As console fans are gearing up for the release of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro, the rumor mill continues to spin as further predictions and ‘leaks’ come out of the woodwork.

Last Friday (Mar. 15) Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson confirmed that ‘the leaked PS5 Pro specs leaked earlier today are real.’

This has been further determined as being real by IGN today (Mar. 18).

They cite anonymous sources who saw that the leaked documentation from the YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead is legit, as it’s said to be from a PlayStation developer portal that was sent out to third-party developers.

These documents suggest the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature the following:

• Rendering 45% faster than the PlayStation 5

• 2-3x Ray-tracing (4x in some cases)

• 33.5 Teraflops

• PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling) upscaling/antialiasing solution

• Support for resolutions up to 8K is planned for future SDK version

• Custom machine learning architecture

• AI Accelerator, supporting 300 TOPS of 8-bit computation / 67 TFLOPS of 16-bit floating point

These largely point to improvements to the GPU, with the CPU also seeing an upgrade as it could have the addition of a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode.’

The standard PS5 offers 10.28 teraflops, with the Pro version expected to be considerably more.

Rumors from over the last few months point towards a focus on image quality too. Gaming insider Tom Henderson wrote on Key to Gaming that he had heard the new console would “[target] improved and consistent FPS at 4K resolution” and a “new performance mode” for 8K resolution…”

When is the PlayStation 5 Pro release date?

Sony hasn’t yet confirmed or announced a date, but that hasn’t stopped people from guessing.

Generally, the rough window for a release date is thought to be September 2024. However, the new leak could line up with the Pro version being available from the holiday season.

The second half of 2024 would make sense with the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025.

Featured Image: Photo by Ahmad Mohammadnejad on Unsplash

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As Reddit works on plans to go public this March, the Federal Trade Commission launches an inquiry into its AI content licensing practices.

The social media company disclosed that they received a letter from the FTC on March 14, via an amendment to their IPO filing.

The document goes on to explain the situation and the details: “For example, on March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s staff is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models.

“Given the novel nature of these technologies and commercial arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has expressed interest in this area.”

They go on to say that they “do not believe that we have engaged in any unfair or deceptive trade practices.”

The letter sent to Reddit indicates that Federal Trade Commission staff are interested in meeting with the team to learn more about plans. The FTC is also said to intend to request information and documents as its inquiry continues.

In a press release published on Feb 22, an agreement between Google and Reddit was announced. The data from the social media platform is to be shared with Google to train the tech giant’s AI model, with Google now having access to Reddit’s Data API.

Reddit gears up for going public this month

In the same month that the mega Google deal was announced, Reddit also shared news of an initial public offering of its stock. They are seeking a valuation of up to $6.4 billion.

As detailed in a corporate filing, the company wants to sell around 22 million shares, priced between $31 and $34 each, raising up to $748 million in the process.

According to the NASDAQ calendar showing public offerings, Reddit should be live on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21.

Featured Image: Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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The Maryland House has passed an iGaming authorization bill which will now proceed to the Senate. If passed, Maryland could become the latest state to legalize online casinos.

The House voted 92-43 to pass the HB 1319 ‘Internet Gaming – Authorization and Implementation’ bill, two days before the deadline.

Now, the Senate has less than a month to pass the bill with the general assembly set to adjourn on April 8.

The HB 1319 plans would allow for up to 30 wagering licenses to be issued across the state, with each license lasting for five years and an initial application fee of $1 million.

Three types of licenses could be available for operators, including licenses by right for brick-and-mortar casinos, Class B wagering facility licenses, and competitively-awarded licenses.

This comes after House leaders at the Maryland General Assembly shared a $1.3 billion plan on Friday (Mar. 15) for new state revenues to pay future education and transportation costs.

The Old Line State is expected to have the best shot at passing an online casino bill this year. Maine is the only other state that is currently considering legalizing it.

Reactions to possible online casino bill in Maryland

There are concerns about the potential loss of jobs and a decline in retail casino revenue.

In February, SBC Americas reported that Sage Policy Group CEO Anirban Basu expressed his opinion to the committee: “There’s cannibalization with respect to casinos, but that’s where the issue starts…

“Because when you’re spending money on iGaming that’s when you do not have to spend elsewhere in the economy.”

Studies have been carried out to see how this could impact on the state and its residents.

One study suggests that retail casino revenue could take a drastic hit if iGaming is to be implemented. While another, by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, dismisses these claims and suggests iGaming could boost revenue for brick-and-mortar operators.

Featured Image: Photo by Terry Granger on Unsplash

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Apple quietly acquired Canadian artificial intelligence startup DarwinAI earlier this year, adding dozens of the company’s staffers to its AI division.

