depth and complexity to the life cycle of Sims, making their stories more impactful and memorable.

In the ever-changing landscape of television, one of the biggest challenges networks and showrunners face is determining how long a series should run. While some shows are abruptly canceled before they can tell a complete story, others continue well beyond their natural conclusion, often leading to a decline in quality. The Last of Us, Max's critically acclaimed adaptation of the beloved The Last of Us video game, is taking a different approachone that more series should follow.

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.This week, Venom: The Last Dance, the latest in the Tom Hardy superhero franchise, slithers its way onto Netflix. Theres loads more in terms of new streaming releases this week as well, Nosferatu on Peacock and Grand Theft Hamlet on Mubi. As for new releases for purchase on VOD, theres Barry Jenkins Mufasa: The Lion King, the horror comedy Companion, The Brutalist, and Dog Man.Heres everything new thats available to watch this weekend!New on NetflixVenom: The Last DanceWhere to watch: Available to stream on NetflixGenre:Superhero actionRun time:1h 50mDirector:Kelly MarcelCast:Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno TempleTom Hardy returns for one last outing as the long-tongued parasitic antihero Venom. Following the events ofVenom: Let There Be Carnage, Eddie Brock (Hardy) and the Venom symbiote are still on the run. Hunted by both the military and a mysterious extraterrestrial threat known as the Xenophage, Eddie and Venom must work together once more to survive and clear their name.From ourreview:The originalVenomfound success in the mess of Hardys gutsy performance straining against stakes as mundane as Eddie interacting with his ex and her aggressively normal new boyfriend, after they watched him feverishly climb into a restaurants lobster tank.Last Dance, however, removes every human consideration from the equation of Eddies life every social tie, every personal goal, every stake smaller than aliens and the government are trying to kill us.New on HuluThings Will Be DifferentWhere to watch: Available to stream on HuluGenre: Sci-fi thrillerRun time: 1h 42mDirector: Michael FelkerCast: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe SkoczenFollowing a botched robbery, two estranged siblings go to ground in an abandoned farmhouse where they discover a closet with the inexplicable power to transport them to an alternate dimension. While the pair manage to elude the police, they cannot ignore the rift that their relationship has undergone nor can they escape the consequences of their own actions.New on MaxElevationWhere to watch:Available to stream on MaxGenre:Sci-fi thrillerRun time:1h 31mDirector:George NolfiCast:Anthony Mackie, Morena Baccarin, Maddie HassonThree years after a civilization was destroyed by a race of subterranean creatures, a widower (Anthony Mackie) journeys to Boulder, Colorado, along with two women searching for a way to kill the invasive species. After descending to ground level, the trio must fight to survive against overwhelming odds.Watchmen Chapter IIWhere to watch:Available to stream on MaxGenre:Dystopian sci-fiRun time:1h 26mDirector:Brandon ViettiCast:Troy Baker, Adrienne Barbeau, Michael CerverisThe second and final installment of Brandon Viettis animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons landmark superhero miniseriesWatchmenhas finally arrived. As the world hurtles toward doomsday, will Nite Owl, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, and Silk Spectre be able to uncover the orchestrator behind the conspiracy to pit the United States and Russia against one another in global conflict?New on PeacockNosferatuWhere to watch: Available to stream on PeacockGenre:Gothic horrorRun time:2h 12mDirector:Robert EggersCast:Bill Skarsgrd, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose DeppDirector Robert Eggers (The Witch) returns with his most ambitious project to date: a remake of F.W. Murnaus seminal vampire horror film, based unofficially on Bram Stokers novelDracula. Set in 1830s Wisburg, Germany, Eggers film centers on Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a newlywed couple who are ensnared in the machinations of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgrd), a reclusive nobleman and vampire who lusts after Ellen.From ourreview:The key creative pact in any Dracula movie, though, is between the director and his vampire. (E. Elias Merhige playfully explored this topic in his 2000 filmShadow of the Vampire, in which John Malkovich plays a fictionalized Murnau, with Dafoe as a version of Schreck who might actuallybea vampire.) This is the one area where Eggers and Skarsgrd diverge sharply from the original