The Bermuda Festival Outreach Programme is offering a drama based masterclass led by the Aquila Theatre Company. This workshop is being offered to high school students with an interest in drama. Drama students will get the opportunity to explore some of the vocal, movement and acting techniques used by members of the Aquila in rehearsal […]

The Bermuda Festival Outreach Programme is offering two masterclasses in acting technique led by a cast member of Walnut Street Theatre. Here to perform A Life in the Theatre, the Walnut Street Theatre will focus on improving participants’ acting technique. These masterclasses will be centered on activities that are designed to improve technique and explore […]

One of the most challenging aspects of astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is anticipating what life and extraterrestrial civilizations will look like. Invariably, we have only one example of a planet that supports life (Earth) and one example of a technologically advanced civilization (humanity) upon which to base our theories. As for …

Continue reading "New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.”"

The post New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.” appeared first on Universe Today.

Voyo a Televize Nova uvedly novou seznamovací reality show Bachelor. Jeden muž si mezi osmnácti „soutěžícími“ hledá na řeckém ostrově partnerku. „Cením, že máme první sérii českého Bachelora a český Honza v něm hledá nevěstu. Jako kdyby to psala Božena Němcová,“ říká Martin Bartkovský v podcastu Poprask. S Šimonem Holým a Hankou Trojánkovou Biriczovou navštívili premiéru Bachelora. Jak se jim první díl líbí?

Je to zvláštní přelom roku. V září bylo 35 let mně. V listopadu je 35 let tuzemské demokracii. A v dubnu bude 35 let Reflexu. O sobě mluvit nechci, ty druhé dvě další věci jsou důležitější a jako stejně starý člověk si je dovolím hodnotit. I když se to tak ve vašem okolí nemusí zdát, současný politický sy­stém je stále to nejlepší, co dokázalo lidstvo vymyslet. A časopis Reflex má pořád co říct.

Leading artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are facing "diminishing returns" from their costly efforts to build newer AI models, according to a new Bloomberg report. The stumbling blocks appear to be growing in size as Apple continues a phased rollout of its own AI features through Apple Intelligence.


OpenAI's latest model, known internally as Orion, has reportedly fallen short of the company's performance expectations, particularly in handling coding tasks. The model is said to be lacking the significant improvements over existing systems when compared to the gains GPT-4 made versus its predecessor.

Google is also reportedly facing similar obstacles with its upcoming Gemini software, while Anthropic has delayed the release of its anticipated Claude 3.5 Opus model. Industry experts who spoke to Bloomberg attributed the challenges to the increasing difficulty in finding "new, untapped sources of high-quality, human-made training data" and the enormous costs associated with developing and operating new models concurrently with existing ones.

Silicon Valley's belief that more computing power, data, and larger models will inevitably lead to better performance, and ultimately the holy grail – artificial general intelligence (AGI) – could be based on false assumptions, suggests the report. Consequently, companies are now exploring alternative approaches, including further post-training (incorporating human feedback to improve responses and refining the tone) and developing AI tools called agents that can perform targeted tasks, such as booking flights or sending emails on a user's behalf.

"The AGI bubble is bursting a little bit," said Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face. She told Bloomberg that "different training approaches" may be needed to make AI models work really well on a variety of tasks. Other experts who spoke to the outlet echoed Mitchell's sentiment.

How much impact these challenges will have on Apple's approach is unclear, though Apple Intelligence is more focused in comparison, and the company uses internal large language models (LLMs) grounded in privacy. Apple's AI services mainly operate on-device, while the company's Private Cloud Compute encrypted servers are only pinged for tasks requiring more advanced processing power.

Apple is integrating AI capabilities into existing products and services, including writing tools, Siri improvements, and image generation features, so it can't be said to be competing directly in the LLM space. However, Apple has agreed a partnership with OpenAI that allows Siri to optionally hand off more open-ended queries to ChatGPT. Apple has also reportedly held discussions with other LLM companies about similar outsourcing partnerships.

