Latest news with #Cha
The Independent
3 hours ago
- Climate
- The Independent
China braces for heavy rains as Tropical Storm Podul makes landfall in southern maritime provinces
China braced Thursday for heavy rains as Tropical Storm Podul made landfall in several southern provinces and thousands of people were evacuated. Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces were the focus of the preparation efforts, but alarms were at a relatively low level given the storm's loss of strength as it passed over Taiwan on Wednesday. About 15,000 people had been evacuated from seaside areas in southern China as of Wednesday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Podul made landfall shortly after midnight on Thursday in Fujian classified as a tropical storm — downgraded from a typhoon — and it has also triggered alarms in inland Hunan province, which is home to several lakes and rivers that often overflow. In Guangdong's Chaozhou city, classes and some government functions were suspended, while court proceedings were suspended in Hong Kong after it raised its highest rainstorm warning. The Hong Kong Observatory said the storm was moving away from the partially autonomous city, but that its outer edge was bringing squalls. Citizens were advised to stay away from the shoreline. There were no initial reports of casualties or damage in southern China. Southern Taiwan was cleaning up after the storm made landfall on Wednesday on the east coast counties of Taitung and Hualien before traveling out into the Taiwan Strait about five hours later. On the self-governing island, one person was swept out to sea, about 100 people were injured and 8,000 evacuated to shelters. Electric company workers moved swiftly to restore power following complaints over a slow response following earlier storms.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
First Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season may form around mid-August
A tropical rainstorm in the Atlantic basin is on the verge of further organization and may be on its way to a hurricane this week, AccuWeather hurricane experts say. Meanwhile, two additional areas are also being monitored for potential tropical development this week. Tropical rainstorm forms A cluster of showers and thunderstorms that moved off the African coast last week became a tropical rainstorm Sunday morning near the Cabo Verde Islands. Further strengthening is expected and the rainstorm is expected to become a hurricane by late week. The next name on the list is Erin. "Several factors are working in its favor, including lack of dust, warm water and a lack of disruptive breezes (wind shear)," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Chad Merrill." If it does strengthen into a hurricane, it would be the first hurricane of the 2025 season. The average date for the first hurricane is Aug. 11. Locally heavy rain and gusty winds can occur across the Cabo Verde Islands into early this week as the rainstorm moves westward over the Atlantic. Due to the rain and wind impacts, this rainstorm is a less than one on the AccuWeather RealImpactTM Scale for the Cabo Verde Islands. The rainstorm will move westward over the Atlantic into late week before it is expected to make a turn northward just north of the Caribbean by the weekend. •Have the app? Unlock AccuWeather Alerts™ with Premium+ "The upper air pattern late week favors it turning north and likely staying east of the U.S. East Coast," adds Merrill. "However, there can be an increase in rough surf and rip currents along the East Coast beaches next weekend into early the following week." Elsewhere in the Atlantic Across the rest of the Atlantic, two areas of interest are being monitored for tropical development this week. The first area is over the open central Atlantic, where there is a low risk for tropical development early to midweek. No impacts to land are expected as the steering flow of the jet stream will continue to usher the storm northward. AccuWeather hurricane experts are also highlighting a low risk for tropical development later this week as another cluster of thunderstorms is expected to move off the coast of Africa. This area will have to be monitored for potential impacts to the Caribbean. The 2025 Atlantic season so far has had four named storms, including Tropical Storm Dexter which formed early August and tracked over the open waters of the Atlantic. AccuWeather's team of hurricane experts expects 13 to 18 tropical storms, of which seven to 10 will become hurricanes and three to five are likely to evolve into major hurricanes, for the 2025 season. Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts™ are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
OpenAI launches GPT-5 as the AI industry seeks a return on investment