film. Skarsgrds Orlok is still ancient, corpse-like, and heavily taloned. But where Schreck was twisted and withered, Skarsgrds version is towering and hairy, swathed in furs, with a long mustache and a barbaric aspect. Even his looming physicality is dwarfed by his voice; Skarsgrd speaks outrageously slowly in a cartoonish Transylvanian accent, rolling his Rs for days, and the sound mix gives his every utterance a booming, subsonic resonance that rattles the theater. Its achoice; it may be too much for some, but it couldnt be any more Gothic.New on MubiGrand Theft HamletWhere to watch: Available to stream on Mubi USGenre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 29mDirectors: Pinny Grylls, Sam CraneCast: Sam Crane, Mark Oosterveen, Pinny GryllsGrand Theft Auto Online is one of the most commercially successful MMOs of the past decade, amassing over 20 million active users per month and billions of dollars in annual microtransaction revenue. But can it pull off a reenactment of Shakespeare? In this experimental documentary, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane attempt to do just that, pulling off a successful performance of Hamlet within the game amid the chaos and unpredictability of GTA Onlines player base. Simple, right?From our review:Spontaneity is the key toGTA Hamletssuccess as a theatrical production, as it is for any of the other countlessGTA Onlinerole players attempting to make their virtual dreams come true inside a chaotic game. Some people play the gamewithout committing crimes. Others roleplay ashigh school students. Some people play as anassassin-for-hire, while otherspretend to be cops. All of them have to navigate the essential tension between their individual goals, what the game was actually designed for, and the goals of every other player around them.New to rentMufasa: The Lion KingWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Family adventureRun time: 1h 58mDirector: Barry JenkinsCast: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany BooneAcademy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins dives into the surprisingly complicatedorigin story of Mufasa, Simbas father inThe Lion King. Turns out, instead of inheriting the lion-throne, Mufasa was an orphan who floated down a river before being discovered by a young prince and his mother, la Moses. Theres a good, toothy thread in this movie about Scar and Mufasas relationship if you can dig it out from beneath the photorealistic lions, Lin-Manuel Miranda soundtrack, and super-duper simplified plot.From our review:There is a glimmer of something wonderful inMufasa. Jenkins and Nathanson put a twist on Mufasa and Takas relationship that couldve given a beautifully tragic edge to the confrontation we know is coming inThe Lion King. But while their ill-fated brotherhood couldve added even more heartbreak to the original movie, it was also the thread that was doomed to never be explored thoroughly in this prequel. Theres just too much working against it, from the flat animation and subpar songs to the preordained fate that awaits both characters. Sanding the nuance off that relationship mightve worked for a DTV prequel, but on a big screen, it feels jarringly abrupt.A Complete UnknownWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: DocudramaRun time: 2h 21mDirector: James MangoldCast: Timothe Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle FanningTimothe Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in this heavily Oscar-nominated docudrama from director James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari). After arriving in New York City, the 19-year-old folk music prodigy navigates the pitfalls of fame as his meteoric rise to stardom coincides with the political and social upheaval of the 1960s.CompanionWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Dark comedy thrillerRun time: 1h 37mDirector: Drew HancockCast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas GageSophie Thatcher stars in a dark sci-fi comedy as Iris, a young woman on a weekend getaway with her boyfriend and some friends. But, surprise! Iris is actually a companion robot rented by her boyfriend, whos able to control her emotions and intelligence via an app on his phone. Thats not the only big secret that comes to light, as the weekend quickly unravels into bloody chaos.The BrutalistWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Epic dramaRun time: 3h 34mDirector: Brady CorbetCast: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy PearceDirector Brady Corbet (Vox Lux) returns with his Oscar-nominated drama starring Adrien Brody as Lszl Tth, a Holocaust survivor who immigrates to the United States in hopes of restarting his career as an architect. After much hardship, Lszl earns the patronage