Fluid ImaginationYou can picture the high jinks. In fact, a small army of designers, animators and demolition experts spent years imagining them. Those people want their work to be seen. A sizable audience wants to pay money to see it. Yet that mutuality isn’t enough. Millions of dollars and thousands of hours went into creating something that could simply vanish into accounting.
— “Want to See This Film? Movie Studios Won’t Let You.” The NY Times
From The Verge‘s review of the new AI Pin from Humane:
Should you buy this thing? That one’s easy. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. The AI Pin is an interesting idea that is so thoroughly unfinished and so totally broken in so many unacceptable ways that I can’t think of anyone to whom I’d recommend spending the $699 for the device and the $24 monthly subscription.
After ripping the Pin apart, the reviewer goes on to say:
Still, even after all this frustration, after spending hours standing in front of restaurants tapping my chest and whispering questions that go unanswered, I find I want what Humane is selling even more than I expected. A one-tap way to say, “Text Anna and tell her I’ll be home in a half-hour,” or “Remember to call Mike tomorrow afternoon,” or “Take a picture of this and add it to my shopping list” would be amazing. I hadn’t realized how much of my phone usage consists of these one-step things, all of which would be easier and faster without the friction and distraction of my phone.
Reading that made me wonder if The Verge hadn’t heard of the Apple Watch. Those one-tap tasks are what I use the Apple Watch for, though I don’t even use one tap; I just say, “Hey Siri…”
Raise wrist. “Hey Siri, ask my wife if she needs anything at the grocery store.”
Raise wrist. “Hey Siri, remind me to put the library books in my bag when I get home from work.”
Raise wrist.”Hey Siri, what song is this?”
Raise wrist. “Hey Siri, call my dad.”
Sure, Humane promises that its Pin will be able to do all kinds of cool things in the future. Unfortunately, for now, as The Verge found, “The AI Pin doesn’t work. I don’t know how else to say it.”
The Apple Watch can already do most of the Pin does, and Apple isn’t standing still.
Back then, solar eclipses were cloaked in scary uncertainty. But a Greek philosopher was said to have predicted the sun’s disappearance. His name was Thales. He lived on the Anatolian coast — now in Turkey but then a cradle of early Greek civilization — and was said to have acquired his unusual power by abandoning the gods.
— “The Eclipse That Ended a War and Shook the Gods Forever,” William J. Broad in The NY Times
Crucially, society as a whole needs to think differently about the nature of money –possibly by first discarding the term itself. “Money” encompasses a range of phenomena that have intrinsically different purposes and risks. Commercial bank deposits are materially different to banknotes, for example, which are different to reserve funds. Money as a concept is increasingly outdated and misleading.
— “‘Outdated and misleading’: is it time to reassess the very concept of money?,” Stuart Kells in The Guardian
The Boston Celtics have clinched the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 11 games remaining on their regular season schedule. Boston’s 57-14 record has been enough to secure the feat with an 11 game cushion over the Milwaukee Bucks, who are still fighting to secure the second seed with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Joe Mazzulla’s team is also in the driving seat to secure the best record in the NBA. As such, they should have a home-court advantage if they make it to the NBA Finals…
— “Celtics clinch #1 seed with eleven games remaining,” CelticsBlog
By running again—despite his age, despite his low approval ratings, despite his poor showing in the polls against Trump—Biden could be engaging in one of the most selfish, hubristic, and potentially destructive acts ever undertaken by an American president. If he winds up losing, that’s all anyone will remember him for. Bill Maher has said Biden could go down as the “Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the presidency.” Or of democracy.
— “It’s Not Just That Biden Is Old,” The Atlantic
Some people wonder whether copyright law, fundamentally unchanged since the late 1700s, can handle generative AI. Its basic unit is the “copy,” a concept that’s felt like a poor fit for modernity since the launch of music and video streaming in the 1990s. Might generative AI finally bend copyright past the breaking point?
– “Generative AI Is Challenging a 234-Year-Old Law,” The Atlantic