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e458 — Generative Podcast

By Michael Martine | March 18, 2024 - 06:48 |March 17, 2024 Podcast

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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!

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

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

By Michael Martine | March 11, 2024 - 06:22 |March 10, 2024 Podcast

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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!

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

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e456 — Not a Bot

By Michael Martine | March 4, 2024 - 06:26 |March 3, 2024 Podcast

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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!

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

3D printed my very first D20 for the charity stream tonight on https://twitch.tv/ctrlaltquin [I'll keep my mic and camera open on https://twitch.tv/ChrisPirillo as well]
#3dprinting #rpg #ttrpg #gaming

— Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) 2024-02-28T21:33:13.809Z

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

Space

I just looked up Voyager 1's current position for a talk and saw something wild: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
The distance between Earth and Voyager 1 is actually *decreasing* right now (even though the distance between Voyager 1 and the Sun is increasing). A website bug?
Nope! Earth moves really fast around the Sun. Right now we're moving faster toward Voyager 1 than it's flying away from us
Earth orbits at 30 km/s around the Sun, Voyager is going "only" 17 km/s. I love orbital dynamics!

— Prof. Sam Lawler (@sundogplanets) 2024-02-28T20:33:16.733Z

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e455 — Star Trek vs. Douglas Adams

By Michael Martine | February 26, 2024 - 06:33 |February 25, 2024 Podcast

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the number 42 attached to a wall. Photo by Mark König on Unsplash — Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

Published 26 February 2024

Michael and Michael are back in studio, inspired by an article that connects science fiction with scientific innovation leading to science fact. The post from the Interconnected blog posits that we are in the midst of a vibe shift, and that the technology is shifting from Star Trek to that from the imagination of Douglas Adams. The Games at Work team is no stranger to the works of Douglas Adams – check out the discussion with Ross Smith on e60: Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings from Sept 2013, and e105 from Feb 2015 was titled “Glad to be of Service”, or the Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses project discussed on e187: Bionic Eye from Dec 2017 to give just a couple examples.

Shifting to AI, Michael and Michael discuss the challenges many LLMs have with basic math based on a recent WSJ article, and how combining the LLM with capabilities such as WolframAlpha’s can help fix this. The pair also talk through how the idea of creating entire virtual worlds from a few lines of text is not entirely new, though the recent advances from Sora take things to an entirely new level.

Then, the co-hosts talk through how the idea of how games themselves can inspire sustainability. Michael M shares that he’ll be volunteering at the NCSSM-sponsored SMathHacks hackathon next weekend in Durham and Morganton, North Carolina, which has several sustainability inspired tracks this year.

Last, Michael and Michael focus on XR and spatial computing, starting with a repository of 3D objects on Beautifulthings. Then Michael R shares his experiences from The [Archive], which provides 3D experiences of a variety of Star Trek bridges. Check out the video below for an example. The team wrap things up for this episode with Mono, a magnifying glass that offers a new take on a mixed reality experience.

What Douglas Adams inspired technology would you most or least expect to experience? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!