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 7 (Reuters) – OpenAI launched on Thursday its GPT-5 artificial intelligence model, the highly anticipated latest installment of a technology that has helped transform global business and culture. OpenAI's GPT models are the AI technology that powers the popular ChatGPT chatbot, and GPT-5 will be available to all 700 million ChatGPT users, OpenAI said. The big question is whether the company that kicked off the generative AI frenzy will be capable of continuing to drive significant technological advancements that attract enterprise-level users to justify the enormous sums of money it is investing to fuel these developments. 3 OpenAI's GPT models are the AI technology that powers the popular ChatGPT chatbot, and GPT-5 will be available to all 700 million ChatGPT users. Bloomberg via Getty Images The release comes at a critical time for the AI industry. The world's biggest AI developers – Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, which backs OpenAI – have dramatically increased capital expenditures to pay for AI data centers, nourishing investor hopes for great returns. These four companies expect to spend nearly $400 billion this fiscal year in total. OpenAI is now in early discussions to allow employees to cash out at a $500 billion valuation, a huge step-up from its current $300 billion valuation. Top AI researchers now command $100 million signing bonuses. 'So far, business spending on AI has been pretty weak, while consumer spending on AI has been fairly robust because people love to chat with ChatGPT,' said economics writer Noah Smith. 'But the consumer spending on AI just isn't going to be nearly enough to justify all the money that is being spent on AI data centers.' OpenAI is emphasizing GPT-5's enterprise prowess. In addition to software development, the company said GPT-5 excels in writing, health-related queries, and finance. 'GPT-5 is really the first time that I think one of our mainline models has felt like you can ask a legitimate expert, a PhD-level expert, anything,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at a press briefing. 3 In addition to software development, the company said GPT-5 excels in writing, health-related queries, and finance. filins – 'One of the coolest things it can do is write you good instantaneous software. This idea of software on demand is going to be one of the defining features of the GPT-5 era.' One key measure of success is whether the step up from GPT-4 to GPT-5 is on par with the research lab's previous improvements. Two early reviewers told Reuters that while the new model impressed them with its ability to code and solve science and math problems, they believe the leap from the GPT-4 to GPT-5 was not as large as OpenAI's prior improvements. MORE THINKING Nearly three years ago, ChatGPT introduced the world to generative AI, dazzling users with its ability to write humanlike prose and poetry, quickly becoming one of the fastest growing apps ever. In March 2023, OpenAI followed up ChatGPT with the release of GPT-4, a large language model that made huge leaps forward in intelligence. While GPT-3.5, an earlier version, received a bar exam score in the bottom 10%, GPT-4 passed, opens new tab the simulated bar exam in the top 10%. GPT-4's leap was based on more compute power and data, and the company was hoping that 'scaling up' in a similar way would consistently lead to improved AI models. But OpenAI ran into issues scaling up. One problem was the data wall the company ran into, and OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever said last year that while processing power was growing, the amount of data was not. He was referring to the fact that large language models are trained on massive datasets that scrape the entire internet, and AI labs have no other options for large troves of human-generated textual data. 3 He was referring to the fact that large language models are trained on massive datasets that scrape the entire internet, and AI labs have no other options for large troves of human-generated textual data. irissca – Apart from the lack of data, another problem was that 'training runs' for large models are more likely to have hardware-induced failures given how complicated the system is, and researchers may not know the eventual performance of the models until the end of the run, which can take months. At the same time, OpenAI discovered another route to smarter AI, called 'test-time compute,' a way to have the AI model spend more time compute power 'thinking' about each question, allowing it to solve challenging tasks such as math or complex operations that demand advanced reasoning and decision-making. GPT-5 acts as a router, meaning if a user asks GPT-5 a particularly hard problem, it will use test-time compute to answer the question. This is the first time the general public will have access to OpenAI's test-time compute technology, something that Altman said is important to the company's mission to build AI that benefits all of humanity. Altman believes the current investment in AI is still inadequate. 'We need to build a lot more infrastructure globally to have AI locally available in all these markets,' Altman said.
