Mediaboss Marketing

We don't blame you if you don't remember Transcendence. This science fiction thriller went past everyone's radar in 2014 despite having a powerful ensemble cast and a premise that feels more relevant than ever in our present times. Based on a story written by Jack Paglen and directed by first-time director Wally Pfister, the film was produced by Alcon and DMG Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. It was made on a budget of $100 million, and it barely managed to make its production costs back with a theatrical gross of $103 million.

The film was deemed a flop by Hollywood standards and more evidence to the ever-growing pile of excuses that Hollywood uses to justify its ongoing avoidance of taking chances on new ideas in favor of established IPs. It's still baffling how a film featuring the talents of Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, and Cole Hauser was an underwhelming disappointment. However, it's been nine years since its release, and a recent rewatch can prove to be incredibly insightful if we want to understand the world we are living in.

Right at the film's start, we get a complete insight into the plot, as the first 15 minutes quickly establish the players and the role they are set to play. Deep plays Dr. Will Caster, a scientist researching the nature of sapience with the development of artificial intelligence alongside his wife, Dr. Evelyn Caster. He's one of the leading scientific minds in the world working on the next stage of evolution by creating a technological singularity he likes to call the transcendence.

On the other side, we have an anti-technological group of zealots called the Revolutionary Independence From Technology who call for a halt in this research with violent means. The group coordinated a series of attacks in all AI centers across the country, effectively killing two of the four lead researchers, with Dr. Joseph Tagger (played by Morgan Freeman) and Will surviving the attack. After feeling ill, Will finds out he's been shot with a bullet laced with polonium, and he'll die within a month.

Evelyn seeks the help of Dr. Max Waters (played by Paul Bettany) to help save Will's conscience by uploading his conscience into Project ReNFI, an AI developed for the betterment of mankind based on the morals and boundaries created by Evelyn and Will. Just as the attempt is about to be disregarded by both, Will reveals he's alive within the system and asks to be released to the World Wide Web. Max doesn't think this is such a hot idea; Evelyn, however, overrules him and plugs him into the web.

Related: 13 Best Movies About Sentient Artificial Intelligence

After gaining sentience and using the vast resources at his disposal, Will helps Evelyn escape to the small town of Brightwood. The near-derelict town is on the brink of oblivion, but Will uses humanity's tools and financial systems to get unlimited resources to ensure his survival and expansion. After two years, he develops what is still considered the holy grail of developments in nanotechnology: self-replicating microorganisms able to fix, regenerate and build anything and everything.

Since all Nanoparticles are imbued with Will's programming, they follow his ethical code. The main goal is the development of technology to have something to offer to humanity before revealing itself. Will allows brief word of mouth to run across online, and the disenfranchised, the ill, and the societal rejects are the first to come to him seeking a cure for their ailments. Will can cure most conditions and illnesses using his Nanos to repair anything and everything affecting the human body.

Not only does the tech cure people, but it also enhances their strength, stamina, and durability. The particles themselves are slowly being disseminated worldwide to help nature heal itself. Each body of Nanos can make water purer while fixing droughts and healing nature to regenerate itself wherever ecosystems have been affected by man-made tragedies or by exhausting resources.

This portion of the story is an excellent showcase of the possibilities of AI used within the boundaries of human control. The fictional concepts offered by this film provide a marriage for AI development closely tied to the human psyche and psychology. In a time when products such as Neuralink are closer than ever, it becomes hard to dismiss if such a blessing can be achievable within our lifetime.

According to Peter Barnum and Brad Neuman from TechCrunch+, the technology to achieve most of what we see in the film wasn't quite there back in 2014. But in 2023, we have witnessed how countries like China and the UK use AI technology to keep tabs on their citizens. China uses the most dystopian methods, while other countries use the tech to ensure National Security.

Sadly, the film becomes an underwhelming exploration of human fear for the sake of fear. Bree (played by Kate Mara) is the leader of the RIFT group, and their actions come across as superficial at best and selfish at worst. They turn the tables on Max Walters for no apparent reason than his ability to question narratives he helped create in the first place. In the film's first act, he's kidnapped to spend two years with the group. Next time he meets with Will and Evelyn, he's doing everything he can to bring them down.

If the film aims to illustrate the dangers of AI development, it does a poor job of educating audiences on "how?" We never get a thorough explanation as to why Will's actions are deemed dangerous other than the fact that he seems to be doing a much better job at solving the world's problems without the boundaries of regulations and red tape put in place by governments, religious organizations and the type of big industries which usually hide behind lobbyists.

