Lego's Smart Brick Gives the Iconic Analog Toy a New Digital Brain The new sensor-packed Smart Play Brick will land this spring as part of a special Star Wars collection. The update adds interactive lights and sound to the Lego experience--including the minifigs. At CES in Las Vegas today, Lego has unveiled its new Smart Play platform, aimed at taking its distinctly analog plastic blocks and figures into a new world of tech-powered interactive play--but crucially one without any reliance on screens. Smart Play revolves around Lego's patented sensor-and tech-packed brick. It's the same size as a standard 2 x 4 Lego brick, but it is capable of connecting to compatible Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags and interacting with them in real time.

Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. What is the split between your individual and enterprise customers? It was [previously] lower on the enterprise side. At the beginning of 2024, it was 90/10.

Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging that the San Francisco–based AI image generation startup is a "bottomless pit of plagiarism" that generates "endless unauthorized copies" of the studios' work. The complaint includes dozens of images that purportedly demonstrate how Midjourney can conjure images featuring the studios' intellectual property. One image depicts Yoda from Star Wars holding a light saber, which it says was made by inputting the prompt "Yoda with lightsaber, IMAX." Another shows that typing "The Boss Baby" as a prompt allegedly resulted in an image of an animated child in a tuxedo closely resembling the protagonist of Universal's The Boss Baby franchise. "This is an extremely significant development," says IP lawyer Chad Hummel, who sees the compilation of images in the complaint as compelling evidence that "the output is not sufficiently transformative."

Charles McBee stops by Fox News Saturday Night With Jimmy Failla to give his take on actor John Boyega calling out the "Star Wars" franchise for its overwhelming whiteness. The White House slammed the "radical left" in a social media post Sunday, showing an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump wielding a lightsaber in celebration of May the Fourth, or "Star Wars Day." May 4 has long been regarded as a day to celebrate the iconic movie franchise as fans post on social media "May the Fourth be with you," an offshoot of the memorable Star Wars quote "May the force be with you." On Sunday, the White House took an opportunity to celebrate the popular day with a post on X, while also taking digs at the Trump administration's biggest critics. "Happy May the 4th to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy. You're not the Rebellion--you're the Empire," the White House wrote.

If anyone could make the Dark Side sound good, it was James Earl Jones. The actor, who died Monday at the age of 93, provided the voice for Darth Vader in more than a dozen Star Wars properties, from A New Hope to Star Tours. He made the Force sound ominous in a way that made it appealing. With his passing, it feels as though all the power and gravitas and respect he brought to the character is gone. A few years ago, when Jones provided a few lines of dialog as Vader for The Rise of Skywalker, he'd expressed interest in wrapping up his time as the Sith Lord, according to Vanity Fair.

Agility Robotics shared a demo video Wednesday of one of its Digit robots upgraded with AI. Although that may conjure terrifying pop-culture images of sentient sci-fi machines taking over the world, the demo video reveals something much more pedestrian, if not boring. The bipedal warehouse robot ploddingly works to complete a slightly puzzling task without direct human control or detailed guidance. In the clip, it slowly but successfully interprets and executes the command, "Take the box that's the color of Darth Vader's lightsaber, and move it to the tallest tower in the front row." The company, which added a "head" and "hands" to Digit earlier this year, pitches the demonstration as a glimpse into how large language models (LLMs) can enhance its humanoid machines. It suggests it's a natural fit, describing Digit as "a physical embodiment of artificial intelligence."

With the advent of the ability of artificial intelligence ("AI") to alter an individual's voice and image (whether in deepfakes or expressly fictional works), it is critical to determine who – if anyone – owns the right to do so, particularly when the voice or image is clearly identified with a fictional character from an existing film. This issue is highlighted by the recent license by James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader) of his voice to an AI company. While articles state that the license of his voice was for use by Disney (the owner of the Star Wars franchise), the transaction raises the following questions: (a) could anyone use his voice without permission and (b) could James Earl Jones have licensed his voice to third parties for use in other films, particularly if used in the distinctive manner of Darth Vader? This article will refer to the individual whose voice or image is at issue as the "Individual," the licensee of AI rights as the "AI Licensee," the new AI work incorporating the voice or image as the "AI Work," and any prior work that the voice or image is taken from, or resembles elements of, as the "Prior Work." Let's first deal with the right of publicity.

"Luke, I am your father" are five of the most famous words ever spoken on screen. When Darth Vader shattered Luke Skywalker's world in "The Empire Strikes Back," he sent shivers down the spines of audiences everywhere--in large part because of actor James Earl Jones' famous baritone. Now, Jones, 91, has announced he is hanging up the mask and retiring as the voice of one of the most infamous cinematic villains. But don't despair: Although Jones will no longer record new lines for Star Wars projects, the character--and Jones' voice--will live on thanks to artificial intelligence. As first reported by Vanity Fair, Respeecher, a Ukrainian voice synthesis company, will use a combination of archival recordings, voice acting and AI technology to continue bringing Darth Vader to the screen.

Although James Earl Jones has stepped away from his most iconic role, the legendary "Star Wars" actor's incredible baritone lives on, thanks to a Ukrainian artificial intelligence startup. First reported by Vanity Fair, the 91-year-old actor worked with the Ukrainian firm Respeecher to recreate Vader's instantly recognizable voice for the franchise's recent "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series -- and it was actually the second time Lucasfilm had worked with the company. Using archival soundbites, Respeecher "cloned" both Jones' voice for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" and the younger version of Mark Hamill's early Luke Skywalker for "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett," the report notes. Per those who worked on the Disney series, Earl Jones still provides guidance on the depiction of his infamous character. He has retired as the voice of Darth Vader so here is a young James Earl Jones reciting the alphabet and it's pretty much Oscar worthy.

Artificial intelligence developed in Kyiv is taking over one of the most treasured roles in film, as James Earl Jones steps back as the voice of Darth Vader. The Star Wars actor, 91, was helped to reach the chilling heights of his performance 45 years ago by the Ukrainian startup Respeecher in the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series as the company worked with Jones and clips of his past performances. The AI "clone" of his voice could then be layered over lines read by another actor to create a Darth Vader who sounds more real than the real thing. "Lucasfilm came to us, essentially through word of mouth,", said Dmytro Bielievtsov, Respeecher's chief technical officer. "Someone posted about our tech in an internal sound engineering chat, and it got picked up."