IS IT REAL OR IS IT AI-GENERATED? FBI warns of ongoing scam that uses deepfake audio to impersonate government officials Warning comes as the use of deepfakes in the wild are rising. Dan Goodin – May 15, 2025 5:06 pm | 18 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more The FBI is warning people to be vigilant of an ongoing malicious messaging campaign that uses AI-generated voice audio to impersonate government officials in an attempt to trick recipients into clicking on links that can infect their computers. “Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts,” Thursday’s advisory from the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said. “If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.” Think you can’t be fooled? Think again. The campaign's creators are sending AI-generated voice messages—better known as deepfakes—along with text messages “in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts,” FBI officials said. Deepfakes use AI to mimic the voice and speaking characteristics of a specific individual. The differences between the authentic and simulated speakers are often indistinguishable without trained analysis. Deepfake videos work similarly. One way to gain access to targets' devices is for the attacker to ask if the conversation can be continued on a separate messaging platform and then successfully convince the target to click on a malicious link under the guise that it will enable the alternate platform. The advisory provided no additional details about the campaign. The advisory comes amid a rise in reports of deepfaked audio and sometimes video used in fraud and espionage campaigns. Last year, password manager LastPass warned that it had been targeted in a sophisticated phishing campaign that used a combination of email, text messages, and voice calls to trick targets into divulging their master passwords. One part of the campaign included targeting a LastPass employee with a deepfake audio call that impersonated company CEO Karim Toubba. In a separate incident last year, a robocall campaign that encouraged New Hampshire Democrats to sit out the coming election used a deepfake of then-President Joe Biden’s voice. A Democratic consultant was later indicted in connection with the calls. The telco that transmitted the spoofed robocalls also agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty for not authenticating the caller as required by FCC rules. Thursday’s advisory provided steps people can take to better detect these sorts of malicious messaging campaigns. They include: Verify the identity of the person calling you or sending text or voice messages. Before responding, research the originating number, organization, and/or person purporting to contact you. Then independently identify a phone number for the person and call to verify their authenticity. Carefully examine the email address; messaging contact information, including phone numbers; URLs; and spelling used in any correspondence or communications. Scammers often use slight differences to deceive you and gain your trust. For instance, actors can incorporate publicly available photographs in text messages, use minor alterations in names and contact information, or use AI-generated voices to masquerade as a known contact. Look for subtle imperfections in images and videos, such as distorted hands or feet, unrealistic facial features, indistinct or irregular faces, unrealistic accessories such as glasses or jewelry, inaccurate shadows, watermarks, voice call lag time, voice matching, and unnatural movements. Listen closely to the tone and word choice to distinguish between a legitimate phone call or voice message from a known contact and AI-generated voice cloning, as they can sound nearly identical. AI-generated content has advanced to the point that it is often difficult to identify. When in doubt about the authenticity of someone wishing to communicate with you, contact your relevant security officials or the FBI for help. The guidance is helpful, but it doesn't take into account some of the challenges targets of such scams face. Often, the senders create a sense of urgency by claiming there is some sort of ongoing emergency that requires an immediate response. It's also not clear how people can reliably confirm that phone numbers, email addresses, or URLs are authentic. The bottom line is that there is no magic bullet to ward off these sorts of scams. Admitting that no one is immune to being fooled is key to defending against them. Dan Goodin Senior Security Editor Dan Goodin Senior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 18 Comments

As Dyson home tech enthusiasts, users—dare we say—experts, we’re keeping a close eye on all the Best Dyson Memorial Day sales popping up ahead of the long weekend. While we hope to be out grilling and getting sunburnt, same as you, we think Dyson deals like $300 off a wishlist-worthy cordless vacuum will be a welcome treat for the holiday. Before shopping, feel free to familiarize yourself with our catalog of tested favorites—from air purifiers to humidifiers to cordless vacuums.We’ve assembled all early bird discounts in advance of the official Memorial Day sale drop, where we’re expecting an even wider spread of deals at all our favorite Dyson retailers, including Amazon. Watch this space—we’ll be updating as more Memorial Day deals on our beloved V8’s and V15’s roll in!Our top picksBest deal overall: Dyson V8 Plus Cordless Vacuum, $470 $350Staff-approved purifier: Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde PH04, $1,000 $800A versatile floor cleaner: Dyson V15s Detect Submarine Wet and Dry Vacuum, $950 $800Dyson V8 Plus Cordless VacuumThis Dyson V8 stick vacuum is a longtime favorite of ambitious cleaners the world over. It’s suited for all your basic nightmares: dust, debris, and pet hair. It offers 40 minutes of cordless cleaning and two power modes, plus a hair-screw tool so it doesn’t overheat, as those of us with many years of vacuuming under our belts have come to normalize. Global editorial operations director Diane Dragan speaks emphatically in favor of her V8: “Before, it was exhausting to see dust and willfully ignore it. Now it’s immensely satisfying to grab the unit, zap the filth, and easily dispense of it. To those who walked with old-timey canisters and uprights so this Dyson could run, I thank you.”Rachel FletcherRachel FletcherDyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde PH04In an age of micro-pollutants, germophobes can rest easy knowing this combo air purifier/humidifier/fan not only performs to the caliber of regular Dyson products, but this model in particular sucks up formaldehyde, a colorless gas which can be emitted by paint, furniture, carpets, household cleaners, fireplaces, and even plywood. Commerce director Rachel Fletcher has owned this model for several years and finds that it still functions up to snuff, humidifying and cooling the air to her liking. Plus, the app (yes, the app) is easy to use. “After lighting a candle or cooking, the purifier went to work straight away on cleaning the air and the air quality returned to its usual after about 10 minutes,” Fletcher says.Photo: Terri WilliamsDyson V15s Detect Submarine​ Wet-Dry VacuumUnlike most vacuums—thanks to its combination of hardwood and carpet cleaning capabilities as well as and mopping functionality—this Dyson technology is what state-of-the art home cleaning dreams are made of. Contributor Terri Williams was beyond impressed with its versatility and efficiency. “The beauty of this design is that all of the water is contained in the separate wet roller head, so I can remove it, attach one of the other roller heads, and dry vacuum in other parts of my home,” she says. The top portion can be removed to use for a handheld vacuum for peskier, smaller corners, and handy attachments for handheld vacuuming are also supplied.Dyson Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifier$130 off this air purifier has a person reconsidering her air-quality needs. If you don’t already know, Dyson’s trademark brag is that their two-stage HEPA H13 filtration captures 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. That means: basically everything. This model includes a purifying fan that also cools you, so you can knock out two purchases with one.Dyson V7 Advanced VacuumIf you’re hoping for a strong and affordable Dyson model, this V7 is $250 and delivers on the basics we love: cordless, long charge time, powerful suction, and detangling technology. This is a great vacuum for those who aren’t looking for the cusp of tech, who might not be off put by older models—anyone with an iPhone 12 or earlier-type people; the corded headphone crowd.Dyson Gen5 Detect Cordless VacuumWhile it’s just 6% off, any discount on this highly coveted vacuum is worthwhile, according to Williams. “This is one of the best Dysons, one of the best vacuum cleaners, and one of the best cordless stick vacuums out there,” she says. Dyson’s most powerful cordless vacuum has 70 minutes of run time off a single charge, and it intelligently adapts its power based on debris and floor type. The LCD screen shows particles sucked up, charge time left, and the amount of power used. Last but not least, the HEPA filtration traps 99.99% of particles as small as 0.1 microns, and it expels clean air in return.Dyson Ball Animal 3 Upright VacuumEverything you love about Dyson’s cordless stick vacuums still comes in this upright vacuum cleaner, down 25% from retail price. This model is designed with pet owners in mind with unrivaled detangling technology and multiple attachments to help you reach every crevice of your home, especially where hair balls like to accumulate. Its whole-machine filtration ensures that particles are trapped inside the machine, not expelled back into the house to force another run-through.Dyson Hot+Cool HP07 Air Purifier, Heater, and FanAnother air purifier high on our list is this HP07 model, which commerce editor Audrey Lee says “works like a dream, and I noticed within a week of use that I felt noticeably less congested.” The purifier uses a 360 degree filtration system that implements a combination of activated carbon, to remove potentially harmful gases and odors from the air, and its HEPA filter, which catches 99.7% of particles. Its auto mode continuously monitors room temperature and indoor air quality while also running the fan or heat to the degree of your choosing. You can control the device with an included remote or from your app.Dyson Solarcycle Morph CF06 Floor LightDyson makes its foray into lighting gear with its Solarcycle Morph line—clean, modern, extended lines give it an ultracontemporary look. Its four-in-one lighting adapts to the atmosphere to create a light that best suits a space, featuring four modes: task, indirect, feature, and ambient. It is formulated with LED lights with glare control and low optical flicker for eye care.

