[Article](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/chinas-humanoid-robots-ready-lunar-new-year-showtime-2026-02-16/)

Apple on Thursday confirmed acquiring the Israeli startup Q.ai, in what appeared to be part of the tech giant’s efforts to make inroads into the wearables market, with the aid of artificial intelligence. The purchase cost Apple almost $2 billion, people familiar with the terms told the Financial Times. Industry press said it was the second-largest acquisition in the company’s history, after its purchase of the Beats music giant in 2014. Q.ai is tight-lipped in public about its technology, but patents it filed show tech being used in headphones or glasses using “facial skin micro movements” for nonverbal communication, according to the FT. The move may be a component of Apple’s strategy for “wearable” products, such as smart glasses. Software that reads facial expressions could potentially make way for a hands-free user interface that doesn’t require talking out loud, reports noted.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43288310 > In **[KDE Plasma 6.6](https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/)** Spectacle can read texts from screenshots, a new on-screen keybord is available for testing, a first-time wizard was added, current theme can be saved as a new global theme, emoji selector got a new easier skin tone selection, you can now connect to a Wi-Fi network via a QR code, application sound volume can be changed by scrolling over a taskbar button via mouse, and there is much more.

Definition of can dish it but can't take it

More context: https://www.yourfavoriteguy.com/p/urgent-my-voice-is-being-wiped-out

Google Play has delisted UpScrolled, the "censorship-resistant" social media app founded by Issam Hijazi, following its rapid growth to over 2.5 million users and its brief stint as a top-ranked alternative to TikTok. While the app remains available for existing users, Google has not provided a specific reason for the removal; UpScrolled's team confirmed they are working with the Play Store for reinstatement while maintaining their commitment to unfiltered content. This development follows the app's rapid ascent in popularity, particularly amid concerns over content moderation on competing platforms like TikTok.

An artificial intelligence researcher left his job at Anthropic this week with warning about the state of the world. The latest resignation in a wave of departures over safety risks and ethical dilemmas. All this seems very concerning... https://globalnews.ca/news/11664538/anthropic-ai-safety-researcher-mrinank-sharma-quits-concerns/

The lord almighty has spoken. Consider this as a one time forgiveness. Expect to see y'all 9-5s at yours stupid desk on Monday.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/technology/p/1781732/weapon-of-mass-exposure-how-efficiency-led-to-your-most-private-records-sitting-on-an-u

Instagram has suspended the account of Track AIPAC, a widely followed watchdog project that tracks political spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and related pro-Israel lobbying groups. The social media giant cited alleged violations of the platform’s intellectual property and trademark rules. The suspension places the account at risk of permanent deletion unless successfully appealed within 180 days. Track AIPAC — also known as AIPAC Tracker — was launched in 2024 by Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy as a transparency and advocacy platform documenting AIPAC’s political donations, endorsements and influence on US elections. The project publishes Federal Election Commission data on pro-Israel political spending, highlights which lawmakers receive the most support, and endorses opponents of candidates reliant on AIPAC funding. The watchdog has become a prominent source for voters and activists seeking to make AIPAC funding “politically toxic” and to hold elected officials accountable for their ties to the pro-Israel lobby.

With the new Discord changes and the controversy causing people to leave the platform, I decided it was a great excuse for me to finally try to ditch discord. I mostly used discord for my creative endeavors through the years (collaborating on projects, help with software - looking at you Blender and Godot, and etc) but now I really only have my small community that I was trying to start back up based on my board game project. As someone who drifts from project to project, and often tries to find other people who want to participate in projects - this forum is meant to fill two needs: ‣A communication and contributor hub for the various open source and creative commons projects I am currently working on, as well as a centralized location to access information and assets for said projects. ‣ A place for other creative individuals to network, collaborate, and share their own projects - or even simply chat and meet like minded individuals. I am a huge advocate for the creative commons, open source software, and the overall Libre community that counters the capitalist models that are so prevalent in the online space. While members of this community don’t need to share these same ideals, I would like to foster a community that can lift up and encourage others who contribute to this space. It would be nice if we could create a community where people help and contribute to each others creative endeavors and improve the FOSS/CC community. And honestly, I kind of miss the days when forums were the primary form of communication, before discord - so I am excited to see if this community can take off at all. - - - The community is extremely sparse at the moment, but if any of you would be willing to check it out and stick around for a while to see if we can grow - I would be greatly appreciative. If anyone has feedback for improvement or ideas for direction of the forum, I would love to hear any and all constructive criticism. - - - And to get ahead of the "Lemmy/Piefed is a forum" comments: I personally think there is great value in mega-forums like Lemmy, PieFed, and Reddit, and while there are subs for niche topics, the idea of a standalone forum for my specific purpose seems like it has more of an opportunity to create the “small, close-knit” type of community that doesn’t seem to fit within the sphere of these mega-forums. I could totally be wrong, and maybe its nostalgia, but something about a good old forum seems to bring something different to the table in my eyes.

