To promote the 2018 Lexus LC, Lexus partnered with Marvel to create a graphic novel incorporating the new car into the mythical Black Panther world. On Tuesday, October 24, the first four chapters of the exclusive graphic novel Black Panther: Soul of a Machine were released online.
In Soul of a Machine, the city of Wakanda has had all of its systems infiltrated by the man-turned-artificial-intelligence evildoer Machinesmith, threatening to model civilization into his idea of perfection. Working with Wakanda king, T’Challa — better known as Black Panther — and his sister Shuri, six Wakandan science apprentices and six Takumi Masters try to engineer a way to thwart Machinesmith’s plan, and somehow a Lexus car is the answer.
The first four chapters are a breeze to get through, with each chapter being 10 pages long. Former Marvel Comics writers Fabian Nicieza, Chuck Brown, Geoffrey Thorne each wrote one of the chapters, with Nicieza helming chapters 1 and 4. Comic book artists Andrea Di Vito, José Luis García-López, J.L. Giles, and Mike Bowden were responsible for bringing the stories to life on the digital pages. Together, these creatives have worked on iconic Marvel comic book titles such as X-Men, Civil War II, and World War Hulk: X-Men.
In chapter one of Soul of a Machine, the evil Machinesmith gains access to Wakanda’s data center after infiltrating shareware headsets which allow everyone wearing one to have their thoughts and beings connected to one another. Chapter 2 finds Black Panther stalling Machinesmith’s plan by presenting the apocalyptic A.I. with a logic question it could not answer, thus locking it out of Wakanda’s system. The remaining two chapters deal with the team of scientists infiltrating Machinesmith’s inner thoughts and designing a version of the 2018 Lexus LC car meant to be the answer to their problems.
Outside of the pages, Lexus also created a Black Panther-inspired version of its 2018 Lexus LC car. The car is tricked out with side-view mirrors resembling Black Panther’s signature claws, the Black Panther mask slapped on the hood, and what Lexus describes as “vibranium-infused self-healing paint treatment.” No need to save up your coins for this beauty, because the car is simply a concept project and will not be available for purchase. But, you will be able to get up, close and personal with it at the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show (SEMA) in Las Vegas on October 31.
The website indicates the next four chapters will be available on November 12. The full novel is expected to be released in December. It will surely get people in the Wakanda mood for the upcoming Black Panther film set to hit theaters February 16, 2018.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.