The tech industry has championed the development of new technologies that filter carbon dioxide out of the air as a way to try to undo the damage caused by planet-heating emissions. Over the past several years, they’ve made a slew of splashy announcements to fund these kinds of projects, called direct air capture (DAC). That […]
If the only thing Roland ever released was the TR-808, the company would still deserve a place in the music gear hall of fame. The 808 is arguably the most important instrument since the creation of the electric guitar. It’s been a cornerstone of hip-hop, electronic, and pop music for 45 years now, used by […]
Life is a series of battles, and I just lost my last one against four gyoza on a skewer. It was an unexpected blow, because honestly, who could have expected me – a springy, respectably proportioned hot dog – to lose against a seemingly inflexible spear of small, unassuming dumplings? This is my struggle in […]
Spotify has found itself the target of artists’ ire for many reasons over the years: poor audio quality, terrible payouts, giving Joe Rogan millions of dollars… the list goes on. But recently it’s been CEO and founder Daniel Ek’s extracurricular activities that have been cause for consternation. Over the past few months his funding of […]
Have you tried simply uploading a photo to Instagram lately? It’s a minefield. Is that a Story, a Post, or a Reel? Do you want to add music? A caption? A prompt, which is… different than a caption, somehow? How about a poll? A fundraiser? More text, but this time on top of the image? […]
Last week at the Zurich Film Festival, Eline Van der Velden – founder and CEO of AI production house Particle6 and its subsidiary talent studio Xicoia – said that a number of talent agents had expressed interest in working with Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated “actress” created by the companies. Van der Velden has not gone […]
An anime version of Jesus Christ flipping tables. OpenAI employees performing in Hamilton costumes. News anchors discussing a story on television. A man doing a thirst-trap TikTok dance. Sam Altman – stealing GPUs on CCTV, listening to a business pitch, crying. Such were the contents of my feed on Sora, OpenAI’s new social media app […]
Microsoft is getting ready to announce an ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software maker has started testing ad-supported games streaming internally, allowing employees to play select titles free without a Game Pass subscription. I understand that the free ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming […]
In August 2002, I was probably back-to-school shopping with my mom at our local mall, bouncing from store to store for backpacks, socks, and a first-day-of-school outfit. Gap was no doubt one of our stops – and thanks to Michael Bise, I now know what music was playing as we browsed. When Bise first started […]
The Ghost games aim to make you feel like you’re playing a classic samurai movie. To make the connection more obvious, Ghost of Tsushima added a black-and-white mode made in collaboration with the estate of Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa. The sequel Ghost of Yōtei builds on that by bringing back the Kurosawa mode and […]