This month, join forces to tackle the paranormal crises of a mysterious federal agency under siege in the cooperative first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak, lead your team to victory in the iconic all-out warfare of Battlefield 2042, test your skills as a new Fazbear employee managing and maintaining the eerie pizzeria of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 or live for the thrill of the hunt in the realistic hunting open world theHunter: Call of the Wild. All of these titles and more are available in June’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup*.    Meanwhile, PS2’s Deus Ex: The Conspiracy merges action-RPG, stealth and FPS gameplay in PlayStation Plus Premium.    All titles will be available to play on June 17.   PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium | Game Catalog  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image FBC: Firebreak | PS5 Launching on the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog this month is FBC: Firebreak, a cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. Return to the strange and unexpected world of Control or venture in for the first time in this standalone, multiplayer experience. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak—the Bureau’s most versatile unit—has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, contain the chaos, and fight to reclaim control. Join forces with friends or strangers to tackle each job as a well-oiled crew. Survival in this three-player cooperative FPS hinges on quick thinking and seamless teamwork as you scramble to tame raging paranatural crises across a variety of unexpected locations.    View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Battlefield 2042 | PS4, PS5 Battlefield 2042 is a first-person shooter that marks the return to the iconic all-out warfare of the franchise. With the help of a cutting-edge arsenal, engage in intense, immersive multiplayer battles. Lead your team to victory in both large all-out warfare and close quarters combat on maps from the world of 2042 and classic Battlefield titles. Find your playstyle in class-based gameplay and take on several experiences comprising elevated versions of Conquest and Breakthrough. Explore Battlefield Portal, a platform where players can discover, create, and share unexpected battles from Battlefield’s past and present. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 | PS5 Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 is the sequel to the terrifying VR experience that brought new life to the iconic horror franchise. As a brand new Fazbear employee you’ll have to prove you have what it takes to excel in all aspects of Pizzeria management and maintenance. Find out if you have what it takes to be a Fazbear Entertainment Superstar! View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image theHunter: Call of the Wild | PS4 Discover an atmospheric hunting game like no other in this realistic, stunning open world – regularly updated in collaboration with its community. Immerse yourself in the single player campaign, or share the ultimate hunting experience with friends. Roam freely across meticulously crafted environments and explore a diverse range of regions and biomes, each with its own unique flora and fauna. Experience the intricacies of complex animal behavior, dynamic weather events, full day and night cycles, simulated ballistics, highly realistic acoustics, and scents carried by the wind. Select from a variety of weapons, ammunition, and equipment to create the ultimate hunting experience. With a diverse range of wildlife, including Jackrabbits, Mallard Ducks, Black Bears, Elk, and Moose, you will need to strategically match prey to weaponry to successfully track, lure, and ambush animals based on their unique behavior and environment. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie | PS4, PS5 We Love Katamari Damacy, the second title in the Katamari series released in 2005, has been remastered with redesigned graphics and a revamped in-game UI. The King of the Cosmos accidentally destroyed all the stars in the universe. He sent his son, the Prince, to Earth and ordered him to create a large katamari. Roll the katamari to make it bigger and bigger, rolling up all the things on the earth. You can roll up anything from paper clips and snacks in the house, to telephone poles and buildings in the town, to even living creatures such as people and animals. Once the katamari is complete, it will turn into a star that colors the night sky. You cannot roll up anything larger than the current size of your katamari, so the key is to think in advance about the order in which you roll things up around the stage. In Royal Reverie, roll up katamari as the King of All Cosmos in his boyhood! View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes | PS4, PS5 Directed and produced by the creator of treasured JRPG series Suikoden, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes provides a contemporary take on the classic JRPG experience. In the land of Allraan, two friends from different backgrounds are united by a war waged by the power-hungry Galdean Empire. Explore a diverse, magical world populated by humans, beastmen, elves and desert people. Meet and recruit over 100 unique characters, each with their own vivid voice acting and intricate backstories. Over four years in the making, and funded by the most successful Kickstarter videogame campaign of 2020, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes features turn-based battles, a staggering selection of heroes and a thrilling story to discover. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Train Sim World 5 | PS4, PS5 The rails are yours in Train Sim World 5! Take on new challenges and new roles as you master the tracks and trains of iconic cities across 3 new routes. Immerse yourself in the ultimate rail hobby and embark on your next journey. Be swept off your feet with the commuter mayhem of the West Coast main line with the Northwestern Class 350, the twisting Kinzigtalbahn with the tilting DB BR 411 ICE-T, or the sun-soaked tracks of the San Bernardino line and its Metrolink movements, powered by the MP36 & F125.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Endless Dungeon | PS4, PS5 Endless Dungeon is a unique blend of roguelite, tactical action, and tower defense set in the award-winning Endless Universe. Plunge into an abandoned space station alone or with friends in co-op, recruit a team of shipwrecked heroes, and protect your crystal against never-ending waves of monsters… or die trying, get reloaded, and try again. You’re stranded on an abandoned space station chock-full of monsters and mysteries. To get out you’ll have to reach The Core, but you can’t do that without your crystal bot. That scuttling critter is your key to surviving the procedurally generated rooms of this space ruin. Sadly, it’s also a fragile soul, and every monster in the place wants a piece of it. You’re going to have to think quick, plan well, place your turrets, and then… fireworks! Bugs, bots and blobs will stop at nothing to turn you and that crystal into dust and debris. With a large choice of weapons and turrets, the right gear will be the difference between life and death. PlayStation Plus Premium  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Deus Ex: The Conspiracy | PS4, PS5This is an emulation of the classic PS2 title, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, playable on PS4 and PS5 for the first time. The year is 2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place. Terrorists operate openly – killing thousands; drugs, disease and pollution kill even more. The world’s economies are close to collapse and the gap between the insanely wealthy and the desperately poor grows ever wider. Worst of all, an age- old conspiracy bent on world domination has decided that the time is right to emerge from the shadows and take control.  *PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe lineups may differ by region. Please check PlayStation Store on release day. 

