A serial rapist who used dating apps to meet his victims was sentenced to 111 years to life in state prison on Thursday, according to a statement from the Ventura County district attorney's office. Dustin Ronald Alba, a 31-year-old from Oxnard, was found guilty of the rape and sexual assault of five women last month. He committed his offenses from 2012 to 2020 in the cities of Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Los Angeles, the release said. Multiple victims of Alba said they met him online through dating apps and social media. After meeting in person, they said he would use his body weight to confine and then assault them, the statement said.

UsTwo Games continues to prove that it's not a one-hit-wonder. The studio, best known for the award-winning Monument Valley, has pulled off an equally-creative sequel, a dreamy adventure in mobile VR, and a timed exclusive for Apple Arcade about fixing objects and fraying relationships. UsTwo's latest project, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, hits the same creative heights. It also shows that the company is comfortable making 3D games with a mostly traditional camera and control scheme. If you're looking for something chill and non-violent to play over the festive period -- a family-friendly break from Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps -- it's worth checking out via Apple Arcade, Steam or GOG.com.

We are hurtling toward a future where machines are taking over and, as speakers Tuesday noted, there aren't many brakes in place. Nine tech companies, including Alphabet Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., are largely deciding the direction of artificial-intelligence research and implementation, said Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute. "There's no switch, and nobody is in charge," Ms. Webb said. That limited group is introducing human biases into algorithms, warned Kate Crawford, co-founder of AI Now Research Institute. "In some ways, the people designing these systems are the least well-trained to think about the problems," she said.

The economy stands at a threshold moment in the era of machine learning. The artificial intelligences that companies are increasingly deploying are just beginning to take on roles and jobs that used to demand a human being at the controls. But in most cases they're nowhere near ready to take over entirely. They still need people at their sides -- in some cases to generate the data that will train them, in others to provide judgment that's beyond them. Welcome to the world of the hybrid human-machine workplace.