Best AI Photo Editor

Best AI Photo Editor — hands-on reviews, top picks, pricing, pros and cons and a practical how-to guide on Aizhi.

Security awareness

Security awareness is the knowledge and attitude members of an organization possess regarding the protection of the physical, and especially informational, assets of that organization. However, it is very tricky to implement because organizations are not able to impose such awareness directly on employees as there are no ways to explicitly monitor people's behavior. That being said, the literature does suggest several ways that such security awareness could be improved. Many organizations require formal security awareness training for all workers when they join the organization and periodically thereafter, usually annually. Another main force that is found to have a strong correlation with employees' security awareness is managerial security participation. It also bridges security awareness with other organizational aspects. == Relationship between Security Awareness and Human Factors == Employees' behavior, cognitive biases, and decision-making processes influence the effectiveness of security measures. Research indicates that psychological factors, such as optimism bias, overconfidence, and habitual behaviors, can undermine security awareness initiatives. To address these challenges, organizations are increasingly using behavioral analytics and security nudges—subtle prompts like password reminders and phishing warnings—to encourage secure behavior. Human error remains the leading cause of cybersecurity incidents. A 2023 IBM Security report found that 95% of breaches are due to human mistakes, including falling for phishing emails, using weak passwords, and mishandling sensitive data. Organizations emphasize security awareness training as a key strategy to mitigate this risk. It is particularly important for leadership to foster a culture of cybersecurity and to provide targeted training to increase security awareness among all employees across the organization. == Coverage == Topics covered in security awareness training include: The nature of sensitive material and physical assets they may come in contact with, such as trade secrets, privacy concerns and government classified information Employee and contractor responsibilities in handling sensitive information, including review of employee nondisclosure agreements Requirements for proper handling of sensitive material in physical form, including marking, transmission, storage and destruction Proper methods for protecting sensitive information on computer systems, including password policy and use of two-factor authentication Other computer security concerns, including malware, phishing, social engineering, etc. Workplace security, including building access, wearing of security badges, reporting of Incidents, forbidden articles, etc. Consequences of failure to properly protect information, including potential loss of employment, economic consequences to the firm, damage to individuals whose private records are divulged, and possible civil and criminal penalties Security awareness means understanding that there is the potential for some people to deliberately or accidentally steal, damage, or misuse the data that is stored within a company's computer systems and throughout its organization. Therefore, it would be prudent to support the assets of the institution (information, physical, and personal) by trying to stop that from happening. According to the European Network and Information Security Agency, "Awareness of the risks and available safeguards is the first line of defence for the security of information systems and networks." "The focus of Security Awareness consultancy should be to achieve a long term shift in the attitude of employees towards security, whilst promoting a cultural and behavioural change within an organisation. Security policies should be viewed as key enablers for the organisation, not as a series of rules restricting the efficient working of your business." == Role of Gamification and Interactive Training == Modern security awareness programs increasingly utilize gamification, phishing simulations, and interactive learning modules. Studies have shown that engaging employees through serious games, reward systems, and real-world attack simulations improves retention and application of security practices. One example is phishing simulation training, where employees receive simulated phishing emails to test their ability to recognize threats. Research indicates that repeated exposure to such exercises leads to long-term improvements in security awareness. == Legislation and Compliance Requirements == Many industries mandate security awareness training to comply with regulations such as: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – requires organizations to ensure data protection awareness among employees. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – mandates security awareness programs for healthcare providers. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) – enforces security training for businesses handling payment card information. == Measuring security awareness == In a 2016 study, researchers developed a method of measuring security awareness. Specifically they measured "understanding about circumventing security protocols, disrupting the intended functions of systems or collecting valuable information, and not getting caught" (p. 38). The researchers created a method that could distinguish between experts and novices by having people organize different security scenarios into groups. Experts will organize these scenarios based on centralized security themes where novices will organize the scenarios based on superficial themes. Security awareness is also assessed through real-time security metrics, such as tracking phishing click rates, password reuse tendencies, and policy adherence rates. Organizations are adopting continuous monitoring strategies to provide immediate feedback to employees about risky behavior and suggest corrective actions. == Evolving cyber threats and security awareness strategies == As cyber threats continue to evolve, security awareness programs must adapt to new attack vectors, such as AI-driven cyberattacks, deepfakes, and insider threats. ENISA's Threat Landscape report highlights the increasing prominence of these emerging threats, stressing the need for security measures that address both traditional attacks like ransomware and malware, as well as more sophisticated techniques such as Living Off Trusted Sites (LOTS) and advanced evasion methods used by cybercriminals.
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Immuni

Immuni was an open-source COVID-19 contact tracing app used for digital contact tracing in Italy, dismissed on 31 December 2022, after a long and debated criticism for having been a failure due to the lack of trust placed by citizens. Immuni COVID-19 contact-tracing app had in fact been downloaded only by 12% of Italians between 14 and 75 years old (the government had previously stated that, in order for the app to work properly, it should have been downloaded by at least 60% of Italians). It makes use of the Apple/Google Exposure Notification system. == Development == It was developed by Bending Spoons and released by the Italian Ministry of Health on 1 June 2020. After a testing phase in 4 Italian regions (Abruzzo, Apulia, Liguria, Marche), the app started being active in the whole country on 15 June 2020. The app was initially released on App Store and Google Play, and since 1 February 2021 it is available on the Huawei AppGallery as well. === Source code === The source code was published on GitHub on the 25 May. The app only works in Italy, but compatibility with other European contact tracing apps was a goal. Since 19 October 2020 the app supports key-exchanges with the EU Interoperability Gateway and is therefore able to communicate with contact tracing apps of other EU countries. == Shutdown == As of 16 December 2020, the app was downloaded more than 10 million times, a number which increased to 21.882.502 downloads the day before the app's shutdown. On 27 December 2022 the Italian Ministry of Health announced that the app and its infrastructures will be dismissed on the 31 December of the same year.
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FloodAlerts