J Allard, a former Microsoft executive and one of the minds behind the Zune, is leading a new team at Amazon, CNBC reports. Allard is officially the vice president of Amazon's ZeroOne, which, based on at least one Amazon job listing, is "a special projects team dedicated to inventing breakthrough consumer product categories." What ZeroOne is actually working on remains a bit mysterious, but CNBC was able to find another listing for a "Senior Applied Scientist" role that suggests the team will be "conceiving, designing, and bringing to market computer vision techniques for a new smart-home product." Computer vision is the umbrella term for technologies that allow computer systems to "understand" images and video — for example, the ability for a Ring Video Doorbell to identify when a package is on your door step. Depending on your taste in MP3 players, Allard's role in the creation of the Microsoft Zune could justifiably give you pause. Microsoft's failed MP3 player looked distinct, but was no match for the popularity of the iPod. The Zune was one of several interesting, if unsuccessful projects Allard led at Microsoft, including the Microsoft Kin, and the Courier, a book-style tablet that was later reimagined as the Surface Neo. Allard also co-created the original Xbox, arguably his biggest claim to fame at the company. ZeroOne will exist inside Amazon's larger devices and services division, which is led by Panos Panay, another Microsoft expat. Panay joined Amazon to lead the division in 2023, after several years overseeing the development of Surface hardware and Windows 11 at Microsoft. Since Panay joined the company, Amazon has launched a new lineup of Kindles and introduced Alexa+, its integration of generative AI into the well-known voice assistant. Hiring both Allard and Panay suggests Amazon plans to lean even harder into product development going forward.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-zunes-creator-is-leading-a-secretive-team-at-amazon-194136949.html?src=rss

Thanks to the legal discovery process, Google’s antitrust trial with the Department of Justice has provided a fascinating glimpse into the future of ChatGPT.An internal OpenAI strategy document titled “ChatGPT: H1 2025 Strategy” describes the company’s aspiration to build an “AI super assistant that deeply understands you and is your interface to the internet.” Although the document is heavily redacted in parts, it reveals that OpenAI aims for ChatGPT to soon develop into much more than a chatbot. “In the first half of next year, we’ll start evolving ChatGPT into a super-assistant: one that knows you, understands what you care about, and helps with any task that a smart, trustworthy, emotionally intelligent person with a computer could do,” reads the document from late 2024. “The timing is right. Models like 02 and 03 are finally smart enough to reliably perform agentic tasks, tools like computer use can boost ChatGPT’s ability to take action, and interaction paradigms like multimodality and generative UI allow both ChatGPT and users to express themselves in the best way for the task.”The document goes on to describe a “super assistant” as “an intelligent entity with T-shaped skills” for both widely applicable and niche tasks. “The broad part is all about making life easier: answering a question, finding a home, contacting a lawyer, joining a gym, planning vacations, buying gifts, managing calendars, keeping track of todos, sending emails.” It mentions coding as an early example of a more niche task.Even when reading around the redactions, it’s clear that OpenAI sees hardware as essential to its future, and that it wants people to think of ChatGPT as not just a tool, but a companion. This tracks with Sam Altman recently saying that young people are using ChatGPT like a “ life advisor.”“Today, ChatGPT is in our lives through existing form factors — our website, phone, and desktop apps,” another part of the strategy document reads. “But our vision for ChatGPT is to help you with all of your life, no matter where you are. At home, it should help answer questions, play music, and suggest recipes. On the go, it should help you get to places, find the best restaurants, or catch up with friends. At work, it should help you take meeting notes, or prepare for the big presentation. And on solo walks, it should help you reflect and wind down.” At the same time, OpenAI finds itself in a wobbly position. Its infrastructure isn’t able to handle ChatGPT’s rising usage, which explains Altman’s focus on building data centers. In a section of the document describing AI chatbot competition, the company writes that “we are leading here, but we can’t rest,” and that “growth and revenue won’t line up forever.” It acknowledges that there are “powerful incumbents who will leverage their distribution to advantage their own products,” and states that OpenAI will advocate for regulation that requires other platforms to allow people to set ChatGPT as the default assistant. (Coincidentally, Apple is rumored to soon let iOS users also select Google’s Gemini for Siri queries. Meta AI just hit one billion users as well, thanks mostly to its many hooks in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.) “We have what we need to win: one of the fastest-growing products of all time, a category-defining brand, a research lead (reasoning, multimodal), a compute lead, a world-class research team, and an increasing number of effective people with agency who are motivated to ship,” the OpenAI document states. “We don’t rely on ads, giving us flexibility on what to build. Our culture values speed, bold moves, and self-disruption. Maintaining these advantages is hard work but, if we do, they will last for a while.”ElsewhereApple chickens out: For the first time in a decade, Apple won’t have its execs participate in John Gruber’s annual post-WWDC live podcast. Gruber recently wrote the viral “something is rotten in the state of Cupertino” essay, which was widely discussed in Apple circles. Although he hasn’t publicly connected that critical piece to the company backing out of his podcast, it’s easy to see the throughline. It says a lot about the state of Apple when its leaders don’t even want to participate in what has historically been a friendly forum.Elon was high: As Elon Musk attempts to reframe the public’s view of him by doing interviews about SpaceX, The New York Times reports that last year, he was taking so much ketamine that it “was affecting his bladder.” He also reportedly “traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.” Both Musk and the White House have had multiple opportunities to directly refute this report, and they have not. Now, Musk is at least partially stepping away from DOGE along with key lieutenants like Steve Davis. DOGE may be a failure based on Musk’s own stated hopes for spending cuts, but his closeness to Trump has certainly helped rescue X from financial ruin and grown SpaceX’s business. Now, the more difficult work begins: saving Tesla. Overheard“The way we do ranking is sacrosanct to us.” - Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Decoder, explaining why the company’s search results won’t be changed for President Trump or anyone else. “Compared to previous technology changes, I’m a little bit more worried about the labor impact… Yes, people will adapt, but they may not adapt fast enough.” - Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on CNN raising the alarm about the technology he is developing. “Meta is a very different company than it was nine years ago when they fired me.” - Anduril founder Palmer Luckey telling Ashlee Vance why he is linking up with Mark Zuckerberg to make headsets for the military. Personnel logThe flattening of Meta’s AI organization has taken effect, with VP Ahmad Al-Dahle no longer overseeing the entire group. Now, he co-leads “AGI Foundations” with Amir Frenkel, VP of engineering, while Connor Hayes runs all AI products. All three men now