Revolutionary AI: Luna the Robot Dog Learns on Its Own | AI15 – YouTube
Move over Spot—aka the Boston Dynamics robot dog doing things like guard Pompei—a new robot dog is in town to make us awwww in fear. Reuters reports the new dog on the block is developed by Swedish start up IntuiCell. The company claims its pup, called Luna, can learn just like a real boy, thanks to its functional digital nervous system.
Most of the robots entertaining us with handstands or traumatising us with fur suits, at the moment are trained by machine learning techniques. This usually requires a tonne of data, and relies on AI to compute through the variables and essentially work through algorithms to sort through uncountable variations and find what works. It often requires some pretraining—like Nvidia is doing for its GR00T N1—or at least a lot of parameter setting, and is a very computational way of doing things.
Luna is going about things a different way. The team at IntuiCell are trying to give their robot dog the ability to feel what works, as opposed to thinking it, for its development. This physical, agentic AI, means Luna should be able to figure out how to do things, instead of being specifically programmed for a task.
“What we have built is the first software that allows any machine to learn like humans and animals do,” says IntuiCell CEO and co-founder Viktor Luthman. “There’s no pre training, no offline simulations and no billion-dollar data centre in the background, but there’s a nervous system that allows the machine to learn.”
Right now Luna is just getting started and has just learned to stand; walking is the next big step. Rather than use a massive dataset to teach Luna, IntuiCell intends to hire a dog trainer to help teach Luna to walk. You can get a look at Luna doing its best in the video above. I wonder what kind of treats they’re going to use to reward this metal mutt. Though, we may well end up seeing a robotic flesh-fido down the line.
Luna’s attempts at standing are fairly compared to that of a baby animal, and visually it doesn’t look far off. Though the big difference for Luna, other than the burden of life, is it’s the first of its kind. There are no parents to help teach it, nor any deep embedded DNA understanding of the world. It’s just Luna, and the sensitive nervous system IntuiCell has given it to help navigate the world.
So with future iterations, there’s little doubt this tech will only get better. The goal here is to have robots that learn independently of large networks and instead can rely on themselves and the environment. This means that if Luna comes up against a brand new task, it should have a chance of figuring out a solution itself.
“The next step is exploring humanoid robotics, exploring autonomous robotics in unpredictable environments such as space exploration, deep sea exploration, or disaster response,” Luthman said.
We could see a future where human-like robots can train themselves to navigate wild environments like the surface of Mars, and hopefully pave the way for humans in their discoveries. I just hope the researchers make sure to treat Luna right and give it lots of pets so that sensory system can learn to put off resenting its creators… for a little while, at least.
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For a game so insistent on letting me forge my own narrative, Inzoi makes it weirdly difficult to do so. I’m a real sucker for a meet-cute storyline, so I’ve been making my Zoi chat up a guy she met in the park, Will Stewart—he’s all artsy with pretentiously curly hair and spends his entire day painting at an easel, the exact sort of soft creative that fits the plot I’m conjuring in my head real-time.
I send my Zoi home after hours of bouncing around conversation topics with wildly varying vibes—the rise of AI, the stock prospects of the K-pop industry, my go-to pizza recipe, all perfectly normal stuff to talk to a relative stranger about—ready to continue the conversation with Will over the phone.
Except, er, I can’t seem to call him. Or invite him round. Or even email him. He’s a total ghost, only existing within the confines of his park easel. Which he insisted on returning to between each interaction, by the way.
Turns out that was only the first of many bizarre roadblocks I’d encounter in my 30 hours of seemingly being in a constant push-pull against Inzoi’s simulation. Sure, the game has all the necessary parts to stand side-by-side with The Sims, but it has a lot more to do before it can actually get there.
All style, no substance
I mean, that’s understandable to an extent. Not only is Inzoi launching into early access, it’s also got approximately, you know, 25 years of Maxis legacy knowledge to contend with. Especially since this is basically the only other game we’ve had vaguely resembling The Sims in over two decades. It feels wild that I’m even getting the chance to play an alternative that comes close to its size and scale.
And like, Inzoi certainly has a lot going on. Sort of. I can do all the usual life sim stuff: Get a job, take care of my various needs, throw parties, fall in love, level up skills, give birth, grow old, die. But so much of it never dares to delve beyond its surface level concept. There are no finer details.
I can take care of my needs, like hunger, but I can’t cook a meal for my whole family. I can schedule a beach volleyball session, but I can’t actually interact with the net. I can fall in love… as long as we’re both in the same little patch of the map.
