Latest news with #Kimi
The Spinoff
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Allowing my wairua to pick up the pen
Writer Shelley Burne-Field on leaving the angst behind and letting her wairua drive her stories for young people. I suspect my brain sloshes around in my skull in a much too orderly fashion. It requires everything in its particular place and has daily duels with creativity. It can overthink, swell with ego or meekness, getting tighter than Elon's laminated cheeks – and just as functionally useless. I really need to relaaaaaax more. When writing stories, this overly stretched brain sometimes bumps my wairua off course. I may have a story idea but there is no soul connection to the characters, the setting, the time or plot. And that's a problem. Too much brain and not enough soul. To write a halfway decent story, I've discovered my brain needs to take a seat in the jacuzzi and just chill for a few magical hours. My wairua will pick up the pen when it's ready to rock. Thankfully, my children's novels seem to flow directly from that wairua. When I write for tamariki I know it's all going to be OK when I laugh and cry with the characters – just like a little tamaiti. I know the readers will enjoy a rip-roaring story that allows them to feel something. Kimi the Kekeno's Big Adventure, my new novel, arrived in my imagination fully formed. I wrote it in a few weeks. Sometimes that happens. Both the story and soul were in the flow. My brain was sitting back having a soak. Kimi is about four young New Zealand kekeno / fur seals who swim off on a sea adventure up the east coast of the lower North Island to find their dreams. Along the way Kimi asks himself 'What's my dream?' Even as they battle sharks, conger eels, and learn to hunt and fish – the kekeno are chasing their dreams. But what happens if you don't have one? I've found that kids like being surprised. They crave exciting action and chase scenes. They want the story to blossom into something so cool they can't wait to read or listen to the next few pages. I also understand what a lifeline a story can be. We all know that stories can resonate. They may be a talisman, arriving just when we need it. This can happen whether the story comes packaged in a book or a movie or a television programme or out of someone's mouth. For me it was Charlotte's Web and Under the Mountain and The Hobbit and Star Trek and Watership Down. I want to write stories like those – that discovers something on the tip of your tongue. Something you can't quite explain, but the tingle of humanity and aroha lingers. I've gravitated to helping young people all my life. My early life was challenging and surrounded by alcoholism, neglect and abuse. As I grew up, I think I wanted to save every child out there. I would help nieces and nephews and their mates. Eventually I studied youth development and community development – and worked with vulnerable rangatahi in the community both here and in rural Queensland. One of the biggest values I've carried through all the mahi is to respect young people. Respect that we may not know everything going on in their lives. Respect that they are savvy and know much more about life than we give them credit for. Respect that tamariki want a calm, wonderful life just like the rest of us. Respect that we don't have to solve rangatahi problems. Quite often they will solve their own issues – they simply need a shred of support to do it. Sometimes, all they need is to know they're not alone. That's what my first book Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie is really about. Not being alone. Whānau dynamics. Figuring out that you don't have to do everything on your own. And aroha. Always aroha. I started writing Brave Kāhu at the University of Auckland's Masters of Creative Writing degree. The workshops were the place that Poto, the main kāhu character, was hatched. The story grew and my wairua flew from there. And something worked because once the story was published and released, I received the most wonderful feedback from tamariki. Rangatahi and teachers at secondary schools have also been sending me letters. This shook my soul at first. I didn't think that articles and short stories about racism, alcoholism and language trauma would be read by teenagers or set for NCEA level projects! Their responses are life-changing. Each time, their questions, insights and emotional maturity amazes me. Each time, I find it hard to believe something had resonated. Had those stories really made a difference? I can't take all the credit. I know tīpuna influence my wairua and help guide my typing fingers. Is it those layers of wairua embedded into an issue or carved into a character that make these stories strike a chord in these young readers? I don't know how it works, but somehow there is a connection. I'm learning to celebrate that. Here are some questions and comments (abridged for length) from young people. Most are from students at Western Springs College. These moments make me proud to be an author. 