Court documents show not only did Meta torrent terabytes of pirated books to train AI models, employees wouldn’t stop emailing each other about it: ‘Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right’

First reported by Ars Technica, the copyright case against Facebook parent company Meta over its use of authors’ work to train large language models has unearthed some embarrassing dirty laundry in discovery. Dozens of emails, allegedly between Meta employees, discuss torrenting massive amounts of pirated material⁠—and seeding those torrents to boot⁠—in order to train the…

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Square Enix thanks the thirstiest fans in the world for buying Tifa figures and a $2,600 statue of Nier: Automata’s 2B

Square Enix has just released its financial results for the first three quarters of the financial year (i.e. April 2024 through to the end of December), among which is an impressive uptick in merch sales (thanks, GR+). And the hand-rubbing executives have no problem giving credit where credit’s due: It’s “mainly driven by strong sales…

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Poll: Is It Finally Time For Castlevania To Rise Again?

Rumours point to a brand new whip-cracking game. Konami’s beloved Castlevania series is back in the headlines at the moment — season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne dropped on Netflix a few weeks ago (and, spoilers, it’s very good). But the rumour mill is running, and it’s pointing towards a brand new Castlevania game. Yesterday, Chinese-based…

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