Technology News

Conference: “Sky stones, meteors, bolides and asteroids”

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On Tuesday, February 20 at 7 p.m., the Thetford Public Library Network presents Gaétan Laflamme's conference entitled “Skystones, Meteors, Bolides and Asteroids.”

Celestial rocks or meteorites are fragments of rocks, metal, or other materials from space that pass through Earth's atmosphere and reach the Earth's surface. These alien fragments can vary in size, from small particles of dust to large chunks.

When a celestial object, such as an asteroid, enters the Earth's atmosphere and reaches the Earth's surface, it can cause a meteor impact. This impact can have significant consequences depending on the size and speed of the colliding object. We find traces of these impacts on the moon, planets and Earth, including several impacts in Quebec.

In this conference, Gaétan Laflamme explains the origin of meteors and bolides and how to find celestial stones, i.e. meteorites. These provide valuable information about the composition of celestial objects and can provide clues about the history and development of our solar system. Several photos of the Minéro Museum's meteorite collection are also presented.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Gaétan Laflamme is an amateur astronomer, a member of the Fédération des astronomers amateurs du Québec (FAAQ) and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (SRAC/RASC). He works with researchers at Western University in Ontario by photographing meteors to calculate the precise orbits of this dust in space or to predict the possible impact point of bolides that could land on Earth.

Thetford Public Library Network users can obtain tickets at the Cégep Library circulation desk. Please note that a limit of two tickets per member has been set.

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New software from OpenAI | Stunning AI-generated videos

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(San Francisco) In April, New York startup Runway AI introduced software that lets you create videos — such as a cow celebrating its birthday or a dog talking on the phone — simply by typing a sentence on a computer .

Published at 1:04 am. Updated at 7:00 a.m.

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Cade Metz The New York Times

The four-second videos were blurry, choppy, distorted and disturbing. But they have clearly shown that we are not far away from using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to produce very compelling videos.

Barely 10 months have passed and San Francisco-based OpenAI has just unveiled a similar system that creates Hollywood-quality videos. The short sequences, created in just a few minutes, show woolly mammoths running across a snowy meadow, a monster looking at a melting candle, and a street scene in Tokyo that appears to have been filmed by a camera flying over the city.

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According to OpenAI, Sora was provided the following description to create this video: “An elegant woman walking down a street in Tokyo filled with bright neon lights and animated street signs. She is wearing a black leather jacket, a long red dress, black boots and a black handbag. She is wearing sunglasses and red lipstick. She walks confidently and relaxed. The road is wet and reflective, creating a mirror effect with the colored lights. Many pedestrians walk. »

OpenAI, behind the ChatGPT chatbot and the DALL-E still image generator, is one of many companies working to improve these types of instant video generators. For example, the start-up Runway and tech giants like Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram). This technology could accelerate the work of experienced filmmakers while completely displacing young digital artists.

It could also be a quick and inexpensive tool for creating disinformation online, making it even more difficult to distinguish fact from fiction online.

“The potential impact of something like this on a close election absolutely frightens me,” said Oren Etzioni, a professor of AI at the University of Washington and founder of True Media, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking online misinformation during elections.

“The idea of ​​unlimited creative potential”

OpenAI called its new system Sora (“sky,” in Japanese). The team behind the software, led by researchers Tim Brooks and Bill Peebles, chose the name because it “evokes the idea of ​​limitless creative potential.”

According to MM. Brooks and Peebles, Sora is not yet available to the public as OpenAI is still working to understand its dangers. OpenAI limits access to Sora to a select group of academics and other outside researchers who test it to identify potential malicious uses.

Our goal is to provide a glimpse of the future so that users can see the possibilities of this technology and share their observations with us.

Tim Brooks, researcher at OpenAI

OpenAI already watermarks videos produced by Sora, identifying them as generated by artificial intelligence. However, the Company acknowledges that these watermarks may be removed. They can also be difficult to spot. (The New York Times added “AI-generated” watermarks to the videos in this article.)

Sora is an example of generative AI, capable of instantly generating text, images and sounds. Like other generative AI machines, Sora learns by analyzing digital data, in this case videos and captions that describe the content of those videos.