Bloomberg News reported the under-the-radar purchase on Thursday (Mar. 14) with Apple yet to publicly announce the news. They did tell the US news outlet that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.”

One of the big players in the Ontario-based company, Alexander Wong, has joined Apple as a director in its AI group as part of the deal. He helped to build the startup and works as an AI researcher at the University of Waterloo.

DarwinAI is the latest in a long list of similar acquisitions as Apple reportedly purchased 32 AI startups last year.

What is DarwinAI?

DarwinAI is best known for developing AI technology that can visually inspect components during the manufacturing process. They’re said to have served customers in a range of industries.

Founded in 2017, the company said its initial focus was on disrupting ‘the electronics manufacturing industry by improving the efficiency of Printed Circuit Board Assembly production through their ground-breaking technology.’

In 2022, they raised more than $15 million across six funding rounds. They received investment from 12 investors, including the likes of Honeywell Ventures and Inovia Capital, amongst other venture capital firms.

In a press release following the announcement of a funding round in December 2022, one of the co-founders said the “transformation is just beginning,” as they planned to raise money to help continue building advanced features.

Why did Apple buy DarwinAI?

It’s no secret that Apple is currently trailing behind other industry titans who have already made the steps into the world of AI.

The iPhone maker is now playing catch-up, with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook promising that Apple will “break new ground” in AI this year. And the iPhone could soon have Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) to power new features, following chats between Apple and the search giant.

Its acquisition is likely in line with their focus and attention being on artificial intelligence, to keep up with others in the industry. 

In September of 2023, it was reported by The Information that the multinational corporation is investing millions of dollars per day into artificial intelligence, with work ongoing across multiple AI models over several teams.

Extensive work seems to have been carried out in the background at Apple in terms of bringing AI to the forefront, with an announcement expected around June time ahead of iOS 18 in September. 

Featured Image: Via Ideogram

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Sony Group Corporation has allegedly put a stop to production of its PSVR2 headset, due to a backlog of unsold units.

The news came from an article by Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki who claims that sales of the product have slowed ‘progressively since its launch and stocks of the device are building up.’

Citing unnamed sources who are ‘familiar with its [the firm’s] plans,’ Sony has apparently produced ‘well over two million units of the product launched in February of last year.’

This comes just over a year after the PlayStation VR2 was officially launched, catapulting Sony as one of the front runners in the virtual reality gear market. The device, priced at $549.99, allows users to explore reality gaming with PlayStation VR2 Sense technology.

In the Bloomberg article, Macquarie analyst Yijia Zhai offers a reason for the potential lack of take-up: “The high price of VR hardware acts as the main hurdle for its expansion,”

“Currently, there are limited games that support VR devices, and that will also lead to lack of motivation for players to purchase VR hardware. This limited content also has a reason – the development cost for VR games is substantially higher than normal titles.”

Sony has not yet confirmed or denied the halting of production and it is expected that they’re continuing to work on expanding the PSVR2 headset range.

Reality of the video game industry

The Tokyo-based technology giant has faced some challenges recently, as it announced plans to cut around 900 jobs within its PlayStation unit and shut down a London-based studio in late February 2024.

These layoffs affected in-house studios like Guerrilla Games which worked on creating an exclusive game for the headset from its popular Horizon series.

Sony is not alone, as both Microsoft and Tencent-owned Riot Games also underwent significant layoffs in recent months due to a slow recovery in the gaming industry.

PlayStation 5 Pro expected launch in September

Although the PSVR2 headset may not be performing as well as the company hoped, that isn’t stopping them from gearing up ahead of the PlayStation 5 Pro release.

An exact date isn’t yet known, but console fans are trading rumors about a possible date in September of this year. Several gaming tech insiders seem to agree about this rough window which would line up logically with the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025.

It’s reported by industry sources via the YouTube channel RedGamingTech that the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature eight-core Zen 2 CPUs (clocking in at 4GHz), an RDNA 3 GPU at 2.8 GHZ, and 16GB of 18,000 MT/s GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 587 GB/s.

Much like everything else, the price isn’t yet known either. In 2016, when Sony released a Pro console after a Slim version, the Pro version cost $100 more. By that logic, the PlayStation 5 Pro could potentially be in the region of $599.99.

Featured Image: Photo by Triyansh Gill on Unsplash

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The iPhone could soon have Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) to power new features, following chats between Apple and the search giant.

According to a Bloomberg report, the two companies are reportedly in ‘active negotiations to let Apple license Gemini, coming to the iPhone software this year.’

Gemini is Google’s suite of generative AI tools, including chatbots and coding assistants. Over the years, Google is said to have paid Apple billions of dollars annually to make its search engine the default option in the Safari web browser on the iPhone and other devices.