'As a young Māori wāhine, none of the texts we've read this term had made me emotional. However, the way you presented the characters' emotions and casual racism infuriated me. You did a fantastic job conveying the text's tone and making it so passionate. 'I wondered how you discovered that you wanted to be a writer? I am curious and interested in being a writer myself.' 'I liked that 'Pinching out Dahlias' made me think about the position of protagonists in stories, the unfair bias in Aotearoa's education system, people in positions of power, and how people nowadays can get stuck in a metaphorical echo chamber with the people around them.' 'The statistic you provided in 'The grind of racism' about suicide in Hawke's Bay left me heartbroken. I think about that stat almost every day. As sad as it may make me feel, I still believe that with people like you bringing awareness to this injustice, one day Māori and Pasifika kids' lives will be valued just the same as everybody else's.' 'I want to explain my appreciation for your text ('Pinching out Dahlias'). The story wasn't like anything I had read before. As a Māori-Pasifika person myself, I would guess that it is not easy to put yourself so deeply into the perspective of someone Pākehā. Did you feel any unease around writing the text? I know that I'd be a nervous wreck writing something like this, and despite these possibly discouraging factors, I personally feel that you got the perspective on point.' 'While I am not of Māori or Pasifika descent and can't identify with the examples that specifically address Māori or Pasifika culture, I am of Sri Lankan descent and I have been affected by racism – it is something I can personally relate to.' 'Your stories spoke to me. 'Pinching out Dahlias' was almost awkward to read because of how many times I have seen those close to me act in ways similar to Dora and her friends. I also read your follow-up piece, A Tree Full Of Rubies. They are inspiring and have helped to shift my mind further away from the Westernised way of thinking that has been ingrained in me throughout my life.' 'Being of Māori descent and living in a family who do struggle with staying away from alcohol both of these texts really resonated with me. I know that breaking free from alcohol's embrace was based on your personal experience. Please know that your writing has been invaluable to me and many others who have dealt with racism. It's always good to know that you're not the only one experiencing it, and it's also great to know that alcoholism can be overcome with time and effort.' Voices like these can change a writer's life. It tells me that occasionally some stories might find a sweet connection: a portal between ideas; a space to share wairua. A story can change someone else's life. A friend once told me that writing can be rongoā. Auē! That's why I write for kids, teens, and adults, too. If a story, fiction or non-fiction, can help one reader feel that they aren't alone in this world – then I'm one happy kaituhituhi. In the future, I hope my brain takes many a warm dip in the jacuzzi, puts all the angst and overthinking aside, and allows my wairua to pick up the pen and keep writing stories.
South China Morning Post
21-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's ‘AI tigers' Zhipu, Moonshot accused of collecting excessive data with chatbot apps
Some of China's most popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot apps, made by leading developers including Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI, had been collecting excessive user information, authorities found. Zhipu's Qingyan, also known as ChatGLM, was found to have collected information beyond what users authorised, while Moonshot's Kimi had accessed data irrelevant to its functions, according to a list published on the WeChat account of the National Cyber Security Information Centre on Tuesday. Neither Zhipu nor Moonshot, start-ups that are both based in Beijing, immediately responded to requests for comment on Wednesday. Their chatbots are among the most competitive alternatives to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which is officially unavailable in China Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin introduces the company's Kimi chatbot. Photo: Weibo/极客公园 ChatGLM and Kimi ranked among the 10 most popular AI applications in the country, boasting a combined total of nearly 35 million monthly active users as of April, according to which tracks the popularity of AI apps and services
India.com
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Meet actress who created a sensation after giving a 2-minute nude scene with Anil Kapoor, daughter of junior artist, the film is…, she is…
