Peril

DeloitteThe heightened level of interest was likely fueled by how intuitive ChatGPT is to use, allowing everyone, regardless of technical skill, to take advantage of the tech. What's more, the use cases for the chatbot were evident."People who have, from their desk and keyboard, watched mechanical muscles automate manufacturing and automate spreadsheet analysis, suddenly, they're finding mechanical minds beginning to automate what they do," said Mike Bechtel, chief futurist with Deloitte and co-writer of the…

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay bring alpha performances to this psychodrama of sexual danger from first-time feature directors Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, developed from an earlier award-winning short film. Jules, played by Stewart-Jarrett, is a drag artist with an enthusiastic club following and supportive flatmates: protective, plain-speaking Alicia (Asha Reid) and Toby (John McCrea), who has alcohol issues and is not-so-secretly messed up by his unrequited feelings for Jules.Preparing for a show one…

“It’s another glorious morning on Puffin Rock.” For parents of small children, Chris O’Dowd’s voice at the beginning of Puffin Rock episodes has the effect of a bell sounding the start of meditation. The animated TV series about a young puffin called Oona and her impossibly cute little brother Baba – “Baba booooo!” – is a soothing, gentle-going delight. It’s routinely included in top 10 lists of shows that parents actually enjoy watching with their kids, and I have to admit it was practically the only thing my daughter…

Korean-American blues poet Nat Myers found a love for the Blues genre when he was a child thanks to his father. Studying poetry in New York, Myers began busking but that was brought to an abrupt halt during the pandemic. Deciding to share his music via social media, Myers caught the attention of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, and the two found they collaborated well. Their creative partnership has resulted in Myers’ debut album ‘Yellow Peril’, which is released today.The 10-track set comes in at a lean 32 minutes but…

There’s a moment early on in If This Is a Man, Primo Levi’s first-hand account of the horrors of Auschwitz, when the author, newly arrived at the death camp and desperately thirsty, reaches for a “fine icicle” to suck on, only to have it brutally smashed out of his hand by a prison guard. “Why?” asks Levi, plaintively. “Hier ist kein warum,” replies the guard (“Here there is no why”).There are not too many whys either in Daniel Finkelstein’s powerful and beautifully written new book, which tells the story of how his…

In this smartly arranged thriller by Kurtis David Harder, Canadian actor Cassandra Naud holds her own as a kind of social media Tom Ripley, out in Thailand preying on vacuous, smartphone-toting influencers while coveting their silky lifestyles. Broken down into four parts following different characters, the film dabbles in but doesn’t wholly conform to the now-standard satirical takedown of 21st-century popinjays. There’s something darker and more solipsistic at work here: Naud’s repeated spiel of “They won’t even notice…

Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election. The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or…

Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or…

Die-and-retry Former homebrew NES title Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is making a stop on the Nintendo Switch on May 19, 2023. This follows a release on Xbox consoles in April 2022 and on NES in 2010. Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is one of the more beloved homebrew titles for Nintendo’s classic console. Developed by Sivak Games and drawing inspiration from Mega Man and I Wanna Be The Guy, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is a die-and-retry gauntlet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vvMLR-17Jo I actually own a copy…

View Full Image(Graphic: The Economist) Advertisers pay handsomely for access to Google’s users, and are typically charged only when someone visits their website. The revenue of Google’s parent company, now called Alphabet, has grown at an average annual rate of over 20% since 2011. In that period it has generated more than $300bn in cash after operating expenses (see chart 2), the bulk of it from search. Its market value has more than trebled, to $1.3trn. It is the world’s…