Month: January 2024

Llay-Llay, Chile — Few players of the online video game Free Fire would know that one of their most ferocious opponents — a lithe, gun-wielding warrior in a short kimono and fang mask — is in reality an 81-year-old grandmother from rural Chile.

From her professional gaming chair at home in a small village, the soft-spoken Maria Elena Arevalo becomes a merciless hunter, mowing down rivals in a game in which tens of millions of players shoot it out to survive on an imaginary remote island.

Wearing an apron over a frilly skirt, Arevalo bears little resemblance to her online alter-ego “Mami Nena” — the nickname she got from her only grandson, Hector Carrasco, 20.

It was Carrasco who introduced Arevalo to the digital world of gaming that has given her a new lease on life after falling into deep loneliness following the death of her husband of 56 years in 2020.

“I didn’t even know what a mouse was,” she told AFP at her home in the town of Llay-Llay in central Chile.

“Afterwards, I got excited. We started to play whenever he [Carrasco] could. I felt better because I didn’t think so much about my late husband anymore.”

At first “I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” she added, but with time, she developed a taste for virtual blood.

Today, Arevalo plays at the “Heroic” level — just one short of the topmost “Grandmaster” level that only 300 players compete in.

She has 4 million followers on TikTok and 650,000 on YouTube, where she shares tips with fellow players.

Last year, she visited Mexico City on an all-expenses-paid trip as a Free Fire ambassador for the game’s anniversary celebrations — her first-ever journey abroad.

“All the kids asked me for autographs. … It was beautiful. The day I die, I’ll take that with me,” she reminisced.

Earlier this month, Arevalo was named one of Chile’s 100 most important elderly people by the El Mercurio newspaper and the Catholic University for helping break down age stereotypes.

Carrasco is in awe of his famous grandmother.

“It’s totally cool, and I don’t know, I feel like she’s like my best friend and all that,” he said.

‘I’ll keep going’

Three years after starting her Free Fire journey, Arevalo says she no longer feels lonely.

In a nod to her dead husband, a bird named “Benito” in his honor accompanies “Mami Nena” on her campaigns of conquest.

Almost half of people over 80 in Chile declare feeling lonely, according to a recent study, a major mental health risk.

Ever more older people are finding solace in gaming: a Ukrainian team known as “Young Guard” are prolific Counter Strike competitors, while 93-year-old Japanese Hamako Mori — also known by her alias Gamer Grandma — is thought to be the oldest gamer in the world.

For Arevalo, the online campaigns are becoming harder due to worsening scleroderma, a disease that causes a hardening and tightening of the skin.

But she is not planning on slowing down.

“I love doing this. I’ll keep going as far as I can,” she insisted.

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BAGHDAD — Defense systems shot down an armed drone on Sunday over Irbil airport in northern Iraq where U.S. and other international forces are stationed, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.

A group called “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” said it had launched the drone to attack what it called an “occupation base.”

There were no casualties or damage to infrastructure, security sources said.

U.S. and international forces based in Iraq and across the border in Syria have been on high alert amid dozens of attacks on their bases since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

Sunday’s attack came less than 24 hours after two drones were shot down on Saturday evening near a northern Iraqi military base used by the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and al-Harir airbase that also hosts U.S. forces, according to the Kurdish Regional Government.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani has ordered an investigation in coordination with the Kurdish regional security forces and pledged to pursue those responsible for Saturday’s attack, a military spokesman for the prime minister said on Sunday.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Pristina, Kosovo — A long-awaited European Union’s visa liberalization scheme allowing Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe’s borderless zone without a visa came into force Monday.

The new regime, which came into force at midnight (2300 GMT Sunday), enables Kosovars to travel to the passport-free Schengen zone without a visa for periods of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million, was the last of the six countries in the Western Balkans to get the waiver.

The reform is perceived in Pristina as another step toward full recognition and a boost for the ambition of the country that proclaimed independence in 2008 to join the EU.