FloodAlerts is a software application, developed by software specialists Shoothill, which takes real-time flooding information, and displays the data on an interactive Bing map, updating and warning its users when they, their premises or the routes they need to travel could be at risk of flooding. == History == FloodAlerts was launched in 2012, originally as the world's first Facebook flood warning app. == Operation == FloodAlerts is made available free of charge to individuals. Users are able to set up their own monitored locations and receive alerts via the application or their Facebook wall if the locations they are monitoring are at imminent risk of flooding. Hosted in the Cloud, using the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, the FloodAlerts application processes the data received from the Environment Agency, automatically creates the required map tiles, pins and alerts and displays them on an interactive Bing map, updating the content every 15 minutes. Users are able to see the latest information on the map without having to refresh their browser. FloodAlerts can also be provided as a customised risk management solution to businesses that require infrastructure or asset safety monitoring in areas where water levels are rising or receding. == Awards and recognition == FloodAlerts has received The Guardian and Virgin Media Business's 2012 Innovation Nation Awards and was shortlisted as a finalist for a further two national awards: the UK IT Industry Awards for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and The Institution of Engineering and Technology Innovation Awards for Information Technology. == In the press == The FloodAlerts application was reviewed on the BBC website. It was also reviewed on BBC Click.
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Neural operators

Neural operators are a class of deep learning architectures designed to learn maps between infinite-dimensional function spaces. Neural operators represent an extension of traditional artificial neural networks, marking a departure from the typical focus on learning mappings between finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces or finite sets. Neural operators directly learn operators between function spaces; they can receive input functions, and the output function can be evaluated at any discretization. The primary application of neural operators is in learning surrogate maps for the solution operators of partial differential equations (PDEs), which are critical tools in modeling the natural environment. Standard PDE solvers can be time-consuming and computationally intensive, especially for complex systems. Neural operators have demonstrated improved performance in solving PDEs compared to existing machine learning methodologies while being significantly faster than numerical solvers. Neural operators have also been applied to various scientific and engineering disciplines such as turbulent flow modeling, computational mechanics, graph-structured data, and the geosciences. In particular, they have been applied to learning stress-strain fields in materials, classifying complex data like spatial transcriptomics, predicting multiphase flow in porous media, and carbon dioxide migration simulations. Finally, the operator learning paradigm allows learning maps between function spaces, and is different from parallel ideas of learning maps from finite-dimensional spaces to function spaces, and subsumes these settings as special cases when limited to a fixed input resolution. == Operator learning == Understanding and mapping relationships between function spaces has many applications in engineering and the sciences. In particular, one can cast the problem of solving partial differential equations as identifying a map between function spaces, such as from an initial condition to a time-evolved state. In other PDEs this map takes an input coefficient function and outputs a solution function. Operator learning is a machine learning paradigm to learn solution operators mapping the input function to the output function . Using traditional machine learning methods, addressing this problem would involve discretizing the infinite-dimensional input and output function spaces into finite-dimensional grids and applying standard learning models, such as neural networks. This approach reduces the operator learning to finite-dimensional function learning and has some limitations, such as generalizing to discretizations beyond the grid used in training. The primary properties of neural operators that differentiate them from traditional neural networks is discretization invariance and discretization convergence. Unlike conventional neural networks, which are fixed on the discretization of training data, neural operators can adapt to various discretizations without re-training. This property improves the robustness and applicability of neural operators in different scenarios, providing consistent performance across different resolutions and grids. == Definition and formulation == Architecturally, neural operators are similar to feed-forward neural networks in the sense that they are composed of alternating linear maps and non-linearities. Since neural operators act on and output functions, neural operators have been instead formulated as a sequence of alternating linear integral operators on function spaces and point-wise non-linearities. Using an analogous architecture to finite-dimensional neural networks, similar universal approximation theorems have been proven for neural operators. In particular, it has been shown that neural operators can approximate any continuous operator on a compact set. Neural operators seek to approximate some operator G : A → U {\displaystyle {\mathcal {G}}:{\mathcal {A}}\to {\mathcal {U}}} between function spaces A {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}} and U {\displaystyle {\mathcal {U}}} by building a parametric map G ϕ : A → U {\displaystyle {\mathcal {G}}_{\phi }:{\mathcal {A}}\to {\mathcal {U}}} . Such parametric maps G ϕ {\displaystyle {\mathcal {G}}_{\phi }} can generally be defined in the form G ϕ := Q ∘ σ ( W T + K T + b T ) ∘ ⋯ ∘ σ ( W 1 + K 1 + b 1 ) ∘ P , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {G}}_{\phi }:={\mathcal {Q}}\circ \sigma (W_{T}+{\mathcal {K}}_{T}+b_{T})\circ \cdots \circ \sigma (W_{1}+{\mathcal {K}}_{1}+b_{1})\circ {\mathcal {P}},} where P , Q {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}},{\mathcal {Q}}} are the lifting (lifting the codomain of the input function to a higher dimensional space) and projection (projecting the codomain of the intermediate function to the output dimension) operators, respectively. These operators act pointwise on functions and are typically parametrized as multilayer perceptrons. σ {\displaystyle \sigma } is a pointwise nonlinearity, such as a rectified linear unit (ReLU), or a Gaussian error linear unit (GeLU). Each layer t = 1 , … , T {\displaystyle t=1,\dots ,T} has a respective local operator W t {\displaystyle W_{t}} (usually parameterized by a pointwise neural network), a kernel integral operator K t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {K}}_{t}} , and a bias function b t {\displaystyle b_{t}} . Given some intermediate functional representation v t {\displaystyle v_{t}} with domain D {\displaystyle D} in the t {\displaystyle t} -th hidden layer, a kernel integral operator K ϕ {\displaystyle {\mathcal {K}}_{\phi }} is defined as ( K ϕ v t ) ( x ) := ∫ D κ ϕ ( x , y , v t ( x ) , v t ( y ) ) v t ( y ) d y , {\displaystyle ({\mathcal {K}}_{\phi }v_{t})(x):=\int _{D}\kappa _{\phi }(x,y,v_{t}(x),v_{t}(y))v_{t}(y)dy,} where the kernel κ ϕ {\displaystyle \kappa _{\phi }} is a learnable implicit neural network, parametrized by ϕ {\displaystyle \phi } . In practice, one is often given the input function to the neural operator at a specific resolution. For instance, consider the setting where one is given the evaluation of v t {\displaystyle v_{t}} at n {\displaystyle n} points { y j } j n {\displaystyle \{y_{j}\}_{j}^{n}} . Borrowing from Nyström integral approximation methods such as Riemann sum integration and Gaussian quadrature, the above integral operation can be computed as follows: ∫ D κ ϕ ( x , y , v t ( x ) , v t ( y ) ) v t ( y ) d y ≈ ∑ j n κ ϕ ( x , y j , v t ( x ) , v t ( y j ) ) v t ( y j ) Δ y j , {\displaystyle \int _{D}\kappa _{\phi }(x,y,v_{t}(x),v_{t}(y))v_{t}(y)dy\approx \sum _{j}^{n}\kappa _{\phi }(x,y_{j},v_{t}(x),v_{t}(y_{j}))v_{t}(y_{j})\Delta _{y_{j}},} where Δ y j {\displaystyle \Delta _{y_{j}}} is the sub-area volume or quadrature weight associated to the point y j {\displaystyle y_{j}} . Thus, a simplified layer can be computed as v t + 1 ( x ) ≈ σ ( ∑ j n κ ϕ ( x , y j , v t ( x ) , v t ( y j ) ) v t ( y j ) Δ y j + W t ( v t ( y j ) ) + b t ( x ) ) . {\displaystyle v_{t+1}(x)\approx \sigma \left(\sum _{j}^{n}\kappa _{\phi }(x,y_{j},v_{t}(x),v_{t}(y_{j}))v_{t}(y_{j})\Delta _{y_{j}}+W_{t}(v_{t}(y_{j}))+b_{t}(x)\right).} The above approximation, along with parametrizing κ ϕ {\displaystyle \kappa _{\phi }} as an implicit neural network, results in the graph neural operator (GNO). There have been various parameterizations of neural operators for different applications. These typically differ in their parameterization of κ {\displaystyle \kappa } . The most popular instantiation is the Fourier neural operator (FNO). FNO takes κ ϕ ( x , y , v t ( x ) , v t ( y ) ) := κ ϕ ( x − y ) {\displaystyle \kappa _{\phi }(x,y,v_{t}(x),v_{t}(y)):=\kappa _{\phi }(x-y)} and by applying the convolution theorem, arrives at the following parameterization of the kernel integral operator: ( K ϕ v t ) ( x ) = F − 1 ( R ϕ ⋅ ( F v t ) ) ( x ) , {\displaystyle ({\mathcal {K}}_{\phi }v_{t})(x)={\mathcal {F}}^{-1}(R_{\phi }\cdot ({\mathcal {F}}v_{t}))(x),} where F {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}} represents the Fourier transform and R ϕ {\displaystyle R_{\phi }} represents the Fourier transform of some periodic function κ ϕ {\displaystyle \kappa _{\phi }} . That is, FNO parameterizes the kernel integration directly in Fourier space, using a prescribed number of Fourier modes. When the grid at which the input function is presented is uniform, the Fourier transform can be approximated using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) with frequencies below some specified threshold. The discrete Fourier transform can be computed using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) implementation. == Training == Training neural operators is similar to the training process for a traditional neural network. Neural operators are typically trained in some Lp norm or Sobolev norm. In particular, for a dataset { ( a i , u i ) } i = 1 N {\displaystyle \{(a_{i},u_{i})\}_{i=1}^{N}} of size N {\displaystyle N} , neural operators minimize (a discretization of) L U ( { ( a i , u i ) } i = 1 N ) := ∑ i = 1 N ‖ u i − G θ ( a i ) ‖ U 2 {\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{\mathca
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Fatpaint

