Microsoft inadvertently learned the risks of creating racist AI, but what happens if you deliberately point the intelligence at a toxic forum? One person found out. As Motherboard and The Verge note, YouTuber Yannic Kilcher trained an AI language model using three years of content from 4chan's Politically Incorrect (/pol/) board, a place infamous for its racism and other forms of bigotry. After implementing the model in ten bots, Kilcher set the AI loose on the board — and it unsurprisingly created a wave of hate. In the space of 24 hours, the bots wrote 15,000 posts that frequently included or interacted with racist content. They represented more than 10 percent of posts on /pol/ that day, Kilcher claimed.
Nicknamed GPT-4chan (after OpenAI's GPT-3), the model learned to not only pick up the words used in /pol/ posts, but an overall tone that Kilcher said blended "offensiveness, nihilism, trolling and deep distrust." The video creator took care to dodge 4chan's defenses against proxies and VPNs, and even used a VPN to make it look like the bot posts originated from the Seychelles.
The AI made a few mistakes, such as blank posts, but was convincing enough that it took roughly two days for many users to realize something was amiss. Many forum members only noticed one of the bots, according to Kilcher, and the model created enough wariness that people accused each other of being bots days after Kilcher deactivated them.
The YouTuber characterized the experiment as a "prank," not research, in conversation with The Verge. It's a reminder that trained AI is only as good as its source material. The concern instead stems from how Kilcher shared his work. While he avoided providing the bot code, he shared a partly neutered version of the model with the AI repository Hugging Face. Visitors could have recreated the AI for sinister purposes, and Hugging Face decided to restrict access as a precaution. There were clear ethical concerns with the project, and Kilcher himself said he should focus on "much more positive" work in the future.
If you're looking for a new DAW (or digital workstation) for making music, it's worth taking a look at Ableton's latest sale. The company has temporarily dropped the price of all of its software by 25 percent, including Ableton Live 11, which is perhaps the most popular DAW around.
Live 11 Intro (which includes the essentials), is down from $99 to $74. Live 11 Standard, which unlocks all the DAW's features and adds some extras, has dropped from $449 to $337. At the top end, there's the complete integrated studio of Live 11 Suite. That currently costs $562, down from the regular price of $749. The same 25 percent discount applies to packs.
Ableton offers students and teachers up to 40 percent off Live, but it doesn't hold sales like this all too often. If you're not an educator or in school, these are likely among the best deals you'll find on the company's software. The sale runs until June 14th.
Earlier this year, Ableton rolled out the first major update for Live 11. Among the additions was native support for Apple Silicon-powered Macs. That should mean the DAW runs more efficiently on systems with an M1 or M2 chip, in case you have a recent Mac and were on the fence about snagging it.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Twitter is introducing another shopping feature as it slowly tries to ramp up its in-app commerce features. The company’s latest experiment is product drops, which allows users to get notifications ahead of in-demand product launches.
The company says the feature is meant to capitalize on how Twitter is already used to build hype for limited edition or particularly in-demand products. Companies using product drops will be able to tweet links to upcoming launches and users can sign up for in-app notifications to be reminded ahead of the launch. As with other Twitter shopping features, the app won’t actually handle the transaction, it just directs users’ to the retailer or brands’s website.
Initially, product drops will only be available in the United States to people using the Twitter app in English. The first brands to get their hands on the feature include Dior, Home Depot and Fossil’s collabs with designer Jeff Staple.
Compared with most of its peers, Twitter has been pretty late to bring e-commerce features into its app, though the company has said it sees the area as a significant opportunity. Twitter has also experimented with shopping in livestreams and allowing retailers to create in-app storefronts on their profiles.
Every gameplay mechanic and design decision in Stray is driven by a single idea: Because you’re a cat. The world of Stray is filled with anthropomorphic robots, futuristic Hong Kong-inspired streets and makeshift skyscrapers built on heaping piles of trash, and it all serves as a playground for the protagonist, an orange tabby on a mission to escape the city and reunite with its family. And knock over as many delicate objects as possible, of course.
