New Zealand Art, West Virginia Behavioral Health, ChatGPT, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 26, 2023

New Zealand Art, West Virginia Behavioral Health, ChatGPT, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 26, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New Zealand Ministry for Culture & Heritage: New Zealand’s first national register of 20th Century public artworks goes live. “The website is a New Zealand first, providing a single place for New Zealanders to gain knowledge of 20th Century public artworks located in towns and cities across Aotearoa, including works that have been hidden, lost, destroyed, or deaccessioned. At launch the register contains over 380 works which can be searched by information about each of the artworks, the artists, and their locations.”

West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources: DHHR’s Bureau for Behavioral Health Announces Evidence-Based Behavioral Health Clearinghouse. “The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH) has launched the BBH Clearinghouse, an online database of evidence-based practices to help individuals, families, providers, schools, communities, and other partners make informed decisions about selecting effective prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery services.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: ChatGPT creator pulls AI detection tool due to ‘low rate of accuracy’. “Less than six months after ChatGPT-creator OpenAI unveiled an AI detection tool with the potential to help teachers and other professionals detect AI generated work, the company has pulled the feature. OpenAI quietly shut down the tool last week citing a ‘low rate of accuracy,’ according to an update to the original company blog post announcing the feature.”

BBC: TikTok adds text-only posts as social media battle escalates. “Chinese-owned video streaming app TikTok says it will offer text-only posts as competition between social media giants heats up.” Remember when everybody said video was going to kill text content on the Internet? lol.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Borax is the new Tide Pods, and poison control experts are facepalming. I’m facepalming too. When I was growing up Borax was a home remedy against mice. “In the latest health fad to alarm and exasperate medical experts, people on TikTok have cheerily ‘hopped on the borax train’ and are drinking and soaking in the toxic cleaning product based on false claims that it can reduce inflammation, treat arthritis, and ‘detoxify’ the body.”

9Honey: Australian grandmother’s fight to get life-changing drug snatched up by social media fad. “Ozempic, a brand name for the drug semaglutide, is typically prescribed for patients with Type 2 diabetes, but a new social media weight loss fad has caused a worldwide shortage. The shortage hit Australia last year after TikTok videos of women claiming to have achieved drastic weight loss with minimal effort on the drug went viral. It made global demand for Ozempic skyrocket, with thousands seeking the drug, but the subsequent shortage is putting Aussies like [Judith] Lipp at risk.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: Elon Musk’s rebrand of Twitter to ‘X’ could get him in legal trouble with Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft, experts say. “Elon Musk’s Twitter rebrand could land him in legal hot water with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others, experts say. On Sunday, Musk announced that he was getting rid of the Twitter brand and logo. The social media platform is now known as ‘X,’ CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed on Sunday.”

Engadget: Mastodon’s decentralized social network has a major CSAM problem. “Of course, the big problem with unfederated social media platforms such as Mastodon is that no one company or entity controls everything on the platform. Every instance has its own administrators, and they are the ones who are ultimately responsible. However, those admins cannot control and moderate what goes on in other instances or servers. This isn’t uniquely a Mastodon problem, either.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NPR: Firefighters and researchers are turning to AI to help fight fires. “Climate change. Firefighters and researchers hope to spot fires more quickly and cut response times using artificial intelligence. Zachary Wells is a deputy chief with the Kern County Fire Department in California’s Central Valley.” This is a transcript of a radio interview.

Beyond Search: And Now Here Is Sergey… He Has Returned. “My personal view is that item one, management’s inability to hit a three point shot, let alone a slam dunk over Sam AI-Man, requires the 2023 equivalent of asking Mom and Dad to help. Some college students have resorted to this approach to make rent, bail, or buy food. The return is not yet like Mr. Terminator’s, Mr. Man-with-No-Name’s, or Mr. Brady’s. We have something new. A technology giant with billions in revenue struggling to get its big tractor out of a muddy field. How does one get the Google going?” Good afternoon, Internet….

