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The newly launched Swarm framework from developers at OpenAI is an experimental tool designed to orchestrate networks of AI agents, and it’s been making waves in the tech community. Unlike other multi-agent frameworks, Swarm aims to provide a blend of simplicity, flexibility and control that sets it apart. Although still in its early stages, Swarm offers a fresh take on agent collaboration, with core concepts like “routines” and “handoffs” to guide agents through collaborative tasks.
While Swarm is not an official OpenAI product nor is intended as a production-ready tool, it provides valuable insights into the potential of multi-agent systems in enterprise automation. Its key focus is on simplifying agent interactions, which is achieved through the Chat Completions API. This stateless design means agents do not retain memory between interactions, contributing to Swarm’s simplicity but limiting its use for complex decision-making tasks that require contextual memory.
Instead, developers need to implement their own memory solutions, which offer both challenges and opportunities for customization. This balance of simplicity and control is a major point of attraction for developers interested in learning about or building multi-agent orchestration systems.
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A lightweight approach for developers
Swarm is distinct in its lightweight design, focusing on ease of understanding and implementation. This approach gives developers more granular control over execution steps and tool calls, making it easier to experiment with agent interactions and orchestrations. Compared to other frameworks like LangChain or CrewAI, Swarm’s stateless model is easier to grasp, which makes it accessible for those who are new to multi-agent systems.
However, the lack of built-in memory management is a noted limitation. To achieve more sophisticated agent behavior, developers must implement external memory solutions. Despite this, Swarm’s emphasis on transparency and modularity has been praised for enabling developers to tailor agent behaviors and extend the framework based on their needs
Guiding collaboration with routines and handoffs
At the heart of Swarm are the concepts of “routines” and “handoffs,” which are mechanisms designed to help agents carry out collaborative tasks in an organized manner. A routine is a set of instructions that agents follow to complete specific actions, while handoffs allow for seamless transitions between agents, each specializing in particular functions.
This structured approach to agent interactions allows developers to create dynamic, multi-step processes where tasks are handled by the agent best suited for each step. Examples include customer service systems where triage agents manage initial contact before passing on specific queries to agents specialized in sales, support or refunds. This adaptability makes Swarm particularly useful for building applications that require multiple, specialized capabilities to work together.
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Addressing limitations: The role of state and memory
Despite its promising features, Swarm’s lack of internal support for state and memory limits its effectiveness in complex decision-making based on past interactions. For instance, in a sales scenario, a stateful system would allow agents to track customer history across interactions—a capability that Swarm, in its current form, does not provide.
The release of Swarm has also sparked ethical discussions about its potential impact on the workforce and the broader implications of AI-driven automation. While Swarm aims to make sophisticated multi-agent systems more accessible, its capability to replace human tasks raises concerns about job displacement and fairness. Security experts have also highlighted the need for robust safeguards to prevent misuse or malfunction within these autonomous agent networks.
However, the decision to open-source Swarm has created an opportunity for community-driven development, potentially leading to novel uses and improvements. As developers experiment with Swarm, they contribute to the growing understanding of how multi-agent orchestration can be leveraged to solve real-world problems, particularly in enterprise environments where automation can drive efficiency and allow human workers to focus on more strategic initiatives.
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Memes have become a common form of humor in the digital realm, especially among younger generations. Now, memes are even shared to express certain feelings or actions in one’s life, making them a popular way to laugh with others online.
Memenetic allows users to create and share their memes with the world. This is especially popular among Gen Z, who use memes frequently to communicate with friends.
The humble beginnings of memes
Memes initially became popular during the internet’s popularity from the 1990s to the early 2000s, when users shared laughs in chat rooms or over email. One of the first widespread memes was a gif of a dancing baby, which even made its way onto television, demonstrating its worldwide popularity.
After that, bold, white font captioned images became popular. This format is still popular today, although it is often used ironically for younger generations. Websites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram can be accredited with popularizing meme-sharing amongst online users.
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Memes’ evolution
Although memes were once used as jokes, they are now mainstream cultural references. Popular memes like the peanut butter baby and the “this is fine” cartoon dog are references that younger generations quickly recognize. Being exposed to these memes numerous times makes them easy to refer to in a digital age where everyone can access the same findings.
Memes ultimately reflect societal changes—what was once a humorous take on unserious topics has become a way to demonstrate political and social commentaries. Sharing memes goes beyond simple jokes and is now essential for younger audiences to speak their minds.
Memes in mainstream pop culture
As older forms of media adapt to modern interests, it’s evident that memes are prevalent in talk shows, TV shows, movies, and advertisements. Ads have become increasingly meme-centered, making light of their products and using humor to attract people’s attention.
