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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Sunday that the U.S. government believes missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared 12 years ago near the Syrian capital, is alive and that Washington is committed to bringing him home after . “We think we can get him back," Biden told reporters at the White House, while acknowledging that “we have no direct evidence” of his status. "Assad should be held accountable.” Biden said officials must still identify exactly where Tice is after his disappearance in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus. “We've remained committed to returning him to his family,” he said. Tice, who is from Houston and whose work had been published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets. A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. that it was holding him. The United States has no new evidence that Tice is alive, but continues to operate under the assumption he is alive, according to a U.S. official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. will continue to work to identify where he is and to try to bring him home. His mother, Debra, said at a news conference Friday in Washington that the family had information from a “significant source,” whom she did not identify, establishing that her son was alive. “He is being cared for and he is well — we do know that,” she said. The Tice family met this past week with officials at the State Department and the White House. “To everyone in Syria that hears this, please remind people that we’re waiting for Austin,” Debra Tice said in comments that hostage advocacy groups spread on social media Sunday. “We know that when he comes out, he’s going to be fairly dazed & he’s going to need lots of care & direction. Direct him to his family please!”A Pair of Beats Studio Buds in Either Black, Red or White Is Cheaper Than Ever, Thanks to Amazon’s Black Friday SaleA group of artists that were early testers for OpenAI's Sora leaked access to the AI video generator on Tuesday. But let's get the facts straight so the story isn't oversimplified. OpenAI has since shut down access to Sora for all early testers. But for about three hours, the public could test out Sora for themselves. According to a statement shared with the demo hosted on Hugging Face, the artists released access to Sora as a protest against "art washing," which they believe they were "lured into" by OpenAI. But there's a little more nuance to the story to than "disgruntled anti-AI artists leak the model." Let's dive into what it was and wasn't. It was leaked credentials; it wasn't leaked code. A leak of Sora may have sounded like a moment of truth that many had been waiting for. When OpenAI announced Sora last February, there was rampant speculation about what the AI video generator was trained on . Many artists believe Sora's training data was scraped from videos on YouTube and elsewhere on the web without explicit permission. OpenAI has refused to divulge any details, but based on copyright infringement lawsuits regarding its other models, the company maintains that publicly available data is fair use under copyright laws. But this is still very much up for debate as OpenAI and other companies face ongoing lawsuits about whether AI-generated content is sufficiently original and whether it commercially competes with human works. When TechCrunch first reported the leak, everyone was dying to look under the hood and see what Sora was made of. But the Sora leak doesn't offer any intel about the model or its training data. It was essentially a publicly available web-based demo, likely made possible by sharing API access. It appears to have just granted the public sneaky backdoor access to Sora's functionality on OpenAI's servers. But while anyone in the world was briefly able to generate Sora videos, this type of leak doesn't grant us any new information about the Sora model itself. It was a protest against OpenAI's early testing program; it wasn't a blanket anti-AI statement. The artists that made Sora publicly accessible did so because they felt like OpenAI was "exploiting artists for unpaid R&D and PR" by leveraging unpaid labor in form of bug testing and feedback. "Furthermore," the statement continued, "every output needs to be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing. This early access program appears to be less about creative expression and critique, and more about PR and advertisement." The group wasn't mincing words when it called OpenAI "corporate AI overlords" complete with middle finger emoticons. However, they "are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts," since they wouldn't have been invited to participate as early testers otherwise, the group noted. What they are against is "how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release." This is the kind of nuance that often gets lost in AI discourse. Many artists aren't opposed to using AI as a tool for creative expression. But opposing exploitation of creative works and job replacement by automation is often conflated with anti-innovation. We don't know exactly what it is about how Sora is "shaping up" ahead of its release that prompted the revolt, but it's safe to say OpenAI wants a positive review from its artist testers, hence the dissonance.
Chased and cornered: Teenage boy assaulted and stabbed in backyard by gang
Finding the right pair of earbuds can be transformational. Considering how often we all listen to music or podcasts, a better audio experience naturally enhances everything. Beats is one of the top brands out there for a reason but can be quite expensive. Thankfully, a $70 price drop for the Beats Studio buds makes the cost much more reasonable at $80. That 47% discount is limited-time, applied as part of Amazon's Black Friday sale. So if you're interested, get them now. They've literally never been cheaper. Available in three different colors, the wireless earbuds feature noise-canceling technology, up to eight hours of listening time (24 hours with a charging case) and are IPX4-rated. This means that they are water and swear-resistance, so perfect for hitting the gym or going for a run. Read more: 23 Great Tech Gifts Under $100 During their positive review , CNET tech expert David Carnoy found the Beats Studio buds to be "lightweight and discrete" and more notably, having "slightly better sound than AirPods Por and Powerbeats Pro". They did note, however, that there is no in-ear detection sensor and "some key features are missing for Apple users" due to no W1 or H1 chip. Still, for $80, they are decent value for money. Why this deal matters Variety is the spice of life, so having three different colors to choose from -- black , red or white -- is particularly great. More so because discounts like this typically only apply to one color, usually the least popular. So the fact that the Beats Studio buds are down to their lowest price we have on record, and you get to pick which color matches your style best is a huge bonus. That $70 saving won't last forever. Prefer headphones to earbuds? We've got plenty of options to choose from with the best Black Friday headphone deals rounded up in one place.AP Trending SummaryBrief at 2:54 p.m. ESTConstruction partners director Charles Owens sells $2.74 million in stock
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