Month: July 2024
Video games strike rumbles on in row over AI
Video game performers are concerned that generative AI could be used to reproduce their voices.
Video game performers are concerned that generative AI could be used to reproduce their voices.
Study Details ‘Transformative’ Results From LA Guaranteed Basic Income Program
The results of Los Angeles’ 12-month guaranteed income pilot program show that it was “overwhelmingly beneficial (source may be paywalled; alternative source),” reports the Los Angeles Times. The program, which involved giving L.A.’s poorest families cash assistance of $1,000 a month with no strings attached, significantly improved participants’ financial stability, job opportunities, and overall well-being. From the report: The Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot, or BIG:LEAP, disbursed $38.4 million in city funds to 3,200 residents who were pregnant or had at least one child, lived at or below the federal poverty level and experienced hardship related to COVID-19. Participants were randomly selected from about 50,000 applicants and received the payments for 12 months starting in 2022. The city paid researchers $3.9 million to help design the trial and survey participants throughout about their experiences.
[Dr. Amy Castro, co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research] and her colleagues partnered with researchers at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health to compare the experiences of participants in L.A.’s randomized control trial — the country’s first large-scale guaranteed-income pilot using public funds — with those of nearly 5,000 people who didn’t receive the unconditional cash. Researchers found that participants reported a meaningful increase in savings and were more likely to be able to cover a $400 emergency during and after the program. Guaranteed-income recipients also were more likely to secure full-time or part-time employment, or to be looking for work, rather than being unemployed and not looking for work, the study found.
In a city with sky-high rents, participants reported that the guaranteed income functioned as “a preventative measure against homelessness,” according to the report, helping them offset rental costs and serving as a buffer while they waited for other housing support. It also prevented or reduced the incidence of intimate partner violence, the analysis found, by making it possible for people and their children to leave and find other housing. Intimate partner violence is an intractable social challenge, Castro said, so to see improvements with just 12 months of funding is a “pretty extraordinary change.” People who had struggled to maintain their health because of inflexible or erratic work schedules and lack of child care reported that the guaranteed income provided the safety net they needed to maintain healthier behaviors, the report said. They reported sleeping better, exercising more, resuming necessary medications and seeking mental health therapy for themselves and their children. Compared with those who didn’t receive cash, guaranteed income recipients were more likely to enroll their kids in sports and clubs during and after the pilot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The results of Los Angeles’ 12-month guaranteed income pilot program show that it was “overwhelmingly beneficial (source may be paywalled; alternative source),” reports the Los Angeles Times. The program, which involved giving L.A.’s poorest families cash assistance of $1,000 a month with no strings attached, significantly improved participants’ financial stability, job opportunities, and overall well-being. From the report: The Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot, or BIG:LEAP, disbursed $38.4 million in city funds to 3,200 residents who were pregnant or had at least one child, lived at or below the federal poverty level and experienced hardship related to COVID-19. Participants were randomly selected from about 50,000 applicants and received the payments for 12 months starting in 2022. The city paid researchers $3.9 million to help design the trial and survey participants throughout about their experiences.
[Dr. Amy Castro, co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research] and her colleagues partnered with researchers at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health to compare the experiences of participants in L.A.’s randomized control trial — the country’s first large-scale guaranteed-income pilot using public funds — with those of nearly 5,000 people who didn’t receive the unconditional cash. Researchers found that participants reported a meaningful increase in savings and were more likely to be able to cover a $400 emergency during and after the program. Guaranteed-income recipients also were more likely to secure full-time or part-time employment, or to be looking for work, rather than being unemployed and not looking for work, the study found.