Time of India
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Is Cha In-Pyo kissing his screen career goodbye? Star wins new writer award for 'Mermaid Hunting'
Top Korean actors Cha In-pyo and Shin Ae-ra Cha In-Pyo is trading in drama scripts for crafting novels! This veteran star, lighting up TVs since the '90s, has just clinched the New Writer Award at the 2025 Hwang Soon-Won Literary Prize for his captivating novel ' Mermaid Hunting '. Now at 58, Cha is living proof that creativity knows no expiration date. He made his twriting debut book at 42, and scored a major literary honour. His award-winning work dives into profound themes that resonate deeply, leaving readers pondering long after the last page. A Family Affair Full of Feels and Funny Moments Cha's biggest cheerleader - his wife, actress Shin Ae-Ra - was bursting with pride. She took to social media with a post that's equal parts funny and touching. She said, "He'd grab his bag and vanish every day to write, only to return at 5 PM grumbling about being starving, and now he's scooped up this incredible award!". She playfully noted how he snagged a rookie acting award right before turning 30, and now a rookie writer one before 60. "Dreams aren't meant to be abandoned; you never know when they'll flourish." Her post didn't go unnoticed - it sparked a wave of congratulations from fellow celebs like Hong Hyun-Hee and Jang Young-Ran, turning a personal milestone into a shared celebration. Moments like these highlight how a strong support system can turn everyday struggles into triumphant tales, adding that extra layer of warmth and motivation to keep pushing forward. It's the kind of relatable family dynamic that makes you appreciate the unsung heroes behind every success story. Cha's Epic Journey Cha In-Pyo's career is a rollercoaster of highlights that could fill a bestseller itself. Kicking off in 1993 with the family sitcom One Roof, Three Families, he skyrocketed to fame in 1997's romantic hit Star in My Heart, which played a key role in sparking worldwide interest in Korean dramas. His trophy shelf boasts gems like the Best Actor nod at the 2000 Baeksang Arts Awards for The Boss, followed by the Grand Prize in 2001 for Her House. He's also shone in movies such as Crossing, South Korea's official Oscar submission back in 2008, and even stepped behind the camera as a director. But his pivot to writing? That's the fresh, exciting sequel everyone's talking about. With titles like Goodbye Hill (revised into Once We Look at the Same Star , tackling poignant historical issues), Today's Forecast, the award-winner Mermaid Hunting, and Their Day, Cha has firmly established himself as a novelist with substance. His writing prowess even landed him a guest lecture gig at Oxford University , proving his words carry weight beyond borders. Reflecting on the win, Cha humbly described it as "a quiet permission to continue writing, pushing me to create more humble and profound stories".
Korea Herald
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Actor Cha in-pyo proves it's never too late to become a writer
Cha In-pyo, long beloved as an actor, is proving that it's never too late to chase new dreams. At 57, he has been named the winner of the Newcomer Award at the 14th Hwang Sun-won Literary Awards, honoring his transition from screen to page and his growing voice as a novelist. 'It is already more than I deserve that people read my novels, and now receiving an award fills me with a sense of apology and responsibility toward the many who walk the path of literature,' Cha wrote on Instagram after the announcement Monday. The Hwang Sun-won Literary Award was established to honor the literary legacy of Hwang (1915-2000), one of Korea's beloved modern writers and author of the classic short story "Sonagi" (Rain Shower). 'I do not see this award as praise for 'writing well,' but as encouragement to 'write well from now on.' I published my first novel at 42, and now, at 58 (by Korean age), I receive a Newcomer Award. Life feels like a long novel whose ending you can only know after reading until the very last page," Cha said. His award-winning novel, "Mermaid Hunt" (2022), dives into human ambition and desire through the story of a quest to obtain mermaid oil said to grant a thousand years of life. Drawing on Korean geography, folklore and oral tradition, Cha creates a unique Korean-style fantasy that examines human nature at its rawest. Cha made his literary debut with "Goodbye Hill" (2009), later revised and reissued as "Once We Look at the Same Star." The novel addresses the historical trauma of victims of the Japanese military's sexual slavery, euphemistically known as comfort women. The book drew renewed attention last year when Cha was invited to speak at the inaugural Korean Literature Festival hosted by Oxford University's Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department. It has been selected as required reading for Korean Studies courses. Cha's wife, actress Shin Ae-ra, celebrated the win online, posting a photo with him and wrote, 'He disappeared every day with his backpack to write, only to come home hungry by 5 p.m. Now he's won this award. He won a Best New Actor award just before turning 30, and now a Newcomer Writer Award just before 60. Dreams must never be given up on because you never know when they will come true.' Other winners at the 14th Hwang Soon-won Literary Awards include novelist Joo Sue-ja ("Searching for the Original Manuscript of the Novel"), who received the Writer's Award, and poet Kim Koo-seul, who won the Poet's Award for "Island of Shadows." This year's awards ceremony will take place Sept. 12 at the Hwang Sun-won Literary Village in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province.
