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SoftBank Expands AI Portfolio with $6.5bn Ampere Deal

SoftBank Acquires Chip Start-up Ampere Computing for $6.5bn

Deal Marks Latest Move by Masayoshi Son to Expand Ambitions in Artificial Intelligence

SoftBank has agreed to acquire chip start-up Ampere Computing for $6.5bn, as the Japanese tech group’s founder Masayoshi Son expands his ambitions in artificial intelligence. The deal is the latest big move by Son, who has said SoftBank will build a vast infrastructure for AI that includes chip design, production, energy, robotics, and data centers.

Ampere’s Technology

Ampere makes processors for cloud computing and data center applications based on technology from UK chip designer Arm, which is majority-owned by SoftBank. The chip will tap surging investment in AI infrastructure by big tech groups and is expected to be a processor for servers in large data centers, built on a base that can be customized for clients.

Arm’s Evolution

Arm intends to launch its own chip this year after securing Facebook owner Meta as one of its first customers, in a radical change to its business model of merely licensing its blueprints to the likes of Apple and Nvidia. The chip will be a processor for servers in large data centers, built on a base that can be customized for clients. Ampere and its chip designers are seen in the industry as another building block for Arm’s evolution. SoftBank also bought UK-based, AI-focused chip start-up Graphcore last year.

SoftBank’s Vision

SoftBank said Ampere will "serve a critical role in the industry as hyperscalers and data center providers are increasingly looking to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs." Ampere was founded by former Intel president Renée James in 2018. "This is a fantastic outcome for our team, and we are excited to drive forward our… road map for high-performance Arm processors and AI," James said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Conclusion

The acquisition of Ampere is a significant step forward for SoftBank’s plans to build a vast infrastructure for AI, and marks another major investment in the company’s efforts to expand its reach in the technology sector.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is SoftBank’s plan for Ampere?
A: SoftBank plans to operate Ampere as a wholly-owned subsidiary and will continue to develop its technology.

Q: Who are the major investors in Ampere?
A: Major investors Oracle and private equity group Carlyle will sell their stakes in Ampere as part of the deal.

Q: What is the expected closing date of the deal?
A: The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.

The corrupting influence of billionaires

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President Trump’s Sudden and Unlawful Firing of FTC Commissioners Serves Tech Billionaires, Not the American People

Warning from Ousted Commissioner: "Who Will Win from This Effort to Remove Us?"

President Donald Trump’s sudden and unlawful firing of the Federal Trade Commission’s two remaining Democrats will serve the tech billionaires who backed him, not the American people, warned one of the ousted officials today.

Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya made the comments in a hearing before the Colorado state legislature, stating that the firing is an attempt to "illegally remove us, and frankly, who will lose?" He added that the issue of the corrupting influence of money in politics is not limited to one party and that it affects all of us.

FTC Commissioners’ Firing Violates Law and Supreme Court Precedent

Bedoya and his fellow Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were both fired by Trump on Tuesday evening in what they call an illegal removal from an independent agency. Trump’s move appears to violate the law and a longstanding Supreme Court precedent preventing the president from firing commissioners without cause.

Tech Billionaires Stand to Gain from Democratic Commissioners’ Dismissals

Bedoya warned that the firings are not just about him, but about the many others who will be affected. He highlighted that three tech executives who attended Trump’s inauguration – Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, X owner Elon Musk, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – each run a company that is subject to a court order or litigation from the FTC.

Bezos’ Company, Amazon, is Subject to FTC Investigations

Bedoya criticized Bezos’ company, Amazon, for its treatment of workers, stating that it has "vending machines dispensing and capping the amount of painkillers each of those workers has to get." He also mentioned that he is suing Amazon in two separate lawsuits.

Other Democratic Senators Urge Trump to Reverse Firing Decisions

More than two dozen Democratic senators, including Amy Klobuchar, Dick Durbin, and Maria Cantwell, sent a letter to Trump urging him to reverse his dismissals. They stated that the action contradicts long-standing Supreme Court precedent, undermines Congress’s constitutional authority, and upends more than 110 years of work at the FTC to protect consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power.