In a city with sky-high rents, participants reported that the guaranteed income functioned as “a preventative measure against homelessness,” according to the report, helping them offset rental costs and serving as a buffer while they waited for other housing support. It also prevented or reduced the incidence of intimate partner violence, the analysis found, by making it possible for people and their children to leave and find other housing. Intimate partner violence is an intractable social challenge, Castro said, so to see improvements with just 12 months of funding is a “pretty extraordinary change.” People who had struggled to maintain their health because of inflexible or erratic work schedules and lack of child care reported that the guaranteed income provided the safety net they needed to maintain healthier behaviors, the report said. They reported sleeping better, exercising more, resuming necessary medications and seeking mental health therapy for themselves and their children. Compared with those who didn’t receive cash, guaranteed income recipients were more likely to enroll their kids in sports and clubs during and after the pilot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Squid Game returns this December — and will end with another season next year
Image: Netflix
Squid Game’s second season will debut on December 26th with a newly-announced “final season” to follow sometime in 2025, Netflix said on Wednesday. Netflix also shared a brief trailer to accompany the news.
It’s been nearly three years since the first season of Squid Game premiered on Netflix, and the show has gone on to be a humongous success for the streaming service. Netflix is staying pretty tight-lipped about the plot for what’s to come, but here’s a brief plot synopsis from a Netflix PR email:
Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.
“We’ll do our best to make sure we bring you yet another thrill ride,” Squid Game director, writer, and executive producer Hwang Dong-hyuk said in a letter. “I hope you’re excited for what’s to come.”
Netflix has already shared a few images of the second season and some details about the season’s cast. Last year, Netflix launched a reality TV show based off of Squid Game. Later this year, Netflix also plans to release a Squid Game multiplayer game.
Image: Netflix
Squid Game’s second season will debut on December 26th with a newly-announced “final season” to follow sometime in 2025, Netflix said on Wednesday. Netflix also shared a brief trailer to accompany the news.
It’s been nearly three years since the first season of Squid Game premiered on Netflix, and the show has gone on to be a humongous success for the streaming service. Netflix is staying pretty tight-lipped about the plot for what’s to come, but here’s a brief plot synopsis from a Netflix PR email:
Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.
“We’ll do our best to make sure we bring you yet another thrill ride,” Squid Game director, writer, and executive producer Hwang Dong-hyuk said in a letter. “I hope you’re excited for what’s to come.”
Netflix has already shared a few images of the second season and some details about the season’s cast. Last year, Netflix launched a reality TV show based off of Squid Game. Later this year, Netflix also plans to release a Squid Game multiplayer game.
Cloudflare once again comes under pressure for enabling abusive sites
Cloudflare masks the origin of roughly 10% of abusive domains, watchdog says.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
A familiar debate is once again surrounding Cloudflare, the content delivery network that provides a free service that protects websites from being taken down in denial-of-service attacks by masking their hosts: Is Cloudflare a bastion of free speech or an enabler of spam, malware delivery, harassment and the very DDoS attacks it claims to block?
The controversy isn’t new for Cloudflare, a network operator that has often taken a hands-off approach to moderating the enormous amount of traffic flowing through its infrastructure. With Cloudflare helping deliver 16 percent of global Internet traffic, processing 57 million web requests per second, and serving anywhere from 7.6 million to 15.7 million active websites, the decision to serve just about any actor, regardless of their behavior, has been the subject of intense disagreement, with many advocates of free speech and Internet neutrality applauding it and people fighting crime and harassment online regarding it as a pariah.
Content neutral or abuse enabling?
Spamhaus—a nonprofit organization that provides intelligence and blocklists to stem the spread of spam, phishing, malware, and botnets—has become the latest to criticize Cloudflare. On Tuesday, the project said Cloudflare provides services for 10 percent of the domains listed in its domain block list and, to date, serves sites that are the subject of more than 1,200 unresolved complaints regarding abuse.
Meta’s future is AI, AI, and more AI
Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Meta’s second quarter earnings continue the same story from the previous quarter: generative AI may be here, but it’s going to take a long time to make money.
The good news for Meta is that, unlike pretty much every AI startup, it already makes a lot of money. Last quarter, the company made just over $39 billion in revenue, up 22 percent from a year ago, and about $13.5 billion in profit, up 73 percent. 3.27 billion people use at least one of Meta’s apps every day. That kind of scale and money buys the ability to make big bets, which Zuckerberg is famous for doing.
