Matthew Perry cut a key Friends storyline over fear fans would 'never forgive' Chandler
Matthew Perry was ready to fight for his most iconic character’s reputation, a fellow ‘Friends’ actor has revealed. Lisa Cash, 54, who was an extra in the series, opened up about how her role in the show was changed and trimmed down thanks to Perry’s intervention – but she thinks it was the right decision. Speaking to TMZ, Cash explained that Chandler Bing (played by Perry) was supposed to cheat on his wife Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) during a Season 5 episode titled ‘The One in Vegas: Part 1’. Cash was hired to play a hotel worker who brings room service to Chandler’s room after he has a major fight with Monica, and the two were supposed to have a secret tryst. “Basically, the scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing In Vegas about Monica having lunch with Richard (Monica’s ex) and initially in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room, orders room service and I bring it up as a hotel worker,” the 54-year-old recounted. “And we end up talking and laughing and connecting and… Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character.” However, Perry knew his audience too well, and insisted that ‘Friends’ fanatics would be up in arms if the storyline were to go ahead. “We had rehearsed it and everything and then the day before we were shooting it in front of a live audience, I was told that Chandler went to the writers and said the fans will never forgive him for cheating on Monica.” She then conceded: “He was probably right. That would have changed possibly the course of the show and of his character.” Matthew Perry Removed 'Friends' Script Plans To Have Chandler Cheat On Monica | TMZ www.youtube.com Cash admitted that the axed role could have been a “game-changer” for her career, but said she was grateful for not being completely cut from the episode. Instead, she was given the part of a flight attendant who interacts with Ross and Rachel (David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston). Indeed, the 54-year-old was full of praise for ‘Friends’s staff and crew, particularly the late great Perry. “It was just so neat to work with him because I was coming in and I was new to the industry and it could have been really intimidating for me,” she explained. “But I just felt so comfortable and he was really likeable and welcoming and just made me feel at ease.” Cash’s revelation came as Perry’s fans and family continue to grieve the comic icon following his shock death, aged 54, on 28 October. The 17 Again star was reportedly laid to rest on Friday (3 November), at a LA cemetery in a service attended by his loved-ones, including his five most famous co-stars: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. Mourners gathered at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills neighbourhood, less than a mile from the Warner Brothers studio where ‘Friends’ was filmed. The cause and manner of Perry's death are to be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office, upon completion of an autopsy with toxicology tests. His tragic passing came just one year after the publication of his memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,’ which chronicled his decades-long struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol. At the time, Perry said he had been sober for about 18 months. Also on Friday, a foundation in Perry's name was launched to support people struggling with addiction. The Matthew Perry Foundation "will honour his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible," according its website. The site leads with a quote from Perry, saying: "When I die, I don't want 'Friends' to be the first thing that's mentioned - I want helping others to be the first thing that's mentioned." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings
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Apple Watch users say battery is mysteriously draining far too quickly
Apple is working to fix for a mysterious and significant battery problem in the latest version of the operating system for its Watch, a report has claimed. Across a variety of forums including Apple’s own support pages, users have reported that their Watches are rapidly losing their charge. Some users report that even the Apple Watch Ultra – which is intended to run for up to 36 hours thanks to its larger case and battery – can fully use all its charge in three hours. The issue appears specific to be the latest update, numbered WatchOS 10.1. That arrived in late October and brought changes including the addition of the new Apple Watch’s headline feature. Now the company is reportedly working on an update that should fix those problems, according to an internal memo seen by Macrumors. Apple has not publicly confirmed that it is working on the update or when it might arrive. Apple has seemingly looked to fix at least some of the problems already. In the recently released iOS 17.1 update for the iPhone, it said that it had addressed “increased power consumption” when the two devices are paired, but that appears not to have fully fixed the issue. Apple is currently testing WatchOS 10.2, which might not be released for months. But the company sometimes pushes out smaller and less substantial updates to address bugs and other problems such as the the phantom battery drain. The issue might also be related to specific apps. Some users reported that uninstalling the app “MobyFace” – which allows people to customise their watch faces – helped stop the battery draining. Specific apps have caused problems for Apple devices in the past, presumably as a result of a conflict between the software and the devices operating system. Amid widespread reports that new iPhone 15s were getting hotter than expect last month, for instance, Apple suggested that at least part of the problem was with Instagram, though it was also able to fix some of those issues with a software update. Read More The Apple Watch has a major issue but Apple is working on a fix Something is happening with Apple’s Mac and iPads Apple just revealed a new MacBook Pro – with a new colour
1970-01-01 08:00
Grok vs ChatGPT: How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ AI compares to ‘woke’ alternatives