Conclusion

The firing of the two Democratic FTC commissioners is a clear attempt to serve the interests of tech billionaires over the American people. As Commissioner Bedoya warned, "who will win from this effort to remove us?" The answer is clear: the tech billionaires who backed Trump. It is imperative that we demand accountability and transparency in our government and that we recognize the corrupting influence of money in politics.

FAQs

  • What is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)?
    The FTC is an independent agency responsible for protecting consumers and promoting competition in the marketplace.
  • Why did President Trump fire the two Democratic FTC commissioners?
    President Trump fired the commissioners in what they call an illegal removal from an independent agency, which violates the law and a longstanding Supreme Court precedent.
  • Who will benefit from the firing of the Democratic FTC commissioners?
    Tech billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, who run companies subject to FTC investigations.
  • What is the significance of the firing of the Democratic FTC commissioners?
    The firing undermines the independence of the FTC and the ability to hold corporations accountable for their actions.

AI-generated Meme Captions Outdo Humans in Funniness

More Memes, Not Better Memes

Crowdsourced Memes Outperform AI-Generated Ones in Humor, Creativity, and Shareability

Researchers have been studying the effectiveness of AI-generated memes, and the results are surprising. In a recent study, crowdsourced participants rated the memes, and those created entirely by AI models scored higher on average in humor, creativity, and shareability. But there’s a catch. When it comes to individual memes, humans still outdo AI models in terms of humor and creativity.

The Study’s Findings

The study used popular, pre-existing meme templates, and participants generated captions for them. When evaluating the memes, participants rated the AI-generated memes higher on average, but there were some exceptions. Human-AI collaborations produced the most creative and shareable memes, and humans created the funniest examples.

The Power of Human-AI Collaborations

The study also found that participants who used AI assistance generated significantly more meme ideas and described the process as easier and requiring less effort. However, human-AI collaborative memes did not rate higher on average than those created by humans alone. As the researchers put it, "The increased productivity of human-AI teams does not lead to better results—just to more results."

The Importance of Ownership and Motivation

Participants who used AI assistance reported feeling slightly less ownership over their creations compared to solo creators. Given that a sense of ownership influenced creative motivation and satisfaction in the study, the researchers suggest that people interested in using AI should carefully consider how to balance AI assistance in creative tasks.

Conclusion

The study’s findings have significant implications for the role of AI in creative industries. While AI models can generate a high volume of memes, they may not necessarily outdo human creativity. Instead, human-AI collaborations can produce innovative and engaging content. As the researchers conclude, "AI can be a useful tool, but it is not a substitute for human creativity and imagination."

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was the purpose of the study?
A: The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of AI-generated memes in humor, creativity, and shareability.

Q: What were the results of the study?
A: AI-generated memes scored higher on average in humor, creativity, and shareability, but human-AI collaborations produced the most creative and shareable memes.

Q: What was the impact of AI assistance on creativity?
A: Participants who used AI assistance generated more meme ideas and described the process as easier, but human-AI collaborative memes did not rate higher on average than those created by humans alone.

Q: What are the implications for the role of AI in creative industries?
A: AI models can generate a high volume of content, but they may not necessarily outdo human creativity. Human-AI collaborations can produce innovative and engaging content.

SoftBank to Buy Silicon Valley Chip Start-Up Ampere for $6.5 Billion

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SoftBank Acquires Ampere Computing for $6.5 Billion, Doubling Down on AI Technology

Introduction

SoftBank has announced that it will acquire Ampere Computing, a Silicon Valley chip start-up, for $6.5 billion. This move marks a significant bet on the potential of technology that originated in smartphones to dominate the world’s data centers.

Ampere’s Background

Ampere was founded eight years ago to sell chips for data centers based on technology from Arm Holdings, a British company that licenses chip designs that have powered nearly all mobile phones. SoftBank, which bought Arm in 2016, has been working to have chips based on Arm technology used more widely and for different tasks.

