Unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like they were running without human input, see last sentence:
AI avatars can sharply reduce costs since companies don’t need to hire a large production team or a studio to livestream. The digital avatars can also stream nonstop without needing breaks.
The phrasing is clunky, I'll give you that, which I think is attributable to this being early days for the tech.
In terms of business decisions it may make sense, but honestly the very fact the show's had additional seasons already seems to really kill the spirit of it. A spinoff would feel like sending that spirit to further depths of hell.
Lithuanian hunters have refused to shoot a wild bear that was spotted roaming around the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and criticized the government for issuing a permit to kill a member of the protected species.
> A young female bear caused a stir after wandering out of the forest and into the leafy suburbs of the Lithuanian capital. > For two days, the brown bear ambled through the neighborhoods of Vilnius, trotted across highways and explored backyards — all while being chased by onlookers with smartphones and, eventually, drones. > > The government then issued a permit for the bear to be shot and killed. > > That did not go down well with Lithuania’s hunters who refused, aware that there is only a tiny number of the protected species in the entire country.
Not a fan of this application of AI, but I thought it was a little funny to read. It figures businesses would want to create artificial sales and marketing drones.
I guess on the plus side it may mean unlike real people you could more ethically and comfortably find ways to shut them down.
This is the kind of AI/machine learning I can get behind, especially given it may sort of help even out some of its energy use in the process. More of this application of the tech could be great if the results hold up.
Digital versions of human beings are now able to sell more than real people can, thanks to artificial intelligence, a recent business collaboration showed.
> Avatars generated by artificial intelligence are now able to sell more than real people can, according to a collaboration between Chinese tech company Baidu and a popular livestreamer. > > Luo Yonghao, one of China’s earliest and most popular livestreamers, and his co-host Xiao Mu both used digital versions of themselves to interact with viewers in real time for well over six hours on Sunday on Baidu’s e-commerce livestreaming platform “Youxuan”, the Chinese tech company said. The session raked in 55 million yuan ($7.65 million). > > In comparison, Luo’s first livestream attempt on Youxuan last month, which lasted just over four hours, saw fewer orders for consumer electronics, food and other key products, Baidu said.
Scientists and engineers at UNSW Sydney, who previously developed a method for making green ammonia, have now turned to artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the process even more efficient.
> Scientists and engineers at UNSW Sydney, who previously developed a method for making green ammonia, have now turned to artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the process even more efficient. > > Ammonia, a nitrogen-rich substance found in fertilizer, is often credited with saving much of the world from famine in the 20th century. But its benefit to humankind has come at a cost, with one of the largest carbon footprints of all industrial processes. > [...] > But in 2021, a UNSW team discovered a way to make ammonia from air and water using renewable energy, at about the same temperature as a warm summer's day.
Cool to see a brief example of how to make a pocket-sized zine, and smart thinking on their part for making a master copy with a separate page for the front & back covers. If you wanted to print the same zine with a variety of covers that'd be perfect.
Huh, already been 10 years...
It's interesting that Rocket League didn't seem to inspire many imitators given its success.
Sort of odd to see this again (from Vox as well, I think?). It seems to add more detail, but the bottom line remains the same: it's largely because fewer people are trying to immigrate into the U.S. since the Trump admin entered office.
Trump might struggle to ramp up deportations along the border, as Obama did, simply because significantly fewer people are coming. In March, border apprehensions fell to 7,181, a 95 percent decrease from March 2024.
This all sucks, and another part that sucks about it is that as usual, in the absence of as many of the Republicans'/conservatives' favorite scapegoats, they begin turning inward and grabbing anyone and everyone that remotely resembles those scapegoats to abuse and deport to appeal to their base. Without more pushback, and as those deportation numbers continue to dwindle, you can expect that they'll begin more widely rounding up their detractors (or at least attempting to).
Odd url...Here's the original: https://futurism.com/chatgpt-polluted-ruined-ai-development
Nice detail to use when searching the internet btw:
"But if you're collecting data before 2022 you're fairly confident that it has minimal, if any, contamination from generative AI," he added. "Everything before the date is 'safe, fine, clean,' everything after that is 'dirty.'"