It's interesting to note that data centers don't use very much, despite perception.

The United Kingdom’s controversial rollout of facial recognition technology will rely on software that appears to have already been deployed in Gaza, where it is used by the Israeli army to track, trace, and abduct thousands of Palestinian civilians passing through checkpoints. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that British police would massively increase the use of facial recognition technology used for surveillance purposes.

**PE-AV - Audiovisual Perception with Code** * Meta's perception encoder for audio-visual understanding with open code release. * Processes both visual and audio information to isolate sound sources. * [Paper](https://go.meta.me/e541b6) | [Code](https://go.meta.me/7fbef0) https://preview.redd.it/k6lp7cgbou8g1.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=f928bbd8d184e9094e7130cb36adff5f51830a80 **T5Gemma 2 - Open Encoder-Decoder** * Next generation encoder-decoder model with full open-source weights. * Combines bidirectional understanding with flexible text generation. * [Blog](https://blog.google/technology/developers/t5gemma-2/) | [Mode](https://huggingface.co/google/t5gemma-2-270m-270m)l **Qwen-Image-Layered - Open Image Decomposition** * Decomposes images into editable RGBA layers with full model release. * Each layer can be independently manipulated for precise editing. * [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/QwenLM/Qwen-Image-Layered) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16776) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/Qwen/Qwen-Image-Layered-Demo) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/72skjufkou8g1/player **N3D-VLM - Open 3D Vision-Language Model** * Native 3D spatial reasoning with open weights and code. * Understands depth and spatial relationships without 2D distortions. * [GitHub](https://github.com/W-Ted/N3D-VLM) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/yuxinhk/N3D-VLM) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/h1npuq1mou8g1/player **Generative Refocusing - Open Depth Control** * Controls depth of field in images with full code release. * Simulates camera focus changes through 3D scene inference. * [Website](https://generative-refocusing.github.io/) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/nycu-cplab/Genfocus-Demo) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16923) | [GitHub](https://github.com/rayray9999/Genfocus) **StereoPilot - Open 2D to 3D Conversion** * Converts 2D videos to stereo 3D with open model and code. * Full source release for VR content creation. * [Website](https://hit-perfect.github.io/StereoPilot/) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/KlingTeam/StereoPilot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/KlingTeam/StereoPilot) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16915) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/homrv9tmou8g1/player **Chatterbox Turbo - MIT Licensed TTS** * State-of-the-art text-to-speech under permissive MIT license. * No commercial restrictions or cloud dependencies. * [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/p1/Chatterbox-Turbo) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/iceqr03jou8g1/player **FunctionGemma - Open Function Calling** * Lightweight 270M parameter model for function calling with full weights. * Creates specialized function calling models without commercial restrictions. * [Model](https://huggingface.co/google/functiongemma-270m-it) **FoundationMotion - Open Motion Analysis** * Labels spatial movement in videos with full code and dataset release. * Automatic motion pattern identification without manual annotation. * [Paper](http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10927) | [GitHub](https://github.com/Wolfv0/FoundationMotion/tree/main) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/yulu2/FoundationMotion) | [Dataset](https://huggingface.co/datasets/WoWolf/v2-dev/tree/main) **DeContext - Open Image Protection** * Protects images from unwanted AI edits with open-source implementation. * Adds imperceptible perturbations that block manipulation while preserving quality. * [Website](https://linghuiishen.github.io/decontext_project_page/) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16625) | [GitHub](https://github.com/LinghuiiShen/DeContext) **EgoX - Open Perspective Transformation** * Transforms third-person videos to first-person with full code release. * Maintains spatial coherence during viewpoint conversion. * [Website](https://keh0t0.github.io/EgoX/) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08269) | [GitHub](https://github.com/DAVIAN-Robotics/EgoX) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/2h8x59qpou8g1/player **Step-GUI - Open GUI Automation** * SOTA GUI automation with self-evolving pipeline and open weights. * Full code and model release for interface control. * [Paper](https://huggingface.co/papers/2512.15431) | [GitHub](https://github.com/stepfun-ai/gelab-zero) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/stepfun-ai/GELab-Zero-4B-preview) **IC-Effect - Open Video Effects** * Applies video effects through in-context learning with code release. * Learns effect patterns from examples without fine-tuning. * [Website](https://cuc-mipg.github.io/IC-Effect/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/CUC-MIPG/IC-Effect) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15635)