Italy's antitrust regulator Italian Competition Authority ordered Meta to suspend a policy that blocks rival AI chatbots from using WhatsApp's business APIs, citing potential abuse of market dominance. "Meta's conduct appears to constitute an abuse, since it may limit production, market access, or technical developments in the AI Chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers," the Authority wrote. "Moreover, while the investigation is ongoing, Meta's conduct may cause serious and irreparable harm to competition in the affected market, undermining contestability." TechCrunch reports: The AGCM in November had broadened the scope of an existing investigation into Meta, after the company changed its business API policy in October to ban general-purpose chatbots from being offered on the chat app via the API. Meta has argued that its API isn't designed to be a platform for the distribution of chatbots and that people have more avenues beyond WhatsApp to use AI bots from other companies. The policy change, which goes into effect in January, would affect the availability of AI chatbots from the likes of OpenAI, Perplexity, and Poke on the app.

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Fix Grainy, Blurry, Low-Resolution Videos Effortlessly with Aiarty Video Enhancer (Lowest Price for Christmas)

Many photographers today shoot video alongside stills, but video quality doesn’t always meet expectations. Low-light footage often suffers from visible grain, while clips from older cameras and early DSLRs can look soft and outdated on modern displays.

Improving this kind of footage traditionally means complex workflows and inconsistent results. Aiarty Video Enhancer aims to simplify that process.

Designed for photographers and editors, Aiarty Video Enhancer is an all-in-one solution for cleaning up and improving video quality. It combines intelligent upscaling, noise reduction, deblurring, restoration, color correction, and frame interpolation into a streamlined workflow, while still giving users enough control to maintain a natural, photographic look.

Christmas Deal: Aiarty Video Enhancer at the Lowest Price of the Year

To coincide with the holiday season, Aiarty is currently running a Christmas promotion that may be of interest to photographers who want to improve the quality of their videos without committing to a subscription-based tool.

What the Christmas offer includes:

• 36% off the regular price (lifetime license)
• Extra $5 coupon: use code XMASSAVE at checkout

The full lifetime license provides full access to all features, includes lifetime free updates, and can be installed on up to 3 Windows or Mac computers.

For users who prefer a one-time purchase with no recurring fees, this seasonal offer makes Aiarty Video Enhancer a relatively low-risk option to try, especially with a 30-day money-back guarantee in place.

How Aiarty Video Enhancer Fits into Real-World Video Workflows

At its core, Aiarty Video Enhancer is built for photographers who want to improve video quality without turning their footage into something artificial or over-processed.

Instead of relying on a single “one-click” AI approach, it combines multiple optimized AI models with practical user controls, allowing creators to balance quality, speed, and visual realism based on real-world needs.

Optimized AI Models with Performance and Control in Mind

Aiarty uses three specialized AI models, each optimized for different scenarios such as fine-detail restoration and extreme low-light denoising. These models are deeply optimized for modern GPUs, pushing utilization as high as 95%, which translates into noticeably faster processing compared to many similar tools that leave much of the GPU idle.

Equally important, Aiarty does not force users to fully surrender creative control to AI. Features like the Strength slider, Turbo Mode, and Step Mode give photographers the flexibility to decide whether they prioritize speed, maximum quality, or a natural, film-like result.

This balance—powerful automation with meaningful control—is what makes Aiarty particularly well-suited to photographers who occasionally work with video but still care deeply about image integrity.

All processing is done locally and offline, which means better privacy and no cloud uploads or data reuse.

Upscale: Making Camera Footage Fit Modern Workflows

Upscaling is not only about improving old videos. For photographers and editors, it often solves very practical problems in real-world workflows.

In mixed timelines, footage may come from different cameras—for example, a main 4K camera combined with 1080p clips from drones, action cameras, or older DSLRs. High-frame-rate slow-motion footage is also often limited to lower resolutions. Reframing or post-stabilization also inevitably reduces resolution.

Aiarty allows users to upscale videos using common targets such as 1080p, 2K, or 4K, as well as fixed scaling options like 2× or 4×. Instead of simply enlarging pixels, its AI models analyze edges, textures, and patterns to reconstruct missing detail, helping low-resolution clips appear cleaner and more consistent with today’s viewing standards.

Denoise: Reducing Grain in Video and Cleaning Up Audio

Noise is one of the most common problems in camera video, particularly when shooting in low light or at high ISO. Traditional noise reduction often requires adjusting multiple technical parameters and can come at the cost of lost detail.

Aiarty integrates video denoising directly into its enhancement process, automatically reducing noise while preserving edge detail and texture. If the auto enhancement removes too much grain, users can adjust the strength slider to find the optimal balance between cleaner footage and a natural, film-like look.

This approach avoids the hassle of traditional noise reduction while also preventing the overly smooth, plastic appearance that some AI tools often introduce.

In addition to video denoising, Aiarty also includes basic audio noise reduction, helping reduce background hiss or ambient noise in casual recordings and older clips. While not intended to replace dedicated audio software, it provides a practical improvement that makes clips easier to use and more presentable overall.

Deblur and Restore: Improving Clarity When Reshooting Isn’t an Option

Slight blur and softness are common in real-world video, especially with early-generation sensors or less-than-ideal shutter speeds. When reshooting is impossible, restoration becomes the only option.

Aiarty’s deblurring and restoration capabilities focus on recovering perceived clarity rather than aggressively sharpening. By reconstructing edge definition and fine detail where possible, it improves overall sharpness while avoiding halos or harsh artifacts.

