Elon Musk announced Saturday that Twitter would temporarily restrict how many tweets users could read per day, in a move meant to tamp down on the use of the...

The 2023 World Beach Games, scheduled to take place in Bali next month, have been canceled after hosts Indonesia suddenly withdrew from the tournament.

Archaeologists in Turkey are slowly unravelling the secrets of a previously unknown ancient language. And among them are revelations that long-forgotten civilisations used language to promote multiculturalism and political stability. The ancient clay tablets unearthed from archaeologists, in the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire at Hattusa, were recently found to contain the previously unknown language. Researchers had dusted off nearly 30,000 unique tablets at the scene – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – with most written in Hittite, and a few in the brand new language. The ongoing excavations have since revealed that the imperial civil service had whole departments whose job it was to research their subject peoples’ religions. Back in the second millennium BC, Hittite leaders told their officials to record religious ceremonies and other traditions of subject peoples by writing them in their respective local languages. The idea was that the traditions would be preserved and incorporated into the wider empire, in what appears to be a push towards multiculturalism. The fact that multiculturalism was such a prominent part of Bronze Age culture certainly has resonances in the modern day, where debates around immigration and multiculturalism continue to be a hot topic. So far, experts have found at least five subject ethnic groups who have had the treatment, with the latest example unearthed two months ago. It was written in a previously unknown Middle Eastern language that had been lost for up to 3,000 years. The language is being called Kalasmaic, because it would have been spoken by a subject people in an area called Kalasma in the northwest of the empire. And while only five minority languages have so far been found on the Bronze Age tablets, the reality is that there were probably at least 30, archaeologists say. Daniel Schwemer, a Wurzburg University professor who is leading the investigation into the newly discovered texts, said: “Bronze Age Middle Eastern history is only partly understood – and discovering additional clay tablet documents is helping scholars to substantially increase our knowledge.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel 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.

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 28, 2023--

New AI tools that use generative artificial intelligence to manipulate photos have rendered traditional editing tools like PhotoShop obsolete, according to experts. One recently unveiled product called DragGAN allows users to radically alter pictures – from facial expressions to the layout of a landscape – with no prior editing experience. Developed by researchers at Google and the Max Planck Institute of Informatics, DragGAN works through a system that uses multiple points that users can “drag” to create different effects without compromising the image’s realism. “RIP Photoshop,” wrote tech entrepreneur and AI commentator Lorenzo Green. “In just a few clicks, you’ll be able to edit any image exactly the way you want... The applications are endless.” Examples of applications include changing the position of the Sun in the sky, altering the size and setting of a vehicle and editing an animal’s head to change its expression and shape. A research paper detailing the technology explained how the approach can “hallucinate occluded content, like the teeth inside a lion’s mouth”, while also deforming an object’s rigidity, like the bending of a horse’s leg. “Through DragGAN, anyone can deform an image with precise control over where pixels go, thus manipulating the pose, shape, expression, and layout of diverse categories such as animals, cars, humans, landscapes, etc.,” the paper stated. Other features recently launched by generative AI companies include Stability AI’s upscaler that allows users to quadruple the resolution of an image without compromising the sharpness of the original. “Since the emergence of digital imagery, it has been nearly impossible to expand small images into larger ones without compromising the quality of the image,” the company wrote in a recent blog post detailing the advance. “Upscaling adds to popular tools by expanding small images into larger ones while maintaining – or even improving – their level of detail.” While these tools currently go beyond what Adobe’s Photoshop is capable of, the photo editing giant announced earlier this year that it is working on generative AI models. Collectively dubbed Firefly, the next-generation features will allow creators to create images, audio, video, illustrations and 3D models with simple text inputs. “Generative AI is the next evolution of AI-driven creativity and productivity, transforming the conversation between creator and computer into something more natural, intuitive and powerful,” David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Digital Media Business, said in March. He added that the tools would help customers by “increasing productivity and creative confidence... from high-end creative professionals to the long tail of the creator economy.” Read More 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity WhatsApp will let people change messages after they are sent New Twitter boss says ‘game on’ over Instagram clone rumours Meta hit with record €1.2 billion fine

The best central midfielders to sign on Football Manager 2024 for cheap, reasonable and expensive budgets. Piotr Zielinski and Andre Trindade feature.

Square Enix is considering dropping numbers from 'Final Fantasy' titles.

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 21, 2023--

Astronomers have just found out what planet in the universe is most dazzling and it is probably one you have never heard of. Looking at how much planet's clouds reflect sunlight back into space, astronomers have found a planet called exoplanet LTT9779b which reflects 80 per cent of the starlight it receives, making it the shiniest known planet in the universe. LTT9779b is slightly heavier and slightly larger than Neptune, and it is reflective because of the metallic glassy clouds that make up its atmosphere. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Imagine a burning world, close to its star, with heavy clouds of metals floating aloft, raining down titanium droplets,” co-author James Jenkins, an astronomer at Diego Portales University and CATA (Santiago, Chile), said in a statement. Vivien Parmentier, a researcher at the Observatory of Côte d’Azur (France) and co-author of the study added: "LTT9779 b can form metallic clouds despite being so hot because the atmosphere is oversaturated with silicate and metal vapours.” So there you have it. Shame it doesn't have a very catchy name. 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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(Reuters) -Verizon is planning to offer the ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery's Max streaming services for about