Lab Begins Limted Testing of Browser-Based Viewer

 

For those who've been curious about what Second Life would be like if played on a web browser, now's your chance to find out. Yesterday, Thursday January 2, Linden Lab announced it was starting up tests of a browser-based Second Life viewer, inviting residents to give it a try. 

Starting today, Second Life residents can help us test access to Second Life directly through the browser, with no download or GPU required.  Initial testing will use the standard viewer UI, but in the next phase of work we will dramatically simplify the user interface, with the overall goal of greatly improving the accessibility of Second Life for a larger audience.     

To give it a try, residents need to click on zero.secondlife.com. You should then see a screen that looks like the picture on the left. The Lab stated that there will likely be a wait time to log on this way, and that browser sessions are limited to ten minutes.

 

The Lab would go on to say that starting next week, some new residents signing up "will be randomly selected to experience their first Second Life session through their browser during the sign-up process. " 

The Lab is calling the name of the project Project Zero, "because our goal is to reduce to zero the barriers to getting into Second Life:  the system requirements, the possibility of not being able to install or crashing, and the many barriers present to getting accustomed to the interface."

 

Firestorm and other third-party viewers will not be involved. 

 

To read the announcement in full, Click Here. 

 

Hat Tip: Eric Mondrain, Pantera Polnocy

  

Bixyl Shuftan

A Glance At The Archives

 

 The start of the new year means a few things for the Newser. Among them, the place on the front page where our archived articles can be accessed looks a lot neater. Usually there's a long list of articles and months. But every January 1, it gets shortened to just what's up for that day, and the previous years. 

So this is about as neat as it gets every year. And well, as you can see, we've been at it for quite a long time. Stay tuned for more.

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

 

Saturday January 4

 

    ~*~

 

    At 10 AM PST   

    2024 Genome Editing Year in Review

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/genome-editing-2024/

    By Stephen L. Gasior

    Auditorium

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

Linden Lab Announces Then Pauses AI Character Designer

 

Several days ago, Linden Lab announced they were making available an AI Character Designer to Premium-Plus residents. 

We are making the Character Designer available on the main grid for early testing and feedback to Premium Plus residents. While we have completed initial internal evaluations, we encourage all interested residents to explore this alpha release, identify any issues, and share their input so we can continue refining the tool.

What is the Character Designer?

Developed in collaboration with Convai, the Character Designer empowers you to craft, customize, and animate virtual characters within Second Life. This tool is intended for developers, community builders, roleplay enthusiasts, and anyone looking to enhance their inworld experiences through dynamic characters.

Current Capabilities and Intended Use

The Character Designer provides a solid foundation for immersive roleplay, offering a range of features that let you shape and refine the personalities and behaviors of your inworld characters. Current capabilities include:

• Early-Stage Roleplay Support – Characters respond intelligently through IM, adapting and evolving as you interact.
• Custom Personalities and Backstories – Define unique histories, preferences, and communication styles to bring your characters to life.
• Integration with Existing SL Systems – Connect through a dedicated alt account, set arrival points, and fine-tune behavior filters for a seamless inworld experience.

This was quickly mentioned in the forums, where it quickly got hundreds of responses. Some expressed interest in the AIs. Some made jokes, "the thought of Second Life being so dead that they're trying to occupy its antisocial user base with chat bots." Some wondered if Linden Lab was doing this because AI was "the new shinny" thing in technology. But some expressed privacy concerns about private chats being exposed, "f that's not a password harvesting bot, I don't know what is.  NO WE DONT NEED AI." It was also brought up that anyone signing up to use one would be entirely responsible for whatever output it made, even if it wasn't it's creator's idea, "By agreeing to this, the bot, a literal black box I have no control over, can be made to say stupid **** and I would be entirely responsible for it. This is dead on arrival and has no place in Second Life as it's used. No one will want to take the risk that their store bot (perhaps in an adult store) can be coaxed into saying something truly reprehensible by a random stranger and then abuse reported for it, which as this is AI, should be pretty trivial." 

 

Finally after a few days and 17 pages of posts, Darcy Linden announced the new bots were being put on hold.

