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Nach Gerüchten im Vorfeld wird klarer, welche Rolle Keanu Reeves in der neuen Star-Wars-Serie hätte spielen sollen. (Star Wars, Disney)
Der US-Mietfahrzeuganbieter folgt mit Avis Switch den Abomodellen der Konkurrenz. (Autovermietung, Wirtschaft)
Der US-Mietfahrzeuganbieter folgt mit Avis Switch den Abomodellen der Konkurrenz. (Autovermietung, Wirtschaft) KI revolutioniert die kreative Arbeit in der Bild-, Video- und Soundproduktion. Drei Intensivworkshops bieten umfassende Einblicke in den KI-Einsatz für effiziente Medienbearbeitung und fortschrittliches Prompt Engineering. (Golem Karrierewelt, KI)
KI revolutioniert die kreative Arbeit in der Bild-, Video- und Soundproduktion. Drei Intensivworkshops bieten umfassende Einblicke in den KI-Einsatz für effiziente Medienbearbeitung und fortschrittliches Prompt Engineering. (Golem Karrierewelt, KI) Like adding custom art styles or characters, in-world typefaces come to Flux.
Enlarge / An AI-generated example of the Cyberpunk 2077 LoRA, rendered with Flux dev.
Last week, a hobbyist experimenting with the new Flux AI image synthesis model discovered that it's unexpectedly good at rendering custom-trained reproductions of typefaces. While far more efficient methods of displaying computer fonts have existed for decades, the new technique is useful for AI image hobbyists because Flux is capable of rendering depictions of accurate text, and users can now directly insert words rendered in custom fonts into AI image generations.
We've had the technology to accurately produce smooth computer-rendered fonts in custom shapes since the 1980s (1970s in the research space), so creating an AI-replicated font isn't big news by itself. But a new technique means you could see a particular font appear in AI-generated images, say, of a chalkboard menu at a photorealistic restaurant or a printed business card being held by a cyborg fox.
Shortly after the emergence of mainstream AI image synthesis models like Stable Diffusion in 2022, some people began wondering: How can I insert my own product, clothing item, character, or style into an AI-generated image? One answer that emerged came in the form of LoRA (low-rank adaptation), a technique discovered in 2021 that allows users to augment knowledge in an AI base model with modular add-ons that have been custom-trained.
Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowd Supply started off as platforms for creators to raise money to turn an idea into a real product that’s ready to ship. And that means there’s always some risk involved: even if a proj…
Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowd Supply started off as platforms for creators to raise money to turn an idea into a real product that’s ready to ship. And that means there’s always some risk involved: even if a project is fully funded, it’s often important to keep in mind that things can go […]
The post Lilbits: Pixel 9a leak, Indieogo’s new shipping guarantee (for some campaigns), and a flexible Arduino appeared first on Liliputing.
Psychedelic drug company Lykos already slashed staff and overhauled leadership.
Enlarge / President of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Rick Doblin speaks onstage during the 2023 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York on September 18, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty | John Lamparski)
There's more bad news for the company behind an experimental MDMA therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, which the Food and Drug Administration roundly rejected earlier this month.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the FDA is now expanding an investigation into clinical trials behind the experimental psychedelic therapy—even though the agency has already rejected it. Agency investigators reportedly interviewed four additional people last week, asking questions regarding whether the trials underreported side effects.
People involved in the trial have previously alleged, among other things, that ill effects, such as suicidal thoughts, went undocumented, and trial participants were discouraged from reporting them to bolster the chances of FDA approval. Overall, the MDMA trials faced crushing criticism amid the FDA's review, with outside experts and agency advisors calling out allegations of sexual misconduct at one trial site, as well as flaws in overall trial designs, multiple sources of biases, and claims of that the company behind the therapy, Lykos, fostered a cult-like belief in psychedelics.
Claims that Italy will launch Piracy Shield 2.0 at the end of the year appear to be overly optimistic. With just four months left of 2024, a software supplier hasn’t even been chosen yet. With the current system falling over, previously blocked domains and IP addresses are being unblocked to make room for new ones, something that the law has no provision for. Meanwhile, smart TV manufacturers will soon be asked to ban a VPN app from their sets.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Early June 2024, Italian media reported on comments made by the head of telecoms regulator AGCOM at the Serie A Festival a few days earlier.