SoftBank’s Vision for AI

SoftBank’s chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son, believes that the future of artificial intelligence requires breakthrough computing power. He sees Ampere’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing as a key to accelerating this vision and deepening the company’s commitment to AI innovation in the United States.

The Deal

SoftBank will operate Ampere as a wholly-owned subsidiary under its own name. The sale comes amid a flurry of deals and shifting alliances driven by a furious demand for the chips used to power AI applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Nvidia’s Role

Nvidia has been a major player in the AI chip market, supplying chips called graphics processing units (GPUs) that account for the bulk of AI calculations. However, other types of chips, such as microprocessors designed by Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Arm, also play a central role in AI. These microprocessors handle general-purpose computing calculations and manage AI jobs such as building special software programs called models.

The Market for AI Chips

The market for microprocessors sold for AI is expected to grow to $33 billion by 2030 from $12.5 billion in 2025, according to IDC, a market research firm. AMD and Intel have pointed out that shifting to Arm can require laborious changes to software. However, Nvidia is backing Arm processors as an option for host microprocessors instead of Intel or AMD chips.

Conclusion

SoftBank’s acquisition of Ampere is a significant move in the AI chip market, which is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. The deal reflects SoftBank’s belief in the potential of Arm-based technology to dominate the world’s data centers and its commitment to AI innovation in the United States.

FAQs

Q: What is Ampere Computing?
A: Ampere Computing is a Silicon Valley chip start-up that was founded eight years ago to sell chips for data centers based on technology from Arm Holdings.

Q: Why is SoftBank acquiring Ampere?
A: SoftBank believes that Ampere’s expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate its vision for AI innovation in the United States.

Q: What is the market size for AI chips?
A: The market for microprocessors sold for AI is expected to grow to $33 billion by 2030 from $12.5 billion in 2025, according to IDC.

Q: Who are the major players in the AI chip market?
A: Nvidia, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Arm are some of the major players in the AI chip market.

NVIDIA Blackwell: Ultra for the Era of AI Reasoning

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For years, advancements in AI have followed a clear trajectory through pretraining scaling: larger models, more data, and greater computational resources lead to breakthrough capabilities. In the last 5 years, pretraining scaling has increased compute requirements at an incredible rate of 50M times. However, building more intelligent systems is no longer just about pretraining bigger models. Instead, it’s about refining them and making them think.

By refining AI models to specialized tasks, post-training scaling improves models to deliver more conversational responses. Tuning models with domain-specific and synthetic data enhances their ability to understand nuanced contexts and provide accurate outputs. Synthetic data generation has no upper limit as available content to teach a model, which translates to a significant need for compute resources in post-training scaling.

Now, a new scaling law has emerged to amplify intelligence: test-time scaling. Also known as long thinking, test-time scaling dynamically increases compute during AI inference to enable deeper reasoning. AI reasoning models don’t just generate responses in a single pass; they actively think, weigh multiple possibilities, and refine answers in real-time. This is moving us closer to true agentic intelligence—AI that can think and act independently to work on more sophisticated tasks and provide more useful answers.

This shift towards post-training scaling and test-time scaling demands exponentially more compute, real-time processing, and high-speed interconnects. Post-training can require 30x more compute than pretraining to develop customized derivative models, and long thinking can require 100x more compute than a single inference pass to solve for incredibly complex tasks.

To meet this demand, NVIDIA introduced Blackwell Ultra, an accelerated computing platform built for the age of AI reasoning, which includes training, post-training, and test-time scaling. Blackwell Ultra is designed for massive-scale AI reasoning inference, delivering smarter, faster, and more efficient AI with optimal TCO.

Blackwell Ultra will be at the heart of NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems, a liquid-cooled, rack-scale solution connecting 36 NVIDIA Grace CPUs and 72 Blackwell Ultra GPUs in a single 72-GPU NVLink domain that acts as a single massive GPU with a total NVLink bandwidth of 130 TB/s.

