The return of BTS is a big deal. In case you were in any doubt, just look at the frenzy surrounding the South Koreans' comeback. On Saturday, the band will kick off a sold-out, 82-date world tour with a free concert in Seoul, which is expected to be attended by more than 250,000 in-person fans and will be live-streamed on Netflix to more than 190 countries. When the tour wraps up in 2027, BTS are expected to have generated more than $1billion in revenue. Some more outlandish estimates suggest they will eclipse the $2billion haul of Taylor Swift's Eras tour.

In the third season of "The Comeback," Kudrow has brought back her character Valerie Cherish, which had its roots at the Groundlings. A visitor to Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. lot, in Burbank, last November could be forgiven for thinking that the television show being filmed there was a sitcom called "How's That?!" The parking spaces outside were marked with "How's That?!" signs. Inside, director's chairs with the "How's That?!" logo were arranged around video monitors. The set--a New England bed-and-breakfast, with kitschy floral wallpaper--was surrounded by sitcom cameras and buzzing crew members wearing headsets. A studio audience filed into the bleachers, and a warmup comic urged them to "shake those funny bones." Then, with mounting gusto, he introduced the star of "How's That?!": "Here she is . . . the one and only . . . the living legend . . . She emerged to applause, in a potter's smock, wavy red hair under a bandanna, looking like a cross between Lucy Ricardo and Mrs. Garrett ...

In his address to a joint session of Congress, the president predicted that "our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed." That prediction is backed up by his recent announcements of massive new private sector investments in AI infrastructure and new executive orders to ensure that the U.S. leads the world in the industries of the future. In order to fulfill the promise that those actions suggest, however, it's essential that President Donald Trump support steps to shore up America's intellectual property system, the cornerstone of our innovation economy, rooting out malicious foreign interests and installing new leadership to help guide the comeback. To start, we need to address the fact that legal damages for patent infringement are no longer calculated reliably. U.S. courts have strayed from commonsense assessments to the detriment of American innovation.

The Japanese semiconductor industry, which once dominated the world, is poised to make a comeback at a time when the importance of chips is increasing significantly with the spread of generative artificial intelligence and growing geopolitical risks. Rapidus and other Japanese chipmakers will either begin operating a pilot line or start production at new plants this year. In December, Rapidus held a ceremony in the city of Chitose, Hokkaido, to install extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment at a plant under construction.

Unity has released the latest version of its engine for developing games and interactive experiences. Unity 6 has new workflows for creating online multiplayer games and more tools for projects intended for mobile platforms, including mobile web support for Android and iOS browsers. The engine promises improved performance, particularly in graphics rendering, and adds several features for creating more realistic environments via global lighting and other VFX. And it wouldn't be a tech announcement without some AI component; the company has also released the latest version of its Sentis neural network inference library for using AI models within the Unity engine. The company took a real hit to its public perception when it attempted to revise its pricing structure last September.

When veteran engineer and executive Pat Gelsinger returned to Intel as CEO in 2021, the once-great chipmaker was in a slump. After failing to adapt to the mobile era and then missing several steps in cutting-edge microprocessor manufacturing, it was now also falling behind in supplying chips to feed the tech industry's growing hunger for artificial intelligence. With optimism that at times seemed reckless, Gelsinger promised that Intel would make an epic comeback. He vowed to shake up its sleepy corporate culture, refocus on core engineering, and deliver a revitalized manufacturing plan that would put rivals TSMC and Samsung on notice. This week, Gelsinger declared Intel's comeback plan well and truly on track. He announced a rebrand of the company's "foundry" business, which manufactures chips designed by other companies, saying that Intel's latest manufacturing process would later this year yield silicon chips as efficient and capable as ones from TSMC.

I've been a "Psychedelic Concierge to the Stars" for the last several years, and I can tell you two things from my experience: I recently asked the viral AI chat bot, ChatGPT, the definition of a psychedelic concierge, and here's what it came up with: "A psychedelic concierge is a professional, who helps individuals navigate the world of psychedelics. This can include assisting with the sourcing and procurement of psychedelics, providing guidance on safe and responsible used, and helping individuals find appropriate medical and therapeutic support. Some psychedelic concierges may also offer additional services such as trip sitting and integration support. In general, a psychedelic concierge acts as a guide and facilitator for individuals interested in exploring the potential benefits of psychedelics." For me, this definition makes a lot of sense.

Music has always been central to video games. Motifs from popular franchises like The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. are so canonized that people who don't play games could likely point them out. Even games with licensed soundtracks like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater have gone on to reflect and inform the tastes of an entire generation of players. But for a brief and fleeting moment in the mid-2000s, music became central to the way we played and interacted with games--and the genre this spawned, the rhythm game, became one of the most profitable in the world. By the latter half of the 2000s, off the back of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, the rhythm game cemented its commercial dominance.

Cyberpunk--the genre, not just the video game--is back. Altered Carbon and Westworld were hits, there's a new Matrix movie in the works, and Cyberpunk 2077 is poised to be the year's most successful, and most hyped, video game. For Mike Pondsmith, one of the genre's founding fathers, it all makes perfect sense. In the world of cyberpunk, technology has the ability to create miracles, people are struggling for power, the future is uncertain, and corporations have the power of gods. "We have a more cyberpunk world than ever before," Pondsmith says.

Machine-learning algorithms use statistics to find patterns in massive* amounts of data. And data, here, encompasses a lot of things--numbers, words, images, clicks, what have you. If it can be digitally stored, it can be fed into a machine-learning algorithm. Machine learning is the process that powers many of the services we use today--recommendation systems like those on Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify; search engines like Google and Baidu; social-media feeds like Facebook and Twitter; voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.