Latest news with #ToddGreen
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Yahoo
Have drug and gang-related crimes grown in Corpus Christi? Here's what police said
Corpus Christi mostly saw a decline in violent and property crimes between 2020 and 2024, though one City Council district was an outlier, according to data that police presented to the City Council on June 17. The presentation came about two months after officers from the Criminal Investigation Division presented other data on crime to the council. Mayor Paulette Guajardo and several council members requested additional data to show how local law enforcement is tracking, addressing and preventing crime in the area. The department's presentation on June 17 broke down crime by all five City Council districts for each of the last five years and delved into specific categories of crime involving homeless people, gangs and narcotics. According to the data, violent crimes have decreased in four of the districts, dropping from 414 in 2020 to 393 in 2024. District 2 saw a slight increase in violent crimes, rising from 105 in 2020 to 112 in 2024. Four districts also saw a reduction in property crime during that period, though property crimes also increased in District 2 from 355 in 2020 to 358 in 2024. Corpus Christi Police Assistant Chief of Investigations Todd Green noted the department's creation of a Violent Crime Unit in November 2024 under the leadership of Police Chief Mike Markle. Designed to address an increase in violent gun-related crimes involving young people between the ages of 16 and 24, it has enabled the department to mobilize 13 officers from various units, who employ tactics such as high visibility sweeps of known crime areas, increased traffic enforcement and investigating of crime hotspots. 'They go after both the areas where there's an increase in violent gun crime and they also identify the repeat offenders,' Green said. The presentation also included a comparison between Corpus Christi crime rates and other U.S. cities with a similar population size. It reflected Corpus Christi Police Department data that is reported to the FBI indicating that the city ranks high in violent crimes such as aggravated assault. Corpus Christi, a city where 316,603 lived in 2023, ranked No. 7 out of 19 cities for the rate of aggravated assault. It ranked No. 13 for both murder and rape and No. 7 in the overall violent crime rate. In terms of property crimes, it ranked No. 8 for larceny, with a total of 6,603 thefts in 2023, or 209 for every 10,000 people. Green said that while the city's crime rates may be higher than some of the other cities on the list, the city does an excellent job with clearance rates of crimes. The term refers to the percentage of crimes that are resolved, typically through an arrest. 'Although we're similar populations, there's no city on this list that is identical to Corpus Christi,' he said. 'Every one of these cities has different makeups and different factors that impact their crime rate.' He noted that the number of sworn officers working in some of the other cities was much higher than in Corpus Christi. For example, while Corpus Christi had 458 police officers in 2023, Cincinnati had 916 officers, though it has a population of about 5,000 fewer people. The police department tracks and compiles the number of crimes involving drugs to observe trends and target drug-related crimes in specific areas. Hollis Bowers, a deputy chief in the Narcotics and Vice Investigations Division, presented citywide totals on total drug arrests over the last two years. Bowers noted 1,211 cases involving possession of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or fentanyl in 2024 — a 3.7% increase in cases due to penalty group 1 drugs, a classification of drugs that tend to carry the highest penalties, since the year before. There were 837 cases of marijuana possession last year and 429 involving THC products. Uniform patrol officers arrested 2,598 people for drugs in 2024 compared to 2,522 the year before. Most of these arrests were made when officers were pursuing people for other crimes and found that they had drugs, he said. Bowers noted an increase in drug delivery cases, with 67 people attempting to manufacture or deliver penalty group 1 drugs in 2024 compared to 54 the year before. While the numbers might make it look as if police found more drug dealers, they actually mean the department did a better job of catching drug dealers in 2024 than 2023, the officer said. The city's Gang Unit, formerly known as the Juvenile Enforcement Unit, arrests people who committed crimes carried out by a gang or on behalf of a gang. The two main violations that officers see are drug violations due to possession and selling, though weapons violations are more common, said Austin Jochec, a detective within the department's Gang Unit. In May, the unit had detected more than 2,463 gang members, he said. Of these known gang members, 1,638 were in a prison gang, 205 drove outlaw motorcycles and 620 belonged to street or hybrid gangs, which often include mixed groups of gang members and which police investigate due to their high level of gang activity and lack of leadership structure. Two-year data from the police department on homeless offenders showed that 586 homeless people committed crimes in 2024 compared to 594 in 2023. In 2024, police arrested 164 people for criminal trespass and 106 for drug possession. They arrested 138 for warrants. Additional data showed that 23 homeless people were victims of aggravated assault last year, while 20 became victims of larceny and 48 were assaulted. Green pointed out that because homelessness is not a crime, law enforcement agencies do not track it as such or report it to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program. Police data on homelessness indicates instances in which homeless people were either arrested or victimized by a crime. More: Corpus Christi's rate of violent crime is high. What's the story? This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: What to know about drug and gang-related crimes in Corpus Christi
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How Candy Crush uses AI to keep players coming back to its puzzles
HighlightsKing, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush Saga, utilizes artificial intelligence to create and update more than 18,700 levels of the game, helping developers save time and enhance player experience. In the United States, consumer spending on video game content surged to $51.3 billion in 2024, with mobile games, including Candy Crush Saga, accounting for approximately half of that spending. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, emphasized that AI is used to assist in the design process rather than to replace game workers, aiming to improve the speed and accuracy of level development. Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence . The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush , also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green , general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be "extremely difficult," he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass. Within the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods - be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. "We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with," Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. "Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly." In the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says. Candy Crush - first launched on Facebook in 2012 - is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion. The free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen , author of "One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games." Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a "ravenous set of players," he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added. "To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms," he said. "The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels." King uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun "on first contact." "That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first," he said. "There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new." Green said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design "loop" of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players. "Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand," he said. "So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design." For most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the "up and down." Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels - or vice versa - to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added. "We talk to players all the time," he said. "We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?" To determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate - how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts - and how often a board is "reshuffled," or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun. "It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective," Green said. "It's different for different people."
South China Morning Post
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How does Candy Crush use AI? Why it ‘makes total sense' for game to use the technology
Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they are solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence (AI). Advertisement The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more confectionery to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush, also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players do not feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be 'extremely difficult', he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass.
The Star
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
How AI helps push Candy Crush players through its most difficult puzzles
LOS ANGELES: Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence. The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush, also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be "extremely difficult," he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass. Within the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods – be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. "We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,' Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. "Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.' In the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to US$51.3bil (RM220.44bil) in 2024, up from US$49.8bil (RM213.99bil) in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says. Candy Crush – first launched on Facebook in 2012 – is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for US$5.9bil. The free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, And The Global Business Of Video Games. Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a "ravenous set of players," he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added. "To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,' he said. "The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.' King uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun "on first contact.' "That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,' he said. "There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new.' Green said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design "loop' of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players. "Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,' he said. "So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.' For most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the "up and down.' Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels – or vice versa – to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added. "We talk to players all the time,' he said. "We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?' To determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate – how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts – and how often a board is "reshuffled,' or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun. "It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective,' Green said. "It's different for different people.' – AP
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How Candy Crush uses AI to keep players coming back to its puzzles
By Sarah Parvini Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence . The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush , also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be "extremely difficult," he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass. Within the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods - be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. "We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with," Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. "Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly." In the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says. Candy Crush - first launched on Facebook in 2012 - is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion. The free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of "One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games." Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a "ravenous set of players," he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added. "To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms," he said. "The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels." King uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun "on first contact." "That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first," he said. "There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new." Green said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design "loop" of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players. "Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand," he said. "So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design." For most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the "up and down." Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels - or vice versa - to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added. "We talk to players all the time," he said. "We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?" To determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate - how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts - and how often a board is "reshuffled," or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun. "It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective," Green said. "It's different for different people."