A partnership between these two tech titans could give them a huge edge over the industry, but it seems more has to be done as the report says: “the two parties haven’t decided on the terms or branding of an AI agreement or finalized how it would be implemented.”

Apple has recently held discussions with OpenAI too, which is one of Gemini’s biggest competitors in the industry.

Neither Apple nor Google have confirmed or denied the potential for a collaboration.

Apple to focus on AI in the future

Coming in September 2024, Apple’s update – in the form of iOS 18 – is expected to be heavily focused on the use of AI.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes this could be a ‘relatively groundbreaking’ software update with ‘major new features and designs.’ Although the rumors have been circulating for the last few months, the Silicon Valley-based company hasn’t yet offered much in the way of sneak peeks.

This comes after news around Apple’s own testing of its large language model named Ajax. In 2023 we reported how the chatbot, built using Apple’s own framework named “Ajax,” is a large language model that utilizes AI to generate human-like responses. 

It’s believed that Ajax GPT was created for internal use and not much else has been heard about the tool over the last few months.

Featured Image: Via Ideogram

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TikTok has exploded in popularity since its inception, so much so other platforms like Instagram and YouTube have taken inspiration from their short-form content style.

Now though, it seems that TikTok may be looking at a future of photos like the other apps that are already out there.

This has been found through a blogger who has taken a deep dive into the app’s APK.

On Mar. 11, TheSpAndroid found a new ‘TikTok Photos’ platform in the latest available version (33.8.4).

While photos are already a feature on the video-sharing tool, in a slideshow format, this evidence would suggest a move to a completely new and separate app, aptly named ‘TikTok Photos.’

In the code unveiled by the Android-focused website, phrases like ‘your post has been shared to TikTok Photos’ and ‘reach other like-minded people who enjoy photo posts.’

More strings of text were found: ‘TikTok Photos will be launched soon, we hope to help you gain new audiences in the new app.

‘If the switch is on, we’ll sync your public photos to the new app, whether you close the pop-up or not.’

Although the data points to an imminent release, the Chinese-based social media hasn’t yet confirmed or announced any details relating to a new app or image-related features.

Over 170 million users could soon be banned from TikTok

The app’s creator has bigger things on their mind this week as The House of Representatives is voting today (Mar. 13) on the future of TikTok in the U.S.

Concerned over data and privacy issues, this vote is the first step in the process to outright ban the app.

If passed, it will then need the Senate to approve the Bill and Joe Biden to sign it. After, the creators Bytedance will have six months to divest itself.

TikTok were approached for comment.

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Each year, the Pulitzer Prize award is given to those in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition for their achievements.

This year, for 2024, amongst the 45 journalists who have been selected as finalists, five people’s entries are AI-powered.

While the extent of the use of artificial intelligence in their submissions isn’t yet known, it is confirmed that the technology was used at various stages of their reporting processes.

Pulitzer Prize administrator Marjorie Miller told Nieman Lab that the board first began discussing how they’ll react to AI early last year: “AI tools at the time had an ‘oh no, the devil is coming’ reputation…”

Miller goes on to suggest the board’s approach from the beginning has always been exploratory and they’ve never considered restricting this as it could discourage newsrooms from ‘engaging with innovative technology.’

Often regarded as the highest award and honor in journalism, the Pulitzer Prize has now added a disclosure requirement for all journalism entrants. They must now share the use of AI during the process of researching, reporting, or telling their submissions.

More details about this usage may well be released when the finalists and winners are announced on May 8, 2024.

How the journalism industry is reacting to AI usage

As this technology becomes more prominent across different sectors, it’s understandable that award organizations and publishers are eager to put appropriate policies in place.

The George Polk Awards are considering how they’ll adapt rules for technology. Awards curator John Darnton spoke with Nieman Lab about his opinion: “If [generative] AI is an essential part of the whole project, I would look askance at it as an entry…

“Most investigative projects rely on some kind of moral judgment. And I wouldn’t trust [generative] AI to make that judgment.”

In July of 2023, the Associated Press signed a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, to share access to select news content.

This was one of the first deals to be signed between an artificial intelligence firm and a major news company.

Featured image: Ideogram

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You can officially test if you’d make it working in the highest level of intelligence, as a top UK security agency releases a puzzle to appeal to potential recruits.

The opaquely named Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is a subsidiary of the country’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and it acts as an intelligence and security organization responsible for providing information assurance to the government and armed forces for the United Kingdom. The U.S. equivalent is the National Security Agency (NSA).

Posting on LinkedIn for the first time, the GCHQ has asked people if they’ve ‘got what it takes to be an intelligence analyst’ as they aim to reach possible new team members.

They worked with professional Manchester-based artist Justin Eagleton to create a puzzle with a hidden message.

Within the artwork are 13 elements that represent letters of the alphabet. All you have to do is identify those letters and assemble them to find the message.

