Trends van dit moment

By Sofia Moutinho Feb. 26, 2021 , 11:30 AM One hundred years ago, a play by the Czech author Karel Čapek introduced the word “robot,” telling the story of artificial factory workers designed to serve humans. Now, in a metanarrative twist, a robot itself has written a play. And it premieres online today. “It’s a kind of futuristic Little Prince ,” says dramatist David Košťák, who oversaw the script. Like the classical French children’s book, the 60-minute production— AI: When a robot writes a play —tells the journey of a character (this time a robot), who goes out into the world to learn about society, human emotions, and even death. The script was created by a widely available artificial intelligence (AI) system called GPT-2. Created by Elon Musk’s company OpenAI, this “robot” is a computer model designed to generate text by drawing from the enormous repository of information available on the internet. ( You can test it here .) So far, the technology has been used to … [Read more...] about Kinky and absurd: The first AI-written play isn’t Shakespeare—but it has its moments

WandaVision 's sitcom formula spiraled into chaos Friday, as episode 8 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe show landed on Disney Plus . Turns out the witch Agatha Harkness ( Kathryn Hahn ) was responsible for pretty much all the weirdness we've seen so far, and she's got Wanda Maximoff ( Elizabeth Olsen ) trapped in her ludicrously creepy basement. Sign up for Disney Plus Outside the house, newly superpowered SWORD agent Monica Rambeau ( Teyonah Parris ) was confronted by Pietro Maximoff ( Evan Peters ), who's seemingly been under Agatha's control since arriving from the X-Men universe . Also, astrophysicist Darcy Lewis ( Kat Dennings ) filled in Wanda's husband, Vision ( Paul Bettany ), on the past he'd forgotten, and he's on his way home. CNET Culture Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games. I didn't think this show was that complicated, but it kinda is. We're up to the … [Read more...] about WandaVision episode 8 recap: Marvel show’s flashback takes us on emotional rollercoaster

Social networking giant Twitter has been known to be thinking about testing a subscription-based model for its platform and it seems the company has taken the first step in that direction. Twitter has revealed features called Super Follows and Communities, during a presentation for analysts and investors, claims a report by The Verge. Starting with the Super Follows first, this feature will allow Twitter users to charge followers for access to exclusive content. “That could be bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support” added the report. As per the screenshot shared, Twitter showed an example where a user was charged $4.99 per month to receive a series of perks. The second feature, called Communities, is a direct rival to Facebook Groups . These are aimed to connect people sharing similar interests. The launch timeline of these is not clear at the moment. Earlier this month, a report by … [Read more...] about Twitter reveals its paid service feature called Super Follows

Microsoft has confirmed that its latest Windows 10 update, version 21H1, will arrive in the spring of this year, first in a tech community post Monday and in a more formal company blog post Wednesday . This follows Microsoft's usual pattern of rolling out two major Windows 10 updates per year, with this one following the latest October 2020 update . (If you're running Windows 7, you can still download Windows 10 free to get the latest updates.) While we can expect a few useful new features to arrive this spring, it seems likely that Microsoft is using this smaller update cycle to prepare for a larger Windows 10 UI update, reportedly codenamed Sun Valley , that will be part of Microsoft's renewed focus in Windows 10 that executives mentioned last year. We won't know exactly what that means until a larger update is confirmed, but we've collected some rumors below. Read more: The best antivirus protection of 2020 for Windows 10 Here's what we know about Windows … [Read more...] about Windows 10 spring 2021 update: Everything to know

By David Grimm Feb. 26, 2021 , 10:45 AM The cats and dogs lie as if asleep, in individual graves. Many wore collars or other adornments, and they had been cared for through injury and old age, like today’s pets. But the last person to bury a beloved animal companion in this arid Egyptian land on the coast of the Red Sea did so nearly 2000 years ago. The site, located in the early Roman port of Berenice, was found a decade ago, but its purpose was mysterious. Now a detailed excavation has unearthed the burials of nearly 600 cats and dogs, along with the strongest evidence yet that these animals were treasured pets. That would make the site the oldest known pet cemetery, the authors argue, suggesting that the modern concept of pets wasn’t alien to the ancient world. “I’ve never encountered a cemetery like this,” says Michael MacKinnon, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Winnipeg who has studied the role of animals across the bygone Mediterranean but was not involved with … [Read more...] about Graves of nearly 600 cats and dogs in ancient Egypt may be world’s oldest pet cemetery