A.I. reads the Harry Potter series, then writes some absurd fan fiction

Have you ever tried using the predictive keyboard on your smartphone to generate completely nonsensical messages, based on the words it considers to have the highest probability of following each other? A mischievous member of Botnik Studios, an online artist collaboration, just used a similar technique to write part of a new Harry Potter novel — with hilarious effect.

The predictive text generator used to write the story was trained on the seven previous Potter books. From this, it analyzed frequent recurrent word pairings and sentences to come up with text that is a weird mix of algorithmic randomness and something that, frankly, still reads a bit like J.K. Rowling may have penned it.

Titled Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash, the story is every bit as weird as you might imagine. A Death Eater wears a shirt reading, “Hermione Has Forgotten How To Dance,” Harry falls down a spiral staircase for an entire summer, and Ron does a tap dance and then tries to eat Hermione’s family. None of it makes a lick of sense, but it’s a whole lot of fun — and genuinely creative in a way that mixes human smarts with artificial intelligence.

This isn’t the first time computer scientists have used artificial intelligence to try and generate new Harry Potter stories. Last year, we reported on one attempt to generate new Hogwarts-related stories using a long short-term memory recurrent neural network trained on the series’ first four books.

Even more significantly, when Rowling was outed as the author of the detective novel The Cuckoo’s Calling a few years ago — writing under the pen name Robert Galbraith — computer scientists cracked the mystery in a very similar way to Botnik’s story generator: by analyzing the text based on frequent word pairings and the like. In the aftermath, Rowling admitted that she was the author.

If you are interested in finding out a bit more about Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash and the predictive text program used to generate it, check out this page on GitHub, where it is freely available to inspect.

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Coffee, Wine, and Beer Accessories Gift Guide

Everyone loves a good drink. Whether it’s coffee, wine, beer or something a little bit stronger, these gifts are perfect to quell that thirst. From The Periodic Table of Wine to GrowlerWerks’ Pressurized Growler, there’s something here for every price range.

Yeti Roadie 20 CoolerMade for the rough and tumble, and designed to keep your water in its frozen state, this cooler is also the perfect size for one-day events like tailgating or hiking.Amazon$199.99WishlistInstant 1-Button Electric Wine AeratorIf you’re drinking your wine straight from the bottle without letting it breathe, you’re doing it wrong. This electric aerator will change the way you drink.Amazon$59.99WishlistGrowlerWerks uKeg 128 Pressurized Growler for Craft BeerYou can’t just get your beer to go in a plastic cup. You need to go with a growler that can preserve the flavor and the temperature.Amazon$199.00WishlistAll-In-One 7-piece Espresso/Cappuccino Machine Bundle SetStop wasting all your money at Starbucks. Waste it on this instead. Get espresso or cappuccino on your kitchen counter every day. Great if your family has a lot of coffee drinkers.Amazon$219.99WishlistKitchenAid Cold Brew Coffee MakerReally, the only true way to drink iced coffee is with cold brew. So, if you’re going to spend $80 on a coffee maker, it should be a cold brew coffee maker.Amazon$79.96WishlistMoscow Mule set of 4 16oz copper mugsThese mugs look great and work well with any ice-cold drink you want: water, beer, soda. You name it.Amazon$41.95WishlistKovot 9-piece Wine Travel Bag and Picnic SetThis perfect picnic accessory works really well when you want to bring wine but you’re already over-encumbered by a giant picnic basket. It’s easy to carry and has everything you need.Amazon$26.99WishlistYeti Rambler 10oz Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel LowballThese Yeti Lowball tumlers are short and fat instead of tall and skiny like most designs. That makes them great for sipping hot tea, cider, or a small cocktail.Amazon$39.99WishlistGlogex 11-piece home bar tool setWhether you want to impress your friends or make a complicated drink for yourself, this set has all the tools you need to setup the perfect home bar.Amazon$42.99WishlistMr. Coffee 2-in-1 Iced Tea Brewing SystemThis is not a system designed to be complicated. Find your favorite tea bag or tea leaves, select the strength of the brew you want, and let Mr. Coffee handle the hard part.Amazon$28.79WishlistDuoMuo Coaster Set of 6 Colorful Vinyl Record Disk CoastersThis unique set of coasters are designed to look exactly like tiny vinyl records. Perfect for the music-obsessed coffee drinks that really don’t want any rings on the coffee table.Amazon$10.00WishlistThe Periodic Table of WineEnhance your wine-ication with this book that breaks down all the different variables in wine and actually presents a unique way to introduce you to vintages you’ve never tried before.Think Geek$15.99WishlistOster cordless electric wine bottle openerPlease stop living in the 20th century and start using an electric wine bottle opener. All you have to do is press a button and there’s nothing standing between you and your favorite red.Amazon$17.99WishlistSimple Modern Spirit 12oz vacuum-insulated Wine TumblerThis collection from Simple Modern features solid colors and design, vacuum-insulation to keep beverages hot or cold for longer and different styles for wine or coffee.Amazon$22.99WishlistGoodnight Brew: A Parody for Beer PeopleWhether you want to get your kids working at your bewery real young, or the brew master in your life isn’t quite all there, this parody take on the famous Goodnight Moon! will teach everyone about the joys of making beer.Amazon$12.40WishlistReusable K-Cup (4-pack)If you prefer specialty coffee but like the simplicity of using a Keurig, this is the way to go.Amazon$10.95WishlistK-Cup CarouselStop storing your K-Cups in a random drawer, and instead display them in a way that makes them easier to find.Amazon$12.42Wishlist64oz Chalkboard GrowlerMost people only care about the beer inside the growler, but having a cool growler is a conversation starter. This chalkboard painted growler lets you customize it as you wish, making it perfect for every situation.Etsy$32.00WishlistCorksickle Chillsner Beer CoolerThere’s no beer worse than a warm beer. Trust me. Don’t be that friend that serves a beer that isn’t cold enough, and instead have a few of these in your freezer.Amazon$19.95WishlistBeer Chilling Coaster SetThe refridgerator isn’t the only place that can keep your beer cold. These coasters will help keep them chilled while you are sipping on them (and it helps prevent rings on your table!).Uncommon Goods$68.00WishlistBormioli Rocco Selecta 7-Piece Whiskey Gift SetThis seven piece whiskey set features glasses and a carafe, but if you give this as a gift it should really be an 8-piece set with some whiskey to really round it out.Amazon$18.95Wishlist