It's possible that the challenges faced by major AI companies pursuing breakthrough general-purpose AI models could ultimately validate Apple's more conservative strategy of developing specific AI features that enhance the user experience. In that sense, its privacy-first policy may not be the straitjacket it first seemed. Apple plans to expand Apple Intelligence features next month with the release of iOS 18.2 and then via further updates through 2025.

This article, "AI Companies Reportedly Struggling to Improve Latest Models" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple last week replaced the M3 Max MacBook Pro with the new M4 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌, and we picked up one of the new high-end ‌MacBook Pro‌ machines to see how it compares to the prior model with both benchmarks and real-world tests.

We tested an M4 Max with a 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, and 48GB RAM against an M3 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌ with similar specs. The two machines look similar, but the display on the M4 version did get some improvements and it's a little bit brighter. There's an option for nano-texture too, which makes a big difference if you ever work outside.

Thunderbolt 5 ports instead of Thunderbolt 4 ports allow you to connect more displays (up to three 6K displays) and get faster transfer speeds. Unsurprisingly, the M4 Max performed better across the board on benchmarks, and those higher numbers did indeed translate to actual improvements in day-to-day performance.

Creating a slow motion clip from a standard clip in Topaz Labs AI took the M3 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌ a little over six minutes, while the M4 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌ was done in under five minutes.

Exporting a 6 minute 4K video with effects, plugins, LUTs, Roto AI masks, Motion VFX, and more from Final Cut Pro took the M3 Max 1:17, while the M4 Max did it in 1:07. It's only a 10 second savings, but that adds up with longer videos and over time.

Obviously you're not going to be upgrading to the M4 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌ if you have an M3 Max machine, but it is interesting to see the year-over-year improvements. If you have something like an M1 Pro or an M1 Max and do a lot of CPU/GPU heavy tasks, upgrading to the M4 Max could end up saving you a good amount of time.

Let us know what you think of the M4 Max ‌MacBook Pro‌'s performance in the comments below.
This article, "M4 Max MacBook Pro: Real-World Usage Tests" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Kyler Murray's efficient play has Arizona on a four-game winning streak and atop the NFC West. It also has put him in the MVP conversation.

Nick Wright unveils his Week 11 Tiers alongside Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes and Coach Eric Mangini. Watch as Nick addresses "massively underestimating" the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles and why the Buffalo Bills climb higher up the tiers.

Chris "The Bear" Fallica delivers his best bet for NFL Week 11. Read why he's backing the Eagles to win and cover against the Commanders on Thursday Night Football.

Gambling expert Chris “The Bear” Fallica and former NFL Offensive Lineman Geoff Schwartz reveal their best bets of CFB Week 12, choosing Washington vs. UCLA and Penn State vs. Purdue.

Gambling expert Chris “The Bear” Fallica and former NFL Offensive Lineman Geoff Schwartz are joined by friends and analysts Will Hill and Sam Panayotovich in The Gambling Group Chat to discuss the best bets and current wagers for Tennessee vs. Georgia in week 12 of college football.

Screen Junkies took the opening of the movie Wicked this week as an excuse to go back and do an Honest Trailer for a movie made in 1939. They don't have to explain The Wizard of Oz to us because we've all seen us (or should have by now), and there's not much they can criticize about the filmmaking. However, they reframe the absurd story through a modern eye to be about a young girl with a serious concussion who accomplishes her mission through murder, theft, and consorting with strange men.    

By the way, Wicked is another of the many recent movies that explore the tragic early life and motivations of an existing movie villain to make them appear sympathetic and allow us to feel better about liking them. See also: Maleficent, Joker, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Cruella, Minions: The Rise of Gru, and the Star Wars prequels.

The New York Post reports that an Ecuadorian restaurant has opened in the Corona neighborhood of Queens. Le Casa Del Guy -- "the house of the guinea pig" -- has become famous for its focus on a staple of Ecuadorian cuisine: the guinea pig.

