By Jeff Montgomery ( December 12, 2024, 4:35 PM EST) — Former Bungie Inc. gaming software director and designer Christopher Barrett sued the company and parent Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC for $200 million in damages in Delaware’s Court of Chancery on Thursday, claiming defamation and constructive dismissal while accusing the companies of leaking false sexual misconduct allegations…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI announced the public release of its hyperrealistic AI video generation software Sora today — nearly 10 months after it was first shown publicly in February 2024. In fact, OpenAI is actually releasing a much upgraded model from the one debuted back then: The new Sora Turbo will be available at sora.com to ChatGPT Plus and Pro paying subscribers ($20/month or $200/month) for those in the U.S. and most countries outside of the EU and UK. OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman presented the news in a YouTube livestream, part of the company’s “12 Days of OpenAI” series of holiday-themed announcements scheduled for 1 pm ET / 10 am PT. Sora can generate a wide range of videos from text inputs or still images, creating clips between 10 and 20 seconds long, and do so in a range of resolutions from 480p to 1080p, as well as aspect ratios from landscape to square and vertical. OpenAI created a whole new unique interface for the product, which includes a grid or list view the user can toggle within to see their generations. Users can also enter a mode called Storyboarding which lets them generate multiple linked clips in a Timeline view. The model attempts to provide a seamless transition between the clips — users can drag to make cuts more abrupt or make takes longer and more fluid. ChatGPT Plus users can generate up to 50 videos per month at 480p resolution. For professionals and heavy users, the Pro plan offers higher resolutions, longer durations, and unlimited generations at slow speeds. OpenAI also announced plans to release tailored pricing options for diverse user needs by early 2025. News broken by MKBHD Popular tech reviewing YouTuber Marques Brownlee, better known by his handle MKHBD, broke the news of Sora’s release about an hour beforehand. “The rumors are true — SORA, OpenAI’s AI video generator, is launching for the public today…” Brownlee wrote in a post on the social network X. Brownlee also shared a thread of examples of videos he made using the text/image/video-to-video generator, to which he was given early access as one among several dozen early creative partners to whom OpenAI seeded the program before its general release. Brownlee shared that while Sora could produce impressive and sometimes eerily realistic footage such as that of newscasters or a gadget reviewer like himself, it also tends to hallucinate random details and telltale signs of being AI-generated, such as garbled, nonsensical text in news chyrons, unnatural physics, and even adding or removing objects seemingly at random. He also noted that OpenAI imposes fairly strict guardrails against generating likenesses of real people and against violence and explicit themes. Credit: MKBHD/YouTube Still, in his full YouTube review, he also ultimately concluded that “this is a lot for humanity to digest now…[it] is the new baseline, this is once again the worst that it will ever be.” Leaked on Hugging Face in protest by early testers The release follows a leak of Sora onto the AI code sharing community Hugging Face by beta testers roughly two weeks ago in protest of OpenAI’s handling of the beta testing program. As the leakers wrote on their Hugging Face space: “Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company. While hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened — offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.” Sora also arrives in the midst of an increasingly competitive landscape for realistic, live-action AI video generation. Runway continues to upgrade its AI video generation platform rapidly with new features including, just last week, the ability to re-record dialog in pre-existing footage and have the characters’ faces match. Luma AI and Chinese competitors such as Kling, Hailuo, and recently, Tencent, have all fielded impressive AI video generation tools in the last few weeks alone. So even though OpenAI — by virtue of its success with ChatGPT and early, eye-catching Sora footage — may have strong recognition that can help popularize the launch of this new AI video generator to the masses, there are now many competing options that appear, at least superficially, to offer similar or better video quality. That makes Sora less of a guaranteed success. source