Speaking further on the social media post, the team at GCHQ explain more about the requirement of having strong lateral-thinking skills: “Problem-solving is at the heart of what we do.

“Our people tackle the most complex of challenges every day to help keep the country safe. It’s only possible by bringing together a mix of minds – people who can see things differently or think outside the box.”

GCHQ is hiring on LinkedIn

Also in their LinkedIn debut is an introductory video by director Anne Keast-Butler who expands on their day-to-day and why they’ve chosen now to join the professional networking site: “So we’re on a journey to make sure that we reach out to and connect to people who’ve never thought of working with us…

“And I hope you’ll be inspired to think about careers with us. If you like problem-solving, if you’re great in teams, if you know your tech, if you just see the bigger picture and want to make a difference. These are all skills and qualities that we look for in the people who work with us.”

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After over a decade of dormancy, 2K has officially spoken out about the release date of their upcoming tennis game ‘TopSpin 2K25.’

Announced via X yesterday (Mar. 12) the team behind the revival issued a sneak peek trailer of the gameplay, along with saying: ‘You’ve waited a long time for this, and so have we. #TopSpin2K25 4.26.24’

You've waited a long time for this, and so have we. #TopSpin2K25. 4.26.24 @serenawilliams @rogerfederer pic.twitter.com/MRzR7ZAmyj

— #TopSpin2K25 (@topspin2k) March 12, 2024

They went on to tag two tennis legends in the post, Serena Williams and Roger Federer. Both of whom will be featured in the ‘Grand Slam Edition’ too.

There’s a roster of over 24 playable pros and you can either step onto the court solo or with a friend in multiplayer mode.

Speaking via a press release on the 2K Newsroom, the gaming director at Hangar 13 Remi Ercolani said: “It has been several years since the last iteration of TopSpin and we’re proud to introduce TopSpin 2K25 while the popularity of tennis is at its peak,”

“Topspin 2K25 captures the spirit and the culture of the sport, offering deep personalization and enhanced gameplay.

“The team and I are proud to share TopSpin 2K25 with the world and look forward to seeing players enjoy the game.”

There are four variations of the game, spanning from the ‘Standard Edition,’ ‘Standard Cross-Gen Edition,’ ‘Deluxe Edition,’ and the ultimate ‘Grand Slam Edition.’

Fans respond to TopSpin 2K25 news

Fans are set to be excited as the last game was released in 2011, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation. Now, it will be available for those on digital, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

The responses to the X post, confirming the scheduled worldwide release on Friday, April 26, are filled with excitement.

The King Is Back

— ꪜꪖꪀ (@VanTeamOM) March 12, 2024

One user thanked the team: ‘thank you 2K for allowing us to feel the top spin energy after so many years ! we missed u.’

thank you 2K for allowing us to feel the top spin energy after so many years ! we missed u

— . (@BestSS33) March 12, 2024

Others respond with ‘this is best news ever man!’ and ‘LOOKS AMAZING CAN’T WAIT.’

Although, amongst this is some skepticism from customers of the previous game as they worry that Top Spin 4 ‘looks better.’

Top Spin 4 looks better I'm just gonna be honest after watching some gameplay on YouTube

— tgc (@thegamechanging) March 12, 2024

Some users have taken to critique the characters leg positions too ahead of the upcoming release date.

On the serve of Alcaraz, legs position are not good and the ball is thrown too sideways (Tiafoe too). @topspin2k pic.twitter.com/pnj2wxFSpX

— Jules (@littlebigzouzou) March 12, 2024

Featured image: Via X from 2K

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As the betting and entertainment business continues to boom in the US, Caesars Entertainment and the National Hockey League (NHL) announced an extension of their partnership.

Announced through a press release last Thursday (Mar. 7) the duo confirmed a new multi-year contract that retains Caesars’ status as a Sports Betting and Gaming Partner of the NHL.

For the first time, the Caesars Digital brand will also have access to League-owned intellectual property to build and promote NHL-branded iCasino games for its online platforms in North America.

The president of Caesars Digital elaborates on the news: “With the defending Stanley Cup Champions residing in our home city of Las Vegas, we have a front-row seat to the excitement and passion that the NHL provides…

“This partnership extension with the League continues our efforts to build on that fan passion by bringing unforgettable experiences to all of our valued customers across both sports betting and online casino.”

NHL Vice President of business development Jason Jazayeri added: “We look forward to the next chapter of our relationship focused on delivering unparalleled access to our sport for NHL fans.”

With access to IP rights, the possibilities for Caesars Entertainment are more vast than before.

Betting boom in the U.S. continues

The history of betting in the U.S. hasn’t always been a smooth ride, with a sports betting ban being imposed in 1992 under the ‘Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.’