On Meta’s Wednesday earnings call, CFO Susan Li reiterated to investors that financial returns from its recent AI investments will “come in over a longer period of time.” Zuckerberg was direct about why Meta is spending billions on Nvidia hardware and the other infrastructure ahead of these future returns: “It’s hard to predict how this will trend multiple generations into the future, but at this point, I’d rather risk building capacity before it is needed rather than too late.”
He again telegraphed that the Meta AI assistant is on track to be the most used in the world before the end of the year. While he touted that generative AI features “are things that I think will increase engagement in our products,” he said the real revenue will come from business use cases, like AI creating ads from scratch and letting businesses operate their own AI agents in WhatsApp for customer service.
Some other tidbits from the earnings call:
Meta is already preparing to train Llama 4, which Zuckerberg wants to be the “most advanced” model in the industry when it comes out sometime next year. It will need almost 10 times more compute than Llama 3.1. (Jensen Huang probably owes Zuckerberg several leather jackets.)
On the recent talks of Meta investing in the eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica: Zuckerberg didn’t say anything about an investment but said he is excited to build “future generations of AI glasses” after the early traction with the latest Meta Ray-Bans. Supreme/Meta smart glasses incoming?
While the metaverse seems to have taken a backseat to AI at Meta in recent quarters, Zuckerberg did mention that sales of the Quest 3 are exceeding the company’s expectations, though he didn’t specify what those expecations were. Sources tell me a cheaper version of the headset is being announced at the company’s Connect conference in September.
Threads is “about to hit” 200 million monthly users after posting 175 million at the beginning of July.
Facebook is growing again with young adults, apparently: “The numbers we’re seeing especially in the US really go against the public narrative of who is using the app.”
Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Meta’s second quarter earnings continue the same story from the previous quarter: generative AI may be here, but it’s going to take a long time to make money.
The good news for Meta is that, unlike pretty much every AI startup, it already makes a lot of money. Last quarter, the company made just over $39 billion in revenue, up 22 percent from a year ago, and about $13.5 billion in profit, up 73 percent. 3.27 billion people use at least one of Meta’s apps every day. That kind of scale and money buys the ability to make big bets, which Zuckerberg is famous for doing.
On Meta’s Wednesday earnings call, CFO Susan Li reiterated to investors that financial returns from its recent AI investments will “come in over a longer period of time.” Zuckerberg was direct about why Meta is spending billions on Nvidia hardware and the other infrastructure ahead of these future returns: “It’s hard to predict how this will trend multiple generations into the future, but at this point, I’d rather risk building capacity before it is needed rather than too late.”
He again telegraphed that the Meta AI assistant is on track to be the most used in the world before the end of the year. While he touted that generative AI features “are things that I think will increase engagement in our products,” he said the real revenue will come from business use cases, like AI creating ads from scratch and letting businesses operate their own AI agents in WhatsApp for customer service.
Some other tidbits from the earnings call:
Meta is already preparing to train Llama 4, which Zuckerberg wants to be the “most advanced” model in the industry when it comes out sometime next year. It will need almost 10 times more compute than Llama 3.1. (Jensen Huang probably owes Zuckerberg several leather jackets.)
On the recent talks of Meta investing in the eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica: Zuckerberg didn’t say anything about an investment but said he is excited to build “future generations of AI glasses” after the early traction with the latest Meta Ray-Bans. Supreme/Meta smart glasses incoming?
While the metaverse seems to have taken a backseat to AI at Meta in recent quarters, Zuckerberg did mention that sales of the Quest 3 are exceeding the company’s expectations, though he didn’t specify what those expecations were. Sources tell me a cheaper version of the headset is being announced at the company’s Connect conference in September.
Threads is “about to hit” 200 million monthly users after posting 175 million at the beginning of July.
Facebook is growing again with young adults, apparently: “The numbers we’re seeing especially in the US really go against the public narrative of who is using the app.”