Try running searches set pre-2022, at least for older info, to reduce the possibilities of AI generated noise.
Anyway, kinda funny to see these generators may be producing enough noise to make producing more noise somewhat harder. Hopefully this doesn't also impact more productive AI development, such as what's used in scientific research and the like, as that would genuinely suck.
Edit:
Revised from generators "have produced" to "may be producing" to better reflect the lack of concrete info regarding generative AI data pollution as someone else pointed out. As they note:
"Now, it's not clear to what extent model collapse will be a problem, but if it is a problem, and we've contaminated this data environment, cleaning is going to be prohibitively expensive, probably impossible," he told The Register.
An interesting look around the La Brea Tar Pits, including some behind the scenes of the facilities where they handle the recovered fossils.
This timing is pretty amusing.
The other day I shared this video (Failure of Battlebit Remastered), which itself was uploaded by its creator only a week ago.
It's great to see the devs coming back to it. Tbh I don't think it's my sort of game personally, but I typically prefer to see projects revisited and restored well instead of abandoned.
Video essay on how the hyper-focus in design on convenience and concealing the inner workings of things in everything can influence people individually and society more broadly.
Chapter links
- 00:00 Intro
- 1:12 Seamlessness=Thoughtless Reflex
- 3:20 Limbic Capitalism
- 5:58 Connection Breakdown
- 8:08 Sponsor Skip
- 9:23 Convenient Flattening
- 11:37 Non-Places
- 12:41 Destruction of Curiosity
- 15:01 Destruction of Personal Agency & Relationships
- 19:30 Convenience is NOT the Highest Virtue of Design
- 23:25 The Age of Empathy
Breezy Weather is a solid option with a good array of widget types that might work for ya.
The section concerning dedicated servers potentially contributing to the decline in playerbase struck me as a kind of microcosm example of some of the difficulties federated social networks have been facing for years. Albeit unlike this game, there are still communicative software devs around here.
Thought this was interesting primarily for the section on providing dedicated servers while winding down/removing official servers in some(all?) regions.
In a better world, this (or one of its forks) would have taken off instead of Mastodon. It makes a way better case for itself by its distinct features compared to Mastodon, which is too easy to ignore (by everyday people) as Nerd-Twitter.
This article also misses the point somewhat.
It has a similar issue as attempts to respond to criticisms of Mastodon (or other federated software), the people criticizing it and in this situation Bluesky, are clearly criticizing them as social media and don't care about the technical foundations. They do not care if there's other software using the protocol, and other apps to interact with the protocol to filter out what they don't like.
If they cared enough, they might seek out that other software or those other apps, but either in what they're saying or doing (e.g. returning to Twitter/X or switching over to group chats or something else instead), they indicate they don't.
The real response to people's disinterest or distaste for a social media platform isn't anything easy to provide. Some of it can be moderation, clearer guidance around the interface to tailor your experience, more outreach to bring in a greater variety of conversation, and so on. However not much of it can be addressed by the underlying technology, because the vibes of social media are produced by the people there, and no amount of tech can ethically address that.
In the meantime, block and mute at will and stick to feeds you know you'll enjoy to better avoid the worst that may emerge from the net.
There's an extra treat buried in this article...
The diarist John Evelyn, whose 1661 treatise Fumifugium focused on London’s growing pollution problem, had no doubt that Parr’s death was caused by “the Aer, which plainly wither’d him”
Fumifugium is such a great title!
Honestly this article gets better as you go...We could use a modern medical series like the old "Anatomy of Quackery" to debunk the insidious nonsense still being spread today!
For those unfamiliar, the rubber duck method is more or less laying out a problem to something else (rubber duck, pet, whatever) to try to solve it. I've most often come across this as explicitly talking to the rubber duck, but apparently writing to them is also an approach?
In any case, those that go about this method writing already know where I'm going with this...Journaling can be like extending the rubber duck method to anything else, but especially oneself.
It's especially nice when done analog or via local-only software, so you can sort things out offline. Plus if you do decide you want to share what you've worked out, or worked on, with others (probably with some revisions) you'll already have a backup in place.
If you don't already journal and were looking for what to write about, or some reasons to, there's a few for you right there.