“Brain rot” is a popular term that makes fun of the low-quality media people consume. Yet, large franchises are taking advantage of this opportunity, using “brain rot” to make fun of themselves for advertising purposes. Memes have become a central part of communication worldwide.
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The rise of Memenetic
Understanding and creating memes to communicate with others is more important than ever. Memenetic allows people to create their own memes, allowing them to show off their creativity, humor, originality, and opinions.
Memes are so prevalent that Memenetic saw over 467,289 memes downloaded from their platform in the first week of their launch. There’s no doubt that people are interested in a place where they can be creative and share others’ creativity.
The future of memes is here
Worldwide, internet users will continue to see memes shape communication and entertainment. Memes will undoubtedly integrate with rising technology like virtual reality and AI-powered platforms, solidifying their place in culture.
Memenetic hopes to become a centralized platform for people to find relevant, funny memes and create inspiring content. As memes have grown, platforms are arising to meet the growing desire for meme-forward content. Memenetics can become a powerful tool to help shape future viral memes.
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VentureBeat newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.
Google announced today that it has signed a deal with nuclear startup Kairos Power to build seven small reactors to supply electricity to its data centers. The agreement promises to add around 500 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at a time when energy demand for data centers and AI is surging.
The new power plants are scheduled to come online by the end of the decade, according to Google. It’s not clear whether the reactors would hook up to Google’s sites directly — an arrangement known as “behind the meter” — or if they would feed into the grid with Google claiming the carbon-free power by way of its agreement with Kairos.
With the deal, Google joins Microsoft and Amazon in turning to nuclear power to satiate its thirst for electricity. In September, Microsoft announced that it would pay Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island that was shuttered in 2019. Earlier this year, Amazon said it would build a hyperscale data center and directly connect it to another nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
If Kairos can hit the 2030 deadline, it would be a slight revision to a recent forecast: as recently as July, the company was targeting commercial operations by “the early 2030s,” according to an article published by the U.S. Department of Energy. Even if Kairos can hit the revised target, it’s locked in a race with fusion startups, many of which are aiming to turn on commercial-scale power plants before 2035.
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Kairos is one of a new breed of nuclear startups that are building so-called small-modular reactors (SMR) in an attempt to lower the cost and speed the construction of nuclear power plants.
Most nuclear plants are massive installations, supplying 1,000 megawatts or more but taking years to plan and nearly a decade to build. The newest fission reactors in the U.S., Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia, were commissioned in 2023 and 2024, respectively, snapping a seven year drought (the next newest reactor was commissioned in 2016). Still, they were seven years late and $17 billion over budget.
SMR startups are attempting to build nuclear power plants faster and cheaper by using mass production techniques to bring down costs and speed construction. Kairos tries to advance the technology a step further by cooling the reactor not with water but molten salts of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the startup’s plans for a 35-megawatt demonstration reactor, something that has eluded Oklo, another SMR startup.
Despite the regulatory nod, Kairos still faces significant challenges. No commercial small-modular reactors have been commissioned yet, which means the economics remain largely unproven. On top of that, Kairos’s molten salt design bucks decades of industry experience with water-cooled reactors.
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But Kairos’s biggest challenge might not be technical at all. While 56% of Americans say they favor nuclear power, according to both Pew Research, 44% remain opposed. The number opposed might rise when reactor sites are picked; the Pew survey only asked people if the U.S. should use expand nuclear power generally, not in their backyards. What’s more, while support for nuclear power is near a recent high, far more people support wind and solar, two technologies that are available today and cost far less than new nuclear power plants.
Notice and apology regarding the leak of personal information due to unauthorized access
Game Freak Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Satoshi Tajiri, hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) has discovered that the personal information of our employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to our server by a third party in August 2024.
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We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience and concern caused to all concerned parties.
1. Leaked personal information
Personal data regarding our employees, etc.*
Items: Name, company email address
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Number of cases: 2,606
*Our employees, contracted business workers (including G-appointed employees and former employees)
2. Response to those whose personal information has been confirmed to have been leaked
We are contacting the relevant employees, etc. individually.
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For those who cannot be contacted individually due to resignation, etc., we will notify them through this announcement and set up a hotline to handle inquiries regarding this matter.
3. Measures to prevent recurrence
We have already rebuilt and re-inspected our servers, but we will work to prevent recurrence by further strengthening our security measures.
4. Inquiries regarding this matter
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Inquiries from those affected by this matter can be made through the hotline below.
