Latest news with #GeoGuessr
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
GeoGuessr Bails On Controversial Saudi Tournament After Map Makers Revolt: 'When You Tell Us We've Got It Wrong We Take It Seriously'
GeoGuessr will not be one of the games participating in Saudi Arabia's Esports World Cup this year, after criticisms of sportswashing and the country's poor human rights record. The competitive guessing game that's popular on Twitch had previously agreed to be part of the event alongside Riot, Blizzard, and other game makers, but reversed course after a full-on revolt from its community of map makers. 'You—our community—have made it clear that this decision does not align what GeoGuessr stands for,' the CEO behind the game announced on Thursday. 'I've seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh,' Daniel Antell wrote in a statement on X. 'When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr's core mission of let everyone Explore the World.' He continued, 'That said, you—our community—have made it clear that this decision does not align what GeoGuessr stands for. So, when you tell us we've got it wrong we take it seriously. That's why we've made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.' GeoGuessr's retreat comes in the face of an uproar among fans after it revealed it would be joining the competitive gaming event scheduled to take place over the summer in Riyadh. 'We, the creators of a considerable share of GeoGuessr's most popular maps, have decided to make our maps unplayable in protest of GeoGuessr AB's decision to host a World Championship wildcard tourney at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh,' Zemmip posted on the game's subreddit yesterday. 'The EWC is a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record.' As Aftermath reports, GeoGuessr uses data from Google to test its players' geographical knowledge, but relies in large part on community maps to funnel all of that information into locations and content for PvP duels that are more interesting to play and watch. Many fans signed onto the map makers' boycott, with support for the blackout spreading through the GeoGuessr Discord, even as big prize pools in Saudi Arabia tried to lure the game's top competitors. The Esports World Cup features a $70 million prize pool and lots of flashy pageantry. Launched in 2024, it's part of a growing pattern of Saudi Arabia trying to leverage sports, entertainment, and gaming in particular to diversify its economy and improve its national image which is otherwise tainted by everything from anti-LGBTQ+ laws to the slaughter of journalists critical of the ruling royal family. Esports pros in other scenes, from Valorant to Dota 2, have faced criticism for participating in that effort. 'Imagine the one dev with the balls to stand up to Saudi is GeoGuessr,' wrote former Overwatch League caster Christopher 'MonteCristo' Mykles after it reversed course. 'Time for Riot, Blizzard, EA, and Epic to follow suit.' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Engadget
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
GeoGuessr pulls out of the Esports World Cup after a community protest
The team behind GeoGuessr is withdrawing the location-guessing game from the Esports World Cup (EWC) after fans protested its decision to participate in the event. Community members pulled many popular custom maps from the game after it emerged the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, was going to hold a tournament at the EWC, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July. Map creators who removed their community creations from GeoGuessr claimed that the EWC is "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." Many other prominent game franchises will be featured at the event, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rocket League, Street Fighter and EA Sports FC. In a statement posted on X and Reddit, GeoGuessr AB CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell said the community stated loud and clear that the decision to take part in the EWC "does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for." As such, the team is pulling out of the event. Here is Antell's full statement: Hi everyone,I've seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr's core mission of let everyone Explore the Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we've always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for said, you - our community - have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands when you tell us we've got it wrong we take it seriously. That's why we've made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in will come back with information on how the wildcards will be distributed as soon as you for speaking up and sharing your thoughts. /Daniel
Engadget
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Engadget
GeoGuessr community maps go dark in protest of EWC ties to human rights abuses