Steve Jobs Auction Features Apple-1, Bomber Jacket, Sealed Original iPhone, and More
Several Apple and Steve Jobs collectibles are up for sale at RR Auction as part of a “Steve Jobs and the Apple Revolution” event, including an Apple-1 Computer, a 4GB original iPhone, Apple-1 Polaroids from Jobs’ pitch deck, Jobs’ bomber jacket, and more.
A functional Apple-1 Computer is being auctioned off, and this one is sourced from former Apple employee Dana Redington. It initially came from a “trade-in” pile that was in Steve Jobs’ office, and it was gifted to Redington by Jobs and Wozniak. Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen restored the machine. Bids are close to $100,000 now, with the Apple-1 expected to sell for over $300,000.
Several original Polaroids that Jobs used when presenting the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell are being sold off. Terrell famously ordered the Apple-1 machines to sell in The Byte Shop, and the Polaroids were part of the pitch deck. The images are expected to sell for over $30,000.
An original 4GB iPhone is also for sale, with the device in original condition and still in the box. Original iPhones have been selling for upwards of $50,000, and the rare 4GB models have sold for over $190,000. RR Auction expects the latest 4GB iPhone to sell for $80,000+.
A bomber jacket that Jobs wore in an iconic 1983 photograph is being auctioned off, and the jacket is well-known because Jobs was flipping the bird to an IBM sign in New York City in the image. The jacket could sell for up to $75,000.
Other items in the auction include two Apple Computer checks signed by Steve Jobs, a Steve Jobs NeXT ID badge Polaroid, a Steve Jobs business card, Jobs’ 1972 high school yearbook, several vintage magazines with Jobs on the cover, and several classic Apple Macs and memorabilia.This article, “Steve Jobs Auction Features Apple-1, Bomber Jacket, Sealed Original iPhone, and More” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Several Apple and Steve Jobs collectibles are up for sale at RR Auction as part of a “Steve Jobs and the Apple Revolution” event, including an Apple-1 Computer, a 4GB original iPhone, Apple-1 Polaroids from Jobs’ pitch deck, Jobs’ bomber jacket, and more.
A functional Apple-1 Computer is being auctioned off, and this one is sourced from former Apple employee Dana Redington. It initially came from a “trade-in” pile that was in Steve Jobs’ office, and it was gifted to Redington by Jobs and Wozniak. Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen restored the machine. Bids are close to $100,000 now, with the Apple-1 expected to sell for over $300,000.
Several original Polaroids that Jobs used when presenting the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell are being sold off. Terrell famously ordered the Apple-1 machines to sell in The Byte Shop, and the Polaroids were part of the pitch deck. The images are expected to sell for over $30,000.
An original 4GB iPhone is also for sale, with the device in original condition and still in the box. Original iPhones have been selling for upwards of $50,000, and the rare 4GB models have sold for over $190,000. RR Auction expects the latest 4GB iPhone to sell for $80,000+.
A bomber jacket that Jobs wore in an iconic 1983 photograph is being auctioned off, and the jacket is well-known because Jobs was flipping the bird to an IBM sign in New York City in the image. The jacket could sell for up to $75,000.
Other items in the auction include two Apple Computer checks signed by Steve Jobs, a Steve Jobs NeXT ID badge Polaroid, a Steve Jobs business card, Jobs’ 1972 high school yearbook, several vintage magazines with Jobs on the cover, and several classic Apple Macs and memorabilia.
This article, “Steve Jobs Auction Features Apple-1, Bomber Jacket, Sealed Original iPhone, and More” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
Can technology fix the ‘broken’ concert ticketing system?
The increased use of AI may prevent tickets being resold at excessively high prices.
The increased use of AI may prevent tickets being resold at excessively high prices.
NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Thursday, August 1 (game #151)
Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here’s all you need to know to solve today’s game, including the spangram.