If you’re on a phone or video call and you suddenly hear your own voice on a slight delay, you’re most likely experiencing mic echo. Even with modern calling technology, this scenario is still common and it can leave anyone feeling frustrated — especially when time is short and you need to present yourself as a polished, prepared communicator. Fortunately, this mic echo is usually caused by a variety of easily fixable factors, including: Where your microphone is located. This is the most common cause of echo issues. If you’re using an external mic, it may be situated too close to your speakers, causing it to pick up and send out the sound of your voice in an endless loop. The volume level of your speakers. If your speakers are too loud, your mic may be picking up on its output no matter where it’s located. The number of microphones in use. Having more than one running mic can multiply the sound of your voice. Make sure your main mic — whether it’s a headset, laptop, phone, or other standalone source — is the only one in use. Some readers will be able to get rid of mic echo with just that short bit of guidance there. In the rest of this post, I’ll go into detail about these fixes, why they work, and additional steps you can take to stop this annoying problem. 1 RingCentral RingEx Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Hosted PBX, Managed PBX, Remote User Ability, and more 2 Talkroute Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Call Management/Monitoring, Call Routing, Mobile Capabilities, and more Why does mic echo happen? During a normal call, a person’s voice is captured by the microphone, transmitted through the system, and then played back in real-time to the listener. The sound is clear and immediate, with no delay or repetition. Mic echo occurs when the sound from the speaker is picked up by the microphone and retransmitted, leading to a delayed or repeated sound. The delayed retransmission causes the echo effect, disrupting the normal flow of communication. This phenomenon is much more common on VoIP phone systems vs landline phones. Identifying the source of mic echo When mic echo occurs, it may not always be clear exactly what or who is causing the problem. If everyone else on a call hears your voice echo, then you are likely to be the source, even if your voice sounds normal to you on your own speakers. The same goes for any other participant. Fixing mic echo (without stopping the call) Once you’ve identified that you are the source of the echo, you should be able to remedy the problem quickly without interrupting the conversation. Start by trying this series of quick fixes: Turn down your speaker volume Access your device settings or press the external volume adjust buttons to lower speaker sound levels to their minimum volume. Then, slowly begin raising the volume until the conversation becomes audible, checking for any remaining echo. This works well if the problem is caused by feedback picked up in your speakers. Lowering the volume is an incredibly common fix for people that are using a computer or tablet as a softphone to make calls. Moving your microphone further away from your speakers. Another way of reducing mic feedback is to distance your microphone farther away from the speakers. This is likely to fix the issue if you’re using an external device, such as a webcam or lavalier mic, paired with your computer or phone speaker. Switching to a headset or headphones with a built-in mic If you’ve tried lowering the speaker volume and distancing your mic from your speakers, the next best option is to switch from an external device to a headset or headphones with a built-in mic. Any decent VoIP headset will do a good job reducing the amount of ambient noise picked up by your mic. SEE: Check out our complete guide on the best VoIP headsets.  Disable all other nearby mics Many modern devices feature microphones, including game controllers, laptops, phones, smartwatches, smart speakers, television remotes, and webcams. If you’re still experiencing mic echo, one of these may be the culprit. Make sure to check device audio settings or switch them off completely in order to reduce additional sound pickup. Adjust call recording software settings If you’re recording a call for future reference, you may need to adjust the call volume settings in your business phone service interface or app. This is usually accomplished through the main Settings menu, where you can search for an Audio option to adjust Input (microphone) or Output (speaker) volume. SEE: Looking for a new phone system? Check out our top business phone service picks.  Disable SIP ALG on your router SIP ALG (Session Initiation Protocol Application Layer Gateway) is a feature often enabled by default in routers to help manage VoIP traffic. Unfortunately, this feature often causes more problems than it solves, leading to delays and audio distortions that result in mic echo during calls. To resolve this, SIP ALG can typically be disabled through the router’s settings, often found under advanced network or firewall configuration options. This is a slightly more technical fix than most of the other ones, but I promise you won’t be the first person to Google “disable SIP ALG” for your particular VoIP router. The problem is widespread enough that finding beginner-friendly guidance is not going to be hard. SEE: Discover the best VoIP routers.  Additional fixes for mic echo If you’ve tried every quick fix imaginable and still experience an issue, there’s a few more things you can do to solve the problem: Restart your computer or device. Turning your device off and then on again closes out all programs that may be

