AI Is Like a Bad Metaphor By David Brin Joanna Andreasson/DALL-E4 The Turing test—obsessed geniuses who are now creating AI seem to take three clichéd outcomes for granted: That these new cyberentities will continue to be controlled, as now, by two dozen corporate or national behemoths (Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Beijing, the Defense Department, Goldman Sachs) …
Lanny Smoot builds lightsabers for a living. No, not like the ones kids used to create with flashlights and plastic tubes—realistic extendable ones, with penumbral edges and laser-blocking abilities. Like an actual Jedi. He’s whipped up giant electromagnetic eyes, too, as well as an omnidirectional HoloTile Floor, which adapts to user movement and—like its spiritual …
HT Webster’s prophetic 2023 cartoon A list of over 4,000 artists whose work was used to train artificial intelligence (AI) products has been making the rounds of social media since Jon Lam, a storyboard artist at Riot Games, Tweeted screenshots of conversations with Midjourney CEO David Holz on the Midjourney Discord server. The conversations included …
Star Trek is known for its iconic captains, including William Shatner’s James T. Kirk and Kate Mulgrew’s Kathryn Janeway. Each captain brings their own unique style of leadership, hobbies, and approach to problem-solving. While there are some notable exceptions, it is difficult to argue that any of them are outright bad, and it is equally …