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Willy nilly you have boarded the AI express. Some interesting links follow:
It's free, it's mysterious,
and it has an anonymous provider. Ox Alpha will continue free for one week with almost unlimited usage. It claims
that prompts and completions "are retained by the provider and are not used for training." Theories have ranged from
China to Microsoft with no conclusions. By the time you read this the
week will be over and we may...or may not...have better information.
Claude boasted that it had added invisible
watermarks to meet EU rules. Within 4 hours hackers had found workarounds rendering the restriction useless. The EU
rules say that model providers like OpenAI and Anthropic have to label any synthetic material, be it text, audio, image,
or video, so that it is clearly AI-based. Otherwise fines will be issued amounting to as much as 3% of annual turnover. The
Claude technique, called SynthID, was created by Google. Anthropic, in the meantime, admits that material that is translated,
paraphrased, or heavily edited might have no watermark at all.
AI has now developed 16 new
viruses from scratch using a tool called Evo. Evo's training library was used to create genetic sequences from millions
of sources. A team from Stanford University and the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, created thousands of genome
combinations within a specific structure, one that could be hosted by an E. coli bacteria cell. Out of 300 results,
16 produced viable viruses. The new viruses, it is claimed, called bacteriophages, can infect bacteria but not humans.
Concerns have arisen about the research in terms of biosecurity and biosafety. One particularly dangerous area that should
be avoided is eukaryote-infecting pathogens, since these can cause a number of serious health problems like malaria
and some yeast infections.
It seems that
Amazon, which initially was a bookstore, has been destroying rare texts and books to use them as training material
for AI. Amazon is buying thousands of rare books, cutting off their spines, scanning them, and destroying the originals.
The company owns a facility
called VGT3 in Las Vegas featuring a symbol of a Tyrannosaurus rex holding a book in its claws. Little regard is given to
historical value, intellectual value, or sentimental value. An additional complication arises when authors deliberately
enter corruptions into their texts. It has been found that as few as 250 "malicious" documents can intensely corrupt
trillions of entries.
Hi tech Bros
are reproducing themselves as life-sized AI clones. These virtual humanoids are turning up in doctors' offices, retail shops, and
classrooms. These clones are able to influence how people think, vote, feel, and make decisions.
Additional research using bacteria
has resulted in a breakthrough in plant biology. MIT researchers have taught bacteria to transmit signals, potentially
allowing plants to send out warning messages when confronted with dangers like drought or pest attacks. The engineers
worked with Pantoea agglomerans. a bacterium commonly found on plant surfaces. The bacteria were placed in Petri dishes
along with a growth medium. The cells were programmed to react to certain molecules with switch on and switch off
capabilities to send signals.
A growing number of
websites are ranking viewers' appearances and scoring them for "attractiveness". The scores of different people are
compared, with one declared the 'winner' and the other a 'loser'. This competitiveness based on supposed approved features
are part of a subculture called "looksmaxxing". Features being scored include grooming, clothing, and exercise. More
malicious criteria get into extreme dieting or unhealthy procedures. Essentially viewers are urged to see their bodies
as objects to correct. For young men, the emphasis can create body disorders like dysmorphia, where a boy/man is led to
believe that his physique is not sufficiently muscular. Eating disorders, a frequent subject prone to manipulation, can
lead to steroid use, cosmetic interventions, and a heightened risk of premature death.
Unitree, a Chinese robotics
company, claims that its "Superman" robot can run faster than the record set by
Usain Bolt. The robot also jumped roughly 6 feet 7 inches into the air from a standing
start, a feat that no human has achieved. The legs of the robot are only 2 feet 9 inches long,
producing an awkward arm-waving gait when running. Not accidently, the announcement appeared right
before Unitree's debut on the stock market. In Shanghai, Unitree's IPO gained 629% on its
first day of trading. It is noted that Unitree holds about 90% of the world's humanoid robot
market.
Now on to September art treats:
Jacob
Hashimoto creates very large suspended installations composed of many hundreds of floating particles. You can see more
of these playful sculptures
at his own site.
Minnie
Evans' world is replete with pattern, design, color, shapes, and entities, all sharing her clear love of an active
and vibrant life.
Shifting positions in human
experience are poetically envisioned in the expressive tableaux of Tesfaye Urgessa. Born in Ethiopia and working in
Germany, Urgessa crowds his figures into dreamy environments with vague references to outside objects.
Former designers for McLaren luxury
automobiles have turned their attention to furnishings, beginning with this elegantly curved bench. The carbon fiber
frame is overlaid with leather. Touches of machine-milled metals like titanium, brass, gold and aluminum are subtly
added without interrupting the essentail flow of the piece.
The work of Gaetano
Pesce has been described as "radical design and social commentary". I would call it challenging, intriguing, and
masterful.
Not sure what to make of
"Pastel", the million-bead installation shown here. Does it have more to say than the number of beads? Does that matter?
Jacqueline Surdell weaves large-scale woven wall-works into vivid
and purposeful sculptures, demanding to be seen and questioned.
Another exploration of woven wallworks is offered by Tiffany Loy.
Loy's hand-woven pieces seem to be conversing with the walls they occupy, a harmonious dance of cooperation and understanding.
The Los Angeles Public
Library will bring a smile to your face with the "World's Largest Pop-Up Book". The artist, Daniel Gonzalez, worked with
paper engineer Matthew Reinhart to build the 31 x 20 foot design, which is 11 feet tall and weighs nearly a ton.
c. Corinne Whitaker 2026
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