According to police, the man killed in the January 1st Las Vegas Cybertruck blast [1]used ChatGPT to plan the explosion . The Hill reports:

> In a [2]press conference , Tuesday, Las Vegas police released more details of the intentions of 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, who died of a gunshot wound prior to the car exploding. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said it was concerning that Livelsberger used ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI, to carry out the explosion. According to police, Livelsberger asked ChatGPT various questions, including where the largest gun stores in Denver were, information about the explosive targets Tannerite and pistols.

"We knew that AI was going to change the game at some point or another in really all of our lives and certainly, I think this is the first incidence that I'm aware of on U.S. soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device, to learn information all across the country as they're moving forward," McMahill said.

"And so, absolutely, it's a concerning moment for us," he continued.



[1] https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5072577-las-vegas-cybertruck-blast-chatgpt/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnB6xVjxRmg

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:

> To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler's. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself. "The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words," he said. "But they weren't." The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called "Rabbi Bot," an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an A.I. version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Rabbi Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer.

>

> Rabbi Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders [1]experimenting with A.I. in their work , spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer A.I. tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons. [...] Religious leaders have used A.I. to [2]translate their livestreamed sermons into different languages in real time, blasting them out to international audiences. Others have compared chatbots trained on tens of thousands of pages of Scripture to a fleet of newly trained seminary students, able to pull excerpts about certain topics nearly instantaneously.

The report's author draws a parallel to previous generations' initial apprehension -- and eventual embrace -- of transformative technologies like radio, television, and the internet. "For centuries, new technologies have changed the ways people worship, from the radio in the 1920s to television sets in the 1950s and the internet in the 1990s," the report says. "Some proponents of A.I. in religious spaces have gone back even further, comparing A.I.'s potential -- and fears of it -- to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century."



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/technology/ai-religious-leaders.html

[2] https://pastors.ai/sermon-translations

The shift from paywalled to [1]open-access scientific publishing is progressing, driven in part by platforms like Sci-Hub -- a website that allows users to upload PDFs of published papers and share them with anyone. While the shadow library website has faced ongoing [2]attempts by publishers to block access, it has another problem: the platform [3]features many outdated or retracted papers that could spread misinformation or flawed findings. Ars Technica reports:

> Sci-Hub works a bit like a combination of cache and aggregator for published materials. Whenever it gets a request for a paper that's not already in its database, it uses leaked login credentials to go to the website of whatever journal published the paper and obtain a copy. If it already has a copy, however, it will simply serve that up instead. This leaves open the possibility that it will have obtained a copy of a paper prior to its retraction and continue to distribute that copy after the paper has been retracted.

>

> To check this, the researchers [4]obtained a list of nearly 17,000 retracted papers and searched for them on Sci-Hub. They then visually examined the documents that were returned. They found that 85 percent of them contained no indication that the paper had been retracted. "The availability of [unlabeled retracted articles] in the field of health sciences is particularly high," they note, "which indicates a significant risk of their unintended use and further citation in future research."

>

> While corrections are less severe than retractions, they're likely to suffer a similar problem. And corrections will often involve the technical details of a paper -- the experimental approaches or raw data that will be critical for anyone wanting to replicate or extend previously published results. So, if anything, their impact will be more significant.

Ars notes that a [5]system called Crossmark is available to help find the most up-to-date version of a paper, including any corrections or retraction notices.



[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/08/25/ostp-issues-guidance-to-make-federally-funded-research-freely-available-without-delay/

[2] https://science.slashdot.org/story/16/05/05/1613206/sci-hub-faces-millions-of-dollars-in-damages-elsevier-complaint-shuts-down-domain

[3] https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/science-paper-piracy-site-sci-hub-shares-lots-of-retracted-papers/

[4] http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2024.2446558

[5] https://www.crossref.org/services/crossmark/

At CES 2025 today, Lenovo [1]introduced the Legion Go S handheld gaming console . It marks the first officially licensed handheld that comes pre-loaded with Valve's Arch Linux based SteamOS operating system. Phoronix reports:

> This first officially licensed SteamOS handheld is making use of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC with Radeon 700M graphics, an 8-inch 1200p LCD touchscreen with VRR support, up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-6400 memory, up to 1TB of PCIe Gen4 SSD storage, and a 55 Whr battery. Pricing starts at $500 USD with availability beginning in May. Sadly this Lenovo Legion Go handheld running SteamOS is making use of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and not the Ryzen Z2 announced by AMD yesterday with the Zen 5 cores. But at CES Lenovo is showing off the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 2) prototype that uses the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go SoC along with an OLED display albeit a Windows gaming device.

