The confusing reality of AI friends
Fascinating piece in The Verge about intimacy, chatbots, capricious chatbots, and the capricious companies who run them.
Tag: syllabus
Who and What comprise AI Skepticism?
9+ factions of AI Skepticism (pushing back against Casey Newton’s facile take on AI skeptics). Which one are you?
AI Company That Made Robots For Kids Goes Under, Robots Die
Gonna pair this article about IRL dying virtual friends with Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" in next semester's Critical AI class.
Unwritten songs (Internal exile)
Another banger post by @robhorning.bsky.social. "The proliferation of cameras and editing suites means that 'images' and 'memories' have less and less to do with each other." Thanks to AI in apps like Google Photos, even our so-called memories are premediated.
ArtificialIntelligenceToolkit/aitk
AITK is a fantastic set of Google Colab notebooks for getting non-computer science undergrads working with the basics of machine learning and neural networks, designed by 3 SLAC professors. Gonna use this in my "Critical AI Studies" course next spring.
Types of Prototypes (from Jentery Sayers)
Companion piece to Jentery's "Before You Make a Thing," this is not just an incredible list of prototyping techniques, it also makes an argument for prototyping as a critical methodology for understanding the world.
Sir Arthur and the Fairies (The Public Domain Review)
In the 1920s Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of that most rational of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, published "The Coming of the Fairies"—about the incontrovertible photographic evidence of the existence of fae folk.
What happens to your games after you die depends on your store of choice
What happens to your games after you die? If it’s a digital game, chances are that you don’t even own the game to begin with…
Can This Chatbot Really Save Lives?
“A recent Stanford study found that some people credit Replika for saving their lives. But chatbots can be unpredictable, and users have also blamed the chatbot app for throwing them into mental crises.”
Find My Friends & Other Location Sharing Apps Can Ruin Relationships
"Apps like Find My have normalized location-sharing, but keeping tabs on someone doesn’t always keep them close."
OpenAI’s GPT-4o Isn’t ‘Her,’ It’s ‘Metropolis’
AI girlfriends have been seen as a harbinger of chaos for a long, long time.
Generative AI like Midjourney creates images full of stereotypes
Showing how AI image generators reduce much of the world to stereotypes (for example, making all "Indian Man" into an old man with a gray beard.
Debunking robot rights metaphysically, ethically, and legally
The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud
Anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate draws on five years of research and ethnographic fieldwork in server farms to illustrate some of the diverse environmental impacts of data storage.
Voices of the dead: shooting victims plead for gun reform with AI-voice messages
Voices of people lost to gun violence have been re-created using AI to call for action, now six years to the day after the Parkland shooting that killed 17
The rise of obituary spam
Obituary clickbait. The worst of two separate worlds. Add to the Death in the Digital Age syllabus
Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism Problem
Experiments with Midjourney and DALL-E 3 show a copyright minefield
Database of 16,000 Artists Used to Train Midjourney AI Goes Viral
AI and the American Smile. How AI misrepresents culture
Article on how something culturally specific like smiles are generalized by AI
The website that wants you to kill yourself—and won’t die
Background info and deep dive into the history and culture of kiwi farms.
Lensa’s viral AI art creations were bound to hypersexualize users
Good overview of the recent crop of AI image generators (including Lensa) and their problems.
We Aren’t Here to Learn What We Already Know
A guide to students for asking good questions, from a Pomona professor. Useful to include on syllabuses.
Amazon Alexa Wants to Deepfake Your Grandma
TikTok, the War on Ukraine, and 10 Features That Make the App Vulnerable to Misinformation | Media Manipulation Casebook
Deep Nostalgia edition | by Marisa Parham | salt.codes
Disability Media Studies
Microsoft patent would reincarnate dead relatives as chatbots
Better Images of AI
Explaining Artificial Intelligence. Part 3 – what does AI look like?
Why CAPTCHA Pictures Are So Unbearably Depressing | by Clive Thompson
Social Media & the Self
He couldn’t get over his fiancee’s death. So he brought her back as an A.I. chatbot
The Ethics of a Deepfake Anthony Bourdain Voice in “Roadrunner”
The Black Mirror Writers’ Room: A Speculative Ethics Exercise
Artificial intelligence and moral rights
How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body
Why Dating Apps Are Racist — With or Without Ethnicity Filters
The Consentful Tech Project
Mirror of Your Mind — Real Life
How “algorithmic feeds conflate identity with diagnosis”
How Fair Is Zoom Justice?
