Month: July 2024
AI-Powered Necklace Will Be Your Friend for $99
Friend is a pendant that will talk to you via text, not voice, when you’re lonely, or just any time you want conversation.
Friend is a pendant that will talk to you via text, not voice, when you’re lonely, or just any time you want conversation.
Senate Passes the Kids Online Safety Act
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0), the first major internet bills meant to protect children to reach that milestone in two decades. A legislative vehicle that included both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 passed 91-3. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it “a momentous day” in a speech ahead of the vote, saying that “the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media.” He called for the House to pass the bills “as soon as they can.”
KOSA is a landmark piece of legislation that a persistent group of parent advocates played a key role in pushing forward — meeting with lawmakers, showing up at hearings with tech CEOs, and bringing along photos of their children, who, in many cases, died by suicide after experiencing cyberbullying or other harms from social media. These parents say that a bill like KOSA could have saved their own children from suffering and hope it will do the same for other children. The bill works by creating a duty of care for online platforms that are used by minors, requiring they take “reasonable” measures in how they design their products to mitigate a list of harms, including online bullying, sexual exploitation, drug promotion, and eating disorders. It specifies that the bill doesn’t prevent platforms from letting minors search for any specific content or providing resources to mitigate any of the listed harms, “including evidence-informed information and clinical resources.” The legislation faces significant opposition from digital rights, free speech, and LGBTQ+ advocates who fear it could lead to censorship and privacy issues. Critics argue that the duty of care may result in aggressive content filtering and mandatory age verification, potentially blocking important educational and lifesaving content.
The bill may also face legal challenges from tech platforms citing First Amendment violations.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0), the first major internet bills meant to protect children to reach that milestone in two decades. A legislative vehicle that included both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 passed 91-3. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it “a momentous day” in a speech ahead of the vote, saying that “the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media.” He called for the House to pass the bills “as soon as they can.”
KOSA is a landmark piece of legislation that a persistent group of parent advocates played a key role in pushing forward — meeting with lawmakers, showing up at hearings with tech CEOs, and bringing along photos of their children, who, in many cases, died by suicide after experiencing cyberbullying or other harms from social media. These parents say that a bill like KOSA could have saved their own children from suffering and hope it will do the same for other children. The bill works by creating a duty of care for online platforms that are used by minors, requiring they take “reasonable” measures in how they design their products to mitigate a list of harms, including online bullying, sexual exploitation, drug promotion, and eating disorders. It specifies that the bill doesn’t prevent platforms from letting minors search for any specific content or providing resources to mitigate any of the listed harms, “including evidence-informed information and clinical resources.” The legislation faces significant opposition from digital rights, free speech, and LGBTQ+ advocates who fear it could lead to censorship and privacy issues. Critics argue that the duty of care may result in aggressive content filtering and mandatory age verification, potentially blocking important educational and lifesaving content.
The bill may also face legal challenges from tech platforms citing First Amendment violations.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft Profit Jumps 10%, but Cloud Computing Grows Less Than Expected
The tech giant’s revenue also grew 15 percent, but Wall Street is watching whether its investment in A.I. is paying off for its cloud computing business.
The tech giant’s revenue also grew 15 percent, but Wall Street is watching whether its investment in A.I. is paying off for its cloud computing business.
Olympic Golf 2024: When and How to Watch Thursday From Anywhere
Golf is in the Olympics, with 60 competitors going for gold.
Golf is in the Olympics, with 60 competitors going for gold.
Activision’s big contribution to AI is Call of Duty: Warzone data
Player data from a single match on Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map. | Image: Activision
Activision is sharing an open-source dataset pulled from Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map for researchers to study and to help support AI model training.
“This first-of-its-kind data set release for Call of Duty, now available in OpenUSD, contains the near-complete geometry of Caldera as well as a collection of randomly selected anonymized time samples showing how players move around the map,” Activision writes in a blog post.
According to Michael Vance, an Activision SVP and fellow software engineer, it’s one of “the largest production-validated open data set releases from the gaming industry in terms of complexity of geometry and instance counts.” It’s also one of the largest publicly available OpenUSD (a file format for 3D content creation with backing from Pixar and Apple, among others) data sets, period.
Image: Activision
A screenshot of the Calera dataset. The actual Caldera map was removed from Warzone in September 2023.
