The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the consumer price index for July on Thursday, and the producer price index for July on Friday.

xQc said, 'The thing is, with IRLs, it’s a lot of fun, but it fosters the very bad part of everything'

Social media can be a nasty place at times, but every now and then a trend comes along which reminds you just how fun it can be. The most recent is the blue couch, which has been the talk of Twitter for the past week or so. In case you missed it, influencer Amanda Joy got a lot of people talking recently after finding a couch abandoned on the streets of New York. After doing a little research and believing it to be the $8,000 ‘Bubble’ couch from French brand Roche Bobois, she decided to take it back to her apartment and clean it up. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Joy’s dad picked up the couch in his van and Joy filmed the entire process of brightening up the sofa and moving it to her living room. The TikTok now has over 40 million views, and over 4 million likes – but not everyone thought it was a good idea to take the couch off the sidewalk. Some believed the unique-looking piece wasn’t the real deal and instead claimed it was a knockoff. Others were concerned about possible bed bugs and roach infestations, with no sign of how long the couch had been on the street. In the days that followed it continued to raise eyebrows across the internet, and these are some of the biggest reactions and memes. 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.

TOKYO Semiconductor materials maker JSR Corp's board will meet on Monday to discuss a potential multi-billion dollar buyout

Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 18 May, Apple has unveiled a host of new iOS features that will be coming to the iPhone, iPad and Mac later this year. The suite of updates announced on Tuesday include accessibility features to help those with cognitive, vision, hearing and mobility disabilities and, for the first time, new tools for those who have lost their ability to speak or are at risk of losing their voice. In the future update, users with a speech disability or a recent ALS diagnosis will be able to use their Apple device to create a digital voice that sounds exactly like them. The feature, called Personal Voice, can be trained in 15 minutes simply by reading a bunch of randomly generated text prompts, and uses on-device machine learning to ensure your data is kept private and secure. The Motor Neurone Disease Association suggests that voice banking takes an average of two hours or longer with current tech, and can cost hundreds of pounds. The Independent got a first look at the new feature in action, and the Personal Voice sounded remarkably similar to the user’s actual voice, albeit with a slightly robotic, synthesised tone. Personal Voice will be available for use with Apple’s new Live Speech feature on iOS, which will let users type what they want to say and have it spoken out loud, during in-person conversations, as well as with phone and FaceTime calls. The feature is said to work with all accents and dialects. As well as features for speech accessibility, Apple announced a cognitive disability setting for the iPhone and iPad called Assistive Access, which essentially lets you pare your device down to a few core apps of your choosing. Arranged in a grid or a list, it simplifies the user interface down to large, easily readable buttons, so you can make calls, access an emoji-only keyboard, and a fuss-free camera, without the clutter. Companies such as Doro and Jitterbug currently have a stranglehold on the “simple phone”, offering devices for senior users that strip away the bulk, and deliver a simple user interface with large high-contrast buttons that make it easy to use a phone. With Apple’s new Assistive Access feature, those with cognitive disabilities will be able to take advantage of a mainstream iPhone device and its features without having to opt for an Android device or one designed for their specific need. In addition, Apple previewed a new feature in the Magnifier app for low vision users called Point and Speak, which makes use of the camera, the LiDAR Scanner and on-device machine learning to read aloud text that a user places their finger on. Plus, the company announced Mac support for Made for iPhone hearing devices, phonetic suggestions for Voice Control users and the ability for Switch Control users to turn their switches into game controllers on the iPhone and iPad. Apple has made it a tradition over the years to unveil new accessibility features ahead of WWDC in June, where it usually reveals the next iOS update, emphasising its prioritisation of accessibility within the iOS ecosystem. While Apple didn’t state when exactly the new updates would be coming to its devices later this year, a rollout alongside iOS 17 seems likely, given previous announcements. Read More Apple iPhone 15 rumours: All you need to know, from release date to price and specs iPhone 15 to add mysterious new button on the side, Apple rumours suggest Inside Apple’s Developer Academy, where future app developers are being taught to put disability first 75% of Irish data watchdog’s GDPR decisions since 2018 overruled – report AI pioneer warns UK is failing to protect against ‘existential threat’ of machines Apple highlights work of small developers amid ongoing questions about the App Store

