Month: March 2023
Netflix is bringing back the cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for its anime series
Michael Cera at the premiere of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. | Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Sex Bob-Omb is getting back together. Netflix has not only confirmed that it’s working on an anime series based on Scott Pilgrim but also revealed that the cast from the live-action Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is coming back.
That includes Michael Cera in the titular role, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Brie Larson as Envy Adams, Alison Pill as Kim Pine, Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Johnny Simmons as young Neil, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, and the League of Evil Exes played by Satya Bhabha, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, and Mae Whitman.
Anime studio Science Saru will be helming the revival, and Bryan Lee O’Malley, who created the original comic, will serve as writer and executive producer alongside Edgar Wright, who directed the live-action film, and BenDavid Grabinski.
“Over the years fans had asked if there would be a sequel to the film or some other kind of continuation,” Wright said in a statement. “I knew that a live action sequel was unlikely, but I would usually defer by suggesting that perhaps an anime adaptation was an interesting way to go. And then, lo and behold, one day Netflix got in touch to ask about this exact idea. But even better, our brilliant creator Bryan Lee O’Malley had an idea that was way more adventurous than just a straight adaptation of the original books.”
Unfortunately, there’s no idea yet of what the show will look like or when it will be streaming. But it will at least sound great: chiptune band Anamanaguchi, who made the excellent soundtrack for the Scott Pilgrim game, is creating original songs for the series. Hopefully, Metric makes an appearance as well.
Michael Cera at the premiere of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. | Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Sex Bob-Omb is getting back together. Netflix has not only confirmed that it’s working on an anime series based on Scott Pilgrim but also revealed that the cast from the live-action Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is coming back.
That includes Michael Cera in the titular role, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Brie Larson as Envy Adams, Alison Pill as Kim Pine, Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Johnny Simmons as young Neil, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, and the League of Evil Exes played by Satya Bhabha, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, and Mae Whitman.
Anime studio Science Saru will be helming the revival, and Bryan Lee O’Malley, who created the original comic, will serve as writer and executive producer alongside Edgar Wright, who directed the live-action film, and BenDavid Grabinski.
“Over the years fans had asked if there would be a sequel to the film or some other kind of continuation,” Wright said in a statement. “I knew that a live action sequel was unlikely, but I would usually defer by suggesting that perhaps an anime adaptation was an interesting way to go. And then, lo and behold, one day Netflix got in touch to ask about this exact idea. But even better, our brilliant creator Bryan Lee O’Malley had an idea that was way more adventurous than just a straight adaptation of the original books.”
Unfortunately, there’s no idea yet of what the show will look like or when it will be streaming. But it will at least sound great: chiptune band Anamanaguchi, who made the excellent soundtrack for the Scott Pilgrim game, is creating original songs for the series. Hopefully, Metric makes an appearance as well.
How a major toy company kept 4chan online
Good Smile, which licenses toy production for Disney, was a major investor in 4chan.
Enlarge (credit: Jacqui VanLiew; Getty Images)
Toxic image board 4chan has managed to stay online for the past seven years—amid boycotts and advertiser flight, after being implicated in several mass shootings, even as it was identified as a source of the conspiracy theories that inspired the January 6 insurrection—thanks, in part, to a $2.4 million investment from a major Japanese toy company.
A partnership agreement, obtained exclusively by WIRED, shows not only how current site owner Hiroyuki Nishimura acquired the far-right message board but also how Japanese industry helped finance the deal.
Foldable phones are set for some major growth
Over the next five years, foldable phones could have a 27.6% CAGR, analysts believe.
5G is not the only exciting technology that’s keeping the entire mobile industry afloat, with excitement also growing for foldable and flip phones, which analysts are now expecting to see tremendous growth in over the next five years.
In a new forecast on foldable smartphones, analyst house IDC says it expects 21.4 million devices to ship this year. That’s more than 50% up compared to last year, when 14.2 million such units shipped.
By the time we reach 2027, the world will have bought 48.1 million foldable devices, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.6% over five years.
Heating up the race
The smartphone market has been in freefall for some time, with IDC saying that sales dropped by more than 11%, IDC says. Other market analysts are saying that there is growing demand for used devices, mostly because they’re cheaper, and other consumers believe it’s more environmentally-friendly to buy used devices.
