Finetuning is a critical step for adapting large language models (LLMs) to domain-specific downstream tasks. To mitigate the substantial computational and memory costs of full-model fine-tuning, Parameter-Efficient Finetuning (PEFT) methods have been proposed to update only a small subset of model parameters. However, performance gaps between PEFT approaches and full-model fine-tuning still exist. In this work, we present DiaBlo, a simple yet effective PEFT approach that updates only the diagonal blocks of selected model weight matrices. Unlike Low Rank Adaptation (LoRA) and its variants, DiaBlo eliminates the need for low rank matrix products, thereby avoiding the reliance on auxiliary initialization schemes or customized optimization strategies to improve convergence. This design leads to stable and robust convergence while maintaining comparable memory efficiency and training speed to LoRA. We conduct extensive experiments across a range of tasks, including commonsense reasoning, arithmetic reasoning, code generation, and safety alignment, to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of DiaBlo. Across these benchmarks, DiaBlo demonstrates strong and consistent performance while maintaining high memory efficiency and fast finetuning speed. Codes are available at https://github.com/ziyangjoy/DiaBlo.

Last year on Joe Rogan's podcast, Elon Musk claimed to be one of the world's best Diablo IV players – and surprisingly, the leaderboards backed him up. For those that haven't had the pleasure, Diablo is one of the most mercilessly time-intensive video games out there; you build a character and carve through armies of demons, spending hundreds of hours refining skills and equipment for maximum hellspawn-cleansing efficiency. I played it for maybe five hours last year and immediately quit, for fear that it would consume my life. Most of the people who play it are young, often male, and have plenty of time to themselves to spend on the internet and playing games – so, the exact demographic of many Musk stans. It suited these hardcore gamer guys to believe that someone who tweets all day and runs several businesses was also an elite player who poured hundreds of hours into Diablo.

Wheeled bipedal robots offer the advantages of both wheeled and legged robots, combining the ability to traverse a wide range of terrains and environments with high efficiency. However, the conventional approach in existing wheeled bipedal robots involves motor-driven joints with high-ratio gearboxes. While this approach provides specific benefits, it also presents several challenges, including increased mechanical complexity, efficiency losses, noise, vibrations, and higher maintenance and lubrication requirements. Addressing the aforementioned concerns, we developed a direct-drive wheeled bipedal robot called DIABLO, which eliminates the use of gearboxes entirely. Our robotic system is simplified as a second-order inverted pendulum, and we have designed an LQR-based balance controller to ensure stability. Additionally, we implemented comprehensive motion controller, including yaw, split-angle, height, and roll controllers. Through expriments in simulations and real-world prototype, we have demonstrated that our platform achieves satisfactory performance.

The newest version of Sonos' mobile app is still very bad--so bad, the company is considering ditching the newly redesigned version of the app and bringing back the older version. This news, reported by The Verge, comes along with reports that Sonos is also laying off 100 employees. Things first went awry for Sonos when it released the new version of its app in May. It was met with almost universal disdain. Users found the new app format made it difficult to connect to a network, queue up songs, or even change the volume. One of the key complaints was that many of the accessibility features in the legacy app were either poorly implemented in the redesign or removed from the platform entirely.

United Kingdom regulators were effectively the last hurdle stopping Microsoft from purchasing Activision Blizzard, in the biggest merger the video game industry has ever seen. That hurdle was cleared this morning as the UK's Competition and Markets Authority relented to adjusted terms. With the nearly $70 billion purchase now officially complete, Microsoft unveiled a victory blog post, complete with an extended showcase of its now-combined intellectual property with Activision, Blizzard, and King. The CMA's sticking points included Microsoft's prospective dominance in the unfolding game streaming market, and Microsoft's concessions were deep. When it initially blocked the merger early this year, regulators said that the combined publishing giant could effectively monopolize games streamed to consumers without the need for local PCs or consoles, as is already the case with Xbox Game Stream and the all-you-can-eat Game Pass subscription. Microsoft's concessions to the UK include a block on exclusivity for cloud streaming for all existing Activision games, crucially including the massive Call of Duty shooter franchise.

One of the only announcements at this year's Gamescom, an event replete with games to play but usually light on news (as Keith wrote in last week's newsletter), was that the demon-killing, time-deleting action RPG Diablo IV's second "season" would start on 17 October. That means new stuff for its 12 million players to do – vampiric powers feature heavily. But given that this game only came out in June and its first season of new content started in late July, it also means that its developers will have been working nonstop since its launch to get yet more game content ready to go. I have often wondered how the makers of live service games – "forever games" that essentially wish to monopolise a player's attention over an extended period of time, a still relatively new genre and business model that's emerged in the last 10 years – manage these brutal schedules. Twenty years ago, studios would release a game and that would be it; 10 years ago, they'd be on the hook for a patch or maybe a downloadable expansion, but not such an endless stream of content. So I asked Diablo's GM, Rod Fergusson – who has been running games teams for more than two decades, most famously with Epic Games on Gears of War – how they manage it.

Microsoft bosses are slated to meet with Jeremy Hunt this week as Britain attempts to stop the company from purchasing the publisher of Call of Duty. The tech firm launched a bid to acquire video game Activision Blizzard, but British antitrust regulators have blocked the roughly £55billion ($69billion) purchase. If Microsoft moves forward with the purchase, gamers in the UK would be unable to purchase or download any titles from the Activision catalogue, including COD, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Candy Crush. Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, has arranged to meet with the Chancellor this week to discuss the proposal, as well as the'potential of AI' and the'need for thoughtful regulation of it', a spokesperson told Bloomberg. Analysts predict the Government and Microsoft will reach an agreement before'extreme measures', like prohibiting access to Activision games, take place.

Back in August, Activision Blizzard's lawyers framed much of their argument in the Blizzard Albany hearing around the highly anticipated upcoming game "Diablo IV." The dark fantasy action role-playing game, in which players battle various hellspawn, is slated for release sometime next year. Unlike its approach with Raven, where the company requested that all Raven developers vote in a union election (a request that was denied) Activision Blizzard argued that in the case of Blizzard Albany, all developers on Diablo should be able to vote, positioning the game as uniquely difficult to make.

All the way back at BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard revealed Diablo: Immortal, which would fill in the gaps of the story between Diablo II and Diablo III. However, the fact it was announced as a mobile-only game didn't exactly go over well with the publisher's hardcore fans (to put it mildly). Fast forward nearly three and a half years and not only does the game have a release date, but Blizzard announced it'll be available on PC after all. Diablo: Immortal will arrive on PC, iOS and Android in most parts of the world on June 2nd. Folks in some Asia-Pacific regions will need to wait a few extra weeks. The PC version will initially be in open beta, but will have all content and features.

The company did not explain why Barriga, McCree and LeCraft are no longer employed, but several current employees confirmed to The Washington Post that all three were fired. McCree and LeCraft were photographed in a hotel room at the company's 2013 convention, BlizzCon, alongside Alex Afrasiabi, who was terminated in June of 2020 over multiple allegations. The hotel room in the photograph was referenced by Blizzard employees as the "Cosby Suite," according to the lawsuit, in reference to former comedian Bill Cosby, whose conviction for sexual assault was recently overturned.