e396 — GAN vs GAN

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three robotic hands typing on a typewriter - does not appear realistic. image generated by www.crAIyon.com with the following prompt "silver robot hands typing on a typewriter"
image generated by www.crAIyon.com 11 Dec 22 with the following prompt “silver robot hands typing on a typewriter”

Andy, the continuity cohost, is joined this week by Michael M.  The cohosts get things started with all things ChatGPT, which has been all over the news in the past few days. The concept of generating text that could then be fed into an image generator, which in turn may be used to create a virtual world experience in a project workflow.  This could easily create a tailored, randomized and customized experience for the user, especially those that are expert in seeding the prompt for ChatGPT, and then in turn, the image generating software.  In these early days, expertise in writing the proper prompt is highly valuable, much as is the expertise that Andy has developed in being expert in wielding search engines.  Critical thinking and analysis of what is presented to validate the “truthiness” of generated text, images, worlds will be more and more important in the future.  Michael and Andy muse on how there may be in the not too distant future bots / AI that can do such expert analysis.  

The pair talk about a recent news story about an AI vision invisibility cloak.  Going back to the archives, there was a Games At Work discussion about an invisibility cloak designed Duke University researchers — see the show notes for a link.  

In a reversal of a previous board decision to allow the San Francisco police department to allow remote controlled robots to use deadly force, the city’s board of supervisors have voted against such use.  Related to the San Francisco article is Daniel Suarez’s fictional novel Kill Decision, which has been discussed in several prior episodes — see the notes below for two of them.  Incidentally, the notion of making yourself “invisible” to AI is also a subject in the novel. 

Waze is in the news for a couple of reasons.  Andy and Michael talk about Waze getting an in-car app in Renault vehicles and the further integration with the Google Maps team.  They also remember the early days of the app when users competed to map new (to Waze) roads by “road munching”.

Winding up this episode, the cohosts touch on Dungeons of Daggorath and cyber security challenges in Vanuatu.  

What would you have ChatGPT write/assemble for you?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know! 

Selected Article Links

TechCrunch article: UPDATED: It’s way too easy to trick Lensa AI into making NSFW images

Mashable article: People will ask ChatGPT anything

DoNotPay.com 

Wikipedia article: OpenAI

OpenAI.com 

ChatGPT

Ian Hughes’ novels Reconfigure and Cont3xt

Wikipedia article: Generative adversarial network

Games at Work e163 — Chat Me Maybe?

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM)

The Verge article: AI-generated answers temporarily banned on coding Q&A site Stack Overflow

The Register article: Stack Overflow bans ChatGPT as ‘substantially harmful’ for coding issues

Vice World News article: Chinese Students Invent Coat That Makes People Invisible to AI Security Cameras

DukeStories article: From Invisibility Cloaks to Satellite Communications

The Verge article: San Francisco reverses plans to allow police robots to kill suspects

Games at Work e250 — See Clearly Now

Games at Work e150 — Cyber Dementors

We had a lot of second life virtual campfires (often thanks to @timelessp gadgets with a chat interface to spawn them) in 2006. Looking forward to AI powered just asking for what we need as per midjourney “a meeting around a campfire for 10 at sunset” but in 3d space.

— Epredator (@epredator) 2022-12-07T11:55:54.997Z

The Verge article: Waze gets built-in car app for the first time

Gizmodo article: Google Is Combining Its Maps and Waze Teams Amid Cost-Cutting Pressure

Some time back I adapted the fantastic PC port of the classic game Dungeons of Daggorath to run online via . To play it, point your browser (desktop or mobile) at:

daggorath.online/

— Nathan Byrd (@cognitivegears) 2022-12-02T15:53:45.067Z

Dungeons of Daggorath

NPR article: The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been knocked offline for more than a month

Tuvalu government 

Tuvalu, The First Digital Nation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:42 — 41.0MB) | Embed

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e395 — Breaking Reality

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engravings of quantum discoveries with their respective dates and scientists
Photo by Christian Chomiak on Unsplash

Andy and Michael R build off of last week’s episode of creating reality to breaking reality.  They start with an article about the cute Neko cat, and how Evert Pot created a javascript port of it.  If you want even more fun playing with cute cats, give Nekoatsume a try (see links below).  