Lena Dunham–following the success of her 2012 comedy-drama series Girls–is my Roman Empire. Everyone knows the story: the published essays dissecting the sudden end of her long-term relationship with producer Jack Antonoff; the widespread criticisms of Girls for its lack of diversity; the poorly received comments about abortion. We witnessed the public turn on Dunham, branding her one of the most controversial writers of her time. But what was she feeling during that wave of backlash?  On July 10, Dunham and her husband, Luis Felber, will offer a loose interpretation of what life was like when they first met in 2021. If it’s anything like her past work, the series will be packed with comedy, emotional honesty and sharp introspection. As Dunham put it in a Variety interview about meeting Felber: “When I met my husband, I was dazzled by just how much baggage two people could bring to the table.” The highly anticipated series, Too Much, co-written by Dunham and Felber, premieres on Netflix on July 10.  “Co-created by Dunham and Luis Ferber, Too Much centers on Jessica (Meg Stalter) a New York workaholic in her mid-thirties, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever and slowly isolating everyone she knows. When every block in New York tells a story of her own bad behaviour, the only solution is to take a job in London, where she plans to live a life of solitude like a Bronte sister. But when she meets Felix (Will Sharpe) – a walking series of red flags – she finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even as it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language?” Read more at Deadline A period romance about two young artists that fall in love in Paris just before becoming recognized as cultural icons– yes, please; plus, the Bill Pohlad directed project, Miles and Juliette, will be produced by none other than Mick Jagger– double yes!  Just in time for the recent wave of buzz surrounding new movies during the Cannes Film Festival, Damson Idris, who is currently filming opposite Brad Pitt in Paramount’s upcoming fantasy film Children of Blood and Bone, has been set to play Miles Davis, alongside Anamaria Vartolomei as Juliette Gréco in Pohlad’s latest project.  “According to the project’s description, Miles & Juliette follows ‘22-year-old Miles Davis (Idris) on a transformative trip to Paris in 1949, where he falls into a passionate romance with Juliette Gréco (Vartolomei), the French singer, actress, and Left Bank icon. What begins as an intimate affair blossoms into a profound connection between two young artists — just before they became cultural legends.’” Read more at The Hollywood Reporter On Sunday, Sony Pictures Television was able to secure global distribution rights to Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner’s relationship comedy series, The Miniature Wife.  The series features a star-studded cast of regulars and recurring characters, with Elizabeth Banks and Emmy-winner Matthew Macfadyen in the leading roles. You’re probably thinking: What do Ames and Turner mean by the miniature wife? The Media Res produced comedy series is actually based off of author Manuel Gonzalez’s short story of the same name about a man who accidentally shrinks his wife.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! “The relationship comedy series explores the shifting power dynamics between spouses as a technological mishap triggers the ultimate marital crisis, pitting them against each other in a battle for dominance. It will air on Peacock in the U.S.”  Read more at Variety Tuesday marked the start of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Long-awaited projects from Wes Anderson and Ari Aster are set to premiere as well as six female directed films in the Official Competition.  Last year, Sean Baker snagged the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), which is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition, for Anora– which later won the Academy Award for Best Picture on March 2. Who will win this year’s Palm d’Or, and will the films featured at Cannes be an early indicator for the 2026 awards season like last year? We’ll have to see, but for now, even if you can’t attend the festival, keep a close eye on the daily happenings in Cannes over the next two weeks.  “Pundits complained last year’s Cannes was a light affair, but that had to do with the bottleneck created by the strikes, for one. Many auteurs return to the Croisette this year to make for a highly anticipated festival.” Read more at IndieWire The film that I’m the most excited to hear about following its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival is by far Ethan Coen’s upcoming dark comedy, Honey Don’t! The film follows Margaret Qualley as Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who looks into strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. Who’s the priest of that deadly church? Captain America, of course!  Though it’s not in competition, the film will premiere in Cannes on the final day of the festival, as part of the midnight screenings. Though I’ll have to wait until Aug. 22 to see the dark comedy in theaters, I have a feeling there will be a lot of buzz surrounding the film following its premiere.  “Once again starring Margaret Qualley, this time as a lesbian private investigator on the trail of a cultist played by former Captain America Chris Evans, Ethan Coen’s latest, co-written alongside longtime collaborator and wife Tricia Cooke, looks to be a dark comedy through and through, firmly of a piece with Drive-Away Dolls.”  Read more at Empire Watch the trailer of HONEY, DON’T! below:

