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Google admits AI viral video was edited to look better

Google admits AI viral video was edited to look better

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Google admits AI viral video was edited to look better

A video showcasing the capabilities of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) model which seemed too good to be true might just be that.

The Gemini demo, which has 1.6m views on YouTube, shows a remarkable back-and-forth where an AI responds in real time to spoken-word prompts and video.

In the video’s description, Google said all was not as it seemed – it had sped up responses for the sake of the demo.

But it has also admitted the AI was not responding to voice or video at all.

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In a blog post published at the same time as the demo, Google reveals how the video was actually made.

Subsequently, as first reported by Bloomberg Opinion, Google confirmed to the BBC it was in fact made by prompting the AI by “using still image frames from the footage, and prompting via text”.

“Our Hands on with Gemini demo video shows real prompts and outputs from Gemini,” said a Google spokesperson.

“We made it to showcase the range of Gemini’s capabilities and to inspire developers.”

In the video, a person asks a series of questions to Google’s AI while showing objects on the screen.

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For example, at one point the demonstrator holds up a rubber duck and asks Gemini if it will float.

Initially, it is unsure what material it is made of, but after the person squeezes it – and remarks this causes a squeaking sound – the AI correctly identifies the object.

However, what appears to happen in the video at first glance is very different from what actually happened to generate the prompts.

The AI was actually shown a still image of the duck, and asked what material it was made of. It was then fed a text prompt explaining that the duck makes a squeaking noise when squeezed, resulting in the correct identification.

In another impressive moment, the person performs a cups and balls routine – a magic trick where a ball is hidden underneath one of three moving cups – and the AI is able to determine where it moved to.

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But again, as the AI was not responding to a video, this was actually achieved by showing it a series of still images.

In its blog post, Google explained that in fact it told the AI where a ball was underneath three cups, and showed it images which represent cups being swapped.

Google clarified that the demo was created by capturing footage from the video, in order to “test Gemini’s capabilities on a wide range of challenges”.

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

 Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust jumped 2.4% on Monday after the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of bitcoin saw its first day of inflow since January.

The move marks a major milestone for GBTC, which has seen $17.46 billion in withdrawals since it converted from a trust to an easily tradable ETF in January, due to the higher fees it charges compared with rivals.

Some of the outflows were also tied to the wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry, as companies that collapsed in the last two years pulled money out of the fund to repay their creditors.

GBTC saw inflows of $63 million on Friday, according to investment management firm Farside Investors. It currently manages $18.08 billion in assets, according to its website.

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However, its position as the biggest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM) has come under threat from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which manages $16.91 billion, according to its website.

Grayscale said in March that it would seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to spin off a portion of GBTC’s assets into a new, lower-fee Bitcoin Mini Trust. The company has yet to decide on the fees for the Mini Trust.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which were approved by the SEC in January following a decade of rejection, provide investors with bitcoin exposure without the need to directly hold the cryptocurrency. 

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China’s top engineering and rail design experts have exciting news: they’re planning to build the country’s very first hyperloop train line!

This futuristic project will connect two bustling cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, spanning a distance of 150km (about 93 miles).

What makes this project so special? Well, it’s all about speed! The hyperloop train will travel inside a special vacuum tunnel, allowing it to reach mind-blowing speeds of up to 1,000km/h (that’s about 621mph!).

Before choosing the Shanghai-Hangzhou route, the experts carefully evaluated several options.

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They considered factors like economic potential, population density, and existing transport infrastructure. In the end, they decided that connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou would bring the most benefits to the region.

This project is a big deal for China, and it’s being led by some of the country’s top engineers and scientists.

They’re excited about the potential for this hyperloop train to revolutionize transportation and boost economic growth in the area.

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth's surface

There’s all sorts of intriguing stuff hidden beneath the Earth’s surface, from massive oceans to water leaking directly into the planet’s core – the latest discovery, though, might be the most interesting of all.

New research has pointed to fascinating findings close to the Earth’s core which experts are claiming to be remains from an ancient planet.

The planet, named Theia, could have collided with our planet billions of years ago and evidence of this event is supposedly found within two blobs far beneath the surface.

These blobs have fascinated the scientific community since they were first discovered back in the 1980s. These structures are the size of entire continents and around twice the size of the moon.

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They’re located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and due to the high iron content of these structures, seismic waves pass through them at a slower rate – leading to them being labelled “large low-velocity provinces” (LLVPs).

A study into these LLVPs was published at the end of 2023 in the journal Nature and featured new findings from Caltech researchers.

Most significantly, the study argues that these structures, which have divided opinion for decades, are actually the remains of Theia, which collided with Earth billions of years ago.

This collision caused the creation of the moon, and the new study argues that the planet was absorbed into the Earth and formed the LLVPs.

“Seismic images of Earth’s interior have revealed two continent-sized anomalies with low seismic velocities, known as the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), in the lowermost mantle,” researchers wrote.

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“The LLVPs are often interpreted as intrinsically dense heterogeneities that are compositionally distinct from the surrounding mantle.”

They added: “Here we show that LLVPs may represent buried relics of Theia mantle material (TMM) that was preserved in proto-Earth’s mantle after the Moon-forming giant impact.

“Our canonical giant-impact simulations show that a fraction of Theia’s mantle could have been delivered to proto-Earth’s solid lower mantle.”

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