These images are NOT generated by a GAN or any other machine learning model - but by a human artist. Notice the complex play with high level semantics. Machines will struggle doing such things for many years to come. #ML #Generative

Run the BigGAN generator in your browser: 
https://research.google.com/seedbank/seed/5629842393399296

The truly mind blowing thing about the #BigGAN images isn't that they are generated with machine learning or that they look real. The mind blowing thing is that @GoogleAI allows anyone to generate them for free in the browser using their GPUs. Says much about the state of compute

#Generative #ML 

"Advertising" today is essentially just a legacy term, hiding what the actual function is: "Social Engineering", "Perception Management" or "Manufacturing Consent" are more accurate terms. While often sinister in practice, it can be thought of as specialised forms of "Education"

#Ideas #SE

"Zombies, Cyborgs and Chimeras" - 2018 talk by Stelarc on bodyhacking, biohacking, and human augmentation. Warning: Talk not for the faint-hearted. #Augmentation 

"An Overview of National AI Strategies": https://medium.com/politics-ai/an-overview-of-national-ai-strategies-2a70ec6edfd #ML #Politics 

Both Postmodernists & ancient Daoists say "The map is not the territory", understanding that language is inadequate to contain reality. Postmodernists conclude "Forget about reality, its all language". Daoists take a alternative view: "Forget about language, focus on experience"

#Ideas #Mindful

Fortnite now has 8.3 million concurrent players worldwide: 
https://www.vg247.com/2018/11/08/fortnite-hits-concurrent-player-count-over-8-million/ 

"Compared to #Games, all other forms of media are now total niche markets. "Videogames" itself is now essentially just a legacy term, disguising the birth an entirely new form of media" - Samim

The easiest answer to any question, is to not ask the question in the first place.

#Ideas

Google's Sundar Pichai : ‘#Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/business/sundar-pichai-google-corner-office.html 

"Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment, over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too." - Sundar Pichai. 

Daoist Wisdom For Our Times - talk by Shantena Sabbadini: 

#Mindfulness 

The core notion of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is deeply flawed: The assumption that (Intelligent) Life is a neatly isolated "thing in a box" that can be simulated with out taking the complex environmental interactions into account, is unscientific & painfully naive.

#Ideas #ML

Nature > Humans > Culture > Technology - and not the other way around as often assumed.

#Ideas #Regenerative 

"Can AI be creative?": 20min talk by BBC R&D unit which "built an AI that could call the shots for an evening, drawing on the archive and user data to create an evening of entertainment" 

#ML #Generative 

If all your focus rests on the outcomes of your actions, you are bound to not enjoy the ride there. This is a central fallacy of the vision of automating everything. 

#Ideas

"China’s brightest children are being recruited to develop AI ‘killer bots’": https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2172141/chinas-brightest-children-are-being-recruited-develop-ai-killer  

"Some of china’s smartest teen students selected for 'experimental programme for intelligent weapons systems' at the Beijing Institute of Tech". Is this a scene from Akira? Psi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(1988_film)  

#ML #Military

Reflections on "Nostalgia": This very moment right now will soon be past and subject to Nostalgia in the future. Being "Nostalgic for the future" is generally more fun than dwelling in the past. Or as Karl Valentin once said: "In the past, even the future was better"

#Ideas 

A crisis is a wonderful thing – it means that we’ve reached the limits of our current thinking and something new will (has to) emerge

#Ideas

What the vast majority of "how to teach your dog a new behaviour" guides don't mention: Education is a bi-directional process. While you train the dog, the dog trains you. #ML