Gamers have been waiting for years for Nintendo’s new gaming device and now they only have to wait until June 5 when the Switch 2 hits shelves starting at $450. The device has a larger, 1080p LCD screen, and supports 4K and in-game chat. Details were revealed during a Nintendo Direct online presentation. Nintendo, which announced details of the new console in January, will over the next few months be holding a series of global roadshow events aimed at letting people have a hands-on experience with Switch 2. The original has sold more than 150 million units. Continue reading Nintendo Switch 2 Out in June with 4K Support, In-Game Chat

OpenAI has closed a $40 billion funding round, a record for a private tech firm. The infusion gives the nine-year-old San Francisco startup a $300 billion valuation making it the second most richly apprised private firm in the world, second only to SpaceX at $350 billion and tied with ByteDance, according to CNBC. The round was led by SoftBank Group contributing $30 billion, which likely gives the Japanese holding company the second largest stake, after Microsoft, which is said to have received a commitment for 49 percent of any profits in exchange for nearly $14 billion. Continue reading OpenAI Closes the Largest Private Tech Funding Round Ever

Meta Platforms is developing a deluxe entry for its popular Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses line that is said to incorporate hand-gesture controls and will include a screen for displaying photos and apps. The price tag will reportedly be more than $1,000 (and possibly as high as $1,400) when the item hits the shelves, possibly by the end of this year. Code-named Hypernova, the souped-up eyewear is part of a Meta plan to make a wearable alternative to Apple iPhones. Existing Ray-Ban Meta glasses can pair with Android phones to make calls. Continue reading New Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses to Include Built-In Screen

Roblox is working with Google to scale-up advertising, adding the search giant’s immersive ads and allowing users to opt-in to watch full-screen spots of up to 30-seconds to earn in-game perks. The program, known as Rewarded Video, was announced at the IAB PlayFronts where Roblox also touted new partnerships with measurement and brand lift firms including Nielsen, Kantar, IAS, Cint and DoubleVerify “to enable brands to better understand the impact of their investment.” Rewarded Video will be implemented by Google Ad Manager, which offers its own metrics. Gamers will be able to accrue benefits including virtual currency and power-ups. Continue reading Roblox Teams with Google Offering Immersive Ads in Games

Runway has introduced a new video generation model, launching a next phase of competition that could transform film production. Notably, its Gen-4 system improves the consistency of characters, locations and objects across multiple scenes, an elusive prospect for most AI video generators. The New York-based startup calls its new development “a step towards Universal Generative Models that understand the world.” The key, Runway says, is to provide a single reference image of the character, item or environment as part of the model’s project material. Runway Gen-4 can generate 5- and 10-second clips at 720p resolution. Continue reading Runway Gen-4 Tackles AI’s Elusive Video Scene Consistency

Amazon is formally rolling out its new Nova family of foundation models. Teased at the re:Invent conference hosted by AWS, details of the new multimodal series began leaking out this month. As part of the move, Amazon is diving into the agentic AI business with a new model called Nova Act, which is now in research preview. Nova Act is designed to control Web browser actions and independently tackle simple tasks. A Nova Act SDK is also being made available to allow developers to customize their own agents using the general-purpose Nova. The company is pushing for agents to help streamline business productivity. Continue reading Amazon’s Nova Model Series Includes Nova Act for AI Agents

French video game publisher Ubisoft has created a subsidiary focused on three of its most iconic and narratively cohesive brands: the worlds of the time-shifting actioner “Assassin’s Creed,” anthology mystery “Far Cry,” and tactical combat thriller “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.” Essentially a spin-off unit, Ubisoft has secured backing from its minority investor Tencent, which is plowing $1.25 billion into the new venture. The Chinese game giant — sixteenth on the Companies Market Cap list of the world’s most valuable companies, at $593 billion as of this month — in September 2022 upped its stake to 10 percent of Ubisoft. Continue reading Tencent Builds on Ubisoft Stake with $1.25B for New Venture

AMC Entertainment has entered into a partnership with South Korean cinema technology company CJ 4DPlex to bring 65 of its ScreenX and 4DX theaters to its venues in the United States and Europe. AMC’s 25 ScreenX auditoriums will use 4DX’s signature multi-projection approach to immerse audiences in a 270-degree field of view, starting this summer. There will be 40 4DX installations opening, beginning in the fall. With 4DX, moviegoers get a multi-sensory experience that includes motion seating and atmospherics like water, wind, scents and snow in addition to special lighting and other effects to enhance the action onscreen. Continue reading AMC to Add 65 ScreenX, 4DX Theaters in Deal with CJ 4DPlex