In a hands-off preview event for Stray,producer Swann Martin-Raget of BlueTwelve Studio consistently repeated the phrase, “because you’re a cat,” justifying his decisions to topple various items, jump to precarious ledges and curl up to sleep on top of buildings.
“It is required to scratch every wall and sofa because you’re a cat and that's very, very important,” he said, the orange tabby digging its claws into a random robot’s couch cushion.
Set pieces that would be afterthoughts in games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or Cyberpunk 2077 are integral to Stray’s gameplay. A paint can left on a rooftop, the textured arm of a sofa, a bucket abandoned in the corner – from the perspective of a cat, these items are irresistible, and in Stray players are rewarded for succumbing to every feline instinct. Gameplay relies on curiosity and freewheeling exploration, with platforming challenges, physics riddles and spatial puzzles built into the environments at cat-level.
BlueTwelve Studio
Take that abandoned bucket for example. As a cat, players can pick it up with the handle in their mouth and chuck it into a fan on the side of a building, jamming the blades and opening up a new walkway. Scratching walls and sofa cushions makes the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller rumble, and pawing at doors can open up new areas to explore. After knocking over that rooftop paint can – because you’re a cat – and spilling yellow goo all over the floor of an empty warehouse, players can walk through the spill, leaving small paw prints in their wake.
This last example isn’t exactly crucial to game progression, but it’s one of the many adorable details that bring Stray to life.
BlueTwelve Studio
Plenty of actions in Stray exist simply because they make sense for a cat protagonist (and probably because they’re cute as hell). There’s a discrete button to meow, even during some cutscenes, and the robots react with shock and frustration when the cat cuts across their board game, throwing pieces to the floor. It’s possible to curl up and sleep basically any time, anywhere – even directly on top of a robot stranger. When the cat gets pets and cuddles from the robots, it purrs and the DualSense’s haptics fire up in response.
“You really feel that you are holding a cat in your hands,” Martin-Raget said. “So that's quite nice.”
But even seemingly innocuous actions can drive the narrative in Stray. There’s an abandoned couch and television set in a back alley of the city, and the cat can turn on the TV and learn more about the world through news programs and ads. The cat’s momentum will make some platforms pivot when it jumps to them, creating new passageways as they swing. The robots are living full lives in every corner of the city, and it’s possible to walk by and gather information from some of them, learning more about the citizens in each environment. The local barman is particularly good in this regard, as barmen in adventure games tend to be.
As cute as all of this sounds, Stray tempers the sweetness with dystopian background details. For instance, End Village is a community built on a sea of trash in an abandoned reservoir, with robots living in a makeshift tower sprouting out of the debris. The robots here are struggling but complacent, and the environment is in stark contrast to the neon lights and vending machines of the main city. In End Village, the cat can roam around, using dangling buckets as elevators and disrupting board games, and there’s a mission to collect flowers for a robot called Zbaltazar, who has knowledge to share about escaping the city.
“End Village is a very interesting example because it shows how we can really use the fact that we are playing as a cat to have fun in level design, in terms of verticality, for example, or types of paths that you can find,” Martin-Raget said. “You can still be, you know, annoying to everyone if you want to.” Because you’re a cat, it goes without saying.
There’s no fall damage in Stray, meaning every jump is a successful one,and dying isn’t a core mechanic (no, not even nine times). It is possible to be killed by the game’s main enemies, these pale beige blobs with glowing yellow eyes that chase the cat as a mob, but otherwise, it’s all about agility and the freedom to explore. Action sequences with the enemies are fast-paced, and the scene Martin-Raget showed off had the cat running and leaping down a long alleyway, the blobs close on its tail.
BlueTwelve Studio
While Stray encourages exploration, the path forward is usually clear, with crates and ledges marked by splotches of yellow and graffiti-style arrows that try to blend into the scenery. Players are able to carry a flashlight and other tools in a small inventory managed by B-12, a cute drone that lives in a backpack the cat picks up along its journey. B-12 has its own backstory, according to Martin-Raget, and it’s the main way the cat interacts with technology and talks to robots. The drone also displays the current objective.