Table 1. NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra specifications compared to NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and NVIDIA HGX H100

GB300 NVL72 GB200 NVL72 HGX H100
FP4 Inference 1.4 ExaFLOPS 1.1 ExaFLOPS 0.02 ExaFLOPS
HBM Memory 20 TB 13 TB 0.68 TB
Fast Memory 40 TB 26 TB 0.68 TB
Networking Bandwidth 14.4 TB/s 8.8 TB/s 0.68 TB/s

Blackwell Ultra brings even more AI inference performance for real-time, multi-agent AI system pipelines and long-context reasoning. New Blackwell Ultra Tensor Cores deliver 1.5x more AI compute FLOPS compared to Blackwell GPUs or 70x more AI FLOPS for GB300 NVL72 compared to HGX H100. Blackwell Ultra supports multiple FP4 community formats, which optimizes memory usage for state-of-the-art AI.

With up to 288 GB of HBM3e memory per GPU and up to 40 TB of high-speed GPU and CPU coherent memory per GB300 NVL72 rack, Blackwell Ultra opens the door to breakthroughs in AI, research, real-time analytics, and more. It provides the large-scale memory needed to serve many large models simultaneously and to deal with a high volume of complex tasks from many concurrent users at one time, improving performance and reducing latency.

Blackwell Ultra Tensor Cores are also supercharged with 2x the attention-layer acceleration compared to Blackwell for processing massive end-to-end context lengths critical for real-time agentic and reasoning AI applications processing millions of input tokens.

Optimized large-scale, multi-node inference

Efficient orchestration and coordination of AI inference requests across large-scale GPU deployments is essential for minimizing operational costs and maximizing token-based revenue generation in AI factories.

To support these benefits, Blackwell Ultra features a PCIe Gen6 connectivity with NVIDIA ConnectX-8 800G SuperNIC improving available network bandwidth to 800 Gb/s.

More network bandwidth means more performance at scale. Take advantage of this with NVIDIA Dynamo, an open-source library to scale up reasoning AI services. Dynamo is a modular inference framework for serving AI models in multi-node environments. It scales inference workloads across GPU nodes and dynamically allocates GPU workers to ease traffic bottlenecks.

Dynamo also features disaggregated serving, which separates the context (prefill) and generation (decode) phases for large language model (LLM) inference across GPUs to optimize performance, scale more easily, and reduce costs.

With 800 Gb/s of total data throughput available for each GPU in the system, GB300 NVL72 seamlessly integrates with the NVIDIA Quantum-X800 and NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking platforms, enabling AI factories and cloud data centers to readily handle the demands of the three scaling laws.

50x more AI factory output

Figure 1. A 50x increase in AI factory output with GB300 NVL72 relative to Hopper

Figure 1 shows two key parameters that determine multiple operating points for maximizing AI factory output. The vertical axis represents throughput tokens per second in a 1-Megawatt (MW) data center, while the horizontal axis quantifies user interactivity responsiveness through tokens per second (TPS) for a single user.

AI factories with NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 will deliver a 10x boost in TPS per user and achieve a 5x improvement in TPS per MW compared to Hopper. This combined effect yields a 50x overall potential increase in AI factory output performance.

Summary

Faster AI reasoning with Blackwell Ultra enables real-time insights, more intelligent and responsive chatbots, enhanced predictive analytics, and improved more productive AI agents across industries such as finance, healthcare, and e-commerce. This cutting-edge platform enables organizations to handle larger models and AI reasoning workloads without sacrificing speed, making advanced AI capabilities more accessible and practical for real-world applications.

NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra products are expected to be available from partners in the second half of 2025 and will be supported by all major cloud service providers and server makers. For more information, see the following resources:

AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, says US Court of Appeals

The Bizarre Legal Saga of AI Copyright: A Recent Ruling

A Unanimous Decision

In a recent ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has held that works created autonomously by AI are not eligible for copyright protection under current law. The three-judge panel affirmed a lower court’s 2023 decision that only works with human authors can be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

The Case: Stephen Thaler’s "A Recent Entrance to Paradise"

The case revolves around computer scientist Stephen Thaler’s failed attempt to copyright "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," an eerie, dreamlike image conjured up in 2012 by Thaler’s AI ‘Creativity Machine.’ Thaler tried to register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office, but it was rejected, citing that it "lacks the human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim."

