After 17 years without built-in voice communication for full teams, Riot Games is rolling out team-wide voice chat in League of Legends starting with Patch 26.20. The feature launches first in North America and Oceania, with other regions like Korea, Brazil and Latin America potentially following depending on how the rollout goes. Players need an Honor level of 3 or higher to speak, though anyone can listen, and Riot is also introducing customizable 'voice skins' along with improved noise cancellation and connection stability.
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Images 2.5, an update to its April image generation model that promises sharper detail, more natural lighting, and better consistency when editing across multiple prompts. The company says generation latency has dropped by up to 50% compared with the original Images 2 model, and it's adding a sketch-to-image feature plus templates and prompt-sharing tools. Developers also get two new API models, GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst, aimed at different levels of editing precision and speed.
A Tech Transparency Project investigation found Meta took days to pull hundreds of Facebook and Instagram ads promoting AI apps that generated child sexual abuse material, some using real photos of children including a European royal and a preteen social media influencer. The ads, mostly linked to Chinese-made AI and 'nudify' apps, digitally altered images of children into sexually explicit videos and used explicit captions to lure users.
OpenAI released Images 2.5, an upgraded image model powering ChatGPT and the GPT-Image API, offering sharper detail, better subject preservation from reference photos, and more reliable multi-turn editing. The update ships alongside new ChatGPT features like Sketch, templates, and image comments, plus two developer-facing API models, GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst.
Richard Kelly's cult film 'Donnie Darko' is getting a remastered 4K theatrical rerelease to mark its 25th anniversary. The screenings are scheduled for October 2-4.
A contributor for Entrepreneur argues that founders and business owners are increasingly turning to private capital, not just public markets, to grow wealth. The piece explains that more than 99% of U.S. companies are privately held, and that many valuable businesses build significant worth well before any public listing.
Storage prices are climbing fast as AI data centers consume the supply of NAND flash and hard drive components once reserved for consumer products. A 2TB SSD that cost $120-$200 last year can now run close to $400, while even small 256GB drives have jumped several times over their previous $25 price point. Portable drives used for everyday backups have also nearly doubled in cost within months.
A technical issue with UK air traffic control triggered widespread flight cancellations, leaving some passengers stuck aboard grounded planes for hours. One British Airways passenger described being served her starter course on the Heathrow tarmac after her New York-bound flight was cancelled with no stairs available to disembark. She was rebooked on an alternative route via Copenhagen, delaying her arrival by more than a day.
The UK government says Apple and Google failed to meet a three-month deadline to make it impossible to capture, view, or share child nudity images on their devices. In response, officials are introducing what they call world-first legislation that would impose fines and potential criminal liability on executives at companies that don't build these protections into phones and tablets sold in the UK.
An explainer breaks down what Visa and Mastercard actually do, noting they are card networks rather than banks, card issuers, payment processors, or merchant acquirers. The piece maps out the two-sided market linking cardholders and issuers on one side with merchants and acquirers on the other, with the network connecting both.
A trailer has dropped for 'Artificial,' the Luca Guadagnino-directed film about Sam Altman's brief 2023 ouster and reinstatement at OpenAI, starring Andrew Garfield as the CEO. The footage leans into an unsettling, horror-tinged tone, with Garfield's Altman warning that 'countries will fall' and industries will collapse while wandering past a bunker full of weapons. The movie, also featuring Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman and Mark Rylance, opens in theaters on Christmas Day.
Dick Portillo opened a hot dog stand in Chicago in 1963 with just $1,100, despite not knowing how to prepare a hot dog, and grew it into the Midwest's largest privately owned restaurant chain with 4,000 employees. In 2014 he sold Portillo's to private equity firm Berkshire Partners for nearly $1 billion, using the proceeds to buy a mansion, a private jet and a Florida waterfront home.
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