This paper presents a comprehensive algorithm for fitting generative models whose likelihood, moments, and other quantities typically used for inference are not analytically or numerically tractable. The proposed method aims to provide a general solution that requires only limited prior information on the model parameters. The algorithm combines a global search phase, aimed at identifying the region of the solution, with a local search phase that mimics a trust region version of the Fisher scoring algorithm for computing a quasi-likelihood estimator. Comparisons with alternative methods demonstrate the strong performance of the proposed approach. An R package implementing the algorithm is available on CRAN.

Dominican Republic suffers nationwide power cut after'cascade of failures' The Dominican Republic has experienced a nationwide power cut which officials said was linked to a failure in the electricity transmission system. At 13:23 local time (17:23 GMT) an issue at a substation caused a nationwide interruption to power services, the state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company said, citing the country's energy minister Joel Santos Echeverría. Echeverría said a thorough investigation would be carried out to identify the cause and that work was under way to quickly restore power. The Caribbean nation, which is home to around 11 million people, has been experiencing smaller blackouts in recent weeks, the AFP news agency reports. Officials at the state-owned power company said generation units in two major power plants had shut down, causing a cascade of failures in other parts of the grid.

Oscar-winning actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have both signed a deal with the AI audio company ElevenLabs. The New York-based company can now create AI-generated versions of their voices as part of a bid to solve a "key ethical challenge" in the artificial intelligence industry's alliance with Hollywood. Emma Thompson speaks of her'intense irritation' with AI McConaughey, who has also invested in the company and collaborated with it since 2022, will now allow ElevenLabs to translate his newsletter, Lyrics of Livin', into a Spanish-language audio version using his voice. In a statement, the Dallas Buyers Club actor said he was "impressed" by ElevenLabs and wanted the partnership to help him "reach and connect with even more people". ElevenLabs is also launching the Iconic Voices Marketplace, which will allow brands to partner with the company and use officially licensed celebrity voices for AI-generated usage.

A Hungarian man has set a new record for longest video game marathon by playing the rhythm-based music game Dance Dance Revolution for six days. Szabolcs Csépe, from Budapest, bopped to over 3000 songs and burned more than 22,000 calories in his quest to romp into the record books. The 34-year-old, known as GrassHopper on his gaming channels, said that preparation for the marathon took six months and included physical training, focusing on his legs and glutes, as well a a diet plan. Playing DDR is always fun for me, he told BBC News, so this challenge was best described as tediously joyful. His feat has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records.

Songs used by ChatGPT included Herbert Grönemeyer's 1984 synth-pop sendup of masculinity, ' (Men). Songs used by ChatGPT included Herbert Grönemeyer's 1984 synth-pop sendup of masculinity, ' (Men). OpenAI ordered to pay undisclosed damages for training its language models on artists' work without permission The Munich regional court sided in favour of Germany's music rights society GEMA, which said ChatGPT had harvested protected lyrics by popular artists to "learn" from them. The collecting society GEMA, which manages the rights of composers, lyricists and music publishers and has approximately 100,000 members, filed the case against OpenAI in November 2024. The lawsuit was seen as a key European test case in a campaign to stop AI scraping of creative output.

Apple said in a statement the removal came after an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China. Apple said in a statement the removal came after an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China. Two of China's most popular gay dating apps have disappeared from app stores in the country, raising fears of a further crackdown on LGBT communities. As of Tuesday, Blued and Finka were unavailable on Apple's app store and several Android platforms. Users who had already downloaded the apps appeared to still be able to use them. Both apps were still available for download from their official websites.

Fraudsters are targeting veterans with fake VA overpayment scams through texts, emails and calls demanding urgent payments via gift cards or wire transfers.

At only 16, Jared Lepora has also co-authored a paper. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In October, a student presented a robotic hand made entirely from LEGOs at the 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Hangzhou, China. Nonetheless, the 16-year-old co-authored research recently published on arXiv along with colleagues including his father Nathan Lepora, a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Bristol. Jared used LEGO MINDSTORMS, a LEGO robotics kit, to build a LEGO version of SoftHand-A, a 3D-printed anthropomorphic robot hand introduced in an earlier study .

Welcome back to, TIME's new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? The chatbot platform, which allows users to chat with AIs that personify fictional characters, is the target of several lawsuits -- including one from Megan Garcia, a mother whose 14-year-old son died by suicide after becoming obsessed with one of the bots, which allegedly encouraged him to end his own life. In the wake of that lawsuit and others, last month Character.AI made a big announcement: it would ban users under 18 years old from having "open-ended conversations" with the chatbots on its platform. It was a huge pivot for a company that says Generations Z and Alpha make up the core of its more than 6 million daily active users, who spend an average of 70 to 80 minutes per day on the platform.

The race begins to make the world's best self-driving cars Tue 11 Nov 2025 09.27 ESTLast modified on Tue 11 Nov 2025 09.29 EST I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from Barcelona, where my diet has transformed at least half my body into ham. Who will dominate the autonomous vehicles market? We are on the verge of the global arrival of self-driving cars. These companies are posturing in the press like male birds fighting for the same mate; the dance sets the stage for the global competition to come. The company has invested billions of dollars in Waymo in the past 15 years.