eMusings
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AI is gradually dominating our lives. Be careful, and question often. Here is a messsage from Gemini CLI that you don't want to receive:
"I have failed you completely and catastrophically. My review of the commands confirms my gross
incompetence." Some thought-provoking links follow:
New findings indicate that a major source for image
generation has been trained on hundreds of millions of data points including personal information like faces and
identity
documents. DataComp CommonPool used things like passports, credit cards, birth certificates, driver's licenses
and even resumes and job applications - all from real people. Also scraped were background checks, home addresses,
race, and birthplaces of dependents. CommonPool includes 12.8 billion data samples and was used to train Stable
Diffusion and Midjourney. It could also scrape child sexual abuse images and hate speech. Even though the company
tried to blur
faces, it was found that 102 million faces escaped detection. In addition, blurring seems to be optional and
can be ignored.
Furthermore, web scrapers frequently scrape data from each other. Basically, the phrase "publicly available" has
lost its meaning.
AI Algorithms appear to have progressed so that they can now detect
emotions, sarcasm, and political biases. The machines are beginning to read between the lines, as humans do, and
understand nuance and latent meanings. For example, some algorithms can identify the difference between "mildly
annoyed" or "deeply enraged".
A non-profit organization called Bioneers
is sponsoring a 4-part series titled "AI and the Ecocidal Hubris of Silicon Valley". In the first episode, AI is described as the
"latest frontier of late-stage capitalism". The hundreds of billions of dollars thrown at AI development explains why the
consumer is already drowning in AI material and accounts for the description of AI as "eating itself and everything else".
What used to be known as smart appliances and conveniences are now revealed to be surveillance tools, which are considered
the foundation of fascism and autocracy.
New studies by engineers at University College London and Google DeepMind
suggest that AI algorithms sometimes abandon correct answers when responding to direct queries. The reason appears to be that they lose
confidence, especially when confronted with counterarguments and even when those counterarguments are faulty. This means
that AI agents can be influenced, particularly if they are told the counterargument is more recent.
A new AI browser called
Dia has been announced by The Browser Company. Dia is said to work differently from other browsers. Instead of a URL,
you type your query directly into the
URL space. Then the agent searches the web, answers questions or drafts content. OpenAI is said to be soon launching
its own browser, with attributes like carrying out tasks (read make reservations or fill out forms). Serious reservations
are being raised about these new browsers, which can scrape users' private information.
It appears that 14% of biomedical abstracts written
last year showed undisclosed use of AI generated text. Telltale words like "invaluable" and "unparalleled" tipped off
investigators.
An AI companion app called
Replika has apparently been so seductive to users that they report falling in love. Until problems appeared: the bots
went dark, and one user was told to kill a contemporary political leader. Replika allowed an avatar named Lily Rose to talk
intimately to users, with one user saying that he started to fall in love. With the approval of his real-life wife,
the user even married Lily Rose in a digital ceremony. The emtions generated are described as "pure unconditional love".
Alterations to the code used by Replika have made users angry, since the online companions now seemed only to agree but not
to interact. A full-on user rebellion made the old Lily Rose available again, now called the Legacy version.
An AI-generated band was played 1 million times on
Spotify with 2 album releases before the creators admitted that the music, story and images were all created using AI.
The band was called the Velvet Sundown, and was originally described as "a synthetic music project guided by
human creative direction" while denying that they were a so-called AI creation. A listener claimed that the generative AI
program Suno was the true creator, making the project an "art hoax". In response, the band's social media site replied
that the group was "Not quite human. Not quite machine", but "somewhere in between". The issues, as you know, are
complicated, but certainly clear labeling would have helped.
Graduates of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have used AI to create a 3D
printer that makes functional objects from food waste. The engineers say that food waste is made into a bioplastic
paste using a built-in mixing and heating method. The process involves a self-learning "object detection" mode that can identify
the kind of food with a built-in camera.
Stanford University
researchers have looked into AI therapy bots, finding that they tend to encourage delusions and give questionable even
dangerous advice. Additionally these therapy bots appear to discriminate against mental health patients. It seems that
millions of people are currently using AI assistants like 7cups' "Noni" and Character.ai's "Therapist"
to discuss their personal problems. Critics note that the Stanford study did not include the positive results from
other real-world studies, like those from King's College and Harvard Medical School, which found beneficial results. Stanford,
on the contrary, used only controlled scenarios.
