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Sam And Louise Sullivan – “Love & Devotion”
Folk-rock duo Sam and Louise Sullivan have released “Love & Devotion”, the title track and latest single from their forthcoming record of the same name. The song follows last month’s lead single “Down On Love” and continues the pair’s nostalgic, 1960s-inflected style, marking another step in the build-up to the album’s release. Sam Sullivan described…
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It looks like monitor manufacturers can download bloatware without consent that will serve you pop-up ads
PC Gamer reports that some monitor manufacturers appear able to install software onto users’ PCs without explicit consent, with this bloatware then capable of serving pop-up advertisements. The concern matters because it suggests display hardware — not just laptops or pre-built systems — can act as a vector for unwanted software that affects the user…
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Character.AI wants a piece of the microdrama pie
Character.AI has announced c.ai Series, a slate of short-form, episodic “microdramas” designed to be watched and interacted with on a phone, marking the latest step in the company’s push to become a broader storytelling platform beyond its LLM-powered chatbots. Unlike rival services such as ReelShort and DramaBox, which offer cheaply produced live-action shows with human…
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The newest entrant in the military’s launch competition isn’t actually a launch company
The US Space Force has added two more companies, Impulse Space and Relativity Space, to the pool of firms eligible to bid for national security launch contracts. Winning a place in the military launch market is both a mark of maturity and a valuable revenue source for rocket firms. While Relativity Space’s inclusion is unsurprising…
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Germany set to make rental e-scooter operators liable for accidents
Germany’s parliament is set to pass legislation making rental e-scooter operators such as Lime and Bolt legally liable for accidents caused by their vehicles, putting them on a similar footing to cars. The change matters because victims currently have to prove that an individual rider was at fault to claim compensation — a difficult standard…
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Licence to drill? How a Trump-linked Texas oil company is elbowing its way into Greenland
A Texas-based oil company, Greenland Energy, is pushing to drill for oil beneath Jameson Land in eastern Greenland, backed by figures linked to Donald Trump. At a June meeting in the remote settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit, the company’s representative, Robert Price, told residents it had permission to land drilling equipment and had filed pending applications to…
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Character.ai’s New Business? Microdramas
Character.ai, the chatbot company founded by former Google engineers, is launching a microdrama division, marking a notable diversification for a firm best known for its AI companion chatbots. The company will announce on Thursday that it has created AI-generated animated vertical-video series, penned by hired Hollywood writers but produced using artificial intelligence rather than traditional…
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AI Platform Character.ai Introduces Suite of Microseries Focused on Anime, Horror, Action Adventure: ‘Deeper Connection Between Fans and Characters’
Character.ai, the platform known for letting users create and chat with AI-generated characters, has launched “c.ai Series”, a collection of short AI-made microseries built around characters native to its platform. What sets the format apart, the company says, is that the experience does not end when an episode finishes: users aged over 18 can continue…
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Character.ai enters the microdrama arena with its own productions, but there’s a twist
Character.AI, the platform that lets people chat with customised AI avatars, has entered the fast-growing “microdrama” market by producing its own short-form series made with AI production tools. The distinguishing feature is that users over 18 can chat with the shows’ characters, ask them questions and role-play alternative storylines, drawing on the company’s core conversational…
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Andy Burnham urged to scrap income tax and NI in radical fiscal overhaul
A group of prominent economists has written an open letter urging Andy Burnham, widely regarded as prime minister-in-waiting, to pursue a radical overhaul of the tax system once he takes office. The signatories — including Jim O’Neill, an ally of Burnham, alongside academics and think-tank leaders — argue that Britain’s structural fiscal problems have defeated…