Margot Robbie quietly takes husband Tom Ackerley's surname after 10 years of marriage - but the surprise move divides fans
Margot Robbie has quietly adopted her British husband's surname almost a decade after the couple tied the knot - and the unexpected move has divided fans.
Astronomer watches Starlink satellites sinking to build a ‘planetary barometer’
The atmosphere expands and contracts; watching objects in orbit reveals the extent
Wayne Rooney insists he'd never hire a nanny despite struggling with the 'chaos' of raising four sons - while tearful Coleen admits she's finding it hard to juggle work and motherhood
Filmed last year, the show captured the moment Coleen began to return to work, having previously been a stay-at-home mum while Wayne travelled the country for football.
Susan Sarandon and other celebrities ARRESTED at UN protest ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address
The 79-year-old actress was among dozens who were cuffed as NYPD cops worked to clear First Avenue ahead of the speech to the UN General Assembly.
How Believable is Google's New 'Live Avatar' Capability?
Google has synthesized "expressive face-to-face experiences" for its speech agent Gemini 3.8 Live. They're now offering a Live Avatar "with precise lip-syncing, natural expressions, and fluid turn-taking" for Google Enterprise accounts wanting "engaging customer service" or for offering interactive walkthroughs. (Check out the not-creepy-at-all video in Google's announcement.)
"Though Google will offer a library of preset avatars for customers to choose from, it will also allow organizations to create their own," notes The Verge. (See some examples from the YouTube channel "AI with Surya".)
But even without the visualization of the avatar, "I was never able to shake the feeling that these conversations with computers never feel like a real conversation," argues the blog Android Police. Conversing with just the Ai-generated audio, "At best, they feel like talking to a phone representative or someone from tech support. We turn to them when we have a problem, and they help us through it..."
GPT-Live, and Gemini Live right behind it, skip that whole relay race. Instead of translating your voice to text and back to voice, the model works with raw audio the entire way through (what it hears and what it says) inside the same system, with nothing translated in between. That sounds like a small plumbing detail, but it's the whole story. Cutting out the text step lets these models respond in a fraction of a second instead of the pause we've learned to expect, and it lets them hear things text can never carry: tone, hesitation, whether you're annoyed or joking...
I was hoping to be surprised by how natural the conversation felt. Instead, I came out with a deeper appreciation for every human I've ever talked to. Even the boring ones... I spoke, it spoke back. I spoke faster, it answered faster. Then I switched to a different language, and it switched along with me. Even switching between languages several times during the same sentence didn't stump it. The most impressive moment happened when I asked it what "T-O-P-G-3-3-K" spelled out, and it immediately came back with, "You are spelling the word Top Geek, but using a 3 to represent a reversed E...."
Although it felt fast and responsive, at no point did it feel like talking to another human being... What Gemini couldn't replicate, because it was never built to replicate it, is human connection.... I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but somehow talking naturally to an LLM amplifies the feeling that there is no one on the other side of the line. It might flow like a phone call, but it doesn't feel like one.
MrBrklyn (Slashdot reader #4,775) says he discussed "why mainstream media avoids reporting on screen dependency" with Gemini, and eventually convinced Gemini to respond that it's just "another tool built by the same tech giants to make sure you rely on their system to tell you what to think, how to talk, and what is real."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Bosses of new themed bakery and café at former garden centre praise community support
Bosses of a new themed bakery and café say they have been “blown away” by the support after their first week.
Where best to see Corn Moon in Essex as spectacle to light up skies this week
Essex is well-placed to enjoy the spectacle, with September’s full Corn Moon expected to appear particularly bright across the county.
Braintree Freeport station commuters hit by doubling of parking charges
Regular rail commuters have raised concerns after long-stay parking charges at Braintree Village more than doubled under a new provider.
'Struggling' High Street businesses to be supported in new council plans
A support group could be set up as Maldon businesses battle rising costs and pressure on the town centre.
Maldon actor wins top award at North Essex Theatre Guild ceremony
Maldon Drama Group performer Dan Perring won Best Supporting Actor
Pensioners complete charity skydive
Harwich pensioners Ann Munro and Colin Merritt raised £2,500 for Harwich Cancer Support Group with a tandem skydive.
Bosses of new themed bakery and café at former garden centre praise community support
Bosses of a new themed bakery and café say they have been “blown away” by the support after their first week.
Where best to see Corn Moon in Essex as spectacle to light up skies this week
Essex is well-placed to enjoy the spectacle, with September’s full Corn Moon expected to appear particularly bright across the county.
Woman stole £1,300 from Witham and Rivenhall RAF cadets caught after 11 months
Sarah Cole, 52, took £1,301.25 from 295 Witham & Rivenhall RAF Air Cadets Squadron between October 2024 and September last year.
Kaia Gerber's boyfriend Lewis Pullman and A-list friends rush to her side days after her brother Presley's death
The 25-year-old actress and model's actor boyfriend Lewis Pullman was among those who made sure to be at the grieving star's side as the actor was seen for the first time days after tragedy.
2026 just became the year of FreeBSD on the (Amazonian cloud) desktop
Desktop AMIs ‘designed to behave as much like Windows as possible’ now available as an on ramp for new users
Dove Cameron is married! Disney Channel star wows in a Giorgio Armani suit as she shares a kiss with Måneskin frontman Damiano David after their legal ceremony in Tuscany
The actress tied the knot with the Eurovision champion in a town hall in Val d'Orcia, and was seen arriving for the big day in an elegant custom white suit by Giorgio Armani.
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: AI kill off humanity? Dealing with chatbots has made me lose the will to live
We're also 'leading the world' by rushing headlong to Net Zero, but the rest of the world isn't in the slightest bit interested in following our determination to commit economic hara-kiri.
The dark side of winning the lottery: My parents won $37million - we went from being poor to having everything we wanted but our family fell apart
A young man has revealed how he went from growing up poor to living a life of luxury after his parents won a $37million lottery jackpot - but their fortune ultimately came at a devastating cost.
Battle over 'stealth' plans for 30,000 new homes: Council accused of rushing through huge development amid fears it will threaten services and 'limit water usage'
Huntingdonshire District Council has been accused of attempting to usher in a new housing plan without consulting locals, who are going to war over the 'destruction' of their community.