Small details, ones that barely push into anything particularly in-depth that I fully expected to be present, simply weren’t. I lost count of how many times I tried to do something in Inzoi, only to sit there dumbfounded that it wasn’t possible.
Let’s go back to our pal Will, for example. I’m basically stalking him in the park at this point, as it’s the only way we can actually communicate, and I realise it would be so much easier if I asked him to move in. Except, it seems like I can’t actually do that unless we’re married.
So I propose. A beautiful cutscene plays—because to its credit, Inzoi is largely a gorgeous game–and the wedding happens the next day. The game asks me how long I want the wedding to last, and because I have no grasp on how quickly time flows in the game right now (turns out, incredibly slowly) I set it to the maximum, 12 hours.
I’ve been conditioned by my Sims brain to know how many hours one small activity takes, and I can always end it early if the festivities are winding down, right? Wrong. I’m locked into the entire half-day event, with no amount of clicking around menus leading me to any tangible option to call it quits.
My Zoi is starving, but thankfully there’s a kitchen set up in this wedding venue. But clicking on the appliances does nothing. I send my Zoi home for a quick bite and bring her back, and proceed to sit through several in-game hours at high speed as all my guests clutch at their stomachs, desperate for a morsel of grub. Even at 10x speed, the game seems to crawl through the minutes.
Not to take away from the handful of sweet moments I had at my wedding, though. There are several actions that are coupled with animations that are the perfect photo opp, and Inzoi’s photo mode is always a single click away to take advantage of that. But often I felt like the only reason half of the interactions were even there was to take a pretty screenshot and move on. Style without substance.
Even once I have married Zois together and interacting with each other, it feels incredibly stilted. Conversation topics continue to be tonally jarring—I can discuss “how to eat more and still not gain weight,” which doesn’t feel entirely appropriate, with some occasional dabbling in the whimsy of talking about how there’s a cat only I can see.
But then, my spousal Zois start texting each other about how they’re in therapy, and going through a tough time. I’m sorry, what? It felt like a totally left-field interaction, one which didn’t even seem to be steeped in any emotions my Zois were going through. They’d felt tranquil and sentimental, but not sad. It’s a constant tonal whiplash and I can’t quite pinpoint what vibe Inzoi is exactly trying to go for.
I’m going to put some of this down to localisation, which makes the whole thing feel weirdly sanitised at the moment. There’s a stark lack of personality which makes the above interactions feel even stranger, and I feel Krafton could really benefit by bringing in some native English speakers to sprinkle Inzoi’s dialogue with some actual human-sounding language.
Uncanny valley
While Inzoi is lacking in the “sounding human” department, it doesn’t have that problem when it comes to looking human. The game is stunning, boasting ultra-realistic looking Zois and a detailed world. Admittedly, that realism meant I was struggling to pull and tug at the Create-a-Zoi sliders to make something normal-looking, somehow always veering into horrifyingly gaunt or butt-chinned instead. Inzoi also seems to have a strange aversion to the thin-lipped, actively resisting my attempts to make anyone who wasn’t sporting at least half a millilitre of filler.
While customisation options are fairly limited right now, there’s still a lot to do with them. Most hairstyles have different colour blocking options, to the point I was actually able to recreate my own slightly bizarre colour-blocked hair to a T, which was an unexpected yet pleasant surprise. Inzoi’s also established the foundations to create bespoke clothing items, like tops with different collars, sleeves, and torso types.
It’s very basic right now, but the stuff that’s there I really do like. It’s a great way to refine an item of clothing you want to tweak just a tiny bit, and everything can be coloured whichever way you like. I will say that clothes seem to be lacking in texture right now, but I assume that’s because it wants you to make use of its AI technology. I do not like it. We’ll get to that.
Inzois can be instilled with different values and life goals, sort of similar to The Sims 4’s aspirations and traits. It does seem a little more streamlined though, as Inzoi groups traits up into certain personality types rather than letting me select them individually. I’ll need more time to determine just how much it shapes behaviours, but the most I seemed to notice at a glance were certain dialogue options or interactions, like those who value co-existence being able to rummage through dressers to donate clothes.
It is hard to deny just how pretty and model-like everyone looks though, which again feeds into Inzoi seemingly being one big photo opportunity. As an iPhone user, I can even hook my phone up to the game to enable facial capture—a terrifying thing that allows me to move my Zoi’s face with my own. It doesn’t feel like a feature that has much legs outside its initial gimmick, and I do wish Krafton had focused its efforts elsewhere.