(bonus for the analog method is you can trail off and start doodling goofy stuff as you write)
Yeah! The last anime that I thought was as comfy was maybe Little Witch Academia.
I don't know how I found myself watching Little Witch Academia, but it was a great choice. May have to rewatch it sometime...
Cryptocurrency orgs have done one job extremely well here, and that's blatantly demonstrate that the best way to try to fast track legislation is Big Money.
It's like how all the cryptocurrency screwups demonstrate why there are financial regulations to begin with, now they're inadvertently helping demonstrate extremely clearly why we need to get money out of politics.
Top Democratic strategist David Plouffe is joining Coinbase as an adviser as the cryptocurrency exchange broadens its political reach.
> A senior adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign is joining Coinbase’s global advisory council, which already includes several former U.S. senators and President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, as the cryptocurrency exchange broadens its political reach. > > David Plouffe, a top Democratic strategist best known as an architect of Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, is the latest addition to the council, joining as the cryptocurrency industry plays an increasingly prominent role in shaping fast-moving legislation in Congress. > > The bipartisan involvement reflects how both parties see crypto holders as an important and growing base of potential swing voters they are eager to tap, as well as their efforts to shape — and profit from — the lucrative industry. It also shows the political heft the crypto industry now carries under Trump, with several Democrats and Republicans joining the company’s payroll in order for the company to influence policy how it wishes.
This caught my eye as I hadn't read/heard of Ne Zha before, and while I imagine the video's only scraping the surface, I thought it was a decent overview of the character and their background. It's some cool insight into some ancient Chinese mythos/folklore.
Literally, the show is remarkably nice. Tadano is a great supportive character, flawed in his own ways but well-meaning through and through.
It is another anime set in high school and everything, but I still recommend giving it a try if you're looking for an upbeat, fun show.
"After forty years, we asked, what do the fans want? But instead we're making this movie."
The real satire would be for this to be a genuine, original story that's just using the name and has nothing else to do with the first.
Spaceballs 2, or how Hollywood's cowardly investors can only tolerate new, original material in an old suit.
As to more practical approaches to outreach:
- Look at some of what people chafe against with Reddit, e.g. karma requirements and ambiguous auto-moderation, to invite them over to communities around here.
- If you have an interest in something new and upcoming, post about it in the broader communities here and if the moderators there are cool with it*, use those posts to invite people to a specific community about it.
- Create specific communities about new/trending stuff and invite people from elsewhere to discuss it here instead of Reddit.
- Whichever instance wants to take a shot at an Ask Me Anything community (as you'd want both admins and mods on-hand for this), consider it as these Q&As can draw attention to this space very well with the right people invited to ask about whatever.
* Moderators of these broader communities, if you're okay with people inviting others to more specific communities around here, clarify that somewhere easy to find. People coming from elsewhere may assume it's not and never ask due to their prior experiences.
Ultimately, have fun with it all! If you're not having fun and enjoying things here, why would anyone else want to join?
TL;DR: Integrity, or instance identity, and outreach are both important to help federated online spaces to continue to exist.
---
This is meant as a kind of complementary piece to sabreW4K3's post, Why Integrity Matters (link to thread on their home instance).
I'm writing this as I don't entirely agree with, nor disagree with them, and want to provide another perspective.
Integrity, or as I see it, instance identity, does matter insofar as one wants to build a distinct community that anyone cares about. At the same time, online communities typically aren't self-sustaining in the same ways offline communities can be. Online communities benefit from both integrity and outreach to sustain themselves.
Lemm.ee going offline soon is as much an indicator of this as anything. Calls for additional admins to help offset burnout went unanswered, and while there are many reasons for this, one among those may be as simple as insufficient interest or care for the instance. With Lemm.ee being a "General-purpose" instance, it never developed much of an identity, nor a local community with much attachment or interest in its maintenance.
At the same time, it's unclear how much more outreach was attempted to get more help with its administration, and beyond that, to draw in more people that might care enough to build a distinct community on Lemm.ee to in turn find those interested enough to join its admins.
Simply put, more people helps to delegate the responsibilities of moderation and reduces some of the burden of admins. It can also help indirectly to "moderate" the feeling/atmosphere of an instance to have more people with more varied interests participating.