A group of GeoGuessr map creators have pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the Esports World Cup 2025, calling the tournament "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." The protestors say the blackout will hold until the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, cancels its planned Last Chance Wildcard tournament at the EWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 21 to 27. GeoGuessr is a browser game where players try to pinpoint locations using only Google Street View images, and it relies on community mapmakers to stay relevant. The blackout, which began on May 21, includes "dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps," according to a statement the group shared on Reddit. The removed maps have been played tens of millions of times. One of the largest GeoGuessr communities, Plonk It, has also removed its Map Directory and shared the mapping community's open letter. That statement reads in full as follows: We, the creators of a considerable share of GeoGuessr's most popular maps, have decided to make our maps unplayable in protest of GeoGuessr AB's decision to host a World Championship wildcard tourney at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh. The EWC is a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record. Groups targeted by the government include women, LGBTQ people, apostates and atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers in the Kafala system, religious minorities, and many others. The subjugation of these groups is extensive and pervasive. Members of these groups are routinely subjected to discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions. These severe human rights violations are well-documented and indisputable. By participating in the EWC, GeoGuessr is contributing to that sportswashing agenda, which is designed to take attention away from Saudi Arabia's human rights violations. The GeoGuessr community is diverse and includes many members of groups that would be harshly persecuted were they to live in Saudi Arabia. In solidarity with those currently residing in Saudi Arabia while being subject to oppression, as well as members of the community who would feel and be unsafe attending the tournament in Riyadh, we have decided to black out our maps by replacing all their previous locations with random garbage locations, rendering them unplayable. This blackout includes dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps. It will continue until we see action from GeoGuessr; specifically, we demand that GeoGuessr cancels its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and commits to not hosting any events there as long as it continues its oppressive regime. You don't play games with human rights. Thank you for reading. The GeoGuessr mapping community We've hit up GeoGuessr AB for a comment on the blackout and will update this story as we hear back. The EWC is a huge, multi-game event owned and operated by the Saudi government and held in the country's capital city. It's an evolution of the Gamers8 tournament and this year marks the second EWC-branded competition; it's due to take place in July and August with a total prize pool of $38 million, split among 24 games. Franchises participating in the 2025 event include Rocket League, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Dota 2, Valorant, Street Fighter 6, EA Sports FC and PUBG. It's difficult to compete in esports without running into Savvy Games Group, the video game arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Alongside hosting the EWC, Savvy has financial stakes in Nexon (10.2 percent ownership), Electronic Arts (9 percent), Embracer Group (8.3 percent), Nintendo (7.5 percent), Capcom (5 percent) and Take-Two Interactive (6.8 percent as of 2023). Savvy also runs ESL FACEIT Group, which contains the Electronic Sports League, a longstanding and significant esports event company. The New York Times reported last year that the Saudi government plans to invest $38 billion in the video game industry by 2030. Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long documented the abuses of the Saudi government. HRW describes Saudi Arabia's human rights record as "abysmal," and specifically calls out the PIF as a reputational whitewashing tool. Saudi authorities have been accused of sportswashing in traditional sports as well, specifically through the country's ownership of LIV Golf and Newcastle United FC. In February, Riot Games — the operator of League of Legends, Valorant and Teamfight Tactics, and arguably the largest name in esports — signed a three-year deal with the Esports World Cup Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Riot defended the partnership, arguing that the resulting financial boon for players and the esports industry outweighed other concerns. "We know some of you may not feel great about our decision to partner with the EWC in this way, and we respect that," Riot's statement read. Though corporate support for the EWC remains strong, the GeoGuessr mapping community isn't alone in rejecting this year's tournament. Street Fighter 6 player Christopher Hancock, who plays as ChrisCCH for FlyQuest, recently declined his spot at EWC 2025. In a social media statement, Hancock said, "I gave this decision a lot of thought and ultimately decided that, due to the nature in which the event is funded and managed, I do not feel comfortable participating in it." He added that the partnership between the Capcom Pro Tour and the EWC effectively forced him to work with the Saudi-backed group. "Choosing to not participate in any EWC qualifiers would effectively mean retirement from competing," Hancock said. "I find it regrettable that this event has become so deeply embedded in the [fighting game community], but I have not yet made a decision on whether I will stop competing in events associated to it altogether." Alongside the GeoGuessr map blackout, the community protest added one new, short challenge to the game called How to Run A Dictatorship. It takes players through five locations around Riyadh, documenting the alleged government-sanctioned torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and oppression of women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and political dissenters occurring in these places. The challenge takes just a few minutes, so feel free to experience it yourself.
