news - CybAI news

26 Jul

California Supreme Court upholds classification of gig workers as independent contractors

stp2y0 CommentsNewscalifornia, doordash, gear, gig workers, Lyft, news, uber

Ride-share companies scored a victory in the California Supreme Court, allowing them to continue classifying gig workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig-economy companies invested around $200 million in the passage of Proposition 22, which voters approved in 2020. The state’s highest court rejected a legal challenge from a drivers’ group and a labor union, ending their quest to bring full employee benefits to the state’s gig workers.The California Supreme Court ruling affirms the state’s definition of drivers and other gig workers as independent contractors. Proposition 22, which received the support of 59 percent…

26 Jul

Comic-Con leak sparks rumors of two remastered Soul Reaver games

stp2y0 CommentsNewsComic-Con, Crystal Dynamics, gaming, news

San Diego Comic-Con is a popular time to announce any big news for the geekdom, but it's also a popular time for big news to accidentally get revealed early. Today, an attendee took a of the booth for comic publisher Dark Horse that may have leaked plans for a remaster of two Soul Reaver games. The image shows a statue of characters Raziel and Kain, and the artwork is accompanied by a sign with branding that reads Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver I and II Remastered. The sign has since been removed from the display.Dark Horse Comics Vice President of…

25 Jul

X’s Grok chatbot is misleading voters about the presidential election

stp2y0 CommentsNewsai, chatbot, election, grok, minnesota, Misinformation, news, politics, President Biden, social media, tomorrow, twitter

The US is in the middle of another hotly contested and seemingly close presidential election. This election is also happening in this new age of widespread access to artificial intelligence and easily disseminated misinformation. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon says his office tracked the source of one key piece of election misinformation back to X’s Grok chatbot.The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that X’s premium chatbot service is passing along erroneous information about the deadlines for states’ presidential ballots including Minnesota. When Grok is asked “Which states’ presidential ballot deadlines have passed?”, Grok claims Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico,…

25 Jul

Shaun of the Dead will stumble back into theaters for its 20th anniversary

stp2y0 CommentsNewsBritish, comedy, edgar wright, entertainment, Film, horror, movies, news, nick frost, shaun of the dead, simon pegg, Spaced, zombies

The greatest British zombie rom-com in film history will return to theaters for another run to the Winchester in honor of its 20th anniversary. Focus Features announced that Shaun of the Dead starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will get another theatrical run starting on Aug. 29 for US theaters and Sept. 27 for UK theaters.Shaun of the Dead tells the story of a British slacker named Shaun who gets dumped by his girlfriend Liz, played by Kate Ashfield, on the eve of an undead apocalypse. His best friend Ed, played by Nick Frost, takes him out for a night…

25 Jul

Video game performers will strike over AI concerns

stp2y0 CommentsNewsai, gaming, news, SAG-AFTRA

The SAG-AFTRA union today for a strike against several major video game publishers after failing to reach an accord over AI use. The action will take effect at 12:01 am on July 26."We're not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members," SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said."Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live – and work – with, we will be here, ready to negotiate."SAG-AFTRA performers working in games "deserve and demand the same fundamental protections as performers in film, television,…

25 Jul

Sonos apologized for messing up its app and has offered a roadmap for fixing everything

stp2y0 CommentsNewsapp, gear, news, patrick spence, Sonos, speakers

Sonos seriously stepped in it a couple of months back when it released an overhauled first-party mobile app that shipped with a number of missing features. These included core functions like sleep timers and alarms. Many of the company’s speakers would not appear as a pairing option and it became extremely difficult to precisely adjust the volume level of a paired speaker.Additionally, music search and playback were both negatively impacted by the change, leading to numerous customer complaints.Now, the company has apologized for releasing the half-baked app. CEO Patrick Spence whipped up a blog post to address the “significant problems”…

25 Jul

AI video startup Runway reportedly trained on ‘thousands’ of YouTube videos without permission

stp2y0 CommentsNewsai, gear, generative ai, news, youtube

AI company Runway reportedly scraped “thousands” of YouTube videos and pirated versions of copyrighted movies without permission. 404 Media obtained alleged internal spreadsheets suggesting the AI video-generating startup trained its Gen-3 model using YouTube content from channels like Disney, Netflix, Pixar and popular media outlets.An alleged former Runway employee told the publication the company used the spreadsheet to flag lists of videos it wanted in its database. It would then download them without detection using open-source proxy software to cover its tracks. One sheet lists simple keywords like astronaut, fairy and rainbow, with footnotes indicating whether the company had found…

25 Jul

Google gives free Gemini users access to its faster, lighter 1.5 Flash AI model

stp2y0 CommentsNewsgear, gemini, generative ai, google, news

Google is making its Gemini AI faster and more efficient across the board. You now have access to 1.5 Flash, its generative AI model designed to be able to generate responses more quickly and efficiently, even if you're not paying for Gemini Advanced. The company says you'll notice improvements in latency, as well as the tool's reasoning and image understanding, on both the web and mobile.In addition, it's expanding the AI assistant's context window, so that you can have longer conversations with it and ask it more complex questions. In the near future, Google will also give you the ability…

25 Jul

Chill painting game Été beautifully captures summertime in Montreal

stp2y0 CommentsNewscanada, gaming, montreal, news, pc gaming

There's nothing quite like a summer in . After several brutal winter months, the city bursts to life and its residents make the very most of the warmer weather. Été (French for "summer") is a relaxing slice-of-life that deftly captures the essence of Montreal at this time of year, warts and all.You play as an artist who is spending the summer in La Metropole. The first order of business is to set up an easel in your apartment, which has little else but a mattress in it, no thanks to your somewhat brusk landlord. Once you have learned the basic…

25 Jul

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back on sale for only $40

stp2y0 CommentsNewsCommerce, engadgetdeals, gear, news, shopping, streamshopping, thebuyersguide

Pretty much every TV is a smart one these days. But perhaps you're still rocking an older model without built-in streaming functions, you don't have an external device with such capabilities or you simply don't like the interface of your smart TV. As such, a dedicated streaming device might be of interest to you. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a decent option and, best of all, it's currently 33 percent off. That brings the price down to , or only $5 more than the record low it was selling for .The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is…