Month: October 2024

Cities: Skylines 2 was not in great shape when it launched in 2023. The underlying game was quite good but it was plagued with performance problems and missing a number of features, most notably an editor. That sparked a quick backlash on Steam, visible in the “mixed” user rating, but it also kicked off what Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen described as “a growing tendency of toxicity in our community.”

Hallikainen said the level of toxic behaviour that’s followed in the wake of Cities: Skylines 2 is “something we have not experienced to this extent before,” and it’s aimed not just at developers but players as well. That could have a negative impact on the game in the long run, she warned, as it discourages people from interacting with other members of the community: “In the long run, this will really hurt not only the mood and the happiness of community members but also discourage creativity and modding, something we would be very sad to see.”

“We have always treasured having the devs present on the different social platforms and having direct communication with the community, but our biggest responsibility will always be protecting the team and making sure th…

There’s no bigger buzzword in the tech scene right now than AI. Researchers all over the world are dipping their toes into this evolving field of tech, and it’s always a shock what comes out. Recent AI advancements have come from machine learning, the ability to force feed a program unthinkable amounts of data in the hopes that it will learn something. It’s been used to do some incredible stuff like control nuclear fusion, make biohybrid robots walk, and create varying degrees of art. 

There’s a lot of questions about this brave new world of AI and important issues around ethical concerns and the future of this tech. The use of AI generated art plus the release of ChatGPT to the general public, or whoever can afford it, has brought all of this to the forefront. It has experts like Turing Award winner John Hennessy expecting the AI singularity to be upon us much faster than we ever expected.

“The AI revolution is upon us. It’s stunning,” Hennessy said Monday at the TechSurge conference (thanks, Cnet). “It’s awakened in everybody a sense that maybe the singularity… this turning point where computers really are more capable than humans, is closer than we thought.…