e459 — Pendulums in the Stack

metal desktop pendulum
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Published 25 March 2024

Andy and both Michaels get together to talk tech — focusing on AI generated music, security & privacy.  

Starting off with the news about Suno.ai, the co-hosts discuss what generative AI music might be like, and what it may mean from a copyright perspective.  This prompts Michael M to remember the Wired CD published in 2004, specifically designed to be ripped, sampled and remixed.  

The team takes a moment to consider the news of the United States Department of Justice bringing a complaint against Apple as outlined by the post from Sixcolors.

Then, the team moves to a plethora of articles dealing with security and privacy.  An intriguing post from IanVisits details how pendulums are used as a source of randomness at the Cloudflare offices in London.  Next up is a story about Glassdoor now requiring real names, and the fallout from that.  Then, a discussion about The Stack, and how you can determine whether your content has been included in it or not.  Last is a TechCrunch article dealing with LinkedIn’s reported plans to add gaming to the platform.

What AI music would you generate?  Are you in the Stack?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

Gadgets360 article: Suno, a ChatGPT-Powered Chatbot, Can Generate AI Music Using Text Prompts

Suno.ai

Free Music Archive — The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.

Games at Work e458: Generative Podcast (Andy and Michael’s Version)

Apple

Sixcolors post: U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction

Security & Privacy

IanVisits post: Inside the London office where swinging pendulums keep cyber threats at bay

Office Snapshots post: Cloudflare Offices – London

Ars Technica article: Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent

Glassdoor

Fishbowl

HuggingFace bigcode/in-the-stack post: Am I in The Stack?

Techcrunch article: LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform

Bonus Links

New World Notes post: BREAKING: Linden Lab Partners With AI Company To Create NPCs To Help New Second Life Users

hackster.io article: This Cardboard Boba Fett Helmet Includes a Raspberry Pi-Powered Thermal Vision Mode and Mini-Map

e458 — Generative Podcast

boombox (portable radio & cassette player) intended to represent older music
Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash

Published 18 March 2024

Michael M and Andy get together to talk tech while missing Michael R – focusing on AI thought experiments, engaging talks at Monkigras and NASA’s tabletop game “The Lost Universe”.

Starting off with an article from NewScientist, Andy and Michael M engage in the thought experiment of whether an AI could replace all music (ALL music) with Taylor Swift covers.  Though this thought experiment is farfetched, the idea of generated musical covers has already been covered (sic) by the Games at Work team with the example of an AI generated Johnny Cash singing Barbie Girl in the style of the Fulsom County Prison in e426.  And the concepts raised in the article remind Andy of several recent talks at the Monkigras conference in London this past week.  

Then, Andy and Michael take on the challenging subject of an AI that is designed to train other AIs to do software engineering.  Devin AI is described as a “fully autonomous AI software engineer” by Cognition, and can “build and deploy apps end to end”.  

Last, the team enjoys checking out NASA’s tabletop game called “The Lost Universe” with it’s Tolkeinesque maps and more.  The show notes below has all the links as per usual.  Staying on the space theme, there are some cool photos in the show notes below!

What do you think of the AI music thought experiment?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

NewScientist article: Could an AI replace all music ever recorded with Taylor Swift covers?

Games at Work e426: Barbenheimer Chic

PCMag article: This Software Engineer AI Can Train Other AIs, Code Websites by Itself

Cognition’s Devin AI

Monkigras

The Monktoberfest

Space Games

Polygon article: Did not expect this kind of lore from NASA’s first tabletop game

NASA’s The Lost Universe

Games in Space

Puzzles of the Paladin

Bonus Pictures

New York Times newspaper front page from Monday, July 21, 1969 with the headline "MAN WALKS ON MOON"
The New York Times front page from Monday, July 21, 1969 with headline “MAN WALKS ON MOON”
Michael Rowe with IBM/Nasa Astronaut Steve Smith
Michael Rowe with IBM/Nasa Astronaut Steve Smith

e457 — It Looks Like You’re Recording a Podcast…!

11 pink paperclips arranged in a circle
Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash

Published 11 March 2024

Andy and Michael R get together to talk tech – focusing on LLMs, the return of Clippy, Steam games, physical and virtual user experiences and Cyber 205.