Do you have an idea for a song but are not sure how to write it? Maybe you just have some lyrics you want to put a tune to? A new free AI music generator called Tad AI offers you a chance to bring those ideas to life, producing royalty-free songs in seconds with minimal input. The relatively simple interface produces some pretty impressive results. Whether it can thread the needle and avoid the issues causing legal and ethical headaches for Suno, Udio, and other AI music generators remains to be seen.
Tad AI provides various levels of assistance in writing music. It’s similar to its rivals but is notably intuitive in how you produce the song. You can describe how you want the song to sound in as much detail as you choose, but Tad AI does have quite a lot of musical genres and moods you can select from that are already available. The genre options obviously relate to the genre of the tune, but the mood-based list of options can vary the tone within that genre, as a rock or rap song could be sad, romantic, or angry while still being the same genre.
Along with the music, you can also ask Tad AI to write lyrics that match a written prompt. The AI will produce the lyrics based on your intent or the theme. You can also write your own lyrics. Then, you just need a title, and the AI will do the rest.
After playing around with it for a bit, I produced the song below. The music is all Tad AI, but I wrote the lyrics after the first few attempts by Tad AI didn’t really hit the spot for me. They did inspire me though, and if Tad AI was a human, I’d co-credit them with the arrangement at least and probably have to negotiate over lyric rights. You can listen to it below and hear it at this link.
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Royalty (and lawsuit) free?
As AI music generators become more prominent and roll out new features like Suno’s genre remixer and its mobile app, the issue of lawsuits from major music labels is only likely to get more complex. That’s why one of the major selling points for Tad AI is its ability to generate royalty-free music if you sign up for its paid plans. If Tad AI’s promise of 100% original compositions is backed up fully, the appeal to aspiring music creators, not to mention brands on a budget, is obvious.
Songs without potential legal challenges or licensing fees are music to the ears of those looking to save on costs. It might even be helpful with existing content on platforms like YouTube, which recently launched a tool that can remove copyrighted music from your video without taking it down completely. You could instead replace it with something from Tad AI.
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You can use Tad AI for free, though you only get a limited number of credits, and each song costs about five credits. If you want more, you can sign up for the basic plan at $10 a month and get 1,000 credits, about 200 songs, and three concurrent songs produced. The Pro plan for $30 a month gets you 3,000 credits, six concurrent songs produced and even faster song generation. You have to pay for the full royalty-free track access, so that’s probably where anyone looking to use the tool professionally will go.
This month sees a very special visitor to the skies over Earth: a comet that only passes by once every 80,000 years. The last time this comet passed Earth, Neanderthals populated the planet, hunting with stone tools. Now, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has been photographed on its journey around the sun by humans living in orbit in the International Space Station.
The comet made its closest pass of the sun on September 27, but is even more visible in the sky now as it passes by Earth. ISS astronauts have tracked the comet as it approaches, and the next few days should offer the best chance for those of us here on the surface to see this remarkable sight streaking through the sky.
“Though the comet is very old, it was just discovered in 2023, when it approached the inner solar system on its highly elliptical orbit for the first time in documented human history,” NASA wrote in an update. “Beginning in mid-October 2024, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) will become visible low in the west following sunset. If the comet’s tail is well-illuminated by sunlight, it could be visible to the unaided eye. Oct. 14-24 is the best time to observe, using binoculars or a small telescope.”
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured this timelapse photo of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from the International Space Station as it orbited 272 miles above the South Pacific Ocean southeast of New Zealand just before sunrise on September 28, 2024. At the time, the comet was about 44 million miles away from Earth.NASA/Matthew Dominick
As well as the image above, taken by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, some NASA missions have also caught glimpses of the comet. A striking image was taken as the comet passed the NASA/European Space Agency’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which orbits the sun and saw this blazing view of the comet on October 10.
The tail of comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS spanned the view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on October 10, 2024.ESA/NASA
Comets have their distinctive tails because of their composition. Unlike asteroids, which are made of rock, comets are made of a mixture of rock and ice. As they get close to the sun, the comet warms up and this ice sublimates into gas, creating the stunning tail.
However, this effect also makes comets’ brightness and lifespan hard to predict as they can break up depending on how much ice material they hold and how quickly they disintegrate. There had been hopes that this comet would be a super-bright “comet of the century,” but this is still a relatively dim object in the sky. According to space.com, the comet may already be breaking up and may not survive for much longer. So if you’re hoping to get a glimpse of this ancient wonder, you better move fast.
With shares of his nascent social media business in the midst of a sharp rebound and with just three weeks until the presidential election, Donald Trump is bringing his latest proposed money-making endeavor to market, this time in crypto.
On Tuesday, the former president and current Republican nominee aims to launch WLFI, the token accompanying his new crypto project called World Liberty Financial. Over the weekend, Trump pumped the sale in a post on X, telling his followers that it’s a “chance to help shape the future of finance.”
