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Florida Deploys Robot Rabbits To Control Invasive Burmese Python Population

1 week 5 days ago
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: They look, move and even smell like the kind of furry Everglades marsh rabbit a Burmese python would love to eat. But these bunnies are robots meant to lure the giant invasive snakes out of their hiding spots. It's the latest effort by the South Florida Water Management District to eliminate as many pythons as possible from the Everglades, where they are decimating native species with their voracious appetites. In Everglades National Park, officials say the snakes have eliminated 95% of small mammals as well as thousands of birds. "Removing them is fairly simple. It's detection. We're having a really hard time finding them," said Mike Kirkland, lead invasive animal biologist for the water district. "They're so well camouflaged in the field." The water district and University of Florida researchers deployed 120 robot rabbits this summer as an experiment. Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. The robots are simple toy rabbits, but retrofitted to emit heat, a smell and to make natural movements to appear like any other regular rabbit. "They look like a real rabbit," Kirkland said. They are solar powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby. "Then I can deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python," Kirkland said. The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.

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Amtrak's New 160mph Acela Trains Take Just As Long As the Old Ones

1 week 5 days ago
Amtrak's new 160 mph tilting Acela trains have debuted on the Northeast Corridor, offering smoother rides, upgraded interiors, faster Wi-Fi, and 27% more seating capacity. However, "they don't complete the journey any faster than the old trains," reports The Independent. From the report: Acela runs from Washington, DC's Union Station to Boston via Philadelphia, New York Penn Station, New Haven, and Providence. It's a total distance of 457 miles, with the fastest next-gen Acela journey being six hours and 43 minutes, five minutes slower than the quickest end-to-end time offered by the old Acela trains, introduced in 2000. However, this may be because, as is common practice with new trains the world over, Amtrak is scheduling longer dwell times at stations so staff and passengers can adjust to them. The next-gen sets have a top service speed that's 10mph faster -- though this can only be achieved on certain sections of the mostly 110mph route -- and an enhanced "anticipative" tilting system that allows for higher speeds through curves.

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Microsoft Reveals Two In-House AI Models

1 week 5 days ago
Today, Microsoft unveiled two in-house AI models: MAI-Voice-1, a high-speed speech-generation system now live in Copilot, and MAI-1-Preview, its first end-to-end foundation model trained on 15,000 H100 GPUs. Neowin reports: MAI-Voice-1 is a speech generation model and is already available in Copilot Daily and Podcasts. To preview the full capabilities of this voice model, Microsoft has created a new Copilot Labs experience that anyone can try today. With the Copilot Audio Expressions experience, users can just paste text content and select the voice, style, and mode to generate high-fidelity, expressive audio. They can also download the generated audio if required. Microsoft also highlighted that this MAI-Voice-1 model is very fast and efficient. In fact, it can generate a full minute of audio in under a second on a single GPU. Second, Microsoft has begun public testing of MAI-1-preview on LMArena, a popular platform for community model evaluation. This represents MAI's first foundation model trained end-to-end and offers a glimpse of future offerings inside Copilot. They are actively spinning the flywheel to deliver improved models and will have much more to share in the coming months. MAI-1-preview is an MoE (mixture-of-experts) model, pre-trained and post-trained on nearly 15,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Notably, MAI-1-preview is Microsoft's first foundation model trained end-to-end in-house. Microsoft claims that this model is better at following instructions and can offer helpful responses to everyday user questions. Microsoft will be rolling out this new model to certain text use cases within Copilot over the coming weeks.

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Microsoft Expands Xbox Cloud Gaming to Cheaper Game Pass Tiers

1 week 5 days ago
Microsoft is testing new Xbox Game Pass features with Insiders, letting Core and Standard subscribers stream cloud-enabled titles they own or access via subscription across more devices, including supported TVs and browsers. These tiers will also gain access to select PC game versions for the first time. From a Xbox blog post: We're always exploring more ways to make your Xbox experience centered around you -- your content, benefits, and playstyle. That's why we're making it easier to enjoy the games you love, wherever you are, and on any device. Starting today, Xbox Insiders are invited to try out new updates in Xbox Game Pass that make it easier to stream and play across more devices. Xbox Insiders subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Core or Standard now have even more freedom to play wherever they are with Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta). As part of this Insider experience, Xbox Game Pass Core and Standard subscribers will be able to stream cloud playable games included with their subscription or select cloud playable games they own, making it easier to jump in from any supported device. [...] We're expanding the ways players can experience PC gaming through Xbox Game Pass. As part of testing, Xbox Insiders subscribed to Game Pass Core or Standard will for the first time gain access to PC versions of select titles, giving you even more flexibility and the choice to play on a PC or Windows handheld."

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