AI Research

Mandrake – the rural life sim that lets you befriend a river and eavesdrop on the dead | Games

Published

4 weeks ago

August 12, 2025

With dulcet Welsh tones, an actor bearing an uncanny aural resemblance to Michael Sheen introduces players to the world of Mandrake. The village of Chandley is “small” and “complicated”, he says warmly. “Everyone’s got their own story.” The action cuts between cosy, wooden cottages and a moss-covered forest filled with folkloric creatures. We see the protagonist, a horticulturist wizard “steeped in the green and growing arts”, returning home and tending to an abundance of vegetables. Some you’ll find in your local supermarket; others are of a decidedly more magical variety.

As a rural life simulation, Mandrake is odder and more beguiling than most. It possesses the same undeniable allure as classics such as Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, inviting players to slip into the seasonal flow of crop cultivation, countryside exploration and conversations with suspiciously cheerful townsfolk. But there’s more going on here: lush, painterly visuals to start. And should you tire of tilling the soil, you might wander off the beaten path of this mythical, Brythonic-inspired land, perhaps eavesdropping on the dead or even befriending a river.

Cosy cultivation … Mandrake. Photograph: Failbetter Games

Weirdness is to be expected in a new release from Failbetter, the boutique UK studio behind acclaimed titles Fallen London and Sunless Sea. Set in a shared fictional universe, that narrative RPG and moody survival experience, respectively, were masterclasses in evocative prose and captivating world-building. London became “Fallen”, submerged in a darkened underworld called the Neath, newly situated on the coast of a vast, black ocean – the so-called Unterzee.

These games, horrifying and hilarious in nearly equal measure, were rooted in a deft sense of place. Mandrake foregrounds location in a friendlier, more accessible way. The beauty of the rural life sim, as game director Adam Myers sees it, is that “you’re able to zoom in on one community over time”. Across days, nights and seasons, the player bears witness to a changing place and its people. You go from a sense of total unfamiliarity, says Myers, to having developed a deep knowledge of the environment.

But Mandrake aims to eschew the genre’s grindier tendencies – cultivating acres of wheat and making multiple daily meals. “It isn’t optimal to grow your crops in large rectangular monocultures,” says Myers. “And you’re not doing the thing where you click 30 times and carry a banquet’s worth of ratatouille around in your inventory at all times.”

Complicating rural the rural sim … Mandrake. Photograph: Failbetter Games

Gift-giving, the typical way players ingratiate themselves with their NPC neighbours in this genre, arrives with a wrinkle. Players cannot just hand out presents randomly (“That’s a little awkward,” laughs Myers). Instead, they must declare why they are handing out their offerings. This forms the start of a relationship based on obligation.

The aim is to not just replicate the pattern seen in other rural life sims, but “complicate” it, both through thoughtful mechanics and an unusual set of influences. Myers talks enthusiastically of anthropology, British folklore and esoteric traditions such as Renaissance alchemy. The world is filled with quirky and mysterious lore: it is inhabited by “quasi-monastic organisations” and despite the Welsh influences in the landscape, there is an eerie absence of sheep.

The comforting rituals of the rural life sim seem to function as a Trojan horse for Failbetter’s peculiar and offbeat tendencies. “One of the error patterns we’ve fallen into in the past is going too weird, too fast, too soon,” admits Myers. “We need to give players more stable ground to stand on so they can make sense of everything – put the pieces together to properly appreciate what’s unusual and strange.”

Ominous creatures undoubtedly lurk in these ancient woods; villagers are likely to conceal many portentous secrets. It’s reasonable to assume that Myers’s and his colleagues’ taste for the macabre surfaces in some manner. But there’s a crucial difference, a concession, perhaps, to maintaining what he hopes is a welcoming and “emotionally gentle” tone: unlike some of Failbetter’s other games, death doesn’t lurk quite so close to your shoulder. Or as Myers puts it, “you probably won’t be able to get yourself eaten in this one”.

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AI Research

Who is Shawn Shen? The Cambridge alumnus and ex-Meta scientist offering $2M to poach AI researchers

Published

3 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Apeksha Tanwar

Shawn Shen, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Memories.ai, has made headlines for offering compensation packages worth up to $2 million to attract researchers from top technology companies. In a recent interview with Business Insider, Shen explained that many scientists are leaving Meta, the parent company of Facebook, due to constant reorganisations and shifting priorities.“Meta is constantly doing reorganizations. Your manager and your goals can change every few months. For some researchers, it can be really frustrating and feel like a waste of time,” Shen told Business Insider, adding that this is a key reason why researchers are seeking roles at startups. He also cited Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy that “the biggest risk is not taking any risks” as a motivation for his own move into entrepreneurship.With Memories.ai, a company developing AI capable of understanding and remembering visual data, Shen is aiming to build a niche team of elite researchers. His company has already recruited Chi-Hao Wu, a former Meta research scientist, as Chief AI Officer, and is in talks with other researchers from Meta’s Superintelligence Lab as well as Google DeepMind.