“I don't want to reveal too much about this, but there are a few points in the story where B-12 is a bit more powerful than what I show you now,” Martin-Raget said.
And now some rapid-fire facts about Stray:
There are no customization options for the cat.
The cat doesn’t have to eat, drink or sleep to stay alive, but it can do these things because they're cute.
The cat doesn’t have a name.
There are no laser-pointer mini games.
Stray exists somewhere between a futuristic survival game and a housecat simulator, with some machine-powered dystopia sprinkled across the entire thing. It’s about discovery and exploration, but mostly, it’s a game about being a cat.
“As you can see, even though all the jumps are successful, I'm still really free to move around anywhere I want to,” Martin-Raget said, the cat strolling by a can on a ledge. He swiped a paw at it and it clattered to the ground. “I have to make that fall because I'm still a cat.”
Stray is due to hit PlayStation 5, PS4 and PC via Steam on July 19th.
Tasks, Google’s standalone to-do app, hasn’t changed much since it was introduced alongside Gmail’s big 2018 redesign. Outside of the Calendar integration that was added in 2020, the software has kept its limited feature set. But it's finally about to get some long-overdue functionality.
Google announced today you can now mark important to-dos with a star, and view and sort those items in a new view. It’s a small addition, to be sure, but one that will make it easier to see all your critical to-dos. “We hope this update makes it easier for you to prioritize your tasks and quickly navigate to important tasks across your projects,” Google said.
If you don’t see the starring functionality right away, Google notes it’s gradually rolling out the feature to all Workspace users, and it may take up to 15 days for some to see it appear.
The resurgence of Ghostbusters is set to continue with a new animated series that's coming to Netflix. Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writer and director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan are heading up the show as executive producers. Sony Pictures Animation is involved as well. Other details remain a mystery for now, including the title, the basics of the plot or and when it will be released.
A brand new GHOSTBUSTERS animated series is on the way! @JasonReitman and @gilkenan, the minds behind Ghostbusters: Afterlife, will be leading the project which will debut on Netflix, in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. #GeekedWeekpic.twitter.com/g4LkWu314z
It seems to be early days for the new project, which will be the third animated Ghostbusters series after The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. Netflix made the announcement as part of its Geeked Week event.
Today is also Ghostbusters Day, an annual celebration of the franchise. According to Variety, Reitman and Kenan are expected to announce more projects. A few Ghostbusters games are in the works as well, including Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and Ghostbusters VR, both of which are set to arrive later this year.
The Razer Kishi V2 is redesigned around a more-solid sliding bridge, which will allow for wider device compatibility compared to the original pad's flexible bridge. The rubber inserts that hold your phone snug can also be removed, which Razer helpfully says will support "some phones with phone cases." Good luck figuring out if that includes yours.
While the main inputs look unchanged, the V2's switches — the things underneath the buttons that actually register that you're pressing them — have also been reworked, swapping out membranes for the microswitches found in Razer's Wolverine console pad. There are also tweaks to the function keys, with a dedicated 'Share' button added at the front and a pair of programmable bumpers situated next to the shoulder triggers.
The Razer Nexus app
Razer
The Share button will only work with Razer Nexus, the company's new companion app for Android that it hopes you'll launch your games from. Nexus will also help you discover compatible games, stream your gameplay to YouTube or Facebook, tweak controller settings and program those new bumpers.
As with the original pad, the Kishi V2 connects over USB-C, avoiding the latency of Bluetooth options. The Android version is available today for $99.99, and an iOS version will hit the market this fall.
LinkedIn is expanding its Clubhouse-style live audio feature as it looks to draw more creators to its platform. The company, which first launched live audio events in January, will now open up hosting capabilities to all creators.
With the update, all LinkedIn creators who use the platform’s “creator mode” will be able to host live audio events so long as they stay in line with the platform’s “community policies of being a trustworthy, safe, and professional provider of content.” Though event hosting is currently limited to creators, any LinkedIn user is able to participate in the chats.
