No lights. No camera. All action.Realistically and consistently synthesize new videos. Either by applying the composition and style of an image or text prompt to the structure of a source video (Video to Video). Or, using nothing but words (Text to Video). It’s like filming something new, without filming anything at all.
Visit the page for examples
Source: Gen-2 by Runway
Runway also provided Stable Diffusion, the picture generator
[…] Introduced last summer after a year-long technical trial, Copilot offers coding suggestions, though not always good ones, to developers using GitHub with supported text editors and IDEs, like Visual Studio Code.
As of last month, according to GitHub, Copilot had a hand in 46 percent of the code being created on Microsoft’s cloud repo depot and had helped developers program up to 55 percent faster.
On Wednesday, Copilot – an AI “pair programmer”, as GitHub puts it – will be ready to converse with developers ChatGPT-style in either Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio. Prompt-and-response conversations take place in an IDE sidebar chat window, as opposed to the autocompletion responses that get generated from comment-based queries in a source file.
“Copilot chat is not just a chat window,” said Dohmke. “It recognizes what code a developer has typed, what error messages are shown, and it’s deeply embedded into the IDE.”
A developer thus can highlight, say, a regex in a source file and invite Copilot to explain what the obtuse pattern matching expression does. Copilot can also be asked to generate tests, to analyze and debug, to propose a fix, or to attempt a custom task. The model can even add comments that explain source code and can clean files up like a linter.
More interesting still, Copilot can be addressed by voice. Using spoken prompts, the assistive software can produce (or reproduce) code and run it on demand. It’s a worthy accessibility option at least.
[…]
When making a pull request under the watchful eye of AI, developers can expect to find GitHub’s model will fill out tags that serve to provide additional information about what’s going on. It then falls to developers to accept or revise the suggestions.
[…]
What’s more, Copilot’s ambit has been extended to documentation. Starting with documentation for React, Azure Docs, and MDN, developers can pose questions and get AI-generated answers through a chat interface. In time, according to Dohmke, the ability to interact with documentation via a chat interface will be extended to any organization’s repositories and internal documentation.
[…]
GitHub has even helped Copilot colonize the command line, with GitHub Copilot CLI. If you’ve ever forgotten an obscure command line incantation or command flag, Copilot has you covered
[…]
Source: GitHub Copilot has some new tricks up its sleeve • The Register
The European Commission has adopted a new set of right to repair rules that, among other things, will add electronic devices like smartphones and tablets to a list of goods that must be built with repairability in mind.
The new rules [PDF] will need to be need to be negotiated between the European Parliament and member states before they can be turned into law. If they are, a lot more than just repairability requirements will change.
One provision will require companies selling consumer goods in the EU to offer repairs (as opposed to just replacing a damaged device) free of charge within a legal guarantee period unless it would be cheaper to replace a damaged item.
Note: so any company can get out of it quite easily.
Beyond that, the directive also adds a set of rights for device repairability outside of legal guarantee periods that the EC said will help make repair a better option than simply tossing a damaged product away.
Under the new post-guarantee period rule, companies that produce goods the EU defines as subject to repairability requirements (eg, appliances, commercial computer hardware, and soon cellphones and tablets) are obliged to repair such items for five to 10 years after purchase if a customer demands so, and the repair is possible.
[…]
The post-guarantee period repair rule also establishes the creation of an online “repair matchmaking platform” for EU consumers, and calls for the creation of a European repair standard that will “help consumers identify repairers who commit to a higher quality.”
[…]
New rules don’t do enough, say right to repair advocates
The Right to Repair coalition said in a statement that, while it welcomes the step forward taken by the EU’s new repairability rules, “the opportunity to make the right to repair universal is missed.”
While the EC’s rules focus on cutting down on waste by making products more easily repairable, they don’t do anything to address repair affordability or anti-repair practices, R2R said. Spare parts and repair charges, the group argues, could still be exorbitantly priced and inaccessible to the average consumer.
[…]
Ganapini said that truly universal right to repair laws would include assurances that independent providers were available to conduct repairs, and that components, manuals and diagnostic tools would be affordably priced. She also said that, even with the addition of smartphones and tablets to repairability requirements, the products it applies to is still too narrow.
[…]
Source: EU right to repair law could see fixes for up to 10 years • The Register
Canceling a subscription should be just as easy as signing up for the service, the Federal Trade Commission said in a proposed “click-to-cancel” rule announced today. If approved, the plan “would put an end to companies requiring you to call customer service to cancel an account that you opened on their website,” FTC commissioners said.
[…]
The FTC said the proposed rule would be enforced with civil penalties and let the commission return money to harmed consumers.
“The proposal states that if consumers can sign up for subscriptions online, they should be able to cancel online, with the same number of steps. If consumers can open an account over the phone, they should be able to cancel it over the phone, without endless delays,” FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote.
[…]
Source: “Click-to-cancel” rule would penalize companies that make you cancel by phone | Ars Technica
We need this globally!