Who is Fraser Bohm? Out-of-control BMW driver kills four Pepperdine University students in Malibu
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2023-10-19 16:51
Blink-182 have been approached for Taylor Swift style concert movie
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2023-09-20 19:57
Dell misses quarterly revenue estimates on slow PC market recovery
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2023-12-01 05:21
Ange Postecoglou comes up with hilarious analogy to explain Liverpool fandom
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2023-09-29 23:48
What travelers to Morocco need to know following the recent earthquake
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2023-09-12 00:52
YouTube reveals AI music experiments that allow people to make music in other people’s voices and by humming
YouTube has revealed a host of new, musical artificial intelligence experiments. The features let people create musical texts by just writing a short piece of text, instantly and automatically generating music in the style of a number of artists. Users can also hum a simple song into their computer and have it turned into a detailed and rich piece of music. The new experiments are YouTube’s latest attempt to deal with the possibilities and dangers of AI and music. Numerous companies and artists have voiced fears that artificial intelligence could make it easier to infringe on copyright or produce real-sounding fake songs. One of the new features is called “Dream Track”, and some creators already have it, with the aim of using it to soundtrack YouTube Shorts. It is intended to quickly produce songs in people’s style. Users can choose a song in the style of a number of officially-licensed artists: Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan. They can then ask for a particular song, deciding on the tone or themes of the song, and it can then be used in their post on Shorts. Another is called Music AI Tools, and is aimed to help musicians with their creative process. It came out of YouTube’s Music AI Incubator, a working group of artists, songwriters and producers who are experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence in music. “It was clear early on that this initial group of participants were intensely curious about AI tools that could push the limits of what they thought possible. They also sought out tools that could bolster their creative process,” YouTube said in an announcement. “As a result, those early sessions led us to iterate on a set of music AI tools that experiment with those concepts. Imagine being able to more seamlessly turn one’s thoughts and ideas into music; like creating a new guitar riff just by humming it or taking a pop track you are working on and giving it a reggaeton feel. “We’re developing prospective tools that could bring these possibilities to life and Music AI Incubator participants will be able to test them out later this year.” The company gave an example of one of those tools, where a producer was able to hum a tune and then have it turned into a track that sounded as if it had been professionally recorded. The tools are built on Google Deepmind’s Lyria system. The company said that was built specifically for music, overcoming problems such as AI’s difficulties with producing long sequences of sound that keep their continuity and do not break apart. At the same time, Deepmind said it had been working on a technology called SynthID to combine it with Lyria. That will put an audio watermark into the sound, which humans cannot hear but which can be recognised by tools so that they know the songs have been automatically generated. “This novel method is unlike anything that exists today, especially in the context of audio,” Deepmind said,. “The watermark is designed to maintain detectability even when the audio content undergoes many common modifications such as noise additions, MP3 compression, or speeding up and slowing down the track. SynthID can also detect the presence of a watermark throughout a track to help determine if parts of a song were generated by Lyria.” The announcement comes just days after YouTube announced restrictions on unauthorised AI clones of musicians. Earlier this week it said that users would have to tag AI-generated content that looked realistic, and music that “mimics an artist’s unique singing or rapping voice” will be banned entirely. Those videos have proven popular in recent months, largely thanks to online tools that allow people to easily combine a voice with an existing song and create something entirely new, such as Homer Simpson singing popular hits. Those will not be affected straight away, with the new requirements rolling out next year. Read More AI-generated faces are starting to look more real than actual ones Elon Musk unveils new sarcasm-loving AI chatbot for premium X subscribers New tech listens to your belly gurgling and monitors how well you are New tech listens to your belly gurgling and monitors how well you are SpaceX is launching the world’s biggest rocket – follow live Instagram users warned about new setting that could accidentally expose secrets
2023-11-17 04:48
N. Korea to send new weapons to border after spy satellite launch
North Korea said Thursday it would deploy new weapons and stronger armed forces to the border with the South, as Seoul's spy agency said Pyongyang had received Russian help to successfully...
2023-11-23 12:27
'I do a lot of meditation' Chris Hemsworth reveals major lifestyle changes amid high risk for Alzheimer's
Chris Hemsworth said the alarm was a 'good kick in the a**e and a reminder to do whatever is in my power to give myself the best fighting chance'
2023-10-07 03:55
Berlin: Police search for lioness on loose around German capital
German authorities warned people in Berlin’s southern suburbs on Thursday 20 July to watch out for a potentially dangerous animal, suspected to be a lioness, that was on the loose. Police in Brandenburg state, which surrounds the capital, issued a warning in the early morning hours of an “escaped wild animal” and asked people in and around Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf — just outside Berlin’s city limits — not to leave their houses and to bring their pets indoors. The warning was later extended to southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app that the animal was suspected to be a lioness.
