Meta Announces ‘Movie Gen’ Multimodal AI Models

Meta has announced Movie Gen, a new family of generative multimodal AI models that can create video and audio from text prompts. The models allow users to customize their videos, adding special effects, props, and costumes, and can even generate personalized videos based on a person's face. Movie Gen consists of four models: Movie Gen Video, Movie Gen Audio, Personalized Movie Gen Video, and Movie Gen Edit.

The models are extremely powerful, allowing users to change only selected video clip elements rather than regenerating the entire thing. Meta's tests show that Movie Gen outperforms leading rivals in the space, including Runway Gen 3, Luma Dream Machine, OpenAI Sora, and Kling 1.5. Movie Gen is positioned as a tool for both everyday users and professional video creators and editors and is set to debut on Instagram in 2025.

The Movie Gen system's training process focuses on maximizing flexibility and quality for both video and audio generation. The models were trained on billions of videos and images, and used a combination of typical diffusion model training, large language model training, and a new technique called "Flow Matching." This approach provides robustness against the choice of noise schedules, contributing to more consistent and higher-quality video outputs.

The release of Movie Gen marks the third major milestone in Meta's generative AI journey and underscores the company's commitment to pushing the boundaries of media creation tools. Meta's long-term vision for Movie Gen reflects a broader goal of democratizing access to sophisticated video editing tools, and the company plans to collaborate with creators and filmmakers to refine Movie Gen's features and ensure it meets user needs.

Microsoft Unveils New AI Features and Updates for Copilot and Windows

At Microsoft's recent Copilot and Windows AI event, the company unveiled a slew of new features and updates to its AI-powered tools, including a major redesign of its Copilot experience, new AI-powered features for Microsoft Paint and Photos, and improvements to Windows search.

For starters, Microsoft has announced a major redesign of its Copilot experience, which includes a new card-based look across mobile, web, and Windows. The updated Copilot also features new voice and vision capabilities, allowing users to interact with the AI assistant more naturally. The virtual news presenter mode can read users the headlines, and the AI assistant can also see what users are looking at.

Microsoft Paint and Photos are also getting new AI-powered features, including Generative Fill and Generative Erase. These features allow users to precisely add or remove objects in their images, similar to Adobe Photoshop. Additionally, Microsoft is using AI to improve Windows search on its new Copilot Plus PCs, including the addition of a new Click to Do feature that's similar to Google's Circle to Search.

The Windows 11 2024 update is also being rolled out, which includes several small but useful additions to Windows 11. The Start menu has a big change for those using Microsoft's Phone Link software, with a side panel that provides information on phone battery status and notifications. Microsoft is also teasing a new Copilot design, which will be faster, simpler, and more personalized.

Microsoft's new AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, has penned a memo on the future of AI companions, describing a "technological paradigm shift" toward AI models that can understand what humans see and hear. Suleyman is optimistic that AI will create a "calmer, more helpful and supportive era of technology, quite unlike anything we've seen before."

OpenAI Releases New Writing and Coding Chat Interface “Canvas” in Early Beta

OpenAI has released "Canvas" in early beta, a new interface for working with ChatGPT on writing and coding projects that go beyond simple chat. Canvas opens in a separate window, allowing users and ChatGPT to collaborate on a project, creating and refining ideas side by side. This early beta introduces a new way of working together, not just through conversation, but by creating and refining ideas side by side.

Canvas was built with GPT-4o and can be manually selected in the model picker while in beta. The new interface offers a range of features, including the ability to highlight specific sections to indicate exactly what you want ChatGPT to focus on, and inline feedback and suggestions with the entire project in mind. Users can also directly edit text or code, and use a menu of shortcuts to ask ChatGPT to adjust writing length, debug code, and quickly perform other useful actions.

Canvas is designed to improve collaboration with ChatGPT, particularly for writing and coding projects that require editing and revisions. The interface includes a range of features, such as suggesting edits, adjusting the length, and adding final polish, to help users refine their work. For coding, Canvas makes it easier to track and understand ChatGPT's changes and includes features such as reviewing code, adding logs, and fixing bugs.

The development of Canvas involved training GPT-4o to collaborate as a creative partner, and the model was taught to open a canvas for prompts like "Write a blog post about the history of coffee beans" while avoiding over-triggering for general Q&A tasks. The model's editing behavior was also tuned to perform targeted edits when users explicitly select text through the interface, otherwise favoring rewrites.

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Krafton and Pocketpair to Brind Palworld to Mobile Platforms

Krafton has partnered with Pocketpair to bring Palworld to mobile platforms, with PUBG Studios overseeing the mobile version. The Korean company aims to "faithfully reinterpret and implement" the core elements of Palworld, which has already attracted over 25 million players on console and PC.

Palworld has drawn comparisons to Pokémon due to its recruitable monsters, but it has some key differences, including the ability for creatures to wield firearms. Despite these differences, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, which has responded by stating it is "unaware of the specific patents" it has supposedly violated.

Pocketpair remains committed to expanding the Palworld franchise, having recently formed Palworld Entertainment in partnership with Sony Music and Aniplex to develop new businesses associated with the game. The joint venture will focus on developing the reach of intellectual property and expanding commercial business endeavors, including global licensing and merchandising activities.

The partnership with Krafton is the latest move in Pocketpair's efforts to expand Palworld's reach, which will include the development of exclusive merchandise based on the game. The company will debut and sell this merchandise at the Pocketpair booth during Bilibili World 2024.

