All posts tagged: Cue

China’s chatbot industry is fiercely competing for customers. Cue the freebies : NPR

China’s chatbot industry is fiercely competing for customers. Cue the freebies : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Advertising promoting ByteDance’s cloud and AI service platform ‘Volcano Engine’ and chatbot ‘Doubao’ at the Beijing Capital International airport in Beijing. ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images BEIJING — When it comes to AI chatbots, U.S. companies tout that they are investing to build the best technology. For Chinese companies, it’s less about being on the cutting edge and more about getting people to use their apps all the time. People like 19-year-old delivery driver Li Hao. Li says he’s a loyal user of ByteDance’s AI chatbot Doubao, China’s most popular. But over the Lunar New Year holiday in February he tried another one — Alibaba’s Qwen — because the company was giving away milk tea if it was ordered through the chatbot. “I tried it and got a milk tea,” he said. “After that, I didn’t use it again.” Welcome to the front lines of China’s chatbot wars. The competitive landscape among AI apps in China is fierce. And companies have been dumping money into the …

Apple TV’s Second-Largest Market Is Brazil, Says Eddy Cue

Apple TV’s Second-Largest Market Is Brazil, Says Eddy Cue

Published by skeptic

Apple’s SVP of services Eddy Cue has revealed that Brazil is Apple TV’s second-largest market by subscriber count and its fastest-growing, in an interview with Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo (via 9to5Mac). Speaking on the sidelines of Apple’s recent media event in Santa Monica where the company previewed its 2026 content slate, Cue acknowledged that Apple has yet to produce any original content in Brazil. Competitors like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney, meanwhile, have turned the country into a major production hub, leaving Apple in catch-up mode. “It doesn’t move as quickly as I’d like, especially if you want to be truly good, but we’ll get there,” Cue said. “I know Brazilians want quality – I appreciate that – and I also know there’s a lot of opportunity in Brazil to create strong content.” Cue also reaffirmed Apple’s commitment to theatrical releases through distribution partnerships, pointing to the success of “F1: The Movie,” which was released in theaters by Warner Bros. and went on to earn an Oscar nomination. Cue conceded that “the bar for …

Indonesian Auteur Edwin Takes a Cue from Jordan Peele for Anti-Capitalist Horror-Comedy ‘Sleep No More’

Indonesian Auteur Edwin Takes a Cue from Jordan Peele for Anti-Capitalist Horror-Comedy ‘Sleep No More’

Published by Daniella Wilson

In the fluorescent glare of a rundown Indonesian wig factory, vats of human hair simmer in huge cauldrons, stirred by hunched laborers as rows of mannequin heads watch blankly from the dark.  Indonesian auteur Edwin has spent much of his career examining the quiet absurdities of modern life with a cool, deadpan detachment. But with Sleep No More, premiering in Berlin’s Special Midnight section this week, the director makes a headlong plunge into horror — infusing the genre with black comedy and a pointed critique of humanity’s slavish worship of capitalism. The film marks Edwin’s return to Berlin, where Postcards From the Zoo screened in competition in 2012 and later earned him the Edward Yang New Talent Award at the Asian Film Awards. For the new feature, he takes his cue from Jordan Peele, using the scary movie not just as spectacle but as a vehicle for uncomfortable social satire.  “I never worked with this genre before,” Edwin says. “So we thought, let’s have fun with it — but not by doing a horror based on …