Finally, people are happy to keep their current devices for longer, as the build quality has improved and the software is more optimized.
“The foldable phone market finished slightly higher than previously forecast as consumers start to embrace the new form factor,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager, Mobile Phones at IDC.
“A 10% decline in ASP (average selling price) helped the market grow 75.5% in 2022, as foldable devices became more affordable in numerous markets. With new vendors and models joining the race this year, we expect the foldable market to be the one bright spot in 2023 with 50.5% growth, while the total smartphone market contracts 1.1%.”
Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team also added that the recent success of current foldable phones will only mean higher demand, and new entrants to the market.
This is obviously an up-and-coming form factor: “Foldables were a key focal point at Mobile World Congress this year as vendors were eager to show off new models and concept devices. With the smartphone market declining over 11% last year, consumers need new motivation to go out and upgrade to something that can wow them. Foldable devices currently bring that ‘wow factor’ and I believe they will continue to grab more headlines and outperform non-foldable smartphones over the next five years.”
Here are the best 5G phones right now
Sailboat Crew Rescued After Hitting Whale in Pacific Ocean
After the collision in the Pacific Ocean this month, Rick Rodriguez and three other sailors were rescued by a fellow boater, with an assist from a satellite internet signal.
After the collision in the Pacific Ocean this month, Rick Rodriguez and three other sailors were rescued by a fellow boater, with an assist from a satellite internet signal.
Google is making sure its ads are actually worth clicking on
A new Google tool to check an advertiser’s history hopes to make ads more transparent.
In a world where consumers are faced with more advertising than ever before, it can be hard to determine which ads are legitimate, and whether they come from reputable organizations or just ones with deep pockets.
Google reckons that 30 million people interact with its ads transparency and controls menu daily, highlighting a consumer awareness and a desire to learn more about the content they see.
The launch of its new Ads Transparency Center builds on that, according to the tech giant whose operations span countless platforms, by bringing together all the information a consumer may want about a specific campaign or advertiser in one place.
Google Ads Transparency Center
In the Ads Transparency Center, a user can browse things like previous ads run by a specific company, the regions that received those ads, and history including the date it was last run.
Ads Safety Product Management Director, Alejandro Borgia, explains how a consumer may want to delve deeper into an ad that stood out to them to learn more about the authenticity and legitimacy of a brand.
This builds on other protective measures that Google has put in place recently, like the requirement for election ads to include an in-ad disclosure about who paid for the ad, and that it comes from a verified account.
While the Ads Transparency Center can be accessed directly, most consumers will likely follow the three-dot menu on a specific ad to see more information. Liking, blocking, and reporting ads are all accessible from here, too.
Precise availability is unclear, however Borgia says that Google will be rolling out the new hub globally in the coming weeks.
Check out our list of the best VPNs
5 hidden clues in the ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 opening credits
The Yellowjackets opening credits are worth watching again and again, and not just because they’re unskippably catchy, thanks to Anna Waronker and Craig Wedren’s “No Return.”
As you might have already noticed, hidden among the glitching VHS effects and rapidly edited visuals are a few rogue frames from the second season that are different to the Season 1 opening credits — including some brief shots that might hold clues about what’s to come.
We’ve combed through the Season 2 opening credits frame by frame, worked out what’s there that wasn’t there before, and then filtered out the most interesting moments…
SEE ALSO:
‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 preview shows a glimpse of Shauna’s birth scene
1. The strange symbol marked on a map (27 seconds in).
Everybody’s favourite spooky symbol — you know, the little stick figure with the slash through it that appears carved into trees in the woods and the cabin’s attic floor, and that grown-up Misty (Christina Ricci), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) are sent on postcards in Season 1 — appears yet again in the Season 2 opening credits. Only this time it appears to have been plotted on a map.
Is it possible the girls have worked out some strange pattern in the wilderness? Are we going to finally find out what the weird little thing means?
2. Misty licking blood off her fingers (38 seconds in).
The ghost of cannibalism has been hanging over the show since the opening “Pit Girl” scene of the very first episode — and judging by this shot of young Misty (Samantha Hanratty), which shows her face covered in what looks like blood as she licks her fingers clean, it’s not going to be long before it makes a comeback.
