Author Archives: Mariella Moon

Netflix’s The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep animated film will feature Geralt’s original voice actor

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Netflix has given The Witcher fans their first look at a new animated film that's set to hit the streaming service in late 2024. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is based on A Little Sacrifice, a short story written by the universe's creator Andrzej Sapkowski. It will have Geralt of Rivia investigating a series of attacks in a seaside village in the midst of rising conflict between its human inhabitants and merpeople from the ocean. Netflix says the film is set between episodes 5 and 6 of the live-action series' first season, and it does show: The Geralt in the film resembles original Witcher actor Henry Cavill more than the Geralt in the games. 

The live action's stars Anya Chalotra and Joey Batey will also be reprising their roles as Yennefer of Vengerberg and Jaskier in the animated film. But Geralt will be voiced by Doug Cockle, who's known for voicing the White Wolf in the Witcher games. The movie is directed by Kang Hei Chul, who served as a storyboard artist for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which featured the story of Vesemir before he became Geralt's mentor. It was also animated by Studio MIR, the same South Korean studio that worked on Nightmare of the Wolf. 

The film may be the last time those who were particularly fond of Cavill as Geralt can see, well, a version of him play the role. He left the live-action show after its third season and is set to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-the-witcher-sirens-of-the-deep-animated-film-will-feature-geralts-original-voice-actor-120020251.html?src=rss

NVIDIA may soon announce new AI chips for China to get around US export restrictions

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NVIDIA really, really doesn't want to lose access to China's massive AI chip market. The company is developing three new AI chips especially for China that don't run afoul of the latest export restrictions in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Last year, the US government notified the chipmaker that it would restrict the export of computer chips meant for supercomputers and artificial intelligence applications to Russia and China due to concerns that the components could be used for military purposes. That rule prevented NVIDIA from selling certain A100 and H100 chips in the country, so it designed the A800 and H800 chips specifically for the Chinese market. 

However, the US government recently issued an updated set of restrictions that puts a limit on how much computing power a chip can have when it's meant for export to the aforementioned countries. The A800 and the H800 are no longer eligible for export under the new rules, along with NVIDIA's other products, which include its top-of-the-line RTX 4090 consumer GPU. Some reports even suggest that the company could end up canceling over $5 billion worth of advanced chip orders in China. 

The new chips meant for the Chinese market are called the HGX H20, the L20 and the L2, based on the specs sent to distributors. While the H20 is supposed to be the most powerful model out of the three, all of them don't go beyond the computing power threshold set by the US government's new export rules. That means customers using them for AI applications may need more chips than they would if they had access to higher-spec models. 

Chinese companies, including Baidu, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo, have already started designing their own semiconductor to prepare for a possible future wherein they could longer be able to import chips from the US and other countries. Old NVIDIA customers may prefer sticking to the company's components, however, due to its reputation and its software, which The Journal says is some of the most robust for AI development. NVIDIA, according to the source, may announce the new chips as soon as November 16 and start selling them before the year ends. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-may-soon-announce-new-ai-chips-for-china-to-get-around-us-export-restrictions-100509873.html?src=rss

NVIDIA may soon announce new AI chips for China to get around US export restrictions

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NVIDIA really, really doesn't want to lose access to China's massive AI chip market. The company is developing three new AI chips especially for China that don't run afoul of the latest export restrictions in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Last year, the US government notified the chipmaker that it would restrict the export of computer chips meant for supercomputers and artificial intelligence applications to Russia and China due to concerns that the components could be used for military purposes. That rule prevented NVIDIA from selling certain A100 and H100 chips in the country, so it designed the A800 and H800 chips specifically for the Chinese market. 

However, the US government recently issued an updated set of restrictions that puts a limit on how much computing power a chip can have when it's meant for export to the aforementioned countries. The A800 and the H800 are no longer eligible for export under the new rules, along with NVIDIA's other products, which include its top-of-the-line RTX 4090 consumer GPU. Some reports even suggest that the company could end up canceling over $5 billion worth of advanced chip orders in China. 

The new chips meant for the Chinese market are called the HGX H20, the L20 and the L2, based on the specs sent to distributors. While the H20 is supposed to be the most powerful model out of the three, all of them don't go beyond the computing power threshold set by the US government's new export rules. That means customers using them for AI applications may need more chips than they would if they had access to higher-spec models. 

