Introducing a New Chapter for ‘Uncanny Valley’
In this episode, we look back at 2025 and look ahead to what’s happening in 2026—including what’s in store for Uncanny Valley. Source link
-
-
Scammers in China Are Using AI-Generated Images to Get Refunds
I don’t want to admit it, but I did spend a lot of money online this holiday shopping season. And unsurprisingly, some of those purchases didn’t meet my expectations. A photobook I bought was damaged in transit, so I snapped a few pictures, emailed them to the merchant, and got a refund. Online shopping platforms…
-
6 Scary Predictions for AI in 2026
When OpenAI declared a “code red” this month to refocus its teams on competing with Google, I couldn’t help but think back to December three years ago when the companies’ roles were reversed. Google was the one blasting the sirens to catch up to OpenAI. What followed the next month, in January 2023, were the…
-
This Chrome Extension Turns LinkedIn Posts About AI Into Facts About Allen Iverson
Give yourself a nice gift this holiday season. Download a free Chrome extension that replaces those incessant LinkedIn posts about artificial intelligence with facts about a very different kind of AI: Allen Iverson. Yes, the answer to your generative AI woes is “The Answer,” the crossover king, the four-time NBA scoring champ. One of the…
-
The Ultra-Realistic AI Face Swapping Platform Driving Romance Scams
The Chinese-language artificial intelligence app Haotian is so effective that it’s made millions of dollars selling its face-swapping technology on Telegram. The service integrates easily with messaging platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat and claims that users can tweak up to 50 settings—including the ability to adjust things like cheekbone size and eye position—to help mimic…
-
Opposed to Data Centers? The Working Families Party Wants You to Run for Office
The Working Families Party said Thursday that it is putting out a specific recruitment call for people who are organizing against data centers in their communities to run for office. The announcement comes amid a period of heightened political turmoil around data centers, as some high-profile Democrats wade into the fight. Earlier this week, three…
-
A Filmmaker Made a Sam Altman Deepfake—and Got Unexpectedly Attached
Director Adam Bhala Lough didn’t set out to make a documentary about a digital simulacrum of Sam Altman. But after about 100 days of texting and emailing the OpenAI CEO for an interview—with no response, he claims, and with financiers hounding him to make good on his original pitch—Lough was at his wit’s end. He’d…
-
‘Wicked’ Director Jon M. Chu on ‘What Makes Art Beautiful’ in the AI Era
Manisha Krishnan: OK. So it sounds like you’re potentially open. You’re not closing the door on working with AI basically? Jon Chu: I don’t know. Manisha Krishnan: OK. That’s fair. I do want to talk a little bit about Crazy Rich Asians because I love that movie, but also I sort of wonder, did you…
-
People Are Paying to Get Their Chatbots High on ‘Drugs’
Petter Ruddwall knows the idea of AIs becoming sentient and seeking to get high with code-based “drugs” seems “stupid.” But the Swedish creative director couldn’t get it out of his head. So he scraped trip reports and psychological research on the effects of various psychoactive substances, wrote a batch of codes modules to hijack chatbot…
-
Apple Engineers Are Inspecting Bacon Packaging to Help Level Up US Manufacturers
Fouch knew automated sensors could help by, for example, identifying the environmental culprits of the hole-punching issues, but with so many potential options to try he didn’t know where to start. “The worst thing you can do, in a smaller business especially, is muddle through pilot purgatory, hoping to find a viable product,” he says….
