Things To Do In SW Florida

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and MATT O’BRIEN (AP Business Writers)

NEW YORK (AP) — The maker of ChatGPT is now diving into AI-generated video.

Meet Sora — OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator. The tool, which the San Francisco company unveiled Thursday, uses generative artificial intelligence to instantly create short videos based on written commands.

Sora isn’t the first to demonstrate this kind of technology. But industry analysts point to the high quality of the tool’s videos displayed so far, and note that its introduction marks a significant leap for both OpenAI and the future of text-to-video generation overall.

Still, as with all things in the rapidly growing AI space today, such technology also raises fears about potential ethical and societal implications. Here’s what you need to know.

Sora is a text-to-video generator — creating videos up to 60 seconds long based on written prompts using generative AI. The model can also generate video from an existing still image.

Generative AI is a branch of AI that can create something new. Examples include chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and image-generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney. Getting an AI system to generate videos is newer and more challenging but relies on some of the same technology. read more

Rachel Christian | Bankrate.com (TNS)

Money can be an emotional subject for couples. Without a shared understanding and commitment to financial goals, partners may find themselves arguing more and even resenting each other.

“Money arguments are normal. Even the closest couples argue about money,” says Stephanie Genkin, a certified financial planner and founder of the Brooklyn-based My Financial Planner, LLC. “The goal is to listen to your partner and avoid going to bed angry.”

In this article, we’ll break down some of the best advice from experts on how couples can navigate common financial considerations, such as opening a joint savings account and combining debt.

Here’s what financial experts have to say about the best way to manage your money as a couple.

Key takeaways

—More than 4 in 10 (42%) U.S adults who are married or living with a partner say they’ve kept financial secrets from their significant other, according to Bankrate’s financial infidelity survey.

— About a quarter of Americans who confessed to keeping a financial secret from their partner admitted to racking up debt without a partner’s knowledge (23%), while 18% said they maintained a hidden credit card. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN and ALI SWENSON (Associated Press)

Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.

Tech executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new voluntary framework for how they will respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk’s X — are also signing on to the accord.

“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.

The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video “that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.” read more

Legoland Florida is now in possession of the bright red Ferrari that’s made almost entirely of Lego bricks. It will front the Winter Haven theme park’s new Ferrari Build & Race attraction, which opens to the public March 8.

Ryan Wood, a master model builder for Legoland Florida, talked us through some things to know about the full-sized if blocky edition of a Ferrari 296 GTS.

It’s really, really red

“It’s very Ferrari red,” Wood said. “The designers who worked on it, nailed it down to the finest detail. Every little thing that you could be looking for is there.”

Inside job

Unlike the most Lego models, park guests will be able to sit inside the Lego Ferrari for photo ops.

“I think what feels unusual about this is that most of us won’t get to get inside of Ferrari in most of our lives,” Wood said. “And this time, everyone in the family can ride in this one, take a spin in the driver’s seat.”

To be clear, that’s a pretend spin in a pretend car.

“Once it gets into that garage, it’s parked there. It’s not going anywhere because we don’t want to get away from us or our guests,” Wood said. read more

Orange County on Thursday fired lobbying firm GrayRobinson less than a week after the Orlando Sentinel revealed the lobbyist assigned to represent the county’s interests was behind legislation directly conflicting with its top legislative priority.

In an interview Sunday with the newspaper, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings had indicated that firing the firm was a possibility, labeling as “disturbing” the involvement of lobbyist Chris Carmody in a bill to limit the county’s authority over the Visit Orlando tourism marketing agency.

But Demings moved more quickly than many expected.

“Clearly, Mr. Carmody created a conflict of interest when he advised a State Senator about a matter contrary to the best interest of Orange County Government,” Demings said in a letter Thursday to Dean Cannon, CEO and president of GrayRobinson. “As a result, the County has lost confidence in his ability to objectively represent the County.”

The firing came despite an apology emailed Wednesday night to the mayor from Cannon, a former Republican  lawmaker who held the powerful position of Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 to 2012. read more