Police feared ‘brummie’ accent bias in new call bot

West Midlands Police trialled the non-emergency call-answering AI voice assistant for two months.

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‘My AI twin may get me more modelling work’

As the fashion industry grapples with the rise of AI, one model has created an AI twin of herself.

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Ex-Google engineer charged with stealing AI secrets

Linwei Ding is also accused of secretly working for Chinese competitors.

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Deadline for EU DMA Compliance Arrives for ‘Gatekeeper’ Orgs

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft were named influential gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act.

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Europe’s Digital Markets Act Is Breaking Open the Empires of Big Tech

Tech giants have to comply with a new EU law that is set to change the internet. It aims to force open the biggest platforms to encourage competition and give users more choice in their digital lives.

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Facebook is building a giant AI model to power all video recommendations, exec says

Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, said on Wednesday that the company is working on an artificial intelligence model to “power our entire video ecosystem.”

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Saildrone’s first aluminum Surveyor autonomous vessel splashes down for Navy testing

Ocean intelligence company Saildrone has just put the first of a new generation of Surveyor autonomous vessels in the water: an aluminum version that the Navy is keen to take advantage of. But don’t worry – they aren’t putting guns on them. Founder and CEO Richard Jenkins told TechCrunch that the demand for vessels like […]
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TMNT: Turtles creator talks new Last Ronin game progress

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) creator Kevin Eastman has given us more details on the new Last Ronin game in development.
Whilst chatting to Game Informer, Eastman told Brian Shae where the project was currently, saying that “everything I’ve seen – we’ve been interacting with the development crew – and it looks like some of the sets and some of the characters have literally walked right off the pages of the comic.”
TMNT in time
The dark story follows the last of the four reptilian brothers to survive a grim dystopian future where Shredder’s grandson rules the land under an iron fist. The identity of which brother takes up the nunchaku, the sai, the staff, and the katana is a mystery to those who have not read the run, published by IDW comics.
The idea was drawn up by Eastman and co-creator of the three-fingered pizza lovers, Peter Laird almost 30 years ago. Now Paramount is riding a wave of turtle resurgence, but did not want the iconic comic to impact the success of the recent Mutant Mayhem movie, so decided to take the adaptation down the gaming route.
The game is being developed by Black Forest Games and will be published by THQ Nordic for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. THQ Nordic released a teaser trailer for the title six months ago, showing the implied carnage that leads to one surviving brother:

Eastman would go on to say that from what he has seen so far the game is “so beautiful. So fantastic. And so pretty much every fan of Last Ronin that I’ve talked to is really, seriously pumped, like, ‘We get to have an older version of the Turtles just for us as a video game!”
The legendary comic creator would conclude that if this somber adaptation is “done the way we all hope and the way it’s taking shape, then I think we’ll get to play in this arena for a long time to come, and that’s up to the fans to decide. We’re going to do the best job we can and hope for the best.”
The turtles have seen a raft of minor gaming adventures, with classic titles such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time that debuted on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) back in the 90’s. The Konami games of this generation received a recent coat of paint and a spiritual successor in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, from Tribute Games that hit every device that has a screen.
Fans of the four bandana-wearing brothers will be looking forward to any news that comes from THQ Nordic and Black Forest games, but for now, the only recent major gaming adaptation of the mutants is the land of online multiplayer. As we reported late last year, the heroes-in-a-half-shell made their debut across a Fornite event.
You can also make the reptilian heroes in the highly popular indie browser game Infinite Craft, blending a mix of commands to make the turtles appear from an assortment of items.
The post TMNT: Turtles creator talks new Last Ronin game progress appeared first on ReadWrite.

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PS5 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima is coming to PC in two months time

Big PC games news as the exceptional PlayStation 5 exclusive Ghosts of Tsushima is heading to a hard drive near you in a little over two months time.
Sony, Sucker Punch, and Nixxes will bring the Director’s Cut to the PC on 16th May (a day before my birthday if you are looking for an easy present) alongside loads of added bonuses such as ultra-widescreen monitor support for its cinematic masterpiece.
The PC version is fully optimized not only for standard displays but also for 21:9 and 32:9 resolutions, alongside a frankly ridiculous 48:9 for triple monitor setups. This is going to be seriously good.
Unlike many ports where you just get lumbered with the existing controller mapping, Ghosts of Tsushima will allow you to use Steam Input to allow you to map what you like where you like, but if you play your PC games with a PlayStation DualSense controller you will get haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, so you will be able to feel the tension of pulling on your bowstring as you prepare to strike.
Pre-purchasing on Steam or Epic Games Store will get you the following items

New Game+ Horse  
Traveler’s Attire  
Broken Armor dyes from Baku’s shop

Brian Fleming, Co-Founder of Sucker Punch said, “We’re proud to announce that our friends and partners over at Nixxes are bringing Ghost of Tsushima to PC! This is a first for Sucker Punch – all our previous work is console-exclusive, so we are excited about all this and Nixxes was the right team to do this project. With them on board, we knew the results would be nothing short of amazing! Now excuse me as I go order a Super Ultra Wide monitor!”

What is Ghosts of Tsushima?
The game is set in feudal Japan, much like the forthcoming Rise of the Ronin, and as a lone young Samurai who has seen the Samurai army of his home on Tsushima Island wiped out by the invading Mongol Army vows to seek revenge.
Priced at $59.99/£49.99 Ghosts of Tsushima can be pre-ordered now.
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Bitcoin and gold prices shatter previous highs

The ultra-modern and traditional markets coincided on Mar 5, as both Bitcoin and gold saw record-breaking highs occur on the same day.
In the early hours in Europe on Monday 4 March, Bitcoin jumped to above $65,537 which was the crypto asset’s highest level since late 2021 when its all-time record of $68,999.99 was reached.
Just a day later, Bitcoin continued to soar and it hit a historic high of $69,210 at 3:00 pm UTC.
According to data from TradingView, spot gold smashed through its peak at $2,130 at around 1:30 pm UTC on the same day, March 5.
The price of Bitcoin then took a tumble as it hit $60,793 in the early afternoon before slightly recovering to trade around $62,780.
As these highs were reached, all three major U.S. stock indexes fell 1 percent or more on the same day.
National investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, Tom Hainlin, told Reuters: “We can draw the line from weaker economic data to higher expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates to less support the dollar, which, in turn supports gold.”
As prices went up, the trading app crashed
Whilst investors were likely overjoyed with the price, some users were unable to buy or sell as cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase crashed at a pivotal moment.
At 3:44 pm ET, Coinbase posted on Twitter: “We are aware that some users may be experiencing errors when transacting. Our team is investigating this issue and will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.”

We are aware that some users may be experiencing errors when transacting. Our team is investigating this issue and will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) March 5, 2024

This left several Coinbase users feeling frustrated and they took to X to voice their anger. One customer wrote: “We can’t buy and we can’t sell and my accounts not being credited sales that went through.”
At 5:43 pm ET, the trading company said customer transactions had fully recovered.
Featured image: Photo by Aleksi Räisä on Unsplash 
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