Ad measurement firm iSpot has launched Outcomes at Scale with Paramount as its first customer. Designed to speed performance tracking across TV and streaming by helping brands see campaign results almost instantly, allowing them to optimize on the fly, iSpot says Outcomes at Scale makes “attribution” (consumer response to commercials) available rapidly, while making low-funnel insights — metrics occurring closer to the conversion point — more accessible. The company’s new offering aims to provide advertisers with access to conversion-rate tracking, allowing them to see how audience segments are responding to campaigns throughout the ads and dayparts. Continue reading Paramount Adopts iSpot’s New Ad Tech: Outcomes at Scale

Chinese smartphone giant Vivo is entering the XR headset market with a device called the Vivo Vision that is drawing comparisons to Apple’s Vision Pro in name and looks. The headset debut coincides with the announcement of the Vivo Robotics Lab, signaling a strategic expansion beyond mobile phones. Vivo EVP and COO Hu Baishan said that AI and robotics currently represent the height of technological achievement in the digital and physical worlds, and that the mobile phone industry, with its massive consumer base and advanced infrastructure is well-positioned to bridge the two worlds, “blending digital connectivity with physical capabilities.” Continue reading Smartphone Maker Vivo Intros Vision XR and Robotics Group

During Nvidia’s GTC AI Conference in San Jose earlier this month, VP and GM of Media & Entertainment Richard Kerris presented the Nvidia Media2 initiative that builds on the company’s Blackwell GPU foundation to enable real-time AI solutions for all aspects of media production workflows. His talk showcased a broad range of generative AI breakthroughs in real-time ray tracing and VFX, video search and summarization, and musically-based sound effects (SFX). Kerris also shared insights on the media industry’s reception to AI thus far and humbly implored the audience to consider using such technology as an effective new tool for storytelling. Continue reading Nvidia Forges AI Initiative to Streamline Production Workflows

Just prior to the start of the weekend, Elon Musk announced that his artificial intelligence company xAI is acquiring his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) “in an all-stock transaction,” valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45 billion less $12 billion in debt). The merger has the potential to create a powerful GenAI-powered content platform. The billionaire purchased Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion, following months of legal skirmishes. According to Musk, X currently touts more than 600 million active users, while “xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale.” Continue reading Elon Musk Announces xAI Corporation Will Purchase X Social

Tech firm Infinite Reality — which specializes in AI-powered 3D immersive experiences — has agreed to pay $207 million for Napster, the 26-year-old music streaming service. The sellers are crypto investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners and blockchain firm Algorand, that acquired the platform in 2022. Infinite Reality is privately held, listing among its investors Liberty Media, Live Nation, MGM, T-Mobile and Barry Diller’s IAC. The company plans to steer Napster to superfan experiences, making it “more immersive, more social, and more shoppable.” Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, former global music chief at Roblox, will continue in his current post. Continue reading Infinite Reality Agrees to Acquire Napster in $207 Million Deal

China’s Ant Group is using local semiconductors to train AI at a cost that is 20 percent less than companies typically spend, according to reports. Ant used domestic chips — from companies including Alibaba, an investor in Ant, and Huawei — to launch a unique Mixture of Experts (MoE) training approach that produced results commensurate to training with Nvidia H800 chips. Ant is the latest Chinese company to focus on low cost training, joining a competition triggered by DeepSeek, which in January announced it could build AI comparable to the models released by U.S. companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google for billions less. Continue reading Ant Group Stacks Chips to Reduce Development Costs for AI

Alibaba Cloud has released Qwen2.5-Omni-7B, a new AI model the company claims is efficient enough to run on edge devices like mobile phones and laptops. Boasting a relatively light 7-billion parameter footprint, Qwen2.5-Omni-7B understands text, images, audio and video and generates real-time responses in text and natural speech. Alibaba says its combination of compact size and multimodal capabilities is “unique,” offering “the perfect foundation for developing agile, cost-effective AI agents that deliver tangible value, especially intelligent voice applications.” One example would be using a phone’s camera to help a vision impaired-person navigate their environment. Continue reading Alibaba’s Powerful Multimodal Qwen Model Is Built for Mobile