The Legal Battle

Thaler sued, insisting that the Copyright Office’s "human authorship" requirement had no basis in law. He argued that granting copyrights to AI creations would further the constitutional goal of promoting "the progress of science and useful arts." A federal judge sided with the Copyright Office in 2023, calling human authorship "a bedrock requirement of copyright."

The Appeals Court’s Verdict

The appeals court agreed with the lower court, finding that "authors are at the center of the Copyright Act" and that the law’s plain meaning limits authorship to humans. Thaler plans to appeal the ruling, stating that he strongly disagrees with the decision.

Implications for the Future of AI-Generated Content

As AI-generated content proliferates, courts are grappling with mind-bending questions of ownership and rights. While this case provides some clarity on wholly autonomous AI art, many issues around human/AI collaborative works remain primarily unsettled.

Conclusion

The ruling highlights the need for lawmakers and courts to address the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-generated content. As AI becomes more prevalent in creative industries, it is crucial to clarify the rights and responsibilities surrounding its use.

FAQs

Q: What is the current ruling on AI-generated content and copyright?
A: According to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, works created autonomously by AI are not eligible for copyright protection under current law.

Q: Can AI-generated content be copyrighted?
A: No, according to the current ruling.

Q: What are the implications for the future of AI-generated content?
A: The ruling highlights the need for lawmakers and courts to address the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-generated content, with many issues around human/AI collaborative works remaining primarily unsettled.

X users treating Grok like a fact-checker spark concerns over misinformation.

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Could Grok, Musk’s AI Bot, Be Misused to Spread Misinformation?

Some users on Elon Musk’s X are turning to Musk’s AI bot Grok for fact-checking, raising concerns among human fact-checkers that this could fuel misinformation.

Raising Concerns

Fact-checkers are concerned about using Grok, or any other AI assistant of this sort, in this manner because the bots can frame their answers to sound convincing, even if they are not factually correct. Instances of spreading fake news and misinformation were seen with Grok in the past.

Grok’s Capabilities

Grok was created to provide information on a wide range of topics, including politics, science, and technology. However, its ability to generate text based on its training data can lead to inaccuracies. In August last year, five state secretaries urged Musk to implement critical changes to Grok after the misleading information generated by the assistant surfaced on social networks ahead of the U.S. election.

Danger of Misinformation

AI assistants, like Grok, are "really good at using natural language and giving an answer that sounds like a human being said it," said Angie Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter. "And in that way, the AI products have this claim on naturalness and authentic-sounding responses, even when they’re potentially very wrong. That would be the danger here."

Transparency and Accountability

Unlike AI assistants, human fact-checkers use multiple, credible sources to verify information. They also take full accountability for their findings, with their names and organizations attached to ensure credibility.

Potential Misuse

Pratik Sinha, co-founder of India’s non-profit fact-checking website Alt News, noted that although Grok currently appears to have convincing answers, it is only as good as the data it is supplied with. "Who’s going to decide what data it gets supplied with, and that is where government interference, etc., will come into picture," he said.

Grok’s Response

Grok’s account on X acknowledged that it "could be misused — to spread misinformation and violate privacy." However, the automated account does not show any disclaimers to users when they get its answers, leading them to be misinformed if it has, for instance, hallucinated the answer.

Potential Consequences

There’s also a question about how much Grok uses posts on X as training data, and what quality control measures it uses to fact-check such posts. Last summer, it pushed out a change that appeared to allow Grok to consume X user data by default.

Conclusion

Grok’s ability to generate text based on its training data can lead to inaccuracies, and its potential misuse to spread misinformation is a concern. Human fact-checkers are essential for verifying information, and AI assistants like Grok should be used with caution.

FAQs

Q: Can Grok be used to spread misinformation?
A: Yes, Grok can be used to spread misinformation if it is not fact-checked properly.