Activision also believes this dataset provides “excellent data” for AI training and the evolution of content generation techniques, according to CTO Natalya Tatarchuk. The video game industry, like many other industries, is exploring ways it can take advantage of generative AI despite concerns from game developers, and this data could be used to assist with those efforts.
If you want to check out Activision’s Caldera data for yourself, you can download it from GitHub.
Player data from a single match on Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map. | Image: Activision
Activision is sharing an open-source dataset pulled from Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map for researchers to study and to help support AI model training.
“This first-of-its-kind data set release for Call of Duty, now available in OpenUSD, contains the near-complete geometry of Caldera as well as a collection of randomly selected anonymized time samples showing how players move around the map,” Activision writes in a blog post.
According to Michael Vance, an Activision SVP and fellow software engineer, it’s one of “the largest production-validated open data set releases from the gaming industry in terms of complexity of geometry and instance counts.” It’s also one of the largest publicly available OpenUSD (a file format for 3D content creation with backing from Pixar and Apple, among others) data sets, period.
Image: Activision
A screenshot of the Calera dataset. The actual Caldera map was removed from Warzone in September 2023.
Activision also believes this dataset provides “excellent data” for AI training and the evolution of content generation techniques, according to CTO Natalya Tatarchuk. The video game industry, like many other industries, is exploring ways it can take advantage of generative AI despite concerns from game developers, and this data could be used to assist with those efforts.
If you want to check out Activision’s Caldera data for yourself, you can download it from GitHub.
With a landmark launch, the Pentagon is finally free of Russian rocket engines
It’s been a decade-long effort to end the US military’s reliance on the RD-180 engine.
Enlarge / Liftoff of ULA’s Atlas V rocket on the US Space Force’s USSF-51 mission. (credit: United Launch Alliance)
United Launch Alliance delivered a classified US military payload to orbit Tuesday for the last time with an Atlas V rocket, ending the Pentagon’s use of Russian rocket engines as national security missions transition to all-American launchers.
The Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6:45 am EDT (10:45 UTC) Tuesday, propelled by a Russian-made RD-180 engine and five strap-on solid-fueled boosters in its most powerful configuration. This was the 101st launch of an Atlas V rocket since its debut in 2002, and the 58th and final Atlas V mission with a US national security payload since 2007.
The US Space Force’s Space Systems Command confirmed a successful conclusion to the mission, code-named USSF-51, on Tuesday afternoon. The rocket’s Centaur upper stage released the top secret USSF-51 payload about seven hours after liftoff, likely in a high-altitude geostationary orbit over the equator. The military did not publicize the exact specifications of the rocket’s target orbit.
Minecraft and Tetris combine for some very blocky dungeon crawling
Image: Mojang Studios
Two of the bestselling games of all time are joining forces for some very strange downloadable content in Minecraft. It involves visiting the “Tetris universe” inside of the game… which has taught me that there is something called the Tetris universe. Notably, the new Minecraft DLC is a form of dungeon crawler that also involves playing Tetris to find lost Tetriminos, those falling blocks that come in an assortment of iconic shapes. (This also isn’t the first time the two games have crossed over, though the previous collab wasn’t quite so weird.)
I’m not sure I fully understand it, so here’s the synopsis from Mojang Studios:
It’s your job to find the Tetriminos and bring them back. So how do you do that? The grid of blocks remaining after your round of 2D Tetris transforms into a 3D dungeon layout hiding not only the missing Tetriminos, but plenty of surprises – some more welcome than others! Each time you play, you face a unique dungeon.
The Tetriminos you use, the paths you make, and even how many lines you clear result in new traps, loot, and surprises around every corner. Solve puzzles, scavenge for rewards, and fight monsters as you make your way to the top. There await new Tetriminos that will fill the next dungeon you generate with even more secrets.
With the DLC, you can also just straight-up play regular Tetris in Minecraft’s lobby, adding to the many, many ways to experience the classic block-falling puzzle game. The Minecraft x Tetris DLC is available now.
