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Australia fires new defence system designed to intercept rockets as outrage grows over China’s missile test in the South Pacific
The Australian Defence Force has released footage of a live-fire test of a new ground-based air defence system designed to intercept incoming missiles, in a move that comes just days after China tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in the South Pacific. The timing has heightened tensions and put a spotlight on Australia’s efforts to build…
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Art gallery where Princess Eugenie is a director is cleared of breaching Russian sanctions over sale of painting
An art gallery where Princess Eugenie serves as a director has been cleared of breaching UK sanctions imposed on Russia. Hauser & Wirth, along with shipping company Artay Rauchwerger Solomons, had faced criminal charges over the sale of a painting to a buyer named Alexander Popov, whom prosecutors alleged was a Russian resident. The case…
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Arranged marriage ended in murder after cheating Amazon software engineer and his wife moved to ritzy Pacific Northwest enclave, prosecutors say
An Amazon software engineer, Avinash Narne, 30, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder over the death of his wife, Raajitha Sabbineni, 27, whom prosecutors say he strangled to escape an arranged marriage. The case matters because prosecutors allege the killing was motivated by Narne’s ongoing relationship with another woman in India, and he is…
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Here’s how to block Meta from using your Instagram pictures for its AI
Meta has launched a new AI image tool called Muse Image across Instagram, Meta AI and WhatsApp, but the rollout has drawn criticism because all public Instagram profiles have been automatically opted in to be used in the tool’s AI “remixes”. This means anyone can tag a public account in a prompt and use Meta…
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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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Popular open source AI developer tool Ollama raises $65M, grows to nearly 9M users
Ollama, the open source tool that lets developers run open-weight AI models locally on their own machines, has raised a $65 million Series B round led by Theory Ventures. The funding, which follows a $15 million Series A led by Benchmark’s Peter Fenton and brings total investment to $88 million, underscores growing investor appetite for…
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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’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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Deltarune Chapter 5 Update Arrives On Switch 1 & 2 Soon, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Toby Fox and his team have released a new patch, version 0.0.247, for Deltarune Chapter 5, which launched on Switch 1 and 2 late last month. The update is already available on Steam and PlayStation, but Switch players will have to wait a little longer, as Fox confirmed on Bluesky that it has been submitted…