Q: How does Grok generate its answers?
A: Grok generates its answers based on its training data, which can lead to inaccuracies.

Q: Can human fact-checkers replace AI assistants like Grok?
A: No, human fact-checkers and AI assistants like Grok have different roles. Human fact-checkers use multiple, credible sources to verify information, while AI assistants like Grok generate text based on their training data.

Q: What is the potential consequence of Grok’s misuse?
A: The potential consequence of Grok’s misuse is the spread of misinformation, which can have serious social and economic impacts.

Single-Use Technologies for Veterans’ Health

Enterprise Taxonomy: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Telehealth

Introduction

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, the importance of effective telehealth strategies has become increasingly evident. With the widespread adoption of digital health technologies, patients are increasingly seeking convenient and accessible ways to access healthcare services. To meet this demand, healthcare organizations must develop a comprehensive enterprise taxonomy that integrates telehealth, patient access, strategic planning, digital health, medical devices, and organizational governance. In this article, we will explore the key elements of a successful enterprise taxonomy and provide guidance on how to navigate the complex landscape of telehealth.

Telehealth: The Future of Healthcare

Telehealth has revolutionized the way patients access healthcare services, offering a convenient and cost-effective alternative to traditional in-person visits. With telehealth, patients can receive medical care remotely, reducing wait times and improving health outcomes.

Patient Access: The Key to Success

Patient access is a critical component of a successful telehealth strategy. Healthcare organizations must ensure that patients have easy access to telehealth services, including scheduling, registration, and appointment management. This can be achieved through patient engagement platforms, mobile apps, and online portals.

Strategic Planning: A Framework for Success

Effective strategic planning is essential for a successful telehealth program. This involves identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), setting goals and objectives, and developing a comprehensive business case for telehealth adoption. A well-planned approach will help organizations to prioritize initiatives, allocate resources, and measure success.

Digital Health: The Role of Technology

Digital health technologies play a critical role in enabling telehealth services. Healthcare organizations must invest in the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain, to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and enhance the overall patient experience.

Medical Devices: The Intersection of Technology and Healthcare

Medical devices are a critical component of telehealth, enabling remote monitoring and data collection. Healthcare organizations must ensure that medical devices are integrated seamlessly into telehealth platforms, providing accurate and reliable data to inform treatment decisions.

Organizational Governance: The Key to Success

Organizational governance is critical to the success of a telehealth program. This involves establishing clear policies, procedures, and guidelines for telehealth services, as well as ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. A well-governed approach will help to mitigate risks, ensure patient safety, and maintain the integrity of telehealth services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an effective enterprise taxonomy is critical for navigating the complex landscape of telehealth. By integrating telehealth, patient access, strategic planning, digital health, medical devices, and organizational governance, healthcare organizations can provide high-quality, patient-centered care that improves outcomes and reduces costs.

FAQs

Q: What is the key to a successful telehealth program?
A: A successful telehealth program requires a comprehensive approach that integrates telehealth, patient access, strategic planning, digital health, medical devices, and organizational governance.

Q: How can healthcare organizations ensure patient access to telehealth services?
A: Healthcare organizations can ensure patient access to telehealth services by providing easy access to scheduling, registration, and appointment management through patient engagement platforms, mobile apps, and online portals.

Q: What role do digital health technologies play in telehealth?
A: Digital health technologies, such as AI, ML, and blockchain, play a critical role in enabling telehealth services by improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and enhancing the overall patient experience.

Q: How can healthcare organizations ensure the safety and integrity of telehealth services?
A: Healthcare organizations can ensure the safety and integrity of telehealth services by establishing clear policies, procedures, and guidelines, as well as ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Netflix Games is getting its first MMO

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Netflix Announces MMO Game "Spirit Crossing"

First-Ever MMO Game on Netflix

Netflix just announced Spirit Crossing, a new massively multiplayer online game, during a press event at GDC 2025. This marks a first for the streaming platform, as Spirit Crossing is their first-ever MMO offering. Developed by Spry Fox, one of Netflix’s in-house game studios, the game is expected to launch later this year.

