A cult expert lifted the veil on the "Zizian" fringe group that is linked to the Vermont U.S. Border Patrol agent shooting. The "Zizians" are named for a 34-year-old computer engineer, Jack Amadeus LaSota, who goes by the nickname "Ziz," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. LaSota, who is transgender, goes by female pronouns and created the group of vegan activists, the outlet reported. The group, which began on the West Coast, was launched into the national spotlight after the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David "Chris" Maland in Vermont on Jan. 20. David Maland, a Minnesota native and U.S. Air Force veteran, worked as a Border Patrol agent at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Newport Station.

The headlines seem to write themselves (if that cliché is allowed anymore in the age of ChatGPT and generative AI). But that is a metaphor, right? When I first saw Michael Saylor's Twitter account, I wasn't sure. Saylor is an entrepreneur, tech executive, and former billionaire. Once reportedly the richest man in the Washington, DC, area, he lost most of his 7 billion net worth in 2000 when, in his mid-30s, he reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after it brought charges against him and two of his colleagues at a company called MicroStrategy for inaccurate reporting of their financial results.

The pitch is straightforward: What if this video game had sex? Every game deserves a sex update, so the meme goes. In November, Cult of the Lamb, Massive Monster's adorable, animal-themed roguelike about building and maintaining a cult, got in on the action: "We will add sex to the game if we hit 300k followers by the end of the year," the game's official account tweeted, in the style of the meme's pseudo-horny forefathers. Video games have long served as an amorous playground. Some incorporate sex and romance directly into gameplay, as in BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect games.

Few companies can say they've had more of a rollercoaster year than OpenAI. At the beginning of 2023, the world's hottest AI startup was riding high on the success of its ChatGPT chatbot. Now, it's dusting itself off from an attempted coup which saw Sam Altman ousted and reinstated as the company's CEO within a few short days. Our AI experts have been following OpenAI's every move throughout the year, often with exclusive access to the people building the revolutionary products and systems. Check out just some of the highlights from the past year--and what we think is coming next.

The nominees for this year's Bafta Games Awards have been announced, with God of War Ragnarök and Stray leading the field. This will be the 19th year that Bafta has honoured the work of the games industry with an awards ceremony, which will be held on 30 March. Sony's PlayStation 5 big-hitters God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West are prominent, nominated in 11 and 6 categories respectively. Stray, a French game about a cat stuck in an underground robot settlement, is up for nine awards, and FromSoftware's 20m-selling open-world masterpiece Elden Ring is up for eight. Tunic, a homage to classic adventure games, is in with a chance at five awards.

In 2022, the best games were made for masochists. After several years of boom times for wholesome stories and colorful worlds, 2022 reminded us that sometimes there's no truer form of fun than failing horribly, repeatedly. FromSoftware often leads that charge, thanks to series like Dark Souls. This year, it rose to its own challenge. Elden Ring, maddening in its difficulty and unusually cruel in its creative ways to kill you, took center stage as players picked apart its every secret.

While 2022 may not have enjoyed as many AAA releases as in past years, the ones that weren't delayed into 2023 were stellar and the indie development scene more than made up for the lack of big-budget titles. Some of our favorite releases this year came from small, ambitious teams that delivered fresh ideas. As is tradition, the Engadget team came together to extol the virtues of our favorite releases from the past 12 months. Bayonetta 3 is a delicious amplification of the series' most ridiculous themes. It indulges in absurdity without disrupting the rapid-fire combat or Bayonetta's unrivaled sense of fashion and wit. Bayonetta 3 is joyful, mechanically rich and full of action, plus it allows players to transform into a literal hell train in order to take down massive beasts bent on destroying the multiverse. The Bayonetta series just keeps getting weirder, but that doesn't mean it's losing its sense of satisfying gameplay along the way. In the franchise's third installment, Bayonetta is powerful, confident and funny; she's a drag queen in a universe loosely held together by witchcraft, and the chaos of this combination is truly magical. Sure, you've played Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Hades and The Binding of Isaac – but what if you could play all of them at once, in a single adorable demonic package? Cult of the Lamb is part social and farming simulator, part dungeon-crawling roguelike and all-around fantastic. After being sacrificed and resurrected, you're instructed by a grand, dark deity to start your own cult, managing worship services, agriculture, cooking, marriages, deaths and much more.

The cult of Artificial Intelligence seems to have taken over the world! From facial data recognition sensors to chatbots, everything is bound to a certain algorithm. But when it comes to innovation in AI, a particular company seems to be the forerunner. OpenAI is a research organization that conducts research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). It was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, with the goal of advancing the field of AI in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity.

There's a whole marketing industry out there trying to persuade the world to buy Australian lamb. But our latest international success story is a bit more digital – not to mention eldritch – than meaty. Cult of the Lamb, a video game about indoctrinating cute animals into your dark sect and then sacrificing them for greater power, has topped the sales charts on release (temporarily overthrowing the latest Spider-Man game on PC) and has hit more than a million units sold in a week, according to its publisher. "It's been pretty crazy!" says Julian Wilton, one of the three core members of the game's Melbourne- and UK-based developer, Massive Monster. Wilton first met fellow founders Jay Armstrong and James Pearmain on a forum dedicated to internet-based flash games over a decade ago.

This article was originally published on .cult We write about all things career-related, make original documentaries, and share heaps of other untold developer stories from around the world. If you've ever used Alexa or Siri, sat in a self-driving car, talked to a chatbot, or even watched something recommended to you by Netflix, you've come across Artificial Intelligence, or AI, as it's commonly known. AI is a major driving force behind the world's advancement in almost every field of study including healthcare, finance, entertainment, and transport. Simply put, Artificial Intelligence is the capability of machines to learn like humans, take problem-solving decisions, and complete tasks that would otherwise require multiple individuals to invest long working hours.