Exploration #96

Hate Longscrolls? Jump Around!

• If You Click Only One…

• Things to Think About…

• Things to Know About…

• And finally…

Hi all. This week’s Exploration has the latest in generative AI (gAI) news, pieces on xR and spatial computing, and yes, a little metaverse as well. But first….

Facing the Future

To my surprise, the Apple Vision Pro that Nebraska Public Media Labs ordered actually shipped on time and arrived last Friday. Our iOS developer and our Director of Labs have been putting it through its paces, and they report that the iOS app for our virtual natural history museum, Expedition Nebraska, actually ports over pretty well. Even our web-based virtual tours seem pretty good in the headset.

I hope to have more thoughts from them here next week, but in the meantime I’m cautiously optimistic about Apple’s long-awaited entry into this space. I’ve pulled together a few reviews of the device in the links below as well as some thoughts on where this next waive of spatial media is taking us.

CAIO, bella!

Pour one out for all those Chief Metaverse Officer titles. Forever ‘21. As Yiwen Lu reports in the NYT, the Hottest Job in Corporate America? The Executive in Charge of A.I. As someone who was given the opportunity to research and then pitch my current title, I was reluctant to lean into new tech. Titles like that are transactional, and mostly about marketing an individual for their next job. More than that though, they show a lack of understanding in how emerging technology evolves through the hype cycle. Good for you, if you have one, but it doesn’t feel like a long term investment.

Don’t get me wrong, it's good to have someone internally be the lead change-agent/evangelist for a new technology. Ideally that’s someone who has a natural curiosity for and drive to explore the tech (and you need to be open to the fact that that individual may not be senior management). But when you create C-suite titles based on new tech, you run the risk of silo'ing that technology. That can creates turf wars. So if you want what's best for the organization, I'd advise leaning away from titles like this.

Claude’s Hipster Retro Phase?

We in Nebraska Public Media Labs have been big fans of Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, for the better part of a year. But recently Claude started fronting a new look for some of us. It’s very a very retro design with panels, rudimentary fonts and an awkward UX. Very DOS. Turns out it’s the “console” version. The chatbot version is still available at claude.ai but, a reminder, you only get 50 messages/day (a message is a prompt and response) unless you want to pay $20/month.

I’m mentioning this here because maybe you too have inexplicably found yourself in “console” mode, and wondered what happened. There is some utility in this utilitarian mode, but with Google’s Gemini Bard knocking Claude down in the chatbot rankings, I think there are better ways to spend $20/month. I still want to like Claude, but Anthropic needs to step up its game if they want to be competitive at that price.

Sunk in the Junk

And, lastly, a bit of housekeeping. If you're reading this in your email, consider yourself lucky. The PTBs of the internet (read: Google) updated how they are handling newsletter emails, and Microsoft doesn’t seem to have done what it needed to do to keep from breaking the internet. Consequently, this and other newsletters you receive may be going straight to your spam or junk folder. On behalf of newsletter authors everywhere, might I suggest popping over to that folder declaring some of us as “not junk” or “safe sender.” Thanks!

Okay, on to the links…

If You Click Only One…

How to use AI in service of DEI (Ernesto Aguilar - OIGO) - If you caught the Public Media Innovators inaugural "3rd Thursday" webinar (watch it here under “Past Events”), you already know that Ernesto is an eloquent and savvy thought leader on the intersection of DEI and AI. And his intro to the most recent issue of his newsletter takes his thoughts further, offering a number of practical suggestions.

Things to Think About…

Taylor Swift deepfakes: new technologies have long been weaponised against women. The solution involves us all (Nicola Henry & Alice Witt - The Conversation) - I wrote extensively about this last week, and you can read that here if you missed it. But the point Henry & Witt’s article makes is valid and deserves attention.
—Also, as Matthew Gault & Jordan Pearson report in Vice, non-pornographic deepfake porn is also an issue (albeit a tiny percentage of the overall problem): An AI-Generated Content Empire Is Spreading Fake Celebrity Images on Google 
—Related, from Solcyre Burga in Time: How a New Bill Could Protect Against Deepfakes
—And Emanuel Maiberg reports in 404 Media: Microsoft Makes Swift Changes to AI Tool 