What is Spirit Crossing?

Spirit Crossing is described as a "cozy MMO." Its launch trailer showcases typical "cozy" game elements, such as cute creatures, pastel colors, and calming music. The game will feature customizable housing and neighborhoods, open-world exploration, and a variety of crafting options. Spry Fox is known for their cozy-style games, including Cozy Grove and its Netflix-exclusive sequel Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit. Netflix acquired the studio in 2022 as part of their gaming initiative.

What Sets Spirit Crossing Apart

While Netflix has successfully brought in third-party titles to their service, the platform is not immune to the challenges affecting the games industry at large. Last year, the company shut down one of their studios, which was working on what would have been their first in-house developed AAA title.

Get Involved with the Closed Alpha Playtest

Players interested in Spirit Crossing can sign up for the closed alpha playtest by following the provided link.

Conclusion

Netflix’s entry into the MMO market is an exciting development for the gaming community. With their experience in creating cozy-style games and their commitment to innovation, Spirit Crossing has the potential to be a hit. As the game’s launch approaches, fans can look forward to exploring the world of Spirit Crossing and experiencing the unique features it has to offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Spirit Crossing?
A: Spirit Crossing is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Spry Fox, one of Netflix’s in-house game studios.

Q: What is the release date of Spirit Crossing?
A: The game is expected to launch later this year.

Q: What is the gameplay like in Spirit Crossing?
A: The game features customizable housing and neighborhoods, open-world exploration, and various crafting options.

Q: Is Spirit Crossing the first MMO game on Netflix?
A: Yes, Spirit Crossing is Netflix’s first-ever MMO offering.

NVIDIA Honors Americas Partners Advancing Agentic and Physical AI

NVIDIA Recognizes 14 Partners for Advancing Agentic and Physical AI Across Industries

NVIDIA this week recognized 14 partners leading the way across the Americas for their work advancing agentic and physical AI across industries.

2025 Americas NVIDIA Partner Network Awards

The 2025 Americas NVIDIA Partner Network awards represent key efforts by industry leaders to help customers become experts in using AI to solve many of today’s greatest challenges. The awards honor the diverse contributions of NPN members fostering AI-driven innovation and growth.

New Award Categories

This year, NPN introduced three new award categories that reflect how AI is driving economic growth and opportunities, including:

  • Trailblazer, which honors a visionary partner spearheading AI adoption and setting new industry standards.
  • Rising Star, which celebrates an emerging talent helping industries harness AI to drive transformation.
  • Innovation, which recognizes a partner that’s demonstrated exceptional creativity and forward thinking.

2025 NPN Award Winners for the Americas

The 14 NPN award winners for the Americas are:

Global Consulting Partner of the Year

  • Accenture is recognized for its impact and depth of engineering with its AI Refinery platform for industries, simulation, and robotics, marketing, and sovereignty, which helps organizations enhance innovation and growth with custom-built approaches to AI-driven enterprise reinvention.

Trailblazer Partner of the Year

  • Advizex is recognized for its commitment to driving innovation in AI and high-performance computing, helping industries like healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and government seamlessly integrate advanced AI technologies into existing business frameworks. This enables organizations to achieve significant operations efficiencies, enhanced decision-making, and accelerated digital transformation.

Rising Star Partner of the Year

  • AHEAD is recognized for its leadership, technical expertise, and deployment of NVIDIA software, NVIDIA DGX systems, NVIDIA HGX, and networking technologies to advance AI, benefiting customers across healthcare, financial services, life sciences, and higher education.

Networking Partner of the Year

  • Computacenter is recognized for advancing high-performance computing and data centers with NVIDIA networking technologies. The company achieved this by using the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, DGX platforms, and NVIDIA networking to drive innovation and growth throughout industries with efficient, accelerated data centers.

Solution Integration Partner of the Year

  • EXXACT is recognized for its efforts in helping research institutions and businesses tap into generative AI, large language models, and high-performance computing. The company harnesses NVIDIA GPUs and networking technologies to deliver powerful computing platforms that accelerate innovation and tackle complex computational challenges across various industries.