OpenAI refuses to say how many videos were provided to the system and where they came from, but says the content includes public videos and copyrighted videos. The company says little about the data it uses to train its technologies to maintain its edge over competitors — and because it has been repeatedly sued over its use of copyrighted content.

(In December, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)

Not always perfect

Sora generates videos in response to short descriptions like “a beautiful coral reef full of colorful fish and sea creatures.” Videos can be impressive, but they aren't always perfect and some images can be strange and illogical. So Sora recently created a video of someone eating a cookie, but the cookie never got smaller.

In just a few years, DALL-E, Midjourney and other still image generators have improved to the point where they produce images that are almost indistinguishable from real photos. This makes it harder to spot misinformation online. Many digital artists complain that it is more difficult for them to make a living.

“We all laughed when Midjourney produced its first images in 2022,” says Reid Southen, a digital filmmaker from Michigan. “Today, Midjourney is putting people out of work. »

This article was published in The New York Times.

Read the article on the New York Times website (subscription required)

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Are SUVs more dangerous than cars? – Pivot point

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Are SUVs more dangerous than cars Pivot point

Is the increasing popularity of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and their growing numbers on our roads causing safety issues? This is the question asked by one of our readers OUR Newsroom participatory. According to our confirmation, our roads have never been safer, despite the impact of SUVs on those who don't drive.

Are SUVs more dangerous than cars Pivot point

In fact, according to federal Department of Transportation statistics, all indicators point to continued improvement in safety on Canadian roads, even as more and more of us drive increasingly heavier vehicles.

Between 1999 and 2021, the latest year for which data is available, the number of people injured in road accidents has roughly halved, from 218,457 to 108,546, while the number of deaths has fallen by 41%, from 2,980 to 1,767.

However, the Ministry's data does not allow us to verify what proportion of these accidents were involving SUVs, but we do know that the place occupied by this type of vehicle within the Canadian automobile fleet continued to increase over the period.

In fact, slightly more light trucks, the category that includes SUVs but also pickup trucks and minivans, are being sold every year, while Canadians are buying fewer and fewer cars.

Through fluctuation, we are gradually moving towards replacing the vehicle fleet with these heavier vehicles. Even if this trend continues, SUVs and other trucks could account for almost all new vehicle sales in the country as early as 2028, according to the Energy Sector Management Chair, who is concerned about the environmental impact of this change.

A question of size

However, American researchers from the independent research organization Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that the heavier the vehicle, the greater the risk of death or serious injury to people who are not in a heavy vehicle.

The occupants of an SUV who are involved in an accident with a small car, a cyclist or a pedestrian are not at greater risk because of their choice of vehicle, but people who come into contact with these SUVs are at greater risk.

This applies to SUVs, but also to electric vehicles, which can be up to twice as heavy as their gasoline counterparts. Not to mention, electric SUV sales now exceed electric car sales, according to the Energy Sector Management Chair.

A more dangerous form for pedestrians

In addition to their weight, SUVs and other light trucks are more dangerous to pedestrians than smaller vehicles because of their shape, according to an IIHS analysis.

When a pedestrian is hit by an SUV, the impact of the bumper is actually higher on the person's body. Therefore, it tends to bounce toward the front of the vehicle, whereas a person hit by a sedan tends to roll on the windshield and roof of the car, saving them much of the force of the impact in addition to being hit ensures that the impact is prevented from landing under the wheels of the vehicle.

SUVs are also designed to have larger blind spots than other vehicle types, increasing the risk that their driver may not see a person traveling on foot until it is too late to avoid it, the IIHS said.

Additionally, in the United States, the number of pedestrians involved in traffic accidents has increased by 80% since 2009, after steadily declining since the 1980s, a situation that several studies attribute to SUVs.

However, this trend is not seen in Canada, where the number of pedestrian injuries and fatalities decreased by 26% and 20%, respectively, between 2009 and 2021.

A changing street environment

Several factors could explain the improving safety record on Canadian roads, despite the increase in the number and size of vehicles traveling on them. For example, according to a public safety report, drunk driving is trending down across the country.

In addition, new driver assistance technologies are now integrated into almost all new vehicles, which, according to the IIHS, helps prevent numerous accidents each year.

Land use planning may also have played a role, as hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested across the country to build safe pedestrian crossings and bike paths.