Next, a series of science articles, beginning with the commercial (COTS) cameras used on the Orion module of Artemis I.  Then, the Alexa integration in Callisto.  Just don’t ask about the pod bay doors.  Coming up quickly is an experiment that could break Einstein’s theory of special relativity, where researchers at CERN measured neutrinos arriving 60 nanoseconds faster than light would have done.  

If that’s not quite enough, a couple of articles about how using duality, a team led by Maria Spiropulu of the California Institute of Technology used a quantum computer to model how an Einstein Rosen bridge between two black holes is related to entanglement.  For the quantum curious, please check out the embedded below video.  It is an easy to understand treatment for how a wormhole was created in the lab using a quantum computer.   

Then we’re on to the prose version of stable diffusion that’s been lighting up the airwaves in the past week or so.  Friend of the show Ian Hughes uses GPT3 AI to write an office (The Office) scene where Blackadder and Baldrick hatch a cunning plan to get past the monotony of the mounds of paperwork to be done.

Amazon builds a realistic SimCity, Unreal launches RealityScan, and Apple reportedly renames the mixed reality software to power the as-yet-unannounced headset ‘xrOS’.  So much reality in one small entangled episode.  

What part of Einstein’s theory of general relativity do you think will be the next to unravel or be reinforced with more spooky action at a distance?  Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know! 

Selected Article Links

evertpot.com blog post – Neko – A brief history and porting to Javascript

nekoatsume.com NekoAtsume Kitty Collector (English)

Hey, did you know that the Orion module on ARTEMIS I is using (modified) commercial, off-the-shelf cameras? And that those gorgeous exterior shots are being made with GoPros?

Here's an engineering presentation (PDF) from 2017 by Steve Bailey of Deep Space Systems, going into the cameras and what was needed to adapt them.

asnt.org/~/media/Files/Events-

@orion

— Dan Hon (@danhon) 2022-11-29T17:32:31.456Z

Alexa Device Maker Blog post: 5 inspiring facts about Alexa and NASA’s Artemis I mission

Fancy4Work article: Breaking: Researchers at CERN break “The Speed of Light”

Quanta Magazine: Physicists Create a Holographic Wormhole Using a Quantum Computer

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Feeding Edge blog post: Exploring AI writing – Blackadder meets the office, car haiku and discussing the Metaverse

GPT 3 AI 

The Verge article: Amazon built the most realistic version of SimCity we’ve ever seen

Unreal Engine blog: RealityScan is now free to download on iOS

The Verge article: Epic’s free app that turns real-life items into 3D models is available now on iOS

Bloomberg article: Apple Renames Mixed-Reality Software ‘xrOS’ in Sign Headset Is Approaching

The Verge article: Today’s Google Doodle celebrates one of gaming’s hidden figures

The Verge article: Atari 50 is an incredible playable tour through video game history

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:05 — 38.0MB) | Embed

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e394 — Immersive Ronto Experiences

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immersive lifesize reproduction of Van Gogh's bedroom painting
Photo by Michael Martine, Raleigh 25 November 2022

Andy and Michael start off this episode with the Van Gogh immersive experience. Michael and his family went to check this out as part of their Thanksgiving, and were thoroughly impressed.  A specific quote from Van Gogh caught Michael’s attention: “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint,’ then by al means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.”  This reminded Andy of his friends Iris Fritschi-Cussens and Tamara Sagathevan’s “Not a Real Artist” – check out the link in the show notes below.  Sticking on the immersive theme, a toot from Daryl White points to mynoise.net with many fantastic soundscapes.  These soundscapes are designed to achieve specific goals like needing to focus, meditating, ambiance for role playing games and many more.  