of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a wealthy industrialist who sees promise in the architects creativity and vision.Dog ManWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Animated comedyRun time: 1h 47mDirector: Peter HastingsCast: Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel HoweryIts a man! Its a dog! ItsDog Man? The movie is based on the super popular childrens graphic novel series of the same name byCaptain Underpantscreator Dav Pilkey (in the comics universe, its penned by two Captain Underpants characters). Dog Man (the character, not the movie itself) was once a separate man and dog, but after a deadly accident, the doctors decided to stitch the dogs head on the mans body. Just the kind of existential body horror that kids eat up! In the movie, Dog Man tries to thwart the machinations of Petey the Cat, who has accidentally created a baby version of himself.The Room Next DoorWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduGenre: Psychological dramaRun time: 1h 47mDirector: Pedro AlmodvarCast: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John TurturroTilda Swinton and Julianne Moore play two friends, Martha and Ingrid, who reconnect after Martha is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Martha plans to end her life with euthanasia pills, instead of suffering her final days in pain and anguish. She invites Ingrid on a trip to her country home so that the two can spend Marthas final moments together.The Room Next Dooris based onWhat Are You Going Throughby Sigrid Nunez. It won the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival.The KillerWhere to watch:Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu; streaming on PeacockGenre:Action thrillerRun time:2h 6mDirector:John WooCast:Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam WorthingtonLegendary action directorJohn Wooreturns with an English-language reimagining of his 1989 action thrillerThe Killer, this time starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) and Omar Sy (Lupin). Emmanuel portrays Zee, a notorious assassin known and feared in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead. After refusing to kill a witness who was blinded during her latest assignment, Zee becomes the target of her former employers. Her escapades draw the attention of Sey (Sy), a savvy police detective with whom she reluctantly allies.Its certainly a departure from the original film starring Chow Yun-fat, but hey: If Olivier Assayas can successfully remakeIrma Vepnearly 26 years after the fact, why shouldnt Woo be capable of doing the same with his own work?From our review:The shootouts are tense and balletic, with terrific sound design punctuations of gunfire, something that was also a strength inSilent Night. The loud bangs play well off the dramatic, moody score from composer Marco Beltrami, which, like the movie, balances romance and excitement with shades of classical orchestration and jazz. And the movie justlooksgreat, even though its a straight-to-streaming production: The colors pop, the city of Paris buzzes with life, and the way Woo moves his camera to follow and augment the action is unparalleled.

Ne Zha 2 features a combat sequence that has to be seen to be believed. The Chinese movie, which recently passed the $1.5 billion mark at the box office to become the biggest international animated hit of all time, is built around shows of immense power, leading up to a conflict between godlike forces and their armies. Thousands of white-clad martial-arts warriors, cloaked in glowing golden bubbles of energy, pile atop each other on a vastly branching magical staff to form what looks like a beautiful mountaintop tree in autumn. Energy-breathing dragons zip around blasting all resistance, as two avatars of godly power band together into an irresistible force. Its breathtaking. On a big screen, its almost overwhelming.The same movie also features a sequence where a visually impaired elderly man mistakes the giant pink ass of a flying pig for a persons face, and keeps trying to speak to it while the pig repeatedly farts clouds of bilious green gas into his open mouth. Thats the basic dynamic of both 2019s Ne Zha and the 2025 sequel, which divide their energy between epic combat and the most lowbrow humor you can imagine. There are booger jokes and poop jokes. A boy gulps down a cauldron of disgusting stew, vomits it all up, then drinks the resulting vomit. A number of sophisticated elites wind up delicately sipping glasses of urine-infused water. For American audiences, body-humor gags in animated movies are nothing new;Shrek in particular leans into tee-hee, I farted in the bath humor. But its still a bit of a shock how far Ne Zha 2 goes in pushing the envelope of gross-out gags.Thats especially