Enterprise Partner of the Year

  • World Wide Technology (WWT) is recognized for its leadership in advancing AI adoption across customers worldwide. The company expanded its end-to-end AI capabilities by integrating NVIDIA Blueprints into its AI Proving Ground and has made a $500 million commitment to AI development over three years to help speed enterprise generative AI deployments.

Software Partner of the Year

  • Mark III is recognized for the work of its cross-functional team spanning data scientists, developers, 3D artists, systems engineers, and HPC and AI architects, as well as its close collaborations with enterprises and institutions, to deploy NVIDIA software, including NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Omniverse, across industries. These efforts have helped many customers build software-powered pipelines and data flywheels with machine learning, generative AI, high-performance computing, and digital twins.

Higher Education Research Partner of the Year

  • Mark III is recognized for its close engagement with universities, academic institutions, and research organizations to cultivate the next generation of leaders across AI, machine learning, generative AI, high-performance computing, and digital twins.

Healthcare Partner of the Year

  • Lambda is recognized for empowering healthcare and biotech organizations with AI training, fine-tuning, and inferencing solutions to speed innovation and drive breakthroughs in AI-driven drug discovery. The company provides AI training, fine-tuning, and inferencing solutions at every scale – from individual workstations to comprehensive AI factories – that help healthcare providers seamlessly integrate NVIDIA accelerated computing and software into their infrastructure.

Financial Services Partner of the Year

  • WWT is recognized for driving the digital transformation of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions. The company harnesses NVIDIA AI technologies to optimize data management, enhance cybersecurity, and deliver transformative generative AI solutions, helping financial services clients navigate rapid technological changes and evolving customer expectations.

Innovation Partner of the Year

  • Cambridge Computer is recognized for supporting customers deploying transformative technologies, including NVIDIA Grace Hopper, NVIDIA Blackwell, and the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for physical AI.

Service Delivery Partner of the Year

  • SoftServe is recognized for its impact in driving enterprise adoption of NVIDIA AI and Omniverse with custom NVIDIA Blueprints that tap into NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA NeMo and Riva software. SoftServe helps customers create generative AI services for industries spanning manufacturing, retail, financial services, auto, healthcare, and life sciences.

Distribution Partner of the Year

  • TD SYNNEX has been recognized for the second consecutive year for supporting customers in accelerating AI growth through rapid delivery of NVIDIA accelerated computing and software, as part of its Destination AI initiative.

Rising Star Consulting Partner of the Year

  • Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is recognized for its growth and commitment to providing industry-specific solutions that help customers adopt AI faster and at scale. Through its recently launched business unit and center of excellence built on NVIDIA AI Enterprise and Omniverse, TCS is poised to accelerate adoption of agentic AI and physical AI solutions to speed innovation for customers worldwide.

Canadian Partner of the Year

  • Hypertec is recognized for its advancement of high-performance computing and generative AI across Canada. The company has employed the full-stack NVIDIA platform to accelerate AI for financial services, higher education, and research.

Public Sector Partner of the Year

  • Government Acquisitions (GAI) is recognized for its rapid AI deployment and robust customer relationships, helping serve the unique needs of the federal government by adding AI to operations to improve public safety and efficiency.

Learn more about the NPN program.

FAQs

  • What is the NPN program?
    The NPN program recognizes and rewards partners that are driving innovation and growth in the field of AI.
  • What are the new award categories introduced by NPN this year?
    The new award categories are Trailblazer, Rising Star, and Innovation, which reflect the growing importance of AI in driving economic growth and opportunities.
  • What is the purpose of the NPN awards?
    The NPN awards honor the diverse contributions of NPN members fostering AI-driven innovation and growth across industries.
  • Who are the 14 NPN award winners for the Americas?
    The 14 NPN award winners for the Americas are Accenture, Advizex, AHEAD, Computacenter, EXXACT, World Wide Technology (WWT), Mark III, Lambda, WWT, Cambridge Computer, SoftServe, TD SYNNEX, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Hypertec.