From full scholarships to Cambridge classrooms

Shen’s academic journey is rooted in engineering, supported consistently by merit-based scholarships. He studied at Dulwich College from 2013 to 2016 on a full scholarship, completing his A-Level qualifications.He then pursued higher education at the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded full scholarships throughout. Shen earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Engineering (2016–2019), followed by a Master of Engineering (MEng) at Trinity College (2019–2020). He later continued at Cambridge as a Meta PhD Fellow, completing his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Engineering between 2020 and 2023.

Early career: Internships in finance and research

Alongside his academic pursuits, Shen gained early experience through internships and analyst roles in finance. He worked as a Quantitative Research Summer Analyst at Killik & Co in London (2017) and as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Morgan Stanley in Shanghai (2018).Shen also interned as a Research Scientist at the Computational and Biological Learning Lab at the University of Cambridge (2019), building the foundations for his transition into advanced AI research.

From Meta’s Reality Labs to academia

After completing his PhD, Shen joined Meta (Reality Labs Research) in Redmond, Washington, as a Research Scientist (2022–2024). His time at Meta exposed him to cutting-edge work in generative AI, but also to the frustrations of frequent corporate restructuring. This experience eventually drove him toward building his own company.In April 2024, Shen began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Bristol, before launching Memories.ai in October 2024.

Betting on talent with $2M offers

Explaining his company’s aggressive hiring packages, Shen told Business Insider: “It’s because of the talent war that was started by Mark Zuckerberg. I used to work at Meta, and I speak with my former colleagues often about this. When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked — it’s really in the tens of millions range. But it shows that in this age, AI researchers who make the best models and stand at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money.”Shen noted that Memories.ai is looking to recruit three to five researchers in the next six months, followed by up to ten more within a year. The company is prioritising individuals willing to take a mix of equity and cash, with Shen emphasising that these recruits would be treated as founding members rather than employees.By betting heavily on talent, Shen believes Memories.ai will be in a strong position to secure additional funding and establish itself in the competitive AI landscape.His bold $2 million offers may raise eyebrows, but they also underline a larger truth: in today’s technology race, the fiercest competition is not for customers or capital, it’s for talent.

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JUPITER: Europe’s First Exascale Supercomputer Powers AI and Climate Research | Ukraine news

Published

3 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Межа

The Jupiter supercomputer at the Jülich Research Centre, Germany, September 5, 2025.
Getty Images/INA FASSBENDER/AFP

As reported by the European Commission’s press service

At the Jülich Research Center in Germany, on September 5, the ceremonial opening of the supercomputer JUPITER took place – the first in Europe to surpass the exaflop performance threshold. The system is capable of performing more than one quintillion operations per second, according to the European Commission’s press service.

According to the EU, JUPITER runs entirely on renewable energy sources and features advanced cooling and heat disposal systems. It also topped the Green500 global energy-efficiency ranking.

The supercomputer is located on a site covering more than 2,300 square meters and comprises about 50 modular containers. It is currently the fourth-fastest supercomputer in the world.

JUPITER is capable of running high-resolution climate and meteorological models with kilometer-scale resolution, which allows more accurate forecasts of extreme events – from heat waves to floods.

Role in the European AI ecosystem and industrial developments

In addition, the system will form the backbone of the future European AI factory JAIF, which will train large language models and other generative technologies.

The investment in JUPITER amounts to about 500 million euros – a joint project of the EU and Germany under the EuroHPC programme. This is part of a broader strategy to build a network of AI gigafactories that will provide industry and science with the capabilities to develop new models and technologies.

It is expected that the deployment of JUPITER will strengthen European research-industrial initiatives and enhance the EU’s competitiveness on the global stage in the field of artificial intelligence and scientific developments.

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AI Research

PH kicks off 2025 Development Policy Research Month on AI in governance

Published

4 hours ago

September 6, 2025

The Manila Times

THE Philippines cannot rely on new technology alone to thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. Strong governance policies must come first — this was the central call of the 2025 Development Policy Research Month (DPRM), which opened on Sept. 1 with a push for AI rules that reflect national realities.

“Policy research provides the guardrails that help governments adopt technology responsibly,” said PIDS president Dr. Philip Arnold Tuano. Without such guardrails, he warned, the benefits of AI may never outweigh the risks.

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT The 2025 Development Policy Research Month kicked off with a push for AI rules that reflect the country’s realities. PHOTO FROM PIDS

Established under Proclamation 247 (2002), DPRM highlights the role of policy research in shaping evidence-based strategies. This year’s theme, “Reimagining Governance in the Age of AI,” underscores that while AI offers tools for efficiency and transparency, policies must come first to address risks such as digital exclusion, bias, cybersecurity threats, and workforce displacement.

PIDS, as lead coordinator, works with an interagency steering committee that includes the BSP, CSC, DBM, DILG, legislative policy offices, PIA, PMS, and now the Department of Science and Technology, which joins for the first time, given its role in AI research and governance.

The highlight is the 11th Annual Public Policy Conference on Sept. 18 at New World Hotel Makati, featuring global experts. Activities nationwide will amplify the campaign, supported by the hashtag #AIforGoodGovernance.

Learn more at https://dprm.pids.gov.ph.

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