#and intelligent

[loveisinthebat]

Enjoy this Friend

[theladyyavilee]

I’ve been slowly making my way through prehistoric planet with david attenborrough every day while I eat lunch and I need you all to know I am OBSESSED with this little desert lady 😍😍

[sick-sad-little-world]

“I don't, I never think of Nirvana or Pearl Jam or Soundgarden or Mudhoney or The Melvins as grunge bands. I think of these as individual bands. To me a grunge band is Stone Temple Pilots (STP) or Silverchair or arghh... Bush. Bands that are obviously influenced by a combination of all these bands together, which suddenly creates a genre. It sounds like if you took little pieces out of all these Seattle bands, and put them together you'd have STP, and that, that's grunge to me. That's like this genre they created by borrowing.” (x)

(via @bearcub81212)

[transprincecaspian]

what hobbies does Naoise enjoy?

This question was admittedly a toughie but I have finally come back with some answers! Firstly, I think that Naoise was a bit of a dilettante when it came to his interests growing up in Highever, so he had his fingers in a lot of pies but was only truly interested in select few things.

Of them, one that really resonated with me was archery and falconry/hawking! Falconry (as it relates to hunting, which I would say is the overall hobby here; archery as well, but archery was something anyone could partake in should they afford a bow) was historically considered pastimes of the noble class, and I see no reason why Highever would not keep birds as well as their Mabari hounds. I imagine the Cousland keep would have a kennelmaster and a falconer, as the birds were often trained with the dogs to build camaraderie when on the hunt.

(Such as the dogs chasing prey out for the falcons to grab, or the falcons to circle overhead and guide the hounds if they lost the scent/trail).

Falconry in hunting was considered the means of hunting more "effeminate" or for the elderly who could not take their hounds and horses and spears, but it was also safer and more expensive (hence why one was considered military practice and the other, a pastime).

I think Naoise, not being as martially inclined as his brother (a rogue rather than a warrior, in reference to game mechanics) would find much more interest in archery and falconry as a means to exercise, train, and exert his status. I am even considering the idea of a peregrine companion going along with him through the events of Origins...

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[thunderon]

so my roommate is completely straight edge like no drugs no alcohol etc and so im sure y’all can imagine my surprise when i saw she brought home this sign

so i immediately inquired

and now you may ask. what the fuck did my roommate think that sign meant? well

anyways i moved the sign so it’s now front and center in our living room and ive been laughing every time i pass it

[purpleartrowboat]

ai makes everything so boring. deepfakes will never be as funny as clipping together presidential speeches. ai covers will never be as funny as imitating the character. ai art will never be as good as art drawn by humans. ai chats will never be as good as roleplaying with other people. ai writing will never be as good as real authors

[spaciebabie]

i envy ppl who can provide deep analysis about their favorite media and/or characters b/c whenever i like something a lot it looks like:

[gingerswagfreckles]

After 146 days, the Writer's Strike has ended with a resounding success. Throughout constant attempts by the studios to threaten, gaslight, and otherwise divide the WGA, union members stood strong and kept fast in their demands. The result is a historic win guaranteeing not only pay increases and residual guarantees, but some of the first serious restrictions on the use of AI in a major industry.

This win is going to have a ripple effect not only throughout Hollywood but in all industries threatened by AI and wage reduction. Studio executives tried to insist that job replacement through AI is inevitable and wage increases for staff members is not financially viable. By refusing to give in for almost five long months, the writer's showed all of the US and frankly the world that that isn't true.

Organizing works. Unions work. Collective bargaining how we bring about a better future for ourselves and the next generation, and the WGA proved that today. Congratulations, Writer's Guild of America. #WGAstrong!!!

[louistonehill]

A new tool lets artists add invisible changes to the pixels in their art before they upload it online so that if it’s scraped into an AI training set, it can cause the resulting model to break in chaotic and unpredictable ways. 

The tool, called Nightshade, is intended as a way to fight back against AI companies that use artists’ work to train their models without the creator’s permission. Using it to “poison” this training data could damage future iterations of image-generating AI models, such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, by rendering some of their outputs useless—dogs become cats, cars become cows, and so forth. MIT Technology Review got an exclusive preview of the research, which has been submitted for peer review at computer security conference Usenix.   

AI companies such as OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Stability AI are facing a slew of lawsuits from artists who claim that their copyrighted material and personal information was scraped without consent or compensation. Ben Zhao, a professor at the University of Chicago, who led the team that created Nightshade, says the hope is that it will help tip the power balance back from AI companies towards artists, by creating a powerful deterrent against disrespecting artists’ copyright and intellectual property. Meta, Google, Stability AI, and OpenAI did not respond to MIT Technology Review’s request for comment on how they might respond. 

Zhao’s team also developed Glaze, a tool that allows artists to “mask” their own personal style to prevent it from being scraped by AI companies. It works in a similar way to Nightshade: by changing the pixels of images in subtle ways that are invisible to the human eye but manipulate machine-learning models to interpret the image as something different from what it actually shows. 

Continue reading article here

[fanhackers]

Fans' attitudes toward AI-generated works

Irissa Cisternino, a PhD candidate of Stony Brook University, is writing their research on topics related to technology, art and fandom. You can participate by filling out a survey and additionally, signing up for an interview. The survey is expected to last until at least the end of April, those, who signed up for the interview, will be contacted later. You need to be at least 18 years old to participate in either, be able to understand and speak English and identify as a fan.

After the completion of the research, it will be accessible as the dissertation of the researcher. If you have further questions, you can contact Irina Cisternino at irissa.cisternino@stonybrook.edu or Lu-Ann Kozlowsky at lu-ann.kozlowski@stonybrook.edu.

[bfpnola]

UPDATE! REBLOG THIS VERSION!

[t-hiswifey]

[ayo-edebiri]

Despicable Me 4 - Minion Intelligence (Big Game Spot)

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[phildumphy]

So it turns out that ChatGPT not only uses a ton shit of energy, but also a ton shit of water. This is according to a new study by a group of researchers from the University of California Riverside and the University of Texas Arlington, Futurism reports.

Which sounds INSANE but also makes sense when you think of it. You know what happens to, for example, your computer when it’s doing a LOT of work and processing. You gotta cool those machines.

And what’s worrying about this is that water shortages are already an issue almost everywhere, and over this summer, and the next summers, will become more and more of a problem with the rising temperatures all over the world. So it’s important to have this in mind and share the info. Big part of how we ended up where we are with the climate crisis is that for a long time politicians KNEW about the science, but the large public didn’t have all the facts. We didn’t have access to it. KNOWING about things and sharing that info can be a real game-changer. Because then we know up to what point we, as individuals, can have effective actions in our daily lives and what we need to be asking our legislators for.

And with all the issues AI can pose, I think this is such an important argument to add to the conversation.

Edit: I previously accidentally typed Colorado instead of California. Thank you to the fellow user who noticed and signaled that!