I experimented with Japanese-inspired textures to give Yatai Master a cozier feel. For gameplay, I tried to make dish quality depend on ingredients, cooking, and player choices—hoping small decisions would feel meaningful in this little street food simulator. Posted by oht on May 4th, 2025 Redesigning Yatai Master’s aesthetic and quality system Visual Redesign During the early stages of development, the game's interface used solid, smooth colors, following a functional but somewhat cold aesthetic. That was the effect I was aiming for—something simple, minimal, and austere. However, as the project progressed, I felt the need to add a warmer, more inviting touch, something that evoked the texture and ambiance of physical materials. That's when I began experimenting with a visual dithering pattern subtly inspired by traditional Japanese designs known as "wagara"—decorative motifs used in fabrics and garments like kimonos. Interestingly, this change wasn't the result of deliberate planning but rather a series of casual experiments while exploring the new features of Pinta 3.0, a free, cross-platform image editor that aspires to be the "Paint.NET" for all operating systems. This version of the software introduced dithering tools, which allow applying halftone patterns to colored surfaces. While playing with this feature, I discovered a texture that vaguely resembled fabric or burlap, offering a softer, more artisanal feel—perfect for the spirit of the Yatai. I believe this dithering adds some "visual personality" and helps break the rigidity of flat colors, creating a more intimate and less virtual atmosphere. I hope this change better represents the idea of a small street stall, typically made with humble materials yet full of character. Rethinking Quality When I started developing my game, one of the first mechanics I defined was dish preparation. I envisioned that ingredients would have a "quality" rating, and customers would evaluate the food based on that. At first, it seemed like a straightforward decision: assign a value from 1 to 10 and calculate an average. Done. How hard could it be? Turns out, quite a bit… Many Variables As I integrated more elements—proper cooking, features like Fast Cooking, ingredients with different attributes—the quality scoring system stopped being a simple sum and became a small decision-making machine. What if a player uses only excellent ingredients? How to penalize poor cooking without being unfair? And how to prevent dishes with more ingredients from having an unfair advantage simply due to more components? I soon realized that a good scoring system not only has to work, but also must balance the game and clearly communicate to the player what’s happening. It’s not just about numbers but what those numbers represent: effort, choices, mistakes, and improvements. After several adjustments, I ended up building a system that considers: The ingredient’s base quality. Whether it was cooked correctly (yes, even that adds or subtracts). A special adjustment if the player uses fast cooking (Fast Cooking). And a final mapping that converts the technical score into a comprehensible evaluation: Poor, Good, Excellent, etc. Markets and Quality One of the elements I was most excited to design was the market system. Just like in real life, not all ingredients come from the same place, nor do they have the same quality or price. In Yatai Master, each market offers different ingredients with variations in their base quality, which directly impacts the final dish’s score. Buying a higher-quality ingredient usually means paying more, but that doesn’t guarantee success—it also needs to be cooked well, have sufficient stock, and require budget management with cunning. On the other hand, opting for cheaper ingredients may allow for more dishes to be prepared but with a lower quality score… and that can affect customer satisfaction. With this mechanic, I aimed to simulate the daily decisions of a small food business owner. And this, without fully planning it at first, helped me more deeply connect gameplay with the experience of running aYatai. You may never see all these calculations as a player, but they’re there, making every decision matter. The most interesting part is that I never imagined how complex designing something as seemingly simple as a score could be. Is it worth all this effort for a number? I think so. Thanks for reading this far.

Arrowhead Games Studios CEO Shams Jorjani wants to ensure Helldivers 2 players know that, while the studio has “some really cool concepts” for its next game, it won’t be abandoning Helldivers 2 anytime soon. As spotted by VG247, Jorjani messaged Helldivers 2 players in a Discord server about the game and what the studio has cooking next. “[T]he wonderful thing is that thanks to the amazing support of you FINE people Arrowhead’s future is quite bright and we have the freedom to explore some really cool concepts that we couldn’t have otherwise. Game 6 (our next project) will happen the way it will happen thanks to you,” he wrote. His words prompted a bit of worry from players thinking that this meant the studio would be moving on from supporting Helldivers 2, but he told them to hold their horses. “[N]ah. it’s ALL Helldivers 2 for now. a very, very small team will spin up something later this year and go at it sloowly. Helldivers is our main focus and will be for a loooong time,” Jorjani wrote. How long a “loooong time” will be isn’t immediately clear; Helldivers 2 is just over a year old, which is quite young for a successful live service game, so it could theoretically have a long life ahead of it. Helldivers 2 was the third-highest-selling game in 2024 and Sony’s fastest-selling game ever, pushing 12 million units in just 12 weeks. It had quite the roller coaster ride on Steam, where Sony instituted then quickly pulled an Uno Reverse card on a policy requiring Steam players have a PSN account to play it. Jorjani wrote, “The next game is 100% funded by ourselves so we’ll call 100% of those shots,” in response to a user asking if the studio’s next game would also suffer from being region-locked in terms of being purchasable, a byproduct of Sony’s PSN requirement. Jorjani’s comments come after Helldivers 2 received a fleshy upgrade to its Illuminate enemies. The game also got several balance tweaks, which you can read about in the patch notes.

