Le Monde and Open AI sign partnership agreement on artificial intelligence – Le Monde

As part of its discussions with major players in the field of artificial intelligence, Le Monde has just signed a multi-year agreement with OpenAI, the company known for its ChatGPT tool. This agreement is historic as it is the first signed between a French media organization and a major player in this nascent industry. It covers both the training of artificial intelligence models developed by the American company and answer engine services such as ChatGPT. It will benefit users of this tool by improving its relevance thanks to recent, authoritative content on a wide range of current topics, while explicitly highlighting our news organization's contribution to OpenAI's services.

This is a long-term agreement, designed as a true partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, our teams will be able to draw on OpenAI technologies to develop projects and functionalities using AI. Within the framework of this partnership, and for the duration of the agreement, the two parties will collaborate on a privileged and recurring basis. A dialogue between the teams of both parties will ensure the monitoring of products and technologies developed by OpenAI.

For the general public, the effects of this agreement will be visible on ChatGPT, which can be described, in simple terms, as an answer engine using established facts or comments expressed by a limited number of references. The engine generates the most plausible and predictive synthetic answer to a given question.

The agreement between Le Monde and OpenAI allows the latter to use Le Monde's corpus, for the duration of the agreement, as one of the major references to establish its answers and make them reliable. It provides for references to Le Monde articles to be highlighted and systematically accompanied by a logo, a hyperlink, and the titles of the articles used as references. Content supplied to us by news agencies and photographs published by Le Monde are expressly excluded.

For Le Monde, this agreement is further recognition of the reliability of the work of our editorial teams, often considered a reference. It is also a first step toward protecting our work and our rights, at a time when we are still at the very beginning of the AI revolution, a wave predicted by many observers to be even more imposing than the digital one. We were among the very first signatories in France of the "neighboring rights" agreements, with Facebook and then Google. Here too, we had to ensure that the rights of press publishers applied to the use of Le Monde content referenced in answers generated by the services developed by OpenAI.

This point is crucial to us. We hope this agreement will set a precedent for our industry. With this first signature, it will be more difficult for other AI platforms to evade or refuse to negotiate. From this point of view, we are convinced that the agreement is beneficial for the entire profession.

Lastly, this partnership enables the Socit Editrice du Monde, Le Monde's holding company, to work with OpenAI to explore advances in this technology, anticipating as far as possible any consequences, negative or favorable. It also has the advantage of consolidating our business model by providing a significant source of additional, multi-year revenue, including a share of neighboring rights. An "appropriate and equitable" portion of these rights, as defined by law, will be paid back to the newsroom.

These discussions with AI players, punctuated by this first signature, are born of our belief that, faced with the scale of the transformations that lie ahead, we need, more than ever, to remain mobile in order to avoid the perils that are taking shape and seize the opportunities for development. The dangers have already been widely identified: the plundering or counterfeiting of our content, the industrial and immediate fabrication of false information that flouts all journalistic rules, the re-routing of our audiences towards platforms likely to provide undocumented answers to every question. Simply put, the end of our uniqueness and the disappearance of an economic model based on revenues from paid distribution.

These risks, which are probably fatal for our industry, do not prevent the existence of historic opportunities: putting the computing power of artificial intelligence at the service of journalism, making it easier to work with data in a shorter timeframe as part of large-scale investigations, translating our written content into foreign languages or producing audio versions to expand our readership and disseminate our information and editorial formats to new audiences.

To take the measure of these challenges, we decided to act in steps. The first was devoted to protecting our content and strengthening our procedures. Last year, we first activated an opt-out clause on our sites, following the example of several other media organizations, prohibiting AI platforms from accessing our data to train their generative intelligence models without our agreement. We also collectively discussed and drew up an appendix to our ethics and deontology charter, devoted specifically to the use of AI within our group. In particular, this text states that generative artificial intelligence cannot be used in our publications to produce editorial content ex-nihilo. Nor can it replace the editorial teams that form the core of our business and our value. Our charter does, however, authorize the use of generative AI as a tool to assist editorial production, under strictly defined conditions.

With this in mind, another phase was opened, dedicated to experimenting with artificial intelligence tools in very specific sectors of our business. Using DeepL, we were able to launch our Le Monde in English website and app, whose articles are initially translated by this AI tool, before being re-read by professional translators and then edited and published by a team of English-speaking journalists. At the same time, we signed an agreement with Microsoft to test the audio version of our articles. This feature, now available on almost all our French-language articles published in our app, opens us up to new audiences, often younger, as well as to new uses, particularly for people on the move. The third step is the one that led us to sign the agreement with OpenAI, which we hope will create a dynamic favorable to independent journalism in the new technological landscape that is taking shape.

At each of these stages, Le Monde has remained true to the spirit that has driven it since the advent of the Internet, and during the major changes in our industry: We have sought to reconcile the desire to discover new territories, while taking care to protect our editorial identity and the high standards of our content. In recent years, this approach has paid off. As the first French media organization to rely on digital subscriptions without ever having recourse to online kiosks, we have for several years been able to claim a significant lead in the hierarchy of national general-interest dailies, thanks to an unprecedented number of over 600,000 subscribers. In the same way, our determination to be a pioneer on numerous social media platforms has given us a highly visible place on all of them, helping to rejuvenate our audience.

The agreement with OpenAI is a continuation of this strategy of reasoned innovation. And we continue to guarantee the total independence of our newsroom: It goes without saying that this new agreement, like the previous ones we have signed, will in no way hinder our journalists' freedom to investigate the artificial intelligence sector in general, and OpenAI in particular. In fact, over the coming months, we will be stepping up our reporting and investigative capabilities in this key area of technological innovation.