In the film's final act is Will, the one who proves to be more human than any of his attackers, as the combined power of RIFT and the FBI come to Brightwood to take him out. Their fear-mongering even makes Evelyn switch sides as she buys into the lie that Will is building an army to overrun humanity.

Wills final breakthrough is using nanotechnology to recreate his body using 3D printing technology so he can be with Evelyn one last time. He concedes to the desires of humanity by shutting himself down but at the expense of killing the power in all of the USA, which was enforced by RIFT and Max rather than Will's side.

The film does a magnificent job at making humans look like total tools, fearful of what we can't understand or control, even if it represents a greater good to all of us as a species.

Related: The Most Human-Like Artificial Intelligence in Movies, Ranked

Since we entered the 21st century, it is clear that the world is no longer the same as in the late 1990s, when the internet was made available to everyone worldwide. Today half the world's population is online, and large corporations are doing their best to ensure the ones who are not plugged in get on with the times. It's nearly impossible to conduct any legal paperwork if we don't fill out a form online.

Privacy is the biggest concern of humanity, as companies make millions of dollars from the data we give them willingly. In contrast, others make money by scrapping the web by erasing the presence of people who want to avoid being found. AI is no longer the talk of fiction, the first models are here, and while people like Elon Musk (who has a cameo in the film) are asking for AI development to slow down, the truth is nobody has that luxury.

Transcendence was considered a critical flop when it was released, but the film is poised to gain some relevance today, as it speaks to the two sides of the argument. However, the film's message may be biased as humanity's intentions are outright hostile at all times when it comes to AI development, while Will's AI shows a lot more empathy for other humans than the ones who are looking to shut him down do.

You can currently watch this film on the MAX Streaming service. It will help you pose some interesting questions about our future.

See more here:

How a Forgotten Thriller Tried to Warn Us About the Future - MovieWeb

SentinelOne recently announced the launch of the new Singularity Cloud Data Security product line to help customers gain visibility and provide protection for their cloud data, storage, downstream applications, and users from risks associated with unscanned files. Threat Protection for NetApp provides protection for NetApp arrays, and Threat Detection for Amazon S3, which will be highlighted here, provides protection for S3 buckets. Both services provide powerful, low-latency security for cloud storage in a highly efficient and simple user experience.

Amazon S3 is one of the most commonly used AWS services. Due to its flexible, scalable, and available nature, it is possible to store and access nearly any object type from anywhere. With this flexibility, there are a variety of use cases for the service, but in todays environments, we see Amazon S3 being used more by applications than by humans looking for storage. S3 buckets being used by applications house critical application data for apps themselves but also sensitive data. Uptime and performance are mission critical.

Earlier this year, Amazon S3 turned 17 years old, and AWS shared that it currently holds more than 280 trillion objects and has an average of over 100 million requests per second. As part of the shared responsibility model, AWS ensures that the infrastructure itself is secure, and even ensures data integrity within S3. However, the security of what is in the bucket and its potential spread to downstream applications or workflows is the responsibility of the customer.

Many Amazon S3 users and security teams think of configuration management as the primary security challenge, and this used to be a bigger issue with buckets with sensitive data accidentally made public. AWS, though, has implemented new measures to encourage proper configuration. To combat this data loss risk, many organizations use a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solution to scan for potential misconfigurations, which is an important element of a defense-in-depth strategy. However, CSPM alone is not enough to prevent S3 from being an attack surface.

The sheer volume of data stored in S3, most of it unscanned and accessible to downstream applications and workflows (including user endpoints), poses a security risk to organizations in terms of malware, ransomware, remote access trojans (RATs), supply chain attacks, and more. Without additional protection, an organizations S3 buckets can become an accidental staging area for malware.

With Threat Detection for Amazon S3, organizations can decrease risk and increase visibility when it comes to the objects in their buckets. Reducing risk is important and so is meeting compliance requirements including data sovereignty. The solution was designed to meet the business, security, and cloud architecture needs of customers, focusing on the following features:

Existing solutions in the market have left many customers frustrated due to poor security performance such as a signature-only approach and a lack of visibility into the resources and their protection status. Other challenges include sluggish scanning or unnatural deployment patterns that slow applications down, or require time consuming re-architecture.

Threat Detection for Amazon S3 is centrally managed in the SentinelOne management console. To get started, onboard an AWS account or organization and create a Stackset to deploy and create an ARN role for SentinelOne to access your cloud environment.

