A Dream Demon Targets a Reluctant Mother-to-Be in Unsettling Nightmare

Nightmare has an unfortunately generic title, but it’s the word in its most literal usage, referring to the “Mare”—a creature from folklore thought to torment sleepers. In Norwegian writer-director Kjersti Helen Raasmussen’s new film, coming to Shudder this week, it takes the form of a particularly nasty dream demon.

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A Dream Demon Targets a Reluctant Mother-to-Be in Unsettling Nightmare

Nightmare has an unfortunately generic title, but it’s the word in its most literal usage, referring to the “Mare”—a creature from folklore thought to torment sleepers. In Norwegian writer-director Kjersti Helen Raasmussen’s new film, coming to Shudder this week, it takes the form of a particularly nasty dream demon.

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Dune's Denis Villeneuve Has Big Hopes for the Future of IMAX

Barbie—a movie so big it had already won the U.S. box office in August—is also a movie so big that on Friday, it made the leap to IMAX for a one-week run. As usual, Barbie is on the forefront of what’s in fashion, something Dune director Denis Villeneuve, who’s very pro-IMAX, seems to agree with.

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Dune's Denis Villeneuve Has Big Hopes for the Future of IMAX

Barbie—a movie so big it had already won the U.S. box office in August—is also a movie so big that on Friday, it made the leap to IMAX for a one-week run. As usual, Barbie is on the forefront of what’s in fashion, something Dune director Denis Villeneuve, who’s very pro-IMAX, seems to agree with.

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Getty is going to offer AI-generated images after all

Getty is officially getting into the AI image business, after banning AI art a year ago. The company’s generative AI tool is particularly unique because it’s trained on Getty’s own database of images, and the resulting content also comes with a royalty-free license. That means you won’t have to worry about potential copyright issues down the line. 

While Getty has seemingly been on an anti-AI bent — it’s also suing Stable Diffusion maker Stability AI over scraping its data — it’s no surprise the company has figured out a way to get into the market. Competing photography services have already announced their own AI solutions: Shutterstock is tapping into Open AI’s DALL-E model, while Adobe’s Stock is relying on its own Firefly tool as well as accepting some AI generated art.

Getty’s Generative AI tool is powered by NVIDIA’s Edify AI model from its Picasso cloud service. It’ll be interesting to see how those results compare against the improved DALL-E 3 model, but for now it’s basically just a way for Getty to dip a toe into the world of AI. As part of this new endeavor, Getty is also launching a “contributor compensation model for AI licensing,” Gizmodo reports. Creators will be paid based on the amount of images they’ve uploaded, together with their existing licensing earnings.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/getty-is-going-to-offer-ai-generated-images-after-all-140138829.html?src=rss

Pelosi Says It Would Be A ‘Good Idea’ If Menendez Resigned

Menendez has insisted he will be “exonerated and continue to be the senior senator from New Jersey.”

ChatGPT now supports voice chats and image-based queries

ChatGPT is getting some significant updates that will enable the chatbot to deal with voice commands and image-based queries. Users will be able to have a voice conversation with ChatGPT on Android and iOS and to feed images into it on all platforms. OpenAI is rolling out the features now. They’ll be available to Plus and Enterprise users at first, with other folks gaining access to the image-based features later.

You’ll need to opt in to voice conversations in the ChatGPT app (go to Settings then New Features) if you’d like to try them out. By tapping the microphone button, you’ll be able to choose from five different voices.

OpenAI says the back-and-forth voice conversations are powered by a new text-to-speech model that can generate “human-like audio from just text and a few seconds of sample speech.” It created the five voices with the help of professional actors. Going the other way, the company’s Whisper speech recognition system converts a user’s spoken words into text.

The image-based functions are intriguing too. OpenAI says you can, for instance, show the chatbot a photo of your grill and ask why it won’t start, get it to help plan a meal based on a snap of what’s in your fridge or prompt it to solve a math problem you take a picture of. As it happens, Microsoft highlighted the Copilot AI’s ability to solve math problems in Windows during its Surface event last week.

OpenAI is using GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to power the image recognition features. To use ChatGPT’s image-based functions, tap the photo button (you’ll need to tap the plus button first on iOS or Android) to take a snap or choose an existing image on your device. You can ask ChatGPT about multiple photos and use a drawing tool to focus on a specific part of the image.

In a blog post announcing the updates, OpenAI noted the potential for harm. It’s possible for bad actors to mimic the voices of public figures (and everyday folks) and perhaps commit fraud. That’s why OpenAI is focusing on ChatGPT voice conversations with this technology and working with select partners on other limited use cases (more on that in a moment).

As for images, OpenAI worked with Be My Eyes, a free app that blind and low-vision people can use to help them better understand their surroundings thanks to volunteers who hop into video calls with them. “Users have told us they find it valuable to have general conversations about images that happen to contain people in the background, like if someone appears on TV while you’re trying to figure out your remote control settings,” OpenAI said. The company noted that it has also limited how ChatGPT can analyze and make direct statements about people that appear in images, “since ChatGPT is not always accurate and these systems should respect individuals’ privacy.” It has published a paper on the safety properties of the image-based functionality, which it calls GPT-4 with vision.

ChatGPT is more effective at understanding English text in images than other languages. OpenAI says the chatbot “performs poorly” in other languages for the time being, particularly when it comes to those that use non-Roman scripts. As such, it suggests that non-English users avoid using ChatGPT to deal with text in images for now.

Meanwhile, Spotify has teamed up with OpenAI to use the voice-based technology for an interesting purpose. The former has announced a pilot of a tool called Voice Translation for podcasters. This can translate podcasts into different languages using the voices of the folks who appear on the show. Spotify says the tool can retain the speech characteristics of the original speaker after converting their voice into other languages.

To start with, Spotify is converting select English-based shows into a few languages. Spanish versions of some Armchair Expert and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett episodes are available now, with French and German variants to follow.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chatgpt-now-supports-voice-chats-and-image-based-queries-144718179.html?src=rss

2 More Democratic Senators Call For Bob Menendez To Resign

Sherrod Brown and Peter Welch became the second and third Democratic senators to urge Menendez to step down as he faces bribery charges.

New PS5 owners can grab a free game thanks to Sony’s latest offer

It’s always nice to have some options when it comes to playing games on a fresh console, so for the next month Sony is giving away a free title to anyone who purchases and activates a new PS5.

Dubbed the Upgrader Program, Sony’s latest initiative to entice potential PS5 buyers is refreshingly straightforward. In order to get a free game, users will need to purchase and activate their console before 11:59PM PT on October 20th. Once that’s done, you can just go to the PlayStation Store and redeem a specific title by tapping on a banner for this offer. That said, if you don’t already have an existing PSN account, you will need to make one as the free games come in the form of a digital download. 

The other nice thing is the selection of free titles includes a number of high-profile releases from the past few years. Here’s the full list of currently redeemable games:

  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered

  • God of War Ragnarök

  • Horizon Forbidden West

  • Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut

  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

  •  Demon’s Souls

  • The Last of Us Part I

  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure

  • Returnal

  • Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

  • Death Stranding: Director’s Cut

Unfortunately, the Upgrader Program is only valid for owners in the US and it seems that if you have recently purchased a PS5 and activated it prior to September 23, you may not be eligible for the new offer. But for those who are able to take part, this is a great way to kick off your PS5 game collection with basically no strings attached.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-ps5-owners-can-grab-a-free-game-thanks-to-sonys-latest-offer-151459735.html?src=rss

RNC Debate Stage Shrinks To 7 Candidates, With Trump Still Not Participating

Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott will take part Wednesday night.