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July 27, 2023 at 12:23AM
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Mastodon, Snapchat, Cultural Heritage, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 26, 2023

Mastodon, Snapchat, Cultural Heritage, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 26, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: As Twitter destroys its brand by renaming itself X, Mastodon user numbers are again soaring . “As Twitter ditches its iconic branding in favor of owner Elon Musk’s favorite letter ‘X,’ its open source rival Mastodon is seeing usage numbers soar. According to a new post from Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko, the number of monthly active users for his Twitter alternative has been steadily climbing over the past couple of months to have now reached 2.1 million — or, as remarked Rochko, ‘not far off from our last peak.'”

CNBC: Snap shares plunge more than 17% on weak forecast. “Snap shares tumbled over 16% after the company reported guidance for its current quarter that missed analysts’ expectations.”

New York Times: Trump to Return Ancient Coins and Lamps to Israel’s Antiquities Agency. “Former President Donald J. Trump will return a set of ancient coins and ceramic oil lamps to Israel’s government after reports last week that Israeli officials were pressing to retrieve them.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Export Your Bookmarks So You Can Finally Quit Twitter. “If you want to quit Twitter for good but still have the option to return to your favorite tweets, you should know how to export them to another source. Twitter doesn’t make it easy, but there’s a solid option out there to help you break up with—shudder—X.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Inside Higher Ed: College ‘Email for Life’ at Risk for Many . “For years at Colgate University in New York, students getting an email address ‘for life’ was a given. Then, in February, an email portent arrived—by email, of course: alumni learned that their lifetime email addresses might be phased out next year.”

Daily Beast: JPMorgan Saw Epstein as ‘Advisor’ to Google Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. “According to bombshell legal filings, Epstein introduced JPMorgan honcho Jes Staley to Google co-creators Brin and Larry Page by 2003. By 2011, the sex-trafficker was considered the ‘biggest revenue producer’ for JPMorgan’s Private Bank and known as ‘the advisor to the Google founders,’ according to the document filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands government.”

Billboard: TikTok Sleuth Appears to Find Jim Crow Era News Story in Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Teaser. “In a TikTok posted on Saturday (July 22), former minor league baseball player Danny Collins did a deep dive on one of Aldean’s promotional TikToks for his controversial song released back in May. Zooming in on a newspaper article in the background of one of the video’s shots, Collins found that it appears to be a piece pulled from a since-discontinued small newspaper from Mississippi.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: UK Pledges Crackdown on Harmful Ads on Google, Other Web Platforms. “The UK said it will force social media platforms and services like Alphabet Inc.’s Google Ads to stop scam advertisements, including fake celebrity endorsements, and take tougher action to prevent children from age-restricted ads for drinking and gambling.”

US Department of Justice: United States Returns Manuscript Signed by Conquistador Hernando Cortés in 1527 to Mexico’s National Archives . “A nearly 500-year-old manuscript signed by Conquistador Hernando Cortés in 1527 has been returned to the Archivo General de la Nación de México – Mexico’s national archives located in Mexico City. On July 19, 2023, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, along with representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, participated in a formal repatriation ceremony at Mexico’s national archives, where the manuscript is believed to have been unlawfully removed from sometime before 1993.”

Washington Post: U.S. intelligence agencies reviewing evidence in Discord leak case. “Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guard member charged with sharing hundreds of classified documents with friends online, is unlikely to stand trial for several months owing to what federal prosecutors described Monday as the large amount of sensitive information related to the case.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: People are using Google Maps to cut down tailpipe pollution. “Drivers are taking Google Maps’ advice for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their trips, according to the company. In late 2021, Google debuted a feature in Google Maps that allows users to see the most fuel-efficient routes. The feature has since helped prevent around 1.2 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, Google estimates in its latest environmental report released today.”