The worst video game ever made is coming to PS5, Switch and Xbox this month GameCentral Published May 15, 2025 6:05pm Updated May 15, 2025 6:05pm The anti-video game (Playsaurus) An indie classic that spawned an entire genre, despite having virtually no gameplay, is coming to consoles and the best that can be said about it, is that it’s cheap. Given the genre it created is called an indle game, it’s fair to say that Cookie Clicker does not have the deepest gameplay in the gaming world. All you do is click on picture of a cookie, to make more cookies, to buy in-game items to automate the process of clicking on pictures of cookies. To call it inane is to understate on a titanic scale and as far as we’re concerned it’s an anathema to everything video games are about. However, somehow t’s incredibly popular and has sold millions of copies on Steam, with a concurrent peak of 67,806 players. And now it’s coming to consoles. Why it’s taken so long, considering it was originally released in paid form in 2021, isn’t clear but it’s due to arrive on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 on May 22. French creator Julien Thiennot admitted to having created the game in a single evening, but we can’t blame him for the game’s success as he surely never imagined it going on to have this kind of reception. The game will cost £4.29 on all console formats, which is the same as it is on Steam. Strangely, there are no Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions, and yet it’s hard to imagine the game would tax their processors too hard. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly new in the console version, but it will feature over 600 in-game upgrades, various mini-games, a dragon to pet (i.e. click), and music by C418. More Trending Mind you, we wouldn’t pretend to be experts on how much the game has changed since its debut in 2013, and according to publisher DashNet it does include ‘new features’, such as permanent upgrades that mean you can leave the game to play itself even more quickly. For obvious reasons, the idle game genre is most popular on mobile and PC but some of its other big hitters include Make It Rain: The Love Of Money, Clicker Heroes, Shark Game, Kittens Games, and other non-games whose existence we are loathe to acknowledge. If you want to try before you buy the original browser version of Cookie Clicker is still free to play here. We hate it with a passion but if you want to click, that’s up to you. The video game for people who can’t be bothered to play video games (Playsaurus) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: The Precinct review – Hill Streets Blues meets GTA GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

david_franklin - stock.adobe.com News Post Office scandal inquiry to publish first findings this summer Inquiry announces that findings on compensation and human impact will be presented in the next few months By Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA Published: 15 May 2025 10:20 The Post Office scandal public inquiry will publish the first part of its final report this summer, with its findings on compensation and the scandal’s human impact to be made public “as soon as possible”. The inquiry, which lasted about three years, examined a scandal that went on for two decades and saw subpostmasters wrongly blamed and punished for accounting shortfalls. It is described as the widest miscarriage of justice in UK history, and over 700 people have had wrongful convictions overturned as a result of it being fully exposed. Computer Weekly first revealed the Horizon problems in 2009, and has been investigating ever since, including detailed reporting of the inquiry since it began hearing evidence in May 2022. Inquiry chair Wyn Williams, who today made the announcement, said: “Throughout my investigations, I have heard how people have faced unimaginable hardship due to the impacts of the Horizon scandal, from wrongful convictions and financial ruin to broken relationships and severe emotional distress. I have also held several compensation hearings, which have stressed the urgency for people to receive redress that is full, fair and prompt.” He added that the people affected by the scandal should be at the heart of the inquiry’s work. “It seems fitting that my conclusions on the suffering endured by so many, as well as the issue of redress, should be at the forefront of my report and published as soon as feasibly possible,” said Williams. After a High Court victory in 2019, when subpostmasters proved the Horizon computer system they used was to blame for unexplained losses, the first thing campaigner Alan Bates, now Sir Alan, said to Computer Weekly was that he wanted a statutory public inquiry into the scandal. He got it in May 2021, when a government inquiry into the scandal was made statutory. Read a round-up of the full inquiry Post Office Horizon IT scandal inquiry: Three years of shocking revelations. When originally set up as a government department inquiry without the power to call witnesses, there was outrage and accusations of whitewashing. But following pressure from subpostmasters and their supporters, the inquiry was put on a statutory footing, with a judge in charge and the power to call witnesses to give evidence. The inquiry was split into seven phases.  