Here’s another potentially easy Strands puzzle for you – but only ‘potentially’ because in my experience different Strands games can cause trouble for different people. See how you get on, and take advantage of my hints if you need them.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #151) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Not stirred
NYT Strands today (game #151) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
NASTYSOOTSTOODTRAINBAKERAMEN
NYT Strands today (game #151) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Given a jiggle
NYT Strands today (game #151) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
• First: left, 4th row
• Last: right, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #151) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #151, are…
SALTMARACARATTLEHAIRSPRAYMARTINIBOOTYHANDSSPANGRAM: SHAKEN
My rating: EasyMy score: 1 hint
I’m annoyed at myself today. Very annoyed. No, I didn’t fail – but I needed one of the NYT’s in-game hints when really I could and should have solved it without. The theme clue was really obvious, and as soon as I saw ‘Not stirred’ I thought ‘shaken’! But for some reason it didn’t occur to me that the answer might be quite so simple as that, so I didn’t even look for the word SHAKEN, which was the spangram. If I had, I wouldn’t have needed the hint to set me on my way, because all of the answers were pretty easy. Silly silly silly.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Wednesday 31 July, game #150)
EPOXYGLUEBUBBLEGUMADHESIVETAPECARAMELSPANGRAM: STICKYSTUFF
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
Quordle today – hints and answers for Thursday, August 1 (game #920)
Looking for Quordle clues? We can help. Plus get the answers to Quordle today and past solutions.
The first Quordle of the month is not too bad at all, but there are hints below if you need them anyway. I promise I won’t judge you.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #920) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #920) – hint #2 – repeated letters
Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #920) – hint #3 – uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today’s Quordle answers.
Quordle today (game #920) – hint #4 – starting letters (1)
Do any of today’s Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?
• The number of today’s Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 3.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you’re not ready yet then here’s one more clue to make things a lot easier:
Quordle today (game #920) – hint #5 – starting letters (2)
What letters do today’s Quordle answers start with?
• S
• C
• S
• S
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #920) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle, game #920, are…
SUINGCRAFTSTUFFSPIKE
Another easy Quordle here, on account of three of the words starting with the same letter. What’s more, that letter is S – the most common starting letter in Wordle and therefore almost certainly the most common here too.
Players of common letters will have had a good time of it, in fact, with T appearing in two answers and placings for R, A, E, I and N on the board too. The K in SPIKE is the only fairly uncommon letter, but all four words are well known, so I don’t expect any problems for most people today.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Daily Sequence today (game #920) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #920, are…
CHAIRSPELLCHASECOUPE
Quordle answers: The past 20
Quordle #919, Wednesday 31 July: NOSEY, SHEIK, PHONE, SKIERQuordle #918, Tuesday 30 July: TAWNY, INDEX, SHOOK, SALVEQuordle #917, Monday 29 July: QUIET, ORDER, LEAVE, TODDYQuordle #916, Sunday 28 July: GAUGE, EASEL, GIRTH, LATERQuordle #915, Saturday 27 July: LEAFY, MOUTH, GLAZE, RINSEQuordle #914, Friday 26 July: NUTTY, TATTY, SHUSH, THIGHQuordle #913, Thursday 25 July: BLURB, PENCE, PHASE, SKIMPQuordle #912, Wednesday 24 July: FUSSY, PRIMO, THOSE, HEARDQuordle #911, Tuesday 23 July: CLIFF, SIXTY, FAITH, GRAPHQuordle #910, Monday 22 July: GRAIN, AGAIN, BRICK, APTLYQuordle #909, Sunday 21 July: LIVER, PERIL, JEWEL, PROWLQuordle #908, Saturday 20 July: WAIST, THINK, PROSE, BATHEQuordle #907, Friday 19 July: CINCH, WOKEN, BICEP, INLAYQuordle #906, Thursday 18 July: SHALE, BLINK, CHOCK, POPPYQuordle #905, Wednesday 17 July: SYRUP, AMISS, OTTER, BOTCHQuordle #904, Tuesday 16 July: STOIC, HOMER, STORE, STEALQuordle #903, Monday 15 July: QUASH, BRASS, UTTER, ALERTQuordle #902, Sunday 14 July: MUSKY, AGATE, EXPEL, SLICKQuordle #901, Saturday 13 July: GROWL, WHELP, CURVY, APTLYQuordle #900, Friday 12 July: CHEER, SQUIB, CLEFT, ODDLY