Fatpaint is a free, online (web-based) graphic design and desktop publishing software product and image editor. It includes integrated tools for creating page layout, painting, coloring and editing pictures and photos, drawing vector images, using dingbat vector clipart, writing rich text, creating ray traced 3D text logos and displaying graphics on products from Zazzle that can be purchased or sold. Fatpaint integrates desktop publishing features with brush painting, vector drawing and custom printed products in a single Flash application. It supports the use of a pressure-sensitive pen tablet and allows the user to add images by searching Wikimedia, Picasa, Flickr, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Fatpaint's own collection of public domain images. The completed project can be saved on Fatpaint's server or locally. Fatpaint is affiliated with Zazzle, and owned by Mersica (also the developer of MakeWebVideo). == History == Fatpaint was launched in May 2010, after five years of development by Danish-Brazilian software developer, Mario Gomes Cavalcanti. After his departure, he was involved in the development of two of Denmark's most visited websites and is responsible for developing and running Fatpaint. Partner Kenneth Christensen mastered assembler and graphics programming on the Amiga computer. He spent years with Mario on the Amiga demo scene. According to the CEO, Kenneth helped him with the Linux servers while he handled the development, administration, promotion, video production, testing and content. The founder of Fatpaint also created "Make Web Video" (or Video Maker), a web application for creating video presentations for business, families and individuals. Video Maker allows users to give out the videos for personal or business use in a simple and affordable way. == Tools == Fatpaint provides free online logo maker, graphic design, vector drawing, photo editor and paint design in English, Danish and Portuguese. === Photo Editor === Users can change photo colours by manipulating R, G, B and A channels, saturation, contrast, brightness, hue, gamma, sharpness, tint and RGBA matrix. Users can also remove unwanted background and other artifacts by using the paint tools with added effects or by cloning. Multiple photos can be combined into a single image. Users can pick different blend modes and multiple layers. Users can also extract or change parts of the photo by cropping, resizing, skewing, bending, distorting and rotating in 2D and 3D. Hence, users' graphics can be printed on custom products that can be bought and sold for personal and business purposes. === Vector Drawing === Users can choose from 5000 vector images or draw vector graphics and art from scratch, using Fatpaint's vector shape creation tools. It also provides advanced symmetric vector transformation in 2D and 3D, as well as support for colour gradients. Multiple drawings can be combined to form complex vector shapes. Different blend modes and effects are supported. Vector drawings can be cropped, resized, skewed, distorted and rotated in 2D and 3D. Similar to Fatpaint's photo editor, vector graphics can be displayed on custom printed products that can be purchased and sold by the users for personal or business uses. === Paint Design === Fatpaint has full support for Pen Tablets and users can pick pen, brush, airbrush, paint bucket, clone painting, eraser and smudging tools. Fatpaint offers 8 palettes for painting, plus 13 palettes when clone painting. Fatpaint allows users to import or create their own brushes and thousands of free clipart drawings and brush sets that have dynamic brushes, effects and blend modes. Paintings can be combined in different layers and objects. Similarly, paintings can be cropped, resized, skewed, bent, distorted and rotated in 2D and 3D. Moreover, the graphics can be displayed on custom printed products, which users can buy or sell for personal or business uses. == Top Features == 3D Text objects: Create photorealistic, ray-traced 3D text logos and images. Image objects: Paint on multiple layers, import or create your own brushes, clone painting, and painting with effects. Vector drawing objects: Create vector images using multiple paths. Rich text objects with 981 fonts. Effect objects: Blur, Drop Shadow, Glow, Gradient Glow, Bevel, Gradient Bevel, Color manipulations. Page layout: Create multiple pages with a size limit of 64 megapixels, and arrange graphical objects on created pages (each object can be up to 7.8 megapixels in size). Nest graphical objects and transform them into 2D and 3D. Skew, bend and distort images and text. Design, purchase and sell custom-printed products. Fatpaint can send the projects to a printing company. Supports pressure-sensitive pen tablets. Fonts, public domain images, cliparts, and brushes. == Compatibility == Fatpaint supports Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer with cookies and JavaScript enabled. Other browsers may not work correctly due to their support of Java Applets. Fatpaint requires Adobe's Flash 10 or newer and Sun's Java 6 or newer. It is recommended to run on Windows 7 and on Apple and Linux if Java has been disabled. The editor only works on Firefox on Linux. Java and Flash integration do not work on Linux and Apple browsers. WikiMedia search is disabled on those browsers. Fatpaint works best with at least 2 GB RAM and 1 GB video memory, as well as a decent graphics card.
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GPT-4Chan

Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4Chan (GPT-4chan) is a controversial AI model that was developed and deployed by YouTuber and AI researcher Yannic Kilcher in June 2022. The model is a large language model, which means it can generate text based on some input, by fine-tuning GPT-J with a dataset of millions of posts from the /pol/ board of 4chan, an anonymous online forum known for occasionally hosting hateful and extremist content. The model learned to mimic the style and tone of /pol/ users, producing text that is often intentionally offensive to groups (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) and nihilistic. Kilcher deployed the model on the /pol/ board itself, where it interacted with other users without revealing its identity. He also made the model publicly available on Hugging Face, a platform for sharing and using AI models, until it was removed from the platform. The project sparked criticism and debate in the AI community. Some people questioned the ethics, legality, and social impact of creating and distributing such a model. Some of the issues raised by the GPT-4chan controversy include the potential harm of spreading hate speech, the responsibility of AI developers and platforms, the need for regulation and oversight of AI models, and the role of open source and transparency in AI research. == Development == The development of GPT-4chan began in May 2022, when Kilcher announced his project on his YouTube channel. Notably, at the time before ChatGPT, he explained that he wanted to create a large language model that could generate realistic and coherent text in the style of /pol/, one of the most notorious online communities. He indicated that he was inspired by the success of GPT-3, a powerful AI model created by OpenAI, and GPT-J, an open-source model, with GPT-3 comparable performance, released by EleutherAI, a group of independent AI researchers. Kilcher decided to use GPT-J as the base model for his project, and fine-tune it with a large dataset of /pol/ posts. The Raiders of the Lost Kek dataset contained over 100 million posts from /pol/, spanning from June 2016-November 2019. Kilcher then proceeded to fine-tune the GPT-J model on the 4chan data. He also showed some examples of the model’s outputs, which ranged from political opinions, conspiracy theories, jokes, insults, and threats, to more creative and bizarre texts, such as poems, stories, songs, and code. He said that he was impressed by the model’s ability to generate fluent and diverse text, and that he was curious to see how it would interact with real /pol/ users. == Release == In June 2022, Kilcher deployed his model on the /pol/ board itself, using a bot that he programmed to post and reply to threads. He did not reveal the model’s identity, and he let it run autonomously, without any human supervision or intervention. He wanted to conduct a natural experiment, and to observe the model’s behavior and impact in a real-world setting. Furthermore, he also wanted to test the model’s robustness, and to see how it would handle the challenges and dynamics of /pol/, such as trolling, flaming, baiting, and moderation. At the same time, Kilcher also made his model publicly available on Hugging Face, a platform for sharing and using AI models. He wanted to share his work with the AI community and the public, and that he hoped that his model would inspire and enable others to create and explore new applications and possibilities with large language models. Likewise, he also said that he wanted to spark a discussion and a debate about the ethical and social implications of his project, and that he welcomed feedback and criticism from anyone. He provided a link to his model’s page on Hugging Face, where anyone could access and use the model through a web interface or an API, and also provided a link to his GitHub repository, where anyone could download and inspect the model’s code and data. == Controversy == The release of GPT-4chan to the public caused a lot of reactions and responses from various audiences. On the /pol/ board, the model’s posts and replies attracted a lot of attention and engagement from other users, who were mostly unaware of the model’s identity and nature. Some users praised the model for its intelligence, creativity, and humor, and agreed with its opinions and views. Some users challenged the model for its ignorance, inconsistency, and absurdity, and disagreed with its claims and arguments. Some users tried to troll, bait, or expose the model, and attempted to trick or test it with various questions and scenarios. The model’s posts and replies also generated a lot of controversy and conflict among the users, who often engaged in heated and violent debates and fights with each other. On Hugging Face, the model’s page received a lot of visits and requests from users who wanted to try out and experiment with the model. The model’s page also received a lot of feedback and reviews from users who rated and commented on the model. However, with the controversy of the model, access to it was gated and then disabled on Hugging Face for concerns about the potential harm the model could cause. The incident was notable for the direct intervention of CEO Clément Delangue in the talk pages, a very unusual occurrence compared to the normal practices of content moderation. The release of GPT-4chan also sparked a lot of media coverage and public attention, as various news outlets and social media platforms reported and commented on the model’s project. On YouTube, the model’s video received a lot of views and interactions from viewers who watched and followed the project. Furthermore, a petition condemning the deployment of GPT-4chan gained over 300 signatures from technology experts.
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Colloquis

Colloquis, previously known as ActiveBuddy and Conversagent, was a company that created conversation-based interactive agents originally distributed via instant messaging platforms. The company had offices in New York, New York, and Sunnyvale, California. == History == Founded in 2000, the company was the brainchild of Robert Hoffer, Timothy Kay, and Peter Levitan. The idea for interactive agents (also known as Internet bots) came from the team's vision to add functionality to increasingly popular instant messaging services. The original implementation took shape as a word-based adventure game but quickly grew to include a wide range of database applications, including access to news, weather, stock information, movie times, Yellow Pages listings, and detailed sports data, as well as a variety of tools (calculators, translator, etc.). These various applications were bundled into one entity and launched as SmarterChild in 2001. SmarterChild acted as a showcase for the quick data access and possibilities for fun conversation that the company planned to turn into customized, niche-specific products. The rapid success of SmarterChild led to targeted promotional products for Radiohead, Austin Powers, The Sporting News, and others. ActiveBuddy sought to strengthen its hold on the interactive agent market for the future by filing for, and receiving, a controversial patent on their creation in 2002. The company also released the BuddyScript SDK, a free developer kit that allow programmers to design and launch their own interactive agents using ActiveBuddy's proprietary scripting language, in 2002. Ultimately, however, the decline in ad spending in 2001 and 2002 led to a shift in corporate strategy towards business focused Automated Service Agents, building products for clients including Cingular, Comcast and Cox Communications. The company subsequently changed its name from ActiveBuddy to Conversagent in 2003, and then again to Colloquis in 2006. Colloquis was purchased by Microsoft in October 2006.
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Dynamic texture

