2. I put myself into MidJourney and came out in the '90s
I.
He definitely bears some resemblance to me, but itâs not me. I gave the latest version of MidJourney a photo of myself and asked the AI to place me in a â90s setting in front of a CRT monitor. In my so-called home office. A monstera in the background. VoilĂ .
Graphic designer Julie Wieland posts more examples of what MidJourney V5 is capable of on her Twitter account. These are not real photographs.
You can also stack AI models on top of each other to see what comes out. I asked ChatGPT to write a prompt for MidJourney. This is âa man in a bar with neon lighting ordering a beerâ:
II.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns that we need to be careful with AI models like his own ChatGPT. âBe glad that we ourselves are also cautious with artificial intelligence,â he tells ABC News.
Altman is particularly worried that the models could be used for large-scale disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks. He is less concerned about robots taking over the world and sidelining humanity. âThey wait for people to tell them what to do. We are in control.â
Bill Gates calls the arrival of AI the most important technological development in years. He compares it to the arrival of the microprocessor, the PC, the internet, and the mobile phone. âIt will change the way we work, travel, and communicate,â he writes in a detailed blog post.
III.
Shou Zi Chew has been running TikTok, one of the worldâs most popular apps, for two years. And few people know who he is. That changed this week. He had to reassure the US Senate about privacy concerns and espionage rumors surrounding TikTok.
He didnât quite manage that, by the way. A complete ban in the US is looming.
TikTok has become part of a geopolitical chess game. Itâs China versus the West. We make a big fuss about TikTok, but Facebook and Google also know a bizarrely large amount about us. What if the Americans were to run off with that information? I wrote about it on NU.nl (youâll need to log in to read): Facebook knows everything about you, but Chinese apps are where it gets truly scary.
A few other things stood out during the hearing. The Senate came across as xenophobic, Chew couldnât answer many direct questions, and a Republican asked a dumb question about wifi.
IV.
Robert Smith of The Cure has launched a crusade against Ticketmaster. The ticket vendor charges extra fees on top of the ticket price. In some cases, American fans of the band paid 15 dollars extra for⌠well, what exactly?
The Cure filed a complaint with the company. With success. Ticket buyers are getting a portion of the service fees refunded. âYou have Robert Smith to thank for all of this,â reads the email from Ticketmaster.
PS.
I posed the ultimate question to ChatGPT. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? With the bonus of having the answer restated in haiku form.
A new album from Lana Del Rey! Did you know that thereâs a tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd.
The strangest video of the week: these robotic lips from China so you can kiss your loved one from a distance.
Tommy Wiseau (of The Room) has made a new film after 20 years. Itâs about a murderous giant shark. This is the trailer. Itâs showing from April in a handful of American cinemas. Oh hi shark.
In the middle of the Water 7 arc of One Piece, Sogeking appears, with a fantastic Tokusatsu-like intro thatâs been stuck in my head for days.
You just read my web collection from March 20 to 26.