This is the very first condition of our editorial independence, and therefore of your trust. As we move forward into the new world of artificial intelligence, we have close to our hearts an ambition that goes back to the very first day of our history, whose 80th anniversary we are celebrating this year: deserving your loyalty.

Le Monde

Louis Dreyfus(Chief Executive Officer of Le Monde) and Jrme Fenoglio(Director of Le Monde)

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

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Le Monde and Open AI sign partnership agreement on artificial intelligence - Le Monde

Pentagon Says It Has No Record of Reverse-Engineered Alien Technology – Futurism

That's exactly the kind of thing the Pentagon would say. No Aliens

The Pentagon has released a 63-page, unclassified report to the public, concluding that it had found no evidence of extraterrestrials, let alone the secret reverse-engineering of recovered alien technology by the US government, in its investigation of UFO sightings.

It's yet another wet blanket being thrown on recent conspiratorial and increasingly far-fetched claims.

The Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) "found no verifiable evidence that any UAP sighting has represented extraterrestrial activity," the office's acting director Tim Phillips told reporters, as quoted by ABC News.

"AARO has found no verifiable evidence that the US government or private industry has ever had access to extraterrestrial technology" or ever "illegally or inappropriately withheld" information from Congress.

The news comes after Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency David Grusch came forward last year, alleging that the government had secretly recovered alien spacecraft and even dead "pilots" inside them for decades as part of a top-secret UFO retrieval program.

The topic of "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAPs), as they've come to be known in government circles, has hit fever pitch as of late, with government organizations including NASA taking recent reports of UFO sightings more seriously. At the same time, we've seen a resurgence of conspiracy theories, claims of government cover-ups, and plenty of outlandish claims as well.

What brought the topic back into public consciousness was a series of sightings made by US military pilots over the last few decades, as seen in a number of declassified videos.

But as expected, evidence of an extraterrestrial explanation has yet to surface, despite widespread speculation that these mysterious objects were somehow breaking the laws of physics.

According to the latest report, most of the UAP sightings could be blamed on the "misidentification of ordinary phenomena and objects," and some of them may have been due to the rapid emergence of new technologies like drones.

Thanks to the internet, the topic of UFOs is proving "more pervasive now than ever," according to the report.

"Aside from hoaxes and forgeries, misinformation and disinformation is more prevalent and easier to disseminate now than ever before, especially with today's advanced photo, video, and computer generated imagery tools," the report reads.

To get a better sense of what these UAPs could be, the AARO is now working on a real-time UAP sensor technology dubbed "Gremlin," which could be deployed "in reaction to reports," as Phillips told journalists today.

Whether those efforts will end up bearing any fruit, let alone catch aliens, remains to be seen.

More on UFOs: Alien Probes May Have Already Visited Earth, Scientist Says

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Pentagon Says It Has No Record of Reverse-Engineered Alien Technology - Futurism

Russian roulette: the amazing history and further fate of the creator of Chatroulette – hi-Tech.ua

21.12.10

It was on this home computer that Andrey wrote ChatRoulette in two days

In November 2009, a new entertainment appeared on the World Wide Web Chat Roulette. This is a video chat in which you can accidentally meet anyone an American fan, Chinese schoolgirls, an Indian poet For full communication in the chat, you need a video camera through which the interlocutor can see you. Next, everything is simple. Go to the site, click on the start button and see a random interlocutor on your screen. You have a few seconds to start chatting with him, or click on the next button and see another random face (sometimes its not a face at all, but something indecent, so dont let your children on this chat roulette).

One American user, talking about his experience working on ChatRoulette (www.Chatroulette.com), found it funny that in one session he was able to contemplate several people drinking liquor; two girls who were doing makeup; many guys who immediately switched as soon as they saw that I was not a girl; several girls who passed out as soon as they saw my face, and so on.

An ordinary schoolboy Andrei Ternovsky lives with his parents in an unremarkable 16-story building in a residential area of Moscow

Andrey Ternovsky, talking about the birth of the project, said that he is an ordinary teenager and knows what his peers love. The impetus for the creation of Chatroulette was video conferencing on Skype, where he often hung out with friends, but they quickly got bored with it. As Andrei himself said: Its boring when you know exactly who youre going to talk to. Having searched Google for a video chat that would work in random mode, Andrey did not find one, and was surprised. So he sat down and in two days wrote a program for the first version of Chatroulette on his old computer. In creating the site, he was helped by his knowledge of programming (he has been on the Internet since he was 11 years old and his father taught him something).

The name was also invented spontaneously just before this, Andrei watched the famous film The Deer Hunter. In it, prisoners of war played Russian roulette. The name for the newly created service was born by itself, by analogy.

At first, the service did not have advertising as such. Andrey showed it to his friends, but they began to criticize the site and said that no one would use it. But the guy did not despair he went to several forums and asked people to test the service, which is how he got the first 20 users. Then the audience began to double every day, and people started talking about the service in the virtual world. Popularity literally fell on his head. As Andrey himself says, I woke up one morning and saw all these articles about Chatroulette. I called my mother to come and take a look. At first she was very nervous and didnt understand what was happening, then she asked why I wasnt going to school today.