true given the powerful emotions at play in other parts of the movie, and the overall focus on world-rending battles. Ne Zha 2 revolves heavily around characters emotional bonds with their friends and family, and around the fear of hurting or disappointing loved ones or losing them altogether. Major and minor characters alike see horrific things happen to the people they love. Grief, anger, hope, and need all play significant parts in the story, and drive tremendous battles between tremendous powers.With Ne Zha 2, writer-director Jiao Zi picks up almost exactly where he left off with Ne Zha in 2019. The mystical artifact known as the Chaos Pearl split into two parts, incarnated as powerful entities: the crude demon-boy Ne Zha and the elegant dragon warrior Ao Bing. (Both are characters from Chinese mythology that have been reimagined countless times in Chinese entertainment.) In Ne Zha, these two become unlikely friends, and unite to save Ne Zha from a powerful curse that ultimately destroys their bodies. Ne Zha 2 opens with endlessly bumbling warrior-priest Taiyi making them fragile new bodies out of lotus paste, which will need to be tempered before it can withstand the immense powers they both wield.Before that can happen, Ao Bing sacrifices himself again to save Ne Zhas hometown, Chentang Pass, from an attack by Taiyis former brother-in-arms Shen Gongbao. Shens attack comes at the behest of three dragons scheming against the powerful Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, who only wants to save his son, Ao Bing. Ne Zha accepts Ao Bings spirit into his body, and undertakes a series of trials to resurrect a powerful artifact that could fully revive his friend.There are many, many different threads at play in this sequel;while its more narratively sophisticated and visually ambitious than Ne Zha (which already had plenty of both those elements), its still worth starting with the previous film. Ne Zha offers a lot of necessary background to understand how its two central embodied artifacts relate to each other, to the dragons chained deep under the Earth, and to the godlike powers that confine those dragons. Its also a route to understanding Shen Gongbao, who spends the movie veering between Disney-esque cartoon villain, respectful and righteous servant, the butt of comedy slapstick, and dutiful family man.But the political drama, particularly between the dragons and their powerful overlords, still takes a back seat to the movies visual spectacle, which ramps up considerably from Ne Zha, as more and more powerful entities enter the story. That leaves Ne Zha himself in a less central role, as hes caught up in conflicts far beyond his awareness.Ne Zha has changed a fair bit since the first movie, where hes a sullen, mischievous superpowered brat who violently resents any attempt to contain his power. There are still traces of that personality in play this is recognizably the same character, especially when hes frustrated with the many officious adults around him. He clearly carries the weight of what he endured and learned in the previous movie. But as the stakes keep rising in Ne Zha 2, theres less and less room for him to act out, and more and more ways he needs to step up. By the end of the movie which includes several open threads designed to set up a third installment in the series hes less of a point-of-view character, and more a single element in a complicated, many-sided conflict.That conflict plays out via martial-arts sparring and blasts of fire, ice, and lightning, with magic powers and shapeshifting and a glowing army, with wars of words and literal wars, with off-color gags and shouted declarations of vengeance and fury. Its a lot to take in, but its joyously and creatively rendered, a fantasy epic brought to life in vivid color and with all the visual creativity a fantasy fan could want. Puke jokes aside, its an experience best had on the largest screen possible this is an epic-sized tale designed for an epic-sized screen. And apparently, in spite of its deep ties to the ingrained myths of its home culture, its a movie designed for a world-sized audience. Ne Zha 2 has already joined the list of the top 10 all-time biggest worldwide box office hits, and at its current rate of earnings, it may soon surpass Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Infinity War. Thats an impressive record for a film that at one point literally turns both its leads into poop-emoji-shaped blobs of goo. Ne Zha 2 is currently in limited release in American theaters. Ne Zha can be watched free on the ad-supported platforms Rakuten Viki and the Roku Channel; its also free with a library card from a subscribing library on Hoopla and Kanopy. Its available via rental or purchase on Amazon, Fandango, and other digital platforms.