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Prospective investors can be forgiven for having little idea about what they’re being asked to support.
People involved with WLF have described it as a sort of crypto bank, where customers will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto. No official white paper or formal business plan has been released to the public, and about all that’s been disclosed is that investing in the project will give users voting rights over the yet-to-be-launched WLF platform.
In a roadmap given to prospective investors that was first viewed by The Block, the WLF proposal says the coin is looking to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its initial sale. CNBC reached out to WLF for comment but didn’t hear back.
World Liberty Financial is separate and apart from Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. Trump Media, known by ticker symbol DJT, started trading in March, after going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). It’s been a rocky road for the stock, which peaked at close to $80 in late March, before falling all the way down to $12.15 last month.
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But since bottoming on Sept. 23, DJT shares are up close to 150% at $29.95, giving the company a market cap of $6 billion. That’s on revenue of less than $1 million a quarter and after the company lost more than $16 million in the latest period.
The Nasdaq Market site is seen on the day that shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group start trading under the ticker “DJT”, in New York City, U.S., March 26, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
While DJT shares can be purchased by anyone, the digital coin WLFI will be a Regulation D token offering, following a provision that makes it possible to raise capital without first registering a security with the SEC. Certain conditions must be met, such as limiting the size of the sale and restricting it to accredited investors, defined in part as having a net worth of over $1 million.
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Trump owns about 57% of DJT’s outstanding shares, but his potential control over World Liberty Financial is more opaque. WLF’s website, which is currently a landing page to register for know-your-customer verification to buy the coin, includes some of the fine print that indicates the financial incentive for the founders.
Co-founder Zachary Folkman, who previously had a company called Date Hotter Girls and reportedly helped develop crypto project Dough Finance, has said that 20% of WLF’s tokens would be allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trump family.
And there appears to be another way they can make money.
“DT Marks DEFI, LLC and its affiliates including Donald J. Trump and his family members has or may receive tokens from World Liberty Financial, and will be entitled to receive significant fees for services provided to World Liberty Financial, which amount cannot yet be determined,” the website says.
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On Monday, less than 24 hours before the planned token launch, the WLF team convened a conversation on X Spaces to share details of the sale. About 12,000 people tuned in to listen to the more than hourlong chat about the overarching goals of the project.
Folkman reiterated what he said in a prior Spaces event, telling attendees that WLFI is a governance token that allows holders to vote on decisions regarding the protocol, including initiatives like promotional partnerships. He said token ownership “isn’t equity” and “doesn’t represent economic right.”
Folkman said the token sale will exclusively take place on World Liberty’s website, and that only those who had been whitelisted after signing up will be able to participate. He said “well over 100,000 people” are on the whitelist and that it’s not too late to register. Folkman added that WLF would publish the “long-awaited” roadmap for the project on Tuesday, in tandem with the token sale.
Last week, WLF began the process of getting its crypto bank approved by the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem known as Aave.
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Aave is open source and, in DeFi, is one of the longest-running and most-trusted crypto lending platforms.
“The protocol itself is permissionless, so I’m kind of less opinionated about integrations, because that’s the whole idea of decentralized finance,” Aave founder Stani Kulechov told CNBC in an interview at the Permissionless Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Kulechov joined Monday’s X event and said he’s “excited that WLF is using and relying on” Aave.
‘”That’s a strong signal that what we build is fairly useful, so we’re super excited,” he said.
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In a 400-word post to Aave’s governance forum, the WLF team presented a brief outline of its objectives, which include promoting “DeFi to a wider audience through its marketing efforts,” and introducing “a new class of users to over-collateralized borrowing and lending.” The proposal is currently at the preliminary stage of consideration known as “Temp Check,” and Aave’s users are able to comment on the plan.
In the comments section, a number of users raised concern over the project’s deep ties to the Trump family.
“I believe this proposal poses significant risk to the Aave protocol for little gain,” according to one comment that’s since been deleted. The commenter then questioned the rationale of having “the largest and most trusted protocol in DeFi” working with a group led “by people of questionable backgrounds … including several convicted criminals.”
Folkman helped start WLF with long-time business partner Chase Herro. CoinDesk reported that the pair previously worked on Dough Finance, which was also built on top of Aave and suffered a $2 million hack in July. Herro also launched another crypto trading business a decade ago called Pacer Capital, which appears to now be defunct.
For World Liberty to proceed, it must pass multiple rounds of consideration and approval, each decided by a vote among existing AAVE token holders.
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At this stage in the process, the token sale is akin to an IOU. Those who buy in now have a claim to the token if and when the platform is approved and launched.
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