Chaos & Amazement 2305 Content Cyborgs, Brain-Computer Interfacing, and Nothing, Forever.

Chaos and amazement in the tech world, just another day in the socialrunners.com office for Phil and me.

Tech news:

• ChatGPT has reached 100M Monthly Active Users and 13M daily unique visitors in January 2023, two months after launch, becoming the fastest-growing consumer app yet. This fast growth in users is impressive and highlights the increasing interest in AI and language models. https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/

  • Microsoft Bets Big on OpenAI, now owns 49% of the AI Startup https://www.thestatuscode.co/p/the-big-tech-is-fighting-over-ai

    Microsoft is putting its money where its AI is, let's see how the investment pays off.

  • The Content Cyborg: How to Use AI Writing Tools in Content Marketing: An article about using AI writing tools in content marketing, with the suggestion to use them as a "creative sparring" partner. https://animalz.co/blog/the-content-cyborg/

• AI training datasets are mostly to blame for hands and feet generated by Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E having too many fingers and toes. A reminder of the limitations of AI and the need for diverse and accurate training data. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/ai-generated-art-hands-fingers-messed-up

  • Picsart has launched an AI tool called "AI Replace" which allows you to replace people in photos with virtually anything you can think of. A creative and entertaining tool that could bring joy to people's lives, or conversely, could lead to the spreading of fake images.

    https://picsart.com/blog/post/replace-your-ex-with-red-flags-snakes-and-more-with-picsarts-ai-replace

• Online Behaviors are Changing Again: A post about how the average daily internet use has decreased post-pandemic, even as people are spending more time on social media. https://www.warc.com/content/feed/people-are-spending-less-time-online-but-more-time-on-social/en-GB/7742

  • Instagram: The Void of Participation https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/instagram-tiktok-twitter-social-media-competition/672305/

    Instagram: where pictures go to die (or get lots of likes?).

    • Beauty blogger ‘killed lookalike she found on Instagram’ to fake own death https://independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/shahraban-k-doppelganger-murder-munich-b2272872.html

      “Shahraban K, who was living in Munich, allegedly set up fake Instagram accounts and tried to arrange meetings with women who looked similar to her.”

  • YouTube has launched a new initiative called "Study Hall" which will allow users to earn college credits online. The credibility of the program remains to be seen.

    https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/YouTube-Launches-Study-Hall-Higher-Education-Program/641118/

  • Spotify is shifting its podcast strategy to become the preeminent platform for audio creators. This change in strategy aligns with the growing demand for podcasts and the increasing competition in the market. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-01-29/spotify-shifts-podcast-strategy-after-layoffs

  • Thousands of people at a time are watching “Nothing, Forever,” an AI-generated and nonsensical version of “Seinfeld” that streams perpetually on Twitch.

    It’s… weird. https://www.twitch.tv/watchmeforever

• A Catastrophic Cyber Event Likely in the Next Two Years according to World Economic Forum https://sociable.co/government-and-policy/catastrophic-cyber-event-likely-two-years-wef-meeting-davos/ Get ready for the next big disaster, and this time, it's digital.

From my blog:

• The Rise of Super Apps: A Convenient One-Stop-Shop. This article sheds light on the trend of consolidating multiple services into one platform, offering convenience for users. https://www.bnox.be/2023/01/the-rise-of-super-apps-convenient-one.html

  • Sources detail Twitter's nascent moves to facilitate payments, a key to becoming a "super app." Twitter's entry into the financial services industry could potentially change the game, especially with the growing trend of super apps. https://www.ft.com/content/9d84d534-b2dd-4cff-85d1-aee137b26a45

• The Future of Brain-Computer Interfacing: A blog post exploring the future of brain-computer interfacing, specifically the possibility of an AI symbiosis. https://www.bnox.be/2023/01/the-future-of-brain-computer.html

• Get a Good Night's Sleep with Purrfect Night: A product that promises to help people sleep better but doesn't actually exist. https://www.bnox.be/2023/01/get-good-nights-sleep-with-purrfect.html

Weird stuff from around the web:

• Neal Agarwal has created a platform where you can find the most interesting Google Street View screenshots, called the "Wonders of Street View". Seems like a fun way to explore the weird and funny moments captured by Google's all-seeing mapping cameras. https://neal.fun/wonders-of-street-view/

• The "This is fine" meme is ten years old and has an official name for the dog. There's also an updated, less cynical version of the cartoon.

  https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/01/this-is-fine-dog-meme-cultural-relevancy/672838/