When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery
This piece by @itstheshadsy is going onto my Intro to a Digital Studies syllabus. It’s a doubleheader of media archaeology and simulation studies.
A Theory of Zoom Fatigue
"We are paying attention to ourselves in an odd way"—yes! This idea from @lmsacasas is something I haven't been able to put my finger on until now about teaching through video.
A Theory of Zoom Fatigue
Creepypasta, ‘Candle Cove’, and the Digital Gothic
Bookmarking Jessica Balanzategui's piece for the next iteration of my Death in the Digital Age course
Creepypasta, ‘Candle Cove’, and the Digital Gothic
A Bestiary of Player Agency
A loose and overlapping catalog of the kinds of agency choice-based games can give their players
Small-Scale Structures in CYOA
One of the must-read articles about designing structure on choice-based interactive fiction
A Bestiary of Player Agency
A loose and overlapping catalog of the kinds of agency choice-based games can give their players
Small-Scale Structures in CYOA
One of the must-read articles about designing structure on choice-based interactive fiction
The 7 Deadly Sins of Interactive Fiction
I don't agree with every rule here by a long shot. These are more like "things to think about" when creating a certain kind of interactive fiction game.
The 7 Deadly Sins of Interactive Fiction
I don't agree with every rule here by a long shot. These are more like "things to think about" when creating a certain kind of interactive fiction game.
Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery
This would make a great introduction the materiality and labor in a class about digital culture and infrastructure
Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery
This would make a great introduction the materiality and labor in a class about digital culture and infrastructure
Period-Tracking Apps Say You May Have a Disorder. What if They’re Wrong?
Worth including on my Gender and a Technology syllabus
Period-Tracking Apps Say You May Have a Disorder. What if They’re Wrong?
Worth including on my Gender and a Technology syllabus
Maybe It’s Not YouTube’s Algorithm That Radicalizes People
A counter to the "red pill" theory of YouTube radicalization
Maybe It’s Not YouTube’s Algorithm That Radicalizes People
A counter to the "red pill" theory of YouTube radicalization
Surface Reading
Worth including at the beginning of the semester in an e-lit class
Surface Reading
Worth including at the beginning of the semester in an e-lit class
My Twenty Favorite Works of Interactive Fiction
A great overview of some must-play new and newish interactive fiction, including Twine, ChoiceScript, and other platforms.
My Twenty Favorite Works of Interactive Fiction
A great overview of some must-play new and newish interactive fiction, including Twine, ChoiceScript, and other platforms.
Verge exposé on the horrific working lives of Facebook content moderator
“Facebook needs to shut down” says one content moderator.
Verge exposé on the horrific working lives of Facebook content moderator
“Facebook needs to shut down” says one content moderator.
AI Ethics: Seven Traps
The traps that discussions about AI ethics fall into. Especially appreciate "the rule of law" trap, wherein we assume laws about AI will inherently be ethical.
AI Ethics: Seven Traps
The traps that discussions about AI ethics fall into. Especially appreciate "the rule of law" trap, wherein we assume laws about AI will inherently be ethical.
Inside the Secret Sting Operations to Expose Celebrity Psychics
Perfect timing for this NYT article on contemporary mediums. Just yesterday in DIG 215 we were talking about the Fox sisters and their "spiritual telegraph" to the afterlife.
Inside the Secret Sting Operations to Expose Celebrity Psychics
Perfect timing for this NYT article on contemporary mediums. Just yesterday in DIG 215 we were talking about the Fox sisters and their "spiritual telegraph" to the afterlife.
Thieves of experience: On the rise of surveillance capitalism
Pretty thorough review of Shoshana Zuboff’s new book. Key idea is the “extraction imperative” that drives Google, Facebook, etc.
Thieves of experience: On the rise of surveillance capitalism
Pretty thorough review of Shoshana Zuboff’s new book. Key idea is the “extraction imperative” that drives Google, Facebook, etc.