Turning to creating reality, the co-hosts consider a story about a joke on wikipedia which had lasting repercussions on the supposed inventor of the electric toaster.  Then, a story about Private Relay being used as a cover.  And then a superb story about new metric prefixes, along with one that was considered and unfortunately not used.  The ones that were introduced are pretty good, though.  

Following on the automotive subscription stories covered in earlier episodes, an article from Autoblog highlights how the State of New Jersey has introduced legislation to prohibit for a motor vehicle dealer or manufacturer to offer a subscription service that among other considerations, “utilizes components and hardware already installed on the motor vehicle at the time of purchase or lease but the consumer;”.  Check out the link below for the draft act.  

Rounding out the episode, Andy and Michael share their appreciation for the website that puts order to all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  One may select the timeline of what movies to watch in a specific particular, and keep track of those films you have already watched.  Given all the time travel in the recent movies, staying on the appropriate glorious timeline is more important than ever.  

And — if our dear listeners heard any glitches during the audio recording, it was from Michael M’s family, who were all downloading the amazingly large captchas from the Thanksgiving Cards Against Humanity 200% off sale.  Identifying the photos of under 40 Keanu Reeves was a tough one, but after the show recording completed, Michael managed to prove he was not a bot and achieved a 31% off code.

Captcha to select all images of Keanu Reeves under the age of 40 from Cards Against Humanity's 200% off promotion
Keanu Reeves captcha from Cards Against Humanity’s 200% off promotion

What was your most difficult captcha to complete?  Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know! 

Selected Article Links

Van Gogh The Immersive Experience

myNoise.net 

Hackaday article: Don’t Believe Everything You Read: The Great Electric Toaster Hoax

Gizmodo article: An iCloud Feature Is Enabling a $65M Scam, New Research Says

Hackaday article: New Metric Prefixes Get Bigger and Smaller

Autoblog article: Mercedes offers ‘Acceleration Increase’ — as a $1,200 subscription 

State of New Jersey, Assembly, No. 4519 introduced September 22, 2022

MarvelOrder.com 

Cards Against Humanity’s 200% off sale

Cards Against Humanity 

Bonus links

The Guardian article: How adorbs: Scrabble adds 500 new words to official dictionary

Hackaday article: Termi2 Is Siri Like It’s 1976

Hackaday article: It’s MacOS. On an Unmodified Wii!

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e393 — Federated Fun

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Mastodon on a laptop keyboard - crAIyon generated image
Generated with crAIyon with phrase “mastodon with a mac” 20 Nov 2022

Andy and Michael get things started with a discussion about Mastodon and the Fediverse in this week’s episode.  They discuss the onboarding experience, what the feed is like, and different types of Fediverse services.  Andy is moving instances and references a post by Josh Justice with pro tips on how to migrate a Mastodon account.  Terrence Eden is working on a number of tools like conversation explorers.  Check out the show notes for a link to a post on Mastodon’s Conversations API.

Michael and Andy wrap up with a story on Mastodon being ported to an IBM PC and the re-entry of LightSail 2 into Earth’s atmosphere.

What hardware would you most like to see a Mastodon port to?  Perhaps a Timex Sinclair?  Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know! 

Selected Article Links

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC)

OSLC Fest 

Wired article: How to Get Started on Mastodon 

✨ Join our TestFlight beta!

testflight.apple.com/join/5HpH

— pixelfed (@pixelfed) 2022-10-08T16:31:28.659Z

BookWyrm

v4.3 is out! 😍😍😍
▪ automatic import of videos from a remote channel
▪ UI improvements
▪ better integration of videos and live streams
▪ more instances customizations

Discover improvements and new features of this latest version on : joinpeertube.org/news#release-

— PeerTube (@peertube) 2022-09-21T09:46:06.835Z

ActivityPub

CodingItWrong.com post: Migrating a Mastodon Account

Terrence Eden blog post: Getting Started with Mastodon’s Conversations API

Hackaday article: Mastodon Comes to the IBM PC

The Planetary Society article: LightSail 2 completes mission with atmospheric reentry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:12 — 45.0MB) | Embed

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