Real popularity came to Chatroulette almost immediately in February 2010, the site was talked about in the media of different countries. In the USA in the program Good Morning America and in the press (New York Times, New York Magazine), in the UK on Newsnight and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In addition, the service was parodied in the cartoon South Park (season 14, episode You Have 0 Friends). And what do we see today? Now site traffic fluctuates between 0.5-1.5 million people per day (!). The numbers sound especially impressive compared to the starting 500 visitors.

Everyone finds their own way to use the site. For some it is a game, for others it is a whole unknown world, for others it is a way of meeting people. I think its great that such a simple thing can be useful to many, Andrey explained the reason for the popularity of his resource.

Media experts believe that the reason for the popularity may be the mesmerizing expectation of something unusual when you press the next button (although what you see on the screen at first can be shocking and almost crushing). Or this is entertainment of a new generation, incomprehensible to those who are accustomed to sorting information on the Internet and limiting themselves to certain boundaries.

Andrey plans to get an education, although he may put it off until later. Now he is engaged in programming, learning foreign languages and developing his brainchild

The American press is now comparing the Moscow schoolboy with nothing less than 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the Facebook network (www.facebook.com) and the youngest billionaire in the world. And popular American bloggers such as Asylum (http://theasylum.wordpress.com) and The Frisky (www.thefrisky.com) said that the site that Ternovsky came up with is their favorite since the advent of YouTube and even the holy grail of all internet entertainment.

But in the 11th grade of Moscow gymnasium No. 1519, the young talent has problems, despite the full support of his classmates and the sympathy of his teachers. The fact is that because of the site, Andrei has no time left to study, and since January he has stopped going to school. Whether he will receive a certificate is also a big question. This is due to the popularity of Chatroulette.com as soon as visitors began to arrive, the service required improvements. One day Andrei Ternovsky sat at the computer for almost two days.

So they are in no hurry to set him up as an example to other students. I think that Ternovsky is not acting very thoughtfully by betting only on this site, says one of the teachers. What if everyone gets bored with its development and people stop using this service? Who will he be then? He wont be able to get into university without a certificate. Colleagues confirm him: The boy is a very average student. He does not participate in Olympiads, much less in scientific projects. We think that among our guys there are those who will definitely become famous in the future.

Indeed, the gymnasium where Andrei studies is one of the best. A few years ago, a youth design bureau was opened here, where teachers from the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Design Bureau named after them come to give lectures. Sukhoi. Another pride of the director is the students, who last year received nine grants from the capital authorities of 30 thousand rubles each.

But can this amount be compared with the millions that can be offered to Ternovsky for the site, classmates say. They themselves learned about their friends success from the Internet: Although he is a very sociable, he is still a modest guy. He didnt boast about his success. We, of course, knew that he was making such a site; he worked on it almost all day long. He said he doesnt do it for money, but for fun.

Andrey became interested in computer programming at the age of 11, when his father gave him a computer. Mom recalls that even in elementary school, her son could give out a couple of computer terms. Computer science, as you might guess, was Andreis favorite subject in the gymnasium. Friends say that somewhere in the 7th or 8th grade, he himself made a computer virus and installed it on the school computer. True, I fixed everything later. He also helped the girls: he taught them how to hack passwords from boys email accounts. He doesnt have any bad habits, his classmates laugh.

In addition to programming, Andrey is interested in learning foreign languages. Now he is learning English and Chinese and plans to become a translator, although he has no plans to give up programming. True, Andrei is not yet thinking about finishing school according to him, he can postpone this in order to devote himself entirely to what he loves. But he is going to continue his education in any case probably, the opinion of conservative (as he himself claims) parents plays an important role here.

Like any large resource where visitors accumulate, trolls graze on Chatroulette. Often they just scare other users

Despite the fact that the rules of the resource prohibit the broadcast of indecent images, Chatroulette is often used by exhibitionists due to the lack of registration. A study of 2883 communication sessions showed that every eighth connection violates this particular point of the rules.

Andrey himself says that he wanted to create a fairly free, unmoderated resource, but some people take advantage of this and come to the site with disgusting intentions. And exhibitionism and voyeurism are prohibited in the rules. The system itself blocks violators, counting the number of times the Report button is pressed by those who do not like it.

However, this fashion continues. Some users make it a kind of sport out of counting naked people and body parts, then broadcast their statistics on the Internet.

By the way, one of the possible investors, Fred Wilson, among the shortcomings of the resource names sexual overtones, since the site is already filled with numerous exhibitionists and voyeurs, but they can show you not only naked parts of the body: someone will sing, someone will read poetry to -We urgently need to talk for life. The Internet is a huge space used by more than a billion people from all over the world. Chatroulette can become a very convenient way to travel on the Internet, allowing you to expand the possibilities of meeting and communicating between people, the businessman said in his blog (www.avc.com).

This pianist became a real star thanks to Chatroulette

Some celebrities claim to have used Chatroulette, such as Kelly Osbourne and Nicole Richie. There are those who were photographed on the site, but did not confirm their presence there for example, Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, the pop-rock group Jonas Brothers and Jessica Alba. Although, as for the Jonas Brothers, they directly stated on their Twitter that all the personalities similar to them on Chatroulette are fakes.

Additionally, on February 27 at the Soundwave festival in Melbourne, Australia, Faith No More streamed their performance live on Chatroulette.

Another user named Merton used video chat as a platform for musical improvisation. Sitting at the piano, he played music to random video interlocutors, composing the theme and lyrics as he went.

A recording of improvisations on YouTube, posted by Merton on a specially created channel PianoChatImprov (www.youtube.com/user/PianoChatImprov), collected 1.3 million views in five days. The channel itself, on which the musician promised to post more videos, has collected over 45 thousand subscribers.