Additional details are available in Lenovo's [2]press release .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS

[2] https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legion-unleashes-next-gen-gaming-power-at-ces-2025/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired:

> Laptop screens can feel cramped. But what if you could magically get more real estate without having to carry around a portable monitor? That's precisely the purpose of Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI PC -- yes, rollable. It has an OLED display that, with the push of a button, extends the 14-inch screen upward to make for an awkward aspect ratio, but [1]roughly doubles the screen space to 16.7 inches . Two screens are better than one for productivity, but what if one screen could be two but still one? Yes.

>

> It plays a fun animation and some music when it does its rolling thing. You can also activate the rolling action with a palm gesture; once it scans your palm, shift it up or down to raise or lower the screen. (Pressing the button on the keyboard is way faster.) You can take advantage of Windows 11 window snapping features to put apps one on top of the other. I stacked two browser windows, but you can put other apps below too. Considering I'm already that guy who brings a spare portable monitor everywhere, this just seems like a more elegant solution that takes up less space in my bag. And of course, anyone can take advantage of the long aspect ratio to get a better look at documents, PDFs, and web pages.

>

> Lenovo says it has tested the rolling function 30,000 times, and it has performed without flaws, so you can rest a little easier about reliability, though repairing this machine sounds like it will be a task. The whole laptop doesn't feel significantly different from a normal machine, weighing just 3.7 pounds -- that's 1 pound less than the 16-inch MacBook Pro. However, walking with your laptop open in your hand might be weird, as it feels a little top heavy. When closed, it's 19.9 mm thin -- the 16-inch MacBook Pro is 15.4 mm, so Lenovo's machine is thicker, but not as thick as a gaming laptop.

Lenovo published a concept video [2]on YouTube .



[1] https://www.wired.com/story/lenovo-ces-2025-rollable-oled-laptop-steamos-legion-go-s/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKTCys6pRE

The OnePlus 13 launched in the North American market today, making it the first flagship smartphone of 2025. As the smartphone market continues to consolidate, it has become increasingly difficult for non-Samsung, Google, and Apple devices to gain significant traction in the competitive U.S. market. Nevertheless, OnePlus has continually released premium flagship-tier devices at relatively modest price points, hoping to pry users away from the Big Tech monoliths.

The OnePlus 13 features Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, a 6.82" QHD+ OLED display, a triple Hasselblad-branded camera system, a massive 6,000mAh battery, and support for 5G networks across all major carriers in the U.S. and Canada. A full list of specifications can be found [1]here .

Based on the early reviews, the OnePlus 13 appears to set the bar high with not a lot of faults to highlight among reviewers. Here are some of our favorite reviews published today:

[2]OnePlus 13 review: finally, a flagship that can hang (The Verge)

[3]OnePlus 13 review: I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone (TechRadar)

[4]OnePlus 13 Review: Ship Shape? (Michael Fisher)

[5]OnePlus 13 Review: The Bar Has Been Set! (Marques Brownlee)

[6]The OnePlus 13 is finally a OnePlus flagship I trust to do it all (Android Authority)

[7]OnePlus 13 Review: 2025's First Flagship Finds Success (Forbes)

[8]OnePlus 13 review: The complete package (BGR)

[9]The OnePlus 13 sets a new bar for smartphone performance (Business Insider)

This is not a Slashvertisement. We just like shiny, new tech.



[1] https://www.oneplus.com/us/13/specs

[2] https://www.theverge.com/24336534/oneplus-13-review-specs-screen-camera-battery

[3] https://www.techradar.com/phones/oneplus-phones/oneplus-13-review

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJNd8XWJIU

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kuG6RgL32c

[6] https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-13-review-3512919/

[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2025/01/07/oneplus-13-oxygenos-snapdragon-elite-supervooc-charging-camera-review/

[8] https://bgr.com/reviews/oneplus-13-review/

[9] https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/oneplus-13-13r-release-date-price-specs-features

"Nvidia has [1]officially introduced its highly anticipated [2]GeForce 50 Series graphics cards, accompanied by the debut of DLSS 4 technology," writes Slashdot reader [3]jjslash . "The lineup includes four premium GPUs: the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are slated for release on January 30, with the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti following in February. TechSpot recount of the Jensen Huang keynote [4]tries to differentiate between dubious performance claims and actual expected raw output ":

> The new RTX 5090 flagship comes packing significantly more hardware over its predecessor. Not only does this GPU use Nvidia's new Blackwell architecture, but it also packs significantly more CUDA cores, greater memory bandwidth, and a higher VRAM capacity. The SM count has increased from 128 with the RTX 4090 to a whopping 170 with the RTX 5090 -- a 33% increase in the core size. The memory subsystem is overhauled, now featuring GDDR7 technology on a massive 512-bit bus. With this GDDR7 memory clocked at 28 Gbps, memory bandwidth reaches 1,792 GB/s -- a near 80% increase over the RTX 4090's bandwidth. It also includes 32GB of VRAM, the most Nvidia has ever provided on a consumer GPU. [...]