Microsoft’s Cortana can now suggest follow-up tasks

Microsoft may not be the biggest player in the AI assistant space, but it has some tricks that could give it an edge. The software giant has used an AI-themed event to demo Cortana’s widening abilities, most notably to ‘chain’ skills together based on what you’re doing. If you book tickets for a concert, for instance, Cortana could suggest adding the concert to your calendar so that you won’t forget to head out that night. You could get everything done in a single, elegant voice command session.

Cortana should also make better sense of your overflowing inbox. The demo showed the AI helper not only sorting emails, but summarizing the most important ones. If your boss asked about the status of a project, you would know without having to look at your email app or check your notifications. The feature works across different email account types and subjects, so this could include both your Outlook account at work and your personal Gmail address.

It’s not certain how readily these features will be available as we write this. However, Microsoft did score a coup: it landed its first deal to integrate Cortana into a third-party Android launcher, in this case Cheetah Mobile’s CM Launcher. The addition gives CM Launcher voice control it didn’t have before, whether it’s making calls, reading the news or searching the web. The Cortana version is available in an open beta right now in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, with a polished release due in January.

Source: Microsoft, Google Play

Microsoft adds more AI smarts to Office 365

Microsoft has been adding cloud-based artificial intelligence to its popular Office suite for years now. In addition to new AI-focused upgrades to Cortana and Bing, the company also announced several new tools for Word, Excel and Outlook to help you make the most of your data, organizational content and more.

At Microsoft’s AI event on Wednesday in San Francisco, the company announced Office Insights, machine learning that will analyze data from Excel spreadsheets to create pivot tables and trend charts. “Data is incredibly valuable, but it’s only valuable when you’re actually able to extract insights from it,” Microsoft’s Rob Howard said in a statement.

It also revealed Acronyms in Word, which looks through your organization’s documents and emails to help find acronyms specific to your business. Tap in Word will bring up documents, spreadsheets and presentations from your company without leaving the document you’re working on, making it trivial to include, say a chart from Excel into your PowerPoint deck without having to search a corporate intranet to find it. The company also plans to release a tool to help highlight action items in emails via Outlook so you can respond on the go.