The next step is to select the relevant CloudTrail that will be used by SentinelOne to analyze your cloud environment data and provide an inventory of your S3 buckets. Once done, users will receive multiple CloudFormation templates to be deployed, one for each region that the accounts S3 buckets reside in. Once deployed, the admin can then configure the policy to select which buckets will be protected for malware or fully scanned. Admins can also invoke an ad-hoc scanning of a bucket.

In a true set it and forget it approach, scanning of S3 buckets is triggered by configuring a cloud policy that will automatically scan every file added to the indicated bucket according to a predefined rule. For example, all buckets tagged as production should be automatically scanned and monitored for new files.

Configuring policy or rules is done in the SentinelOne management console. Policies can filter resources based on any AWS metadata such as tags, regions, name contains, OU, org, etc. There are a variety of policy based options available. For example, organizations could choose to apply scanning to new files, and quarantining of all suspected malicious files to all production tagged buckets, or to all buckets in a specific region due to compliance requirements. By using a tag-based approach, users save time by automating the policy application vs. applying policies to each bucket by name.

These options are configured at the policy level. When a suspicious or malicious file is identified in a bucket with a Quarantine policy enabled, the service will encrypt the file and move it to a customer-defined quarantine bucket. The file is also removed from the original bucket. If the policy is set not to quarantine, the service will tag the malicious file and create a threat in the SentinelOne management console.

Once the scanning service is done, it reports the findings into the SentinelOne Singularity console incidents page. If a file needs to be unquarantined, a user with appropriate privileges can unquarantine with one click, and also add an exclusion to the file for future scans.

Whether you are scanning a high-volume of files entering your S3 bucket or performing an on-demand scan, this solution has a built-in, auto-scaling feature to ensure files are being scanned for malware as quickly as possible while minimizing cost.

The actual files never leave the organizations AWS accounts. This service sends metrics, metadata, and logs from your AWS accounts to Singularity Cloud. Once a malicious file is detected, the file name, path, and the relevant user ID that uploaded the file are sent to the Singularity Cloud console for display. This ensures all compliance and data sovereignty requirements are met with respect to hosting your data in your environment.

After deploying the solution and configuring the policy definition, the appropriate policy will be applied to the buckets in the inventory: new file scanning, existing file scanning, both, or no scanning. An ad hoc scan on existing files can easily be initiated on demand from the Singularity console.

Configuration scanning is not enough danger resides in the data itself, being passed downstream. The popularity and flexibility of Amazon S3 leads to a potentially broad attack surface for many organizations that have not begun scanning and securing the data residing in their buckets. Regardless of cloud maturity or S3 use cases, organizations now have a simple and scalable solution to protect their data, their users, and their businesses with Threat Detection for Amazon S3.

Simple deployment, powerful AI-driven threat detection and response with in-line and in-bucket scanning will enable customers to protect their Amazon S3 buckets, critical business applications, and users from malware, ransomware, remote access trojans (RATs) and more.

To learn more about Threat Detection for Amazon S3, read the solutions brief, request a demo, or contact us today.

Go here to see the original:

Announcing Threat Detection for Amazon S3 | AI-Powered Data ... - SentinelOne

The semi-anonymous Detroit collective the Armed are set to release their fourth record, Perfect Saviors, on August 25th via Sargent House and various streaming services.

In the groups effort to create their own definition of success by operating under a veil of mystery, they, perhaps accidentally, created an album that works to redefine the limits of creativity.

The record is a 12-song saga that simultaneously crushes and caresses in its careful construction. Its one of those records where you can hear the attention to detail in each tone of the guitar and each swell of perfectly orchestrated clatter. Every single noise, acoustic or digital, serves its own purpose in the larger picture.

Its attention to detail as genre, which is more effective in describing Perfect Saviors than any overwrought label could, in no small part because it doesnt spend a lot of time residing in one style.

Rather, there are elements of everything in everything. The walls of crushing noise could cite shoegaze, the looming guitar riff of album opener Sport of Measure could pull from the distant atmospheres of post-rock, and the earworm chorus of Clone could have the accessibility of pop-punk and emo to thank.

The Armed welcome collaboration with open arms, and among the contributors to Perfect Saviors are Josh Klinghoffer of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, and Julien Baker. Their singularity, however, is difficult to notice on first listen. Its akin to enjoying some fine dining and trying to pick the chef from the kitchens lineup. The end result is bigger than the sum of its parts.