>

> As for the performance claims... Nvidia has - as usual - used its marketing to obscure actual gaming performance. RTX 50 GPUs support DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, which previous-generation GPUs lack. This means RTX 50 series GPUs can generate double the frames of previous-gen models in DLSS-supported games, making them appear up to twice as "fast" as RTX 40 series GPUs. But in reality, while FPS numbers will increase with DLSS 4, latency and gameplay feel may not improve as dramatically. [...] The claim that the RTX 5070 matches the RTX 4090 in performance seems dubious. Perhaps it could match in frame rate with DLSS 4, but certainly not in raw, non-DLSS performance. Based on Nvidia's charts, the RTX 5070 seems 20-30% faster than the RTX 4070 at 1440p. This would place the RTX 5070 slightly ahead of the RTX 4070 Super for about $50 less, or alternatively, 20-30% faster than the RTX 4070 for the same price.

These GeForce 50 series wasn't the only announcement Nvidia made at CES 2025. The chipmaker [5]unveiled a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer, capable of running sophisticated AI models with up to 200 billion parameters. It also [6]announced plans to introduce AI-powered autonomous characters in video games this year, starting with a virtual teammate in the battle royale game PUBG.



[1] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/rtx-50-series-graphics-cards-gpu-laptop-announcements/

[2] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/50-series/

[3] https://slashdot.org/~jjslash

[4] https://www.techspot.com/news/106230-nvidia-launches-rtx-50-blackwell-gpus-2000-rtx.html

[5] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/01/07/1539237/nvidia-unveils-3000-personal-ai-supercomputer

[6] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/01/07/1527237/nvidia-to-deploy-ai-teammates-in-video-games-this-year

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> The US Justice Department today [1]announced it filed an antitrust lawsuit against "six of the nation's largest landlords for participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters." One of the landlords, Cortland Management, [2]agreed to [3]a settlement "that requires it to cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors' sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor," the DOJ said. The pending settlement requires Cortland to "cooperate fully and truthfully... in any civil investigation or civil litigation the United States brings or has brought" on this subject matter.

>

> The US previously [4]sued RealPage, a software maker accused of helping landlords collectively set prices by giving them access to competitors' nonpublic pricing and occupancy information. The original version of the lawsuit described actions by landlords but did not name any as defendants. The Justice Department filed an [5]amended complaint (PDF) today in order to add the landlords as defendants. The landlord defendants are Greystar, LivCor, Camden, Cushman, Willow Bridge, and Cortland, which collectively "operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia," the DOJ said. "The amended complaint alleges that the six landlords actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other's competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms," the DOJ said.

The phrase "price fixing" came up in discussions between landlords, the amended complaint said: "For example, in Minnesota, property managers from Cushman & Wakefield, Greystar, and other landlords regularly discussed competitively sensitive topics, including their future pricing. When a property manager from Greystar remarked that another property manager had declined to fully participate due to 'price fixing laws,' the Cushman & Wakefield property manager replied to Greystar, 'Hmm... Price fixing laws huh? That's a new one! Well, I'm happy to keep sharing so ask away. Hoping we can kick these concessions soon or at least only have you guys be the only ones with big concessions! It's so frustrating to have to offer so much.'"

The Justice Department is joined in the case by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. The case is in US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Further reading: [6]Are We Entering an AI Price-Fixing Dystopia?



[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-six-large-landlords-algorithmic-pricing-scheme-harms-millions

[2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/big-landlord-settles-with-us-will-cooperate-in-price-fixing-investigation/

[3] https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1383311/dl?inline

[4] https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/23/1649240/justice-department-sues-realpage-alleging-it-enabled-price-fixing-on-rents

[5] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ncmd.99417/gov.uscourts.ncmd.99417.47.0_1.pdf

[6] https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/11/1910228/are-we-entering-an-ai-price-fixing-dystopia

Thailand has [1]banned plastic waste imports over concerns about toxic pollution, as experts warn that failure to agree a global treaty to cut plastic waste will harm human health. From a report:

> A law banning imports of plastic waste came into force this month in Thailand, after years of campaigning by activists. Thailand is one of several south-east Asian countries that has historically been paid to receive plastic waste from developed nations. The country became a leading destination for exports of plastic waste from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan in 2018 after China, the world's biggest market for household waste, imposed a ban.