Build a life
But hey, I’m not really much of a character creator in life sims, I’m a build-buy girlie. I’m still sort of on the fence about how Inzoi handles its build mode, which feels like the thing Krafton has prioritised the least right now.
Something I do love is that every plot comes with preset layouts and designs that I can switch out at the click of a button. Empty lots have a handful of different buildings I can place down if I don’t feel like making my own, and pre-made lots come with different interior layouts for me to switch out if I don’t like the base offering.
Something I do love is that every plot comes with preset layouts and designs that I can switch out at the click of a button. Empty lots have a handful of different buildings I can place down if I don’t feel like making my own, and pre-made lots come with different interior layouts for me to switch out if I don’t like the base offering.
This was the thing I actually loved the most about Inzoi, a feature I desperately wish was more present in The Sims. A good chunk of the prebuilds are wonderfully designed too, with clutter galore and a lived-in vibe.
When it came to decorating myself, though, I frequently ran into issues like being unable to put rugs underneath certain types of furniture or unclear pathing issues. Thankfully the furniture has more texture options than the clothing—different types of wood and cloth patterns, even if most of them amount to stripes or grids.
But hey, why not take advantage of the MYtexture system? It’s just one of the many AI features Krafton insists on shoving down my throat, and I hate it. For starters, the technology behind it is terrible, reminiscent of the early 2021 eldritch horrors that AI would spit out. I started out by asking for a simple zebra print, which somehow still managed to look slightly off. While it seems to have some sort of copyright barrier—inputting words like “Goku” and “Sonic” conjured up designs that were not at all Goku or Sonic—there’s seemingly no moderation on anything more unsavoury.
There’s also the 3D printer feature, which allows me to take a real-life image and plug it into Inzoi, which’ll then spit it back out in the form of a slightly disfigured 3D model. I first tried it with a couch cushion I own, which fed back to me a vague recreation from the front, while the back was horribly deformed. I managed to get a fairly decent-looking virtual version of my Shadow the Hedgehog plushie, only to try and place it to discover it was freaking huge.
For how much Krafton has harped on about all these AI gadgets and gizmos, I didn’t find they enriched my experience at all. Another fun gimmick to muck around with before realising I was probably never going to use it in a meaningful way.
A long way to go
It’s not just houses I can decorate, though. Inzoi lets me tweak the whole city—what appears on billboards, the types of trees that line the streets, how much litter there is—it’s a nice addition for further tweaking things and creating a unique experience each time, and I hope it’s something that’s expanded upon in the future.
Both Dowon, its Korean-inspired map, and American-based Bliss Bay are awfully pretty to look at, offering some unique features like Dowon’s K-pop entertainment conglomerate and Bliss Bay’s huge stretch of beach. It even leads to a couple of unique career opportunities depending on where you’re playing, with Dowon having an exclusive K-pop idol job.
Commercial lots even have specific opening times, which is a layer of realism I actually don’t love. It meant any time I wanted to venture off my home lot I was essentially having to make sure it was before 9pm, otherwise I’d be met with locked doors or shuttered food vans. It took away an element of freedom, leaving me with little option other than to sit in my home lot, wishing the time away.
Ultimately, Inzoi’s biggest issue right now is that it’s simply not very fun. Even when I went ahead and brought my day length down to half the default time—96 minutes to 48—time seemed to drag on. Right now it feels like I’m trying too hard to have a good time in Inzoi’s clinical world, because I desperately wanted it to be good. Sadly, for me, it wasn’t
Honestly, I would have preferred Krafton give this game even more time to cook. It almost feels like I’m playing pretend at playing pretend right now—engaging with a variety of set pieces I can do a cute peace sign in front of before moving onto the next thing. In an attempt to offer something different to The Sims, Inzoi has failed to establish any sort of identity of its own. I’m not even sure Krafton knows what direction it wants to take right now, but it needs to figure that out quickly, otherwise I fear it’ll be another casualty of the genre.
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World of Goo 2 – Steam Wishlist Teaser – YouTube
World of Goo 2, sequel to the beloved 2008 physics-puzzler about building towers and bridges out of wibbly wobbly slime balls, will slop onto Steam this spring following almost a year of exclusivity on the Epic Games Store.
“ATTENTION Steam fans! We’ve been quietly readying World of Goo 2 for new platforms”, wrote developers 2DBoy and the Tomorrow Corporation on the latter’s website. “World of Goo 2 is coming to Steam in Spring 2025… so this year… and SOON!”
