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Nvidia GeForce GPUs Using AI to Boost SDR Content to HDR

Nvidia is introducing a new AI feature for its RTX GPUs called RTX Video HDR that upgrades standard video into high dynamic range color space for customers that have an HDR10-compatible monitor running on Windows with HDR enabled. Announced at CES, the technology is now available for download through Nvidia’s January Studio Driver update. “PC game modders now have a powerful new set of tools to use with the release of the Nvidia RTX Remix open beta,” which combines “full ray tracing, Nvidia DLSS and Nvidia Reflex” with “generative AI texture tools so modders can remaster games more efficiently,” according to the company. Read more

Google Takes New Approach to Create Video with Lumiere AI

Google has come up with a new approach to high resolution AI video generation with Lumiere. While most GenAI video models output individual high resolution frames at various points in the sequence (called “distant keyframes”), fill in the missing frames with low-res images to create motion (known as “temporal super-resolution,” or TSR), then up-res that connective tissue (“spatial super-resolution,” or SSR) of non-overlapping frames, Lumiere takes what Google calls a “Space-Time U-Net architecture,” which processes all frames at once, “without a cascade of TSR models, allowing us to learn globally coherent motion.” Read more

Netflix Adds WWE, Touts 12.5 Percent Revenue Growth in Q4

Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers in Q4 2023, its biggest gain in a year-end quarter, and the streamer continues to try to broaden its demographic reach by investing in new content, including a new deal for live WWE wrestling matches. The expansion into live-streaming provides an opportunity to draw regular, appointment viewers, something advertisers like. “No entertainment company has ever tried to program at this scale, and for so many tastes and cultures,” Netflix wrote in a shareholder letter that says it plans to spend up to $17 billion on content in 2024. Read more

Conversational Chatbot Optimizes Google Ads, Search Results

Google’s multimodal Gemini large language model will offer chat capabilities that help advertisers build and scale Search campaigns within the Google Ads platform using natural language prompts. “We’ve been actively testing Gemini to further enhance our ads solutions, and, we’re pleased to share that Gemini is now powering the conversational experience,” Google said, explaining the functionality is now available in beta to English language advertisers in the U.S., UK and will be rolling out globally to all English language advertisers over the next few weeks, with additional languages offered in the months ahead. Read more

Nintendo Set to Shutter 3DS and Wii U Online Services April 8

Nintendo is planning to cease online play for the 3DS portable game unit and the Wii U console as of April 8. The company had previously announced it would discontinue the services sometime in April. Now it says as of 4:00 p.m. PDT “online co-operative play, Internet rankings and data distribution” for the platforms will be ending. For the foreseeable future, players can continue to download updates and games they had previously purchased games for the foreseeable future. But Nintendo says it may shutter connected ops sooner “if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services.” Read more

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