Safer roads for your children…especially in SUVs

Our reader ended her survey with the question: “Are our children safe in the back seats of our vehicles?” »

In 2021, 54 children aged fourteen or younger died and 5,429 were injured in an accident involving a road vehicle. This is approximately three times what it was in 1999. A significant decrease, especially considering that the number of vehicles on Canadian roads has increased by approximately 10% over the same period.

So even if you chose a small car for environmental reasons, your children will be much safer there than when they were children, even if the presence of SUVs on the roads increases the risk. Let them run.

A risk that is, however, no higher if you drive an SUV yourself. On the other hand, keep in mind that with these types of heavy vehicles, the likelihood that you will be the one who injures or kills a child in an accident increases significantly.

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Is Sherbrooke ready for the solar eclipse?

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In Sherbrooke we can observe the total solar eclipse planned for the afternoon of April 8th for the longest time. For now, despite everything, the city has decided to delegate the organization of the events to partners. This decision is not unanimous in the local council. Amateur astronomers also regret that the population is not being monitored at this historic moment.

The Sherbrooke Amateur Astronomers Club wishes the city had taken the lead in organizing a free public event.

I'm a little disappointed that there aren't more things to do in Sherbrooke as such, because when I looked at the beautiful Tourisme Cantons-de-l'Est website, there are a lot of events around Sherbrooke, notes Daniel Brousseau, who is Member of the club.

Things are exceptional in Sherbrooke. It will be dark for 3 minutes and 25 seconds, he added.

Coaticook, Granby, Bromont and Lac-Mégantic organize free events in parks. Instead, Sherbrooke decided to delegate the organization to partners.

Destination Sherbrooke will therefore offer a paid activity for 750 people in the exhibition center.

The Sherbrooke Region School Service Center confirms that it has already purchased glasses to enable its teachers and students to observe the solar eclipse and make this day an educational event.

The Sherbrooke Museum of Nature and Sciences is also planning an event.

An underestimated event, according to an advisor

According to city councilor Christelle Lefèvre, the city underestimates the extent of the phenomenon.

I experienced it, the total solar eclipse in Europe in 99. I saw the effects, I saw what it represented before, on the same day. People were quite surprised by the traffic, by the hustle and bustle. There are a lot of people who travel for something like this. If they weren't in the hallway, she believes they would move around.

I think we missed the boat a bit. […] There are many actors who underestimated the impact of this event.

The matter will be discussed at the next council meeting. It remains to be seen whether the city will become more involved.

We have played our role to ensure that the population is safe [pour regarder l’éclipse]But also not to overshadow the municipalities that have already done something in this direction, emphasizes local councilor Raís Kibonge.

One thing is certain: Daniel Brousseau will be there.

It's really extraordinary. We saw it happen in the United States in 2017 and it's crazy. It's really an event and I think we need to experience it as a group.

The August 2017 total solar eclipse was observed in Missouri.

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The August 2017 total solar eclipse was observed in Missouri. (archive photo)

Photo: The Canadian Press / Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP

The hotels are already filling up for April 8th. Traffic volumes in the region will be higher than normal, estimates Tourisme Cantons-de-l'Est.

With information from Delphine Belzile

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Why are AIs evolving in unexpected ways?

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LLMs, not unexpectedly, acquire new skills as they advance. You just need to know how to properly measure their performance.

Researchers believed that large language models (LLMs) could bring unpredictable improvements. This then posed a serious problem for the development of artificial intelligence. A recent study has refuted this postulate. Appropriate monitoring makes it possible to know when LLM acquire SKILLS.

Let's remember that the The most important language models are crucial for the development of artificial intelligence. OpenAI's very popular generative chatbot, ChatGPTbased on LLMs like GPT-4 Or GPT-4 Turbo.

The BIG Bench, LLMs and their skills

It's 2022. More than 400 researchers start a major project to test large language models. Nickname BIG Bankthis consists of handing over to LLM a sequence of 204 tasks. For most tasks, performance increases regularly depending on the size of the model. In some cases, researchers find that a Leap in performance after a latency period.

The authors call this behavior a “breakthrough,” similar to a Phase transition in physics. They also illustrate the unpredictability of this behavior. This unexpected development then increases Questions about security. Actually, a Generative AI The unexpected can be dangerous.

