Hey Siri. Was that an offside? The Premier League has partnered with Genius Sports to use iPhones set up with machine-learning models to determine offside calls, reports The Verge.

We’ve seen the debates. It isn’t always clear whether or not a play had an offside violation, since the positioning of the players may be blocking both officials and cameras. That’s where the video assistant referee (VAR) has been coming in for years.

Machine learning tracking technology was introduced in the 2022 World Cup, tracking 29 limb points in the players’ bodies. But according to Wired, there’s limits in the system that could cause “extensive delays and human process errors” and “concerns about the precision of in-game calls.”

What will the new technology do? Genius’ Semi-Assisted Offside Technology (SAOT) will create 3D renders of the players to determine where they are in relation to the offside line.

4K cameras are pricey and this system required many. “We wanted to see if we could move to a more off-the-shelf mobile phone,” said Matt Fleckenstein, Chief Product Officer. This is where the iPhones came in, seeing as they are what employees were most familiar with.

Minimized room for error. These iPhone 15 Pros will be placed in custom rigs, each holding two phones all around the pitch for full coverage, giving Genius “between 7k and 10k” data points to generate their 3D visuals. Lighting issues and obstacle players will therefore not impact the system.

The World Health Organization has once again declared Mpox an international health emergency, responding to a severe resurgence of the virus across Africa. The numbers are staggering: over 15k cases and 537 deaths this year, topping last year’s toll, The Washington Post reports.

What’s Mpox? Once called monkeypox — but changed for deflecting racial blame — can cause flu-like symptoms and painful rashes. It spreads through contact with infected animals and skin-to-skin contact — and this new variant is hitting harder and faster.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is bearing the brunt of this outbreak, with most of the cases concentrated there. To make matters worse, a new, more dangerous variant called clade 1b has popped up in eastern DRC, and has even started spreading to nearby countries including Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

A global response is needed: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t mince his words, stressing that a global response is crucial to handle the situation.

The focus now is on funding and resources: The WHO has freed up USD 1.45 mn to tackle the crisis but says it needs USD 15 mn more to boost surveillance and response efforts. Experts are urging quick action to prevent the virus from spreading further, particularly in areas dealing with conflicts and inadequate healthcare.

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