Deepfakes: How to empower youth to fight the threat of misinformation and disinformation (Nadia Naffi - The Conversation) - Here's a key learning of the study featured in the article: "Through engagement and discussion, they [youth] went from being passive deepfake bystanders to developing a deeper realization of their grave threat. Critically, [the youth] also developed a sense of responsibility in preventing and mitigating deepfakes’ spread, and a readiness to counter deepfakes." Doing nothing is not an option. Education is key.
—Related: To further illuminate the perils from AI-generated content, check out this report from Liram Koblentz-Stenzler and Uri Klempner, Navigating Far-Right Extremism in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Economist Tyler Cowen on How ChatGPT Is Changing Your Job (Dan Shipper - Chain of Thought) - Cowan has been a thought leader on AI tech and the evolution of the workplace for over a decade. He's also a ChatGPT power user. This was originally a podcast episode, and you can listen to or read the text of the interview.
—You can also watch the conversation on Youtube.

Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2023 (Microsoft) - There are some interesting tidbits in this report that will make you think. Unsurprisingly, it presents a very specific future vision of work. One that revolves around AI. But there's a realism in the report that shines through via info the current state of the gAI user experience. If this is a hype document, it's low-key hype.

Where Will Virtual Reality Take Us? ($) (Jaron Lanier - The New Yorker) - The last we heard from Jaron Lanier in this newsletter it was December 2022 and he was taking issue with aspects of social media. In this essay, he's back to addressing one of his core contributions to tech: virtual reality. His perspectives have evolved in the four decades he's been involved with the technology, and I find his notion that VR will ultimately be a niche activity reasonable. Reading it, I was struck that while it could have significant utility in the working world, for everyday use it would be more akin to going to the gym or to church; a finite activity that pays dividends to the rest of your life lived outside the experience.
—More from Lanier in this UCTV conversation on YouTube.
—And a h/t to Liz Maestri for sharing this piece from Adrian Pennington in NAB Amplify, which keyed me in on the other Lanier piece: Jaron Lanier: Is Data Dignity the Answer for Regaining “Control” of AI? 

Things to Know About…

What Can be Done in 59 Seconds: An Opportunity (and a Crisis) (Ethan Mollick - One Useful Thing) - ICYMI, the speaker for our next "3rd Thursday" webinar, on 2/15, is author and ChatGPT power-user Ethan Mollick. He recently updated this post from his first 59 seconds experiment. Definitely check it out before 2/15.
—And there is still time to register for the free webinar with Ethan. Thanks to our friends at PBS Wisconsin for hosting!

Meta is bucking just about every AI trend, including the ‘boys club’ (Reed Albergotti - Senator) - This makes me dislike Meta a little bit less. If you have the power at your organization, please (continue to) do what you can to support women working in tech for public media. If Meta can do it....

Microsoft in deal with Semafor to create news stories with aid of AI chatbot (Anna Nicolaou - Ars Technica) - Key line: "Semafor co-founder Ben Smith emphasized that Signals will be written entirely by journalists, with artificial intelligence providing a research tool to inform posts." This seems in keeping with other uses of gAI outside journalism, to assist with tasks that are foundational or peripheral to creative work.
—And here's how Semafor's Ben Smith and Gina Chua announced it. At first blush, this seems like an AI-driven competitor to The Week: Introducing Semafor Signals 

The New York Times is building a team to explore AI in the newsroom (Emilia David - The Verge) - This isn't surprising, considering they recently hired a newsroom AI director, but all the same, I’m intrigued to see where this goes.

OpenAI and Common Sense Media partner to protect teens from AI harms and misuse (Benj Edwards - Ars Technica) - Worth noting.

Google Bard to become ‘Gemini’ very soon with ‘Advanced’ tier and Android app (Ben Schoon - 9to5Google) - A heads-up that changelogs for Bard indicate this may happen the day this newsletter drops (2/7). But even if it doesn't, keep an eye out for it in the coming week. Bard has secured the #2 spot, behind ChatGPT Plus, in terms of performance, so I’m interested to see if this 2/7 update is just marketing or if there’ll be some performance improvements as well.
—Related is this piece from Ryan Morrison in Tom's Guide: ChatGPT finally has competition — Google Bard with Gemini just matched it with a huge upgrade

Bard generates photos now, finally (Emilia David - The Verge) - In other Gemini (né, Bard) news. I experimented with using Gemini to generate the image for this week's newsletter. But it would only generate square images despite repeat prompts requesting 16:9 or widescreen images. So it's still has a ways to go if it wants to top ChatGPT with DALL-E integration.
—At the same time you may have seen that, as Kyle Wiggers reports in TechCrunch, Google launch[ed] an AI-powered image generator. To be clear, that image generator, Imagen2 is the image generator under the hood for Gemini.

