Version 9.0
Written & Compiled by Macklin Andrick, GPJ Sr. Creative Technologist
GPJ Experience Technology is your trusted guide through the latest technological shifts and how they might benefit your next experience. Another week, another opportunity to explore some of the weird and wild things going on in the tech world!
Meta is entering the code assistant game, IBM & the USTA team up to bring generative commentary to the masses, and Acura & Honda are adopting the Tesla EV charging standard.
Meta launches own AI code-writing tool: Code Llama
Meta has released a tool called Code Llama, built on top of its Llama 2 large language model, to generate new code and debug human-written work, the company said. Code Llama will use the same community license as Llama 2 and is free for research and commercial use. Code Llama, Meta said, can create strings of code from prompts or complete and debug code when pointed to a specific code string. In addition to the base Code Llama model, Meta released a Python-specialized version called Code Llama-Python and another version called Code Llama-Instrct, which can understand instructions in natural language. According to Meta, each specific version of Code Llama is not interchangeable, and the company does not recommend the base Code Llama or Code Llama-Python for natural language instructions.
IBM and the USTA Add Generative AI Commentary and AI Draw Analysis to US Open Coverage
IBM and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced digital fan features to appear on USOpen.org and the US Open app, including AI-generated spoken commentary. Designed to give fans a more insightful and engaging experience when catching up on key moments from the tournament, IBM watsonx-powered AI Commentary utilizes models built, trained, and deployed with watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform. Throughout the entire tournament, AI technology will automate the production of detailed audio narration and captions to accompany US Open highlight videos at unprecedented scale – for every match in the singles draw, across all seventeen courts.
Netflix is launching a new series of story games, starting with Love is Blind
Netflix is announcing a new line of narrative-driven experiences. It’s called Netflix Stories: Love is Blind, and — unsurprisingly — it’s a mobile game based on the popular Netflix reality show, where players can take on the role of a new contestant. It seems similar to the existing title Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, which Netflix says is one of its most popular games. Two years later, Netflix is still experimenting with games. The Love is Blind game launches on September 19th, and subscribers can preregister to download it now. The streamer says that more of these “Netflix Stories” titles are also in the works, including ones based on Money Heist and Virgin River. All of the games will be contained in a new app.
Acura, Honda EVs will adopt Tesla charging port
Honda Motor Co.’s first new-era Honda and Acura electric vehicles will adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard connectors once General Motors switches over in 2025. Honda and Acura’s upcoming EVs, the ZDX and Prologue crossovers respectively, are part of a co-development with General Motors. Both will be built in GM factories and use GM’s Ultium battery-electric platform. GM has already said it will embrace the Tesla charging system: “We really depend on GM, so once they [change], this will call for ZDX as well,” Shinji Aoyama, Honda Motor Co.’s executive vice president.
Phillies Debut Facial Authentication Ticket Tech
MLB and the Philadelphia Phillies unveiled a new facial authentication ticket technology that they will be piloting at Citizens Bank Park for the remainder of the 2023 season called “Go-Ahead Entry.” Led by the Phillie Phanatic Mascot, the first fans in line stepped first through Evolv security scanners, then proceeded to the Go-Ahead Entry lane, where a kiosk scanned their face and greenlit them through as they walked. “We’re always looking at ways to improve the fan experience,” MLB SVP, Product Experience and Ticketing Karri Zaremba told SBJ.
Snapchat is expanding further into generative AI with ‘Dreams’
Snapchat is preparing to further expand into generative AI features, after earlier launching its AI-powered chatbot My AI, which can now respond with a Snap back, not just text. With the company’s forthcoming generative AI feature called “Dreams,” Snap will again experiment with AI images — but soon, those images may contain you and your friends in imaginative backgrounds. The company has been developing features that allow Snapchat users to take or upload selfies that will allow the app to generate new pictures of you in scenarios you imagine, according to findings from app researcher and developer Steve Moser. This sounds similar to what other AI photo apps on the App Store already offer.
More Cool Stuff We Found
- IBM Research – Augmented work for an automated, AI-driven world
- Sum It Up App
- MidJourney Adds Image Inpainting—Game Changer or Catch-Up Play?
- Using Generative AI to Resurrect the Dead Will Create a Burden for the Living
- How Games Typically Get Built
- OBKSUR is the first broadcasting software built on Unreal Engine 5
- Nothing sticks: New silicon-infused 3D printed toilet bowl repels all
- Scientists Say New Device Can Scrub 99.9 Percent Of Microplastics From Water
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