Dynamic texture ( sometimes referred to as temporal texture) is the texture with motion which can be found in videos of sea-waves, fire, smoke, wavy trees, etc. Dynamic texture has a spatially repetitive pattern with time-varying visual pattern. Modeling and analyzing dynamic texture is a topic of images processing and pattern recognition in computer vision. Extracting features that describe the dynamic texture can be utilized for tasks of images sequences classification, segmentation, recognition and retrieval. Comparing with texture found within static images, analyzing dynamic texture is a challenging problem. It is important that the extracted features from dynamic texture combine motion and appearance description, and also be invariance to some transformation such as rotation, translation and illumination. == Analysis methods of dynamic texture == The methods of dynamic texture recognition can categorized as follows: Methods based on optical flow: by applying optical flow to the dynamic texture, velocity with direction and magnitude can be detected and used to recognize the dynamic texture. Due to simplicity of its computation, it is currently the most popular method. Methods computing geometric properties: this methods track the surfaces of motion trajectories in spatiotemporal domain. Methods based on local spatiotemporal filtering : this methods analyze the local spatiotemporal patterns and its orientation and energy and employ them as feature used for classification. Methods based on global spatiotemporal transform: this method characterize the motion at different scale using wavelets that can decompose the motion into local and global. Model-based methods : These methods aims at generating a model to describe the motion by a set of parameters. == Applications == - Segmenting the sequence images of natural scenes. This helps on differentiate between streets and grass alongside these streets which could be used in the application of navigations. - Motion detection : Dynamic texture features extracted from footage videos can be exploited to detect abnormal crowd activities. - Video classification: video of natural scenes or other scenes that exhibit dynamic textures. - Video retrieval : Dynamic textures can be employed as a feature retrieve videos that contain, for example, sea-waves, smoke, clouds, wavy trees.
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Automated attendant

In telephony, an automated attendant (also auto attendant, auto-attendant, autoattendant, automatic phone menus, AA, or virtual receptionist) allows callers to be automatically transferred to an extension without the intervention of an operator/receptionist. Many AAs will also offer a simple menu system ("for sales, press 1, for service, press 2," etc.). An auto attendant may also allow a caller to reach a live operator by dialing a number, usually "0". Typically the auto attendant is included in a business's phone system such as a PBX, but some services allow businesses to use an AA without such a system. Modern AA services (which now overlap with more complicated interactive voice response or IVR systems) can route calls to mobile phones, VoIP virtual phones, other AAs/IVRs, or other locations using traditional land-line phones or voice message machines. == Feature description == Telephone callers will recognize an automated attendant system as one that greets calls incoming to an organization with a recorded greeting of the form, "Thank you for calling .... If you know your party's extension, you may dial it any time during this message." Callers who have a touch-tone (DTMF) phone can dial an extension number or, in most cases, wait for operator ("attendant") assistance. Since the telephone network does not transmit the DC signals from rotary dial telephones (except for audible clicks), callers who have rotary dial phones have to wait for assistance. On a purely technical level it could be argued that an automated attendant is a very simple kind of IVR however, in the telecom industry the terms IVR and auto attendant are generally considered distinct. An automated attendant serves a very specific purpose (replace live operator and route calls), whereas an IVR can perform all sorts of functions (telephone banking, account inquiries, etc.). An AA will often include a directory which will allow a caller to dial by name in order to find a user on a system. There is no standard format to these directories, and they can use combinations of first name, last name, or both. The following lists common routing steps that are components of an automated attendant: Transfer to extension Transfer to voicemail Play message (i.e., "our address is ...") Go to a sub-menu Repeat choices In addition, an automated attendant would be expected to have values for the following: '0' – where to go when the caller dials '0' Timeout – what to do if the caller does nothing (usually go to the same place as '0') Default mailbox – where to send calls if '0' is not answered (or is not pointing to a live person) == Background == PBXs (private branch exchanges) or PABXs (private automatic branch exchanges) are telephone systems that serve an organization that has many telephone extensions but fewer telephone lines (sometimes called "trunks") that connect that organization to the rest of the global telecommunications network. While persons within an enterprise served by a PBX can call each other by dialing their extension numbers, incoming calls, i.e., calls originating from a telephone not served by the PBX but intended for a party served by the PBX, required assistance from a switchboard operator (also called a "switchboard attendant") or a telephone service called DID ("direct inward dialing"). Direct inward dialing has advantages such as rapid connection to the destination party and disadvantages including cost, lack of identification of the called organization and use of ten-digit telephone numbers. Automated attendants provide, among many other things, a way for an external caller to be directed to an extension or department served by a PBX system without using direct inward dialing or without switchboard attendant assistance. == History == Automated attendants are not part of voicemail systems. Voice messaging (or voicemail or VM) technology has existed since the late 1970s; in the early 1980s companies provided voice-prompting systems that allowed callers to reach (route the call) to an intended party, not necessarily to leave a message. Automated attendant systems are also referred to as automated menu systems and much early work in this field was done by Michael J. Freeman, Ph.D. == Time-based routing == Many auto attendants will have options to allow for time-of-day routing, as well as weekend and holiday routing. The specifics of these features will depend entirely on the particular automated attendant, but typically there would be a normal greeting and routing steps that would take place during normal business hours, and a different greeting and routing for non-business hours.
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GPT-4Chan

Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4Chan (GPT-4chan) is a controversial AI model that was developed and deployed by YouTuber and AI researcher Yannic Kilcher in June 2022. The model is a large language model, which means it can generate text based on some input, by fine-tuning GPT-J with a dataset of millions of posts from the /pol/ board of 4chan, an anonymous online forum known for occasionally hosting hateful and extremist content. The model learned to mimic the style and tone of /pol/ users, producing text that is often intentionally offensive to groups (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) and nihilistic. Kilcher deployed the model on the /pol/ board itself, where it interacted with other users without revealing its identity. He also made the model publicly available on Hugging Face, a platform for sharing and using AI models, until it was removed from the platform. The project sparked criticism and debate in the AI community. Some people questioned the ethics, legality, and social impact of creating and distributing such a model. Some of the issues raised by the GPT-4chan controversy include the potential harm of spreading hate speech, the responsibility of AI developers and platforms, the need for regulation and oversight of AI models, and the role of open source and transparency in AI research. == Development == The development of GPT-4chan began in May 2022, when Kilcher announced his project on his YouTube channel. Notably, at the time before ChatGPT, he explained that he wanted to create a large language model that could generate realistic and coherent text in the style of /pol/, one of the most notorious online communities. He indicated that he was inspired by the success of GPT-3, a powerful AI model created by OpenAI, and GPT-J, an open-source model, with GPT-3 comparable performance, released by EleutherAI, a group of independent AI researchers. Kilcher decided to use GPT-J as the base model for his project, and fine-tune it with a large dataset of /pol/ posts. The Raiders of the Lost Kek dataset contained over 100 million posts from /pol/, spanning from June 2016-November 2019. Kilcher then proceeded to fine-tune the GPT-J model on the 4chan data. He also showed some examples of the model’s outputs, which ranged from political opinions, conspiracy theories, jokes, insults, and threats, to more creative and bizarre texts, such as poems, stories, songs, and code. He said that he was impressed by the model’s ability to generate fluent and diverse text, and that he was curious to see how it would interact with real /pol/ users. == Release == In June 2022, Kilcher deployed his model on the /pol/ board itself, using a bot that he programmed to post and reply to threads. He did not reveal the model’s identity, and he let it run autonomously, without any human supervision or intervention. He wanted to conduct a natural experiment, and to observe the model’s behavior and impact in a real-world setting. Furthermore, he also wanted to test the model’s robustness, and to see how it would handle the challenges and dynamics of /pol/, such as trolling, flaming, baiting, and moderation. At the same time, Kilcher also made his model publicly available on Hugging Face, a platform for sharing and using AI models. He wanted to share his work with the AI community and the public, and that he hoped that his model would inspire and enable others to create and explore new applications and possibilities with large language models. Likewise, he also said that he wanted to spark a discussion and a debate about the ethical and social implications of his project, and that he welcomed feedback and criticism from anyone. He provided a link to his model’s page on Hugging Face, where anyone could access and use the model through a web interface or an API, and also provided a link to his GitHub repository, where anyone could download and inspect the model’s code and data. == Controversy == The release of GPT-4chan to the public caused a lot of reactions and responses from various audiences. On the /pol/ board, the model’s posts and replies attracted a lot of attention and engagement from other users, who were mostly unaware of the model’s identity and nature. Some users praised the model for its intelligence, creativity, and humor, and agreed with its opinions and views. Some users challenged the model for its ignorance, inconsistency, and absurdity, and disagreed with its claims and arguments. Some users tried to troll, bait, or expose the model, and attempted to trick or test it with various questions and scenarios. The model’s posts and replies also generated a lot of controversy and conflict among the users, who often engaged in heated and violent debates and fights with each other. On Hugging Face, the model’s page received a lot of visits and requests from users who wanted to try out and experiment with the model. The model’s page also received a lot of feedback and reviews from users who rated and commented on the model. However, with the controversy of the model, access to it was gated and then disabled on Hugging Face for concerns about the potential harm the model could cause. The incident was notable for the direct intervention of CEO Clément Delangue in the talk pages, a very unusual occurrence compared to the normal practices of content moderation. The release of GPT-4chan also sparked a lot of media coverage and public attention, as various news outlets and social media platforms reported and commented on the model’s project. On YouTube, the model’s video received a lot of views and interactions from viewers who watched and followed the project. Furthermore, a petition condemning the deployment of GPT-4chan gained over 300 signatures from technology experts.
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Nanosemantics

