Enlarge / Apple’s M2 Pro Mac mini. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) The analysts at IDC have released their worldwide PC sales numbers for the first quarter of 2023, and the news isn’t good for PC companies. IDC says that all the companies combined shipped 56.9 million PCs in Q1 of 2023, down 29 percent from Q1...
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Artists astound with AI-generated film stills from a parallel universe
Enlarge / An AI-generated image from an #aicinema still series called “Vinyl Vengeance” by Julie Wieland, created using Midjourney. (credit: Julie Wieland / Midjourney) Since last year, a group of artists have been using an AI image generator called Midjourney to create still photos of films that don’t exist. They call the trend “AI cinema.”...
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There’s a new form of keyless car theft that works in under 2 minutes
Enlarge / Infrared image of a person jimmying open a vehicle. (credit: Getty Images) When a London man discovered the front left-side bumper of his Toyota RAV4 torn off and the headlight partially dismantled not once but twice in three months last year, he suspected the acts were senseless vandalism. When the vehicle went missing...
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(BPRW) Film Independent Selects Six Fellows for Second Annual Amplifier Fellowship
(Black PR Wire) LOS ANGELES — Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced today the six Fellows and their projects selected for its Amplifier Fellowship. The 2023 Film Independen…
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Why ChatGPT and Bing Chat are so good at making things up
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Over the past few months, AI chatbots like ChatGPT have captured the world’s attention due to their ability to converse in a human-like way on just about any subject. But they come with a serious drawback: They can present convincing false information easily, making them unreliable sources of...
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(BPRW) Tech Giant Microsoft Joins Forces with Atlanta-based Not-For-Profit to Support Aspiring Youth Creatives
(Black PR Wire) WHAT: The Ann Cephus Family Fund (ACFF) and Microsoft Corporation as we officially kick off a city-wide effort to empower students in the Atlanta metro area who are pursuing careers in the Arts. Through this partnership, Microso…
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For Lower-Income Students, Big Tech Internships Can Be Hard to Get
Critics say the intern selection process often favors wealthier students, just like the admission process at some elite colleges.
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This Historically Black University Created Its Own Tech Intern Pipeline
A new program at Bowie State connects computing students directly with companies, bypassing an often harsh Silicon Valley vetting process.
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Operation Cookie Monster: Feds seize “notorious hacker marketplace”
Enlarge / Domain seizure message at genesis.market. An international law enforcement operation shut down a “notorious hacker marketplace” that sold access to infected devices and stolen account credentials, the US Department of Justice and Europol announced today. The operation targeting Genesis Market involved 17 countries, seized the platform’s infrastructure, and resulted in “119 arrests, 208...
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Meta introduces AI model that can isolate and mask objects within images
Enlarge / An example of SAM selecting the outline of a corgi in a photo. (credit: Meta) On Wednesday, Meta announced an AI model called the Segment Anything Model (SAM) that can identify individual objects in images and videos, even those not encountered during training, reports Reuters. According to a blog post from Meta, SAM...