Guinea pigs raised for food are usually larger than those raised to be pets, weighing about two and a half pounds and measuring sixteen inches long. They can be quite expensive, sometimes over $100 a plate. That's because the restaurant management has to have the guinea pigs shipped from Ecuador then inspected. It might be cheaper to raise them domestically.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: La Casa del Cuy

Artisan Partners, an investor in Japanese retail giant Seven & i Holdings, called on the company's special committee to consider a formal bidding process of competing takeover proposals to secure the highest offer. Seven & i received a buyout proposal from a member of its founding Ito family, it…

Clear your schedule in 2025, as it's set to be a bumper year for television. Small-screen favourites such as "The Last of Us" and "The Bear" will be back with new seasons, while fresh shows promise to keep us entertained. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms The latest "Game of Thrones" prequel based on…

In this episode, host Giada Santana and agrifood reporter Sofia Sánchez Manzanaro outline supporters and detractors of EUDR and possible scenarios ahead of the vote.

Globally, actively managed ETFs have captured a quarter of flows

Rally in dollar debt is unlikely ‘Trump trade’ and comes just months after huge restructuring

The West’s failure at phasing out Russian oil and gas sales has helped Russia's economy rebound, write Martin Vladimirov, Isaac Levi and Sergiy Makogon.

The recent slide — gold has declined in six of the seven sessions since Trump's victory — follows a series of record-breaking milestones for bullion over the past year.

LISBON, Portugal — Tech giants are increasingly investing in the development of so-called "sovereign" artificial intelligence models as they seek to boost competitiveness by focusing more on local infrastructure. Data sovereignty refers to the idea that people's data should be stored on…

Nvidia, Oracle, Google, Dell and 13 other companies reported how long it takes their computers to train the key neural networks in use today. Among those results were the first glimpse of Nvidia’s next generation GPU, the B200, and Google’s upcoming accelerator, called Trillium. The B200 posted a…

Yves here. It appears there is a teeny bit of good news on the environment front, if you consider “less bad than promised” to be positive. Trump has promised that he would lower US energy prices via much more ambitious shale industry production. The shale industry has other ideas. By Irina Slav, a…

By Matt Solomon Published: November 13th, 2024

"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" added another week atop the chart, making it the longest-running No. 1 of the decade. In two more weeks, it could tie the all-time record, but a seasonal juggernaut approaches.

A discovery of absolutely epic proportions has just been revealed, but the corporate media in the United States almost entirely ignored it.  A team of scientists led by Dr. Irving Finkel has deciphered the oldest map in the world, and we are being told that it actually reveals the location of Noah’s Ark.  This is …

Estudantes sul-coreanos revelam quais são suas estratégias de preparação para a famosa maratona de provas.

O Pisa (Programa para a Avaliação Internacional dos Estudantes, na sigla em inglês) mostra que houve um aumento acentuado no nível de ansiedade em relação à matemática entre os alunos da grande maioria dos 81 países avaliados, especialmente no Brasil.

Com nomeação desta quarta-feira (13/11), Rubio se torna o latino-americano a chegar ao posto mais alto no governo dos Estados Unidos.

Geração de emprego atinge patamar recorde, mas esconde problemas como altos índices de informalidade, subutilização da força de trabalho e jornadas exaustivas

A Jacobean mansion is among 26 sites in the city to be added to Historic England's at-risk list.

Leading AI systems are solving less than 2% of problems in a new advanced mathematics benchmark, revealing significant limitations in their reasoning capabilities, research group Epoch AI reported this week. The benchmark, called FrontierMath, consists of hundreds of original research-level mathematics problems developed in collaboration with over 60 mathematicians, including Fields Medalists Terence Tao and Timothy Gowers. While top AI models like GPT-4 and Gemini 1.5 Pro achieve over 90% accuracy on traditional math tests, they struggle with FrontierMath's problems, which span computational number theory to algebraic geometry and require complex reasoning. "These are extremely challenging. [...] The only way to solve them is by a combination of a semi-expert like a graduate student in a related field, maybe paired with some combination of a modern AI and lots of other algebra packages," Tao said. The problems are designed to be "guessproof," with large numerical answers or complex mathematical objects as solutions, making it nearly impossible to solve without proper mathematical reasoning. Further reading: New secret math benchmark stumps AI models and PhDs alike.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