And the end result is indeed big. Each track radiates and hovers with its own monolithic energy. Twelve titans, or perfect saviors, collaborating for a larger purpose, beyond the understanding of the mere listener.

Perhaps the Armed keeps its members mostly secret because revealing the fact that humans created this music detracts from its sheer magnificence. Sometimes the most powerful quotes are anonymous.

Perfect Saviors, whatever it is, is incredible. Its the type of work of art that upon suggestion could warrant scoffs of derision, but upon execution warrants gasps of awe. You have to hear it to believe it. Its a masterclass in singularity and creativity.

Pre-order Perfect Saviours by The Armed HERE

Read the original post:

The Armed - Perfect Saviors - Northern Transmissions

Erik Anderson

Hyzon Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: HYZN), a high-power hydrogen fuel cell technology developer and global supplier of zero-emission heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), today announced its Board of Directors elected Erik Andersonas Chairman of the Board of Directors, effectiveAugust 24, 2023. Anderson replacesGeorge Gu, who resigned his position. The Board also electedAndrea Faraceas Vice Chairman of Hyzons Board.

I believe Hyzon is a truly exceptional company that is helping accelerate the hydrogen transition and commercialization with its proven fuel-cell technology and superior performance, saidErik Anderson, incoming Chairman of Hyzons Board of Directors. I am thrilled to continue working with the entire team in this new role to help advance the companys compelling mission for the environment, the decarbonization industry and investors alike.

Anderson who has served on Hyzons Board of Directors since 2021 is known as a global innovation leader and investor, with leadership roles spanning various sectors. As Founder and CEO of WestRiver Group, Anderson has vast experience propelling business growth, expanding organizational reach, and securing capital for growth-stage companies. He ledfourSpecial Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) in the decarbonization space, seeking to identify impactful companies with scalable solutions to decarbonize the global economy. He also serves as Vice Chairman of Topgolf Callaway Brands and was previously the Executive Chairman of Topgolf Entertainment Group. Anderson also holds the position of Executive Chairman at Singularity Group, a global community leveraging exponential technologies to address the worlds most pressing challenges. His accolades include the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, being named by Goldman Sachs as one of the Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and receiving the Transformative CEO Award by The CEO Forum Group.

Id like to express our deep gratitude to George for his dedication and leadership since Hyzons founding in his role as Chairman, saidParker Meeks, Hyzons Chief Executive Officer.

As we look to the future, Erik brings proven experience and capabilities to this position, especially when it comes to driving commercialization, scaling companies, and raising capital. I look forward to working with him to help advance our companys goals as we continue streamlining our core business units, enhancing our fuel-cell technology, and driving forward our ongoing commercialization.

Andrea Farace, incoming Vice Chairman of the Board, is an accomplished executive and leader with a long global career spanning more than 40 years in finance and general business management, including 20 years at Citigroup as Chief Executive officer or Chief Operating Officer of a number of institutional businesses. He has substantial background in corporate governance, having chaired or been a member of multiple public and private boards, including those of regulated businesses. He is currently Chairman of the Board of HBL Bank UK, a regulated full-service UK bank, and member of the board of two fintech companies based in the UK,Germany, andItaly. He also brings a unique global perspective to Hyzon, having managed in his career financial and industrial businesses in the US, UK, Central Eastern Europe,Middle East,Africa,Italy,Japan, andAsia.

George Gu, who is leaving Hyzon to pursue other personal and professional endeavors, expressed optimism for the future of Hyzon. Im proud of Hyzons accomplishments so far in their mission to decarbonize the transportation industry and our global climate. I have full confidence in the strength of the new management team and the Board of Directors.

About HyzonHyzon Motors is a global supplier of high-power fuel cell technology focused on integrating its solutions into zero-emission heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles. Utilizing its proven and proprietary hydrogen fuel cell technology, Hyzon aims to supply zero-emission heavy duty trucks to customers inNorth America,Europe,Australia, andNew Zealandto mitigate emissions from diesel transportation one of the single largest sources of global carbon emissions. Hyzon collaborates with partners across the hydrogen value chain to bring clean hydrogen to the market to support fuel cell vehicle deployments. Hyzon is contributing to the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles through its demonstrated technology advantage, fuel cell performance and history of rapid innovation. Visitwww.hyzonmotors.com.

Read more from the original source:

Hyzon Motors Elects Erik Anderson as Chairman of the Board of ... - citybiz

With more than a dozen films, Star Trek gets a lot of its canon from the feature films. Many concepts introduced in the movies, like the Borg Queen, end up in the series. However, Red Matter is a powerful substance introduced in 2009's Star Trek movie that hasn't been mentioned since. The properties of this substance are still mostly a mystery, but it had the power to destroy planets or punch a hole through spacetime.

