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Side Quest, formerly called Mere Mortals, will premiere on March 26 on Apple TV+. It's the spin-off/expansion series for Mythic Quest, a comedy show on the streaming service about a video game studio developing an MMORPG of the same name. All four episodes of Side Quest will be available on the service on the same day the season four finale of Mythic Quest drops on the platform. Side Quest will revolve around the lives of the fictional studio's employees, as well as the players and fans impacted by the Mythic Quest game. The show will take on an anthology format, with a bunch of actors taking on leading roles for each installment. It was created by Mythic Quest writers Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris and Katie McElhenney, who also served as executive producers. Burch plays the character of Rachel in the original show. Charlie Day, Megan Ganz and Rob McElhenney, who created the Mythic Quest series, served as executive producers for the spin-off, as well. Lionsgate, 3 Arts Entertainment and Ubisoft produced the show for Apple TV+. In addition to announcing the show's premiere, Apple has also released the official trailer for the show, which gives you a pretty good idea of its tone and what you can expect if you watch it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apples-mythic-quest-spin-off-side-quest-debuts-on-march-26-160057451.html?src=rss
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Alphabet has announced a new development for Taara's technology that could lead to low-cost, high-speed internet connectivity, even in far-flung locations. Taara's general manager, Mahesh Krishnaswamy, has introduced the Taara chip, a silicon photonic chip that uses light to transmit high-speed data through the air. The Taara chip is abut the size of a fingernail, far smaller than the technology the Alphabet division has been using. Taara Lightbridge, which is what its first-generation technology is called, is the size of a traffic light and uses a system of mirrors and sensors to physically steer light to where it needs to go. The new chip uses software instead. Taara is a project under X, Alphabet's moonshot factory. The high speed wireless optical link technology underpinning the project was originally developed for X's Project Loon internet broadcasting balloons. Alphabet pulled the plug on Loon in 2021 and focused on Taara instead, using its technology to beam broadband across the Congo River and the streets of Nairobi. Even years before Loon shut down, Alphabet's X was already toying with the idea of using light to beam internet and tested the technology in India. Taara's technology works by using a "very narrow, invisible light beam to transmit data at speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second, up to distances of 20 kilometers (12.1 miles)." It's like traditional fiber, in the sense that it uses light to carry data, except that light doesn't travel through cables. Instead, Taara's hardware emits beams of light. The beams from two units must be aligned with each other to be able to form a secure link that can transmit data, which is why Lightbridge was fitted with the parts needed to be able to physically steer the light. Taara's new chip doesn't need those components: It contains hundreds of tiny light emitters controlled by software with automatic steering Krishnaswamy said Taara's light-beaming units will only take days to install instead of the months or years it can take to lay fiber. During tests in the lab, the Taara team was able to transmit data at speeds of 10 Gbps over a distance of one kilometer (0.62 miles) using two of the new chips. They're now looking to improve the chip's capacity and range by creating an "iteration with thousands of [light] emitters." The team expects the chip to be available in 2026. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/alphabets-taara-chip-uses-light-beams-to-provide-high-speed-internet-140040922.html?src=rss
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Amazons long-awaited update to its assistant is almost here. About 18 months after the company first previewed the next-gen Alexa built with generative AI, it unveiled Alexa+, and early access will be available starting in March. Alexa+ will exist alongside the older Alexa and will cost $20 a month, unless you have a Prime membership, which will make it free to use. The new assistant will come with all the modern upgrades that its contemporaries like the redesigned Siri or Gemini offer, like more conversational interaction, better contextual understanding and the ability to summarize complex topics and make suggestions based on your interests. But it does one thing differently, and its the way Amazon purports to integrate with third-party apps and the rest of the internet that could set it apart. At the presentation, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV Daniel Rausch outlined three ways the new assistant can integrate with other services you use. Firstly, it already works with tens of thousands of integrations already available, with Uber, Sonos, Samsung and Xbox being a few of the many logos that were displayed when Rausch said this. Presumably, that means Amazon worked with these partners to get their apps to play nicely with Alexa+ through their APIs. Secondly, for the large swath of the online world that