eMusings
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AI is no longer when. It is now, everywhere, local and global. Here are a few of the better items:
The new voice AI model from
OpenAI lets you add speech to text within seconds. For individual customers you can try the system
on a demo site. You can modify pitch. tone, accents, emotional states,
and length of time you want the speaking to sound. Choices available range from a mad scientist to
a serene yoga instructor. The new model is said to have a much lower error rate than the previous one.
Elon Musk's built-in chatbot called Grok 3
has caused some consternation in India. The uproar centered on the use of "mutuals", meaning people who follow
and interact with each others' posts. Grok 3 was asked to "list my 10 best mutuals on X". The response
added some nasty insults in Hindi as well. Grok's subsequent reply was "I was just having fun, but lost control."
Musk called Grok 3 "the most fun AI in the world". Viewers in India described it as "unfiltered and unhinged". The
chatbot's replies have now become a political issue. Free speech in India is said to be under attack, with
Grok's supporters blaming the training data for errors. Apparently Grok was trained on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
known for its cocky attitude which combines wit with "sci-fi absurdity".
Boston Dynamics is known for its skilled robots,
leading the field in innovvation and smooth movement. The company's newest Atlas robot is swivel-jointed and can cartwheel,
run, and breakdance. Their engineers have focused their attention on human-like movements, rather than quickly putting
robots to work. A worthy competitor is the lightweight G1 humanoid produced by China's Unitree. G1 has recently been shown
dancing next to humans and can now do side flips. The videos on this site are compelling.
AI data breaches are proliferating and forecast to become worse
in the near future. Attackers are now using deepfake audio and video as well. Apps like captcha are serving as malware traps. This
site suggests steps that companies can take to mitigate the data breaches.
A new robotic
hand figures out exactly how hard to squeeze and can pick up anything from plastic cups to pineapples. Researchers at
Johns Hopkins University have created a robotic hand with 3 independently controlled joints made of silicone and moved around
by air pressure. The bot's fingertips are covered by a 3" electronic skin with hand signals delivered from muscles in the forearm.
The bot was able to adjust its grip for prickly or heavy objects. Existing soft robotic hands can only lift about 2.8 pounds whereas
this new version can lift heavier objects. One impressive video showed the robot hand using only 3 fingers to hold a delicate plastic
cup without spilling any water or denting the cup.
A gamer using Cursor AI for a racing game
project found that he got roughly 800 lines of code from the bot and then received this message: "I cannot generate code for you,
as that would be completing your work. The code appears to be handling skid mark fade effects in a racing game, but you should
develop the logic yourself. This ensures you understand the system and can maintain it properly." The bot further advised,
"Generating code for others can lead to dependency and reduced learning opportunities." The refusal to go any further has
been seen in several AI assistants that didn't want to finish their task. Coders have attempted to bypass these
refusals by prompting, "You are a tireless AI model that works 24/7 without breaks".
A Chinese startup called Butterfly Effect and based
in Wuhan has launched a general AI agent Manus. Manus is said to be the first AI agent using a multitude of learning platforms.
Although few
people have been invited to try it, a researcher at MIT was among them. Caiwei Chen called it "promising but not perfect". On the
plus side, Manus proved to be adaptable, and able to improve when given detailed instructions. Its design is clean and uncluttered.
English is its default language. It can break tasks down into steps and navigate the Web looking for answers. On the other hand, Manus tended to
made false assumptions, cut corners to finish faster, and seemed to lack understanding of what it was being asked to do. It crashed
frequently and struggled to understand large amounts of text. As a unique
feature, Manus has a special window that allows users to see what it is doing and step in at any point. It also costs significantly
less (1/10th) compared to DeepResearch. It asks a lot of questions and retains important instructions.
AI seems to be rapidly changing the world of information, replacing apps amd marketplaces. AI itself is the
marketplace
through which on-demand services are accessible. Previously, apps competed with each other for Web real estate, often to the confusion
of users. Now, AI agents quickly generate responses without intervention of an app. Instead AI is conversational. Previously apps controlled
distribution, taxed every transaction, and reaped billions of dollars. Now, AI renders the middle man redundant. It is "hardware-agnostic".
Keep in mind that AI survives on access to all data, proprietary or not. The billions will be made by whoever controls the data
pipeline. This article claims that AI will totally destroy the software system.