Essence: Does Personal Style Exist In The Age of Social Media?. “As an active TikTok user, I often find humor in how the platform’s ads influence my shopping decisions, especially when it comes to fashion. I’ve purchased numerous items from SSENSE after watching TikTok creators’ hauls and styling tips. Amidst my shopping spree, I couldn’t help but question if I’m gradually losing my sense of personal style, prompting me to investigate if others are experiencing the same phenomenon. With most of my peers working in the fashion industry in some capacity, I asked them to weigh in their thoughts.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 26, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Rental Fee Transparency, Twitter, Age-Inclusive Design, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 25, 2023

Rental Fee Transparency, Twitter, Age-Inclusive Design, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 25, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

San Francisco Chronicle: Zillow and other rental websites agree to disclose ‘junk fees’ in deal with White House. “As rents and security deposits have climbed in recent years, so too have various fees that push renters’ monthly bills even higher — including charges for applications, trash collections and paying rent online. In an effort to bring more transparency to the shadowy costs to the rental market, major housing websites like Zillow and Apartments.com will make rental fees clearer and more prominent to help consumers more effectively comparison shop.”

TechCrunch: Twitter has officially changed its logo to ‘X’. “Twitter has removed the iconic bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo. This move comes after Elon Musk announced the change over the weekend. The change is already live on the website. Notably, Musk tweeted that x.com now also redirects to twitter.com. In the post, Musk also called this an ‘interim’ logo, so we might see another logo change in the future.”

USEFUL STUFF

Smashing Magazine: Designing Age-Inclusive Products: Guidelines And Best Practices. “With an estimated one in every eight individuals worldwide surpassing the age of 60, who are actively adopting online shopping, the need for user-friendly interfaces tailored to their needs becomes apparent. Explore the guidelines to help you design inclusive products for all, particularly for an older audience and your future self.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

San Francisco Gate: Google software engineer got $605,000 bonus, plus more from massive salary leak. “Workers at the Mountain View-based tech giant compiled a spreadsheet with 12,000 entries, Insider reported Wednesday, containing self-volunteered pay details from full-time software engineers, salespeople, designers, product managers and other workers based in the United States. Eye-popping numbers abound; Google employees’ salaries are regularly five times larger than the national average.” I’m guessing this doesn’t include contract workers?

Axios: AI manipulation of Assassin’s Creed character’s voice stokes actors’ concerns. “Voice actor Victoria Atkin worked hard to record the voice of fictional 19th century freedom fighter Evie Frye for Ubisoft’s 2015 adventure, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. But, without Atkin’s involvement, someone using AI has now made Evie speak all the lead character’s lines in Bethesda’s 2011 epic The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Amazon agrees to $25 million fine for Alexa children privacy violations. “The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Amazon has agreed to pay a $25 million fine to settle alleged children’s privacy laws violations related to the company’s Alexa voice assistant service. Amazon has offered Alexa voice-activated products and services targeted at children under 13 years old since May 2018.”

Arab News: Famous Turkish social media chef CZN Burak sues father for fraud . “Famous Turkish chef and social media sensation CZN Burak, whose real name is Burak Ozdemir, has taken legal action against his father, Hasan Ozdemir, accusing him of committing fraud to the tune of millions of dollars. Chef Ozdemir has gained widespread recognition through his viral videos showcasing his culinary skills, amassing an impressive 49 million followers on Instagram.”

CBC: Some advocates want residential school abuse records re-examined, archived as debate on their future continues. “Geraldine Shingoose was shocked when she opened a report probing what should be done to protect potential unmarked grave sites at former residential schools for Indigenous children. Of the thousands of former students who detailed the abuses they suffered to an adjudicator tasked with determining their eligibility for compensation under the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, only about 30 have sought to have copies of their words archived.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Washington: With a new app, smart devices can have GPS underwater. “…a team at the University of Washington has developed the first underwater 3D-positioning app for smart devices. When at least three divers are within about 98 feet (30 meters) of each other, their devices’ existing speakers and microphones contact each other, and the app tracks each user’s location relative to the leader. This range can extend with more divers, if each is within 98 feet of another diver.”