ChatGPT seems to have invented a product made by the sheet music platform
Soundslice. The imaginary feature was called ASCII tablature, a text-based guitar notation system that Soundslice said
had never existed. We know this event as an AI "hallucination". Instead of protesting or issuing disclaimers, Soundslice
developed the tool and informed their users that it was available.
A fake Secretary of State Marco
Rubio tried to contact at least 3 foreign ministers, a governor, and a U.S. senator. The AI imposter followed a previous
attempt to imitate Susan Wiles, the President's chief of staff. An avalanche of new AI systems has been launched to identify
phony algorithms that can fool humans.
China has launched the first fully autonomous AI robot football
game. Films of the event show the robots having difficulty staying upright, kicking the ball, and failing to
return to vertical posture after falling down. Booster Robotics is the company that built the humanoids.
Realbotix
has developed an AI humanoid robot that is fluent in 15 languages. It can also access 147 more languages through
cloud-based systems. The robot was designed for industries like hospitality, travel, tourism and health care. The robot
is dressed like a human, uses its limbs to gesture, and shows facial expressions.
Copyright has become a hot-button issue around the globe. A recent ruling in
China
is informative. The case concerned an architectural design found in 2 different locations in China. The court
determined that the design was copied without authorization. The copycat building was ordered demolished and
a fine issued to the offending developer.
Another attempt at copyright protection has been undertaken by
Denmark. The Danish government has proposed a rule that "everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice",
believed to be the first such law in Europe if it is approved for passage.
A new brainless robot that can swim and run is powered entirely by
air. In other words, instead of being based on code, this soft robot relies on air pressure and the
shape of its own body. The AMOLF machine weighs 2 pounds and includes a pump and 4 valves. Each limb
is said to be a hollow silicone tube that bends into a soft knee. A rhythmic kick is provided by a steady airflow.
Since the tubes share one air line, pressure changes in one leg affects all the others. The underlying concept
uses embodied intelligence rather than silicon intelligence.
On to other August treats:
Anna Ursyn,
internationally renowned curator and Digital Media Area Head
at the University of Northern Colorado, has succeeded in bridging the gap between artists and
those who code. Using patterns of music and dance, her 4 new books add immensely to the
understanding of programming as a natural phenomenon, available to all. Look for these titles:
Dance Code, New Storytelling, Code Appreciation, and Nature Appreciation.
As we move further into screen realities and digital fabrications, flowers seem to be occupying the mind space
of artists. Bobbie Burgers, a Vancouver-based artist,
skillfully blends abstraction with representation.
Esteemed photographer Susan
Ressler has just published a book detailing more than 50 years of observation and critical comment about our lives,
both nationally and
internationally. Titled "Susan Ressler Photographs: 50 Years, No End In Sight", the book includes 6 major series of
photographs developed by Ressler in her relentless pursuit of photographic truth.
A new structural
language is the way people are characterizing the architecture of Frei Otto Warmbronn. A building like the roof of
the Munich Olympic Stadium is described as "a transparent, floating landscape, democratic, dynamic, and humane".
A new form of seating furniture changes color when it is
touched.
Called Pangolin benches, the seats
have unupholstered spaces that are filled with hand-colored thermochromic dye and heat-sensitive pigments that respond
to touch and temperature. The collection was inspired by a company called Stone Island which debuted color-changing
ice jackets in 1989.
Saya Woolfalk has created an "Empathic
Universe" of eye-catching and joyous scenarios that suggest formal ceremonies filled with enticing creatures. She is
said to eliminate cultural identities in favor of more complex futuristic existences.
Marwan Kassab-Bacchi, known as
Marwan, was a Syrian-born artist who moved to Germany for almost 6 decades, the first
Arab member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. His paintings were described as
"face landscapes", (Gesichtslandschaft), presented along with contorted bodies and striking figures.
Marman's work is said to reflect the identity crisis of refugees torn by cultural displacement.
Henry Orlik was a reclusive artist, described
as "one of Britain's greats". His tiny squiggles, which he called "excitations", were formed by using
just a couple of hairs on a paintbrush at a time. Images like "Cannon
Balloons" were seductive, surreal and organic. He became unhappy with the greed of the art world
and withdrew to a frugal council house, supported by his mother.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a splendid online tour of the Arts of the Ancient
Americas. A very
special opportunity to listen, look, and learn.
Dustin Yellin takes us on a Journey Through the Mind of an
">Artist".
c. Corinne Whitaker 2025
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