Nevada and three other states were the only places where some legal sports betting could take place, with the home of Las Vegas being the first to legalize and regulate betting in 1949.

As such, Nevada remains the most robust gambling market in the country.

Other states could soon follow, as more and more officially launch online sports betting. In North Carolina did just that earlier this week (Mar. 11).

In 2022, over 25 million people engaged in sports betting in the U.S. and that figure is expected to rise by 47 percent by 2025.

Featured image: Ideogram

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TikTok’s fate is in the hands of the U.S. House of Representatives as they plan to vote on a bill in just a few hours (Mar. 13) that could see the app banned in the U.S. within six months.

When will the TikTok vote take place?

At 10 am ET, in Washington, the vote will commence and will be under fast-track rules that require support from two-thirds of House members for the measure to pass.

With more than 170 million users in the country, lawmakers are concerned the app may endanger sensitive user data. Over the last few years, the possibility of TikTok being banned has almost been made into a reality many times.

This is to take place just a week after the bill was proposed. The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week voted 50-0 in favor of the bill which set it up for a vote before the full House.

Earlier this week, following a classified briefing held by the FBI, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said: “We’ve answered a lot of questions from members. We had a classified briefing today. So that members can see even more details about what’s at risk and how the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) can jeopardize the risk to American families,”

TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be present at Capitol Hill today as he had already planned a scheduled trip to talk to senators.

Which countries have banned TikTok?

The U.S. is not the only market to consider a ban on the dancing app, with India issuing a complete ban in 2020.

This was due to ‘geopolitical tensions’ and their government claimed these apps (59 Chinese phone apps were banned in total) were using data illegally and secretly collecting information from people’s phones when they downloaded the apps.

As such, they considered TikTok and others to be a threat to India’s national security, and the app was officially banned.

Other countries to have full bans of the app include Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and Somalia. Some places have partial bans, like Australia and Belgium which don’t allow for the Chinese-owned app to be downloaded on some government devices.

Featured image: Photo by Michael on Unsplash

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Hearthstone turned ten yesterday (Mar. 11, 2024), and they’re celebrating a decade of adventure with numerous events in both Hearthstone and World of Warcraft.

The collectible card game based on the Warcraft universe, created by Blizzard Entertainment, was first unveiled in 2014. Since then, it has amassed a solid following with over 100 million registered players worldwide and has become one of the most popular and successful games in its genre.

In an effort to give back on its anniversary, the team behind the game has released 12 special cards are available to everyone, with a ‘gift’ card included for each class.

There’s also an exclusive card for Harth Stonebrew, the innkeeper, who guides the player in learning the ropes.

Alongside this, you can now play the Hearthstone soundtrack in your daily life as they’ve released the ‘Music from the Tavern,’ which is available on platforms like YouTube and Spotify. This includes the full 31 tracks, largely from well-known composer of video game music by Peter McConnell.

They’ve opened up another gift, too, in the form of World of Warcraft players being able to enjoy an actual Hearthstone game within the MMORPG.

With the Tavern now open for a decade, the expansions aren’t stopping any time soon. Later this week (Mar. 19), the Whizbang Workshop will be released, featuring 145 new cards and a new keyboard.

Reactions and thanks from fans across the world

When a gamer tagged them in a post expressing her thanks via X, Hearthstone responded with gratitude for their fans: ‘Our incredible community is the reason we do what we do. Thank you @dawniedk and all the creators around the world who contributed to this lovely video.’

Our incredible community is the reason we do what we do. Thank you @dawniedk and all the creators from around the world who contributed to this lovely video https://t.co/17JqfU04Ct

— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) March 11, 2024

The outpouring of love didn’t stop there. Over the last few days, people have been tagging and replying to the Hearthstone account to congratulate them on the anniversary.

One user said, ” I’m Honored to be a part of the community. Happy birthday!! Here’s to another 10.”

My favorite game was released 10 years ago today! I'm a very different person than I was when I was 18, but I still play Hearthstone every day. Pretty cool. https://t.co/XoBwunVd49

— Cora (@SongbirdCora) March 11, 2024

Another person looks back to when the game was first launched by saying: “My favorite game was released 10 years ago today! I’m a very different person than I was when I was at 18, but I still play Hearthstone every day. Pretty cool. :)”

Featured image: From PlayHearthstone Twitter

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Microsoft recently announced that four Xbox exclusives will be coming to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

This is reported by Gaming Bible to involve Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment.

There are also suggestions among gamers that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II could be coming to the PlayStation 5. This is the sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice which saw over one million units sold just nine months after its initial release on PlayStation 4. It’s also currently available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

This hasn’t yet been formally confirmed but it was rumored in a recent episode of the Riskit4theBiskit podcast and has apparently been backed by four separate sources. Watch this space.

