Lifeboat Foundation

A new study in Nature Communications investigates the electrical tuning of branched light flow in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) films, revealing controlled patterns and statistical characteristics with potential applications in optics and photonics.

Branched light flow manifests as intricate patterns in light waves navigating through a disordered medium, forming multiple branching pathways.

Positioned between ballistic and diffusive transport phenomena—where ballistic implies unhindered straight-line movement akin to a laser beam, and diffusive involves scattered, chaotic behavior—the phenomenon gains significance for its potential in controlling physical processes, particularly optics, and photonics.

Companies like OpenAI and Midjourney have opened Pandora’s box, opening them up to considerable legal trouble by training their chatbots on the vastness of the internet while largely turning a blind eye to copyright.

As professor and author Gary Marcus and film industry concept artist Reid Southen, who has worked on several major films for the likes of Marvel and Warner Brothers, argue in a recent piece for IEEE Spectrum, tools like DALL-E 3 and Midjourney could land both companies in a “copyright minefield.”

It’s a heated debate that’s reaching fever pitch. The news comes after the New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging it was responsible for “billions of dollars” in damages by training ChatGPT and other large language models on its content without express permission. Well-known authors including “Game of Thrones” author George RR Martin and John Grisham recently made similar arguments in a separate copyright infringement case.

Valve has changed its policy and will now allow games made by AI, or that use AI generated content, to be sold on Steam.

Back in June, we shared that while our goal continues to be shipping as many games as possible on Steam, we needed some time to learn about the fast-moving and legally murky space of AI technology, especially given Steam’s worldwide reach. Today, after spending the last few months learning more about this space and talking with game developers, we are making changes to how we handle games that use AI technology. This will enable us to release the vast majority of games that use it.

In recent years, engineers have developed a wide range of robotic systems that could soon assist humans with various everyday tasks. Rather than assisting with chores or other manual jobs, some of these robots could merely act as companions, helping older adults or individuals with different disabilities to practice skills that typically entail interacting with another human.

Researchers at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan recently developed a new robot that can play video games with a human user. This robot, introduced in a paper presented at the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, can play games with users while communicating with them.

“We have been developing robots that can chat while watching TV together, and interaction technology that creates empathy, in order to realize a partner robot that can live together with people in their daily life,” Masayuki Kanbara, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. “In this paper, we developed a robot that plays TV games together to provide opportunities for people to interact with the robot in their daily lives.”

When it comes to virtual worlds, one of the most challenging things to create (rivaling real trees, which Eric Ramberg, Chief Content Officer at Quixel, wrote is “the most requested type of asset”) is realistic human characters — especially their faces.

But Epic Games may have created the best solution so far. They have released a new character creation tool in Unreal Engine, called Creator, that helps you render an almost endless selection of near-photorealistic digital people.

Continue reading “Metahuman lets you create photorealistic, animated digital humans” »

Hackernews #1 @Rosebud_AI We’re building a platform to help users go from description to code to game. We aim to make game creation accessible to non-technical creators, so our UI provides explanations alongside the generated code.

Users have created a diverse range of games on Rosebud, including top-down RPGs, AI companions, and 3D obstacle courses, all within a few hours and sometimes minutes. Here are some examples you can play and clone (to start your own project).

* Anime Jester Companion: https://play.rosebud.ai/games/ba438cc4-246e-432e-b170-4e16948cd571 * Chat and Care for your Digital Puppy: https://play.rosebud.ai/games/f32a8159-7acf-4db6-a82c-70296f90bbf1 * Sphere Sync (3D game: align the sphere with the right color): https://play.rosebud.ai/games/96dfd5e1-62d4-47d8-a3e9-11038c8bb5cf * Basketball: https://play.rosebud.ai/games/a0e70622-e923-4517-8c1f-728dcf0db486 * Neon Waltz Generative Art: https://play.rosebud.ai/games/e32bd12b-7cc9-4f9a-b385-42ae0b096466 * Chat with Deku from My Hero Academia: https://play.rosebud.ai/games/716fd998-aab6-4185-8375-85d9eeb2adca

A simple way to think about Rosebud is ChatGPT + Midjourney + Replit. ChatGPT, because we give users a chat interface for this code editor so they can describe the game they want to make and generate game code; Midjourney, because we let users generate assets inside Rosebud, 2D and 3D, to be used in their games; And Replit, because Rosebud includes a browser based code editor that lets you deploy your game instantly.

There is more to Saudi Arabia than just oil.

Populous unveils their design for the Qiddiya City Esports Arena in Saudi Arabia, aimed to make the country a global hub for gaming.

Explore the potential impact of storytelling, immersive gameplay, and the evolving role of game developers in this technological revolution.

Dive into a new frontier of gaming, where AI’s integration transforms NPCs into dynamic, adaptable characters within video games.

Microsoft has big plans for generative AI in gaming, and its recent Xbox partnership with Inworld AI is a key example.

Non-playable characters in video games play key roles but stick to stiff scripts. Gen AI should open up their minds and your gaming world experience.