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Facebook's latest artificial intelligence system is known as "DeepText," and it has some pretty serious implications as far as privacy goes. The social network is interested in implementing the system that can help analyze thousands of posts per second across 20 different languages, all with near-human accuracy. What does that mean for you as a Facebook user? Soon, the company will be able to identify what you're saying in posts, messages and other content available via your profile and other pages to better offer suggestions and other helpful options. For example, if you happen to post a status about needing a ride or converse with a friend about when you might need to be picked up, Facebook might suggest you hit up Uber or Lyft services via Messenger transportation integration. The key is distinguishing between slang, jargon and other intricacies of human language that can sometimes make this sort of thing difficult for artificial intelligence to understand. ...

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it had begun using a language AI called DeepText on its platform. Language is complex, and in order to better understand intent (an important part of flagging hate speech, for example), any computer program needs to figure out how humans use language. Now, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has announced that it's begun using DeepText to eliminate comments that violate Instagram's Community Guidelines. DeepText is currently in limited deployment on Facebook, but immediately after learning about the AI, Instagram's top people wanted to test it out on their own platform. They first focused on spam, rather than mean or spiteful comments, asking human workers to wade through a giant set of comments and flag spam by hand. They then fed most of this data into DeepText, which created algorithms based on what it found in the spam comments. The team then turned around and tested the algorithm on the portion of the human-filtered ...

A movie rental for a buck might be the only way I can justify watching the new Power Rangers reboot. Luckily, the Google Play store will let me do just that, with substantive discounts on movies, television shows, apps, games, books and music all wrapped up in a massive summer-themed sale. You can rent any one movie from Google's catalog for $0.99, including big new releases like Beauty and the Beast, Logan and Get Out, each typically going for $4.99. Unfortunately, that deal will only extend to the first rental; the discount does not apply to more than one flick. If serial television is more your style, though, Google Play has those for 50 percent off. There are also discounts of up to 80 percent on premium mobile games, too, like Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, Final Fantasy Tactics and Reigns. Apps with subscriptions, like the New York Times, Runtastic, Memrise, NeuroNation or TuneIn are all at 50 percent off for one year, too. Book...

When Nintendo announced the SNES Classic earlier this week, nerd hearts everywhere were aflutter at another opportunity to relive old gaming glory. There was a hint of caution, though, as fans remembered how demand for Nintendo's first retro console -- the NES Classic -- wildly outpaced supply when it launched last fall. The company hopes to forestall shortages this time around and has improved a few other things (like adding a few feet to the controller cables). Either way, make your peace with the SNES Classic when it lands on Sept. 29th. It'll probably be the last retro console Nintendo releases. Why? Because the next main console in the big N's lineup -- the N64 -- isn't anywhere near as likely to tug on our collective retro heartstrings and thus rake in the nostalgia dollars as a revived SNES (and the NES before it). And there are a few other practical reasons too. First and foremost, the N64's game library is far less suited to nostalgic throwbacks com...

If you work in the world of technology then you've no doubt come into contact with one of the distinctive O'Reilly-published books displaying a woodcut animal on its cover. The media company has gone through several tranisitions since Tim O'Reilly founded it in 1978, and another just quietly happened. O'Reilly decided that it will no longer sell individual books and videos through its online store. The company explains in a FAQ that it fully intends to continue publishing new books and videos, but it won't sell them to you directly. Instead, both paper and ebook versions will be available through Amazon and other book stores. What O'Reilly would really like you to do instead of buying its books is sign-up to its Safari service. For $39 per month or $399 per year you get full access to all existing O'Reilly books and videos as well as any new content published. There's also live online training, learning paths including self-assessment, and early ...

Varjo™ Technologies today (19 June) announced it has emerged from stealth and is now demonstrating the world’s first Human eye-resolution headmounted display for upcoming Varjo-branded immersive computing products. Designed for professional users and with resolutions more than 70X beyond any currently shipping or announced head-mounted display (including Magic Leap™), this major technology advancement enables unprecedented levels of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) realism. This is accomplished by Varjo’s patented technology that replicates how the human eye naturally works, creating a super-high-resolution image to the users gaze direction. This is further combined with video-see-through (VST) technology for unparalleled AR/MR capabilities. Codenamed “20|20” after perfect vision, Varjo’s prototype is based on unique technology created by a team of optical scientists, creatives and developers who formerly occupied top positions at Microsoft®, Nokia®,...

Turn on your Nintendo Switch today and you'll find a new system update waiting for you: it's version 3.0, with a bunch of handy new features. You can now add friends with a Switch who were on your 3DS or Wii U friend lists, find nearby paired controllers by getting them to vibrate, and use a Switch Pro Controller via wired connection. But, perhaps best of all, is the way Nintendo has doled out the update's patch notes. You may have seen this blue-haired lady before. She introduced some of the Switch's system features at launch via cartoony news posts. Her name is Amelia N. Nintendo Switch system software 3.0.0 Register a channel to receive News for specific games Add friends from your Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Friend Lists Receive notifications when your Friends go online Find paired controllers within communication range by activating the vibration feature Change the user icon order on the Home Menu Select from 6 new Splatoon 2 characters for user ...

Netflix’s first interactive episode arrives on the service today, giving viewers a chance to shape the narrative through a series of decisions they make throughout the experience. The new episode of Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale gives users more than a dozen decision points throughout its length, giving young viewers reason to rewatch it several times to explore the branching paths. A second interactive episode, for the children’s show Buddy Thunderstruck, arrives next month. For now, Netflix is calling its interactive episodes an experiment. But if its 99 million subscribers like them, the format could come to the service’s more popular shows — and help bring a new form of interactive storytelling into the mainstream. First, though, Netflix has to see whether the mainstream has an appetite for it. To begin, the company decided to focus on making interactive shows for children. “Kids are already talking to the screen,” says Carla Engelbrecht Fisher, Netflix’s director of pro...

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