The results won’t turn heavily blurred footage into perfectly sharp video, but they can noticeably improve clarity in many real-world scenarios.

Strength Slider: Why Control Matters for Photographers

One of the more important design choices in Aiarty Video Enhancer is the inclusion of a strength slider that controls how strongly the AI enhancement is applied. This may seem like a minor feature, but it plays a significant role in achieving natural-looking results.

AI enhancement is not always a case of “more is better”. Applying too much sharpening or denoising can lead to an artificial look, something photographers are particularly sensitive to. The ability to dial back the effect allows users to find a balance between improved clarity and visual realism.

Color Correction: Fine-Tuning After Enhancement

Basic color correction tools, such as controls for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and color temperature, are included to help refine the final output after AI enhancement.

These tools are not meant to replace full-fledged color grading software. Instead, they allow photographers to make subtle adjustments to ensure that enhanced footage looks balanced and consistent, especially after noise reduction or restoration has altered the image slightly.

When used conservatively, these controls help maintain a natural photographic look while polishing the final result.

Frame Interpolation and Slow Motion: Smoother Motion for Creative Control

Aiarty includes frame interpolation, allowing users to increase frame rates up to 120 fps, and a slow-motion option with adjustable speeds such as 1/2 or 1/4. While not every photographer will need this daily, it can be extremely useful when working with action footage, fast-moving subjects, or older clips originally captured at low frame rates.

By smoothing motion and creating slow-motion effects, this feature gives photographers more creative flexibility, whether for short films, travel videos, or simply making casual clips look more polished and professional.

SDR to HDR: Giving Footage More Depth

For older 8-bit SDR footage, Aiarty offers an optional SDR-to-HDR conversion that outputs 10-bit HDR video. This process can improve color transitions and reduce banding, resulting in smoother gradients and a more refined visual appearance.

When combined with basic color adjustments, this feature can add depth and richness to older clips. It can noticeably enhance the viewing experience on modern HDR-capable displays.

Final Words: Get the Holiday Treat Before It Goes Away!

If you’ve been thinking about improving your video quality, it’s worth trying out Aiarty Video Enhancer to see the results for yourself.

And if you like what you see, take advantage of the Christmas offer and grab Aiarty Video Enhancer and more powerful tools at the lowest price. All licenses work on 3 computers permanently and include lifetime free updates. Act fast—this seasonal promotion is only available for a limited time.

The post Fix Grainy, Blurry, Low-Resolution Videos Effortlessly with Aiarty Video Enhancer (Lowest Price for Christmas) appeared first on Photo Rumors.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Concerned that artificial intelligence could threaten Communist Party rule, Beijing is taking extraordinary steps to keep it under control. Although China's government sees AI as crucial to the country's economic and military future, regulations and recent purges of online content show it also fears AI could destabilize society. Chatbots pose a particular problem: Their ability to think for themselves could generate responses that spur people to question party rule. In November, Beijing formalized rules it has been working on with AI companies to ensure their chatbots are trained on data filtered for politically sensitive content, and that they can pass an ideological test before going public. All AI-generated texts, videos and images must be explicitly labeled and traceable, making it easier to track and punish anyone spreading undesirable content. Authorities recently said they removed 960,000 pieces of what they regarded as illegal or harmful AI-generated content during three months of an enforcement campaign. Authorities have officially classified AI as a major potential threat, adding it alongside earthquakes and epidemics to its National Emergency Response Plan. Chinese authorities don't want to regulate too much, people familiar with the government's thinking said. Doing so could extinguish innovation and condemn China to second-tier status in the global AI race behind the U.S., which is taking a more hands-off approach toward policing AI. But Beijing also can't afford to let AI run amok. Chinese leader Xi Jinping said earlier this year that AI brought "unprecedented risks," according to state media. A lieutenant called AI without safety like driving on a highway without brakes. There are signs that China is, for now, finding a way to thread the needle. Chinese models are scoring well in international rankings, both overall and in specific areas such as computer coding, even as they censor responses about the Tiananmen Square massacre, human-rights concerns and other sensitive topics. Major American AI models are for the most part unavailable in China. It could become harder for DeepSeek and other Chinese models to keep up with U.S. models as AI systems become more sophisticated. Researchers outside of China who have reviewed both Chinese and American models also say that China's regulatory approach has some benefits: Its chatbots are often safer by some metrics, with less violence and pornography, and are less likely to steer people toward self-harm. "The Communist Party's top priority has always been regulating political content, but there are people in the system who deeply care about the other social impacts of AI, especially on children," said Matt Sheehan, who studies Chinese AI at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. "That may lead models to produce less dangerous content on certain dimensions."

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Longtime Slashdot reader MrFreak shares a public radio interview from 2015 discussing artificial intelligence as inference over abstract inputs, along with scaling limits, automation, and governance models, where for-profit engines are constrained by nonprofit oversight: Recorded months before OpenAI was founded, the conversation treats intelligence as math plus incentives rather than something mystical, touching on architectural bottlenecks, why "reasoning" may not simply emerge from brute force, labor displacement, and institutional design for advanced AI systems. Many of the themes align closely with current debates around large language models and AI governance. The recording was revisited following recent remarks by Sergey Brin at Stanford, where he acknowledged that despite Google's early work on Transformers, institutional hesitation and incentive structures limited how aggressively the technology was pursued. The interview provides an earlier, first-principles perspective on how abstraction, scaling, and organizational design might interact once AI systems begin to compound.

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