The human impact hearings were shocking, revealing the extreme suffering of people at the hands of the Post Office. Other phases have revealed that the Post Office had knowledge that the Horizon software had bugs when rolled out, prosecution witnesses changed their statements when prompted by the Post Office, and lawyers hid evidence during trials of subpostmasters because it would have made their prosecutions unsafe. It has also featured directors, politicians and civil servants who, whether deliberately or not, contributed to the cover-up. Following Williams’ announcement, Sir Alan Bates said bringing forward the findings involving financial redress was vital. “It is good that things will start to appear, albeit in sections,” he said. “The chair is right in his comments because it is the priority in all this,” said Bates. “I just hope it helps bring swift resolution to all the outstanding problems. We have to find, one way or another, a way of getting [financial redress] done.” The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history. Read detailed coverage of the entire public inquiry by Computer Weekly Read more about phase one of the public inquiry: The British people are waking up to the scandal that happened under their noses. Read a round-up of phase two: Post Office scandal – ‘cock-up or cook-up’? Read a round-up of phase three: Post Office scandal – cover-up a ‘dark chapter’ in government, corporate and legal history. Read a round-up of phase four: Post Office scandal: Phase four’s rogues’ gallery. Read a round-up of the combined phases five and six: Post Office scandal: Phases 5 and 6 had islands of conscientiousness in great depths of neglect. Read a round up of phase seven: Post Office scandal: Inquiry’s final phase exposes dysfunction past and present. In The Current Issue: UK MoJ crime prediction algorithms raise serious concerns Interview: Markus Schümmelfeder, CIO, Boehringer Ingelheim Download Current Issue Mind the insight-to-impact gap, Qlik captures analytics ‘in the moment’ – CW Developer Network Safer Sharknado: Sysdig donates Stratoshark to Wireshark Foundation – Open Source Insider View All Blogs

Staying In Shadows Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay turned out well, so Ubisoft's bigwigs are pushing some of the biggest games it has in the works further down the road If it ain't broke, give it an extra year or so just to allow you to really make sure it ain't broke. Image credit: Ubisoft News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 15, 2025 Assassin's Creed Shadows was good. So, Ubisoft's decided to do the same thing with some of the "biggest productions" it currently has in the works, pushing several unnannounced games back in the hopes that more development time will yield more success. This was announced in the publisher's latest earnings release, in which it also reflets on what's been a pretty turbulent year for one of the world's premiere providers of massive games with maps chock full of s**t to do, and has seen it produce a weird subsidiary baby with Chinese giant Tencent. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. After bigging up Shadows' launch as a "defining moment" that re-affirmed the entire concept of people liking Assassin's Creed, the release revealed that the publisher's been reviewing the portfoloio of stuff it's currently working on. "After a thorough review of its pipeline that took place from October to December, the Group decided to provide additional development time to some of its biggest productions in order to create the best conditions for success," Ubisoft wrote. "This decision has already been beneficial to the quality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. As a consequence, FY2026-27 and FY2027-28 will see significant growth vs. FY2025-26 on the back of strong content coming from the Group’s largest brands." Well, at least it's doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of getting similar results, rather than different results - the latter being the thing Vaas warned us all about repeatedly during the course of Far Cry 3. Is this strategy the definition of sanity? We'll have to see. Meanwhile, Ubisoft declared that the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake - the game it teased last year by showing off a 30 second clip of a candle doing candle things - will come out during the current financial year that ends in March 2026. It had already been given a broad 2026 date in that candle teaser, so you can pencil it in for sometime in the first few months of next year. Anno 117: Pax Romana, Rainbow Six Mobile, and The Division Resurgence are all also set to come out in the upcoming biz year, along with some more games that remain unnannounced for now but with these delays, it's looking like there could be a bit of a fallow period after that. Do you think Ubi's on to a winner by applying its Shadows strategy to these other games? Let us know below!

