That’s (not) gonna leave a mark. Unless…?
Artificial intelligence (AI) or more accurately, ChatGPT, may not be quite equal to that of Skynet (yet), but man, can it write a good essay. So good that it’s grown into an issue that teachers struggle to combat. One of the most effective measures involves AI-detection tools, of which ChatGPT’s makers OpenAI, have reportedly developed an in-house method to spot AI-written content with a fair amount of accuracy.
The problem? Despite the tool being “ready”, there has been much debate over whether the tool should ever see the inside of a teacher’s laptop – or remain a myth to the world. In a blog post published Sunday (and spotted by TechCrunch), OpenAI updated the world on its efforts in AI detection. “Our teams have developed a text watermarking method that we continue to consider as we research alternatives.”
The Wall Street Journal, which first unearthed OpenAI’s attempts at nerfing ChatGPT’s creations, reported that the company had looked into watermarking the text left made by ChatGPT, but that it was taking a “deliberate” (and slow) approach to that method due to “the complexities involved and its likely impact on the broader ecosystem beyond OpenAI.”
It described the technology as technically impressive, but features “important risks, including susceptibility to circumvention by bad actors and the potential to disproportionately impact groups like non-English speakers.” Whether OpenAI’s fears are genuine remains to be seen. What isn’t mentioned is that the release of such tools might lose ChatGPT a large number of users.
HBO holds onto that same energy for 2025
HBO doesn’t like to mess around. Right before the final episode of the superb House of the Dragon S2 was set to broadcast, HBO released a slew of mini-trailers for several of its upcoming shows across this year and the next – all of which are meant to illicit some nostalgia reaction in exchange for eyeballs. We’re not complaining.
Those series include the heart-wrenching The Last of Us Season 2, a frankly weird The White Lotus Season 3, taking place in Thailand, and something entirely ‘new’ series (but still set in George R.R Martin’s unfinished world of A Song of Ice and Fire) going by the name A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. And we haven’t even mentioned the admittedly brief looks into the world of Batman and Dune.
While all the rest were permitted only brief seconds-long glimpses of footage, HBO teased the world with a few extra seconds of despair (as is commonplace for Neil Druckman’s world) to begin drawing in hype ahead of the 2025 release date currently fixed to The Last of Us Season 2. We’re teased with the return of Joel, Ellie, and Tommy, with new characters played by Jeffrey Wright and, unfortunately, Catherine O’Hara.
Goodbye Game Informer, hello Wayback Machine
Anybody familiar with half-decent game journalism will have come across Game Informer, either through its overseas-focused magazine or its massive online hub. That’s no longer possible, after GameStop, the publication’s owner, announced it was shutting down Game Informer and laying off the entirety of its staff.
Oh, and the casual ‘deletion’ of 33 years of content from its website. Anyone attempting to visit Game Informer after the doom of its staff will simply direct you to a single landing page (pictured above), explaining that the shutdown had taken place, though with no actual mention of why it was removing internet history.
We can guess money is involved, though we’re not sure how removing content would benefit even a dormant site like Game Informer, which could continue to receive clicks long after its death. Whatever the reasoning, years’ worth of reviews and articles are now lost to the wind – with the internet banding together in an attempt to archive whatever it can from the site’s rotting (and possibly AI-infested) corpse.
Even worse off are Game Informer’s employees, most of which appear to have found out that they were out of a job almost as suddenly as the rest of us. Kyle Hilliard, the magazine’s content director, reckons the next issue was roughly 70% complete before it was pulled. Good stuff, GameStop.
These Tears of the Kingdom earbuds are… weird
Nintendo is weird. Despite already releasing Stuff’s personal Game of the Year for 2023 in May of last year, the Japanese company is only just now getting around to releasing merch for it. We’re only half-joking. The company has partnered with OTL Technologies to create a Tears of the Kingdom-themed set of wireless earbuds. In other words, Nintendo forwarded the logo .png, while OTL did all the rest.
Unfortunately, these are only available in the UK and Ireland – big Zelda fans they are – for £35 (roughly R800) a pop. They come in three colours (white, black, and green) and mark the latest in a years-long partnership with OTL that’s seen plenty of Nintendo’s other franchises printed onto an earbuds case.
We’re not all that big a fan of OTL Technology simply whacking the logo onto the earbuds charging case and calling it a day, but it has at least gone to the effort of sticking a simple ‘Triforce’ onto each of the earbuds. They’re described as imparting “a full, rich and clear audio experience with deep bass, smooth mids and crystal-clear highs.”