Image: Mojang Studios
Two of the bestselling games of all time are joining forces for some very strange downloadable content in Minecraft. It involves visiting the “Tetris universe” inside of the game… which has taught me that there is something called the Tetris universe. Notably, the new Minecraft DLC is a form of dungeon crawler that also involves playing Tetris to find lost Tetriminos, those falling blocks that come in an assortment of iconic shapes. (This also isn’t the first time the two games have crossed over, though the previous collab wasn’t quite so weird.)
I’m not sure I fully understand it, so here’s the synopsis from Mojang Studios:
It’s your job to find the Tetriminos and bring them back. So how do you do that? The grid of blocks remaining after your round of 2D Tetris transforms into a 3D dungeon layout hiding not only the missing Tetriminos, but plenty of surprises – some more welcome than others! Each time you play, you face a unique dungeon.
The Tetriminos you use, the paths you make, and even how many lines you clear result in new traps, loot, and surprises around every corner. Solve puzzles, scavenge for rewards, and fight monsters as you make your way to the top. There await new Tetriminos that will fill the next dungeon you generate with even more secrets.
With the DLC, you can also just straight-up play regular Tetris in Minecraft’s lobby, adding to the many, many ways to experience the classic block-falling puzzle game. The Minecraft x Tetris DLC is available now.
Crypto asset firm Grayscale has lost $20 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
Leading crypto-specific asset manager Grayscale Investments has lost over $20.4 billion through outflows from its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)… Continue reading Crypto asset firm Grayscale has lost $20 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
The post Crypto asset firm Grayscale has lost $20 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs appeared first on ReadWrite.
Leading crypto-specific asset manager Grayscale Investments has lost over $20.4 billion through outflows from its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
According to data gathered from Farside Investors, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) has lost $137.7 million per day on average over the seven months since its conversion from a close-ended fund. The other spot Bitcoin ETFs keep mostly seeing net positive capital flows.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) specifically tops the chart when it comes to assets under management, with $19.93 billion in Bitcoin. It is followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with its $9.9 billion, Cathie Wood’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) with $2.6 billion and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) currently holding $2.09 billion.
Farside Investors data also shows that Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) has so far fared similarly. ETHE has lost $1.72 billion in just five days, leading to Grayscale’s derivatives losing $20.58 billion to outflows. The product has lost 18.7% of their initial seed funds of nearly $9.2 billion.
Steno Research senior analyst Mads Eberhardt expects this rate of outflows out of Grayscale’s ETFs to cease by Aug. 2. Furthermore, he sees such outflows as a reason to be bullish in the short-term.
The Ethereum ETF net outflow is yet to subside, but it is likely that it will happen this week. When it does, it’s up only from there. pic.twitter.com/mJqbcyUTp5
— Mads Eberhardt (@MadsEberhardt) July 29, 2024
Eberhardt further explained that the outflows from Grayscale’s crypto derivatives have already substantially diminished. He further explained:
Since the Grayscale Ethereum ETF has experienced a much higher outflow relative to AUM, we believe that peak outflow will occur sometime this week.
Pseudonymous trader Evanss6 shared a similar outlook. He compared data from the launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. He concluded that “Grayscale selling is finite.”
Have a look at the two ETF launches side by side
BTC ETF (0 on x-axis = Jan 10th):
-bottomed on Day 12 (Trading Day 7)
-bottom occurred at ~21.5% off local peak
-bottom occurred at cumulative Grayscale outflows of ~13.2%
-proceeded to rip ~92% in 50 days
ETH ETF (0 on x-axis =… pic.twitter.com/jsmcYu0UD0
— Evanss6 (@Evan_ss6) July 29, 2024
The report follows recent data showing that on their second day of trading, United States-based spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded net outflows of $113.3 million. This negative trend registered in the overall Ethereum ETF market was largely driven by significant withdrawals from Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust alone.
The post Crypto asset firm Grayscale has lost $20 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs appeared first on ReadWrite.
Wind and Solar Energy Overtake Fossil Fuels To Provide 30% of EU Electricity
AmiMoJo writes: Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found. Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022.
Chris Rosslowe, an analyst at Ember, said the rise of wind and solar was narrowing the role of fossil fuels. “We are witnessing a historic shift in the power sector, and it is happening rapidly.” The report found EU power plants burned 24% less coal and 14% less gas from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024. The shift comes despite a small uptick in electricity demand that has followed two years of decline linked to the pandemic and Ukraine war.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AmiMoJo writes: Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found. Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022.