Little is known about Merton. He is self-taught and has not taken any music lessons. He also claims to be not multi-instrumentalist Ben Folds, whom he bears a slight resemblance to in appearance.

Business shark Fred Wilson is still one of the most likely investors in Chatroulette if Andrey agrees to new investments

Andrey admits that he has no entrepreneurial spirit. He had no idea that the project would bring him money. But when the service began to grow rapidly, the guy had to borrow $10 thousand from his parents, although he soon repaid the debt. At first, Andrey used AdSense (a contextual advertising service developed by Google). Then I worked with Mamboo.com for several weeks. Now the service, according to its creator, brings in about $1,500 a day.

Chatroulette employs 4 programmers, although the site does not have its own office. Andrey found all of them on the Internet, and one of them works in the USA, in Virginia, and the other in Belarus.

In addition, about 200 venture capital companies from Silicon Valley contacted Andrey. ChatRoulette has attracted the attention of businessmen and investors from all over the world, including giants such as Google, Skype and Facebook. In Russia, Andreys site is monitored by local trendsetters Yandex and Digital Sky Technology (http://dst-global.com/), whose founder and president, Yuri Milner, is the only Russian entrepreneur who owns a stake in Facebook. Yu. Milner (www.snob.ru/profile/about/5240) offered Ternovsky a deal to acquire a stake in ChatRoulette.

Another promising investor, Yuri Milner, also remains out of work for now. Andrey is currently thinking about the future of his service

However, Ternovsky has serious plans for the United States. The Internet is my world, my connection with the West. I dream of opening my own company in Silicon Valley, Andrei told the German magazine Der Spiegel. A few days after meeting with Yuri Milner, who claimed that the young man had more prospects in Russia than in the United States, Andrei still applied for an American visa to go to the United States for reconnaissance. He was invited to negotiations: American business angel, first Twitter investor Fred Wilson in New York, and the eVenture fund (www.eventureinternet.com) in San Francisco.

As Andrey says, his head is full of different ideas. He doesnt know if he wants to work for a well-known company. On the one hand, I would like to live in the USA for some time, and this requires money. I would like to work and develop my project at the same time. But Im not in a hurry to decide anything yet, since it may well be that Chatroulette will feed me too. I dont have any clearly thought out plan for life. Its all rather like some kind of crazy journey, he says. At the same time, the young man names the approximate cost of his project, which his friends from Silicon Valley guided him to, $50 million.

But Andrey developed a little intrigue around possible changes to the Chatroulette concept. Moreover, he does not say unequivocally whether these will be just partial innovations or a global change in concept. But he doesnt plan to leave his brainchild, even if the fashion for it passes: Nothing lasts forever, and I understand that people will get tired of roulette. When I feel a decline, I will change and improve the concept to support fashion.

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Russian roulette: the amazing history and further fate of the creator of Chatroulette - hi-Tech.ua

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Texas and Florida cases about free speech and social media platforms – Texas Standard

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in two cases related to some of the worlds biggest social media platforms.

Considered by many to be two of the hottest free speech cases of the internet age, one case is from Texas, the other from Florida. And though there are slight differences between the two state laws being challenged here, the cases appear to center on a central question: do social media companies have the right to independently decide what content appears on their platforms, amplifying or removing content as they see fit?

The social media companies say their First Amendment free speech rights are being violated with the Texas and Florida laws. The states say those social media companies arent entitled to First Amendment free speech protection. And it may come down to whether a majority of the court sees social media as more like a newspaper or more like a telephone company.

Charles Rocky Rhodes, a professor of law at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said both of these laws are on hold and have not yet gone into effect because of pending court cases.

They were a response to some of the social media platforms de-platforming Donald Trump and other politicians in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, Rhodes said. And there was a concern from Texas and from Florida that [these politicians] were being targeted because of their conservative beliefs.

And so the idea of both of these laws was to try to keep social media platforms from banning individuals or discriminating against individuals based on the viewpoints of their speech. And it also placed some very onerous burdens on social media companies with respect to disclosure requirements of their terms and their policies with respect to data management and content, and the use policies that they would be using.

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The plaintiff in the case is NetChoice, an industry association that includes most of the big platforms we all think of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, etc.

Theyre making the play that when they are deciding which messages to amplify and which messages that they want to remove from their platform, that they are acting as the modern editor of a newspaper, and there are good precedent for the United States Supreme Court saying that a state cant tell a newspaper what to print, Rhodes said.

Theyre arguing that the same principle applies to them, that they are allowed to make editorial decisions on their private platform. And this is something that people have to keep in mind that the social media companies, as big and important as they are, are not the government. They are actually privately-owned.

Texas and Florida, however, say these companies are acting as a common carrier and therefore do not have a claim to free speech.

Theyre trying to say that social media companies are a modern equivalent of what used to be a very familiar idea of the common carrier, that they dont have the ability to discriminate with respect to their service. They have to accept everyone, Rhodes said. And the social media companies come back and say, well, common carriers were different because they never engaged in their own expressive activities.

Common carriers did sometimes transmit the speech of others, like a telegraph would be the old example, or telephone But they did not actually engage in their own expressive activities. And the social media companies are claiming that we do because we are trying to communicate messages. Were creating news feeds for individuals. Were trying to increase, of course, advertising streams that we are engaged in expressive activities in a way that your internet service provider or in a way that your telephone company is not.

As this case goes forward, Rhodes said the states arguments are rooted in political ideology.

