The 2020s have been witnessing a very significant advance in the development of generative artificial intelligence tools, including text generation systems based on large language models. These tools have been increasingly used to generate texts in the most diverse domains -- from technical texts to literary texts --, which might eventually lead to a lower volume of written text production by humans. This article discusses the possibility of a future in which human beings will have lost or significantly decreased their ability to write due to the outsourcing of this activity to machines. This possibility parallels the loss of the ability to write in other moments of human history, such as during the so-called Greek Dark Ages (approx. 1200 BCE - 800 BCE).

Some of 2024's most interesting science, technology, and history stories could be found in international auctions. Regardless of their final winning bids, each of the following items and artifacts are impressive in their own right. From AI-painted artwork to hunks of coal, these auction items highlight the wide range of not just artifacts from the past, but future-forward items, as well. If nearly 45 million sounds like a lot for a dinosaur skeleton to you, you aren't alone. Although billed as one of the "finest" known examples, a stegosaurus named "Apex" almost immediately drew controversy over the summer for a final bid that came in at over 10 times Sotheby's initial estimation.

Will and James, who provide voices for many characters in the game, say the distinctive script came naturally as they developed it. "The more we worked on it, the more we started drawing out characters that just sounded more and more like us, because we're doing it in our voices," says Will. The video games industry has been criticised for becoming more risk-averse and leaning into sequels and remakes as the cost of making blockbuster titles has increased. James and Will admit that a lot of publishers were "sceptical" when they pitched their unique project to them. "I think part of that was we were obviously trying to shirk traditional game design," says Will.

In the 1897 play "Cyrano de Bergerac," the titular character pens charming love letters in his friend Christian's name to win over a beautiful crush. With you, my heart sings, forever, my dear. These are the lines ChatGPT served up when prompted to pen its own Cyrano-style love letter. Since its release in November 2022, the AI bot -- a large language learning model produced by OpenAI -- has been used to write poetry, answer existential questions about love and life, and even message users' Tinder matches. Just ask, and it can cook up poems, puns, and conversation openers for singles looking to mingle.

The survey results are published in McAfee's new'Modern Love' research report. As per the report, 65% of the total surveyed people prefer a machine-generated note in the style of e.e. cummings to his original 1952 poem I carry your heart with me. The most popular reason given for using AI as a writer to pen down love letters was that it would make the sender feel more confident. About 27% of the respondents feel this way. While 21% cited lack of time or lack of inspiration.

"Thymesia" is itself a mutant of sorts, infected by the contagious influence of From Software's games, whose cursed lands and opaque designs surge through its veins. Pull up "Thymesia's" bloody floorboards and you'll see Hidetaka Miyazaki's signature etched in the foundations. It exhibits all the classic symptoms of a Soulslike -- branching level designs that loop back on themselves, sparse rest points, currency that gets left behind when you die, teasing you to retrieve it -- while its setting and lore pull inspiration from the streets of "Bloodborne's" Yarnham. There's a gothic tint to "Thymesia's" medieval locales, a plot that similarly centers on experiments with blood, and the black-clad Corvus, adorned with feather cape and plague mask, could be the brother of "Bloodborne's" Eileen the Crow (the word "Corvus" refers to birds of the crow family).

For the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. last year, Nintendo released a special edition Game & Watch. Rather than featuring a single title, the Super Mario anniversary device had a full version of the original adventure as well as its Japan-only sequel, known in the West as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Nintendo's pulling the same trick this year with a 35th-anniversary Legend of Zelda-themed Game & Watch that just went on sale. And like last year's model, it includes a color screen and full games, but the selection is more generous. It includes the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, both originally released on the NES.

With "Eastward," the Shanghai-based developer Pixpil set out to make a Zelda-like game inspired by the Japanese role-playing game series EarthBound, and after more than five years of development, the quirky world set in a beautiful, retro 16-bit art style delivers on every stylistic inspiration. But the plot driving "Eastward" is confusing and drags in a few of the game's eight chapters. Some characters are complex and interesting; others are uncomfortable cliches -- like Jasper, the flamboyant one-man entertainer who's terrified of world around him. The result is a beautiful game with a lot of heart but no clear, coherent storyline and a few disappointing characters.

Billie Eilish dropped behind-the-scenes footage from her special concert, "Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles," detailing how she made an animated segment for the event. The concert premiered on Disney Plus on Sept. 3. The 19-year-old singer took to Instagram Story on Sunday to share an impressive video that she recorded on June 25. During the special concert, there were animated sequences shown for a brief period to convey images like bleeding and driving a car. In the video, the singer could be seen wearing a black and red motion capture suit and taking a selfie video to flaunt the entire setup.

The UK has finally unveiled its Alan Turing bank note, and it's a fitting tribute to the pioneering computer scientist in both what it represents and the technology behind it. To start, the durable polymer £50 bill completes the Bank of England's "most secure" set of notes to date with anti-counterfeiting features appropriate for the legendary WWII codebreaker, including a metallic hologram as well as windows themed around Bletchley Park and a microchip. The imagery is a nod to Turing's many achievements, including some deep cuts that you might not immediately recognize. The mathematical formula you see comes from Turing's influential 1936 paper "On Computable Numbers," a foundational work for computer science. You'll also see pictures of the Automatic Computing Engine Pilot Machine (the trial model for a very early computer) and schematics for the British Bombe codebreaking machine Turing specified.