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Trading cards of the game “Magic” are located in a shop where a “Magic” tournament is taking place.Frank Rumpenhorst | picture alliance | Getty ImagesAs screentime soars and technology races ahead, a low-tech pastime is back in a big way: collecting trading cards.The cardstock depicting everything from NFL standouts to Pokémon and even Taylor Swift is one of the hottest toy categories in stores this year. Big-box retailers are stocking up ahead of the holidays, anticipating that demand will extend beyond traditional toy buyers like children and collectors.”We see trading cards being a hot gifting category for all ages that…
OpenAI announced Thursday it paused the ability for users to generate videos resembling the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. using its AI video model, Sora. The company says it’s adding this safeguard at the request of Dr. King’s estate after some Sora users generated “disrespectful depictions” of his image. “While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, OpenAI believes public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used,” OpenAI said in a post on X from its official newsroom account. “Authorized representatives or estate owners can request that…
It was one scandal too many.After emails emerged this week showing that Prince Andrew remained in contact with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein longer than he previously admitted, the House of Windsor finally moved to insulate the monarchy from years of tawdry headlines about Andrew’s dodgy friends and suspicious business deals. Buckingham Palace on Friday released a statement from Andrew saying that he had agreed to give up use of his last remaining royal titles so that continued allegations about him “don’t distract from the work of His Majesty.”This week’s revelations demonstrated that Andrew had committed the unforgivable sin…
Reddit announced Thursday that it is expanding its AI-powered search experience to five new languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. With this expansion, the feature is now available in countries like Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, and Italy. Users who have set one of these languages as their default, instead of English, can now chat with the AI in question-and-answer format. Reddit uses a Google AI model to power the feature. Reddit first debuted AI-powered search last year and has been working to expand it in different ways. The feature is part of Reddit Answers, which lives alongside the…
Meta on Friday previewed its upcoming parental control features for teens’ conversations with AI characters on its platforms. The features, which will be rolled out next year, include the ability to block certain characters and monitor conversation topics. Starting in the coming months, parents will be able to turn off chats with AI characters entirely for teens. This action won’t block access to the Meta AI chatbot — the company’s general-purpose AI chatbot — which will only discuss age-appropriate content. Parents will also be able to turn off chats with individual characters if they prefer more selective control. Plus, they…
South Korean telco giant SK Telecom is making big changes at its new AI division, AI CIC, just weeks after it was launched. Staff employed by the unit are being offered a voluntary retirement program as part of a broader effort to bring together the company’s various AI-related divisions, SK Telecom confirmed to TechCrunch. “In late September, SK Telecom announced the launch of the AI CIC (Company-in-Company) unit and confirmed that detailed organizational restructuring would be specified by the end of October,” a spokesperson at SK Telecom told TechCrunch. “This special retirement program is entirely a supportive measure and is…
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang, one of the most influential scientists in modern physics, died in Beijing on Saturday. He was 103. The prestigious Tsinghua University, where he studied and served as a professor, said in a statement that Yang died of an illness, without sharing further details. “Professor Yang is one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, having made revolutionary contributions to the development of modern physics,” the statement said, praising his contribution to China’s scientific and educational developments.Yang won the Nobel Prize in 1957 with Tsung-Dao Lee for their investigation of…
In Evelyn Mora’s early career, she realized that fashion designers, although often deeply focused on sustainability, couldn’t stage environmentally friendly large-scale fashion shows. In 2021, she launched VLGE, a gaming and immersive-world-building platform that specializes in working with brands. It lets brands build their own worlds, fill them with interactive content and games, and export said worlds to other platforms like Roblox. The product is revolutionizing what shopping could be in the future — a world where brands can create interactive worlds to connect with Gen Z rather than hosting fashion shows and filming campaigns. VLGE has worked with names such…
Austin Russell, the billionaire founder of Luminar, has made a bid to acquire the lidar maker five months after he was replaced as CEO following an ethics inquiry. The takeover effort was disclosed in an SEC filing by Russell early Friday morning. It would involve his new company, Russell AI Labs, purchasing 100% of the outstanding shares of Luminar’s Class A Common Stock for an undisclosed price. If it happens, Luminar would remain publicly traded, and Russell AI Labs may “acquire a different, larger global automotive technology company” and merge it with Luminar “to create a unified technology platform business…
METEPEC, Mexico (AP) — The first time he met a pope, Mexican craftsman Hilario Hernández could not believe his luck. He did not travel to the Vatican as a guest, but as the guardian of the fragile ceramic piece he had created as a gift for Benedict XVI.“No one really planned to take me along,” Hernández said. “But a Tree of Life can easily break, so I got the chance to bring it myself.”The work he was commissioned to create for the pope in 2008 is a celebrated expression of Mexican craftsmanship. Known as a Tree of Life, it belongs…