The only caveat? Yellowjackets isn’t short on hallucinations and dream sequences, so it’s always possible this is some kind of nightmare rather as opposed to real life.
Lottie’s weird wilderness cult looks like it’s only going to get bigger.
Credit: Showtime
3. Someone cutting their palm with a knife (52 seconds in).
Yep, it looks like the weird cult-like behaviour that’s forming around Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is only going to get worse. In Season 2, episode 1, we see her blessing Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) before their daily search for Javi (Luciano Leroux) by pricking her finger and dripping blood into their tea. Based on the shot of someone unidentified cutting their palm in the opening credits, these kind of blood offerings are likely to become more extreme.
4. A goat tied up in the woods with a rope (61 seconds in).
A goat? Tied up in the woods? What exactly is going on here, then? It’s impossible to know for sure, but we assume this shot comes from the wilderness timeline, given the location. If that’s the case, though, then it raises its own set of questions. How do the girls stumble across a goat in the woods? Where does it come from? And are they keeping it or planning to use it as bait to catch another bear?
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Watch the ‘Yellowjackets’ cast absolutely crush Mash Libs
5. The girls charging through the wilderness with weapons (78 seconds in).
It’s not a question of if the Yellowjackets are going to descend into ritualistic violence and start killing each other, it’s a question of when. And judging by the brief shot in the credits of the team charging through the snowy wilderness, weapons raised, it looks like this moment might come sooner rather than later.
Could they be hunting an animal? It’s possible. But whatever they’re chasing is clearly not that much quicker than them, which leads us to think their prey might very well be human.
Yellowjackets Season 2 is streaming on Showtime, with new episodes streaming weekly on Fridays. Episodes also air every Sunday on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET.
The Yellowjackets opening credits are worth watching again and again, and not just because they’re unskippably catchy, thanks to Anna Waronker and Craig Wedren’s “No Return.”
As you might have already noticed, hidden among the glitching VHS effects and rapidly edited visuals are a few rogue frames from the second season that are different to the Season 1 opening credits — including some brief shots that might hold clues about what’s to come.
We’ve combed through the Season 2 opening credits frame by frame, worked out what’s there that wasn’t there before, and then filtered out the most interesting moments…
1. The strange symbol marked on a map (27 seconds in).
Everybody’s favourite spooky symbol — you know, the little stick figure with the slash through it that appears carved into trees in the woods and the cabin’s attic floor, and that grown-up Misty (Christina Ricci), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) are sent on postcards in Season 1 — appears yet again in the Season 2 opening credits. Only this time it appears to have been plotted on a map.
Is it possible the girls have worked out some strange pattern in the wilderness? Are we going to finally find out what the weird little thing means?
2. Misty licking blood off her fingers (38 seconds in).
The ghost of cannibalism has been hanging over the show since the opening “Pit Girl” scene of the very first episode — and judging by this shot of young Misty (Samantha Hanratty), which shows her face covered in what looks like blood as she licks her fingers clean, it’s not going to be long before it makes a comeback.
The only caveat? Yellowjackets isn’t short on hallucinations and dream sequences, so it’s always possible this is some kind of nightmare rather as opposed to real life.
Credit: Showtime
3. Someone cutting their palm with a knife (52 seconds in).
Yep, it looks like the weird cult-like behaviour that’s forming around Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is only going to get worse. In Season 2, episode 1, we see her blessing Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) before their daily search for Javi (Luciano Leroux) by pricking her finger and dripping blood into their tea. Based on the shot of someone unidentified cutting their palm in the opening credits, these kind of blood offerings are likely to become more extreme.
4. A goat tied up in the woods with a rope (61 seconds in).
A goat? Tied up in the woods? What exactly is going on here, then? It’s impossible to know for sure, but we assume this shot comes from the wilderness timeline, given the location. If that’s the case, though, then it raises its own set of questions. How do the girls stumble across a goat in the woods? Where does it come from? And are they keeping it or planning to use it as bait to catch another bear?
Featured Video For You
5. The girls charging through the wilderness with weapons (78 seconds in).
It’s not a question of if the Yellowjackets are going to descend into ritualistic violence and start killing each other, it’s a question of when. And judging by the brief shot in the credits of the team charging through the snowy wilderness, weapons raised, it looks like this moment might come sooner rather than later.