The Texas law has a specific exemption for companies under 50 million users. So it wouldnt cover conservative sites like Parler, he said. The Florida law had exemptions for Disney and for Universal that were then taken out once Disney and Universal started criticizing Florida [political leaders]. A big part of the underlying motivation for these laws was the political concern that conservatives thought that their voices were being removed from the site and the marketplace of ideas.

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U.S. Supreme Court to hear Texas and Florida cases about free speech and social media platforms - Texas Standard

Patients’ perceptions and practices of informing relatives: a qualitative study within a randomised trial on healthcare … – Nature.com

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The Future of Cloud Computing in Business Operations – Data Science Central

The digital era has witnessed the remarkable evolution of cloud computing, transforming it into a cornerstone of modern business operations. This technology, which began as a simple concept of centralized data storage, has now evolved into a complex and dynamic ecosystem, enabling businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively than ever before. The Future of Cloud Computing holds unparalleled potential, promising to revolutionize the way companies operate, innovate, and compete in the global market.

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of various services over the Internet, including data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software. Rather than owning their computing infrastructure or data centers, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider.

Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses operate, offering a plethora of advantages that enhance efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. In this discussion, well delve into the key benefits of cloud computing, explaining each in simple terms and underlining their significance in todays business landscape.

Cloud computing significantly cuts down on the capital cost associated with purchasing hardware and software, especially in sectors like the healthcare industry. Its an economical alternative to owning and maintaining extensive IT infrastructure, allowing businesses, including those in the healthcare sector, to save on setup and maintenance costs. This aspect is particularly beneficial in cloud computing in healthcare industry, where resources can instead be allocated toward patient care and medical research.

The ability to scale resources elastically with cloud computing is akin to having a flexible and adaptable IT infrastructure. Businesses can efficiently scale up or down their IT resources based on current demand, ensuring optimal utilization and avoiding wastage.

Cloud services are hosted on a network of secure, high-performance data centers globally, offering superior performance over traditional single corporate data centers. This global network ensures reduced latency, better application performance, and economies of scale.

Cloud computing facilitates a swift and agile business environment. Companies can quickly roll out new applications or resources, empowering them to respond swiftly to market changes and opportunities.

The efficiency and speed offered by cloud computing translate into enhanced productivity. Reduced network latency ensures applications and services run smoothly, enabling teams to achieve more in less time.

Cloud computing enhances collaboration by enabling team members to share and work on data and files simultaneously from any location. This virtual collaboration space is crucial for businesses with remote teams and global operations.

Here, we explore the transformative role of cloud computing in business, focusing on 7 key points that forecast its future impact and potential in streamlining and innovating operational landscapes.

In the Future of Cloud Computing, handling enormous amounts of data will become more critical than ever. Businesses of all sizes generate data at unprecedented rates. From customer interactions to transaction records, every piece of data is a potential goldmine of insights. Cloud computing steps in as the ideal solution to manage this surge efficiently.

Cloud storage provides a scalable and flexible way to store and access vast datasets. As we move forward, cloud providers will likely offer more tailored storage solutions, catering to different business needs. Whether its for high-frequency access or long-term archiving, cloud storage can adapt to various requirements.

Another significant aspect of data management in the Future of Cloud Computing is real-time data processing. Businesses will rely on cloud computing not just for storage, but also for the immediate processing and analysis of data. This capability allows for quicker decision-making, a crucial factor in maintaining a competitive edge.

One of the most transformative impacts of cloud computing is its ability to transcend geographical boundaries. In the Future of Cloud Computing, remote and global teams can collaborate as if they were in the same room. Cloud-based tools and platforms allow team members from different parts of the world to work on projects simultaneously, share files instantaneously, and communicate in real-time.

In the Future of Cloud Computing, we can expect a rise in virtual workspaces. These digital environments simulate physical offices, providing a space where remote workers can feel connected and engaged. They offer features like virtual meeting rooms, shared digital whiteboards, and social areas, replicating the office experience in a digital realm.

Cloud computing does more than just streamline operations; it also opens doors to innovation. With cloud resources, businesses can experiment with new ideas without significant upfront investment in infrastructure. This flexibility encourages creativity and risk-taking, which are essential for innovation.

Cloud computing accelerates the product development cycle. Teams can quickly set up and dismantle test environments, prototype more efficiently, and bring products to market faster. This agility gives businesses a significant advantage in rapidly evolving markets.

The landscape of cloud computing is rapidly evolving, with new trends constantly emerging to redefine how businesses leverage this technology. In the context of the future of cloud computing, 3 key trends stand out for their potential to significantly shape the industry. Understanding these trends is crucial for businesses looking to stay competitive and innovative.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are becoming increasingly integral to cloud computing. This integration is revolutionizing how cloud services are delivered and utilized. AI algorithms are enhancing the efficiency of cloud platforms, offering smarter data analytics, automating routine tasks, and providing more personalized user experiences. For instance, cloud-based AI services can analyze vast amounts of data to predict market trends, customer behavior, or potential system failures, offering invaluable insights for businesses.

This integration not only boosts the performance and scalability of cloud solutions but also opens up new avenues for innovation across various sectors.

As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, the focus on security and compliance is intensifying. The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber threats make robust cloud security a top priority for businesses. In response, cloud service providers are investing heavily in advanced security measures, such as enhanced encryption techniques, identity and access management (IAM), and AI-powered threat detection systems.