During the panel “The metaverse of piracy” Massimiliano Capitanio reportedly brought those in attendance up to date on Piracy Shield, Italy’s controversial and by then already failing anti-piracy blocking system.
Piracy Shield has had its fair share of problems but on a fundamental level, it appears to have been designed for a much smaller job. The volume of blocking wasn’t anticipated, which is an altogether more valid reason than catering for just 60 to 70 ISPs when the country has 300+.
The reason for not meeting obvious demand isn’t clear; plans for AC Milan’s new stadium indicate a spectator capacity of 70,000, not an initial ~15,000 followed by a rebuild when fans immediately run short of elbow room.
Faced with a relentless flood of domain names and IP addresses reported for blocking (Feb to July, pdf), Capitanio said that the system had begun to timeout.
“There are two upgrades to be made. An infrastructural one; this platform which has done its job very well until today suffers the weight of this mass of data,” the AGCOM chief said.
“Phase 2 will be implemented with a new platform by the end of the year, the current one will be expanded.”
With a new platform supposedly just a few months away, other details began to emerge. They included an estimated two million euros per year in running costs set to be financed from the public purse.
The legislation that supports Piracy Shield presents puzzles of its own. Placing an IP address or domain on the blocklist is relatively easy, yet there’s no provision to revoke blocks. Not only is that problematic when IP addresses are blocked in error, the perpetual blocking of finite IPv4 addresses amounts to a potential time-bomb waiting for the worst possible moment to go off.
That the Piracy Shield system itself would run into problems first, only adds to the list of problems that could’ve been avoided. A pre-established limit of 18,000 blocking records was reached more quickly than anticipated, meaning that when the new season launched this month, blocking should’ve ground to halt, at least in theory.
In reality, an unspecified number of old blocks were revoked to make way for fresh blocking, regardless of the regulations.
According to La Repubblica, the rules will be updated at a later stage, but the report contains other surprises too.
Consip is an Italian state-owned company responsible for procurement of public goods and services. If the state needs something significant, Consip typically reports the details on its website so that interested companies can bid for the work. So, to a background of Piracy Shield 2.0 will arrive later this year, this is how La Repubblica described the state of play late last week.
“On behalf of [telecoms regulator] AGCOM, Consip will call for a tender for a private supplier to create ‘Shield 2’,” the publication reported.
Use of the future tense strongly suggests that rather than being on schedule as previously claimed, it’s possible that a schedule doesn’t even exist, at least one with terms that have been agreed with a supplier.
In comments reported Wednesday last week, Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo noted that AGCOM “…is now about to make further improvements and technical updates to [Piracy Shield] and we trust that these implementations will allow us to obtain even more important results, as it will increase the number of blocks of pirate signals that can be achieved.”
So, with no indication that a contract has been awarded, much less a supplier having committed to delivering everything in four months, Piracy Shield 2.0 may not even exist. Stranger things have happened but attempting to build Rome in a day rarely ends well.
It’s no secret that ISP blocking can be instantly defeated using a VPN, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the first VPN protocol (PPTP in 1996) predates pirate site blocking in Europe by a decade (AllofMP3, 2006). Relakks, one of the earliest commercial VPN services as they’re understood today, predates site-blocking in Europe by a few months. It was promoted for anonymity, no sites needed to be unblocked back then.
Showing that AGCOM’s public attitude to VPNs has changed in recent months begins in October 2023. In response to some IPTV providers making VPN use mandatory, AGCOM chief Capitanio welcomed the news.
“The fact that criminal organizations, which run the piracy business, are inviting their ‘customers’ to hide behind #vpn systems is positive news,” he said, adding that in his opinion, the use of a VPN makes it easier to prove intent.
Later that month, an AGCOM document stated that “[A]ll parties in any capacity involved in the accessibility of illegally disseminated content – and therefore also, by way of example and not limitation – VPN and open DNS service providers, will have to execute the blocks requested by the Authority [AGCOM]…”
An Italian court recently confirmed that AGCOM’s blocking powers aren’t as broad as those envisioned above, and that “in any capacity” is certainly a step too far. AGCOM, meanwhile, seems undeterred, as La Repubblica reports.