Could they be hunting an animal? It’s possible. But whatever they’re chasing is clearly not that much quicker than them, which leads us to think their prey might very well be human.
Yellowjackets Season 2 is streaming on Showtime, with new episodes streaming weekly on Fridays. Episodes also air every Sunday on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET.
Google Denies Bard Was Trained With ChatGPT Data
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google’s Bard hasn’t exactly had an impressive debut — and The Information is reporting that the company is so interested in changing the fortunes of its AI chatbots, it’s forcing its DeepMind division to help the Google Brain team beat OpenAI with a new initiative called Gemini. The Information’s report also contains the potentially staggering thirdhand allegation that Google stooped so low as to train Bard using data from OpenAI’s ChatGPT, scraped from a website called ShareGPT. A former Google AI researcher reportedly spoke out against using that data, according to the publication. But Google is firmly and clearly denying the data was used: “Bard is not trained on any data from ShareGPT or ChatGPT,” spokesperson Chris Pappas tells The Verge.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google’s Bard hasn’t exactly had an impressive debut — and The Information is reporting that the company is so interested in changing the fortunes of its AI chatbots, it’s forcing its DeepMind division to help the Google Brain team beat OpenAI with a new initiative called Gemini. The Information’s report also contains the potentially staggering thirdhand allegation that Google stooped so low as to train Bard using data from OpenAI’s ChatGPT, scraped from a website called ShareGPT. A former Google AI researcher reportedly spoke out against using that data, according to the publication. But Google is firmly and clearly denying the data was used: “Bard is not trained on any data from ShareGPT or ChatGPT,” spokesperson Chris Pappas tells The Verge.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After deepfakes go viral, AI image generator Midjourney stops free trials citing ‘abuse’
Midjourney’s software can be used to create misinformation, like fake images of Donald Trump being arrested. | Image: Will Joel / The Verge
AI image generator Midjourney has halted free trials of its service after a number of its generations — including fabricated images of Donald Trump being arrested and the pope wearing a stylish jacket — went viral online, with many mistaking the fakes for real photographs. Midjourney CEO and founder David Holz announced the change on Tuesday, citing “extraordinary demand and trial abuse” (spotted via The Washington Post).
Previously, Midjourney allowed anyone to sign up to use its software via Discord, offering 25 free image generations before charging subscriptions starting at $10 a month. Although experts have been warning for years about the potential of AI to generate misinformation, this was not previously a huge problem given that fakes were easily spotted. As Holz told The Verge last August, “You can’t really force [Midjourney] to make a deepfake right now.”
But six months is a long time in AI, and on March 15th, Midjourney released a new version of its software (version 5) that significantly improved the quality of images depicting people. For example, misshapen hands were previously a hallmark of AI-generated images but are now less of a challenge. Lighting and fabric are also more realistic, and the system is capable of generating images of countless celebrities and public figures.
These improvements have led to a number of Midjourney images going viral in recent weeks. They include not only fake pictures of Trump’s arrest and the pope looking fashionable but also French President Emmanuel Macron walking through the ongoing protests in Paris and Elon Musk holding hands with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
Midjourney’s response to the politically sensitive escalating threat from fake images has so far been piecemeal, without any significant overhaul of its moderation policies. Midjourney’s content restrictions are more permissive than some rival services (like OpenAI’s DALL-E) but more restrictive than others (i.e., Stable Diffusion).
Midjourney maintains a list of banned words “related to topics in different countries based on complaints from users in those countries,” as per a message from Holz last October. But it doesn’t share a complete version of this list to minimize “drama.” As Holz said last year, “Almost no one ever notices [the ban list] unless they’re specially trying to create drama which is against our rules in tos [terms of service] ‘don’t use our tools to create drama.’”
But the company has expanded this list as its fakes have gone viral, recently banning the term “arrested,” for example. This was seemingly in response to a popular Twitter thread of Midjourney images depicting Trump being arrested that were created by investigative journalist Eliot Higgins. Higgins says he was subsequently banned from using Midjourney.
Such restrictions are easy to bypass, though. For example, in The Verge’s tests, we were unable to generate images with the prompt “Donald Trump being arrested” but could create identical output with the prompt “Donald Trump in handcuffs surrounded by police.” (As illustrated by the image at the top of the story.)