Rice University: A “neuroshield” could protect citizens from artificial intelligence. “There’s an urgent need to support citizens with a system of digital self-defense, argues a neuroscience expert from Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy. Steps to regulate advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-enhanced social media are needed to protect people from AI ‘hacking’ our interpersonal relationships and collective intelligence, says Harris Eyre, fellow in brain health at the Baker Institute.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 26, 2023 at 12:57AM
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Towards Truth, Medium, ChatGPT, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 25, 2023

Towards Truth, Medium, ChatGPT, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 25, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Indigenous Times (Australia): New website launched to drive national Truth-telling. “Towards Truth is a partnership between the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the UNSW Indigenous Law Centre (ILC), with significant support from pro bono partners across the legal field. The website compiles laws and policies that have impacted First Nations people from 1788 until today, as well as government documents, reports, media articles and case studies that show their practical effects.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Medium: New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing. “Changes are coming in August to the way we pay writers for great stories and which countries we support. Here’s what’s happening, why, and what it means for you.” I wrote about my weird Medium spam experience in January 2021..

The Verge: ChatGPT can now remember who you are and what you want. “The newest feature of ChatGPT is designed to help you type a little less. It’s called ‘custom instructions,’ and it gives you a place to tell your chatbot the things it should always know about you and how you’d like it to respond to your questions. The feature is in beta, works everywhere ChatGPT does — it should be particularly helpful on mobile devices — and is available today on an opt-in basis to ChatGPT Plus subscribers everywhere but the UK and EU. (Those are hopefully coming soon.)”

Search Engine Roundtable: How It’s Going After Removing Google AMP Pages 3 Weeks Ago. “On June 28th, three weeks ago, I removed the AMP pages from this site. Overall, I didn’t see overall traffic changes from the change. I did notice issues with this site in Google Discover, a spike in crawl rates, a jump in AMP errors and some more changes.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: OpenAI’s Sam Altman launches Worldcoin crypto project. “Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launches on Monday. The project’s core offering is its World ID, an account that only real humans can get. To get a World ID, a customer signs up to do an in-person iris scan using Worldcoin’s ‘orb’, a silver ball approximately the size of a bowling ball. Once the orb’s iris scan verifies the person is a real human, it creates a World ID.” I will not share my opinion on this endeavor with you because doing so would violate every obscenity ordinance in a 200-mile radius.

Boing Boing: TikToker calls out and publicly shames pickpockets in Venice, Italy. “Pickpockets in the tourist areas of Venice Italy aren’t taking kindly to a TikToker who records them on video and loudly shouts “Attenzione pickpocket!” (‘Attention, pickpocket!’) to warn people in crowded areas that fast-fingered fiends are in the vicinity.”

The Library of Congress Signal: Centering Digital Collection Users: An Interview with Lauren Algee. “I’m excited to share this interview with Lauren Algee, one of my colleagues in the Digital Services Directorate here at the Library of Congress. My hope that interviews like this help to spread awareness about the background, experience, and interests of the people that support the Library of Congress. Along with that, I think it’s really valuable to hear from members of our teams about how their thoughts on the work have changed and developed over time.”

Current: Digitization project will preserve decades of archival content for Arkansas PBS. “A digitization effort underway at Arkansas PBS will preserve more than 26,000 magnetic tapes in the station’s archives, going back to its first hour on the air in 1966. The tapes also include interviews with the Little Rock Nine, audio of Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller’s service for Martin Luther King Jr., and several children’s programs from the 1970s previously thought to be lost. The collection also holds nearly 600 interviews with World War II veterans and 700 interviews with movie stars from Good Times Picture Show, a show that aired on the station for about 25 years.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Wall Street Journal: Schools Sue Social-Media Platforms Over Alleged Harms to Students . “Plaintiffs’ lawyers are pitching school boards throughout the country to file lawsuits against social-media companies on allegations that their apps cause classroom disciplinary problems and mental-health issues, diverting resources from education.”

Hindustan Times: Govt warned Twitter of ‘consequences’ for failing to block URLs during farmers’ protest. “In a significant move, the Union government has accepted that it sent out a notice to Twitter warning it of ‘significant consequences’ after the platform failed to block certain URLs during farmers’ protest.”

