Proximity

How a deepfake Tom Cruise on TikTok turned into a very real AI company

Aug 8, 2021 | , ,

This looks like Tom Cruise doing a coin trick, but it's actually a deepfake created by Chris Umé.

Earlier this year, videos of Tom Cruise started popping up on TikTok of the actor doing some surprisingly un-Tom-Cruise-like stuff: goofing around in an upscale men’s clothing store; showing off a coin trick; growling playfully during a short rendition of Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me.”

Source: A look at Metaphysic, a company which uses deepfake tech to create ads and restore old film; its founder went viral on TikTok for deepfaking Tom Cruise (Rachel Metz/CNN)

Big Oil spent $10 million on Facebook ads — to sell what, exactly?

Aug 7, 2021 | ,

Collage: a photo of oil pumpjacks with Facebook emoji reactions on topOnline advertisers are always trying to sell you something, and in the case of slip-on sneakers or leather handbags, that something is pretty clear. But other times, the motive behind a sponsored post is less transparent. Why, for instance, are oil companies buying prime space in your social media feed to prattle on about “innovative” climate solutions and visions of a “lower-carbon future”?

Source: Big Oil spent $10 million on Facebook ads — to sell what, exactly?

Artificial Intelligence May Have Cracked the Code to Creating Low-Priced Works on Canvas

Aug 7, 2021 |

Customers scroll through a selection of artwork and click the designs they like, in order to “show Artifly your style.” Then, the user clicks a button reading “Make My Art,” Artifly (the name of which is meant to evoke the phrase “Art on the Fly”) becomes familiar with your selections—and then near instantly, in about a minute, it creates a brand-new personalized artwork. The user then has the option, though not the obligation, to buy a bespoke piece of AI art.

Source: Artificial Intelligence May Have Cracked the Code to Creating Low-Priced Works on Canvas | Artnet News

Try it; it’s fun!

The push for a “PBS for the internet”

Aug 7, 2021 | ,

The concept of a new media ecosystem that’s non-profit, publicly funded and tech-infused is drawing interest in policy circles as a way to shift the power dynamics in today’s information wars. Why it matters: Revamping the structure and role of public media could be part of the solution to shoring up local media, decentralizing the distribution of quality news, and constraining Big Tech platforms’ amplification of harmful or false information.

Source: The push for a “PBS for the internet”

Why regulators should treat stablecoins like banks

Aug 6, 2021 |

Twelve years after bitcoin was born, governments are still struggling to cope with cryptocurrencies. Britain has banned Binance, a crypto exchange and the European Union’s regulators want transactions to be more traceable. On August 3rd Gary Gensler, the head of America’s Securities and Exchange Commission, said cryptocurrency markets were “rife with fraud, scams and abuse” and called on Congress to give his agency new regulatory powers.

Source: Why regulators should treat stablecoins like banks

Can you recycle a hard drive? Google is quietly trying to find out

Aug 6, 2021 | ,

At a laboratory inside a Google data center in Mayes County , Oklahoma, researchers spent the fall of 2019 disassembling old hard disk drives by hand in order to extract a 2-inch-long component known as the magnet assembly. Consisting of two powerful rare earth magnets, the magnet assembly is a critical muscle within the hard drive, controlling an actuator arm that allows the device to read and write data.

Source: Can you recycle a hard drive? Google is quietly trying to find out

Charles Bukowski: poet, Twitter punch line—and internet visionary

Aug 5, 2021 | ,

Before he’d become a posthumous social media symbol of Reddit-ish male angst, Bukowski wrestled with the pros and cons of a digital world. Social media users are again debating the merits of Charles Bukowski, the late Los Angeles-based writer known for his poetry describing a coarse, often boorish version of American masculinity replete with drinking, gambling, and not-always-successful womanizing.

Source: Charles Bukowski: poet, Twitter punch line—and internet visionary

Why Twitter wants ethical hackers to fix its algorithmic biases

Aug 3, 2021 | , ,

Twitter is applying the bug bounty model to machine learning. The micro-blogging site has launched the industry’s first algorithmic bias bounty competition. The challenge was created to identify potential harms in Twitter’s notorious image cropping algorithm, which was largely abandoned after exhibiting gender- and race-based biases.

Source: Why Twitter wants ethical hackers to fix its algorithmic biases

How the long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross became a streaming phenomenon (and kicked up plenty of dirt in the process)

Jul 30, 2021 |

Thanks to modern platforms like Twitch and Pluto TV, Ross has become a mainstay of the digital universe — particularly during the pandemic, when the popularity of a new Bob Ross channel skyrocketed as people trapped at home turned to their televisions for therapy.

Source: How the long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross became a streaming phenomenon (and kicked up plenty of dirt in the process)

College athletes have long been influencers. Now they’re getting paid like them.

Jul 29, 2021 | ,

When America’s college athletes could begin profiting off their personal brand for the first time this summer, Lauren Burke was ready. The 22-year-old rising senior on the University of Texas softball team had made a name for herself on the field and off.

 

During the pandemic year’s shortened 2020 softball season, Burke racked up a monstrous .453 batting average, ranking second in the Big 12 conference. But it’s likely that most of her fans know her from TikTok. Burke, who mainly posts about softball and fitness, has 400,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 100,000 on Instagram.

Source: College athletes have long been influencers. Now they’re getting paid like them.

How Olympic Tracking Systems Capture Athletic Performances

Jul 28, 2021 | ,

This year’s Olympic Games may be closed to most spectators because of COVID-19, but the eyes of the world are still on the athletes thanks to dozens of cameras recording every leap, dive and flip. Among all that broadcasting equipment, track-and-field competitors might notice five extra cameras—the first step in a detailed 3-D tracking system that supplies spectators with near-instantaneous insights into each step of a race or handoff of a baton.

Source: How Olympic Tracking Systems Capture Athletic Performances

How Wattpad changed the way we think about writing

Jul 27, 2021 | ,

Founded in 2006, Wattpad has grown far beyond the scale of my local library. The platform currently boasts 94 million users and more than a billion uploaded stories, ranging from historical tales to outright fanfiction. In its 15 years of existence, Wattpad stories have gained a reputation in the online literary community — a landfill of self-insert fanfiction to some, and a treasure trove of hidden gems to others.

Source: How Wattpad changed the way we think about writing