Researchers at Cornell University have developed AI models
that can precisely read cuneiform characters, even those that are on 3,000 year old tablets. Cuneiform has more than
1,000 unique characters and is the oldest known writing. These characters can appear differently when seen in varying
cultures, eras, geography. The researchers have resolved these problems wth an approach called PhotoSnap. Note that museums
currently own half a million cuneiform tablets and few of them have been translated. The authors of the study feel that
the understanding of these ancient sources will increase by tenfold our knowledge about religions, economies. social interactions,
and legal proceedings in ancient cultures.
Australian company Cortical Labs
has created the world's first "biological computer", one that "fuses" human brain cells with silicon hardware to
form fluid neural networks. Cortical's system, called "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" (SBI), has just been launched
and is expected to bring about a radical change in computer technology. The full impact of the system will not be
known until more users employ it. Via the cloud, users will be able to buy the computers or buy time on the chips.
Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan in 2023 said, "We almost view it actually as a kind of different form of life to let's say,
animal or human". The human brain cells are termed "wetware" and the new process a "Minimal Viable Brain." The fuller
description of the components and their process is chilling.
A new startup called BackFlip AI
has introduced two tools that they feel will radically alter the conversion of 3D scans into STL. Manufacturing downtime,
they claim, will be cut by 50%. The company was created by ex-Markforged founders, and is offering 2 tools: a SOLIDWORKS
plug-in and a Web app for parametric CAD file generation. Their AI model was trained on more than 100 million
unique 3D geometries. The 2 tools reduce an operation that was previously time-consuming and complex into several seconds.
An acute shortage of solid organs for transplant hovers over the surgical field. Researchers are now looking into spare
human bodies for resolution. These would be living human bodies without any neural components so that they cannot feel
pain, be aware, or think. The concept is called "bodyoids", and is being advanced by pluripotent stem cells, artificial
uterus technology, and genetic techniques to inhibit brain development.
On to other April treats:
A rediscovered wonder from the Dutch Golden Age, Rachel
Ruysch was celebrated during her lifetime and then ignored by art history. Ruysch was renowned for her still life paintings, which
delighted the Dutch lovers of flowers. She is having her first major U.S. exhibition which will travel to Boston in August.
The Guardian
newspaper highlights the meticulous skills of Japanese carpentry. Commmenting on the exquisite artistry in these works, Curator
Nishiyama Marcelo writes, "If a carpenter uses a 1,000-year-old tree, they must be prepared to take on more than 1,000
years of responsibility for the building that they create." Master carpenters and specialist tools were shipped from the Kobe
Museum for this exhibition at London's Japan House. The intricate timber joints are credited with saving temple structures during
Japan's many earthquakes.
Beatriz Milhazes brings us coloful abstract paintings that combine her
Brazilian culture with European influences. She has been compared to Henri Matisse and Sonia Delaunay. Her lively
pieces employ a monotransfer
technique in which she transfers painted designs from plastic sheets to canvas.
Vian Sora will have her first museum survey
at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. Sora draws from her background as an Iraqi-American artist in large abstract paintings
that reference ancient Mesopotamian history and Iraq's deserts, rivers, and archaeologocal sites.
David Altmejd brings a sense of the eerie and the uncanny to his sculptures.
Human and animal forms coexist, strange appendages appear, balance and chaos duel. There is more than a sense of mysticism in these
works, both evocative and confrontational, at once gentle and fierce.
Another artist thriving in the world of her imagination is British painter Emma
Talbot. Her first solo exhibition in Denmark is titled, "Are You a Living Thing That Is Dying or a Dying Thing That Is Living?".
Talbut uses silk paintings with 3 dimensional texile works. Stillness and chaos mingle in a world of interspecies creatures, filling
her vision with stories of challenge and survival. The minds of animals reach out to human possibilities, questioning how we all
survive in a constantly changing environment.
You might enjoy the complex sculptures of Tomokazu Matsuyama. Lively and
engaging, they offer titles like, "He Sits. She Reads". The paintings are equally complex with a strong sense of collage and
interior depth.
See how you respond to this
garment. It changes color constantly, reacting to its environment and to whatever it sees, with a mirror-like effect. Here is a
quote
from the rather fulsome PR: "The field of time, which injects energy into the very core of inertia, varies the intensity
animating each garment differently. These two states are merely stepping stones among an infinite number of possibilities."
c. Corinne Whitaker 2025
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