AI is everywhere these days, but when you see an article online from what has historically been a trusted source, its reasonable to think an AI wasnt involved. At major newsrooms across the country, though, that reality is increasingly becoming less clear cut.While not every use of AI in the newsroom is as blatant as an AI just drafting a post onto a blank page (although that happens too,) its important to know just how the sausage is being made when it comes to the information thats shaping your worldviews.Here are just a few news outlets that have started openly using AI in their processes, so you can stay informed about where exactly the information youre reading is coming from.The New York TimesEarlier this week, Semafor published an article about new AI tools that New York Times management is reportedly encouraging staffers to try. While the publications legal arm is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, it appears the sites editorial and product wings are ready to embrace AI in the newsroom, at least going by communication from the top.According to Semafors writeup, NYT management is now supplying AI training to its journalists, debuting an internal AI tool called Echo, and approving usage of external AI tools including Googles Vertex AI, a few Amazon AI products, and ironically, Microsofts Copilot and a non-ChatGPT tool from OpenAI.Not all of these will be used for the websites articlesthe New York Times is bigger than what you see on its front pagebut Semafor did say that journalists are being encouraged to use these AI tools for tasks like mild content revisions or coming up with questions to ask during interviews.Generative AI can assist our journalists in uncovering the truth and helping more people understand the world, read the companys editorial guidelines on AI, which are public on its site. We view the technology not as some magical solution but as a powerful tool.To that end, there are seemingly still some guardrails still in place. Semafor says the NYT has warned staff not to use AI to draft or significantly revise articles, and has noted that AI use could potentially infringe on copyright or unintentionally expose sources.Still, with internal communication suggesting writers use AI to come up with headlines and draft social copy, its worth keeping hallucination in mind the next time you see a suspicious-seeming NYT story going viral on social media.For the journalists part, Semafor reports that some remain skeptical, worrying that AI in the newsroom could inspire laziness and reduce accuracy or creativity.QuartzFirst off, a disclaimer. Quartz is currently owned by G/O Media, which also owned Lifehacker prior to its sale to Ziff Davis in 2023.With that said, G/O Media has since then become a major proponent of AI in the newsroom, with business news outlet Quartz being its biggest experiment in this.Scroll through Quartz bylines for a bit and youll find posts attributed to the Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, which seems to be dropping any of the restraints adopted by the New York Times. Here, the AI writer has been quietly generating earning reports for months and has recently started spitting out more general blogs as well. These include stories about potential Bitcoin value or how to delete your Meta-owned social media accounts, but as you might expect, there are issues to be aware of with each.To Quartz credit, it does not hide that these stories are AI-generated and the AI cites its sources, but it doesnt appear as if theres human oversight addressing any problems that might arise from this.For instance, the Quartz article on how to delete your Meta-owned social media accounts seems to be a simple regurgitation of a TechCrunch story (which did not give permission to be summarized, for what its worth), but with clear instructions swapped for what the cribbed TechCrunch writer calls vague gestures in the right direction. Speaking about other stories written by the Quartz AI, the same writer also said my editor would never let me publish something so sloppy.With that, its very likely you might find this story hoping for useful advice, only to leave disappointed and more confused than when you came. But the chances of that only get higher if you land on another story with a less reliable source than TechCrunch.As noted by Futurism, the Intelligence Newsroom has frequently cited a site called Devdiscourse, which itself has all the appearances of an AI content farm. When robots are citing robots, I do have to ask: why not just go to ChatGPT and prompt it yourself? Even if I accept AI news as worthwhile, its unclear to me what G/Os efforts are adding here.G/O is slapping a disclaimer on all AI-generated Quartz stories that says it's in the