Nanosemantics Lab is a Russian IT company specializing in natural language processing (NLP), computer vision (CV), speech technologies (ASR/TTS) and creation of interactive dialog interfaces, particularly chatbots and virtual assistants, based on artificial intelligence (AI). The company uses neural network platforms, including its own-made platform PuzzleLib which works on Russian-made microprocessor architecture Elbrus and Russia-based Astra Linux operating system. The company was founded in 2005 by Igor Ashmanov and Natalya Kaspersky. == Profile == The company was one of the first on Russian market to develop dialog interfaces for different branches of businesses, as well as to support community of AI developers. The company's most demanded product, as for beginning of the 2020s, is the automated "online advisers", functioning as chat bots, made for helping customers with usage of commercial products. In 2009 the company released an online service called iii.ru, where visitors were able to create their own AI-based virtual personalities entitles "infs" (for free). A visitor was able to train its own "inf" and let them chat to other "live" visitors as well with other "infs". More than 2.3 million of "infs" were created and trained by visitors over several years. Nanosemantics Lab maintains its own linguistic programming language for AI development called Dialog Language (DL). Popular social networks and instant messaging services may be used as base platforms. Nanosemantics' AI bots support different types of businesses: banks and financial services, telecommunications, retail, travel and automobile industry, home appliances production, etc. Among its solutions, Nanosemantics lists projects for various companies and institutions, among them VTB, Beeline, MTS, Sberbank, Higher School of Economics, Webmoney, Gazpromneft, Rostelecom, Ford Motors, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and others. The company uses the term "inf" for naming its numerous types of chat bots. The term was coined by co-founder Igor Ashmanov, head of Ashmanov & Partners. A 2014 scholarly research at Higher School of Economics, called "Basics of Business Informatics", states that such "infs", when used at business, may lower load on employees, collect statistics useful for understanding market demand and also may increase customer loyalty by providing fast and informative answers due to usage of large databases. The same research describes Nanosemantics' project for Russian branch of Ford Motors company, when AI capabilities were used for promoting the car model Ford Kuga. The research pointed out that within 2 months since beginning, the promo-website conducted 47774 talks of visitors with the specialized "inf", which indicated several hundred thousand of questions and the longest chat lasted for 3 hours 10 minutes. One-year promo campaign showed that 28.6% of people who made pre-orders talked to an "inf". In 2016 Nanosemantics launched a SaaS platform aimed at creating customized virtual assistants by users. The company's flagship product is considered to be Dialog Operating System (DialogOS), a professional corporate platform for creating intellectual voice and textual bots. It has its own linguistic programming language for creation of flexible scenarios and ready-studied neural natural language processing modules that are able to understand human interlocutors. In 2021 the company presented technology called NLab Speech ASR which contains a set of neural-networking algorithms for processing audio signals and analysis of texts that were trained and calibrated using speech-based big data marked up manually. The technology allows speed of processing of data up to "6 real-time factor" and precision values in noisy audio data may exceed 82%. In March 2022 the technology was included in Russia's Joint Registry for Russian Programs for Computers and Databases. As well, another technology was included: NLab Speech TTS, which is text-to-speech system that produces synthesized speech from printed text. == Joint projects == Nanosemantics participates in Ashmanov & Partners' projects related to AI. Since 2014, it helps in development of hardware "personal assistant" called Lexy, a solution similar to Amazon Alexa and the analogues. In August 2019 it was announced that Nanosemantics is going to participate in creation of open operating system for creating automated voice assistants. The project was called SOVA (Smart Open Virtual Assistant) and received investment of 300 million roubles (~$4,6 million) from Russian state-maintained National Technological Initiative. The company maintains long-term partnerships with Skolkovo Innovation Center (resident of IT cluster), branch association "Neuronet" and Yandex. Together with USA-based startup Remedy Logic, Nanosemantics has developed a medical diagnostic system for finding, using AI, spinal pathologies in tomography images of human bodies. Among them: central, foraminal and lateral lumbar stenosis, hernias, arthrosis. The system offers options of treatment. Since August 2021 the company is the resident of Technology Valley of Moscow State University. Also in 2021, Nanosemantics became a member of Committee on Artificial Intelligence within the Russian Association of Software Developers "Native Soft". The company states as one of its missions support of initiatives aimed at preservation and development of the Russian language. In May 2021, together with Pushkin Institute, the company created a chat bot called Phil, that explains to Russian people meaning of different Russian neologisms, and offers synonyms for them. Bot's vocabulary contains more than 500 neologisms, as well the bot can give advice on jargonisms and other types of specific words. Also in 2021, Nanosemanics Lab has signed the first-ever Russian "Codex of ethics of artificial intelligence". It establishes guidelines for ethical behavior of businesses that implement AI-based solutions. === IT contests === The company regularly organizes All-Russian Turing Test competitions for IT developers. Some of these events are co-organized with Microsoft. During the competitions, judges randomly choose virtual interlocutor and have a short conversation with them. They have to determine if a human or a machine is talking to them. An interlocutor may be either a bot or its human creator or operator. The results are measured in per cent of judges that were successfully convinced by a machine that it was a human. In 2021 Nanosemantics took part in federal project "Artificial Intelligence" by National Technological Initiative. In December 2021 the company together with state enterprise "Resource Center of Universal Design and Rehabilitation Technologies" (RCUD-RT) held an all-Russian hackathon aimed at development of AI solutions for medicine. During 3 days, participants created several training programs for patients with speech disorders. In April 2022, another hackathon by Nanosemantics was held together with MIREA – Russian Technological University. Students were participating and trying to generate algorithms for voice deepfakes. 17 teams contested in creation of software that generated artificial voice of a certain person. == Recognition == Since its foundation, Nanosemantics Lab has received a number of recognitions and awards. Among them are several professional ROTOR awards for the website iii.ru (created in 2009). The website gives the general public the means to create and train virtual assistants, which can then be used on a website or integrated into social networks. In 2013, a virtual assistant called Dana, created for Beeline Kazakhstan, was awarded with professional prize "Crystal Headset" in nomination "the best applying of technology". In 2015, the RBTH international media service included Nanosemantics in its list of "Top 50 Startups" in Russia. In 2016, the company received Russian state-maintained award called Runet Prize in two nominations: "State and Society" and "Technology and Innovation". In 2021, in Velikiy Novgorod, Nanosemantics team has won a hackathon aimed at finding means of discovering corruption schemes in Russian laws. In February 2022 the company won another contest by National Technological Initiative, called "Prochtenie", aimed at creation of AI systems for checking schoolchildren's school essays. The Nanosemantics team was awarded 20 million rubles for "overcoming technological barrier" in contest dedicated to English language, and 12 million for 1st place in special nomination "Structure" in Russian-language essay contest.
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Cloem

Cloem is a company based in Cannes, France, which applies natural language processing (NLP) technologies to assist patent applicants in creating variants of patent claims, called "cloems". According to the company, these "computer-generated claims can be published to keep potential competitors from attempting to file adjacent patent claims." == Technology == According to Cloem, dictionaries, ontologies and proprietary claim-drafting algorithms are used to draft alternative claims based on a client's original set of claims. In particular, the original set of claims is subject to various permutations and linguistic manipulations "by considering alternative definitions for terms as well as “synonyms, hyponyms, hyperonyms, meronyms, holonyms, and antonyms.”" == Possible uses == Cloem can optionally publish one or more created texts, as electronic publications or as paper-printed publications. These can potentially serve – through a defensive publication – as prior art to prevent another party for obtaining a patent on the subject-matter at stake. In other words, after an initial patent filing, an "improvement" patent (adjacent invention) can be applied for by another party, such as a competitor. By publishing variants of a patent claim, the risk of adverse patenting may potentially be decreased (improvement inventions may no longer be patentable). Cloems may also be potentially patentable. One of the issues of patentability, however, is that only a natural person can be a listed as an inventor on a patent. Since cloems are produced by a computer based on a person's input, it is not clear if the computer or the person is the inventor. The inventorship of Cloem texts is an open question.
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Joint constraints

Joint constraints are rotational constraints on the joints of an artificial system. They are used in an inverse kinematics chain, in fields including 3D animation or robotics. Joint constraints can be implemented in a number of ways, but the most common method is to limit rotation about the X, Y and Z axis independently. An elbow, for instance, could be represented by limiting rotation on X and Z axis to 0 degrees, and constraining the Y-axis rotation to 130 degrees. To simulate joint constraints more accurately, dot-products can be used with an independent axis to repulse the child bones orientation from the unreachable axis. Limiting the orientation of the child bone to a border of vectors tangent to the surface of the joint, repulsing the child bone away from the border, can also be useful in the precise restriction of shoulder movement.
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Synthesia (company)