 

Hey everyone, thank you for posting in this thread and continuing the conversation!

We've taken your feedback and the Character Designer experiment has been paused while we retool.

I bolded experiment as that's what this is, and it's how we want to proceed with new ideas: get it out early, collect feedback, and optimize/terminate.

When we started this test, the goal was NPCs like Greeters, store clerks, quest givers, etc. It's a creator tool. The companions were an attempt to scale down as NPCs will require more work and this space is in its infancy. AI has been in Second Life for years now and this experiment doubles as an investigation into how we facilitate the allowing people to make cool experiences while respecting the rights and privacy of others. 

With that said, many creators have reached out to me personally with excitement and ideas.

———

AI in/for Second Life is NEVER meant to replace people. EVER. It is a tool, to help us connect, create, and explore.

———

This statement isn't a marketing ploy. We all understand the value (and potential dangers) of AI and are taking incremental steps to integrate these tools to help creators make the best experiences without having to toil over servers, load balancing, prompting, model selection/fine-tuning, and of course getting the characters to work in Second Life within the parameters we all deal with each day.

For the creators watching this thread and especially to those who make AI characters for advanced, narrative-driven NPCs in roleplay — we are attempting to make a tool that would potentially have a deeper integration than LSL can provide, and are not in the market to directly compete. If you are interested in shaping this product, I highly encourage you to fill out the following form and we'll be in touch: https://forms.gle/6w1X9PuFsAfsjxJk9 (heads up, I will be reviewing these).

In terms of data collection, the term 'harvesting' data came up. We work very closely with Convai and have complete control over the pipeline. To reiterate, data is not being used to train any models, it's not being shared, sold, or used in any other way other than to return a response. If something like confidential computing (where only you hold the keys to the conversation) is important to you, let us know.. That goes for any additional feature that would give the grid peace of mind

The thread was left open, and people continuing to comment, some expressing a little sadness the experiment was over. As of the writing of this article, it was 25 pages long. 

So for now, Linden Lab's AI experiment is on hold. For how long is unknown. 

To check out the forum thread, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Ringing In The New Year

 

 

 On the evening of Tuesday December 31, Second Life was getting ready to ring in the new year. Among the more noted celebrations was the one at Bay City, which started at 11PM SL time. But many residents couldn't be up that late, and at best would see only the set before the event.

Thankfully, there were other locations where one could celebrate the arrival of the new year. Among them was at the Goblin Cave in Caledon Downs. 

Cynthia Farshore, the owner of the location, would play the songs for the party. 

When the clock struck nine, or Midnight on the East Coast, the dance ball would ring in the new year for that part of the country.

And outside, there were fireworks.

There were of course other New Year's Eve parties. If anyone has pictures of them, please send them in. 

And so not only is it a new year, but a new quarter century. Let's hope it brings good times. 

Happy 2025 Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of The Day: Happy New, What?

 

 

 Taken at the Bouncing Bunny Beach Club. DJ Snowy has a yearly personal tradition of being in a deer avie in December.

Happy New Deer.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Applications Open For Valentines Day Shop And Hop (Until January 3)

 

 It may be New Year's Day. But already Linden Lab is getting ready for Valentine's Day. And those interested in taking part in this event have only a few more days to sign up for it. 

A few days ago, Linden Lab would announce they were accepting applications for their next Shop and Hop event. Taking place from January 31 to February 18, the event will require a number of merchants taking part. So the Lab is inviting them.

As we prepare for an extra special Valentine’s event, we're on the lookout for enthusiastic Merchants ready to join the celebration of love, which runs from January 31st through February 18th, 2025.

We are looking for Merchants willing to offer a discount on their items (at least 20% off) and provide a new non-exclusive gift to shoppers. 

At the announcement says, merchants taking part will need to have their items 20% off or more. They will also have to have at least one new gift , free and available to shoppers regardless of any group they're in. All items up for sale also need to be appropriate for a moderate-rated sim. Those interested need to fill out a form (here), and no later than Friday January 3.

For more information, check the Linden blog (here).