Chaos & Amazement #2444 Australia’s Social Media Ban, Oasis AI, and Lego Cooking Videos
In this week's Chaos & Amazement we’re talking about surprising shifts in global tech, creative AI marvels, and an unexpected culinary twist involving Lego.
Tech News
Podcasts played a significant role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Candidates frequently appeared on popular podcasts like Joe Rogan’s to reach voters directly, bypassing traditional media channels. This strategy was effective because over 100 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly. https://www.thecurrent.com/political-presidential-election-2024-podcasts
I'm skeptical that Australia's plan to ban social media for under-16s is an effective solution. Kids will just find ways around it, missing potential upsides. A better strategy would be to invest in digital literacy and parental controls rather than shutting down access entirely for an entire age group. https://mashable.com/article/australia-social-media-ban
From my blog
Oasis AI: A New Kind of Video Game That Creates Itself On The Fly (and reminds me of Star Trek’s Holodeck technology) https://bnox.be/2024/11/oasis-ai-new-kind-of-video-game-that.html
Search Wars 2.0: When AI Rebooted a Battle I Thought Was Over (about Perplexity AI) https://bnox.be/2024/11/search-wars-20-when-ai-rebooted-battle.html
Weird and Wonderful
Folk musician "Catbreath?" brilliantly trolls Spotify by naming songs like "My Liked Songs" and "Gym Bangers" to hijack voice commands - making $150/month disrupting Big Tech while creating actual lo-fi folk punk about anarchism and drugs. https://www.hearingthings.co/confessions-of-a-spotify-vandal/
Ever heard tales of mysterious voices in the woods? Meet Fable, a talking raven famous on social media. He might just hold the key to unlocking these ancient mysteries.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserWhen you think you've seen it all... There are people out there making Lego stop motion cooking videos that look like actual cooking shows! From chopping to stirring, it's all Lego, but with ASMR style soundtracks.