report to Meta CPO Chris Cox, who has diplomatically framed the changes as a way to “give each org more ownership.”Xbox co-founder J Allard is leading a new ‘breakthrough’ devices group at Amazon called ZeroOne. One of the devices will be smart home-related, according to job listings.C.J. Mahoney, a former Trump administration official, is being promoted to general counsel at Microsoft, which has also hired Lisa Monaco from the last Biden administration to lead global policy. Reed Hastings is joining the board of Anthropic “because I believe in their approach to AI development, and to help humanity progress.” (He’s joining Anthropic’s corporate board, not the supervising board of its public benefit trust that can hire and fire corporate directors.)Sebastian Barrios, previously SVP at Mercado Libre, is joining Roblox as SVP of engineering for several areas, including ads, game discovery, and the company’s virtual currency work.Fidji Simo’s replacement at Instacart will be chief business officer Chris Rogers, who will become the company’s next CEO on August 15th after she officially joins OpenAI.Link listMore to click on:If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Verge, which includes unlimited access to Command Line and all of our reporting.As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.Thanks for subscribing.See More:

Carrie Pallardy, Contributing ReporterMay 29, 20255 Min ReadWilliam Mullins via Alamy StockJohn Deere hired its first CISO in 2014, and James Johnson has remained in that role at the agricultural equipment company to this day. Johnson sat down with InformationWeek to talk about how he got started in his career, why working through a nation state attack was pivotal to his love of security, and how John Deere is building a talent of pipeline in the time of the cybersecurity skills gap.  From Network Engineer to Chief Information Security Officer Johnson started his career as a network engineer at windows and doors company Pella. He loved working in the network space but soon realized that he might grow bored there given enough time.  Derek Benz, a friend of Johnson’s and now CISO of Coca-Cola, suggested looking into security. Johnson went out and got a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification, which helped him land a job as a pen tester at manufacturing and technology company Honeywell.  During his time at Honeywell, the company was hit by Titan Rain, a series of coordinated cyberattacks carried out by a Chinese APT.  James Johnson, CISO“Getting a chance to see how nation states target companies and what they’re capable of doing, I think really made the mission even more important to me at that point,” Johnson shares. “When you do have the nation-state attack early on your career, it’s kind of a game changer … just thinking about the value of the work that you're doing and why it matters.” Related:He spent 11 years at Honeywell, steadily working up the ranks to become a CISO overseeing various divisions within the company. And then, a call came from John Deere.  John Deere’s First CISO That call came at the right time. Johnson had reached a point at Honeywell where his growth would likely be limited for a period of time.  “I was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity,” says Johnson. “I had a great connection to John Deere coming out of Iowa, growing up in the farming community, seeing a lot of that … great brand and an opportunity to really build something that from scratch again.” While building a security program as a first-time CISO is an exciting opportunity, it comes with its challenges. When Johnson arrived, he noticed how trusting the culture was at John Deere. “It’s a great value that John Deere has … they really try to strive to do the right thing with integrity, but that’s not the way the world operates on the digital front,” he says. One of his mentors early on in his tenure at John Deere told him that he was going to have work on shifting the entire company culture as he built his security organization.  Related:And he has made strides. When he first got there, everyone was using relatively simple passwords. Yet, the process to change those passwords was cumbersome and time-consuming.  “Today, MFA is deployed across the company. We have complex passwords,” he says. “We're trying to find ways to use biometrics more.” An Evolving Role His responsibilities in the CISO role have grown over time. When he first joined, he was overseeing IT security and operations. Financial product security, data security and governance; his team have taken on more and more over time.  “We built the program from about 32 people to … 220 people strong now in our organization,” he says.  Johnson has been with John Deere for more than a decade. Not every CISO or CIO sticks with the same company for that long, but Johnson has found that longevity has its benefits. He has built relationships with the board and his C-suite peers “It's pretty hard to get good at something in two or three years,” he explains. “You’re there longer. You’ve got the relationships. You’ve got the ability to influence things and really make a bigger difference.” Today, he is working alongside John Deere’s leadership to navigate the thrilling possibilities and security concerns of AI.  Related:Building a Talent Pipeline While the possibility of a security incident always looms in a CISO’s mind, Johnson is thinking about talent, too. “We will not succeed without the right people in our organization driving the right change,” he says.  John Deere is taking multiple approaches to bringing the right people to his team. First, he looks to other teams for people who are experts and not necessarily in security. He looks for promising talent and asks, “Can I teach that person security?” And the answer to that question in many cases has been “yes.” “We’ve got folks who used to be lead engineers on the product side who now are running our product security department, and they were never interested in security at all,” he says. John Deere also makes use of cyber talent through its bug bounty program, which has paid out more than $1.5 million since 2022.  Having been a pen tester, Johnson knows how frustrating it can be for someone to discover a vulnerability only for a company to do nothing to fix it. “We have service-level agreements to get certain vulnerabilities that are critical, high, medium, low, fixed within a certain period of time, and in most cases, we beat those numbers,” he says.  John Deere also works with Iowa State University to cultivate talent. “We put some services on campus, part of their tech center, that are services you probably would never get a chance to really work with or learn in college,” says Johnson.  He knows it would be difficult to find cloud security experts, for example, so they are helping develop those experts at Iowa State. “We’ve built a pipeline of talent out of Iowa State University because they know our brand,” says Johnson.  About the AuthorCarrie PallardyContributing ReporterCarrie Pallardy is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. She writes and edits in a variety of industries including cybersecurity, healthcare, and personal finance.See more from Carrie PallardyWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Carrie Pallardy, Contributing ReporterMay 21, 20258 Min Readrudi1976 via Alamy StockNick Lucius has spent his entire career in government service. He has put his skills as an attorney and data scientist to work in several roles with the City of Chicago. Last year, he was confirmed as the city’s CIO, heading up the newly formed Department of Technology and Innovation.  “I’m proud of what we're doing in Chicago … saving significant amounts of money by being more efficient,” Lucius tells InformationWeek. “We’ve saved $6 million already in 2025, which is a significant part of our budget. But [we did] so without a reduction in the delivery of services to humans.”  