Josh Braun

Still of the vampire from Nosferatu.

Guardian photo of the Andrew looking like the vampire from Nosferatu.

Nosferandrew, courtesy of @theguardian.com.

Sorry, lame attempt at a nerdy joke. Maybe you got it and it was just too bad to laugh. But if not: They’re both highly regarded independent documentary filmmakers…who would not actually be making this show.

Is that the season directed by Ross McElwee or the one by Chris Hegedus? 😂

Cc @oddletters.bsky.social ‘“CEO said a thing!” journalism’ sounds like something of your coinage. lol

At this point, I have neither the skills nor the time to learn them. But the idea is free for the taking. 😀

When I was younger, I always thought it'd be a blast to make an animated interview with the stick figure guy in the style of "Inside the Actor's Studio," using the most hilarious and confusing of these signs as B-roll.

10 Things to Know Before Using AI Chatbots for Therapy Here are 10 important things to know before you use an AI chatbot as your therapist.

Which is, you know, bad news for the significant number of people now treating chatbots as therapists or leaning on them for emotional support. 9/9

And, now that advertising is in the mix, the incentive is going to be to reduce our mental landscape to a whether we're in a buying mood or not (insert your own "retail therapy" pun here), so as to identify—or create—optimal moments to insert ads. 8/9

Rather, their version of parsing feelings is mostly going to revolve around reducing our complex emotional state to whether we're engaged enough to keep paying a subscription or visiting the client's website. 7/9

Blunt approximations are also less costly, so in some senses more attractive to businesses. McStay says, similarly, the designers of AI that's tuned to our emotions are unlikely to be ultimately worried about our true emotional state in the way a psychologist might be when they try to help us. 6/9

To throw in another relevant example, algorithms that show us ads don't have to capture our true intent in viewing webpages or clicking links to be valuable to brands—they just have to be right enough, often enough to improve on untargeted campaigns. Blunt approximations are commercially viable. 5/9

The catch is, much as Google Search is not a library, but ultimately a commercial product that serves us results based in no small part on either Google's interests or those of the companies paying for SEO, in the long run AI algorithms are likely also going to be attuned to business interests. 4/9

A classic Google Search lets you type "cameras" without any modifiers and intuits, through context and machine learning, whether you likely meant "how cameras work," "where to buy a camera," "camera reviews," etc. But with AI tools resolving ambiguity will also involve reading our tone. 3/9

I'm paraphrasing here, but the essence of McStay's argument is that AI interfaces are going to be increasingly designed to interpret our emotions and states of mind in order to give us the information for which we're looking. 2/9

Emotional AI The Rise of Empathic Media

Ever since Google and OpenAI announced the introduction of ads to their AI products, I can't stop thinking about an argument from @andrew-mcstay.bsky.social's 2018 book, "Emotional AI." 1/9

Will do!

De nada!

I know the feeling with other classes. Will send how along the syllabus when I’ve finished it. And in the meantime, I’ll think whether there’s anything that stands out that’s worth a standalone recommendation.

Thanks for your interest!

Sure thing!

I mean, I'm not mystified. I get the structural reasons *why* the topic was ignored until there was a crisis to cover—hence my teaching the class. Still, there's a real Big Yellow Taxi vibe to all this. 2/2

Updating my media criticism class for a new academic year and it's astonishing to me the night-and-day contrast between the number of accessible explainers on the finances and workings of US public media available before and after the US defunded it all. 1/2

There is a long list of things the administration has taken down or replaced. Some are like this, in public places. Others are displays within agency office buildings. I would really like someone to write something for us that tallies up as many of these examples as is possible to get info on

I know the feeling! Also, courses tied in varying degrees to the news cycle that require constant overhauling.

I admire the great faith and innocence of the students who ask me for my syllabus weeks before the course starts. "I'm so sorry, you have me confused with someone who has far better organizational skills."

I’m unsure as to why, sorry. It works for me with no login.

The cover of Reparative Media. It features a painting, in red, blue, and black, of a diverse cast of performing artists and filmmakers. They appear to be on a set and are variously operating and performing for filmmaking equipment.

The newest book from @ajescoffery.blacksky.app, Reparative Media: Cultivating Stories and Platforms to Heal Our Culture, is out! It reimagines how movies, TV, and a broader array of media can be made and distributed in inclusive and non-extractive ways. #openAccess

mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...

Breakingviews - Shaky data centre tenants could choke off AI boom Much of the $3 trln splurge on server farms for artificial intelligence is coming from Big Tech firms. But developers are also building facilities for less financially robust middlemen like CoreWeave....

What's the over/under on failed AI ventures becoming crypto-mining operations?

www.reuters.com/commentary/b...

Breakingviews - Shaky data centre tenants could choke off AI boom Much of the $3 trln splurge on server farms for artificial intelligence is coming from Big Tech firms. But developers are also building facilities for less financially robust middlemen like CoreWeave....

What's the over/under on failed AI ventures becoming crypto-mining operations?

www.reuters.com/commentary/b...

Reading Marshall Rosenberg, then logging into any social media app will give you whiplash. 😅