Oct 05
There’s more than one way to check your MacBook’s battery health, but one method is as simple as tapping a key on the keyboard and clicking an icon.
Oct 05
CD Projekt Red is working on a 'Cyberpunk 2077' follow-up and several new Witcher games
Posted in: Today's ChiliCD Projekt Red may be much busier than you expect. The developer has shared a long-term roadmap that elaborates and expands on its plans. To start, a project codenamed “Orion” is effectively a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 that will “further develop the potential” of the sci-fi franchise. It’s in development by CDPR’s teams in Boston and Vancouver.
And while it’s no secret that there’s a new Unreal Engine 5-based The Witcher game in the works (it entered pre-production this spring), it’s really just the start of a new trilogy. You might not have to wait long to see the story reach its conclusion, either. CDPR hopes to release all three games within a six-year span, with the first (codenamed “Polaris”) serving as a technology foundation for the remaining two.
Other titles include “Sirius,” a The Witcher spinoff with solo and multiplayer elements aimed at a “broader audience.” It’s developed by The Flame and the Flood studio The Molasses Flood. Another project, “Canis Majoris,” is a “full-fledged” Witcher universe game built by an outside developer using UE5. And no, CDPR won’t be stuck making Cyberpunk and Witcher games for all eternity. “Hadar” will be new, from-scratch universe. It’s still in the extremely early stages of development (conceptual work only began in 2021), so it’s likely years away.
Regardless of what you play, you should expect online gameplay to become a staple feature. In its roadmap presentation, CDPR said “most” of its new games will have a multiplayer component. The company was shy on what this will entail.
CDPR isn’t shy about the reasons for the expansion. The wider catalog and cooperation with outside developers will help it “reach new consumers” while maintaining three lasting franchises. If all goes well, a producer best known for rare, single player-focused releases will offer a steady stream of games that help it become more of a household name akin to Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft — in size, if hopefully not in quality.
Oct 05
Between Amazon using tech to extract more productivity from its workforce, Clearview AI harvesting our facial features, schools trying to scan children’s rooms before exams and Facebook’s whole “accused of contributing to genocide” thing, the same technologies that have brought us the wonders of the modern world have also brought about some of the horrors of the modern world. And, apparently, the Biden Administration isn’t going to stand for it.
Leah Millis / reuters
On Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released its long-awaited Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (BoR). The document will, “help guide the design, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems so that they protect the rights of the American public,” per a White House press release.
As such, the BoR will advocate for five principles: Safe and Effective Systems, Algorithmic Discrimination Protections, Data Privacy, Notice and Explanation, and Human Alternatives, Consideration, and Fallback. “Simply put, systems should work, they shouldn’t discriminate, they shouldn’t use data indiscriminately,” BoR co-writer Suresh Venkatasubramanian, wrote in a tweet thread Tuesday. “They should be visible and easy to understand, and they shouldn’t eliminate human interlocutors.”
“There were thousands of edits and comments that made the document strong, rich, and detailed,” Venkatasubramanian continued. “The AI Bill of Rights reflects, as befits the title, a consensus, broad, and deep American vision of how to govern the automated technologies that impact our lives.”
“Automated technologies are driving remarkable innovations and shaping important decisions that impact people’s rights, opportunities, and access. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is for everyone who interacts daily with these powerful technologies — and every person whose life has been altered by unaccountable algorithms,” said Office of Science and Technology Policy Deputy Director for Science and Society Dr. Alondra Nelson. “The practices laid out in the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights aren’t just aspirational; they are achievable and urgently necessary to build technologies and a society that works for all of us.”
The Administration has spent more than a year developing the BoR to its current state, including extensive public outreach through panel discussions, public listening sessions, and meetings with everyone from workers and activists to CEOs and entrepreneurs. In addition to the bill itself, the OSTP has also released a companion work, From Principles to Practice, which details concrete steps for both government and NGO entities, public and private companies alike, take to ensure they are operating within the scope and spirit of the document.
“Effectively implementing these processes require the cooperation of and collaboration among industry, civil society, researchers, policymakers, technologists, and the public,” the BoR reads. Of course, the blueprint details no actual enforcement mechanisms.
Oct 05
Climate Change Deniers Find An Unlikely Hero In Joe Biden’s Top Hurricane Expert
Posted in: Today's ChiliIn a CNN interview, the official appeared to dismiss any link between hurricanes and climate change — but the moment wasn’t what it seemed.
Oct 05
Emily Watson and Shirley Henderson to Star as Harkonnen Siblings in Sisterhood of Dune
Posted in: Today's Chili
The universe of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is getting bigger with official casting announced for the prequel spin-off series Sisterhood of Dune. Variety announced that Emily Watson (Chernobyl) will play Valya Harkonnen and Shirley Henderson (Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker) will play Tula Harkonnen.
Oct 05
Controversial Chess Player 'Likely Cheated' in Over 100 Online Chess Games, According to Investigation
Posted in: Today's Chili
The fiery cheating scandal consuming the chess world for the past month appears to be coming to a close and it looks like 19-year-old grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann has found himself in checkmate.
Oct 05
Bulletin, Meta’s foray into the newsletter subscription space, is going away in early 2023, as The New York Times first reported. The company confirmed to Engadget that it will pay out all Bulletin writer contracts. Writers can keep earning subscription revenue until the service shutters, and take their email lists and content archives to other platforms if they wish.
“Bulletin has allowed us to learn about the relationship between Creators and their audiences and how to better support them in building their community on Facebook,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. “While this off-platform product itself is ending, we remain committed to supporting these and other Creators’ success and growth on our platform.”
Meta launched the Bulletin platform in June 2021 amid a boom in newsletter subscription services driven by the likes of Substack. Closing down Bulletin in early 2023 means it will have lasted a little over 18 months.
The company brought in prominent figures including Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Malcolm Gladwell and Queer Eye‘s Tan France to use Bulletin, but it evidently wasn’t as successful as Meta hoped. The Times notes that some of the writers have six-figure contracts.
Meta will shift resources from Bulletin into Facebook, with the aim of making the latter more of a place where people can discover engaging content. It plans to take what it learned from Bulletin and apply that to its other creator-focused products.
Recent reports have suggested that Meta is restructuring parts of the company as part of an effort to focus on core products and cut costs. The company has also reportedly warned staff about possible layoffs. Many other tech companies are feeling the sting of an economic slowdown. Substack, which just released an Android version of its app, laid off 14 percent of staff in June.
Oct 05
The newest “Scooby-Doo” movie, “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!,” shows the brainy sleuth developing a serious crush on Coco Diablo, a female costume designer.
Oct 05
Twitter’s edit button has taken another step toward becoming a standard feature, and the company is back with more information about its availability.
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