He talks about how he built his career and how he is aiming to increase both efficiency and access to services for Chicagoans.  Law and Computer Science Lucius plays guitar and piano. His early career ambitions focused on music but shifted to politics and government. During his undergraduate years at Ohio State University, he worked for the Ohio Statehouse.  “I was just really interested in the power of the justice system and how just how much having an advocate can really make a difference in that,” Lucius shares.  That interest led him to law school. He attended DePaul University, a choice that was driven by its location. “Chicago, I chose for the city. I absolutely love the city,” he recalls.  Related:Lucius earned joint degrees in law and computer science. His original intention was to pursue patent law with an interest in technology issues.  Nick LuciusWhile his career took a different path, his skills in computer science and law have served him well. “If I learned anything in the law, it was that having someone articulating as an advocate on behalf of a cause can do so much to move us toward progress,” he says.Armed with the ability to shape a narrative and champion a cause, Lucius has seen how technology can breathe life into those visions.  “On the technology side, I can then build and say, ‘OK, now we’re going to implement a system ... We’re going to create something. We’re going to put something out there that wasn’t out there before to move this cause forward,’” he says.  A Career in Government Lucius had those plans for patent law, but he graduated around the time of the Great Recession that began in 2007. Law firms weren’t hiring. But, as it turns out, the City of Chicago was. He got his start as assistant corporation counsel in the city’s Department of Law, focusing on foreclosures and abandoned buildings. “As soon as I started doing that, I forgot about everything I went to school for, and I spent about 10 years in litigation trying to help out the people of Chicago,” he says.  Related:After all those years of litigation, Lucius’s interest in technology began to resurface. “I also noticed that in my legal cases I had to do a lot of digging into city data systems and city technology systems in order to get my evidence,” he recalls.  He saw how modernizing city systems and connecting those systems across departments could make a big difference in the lives of residents. That spark got him back to his technology roots. He started taking on community projects and volunteer coding classes to hone his skills.  That reinvigorated interest in technology lead to roles as a data scientist with the city and then chief data officer and CTO with the office of the mayor.  Spearheading a New Department As Lucius moved through each of these roles and now in his position as CIO, he increasingly took on leadership responsibilities.  “I’m a builder by nature. And so I always love to roll up my sleeves and get into a problem,” says Lucius. “I find myself in the role now more often of … people [looking] to me for inspiration … leadership and vision.”  As the head of the department of technology and innovation, Lucius and his team have responsibilities for a vast array of systems that support the third-most populous city in the country.  Related:“We do so much: everything from supply the drinking water, pumping billions of gallons to not just Chicago but 125 cities in the area coming from Lake Michigan. Two major airports, international airports, 250 square miles of roads and sewers,” Lucius notes. “What we do is so massive, and one of the first orders of business when we got started was, we have a lot to just maintain and support.” Lucius leads a team of 75 people, which is slated to grow to 150 by the end of the year. In addition, he works with a large network of vendors and consultants that support the city’s IT systems.  The team is organized into different groups: planning, delivery, support, and cybersecurity. “When someone comes and says, ‘Hey, Nick, I need some help. I need a new website. I need a new app. I need you to solve this problem for me.’ We’re going to plan it. We’re going to build it. We’re going to deliver it. After that, we’ll support it, and we’ll make it’s safe and secure.” Lucius spends the majority of a typical day, up to 75% of it, in collaboration spaces. He is talking to team members, attending events, working to ideate. The remainder of his day is spent thinking about the future.  “What’s happening with AI? Where are we going with quantum computing here in Chicago? What’s our innovation play right now?” he asks.  As any CIO knows, not every day is a typical one. Systems go down. Fires have to be put out. Lucius was just a few months into the CIO role when the CrowdStrike global IT outage hit last year, impacting Windows machines across the city.  “Those kinds of days, when they come … it could be the only thing I do from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep,” says Lucius.  While days like this are inevitable, Lucius and his team still have a bigger picture and goals in sight. The more time it takes to access a benefit, the harder it is for the people who need that benefit the most to get it. He is hoping to use technology to increase equity and accessibility to government services.  “I want to see a decrease in the difficulty that it takes a person with a disability to apply for everything from a disability sticker for the car so that they can park close to their home, to apply for social benefits programs, whether that’s financial assistance or assistance with something in their home or something necessary for their life,” he offers as an example.  Challenges in Government  CIOs across industries share many of the same responsibilities and challenges, but there are sector-specific nuances, too. Lucius notes how much scrutiny public sector CIOs face compared to their private sector peers.  “Even publicly traded organizations don’t quite have the amount of scrutiny and attention that that a major government institution gets,” he contends.  And there is a reason for that pressure. Transparency is important. Delivering government services to citizens is essential. That responsibility is one of the biggest worries on Lucius’s mind.  Major government technology projects often get a lot of time and money, and yet they might fail. “You don’t have to look too far to see examples,” says Lucius. “When Healthcare.gov launched, it didn’t work.” He believes that it isn’t enough to have a great idea, get it funded, and get it launched. He sees the need to constantly evaluate projects to ensure they are actually successful.  “Success is when something works better for Chicagoans and something works better for a human being on the other end, and they get that benefit,” he emphasizes.  How should young people with ambitions in technology and government be thinking about these challenges, particularly during such a turbulent time? Lucius still wants to see people chase their dreams, but he cautions that they need something to latch onto in such a high-pressure field.  “Maybe [you] have family or [you] have personal experience where what we do here helped or maybe … you’ve just seen the benefit play out for human beings out there in the world,” says Lucius. “If you can latch on to that, that’s something you need in order to get through some of these experiences.”  A Reimagined Future Lucius sees people in the government technology space at a crossroads. They are faced with the major pressures of today’s societal and financial upheaval and the promises of delivering on new technology, like AI.  “All these things … have the potential to make things faster and more efficient, but then also bring the dangers of widening inequities and creating divides in society,” says Lucius. “We sit at the cusp of the reimagination of what it is to govern and what it is to oversee the provision of benefits in this society. And I want government technologists to recognize that … we can own that.” Lucius wants to bring services and benefits to the people of Chicago more efficiently without reducing those services. “We talk a lot about government efficiency these days,” he says. “I think Chicago is a great example.” About the AuthorCarrie PallardyContributing ReporterCarrie Pallardy is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. She writes and edits in a variety of industries including cybersecurity, healthcare, and personal finance.See more from Carrie PallardyWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Skullcandy vs. Bose: Sound quality Skullcandy vs. Bose: Noise cancellation Skullcandy vs. Bose: Comfort and design Skullcandy vs. Bose: Battery life Skullcandy vs. Bose: Companion apps and extra features Our winner: Get the Bose earbuds on sale How We Tested Frequently Asked Questions The noise-cancelling earbuds market is not just crowded — it's packed. If a brand wants to stand out with a new release, it faces the difficult task of bringing something new to the table that can outshine the products of the major brands like Sony, Apple, and, of course, Bose. Skullcandy's new earbuds, the Method 360 ANC earbuds, are attempting to do just that by partnering with one of those major brands — Bose. The earbuds come with Bose-powered sound at the very impressive introductory price of $99.99 (Skullcandy will be raising the price to $129.99 at an unspecified date in the future). The cheapest Bose earbuds, on the other hand, are the QuietComfort earbuds, which retail for $179. Though they are considerably more expensive, they do often go on sale for $149 and have reached the record-low price of $129, which made us especially curious to put them head to head with the Skullcandy earbuds.Below, you'll find our breakdown of how the Bose QuietComfort earbuds compare to the Skullcandy Method 360 ANCs. Skullcandy vs. Bose: Sound qualityIn the press release for the Method 360 earbuds, Skullcandy called them its "most advanced audio experience to date." In listening to everything from indie rock, video game soundtracks, and podcasts, I can see why. The Skullcandy earbuds had a balance that matched up easily to other impressive budget earbuds I've tested. Whether I was listening to the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack or a live Daft Punk performance, these earbuds punched above a $100 price point. How does Bose-powered sound compare to the real deal? Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable However, when listening to them side by side with the Bose earbuds, the Skullcandy earbuds felt muffled and muddier (though I wouldn't describe them as muddy on their own).When listening to Japanese Breakfast's "Savage Good Boy," I could still pick out different parts of the song's instrumentation, but I had to listen harder to pick up the piano past the guitar and vocals than I did with the Bose earbuds. While listening to the "Hush (Still Woozy remix)" by The Marías, the layers of the song were present with the Skullcandy earbuds, but shined with the Boses. Ultimately, the Skullcandys provided a solid listening experience, but the one the Bose earbuds provided was undeniably better. At the same volume, the QuietComfort earbuds sounded warmer, fuller, and generally more powerful. (I say this as someone who doesn't necessarily love bumping the volume super high.) Bose offers five total EQ presets, plus a custom setting. Credit: Screenshot: Bose Compared to Skullcandy's three presets and custom equalizer. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy For both, I found their standard mix to be on the bass-heavy side. However, Bose offers five EQ presets and a custom equalizer, compared to Skullcandy's three presets with a custom equalizer.Winner: Bose QuietComfortSkullcandy vs. Bose: Noise cancellationSkullcandy uses four mics to help block out sound, compared to the QuietComforts' three mics.That said, Bose's earbuds literally have the words quiet and comfort in their name. Not to mention, the brand's been a leader in the noise-cancelling space for quite some time. Whether I was working at home with my partner on the other side of the wall, in a cafe, library, or taking a walk, I generally found the Bose earbuds more adept at muting and outright blocking out sounds. That especially came through when I used just the noise cancellation without music to help it.However, the Skullcandy earbuds do offer adjustable ANC via the companion app, which isn't currently available on any pair of Bose earbuds. For their price point, it's not a feature I expected, but one I was pleasantly surprised to encounter. At its highest setting, the noise cancellation only had the slightest hiss. While Bose essentially had none at all in my experience, I was still surprised that the Skullcandy's noise cancellation was comparable at all, considering the price discrepancy. The Skullcandy companion app allows you to adjust the ANC on a sliding scale. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy And still, it's worth saying: the Skullcandy earbuds' ANC is very impressive for the price point. While working at the library, I could barely hear the murmurs of a conversation across the room that I could make out word for word without wearing the earbuds. On the Bose buds, the conversation disappeared altogether, giving them the slightest edge. Both earbuds allow you to toggle the ANC on and off and activate a transparency mode. With this last setting, the Bose stood out more effortlessly, amplifying the world around me just enough without overly emphasizing sounds or the room tone. The Skullcandy earbuds, on the other hand, exhibited a stronger background hiss in this mode. It didn't make it unusable by any means, but definitely less pleasant than that of the Bose earbuds.Winner: Bose QuietComfort, by a hair Skullcandy vs. Bose: Comfort and designFor how they fit into the ear, the designs are quite similar on these earbuds, which makes them wear very similarly. In my ears, I found the Bose earbuds to be slightly more comfortable, but both pairs come with three sizes of stability bands and three sizes of ear tips. At the end of the day, fit can be very personal, especially with earbuds. The earbuds have a similar shape, and both come equipped with a similar type of ear tip and stability band. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable As for the earbuds themselves, the Skullcandy earbuds actually resembled the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds more, with a slightly elongated stem and exterior touch controls with the perfect level of sensitivity. As someone who far prefers tactile on-ear controls, I was surprised by how well these earbuds distinguished the different types of presses. I think because the earbud has a slight groove where the touch controls are, it's easy to identify where to touch, and to not brush against the surface and activate the controls accidentally.On the other hand, the regular QC earbuds have a flatter, more rounded touch control surface, which, in my testing of these earbuds last fall, I found to err on the side of oversensitivity. While I didn't experience that issue much this time around, it's worth noting that I tested them initially during a time of year I was wearing more hats and hoods. The Skullcandy earbuds perform like the Bose QuietComfort earbuds (pictured left) but look more like the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (pictured right). Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable The Skullcandy earbuds might've taken the win in this section, if not for one glaring feature — their case. Unlike most other earbuds cases that merely snap open and closed, this one has a sliding mechanism with an O-ring and a slot for one earbud on either side of the interior case. If the intention was to create something outside of the box, Skullcandy did a great job, but it sacrificed some functionality in the process. This case is super bulky. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable As you can see, the case is huge compared to the earbuds, meaning if you're not using the O-ring, it is one of the least travel-friendly pairs of earbuds out there. In their design, Skullcandy seemed to assume that's how most people would use the case, as they placed the earbuds on the opposite side of the case. In other words, when looking at it head-on, the right earbud goes on the left side, and the left earbud goes on the right side. If you have the case clipped onto your belt with the front facing outward, this configuration makes perfect sense. In pretty much every other use case, it makes none.The Bose case, on the other hand, is relatively compact and has a clear spot for each earbud. The Bose earbuds don't have a clip-on ring, but feel marginally more portable. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable Both earbuds are IPX4 water-resistant, so they should withstand sweating during workouts just fine.Our winner: TieSkullcandy vs. Bose: Battery lifeThere's not much to say here other than both of these earbuds have excellent battery life. With ANC on, Skullcandy estimates you can get roughly nine hours per charge, with 23 hours of battery life in the case. Bose estimates 8.5 hours, with 31.5 hours in the case. Numbers-wise, Bose is the winner here, but in two work weeks of testing, I only needed to charge up the Skullcandy earbuds once. The Bose app has a feature that lets you easily see the hours breakdown of your remaining battery life, but it's not something I checked on super regularly during testing. Related Stories The Bose app makes it easy to tell how much playtime you have left. Credit: Screenshot: Bose For day-to-day use, I found these earbuds performed very similar in the battery life department.Our winner: TieSkullcandy vs. Bose: Companion apps and extra featuresWhen testing these earbuds side by side, I noticed right away that the Bose-powered element doesn't make itself hidden. Skullcandy adopted the Bose QuietComfort's power-on sound, voice assistant, and tiled app interface. The Skullcandy app. Credit: Screenshot: Skullcandy Versus the Bose app. Credit: Screenshot: Bose While the Bose app has a few more features, including a battery prediction, smart calls, and a voice assistant section, there's also quite a bit of overlap. Both have equalizer settings, touch control customization, low latency modes, and even a remote selfie section.Numbers-wise, Bose simply has more features you can mess around with to truly tailor your earbud experience to what suits you best. Features-wise, Skullcandy has a slight edge with adjustable ANC, but Bose's better ANC overall, alongside the greater customization, its battery prediction screen, and more varied EQ presets help it stand out ahead of the cheaper earbuds.Our winner: Bose QuietComfortOur winner: Get the Bose earbuds on saleThe fact that a pair of Skullcandy earbuds can stand up to Bose earbuds at all is a testament to what the brand has done with the Method 360 ANCs. While overall, I wouldn't call them exactly the same, I would say they're similar enough that you won't be upset to grab them at $100. If they stayed at their introductory price forever, they'd be easy to recommend as the winner of this matchup.However, they will be jumping up to $129.99. Combined with the fact that the Bose earbuds get marked down to $149 frequently enough that these earbuds will sit just $20 apart with some regularity, it's hard not to suggest just springing the extra $20 to get slightly better earbuds with slightly more features. Get the Skullcandy and Bose earbuds Bose QuietComfort earbuds $179.00 at Amazon Skullcandy Method 360 ANC $99.99 at Amazon Still can't decide? Check out our full reviews of the Bose QuietComfort earbuds and the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds. If you have a bigger budget, we recommend checking out our review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds.

Plenty of people take the advice "respect your elders" seriously, but Colordrunk Designs founder Jenna Gross lives by it. When she rebuilt, renovated, and designed her family's five-bedroom Atlanta home, her late grandparents' colorful residence was the driving force that inspired her. "I even had our pink front door custom-made to look just like my grandparents'," she admits. The rest of the foyer follows suit, with a boldly patterned area rug, colorful wallpaper, and cheerful paint. Color is the through line of the house's aesthetic, though using so many hues was not without its difficulties. "With so many spaces open to each other, it can be tough to make all the rooms flow—especially when you love as much color as I do," Gross says. "I spent a lot of time with the whole scheme laid out on the floor, making sure each room featured a color that flowed to the next."The foyer opens into the dining room, another space where pink is king and the family's forebears influenced the design. Here, a rather large oil portrait of her husband Caleb's great-aunt Vinny hangs on the back wall, giving the room an air of regality—and informing its color scheme. "I pulled the pink out of her dress and blasted it onto the ceiling and walls," Gross says. While the portrait is formal, the fuchsia is anything but. "With this fun and playful color, " she explains, "I wanted people to know that we do not take ourselves too seriously."The family room is painted a softer rose shade, but this home is not just a rhapsody in pink; other bold tints, like a canary yellow living break up the signature shade while keeping the energy high. "I have never been a 'yellow' person, but I was craving some exciting energy for that room," Gross explains. "The color draws you into a space that might not otherwise be used as much." There's no artistic ancestor involved here; Gross pulled "the brightest yellow" from a Manuel Canovas pattern on a banquette she already had and carried it over to the walls and ceiling to create what she calls "a fun, lively room that people gravitate toward."I wanted people to know that we do not take ourselves too seriously.The only room in the 4,000-square-foot home that isn't drenched in a bright color is the white kitchen, a spot that Gross kept serene and functional by design. "As much as I love color, I also love a white kitchen," Gross says. "It's where we cook, work, and play, and the white is such a good canvas for that." The exception is the custom tile backsplash in two shades of ocean blue, which Gross worked into every room of the house. "I picked those colors and used them in little doses to make the rooms flow easily," she explains.While a vibrant use of color obviously runs in the family, Gross is happy to report that she's seeing bold hues growing in popularity with her clients, too. "People are realizing that color makes you feel good! Even minimalists are embracing color, and all of my clients are asking for it," she says. "I am so happy to say that color is back—but did it ever really go away?"FAST FACTSJenna Gross, of Designer: Colordrunk DesignsLocation: Atlanta, GAThe Space:FAMILY ROOMGrasscloth textures hold their own against a riot of color.Emily FollowilWallcovering: Thibaut. Sofa: Jonathan Adler. Drapery: custom, in Schumacher fabric. Coffee table: Ballard Designs.Gross designed the wooden valance, a “nod to Hollywood Regency,” to soften the impact of 14-foot ceilings. LIVING ROOMA high-shine finish adds formality to bold color.Emily FollowilPaint: RAL 1018, Fine Paints of Europe. Chairs: vintage, in Kravet fabric. Art (above mantel): Evan Mooney expand=Gross used the same Manuel Canovas pattern she had upholstered on her banquette as insets for the walls, artfully connecting the room. BREAKFAST NOOKA caffeine-free spot to kickstart the day.Emily FollowilChandelier: Currey & Company. Chairs: Coley Home, in Schumacher fabric. Wallpaper: Brunschwig & Fils. Table: Jonathan Adler. Paint: Arsenic, Farrow & Ball.High-end artwork mixes with children’s creations on this eclectic gallery wall. DINING