LAI #75: Generative AI vs. Agentic AI vs. AI Agents 0 like May 15, 2025 Share this post Author(s): Towards AI Editorial Team Originally published on Towards AI. Good morning, AI enthusiasts, This week’s issue dives into where the field is heading — beyond generation, toward autonomy and better error awareness. We’re starting with a breakdown of the increasingly fuzzy but important distinctions between Generative AI, Agentic AI, and AI Agents. Then we move into applied innovation: Microsoft’s GraphRAG, multimodal RAG systems using Cohere and Gemini, and a practical framework for predicting when your model is about to get something wrong. Also in the mix: DNNs vs. tree-based models for e-commerce ranking, a powerful Cursor.ai-like browser extension from the community, and this week’s poll on when vibes are enough — and when accuracy has to come first. Let’s get into it. — Louis-François Bouchard, Towards AI Co-founder & Head of Community Learn AI Together Community Section! Featured Community post from the Discord Retconned has built Sophon, an AI chat app that enhances your browsing experience by understanding and interacting with your tabs. With its intelligent composer, it can see the tabs you have open, allowing it to understand context and autofill forms, textboxes, or fields with a single click. It is a browser extension and completely free. Check it out here. Share your feedback in the thread and support a fellow community member! AI poll of the week! Most of you are doing vibe checks, and of course, for general tasks, the entire idea is for the AI to not feel like AI. But would you also rely on “vibes” for more quantitative tasks, where output accuracy matters more than output feel? Share in the thread, let’s decide together! Meme of the week! Meme shared by rucha8062 TAI Curated Section Article of the week How GraphRAG Works Step-by-Step By Mariana Avelino This blog explains Microsoft’s GraphRAG, a method that uses knowledge graphs for retrieval-augmented generation. Key detailed processes were graph creation, involving entity extraction, community partitioning, and querying, with distinct Local and Global Search functions. It outlined how entities, relationships, and community reports are generated and used for LLM response generation, including context management and semantic retrieval. Our must-read articles 1. Distill-then-Detect: A Practical Framework for Error-Aware Machine Learning By Shenggang Li The author presented a framework, “Distill-then-Detect,” to address prediction errors in machine learning models, particularly the “big misses” on critical data slices. This approach involves distilling a compact “student” model from a larger “teacher” model. It then quantifies teacher uncertainty and trains a meta-model to predict where the teacher is likely to err. By combining these signals into a risk score and applying conformal calibration for thresholding, the system effectively flags high-risk predictions. Experiments demonstrated that this method identified error-prone cases with balanced precision and recall while clustering these errors provided actionable insights into problematic data segments. 2. Beyond Text: Building Multimodal RAG Systems with Cohere and Gemini By Sridhar Sampath Traditional Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems often fail to process visual data. This article details a multimodal RAG system designed to overcome this limitation by understanding both text and images within documents. It utilizes Cohere’s multimodal embeddings to create unified vector representations from content like PDFs. Gemini 2.5 Flash then generates context-aware answers using either matched text or images, with FAISS managing vector indexing. It explains the system’s workflow, from document upload to answer generation, demonstrating its enhanced capability to extract information from charts, tables, and other visuals compared to text-only RAG. 3. Generative AI vs. Agentic AI vs. AI Agents: What Everyone Needs to Know By Poojan Vig The article clarified the distinct roles of Generative AI, Agentic AI, and AI Agents. It explained that Generative AI produces new content based on learned patterns. Agentic AI focuses on strategy, planning, and iteration towards a goal without continuous human intervention. AI Agents then sense their environment and execute actions in the digital or real world. Using a cooking analogy and examples like automated customer service, the piece illustrated how these AI types can operate independently or collaboratively to perform complex tasks. 4. DNNs vs Traditional Tree-Based Models for E-Commerce Ranking By Nikhilesh Pandey The author discusses the evolution of e-commerce ad ranking systems, detailing the shift from traditional tree-based models to Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). It outlines why tree-based models have reached their limits and how DNNs offer superior capabilities for handling complex data, personalization, and achieving better conversion rate (CVR) predictions. Using DoorDash Ads as a case study, the piece illustrates the iterative migration process, including defining baselines, optimizing model training and evaluation with techniques like data normalization and distributed processing, and addressing challenges such as the offline-online performance gap. If you are interested in publishing with Towards AI, check our guidelines and sign up. We will publish your work to our network if it meets our editorial policies and standards. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