The Steam version will apparently come with “fabulous new achievements” as well as “other updates” the developers plan to reveal at a later date. The announcement specifies “many” of these updates will be coming to all versions of the game, though that implies some will be exclusive to the Steam version.
World of Goo 2 originally launched on the Epic Game Store last August. The sequel’s creation was funded by Epic, and 2D Boy and Tomorrow Corp dutifully tip their hats to the company for its support. “We’re grateful to Epic for funding development of the game—World of Goo 2 would not exist without this arrangement—and our exclusivity period has now ended, which means the game can now come to more platforms.”
Given when World of Goo 2 came out, and when it plans to hit Steam, it strikes me as a slightly odd length for an exclusivity deal. You’d normally expect them to last at least a year, so maybe Epic has released the developers from it early, possibly because it hasn’t sold as well as they expected. Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney recently discussed the topic of the company’s exclusivity deals, and it seems like the strategy hasn’t helped the Epic store all that much.
“We spent a lot of money on exclusives,” he said in an earnings call last year, adding “a few of them worked extremely well. A lot of them were not good investments.” This isn’t the case for Epic’s free game programme, however, with Sweeney saying the company’s initiative of giving away free games every week has gone “swimmingly” because “developers who give away free games actually see an upsurge in the sale of their paid games on the store”.
I played World of Goo 2 when it released, and found it a typically sharp and witty puzzler, albeit one that perhaps suffered from the concept of in-game physics being less shiny and new than it was sixteen years ago. PCG’s own reviewer Kerry Brunskill was less troubled by such quibbles, however. ” I was generally having too much fun to really mind the odd stumble,” she wrote back in August. “It’s a clever, surprising game that celebrates all the goo that came before and all the goo here now.”
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However much—or little—help you need with Wednesday’s Wordle, we’ve got something here that can help. Keep things light with our general tips, or get something more specific with our clue for the March 19 (1369) puzzle. Still need more? You’ve got it. The answer to today’s Wordle is never more than a quick click or scroll away.
My first row looked like a waste of time, and my second wasn’t much better. But with so many key letters ruled out early on, and just enough hints to guide me, today’s answer arrived on the very next row. I’m quite pleased with myself for transforming what appeared to be a pile of grey letters into a quick win.
Today’s Wordle hint
Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, March 19
This is something tiny but dangerously hot, the sort of thing a wood fire would give off, or a broken power cable. You can even make these yourself by grinding or striking metal or stone together.
Is there a double letter in Wordle today?
No, there is not a double letter in today’s puzzle.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
Playing Wordle well is like achieving a small victory every day—who doesn’t like a well-earned winning streak in a game you enjoy? If you’re new to the daily word game, or just want a refresher, I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
- You want a balanced mix of unique consonants and vowels in your opening word.
- A solid second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
- The answer could contain letters more than once.
There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by the end of the day. If you’re struggling to find the answer or a tactical word for your next guess, there’s no harm in coming back to it later on.
Today’s Wordle answer
What is today’s Wordle answer?
All the help you need. The answer to the March 19 (1369) Wordle is SPARK.
Previous Wordle answers
The last 10 Wordle answers
Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you.
Here are some recent Wordle answers:
- March 18: TIMER
- March 17: LASSO
- March 16: STAMP
- March 15: LADLE
- March 14: PIECE
- March 13: CHASE
- March 12: MANGO
- March 11: TRACK
- March 10: SPITE
- March 9: GREED
Learn more about Wordle
Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s your job to work out which five-letter word is hiding by eliminating or confirming the letters it contains.
Starting with a strong word like LEASH—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good place to start. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.
Your second go should compliment the starting word, using another “good” guess to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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The latest World of Warcraft world first race, in which teams compete to finish a new Mythic raid faster than the others, has been settled: But the final boss was so anticlimactic that the winners almost surprised themselves (thanks, GR+).
The War Within’s second season started on March 4, and the race to World First focused on the Mythic tier of the Liberation of Undermine raid. The way that the WoW community splits up the World First can be a little confusing, because over the last fortnight various teams have gotten “World First” clears of parts of the raid, but in this case we’re talking about beating the whole thing and the final boss, Chrome King Gallywix.
After beating the early bosses in the raid, Team Liquid took 100 attempts to beat Chrome King Gallywix. This is not an unusual number at all, and even slightly on the low side: When you get to Mythic raids, we’re talking about the hardest challenges WoW can offer, and final bosses that require god-tier co-ordination and concentration for extended periods. If even one player misclicks or triggers an ability at the wrong time, you’re probably looking at a wipe.
