Data Science

DeviantArt, the "largest online social network for artists and art enthusiasts," announced DreamUp, an AI-powered text-to-image generator service powered by Stable Diffusion. The new service has seriously angered some members of the community, so much so that DeviantArt announced that all hosted images will be "automatically labeled as NOT authorized for use in AI datasets." Continue Reading →

Social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok are all over the news today. Facebook is continuing to implode and is about to lay off a lot of staff. I've been writing about Twitter every day. TikTok, because it is owned by a Chinese company, is under intense scrutiny after admitting that its workers can see the data they collect. Continue Reading →

I've been joking that my blog has become the "Elon Channel," where it's "All Elon, All the Time." In case you missed it, the organization we knew as Twitter is gone. It took Elon less than a week to fire half the staff and demolish years of goodwill. All that remains is a tech stack and a skeleton crew. Oh, and the threat of thermonuclear name & shame. Continue Reading →

Holly+, the AI-generated digital twin of experimental musician Holly Herdon, does a pretty good job singing "Jolene," Dolly Parton's country classic. Continue Reading →

Welcome to the "Elon Channel" where it's "All Elon, All The Time." (Hopefully this will not be true tomorrow!) Continue Reading →

Elon Musk recently wrote, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences," he followed with, "Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world." Twitter cannot serve two masters. So, which will it be, "a free-for-all hellscape," or "the most respected advertising platform in the world." Continue Reading →

On October 27, 2022 at 11:49 p.m. ET, @elonmusk tweeted, "the bird is freed." I'm wondering if he meant "fried." Elon is out about $44 billion (a substantial portion of which is his own money) and the freshly fired executive team is up approximately $88 million. It's no fun being fired, even by Elon, but the windfall of cash may ease their pain. Continue Reading →

In an interview at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company is working on a way to tailor experiences based on how you interact with its physical and digital offerings: “When you’re in a park, we should know what your viewing habits are on Disney Plus.” Continue Reading →

Sharing is caring… unless you're a Netflix subscriber. In that case, the streaming giant wants you to pay for your own account. However, in a move that is actually far more interesting than its crackdown on password sharing, Netflix will let users transport their profiles from the account they share to a new (paid) account. Continue Reading →

Greetings from LGA Terminal C, Gate 63. I'm on my way to Syracuse University to teach my class IRL (as opposed to on Zoom). While walking the mile and a half to the gate, I imagined my avatar doing this same walk in a virtual world. Or, more succinctly, I imagined my physical self walking through a mixed reality airport experience. Continue Reading →