Rumor: Hellblade 2 is coming to PlayStation according to Xbox Infinite Podcast Creator Riskit4theBiskit

Four sources told Riskit about the PS5 port

Timestamp: https://t.co/LfoolFW06K pic.twitter.com/mJmeAd83bF

— Hunter (@NextGenPlayer) March 10, 2024

Currently, the game is to be released on May 21 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

Speaking about the exclusivity of games going forward, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said on the official Xbox podcast: “I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten years exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry.”

There are further calls for other games to be released on PlayStation 5. Starfield has been rumored to join the PS5 clan, as has Indiana Jones. The gaming CEO said these games aren’t part of the first four, but didn’t rule them out completely.

When will the PlayStation 5 Pro be launching?

After the PlayStation 5 Slim was launched in November of 2023, fans haven’t wasted any time in predicting when a possible PlayStation 5 Pro will be made public.

There hasn’t yet been an official release date announced for this, but gaming insiders are suggesting that September will be the chosen month, as reported by Hypebeast, or at the very least in the second half of the year.

If this is the case, this would line up with the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025.

Featured image: Xbox

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Italy sets its sights on AI, with plans to set up an investment fund to promote artificial intelligence projects.

Speaking via video message at the ‘Artificial Intelligence for Italy’ conference in Rome, on Tuesday (Mar. 12), Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a one-billion-euro fund.

This is being backed by CDP Venture Capital, a unit of state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the fund could go on to raise a further 2 billion euros from the private sector, the company’s chief executive Agostino Scornajenchi said.

According to Reuters, the PM expanded further by saying: “We are convinced that there can and must be an Italian way to artificial intelligence,”

Alongside the one-billion-euro investment fund, he also said they’ll be looking at a law to regulate AI: “The government is preparing a law that aims to establish some principles and set rules that are complementary to the European regulation that is in the process of being approved and identify the most effective measures to stimulate our productive capabilities.”

Giorgia Meloni continues: “We are also working to identify the most suitable body to act as the competent authority for the use of technologies based on artificial intelligence.”

The planned legislation will be officially presented in the coming weeks and it’ll sit under the national AI strategy.

This comes in the midst of other countries announcing AI plans, with President Biden signing an executive order to oversee and invest in AI in October of last year. This order is broad, but suggests funding for the U.S. government to further invest in the technology.

In the UK’s 2024 Budget announcement (Mar. 6) the Chancellor announced the doubling of investment for the Alan Turing Institute which is the internationally leading body for data science AI, bringing its total funding to £100 million.

How different countries are approaching AI

Since its inception, countries worldwide have had mixed feelings about incorporating the use of AI.

A December 2023 cluster analysis created by James S. Denford, Gregory S. Dawson, and Kevin C. Desouza has highlighted differences and similarities between countries’ national AI strategies. The authors found that the U.S. has one of the most complete AI strategies, but is focused heavily on the dangers of AI. They report this to be the case across many Western countries.

They highlight China as paving the way and being in the lead, with an almost exclusive interest in research and development.

According to research, places like China, Spain, and the U.S. plan to deploy AI in all industries other than defense and tourism.

Featured image: Photo by Caleb Miller on Unsplash

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Facebook’s stock has fallen sharply after former President Donald Trump went on a rant on two separate occasions about the American technology company.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg was caught directly in the cross-fire too, with Trump writing on Truth Social: “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People.”

The 45th U.S. President then went on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box,’ and further criticized Facebook when speaking about a bill going through the House of Representatives to regulate competitor TikTok. He said: “I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size…

“And I think Facebook has been very dishonest. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.”

On both the day of the social media post and after the interview, the stock of Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, dropped.

Meta saw the lowest closing figure since last July, Forbes reported. The shares dropped by about 4.5 percent to just under $484 on Monday, after the CNBC feature.

The shares dropped by 1.2 percent after the social media post went live on the Friday before.

On Tuesday 12 March, Donald Trump once again took to the site Truth Social to share a news article link with the title ‘Meta’s stock drops twice after Trump calls Facebook ‘an enemy of the people.’

What does Donald Trump think of TikTok

Much of Donald Trump’s scathing comments against Facebook then pivoted to give support of the video app TikTok.

This comes after the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted to advance legislation that would force ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to divest ownership of the app.

The reason for this is that ByteDance is a Chinese company, which has led to fear among Americans over their user data security.

While Trump now seems to be in favor of the app which took the world by storm, it wasn’t always that way. In August 2020, when he was still president, he said he intended to ban TikTok and even signed an executive order banning U.S. companies from transactions with ByteDance.