ROOMPink is the name of the game in this regal space.Emily FollowilPaint: RAL 4010, Fine Paints of Europe. Chandelier: Visual Comfort & Co. Table: Oly“Display the things you love, and let your home tell your family’s story,” says Gross, who showcases the heirloom china she and her husband inherited on custom shelves.KITCHENAnchored in white—but just as bold. Emily FollowilStools: Lee Industries, in Schumacher fabric. Pendants: The Urban Electric Co. Backsplash: custom, Renaissance Tile & Bath. Paint: Decorator’s White, Benjamin Moore.The everyday china is displayed on shelves. “Why hide it if you love it?” Gross asks. PRIMARY BEDROOMA masterclass in serene blues and purples.Emily FollowilWallcovering: Phillip Jeffries. Bed: Oly, in Schu­macher fabric. Nightstand and lamp: Worlds Away. Window treatments: Quadrille.Monogrammed bedding by JJA Custom Linens is “a nod to my traditional upbringing—but in a fun font with a lilac edge,” Gross says. KIDS' ROOMS Where animals roam free. Emily FollowilEmily Followil“The room has evolved since my now 14-year-old was a baby, but the personality and colors are the same,” Gross says. Wallpaper: Katie Kime. Drapery fabric: Schumacher. Desk and bed: Jonathan Adler. Headboard fabric: Thibaut.GUEST ROOMA custom-designed headboard stretches to the tall ceiling. Emily FollowilPaint: Pink Starburst, Benjamin Moore. Bed: custom, in Kravet fabric. Lamps: Jonathan Adler. Dresser: Oomph.“I designed the headboard to catch your eye and fill the space between the drapes,” says Gross, who drew a “whimsical shape inspired by a pagoda.”FOYERGross designed the front door to look exactly like that of her late grandparents'.Emily FollowilWallcovering: Carleton V Ltd. Console: Villa & House. Table lamp: Aerin. Rug: English Village Lane.In an homage to her grandparents’ home, Gross painted her front door a vibrant custom pink. MUDROOM"The stools are covered in one of my favorite patterns from my fabric line, Tipsi," says Gross.Emily FollowilPaint: St Giles Blue, Farrow & Ball. Pendant: Visual Comfort & Co. Ottomans: Society Social, in Tipsi fabric. Valance: Peter Fasano fabric, with Samuel & Sons trim.After school, Gross’s three kids stash backpacks and shoes within the custom cabinetry. Starbust cut-outs in the cabinetry provide ventilation and an extra dose of charm.About the DesignerJenna Gross founded her cleverly named full-service design firm back in 2013. Since then, Colordrunk Designs has been outfitting some of the country's most colorful and charming commercial and residential spaces, including her own home in Atlanta, Georgia, just a few short hours from where the designer grew up. She also founded a fabric line, dubbed Tipsi Home, inspired by her interiors' colorful nature.SHOP THE SPACEColey Home The Upholstered Teeny Dining Swivel$1,125 at coleyhome.comVisual Comfort & Co. Talia Large Chandelier$2,999 at visualcomfort.comCredit: Visual ComfortJonathan Adler Claridge 73" Apartment Sofa$3,900 at Jonathan AdlerCitrus Garden PillowNow 100% Off$17,576,006 $22 at schumacher.comCredit: Schumacher

Gladiatorial combat where naked warriors fight atop dinosaurs, alien octopus invasions, and tyrannical felines are just the tip of the iceberg in the fourth installment of Love, Death + Robots. Netflix’s genre-blending animated anthology series adeptly highlights science fiction’s versatility with stories that embrace horror, comedy, melodrama, and other label-defying tales. It’s a rare example of a project that becomes more confident and ambitious over time.  Love, Death + Robot’s executive producer, Tim Miller, and supervising director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, open up on the animated anthology series’ electric fourth season, which science fiction story would be their white whale of adaptations, how David Fincher’s ludicrous string puppet music video came together, and which of this volume’s segments were supposed to be directed by Zack Snyder. DEN OF GEEK: How do you figure out the stories that you’re going to tell and how do you approach the source material that you adapt? Is it a case of finding source material that you’re passionate about from the start or are there stories that are being suggested to you? JENNIFER YUH NELSON: Well, pretty much all the shorts done in all the seasons have been based on short stories that Tim’s read throughout his life. And the reason why they stuck with him is because they’re great stories. And so we have hundreds of these stories just piled up. That’s sort of the pile that we go through and say, “That’s a great one. Let’s try that one,” and we just curate a gigantic, different list and try to find stories that can live together in a nice sort of album of narratives, tones, and looks. TIM MILLER: There’s a lot of different stories, but once we get the vibe for the season, there’s a lot of like, “Let’s swap this one in for that one because it’s a little too much like this other one.” We try to curate the perfect mix. So we have a little something for everybody, although we always seem to end up with too many cats. But I can’t explain that. I don’t really notice it until after the fact. Have there been any short stories that you wanted to adapt, but weren’t able to, whether it’s been for rights issues or just not being able to figure out the best way to adapt it? TM: Oh, tons. Tons. Johnny Mnemonic, the original short story. There’s another one by William Gibson called Dogfight that I would love to do. It took me forever to get Drowned Giant, the J.G. Ballard one that I did in the previous season. Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell by Dan Simmons. There’s just a lot and sometimes we just can’t get to it. Sometimes the authors don’t want to let their works go for some reason. I don’t know, but I keep trying. Bound for Glory by Lucius Shepard is another one. It’s always so exciting when you watch a season and you do recognize some of the stories, or even if it’s just the author behind it. There is a real rush to that. I love it. TM: We do publish the stories, too! There’s two volumes. There will be a third soon. All the money goes to the authors. We want people to read the stories! Forget about making them into movies. What does the process of finding the right animation style for each story entail? Are the aesthetics and artistic choices your call or that of the animation studio? JYN: Often we choose the director in the animation studio according to their specialty and making sure that it fits for us. If we have two tentpole episodes that look a certain way then we want to make sure that those episodes are going to look vastly different from each other. So you’ll go to a studio that, say, if you have a realistic science fiction one, then you want to go to a studio that might be able to do stop motion for another story instead. Not every studio does all these different things well. You need to find their thing. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! It’s important for us, especially for this series, to make sure that we’re really showcasing the whole breadth of animation. What you can do with it and to see the limits and beyond of what these new innovative styles can be. And sometimes these directors are very much pioneers in what they do and no one else is doing what they do. That’s why we end up working with them. TM: We push it in the initial direction and then the directors come in and do their pitch. They’ll build off of the initial concept. So when it comes to, let’s say, design the characters, we let them take their best shot at doing that and try to give them as much freedom or rope to hang themselves – if you prefer – as we can.  