If we talk about the unheard stories of Hindi cinema, then the names of actresses are included in it. There were some actresses who became popular for their bold beauty and amazing acting, while on the other hand, there were some selected actresses of B-town who earned stardom in Bollywood based on their boldness. Today we will tell you about that beauty of the 90s, who created a sensation by giving a nude scene of about 2 minutes in front of the hero. Talking about the hot actresses of Hindi cinema in the past, Kimi Katkar's name will be included in it. Yes, Kimi was the actress who crossed all limits of boldness on camera. She shocked everyone in the 80s and 90s. In the 1985 film Adventures of Tarzan, she gave many hot scenes with actor Hemant Birje, due to which she gained fame overnight. But the most famous nude scene of Kimi Katkar's career was about 2 minutes long, which she gave in the film Kala Bazaar. Actors like Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff were also present with her in this movie. In this movie, a topless scene of Kimi was shown in front of Anil, which was full of hotness. After this, her name was stamped as the hottest actress in the industry. Kimi Katkar worked with many actors like Anil Kapoor, Govinda, and Amitabh Bachchan in her film career. But her item dance in the song Jumma Chumma from Big B's film Hum created a stir in the cinema world, and after this song, Kimi's fortunes changed. Even today, she is remembered for this song. Kimi Katkar, who was once a popular actress in the film industry, left Bollywood at the peak of her career. In 1992, she married photographer Shantanu Shouri. They have a son named Siddhant Shantanu Shouri. Her son had stomach cancer, for which she went to Australia for treatment. During this time, she lived in Melbourne for about 5 years. However, later she returned to India and is currently living with her family in Goa. It is known that she said goodbye to the film world after her marriage. One more thing, Jimmy Katkar's parents were present in the film world as junior artists, but they never got the status of a star kid.
Borneo Post
16-05-2025
- Business
- Borneo Post
AI applications boost smart tourism in China
An aerial drone photo taken on May 3, 2025 shows tourists visiting the Fuzimiao scenic area in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. People across China enjoy the ongoing May Day holiday in various ways. – Xinhua photo BEIJING (May 17): During this year's May Day holiday, Ms Liu from Shanghai finally made her long-awaited trip to southwest China's Yunnan Province, a tourism hotspot with largely pleasant weather and diverse culture and ecology. According to the Shanghai resident, AI made her trip more enjoyable and put her at ease. For many, researching travel information on transport, accommodation and must-see sites is quite a hassle, and Ms Liu was no exception. 'In the past, before every trip, I had to go to various platforms to look up many travel guides, carefully select the scenic spots I liked, and constantly check various flight and hotel information. 'It was so exhausting!' For her Yunnan trip this time, Liu gave AI apps a try. She said that by inputting travel time, budget, hobbies and some specific requirements, a detailed travel plan generated by AI was right in front of her within a few minutes. 'AI has helped me solve the big problem of making travel plans, and I also managed to book air tickets and hotels at reasonable prices. Making a travel plan has never been so efficient.' Like Liu, making travel plans and detailed guides with available AI models such as DeepSeek, Kimi, and ByteDance's Doubao, is all the rage now among the millions of tourists in the world's second-largest economy. With growing AI applications, customised travel itineraries are allowing more people to travel smart and boosting the growth of the smart tourism economy. Meanwhile, on social media platforms such as 'rednote', posts tagged 'DeepSeek travel guides' or 'AI-customised trips' are trending, further exposing the strength and speed of AI in making travel suggestions to more users. Many industry players are doubling down on this trend, with a growing number of tourism companies and scenic spots accelerating their AI-oriented transformation and focusing on the new landscape of smart tourism. In April, tourism platform Tuniu launched its AI travel assistant Xiaoniu, which leverages open-source AI models like DeepSeek to provide users with one-stop services including smart searches of air tickets, hotels and train ticket information, automatic price comparison, personalised recommendations, and bundled bookings. Tuniu CEO Yu Dunde said that people making travel plans used to spend quite a lot of time making repeated comparisons to get the best deals for air tickets and hotels. With Xiaoniu, users can get very clear and succinct recommendations within 10 seconds with the assistant's smart searches and comparisons. 