Reuters: Google owes $338.7 mln in Chromecast patent case, US jury says. “Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) violated a software developer’s patent rights with its remote-streaming technology and must pay $338.7 million in damages, a federal jury in Waco, Texas decided on Friday. The jury found that Google’s Chromecast and other devices infringe patents owned by Touchstream Technologies related to streaming videos from one screen to another.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: When Google Thinks It Owns the Internet . “Google has introduced a new proposal ‘Web Environment Integrity Explainer’ drafted by four of its engineers, revolving around the fundamental idea of enhancing ‘trust and security’ in the client environment. It introduces a new API that enables websites to request a token, providing evidence about the client code’s surroundings. In short, Google is killing ad blockers. No matter how easy or a positive move it seems at first glance, it has sparked controversy in the tech community for being a huge red flag in privacy rights.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 25, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Virginia Woolf, Project Gutenberg Audiobooks, Space Invaders, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 24, 2023

Virginia Woolf, Project Gutenberg Audiobooks, Space Invaders, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 24, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BBC: Virginia Woolf: Personal copy of debut novel resurfaces. “Virginia Woolf’s personal copy of her debut novel, The Voyage Out, has been fully digitised for the first time. The book was rediscovered in 2021, having mistakenly been housed in the science section of the University of Sydney library for 25 years. It is the only publicly available copy of its kind and contains rare inscriptions and edits.”

Techdirt: New Project Uses AI To Turn Project Gutenberg Texts Into Free Audiobooks With Lifelike Voices — In 30 Seconds. “There are currently nearly 5,000 AI-voiced audiobooks, which can be accessed from a number of streaming services, via the Internet Archive, and directly. Listening to them, it is evident that they are a step up from previous computer-generated audiobooks, with a reasonably lifelike voice and some human-like inflections.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: Google and Taito’s Space Invaders AR Game Is Finally Available for Download. “Worried you’re going to be woefully ill-prepared for an inevitable attack by invaders from outer space one day? Google and Taito—the company who released the original version of Space Invaders back in 1978—have a new version of the game that brings the invaders into the real world using augmented reality tricks through your mobile device, and it will finally be available for download starting tonight.”

Stanford Daily: Sources refused to participate in Stanford investigation of president after they weren’t guaranteed anonymity. “Some witnesses to alleged incidents of research misconduct in Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s lab would not talk to the committee investigating his research after being told their anonymity was not guaranteed, The Daily learned. The Daily also obtained email records showing that the committee was aware of additional allegations that it did not disclose in its report, released Wednesday morning.”

Engadget: Google’s Nearby Share app for Windows PCs is now officially available. “Google says its Nearby Share app for Windows PCs is now officially available. A PC version of the app, which makes it a cinch to share files between devices like Android phones and Chromebooks, has been in beta for a few months, but it’s now ready for prime time.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: ‘It almost doubled our workload’: AI is supposed to make jobs easier. These workers disagree. “Ivana Saula, the research director for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said that workers in her union have said they feel like ‘guinea pigs’ as employers rush to roll out AI-powered tools on the job. And it hasn’t always gone smoothly, Saula said. The implementation of these new tech tools has often led to more ‘residual tasks that a human still needs to do.’ This can include picking up additional logistics tasks that a machine simply can’t do, Saula said, adding more time and pressure to a daily work flow.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Microsoft to stop locking vital security logs behind $57-per-user monthly plan. “Microsoft will expand access to important security log data after being criticized for locking detailed audit logs behind a Microsoft 365 enterprise plan that costs $57 per user per month.”

HHS: HHS Office for Civil Rights and the Federal Trade Commission Warn Hospital Systems and Telehealth Providers about Privacy and Security Risks from Online Tracking Technologies. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are cautioning hospitals and telehealth providers about the privacy and security risks related to the use of online tracking technologies that may be integrated into their websites or mobile apps that may be impermissibly disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal health data to third parties.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: Why Generative AI Won’t Disrupt Books. “…for the most part, despite tech’s sometimes drastic (and often negative) effects on other industries, book- and reading-related startups failed to alter much at all. People are still buying books—in fact, they’re buying more than ever. Pandemic lockdowns brought a perhaps unsurprising boom in sales, and even though numbers slipped as restrictions lifted, print sales were still nearly 12 percent higher in 2022 than they were in 2019, and sales of audio books continue to increase dramatically year over year.”

