Latest news with #StudioGhibli-style
OC Media
10-07-2025
- Politics
- OC Media
Georgian court sentences 19-year-old to 4.5 years in prison for ‘attacking a police officer' during a protest
Join the voices Aliyev wants to silence. For over eight years, OC Media has worked with fearless journalists from Azerbaijan — some of whom now face decades behind bars — to bring you the stories the regime is afraid will get out. Help us fuel Aliyev's fears — become an OC Media member today Become a member Tbilisi City Court Judge Tamar Mchedlidze has sentenced Saba Jikia, a 19-year-old participant of anti-government protests, to four years and six months in jail for 'attacking a police officer'. Jikidze never pleaded guilty and has maintained his innocence. Jikidze was arrested on 5 December on charges of 'hitting a police officer' with his leg during a protest on 30 November. The victim in this case is an employee of special operative department Beka Gotiashvili, who during the trial stated that he did not receive any injuries. During the last hearing on 10 July, Jikia delivered his final words. Following the new media ban implemented by the ruling Georgian Dream party, the media is not allowed to record video, audio, or photo during trials. Nonetheless, photos of his handwritten speech were later posted on social media. 'I am not really happy about the fact that I will have to go to prison from four to seven years with absurd charges and that I have to spend my youth in jail, but my arrest had some positive results as well, I got to know amazing boys, I learned the price of freedom, what situation our country is in and the best part is that I will have amazing stories to tell my grandchildren. I will not be ashamed to tell them, because we stand on the right side of history', he said in his letter. Jikia added that he kept coming to court to meet his friends and supporters. 'To show you that we are not afraid and we didn't break. But I still have inner fear. I am scared of defeat, because I don't want future generations to judge us for this defeat', he said. Advertisement 'I am scared of the defeat because I don't want kids to be raised in an unjust country and a dictatorship. So I will do however I can, I will fight till the end. It is weird to hear this from a 19-year-old boy, but this is how it is, my friends. I won't give up'. 'Will it be four years and six months???', from a note Saba Jikia wrote earlier in June at one of his trials predicting his sentence. Photo: Mindia Gabadze/Publika In its coverage of the verdict, the pro-government media outlet TV Imedi, wrote that Jikia had been convicted of 'attacking a police officer with a knife' despite the fact that a knife was never a subject of discussion during Jikia's trial. Post TV, another pro-government media outlet, published a post with an apparently AI-generated, Studio Ghibli-style anime depiction of Jikia holding a knife as other protesters beat up police in the background. An attached caption read, 'prisoner of conscience for opposition, violent criminal Saba Jikia in reality'. Journalists said that Judge Mchedlidze's announcement of the verdict was met by sadness and tears from his friends and supporters. Jikia's lawyer, Guja Avsajanishvili, told journalists after the announcement that Mchedlidze had already prepared the verdict in advance, as the amount of time she took to make a ruling would not have been enough to write the text she read to the court. 'This means that Mrs Tamar came to the final speech with an already written verdict. This means that the judges come to trials with their attitudes formed already', he said. Apart from Jikidze, Tbilisi City Court sentenced two other protesters, Mate Devidze and Giorgi Mindadze, for 'attacking a police officer'. Devidze was sentenced to four years and six months, while Mindadze to five years in jail.
Mint
20-06-2025
- Mint
ChatGPT now lets you create and edit images on WhatsApp, here's how to get started and what to expect
Cross-service ChatGPT integration just got a serious upgrade and now WhatsApp is part of the action. If you have ever wanted to create or edit images without leaving your chat window with GPT's advanced capabilities, that is now possible. What does this OpenAI update mean? You can generate images right inside WhatsApp. No need to install extra apps or switch between tabs. Just start a conversation and watch your ideas take shape. This new feature is available for free in regions where ChatGPT is officially supported on WhatsApp. You can interact with the chatbot using text, images or even voice notes. The process is designed to be simple and accessible for anyone who wants to try their hand at AI-powered creativity. There are a few things to know before you jump in. Free users can create one image per day. After that, you will need to wait about 24 hours before you can try again. If you have a paid ChatGPT subscription, you get a higher daily limit. Not everyone can link their account yet and the process can sometimes be a bit slow. OpenAI is still rolling out the feature and making improvements. Getting started is straightforward. Here is what you need to do Save the official ChatGPT WhatsApp number, +1 800 242 8478, to your contacts Open WhatsApp and send a greeting to start the chat When prompted, link your OpenAI account by following the secure link and logging in Send a prompt describing the image you want or share a photo for a creative twist, like turning your selfie into a Studio Ghibli-style illustration Wait a few minutes and your generated image will appear in the chat ChatGPT on WhatsApp is not just about images. You can ask for recipes, get help with writing, or even upload photos for quick descriptions. It is a handy little productivity boost that fits right into your daily conversations. It doesn't matter whether you need a social media caption or want to try something creative, this tool is built to make things easier. OpenAI is not the only one bringing AI to WhatsApp. Meta, which owns WhatsApp, has its own Meta AI assistant with image generation. Perplexity is another tool offering similar features. So if you are curious, you have plenty of options to explore. If you want to see what AI can really do, this new WhatsApp feature is worth a try. Your next chat could become a mini art project or just a bit more fun than usual.
