Premiering on May 7 at 10 p.m. EDT on ESPN+, Michelob Ultra, in collaboration with tech and production company Unit 9, presents “McEnroe vs. McEnroe,” the world’s first tennis match to feature a real person versus a virtual player -- both being a version of the entertaining, confrontational tennis player, John McEnroe. In the match, the real McEnroe will face off against his ultimate opponent—his younger self. In this case, a virtual player powered by A.I.
The 45-minute film will showcase how the match was created using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, plus five virtual avatars of John McEnroe from pivotal points of his career. ...
The team at Unit 9 spent a day with John in order to bring the vision to life via full-body scanning, motion capture and Unreal Engine MetaHuman technology (a cloud-based app that creates photorealistic digital humans). The avatar game system will be projected on a hologram particle screen and will be a simulation of gameplay with a system of ball launchers and ball return robots. ...
When McEnroe sends the ball over the net, the avatar responds to the direction of the real ball. As the avatar swings, a new ball is fired from the ball cannon and then flies through a smokescreen at a precise point in space to make it appear from the avatar’s racket position. From what is shown in the trailer, the hologram particle screen makes the virtual John McEnroe look blurry and distorted. So we will have to see how this actually looks on the big screen when the film airs. ...
Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million to further boost its efforts to create MechaFightClub, a robot cock fighting game that uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Created by Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood, the Seattle-based blockchain game company recently unveiled its first game: MechaFightClub. The characters are mechanical-looking roosters that are reminiscent of cock fighting, but Sood thinks of them as hilarious figures in a cruelty-free combat sport. ...
...The title is a “play-to-earn” game, where players can own the characters that they buy and profit from them if they can resell them to someone else once they’re leveled up. ...
Researchers have shown it is possible to perform artificial intelligence using tiny nanomagnets that interact like neurons in the brain. ...
The researchers showed nanomagnets can be used for 'time-series prediction' tasks, such as predicting and regulating insulin levels in diabetic patients. ...
A lot of the maths used to power neural networks was originally invented by physicists to describe the way magnets interact, but at the time it was too difficult to use magnets directly as researchers didn't know how to put data in and get information out. ...
Nanomagnets can come in various 'states', depending on their direction. Applying a magnetic field to a network of nanomagnets changes the state of the magnets based on the properties of the input field, but also on the states of surrounding magnets. ...
The team will next teach the system using real-world data, such as ECG signals, and hope to make it into a real computing device. Eventually, magnetic systems could be integrated into conventional computers to improve energy efficiency for intense processing tasks. ...
While at Kiva Systems in the early 2000s, Wurman, Mick Mountz and Raffaello D'Andrea developed an entirely new approach for material handling in distribution centers that revolutionized warehouse order fulfillment. The group leveraged thousands of mobile robots and sophisticated control software to bring inventory shelves to workers, significantly improving all areas of fulfillment center operations from safety and productivity to cycle time and throughput. ...
According to a recent survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults, people are currently more likely to fear the metaverse than be excited about it. The survey, which ran from March 23-25 and was conducted by Axios and market research software company Momentive, asked respondents if the idea of the metaverse made them “more excited or scared about the future.”
Only 7% of respondents said the idea of a metaverse ... made them “more excited” about the future. Almost one-third of respondents said it made them “more scared.”
The largest contingent – 58% – answered “neither,” suggesting that the majority of Americans still treat the idea of the metaverse with relative indifference. That matched up closely with another of the poll’s findings: 60% of its respondents were unfamiliar with the idea of the metaverse, in the first place.
PhilNote: the short article gives some specifics but mostly generalities.
...The application of these product liability principles in the AI context was on display in the recent case Cruz v. Raymond Talmadge d/b/a Calvary Coach. The case featured an AI-driven product that has become a part of our everyday lives: a GPS device. In this case, the plaintiffs were injured when a bus struck an overpass. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit rested on claims of negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability against the GPS device manufacturer. In particular, the plaintiffs pointed to what they said was a design defect in the GPS device. It routed the bus driver under an overpass. The plaintiffs asserted the GPS device should have been able to discern the overpass was too low for the bus. The parties eventually reached a settlement. ...
... "We are building StreetScape to marry the digital and physical experience of home shopping in New York, a crucial step toward getting that level of confidence you need to make a move on a new home. Having that information immediately at your fingertips when you’re in front of a building will help home shoppers act fast, which is especially key in today’s competitive market."
Interestingly, a StreetEasy Instagram poll found that 95% of people have walked past an apartment building and wondered if it has an available unit that meets their criteria. At the same time, 77% have had trouble identifying a building’s address to search for later. ...
... Some startups say product design should be considered as much as the content decisions that generate more headlines. At HalloApp, they believe capping the size of groups will help minimize the potential for abuse. Right-leaning platforms like Parler and Truth Social argue that people need fewer content rules so as to speak freely to the masses without worrying about censorship. Other companies argue for a combination of stronger content policies and design choices so that online political discussions become more civil. ...
... Social connections and artistic creations are central to Second Life in a different way from the more gaming-centric Roblox and Epic Games. The platform also takes a minimalist approach to collecting user data for ads compared to Meta’s new venture. There is real money on Second Life, too, thanks to its Tilia virtual payment system and connected market. Content creators can create and sell digital goods through Tilia, which the company claims saw $650 million in transactions last year, $80 million of which went right to the developers. ...
Freelance marketplace Fiverr has unveiled an AI tool for companies to audition voiceover artists before hearing them read a line. The new AI Auditions feature lets the voiceover artist train a synthetic version of their voice that companies can test their scripts on, streamlining the hiring process and enabling the performer to “audition” for far more roles than their time would normally allow. ...
Startups like Lovo and Veritonehave their own voiceover marketplaces with synthetically generated voices that Fiverr’s new service looks like it could take on, with Veritone recently scoring a deal with iHeartMedia to make translated audio content that sounds like the original speaker. ...