'Users may also fine-tune their requirements and get their most suitable travel plans.' This year, tourism companies in the nation's scenic areas such as Huangshan Mountain and Lushan Mountain in east China, have announced their connection to DeepSeek, providing upgraded customer services in intelligent interactions and tour companion experiences, as virtual guide and augmented reality navigation give rise to increasing AI application scenarios in the tourism industry. In Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the Grand Tang Mall has introduced an interactive AI virtual assistant named 'Tang Xiaobao' to engage with tourists and provide travel services. At the digital exhibition hall of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu province, visitors can wear VR glasses to visit the grottoes and view the murals up close, immersively. Visitors use VR to visit the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province on July 22, 2024. – Xinhua According to a China Academy of Information and Communications Technology report, the cultural and tourism sector ranks top among the country's services sector regarding AI adoption. It said that the expanding scope of AI applications stimulates and generates new growth points for tourism consumption. 'At present, the integration of tourism and AI is accelerating the restructuring of the service ecosystem. In terms of tourism services, AI-empowered personalised services are reshaping tourists' decision-making. 'At the same time, on the supply side, changes are more profound because the structure of the tourism sector's value chain is being reconstructed as a result of AI,' said Zhu Keli, a researcher with the China Institute of New Economy. Zhu believed that the next three to five years will be a critical period for AI to reshape the structure of the tourism industry. He added that enterprises that first transform and upgrade their businesses' organisation by embracing AI technologies to innovate their services will hopefully gain a first-mover advantage in defining new industry standards. A joint action plan issued in 2024 by multiple government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, aims to significantly expand China's smart tourism economy by 2027 with upgraded infrastructure and enhanced management. 'AI-powered tourism holds vast potential, as it personalises travel experiences while boosting operational efficiency and innovation for businesses,' said Hong Yong, an expert of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50. However, challenges remain in the deep integration of AI and cultural tourism. One of them is the shortage of cross-disciplinary talents who can advance the deep integration of AI with the tourism business for sustainable commercialisation. Another challenge is adaptation costs, especially for small- and medium-sized tourism companies, which lack the capabilities to develop tailored services because generic AI solutions do not perfectly match their specific needs. – Xinhua
NDTV
10-05-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Quark, China's Most Popular AI App, Launches 'Deep Search' Feature For Users
Beijing: Quark, the artificial intelligence (AI) application from Alibaba Group, has come up with an all-new 'deep search' function. It answers complex queries by users by combining the reasoning capabilities of its AI models and online search. The update is available across different platforms, including smartphones and PCs, according to the South China Morning Post. This comes after Quark clocked nearly 150 million monthly active users (MAUs) around the world to emerge as the most popular AI application in China in March 2025. It left behind ByteDance's Doubao as well as DeepSeek by a huge margin. They could only manage to get around 100 million and 77 million users, respectively. Quark claims its AI application is different from other conventional search engines that mainly rely on keywords. It can deliver "accurate" responses to user queries, as "deep search" feature takes maximum advantage of the Qwen AI models by Alibaba. A few months ago, the group announced revamping the web-search and cloud storage tool into the AI assistant -- a move that allowed the company to strengthen its footing in the AI industry. Zhang Fan, head of Quark's search business, said they will continue to enhance the deep search function and "focus on user needs" in its bid to emerge as an "all-around AI assistant," South China Morning Post reported. To use the 'deep search' function, you can ask a question in the mobile app. It will then analyse the user query and do an online search in a phased manner. It adjusts and refines its reasoning process by utilising the search results to offer a response to the user. Quark is not the first in the country to combine AI reasoning with online search. Similar features were earlier announced by the Kimi chatbot from Moonshot AI. This comes at a time when the internet search business worldwide is believed to be grappling with various challenges from various AI tools, the report stated. A few days ago, Apple's senior vice-president Eddie Cue said that Google searches on iPhone's Safari browser had fallen for the first time last month, as per The Verge. Speaking at Google's antitrust trial on Wednesday, Mr Cue noted this "never happened in 22 years". The decline in searches was linked by the Apple official to the growing use of artificial intelligence. As per reports, Apple receives nearly $20 billion from Google to make its search engine the default in Safari.