BIG Bench conclusions are questioned

This week, three Stanford University researchers published a paper detailing their work on the BIG Bench findings. This new research shows that the sudden appearance of skills only plays one role the consequence of how researchers measured LLM performance.

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It's not the skills neither unexpected nor sudden, supports the trio of scientists. “The transition is much more predictable,” he said Sanmi Koyejo. Note that this Stanford computer scientist is the lead author of the article.

Additionally, LLMs train by analyzing large amounts of text. They determine the connections between words. The more parameters, the more connections the model can find. Let's remember this GPT-2 owns 1.5 billion parameterswhile GPT 3.5 in one 350 billion. GPT-4 running Microsoft Copilotneeded 1.75 trillion parameters.

The importance of the method of assessing LLMs and their skills

The rapid growth of large language models has led to impressive improvements in their performance. The Stanford trio recognizes that these LLMs are becoming increasingly popular more effective as they evolve. However, the improvement depends on it Choice of metrics for evaluationand not the internal processes of the model.

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According to the BIG Bench GPT-3 from OpenAI and LaMDA from Google showed a sudden ability to solve addition problems with more parameters. However, this is “Origin“Depends on the metric used, says the new study. For a metric that gives partial credit, there appears to be improvement gradual and predictable.

In short, this development of the concept of emergence is not trivial. It will certainly encourage researchers to develop one Science of predicting the behavior of large language models.

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You too will soon have an Apple headset in your hands

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If the Apple Vision Pro is out of stock, there's a good reason. Ming Chi Kuo estimates that if Apple had planned eighty units at launch, more than twice that number would have already found a buyer. More specifically, the Taiwanese researcher estimates that no fewer than two hundred thousand controlled mixed reality headsets have been purchased since January. However, we can hardly be sure. And for good reason: The manufacturer does not communicate sales figures for the device. This is unlikely to be the case in the coming months.

When Apple reports its quarterly financial results, it actually breaks them down into product categories. There we find Macs, iPads, iPhones and even services and wearables. However, as the name suggests, this last term covers both the AirPods Pro wireless headphones and the second-generation Apple Watch Ultra connected watches, or most likely even the Vision Pro. The mountain could bring in up to five hundred billion dollars for Tim Cook's company in the coming years. That's exactly what the investment bank Morgan Stanley says, closely followed by shareholders who bet on AAPL shares on the Wall Street stock exchange.

These predictions, when correlated with the progress of Apple's other connected device lines, are reminiscent of the meteoric growth of the iPhone segment since 2007. Others will see this as the pattern followed by the Apple Watch, which was also available at a very expensive price when first released, but is now available in France for under 300 euros. However, the country is not yet eligible for the Cupertino mixed reality headset as it is only accessible if you live in the US. However, it is still possible to bypass this restriction by using Shipito.

But you have to pay the price. In fact, the headset is therefore not immediately available in the Apple Store. However, the only other way to get it today seems to be by purchasing it through a peer-to-peer resale platform like eBay. Apart from the fact that the sums requested to finance the framework are more than unreasonable: the amounts sometimes amount to more than eight thousand dollars, at the time of writing these lines more than seven thousand euros.

Working in Vision Pro

Apple already wants you to give up your iPhone

In fact, to better understand Apple's mixed reality ambitions, we need to look at the rumors that surfaced in our columns last year. Then we read that an informant close to the Californian company claims to know that the company is preparing in the long term to “replace” the iPhone with its augmented reality solutions. And it's not a utopia: with certain connected glasses such as Solos (cycling) or Google Glass, it is already possible to overlay information in real time with your surroundings without losing comfort. The problem is that the solutions involved are currently not perfect.

Although Xreal offers its own spatial computer (a term that Apple also uses) on glasses, the device does not benefit from an on-board operating system as comprehensive as visionOS. We could also cite the case of frame glasses, but this time the goal is not the same. In fact, the pair is aimed more at developers with an open source platform that everyone can edit in their own way. The offering still has a lot going for it, especially given the price positioning, which is light years away from that of the Vision Pro.

But how ?

The real question that then arises is that of a device that can actually provide us with all the tools already available on the iPhone, but in a format that is not only comfortable but also affordable and efficient. In contrast to Google Glass, there is no question of overheating. Apple knows how to do it: The new MacBook Airs don't have the slightest fan, but you can still run the Adobe suite on your lap in the summer without having to worry about burning your thighs. The pricing issue, in turn, could be resolved much sooner than we think, as a second mixed reality headset would hit the market with a similar value proposition to the iPhone SE 2025with Tim Cook.