Less than eight months after discouraging companies from developing advanced artificial intelligence, Elon Musk has unveiled his answer to “woke” AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The tech billionaire claims his new Grok AI is both smarter and funnier than its rivals, offering paid users of X (formerly Twitter) the chance to ask it “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems”. The X boss offered an example of how it will answer “almost anything”, sharing a screenshot of a user asking it how to make cocaine. “Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak,” a blog post announcing its launch noted. “Please don’t use it if you hate humour!” What differentiates it from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard is that it has access to real-time data from X, which Mr Musk took over almost exactly a year ago. Before the takeover, AI firms were using Twitter as a data set to train its models, however the tech billionaire shut this down following the release of ChatGPT last November. Initially labelled “TruthGPT”, Grok takes its name from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land, meaning understanding something thoroughly and intuitively, while the tone of its responses are modelled on the same writing style as Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But with X as its training set, Grok risks mimicking the same misinformation and toxic discourse that has plagued the platform since before Musk’s takeover. Not only does it adopt a more informal tone to its rivals, Grok also appears to have less safety filters preventing it from answering questions about sensitive topics. Despite claiming that Grok outperforms ChatGPT, which is freely available, xAI did acknowledge that it does not yet match the capabilities of OpenAI’s more powerful GPT-4 model – which carries a similar monthly fee to Grok. In its own in-house tests, xAI graded Grok against GPT-4 on the 2023 Hungarian national high school finals in mathematics. Grok passed the exam with a mark of 59 per cent, while GPT-4 scored 68 per cent. In March this year, Mr Musk was among hundreds of leading tech figures to add their name to an open letter calling on all AI labs to pause the training of AI systems. The letter warned that artificial intelligence with “human-competitive intelligence” could pose “profound risks to society and humanity”, potentially leading to the loss of control of human civilisation and even its extinction. This letter of discouragement looks increasingly like a plea to allow his own companies – which include the newly formed xAI – to catch up. Just weeks before signing it, Mr Musk was approaching AI researchers to form xAI, with the explicit intention of taking on ChatGPT. The world’s richest person had been instrumental in the formation of OpenAI in 2015 but cut ties after it became a for-profit endeavour. His team included researchers from OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind, who had experience in developing large language models (LLMs) that power AI chatbots. The reason he cited for creating his own chatbot was due to apparent fears that these tech companies were creating “woke” AI systems. “The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly,” he tweeted last December in reply to a post by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. The new chatbot fits in with Musk’s broader goals that he is hoping to achieve with his other companies, including SpaceX’s mission to transform humanity into a multi-planetary species “Unless the woke mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit, and anti-human in general, is stopped, civilisation will never become multiplanetary,” Mr Musk said. In justifying why it built Grok, xAI said its goal was to create a tool that “maximally benefits all of humanity”. The blog post explained: “We believe that it is important to design AI tools that are useful to people of all backgrounds and political views.” Read More How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT Musk shares cocaine recipe in effort to prove Grok AI is ‘rebellious’ Elon Musk unveils new sarcasm-loving AI chatbot for premium X subscribers 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity Musk shares cocaine recipe in effort to prove Grok AI is ‘rebellious’
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Musk shares cocaine recipe in effort to prove Grok AI is ‘rebellious’
Elon Musk has shared instructions for how to turn coca leaves into cocaine in a bid to promote his company’s new “rebellious” AI chatbot Grok. The Tesla and X boss unveiled the new artificial intelligence over the weekend, claiming that its access to real-time data from his social media platform makes it superior to rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard. “Grok has real-time access to info via the X platform, which is a massive advantage over other models,” Mr Musk said. “It’s also based and loves sarcasm. I have no idea who could have guided it this way,” he added, together with a shrug emoji and a crying laughing emoji. The tech billionaire shared a screenshot of Grok offering a “humorous” step-by-step guide to making cocaine, which included instructions like “start cooking and hope you don’t blow yourself up or get arrested”. He followed it up with a separate screenshot offering more detailed instructions on how to produce the Class A drug from its raw materials. Mr Musk released the chatbot, which was developed by his new AI company xAI, just six months after signing an open letter calling on companies to pause development of artificial intelligence systems for six months. “I signed on to that letter knowing it was futile,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “I just wanted to be on record as recommending a pause.” Its unveiling also comes just days after Mr Musk warned that AI is “one of the biggest threats to humanity” at a global AI safety summit in Bletchley Park, hosted by Rishi Sunak. Grok is currently only available to paying subscribers to X Premium, though Mr Musk said that a standalone app for the xAI chatbot will be released in the future. XAI claimed in a blog post that its bot is more powerful than freely available rivals like ChatGPT and Bard, however admitted that it lags behind premium versions of the technology like OpenAI’s GPT-4. “We hand-graded our model on the 2023 Hungarian national high school finals in mathematics,” the blog post noted. “Grok passed the exam with a C (59 per cent), while... GPT-4 got a B with 68 per cent.” Read More How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT Musk shares cocaine recipe in effort to prove Grok AI is ‘rebellious’ How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT Elon Musk claims AI will overtake humans 'in less than five years'
1970-01-01 08:00
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