New ChatGPT Model Mimics Human Emotionality in Voice

Here's your weekly News Memo🎉

• New ChatGPT Model Mimics Human Emotionality in Voice

• Putin and President Xi Meet: “We Are Stabilizing Factors in the International Arena”

• 🕺The IKEA Night Club In London

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Newsbites

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Assassination Attempt: Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, nearly died on Wednesday after being shot multiple times in an assassination attempt (video after the shooting). Mr. Fico, 59, was greeting people outside a community center after an event when a man pulled out a gun and fired five shots. The shooter, a 71-year-old man, was apprehended on site. Fico was airlifted to a hospital where he underwent surgery. The Prime Minister, who was re-elected in October 2023, has been a prominent political figure in the country for many years, although the country has been divided in its support for him amid various controversies. In recent years, he has adopted a strict stance on immigration and has vowed to withdraw support for Ukraine amid its war with Russia.

More: Government officials and allies of Fico have said the assassination attempt was politically motivated and blamed the polarization in Slovakia for fueling it.

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Presidential Debates: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to participate in two debates on June 27 and September 10. The events will be hosted by CNN (Jake Tapper & Dana Bash) and ABC. The debates will be in a private studio with no audience present. It’s not clear yet if any other candidates will be able to participate. The Biden and Trump campaigns coordinated the debates directly, going around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-profit that typically organizes the events.

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McDonald’s is expected to launch a new $5 value meal in an attempt to win back customers that have been pushed away by inflationary price increases. The promotion, expected to start June 25 and last a month, will include a McChicken or McDouble, a four-piece McNuggets, fries, and a drink.

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Meme Stocks: The stock price of AMC and GameStop soared early this week after “Roaring Kitty”, legally known as Keith Gill, posted on his X account for the first time in more than three years. Gill posted a drawing of a person leaning forward gaming (likely signaling the GameStop stock). Within hours, GameStop stock was up 74% and AMC went up more than 78%. With the sudden rise, AMC sold $250M worth of stock to gain much needed cash. Multiple halts (for five minutes) were placed on trading GameStop and AMC due to volatility. Enacted by the Security and Exchange Commission in 2010, halts automatically kick in if a specific stock rises or falls extremely fast. 

More: “Meme Stocks”, as they are sometimes called, became a phenomenon in 2021 when Roaring Kitty and the Wall Street Bets group on Reddit shocked the market world by boosting GameStop, AMC, both struggling stocks, by 900%, partly in an effort to mess with Wall Street and large hedge funds.

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Floating Aid Pier in Gaza: 500 tons of aid is expected to be delivered to Gazans in the coming days and weeks after a newly constructed aid pier has been finished. The aid station, built by the U.S., is a floating pier that is anchored to the beach. The goal is to have about 90 trucks delivering aid daily, eventually increasing to 150 per day. The United Nations and humanitarian groups will coordinate the delivery process to struggling Gazans who are lacking food and water. Ships bring aid to the pier and transfer items into trucks. The project was signed off by President Joe Biden months ago and cost about $320M to complete. The U.S. and Israel are collaborating on protecting the port and its workers.

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Main Stories

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New ChatGPT Model Mimics Human Emotionality in Voice

The most popular consumer AI product is advancing quickly. OpenAI announced its newest ChatGPT model named GPT-4o on Tuesday, which is 2x faster than its predecessor. At the launch event, OpenAI illustrated how ChatGPT is becoming a personalized AI assistant that can perform a wide range of tasks for users, such as assisting a blind person hail a taxi (video). The company says GPT-4o is able to “reason across audio, vision, and text in real time.” 

While the previous model was largely limited to responding to text prompts, the new model is able to hold live conversations, respond to image prompts, and even respond to what it sees through a user’s phone camera. 

In particular, the conversational ability of the new model