Marilyn Monroe
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AI Marilyn Monroe adds to the list of dead celebrities digitally resurrected without consent
A company called Soul Machines debuted its "Digital Marilyn" AI chatbot of Marilyn Monroe at SXSW on International Women's Day. Soul Machines touts its ability to produce nuanced, realistic responses when engaging with fans. It comes at a time of increased scrutiny into the use of celebrities' digital likenesses without their consent.
Where IPs go to die: a theoretical look at the belly of the online beast
The key to a secure online world of tomorrow? Why, that would be an internet that spends a bit more time padding its waistline at the protocol buffet. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed an evolutionary model, dubbed EvoArch, that simulates a survival of the IP fittest battle for the interweb's belly. Separated into six distinct layers, the top-to-bottom structure -- specific applications, application protocols, transport protocols, network protocols, data-link protocols and physical layer protocols -- reveals a fiercely competitive middle tier that often sees newer, non-specialized competition cannibalized in favor of an older, more dominant framework. The team created the theoretic model as a guideline for "architects of the future Internet... to increase the number of protocols in these middle layers," thus protecting the web from potential security vulnerabilities. Despite these proposed layer variances, however, further simulations of the model only churned out more midriff slimming eventualities. It seems our dear internet is destined for a damned if you do, damned if you don't hourglass-shaped evolution. Full PR after the break.
WoW Moviewatch: Enchants Are A Girl's Best Friend
Gigi and BloodveinMovies recently released a new collaborative video, Enchants Are A Girl's Best Friend. Gigi had actually recorded and released this song many months ago, and Bloodvein later created a machinima-style music video to go along with it. I enjoyed Gigi's departure from rap videos. While I know she might return to those soon enough, I was glad to see her expanding her repertoire, and putting some proof out there that she can perform in other styles. The lyrics themselves were okay, and I think she did a decent job of getting enchanting-related language to fit the poetry of the well-known song from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Since Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend is most well-known for its performance by Marilyn Monroe, I think Bloodvein did a solid job of recreating a Monroe-like feel for this video. There's something to be said for the shout out to a stage performer, and Bloodvein handled the material well. I'm not sure about the advertisements and plugs before the video started, though. While nothing about them intrinsically bothered me, they took up nearly fifty seconds of a six minute video. That's a pretty steep entry barrier for an audience who isn't highly motivated to watch the movie, and I wonder if it kept some people from checking out the entirety.
