BRANFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 21, 2023--

Facebook parent company Meta is reportedly planning to internally release an artificial intelligence chatbot called “Gen AI Personas” aimed at younger users. The chatbot, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is set to be launched during Meta’s Connect Event on Wednesday. The tech giant is testing the chatbot, which comes in multiple “personas” aimed to engage young users, including a “sassy robot” persona inspired by Bender from Futurama,according to The Wall Street Journal. Meta is reportedly developing “dozens” of these chatbots, including some to help with “coding and other tasks” and improve productivity as well as a tool to help celebrities make their own chatbots for their fans. The development of some of these chatbots – including one with the personality of former US president Abraham Lincoln – are part of Meta’s attempts to boost engagement on its social media platforms, reports previously suggested. The development of these new chatbots are signs of Meta’s growing interest in the market for large language models (LLM) similar to ChatGPT. It launched a new version of its open-source model in July called Llama 2 for commercial use, becoming the first major tech firm to release its AI chatbot. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said at the time of Llama 2’s release that it would “drive progress across the industry” while the firm’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said it will “change the landscape of the LLM market”. The tech firm’s development of “personas” also comes as tech industry leaders called for a balanced approach towards regulating AI at a historic gathering convened by US senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. At the meeting held earlier this month, Mr Zuckerberg said the two defining issues for AI are “safety and access.” He urged the US Congress should “engage with AI to support innovation and safeguards”. “New technology often brings new challenges, and it’s on companies to make sure we build and deploy products responsibly,” the Meta chief said. “This is an emerging technology, there are important equities to balance here, and the government is ultimately responsible for that,” he added. Read More Meta’s new end-to-end encryption ‘means thousands of criminals could go undetected’ Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering of tech giant chiefs WhatsApp update brings ‘channels’, allowing people to follow updates from celebrities and companies Facebook changes logo to ‘make F stand apart’ – but can you tell the difference? Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering Nasa just delivered a piece of a distant asteroid to Earth

More than 150 leading companies warned the EU's plans to regulate artificial intelligence risk harming Europe's competitiveness and do not go far enough to tackle challenges, in...

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2023--

The NetherRealm Studios-developed Mortal Kombat 1 is the latest entry in the decades-spanning fantasy fighting

