AI's IQ: Links

Links on AI, from how it works to how intelligent it actually is:

• There is no AI: There are ways of controlling the new technology--but first we have to stop mythologizing it.
As a computer scientist, I don't like the term "A.I." In fact, I think it's misleading--maybe even a little dangerous. Everybody's already using the term, and it might seem a little late in the day to be arguing about it. But we're at the beginning of a new technological era--and the easiest way to mismanage a technology is to misunderstand it. (Jaron Lenier, The New Yorker)

• What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work?: That ChatGPT can automatically generate something that reads even superficially like human-written text is remarkable, and unexpected. But how does it do it? And why does it work? My purpose here is to give a rough outline of what's going on inside ChatGPT--and then to explore why it is that it can do so well in producing what we might consider to be meaningful text. (Stephen Wolfram)

• AI for data storytelling: Artificial Intelligence in data journalism projects often showcases some of the most imaginative aspects of how to use new tools to perform analyses that just weren't possible before. (Simon Rogers)

• A.I. Pop Culture Is Already Here: We're living in a world in which every style, every idea, and every possible remix can be generated as fast and frictionlessly as possible. (Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker)

• What Kind of Mind Does ChatGPT Have?: Large language models seem startlingly intelligent. But what's really happening under the hood? (Cal Newport, The New Yorker)

• The Andy Warhol Copyright Case That Could Transform Generative AI: The US Supreme Court’s upcoming decision could shift the interpretation of fair use law—and all the people, and tools, that turn to it for protection. (Madeline Ashby, Wired)

• AI Desperately Needs Global Oversight: As ChatGPT and its ilk continue to spread, countries need an independent board to hold AI companies accountable and limit harms. (Rumman Chowdhury, Wired)

• The stupidity of AI: Artificial intelligence in its current form is based on the wholesale appropriation of existing culture, and the notion that it is actually intelligent could be actively dangerous. (James Bridle, The Guardian)

Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash.

Arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.4% of U.S. GDP, $1 trillion, in 2021

Report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis:

Arts and cultural economic activity, adjusted for inflation, increased 13.7 percent in 2021 after decreasing 4.8 percent in 2020, according to statistics released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By comparison, the broader economy, as measured by real gross domestic product, increased 5.9 percent in 2021 after decreasing 2.8 percent in 2020.

Arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.4 percent of U.S. GDP, or $1.02 trillion, in 2021, the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account shows.

Real (inflation adjusted) value added for core arts and cultural production industries, which include performing arts, museums, design services, fine arts education, and education services, increased 22.4 percent in 2021. Supporting arts and cultural production industries, which include art support services and information services, increased 11.6 percent in 2021.

• Performing arts increased 33.9 percent in 2021 after decreasing 34.3 percent in 2020. The leading contributor to the increase was promoters of performing arts and similar events, which increased 122.4 percent in 2021 after decreasing 54.5 percent in 2020.

• Museums increased 15.6 percent in 2021 after decreasing 5.0 percent in 2020.

• Design services increased 18.1 percent in 2021 after decreasing 0.8 percent in 2020.

• Fine arts education increased 27.4 percent in 2021 after decreasing 30.9 percent in 2020.

• Education services decreased 1.7 percent in 2021 after decreasing 4.9 percent in 2020.

Visit BEA’s arts and cultural production webpage for the full report and an interactive map of the arts and culture economy in each state

Experiences Eventized: Links

• Organized fun: who’s it all for? - Former London dweller returns to the city and discovers that something has changed. Gone is the habit of popping into a just-discovered club or exhibition. Thanks to the "experience economy", everything is now "strangely occupational". Every event is marketed and monetised, and usually sells out in advance. All of this organised fun is "the antidote to, and the accelerator of, alienation." (The Face via The Browser)

• Your Favorite Podcast Is Probably an ‘Experience’ Now - In an effort to keep listeners’ attention, teams behind “My Favorite Murder” and other shows are creating IRL events. (Wired)

• When Everything Becomes an Event - Historically, events have been vital community-building tools and catalysts for action. Every culture, including the most ancient and obscure, has its repertoire of events that marks various milestones, commemorates the past, and molds community while serving as an outlet for emotions. Still, what we have seen in the last three years is another generation of events—not entirely created, but certainly ushered in, by the pandemic and our use of virtual event platforms. This new breed of events is a turn from the extraordinary to the mundane. (Slate)

Photo by Vale Zmeykov on Unsplash

The iconic and era-defining work of Milton Glaser

Just as what is arguably his most iconic and well-known work gets updated (perhaps ineffectively) and a new anthology of his work is released, The New Yorker has a comprehensive profile on Milton Glaser by Adam Gopnik:

No art director’s work was more influential or instantly identifiable than that of Milton Glaser. The extent of that style, which adorned books and records and movies—and is revealed in a new anthology from Monacelli, courtesy of Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber, titled simply “Milton Glaser: Pop”—is astounding. Glaser was famous as the co-founder and original design director of ‘New York’ and as a creator of two images that helped define two decades. One was the 1966 poster of Bob Dylan that showed him with snakelike hair blossoming into a skein of rainbows. The other was the 1976 “I❤️NY” logo—which was commissioned by the State of New York but promptly adopted as a local symbol of the city, and, being keyed to the city’s unexpected revival, is the closest thing there has ever been to a logo that changed social history.

But Glaser’s real achievement lies in what the book lays out: a breathtaking empire of imagery that encompassed both decades and more. Anyone who came of age in the sixties and seventies will be astonished to discover that so much of the look of the time was specifically the work of Milton Glaser and Push Pin Studios, which he founded with Seymour Chwast and Edward Sorel and then oversaw.

Reading the above intro to the profile I can’t help but wonder, is that the last time the graphic design on a poster or a logo had that much impact and influence?

Meta, Physical: Links

Here are a few links on the current state of play in the evolution towards spatial computing:

• This is Meta’s AR / VR hardware roadmap for the next four years: During an internal presentation, Meta execs laid out plans for three new Quest headsets, AR glasses in 2027, and a ‘neural interface’ smartwatch. (The Verge)

• Meta announces big price cuts for its VR headsets: Meta announced a dramatic price drop for its higher-end virtual reality headset, the Quest Pro. Both the Quest Pro and Quest 2 will see price cuts, dropping by $500 for the Quest Pro and $70 for the Quest 2. (CNBC)

• I don’t think Meta knows it’s a game company: Meta seems very committed to making hardware to usher in a whole new world and racing away from the games that drive its VR business. (The Verge)

• Tim Cook bets on Apple’s mixed-reality headset to secure his legacy: The stakes are high for Cook. The headset will be Apple’s first new computing platform to have been developed entirely under his leadership. The iPhone, iPad and even Watch were all originally conceived under Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011. (Financial Times)

• The full saga of Apple’s troubled mixed reality headset has been revealed: A series of reports paint a detailed picture of politics and problems facing Apple's plan to develop a virtual, augmented, or mixed reality headset since the initiative picked up steam back in 2015. It's a complicated tale of processors, base stations, politics, and Jony Ive. (Arstechnica)

Photo by Barbara Zandoval on Unsplash