Recently, 3D reconstruction and generation have demonstrated impressive novel view synthesis results, achieving high fidelity and efficiency. However, a notable conditioning gap can be observed between these two fields, e.g., scalable 3D scene reconstruction often requires densely captured views, whereas 3D generation typically relies on a single or no input view, which significantly limits their applications. W e found that the source of this phenomenon lies in the misalignment between 3D constraints and generative priors. T o address this problem, we propose a reconstruction-driven video diffusion model that learns to condition video frames on artifact-prone RGB-D renderings. Moreover, we propose a cyclical fusion pipeline that iteratively adds restoration frames from the generative model to the training set, enabling progressive expansion and addressing the viewpoint saturation limitations seen in previous reconstruction and generation pipelines. Our evaluation, including view synthesis from sparse view and masked input, validates the effectiveness of our approach.

Multilingual Natural Language Generation (NLG) is challenging due to the lack of training data for low-resource languages. However, some low-resource languages have up to tens of millions of speakers globally, making it important to improve NLG tools for them. Table-to-Text NLG is an excellent measure of models' reasoning abilities but is very challenging in the multilingual setting. System outputs are often not attributable, or faithful, to the data in the source table. Intermediate planning techniques like Question-Answer (QA) blueprints have been shown to improve attributability on summarisation tasks. This work explores whether QA blueprints make multilingual Table-to-Text outputs more attributable to the input tables. This paper extends the challenging multilingual Table-to-Text dataset, TaTA, which includes African languages, with QA blueprints. Sequence-to-sequence language models are then finetuned on this dataset, with and without blueprints. Results show that QA blueprints improve performance for models finetuned and evaluated only on English examples, but do not demonstrate gains in the multilingual setting. This is due to inaccuracies in machine translating the blueprints from English into target languages when generating the training data, and models failing to rely closely on the blueprints they generate. An in-depth analysis is conducted on why this is challenging.

I have spent years investigating serious criminals. From human traffickers and gunrunners to contract killers and cocaine smugglers. One thing I never thought I'd end up investigating was whisky. BBC Producer Liam McDougall told me of a source he had – a whistleblower – who said that organised crime had infiltrated the whisky industry, that he had compiled a hitlist of suspect whisky investment companies, and would we be interested in looking into it? One of those on the list was a company called Cask Whisky Ltd.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence firm xAI has acquired his social media platform X in an all-stock transaction that values the company at 33 billion, including 12 billion worth of debt, the centibillionaire announced Friday. The sale comes just weeks after Musk reportedly raised an additional roughly 1 billion in debt financing for X that valued the company at 44 billion--the same price Musk paid for it three years ago. "xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk wrote in an X post. "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach."

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has purchased X, according to a post shared by Musk. Besides their similar names and owner, the companies are already connected through xAI's chatbot Grok, which is integrated into X. X was acquired by xAI through an all-stock transaction. "The combination values xAI at 80 billion and X at 33 billion ( 45B less 12B debt)," Musk writes. "xAI and X's futures are intertwined."

On March 18, the official White House account on X posted two photographs of Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, a woman who was arrested earlier this month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The post described her as a "previously deported alien felon convicted of fentanyl trafficking," and celebrated her capture as a win for the administration. In one photograph, Basora-Gonzalez is shown handcuffed and weeping in a public parking lot. The White House account posted about Basora-Gonzalez again yesterday--this time, rendering her capture in the animated style of the beloved Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, who co-founded the animation company Studio Ghibli. Presumably, whoever runs the account had used ChatGPT, which has been going viral this week for an update to its advanced "4o" model that enables it to transform photographs in the style of popular art, among other things.

Prime Day is months away. Black Friday is nearly a year off. Amazon has spied a gap in the calendar and plans to cram it full of deals. Amazon's Big Spring Sale runs from through March 31. With no other big sale events in view, this could be a good time to snag that mesh router, set of headphones, or robo vac you've had your eye on. As usual, Amazon has discounts on all sorts of stuff, but many deals are exclusive to Amazon Prime members. Now, we're not suggesting you harvest this spring deal crop indiscriminately; we are here to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. The WIRED Gear team has run its many eyes over the list to tease out deals that are for gadgets worth owning and actually deals. Everything we highlight here has been hand-tested by one of us and deemed worthy of a spot in your home. Updated March 28: We've checked prices and added a few fresh deals on things like slippers, t-shirts, and an extreme alarm clock. Get best-in-class reporting that's too important to ignore for just 2.50 1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. The Eero Pro 6E (7/10, WIRED Recommends) mesh system is one of the easiest to set up and will deliver speedy, stable Wi-Fi across your home. Amazon's Eero makes some of our favorite mesh systems, ideal for busy families seeking a set-and-forget mesh. The Pro 6E is a tri-band system with a 6-GHz band for fast Wi-Fi at close range, and with the jump to Wi-Fi 7 systems still costly, this system is worth considering right now. But you need an Eero Plus subscription at 10 per month or 100 per year to unlock the best features, including parental controls, advanced security, and ad blocking. There are discounts on other Eero systems, so check our Eero buying guide to decide which is best for your home. DJI's debut portable power station can put out 2,200 watts steadily (2,600 watts surge), has two USB-C PD 3.1 ports (140 watts), and boasts DJI's proprietary SDC ports for fast-charging drone batteries. It can juice up phones, run microwaves or small tools, and meet most of your portable power needs, but it's an especially great choice for folks with DJI drones because it can fast charge most models. It gets a little noisy with several gadgets charging, and cable and bag accessories cost extra, but it still claims a place in our best portable power stations guide. Built to last, this braided nylon cable's exterior is 100 percent recycled plastic that Anker promises will last a century.

After a long run, Google is sunsetting two of its signature Nest products and consequently withdrawing as a manufacturer in two key smart home categories. Google has just announced that it's discontinuing the 10-year-old Nest Protect and the 7-year-old Nest x Yale lock. Both of those products will continue to work, and--for now--they remain on sale at the Google Store, complete with discounts until supplies run out. But while Google itself is exiting the smoke alarm and smart lock business, it isn't leaving Google Home users in the lurch. Instead, it's teeing up third-party replacements for the Nest Protect and Nest X Yale lock, with both new products coming from familiar brands.

Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shared the vision, noting that fewer than half of people with a mental disorder receive therapy, and those who do might get only 45 minutes per week. Researchers have tried to build tech so that more people can access therapy, but they have been held back by two things. One, a therapy bot that says the wrong thing could result in real harm. That's why many researchers have built bots using explicit programming: The software pulls from a finite bank of approved responses (as was the case with Eliza, a mock-psychotherapist computer program built in the 1960s). But this makes them less engaging to chat with, and people lose interest.

If you're looking for something with more elegance and sophistication, however, you should replace the switches in your walls. Besides, the most common drawback of relying on smart bulbs with conventional switches is that someone inevitably turns the switch off. Your expensive smart bulb is now a dumb bulb that can't be controlled with voice commands or be included in any lighting automations you've set up. Don't worry, it's an easy DIY project. Be aware, however, that most–but certainly not all–smart controls depend on the presence of a neutral wire in the box.