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Tag: ai

Published May 14, 2024 by Warren Ellis

I’m one of those people who ordered the Rabbit R1. It hasn’t arrived yet. The reviews of the first batch are out and are uniformly terrible. I’m not too worried. For one thing, by the time my device arrived, the OTA updates will have fixed a bunch of things that reviewers complained about. For another, many of the things the reviewers complained about don’t affect my use case for the Rabbit R1. The Rabbit can’t use Doordash or Uber properly? Well, Doordash and Uber don’t even operate in my location, so that was never an issue for me. Can’t play your Spotify playlists? I don’t use Spotify and seriously, what kind of sound experience do you expect off a plastic puck? Can’t save your bullshit Midjourney pictures? Tough shit. Go and look at art made by people or learn how to draw. The AI hallucinates? All AI hallucinates. I’ve been messing around with Perplexity AI, the system Rabbit uses, and I’ve only caught it hallucinating once.

I want to try a separate AI knowledge device. I have an iPhone. Siri is not very good. I can’t summon Perplexity from the lock screen. Siri may well get a big AI-related update, but I am betting 1) you’ll have to buy a new iPhone to get the full effect 2) it otherwise won’t be as frictionless as pressing a button and speaking to get the knowledge I want. At night I sit downstairs with a notebook on a lapboard, writing and researching, and a little puck on the board next to the notebook that I can thumb and talk into to get the information I may need does seem a hell of a lot easier than having to pick up the phone, clear the notification scroll, swipe and tap and tap and tap to get to the same point. The Rabbit R1 seems to me like a calm little box full of libraries, rather than a slab of screaming glass, and that’s what I paid for. Maybe next month I’ll see how wrong I was.

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Burned Books And Bad Robots

Published February 21, 2024 by Warren Ellis

When Vesuvius erupted in AD79—the same eruption that buried Pompeii—the papyrus rolls in the villa were carbonized. Without enough oxygen to combust and turn to ash, they became charcoal instead.

This meant the scrolls were fused solid and to get at the writing inside, they had to be opened. This process has been ongoing since the 1750s and researchers have just entered a new stage, thanks to AI. The lumps of carbonized scroll have been digitally scanned and, using 3D mapping and AI, researchers have been unable to “virtually unroll” the papyri and detect letters. This process has, for example, allowed them to read a previously unknown philosophical work discussing the senses and pleasure by the Epicurean philosopher and poet, Philodemus.

Matt Webb takes his first ride in a robotaxi:

It wasn’t a great first ride, on the way up.

We approached a school bus and blocked the road. The Waymo didn’t leave room. While we were waiting, the school bus drive waved at me to get out of the way. I sat in the front passenger seat. I gesticulated at the empty driver’s seat –

It’s empty! (I tried to say by waving my arms.) I’m in a haunted car! I can’t tell the ghost what to do!

Nicolás Kisic Aguirre builds rolling, gyrating, unruly machines that have been exhibited all over the world. Sometimes, however, they escape gallery spaces and take to the streets of Valparaíso or Boston where they amplify the voice of citizens protesting against racist deportations, inequality or the presence of a war criminal in town. Whether they are deployed in artistic performances or used as a tool to broadcast political messages, Kisic Aguirre’s works challenge the boundaries of our common understanding of the city and the spaces we share in it.
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