>

> Japan is one of the biggest exporters of waste plastic to Thailand, with about 50m kg exported in 2023. Thai customs officials said more than 1.1m tonnes of plastic scraps were imported between 2018 and 2021. Imports of plastic were often mismanaged in Thailand, with many factories burning the waste rather than recycling it, leading to damage to human health and the environment.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/thailand-bans-imports-plastic-waste-curb-toxic-pollution

Hackers claim to have [1]compromised Gravy Analytics , the parent company of Venntel which has sold masses of smartphone location data to the U.S. government. 404 Media:

> The hackers said they have stolen a massive amount of data, including customer lists, information on the broader industry, and even location data harvested from smartphones which show peoples' precise movements, and they are threatening to publish the data publicly.

>

> The news is a crystalizing moment for the location data industry. For years, companies have harvested location information from smartphones, either through ordinary apps or the advertising ecosystem, and then built products based on that data or sold it to others. In many cases, those customers include the U.S. government, with arms of the military, DHS, the IRS, and FBI using it for various purposes. But collecting that data presents an attractive target to hackers.



[1] https://www.404media.co/hackers-claim-massive-breach-of-location-data-giant-threaten-to-leak-data/

Sony-owned anime streaming service Crunchyroll plans to [1]launch a manga reading app in 2025 , its second attempt at entering the digital manga market after shuttering a similar service in 2023. The new app, Crunchyroll Manga, will be available initially in the United States and Canada in English, as a premium add-on for subscribers.

The move comes amid broader changes at Crunchyroll, including its recent decision to put popular anime series "One Piece" behind a paywall and Sony's pending merger with publisher Kadokawa.



[1] https://gizmodo.com/crunchyroll-is-getting-back-into-the-manga-app-game-2000546950

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Chinese venture capitalists are [1]hounding failed founders [ [2]non-paywalled source ] , pursuing personal assets and adding the individuals to a national debtor blacklist when they fail to pay up, in moves that are throwing the country's startup funding ecosystem into crisis. The hard-nosed tactics by risk capital providers have been facilitated by clauses known as redemption rights, included in nearly all the financing deals struck during China's boom times.

>

> "My investors verbally promised they wouldn't enforce them, that they had never enforced them before -- and in '17 and '18 that was true -- no one was enforcing them," said Neuroo Education founder Wang Ronghui, who now owes investors millions of dollars after her childcare chain stumbled during the pandemic.

>

> While they are relatively rare in US venture investing, more than 80% of venture and private equity deals in China contain redemption provisions, according to Shanghai-based law firm Lifeng Partners estimates. They typically require companies, and often their founders as well, to buy back investors' shares plus interest if certain targets such as an initial public offering timeline, valuation goals or revenue metrics are not met.



[1] https://on.ft.com/4gPNxdt

[2] https://x.com/michaelxpettis/status/1876218475993260524

Anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion dollars in a deal that would [1]value it at $60 billion , making it the latest artificial-intelligence startup to seize upon investor euphoria for the technology. WSJ:

> The funding round is being led by the venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, people familiar with the matter said. The $60 billion valuation includes the money Anthropic plans to raise in the round.

>

> The deal would make Anthropic the fifth-most valuable U.S. startup after SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks, according to data provider CB Insights. It was valued last year at $18 billion in a round led by Menlo Ventures. There has been a dealmaking frenzy among AI companies since OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in an October round that nearly doubled its value to $157 billion. Two other startups, Elon Musk's xAI and Perplexity, subsequently raised money at substantially increased valuations.



[1] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-startup-anthropic-raising-funding-valuing-it-at-60-billion-19d0605a?st=pyyfFo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Mark Zuckerberg built up Facebook's content-policing efforts in the wake of Donald Trump's first presidential election. Now the Meta Platforms CEO is [1]reversing course as he embraces a second Trump presidency. Meta is ending fact-checking and removing restrictions on speech across Facebook and Instagram, Zuckerberg said in a video Tuesday, a move he described as an attempt to restore free expression on its platforms.

>

> "We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said in the video. He said Meta is getting rid of fact-checkers and, starting in the U.S., replacing them with a so-called Community Notes system similar to that on Elon Musk's X platform in which users flag posts they think need more context.