Similar to Clubhouse, creators on LinkedIn can schedule their audio events in advance and share the upcoming talks with their network. The company says creators are already using audio features to expand their professional networks, connect with potential clients and reach new followers. Video-centric live events are also in the works, though LinkedIn hasn’t given an update on when that will launch.
The expansion comes as LinkedIn has significantly ramped up its efforts to become a more creator-centric platform. The company says more than 10 million people are using the site’s creator mode, nearly double the 5.5 million who were using it in March. Now, LinkedIn is trying to help those creators broaden their reach. The company is tweaking the way creator profiles and their content appear in search results and in the LinkedIn feed in order to make it easier for people to find and follow them. It also plans to make creator profiles embeddable to outside websites so creators can more easily promote their LinkedIn content on other platforms.
When your dad decides to take his photography game to a new level, a smartphone may no longer be enough. Some may want a sports camera to capture their adventures while others may need a mirrorless camera for better family photos, films or artistic shots. Thanks to the rapidly advancing technology, they keep getting better with faster shooting speeds, sharper video and incredible autofocus. We found five of the best models for budgets ranging from $350 to $2,500, along with some accessories to complement the gear your old man already owns.
GoPro Hero10 Black
GoPro
If your dad would rather star in his own sports adventures than watch them on TV, the Hero10 Black is the camera he needs. It has all of the stellar features its predecessor did, plus a new GP2 processor that brings faster performance and a boost in frame rates. We were impressed by its speedy user interface, the improved image quality and the new “hydrophobic” lens coating that makes the camera a bit more water-resistant than previous models. (We would still recommend dad being careful with it, though.) Best off, it can be yours for $350 with one-year GoPro subscription — a discount of $200 off the regular price without a subscription.
So your dad is taking up photography? An entry-level camera is a good way to start out, and the best one out there is Canon’s EOS M200. With a 24-megapixel sensor and Canon’s skin-friendly colors, it delivers great photos. They’re also easy to capture thanks to an intuitive smartphone-like interface, fast autofocus speeds and great eye-detection performance. He’ll also be able to shoot 4K 24p video (albeit with a 1.6 times crop), along with full-sensor 1080p at 60 fps. And it’s available for significantly less than most other mirrorless cameras at $549, complete with an EF-M 15-45mm kit lens.
Sony cameras generally make great gifts and the best value right now is the A6100. It features class-leading autofocus and eye-tracking performance for humans and animals, ensuring your sharp shots, even with fast moving subjects. Sony has also improved the color science and low-light capabilities, so family photos will be sharp and color accurate, even in dimly lit environments. The drawbacks are bad rolling shutter that can cause video wobble and a low-resolution electronic viewfinder. Still, for $748 (body only) the A6100 is the best mirrorless camera in its price range.
Fujifilm’s X-T4 is the best crop-sensor camera on the market, making it a desirable gift for any lucky father. It’s notably improved over the X-T3 with the addition of in-body stabilization and a fully articulating screen. At the same time, it has the best video features for an APS-C camera, with sharp 4K video at up to 60 fps, along with 1080p at 240 fps. Both photo and video quality are outstanding, with great skin tones second only to Canon’s models. But the autofocus, with tracking and eye-detection, is good but not quite up to Sony’s standards. And while the generous manual controls deliver great handling, it’s less compact than before. It’s not cheap at $1,700, but it can hold its own against far more expensive full-frame cameras.
For dads who can’t decide between photos and video, Canon’s EOS R6 does both things well. The 20-megapixel sensor lacks resolution compared to rivals, but it offers killer specs like in-body stabilization and Canon’s fast and accurate Dual Pixel autofocus for video and photos, along with sharp 4K video at up to 60 fps. Other features include a flip-out display, relatively compact size and skin tones that will flatter your dad’s subjects (you, possibly). It does suffer from overheating issues with video, but that’s only likely to affect pros who shoot for long stretches at a time. Overall, it’s currently our best pick for under $2,500.