first phase of an experimental new version of reporting, but with AI efforts at the company going back to 2023, its unclear if itll ever figure out what that experiment is supposed to yield.In the meantime, keep an eye out on all Quartz bylines, and if you sniff AI, maybe consider giving the sources the bot is blending up for you a read instead. It seems like once you click that attractive headline, youre basically playing a game of roulette.APIf the New York Times is just starting to dip its toes into AI, and Quartz has done a full-on cannonball, then the APs use of AI seems to be somewhere in between. On its site, the agency proudly declares that it uses AI for translation, transcription, headlines, research, and even some automated articles, but general blogs are still left to human hands.Our goal is to give people a good way to understand how we can do a little experimentation but also be safe, said AP's Vice President of News Standards and Inclusion, Amanda Barret, in 2023, when the group first issued its guidelines on artificial intelligence.Where this will most likely affect you is in the sites use of Wordsmith, an AI program that specializes in summarizing content like sports scores, weather reports, and, as with Quartz, earnings. AP has been using a version of this program since 2014, so its not exactly new, but its worth being aware that stories on these topics without a specific author attached likely came from a bot. But aside from these stories, APs only other clear use of directly AI-written content was an experiment with reporting public safety incidents in a specific Minnesota newspaper.Otherwise, the only time youre likely to see direct AI content on an AP story is its story summarizing pilot: for instance, AI might put a blurb under election day stories to say which offices are up for grabs.Again, headlines and research are still admittedly AI-assisted, so its important to be extra careful when something doesnt pass your sniff test, but it seems like humans are still taking the forefront here, at least for now.The Washington PostThe Washington Posts use of AI is unique, in that it doesnt directly impact the content. Rather, its more of an enhanced search engine for readers who go looking for it. The bot, called Ask the Post AI, takes questions, spits out a brief AI-generated response trained on Washington Post content, and then lists relevant articles below in a Google-like manner.Answers are AI-generated from published reporting, warns the bot when you ask a question. Please verify by consulting the provided articles.Responses seem to aim for a measured tone, leaning on quotes from noteworthy sources in matters of opinion, and when I asked the bot about President Trumps evolving stance on TikTok or Elon Musks history with Tesla, I got truthful responses back, although the former was a paragraph long while the latter was only a sentence long. I suppose how detailed your responses are depends on how much the paper has covered a specific topic.Washington Post hasnt been clear about which AI tech powers Ask the Post AI, but in general, it wont bother you unless you go looking for it. Based on the prevalent warnings about its use, it seems to be intended more as a place to start research than as a direct news replacement.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate (RHR) are the metrics that most wearables' "recovery" numbers are based on. I wore five devices to bed for two weeks to see how their readings compared. Those devices were an Apple Watch Series 10, a Fitbit Charge 6, a Garmin Forerunner 265S, an Oura Ring 4, and a Whoop 4.0. Why these five? Well, they're the major brands that people tend to gravitate toward when they want to track sleep, and for each I chose the best (in my opinion) of each company's current offerings. I had most of them on hand due to testing them for recent or upcoming reviews. The Apple Watch Series 10 is the one our Associate Tech Editor Michelle Ehrhardt crowned the best Apple Watch for most people. The Charge 6 is Fitbit's standout no-nonsense fitness tracker (sorry to Fitbit smartwatch lovers, but there are better smartwatches out there.) The fourth-generation Oura ring is the company's newest and best, and Whoop's 4.0 strap is the current hardware for its subscription-based recovery and activity tracking service (which beat Oura in our head-to-head comparison). Garmin makes a multitude of watches that can track your sleep, but the one that I tested here is my personal device, a Forerunner 265Swhich is, in my opinion, one of the best running watches out there. As I've discussed before, the numbers we get from our smartwatches fall into a few different categories. Many are scores or icons that we can't really verify with other deviceswhat