Furthermore, with regulations like GDPR and CCPA in place, compliance has become a critical aspect of cloud services. The future of cloud computing will likely witness a surge in cloud solutions that are not only secure but also compliant with various global and industry-specific regulations. This trend ensures that businesses can confidently and safely leverage the cloud while adhering to legal and ethical standards.

Sustainability is a growing concern in the tech world, and cloud computing is no exception. There is an increasing trend towards green cloud computing, focusing on reducing the environmental impact of cloud services. This involves optimizing data centers for energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources, and implementing more sustainable operational practices.

It will likely see a stronger emphasis on sustainability as businesses and consumers become more environmentally conscious. Cloud providers who prioritize and implement eco-friendly practices will not only contribute to a healthier planet but also appeal to a growing segment of environmentally-aware customers.

The future of cloud computing is bright and offers a plethora of opportunities for businesses to grow and evolve. By staying informed and adapting to these changes, companies can leverage cloud computing to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Remember, the future of cloud computing isnt just about technology; its about how businesses can harness this technology to drive innovation, efficiency, and growth.

For businesses aiming to thrive in the ever-changing digital world, embracing the advancements in cloud computing is not just a choice but a necessity. Staying updated and adaptable will be key to harnessing the power of cloud computing for business success in the years to come.

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The Future of Cloud Computing in Business Operations - Data Science Central

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Takes on Big Tech for AI and Ad $$ – Variety

While the big question everyone wants answered about Reddit these days is whether theres an initial public offering in the works, theres a lot more the industry is wondering about this unique hub for digital conversation.

One of its co-founders, Steve Huffman, returned to run Reddit eight years ago, and in that time has presided over a period of dramatic, if somewhat turbulent, evolution for the platform. He sat down with Variety Intelligence Platform president and chief media analyst Andrew Wallenstein on Jan. 10 at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES in Las Vegas to discuss how Reddit holds its own for ad dollars against the tech juggernauts that also want to mine the companys intellectual property for AI training purposes.

Andrew Wallenstein: May I be so bold as to ask if well be seeing an IPO anytime soon? Steve Huffman: I cant talk about that topic. I have a PR-proofed sentence: We are working toward building a sustainable business.

Wallenstein: Alright, well, lets talk about that sustainable business, starting with advertising. Look at this chart (see below). Its saturated with the biggest digital players worldwide. How are you able to differentiate what youve got to compete with the Metas and Alphabets of the world? Huffman: First, I think theres a bug on your slide Reddit is misspelled as Other.

Wallenstein: Youre all that gray?! [Joking.] Huffman: Our business is growing nicely. Were outgrowing the market right now, which wed expect to do. Reddit is unique in a number of ways. I think its important to understand that Reddit is not social media. It is communities. Brands can connect the communities of people who love those brands on Reddit in a different way, and so its also a fair amount of what we would call unduplicated reach people who are on Reddit who arent on other platforms.

Wallenstein: You guys were out with some research this week talking about the power of recommendations. Huffman: The nature of Reddit is its a place where people go for recommendations or advice. Sometimes its life advice, but many times its actually products. In fact, a lot of Reddit is people talking about stuff theyre going to buy. Every second, two people ask for a products recommendation on Reddit, and they get, on average, 19 responses. I just went through this: I bought an E ink tablet, so I was deciding which one to buy for notetaking. And Reddit has tons of communities for that stuff. That sort of advice, just from other consumers, is really special and valuable. I ended up with the Supernote, for what its worth.

Wallenstein: This recommendation-centric strategy ... how does that play in this world were in now, in the end-of-the-cookie era? Huffman: On Reddit, we target with first-party data. We see your behavior, and we use that so we dont have to cookie you all over the internet and watch what youre browsing and reading and searching for and all those things. Its just your explicitly expressed interests on Reddit. And so I think the cookie transition the industry is going to go throughpresents some challenges, but the platforms that will do best will be the ones that rely on first-party data, when were one of those.

Wallenstein: The data that is in these Reddit communities is a goldmine, which is great because the tech giants want in on that. But it also is something of a control issue with these Redditors, so how do you navigate the balance there between what you can license to tech giants but also placate the Redditors? Huffman: Yeah, theres a balance there. Were learning how to walk that line and where the line is. Reddit is a valuable source of data for training potentially, and were open to licensing it for people, you know, for that purpose. For non-commercial use, its very straightforward. You can apply to Reddit and just get access to that sort of thing.

For commercial use, wed like to have some sort of arrangement or deal so we're not just subsidizing some of the largest companies on Earth. But for our user point of view, I think, that openness and that commitment, the privacy and making sure users are in control of their own identity thats kind of the bedrock of that. So no matter, you know, whether your data is on Reddit or, for example, on another platform, like a search engine, its all kind of transparent where its going and what its being used for.

Wallenstein: I would imagine, then, that you must be watching the New York Times-versus-OpenAI case with some interest. Is it relevant to the situation at Reddit? Huffman: We are watching that case, of course. Reddit is one of the largest corpuses of human-like authentic human conversation. And its not available for free, you know, to train these models. And so well work through that with all of these companies, right? Whether they want to use Reddit data or not.

But I think many IP holders share our view there, which is you have this IP, whether youre us or The New York Times or another big IP holder, and the intention is never to just give that information away wholesale for free so somebody else can use it for their gain.

I do think the industry will find a balance here over time. I think some people in the space are being more cooperative than others. But were right in the thick of it. I think we all are, and were all taking different approaches.