India Today
18-06-2025
- India Today
How to create AI photos with ChatGPT on WhatsApp today: Step-by-step guide
OpenAI has recently released the image generation feature for the ChatGPT chatbot on WhatsApp. This new tool allows users to generate and edit images through a simple chat, without needing to download an app or visit the website. Additionally, users can interact with the AI chatbot using text, images, and voice generation on the ChatGPT chatbot on WhatsApp is currently free and available in regions where ChatGPT is officially supported on the messaging app. However, similar to the web and mobile app, free-tier users are not allowed to create unlimited images. At the moment, users can generate only one image per day. Once an image is created, they must wait around 24 hours before requesting a new generate more images, users need to log in with their ChatGPT account—if they have a paid subscription, they can access higher limits. That said, account linking is still not available to all users, and even when the option appears, the process isn't always smooth. So, you might need to wait for further updates from OpenAI, as the feature is still being to create images with ChatGPT on WhatsApp Creating AI images on WhatsApp is simple. Here are a few quick steps to get started:Save the ChatGPT number: First, add ChatGPT's official WhatsApp number — +1 (800) 242-8478 — to your a chat: After saving the number, open WhatsApp and send a greeting message like 'Hi' to begin a conversation with your OpenAI account: ChatGPT will prompt you to connect your OpenAI account. Follow the secure link provided and log in to complete the a prompt: Once your account is linked, you can send a text prompt describing the image you want to create. For example, try sharing your photo and asking ChatGPT to turn it into a Studio Ghibli-style the image: The AI will respond with a generated image based on your prompt. Image generation usually takes a few image creation, you can use ChatGPT on WhatsApp for a wide range of tasks. From cooking recipes and proofreading text to writing social media captions and formal emails, it can serve as a handy, portable productivity tool. Users can also upload photos to get AI-generated descriptions or this isn't the first time AI tools have been introduced to WhatsApp. Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, previously rolled out its own assistant, Meta AI, which also supports image generation. Perplexity is another AI tool available on WhatsApp that offers similar image generation features.
Business Insider
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Read the pitch deck an AI video startup behind viral baby podcast memes used to raise $32 million from A16z and others
A video of a baby interviewing a dog on a podcast went viral last month. No, it wasn't real. It was an AI-generated video created by comedian Jon Lajoie, who used Hedra, an AI video generation platform, to make the animation. Hedra's platform allows users to generate images, video, and audio with its web-based content creation studio. "Our model and technology focuses on the most controllable, compelling characters, whether that's a hyperrealistic human or an animated character or even an animal," Hedra's CEO, Michael Lingelbach, told Business Insider. On Thursday, Hedra announced that it raised a $32 million Series A fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz's Infrastructure fund. The round included returning investors such as A16z Speedrun, Abstract, and Index Ventures. Since its launch in 2024, the AI video startup has rapidly raised capital. In August, it announced a $10 million seed investment round. In March, Amazon 's Alexa Fund announced that it invested in the startup and several other AI companies. Hedra said it has raised a total of $44 million but has not disclosed a valuation. Competition in the generative AI is hot, with buzzy companies like Captions, HeyGen, Synthesia, and Runway building tech around video and avatars (Hedra specified that it is not an avatar company). "We're not trying to compete with Google Veo, we're not trying to compete with Sora," Lingelbach said. "We're focusing really firmly on building the best character models, and that's something that with this additional capital we can make another step function in doing." Hedra's Character-3 "omnimodal" model combines images, text, and audio to generate video. Creating a character with Hedra begins by uploading an image and then uploading audio that they've either already recorded (like a podcast) or generated using text-to-speech models like ElevenLabs. "Both voice and video are seeing rapid evolution right now," Lingelbach said. "We took a big leap forward on naturalness of expression with our current model." Hedra's platform is also users to integrate outside models like ElevenLabs, Google Veo, and Flux "all in one workflow," Lingelbach said. Hedra's core user base has been professional