Amazon has an artificial intelligence problem. Namely, that its “everything store” is filled with books authored by bots. Several AI detection startups say they have a straightforward solution to help customers: Tell them when a book is AI-generated. Thus far, though, Amazon isn’t embracing detection tech. It’s unclear exactly how …
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Animated comedies told from a Black perspective have an uncomfortable relationship with TV. The Boondocks relied on sharp observational humor as proof of its genius. The PJs portrayed The Black Struggle as a clownish depiction of daily life in a housing project. A character like Tolkien Black on South Park …
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Back in May, just a week into the the Writers Guild of America’s strike, John August, a member of the union’s negotiating committee and writer of Charlie’s Angels, described his personal dystopia: “the Nora Ephron problem”—a world in which artificial intelligence evolves to become a writer so profound it can …
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JettyJamez and AutumnRaynn have been live on TikTok for more than three weeks. In that time, spanning more than 500 hours, nothing much of note seems to have happened in the young couple’s apartment, but the number of people watching has skyrocketed. To keep up, they bought new iPads and …
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2023 has been full of high-profile video game remakes and remasters: Dead Space, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Advance Wars, System Shock, and so on. Some of these have been crowd-pleasing surprises, the kind of thing that sets social media ablaze during a reveal in a Nintendo Direct. Others come …
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First thing’s first: Misinformation and disinformation are bad. False tweets that go viral, government conspiracy theories, lies about vaccines—these are all huge problems online, and they’re poised to get worse thanks to generative AI. There are a few exceptions, though. The best of these came to light over the weekend …
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The Morrissey had the right melodrama in his limbs, and his voice was strong and pained. I was at Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan to see a Smiths tribute band. I tried to get Morrissey’s acid yodel in my throat, to sing along. I am human and I need to be …
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The music business is booming. Streaming revenue is up. Vinyl sales are up. CD sales are, somehow, also up. All of this is fueled by fans spending money. Now, startups are making a calculated pitch in this flush moment: Why don’t these fans get in on the action, and quite …
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Ensemble Studios had spent nearly a decade mastering the real-time strategy genre when it became a victim of its own success. Its 1997 debut, Age of Empires, had been an instant hit and spawned several beloved sequels and expansions that cemented the studio’s glowing reputation. Imitators—some novel, some slavish—quickly appeared …
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Abby Goldsmith’s science fiction novel Majority tells the story of a group of young people from Earth who get abducted by the Torth, a galaxy-spanning civilization ruled by merciless telepaths. “There’s a galactic empire, and these people are all neurally, superluminally connected,” Goldsmith says in Episode 550 of the Geek’s …
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