During a public joint hearing today titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth," four experts testified that the U.S. is running secret UAP programs, including crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programs for advanced nonhuman technology. Although the Pentagon maintains there's no evidence of alien spacecraft, witnesses like Luis Elizondo and Michael Gold argue that UAPs represent an intelligence enigma and call for open, stigma-free study to address potential security concerns and unknown scientific possibilities. NPR reports: Tim Gallaudet, retired rear admiral, U.S. Navy; CEO of Ocean STL Consulting, LLC "Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015," Gallaudet said in his written testimony (PDF). He describes being part of a pre-deployment naval exercise off the U.S. East Coast that culminated in the famous "Go Fast" video, in which a Navy F/A-18 jet's sensors recorded "an unidentified object exhibiting flight and structural characteristics unlike anything in our arsenal." He was among a group of commanders involved in the exercise who received an email containing the video, which was sent by the operations officer of Fleet Forces Command, Gallaudet said. "The very next day, the email disappeared from my account and those of the other recipients without explanation," he said. Luis Elizondo, author and former Department of Defense official Elizondo's written testimony (PDF) was brief and alleged that a secretive arms race is playing out on the global stage. "Let me be clear: UAP are real," he wrote. "Advanced technologies not made by our Government -- or any other government -- are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries." Elizondo is a former intelligence officer who later "managed a highly sensitive Special Access Program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council," according to his official bio (PDF). "By 2012, [Elizondo] was the senior ranking person of the DOD's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a secretive Pentagon unit that studied unidentified anomalous phenomena," his bio states, adding that he resigned in 2017. Michael Gold, former NASA associate administrator of space policy and partnerships; member of NASA UAP Independent Study Team Gold's written testimony (PDF) stressed the need for government agencies and academics to "overcome the pernicious stigma that continues to impede scientific dialogue and open discussions" about unexplained phenomena. "As the saying goes, the truth is out there," Gold said, "we just need to be bold enough and brave enough to face it." Michael Shellenberger, founder of Public, a news outlet on the Substack platform Shellenberger's testimony (PDF) ran to some 214 pages, including a lengthy timeline of UAP reports from 1947 to 2023. Shellenberger pressed the White House and Congress to act, calling for the adoption of UAP transparency legislation and cutting funds for any related programs that aren't disclosed to lawmakers. "UAP transparency is bi-partisan and critical to our national security," his written testimony stated. You can watch the proceeding here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Coach Warren Gatland says he is comfortable with any decision made about his future as his Wales side hope to avoid an unwelcome piece of history on Sunday.

Wales boss Craig Bellamy explains how his assistant coach, ex-Manchester City analyst Piet Cremers, has influenced "everything" he does.

1. Gold prices fall for 4th straight day, silver remains steady; check the latest prices in your city  Upstox
2. Business News Live Today November 14, 2024: Niva Bupa share price dips over 3% after rising into the green on debut, See details of its ₹2,200 crore IPO  Hindustan Times
3. Gold prices today: Key market trends investors should know  CNBCTV18
4. Gold and silver prices today on 14-11-2024: Check latest rates in your city  Mint
5. Gold slips to further lows today on November 14: Know gold, silver rates in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and other cities  The Financial Express

1. Unrest over deaths of 10 ‘militants’ spills over to Assam, Mizoram; ‘extra-judicial killings’ by CRPF, sa  The Times of India
2. ​Manipur’s misery: On the need for the Centre to act  The Hindu
3. ‘Sleepless nights’: cop concerned about 6 missing family members  The Indian Express
4. Fresh gunfights, arson in Manipur amid shutdown  Hindustan Times
5. 'Completely charred': Autopsy fails to collect samples to prove claim of Hmar woman's rape in Manipur  Deccan Herald