trends

Fake Famous on HBO

Apr 22, 2021 | ,

Fake Famous explores the meaning of fame and influence in the digital age through an innovative social experiment. Following three Los Angeles-based people with relatively small followings, the film explores the attempts made to turn them into famous influencers by purchasing fake followers and bots to “engage” with their social media accounts.

Source: Fake Famous 
See also:  What HBO’s Fake Famous Doesn’t Understand About Young People and Influencer Culture

For Creators, Everything Is for Sale

Apr 13, 2021 | , ,

A rash of new start-ups are making it easier for digital creators to monetize every aspect of their life — down to what they eat, who they hang out with and who they respond to on TikTok. Tens of millions of people around the globe consider themselves creators, and the creator economy represents the “fastest-growing type of small business,” according to a 2020 report by the venture capital firm SignalFire. But as the market gets more and more competitive — and the platforms and their algorithms remain unreliable — creators are devising new, hyper-specific revenue streams.

Source:  For Creators, Everything is for Sale

An artificial intelligence algorithm has created “new” Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana songs

Apr 7, 2021 | , ,

We’ve heard AI-generated songs mimic the work of AC/DC, Metallica and more. Now artificial intelligence software has generated “new” Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana tracks, along with other artists and bands with members who died at the age of 27, to help raise awareness for the importance of mental health support amongst musicians and members of the music industry.

Source: An artificial intelligence algorithm has created “new” Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana songs

OpenAI’s text-generating system GPT-3 is now spewing out 4.5 billion words a day

Mar 30, 2021 | ,

One of the biggest trends in machine learning right now is text generation. AI systems learn by absorbing billions of words scraped from the internet and generate text in response to a variety of prompts. It sounds simple, but these machines can be put to a wide array of tasks — from creating fiction, to writing bad code, to letting you chat with historical figures.

Source: OpenAI’s text-generating system GPT-3 is now spewing out 4.5 billion words a day

Robinhood app makes Wall Street feel like a game to win – instead of a place where you can lose your life savings in a New York minute

Mar 25, 2021 | , ,

Wall Street has long been likened to a casino . Robinhood, an investment app that just filed plans for an initial public offering , makes the comparison more apt than ever . That’s because the power of the casino is the way it makes people feel like gambling their money away is a game.

Source: Robinhood app makes Wall Street feel like a game to win – instead of a place where you can lose your life savings in a New York minute

Decoding emojis and defining ‘support’: Facebook’s rules for content revealed

Mar 24, 2021 | , ,

They run to more than 300 pages, envisaging and exemplifying some of the most borderline and ethically challenging uses of the world’s biggest social network by its 2.8 billion monthly users. Secret Facebook guidelines seen by the Guardian show how the company controls its mainly outsourced moderators’ work down to the smallest detail, defining its rules so precisely that contractors are told which emojis constitute “praise” and which count as “condemnation”.

Source: Decoding emojis and defining ‘support’: Facebook’s rules for content revealed