doesnt have apps or the resources to code an API just for Alexa+, the assistant should be able to scour the internet for their website and navigate it on your behalf. During the presentation, Rausch demonstrated how Alexa+ was able to go to the Thumbtack website to hire a professional to fix his oven. Instead of having to whip out a phone or laptop to click through menus himself, Rausch could just verbally tell Alexa+ what he needed and what times he was available, and the AI did the rest. Sam Rutherford for Engadget This example in particular struck me as very similar to Googles restaurant-reservation system Duplex, which, since way back in 2018, could call businesses on your behalf to book a table. All you had to do was tell Google what date and times you were considering, how many people were in your party and it would make the call for you, even speaking in a human-sounding voice to the restaurant. The way Alexa+ would click around websites on your behalf seems like Duplex on steroids. Finally, Alexa+ can work with the AI agents on other sites, so you can talk to just one assistant instead of dozens of chatbots. In the presentation, Rausch got Alexa+ to work with the AI music generator Suno to come up with a country-style song about bodega cats. After the companys presentation, I spoke with Rausch to get more clarity on how Alexa+ will work with the rest of the online world. For one, I wanted to know for sure if that third method would work with customer service chatbots from companies like Capital One, United Airlines and more. While Rausch said that he had no details to share on specific names or services, he did confirm that the SDK is all about integrations like that, saying its for people to use Alexa to connect with agents on their behalf to complete tasks. Rausch is aware that any friction at all in the adoption and setup process can turn people away. To that end, upgrading to Alexa+ should not require any additional sign-ins or authentication. You should be able to have all your connected appliances, security cameras and home routines carry over without any effort. The reason that customers love Alexa is it takes away all the complexity, Rausch said. People dont need to remember the brand of the WeMo plug they bought, for example, to be able to tell Alexa to turn off a lamp. We would never take that away, he said. When youre adding new services after upgrading to Alexa+, Rausch said youll either do so in the ways that you do it today or that itll get even easier, since Alexa can walk you through those setups in many more cases. Sam Rutherford for Engadget According to Rausch, instead of having to dig around in the Alexa app, you just say Alexa, I want to set up a streaming account with Hulu' or something. Youll be presented with a QR code on an Echo device with a screen to facilitate that, and the assistant should guide users along the way. We like to say Alexa is an expert, and now an expert on herself. Amazon isn't the only company that has made its assistant perform tech support for users. This approach is very similar to how Siri can teach you how to, say, shoot a video in Cinematic mode or create a Genmoji. Where better to get help about a product youre using than the product itself? Why make me go to a different place for information? From a customer experience perspective, customers just want the thing done, Rausch said. They dont have to be responsible or care about any of these things, right? He believes people just want the plumber or a reservation booked, and dont want to fuss around with websites and phone calls. People do want their digital assistant to be helpful and easy to use, but isnt it equally important that these AI services are accurate and reliable? When I asked Rausch how Amazon worked around the tendency of generative AI to hallucinate and sometimes spread misinformation, he said I actually think in the industry, theres been a mistake of thinking a model is a product. He also said LLMs are at the foundation of the architecture, but theyre not the only thing answering the question. In other words, Alexa+ is using a combination of Amazons knowledge graphs, reliable sources on the internet and partnerships with authoritative outlets. Other products will simply give you an answer out of the LLM. If you're asking for an authoritative answer, that's not actually sometimes the way to get one. and I think that's what you're highlighting, he said. Rausch added that Amazon has taken great care with Alexa. Will it make mistakes? Every piece of software makes mistakes, he said. But were working hard to ground it in knowledge. Ive yet to try out Alexa+ for myself, and everything weve seen so far has been in highly controlled demos, so its hard to tell what real world performance will be like. But if the new Alexa is truly able to work with third-party services in a way thats seamless and effective, it would not only bring Amazon back into the consumer AI race, but could possibly give it an advantage over the likes of Google, Apple and OpenAI. Considering Amazon realy brought the idea of a virtual assistant into homes around the world, this could also have an impact that goes beyond the tech-savvy users of todays AI services.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazons-generative-ai-vision-for-alexa-is-appealing-but-unproven-140014416.html?src=rss
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