Chinese companies, including Baidu, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo, have already started designing their own semiconductor to prepare for a possible future wherein they could longer be able to import chips from the US and other countries. Old NVIDIA customers may prefer sticking to the company's components, however, due to its reputation and its software, which The Journal says is some of the most robust for AI development. NVIDIA, according to the source, may announce the new chips as soon as November 16 and start selling them before the year ends. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-may-soon-announce-new-ai-chips-for-china-to-get-around-us-export-restrictions-100509873.html?src=rss

Amazon reportedly blocks ‘junk ads’ on Apple product pages

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Amazon gives Apple's product pages the special treatment and keeps them relatively clear of unrelated ads, signifying an arrangement between the companies, according to Insider. When the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce retailer in September, it accused Amazon of "deliberately increasing junk ads that worsen search quality." However, Insider found that the pages for Apple products, such as "iPhone" and "iPad," show a clean page layout with no ads or recommendation. Meanwhile, products from rival brands, including Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Surface, show multiple banner ads and several sponsored recommendations from other brands. 

We tried it out ourselves and did find that Apple's product pages do look cleaner. Microsoft Surface Pro's, however, showed a carousel of sponsored listings "4 stars and above," along with products related to the specific item and multiple banner ads. Insider says Apple asked Amazon to keep its product pages free of ad clutter back in 2018, based on an email shared by the House Judiciary Committee. "We understand that Apple does not want to drive sales to competing brands in search or detail pages," Jeff Wilke, who was then Amazon's retail CEO, reportedly wrote. 

Apple has admitted to the publication that it has some sort of an agreement with Amazon that prevents other companies from buying ads for "specific Apple-related brand queries" on the latter's marketplace. They can still buy ads for key phrases with an Apple name, say "iPad keyboard case," but not for "iPad" itself. "Apple's goal for the Agreements was to create the best possible customer experience, and others are free to do the same," Apple's representative said in a statement. They added that the deal was also meant to address the company's issues with counterfeit products on the platform, because it used to send Amazon "hundreds of thousands of take-down notices" before then. 

While it's not clear whether money exchanged hands between the two companies, the email shared by the House talked about a potential financial deal. Amazon reportedly turned down Apple's request at first, but Wilke wrote in the email: "We cannot alter our organic search algorithm to return only Apple products in the search results when an Apple team is searched... Apple would need to purchase these placements or compensate Amazon for the lost ad revenue."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-reportedly-blocks-junk-ads-on-apple-product-pages-045018125.html?src=rss

Amazon reportedly blocks ‘junk ads’ on Apple product pages

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Amazon gives Apple's product pages the special treatment and keeps them relatively clear of unrelated ads, signifying an arrangement between the companies, according to Insider. When the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce retailer in September, it accused Amazon of "deliberately increasing junk ads that worsen search quality." However, Insider found that the pages for Apple products, such as "iPhone" and "iPad," show a clean page layout with no ads or recommendation. Meanwhile, products from rival brands, including Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Surface, show multiple banner ads and several sponsored recommendations from other brands. 

We tried it out ourselves and did find that Apple's product pages do look cleaner. Microsoft Surface Pro's, however, showed a carousel of sponsored listings "4 stars and above," along with products related to the specific item and multiple banner ads. Insider says Apple asked Amazon to keep its product pages free of ad clutter back in 2018, based on an email shared by the House Judiciary Committee. "We understand that Apple does not want to drive sales to competing brands in search or detail pages," Jeff Wilke, who was then Amazon's retail CEO, reportedly wrote. 

Apple has admitted to the publication that it has some sort of an agreement with Amazon that prevents other companies from buying ads for "specific Apple-related brand queries" on the latter's marketplace. They can still buy ads for key phrases with an Apple name, say "iPad keyboard case," but not for "iPad" itself. "Apple's goal for the Agreements was to create the best possible customer experience, and others are free to do the same," Apple's representative said in a statement. They added that the deal was also meant to address the company's issues with counterfeit products on the platform, because it used to send Amazon "hundreds of thousands of take-down notices" before then. 