does it mean to have a "sleep score" of 87, anyway? Others are measurements, and we can compare those from device to device, since they should all be measuring the same thing. Different devices may use different sensors to pick up the data and different algorithms to process and display it, but we'd expect to see similar numbers from all of the devices tested. Our HRV and resting heart rate numbers fall into this latter category, so let's see how well the devices match. WHOOP 4.0 with 12 Month Subscription Wearable Health, Fitness & Activity Tracker $239.00 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $239.00 at Amazon Garmin Forerunner 265S Running Smartwatch (Black/Yellow) $449.99 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $449.99 at Amazon Oura Ring 4 - Black - Size 8 - Smart Ring - Size First with Oura Ring 4 Sizing Kit - Sleep Tracking Wearable - Heart Rate - Fitness Tracker - Up to 8 Days of Battery Life $349.00 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $349.00 at Amazon Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 42mm, Black, S/M 130-180mm, Sports Band) $399.00 at Best Buy Get Deal Get Deal $399.00 at Best Buy Fitbit Charge 6 Activity Tracker - Heart Rate Monitoring, 7-Day Battery, Google Apps, Maps & Wallet, Comprehensive Health Insights, Sleep & Activity Analysis, S & L Bands, (Coral/Champagne Gold) $149.00 at Amazon $179.99 Save $30.99 Get Deal Get Deal $149.00 at Amazon $179.99 Save $30.99 SEE 2 MORE What is HRV, anyway?HRV, or heart rate variability, is a measure of how steady your heartbeat is. Not how fast or how slow, but how different of a time frame passes between beats. The differences are only measurable with precise equipment, but here's the basic idea: If your heart goes beatbeat..beat..beat.beat..beat.beat, you have a high HRV (high variability), and thats a good thing. On the other hand, if your heart goes beat.beat.beat...beat..beat, thats a low HRV. We tend to have a low HRV when were stressed or fatigued, and a high HRV when were either not stressed, or recovering well from our stressors.This may seem counterintuitive, because most of us think of an ideal heartbeat as being steady and regular, but subtle variations from one beat to another are healthy and normal. Our heart takes its orders on how fast to beat from two different parts of our nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic). It's thought that a high HRV indicates that the two systems are both activebalancing each other out, in a sense.Your HRV will change from day to day, and thats where these devices come in. Youll often see a change in your HRV numbers right after a hard workout or stressful work day, giving you an early heads up about what your body is dealing with. This information, used wisely, can help to guide your choices about how to manage your workout schedule, your stress, and your health-related habits.What counts as a good HRV depends on your own history; its not worth comparing yourself to others. (I dont mean that in a feel-good kind of way, but literally, scientifically: your HRV only makes sense when compared to itself.) Whoop reports that the middle 50% of 20-year-olds have an HRV between about 60 and 105, with numbers declining as we get older. If youre 60, according to that data set, youre likely to have HRV numbers somewhere between 30 and 50.How does HRV differ from resting heart rate (RHR)?Your resting heart rate is also a number that reflects stress on your body, including fatigue and illness. Unlike HRV, where higher is "better," a higher resting heart rate means youre more stressed, and a lower one is a sign that youre well recovered.Resting heart rate can also change over time as you become more fit. Athletes tend to have lower RHR numbers, and people who take up an exercise habit often find that their RHR declines a bit over time. (That said, RHR isnt a direct measure of cardio fitness; there seems to be a significant genetic component as well. Take me as an example: my RHR is always pretty low, even when my cardio fitness is crap. If Im doing a lot of endurance training, it will drop by two to three points, but no more.)Most healthy adults have a resting heart rate of between 55 and 85 beats per minute (some sources give 60 to 100 as the typical range). Its important to note that these numbers usually assume that youre sitting quietly in a doctors office. When youre asleep in your own bed, your heart rate can dip a bit lower. So its normal to see lower numbers on a wearable that records all night than you would see when you go to the doctor.How to track your HRV and resting heart rate with wearablesGone are the days when you may have charged your fitness tracker at night; now, fitness-focused wearables are expected to be