By Thomas Redburn and Maya Ginsburg ( December 9, 2024, 4:55 PM EST) — On Nov. 22, in a terse one-page order, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the writ of certiorari in Facebook Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank, one of two private securities fraud cases the court had agreed to hear this term,[1] as improvidently granted. The unexplained move comes after the court received a full merits briefing and heard oral argument, raising eyebrows among court watchers and securities litigation practitioners…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More In a world where efficiency is king and disruption creates billion-dollar markets overnight, it’s inevitable that businesses are eyeing generative AI as a powerful ally. From OpenAI’s ChatGPT generating human-like text, to DALL-E producing art when prompted, we’ve seen glimpses of a future where machines create alongside us — or even lead the charge. Why not extend this into research and development (R&D)? After all, AI could turbocharge idea generation, iterate faster than human researchers and potentially discover the “next big thing” with breathtaking ease, right? Hold on. This all sounds great in theory, but let’s get real: Betting on gen AI to take over your R&D will likely backfire in significant, maybe even catastrophic, ways. Whether you’re an early-stage startup chasing growth or an established player defending your turf, outsourcing generative tasks in your innovation pipeline is a dangerous game. In the rush to embrace new technologies, there’s a looming risk of losing the very essence of what makes truly breakthrough innovations — and, worse yet, sending your entire industry into a death spiral of homogenized, uninspired products. Let me break down why over-reliance on gen AI in R&D could be innovation’s Achilles’ heel. 1. The unoriginal genius of AI: Prediction ≠ imagination Gen AI is essentially a supercharged prediction machine. It creates by predicting what words, images, designs or code snippets fit best based on a vast history of precedents. As sleek and sophisticated as this may seem, let’s be clear: AI is only as good as its dataset. It’s not genuinely creative in the human sense of the word; it doesn’t “think” in radical, disruptive ways. It’s backward-looking — always relying on what’s already been created. In R&D, this becomes a fundamental flaw, not a feature. To truly break new ground, you need more than just incremental improvements extrapolated from historical data. Great innovations often arise from leaps, pivots, and re-imaginings, not from a slight variation on an existing theme. Consider how companies like Apple with the iPhone or Tesla in the electric vehicle space didn’t just improve on existing products — they flipped paradigms on their heads. Gen AI might iterate design sketches of the next smartphone, but it won’t conceptually liberate us from the smartphone itself. The bold, world-changing moments — the ones that redefine markets, behaviors, even industries — come from human imagination, not from probabilities calculated by an algorithm. When AI is driving your R&D, you end up with better iterations of existing ideas, not the next category-defining breakthrough. 2. Gen AI is a homogenizing force by nature One of the biggest dangers in letting AI take the reins of your product ideation process is that AI processes content — be it designs, solutions or technical configurations — in ways that lead to convergence rather than divergence. Given the overlapping bases of training data, AI-driven R&D will result in homogenized products across the market. Yes, different flavors of the same concept, but still the same concept. Imagine this: Four of your competitors implement gen AI systems to design their phones’ user interfaces (UIs). Each system is trained on more or less the same corpus of information — data scraped from the web about consumer preferences, existing designs, bestseller products and so on. What do all those AI systems produce? Variations of a similar result. What you’ll see develop over time is a disturbing visual and conceptual cohesion where rival products start mirroring one another. Sure, the icons might be slightly different, or the product features will differ at the margins, but substance, identity and uniqueness? Pretty soon, they evaporate. We’ve already seen early signs of this phenomenon in AI-generated art. In platforms like ArtStation, many artists have raised concerns regarding the influx of AI-produced content that, instead of showing unique human creativity, feels like recycled aesthetics remixing popular cultural references, broad visual tropes and styles. This is not the cutting-edge innovation you want powering your R&D engine. If every company runs gen AI as its de facto innovation strategy, then your industry won’t get five or ten disruptive new products each year — it’ll get five or ten dressed-up clones. 