Smartphone stabilizers are fine, but nothing tops a gimbal for tracking shots. The best deal out there for mobile devices is DJI’s OM5, ideal for your dad if he’s tired of jerky tracking shots. This model rocks a magnetic mount system that makes attaching your phone faster and easier, plus a smaller design with a built-in extension rod. It also has features like “dynamic zoom” and “spin shot” that will give your dad a new repertoire of moves. As with other DJI gimbals, it delivers smooth, reliable performance and has a solid app that’s easy to use. It’s also relatively affordable: You can grab one now with a grip and tripod for $159.
With its rugged, practical design, Peak Design’s Everyday Messenger Bag is an ideal gift for adventurous or photo-shooting dads. It’s built with a lightweight yet durable 100-percent waterproof recycled 400D shell with the ingenious Flexfold dividers in the main storage area. It also offers a pair of zipped pockets, two elastic side pockets and a compartment big enough for a 13- to 15-inch laptop. I own one myself and find it practical both for work and daily activities, letting me fit a camera, lens and laptop along with my wallet and keys. At $230 it’s not the cheapest bag out there, but your dad won’t have to buy another for a good while.
For dads serious about video, the Magnus VT 4000 is the best budget tripod option. It’s stout enough to handle a mirrorless camera and accessories weighing up to 8.8 pounds, more than the eight-pound weight of the tripod itself. That lack of heft makes it practical for travel, while the fluid head helps you tilt and pan smoothly. Other features include a middle spreader to keep things steady and legs that extend up to 64 inches so you can match the eyeline of your subjects. All of these features come for $199, a relative steal considering the quality.
The most useful accessories out there for vlogging dads are Joby’s famous mini-tripods, and the best one for the money is the GorillaPod 3K. Attaching your camera couldn’t be easier thanks to the secure clip-in mounting plate with a built-in level. The flexible also lets let you set your camera anywhere to shoot, or even wrap it around a tree or other object. And, of course, you can bend them out for the ideal vlogging angle and steady out your shooting, to boot. It's $57 at Amazon right now, a bargain for such a versatile tool.
Camera-loving dads can never get enough memory cards, but they can be a pretty pricey gift. One of the best budget options is SanDisk’s ExtremePro UHS-I SD cards. While they don’t offer the top 300 MB/s speeds of UHS-II cards, they’re far cheaper, and the 90 MB/s read/write speeds are fast enough for most types of photography and video. What’s more, you can transfer files at speeds up to 170 MB/s with a compatible reader, and SanDisk is known for producing reliable cards. SanDisk has models for all budgets, with the 256GB version in the sweet spot at $100. If that’s too much, the 128GB version is $45 and the 64GB model a mere $25.
Politicians are quickly seizing on US government efforts to study and regulate crypto. Reutersreports Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) have introduced a bill, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, that would forge a "complete regulatory framework" for cryptocurrency and other digital assets. The measure is meant to protect consumers and fold crypto into existing laws without restricting technical progress.
RIFA would set clearer definitions, such as establishing which assets are commodities or securities. It would also create requirements for stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to another asset, such as conventional money) to minimize risks and enable speeder payments. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would have the power to regulate digital spot markets, while providers would be subject to disclosure requirements. There would be a "workable" tax structure that would let you buy products with cryptocurrency without having to account for and report income.
The act would also prompt the government to further research digital assets. It would create a "sandbox" where federal and state regulators could work together on experimental launches of financial technology. The CFTC and Securities Exchange Commission would have to develop both security guidance and a self-regulatory organization. Other government agencies and offices would be tasked with studying energy consumption, the benefits (and dangers) of investing retirement savings in crypto and the security concerns around China's official digital currency.
The bipartisan nature of the bill could increase its chances of surviving a Senate vote. Reuters also points out that the CFTC is considered friendlier to crypto assets than the SEC, That's potentially useful for winning over regulation-averse politicians worried the SEC might limit crypto's growth.
A House equivalent has yet to exist, and it's unlikely that RIFA would reach President Biden's desk before the current session of Congress ends. It's likewise unclear just which digital assets are covered, and whether or not NFTs might be affected. We've asked for more details. The bill nonetheless represents the strongest effort yet to regulate crypto, and might just serve as a blueprint for future efforts to control and legitimize the blockchain in the US.
