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Last year, AI Dungeondebuted as a free text adventure game. Now the game’s AI system has been upgraded to GPT-3, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which has a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. According to game creator Nick Walton, it’s “one of the most powerful AI models in the world.” Coupled…
In 2020, it’s worth assuming that every status update and selfie you upload online can eventually make its way into the hands of an obscure data-mining third party, into the hands of national authorities, or both. On the flip side, being aware of exactly how shitty these companies are has prompted a lot of folks…
Well, Android friends, it’s time to say a final goodbye to Dark Sky. After Apple acquired Dark Sky back in March, it dropped the not-so-nice news that the Android and WearOS apps would be kaput starting July 1. Then, when that date rolled around, Dark Sky co-founder Adam Grossman announced that the final death knell…
Alongside the brand new Pixel 4a, after months of rumors and speculation, today Google is confirming the upcoming arrival of the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5G sometime later this year. While Google’s teaser doesn’t include a ton of details about the company’s new phones, Google clearly stated that both the Pixel 4a 5G and…
If you’re on a desktop right now, you’re probably using a computer mouse. In which case, you should raise a glass to William English. English, an engineer and researcher, died on July 26 at the age of 91 due to respiratory failure in San Rafael, California. And while his cohort Douglas Englebart is probably more…
There are plenty of completely free alternatives to Photoshop; here are a few of the best.
Since the world is both metaphorically and, in some places, literally on fire these days, I’ve replaced doomscrolling through my feeds with something more wholesome to preserve my already perennially shaky mental state: farming sims. Nice try, depressing news, but I can’t hear you when I’m 100+ hours deep in Stardew Valley (look, I love…
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, sent an alarming message about the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. on Sunday. Birx said that what the country is experiencing now is different than in March and April, which saw the rapid acceleration of virus transmission in the country. In an interview…
This inexplicably-named laptop is the all-in-one electronics toolkit you’re probably looking for. Powered by a Raspberry Pi, the CrowPi2 features a screen and keyboard as well as a panoply of inputs and outputs that hearkens back to the 100-in-1 electronics kits of yore. The laptop is fully-funded on Kickstarter and will ship this month. The…
Apple has reportedly bought Mobeewave, a startup that allows phones to become payment terminals with a simple tap, Bloomberg reported this week. The company’s apparently got money on its mind. According to Bloomberg, Apple paid about $100 million for Mobeewave and has retained the startup’s team, which is based in Montreal, Canada. Mobeewave uses an…
When it comes to wacky clocks nobody can hold a candle to MB&F. The company, which makes $100K watches alongside things like this wild mechanical T-rex thing, teamed up with movement maker L’Épée and design house Massena LAB to create a $27,000 desk trinket that looks like something out of Half-Life 2. This model is…
People are doing things with their phones that I didn’t even know you could do with phones. I mean, I get it: In these crazy coronavirus times, people need to get creative to meet their sexual needs. I totally support having a healthy sex life and masturbation. But… with your phone? To be completely honest…
I’m about to blow through The Umbrella Academy season 2 in record time, you guys. Netflix is rolling out new options to let users binge content at faster and slower speeds, the streaming giant announced in a blog update on Friday after confirming the news to the Verge. Beginning this weekend, Android mobile users can choose…
The Eastman Kodak Company gave its CEO 1.75 million stock options just one day before the company’s stock soared amid news that it would receive a $765 million federal loan to manufacture critical drug components, the New York Times reported Friday. When news of the White House deal went live earlier this week, Kodak’s shares…
Update: 8/1/2020, 1:41 p.m. ET: Per a Saturday Reuters report, TikTok’s parent company Bytedance has agreed to full transparency with the U.S. government and offered to divest its U.S. operations of TikTok completely if it’ll keep President Donald Trump from banning the app, according to two people familiar with the matter. Under this deal, Bytedance,…
Democratic senators warned Friday that controversial changes to U.S. Postal Service procedures have raised concerns in Washington about the timely delivery of mail-in ballots ahead of the November election. Earlier this month, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy approved a controversial cost-cutting operation at the USPS, which Congress re-imagined last century as a hybrid government-corporation. In lieu…
After what seems like a lifetime of political flak and negative media attention, the China-based company ByteDance might finally surrender ownership of TikTok in the United States. This afternoon, Fox Business Network correspondent Charles Gasparino tweeted, and Bloomberg reported, that Donald Trump plans to order Bytedance to divest from the U.S. portion of TikTok based…
Earlier this month a number of Twitter accounts belonging to prominent, highly-followed individuals like Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos were compromised, seemingly to defraud strangers out of bitcoin. Unfettered access to potentially sensitive information contained therein generated speculation: Was the cryptocurrency gambit a front to cover up blackmail attempts…
While it seems like we’ll be seeing the Surface Duo very soon, it appears we’ll have to wait a lot longer for the Surface Neo. Microsoft originally planned for the Neo to launch during the 2020 holiday season, but has reportedly instead hit pause on the production of the dual-screen tablet. The report comes via…
In an apparent final-hour agreement between WarnerMedia and Amazon, Fire TV users will be able to continue streaming HBO. Let’s back up a bit because a couple of things happening simultaneously appeared to put Fire TV users at risk of losing HBO apps entirely. HBO Go is going away as of today, July 31, leaving…