And this is probably what led to some surprise and very slight confusion on Team Liquid’s part. The team’s previous best attempt had gotten Chrome King Gallywix down to 14% health, and the expectation was that going any further would see one of WoW’s boss transformations, where an unexpected new attack or different phase triggers.
But Chrome King Gallywix turned out to have nothing up his sleeve. As the team surrounds him and the health bar keeps going down you can hear the team leader Maximum’s excitement and almost disbelief as they realise he’s going down: They keep pouring on the punishment, easily dodging Gallywix’s familiar attacks, and soon enough he bites the big one.
Most of Team Liquid shoot out of their chairs whooping and hugging. Maximum throws his hands up at the screen, the player imexile questions “that’s the boss?” while Thdlock just puts his hands out to the camera and says “what!”
Liquid vs WORLD FIRST Mythic Chrome King Gallywix – Liberation of Undermine – YouTube
You can tell Gallywix didn’t cut the mustard, because it took Team Liquid more attempts to beat earlier bosses in the raid. Chrome King Gallywix took 100, but Stix Bunkjunker took 114, and Mug’zee perhaps should’ve been the final challenge, requiring 148 attempts.
The victory is Liquid’s fifth World First tier victory, and is also their first back-to-back raid win in just under five years.
And hey, it may have been a bit anticlimactic but at least it was legit. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that goes on around WoW world firsts from players who probably care a little too much: Recently a guild of criminal masterminds used exploits to get a “world first” on a new raid, got banned, then put its name backwards and did it again. There are entire guilds dedicated to just trolling as hard as they possibly can.
All good clean fun. More generally, World of Warcraft is enjoying something of a golden age at the moment, and some reckon The War Within is the venerable MMO’s best expansion yet. Even if, come season three, some will be hoping that the toughest raid boss is just a little tougher.
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Bem vindos a Valhalla!
AC Valhalla que jogo gigante, adoro a história nórdica do pouco que sei e o mundo nórdico.
Atualmente estamos a platinar o jogo. 💪
Agradeço a todos os que acompanharam esta saga fantástica de Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 😁
Mas não percam a partir de 20 de Março Assassin’s Creed Shadows 😁
Acompanha os próximos episódios de AC Valhalla AQUI 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDowRCnCZ6UICNtMhndmxwW6Yjy5FjUXj
Espero que gostem, deixem o like, subscrevam, partilhem e ativem as notificações para não perder nenhum episódio!!!
Segue-me nas redes sociais 📲
LINKS TEMPORARIAMENTE APENAS NA PÁGINA PRINCIPAL DO CANAL!
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ARK: Lost Colony Teaser – YouTube
It’s been a while since we’ve heard much about Ark 2, the sequel to survival game Ark: Survival Evolved which was announced all the way back in 2020. We started to wonder if the Vin Diesel-powered sequel was still happening (and we aren’t the only ones), but it’s apparently still on: It just got a mention in a press release about upcoming Ark expansion Lost Colony.
Ark: Lost Colony “connects the storylines of Ark’s Extinction and Genesis expansions and leads into the events of Ark 2,” says Studio Wildcard.
Lost Colony will be out this November, and is the first expansion specifically for Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Ark: Survival Evolved.
As the Lost Colony teaser embedded above teases, Lost Colony will feature anime-style cutscenes by MAPPA, the Japanese animation studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, and Chainsaw Man. Michelle Yeoh is reprising her role as Mei-Yin Li from Ark: The Animated Series and is joined by Madeleine Madden as Helena Walker.
Actor Auli’i Cravalho will also show up in the expansion as Meeka, the daughter of Santiago, Vin Diesel’s Ark 2 character—the pair was last seen in the Ark 2 trailer from 2022, so there’s your sequel connection.
Lost Colony will take players to “a vast occupied city,” says Studio Wildcard, and will feature “new kinds of character abilities, unique gear, building systems, and phenomenally exotic tames.”
The expansion is set to release in November for $30, and has a Steam page now.
Since it’s meant to bridge the narrative gap between Ark and Ark 2, Lost Colony will presumably be the last Ark expansion before we finally get a firm release date for the sequel. We originally expected Ark 2 in 2022, then in 2023, and then in 2024, but it hasn’t shown up despite no official delay announcement.
I guess you just can’t rush Mr. Diesel.
There’s also more to come for Ark: Survival Ascended beyond Lost Colony—its current roadmap runs through 2026.
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