Featured image: Generated by ideogram

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Online sports betting is now made possible in North Carolina, as it was made legal as of noon ET on Monday (Mar. 11)

The bill was passed last summer to allow people located in the state, who are over the age of 2, to bet on professional and college sports. It will be regulated by the North Carolina State Lottery Commission which was first set up to oversee the state lottery in 2006.

Eight companies were able to start taking bets online this week, with the North Carolina Lottery Commission issuing licenses to:

• Betfair Interactive US, LLC (dba: FanDuel Sportsbook)
• BETMGM, LLC.
• Crown NC Gaming, LLC (dba: DraftKings)
• FBG Enterprises Opco, LLC (dba: Fanatics Sportsbook)
• Hillside (North Carolina), LLC (dba: bet365)
• Penn Sports Interactive, LLC (dba: ESPN BET)
• Underdog Sports Wagering LLC
• Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Speaking in a company press release, the North American president of DraftKings Matt Kalish expressed his satisfaction: “With the NCAA Tournament right around the corner and the NASCAR season in full throttle, we are thrilled to be launching our top-rated sportsbook app in North Carolina,”

“The Tar Heel State is home to a passionate fanbase and some of the most iconic college basketball programs of all time, making this an exciting time to introduce legalized online sports betting.

“We’re proud to be working alongside NASCAR as our market access partner and look forward to enhancing the fan experience across North Carolina with a fun, safe and seamless sports betting product.”

This marks a substantial change as this is the first time this has been made possible, following the 1992 ban under the ‘Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.’ This made it illegal for states to authorize legal sports betting.

This was then overturned in 2018 and states began to open up to the idea over the last couple of years. Before this, anyone who wanted to bet on sports legally had to travel to casinos in Nevada or three other states that were exempt.

The North Carolina sports wagering law which was passed last June lays out how the tax revenue will be spent too. $2 million will be set aside each year to support people with gambling addiction and a further $1 million will support youth sports.

The tax revenue will also go towards being used to attract big events to the area, like sports tournaments and music festivals.

Betting is becoming big business in the US

Since the initial ban was overturned in 2018, online betting has been on the rise throughout the U.S. with Americans having gambled more than $245bn.

In 2022, over 25 million people engaged in sports betting in the U.S., with the figure forecast to rise by 47 percent by 2025.

Photo by Lesli Whitecotton on Unsplash

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When Taylor Swift re-released her old songs as ‘Taylor’s Version,’ she likely didn’t expect to possibly have a version of every song ever written and created.

An intriguing thought experiment looked at the danger behind artificial intelligence (AI) replacing all recorded music with artificially generated cover versions.

Researchers are concerned that future musical AIs may form their own attachments to particular human artists in their databases, causing the likes of Taylor Swift to be the voice of all music.

Nick Collins from Durham University, UK, and Mick Grierson at the University of the Arts London offer warnings in their recently published study: “We do not wish to unduly pick on Taylor Swift, who is only a convenient example for this paper, but to warn more broadly of overall issues in AI driven monopolizing.”

The research duo hone in on the singer-songwriter’s dominance in the streaming era and demonstrate their point by creating a Taylor AI cover of some of the most famous tracks from music history. They used everything from Frank Sinatra to Madonna.

The authors depict a hypothetical situation in which society becomes excessively dependent on a small number of centralized repositories for storing and accessing various forms of data (like Spotify, SoundCloud or Apple for instance).  In such a future, an advanced AI system could potentially breach the security measures of these centralized data stores, thereby gaining the ability to compromise the integrity of the information contained within. This could manifest as the AI causing corruption, deletion, or unauthorized modifications to the stored data…even a Swiftocalypse for music.

If someone were to attempt a major overhaul of music as we know it, it would take them just under two hours to create the replacement for 100 million songs in a commercial music service. The resource cost would be around $266.67 million, significantly less than what the pop singer’s estimated net worth is.

The researchers continue to cite the issues that will become apparent if something like this were to take place, from corruption to the abolishment of commercial music as we know it. They suggest it would be ‘the kill switch for musical history,’ as all existing accessible music would be erased if any one party gains too much foothold.

Taylor Swift AI future not here yet

Fear not. This scenario is exceedingly unlikely to happen. While the warning signs are there, some musicians and artists have started to dabble in the world of AI.

Singer Grimes has secured a deal between a music distributor and ‘GrimesAI’ platform which is one of the first vetted processes to allow AI-generated songs. This means that artists and even fans can legally create and professionally distribute songs in the Canadian musician’s voice.

Featured image: Midjourney

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Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2, titled Myths and Mortals was released last Friday, on March 8 2024, and although it wasn’t a smooth intro to fans, a new record was hit soon after.

In the early afternoon of the following day (March 9) a peak of 5,152,863 players was recorded via the count tracker Fortnite.gg. This marks the highest number of people in 2024 so far, with the last time the five million mark was reached being in December 2023.