Speaking of which Comfort, which is perhaps the most technical dimension of this challenge. Mark Zuckerberg recently explained it; Since the Quest 3 is lighter, we can already see it as an alternative to the Vision Pro and weighs more than six hundred grams on the scales. But Apple's progress in this area will be gradual, and we'll certainly have to wait until the fourth generation of its VR mounts to finally have something to hold onto, according to Mark Gurman.

However, the Bloomberg journalist forgets that the manufacturer is also preparing smart lenses, ignoring almost all physical limitations.

i-nfo.fr – Official iPhon.fr app i-nfo.fr – Official iPhon.fr app

From: Keleops AG

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“Only” four Xbox-exclusive games will be adapted for PS5 and Nintendo Switch

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“We made the decision to play four games [exclusifs de Xbox] To adapt to other consoles, there are only four games. » Phil Spencer, director of Microsoft's video game division, said in a highly anticipated gaming community podcast episode that aired Thursday afternoon.

Although it is impossible to know the names of the games selected, Phil Spencer nevertheless clarified that they are not Starfield, a successful title released in 2023, nor Indiana Jones the Great Circles, whose – highly anticipated – Publication is scheduled for December 2024.

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In a blog post published to coincide with the podcast episode, Xbox explains that these are games that will be offered to its players for at least a year, including hidden gems that deserve to be discovered on a larger scale, and Live -Service games for which the communities will benefit from the arrival of a larger number of people.

The company plans to provide further details on the affected titles shortly. Trade sites, including The Verge, report that Hi-Fi Rush will be involved.

By making these games available to more players, we not only increase the reach and impact of these titles, but also allow us to invest in future releases of these games or other items from our portfolio of original games.

Xbox still plans to offer games exclusive to its console, but Phil Spencer adds a nuance: I'm convinced that over the next five or ten years exclusive games, that is, games reserved for a single device, will represent an increasingly smaller share the industry.

Xbox does what it promises

Microsoft's October 2023 acquisition of giant Activision-Blizzard in a record $69 billion (C$94.3 billion) deal came with promises for gamers: Xbox has signed deals with Sony and Nintendo to retain certain of its games or to launch the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch consoles, including those of the Call of Duty series.

Xbox is keeping its promise to offer more games to more players around the world, the company said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

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Diablo IV is coming to Game Pass

During the special episode of the Xbox podcast, the team also announced that Activision-Blizzard's Diablo IV game will be available on Game Pass, the company's cloud video game subscription.

Game cover with a demon behind the

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The game “Diablo IV” was released on June 6th.

Photo: Blizzard

Players can start playing this title on PC or Xbox starting March 28th.

The inclusion of video games from the giant Activision-Blizzard in a subscription service was also part of Microsoft's promise. Furthermore, Xbox states that this is just the beginning and that more announcements along these lines will be made soon.

Xbox President Sarah Bond also commented on the podcast episode, hinting that a hardware announcement would be made during the holiday season. “We're really focused on making the biggest technological breakthrough you've ever seen,” she said.

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Artificial Intelligence: MELS will automate the subtitling of certain content

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MELS is moving towards artificial intelligence (AI) at a time when all major players in the audiovisual industry are using this new technology to remain competitive.

The TVA Group subsidiary will rely on AI to caption some of its clients' television content, including productions broadcast on TVA. The contribution of AI will initially only impact French-dubbed acquisition content in order to gradually implement AI.

This will allow the company to remain competitive and flexible to new realities and market demands, MELS management told the QMI agency after informing its employees of these changes.

Automating subtitling activities using AI will result in significant time savings. For example, a project in which all stages could take place over an eight-hour period could now potentially take just four minutes under the new conditions.

No positions have currently been eliminated. The company will reevaluate its needs in the coming months based on the productivity gains achieved by AI.

“This decision is necessary given that MELS, a subsidiary of TVA Group, needs to find solutions to remain efficient in a highly competitive environment while reducing operating costs. To further rationalize costs, TVA Group will also entrust part of its video description activities to an external supplier,” MELS management said.

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