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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Takes on Big Tech for AI and Ad $$ - Variety

Dawn Breaks Over Earth: A Spectacular Sunrise Seen From the Space Station – SciTechDaily

Astronaut photograph of the Sun rising above Earths horizon captured from the International Space Station on September 29, 2023.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are uniquely positioned to capture striking photos of the Sun and Earth.

As the International Space Station orbited over the southern Indian Ocean, an astronaut looked eastward and captured this photo of the Sun rising above Earths horizon.

This edge-on photo of Earths limb reveals several atmospheric layers. The lowest layer, known as the troposphere, appears orange and red as these wavelengths of light are scattered by particles of dust, smoke, and smog. Directly above the troposphere is the stratosphere. This blue layer is usually cloud-free and extends as much as 50 kilometers (30 miles) above Earths surface. The region directly above the stratosphere is known as the mesosphere.

The Sunthe focal point in this imageis front and center in NASAs Heliophysics Big Year. This big year celebration began with the annular solar eclipse in October 2023 and continues with a total solar eclipse in April 2024. It concludes with the Parker Solar Probes closest approach to the Sun in December 2024.

The total solar eclipse in April 2024 will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In addition to putting on an impressive show, the eclipse offers research opportunities including the chance for scientists to study the Suns effect on Earths ionosphere. This is the region spanning from about 80600 kilometers (50400 miles) above Earths surface, overlapping with the top of the atmosphere and the beginning of space. It is where the space station and other satellites in low Earth orbit hang out, and where radio and GPS signals bounce around.

During a solar eclipse, astronauts on the space station can sometimes see the Moons shadow passing over Earth. Views of sunrises are much more common, with astronauts witnessing as many as 16 sunrises every 24 hours.

Astronaut photograph ISS070-E-1178 was acquired on September 29, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 170 millimeters. The image was provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 70 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public and to make those images freely available on the Internet.

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Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel may have life paths that actually matter – PCGamesN

Cyberpunk 2077s life paths are so different they seem as if theyll have a profound impact on your character and the game as a whole. But the further you push into the game you more realise they dont actually matter. According to a CD Projekt Red narrative developer, the sequel could do better.

Did you spend upwards of half an hour mulling over whether your Cyberpunk 2077 character was going to be a corpo, street kid or so on? I know I did, but the disappointing thing is that your background has next to no impact on this futuristic RPG.

If you choose to be a corpo, you start the game off in a bathroom with a background character who, for a while at least, the internet suspected was Elon Musk. Play as a nomad and your quest begins in the wasteland. But pretty soon all those paths converge, with no real significant impact.

However, according to CD Projekt Red narrative developer Philipp Weber. the sequel may put that right. As reported by IGN, Weber appeared on the companys own official AnsweRED Podcast and addressed the life paths lack of impact.

I think this is a thing where, in the future, thats as an example something we would like to improve. Since I do think we gave a promise there that maybe in the end we did not really sell, he explained.

That wasnt the only problem Cyberpunk 2077 had at launch but CD Projekt Red has built on the game to deliver something that, for the most part, lives up to its marketing. Adding branching paths, however, isnt easily doable.

Right now, Weber is working on the next The Witcher game so if he does end up on Cyberpunk 2078, or whatever the sequel ends up being called, it could be a while before its released. But its absolutely an opportunity for CD Projekt Red to deliver on the promise of life paths.

If youre tackling the game, here are the best Cyberpunk 2077 mods and the best Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 builds. Or if youve yet to pick it up, get nearly 50% off Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition.

Remember to follow us onGoogle Newsfor even more daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab ourPCGN deals trackerto save big on some bargains.

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Cyberpunk 2077's sequel may have life paths that actually matter - PCGamesN

PlayStation Plus Just Quietly Added the Most Captivating Cyberpunk RPG – Inverse

Like putting pineapple on pizza, sometimes it takes mixing two things that absolutely werent meant to go together to discover something great. Thats the case with Shadowrun, except in this case pineapple is magic-using elves, and pizza is a cyberpunk sci-fi RPG. Debuting in 1989 as a tabletop RPG with the most 80s cover art possible, Shadowrun has gotten a few video game adaptations in the decades since. But none captures its ludicrous-sounding but somehow great blend of gritty sci-fi and fantasy as well as Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun Trilogy, now available on PlayStation Plus.

Released between 2013 and 2015, Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Shadowrun: Hong Kong is a trilogy only in the loosest sense of the word. Yes, there are three of them, but they all tell completely unconnected, standalone stories. Each spotlights a different important city in the futuristic world of Shadowrun: Seattle, Berlin, and you guessed it Hong Kong.

Youll spend a lot of time in combat in Shadowrun, but its the characters that make it a must-play.

To get it out of the way: if you start playing Shadowrun Returns and its not clicking, you might just want to skip ahead. Shadowrun Returns certainly has its charms, and it deserves credit for getting Harebrained Schemes trilogy going, but the other two games in the series are massive upgrades.

Compared to its predecessor, Shadowrun: Dragonfall has a better interface and changes that make combat a better experience, but where it really shines is in its story. In Shadowrun Returns, youre a lone agent investigating your friend's disappearance, recruiting generic NPCs to help along the way. From the very start of Dragonfall, youre embedded in a team. The game starts in the middle of a mission that goes horribly wrong, leaving you in charge of a ragtag gang of mercenaries. While the central mystery of Dragonfall is already far more captivating than the plot of Shadowrun Returns, its the characters that really set it apart.