Americans are living through interesting times, economically. The tariffs imposed, delayed, and frequently adjusted by the government have thrown household budgets into confusion. One thing that’s pretty certain is that the baseline tariffs applied to just about every country are likely to raise prices at the grocery store no matter what happens from here (prices could go up by about 3% overall).For families that are already struggling to make their grocery budgets work, this is unwelcome news, but there is one thing you can do right now—while prices are still largely unaffected by tariff chaos—to help mitigate the impact and protect you from future grocery inflation: start putting together a “tariff pantry.” This involves laying in a supply of nonperishable groceries to lock in today’s prices, and focusing on recipes and meals that will keep your grocery costs down in the coming months. Here's what to consider.How to plan out your tariff pantrySetting up a “tariff pantry” requires a little planning. “Take inventory first,” advises food blogger and bestselling cookbook author Kyndra Holley. “Know what you already have and make a list of essentials—stick to long-lasting pantry staples you actually use. Stock up gradually. Monitor prices and buy when it makes sense, not out of fear. Then set a budget and stick to it: Decide how much you can spend and avoid impulse buys or panic stockpiling. Buy what you already use when it’s discounted—don’t get lured by deals on items you wouldn’t otherwise use or need.”Holley also warns against relying too much on bulk-buying. “Bulk can save money—but only if you’ll use it,” she says. “Always check unit prices and shelf life, and don’t buy more than you can store safely. Use airtight containers and freeze what you can’t use quickly.”Changing your whole diet and meal-planning approach can help deal with tariff cost increases. “Go more plant-based,” Holley suggests. “Reduce meat and opt for beans, lentils, eggs, and grains. They’re cheaper, filling, and shelf-stable. One-pot, sheet-pan, and slow cooker meals use fewer ingredients and repurpose leftovers easily. And simplify recipes—use fewer, local ingredients. Stick to basic seasonings like garlic, onions, vinegar, and herbs.”Careful meal prepping can also reduce waste and make the most of items bought in bulk. “When you cook in bulk, you maximize every ingredient, stretching your dollars further,” says Laurie Hise, founder of the budgeting blog Passionate Penny Pincher. “Think buying meat in family packs, prepping meals in batches, and locking in today’s prices before more inflation sneaks in!”Hise also suggests broadening your grocery store choices. “Don’t put loyalty above savings! Make sure Aldi is in your store rotation, and scan weekly ads to get your must-haves for the cheapest. Eggs are almost always the cheapest there, they have a great Keto and Gluten Free selection, and you can buy meat for cheap on Wednesdays.”What to stock in a tariff pantryAlthough the blanket tariffs imposed will likely raise prices in general, the grocery items most likely to be affected by tariffs include fresh fruits and vegetables (the bulk of which are imported), coffee, cheese, olive oil, seafood, nuts, and candy. Aside from dodging future price hikes, you want to focus on items in those categories that have lengthy shelf lives and flexible uses. “Stock up on items that are both cost-effective, long-lasting, and versatile,” Holley advises, including:Grains and legumes, like rice, pasta, lentils, dried beans, and oats.Canned and frozen goods. “A variety of canned tomatoes (whole, diced, crushed) are perfect for sauces, soups, and stews,” Holley notes. “Canned vegetables and fruits can be stored for long periods, and frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh, and retain nutrients. And canned tuna or salmon are protein-rich and shelf-stable.”Baking ingredients like flour, sugar, yeast, baking soda, baking powder, and cornstarch. “Basic ingredients for a wide range of uses,” notes Holley.Shelf-stable dairy and dairy alternatives like powdered or evaporated milk can be rehydrated and used for baking, cooking, or even drinking, protecting you from price spikes on the fresh stuff.Oils and vinegars are likely to go up in price and are useful in cooking, dressing, and preserving food.Seasonings and spices—the U.S. imports a lot of spices from countries like India, China, and Peru, so they’re vulnerable to tariff price spikes. Laying in a supply of herbs and spices like salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder, paprika, chili powder, ginger, basil, parsley oregano, thyme, as well as soy sauce, hot sauce, mustard, and bouillon cubes will help ride out any disruptions or price hikes in the seasonings aisle.Nuts and seeds—Holley recommends adding a supply of peanut butter or almond butter. “They’re high in protein, and last a long time.”Coffee and tea. “Tea is a low-cost way to diversify your drink options,” notes Holley.Canned meats and proteins. “Canned chicken or Spam can be used in a variety of meals, especially in emergencies,” Holley notes. “And canned ham or sausage can add protein and are good for quick meals.”Building up a tariff pantry will pay off even if the impact of those tariffs is overestimated—as we all know too well, prices never go down.