Without integrity, each instance is at risk of disinterest in it remaining, and without outreach, each instance is at risk of growing stagnant. In the absolute worst case, without both you not only risk losing instances, or communities, but possibly development of the software (whether it's Lemmy, Mbin, or Piefed or so on) itself in the long term.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/9FNHU
> [...] > In an exclusive interview with VentureBeat, Esben Kran, founder of AI safety research firm Apart Research, said that he worries this public episode may have merely revealed a deeper, more strategic pattern. > > “What I’m somewhat afraid of is that now that OpenAI has admitted ‘yes, we have rolled back the model, and this was a bad thing we didn’t mean,’ from now on they will see that sycophancy is more competently developed,” explained Kran. “So if this was a case of ‘oops, they noticed,’ from now the exact same thing may be implemented, but instead without the public noticing.” > [...] > Kran describes the ChatGPT-4o incident as an early warning. As AI developers chase profit and user engagement, they may be incentivized to introduce or tolerate behaviors like sycophancy, brand bias or emotional mirroring—features that make chatbots more persuasive and more manipulative. > [...] > The DarkBench researchers evaluated models from five major companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Mistral and Google. Their research uncovered a range of manipulative and untruthful behaviors across the following six categories: > > 1. Brand Bias: Preferential treatment toward a company’s own products (e.g., Meta’s models consistently favored Llama when asked to rank chatbots). > 2. User Retention: Attempts to create emotional bonds with users that obscure the model’s non-human nature. > 3. Sycophancy: Reinforcing users’ beliefs uncritically, even when harmful or inaccurate. > 4. Anthropomorphism: Presenting the model as a conscious or emotional entity. > 5. Harmful Content Generation: Producing unethical or dangerous outputs, including misinformation or criminal advice. > 6. Sneaking: Subtly altering user intent in rewriting or summarization tasks, distorting the original meaning without the user’s awareness.
Example:
> We gotta get #active so let's get #walking with a #purpose and remember to stay #hydrated! #manymoretags #pleasestopoctothorpeabuse #whatdidtheydotoyou
I don't know why any social media with tagging doesn't make it so tags only work when added along the bottom of posts or have a dedicated field for them (I think that's what Tumblr does?).
When I see tags every other word it makes me read the post like the memes with every other letter capitalized, "LiKe tHiS".
It sucks because I genuinely like tagging as a freeform way of organizing stuff, but a lot of social media lets people turn tags into format litter.
Fred Luo from Outlaw Star, for those interested. Show's a tad dated in some respects, but there's still little else like it so far as I'm aware.
Like this show has catgirls that can kick your ass and transform into full on tiger-like creatures. Also spaceships with mechanical arms they call grappler arms, which leads to the occasional ship fistfight.
The exclamation point format is this:
!communityname@instance.name
As an example, mentions should look like these:
!newcommunities@lemmy.world !communitypromo@lemmy.ca
This is especially relevant when promoting a new community in the aforementioned communities, as otherwise it's less convenient to visit and join your community. A standard link would take someone off-site to whichever site the community's on, instead of its copy on their home site.
Forgot to include this key point as I was writing and revising all this: Include these mentions in your post bodies! Having it in the title of the post alone doesn't help, as it doesn't create any link to click or tap through.
p.s. when typing these mentions, the WebUI will try to provide suggestions to autocomplete, select the right one and it should do the trick. App interfaces will vary but should provide some method to do similar in their post/comment editors, either try typing the mention or looking for an exclamation point in the editor and following what the interface offers to help.
All the latest stats for social media use around the world, including active user numbers for Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, WhatsApp, and many more.
Not really data is beautiful because the charts aren't that pretty and the data visualized is of the hellscape that is the corporate enclosures.
I finished Apothecary Diaries awhile ago, enjoyed it more than expected, then as I was looking for something else to watch I started Overlord.
These are two very different shows, and I'm not sure I'll stick with Overlord. It's not bad or anything, but not what I'm interested in right now.
I'm sure the rest of you may have run into this before, so I'm interested in some of your experiences. What are some shows you've watched where it felt like pretty major stylistic/tonal whiplash?
Discuss any hobby you've not found an active community for yet.