Irish Independent
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘I got to read all of Shakespeare' – meet the Dubliner leading Cambridge as captain in ‘University Challenge' final
Today at 21:30 Dubliner Oscar Despard, from Portobello, will captain Christ's College Cambridge in the final of TV quiz show University Challenge – and live out a childhood dream in the process. 'I watched the show a lot growing up, with my mother in particular,' he said. 'So when I ended up at the University of Cambridge, it was a natural thing to try because I thought it would be quite interesting. 'I went about setting up a quiz society at Christ's College to administer the college's participation. 'We ran a two-round selection process, starting with an online quiz that people could complete in their own time. 'Then we invited the 10 best scorers to take part in an in-person round on the buzzer.' Mr Despard (22) earned nine H1s in his Leaving Cert from Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, and was awarded the best individual prize at the BT Young Scientist exhibition in 2020. He is studying molecular biology at Cambridge and has begun a PhD focusing on proteostasis – how cells maintain a balance of making and breaking down proteins – using cryo-electron tomography. His mother, Professor Niamh Moran, is a scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and he fondly recalls watching the quiz show with her on TV over the years. Back home in Portobello, he says his mother has been rallying the fanbase. 'My family was very excited to see me competing in University Challenge, and I think my mother gets more texts of support about it than I do,' he said. ADVERTISEMENT 'My sister and my father were also both quite excited about seeing it. 'Everybody from my team is still in Cambridge, so we've actually been watching it as a team together. There's a lot of interest from the college as well. 'We've been watching it in the college bar, so we've had a decent crowd watching on TV,' he added. To prepare for the show, Mr Despard and the team shared a spreadsheet of over 200 knowledge areas to revise. 'I got to read all of Shakespeare, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise,' he said. 'And we did a surprising amount of video game revision – they've broadened the question topics in recent years.' In the quarter-finals of the show, there was a question where the answer was GeoGuessr – an online game where you're dropped into a random Google Street View location and have to figure out where you are. Mr Despard said it was a surprise to see it featured in the show, but that University Challenge has been making an effort to bring a slightly wider range of questions in recent years. 'They've included more video game-related questions, so luckily we had people doing revision specifically for that,' he said. In a delightful twist on University Challenge, the semi-finals featured not one but two Dublin-born captains, with Mr Despard going up against Kevin Flanagan, captain of Bristol University. Ultimately, Cambridge triumphed with a score of 220 to 50, earning a place in the final. Mr Flanagan said he was happy to know there would be 'at least one Irish captain' in the final. 'I met Kevin very briefly before the show, because there are other quizzes at universities in the UK where people often end up crossing over,' Mr Despard said. 'But yeah, we subsequently met up. Afterwards, we went to Belfast to meet the Queen's team as a kind of get-together after we had all met in production over the summer.'
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Forbes
The Prompt: Cursor's Customer Support Bot Made Up A Policy
Welcome back to The Prompt, Buzzy AI coding tool Cursor's customer support bot replied to a programmer's query with a made up policy that doesn't exist. The snafu led to some users complaints. Getty AI coding software is all the rage. One particularly popular tool is Cursor, built by nascent AI startup Anysphere, which has become one of the fastest growing startups of all time. But even Cursor isn't immune to hallucinations— AI's tendency to make false statements and assert them as fact. A few days ago, a developer noticed that switching from one device to another kicked them out of Cursor's coding platform. When the programmer reached out to the company's customer support, an agent called 'Sam' responded to them that this was expected behavior under a new policy change. Except there was no policy change. The response was made up by Cursor's AI support bot. CEO Michael Turell confirmed this on Reddit after the AI's response circulated on social media and elicited complaints from several programmers who often use multiple machines while coding. Some users commented that they were cancelling their subscriptions as a result. Truell apologized on Hacker News and said the user got a complete refund and that the company now ensures that AI responses are clearly labelled as such. Now let's get into the headlines. OpenAI released a set of new AI models called o3 and o4-mini that can understand images, search the web and analyze data from uploaded documents. The company claims the models, which can crop, rotate and zoom into photos, are its most powerful 'reasoning' models. Unlike previous