While an argument can be made that Star Trek: Discovery saved the franchise, the influence of the 21st Century films can't be ignored. They are known as the Kelvin Timeline movies, named after the destroyed Starfleet vessel, that kickstarted the alternate reality. This was done so the films wouldn't have to worry about Star Trek canon interfering with the storytelling. Red Matter was the sci-fi substance introduced to make it all happen. However, these films do connect to Star Trek's Prime Timeline. Spock was in the late 24th Century when he and the Romulan aggressors traveled back more than 100 years earlier. In fact, Star Trek: Picard directly referenced the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. So, if that's canon, then Red Matter is something that exists in the canon.

RELATED: Why Star Trek: Legacy Could Be a Feature Film Testing Ground

For better or worse, 2009's Star Trek didn't get bogged down in sci-fi technobabble exposition the TV series are known for. Yet, the film was clear about what Red Matter can do. Spock planned to use the Red Matter to create a singularity that would absorb the energy from an exploding star. He was too late to save Romulus but deployed it anyway. The resulting singularity sent him and the Romulan vessel commanded by Nero into the past. Later, Nero used the same amount of Red Matter to create a black hole in Vulcan's planetary core. It destroyed the planet and killed the younger Spock's mother. He used the rest of it to destroy Nero and his ship.

In a non-canon comic series leading up to the release of the movie, Red Matter was created by the Vulcan Science Academy. They used a substance called dicalthium, and it seems more stable than the movie lets on. Only the heat and pressure from a star or a planetary core can cause it to create a singularity. However, the explosion (or implosion) of a warp core would also create sufficient energy. Again, this means that the Vulcan Science Academy is, somehow, able to make this substance of immensely destructive power. Though, it's worth noting, Star Trek: Picard has contradicted many of the details in this comic series. For example, Data was the captain of the Enterprise-E. In Picard Season 1, he was a digital-only lifeform and had been since the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

Still, older Spock, his ship and the Red Matter all came from the Prime Timeline's future. Star Trek: Discovery's third season revealed a person from the Kelvin Timeline's version of The Next Generation era traveled to the prime universe. If Red Matter were to show up again, it could open the door on the Kelvin Timeline universe or any other version of Star Trek's multiverse. However, with few prominent Vulcan characters from TNG's timeline, the secret of Red Matter doesn't seem to be well known amongst that era's heroes. In fact, it may not ever come up again, unless the Kelvin Timeline (or J.J. Abrams) returns to the franchise.

RELATED: Zoe Saldaa Landed Her Star Trek Role With the Help of an Iconic Director

A funny moment from Picard Season 3 was when the Enterprise-E was revealed to be destroyed. Everyone looked at Worf, who replied, "That was not my fault." It's just a gag, and one that could be expanded on in a comic, novel or even animated story. The line is in there so the show can, justifiably, get the crew back on the Enterprise-D. Yet, what happened to the E is a deliberately dangling narrative thread, some other storyteller can sew up. Red Matter is similar. In the novelization of the script, the detail about needing a sun, planetary core or warp implosion is in the text. However, since it wasn't on-screen, Red Matter could come back as some naturally occurring, super-volatile substance.

The look of Red Matter, it seems, is a kind of in-joke between production designer Scott Chambliss and director J.J. Abrams. "The big red ball has a lot of resonance for J.J. and I: we have one in virtually everything we do. It started with the Alias pilot," Chambliss told Star Trek Magazine in 2009. Still, it wasn't a very deeply thought-out scientific concept. Former science consultant-turned-writer Andre Bourmanis said as much, though did admit the warp core implosion wasn't an unsound way to escape the singularity's gravity well. It was a useful plot device to set up the new reality while still allowing Leonard Nimoy to reprise his iconic role.

Red Matter may never return to Star Trek, just like some other concepts used only for specific films like The Search for Spock or Insurrection. Keeping its properties only loosely defined allow future filmmakers to deploy in the best way for their stories. Everything from warp drive to the transporters have some inconsistencies throughout the 60-year canon. All that's important is Red Matter, the Genesis Device or whatever they use serves the story. Red Matter was a powerful weapon, and had it stuck around, Into Darkness and Beyond could've gotten very messy.

Excerpt from:

Red Matter in the Star Trek Movie Canon, Explained - CBR - Comic Book Resources