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China's dancing robots: how worried should we be?

The Guardian

Should we be impressed or worried by China's humanoid robot display? - video China's dancing robots: how worried should we be? Dancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group's Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. The display was impressive, but prompted some to wonder: if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do? Experts have mixed opinions, with some saying the robots had limitations and that the display should be viewed through a lens of state propaganda.


The Download: unraveling a death threat mystery, and AI voice recreation for musicians

MIT Technology Review

Hackers made death threats against this security researcher. In April 2024, a mysterious someone using the online handles "Waifu" and "Judische" began posting death threats on Telegram and Discord channels aimed at a cybersecurity researcher named Allison Nixon. These anonymous personas targeted Nixon because she had become a formidable threat: As chief research officer at the cyber investigations firm Unit 221B, named after Sherlock Holmes's apartment, she had built a career tracking cybercriminals and helping get them arrested. Though she'd done this work for more than a decade, Nixon couldn't understand why the person behind the accounts was suddenly threatening her. And although she had taken an interest in the Waifu persona in years past for crimes he boasted about committing, he hadn't been on her radar for a while when the threats began, because she was tracking other targets. Now Nixon resolved to unmask Waifu/Judische and others responsible for the death threats--and take them down for crimes they admitted to committing.


Faisal Islam: Global disruption looms large over biggest-ever Davos

BBC News

Apart from the snow and the temperature Greenland does not have much in common with the Swiss alps. But the fight for the future of the island looms over the gathering of world leaders and businesses at the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week. Indeed the timing of Donald Trump's extraordinary threat must have had in mind this meeting. And that is beyond strange given the views of his base. Last year, he beamed himself into the WEF from the White House, appearing before an audience of largely bewildered European executives just two days after his inauguration.


Day of mourning for bar fire victims in Switzerland

BBC News

A day of national mourning is being held in Switzerland on Friday, following a fire which killed 40 young people, mostly teenagers, in a bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort on New Year's Eve. Church bells rang across the country for five minutes, and people stood for a minute's silence in their memory. Firefighters in the resort were applauded as they joined an audience watching the tribute ceremony, which was live-streamed to Crans-Montana from the Swiss city of Martigny. The ceremony saw the leaders of neighbouring countries, including France's Emmanuel Macron, join an audience while speakers, including the Valais canton's president, paid tribute to those who died. The annual food fight festival ''Els Enfarinats'' has left the Spanish town of Ibi covered in flour and egg shells.


Nvidia unveils 'reasoning' AI technology for self-driving cars

BBC News

Nvidia unveils'reasoning' AI technology for self-driving cars Nvidia boss Jensen Huang on Monday announced Alpamayo, a tech platform the company says will help self-driving cars think like humans. Alpamayo brings reasoning to autonomous vehicles, allowing them to think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions, Huang said on stage at the annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas. Huang also said Nvidia has begun producing a driverless car powered by its technology, the Mercedes-Benz CLA, in partnership with the German automaker. The vehicle will be released in the US in the coming months before being rolled out in Europe and Asia. Wearing his trademark black leather jacket, Huang told an audience of hundreds that the project has taught Nvidia an enormous amount about how to help partners build robotic systems. Analysts say the announcement reinforces Nvidia's leadership in integrating AI hardware and software, deepening its push into physical AI.


'Shogun' Creator Says Season 2 'Defies Expectations'

WIRED

Creator Says Season 2 'Defies Expectations' The historical series was an international hit that won a record 18 Emmy Awards. 's second season is currently in production. At a time when complex algorithms dictate taste and determine which show will become popular next, there's some comfort in the fact that a multicultural, largely subtitled, and decidedly analog historical drama can still become a hit. The drama series, which takes place in 17th-century Japan, captivated viewers and critics across different cultures by creating a deeply immersive world. The bilingual show premiered on FX and Hulu in early 2024 and, later that year, won a record 18 Primetime Emmy Awards.


What if Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?

The New Yorker

Finally, he gave the summaries to his fine-tuned model, and he asked it to compose passages "in the style of Vauhini Vara." Going into all this, I was self-assured, even smug. I'd always felt that my style was original and, more important, that my books were totally distinct from one another. I figured that, even if the A.I. model could imitate my past books, it couldn't predict the style of the novel in progress. So, when Chakrabarty sent me the A.I.-generated imitations, I was genuinely confused.


The Most Powerful Politics Influencers Barely Post About Politics

WIRED

New research shows that social media creators have enormous influence over their audiences' politics--especially those who don't normally share political content. Donald Trump's appearances on the podcasts of Joe Rogan and Theo Von, among others, were seen by many as a key part of securing his second term in office. But while Trump was speculating about alien life on Mars with Rogan, he had a team of acolytes appearing on dozens, if not hundreds, of much smaller niche podcasts hosted by right-wing content creators who typically don't talk about politics. This is how, just six days before the election, Kash Patel, the man now struggling to run the FBI, ended up appearing on the livestream, a fringe, QAnon-infused show hosted on a platform called Pilled. "The Deep State exists," Patel told the audience.


Decoding the Black Box: Discerning AI Rhetorics About and Through Poetic Prompting

Edgar, P. D., Hall, Alia

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

-- Prompt engineering has emerged as a useful way studying the algorithmic tendencies and biases of large language models (LLMs). Meanwhile c reatives and academics have leveraged LLMs to develop creative works and explore the boundaries of their writing capabilities through text - generation and code. This study suggests that creative text prompting, specifically "Poetry Prompt Patterns," may be a useful addition to the prompt engineer's toolbox, and outlines the process by which this approach may be taken. Then, the paper uses poetic prompts to assess three models' descriptions and evaluations of a renowned poet and test the consequences of models' willingness to adapt or rewrite original creative works for presumed audiences. Since the release of public - facing chat - style large language model (LLM) natural language generators (NLGs) like ChatGPT and Claude, public debate has acknowledged their great potential for creativity, as well as the ways in which they can be leveraged to make representations that don't reflect reality.


The Dream Within Huang Long Cave: AI-Driven Interactive Narrative for Family Storytelling and Emotional Reflection

Huang, Jiayang, Li, Lingjie, Zhang, Kang, Yip, David

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This paper introduces the art project The Dream Within Huang Long Cave, an AI-driven interactive and immersive narrative experience. The project offers new insights into AI technology, artistic practice, and psychoanalysis. Inspired by actual geographical landscapes and familial archetypes, the work combines psychoanalytic theory and computational technology, providing an artistic response to the concept of "the nonexistence of the Big Other." The narrative is driven by a combination of a large language model (LLM) and a realistic digital character, forming a virtual agent named YELL. Through dialogue and exploration within a cave automatic virtual environment (CA VE), the audience is invited to unravel the language puzzles presented by YELL and help him overcome his life challenges. YELL is a fictional embodiment of the "Big Other," modeled after the artist's real father. Through a cross-temporal interaction with this digital father, the project seeks to deconstruct complex familial relationships. By demonstrating "the non-existence of the Big Other," we aim to underscore the authenticity of interpersonal emotions, positioning art as a bridge for emotional connection and understanding within family dynamics.