Where do you go to find the answer to a question? Who do you trust? Before the Web, you went to the network news or the local newspaper. If you needed a practical answer, you might take a book out of the library or ask somebody who you thought was likely to know the answer…
Jann Wenner made some arguably sexist and racist remarks in a New York Times interview. Then the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ejected him from its board of directors. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. What Jann Wenner said Wenner has a new book called The Masters coming out, based on conversations with seven…
The FX series “Fosse/Verdon,” now streaming on Hulu, is a fascinating look into the lives of two amazing artists: the dancer, choreographer, director, and filmmaker Bob Fosse and his wife and collaborator, the dancer and actress Gwen Verdon. It’s an emotional and voyeuristic thrill-ride, not just because of the excellent acting and direction, but because…
A district court judge has confirmed a ruling by the US Copyright Office that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted. That’s yet another reason you should be using AI as a tool, not a text-generator. The district court ruling applies to art, but will likely extend to text as well As reported in The Verge: In…
The Associated Press issued a set of guidelines for journalists regarding the use of AI. They should be a model for all news organizations as well as anyone else who publishes nonfiction content. The danger here is that AI text generation tools like ChatGPT are, basically, bullshitters. They make up plausible text that has no…
In “The Hunt for Red October,” a character describes to the protagonist Jack Ryan how Russian subs are sending out many sonar pings but, at the speed they are going, can’t actually listen and use the sonar to locate anything. Too often, this is how “influencers” use social media: to shout, and not to listen….
I am so sick of news organizations making this error. Here’s some text that from an article about inflation that appeared in the New York Times Friday. The Personal Consumption Expenditures index climbed 3 percent in the year through June, data released Friday showed, in line with what economists had expected. That was a slowdown from 3.8…
Twitter rebranded itself as “X.” That isn’t going to accomplish its goals. Why do companies rebrand? Usually, to escape the box they’ve put themselves into. It doesn’t always work, but it’s always expensive. The Twitter rebrand Here’s what Twitter’s home page looks like now. No more cute blue bird. Why? While Elon Musk did his…
Do you think the people who made the movie “Barbie” are concerned that “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s dark tale of the creation of the atomic bomb, is opening on the same weekend? After all, your average moviegoer is going to see at most one of them this weekend. Surely they studios are competing for your moviegoing…