Chinese company offers to create AI avatars of deceased loved ones
A Nanjing-based company named Silicon Intelligence is using Artificial Intelligence to create virtual chatbots of people’s deceased friends and family. Every day, we get one step closer to living inside an episode of Black Mirror. Heck, a quick look around may suggest we’re already there. The plot just thickens by...
Current in Tech
The ongoing battle between Snapchat and TikTok
Could Snapchat’s continued focus on engendering genuine connections give it the edge on TikTok, as the latter over pushes ecommerce? Is Snapchat beating TikTok? Recently, we’ve seen two of the biggest social media platforms, TikTok and Snapchat, take radically different approaches to expanding their user bases and ensuring growth for 2024. TikTok’s...
Noplace is the latest social media app attracting Gen Z
Noplace is offering Gen Z a fresh social media experience that prioritises authentic connections and community over algorithms and ads, blending nostalgic MySpace vibes with Twitter's immediacy. In an era where algorithms dictate what we see, and ads interrupt our scrolling, a new social media app is rising to prominence...
Are US lawmakers focusing too much on child safety in online spaces?
It’s no secret that social media is a place where our sense of self-worth comes to die. So as policymakers in the United States strive to enforce safety measures for children in these spaces, are adults being wrongly left out of the equation? Public awareness of the dangers posed by...
Opinion – Petition to ban Assassin’s Creed Shadows is missing the point
From one storm in a teacup to another, Ubisoft will now likely be aware of a petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed’s Shadows before release. 40,000 people have signed so far. Since Ubisoft unveiled the next entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise last May, select portions of the gaming community have...
Opinion – We need better social media boundaries to prevent ‘sadfishing’
The internet may have done wonders for the mental health conversation, offering anyone struggling a space to feel heard, understood, and supported, but with sadfishing on the rise, is there a limit to how much we should be disclosing online? While I’ve always been one for the occasional #ootd on...
Former PS boss calls for shorter games with worse graphics
As the expectation for games to become bigger and more visually striking grows, former PlayStation president Shawn Layden says the industry should pivot to shorter games with less emphasis on realism to cut development costs. I’ll hazard an early guess that this suggestion probably won’t go down too well on Reddit. Recently talking at length with GamesIndustryBiz about the state of gaming and the issues facing AAA development, ex-PlayStation boss...
You decide – is ‘Apple Intelligence’ safe and secure?
Apple Intelligence is billed as an AI assistant designed to make daily admin effortless. That means it can sift through our private messages and emails. Apple claims the system is completely secure, but are you confident enough to run with it? Having bided its time, Apple is finally throwing its hat into the commercial AI ring. Being fashionably late (as much as two years) is undoubtedly a risk, but there are...
Noise-cancelling headphones are good for our ears
As it turns out, while many of us are steadily destroying our hearing with unsafe listening practices, noise-cancellation might actually be our one saving grace, protecting us from the incessant din of the outside world and the neglected effects of this on our health. I wear noise-cancelling headphones every single day, often for hours at a time. As someone who’s prone to sensory overload, they’ve changed my life, making commuting to...
Developed world responds oddly to Starlink’s integration in Brazilian tribe
The negative response inadvertently reveals long-standing ideals of an ‘untouched’ culture from an outside perspective. Hundreds of isolated tribes across Brazil are now accessing the internet, thanks to Elon Musk’s satellite service Starlink. It hasn’t gone down too well where the Western media’s concerned, however. Musk’s Starlink antennas, which have enabled high-speed internet to reach villages like those of Brazil’s Marubo tribe, were first introduced to locals in 2023. And despite the...