While it's not clear whether money exchanged hands between the two companies, the email shared by the House talked about a potential financial deal. Amazon reportedly turned down Apple's request at first, but Wilke wrote in the email: "We cannot alter our organic search algorithm to return only Apple products in the search results when an Apple team is searched... Apple would need to purchase these placements or compensate Amazon for the lost ad revenue."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-reportedly-blocks-junk-ads-on-apple-product-pages-045018125.html?src=rss

Netflix confirms Arcane season two won’t arrive until November 2024

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Arcane finally has a streaming date for its second season, two years after Netflix renewed the League of Legends-based series. The bad news? It'll arrive on the streaming platform in November... 2024. Fans will have to wait one more year before they can see the next installment of the story that centers around sisters and rivals, Vi and Jinx. Riot's former CEO Nicolo Laurent did say in an interview earlier this year that season two won't be ready until 2024. He explained that the company didn't expect the show to be so successful, so the developer, along with French animation studio Fortiche, started on the second season later than they should have. 

Last year, the show became the first streaming series to win an animated Emmy award, beating out more established rivals, such as Rick and Morty and What If...? Arcane was universally praised by critics for its storyline and animation, and it was also well-received among viewers, even those who don't play LoL. Arcane creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee said that the series was always going to be about Vi and Jinx even though the game has more than 150 champions. Their background as sisters who grew into bitter rivals with opposing stance, fighting for opposite sides, after all, make for an intriguing plot. "The fact that Jinx and Vi’s relationship is a bit of a mystery from the outset allows us to sort of satisfy both [fans of the game and new audiences]," Linke told Engadget. 

Netflix has released a very short teaser for the show's second season, but it'll likely publish longer trailers over the next few months as we get closer to its release date. Actors Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell are expected to reprise their roles as Vi and Jinx, respectively, along with Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-confirms-arcane-season-two-wont-arrive-until-november-2024-115019817.html?src=rss

Netflix confirms Arcane season two won’t arrive until November 2024

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Arcane finally has a streaming date for its second season, two years after Netflix renewed the League of Legends-based series. The bad news? It'll arrive on the streaming platform in November... 2024. Fans will have to wait one more year before they can see the next installment of the story that centers around sisters and rivals, Vi and Jinx. Riot's former CEO Nicolo Laurent did say in an interview earlier this year that season two won't be ready until 2024. He explained that the company didn't expect the show to be so successful, so the developer, along with French animation studio Fortiche, started on the second season later than they should have. 

Last year, the show became the first streaming series to win an animated Emmy award, beating out more established rivals, such as Rick and Morty and What If...? Arcane was universally praised by critics for its storyline and animation, and it was also well-received among viewers, even those who don't play LoL. Arcane creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee said that the series was always going to be about Vi and Jinx even though the game has more than 150 champions. Their background as sisters who grew into bitter rivals with opposing stance, fighting for opposite sides, after all, make for an intriguing plot. "The fact that Jinx and Vi’s relationship is a bit of a mystery from the outset allows us to sort of satisfy both [fans of the game and new audiences]," Linke told Engadget. 

Netflix has released a very short teaser for the show's second season, but it'll likely publish longer trailers over the next few months as we get closer to its release date. Actors Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell are expected to reprise their roles as Vi and Jinx, respectively, along with Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-confirms-arcane-season-two-wont-arrive-until-november-2024-115019817.html?src=rss

Microsoft briefly blocked employees from using ChatGPT over security concerns

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Microsoft temporarily prohibited its employees from using ChatGPT "due to security and data concerns," according to CNBC. The company announced the rule in an internal website and even blocked corporate devices from being able to access the AI chatbot. While several tech companies had prohibited — or had at least discouraged — the internal use of ChatGPT in the past, Microsoft doing the same thing was certainly curious, seeing as it's OpenAI's biggest and most prominent investor. 

In January, Microsoft pledged to invest $10 billion in ChatGPT's developer over the next few years after pouring $3 billion into the company in the past. The AI-powered tools it rolled out for its products, such as Bing's chatbot, also use OpenAI's large language model. But Microsoft reportedly said in its note that "[w]hile it is true that [the company] has invested in OpenAI, and that ChatGPT has built-in safeguards to prevent improper use, the website is nevertheless a third-party external service." It advised its employees to "exercise caution," adding that it goes for other external services, including AI image generator Midjourney.