3. The magic of human mischief: How accidents and ambiguity propel innovation We’ve all read the history books: Penicillin was discovered by accident after Alexander Fleming left some bacteria cultures uncovered. The microwave oven was born when engineer Percy Spencer accidentally melted a chocolate bar by standing too close to a radar device. Oh, and the Post-it note? Another happy accident — a failed attempt at creating a super-strong adhesive. In fact, failure and accidental discoveries are intrinsic components of R&D. Human researchers, uniquely attuned to the value hidden in failure, are often able to see the unexpected as opportunity. Serendipity, intuition, gut feeling — these are as pivotal to successful innovation as any carefully laid-out roadmap. But here’s the crux of the problem with gen AI: It has no concept of ambiguity, let alone the flexibility to interpret failure as an asset. The AI’s programming teaches it to avoid mistakes, optimize for accuracy and resolve data ambiguities. That’s great if you’re streamlining logistics or increasing factory throughput, but it’s terrible for breakthrough exploration. By eliminating the possibility of productive ambiguity — interpreting accidents, pushing against flawed designs — AI flattens potential pathways toward innovation. Humans embrace complexity and know how to let things breathe when an unexpected output presents itself. AI, meanwhile, will double down on certainty, mainstreaming the middle-of-road ideas and sidelining anything that looks irregular or untested. 4. AI lacks empathy and vision — two intangibles that make products revolutionary Here’s the thing: Innovation is not just a product of logic; it’s a product of empathy, intuition, desire, and vision. Humans innovate because they care, not just about logical efficiency or bottom lines, but about responding to nuanced human needs and emotions. We dream of making things faster, safer, more

The Forrester Tech Tide: Smart Manufacturing, Q2 2020 presented an analysis of the maturity and business value of 20 technology categories that supported smart manufacturing back in 2020. Like other Forrester Tech Tides it offered a visual representation of the state of technologies in the space, plotting them against the two dimensions of business value and maturity. Twenty technologies that mattered in smart manufacturing back in 2020 A lot has changed since we completed this exercise in 2020, and it’s time to draw up a new list of the technology categories that are going to matter in 2025. A survey will be sent out in January We use a survey to validate our perspectives on the technologies that should be included, to confirm their position on the graphic, and to gather good examples of use cases and relevant vendors to highlight in the report. The research team is currently drawing up our list of (client and nonclient) vendors and other stakeholders to approach with the survey. If you’re a Forrester client and want to be sure you’ll receive a copy in January, please contact your account team and let them know that you’re interested. source

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to Logic Sheet for $99 (reg. $720) and automate repetitive tasks in Google Sheets to save time and boost productivity. If you spend countless hours managing data in Google Sheets, it’s time for a smarter solution. With Logic Sheet, you can automate repetitive tasks, streamline your workflow, and focus on more critical priorities. For just $99 (regularly $720), this lifetime subscription gives you access to powerful tools designed to save time and boost productivity. Logic Sheet transforms Google Sheets into a powerful automation hub, enabling you to create workflows that work for you. The process is simple. First, you set up a trigger, like scheduling an action to run daily or initiating a workflow when your spreadsheet is edited. Next, add conditions to customize your automation, ensuring it only runs when specific criteria are met, such as a value exceeding a certain threshold or a keyword appearing in a form submission. Finally, select your action—Logic Sheet can send emails, update other platforms like Airtable or Notion, refresh spreadsheet formulas, or even push API requests. The possibilities are plentiful. One of Logic Sheet’s standout features is its pre-built templates and automation recipes, which make setup fast and intuitive. Whether you’re managing projects, analyzing data, or tracking customer interactions, these templates simplify the process. With just a few clicks, you can customize workflows to meet your unique needs without spending hours on configuration. Logic Sheet is perfect for professionals across industries. A project manager can automate updates to team members whenever a project milestone is completed. Without manual input, a marketer can sync customer data between Google Sheets and Mailchimp. An analyst can refresh and organize data automatically, ensuring that reports are always up-to-date. Don’t miss this low price on a lifetime of Google Sheets support and work smarter with lifetime access to Logic Sheet for $99 (reg. $720). Prices and availability are subject to change. source

By Christopher Cole ( December 11, 2024, 4:36 PM EST) — The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday opened two more slices of the 6 gigahertz airwaves to power unlicensed wireless uses ranging from augmented reality to body-worn technologies…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

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