worn in your sleep to track these nighttime metrics.During the night, your device monitors your heartbeat. It may sample and average different readings, and each device measures and calculates its numbers slightly differently. (Thats why I didnt expect much agreement between the devices, but more on that in a minute.) When you wake up, you might be presented with a readiness or recovery score, but I stand by my position that HRV and RHR are the only numbers really worth paying attention to (aside from time in bed, if you want to monitor your sleep).This data on your HRV and RHR will be presented to you in the devices companion app or, in the case of devices with a screen, on the device itself. Often the app or device will tell you how your numbers compare to your usual. What you do with that information is up to you.How I gathered my dataFor this experiment, I wore my five devices to bed every night.That meant: The Oura ring on my finger (right hand, middle finger)The Whoop band on my left bicepThe Apple Watch and Fitbit on my left wristThe Garmin on my right wristA pro tip for device testers: when you're wearing two watches on the same wrist, turn one toward the underside of your wrist. That way, the two watch bodies won't clack against each other. Also, make sure the buttons are aligned so they aren't going to bump against their neighbors in the middle of the night. I entered each days resting heart rate and HRV from each device into a spreadsheet. Garmin reports your seven-day rolling average as your HRV "number," but I used the nightly numbers instead, the better to match the other devices.When it comes to using this data, I already have a sense of how the numbers compare to my experience. If my HRV is high and my RHR is low, I pretty much always feel good and am ready to take on whatever the day throws at me. If my HRV is low and my RHR is high, Im either stressed, sick, or maybe didnt sleep enough; I may or may not do an easier workout that day, but Ill definitely pay more attention to taking care of myself and getting plenty of sleep going forward. If my RHR and HRV are both high, that tends to mean Im dealing with a lot of stress or fatigue but am handling it well. For this experiment, I didnt bother tracking data on how I felt; I already know that the Oura data is good at matching how I feel, so the question was whether the other devices tracked the same trends or not.The results of my testIt was fascinating to watch the results take shape as I added more data points to the spreadsheet. The raw numbers were often pretty different: my resting heart rate on a given night might be 65 or 86 depending on which device Im reading from. But as I logged weeks worth of data, the trend lines all told pretty much the same story: Credit: Beth Skwarecki For HRV, Oura almost always gives me the highest ("best" looking) readings. Whoop tends to stick pretty close, with Fitbit and Garmin not far behind. The Apple Watch, on the other hand, rides significantly lower on the chart than the other devices, and seems to disagree with their trend sometimes. For resting heart rate, things are a bit more consistent. Oura usually gives the lowest readings, flattering me again, with the other devices slightly above, and Fitbit giving the highest of the bunch. This is roughly a 10-beat difference for many of the days I charted: for example, 53 from Fitbit and 43 from Oura. It's hard to say which is right, since I'm not hiring a healthcare professional to stand by and take my pulse throughout the night. In general, the lines tend to all go up together, and all down together. (Mostly...looking at you, Apple Watch.) I'm happy to see that the devices aren't reporting drastically different readings that look like random numbers; they do all seem to be measuring the same underlying phenomenon even if they don't all agree on the exact number to label it with. Personally, when I want to look at my HRV or RHR, I tend to go with the device I'm most familiar within this case, the Oura ring. I've been wearing it the longest (through three generations of the product) and so I have a sense of whether a reading of 50 is high or low for me. (It's high for Oura, even though it might be a low number if I saw it on a different device.) The most important lesson I take from this, myself, is that not only is it useless to compare HRV from person to person, it's also not helpful to compare it from device to device. Just like the weight labels on the machines at the gym, the numbers give you a way to compare your progress or trends with the same equipment. Switch devices, and all bets are off. So pick a device, stick with it, and you'll probably get numbers worth paying attention to. What you do with them, of course, is another matter.