“In these hours AGCOM is studying apps that are legitimate in themselves, but that also end up in the wrong hands. These commonly used apps protect our browsing on the Net from the prying eyes – for example – of search engines, hunters of personal data,” the report reads.
“The same apps, however, allow subscribers to the pezzotto [piracy devices] to watch pirate channels anonymously, without leaving traces of their paths on the web.”
The report suggests that AGCOM is currently interested in a specific VPN app available on smart TV app stores. The app isn’t named but AGCOM says the company behind it has an office in the European Union.
Whether AGCOM views specific EU legislation or regulations as a point of leverage is currently unknown. During September, however, two smart TV manufacturers will be asked to prevent their customers from installing the VPN app on their respective TV sets.
While the devil can often be found lurking in the detail, in broad terms targeting a piracy-promoting VPN provider is vastly different from targeting a legitimate VPN service that a) has never been sold for infringing purposes and b) meets its general legal obligations.
If we assume that no rightsholder intends to sue the VPN provider in question, one has to wonder why AGCOM is getting involved and what it hopes to achieve.
AGCOM has no standing on copyright grounds, but the Digital Services Act may yet conjure up a surprise or two.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Some Rokus and Apple TVs receive longer update windows, though.
Enlarge / A Samsung representative demonstrating Tizen OS in February. (credit: Samsung)
Samsung will provide operating system updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, the company announced last week. The updates will first apply to some TVs released in 2023 and TVs released in March 2024.
According to Business Korea, Samsung made the announcement regarding the Tizen OS at the Digital Research Lab of Samsung Electronics' Suwon Campus in Gyeonggi Province. As spotted by FlatPanelsHD, the announcement follows previously announced plans from Samsung to provide seven years of software updates for the Galaxy S24 smartphone series.
Per Korea Economic Daily, speaking at last week's event, Samsung Electronics' president of the Visual Display Business Division, Yoon Seok-Yoon, said: "With the seven-year free upgrade of Tizen applied to AI TVs, we will widen the gap in market share with Chinese companies."
Deadlock is now on Steam and on streams.
Enlarge / Look! A wild Valve game appears! (credit: Valve)
If you read Ars Technica regularly, you've known since May that Valve is working on Deadlock, a mishmash of genres that has been slowly amassing SteamDB-tracked players through an invite-only playtest. Over the weekend, Valve took the "hiding" part out of that "hiding-in-plain-sight" test, launching a bare bones Steam page for Deadlock, the company's first attempt at developing a new gaming franchise since collectible card game Artifact launched in 2018 (and fell apart in 2021).
The new page, which went up on Saturday, has precious little information about Deadlock, save for a description as "a multiplayer game in early development" and a 22-second trailer that essentially pans over a piece of concept art. Everything from the game's system requirements to the release date is still "TBD," and players who are lucky enough to get "friend invites via our playtesters" are promised "temporary art and experimental gameplay" on the Steam page.
Not that a Steam page is strictly needed for more info on Deadlock at this point. Since the first leaks months ago, the playtest has slowly expanded from hundreds of players to tens of thousands, including some who have posted extensive impressions of the game. Valve has also reportedly lifted rules regarding streaming for invited playtesters, leading to a surge of players showing off live gameplay on Twitch.
Judge: Missouri AG’s actions chill speech about extremist content on Musk’s X.
Enlarge / Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey arrives to testify at House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Bill Clark)
A federal judge ordered Missouri's attorney general to halt an investigation into Media Matters for America, a nonprofit journalism organization that earned Elon Musk's wrath when it published an article showing that Musk's X platform placed advertisements next to pro-Nazi posts.
In March, Missouri AG Andrew Bailey issued an investigative demand seeking names and addresses of all Media Matters donors who live in Missouri and a range of internal communications and documents regarding the group's research on Musk and X. Bailey also filed a lawsuit asking Cole County Circuit Court for an order to enforce the investigative demand.
Media Matters countered by suing Bailey in US District Court for the District of Columbia. Last week, US District Judge Amit Mehta granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits Bailey from enforcing the civil investigative demand and from pursuing the related lawsuit.
Nach Gerüchten im Vorfeld wird klarer, welche Rolle Keanu Reeves in der neuen Star-Wars-Serie hätte spielen sollen. (
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