iterations, the models consume more time (and compute) to process a query and are trained to figure out how to approach responding to an input. They also have access to external tools allowing them to independently carry out tasks on your behalf. People have since uploaded pictures of random places to ChatGPT and used it to figure out its exact location along with the GPS coordinates and directions to get there. Many have asked the model to respond as if it's playing GeoGuessr, a popular game where players must find locations based on Google Street View images. Meanwhile, yet another social media trend has led to people using ChatGPT to create AI-generated action figures (with accessories) and Barbie dolls featuring their likeness. The ChatGPT-generated Barbies have various professions like realtor, tech troubleshooter and business coach. Artists have pushed back on the trend by hand drawing their own versions, the New York Times reported. Ahead of the Canadian election, Amazon has been flooded with AI-generated books about Prime Minister Mark Carney and other political leaders, Bloomberg reported. Some of them contained incorrect information about the figures. The e-commerce giant took down most of the political books flagged by Bloomberg. This isn't an isolated incident: people have published hundreds of titles, written with the help of generative AI tools, on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. Anthropic has made its first investment into an AI company called Goodfire, a San Francisco-based startup that has raised $50 million in a Series A round led by Menlo Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Ventures and others. The company is building a system to address the black box problem of AI— a gaping hole in our understanding of why AI models work in a certain way. The company aims to understand how neural networks function to unlock new ways to train AI models and improve their performance. Before creating Cursor, the wildly popular AI coding tool, Michael Truell was an 18-year-old MIT student, growing restless during his first taste of corporate life as an intern at Google. It was 2019, the summer after his freshman year, and Truell was sitting at the cafe of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, with Ali Partovi, who was recruiting for his vaunted Neo Scholars program, aimed at finding tech's future crème de la crème while they're still in college. Partovi, an early investor in Facebook, Airbnb and Dropbox, chatted with Truell about AI research and startup life. Then he gave the student a handwritten coding test — an easy task for Truell, who finished it in record time. After the meeting, Partovi got out his dossier and scrawled a circle with a star inside of it next to Truell's picture: the investor's shorthand indicating he was so impressed that he'd invest in any project Truell pursued. Truell would become a Neo Scholar, and three years later, Partovi would become the first-ever investor in his startup Anysphere, maker of Cursor. The company, which reportedly took just a year to reach $100 million in annualized revenue (and has since then doubled it), is among the fastest growing startups of all time. 'Ali basically backed us when it was just the idea. We hadn't really done anything else yet,' Truell told Forbes. 'He's not afraid to spend time with and really bet on people before they're very proven.' Neo was founded in 2017 with its scholars program, which selects 30 members each year, giving them access to workshops, networking events and recruitment connections at big tech companies. Similar to the Thiel Fellowship, the program founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel that doles out $100,000 grants to entrepreneurs to forgo college, Neo Scholars can also elect to take time off school to work on a project. But Neo's version, which comes with a $20,000 grant, is optional and only lasts one semester — designed to be a much less intense commitment than skipping school entirely. Read the full story on Neo on Forbes. In February, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said his AI search company was skipping spending millions on a Super Bowl commercial and instead would give away $1 million to one lucky user who downloaded the app, asked five questions on it and referred it to their friends. But the company's Android app has 10 major security vulnerabilities leading to impersonation attempts, account takeovers and data theft, according to a report by app testing company Appknox, Forbes reported. These gaps would allow anyone to make a clone of the Perplexity app and collect private user data. The findings are reported as Perplexity is in talks to integrate its AI assistant into smartphones manufactured by Lenovo and Samsung, Bloomberg reported. In the real world race between humans and AI, robots still have a long way to go. 21 humanoid robots scuttled alongside 12,000 humans in a half marathon held in Beijing. But only six crossed the finish line, Wired reported, with the rest failing for a variety of reasons including overheating fastest robot completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes, but only after falling down once and having its batteries swapped out thrice. It's still baby steps out there for robots.