Congress confronts security risks as it seeks to expand Hill’s AI use (Katherine Tully-McManus - Politico) - Informative lede: "More than 100 congressional offices are already using artificial intelligence for everyday tasks — such as writing constituent correspondence, handling member scheduling and drafting legislation." Anyone who has experimented with any chatbots will not find this surprising. Legislation, with its structural formalities seems ideal for early-stage drafts and edits using a quality chatbot. And chatbot replies are probably a step up from form letters. But you can’t effectively legislate what you don’t understand, so I’m seeing this as a good sign.

How audio-jacking using gen AI can distort live audio transactions (Louis Columbus - VentureBeat) - If you find pre-fabricated deepfakes scary, then live deepfakes will terrify you. And they should.
—Case in point from Harvey Kong in the South China Morning Post: ‘Everyone looked real’: multinational firm’s Hong Kong office loses HK$200 million after scammers stage deepfake video meeting

Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not (Nilay Patel - The Verge) - As I mentioned above, I hope to have more thoughts on the AVP here soon, but for now, Patel's review is a comprehensive one.
—Meanwhile, Todd Haselton's review for CNBC proffers that This is the future of computing and entertainment
—And CNET gives the device a 7.8/10 in Scott Stein's review, A Mind-Blowing Look at an Unfinished Future
—I also think it's worth taking a moment to note, as Jacob Wobbrock's piece in The Conversation reminds us, that it’s only taken four decades to go from a computer on our desk to a computer on our face: Mac at 40: User experience was the innovation that launched a technology revolution
—But, you're still only as good as your last hit, and so Chris Welch reports in The Verge that Tim Cook confirms Apple’s generative AI features are coming ‘later this year’ 

Adobe brings Lightroom and Firefly AI to the Apple Vision Pro (Jess Weatherbed - The Verge) - Even if you are having trouble imagining how you’d use the Apple Vision Pro in your home life, don’t discount it as a potentially valuable tool for your work life. As a photographer whose post-production workflow is based around Lightroom, I'm very interested in this development.
—Related: James Goodchild's Medium piece, Vision Pro and the Future of Video Editing, offers another vision of how Apple's new device could be used for visual storytelling.

The metaverse is alive and flourishing (David Shapton - Redshark) - I'm starting to see more articles where people are reconsidering the concept of the metaverse (i.e. a next-gen internet). This piece makes good point about the ubiquity of what will eventually come to pass (read: it's bigger than one company).
—Related is this piece from Stuart Lauchlan in diginomica: Whatever happened to the Metaverse? It's still coming, insists Meta's Nicola Mendelsohn, but we need to be patient...

Metaverse tools will improve crime scene analysis and law enforcement: Interpol report (Gareth Jenkinson - CoinTelegraph) - While training VR-based training for law enforcement is already happening in some places, the notion of digital twins for crime scenes feels like it is further out. Still, it's not hard to imagine a future where public media producers and reporters filling out FOIA requests for immersive models of crime scenes to enhance justice-related stories.
—From the future to the present, Tom Ffiske provides this editorial which underscores that the rules of quality journalism still matter, even when one is reporting on the metaverse: Publications need to be careful on how they report on metaverse crimes
—More on the case Ffiske references above, from Bernard Marr in Forbes: The Metaverse And Its Dark Side: Confronting The Reality Of Virtual Rape

Can AR and VR finally disrupt the exhausting culture of video meetings? (Brennan Doherty - BBC) - Last week I mentioned that Microsoft is finally rolling out a VR component for Teams. This piece lays out the vision and challenge of a world where we professionally co-exist in both virtual and physical space.

Tripadvisor Says It’s Entering the Metaverse: ‘Try Before You Buy’ (Justin Dawes - Swift) - On the one hand, I feel like we've seen this movie before. On the other, there is utility in a solution like this. If you've ever checked out a resort or hotel on Google Earth/Streetview, you've already engaged in a proto-metaverse version of what Tripadvisor hopes to accomplish. So, it doesn't seem that far fetched. As this behavior becomes more the norm, public media companies have a role to play in developing stories about local culture for a more immersive internet.

And finally…

Comedian Larry David said he was ‘an idiot’ to do FTX Super Bowl ad (Turner Wright - Coin Telegraph) - Yeah, you know I kinda wondered about that.

Have a creative, productive week!