HIGH POINT, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2023--

Synthetic viruses could be generated through the misuse of artificial intelligence and potentially spark pandemics, a former Google executive and AI expert has warned. Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman expressed concern that the use of AI to engineer pathogens to cause more harm may lead to a scenario like a pandemic. “The darkest scenario is that people will experiment with pathogens, engineered synthetic pathogens that might end up accidentally or intentionally being more transmissible or more lethal,” he said in a recent episode of a podcast. Similar to how there are restrictions in place to prevent people from easily accessing pathogenic microbes like anthrax, Mr Suleyman has called for the means to restrict access to advanced AI technology and software that runs such models. “That’s where we need containment. We have to limit access to the tools and the know-how to carry out that kind of experimentation,” he said in The Diary of a CEO podcast. “We can’t let just anyone have access to them. We need to limit who can use the AI software, the cloud systems, and even some of the biological material,” the Google DeepMind co-founder said. “And of course on the biology side it means restricting access to some of the substances,” he said, adding that AI development needs to be approached with a “precautionary principle”. Mr Suleyman’s statements echo concerns raised in a recent study that even undergraduates with no relevant background in biology can detail suggestions for bio-weapons from AI systems. Researchers, including those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found chatbots can suggest “four potential pandemic pathogens” within an hour and explain how they can be generated from synthetic DNA. The research found chatbots also “supplied the names of DNA synthesis companies unlikely to screen orders, identified detailed protocols and how to troubleshoot them, and recommended that anyone lacking the skills to perform reverse genetics engage a core facility or contract research organization”. Such large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, “will make pandemic-class agents widely accessible as soon as they are credibly identified, even to people with little or no laboratory training,” the study said. The study, whose authors included MIT bio risk expert Kevin Esvelt, called for “non-proliferation measures”. Such measures could include “pre-release evaluations of LLMs by third parties, curating training datasets to remove harmful concepts, and verifiably screening all DNA generated by synthesis providers or used by contract research organizations and robotic ‘cloud laboratories’ to engineer organisms or viruses”. Read More China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion is likely Government urged to address AI ‘risks’ to avoid ‘spooking’ public Scientists give verdict on Harvard professor’s claim of finding materials in sea from outside Solar System Google boss says he wants to make people ‘shrug’ Why is Elon Musk obsessed with the letter X? Elon Musk ‘borrowed $1bn from SpaceX’ at same time as Twitter acquisition

Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny spent the weekend with his friends on a yacht in the popular holiday destination

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 8, 2023--

Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys has had her say on the recent controversial changes to Twitch, which has seen the streaming platform face an online backlash. Earlier this week, Twitch changed its branded content guidelines and faced immediate pushback from content creators. The changes impacted how users could advertise sponsorships as well as banning them from multi-streaming to “Twitch-like” platforms. Just a day later, Twitch revealed that they were removing the new guidelines after receiving widespread criticism. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Yesterday, we released new Branded Content Guidelines that impacted your ability to work with sponsors to increase your income from streaming. These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately,” a statement read. “Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income. We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors – you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business. “We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change.” Despite the apology, users have continued to hit out at Twitch. Pokimane has now spoken about the direction streaming could take in future, and urged users to pursue new routes to get what they deserve for their content. “I feel like because content creation is becoming so saturated [and] we often have trouble relying on the platforms we use, the future is direct to consumer paid content (patreon, onlypans, consumer goods, etc),” Pokimane wrote. “Cut out the middle man and get proper compensation for what you make/do!” she added. “Social media platforms will obviously always be used, but I think people will start looking at them as tools to gain exposure instead of being the way to make money,” the streamer went on to say. It comes after the CEO of Twitch, Dan Clancy, personally apologised during a recent stream for the abandoned changes to guidelines and said the company had “messed up”. “Let me just go straight to the point. For those who don’t know, we recently released this branded content policy. I won’t go through all the details,” he said recently. “We got a lot of negative pushback and the bottom line is we messed up. It’s on us and I apologise for that.” 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.

Polar bears may be struggling to nourish their young as melting sea ice forces some populations to fast

One very unique feature Apple unveiled at WWDC this year is one that may get