All of these new features rely on the cloud to process informations, of course. This helps Microsoft add functionality on the fly, too, like the Design tool in PowerPoint that can create a full presentation from a bulleted list. “The cloud has actually really accelerated our progress,” said Howard. “We’re able to take a lot of that functionality and bring it to end users more quickly.”

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft unveils improved AI-powered search features for Bing

Microsoft unveiled a handful of new intelligent search features for Bing at an event held in San Francisco today. Powered by AI, the search updates are meant to provide more thorough answers and allow for more conversational or general search queries.

First, when answering a question, Bing will now validate its answers by sourcing a number of websites, not just one. And in cases where there are two valid perspectives, like, for example, in response to the question, “Is cholesterol bad,” they’ll be aggregated and Bing will show both at the top of the search page. Additionally, when there’s more than one way to answer a query, Bing will provide a carousel of answers.

The Bing team is also adding relevant analogies or comparisons to search answers that make the provided information easier to understand. For example, rather than just saying Syria is 71,498 square miles in response to a question of how big the country is, it would also say it’s approximately the size of Florida. “We want to reduce the number of times that people read a number and can’t make sense of it. And we want to do that by providing some context, or an analogy, or perspective, that puts it in more familiar terms usually related to their everyday experience,” Jake Hofman, a Microsoft senior researcher, said in a statement. Further, Microsoft is expanding Bing’s comparison answers, which were previously limited to product comparisons.

Bing will also help users find answers to broad or conversational queries by asking clarifying questions that will help refine the search. And Microsoft also introduced Bing’s advanced image search capabilities, which will now let users search images or objects within images to, for example, help them track down a particular fashion item they’d like to purchase.

Additionally, Bing and Reddit have teamed up to bring the information contained in Reddit threads to Bing’s search page. Now you’ll be able to search Bing for certain Reddit topics or subreddits, such as “Reddit Aww,” and Bing will surface a snippet of the topic. If a general search, like “Why wouldn’t my water boil,” could be answered well through Reddit conversations, Bing will also surface parts of those conversations at the top of the search page. And if you want to see certain AMAs or read through popular ones, Bing will be able to surface those as well. AMAs will show up in a carousel at the top of the Bing results page, and you can even view upcoming AMAs.

Microsoft also unveiled new AI-powered features for Cortana and Office 365 at the event. The Reddit partnership launches today, while Bing’s intelligent answers and conversational search features will start rolling out next month.

Images: Microsoft

Source: Microsoft

Redbox returns to internet video with On Demand service

The last time Redbox tried online video in earnest it… didn’t go so well. The company’s Redbox Instant was effectively trying to challenge Netflix head-on, which seemed foolhardy even in 2013. After lots of teasing, though, it’s ready for a comeback. It’s launching a Redbox On Demand service that offers movies and TV shows (notably, including new releases) for purchase or rent — it’s steering clear of subscriptions this time. You can stream videos or download them for offline viewing, and it’s available across a wide range of devices from the word “go.” You can watch wherever you are with Android or iOS, while living room viewers can use Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku boxes or smart TVs from LG and Samsung.

Rentals start at $4 for a 48-hour period, while you’re looking at spending $10 or more for a purchase.

Redbox is wagering that this model plays into its existing strengths. If you’re already used to renting movies from its kiosks, it’s not a big stretch to rent online when you’d rather stay home. And since it already has deals to get new releases, it’s guaranteed to have titles that may take months to arrive on services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, if they ever do.

It’s not going to be a cakewalk, mind you. There’s still plenty of competition in this space, such as Apple’s iTunes, Google Play Movies and Walmart’s Vudu. And unlike Redbox’s kiosks, there aren’t really price advantages. Redbox is mainly banking on its name and physical presence to earn your business. Not that it necessarily need a runaway hit, mind you. On Demand can serve as more of a complement to Redbox’s discs, and could help it transition to digital if its kiosks become untenable.

Source: Redbox

Hyundai plans 38 EVs as it tries to catch up with rivals

Hyundai and its affiliate Kia have revealed ambitious plans to bring as many as 38 green cars to market in the next eight years, with seven models slated for launch in the next five. Most of them will be electric vehicles, senior vice president Lee Ki-sang told reporters last week, adding to the company’s current green line-up of the Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Soul, several plug-in hybrids and the hydrogen-based fuel-cell ix35.