>

> While Meta will continue to target illegal behavior, Zuckerberg wrote in a separate post on Threads, it will stop enforcing content rules about immigration and gender that are "out of touch with mainstream discourse." Zuckerberg's plan is likely to reshape the experience of billions of people who use Meta's platforms. It steers sharply away from efforts started years ago in response to complaints from users, advertisers and politicians that abusive and deceptive content had run amok on Meta's suite of apps. The effort to rein in such speech sparked its own backlash from people -- especially on the political right -- who said it often strayed into censorship.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1x6Eec

A widely used DNA sequencer lacks crucial firmware security protections, potentially exposing genetic research facilities to cyberattacks, security researchers said on Tuesday. The Illumina iSeq 100, deployed at 23andMe and thousands of laboratories worldwide, [1]runs on outdated BIOS firmware from 2018 that doesn't enforce Secure Boot protection against malware infections, ArsTechnica reported today, citing researchers from Eclypsium.

The device's manufacturer, IEI Integration Corp, supplies motherboards to numerous medical equipment makers, suggesting similar vulnerabilities could affect other devices, Eclypsium said. Illumina said the issues were "not high-risk" and would notify customers if mitigations were needed.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/01/widely-used-dna-sequencer-still-doesnt-enforce-secure-boot/

Complaints and ridicule have been [1]mounting about mistakes by the iPhone maker's hyped feature , and its flaws risk a serious setback. Bloomberg:

> If you've seen any of Apple's marketing lately, you'll know the latest iPhone is billed as the first "built for Apple Intelligence." The "for" in that sentence is doing a great deal of work. It couldn't be "with" because Apple's AI features weren't ready when the device came out, and some are still yet to be released. The first were added to devices in iOS version 18.1, which came out in October.

>

> These AI bells and whistles require users to physically opt in, and Apple has deemed the product in "beta" despite marketing it as the main reason to buy its latest device. "Hello, Apple Intelligence" is the message greeting visitors to Apple.com today. If you go into a store, it's what the sales representatives push most excitedly. But just like the Maps fiasco, Apple's AI isn't ready for the real world. Complaints and ridicule have been mounting. In December, a BBC notification was rewritten by Apple Intelligence to state falsely that Luigi Mangione, who has been charged in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had turned a gun on himself.

>

> Last week, a summary crowned a darts champion before the match had started. Later the same evening, an alert falsely stated that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. It's not just the BBC that's experiencing this issue. A New York Times headline was rewritten to suggest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. "Nikki Glaser killed at Golden Globes," read another false summary. The mistakes have prompted the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders to call for Apple to "act responsibly" and remove the feature.



[1] https://www.ndtvprofit.com/technology/apples-ai-is-proving-its-anything-but-intelligent

Nvidia will begin selling a personal AI supercomputer in May that can run [1]sophisticated AI models with up to 200 billion parameters , the chipmaker has announced. The $3,000 Project Digits system is powered by the new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip and can operate from a standard power outlet.

The device delivers 1 petaflop of AI performance and includes 128GB of memory and up to 4TB of storage. Two units can be linked to handle models with 405 billion parameters. "AI will be mainstream in every application for every industry," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. The system runs on Linux-based Nvidia DGX OS and supports PyTorch, Python, and Jupyter notebooks.



[1] https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-puts-grace-blackwell-on-every-desk-and-at-every-ai-developers-fingertips

Nvidia has unveiled plans to introduce [1]AI-powered autonomous characters in video games this year, starting with a virtual teammate in the battle royale game PUBG, the chip maker said at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

The technology, called ACE, enables in-game characters to communicate, make decisions and interact with players using small language models. The AI companions will also feature in Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile PC Version in March 2025 and other upcoming titles including inZOI and MIR5, Nvidia said.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24337949/nvidia-ace-ai-npcs-pubg-ally-teammate

Getty Images and Shutterstock have [1]agreed to combine in a deal that creates a $3.7 billion visual content company. From a report:

> The deal underscores the soaring demand for images and related content from content creators and platforms. Getty CEO Craig Peters will remain chief executive of the combined business, which will trade under the GETY ticker symbol.



[1] https://www.axios.com/2025/01/07/getty-images-shutterstock-merger

Microsoft [1]plans to invest $3 billion to expand its artificial intelligence and cloud Azure services in India, turning to the world's most populous nation to fuel its revenue growth engine. From a report:

> The firm, which has been operating in India for more than two decades, will also train an additional 10 million people in the country with AI, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at an event in Bengaluru Tuesday.

>

> "The investments in infrastructure and skilling we are announcing today reaffirm our commitment to making India AI-first, and will help ensure people and organizations across the country benefit broadly," said Nadella. "The diffusion rate of AI in India is exciting." India is a key overseas market for American tech giants that have poured tens of billions of dollars in building and scaling their operations in the South Asian market over the past two decades as they work to court businesses serving hundreds of millions of users.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/07/microsoft-to-pump-3-billion-into-cloud-and-ai-push-in-india/