ProPublica: A Scientist Said Her Research Could Help With Repatriation. Instead, It Destroyed Native Remains.. “Federal agencies have awarded millions of dollars to scientific studies on Native American human remains, undermining the goals of NAGPRA as tribes fight for repatriation.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 25, 2023 at 12:21AM
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The Banned Book Club, Department of State Central Files, Linux Mint, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 24, 2023

The Banned Book Club, Department of State Central Files, Linux Mint, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 24, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

PR Newswire: Digital Public Library of America Launches The Banned Book Club to Ensure Access to Banned Books (PRESS RELEASE). “The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has launched The Banned Book Club to ensure that readers in communities affected by book bans can now access banned books for free via the Palace e-reader app. The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned. The e-books will be available to readers for free via the Palace e-reader app.”

Textual Records Division at the National Archives: Department of State Central Files, 1789-1910 Available Online: An Omnibus. “Over the past few years, the National Archives has digitized and made available online through the National Archives Catalog many important records of the Department of State. The records consist largely of the various series of records that constitute the Department’s central files for the period from 1789 to 1910.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

How-To Geek: Linux Mint 21.2 Now Available, Will Get Updates Until 2027. “Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions around, with a solid Ubuntu base and several desktop environments to choose from. Linux Mint 21.2 is now available, and it looks like another great release.”

WIRED: The Remarkable Resilience of Ukraine’s Tech Sector. “By the end of 2022, Ukraine’s IT exports had grown nearly 7 per cent, even as the economy shrunk by almost a third. These are the stories of how four startups have survived, but they’re just a sample of the thousands of acts of extraordinary resilience, defiance, courage, and cooperation in Ukraine’s tech sector.”

CNN: OpenAI’s head of trust and safety is stepping down. “Dave Willner, who has led the artificial intelligence firm’s trust and safety team since February 2022, said in a LinkedIn post that he is ‘leaving OpenAI as an employee and transitioning into an advisory role’ to spend more time with his family.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The 6 Best Mobile Apps for No-Budget Filmmakers. “The smartphone revolution changed no-budget filmmaking. With inexpensive and sometimes free apps able to replicate some of the expensive equipment and software used by the pros, allowing you to make the most out of your limited budget. Here are the mobile apps you need as a no-budget filmmaker.”

Mashable: 16 expert-approved kid podcasts to hit play on right now. “Summer break is here, which means it’s the perfect time to pop a pair of headphones on your kids or plug in your favorite smart home device and listen to a family-friendly podcast to fill your time. These podcasts aren’t just a bunch of fun — they’re also incredible opportunities to diversify your child’s entertainment and supplement their education before the school year picks back up.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Man of Many: The Best Barbenheimer Memes on the Internet. “The Monster High doll to Robbie’s all-American girl-next-door, Oppenheimer is everything that Barbie isn’t: dark, brooding and strangely loaded with sex scenes. On paper, the two feel like opposing entities but if the marketing run has taught us anything, it’s that the rise of Barbie-core and the demise of the atomic-core make for a pretty juicy double feature.” Well documented, plenty of memes — a step up from most meme roundups.

NiemanLab: Want a better comments section? Graham Media Group thinks AI can help with that. “If you’ve ever perused the online comment section of a news organization, you’ll know that despite their intended purpose of extending conversations, they can devolve into cesspools pretty quickly. In recent years, many news organizations have shut them down. But not Graham Media Group.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CBS News: Texas woman Tierra Allen, social media’s “Sassy Trucker,” trapped in Dubai after arrest for “shouting”. “A Houston woman is trapped in the United Arab Emirates after being briefly detained for ‘shouting’ in public during an argument with a Dubai car rental company, a London-based organization trying to help her get out of the country has told CBS News.”