Starting off with an article from Venture Beat where the Claude 3 Opus LLM was subjected to what’s called a “needle-in-a-haystack” test, and reacted with the accurate recognition of the needle as well as a statement that it seemed that the source material seemed so out of place, that it must either be a joke or a deliberate test.  The example source material – the needle – was material about pizza toppings, and was included in a corpus consisting of a random set of other documents.  Given the discussions from e451 about Nightshade and other tools could be used to disrupt scraping of content, it could be inferred that reactions such as the Opus response could defeat such disruption attempts by recognizing how out of place the disruptions are.

Clippy returns with an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal, and has surfaced many times in the Games at Work podcast over the years.  Examples include e329 and e237 among others.  The team also brings back Microsoft Bob as part of the discussion.

Turning to games and gaming, Michael R and Andy focus on several Steam games, including Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, Populous and Dungeon Keeper among others.  And with all the focus on the next chapter of Dune, the trailer for the Dune Awakening game certainly captures attention with unkillable sandworms.

Next up is all things UX, starting with the recommendation that physical buttons be returned to automobiles (hooray!).  Then, an Apple Vision Pro example of the Matrix with Magic Room.  Andy and Michael R wrap things up with the Cyber 205.

What would you want to ask Clippy?  Should Clippy be in the Matrix?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

Venture Beat article: Anthropic’s Claude 3 knew when researchers were testing it

Games at Work e451: Fahrenheit

Wall Street Journal article: The Demoted Microsoft Worker Getting His Revenge

Wikipedia article: Microsoft Bob

Gaming

The Verge article: EA just added classics like Dungeon Keeper, SimCity 3000, and Populous on Steam

SlashFilm article: Try To Survive The World Of Arrakis In The Dune: Awakening Video Game Trailer

Dune Awakening

User Experience

Ars Technica article: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

Matrix experience – https://www.threads.net/@nathievr/post/C4D1WZZvSsI 

space.com article: The Matrix movies in order

Apple Vision App Store: Magic Room: Retheme Your Space

Raytracing in Vision Pro: https://www.threads.net/@dreamwieber/post/C3_aWRZvv3u/ 

IT History Society: Cyber 205

Wikipedia article: CDC Cyber

e456 — Not a Bot

cute wooden "robot" with a heart drawn on the torso
Photo by Ochir-Erdene Oyunmedeg on Unsplash

Published 4 March 2024

Andy, Michael and Michael are back in (virtual) studio together to talk tech.  They check in on the latest spatial computing experiences with Michael R, discuss new AI announcements & trends and wrap up with several games. 

The co-hosts start off the show with a roundup of the recent news articles on the Apple Vision Pro along with Michael R’s personal experiences.  Michael R shares the benefits he’s seen from how the spatial computer reduces distractions and allows him to focus on his work.  The number of countries where people may buy the computer is expected to expand very soon.

Switching to AI, the first item up for conversation is the Not by AI team, and the badges they offer to creators who adhere to 90%+ human created content.  This sparks a lively conversation about how one may measure the 90%.  The badges are followed up quickly with a story about the introduction of Google’s Genie – which creates virtual worlds from a picture.  Quite an amazing two weeks, given the OpenAI announcement of Sora, discussed in e455.  The statement of “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to a human using AI” gets a refinement in Sangeet Paul Choudary’s post looking at skill disintermediation of AI in his article.  

While the team was running out of time on the episode, they do take a moment to discuss the Video Game History Foundation and the value of game experience preservation before closing out this episode.

What image would you want to prompt Google’s Genie with?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AR / VR / Spatial

Wall Street Journal article: One Month With Apple Vision Pro: In the Air, on a Train and…in a Drawer

Quartz article: A lot of Apple Vision Pro returns are because customers just don’t get it, analyst says

The Verge article: Honda’s ‘extended reality’ is a mash-up of VR and motorized wheelchairs

Tom’s Guide article: Are we close to the holodeck? Google unveils Genie — an AI model creating playable virtual worlds from a single image

Games at Work e455: Star Trek vs Douglas Adams

mobilgamer.biz article: Downpour is the indie game-making UGC platform for scrappy storytellers

Little Big Planet 3

playclassic.games Activision Pitfall

Substack post: AI won’t eat your job, but it will eat your salary by SANGEET PAUL CHOUDARY

Games

Video Game History Foundation

Gamespot article: Minecraft’s Universal Studios DLC Provides Some Shockingly Good Theme Park Recreations

Space