Building off of that, Tim, your “Golgotha” segment is really wonderful, but also has the series explore live action territory. How did live action fall on this segment and is that something that you could see more of in Love, Death + Robots’ future? MILLER: Part of it is me just saying, “Look, we can do anything we want, motherfuckers!” So it’s just planting a stake there, but I’d love to do a whole series of, like a live action version of Love, Death + Robots because I like that format. I love animation, but I also like visual effects and I think you could make a case for doing a story that required some really innovative and cutting-edge visual effects to tell the story. But that one just felt right. You know, a lot of times the story speaks to you in a–not in a mystical way, but just a way that feels right to tell that story. Live action felt like the most grounded, right way to tell “Golgotha.” Jennifer, one of the exciting things about a show that’s now in its fourth batch of episodes is that there’s an opportunity to tell sequels and return to past worlds, like with “Spider Rose.” How did you decide that this specific story was an old idea that you wanted to build upon, rather than another past entry? JYN: Well, “Spider Rose” was batting around for a while on the story wall. We wanted to make it for a while. And with Tim’s episode, “Swarm,” those were always like two sides of the same struggle in Bruce Sterling’s world of the Shapers and the Mechanists. And so Tim’s episode, “Swarm,” had the investor aliens, which are making a reprise in “Spider Rose.” The same aliens show up, but Tim’s story focuses on the side of the Shapers, which are humans sort of manipulating themselves and evolving through biotechnology, whereas the Mechanists on the other side are the ones that are more mechanical. They’re actually cybernetic enhancements. “Spider Rose” is that side of civilization. So it is not a direct sequel, but it’s happening in the same world. It’s such a rich world, but we only have like 14 or 15 minutes. You get this little slice of a view into this world that’s so rich. That was just a fun way of just getting back into something that’s already so well thought out.  TM: But I have to say, Jennifer – if she and I were both kids and you took us to Toys “R” Us, I’m the kid that runs in and goes to the toy he knows he wants exactly. Jennifer is the kid that peruses all the aisles and makes a considered choice about what she wants, looks at every toy she could get, and then chooses the one she really wants, after much consideration, because she can choose anything she wants to put in the show. And she really thinks about it. It’s usually after the lineup comes together that she’s like, “I want that one!” It’s quite different the way our brains work. Yeah. Well, like “Screaming of the Tyrannosaur” feels like a very good example of that. Of just being like, “Who doesn’t love gladiator dinosaurs at the end of the day?” It’s just so much fun. TM: That one was written for Zack Snyder! Zack wanted to do one, but then he didn’t have time. I had written it so, normally, it wouldn’t have been one I picked, but I was invested in it, because I’d written it and I enjoyed it. When I write something, I’m working it out in my head; how I would direct it, really.  JYN: Was it really one you wouldn’t have normally done? Nelson laughs TM: I don’t know. If you look at “Drowned Giant,” which was the one I had done before that, could anything be more different than that? Although that was a weird one for me to do too. I’m not sure. I don’t think I have a style for, better or worse. David Fincher’s “Can’t Stop” is such a fun experiment, but I also really just loved to see him ostensibly returning to his music video roots. Was this an idea that he previously wanted to do in the series? How did this decision on his part come about? TM: He had mentioned a while ago about wanting to do a Chili Peppers music video with puppets. But when I called and said, “Hey, would you do an episode?” And he said, “What do you want me to do?” I said a music video for two reasons. One, because he is essentially the master of masters in that field. And then secondly, because I knew he was limited with his time. Like, he couldn’t make a 20-minute music video. So it built a box around him that I knew he couldn’t get out of. But he immediately said, “Yeah, I want to do the Chili Peppers as puppets.” Directors get fixated on ideas and then they just kick around in the attic until they get a chance to do them. You’ve talked about the rich world that all of these stories create, but sometimes you only spend a very brief time in them. Has there been any consideration for full-length spinoffs – or even a movie – that take one of these ideas or worlds and turn them into their own series?  There are certainly plenty that could sustain it. Does that idea interest you at all? TM: We pitched a “Three Robots” series. Netflix – I’m not gonna say they said no, I’m just gonna say that they haven’t said yes. And then there have been others. But you know, the beauty of the show is that we’d never get some of these ideas made if we were asking to do a feature. If I said, “Yeah, I want to do naked gladiatorial slaves riding dinosaurs in space, they’d go, ‘No.’” But if I say it as part of a short, nobody cares, right? Nobody even questions it as part of the show, which is the greatest thing about the show ever.  And even if you’re not wildly into an idea, you’re still going to do it if it’s only a five-minute buy-in. There’s such a good setup to what you guys are doing. JYN: Sometimes – and I don’t mean this in a bad way – but sometimes that’s all that’s required. You know what I mean? It’s great for five minutes, but you wouldn’t enjoy it If you made it 90. You’ve accomplished so much across the first four volumes of Love, Death + Robots, but what are your aspirations for future volumes? Is there anything that you haven’t done that you’d like to attempt? TM: We’ve got a lot of stories. I have the next season – seasons, actually – picked out. There’ll be wrangling of them if we are fortunate enough to do it, but there’s no lack of great material. And there’s no lack of different types of things. We occasionally go back to something like the tilt-shift of “Night of the Mini Dead” sort of thing or “Three Robots,” which I think is fun. There’s still a lot of room to do new and innovative things that we haven’t done before.  JYN: Absolutely. One thing that I think the show does really well and I hope really continues on  forever is that this is a way to show new ideas and new looks and new innovation by different directors and studios around the world. Rarely do you see such a showcase of animation like this. So I think that sort of beauty, shared with everyone, I hope that continues forever.  Off of that, I am such a huge animation fan. I love the different studios  that you have involved with the show. Animation has just made such huge leaps over the past few years. It’s so exciting to see the kind of stuff that’s getting nominated at the Academy Awards. Has there just been anything over the past few years that’s really excited you guys in particular?  JYN: Do we have time to watch anything, Tim?  TM: Not really, but I will say on our other show, Secret Level, one of the shorts we did was with Unreal Engine. I really think that a large part of the future of animation is going to be real-time and the tools that come with that. I think it opens up the filmmaking process to a lot of people. My studio, Blur, was started at the dawn of the PC desktop age, and it was great because it opened up the business of making animation to people that didn’t have millions of dollars. I started Blur with $24,000, but now things are even better and people can do more really highly polished stuff in their bedroom, in their underwear. I think that’s fantastic, and it’ll open up bigger stories for us to tell.  It’s too soon to say what AI is going to do to the whole industry. I’m terrified, fascinated, and excited, but I think we’re going to see a lot of changes. This means taking on bigger stories, which is what I want. It shouldn’t cost $100 million to tell a story and I hope we can do more with less. Not people, but time. All four volumes of Love, Death + Robots are now streaming on Netflix.