For a company that has dragged its feet on the green vehicle landscape, 38 is a lot. However, it says it’s taken its time (more than a decade) researching and developing green technology that fits within its brand. And credit where it’s due, the manufacturer has bought to market relatively inexpensive cars that make the technology and its benefits accessible to the mainstream. And there’s take-up: the company sold 186,000 green vehicles in the first nine months of the year.

However, the company is still trailing behind its competitors. VW, for example, plans to build electric versions of all of its models by 2030. GM says it’s developing battery-only versions of 20 of its cars, due to hit the market by 2020. Renault, BMW and Daimler are all already following suit. Speaking to Bloomberg, Kim Phil-soo, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim University near Seoul, said, “Hyundai should have become a first mover of EVs, but it is still staying as a fast follower,” and added that the company is “late by about three years”. If it realizes its ambitious plans, though, the company could emerge as an unlikely leader in the field.

Via: Bloomberg

‘Doctor Who Time Vortex VR’ is an endless runner with a TARDIS

Fans of our favorite Time Lord can get all timey-wimey with a VR reboot of Doctor Who Time Vortex 360, a web/mobile game that came out this past May. You can steer the TARDIS through various space obstacles, Rez-style, with Cardboard, Daydream, Gear VR and Vive via a web browser. The game is also available for Android and iOS on phones and tablets using mobile versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Doctor Who Time Vortex VR is essentially an endless runner. While the BBC wants you to think you get to step into the long-running show’s universe, you’re really only steering a TARDIS through various stages and rings, collecting shiny stars and avoiding crashing into asteroids. In VR, you’ll turn your head to do so, while mobile players can simply tilt their phones to steer. Whether you strap a pair of goggles on your face or just play on your smartphone, if moving the TARDIS around on a screen is your cup of tea, then by all means go check this one out.

Source: BBC

Redbox Launches New Digital Movie and TV Rental Service

Redbox, the company that offers physical movie rentals via kiosks around the United States, today launched a new digital Redbox On Demand service designed better compete with other digital TV and movie services.

Redbox On Demand, available as a public beta, allows customers to rent or purchase movies and TV shows for streaming. The service offers many of the same new-release movies that are available from physical Redbox locations, along with additional content.

Redbox previously had a digital streaming service called Redbox Instant in partnership with Verizon, but it shut down in 2014 after being unable to compete with offerings like Netflix. Redbox has been testing its new On Demand service, which focuses on rentals and outright purchases, since July of 2016.

Pricing for new-release on-demand rentals from Redbox starts at $3.99 for 48 hours of access, but most new titles are priced at $5.99, with Redbox charging $1 more for high-definition content. Movie purchases are also available at prices starting at $9.99, and can be downloaded for offline viewing.

Redbox’s rental prices are similar to rental prices from iTunes, Amazon, and other digital movie rental services.

Redbox On Demand is available from the Redbox website, through the Redbox app for Android and iOS, and it is accessible on the Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, and smart TVs from LG and Samsung.

While Redbox On Demand content can be watched on iOS devices and the Apple TV, content needs to be purchased through the Redbox website.

Tag: Redbox
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iOS 11.2.1 Fixes Autofocus Issue Some iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus Users Experienced After iOS 11.2

The iOS 11.2.1 update released this morning appears to address an ongoing camera focus issue that some iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus users began experiencing following the release of iOS 11.2.

According to affected users, the camera was not able to focus properly when attempting to capture an image. The camera either shifted continually between the two lenses of the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus, or refused to focus entirely. From MacRumors reader Nixie:

Hello there, was wondering if anyone have this issue too, when on iOS 11.2 the camera isnt able to get in focus, the lense just go back and forth indefinetly. Restored back to 11.1.2 and the issue is gone, updated back as new iPhone on 11.2 issue is there. So this looks like a software problem. Anybody with the same problem?

Resetting, restarting, and changing camera settings did not address the issue, but downgrading to iOS 11.1.2 did, suggesting it was caused by a bug in iOS 11.2.

MacRumors readers on Twitter and the forums who were experiencing the problem have said that installing iOS 11.2.1 has resolved the autofocus issue.

iOS 11.2.1 is available as a free download that can accessed by going to Settings –> General –> Software Update. In addition to fixing the autofocus issue, iOS 11.2.1 also re-enables remote access for shared users of the Home app, which Apple disabled last week to address a major HomeKit vulnerability.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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