Chris Rosslowe, an analyst at Ember, said the rise of wind and solar was narrowing the role of fossil fuels. “We are witnessing a historic shift in the power sector, and it is happening rapidly.” The report found EU power plants burned 24% less coal and 14% less gas from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024. The shift comes despite a small uptick in electricity demand that has followed two years of decline linked to the pandemic and Ukraine war.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This vacuum robot dog can find and suck up trash with its feet
Cigarette butts pose a huge risk to the world’s oceans and can be a pain to clean up by hand especially on public spaces like beaches. A group of Italian scientists have built a quadruped robot that can identify litter and pick up the smaller bits with its leg mounted vacuums.
VERO, the vacuum equipped quadruped robot, is a four-legged device designed to look for and clean up litter on a variety of terrains. VERO was designed and built by a team of researchers from the Dynamic Legged Systems lab at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, according to USA Today.
The group published a paper back in April on VERO’s development and effectiveness in the Journal of Field Robotics. The research paper states that cigarette butts are a serious concern. Discarded butts release toxic chemicals and microplastics into the ocean as they break down. It’s also the “second most common undisposed waste worldwide, in terrains that are hard to reach for wheeled and tracked robots.”
VERO is designed for picking up this common type of small litter. An operator sets up a field target for the robot to traverse. Then it slowly walks the entire length of the target while identifying litter with a special neural network and onboard cameras. The quadruped robot has a “convolutional neural network for litter detection” that can target litter and pick it up with one of four leg mounted vacuums, according to IEEE Spectrum.
Cleaning up beaches also can be a challenge because the sand makes it hard to lug wheeled trash bins or heavy receptacles over the terrain. The researchers conducted tests on “six different outdoor” scenarios to show VERO’s proficiency at navigating difficult terrain. It can steady itself while picking up trash with an Intel RealSense depth camera mounted on its chin.
The robot didn’t get every piece of trash in its initial test but it still picked up 90 percent of the cigarette butts identified in testing. That’s 90 percent less waste that ends up in the ocean.
There don’t seem to be any plans to implement VERO just yet. The researchers say VERO’s design could be programmed and engineered to do other tasks like spraying crops, looking for weaknesses in infrastructure and helping with construction projects.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-vacuum-robot-dog-can-find-and-suck-up-trash-with-its-feet-203952526.html?src=rss
Cigarette butts pose a huge risk to the world’s oceans and can be a pain to clean up by hand especially on public spaces like beaches. A group of Italian scientists have built a quadruped robot that can identify litter and pick up the smaller bits with its leg mounted vacuums.
VERO, the vacuum equipped quadruped robot, is a four-legged device designed to look for and clean up litter on a variety of terrains. VERO was designed and built by a team of researchers from the Dynamic Legged Systems lab at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, according to USA Today.
The group published a paper back in April on VERO’s development and effectiveness in the Journal of Field Robotics. The research paper states that cigarette butts are a serious concern. Discarded butts release toxic chemicals and microplastics into the ocean as they break down. It’s also the “second most common undisposed waste worldwide, in terrains that are hard to reach for wheeled and tracked robots.”
VERO is designed for picking up this common type of small litter. An operator sets up a field target for the robot to traverse. Then it slowly walks the entire length of the target while identifying litter with a special neural network and onboard cameras. The quadruped robot has a “convolutional neural network for litter detection” that can target litter and pick it up with one of four leg mounted vacuums, according to IEEE Spectrum.
Cleaning up beaches also can be a challenge because the sand makes it hard to lug wheeled trash bins or heavy receptacles over the terrain. The researchers conducted tests on “six different outdoor” scenarios to show VERO’s proficiency at navigating difficult terrain. It can steady itself while picking up trash with an Intel RealSense depth camera mounted on its chin.
The robot didn’t get every piece of trash in its initial test but it still picked up 90 percent of the cigarette butts identified in testing. That’s 90 percent less waste that ends up in the ocean.
There don’t seem to be any plans to implement VERO just yet. The researchers say VERO’s design could be programmed and engineered to do other tasks like spraying crops, looking for weaknesses in infrastructure and helping with construction projects.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-vacuum-robot-dog-can-find-and-suck-up-trash-with-its-feet-203952526.html?src=rss