Technology

Facebook has announced the results of its first Deepfake Detection Challenge, an open competition to find algorithms that can spot AI-manipulated videos. The results, while promising, show there’s still lots of work to be done before automated systems can reliably spot deepfake content, with researchers describing the issue as an “unsolved problem.” Facebook says the winning algorithm in the contest was able to spot “challenging real world examples” of deepfakes with an average accuracy of 65.18 percent. That’s not bad, but it’s not the sort of hit-rate you would want for any automated system. Deepfakes have proven to be something of an exaggerated menace for social media. Although the technology prompted much handwringing about the erosion of reliable video evidence, the political effects...

Peloton enjoyed huge demand for its high-end exercise bikes in the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which kept gyms closed and antsy homebound people seeking exercise. The company continued streaming live classes from its New York City set well after competitors had halted live classes, but it finally closed its studios on April 3rd after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. But a new report from BuzzFeed News says the workers who delivered the bikes (which cost between $2,000 and $5,000) to customers’ homes felt unprotected from catching the coronavirus at work: [W]hile Peloton’s leadership was scrambling to keep up with consumer demand and rapidly expanding market share, the warehouse and delivery workers who assemble, repair, and deliver Peloton equipment were...

The state of New York has the most confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19, and a new report by The Wall Street Journal details how the state’s policies and missed warning signs made residents more vulnerable to the virus, leading to more deaths and a higher risk of contraction. The Wall Street Journal spoke to nearly 90 frontline medical professionals, from doctors to hospital administrators and government officials, to understand what went wrong. Improper patient transfer with some patients being too ill to be transferred between hospitals led to many hospitals not receiving records of prior treatment. Insufficient isolation protocols, with hospitals mixing infected patients with uninfected patients, also caused a domino effect of new virus contractions, according to the report. Although ...

Insomniac Games has confirmed that the newly announced Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be a standalone title for the PlayStation 5, quashing rumors that the title was simply a remastered version or an expansion of the original PS4 Spider-Man that have been swirling since the reveal. Spider-Man: Miles Morales will reportedly be smaller in scope than the original, though, per a Bloomberg report that compared it to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in scope. Part of the confusion stems from comments from Simon Rutter, EVP head of European business at Sony Interactive Entertainment, who commented in an interview with The Telegraph, “I guess you could call it an expansion and an enhancement to the previous game.” Rutter went on to explain, “There’s a substantial Miles Morales component — which is the e...

YouTube has warned against videos that try to game its Adsense system by encouraging viewers to repeatedly watch the video or click its ads to drive up revenue. The behavior has emerged as YouTubers have attempted to find creative new ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement, with some promising to donate the ad revenue generated by their videos. The hope was that encouraging repeated viewings or ad clicking would allow viewers to contribute to a worthwhile cause even if they didn’t have the resources to donate money directly. Now, however, some of these videos are being taken down, Variety reports. While YouTube says creators are free to donate ad revenue generated from organic views, it says that attempts to artificially inflate a video’s metrics violate its policies. It warns tha...

Leland Melvin never thought he would be a NASA astronaut when he was growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia. “I didn’t think about becoming an astronaut because I didn’t see someone that looked like me,” Melvin says. Melvin, now a former NASA astronaut and a prominent figure in the space industry, recently recorded a conversation with Bill Nye, the CEO of the space science non-profit, The Planetary Society. For more than an hour, the two men had a wide-ranging discussion of space exploration, and the lasting impact of racism in this country. I think about how you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation right now Though both men are now beloved science educators, Melvin’s experiences growing up as a black person in Lynchburg were vastly different from Nye’s experiences as a white person in Wa...

Zoom says it’s working on new features that will allow it to block users based on their geographical location after admitting it recently suspended three user accounts based in Hong Kong and the US at the request of the Chinese government. The company was widely criticized for suspending the accounts, which were hosting meetings to commemorate the June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre. In a blog post, Zoom said it had reinstated the accounts and was developing tools to allow targeted blocking. “Zoom is developing technology over the next several days that will enable us to remove or block at the participant level based on geography,” said the company. “This will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their border...

Ahead of the long-awaited arrival of the next generation of video game consoles, Microsoft had clearly grabbed the initiative. Its reveal of the Xbox Series X at the Game Awards came out of nowhere, and Sony’s weak response at CES a few weeks later was to show off the PS5 logo. (It’s a PS4 logo with a 5 in it.) Then the coronavirus hit, and all plans went out of the window. Sony stumbled by hyping a dense, tech-heavy presentation, which was intended to be a Game Developers Conference talk, while Microsoft pulled together a slapdash, wholly unimpressive collection of minor titles running on the Series X. E3 would have been the time for each company to make a major statement; instead, they’re making news on their own terms. Going into this week, the PlayStation 5 was a completely unknown qua...

The Last of Us Part II isn’t fun. Over the game’s 20-hour runtime, I often found myself wanting to quit because the violence became unbearable. I didn’t want to bash that lunging dog with a hammer or slice at that defenseless woman with a knife. I certainly didn’t want to watch a religious zealot’s head explode into a grisly cloud because of my well-placed shotgun blast. There are scenes so upsetting that they didn’t just make me uncomfortable; they made me question why I was playing this game at all. Yet, I’m glad I pushed through — because those dark, disturbing moments are what make The Last of Us Part II so powerful. It’s not just a game about violence. It’s one that grapples with the impact of that violence and shows players the consequences. The Last of Us Part II is a sequel to the ...

Veteran chip designer Jim Keller has left Intel after just two years at the firm. Intel said Keller was resigning his position effective immediately due to unspecified “personal reasons.” Keller will serve as a consultant to the company for six months to smooth the transition period, said Intel. AnandTech’s Ian Cutress reports that Keller will be consulting exclusively for Intel during that time. Keller is an industry veteran who has previously worked at Apple, AMD, and Tesla, and was seen as a key hire for Intel when he joined the company back in April 2018. He previously worked on Apple’s A4 and A5 processors (used in the iPhone 4 and 4S, respectively), as well as the custom silicon behind Tesla’s self-driving car ambitions. “Many of us have witnessed first-hand Jim’s technical strength ...

Sony officially revealed what the PlayStation 5 console will look like. Alongside it, the company also announced a range of accessories for the new console, including a wireless headset, a camera, a media remote, and a charging dock for the DualSense controller. Details on the new accessories are slim, although Sony has given a bit of information as to what to expect. The new HD Camera (which has dual 1080p lenses) is likely meant to replace the old PS4 camera accessory and is meant to let players stream footage from their living rooms while playing games — potentially making it easier for amateur streamers to live stream with a PS5. The Pulse 3D wireless headset takes the place of the PlayStation Gold wireless headset and offers 3D audio support — something that Sony has been pushing as a...

Indie gaming storefront Itch.io is currently offering arguably the best video game bundle in history: more than 1,500 games and counting for just $5, with all proceeds going toward the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. Now, the deal, called the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, has passed more than $5 million in proceeds for charity as of Thursday afternoon. It’s more money than any of the biggest gaming corporations have thus far donated amid Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of former Minnesota police officers has sparked worldwide outrage and a national reckoning on police brutality and racial justice. Itch.io’s bundle includes more than 1,500 games for a minimum of $5 Many gaming companies, ...