A mysterious street medic with surgically implanted claws, your old boss terrifyingly devoted best friend, a punk rocker turned anti-fascist shaman these are the core members of your crew, and each has a deep personal mission to play through, reams of interesting dialogue throughout the game, and a hell of a lot of baggage.

Your companions skills come into play during missions, so bringing a hacker along can help you shut down turrets, and a character who used to work for a megacorp might be able to talk you past security. But the main cast is so compelling that I constantly found myself leaving behind more useful characters to make room for the ones I just wanted to spend more time with.

Shadowruns version of Hong Kong is gorgeous and gritty.

Maybe its because it has a tough act to follow, but Shadowrun: Hong Kong isnt quite the step up that Dragonfall was. Its story and characters are still wonderful, but theyre not quite as memorable as in the previous game though it also features a shaman who keeps pet rats in her coat pockets, so thats pretty hard to beat.

But its an unquestionable improvement when it comes to its art. Berlin and Hong Kong are both fascinating settings, but in Shadowrun: Hong Kong, the city is brought to life with the series most vibrant art. Every corner of its gigantic maps is filled with detail, from the pulsing neon of shopping districts to the supernatural gloom of the walled city.

The Shadowrun games captivating characters and stories are their greatest strengths, but its tactical combat is uniformly excellent as well. Given its sci-fi and fantasy mashup premise, you can use a huge array of abilities in battle. Having one party member summon a water spirit from a rain puddle while another hacks into a security door and a third picks off enemies with a katana feels a bit like dumping out a box of random action figures to play with as a kid. But its as fun as it is jarring. While theres not as much room for character customization and creative skill use as you get in some other RPGs, the relatively straightforward combat is nonetheless satisfying.

Even when things are more or less on rails, the Shadowrun games do a great job of letting you direct the story. Decisions you make in missions whether to help a side character or steal corporate secrets for yourself wont dictate the greater plot, but they offer a way to develop your characters place in the world.

And in Shadowrun, the world is at least as interesting as any character. Megacorporations run by dragons, deals with demons, and spirits haunting the internet are all part of its strange tapestry, and your characters are caught in the middle. As with much of great cyberpunk, the Shadowrun Trilogy absolutely sells the us against the world mentality of its scrappy band of anti-heroes. And though its grim world often feels like its just about to crush your gang, surviving job by job with them is a thrill every time.

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PlayStation Plus Just Quietly Added the Most Captivating Cyberpunk RPG - Inverse

A Short History of Pepe the Frog Memes – The Daily Dot

Pepe started his life as a laid-back cartoon frog but memes transformed him into an alt-right villain. The evolution of this cultural phenomenon is emblematic of the relationship between online culture and politics. Lets take a deeper dive into the history of how this frog went from the protagonist of the comic Boys Club, to an online antagonist.

Originally created by Matt Furie in 2005 for the comic Boys Club, Pepe, an anthropomorphic green frog, began his journey as an innocent cartoon character armed with the catchphrase, Feels good, man, that captured the essence of his easy-going nature.

Pepes transition into a meme began around 2008, when his image started gaining traction on platforms like MySpace, Gaia Online, and 4chan. Pepe evolved into various iterations, including Sad Frog, Smug Frog, Angry Pepe, and Feels Frog. Each variant reflected a different emotional state or reaction, making Pepe a versatile character for online expression.

By 2015, Pepe had become a staple on sites like 4chan and Tumblr, with rare Pepes circulating as virtual trading cards.

Stupid realisation and theory about Pepe the Frog and NFTs

However, the characters widespread popularity took a darker turn when Pepe the Frog was co-opted by the alt-right movement in 2015 and 2016.

The metamorphosis of Pepe intoa symbol of hate and bigotrywas alarming and led to itsinclusion in the Anti-Defamation Leagues hate symbol database. However, it was noted that not all Pepe memes were hate-based. This appropriation of Pepe caused distress to creator Matt Furie,who even took legal actionagainst the misuse of his frog cartoon.

In 2019, Pepes image was again appropriated as a symbol of the protests in Hong Kong. Unlike its use as a representation of hate in the United States, Pepes image in Hong Kong was not tied to alt-right ideologies, something Furie openly welcomed.

The reappropriation of Pepes image as a symbol of resistance against an oppressive state showed how the meme continued to be usurped by various online communities, constantly shifting the meaning of this anthropomorphic frog.

As Pepe memes proliferated, the character appeared in various contexts, sometimes even devoid of any political connotation. From Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj tweeting Pepe memes, to Donald Trumps use of a Presidential Pepe, the frog permeated various levels of pop culture and social media. However, some did not consider these newer uses as a full reclamation of the character from its alt-right connotations.

The story of Pepe the Frog is a testament to the ability of the internet to confer new meaning on characters and images. What started as a comic character became a globally recognized meme, a symbol of political movements, and a contentious icon appropriated for hateful causes. But Pepes journey highlights the fluid nature of digital symbols and their ability to embody vastly different meanings to different groups of people.

Pepes evolution also raises questions about the ownership and transformation of digital content in an age where memes can become powerful tools for communication and expression.

While Pepes journey has been tumultuous, it underscores the dynamic nature of internet culture and its impact on society. Pepe remains a potent symbol in the ever-evolving landscape of online expression, embodying the whimsical and controversial aspects of digital communication.

*First Published: Dec 13, 2023, 9:00 am CST

Kahron Spearman is the community manager for the Daily Dot and Nautilus magazine. Hes also a journalist, copywriter, and host of Discovery with Kahron Spearman on KAZI 88.7.

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A Short History of Pepe the Frog Memes - The Daily Dot