They Will Not Return
Possible Twine game to include on my Death in the Digital Age syllabus, with shades of Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains”
They Will Not Return
Possible Twine game to include on my Death in the Digital Age syllabus, with shades of Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains”
The Fyre Festival and the Trumpet of Amplification
Terrific/terrifying post by Mike Caulfield showing that the same principles that underwrote the Fyre Festival apply to disinformation and conspiracy theories
The Fyre Festival and the Trumpet of Amplification
Terrific/terrifying post by Mike Caulfield showing that the same principles that underwrote the Fyre Festival apply to disinformation and conspiracy theories
Code and data for paper “Deep Painterly Harmonization”
Maybe I should add “deep painting” to the glitching and databending section of my “Hacking, Remixing, and Design” seminar...
Code and data for paper “Deep Painterly Harmonization”
Maybe I should add “deep painting” to the glitching and databending section of my “Hacking, Remixing, and Design” seminar...
STET by Sarah Gailey
Short experimental fiction with a fresh take on the AI trolley problem.
STET by Sarah Gailey
Short experimental fiction with a fresh take on the AI trolley problem.
“Blackfishing” on Instagram
Adding this to future syllabuses, to be paired with Lauren Michele Jackson's digital blackface article in Teen Vogue.
“Blackfishing” on Instagram
Adding this to future syllabuses, to be paired with Lauren Michele Jackson's digital blackface article in Teen Vogue.
Atlantic article on the rise of exorcisms
Adding to my Death in the Digital Age class, where we’re already discussing demons and exorcism in the 21st century
Atlantic article on the rise of exorcisms
Adding to my Death in the Digital Age class, where we’re already discussing demons and exorcism in the 21st century
Before You Make a Thing
Yeah, I think I’m stealing this for my spring Hacking, Remixing, and Design course.
Before You Make a Thing
Yeah, I think I’m stealing this for my spring Hacking, Remixing, and Design course.
Cult Conversations: A Series on Horror, Exploitation and the Gothic · Henry Jenkins
Terrific look at where horror has been in the past 100 years, and what the genre looks like now.
Cult Conversations: A Series on Horror, Exploitation and the Gothic · Henry Jenkins
Terrific look at where horror has been in the past 100 years, and what the genre looks like now.
Digital immortality: How your life’s data means a version of you could live forever
Adding this to my “Death in the Digital Age” syllabus for the spring.
Digital immortality: How your life’s data means a version of you could live forever
Adding this to my “Death in the Digital Age” syllabus for the spring.
Amazon Alexa Will Take Over Your Home – The Atlantic
Will probably add this to my DIG 101 syllabus. And it would pair well with Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.”
Amazon Alexa Will Take Over Your Home – The Atlantic
Will probably add this to my DIG 101 syllabus. And it would pair well with Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.”
First Monday Volume 23, Number 9
The entire September 2018 issue of First Monday is devoted to emoji 💛🧡❤️💚💙💜
First Monday Volume 23, Number 9
The entire September 2018 issue of First Monday is devoted to emoji 💛🧡❤️💚💙💜
GIFs as Disinformation Remedy (aka The GIF Curriculum)
Explainer GIFs for link-averse media consumers…Perfect for my DIG 101, where we’re discussing animated GIFs next week and Internet conspiracies a few weeks later.
GIFs as Disinformation Remedy (aka The GIF Curriculum)
Explainer GIFs for link-averse media consumers…Perfect for my DIG 101, where we’re discussing animated GIFs next week and Internet conspiracies a few weeks later.
THE MEANING OF COLORS by Molleindustria
An MS Painterly send-up of conspiracy culture
THE MEANING OF COLORS by Molleindustria
An MS Painterly send-up of conspiracy culture
The Nimble Tents Toolkit for Rapid Response Research
Seriously thinking about making a rapid response research project part of my spring “Hacking, Remixing, and Design” seminar.
The Nimble Tents Toolkit for Rapid Response Research
Seriously thinking about making a rapid response research project part of my spring “Hacking, Remixing, and Design” seminar.
Around the Antenna Tree: The Politics of Infrastructural Visibility
We touched upon Lisa Park’s critique of the hypervisibility/weird invisibility of antenna trees yesterday in DIG 101. Wish we could have spent more time on it.
Around the Antenna Tree: The Politics of Infrastructural Visibility
We touched upon Lisa Park’s critique of the hypervisibility/weird invisibility of antenna trees yesterday in DIG 101. Wish we could have spent more time on it.
AI Literacy: The basics of machine learning
Just discovered this great AI primer from Liz Daly. Perfect for the syllabus.