According to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Kosovo by 2018 met all the needed criteria for the visa-free regime, including border and migration management.

But the approval has been held up by France and the Netherlands, that were concerned about the possibility of new migration waves as well as by five other EU members — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

The five do not recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, neither does the latter.

Before the EU lifted the visa regime with Kosovo, its passport holders could travel without a visa only to 14 countries all over the world.

During the past few months, the government in Pristina has been conducting a public awareness campaign urging people not to misuse the freedom of travel by looking for jobs in the EU.  

Later Monday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who leads the campaign himself, is to address the first Kosovo residents who will travel from the Pristina airport to the EU without a visa. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — Artificial intelligence represents a mixed blessing for the legal field, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a year-end report published Sunday, urging “caution and humility” as the evolving technology transforms how judges and lawyers go about their work.

Roberts struck an ambivalent tone in his 13-page report. He said AI had potential to increase access to justice for indigent litigants, revolutionize legal research and assist courts in resolving cases more quickly and cheaply while also pointing to privacy concerns and the current technology’s inability to replicate human discretion.

“I predict that human judges will be around for a while,” Roberts wrote. “But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work – particularly at the trial level – will be significantly affected by AI.”

The chief justice’s commentary is his most significant discussion to date of the influence of AI on the law — and coincides with several lower courts contending with how best to adapt to a new technology capable of passing the bar exam but also prone to generating fictitious content, known as “hallucinations.”

Roberts emphasized that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.” He mentioned an instance where AI hallucinations had led lawyers to cite nonexistent cases in court papers, which the chief justice said is “always a bad idea.” Roberts did not elaborate beyond saying the phenomenon “made headlines this year.”  

For instance, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, said in court papers unsealed last week that he mistakenly gave his attorney fake case citations generated by an AI program that made their way into an official court filing. Other instances of lawyers including AI-hallucinated cases in legal briefs have also been documented.  

A federal appeals court in New Orleans last month drew headlines by unveiling what appeared to be the first proposed rule by any of the 13 U.S. appeals courts aimed at regulating the use of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT by lawyers appearing before it.

The proposed rule by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would require lawyers to certify that they either did not rely on artificial intelligence programs to draft briefs or that humans reviewed the accuracy of any text generated by AI in their court filings.

Washington — Artificial intelligence represents a mixed blessing for the legal field, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a year-end report published Sunday, urging “caution and humility” as the evolving technology transforms how judges and lawyers go about their work.

Roberts struck an ambivalent tone in his 13-page report. He said AI had potential to increase access to justice for indigent litigants, revolutionize legal research and assist courts in resolving cases more quickly and cheaply while also pointing to privacy concerns and the current technology’s inability to replicate human discretion.

“I predict that human judges will be around for a while,” Roberts wrote. “But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work – particularly at the trial level – will be significantly affected by AI.”

The chief justice’s commentary is his most significant discussion to date of the influence of AI on the law — and coincides with several lower courts contending with how best to adapt to a new technology capable of passing the bar exam but also prone to generating fictitious content, known as “hallucinations.”

Roberts emphasized that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.” He mentioned an instance where AI hallucinations had led lawyers to cite nonexistent cases in court papers, which the chief justice said is “always a bad idea.” Roberts did not elaborate beyond saying the phenomenon “made headlines this year.”  

For instance, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, said in court papers unsealed last week that he mistakenly gave his attorney fake case citations generated by an AI program that made their way into an official court filing. Other instances of lawyers including AI-hallucinated cases in legal briefs have also been documented.  

A federal appeals court in New Orleans last month drew headlines by unveiling what appeared to be the first proposed rule by any of the 13 U.S. appeals courts aimed at regulating the use of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT by lawyers appearing before it.

The proposed rule by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would require lawyers to certify that they either did not rely on artificial intelligence programs to draft briefs or that humans reviewed the accuracy of any text generated by AI in their court filings.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.