At the time of writing, Midjourney is still not allowing free users to generate images, though this may change in the future. On Tuesday, Holz said the service was slow because of “a gpu shortage.” (AI image generation is a compute-intensive activity, and Midjourney generates images in the cloud before sharing them with users.) But yesterday, he suggested that abuse of the software was the main reason for halting free trials.
“We tried turning trials back on again with new safeties for abuse but they didn’t seem to be sufficient so we are turning it back off again to maintain the service for everyone else,” said Holz. We’ve reached out to Holz for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Midjourney’s software can be used to create misinformation, like fake images of Donald Trump being arrested. | Image: Will Joel / The Verge
AI image generator Midjourney has halted free trials of its service after a number of its generations — including fabricated images of Donald Trump being arrested and the pope wearing a stylish jacket — went viral online, with many mistaking the fakes for real photographs. Midjourney CEO and founder David Holz announced the change on Tuesday, citing “extraordinary demand and trial abuse” (spotted via The Washington Post).
Previously, Midjourney allowed anyone to sign up to use its software via Discord, offering 25 free image generations before charging subscriptions starting at $10 a month. Although experts have been warning for years about the potential of AI to generate misinformation, this was not previously a huge problem given that fakes were easily spotted. As Holz told The Verge last August, “You can’t really force [Midjourney] to make a deepfake right now.”
But six months is a long time in AI, and on March 15th, Midjourney released a new version of its software (version 5) that significantly improved the quality of images depicting people. For example, misshapen hands were previously a hallmark of AI-generated images but are now less of a challenge. Lighting and fabric are also more realistic, and the system is capable of generating images of countless celebrities and public figures.
These improvements have led to a number of Midjourney images going viral in recent weeks. They include not only fake pictures of Trump’s arrest and the pope looking fashionable but also French President Emmanuel Macron walking through the ongoing protests in Paris and Elon Musk holding hands with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
Midjourney’s response to the politically sensitive escalating threat from fake images has so far been piecemeal, without any significant overhaul of its moderation policies. Midjourney’s content restrictions are more permissive than some rival services (like OpenAI’s DALL-E) but more restrictive than others (i.e., Stable Diffusion).
Midjourney maintains a list of banned words “related to topics in different countries based on complaints from users in those countries,” as per a message from Holz last October. But it doesn’t share a complete version of this list to minimize “drama.” As Holz said last year, “Almost no one ever notices [the ban list] unless they’re specially trying to create drama which is against our rules in tos [terms of service] ‘don’t use our tools to create drama.’”
But the company has expanded this list as its fakes have gone viral, recently banning the term “arrested,” for example. This was seemingly in response to a popular Twitter thread of Midjourney images depicting Trump being arrested that were created by investigative journalist Eliot Higgins. Higgins says he was subsequently banned from using Midjourney.
Such restrictions are easy to bypass, though. For example, in The Verge’s tests, we were unable to generate images with the prompt “Donald Trump being arrested” but could create identical output with the prompt “Donald Trump in handcuffs surrounded by police.” (As illustrated by the image at the top of the story.)
At the time of writing, Midjourney is still not allowing free users to generate images, though this may change in the future. On Tuesday, Holz said the service was slow because of “a gpu shortage.” (AI image generation is a compute-intensive activity, and Midjourney generates images in the cloud before sharing them with users.) But yesterday, he suggested that abuse of the software was the main reason for halting free trials.
“We tried turning trials back on again with new safeties for abuse but they didn’t seem to be sufficient so we are turning it back off again to maintain the service for everyone else,” said Holz. We’ve reached out to Holz for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
DataDome lands $42 million in Series C funding to combat bot-driven cyberattacks and fraud using AI
The sophistication of malicious bots is increasing rapidly, allowing them to evade security measures. The emergence of human-bot hybrids and AI-powered bots has made it possible for these threats to consistently bypass typical point-in-time, static barriers such as traditional CAPTCHAs,
The sophistication of malicious bots is increasing rapidly, allowing them to evade security measures. The emergence of human-bot hybrids and AI-powered bots has made it possible for these threats to consistently bypass typical point-in-time, static barriers such as traditional CAPTCHAs, […]