Google's Imagen 3 is a powerful AI text-to-image generator that earned ZDNET's pick as the best image generator -- even against competitors like Midjourney and OpenAI. As a result, the release of its Veo 2 text-to-video image generator has been highly anticipated. Well, it's finally here, and it comes with a surprise. On Tuesday, Google announced via a blog post that its state-of-the-art Veo 2 video generator is now available in Gemini. This feature allows users to create eight-second video clips at 720p resolution in a 16:9 landscape format using a simple text prompt.

They "needed a vision" for the anticipated growth, Ford says. The two convened a group of volunteers with experience in eight areas: economic development, talent, housing, public health, quality of life, tourism, storytelling, and infrastructure. They built a plan to use Pol.is to help write a 25-year plan for the city. The platform is just one of several new technologies used in Europe and increasingly in the US to help make sure that local governance is informed by public opinion. After a month of advertising, the Pol.is portal launched in February.

Tariffs or no tariffs, Amazon is loaded with deals on tech this week that you won't want to miss. Whether you're in the market for an upgrade or you've had your eyes on some top-notch devices, we recommend snagging these discounts while you can. Here are a few of our top picks for the best Amazon deals of the day on April 15. If none of these are catching your eye, be sure to check out our selections from yesterday, April 14. Many of those deals are still live, including nearly 30% off the Amazon Echo Hub.

Have you ever wondered why some businesses thrive without spending a dime on ads? Meanwhile, when you try the good old fashioned "build it, and they will come," you're as busy as a Chick-fil-A on a Sunday? Some business owners have figured out something most refuse to see. But in an ever-evolving world of AI and tech, this "secret" isn't just essential to building a sustainable marketing campaign; it might be the only way to do business moving forward. I wish I had known this "secret" sooner. It would have saved me countless sleepless nights and millions in ad spend.

By the time you read this article, there's a good chance it will have already been scanned by an artificially intelligent machine. If asked about the artist David Salle, large language models such as ChatGPT or Gemini may repurpose some of the words below to come up with their answer. The bigger the data set, the more convincing the response – and Salle has been written about exhaustively since he first rose to art world stardom in the 1980s. The question is whether AI can ever say anything new about the artist and his work, or if it's for ever condemned to generate more of the same. A similar question lingers beneath the surface of the paintings that Salle has been making since 2023, a new series of which he has just unveiled at Thaddaeus Ropac in London.

It looks like that long-rumored remake of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is actually real, according to a report by Eurogamer. There are actual screenshots of the game in action that were published on developer Virtuos' website. Eurogamer suggests that the game will be shadow-dropped next week for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The same report also indicates it'll be available on Game Pass. Fans on Reddit and elsewhere began poking around on the developer's website and reportedly found a treasure trove of in-game images, which included comparison screenshots to the original game from 2006. Eurogamer has collected these images on imgur to preserve them for posterity.

Hassabis received half of the award alongside a colleague, John Jumper, for the design of AlphaFold: an AI tool that can predict the 3D structure of proteins using only their amino acid sequences--something Hassabis describes as a "50-year grand challenge" in the field of biology. Released freely by Google DeepMind for the world to use five years ago, AlphaFold has revolutionized the work of scientists toiling on research as varied as malaria vaccines, human longevity, and cures for cancer, allowing them to model protein structures in hours rather than years. The Nobel Prizes in 2024 were the first in history to recognize the contributions of AI to the field of science. If Hassabis gets his way, they won't be the last. AlphaFold's impact may have been broad enough to win its creators a Nobel Prize, but in the world of AI, it is seen as almost hopelessly narrow.

As of April 15, Lepro N1 AI Smart RGB Rope Lights are available for 44.99 at Amazon. I stuck a 10-foot strand of Lepro N1 AI Smart Rope Lights on my wall and now my room looks like I should be live streaming my thoughts on the rumored Oblivion Remake. The 9.84-foot version is down to 44.99 on Amazon right now, thanks to a 15 coupon off the usual 59.99 list price. That's a decent drop for lighting that manages to be both smart and slightly dramatic. What makes these different from the usual sticky RGB strips is the AI baked into them. Lepro's LightGPM setup uses some machine learning magic to generate lighting based on your mood or activity.

In 2021, the Maryland Department of Health and the state police were confronting a crisis: Fatal drug overdoses in the state were at an all-time high, and authorities didn't know why. Seeking answers, Maryland officials turned to scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the national metrology institute for the United States, which defines and maintains standards of measurement essential to a wide range of industrial sectors and health and security applications. There, a research chemist named Ed Sisco and his team had developed methods for detecting trace amounts of drugs, explosives, and other dangerous materials--techniques that could protect law enforcement officials and others who had to collect these samples. And a pilot uncovered new, critical information almost immediately. This story is from the next edition of our print magazine.

This article was originally featured on The Conversation. Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily. So perhaps it's no surprise different languages highlight different areas of vocabulary. Scholars have noted that Mongolian has many horse-related words, that Maori has many words for ferns, and Japanese has many words related to taste. Some links are unsurprising, such as German having many words related to beer, or Fijian having many words for fish.