Epic Game Reduces Royalty Fees for Devs, Sues Google and Samsung for Blocking Third-Party App Distribution

Epic Games has had a couple of significant news this week. Firstly, the company has reduced its royalty fee to 3.5% for games made in Unreal Engine, but only for those that are released on the Epic Games Store on launch day. This initiative, called Launch Everywhere with Epic, aims to incentivize developers to release their games on the Epic Games Store, making it a more attractive platform for both developers and users.

In another development, Epic Games has filed a lawsuit against Google and Samsung, accusing them of colluding to block competition in the Android app distribution space. The lawsuit claims that Samsung's Auto Blocker feature, which prevents the installation of apps and third-party stores from "unauthorized sources", is anti-competitive and undermines the US District Court's remedy following the jury's verdict in Epic's case against Google. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney believes that the Auto Blocker feature is intentionally crafted to prevent users from sideloading apps, including the Epic Games Store, and is seeking to have the feature removed by default to enable competition.

Epic's lawsuit against Google and Samsung is part of its ongoing efforts to promote a level playing field in the gaming industry, where stores and other software sources can compete fairly. The company has also launched a new exclusivity program, Epic First Run, which offers developers 100% of their net revenue from new titles on the Epic Games Store for the first six months after launch.

Pokémon Unite to Shut Down in Belgium and Netherlands Late ‘25

Pokémon Unite, a multiplayer MOBA game, will be shut down in Belgium and the Netherlands on November 30, 2025. The game's developers, TiMi and the Pokémon Company announced the decision in a statement, thanking players for their support and apologizing for any inconvenience. However, no specific reason was given for the shutdown.

The decision may be related to the two countries' crackdown on loot boxes, a monetization mechanic that allows players to purchase in-game items with real-world money. Belgium declared loot boxes illegal in 2018, and the Netherlands has also been pushing for stricter regulations. In 2022, Dutch politicians called for a potential ban on loot boxes, citing their addictive nature.

The shutdown of Pokémon Unite in Belgium and the Netherlands is not the first time a game has been affected by the countries' regulations. In the past, developers like Blizzard and Nintendo have either removed loot boxes from their games or delisted them in the country. The issue of loot boxes remains a contentious one, with some countries adopting stricter regulations and others taking a more lenient approach.

In a related development, Australia recently adopted a new approach to regulating games with paid loot boxes, issuing a default M rating to such games and restricting titles with "simulated gambling" to adults 18 or older. The move is seen as a way to protect consumers, particularly children, from the potential risks associated with loot boxes.

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EigenLayer Token Starts Trading and Hits Top 100 Market Rank

EigenLayer's native token, EIGEN, was unlocked on October 1 and has been trading around $4 per token on Binance, with a fully diluted value of approximately $6.5 billion. The token's price aligns with the implied spot prices on derivatives exchanges and over-the-counter trading before the launch. EIGEN has cracked the top 100 tokens by market capitalization, ranking 94th according to CoinMarketCap.

The token's trading debut has been closely watched, with derivative markets hinting at a bullish debut. Perpetual futures, or "perps," have been trading around $4 per token, with a total supply of 1.67 billion. Approximately 200 million EIGEN tokens are in circulation, with a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $12 billion, according to DefiLlama.

EigenLayer's restaking protocol has been gaining traction, with more protocols starting to pay restakers in Ether and EIGEN rewards. The protocol's affiliated AVS, EigenDA, started paying restakers in August, and other AVS, including Arpa Network, are following suit. Token holders stand to benefit from the increasing adoption of EigenLayer's restaking protocol.

Mark Cuban Thinks Meme Coins are a ‘Rug Pull’ In the Works

Mark Cuban, a well-known investor, has expressed his skepticism about meme coins, stating that they are essentially rug pulls in the works. He believes that these coins have no real-world utility and are driven by speculation and hype. Cuban compared meme trading to a game of "musical chairs," where participants gamble on the value of the coin, hoping to sell it to someone else at a higher price.

Cuban also mentioned that the memecoin market is underpinned by the Greater Fool Theory, which suggests that investors can buy assets at inflated prices, hoping to sell them to someone else at an even higher price. He noted that this approach is not sustainable and that the market is driven by speculation rather than fundamental value.

The memecoin market has seen a surge in activity in 2024, with over 381,000 new memecoins created on the Solana network in the last 30 days. Many of these coins have lost significant value shortly after launch, with some dropping by as much as 99%. Despite this, some memecoin projects have managed to gain traction and maintain their value over time.

Cuban has admitted to considering trading meme coins but has refrained from doing so, citing the lack of fundamental value and the speculative nature of the market. His comments have sparked debate in the crypto community, with some agreeing with his assessment and others defending the value of meme coins.

New HBO Documentary Claims to Reveal the ‘Bitcoin Mystery’ Behind Who is Satoshi Nakamoto

An upcoming HBO documentary, "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery," is set to delve into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. The documentary, directed by Cullen Hoback and executive produced by Adam McKay, promises to reveal new details about the mysterious figure behind the world's first cryptocurrency.

The documentary has sparked speculation on Crypto Twitter, with industry veterans guessing who the film might claim invented Bitcoin. A trailer released for the documentary features interviews with Adam Back, a British cypherpunk and cryptographer who was one of the first recipients of emails from Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. However, Back has long denied that he created Bitcoin, and a trove of emails between him and Satoshi made public in February appears to back up that assertion.

The speculation surrounding the documentary has also raised concerns about the potential impact on the Bitcoin market if the film identifies Satoshi as a living person. Wallets connected to Satoshi still hold some 1.1 million BTC, worth nearly $67 billion, and the revelation of a single person controlling such a large portion of the token's total supply could cause panic in the market.

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