Fewer than a quarter of local authorities in England have enough holiday childcare provision for parents working full-time and costs have risen across Great Britain since last year, new research has found. Six weeks of summer childcare for each school-age child could cost almost £1,000, according to the Coram Family and Childcare charity’s annual survey. It said families in Great Britain face costs of £943 per child for this holiday period, which is £538 more than they would pay for after-school childcare in six weeks of term time. The research, based on surveys from local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales between April and June, found that the cost of holiday childcare has risen 3% since 2022. A place at a holiday club now costs an average of £157 per week – 2.3 times higher than the cost of an after-school club during term time, the charity said. Wales has the highest weekly price at £168, followed by Scotland at £157 and England at £156. While costs have risen, availability has decreased, according to the charity, with just 24% of local authorities in England saying they have enough holiday childcare for parents working full-time, down 2% on last year. Provision for eight to 11 year-olds has dropped by 7% on last year, with 23% of local authorities saying they have enough for this age group. The high of cost of holiday childcare is going to put a further strain on families’ already stretched budgets Megan Jarvie, Coram Availability of holiday childcare for disabled children in England has also continued to fall, Coram said, with just 5% of local authorities reporting they have enough to meet local demand, down from 7% in 2022. In Scotland, there has also been a drop in the proportion of local authorities reporting sufficient childcare – down 15% for 12 to 14 year olds, down 14% for children living in rural areas, down 12% for parents working full time and down 11% for eight to 11 year olds. No local authorities in Scotland reported having enough holiday childcare in all areas for disabled children, working parents, parents working atypical hours or children in rural areas. While Wales also has low levels of sufficient childcare for disabled children (5%) and 12 to 14 year olds (5%), the proportion of local authorities reporting sufficient childcare in all areas across all categories of holiday childcare, except parents working atypical hours and children in rural areas, has risen. Local authorities in Wales report the highest level of sufficiency of holiday childcare in all areas for parents working full time (18%), followed by four to seven year-olds and eight to 11 year-olds at 14%. Costs and availability of holiday childcare varies depending on where families live, the charity said, stating that parents in inner London pay up to 25% more than those in the East of England – £177 per week compared to £142. In the East Midlands, some holiday childcare places cost 104% more than the national average, while others are 58% less, Coram said. The charity is calling on the Government to extend childcare funding announced in the Spring Statement to include support during school holidays. Megan Jarvie, from Coram, said: “The high of cost of holiday childcare is going to put a further strain on families’ already stretched budgets. Even if families are able to afford these costs, many will struggle to find a place as we have found shortages right across the country. “Starting school doesn’t mean that childcare needs end. Instead, many find that it becomes more challenging to find options that are right for their family, particularly during the long school holidays. “New Government funding to help improve childcare options during term time is welcome – but families need childcare right through the year.” Coram is also calling on those in charge in England, Scotland and Wales to increase support for family information services to provide good quality holiday childcare information and ensure access to local provision that meets families’ needs, expand provision of school holiday activity and food programmes, and improve the accessibility of holiday childcare for children with special educational needs and disability (Send). Rapid price increases in essentials like food, housing and energy bills have left a growing number of the families we work with stretched and barely keeping their finances afloat Jamie Masraff, OnSide chief executive The Local Government Association (LGA) said “concerted investment and recruitment of quality staff” is needed to ensure correct provision for disabled children, and said it was “disappointing” that the Government had not extended childcare support to include summer holidays. Councillor Louise Gittins, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “While councils recognise the importance of ensuring there is sufficient provision available for children with Send, it can be difficult to ensure the right provision is available, particularly given the challenging situation that many providers face at the moment.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £200 million per year to 2025, provides healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families over the holidays. “We are also investing £30 million to test new and innovative approaches to short respite breaks for families of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities.” Youth organisation OnSide called for the HAF scheme to be expanded to working parents, saying it is “increasingly hearing from working families who don’t qualify but are struggling to afford holiday clubs”. Its chief executive, Jamie Masraff, said: “Rapid price increases in essentials like food, housing and energy bills have left a growing number of the families we work with stretched and barely keeping their finances afloat. For too many, there’s simply nothing left to pay for vital summer childcare.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live How to create a kitchen herb garden What is trail running and should we all be doing it? These are the women making waves in the cycling world

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A YouTuber stunned the internet after discovering a massive deep hole in a New York City sidewalk. Internet personality Casey Neistat shared his shocking discovery in a video that has gone viral across social media. Text overlaying the video read: “Gotta watch out on New York City sidewalks”. In the clip, Neistat was filming on a New York City street when the camera of his phone panned to reveal a corner of a paving slab that was crumbling and appeared to be sagging downwards. Neistat pressed his foot into the crumbling part of the slab which dramatically fell away leaving a fairly sizeable and dangerous-looking hole. He put his arm holding the phone down the hole, with the camera revealing just how deep it went into the ground. Various rusted pipe work could be seen occupying the space. The 20-second video has been viewed almost 26 million times on TikTok and has also been shared across other social media platforms, sparking quite a reaction. @caseyneistat ⚠️ Other TikTokers took to the comments, where they joked that the hole would probably soon be rented out as an apartment. “That’s someone’s studio apartment. $2,300 a month plus utilities,” someone joked in the comments section. Another said: “Bro found Old York.” One concerned viewer wrote: “Casey, I hope you called someone.” “Bro out here wasting injury lawsuits,” someone else quipped. Someone else suggested: “Mans found the entrance to Super Mario World.” Along the same lines, another person asked: “Are the ninja turtles in there?” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Business is booming at Boston University, which is borrowing $224 million in the municipal bond market next week.

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's users and rivals whether Bing should comply