Wall Street Journal: Thousands of Authors Ask AI Chatbot Owners to Pay for Use of Their Work. “More than 8,000 authors have signed a letter asking the leaders of companies including Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet to not use their work to train AI systems without permission or compensation.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Observer: The Master Recording of NASA’s Voyager Golden Record Heads to Auction. “The call of a humpback whale, a Navajo night chant and the brain waves of a woman falling in love… these are just some of the sounds recorded on NASA’s Golden Record, the phonograph time capsule affixed to spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2. As the space-faring record continues on its now 46-year journey through the emptiness, the Golden Record’s master recording is expected to fetch $600,000 at auction later this month.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 24, 2023 at 05:29PM
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YouTube, ChatGPT, Taiwan History, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2023

YouTube, ChatGPT, Taiwan History, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Android Police: YouTube’s new volume normalizer could be a blessing for your ears. “Audio normalizers aren’t certainly new. Many popular music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music can already curb any sudden increase in loudness. There are even a few device-level apps available for your phone and computer to do exactly that. It now appears that YouTube is joining the list with its own solution to give its videos a more uniform volume for the sake of your ears.”

Engadget: ChatGPT’s Android app arrives in the last week of July. “When OpenAI released a ChatGPT app for the iPhone in May, it promised that Android users will get theirs soon. Now, the company has announced that ChatGPT for Android is rolling out to users sometime next week. Moreover, its Google Play listing is already up, and users can pre-register to get it as soon as it becomes available.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Use ChatGPT to Transform Writing Into Another Format. “While most people think of ChatGPT as a way to generate new text, one of its most powerful abilities is to transform existing text into another format. Whether this is text that you have written, or text from another source.” By “another format”, the writer means things like turning blog posts into scripts for YouTube videos, not creating different types of structured data.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

San Francisco Standard: Diaries of Taiwan’s First President To Be Returned After Legal Battle With Stanford. “For nearly 18 years, 51 boxes of documents from former Taiwanese Presidents Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo have been stashed at Stanford University. The documents include diary entries revealing personal and diplomatic insights into some of the most notable global political events of the last century. But the question of who owns the historically valuable musings has been at the center of a decadelong legal battle involving the Taiwanese government, Chiang family members and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.”

Texas Monthly: “I Think He’s a Muslim at Heart”: Texas State Historical Association Leader Endorsed Obama Conspiracy Theory . ” The conflict pits [J.P.] Bryan—a deep-pocketed donor and honorary lifetime board member who was hired as TSHA executive director last fall—against board president Nancy Baker Jones and chief historian Walter Buenger. Both Jones and Buenger have charged Bryan with minimizing the role of slavery, racial violence, and white supremacy in Texas history. Hundreds of other members signed a petition that accuses him of using ‘divisive and racialized’ language.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: At the Met, She Holds Court. At Home, She Held 71 Looted Antiquities.. “Shelby White has given the museum generous gifts and 33 years of service as a trustee. But investigators recently seized many of her ancient artifacts, including 17 that were on loan to the Met.”

Bleeping Computer: JumpCloud discloses breach by state-backed APT hacking group. “US-based enterprise software firm JumpCloud says a state-backed hacking group breached its systems almost one month ago as part of a highly targeted attack focused on a limited set of customers. The company discovered the incident on June 27, one week after the attackers breached its systems via a spear-phishing attack.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tom’s Hardware: Bot Mess: AI-Generated Clickbait Will Hasten the Demise of Search and Web Publishing. “LLMs are text generators that use predictive algorithms to output whatever sequence of words responds to your prompt. They don’t have experiences to draw from; they only have the words of actual humans to take, so even if they get better at summarizing those words, they will never be a primary source of information, nor will they have a viewpoint to share.”

EdSurge: We Deleted More Than 5,000 Pages From Our College Website. Here’s Why.. “As educators, how can we possibly expect to increase our enrollments, promote the mission of our institutions, effectively communicate our academic offerings, and engage prospective (and current) college students inclusively with college websites that function more like online file cabinets? It is time to stop this foolishness.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Notre Dame News: Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin’s paper money. “Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money. During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original techniques, as reported in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 23, 2023 at 10:41PM
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