Tootfinder

How Synthesia is combining multiple AI voice and video models to improve avatar realism with natural gestures and accent preservation (Rhiannon Williams/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/0

Synthesia’s AI clones are more expressive than ever. Soon they’ll be able to talk back.
The uncanny valley is narrowing. Are we ready for what comes next?

Government Office for Science (GO SCIENCE) has released a pdf chart of its Emerging Technology Taxonomy.
https://foresightprojects.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/04/helping-government-to-understand-the-technologies-of-the-future/

Helping government to understand the technologies of the future – Futures, Foresight and Horizon Scanning
Technology development has the potential to surprise even the most astute of experts. With emerging technologies evolving so rapidly, how do we make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to understanding them? A challenge that

Less is More: Token-Efficient Video-QA via Adaptive Frame-Pruning and Semantic Graph Integration
Shaoguang Wang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Jianxiang He (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Yijie Xu (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Ziyang Chen (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Weiyu Guo (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Hui Xiong (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Less is More: Token-Efficient Video-QA via Adaptive Frame-Pruning and Semantic Graph Integration
The practical application of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) to Video Question Answering (Video-QA) is severely hindered by the high token cost of processing numerous video frames. While increasing the number of sampled frames is a common strategy, we observe a "less is more" phenomenon where excessive frames can paradoxically degrade performance due to context dilution. Concurrently, state-of-the-art keyframe selection methods, while effective, still yield significant temporal redunda…

Bonne nouvelle! Je viens juste d’apprendre que l’excellente thèse de Jamil Alioui (j’avais le plaisir d’être membre de la jury) a été publiée en #openacces chez épistémé sous forme de deux livres:
▹ Le symbolisme technologique de Gilbert Simondon
▹ Penser le «numérique» avec Gilbert Simondon
Le deuxième est très accessible et ne nécessite pas de connaissances de la

This is the sort of crap that sounds smart until you think about it for five minutes.
Was the solution to COVID really ultimately technological? What about the social measures that got us to the point where the vaccine was ready? What about the different vaccination rates between Europe and the US? No social aspects to getting a population vaccinated? What about the emergence of Omicron: maybe luck was part of it?
The same goes for Ozempic, and the same will be true of Climate ch…

This was always how it was going to end, just a financial settlement and AI companies can continue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/technology/anth…

Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit With Book Authors
The settlement is the largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright cases and could lead more A.I. companies to pay rights holders for use of their works.

The Indian government says it has not issued any directive to withhold the Reuters X account in the country (The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/go…

Government says no order to withhold Reuters handle on X in India
India has denied ordering the blocking of Reuters’ X account, saying no such directive was issued. As per notification on the X account, it was withheld “in response to a legal demand,” sparking criticism from journalists and free speech advocates. An official spokesperson said that the government is working with X to resolve the issue amid growing censorship concerns.

Chinese startups and tech giants are racing to create AI agents for both local and global consumers, following the popularity of Butterfly Effect's Manus (Caiwei Chen/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/05/1117958/china-ai-a…

Manus has kick-started an AI agent boom in China
A stampede of contenders and copycats has followed the launch of the general AI agent, but China’s internet restrictions have so far made it easier to cater to overseas users.

A look at India's push to compete in the global AI race, as the country's vast linguistic diversity poses a core challenge to building foundational AI models (Shadma Shaikh/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/0

Inside India’s scramble for AI independence
Structural challenges and the nation’s many languages have made it tough to develop foundational AI models. But the government is keen not to be left behind.

Ads during the Chargers-Chiefs NFL game on YouTube on September 5 will cost ~$30 for every 1,000 viewers, more than double what YouTube usually gets (Tripp Mickle/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/technology/youtube-nfl-live-sports.html

YouTube’s NFL Broadcast Will Test Platform’s Ability to Handle Live Sports
YouTube’s live broadcast on Friday night of the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers game is set to be a major test of the platform’s programming ambitions.