2023-07-20 21:52
DeSantis kicks off presidential campaign in Iowa as he steps up criticism of Trump
Ron DeSantis is kicking off his presidential campaign in Iowa at the start of a busy week that will take him to 12 cities in three states as he tests his pitch as the most formidable Republican challenger to former President Donald Trump
2023-05-30 12:24
Lizzo blasts Nebraska bill banning abortion access and gender-affirming care: ‘You deserve to be protected’
After an epic filibuster that blocked legislation for nearly three months, state lawmakers in Nebraska approved a Republican-led ban on abortion care at roughly 10 weeks of pregnancy, combined with a bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The extraordinary maneuvers in the smallest legislative body in the country have drawn national attention, as lawmakers across the United States take up a wave of bills targeting abortion rights and LGBT+ people. Protesters surrounded the state capitol chambers in Lincoln on 19 May chanting “keep your bans off our bodies” and “save our lives” as lawmakers made their final round of votes on the bill, which now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Pillen, who intends to sign it into law. At least six protesters were arrested. At a show in Nebraska hours after the vote on Friday night, the artist Lizzo lambasted the legislation from the stage. “It really breaks my heart that there are young people growing up in a world that doesn’t protect them,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. ... These laws are not real. You are what’s real, and you deserve to be protected.” LGBT+ advocates and abortion rights groups have also signalled they are prepared to sue the state to block the measure once it is signed into law. “To be clear, we refuse to accept this as our new normal,” according to a statement from ACLU of Nebraska interim director Mindy Rush Chipman. “This vote will not be the final word. We are actively exploring our options to address the harm of this extreme legislation, and that work will have our team’s full focus. This is not over, not by a long shot.” The legislation directs the state’s chief medical officer – appointed by the Republican governor – to draft the rules for how young trans people and their families can access nonsurgical affirming healthcare. It also bans abortion at 12 weeks gestational age, or roughly nine or 10 weeks, from fertilization. The bill’s passage comes roughly three months after a group of LGBT+ and abortion rights-supporting lawmakers launched a filibuster to block any legislation from advancing in the state’s unicameral legislature until a measure banning gender-affirming care was withdrawn, or until time ran out in the 90-day session. Last month, the filibuster successfully blocked a measure from anti-abortion lawmakers to ban abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Attaching another anti-abortion measure to the gender-affirming care ban gave proponents of the bill a second chance of advancing both. Opponents forcefully opposed the inclusion of an abortion ban in a bill targeting gender-affirming care, two wholly separate issues combined into one, “but you all don’t care”, state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who launched the filibuster effort in February, told lawmakers this week. “I wish the people in here cared about what they’re doing to people, but they don’t,” she said during debate. “Why are you doing this to our kids? Why are you doing this to our doctors? … Please stop.” State Sen. Megan Hunt, the first openly LGBT+ person elected to the state’s legislature, lambasted a Republican colleague who complained that she was missing her grandson graduate from preschool so she could vote on the bill. Ms Hunt, who changed her party affiliation from Democratic to Independent during this legislative session, also is the mother of a 12-year-old trans son. “If you want to see your grandson graduate from preschool, you should do that,” Ms Hunt told Republican state Sen Lou Ann Linehan. “Instead, you are here to drag out this session because you won’t come off this bill that hurts my son,” she said on 18 May. “You hate him more than you love your own family. And that’s why you’re here. … I am not asking you to sit here through late nights to vote on these bills that we’re dragging out. I’m asking you to love your family more than you hate mine.” She also eviscerated another lawmaker, state Sen. Ray Aguilar, who took issue with being labelled anti-LGBT+ because he said he has a gay daughter. Mr Aguilar voted in favour of the legislation. “You’re part of the problem, that is the scourge of hate and discrimination that your party is standing on in the middle of an ocean like it’s the most important thing in the world to them,” Ms Hunt said. “Your proximity to gayness does not make that OK.” More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have severely restricted or effectively outlawed abortion in the year after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to abortion access. In this past week, lawmakers in North Carolina and South Carolina approved abortion bans, extending restrictions on abortion care from Texas and Oklahaoma through the entire Gulf Coast and throughout the southeast. Nebraska’s legislation also joins a nationwide campaign that has seen hundreds of bills aimed at LGBT+ people, particularly at young trans people, filed in nearly every state within the last two years. At least 15 states have enacted laws or policies banning gender-affirming care for young trans people, and more than a dozen others are considering similar measures. Court injunctions have blocked bans from going into effect in three states. More than half of all trans youth in the US between the ages of 13 and 17 are at risk of losing access to what major health organisations consider age-appropriate, medically necessary and potentially life-saving affirming healthcare in their home state, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The onslaught of legislation and volatile political debate surrounding the bills have also negatively impacted the mental health of an overwhelming majority of young trans and nonbinary people, according to polling from The Trevor Project and Morning Consult. A separate survey from The Trevor Project found that 41 per cent of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide over the last year. If you are based in the US and seek LGBT+ affirming mental health support, resources are available from Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) and the LGBT Hotline (888-843-4564), as well as The Trevor Project (866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678). If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the US, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. Read More How one North Carolina lawmaker's defection from the Democratic Party upended abortion protections Trans rights groups pledge Texas lawsuit over gender-affirming care ban: ‘Anti-science, discriminatory fear-mongering’ Republican-appointed federal judges grill FDA in mifepristone hearing Anti-abortion laws harm patients facing dangerous and life-threatening complications, report finds
2023-05-21 02:23
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