Google Vids Gets Conversational Editing Tools and Personal Avatars
Google Vids has been updated with the Gemini Omni model and personal avatars, allowing it to edit and generate clips via almost any method, as well as enabling people to star in their videos with just a few clicks.
Gemini Omni allows users to create anything from any input, including audio, video, photos, and text. The model is friendlier to natural conversational text, and the update
Trailblazing First Female Staff Photographer at ‘The Washington Post’ Dies
Margaret Thomas, the first female staff photographer employed by The Washington Post , has died at the age of 84.
Thomas, who spent four decades at the newspaper, died at her home in Hume, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her niece Teri Mathews confirmed her death and says the cause has not yet been determined.
According to an obituary published by The Washington Post , Thomas was born in Moose Lake,
Tech Executives Are Hiring Security as Backlash Toward AI Gets Violent
Tech executives terrified of the public backlash against AI are beefing up their security as violent threats spill over into the real world.
The Wall Street Journal reports that some executives are so nervous that they are traveling with armed guards while maintaining a low profile.
It follows two incidents this year. A 20-year-old man is currently on trial, accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Prosecutors allege that Daniel Moreno-Gama threatened to burn down OpenAI’s headquarters
Videographer Killed While Returning Camera to His Car After Event
A videographer was shot dead as he put his camera back into the backseat of his car after doing a job at a party last week.
20-year-old videographer Jaelen McCormick was killed at 1:00AM on Tuesday, July 7 after working at the S&D Banquet Hall, a nightclub in Charlotte, North Carolina. McCormick had started working as a videographer earlier this year and had been commissioned to film a “pajama party” being held at the venue.
On Wednesday, the Charlotte-
Canon New Children’s Book Has Aliens Explaining Why Cameras Are Awesome
Canon Inc. in Japan has published “The Secret of Canon Star,” which Canon describes as a “company introduction booklet for children.” It’s bizarre.
Spotted by DC.Watch , “The Secret of Canon Star” is available on Canon Inc.’s website as PDF files for viewing or printing . The 11- or 20-page booklet, depending on which version is downloaded, is designed for children in third through sixth grade and includes bright, colorful illustrations, interactive experiences like
Mayor Mamdani Says Landlords Can’t Secretly Use AI Images to Advertise Properties
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is having a very busy week. Just a day after announcing a “click-to-cancel” rule aimed at companies like Adobe, Mamdani is cracking down on “deceptive landlord practices,” including using AI-generated and AI-edited images designed to make properties look more appealing.
Mamdani and his team released a “Rental Ripoff Report” today, and in it, the administration outlines recommendations to require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI to alter their listings, including
SmallRig’s New Backpack Copy-Pasted the Hasselblad Vandra’s Design
Yesterday, SmallRig announced the Professional Outdoor Backpack (25L) 6521 that advertises an “innovative” interior that promises to hold dividers in place via a hook-and-loop system. That sounds great, but the innovation wasn’t SmallRig’s — it was Hasselblad’s .
When I reviewed the Hasselblad Vandra backpack earlier this year , I was so impressed with the unique design of the interior that I interviewed the company’s design team
570-Megapixel Dark Energy Camera Photographs Van Gogh-Esque ‘Starry Night’
The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) pointed its 570-megapixel CCD image sensor, housed inside the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, at the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth.
Located only 430 light-years from Earth, the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud is a stellar hotbed and an excellent target for scientists hoping to learn more about star formation. This dark cloud has numerous active star-forming regions and is home to thousands of protostars and
Influencer Ordered to Pay $20,000 For Refusing to Remove Video of Woman
An influencer has been fined 20,000 Canadian dollars ($14,200) after he repeatedly posted intimate images of a woman he barely knew.
Sherif Elbishlawi, who goes by @vibr0phone online, has an Instagram page where he physically picks up women and bicep curls them in such a way that their bottoms are exposed to the camera. He has over 100,000 followers.
But according to Castanet , one woman he met outside of a
DJI Used an AI-Generated ‘Person’ In an Ad, Angering the Actual Humans Who Buy Products
DJI is in a bit of hot water after it was discovered publishing an AI-generated ad on TikTok , where AI-generated people are not all that unusual . DJI’s now-deleted ad featured a video with an AI avatar who looks, mostly, like a real, actual person.
As expected, people online are upset that a creator-focused company like DJI would use an AI-generated “human” in an advertisement for its new DJI Mic Mini, when it could have very easily afforded the