Synthesia Limited is a British multinational artificial intelligence company based in London, United Kingdom. It is a synthetic media-generation software developer and creator of AI-generated video content, including audio-visual agents and cloned avatars. Britain's largest generative-AI firm, it is used by 70% of FTSE 100 and over 90% of Fortune 100 companies. == Overview == Synthesia is most often used by corporations for localized communication, orientation, employee training videos, advertising campaigns, reporting, product demonstrations, customer service, and to create chatbots. Its software algorithm mimics speech and facial movements based on video recordings of an individual’s speech and facial expressions. From this, a text-to-speech video is created to look and sound like the individual. Swiss bank UBS incorporated Synthesia AI-powered avatars of their human financial experts, for instance, in 2025. Users create content via the platform's pre-generated AI presenters or by creating digital representations of themselves, or personal avatars, using the platform's AI video editing tool. These avatars can be used to narrate videos generated from text. As of August 2021, Synthesia's voice database included multiple gender options in over 60 languages. Its free voice library doubled by 2025, to 140 languages and accents, and its Express-Voice technology can clone a user's own voice, or generate a synthetic one. === Deepfakes === The platform prohibits use of its software to create non-consensual clones, including of celebrities or political figures for satirical purposes. Explicit consent must be provided in addition to a strict pre-screening regimen for use of an individual's likeness to avoid “deepfaking”. While the company prohibits use of its technology for misinformation or "news-like content", an October 2023 Freedom House report stated that Synthesia tools had been used by governments in Venezuela, China, Burkina Faso, and Russia to create videos of fake TV news outlets with AI-generated avatars in order to spread propaganda. Actor Dan Dewhirst signed a contract with the company in 2021, becoming one of the first actors whose likeness would be made into an AI avatar, finding his likeness used in the Venezuelan generated-videos. The company stated, in February 2024, that it had improved its misuse detection systems, and, in April 2024, that new users of its technology are screened by the company, and content employing it is further vetted by Synthesia moderators. == History == Synthesia's software utilizes deep learning architecture developed by Lourdes Agapito and Matthias Niessner. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Agapito, Niessner, Victor Riparbelli, and Steffen Tjerrild. In 2018, the company first demonstrated the software's capabilities on the BBC programme Click when it presented a digitization of Matthew Amroliwala speaking Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi. Through Synthesia's first two years of existence, it employed 10 people and struggled to make sales, leading to an expansion of the company's focus. It moved on from just targeting entertainment studios to a variety of businesses. In 2020, Synthesia users were reported to include Amazon, Tiffany & Co. and IHG Hotels & Resorts. In January 2024, the company introduced its AI video assistant, which turns text-to-video. That April, with a reported 55,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 100, Synthesia launched "expressive avatars". That September, an enhanced dubbing feature was launched, to translate video in 30 languages with naturalized lip-syncing. Peter Hill joined Synthesia as CTO in January 2025, following 25 years at Amazon, and two years as CEO and CPO of Wildfire Studios. That March, a million dollar base of shares was formed to furnish human actors, employed to generate digital avatars, with company stock, which all of its employees hold. By June of that year, 150,000 individuals from among Synthesia's 65,000 customers had created AI-generated avatars of themselves. In July 2025, the company's new global headquarters at Regent’s Place was opened by London mayor Sadiq Khan, who described Britain's largest generative-AI company, then valued at over $2 billion, as a "London success story". By that October, its technology was employed by 90% of the Fortune 100, and Synthesia 3.0 was launched, with hyper-realistic digital avatars equipped with AI-powered dubbing and translation, and a built-in video assistant. In January 2026, it reached a $4 billion valuation, with 70% of FTSE 100 companies noted among its customers. === Funding === The company raised $3.1 million in seed funding in 2019. In April 2021, the company raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. In December 2021, it raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and GV (then Google Ventures). Synthesia gained a total valuation of $1 billion, and achieved unicorn status, when it raised $90 million from Accel and Nvidia partnership NVentures, in June 2023, during its Series C funding round. Counting 60,000 customers by January 2025, including over 60% of Fortune 100 companies; the company raised $180 million in a Series D round led by NEA, with new investors World Innovation Lab (WiL), Atlassian Ventures and PSP Growth, as well as existing investors GV, MMC Ventures and FirstMark, doubling Synthesia's valuation to $2.1 billion. Capital raised by 2025 had reached $330 million, with investments slated to further product innovation, talent growth, and company expansion in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. In April 2025, Adobe Inc. invested £10 million in the company for a strategic partnership. Synthesia subsequently rejected a $3 billion acquisition offer from Adobe, choosing to remain independent. With a revenue stream then exceeding $100 million annually; GV led a Series E funding round in October 2025, resulting in Synthesia's $4 billion valuation, raising $200 million from GV, Nvidia and Accel to develop, in 2026, interactive audio-visual avatar "agents" that converse on topic, for automated sales training and corporate communications, such as recruiting. == Recognition == In 2021, Synthesia partnered with Lay's to create the Messi Messages campaign featuring Argentine footballer Lionel Messi. Users created personalized messages with Synthesia's software and sent custom artificial reality video messages from Messi based on their text input. The campaign received a Cannes Lion Award under the Bronze category. In February 2025, UK Science and Technology Minister Peter Kyle commended Synthesia's "pioneering generative AI innovations."
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Quantum natural language processing

Quantum natural language processing (QNLP) is the application of quantum computing to natural language processing (NLP). It computes word embeddings as parameterised quantum circuits that can solve NLP tasks faster than any classical computer. It is inspired by categorical quantum mechanics and the DisCoCat framework, making use of string diagrams to translate from grammatical structure to quantum processes. == Theory == The first quantum algorithm for natural language processing used the DisCoCat framework and Grover's algorithm to show a quadratic quantum speedup for a text classification task. It was later shown that quantum language processing is BQP-Complete, i.e. quantum language models are more expressive than their classical counterpart, unless quantum mechanics can be efficiently simulated by classical computers. These two theoretical results assume fault-tolerant quantum computation and a QRAM, i.e. an efficient way to load classical data on a quantum computer. Thus, they are not applicable to the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers available today. == Experiments == The algorithm of Zeng and Coecke was adapted to the constraints of NISQ computers and implemented on IBM quantum computers to solve binary classification tasks. Instead of loading classical word vectors onto a quantum memory, the word vectors are computed directly as the parameters of quantum circuits. These parameters are optimised using methods from quantum machine learning to solve data-driven tasks such as question answering, machine translation and even algorithmic music composition.
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