creators and marketers, Lingelbach said. "We're already seeing a massive influx of AI-generated content," Lingelbach said. "My Instagram and TikTok feed are filled with various memes and also more serious content now that's AI-generated." From comedy skits to faceless creator content to … talking babies, Hedra's already seen a wide range of use cases. Podcast content, particularly, has been a popular application of Hedra's tech. "It's not really something that we anticipated initially, but it definitely has been driving a lot of our usage," he said. In addition to the viral trend of AI baby-hosted podcasts that people have been creating using Hedra, others have used Hedra to create Studio Ghibli-style videos of the classic podcast interview clip. With its recent raise, Hedra plans to expand into more enterprise marketing applications, expand its team, and open an office in New York City. Note: Some slides have been redacted in order to share the deck publicly. Hedra Hedra is focused on storytelling and characters. The deck explains Hedra's 'omnimodal foundation model' that lets people quickly generate digital characters. Here's what the slide says: At Hedra, we've built the world's best character performance model that uniquely combines video, voice, motion, and emotion in a way never before possible. Hedra's Character-3 model is the world's first omnimodal foundation model in production. The only model that supports human, animated, and animal characters. And it works with any angle or framing. Built to prioritize efficiently scaling unified models The entire model was developed with a budget of under $2 million Hedra's customers range from everyday consumers to creators and marketers. The deck highlights Hedra's research team and its proprietary tech. Hedra Then the deck introduces the team. Here's what the slide says: We've assembled the best team to own this category — marrying deep research with AI-Native product design. Key Leadership Team: Michael Lingelbach: Founder / CEO Stanford PhD student of Fei-Fei Li and Jiajun Wu. Senior author of 3 real-time diffusion papers. Recipient of prestigious Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Hongwei Yi: Head of Research Former PhD Student of Michael Black, principal researcher behind first audio to video diffusion model to hit the market in the US. Wei Li: Research Lead Core contributor to Google Bard/Gemini, PaLM-2 and T5, with 8+ years experience at Google Brain/Deepmind. Jason Wilson: Head of Engineering Previously led engineering at Nava Benefits (Thrive-backed Series B startup) and engineering manager at Descartes Labs. Alan Guo: Chief of Staff MBA from Harvard Business School. Previously worked in growth & strategy at Disney, Jubilee Media, and Firework. Ramin Keene: Principal Engineer Hedra concludes its deck by saying 'we're just getting started.'
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Sam Altman and Satya Nadella show unity Ghibli-style, even as Microsoft flirts with OpenAI rivals
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the man driving ChatGPT, has shared a Studio Ghibli-style photo with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, amid rumours about tensions between the two leaders. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack India's Rafale-M deal may turn up the heat on Pakistan China's support for Pakistan may be all talk, no action India brings grounded choppers back in action amid LoC tensions Posting on X, Altman wrote, 'fun showing @satyanadella our new office and talking about some of our latest progress!' Nadella replied: 'Great to see you today, @sama. Love the new office!' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Why Seniors Are Snapping Up This TV Box, We Explain! Techno Mag Undo These friendly exchanges appear to respond to growing speculation that both CEOs are beginning to move in different directions, each focusing more on their own ambitions in the competitive AI race. Also Read: Microsoft and OpenAI: From allies to rivals in the AI race Live Events The once-strong partnership began to show signs of strain in late 2023, when Altman was briefly removed from OpenAI—Microsoft was caught unawares by the boardroom turmoil. Since then, a number of developments have pointed to a possible drift. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories For instance, Microsoft has started developing its own AI models, putting it in direct competition with OpenAI. It has also been testing models from other companies such as Meta, DeepSeek, and Elon Musk's xAI. Microsoft was also noticeably absent from OpenAI's major Stargate event. Meanwhile, Nadella quietly hired Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of Google's DeepMind, and a known rival of Altman. Adding to the speculation, The Verge recently reported that Microsoft is preparing to host Musk's Grok AI model on its cloud platform, despite the rocky history between Musk and Altman.