ChatGPT's Microsoft ban was unexpected, but it was also swift. CNBC says that after it published its story, Microsoft quickly restored access to the chatbot. It also reportedly removed the language in its advisory, saying that it was blocking the chat app and and design software Canva. A company spokesperson told the news organization that the ban was a mistake despite the advisory explicitly mentioning ChatGPT and that Microsoft restored access to it as soon as it realized its error. "We were testing endpoint control systems for LLMs and inadvertently turned them on for all employees," a spokesperson said. They added: "As we have said previously, we encourage employees and customers to use services like Bing Chat Enterprise and ChatGPT Enterprise that come with greater levels of privacy and security protections."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-briefly-blocked-employees-from-using-chatgpt-over-security-concerns-080403177.html?src=rss

Microsoft briefly blocked employees from using ChatGPT over security concerns

Posted on by

Microsoft temporarily prohibited its employees from using ChatGPT "due to security and data concerns," according to CNBC. The company announced the rule in an internal website and even blocked corporate devices from being able to access the AI chatbot. While several tech companies had prohibited — or had at least discouraged — the internal use of ChatGPT in the past, Microsoft doing the same thing was certainly curious, seeing as it's OpenAI's biggest and most prominent investor. 

In January, Microsoft pledged to invest $10 billion in ChatGPT's developer over the next few years after pouring $3 billion into the company in the past. The AI-powered tools it rolled out for its products, such as Bing's chatbot, also use OpenAI's large language model. But Microsoft reportedly said in its note that "[w]hile it is true that [the company] has invested in OpenAI, and that ChatGPT has built-in safeguards to prevent improper use, the website is nevertheless a third-party external service." It advised its employees to "exercise caution," adding that it goes for other external services, including AI image generator Midjourney.

ChatGPT's Microsoft ban was unexpected, but it was also swift. CNBC says that after it published its story, Microsoft quickly restored access to the chatbot. It also reportedly removed the language in its advisory, saying that it was blocking the chat app and and design software Canva. A company spokesperson told the news organization that the ban was a mistake despite the advisory explicitly mentioning ChatGPT and that Microsoft restored access to it as soon as it realized its error. "We were testing endpoint control systems for LLMs and inadvertently turned them on for all employees," a spokesperson said. They added: "As we have said previously, we encourage employees and customers to use services like Bing Chat Enterprise and ChatGPT Enterprise that come with greater levels of privacy and security protections."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-briefly-blocked-employees-from-using-chatgpt-over-security-concerns-080403177.html?src=rss

Basically all of Maine had data stolen by a ransomware gang

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The state agencies of Maine had fallen victim to cybercriminals who exploited a vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer tool, making them the latest addition to the growing list of entities affected by the massive hack involving the software. In a notice the government has published about the cybersecurity incident, it said the event impacted approximately 1.3 million individuals, which basically make up the state's whole population. The state first caught wind of the software vulnerability in MOVEit on May 31 this year and found that cybercriminals were able to access and download files from its various agencies on May 28 and 29. 

While the nature of stolen data varies per person based on their interaction with a particular agency, the notice says that the bad actors had stolen names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, driver's license and state identification numbers, as well as taxpayer identification numbers. In some cases, they were also able to get away with people's medical and health insurance information. Over 50 percent of the stolen data came from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, followed by the Maine Department of Education.

The state government had blocked internet access to and from the MOVEit server as soon as it became aware of the incident. However, since the cybercriminals were already able to steal residents' information, it's also offering two years of complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to people whose SSNs and taxpayer numbers were compromised. As TechCrunch notes, the Clop ransomware gang that's believed to be behind previously reported incidents, has yet to release data stolen from Maine's agencies.

Clop took credit for an earlier New York City Department of Education hack, wherein the information of approximately 45,000 students was stolen. Cybercriminals exploiting the vulnerability haven't only been targeting the government, though, but also companies around the world. Sony is one of them. There's also Maximus Health Services, Inc, a US government contractor, whose breach has been the biggest MOVEit-related incident, so far. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is already investigating MOVEit creator Progress Software, though it only just sent the company a subpoena in October and is still in the "fact-finding inquiry" phase of its probe. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/basically-all-of-maine-had-data-stolen-by-a-ransomware-gang-061407794.html?src=rss