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Microsoft has provided a glimpse of VASA-1, its new artificial intelligence (AI) model, which can turn still images into ‘talking faces’ to great effect.
The end product can be impressive or terrifying, but the lip-sync capability of this project is very realistic. At present, the model is only available as a research preview to Microsoft researchers but the demos released to the public have created a stir.
It’s Microsoft’s latest move in the ongoing battle for generative AI supremacy. Earlier this week they announced a huge AI investment in UAE. While rivals Meta released their AI assistant across its platforms.
The premise is that anyone can upload a photo and voice sample to create an apparent live, talking head of your own face. VASA-1 takes a single photo and a brief audio file to convert into a quite convincing talking face video.
What makes it stand out, is the quality of the lip-sync, head movements and recognizable facial features.
There will be genuine uses for such a program but safeguards will be required, as ever with AI, due to the potential for misinformation and malicious intentions. Microsoft has acknowledged this with an admission “like other related content generation techniques, (VASA-1) could still potentially be misused for impersonating humans.”
The research report continued, “Given such context, we have no plans to release an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings until we are certain that the technology will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations.”

This is wild.
Microsoft just unveiled their hyper-realistic talking head AI:
VASA is a framework for generating lifelike talking faces of virtual characters with visual affective skills (VAS).
All from a single static image and audio clip.
Their first model, VASA-1, can:
•… pic.twitter.com/GGqNI6mLAE
— Alex Banks (@thealexbanks) April 18, 2024

What will VASA-1 be used for?
The lip-sync qualities of this program need to be seen to be believed, as shown by the imagery of Mona Lisa rapping. Word perfect? Pretty much. It has been said researchers were pleasantly surprised by just how good this performed.
VASA-1 appears to be a great fit for animation, from gaming to social media avatars and AI filmmaking but as stated above, there are no current plans for the project to develop beyond a research demonstration.
That could change as developers will be very keen to get working with the model.
Image credit: Microsoft
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Early access or not No Rest for the Wicked can be a brutal game at times. In the initial stages, the game’s attribute points that can be assigned to your eight stat categories are hard to come by, meaning that you definitely need to spend them wisely and not throw them away on things you won’t need in the early part of the game.
Here we will take a look at the eight stat categories and then go into a little more depth about where we think you should be buffing first in order to make the first forays into the game a bit more palatable.
No Rest for the Wicked Stat Categories
As we say, there are currently eight different stats. Even though this is early access we would largely expect these to remain the same throughout, although they could certainly see some balancing along the way making them more or less desirable. Right now at the launch of Early Access, we will tell you what we think you need to concentrate on, but first let’s check out the categories themselves.

Dexterity – If you get and use a Dexterity-based weapon increasing this stat will cause you to inflict more Damage.
Equip load – One of my least favorite stats in games like this, it basically is a measure of what you can carry before you become encumbered and start to trudge along. Adding a point to this will boost you by 10 carry weight points.
Faith – If you get and use a Faith-based weapon increasing this stat will cause you to inflict more Damage.
Focus – Your Focus allows you to use the Rune attacks of your weapon if it has one. The more focus you have the more you can use it. Adding a point to your Focus gives you 20 Focus points and every five you add (100 Focus Points) you get to gain a new bar of Focus.
Health – Every boost you give to this will increase your maximum hit points.
Intelligence – If you get and use an Intelligence-based weapon increasing this stat will cause you to inflict more Damage.
Stamina – Stamina is important for just about everything. Attacking, blocking, dodging. To run out of stamina is bad. Having more stamina is good.
Strength – If you get and use a Strength-based weapon increasing this stat will cause you to inflict more Damage.

Which stats you should level up first
Right from the off No Rest for the Wicked puts you under pressure so you need to make careful choices every time you go up a level with where to spend the three points you will get.
You absolutely need to put the majority of your early points into your Stamina and Health stats first and foremost with any space put into Focus.
Don’t make the mistake of leveling up your weapon stats just yet or you simply won’t survive long enough to use it. You can worry about these once you are happy enough that you can withstand a standard brawl without getting chopped to pieces.
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