A giant sinkhole home to an ancient forest in China could potentially be home to unknown species. Chinese scientists in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China discovered the 630-foot deep hole last year, with trees as tall as 130 feet. It was found by cave explorers, who took a deep dive into the forest – which surprisingly has a gap making room for sunlight for the flourishing forest. The area where such sinkholes exist is often referred to as karst landscape. They're caused when water erodes the bedrock. Zhang Yuanha a senior engineer at the Institute of Karst Geology told local media that three caves were also discovered in the forest. Chen Lixin, who led the cave expedition team has now suggested the forest could have animals unknown to science. He said: "I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in the US, sister organisation of the China Geological Survey, George Veni said: "Not only do sinkholes and caves offer refuge for life, they are also a conduit to aquifers, or deep stores of underground water. "Karst aquifers provide the sole or primary water source for 700 million people worldwide. But they're easily accessed and drained — or polluted. "They are the only types of aquifers that you can pollute with solid waste. "I've pulled car batteries and car bodies and barrels of God-knows-what and bottles of God-knows-what out of the active cave stream." 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.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, revealed its latest AI product containing quite a few familiar faces, but people are unimpressed. On Wednesday at Meta's Connect conference, Zuckerberg unveiled Meta's new AI assistant at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The digital assistant has drawn comparisons to ChatGPT, where the program generates in-depth and detailed answers to text queries. What makes it different from other AI assistants, however, is that the assistants have faces of celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner, and Mr. Beast. The various celebrities partnered with Meta to introduce its "cast of characters". For example, Billie - portrayed by Kendall Jenner - is described as your "No-BS, ride-or-die companion". Roy Choi, a Korean-American chef, plays Max, a "seasoned sous chef for culinary tips and tricks". Each character has also been given their own profile on Instagram and Facebook. Zuckerberg posted the announcement in a video to his Instagram and Facebook profiles, involving him and his family displaying their poor acting skills, as well as Kendall Jenner, Tom Brady, Charli D'Amelio, Snoop Dogg, and Dwayne Wade as their AI assistant characters. But whilst Zuckerberg seemed impressed with the new product, most viewers did not share the same sentiments. Host of Corporate Gossip podcast Becca Platsky posted her reaction to the announcement video, calling it the "cringiest AI of all time". "There's something this product gets so wrong about the way people interact with influencers," Platsky says. "And one thing is influencer snark. That drives a lot of engagement to real life influencers, but nobody's gonna snark on a robot!" She also said, "I'm also not sure how many people are going to want to give Kendall Jenner more money for doing less work." Comments under Platsky's TikTok overwhelmingly agreed. Some called it "embarrassing" whilst another user said it felt "like an SNL skit." "I feel like they think we care about celebrities more than we actually do," commented another user. The criticism didn't stop there though, with many commenting under Zuckerberg's announcement letting him now their thoughts. One user called it "depressing" and said "adding more AI to talk to on [an] everyday basis, this is just loneliness amplified." Another gave Zuckerberg the advice to "fire everyone in your staff that failed to tell you how monumentally stupid this video is." Adding, "who the hell needs to chat to AI friends that look like celebrities?" 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.

For many of us, the only way we can justify buying luxury fashion pieces is if it’s on major sale. The main issue is that those sales events don’t come around as frequently as we’d like. But what if we told you there’s a shopping destination hiding in plain sight where the deals are not only abundant, but most of what you can buy is up to 70% off? For fashion insiders, Gilt is the wink-wink, IYKYK retailer that has been secretly doling out the trendiest style pieces at generous discounts. Ever since its launch in 2007, the site’s mission has been (and continues) to be “the most engaging, off-price style destination, connecting world-class brands to the next-generation shopper.”

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former chief of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network,

Microsoft Corp. won a court’s okay to move forward with its $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard

The renewable energy unit of South Korea’s SK Inc. secured a site required to develop a $15 billion

ROME--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 15, 2023--

European Union antitrust enforcers have slapped Intel with a fresh $400 million fine in a long-running legal fight that the chipmaker appeared to have won last year

(Reuters) -Amazon Prime Video users will see ads on shows and movies from early next year unless they subscribe for

Alaskan officials recently canceled the Bering Sea snow crab season for the second year in a row —

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. agreed to acquire NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc. in an all-stock deal worth $1.9 billion that

As artificial intelligence has become a bigger part of the cultural conversation many have used its power to create art, a subject that’s been highly controversial amongst artists who accuse AI of stealing and profiting of their work. The most recent AI art to go viral is a depiction of what Da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa would look like today, and the result is… interesting. The AI version showed a lot of changes. Clearer sing, wide eyes, a bit of makeup and a lot of cleavage. Many men seemed suddenly attracted this version of Mona Lisa leaving comments such as “now I’m interested in art” and “would” about a non-existent version of the famous woman. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But many were critical of the picture. “Y’all notice how ai art is very much catered to target the male gaze…” commented one user. One user said the image was “a very funny illustration of AI bias,” and that this other Mona Lisa “makes a starker point about AI and art.” He goes on to say that, “real art challenges or re contextualises - it is an act of original thought. “Most AI tools can only please. They cannot subvert or invent unless so programmed.” Many seemed to agree with one tweet amassing over 80,000 likes for critiquing the image saying: "not this what she would like like according to porn addicts." Another user joked about what the actual Mona Lisa looks like today: The creator of the image Gianpaolo Rosa has addressed the controversy surrounding the image claiming that it was made to "honour Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece" but regonised that the sexualisation of women is "sad" and "problematic" but hopes that the image can open a dialogue about how we "perceive art and women." AI art has long faced criticism and many argue that it often shows AI's limitations, rather than its capabilities. Many say it lacks originality and creativity, often producing work after being 'fed' the real work of artists. Harry Woodgate, author and illustrator of Grandad's Camper, said to The Guardian in January: "These programs rely entirely on the pirated intellectual property of countless working artists, photographers, illustrators and other rights holders." 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.