Technology

My colleagues turned me into an AI-powered NPC. I hate him.

June 25, 2024
It feels weird, talking to yourself online.  Especially when you’re pretty much the most unpleasant character you’ve ever met. The “me” I’ve been chatting to this week, called King Fiall of Nirth, is a creation in technology from Inworld AI, a US-based firm that hopes to revolutionize how we interact with characters in games. Specifically,…

Connect Money scores $8M to enable non-bank businesses to offer embedded finance services

June 25, 2024

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms continue to be at the heart of driving access to digital financial services through their technology that offers fintech capabilities to non-bank businesses. Businesses are tapping these platforms to get past difficulties and time-consuming processes, such as building tech infrastructure and acquiring requisite regulatory approvals, to offer financial services such as cards, […]

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Roundtables: The Future of AI Games

June 24, 2024
Recorded on June 24, 2024 The Future of AI Games Speakers: Niall Firth, executive editor, and Allison Arieff, editorial director Generative AI is coming for games and redefining what it means to play. AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersive. This technology could bring an unprecedented expansiveness to video…

Matt Rogers, Nest and Mill co-founder, talks mastering consumer tech at Disrupt 2024

June 24, 2024

Consumer technology is hard, but few people have mastered it as well as Matt Rogers, co-founder of Nest and now Mill, his new startup that promises to turn your table scraps into planet-saving treasure. Mill burst out of the gate last year after spending some time in stealth refining its waste bin, an easy to […]

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Google is bringing Gemini access to teens using their school accounts

June 24, 2024

Google announced on Monday that it’s bringing its AI technology Gemini to teen students using their school accounts, after having already offered Gemini to teens using their personal accounts. The company is also giving educators access to new tools alongside this release. Google says that giving teens access to Gemini, can help prepare them with the […]

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The Download: hyperrealistic deepfakes, and using math to shape wood

June 24, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Synthesia’s hyperrealistic deepfakes will soon have full bodies Startup Synthesia’s AI-generated avatars are getting an update to make them even more realistic: They will soon have bodies that can move, and hands that…

Meet the architect creating wood structures that shape themselves

June 24, 2024
Humanity has long sought to tame wood into something more predictable. Sawmills manufacture lumber from trees selected for consistency. Wood is then sawed into standard sizes and dried in kilns to prevent twisting, cupping, or cracking. Generations of craftsmen have employed sophisticated techniques like dovetail joinery, breadboard ends, and pocket flooring to keep wood from…

Synthesia’s hyperrealistic deepfakes will soon have full bodies

June 24, 2024
Startup Synthesia’s AI-generated avatars are getting an update to make them even more realistic: They will soon have bodies that can move, and hands that gesticulate. The new full-body avatars will be able to do things like sing and brandish a microphone while dancing, or move from behind a desk and walk across a room.…