Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have significantly enhanced the capabilities of conversational agents, making them applicable to various fields (e.g., education). Despite their progress, the evaluation of the agents often overlooks the complexities of real-world conversations, such as real-time interactions, multi-party dialogues, and extended contextual dependencies. To bridge this gap, we introduce DialSim, a real-time dialogue simulator. In this simulator, an agent is assigned the role of a character from popular TV shows, requiring it to respond to spontaneous questions using past dialogue information and to distinguish between known and unknown information. Key features of DialSim include evaluating the agent's ability to respond within a reasonable time limit, handling long-term multi-party dialogues, and managing adversarial settings (e.g., swap character names) to challenge the agent's reliance on pre-trained knowledge. We utilized this simulator to evaluate the latest conversational agents and analyze their limitations. Our experiments highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of these agents, providing valuable insights for future improvements in the field of conversational AI.

World of Warcraft Classic will return to the Wrath of the Lich King era on September 26th, Blizzard announced on Monday. WotLK is widely considered one of the best expansions in World of Warcraft's nearly 20-year history. Even if subsequent releases went on to expand the game's mechanics in more interesting and creative ways, few hit thematically in the way that WotLK did. For those who loved Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, it felt special to set foot on the shores of Northrend for the first time and explore the continent from a new perspective, and then eventually fight Arthas as part of the Icecrown Citadel raid. Ahead of the expansion's arrival, Blizzard is introducing a new leveling mechanic called Joyous Journeys.

As a kid, Alx Preston spent a significant amount of time as a member of the audience, watching his brother sing in choir and opera groups. One night, he found himself sitting in a pew at the heart of a large, elegant church, letting the sounds of yet another performance wash over him. He also happened to be playing a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at home. "I kind of fell into a dream state," Preston said. "I was playing a lot of Ocarina of Time at the time, and so the vocals of that mixed with this kind of fantastical vision of going through a forest. I think for me that Ocarina of Time was one of those formative games that really allowed me to see what was possible within the medium."

World of Warcraft fans will be able to play Shadowlands, the eighth expansion for Blizzard's massively popular online role-playing game, starting on October 26th. Depending on where you live, you'll get access to the expansion either on the 26th or the day after. Blizzard shared a tweet detailing the game's rollout after announcing its release date at Gamescon 2020. Find out when #Shadowlands launches in your region with this map. The expansion features five new zones for players to explore, a revamped leveling system that compresses the old one to 60 levels and new customization options, including the option to change the gender of your character without paying a fee.

NetherRealm still isn't done bringing pop culture icons to Mortal Kombat 11. Its Aftermath DLC arrives on May 26th with not only a new story (more on that in a moment) and greater roles for fighters like Fujin, Nightwolf, Shang Tsung and Sheeva, but the addition of... RoboCop. Yes, you can wield everyone's favorite police officer turned cyborg and dish out a very rough form of justice. The team even worked with Peter Weller to recreate his character. Aftermath is notable as the first add-on for the game that continues the core storyline.

Yes, Apple's new video-streaming service is set to be unveiled later today -- we'll be reporting from the frontlines in San Francisco at 10am PT/1pm ET. Meanwhile, you might have missed Honda's plans for EV cycles, Overwatch changes are actually having an effect on toxic players and we put NVIDIA's RTX ray tracing to the test. Honda is having fun with electric cars, but what about the motorcycle? Don't worry, you'll get your fix soon. The automaker has unveiled prototypes for both the CR Electric dirt bike (above) and the Benly Electric delivery scooter, offering a peek at how it will approach emissions-free transportation on two wheels.

Subcommittee on Research and Technology and Subcommittee on Energy Hearing - Artificial Intelligence - June 26th, 2018 Dr. Tim Persons, chief scientist, GAO Mr. Greg Brockman, co-founder and chief technology officer, OpenAI Dr. Fei-Fei Li, chairperson of the board and co-founder, AI4ALL OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman

There are ten webinars in four days, and SIG is hosting their Spring Summit in Washington D.C. from the 26th through the 29th (be sure to seek out Phil Ideson if you're going). If you like to plan further ahead, I recommend "Trade Wars & Supply Chains: Measuring and Managing the Impact" from Supply & Demand Chain Executive and Resilinc on April 26th at 1pm ET. Click on the title of each recommended webinar below to view the full description and register. BTW: If you haven't already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday. There has been so much hype around technologies such as AI, machine learning, and cognitive computing that they've practically achieved "IT SLICES!

Google is finally bringing its Home speaker to Canada. It took a while, but at least the tech titan didn't wait two years like it did with Android Pay, which just recently made its way to the country. If you're in Canada, you can now pre-order the smart speaker from the big G's online store or Best Buy for $179 CAD. Best Buy will throw in a free Chromecast, too, and is slashing $50 off the price of a Philips Hue starter kit if you order it at the same time. The Home comes loaded with Google's voice-activated Assistant, which will arrive in the region knowing both English and French.

We've got new smartphone teasers, anti-drone guns in action, an even faster Tesla Model S, and so much more. Months after its stunning recall, we still don't know exactly why Samsung's most recent phablet had a tendency to overheat. The company's internal investigation has apparently reached a conclusion however, and its results will be revealed in a livestreamed press conference this Sunday night at 8PM ET. Swiss authorities have added another security measure for this year's World Economic Forum in Davos: anti-drone guns. Bloomberg spotted local police preparing HP 47 Counter UAV Jammers to make sure no unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gets too close to the venue, whether it's sent by a spy organization or just a nosy onlooker.