Although this is a win for Fortnite creators Epic Games, the team faced substantial issues in the lead-up and in the hours after the supposed ‘launch.’

At 7:14 am, we reported the devs took to X to alert users of an ‘unexpected issue’ that resulted in the server being down. They apologized for ‘making everyone wait longer than usual to drop into Chapter 5 Season 2 of Battle Royale.’

Hey everyone, we encountered an unexpected issue during our maintenance and we need to extend downtime at least 8 additional hours.

We apologize for making everyone wait longer than usual to drop into Chapter 5 Season 2 of Battle Royale. The team is working through this as… pic.twitter.com/gsu79mGMiJ

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) March 8, 2024

In the end, the servers were down for almost an entire day. At 9 pm CT on March 10, the servers were able to be opened and the queue began.

Some players saw crashing issues and problems with texture on screen, but the majority of the problems were solved during the downtime.

On the initial launch day, a blog post was published on the Fortnite website to share more details including the unlocked locations that fans can experience like Mount Olympus, Grim Gate, The Underworld, and Brawler’s Battleground.

They go on to describe the new addition in detail, by saying “Pandora’s Box has been opened on the Fortnite Battle Royale Island, bringing Olympus to the battlefield.

“Olympian legends – including Hades and the thunder god Zeus – now rule the island in otherworldly rage. To make matters worse, they’ve brought their powers and weapons with them. Use their mythological means against them in Chapter 5 Season 2: Myths & Mortals!”

Reaction to launch of Chapter 5 Season 2

In the hours of downtime, fans of Fortnite took to X and Reddit to ask the team to be quicker.

One user said: ‘what am I gonna do with my life…’ while another said ‘ATLEAST 8 HOURS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I DONT WANNA BE RUDE BUT THIS IS SO UNHEARD OF WHAAAAAAAAT.’

ATLEAST 8 HOURS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I DONT WANNA BE RUDE BUT THIS IS SO UNHEARD OF WHAAAAAAAAT

— Merl (@Merl) March 8, 2024

Featured Image: Epic Games

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A recent leak on social media site X has seen gaming fans prepare for the Epic Games Store Spring Sale as it’s reportedly ‘about to start.’

The rumor comes from user @billbil-kun, who shares ‘exclusive’ gaming and tech deals via their account.

UPCOMING SALE

Epic Games Store Spring Sale 2024 is about to start

You can find in our last report a wide handpicked selection of PC titles which will be discounted during EGS Spring Sale

e.g. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown will be 40% OFFhttps://t.co/6xGqkkHh0u

— billbil-kun (@billbil_kun) March 8, 2024

The promotions are said to be taking place between March 14 to March 28. This is a month earlier than when last year’s Epic Games Store spring sale started.

According to the X user, games like the Prince of Persia The Lost Crown and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be discounted, amongst others.

While this hasn’t yet been confirmed by the gaming company, the leak goes on to detail some expected discounts:

• Prince of Persia The Lost Crown: $49.99 – 40% discount to $29.99

• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: $69.99 – 40% discount to $41.99

• Skull and Bones: $59.99 – 25% discount to $44.99

• EA Sports FC 24 Standard Edition: $59.99 – 25% discount to $44.99

• The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moira: $39.99 – 38% discount to $24.79

• Hogwarts Legacy: $59.99 – 50% discount to $29.99

• Star Wars Jedi Survivor: $69.99 – 55% discount to $31.49

• Tchia Oléti Edition: $34.99 – 50% discount to $17.49

• Battlefield 2042: $59.99 – 85% discount to $8.99

• Red Dead Redemption 2: $59.99 – 67% discount to $19.79

• Alan Wake 2: $49.99 – 20% discount to $39.99

• Dead Island 2: $59.99 – 45% discount to $32.99

• Cyberpunk 2077: $59.99 – 50% discount to $29.99

• Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition: $29.99 – 50% discount to $14.99

• Disney Dreamlight Valley: $39.99 – 25% discount to $29.99

The sale is expected to start between April 4 – April 28.

Upcoming events for Epic Games Store

The company has more huge moments coming up, with Disney having recently invested $1.5bn to create a new ‘games and entertainment universe.’ This is set to offer fans of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and other Disney properties ways to play and engage with characters and stories from within those worlds.

Fans have also been looking forward to Epic Games Store’s European iOS return which was supposed to take place this year. However, Apple terminated the Epic Games developer account in the second week of March, calling it a ‘threat.’

Whilst this is all happening, sales are expected to continue throughout the year with other variations being the ‘Mega Sale,’ ‘Summer Sale,’ ‘Halloween Sale,’ ‘Black Friday Sale,’ ‘The Game Awards Sale,’ and ending with the ‘Holiday Sale’ at the back of December.

Featured image: Ubisoft

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