Author: Trent Meikle

The age of AI-generated music was inevitable from the moment Sam Altman unleashed ChatGPT onto the world. It wasn’t long before AI-generated music began running rampant on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, with the former going so far as to confirm that it had removed over 75 million “spammy tracks” from the platform. “The future of the music industry is being written, and we believe that aggressively protecting against the worst parts of Gen AI is essential to enabling its potential for artists and producers,” Spotify said in a statement. AI is for me, and not for thee To…

AI isn’t going anywhere, and the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can start taking it in our stride. That’s the thinking over at the AI Workforce Consortium, anyway, which comprises the ten biggest “industry leaders” in the field: Accenture, Cornerstone, Eightfold AI, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft, SAP, and led by Cisco. Findings from the Consortium’s most recent study, titled “ICT in Motion: The Next Wave of AI Integration,” show that “7 of the 10 fastest-growing ICT roles are AI-related,” proving just how dominant AI has become in the workforce. The report looks at 50 of the most…

The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X are officially up for pre-order, and the prices for the gaming PC handhelds are expectedly high — though only barely beating out Asus’ most recent efforts. That seems about right — with the ‘Xbox’ name only altering a few minor details from the original R18,000 Ally X. Taking your Xbox anywhere One of those is a new set of Xbox-ified arms that should increase the grip of the console. Another is the addition of a new Xbox button, which goes hand-in-hand with the new ‘Xbox full screen experience’, that Microsoft reckons…

It’s not often you come across a message in your WhatsApp chats written in a language that’s not your own. Most would automatically dismiss the message without any sort of recognition for the number or profile picture, but for WhatsApp Business owners, ignorance isn’t an option. Now, Meta has rolled out the long-awaited message translations feature to Android and iOS users alike, meaning no more rushing off to Google Translate every five minutes. It’s about sending a message en español The feature, which is apparently available to all Android and iOS users (though we’ve yet to receive the upgrade on Android),…

There’s no doubt that some of our favourite mid-range smartphones would have to be Honor’s X9a-b-c devices, mainly owing to their (mostly) affordable prices — the Honor X9c clocked in at R11,000 — and their dedication to being ultra-durable. That’s not likely to change as the Chinese company unveiled the Honor X9d today, which trumps its previous efforts with a massive 8,300mAh battery and an IP69K rating. That’s on top of the serious upgrades targeting the SoC and display, which makes us question whether the Honor X9d will still be a mid-range offering by the time it turns up on…

With PlayStation’s most recent State of Play out of the way, we finally have a rough idea of what will grace PS5 consoles (and others) over the coming weeks and months. If you happened to miss the 23h00 showing last night, fear not, because we’ve got you covered on all the biggest reveals and announcements, including a long-awaited look at Insomniac’s Wolverine. Saros https://youtu.be/XtCS5tuvCKs Kicking off the State of Play was a five-minute-long in-depth look at Saros, a spiritual successor to Housemarque’s Returnal that takes the third-person shooter roguelike elements and amps it all the way up to eleven. There’s…

Whatever your thoughts on the age of artificial intelligence (AI), at least we could all agree that ice cream is safe from the onslaught. Right? Apparently not. Magnum, the ice cream company, has announced its plans to put AI in the driver’s seat to create new flavours and develop “nutritional profiles”.  We’re not so sure about you, but Death by Chocolate and Almond were good enough for us. Ice cream’s magnum opus Leaving the success of a food company in the hands of a heartless and, more importantly, tasteless machine doesn’t seem like a surefire path to success, but that…

Disney+ just got a whole lot better. Or at least, it will. The Walt Disney Company and ESPN announced today that the pair were finally coming together in South Africa, with the R160/m subscription offering two 24-hour linear ESPN channels, covering everything from the NBA, NFL, and European football. Oh, and it’s free. “Customers will have access to the two 24-hour linear ESPN channels that showcase the very best live and studio sports programming from the US and around the world, spanning major leagues and iconic competitions,” it said. Disney’s got DStv on the ropes That goes for any Disney+ customer…

Not every WhatsApp update will be a hit. For every voice note transcription feature added, there are hundreds of other AI-powered additions, or suggestions that ads are coming to the free messenger. The latest changes for the Meta app, first spotted by WABetaInfo, thankfully, find themselves in that happy medium of usefulness. The silence is deafening Only last week did Meta issue its 2.25.26.3 beta for WhatsApp, which let users tag “@everyone” in group chats, rather than painstakingly checking names off one by one. The idea was to help save time for the moms of the group chat by gathering…

It’s a pretty rough time to be a petrol driver in South Africa as we edge towards October. The Central Energy Fund (CEF) has continued to supply the country with predictive fuel price snapshots, and the results aren’t what we’d call pretty — though they’re considerably more palatable now than they were just two short weeks ago. For the love of petrol Back then, the CEF’s early indicators foretold a nearly 25c/l price increase for petrol drivers, with diesel drivers looking forward to a roughly 17c/l decrease. The tables have turned somewhat in the weeks since, with petrol drivers facing…