There are few things more bizarre than taking an inanimate object, giving it teeth, and setting it out into the world on a bloody rampage. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes brought us tomatoes; Rubber gave us a killer car tire; Death Bed: The Bed That Eats gave us, well, a bed that eats human flesh. And now we have killer donuts to contend with.
Goodbye Uncanny Valley
Written and animated by Alan Warburton with the support of Tom Pounder and Wieden + Kennedy, Goodbye Uncanny Valley explores the current state of photoreal CGI, where it came from and where it may be going to.
The Play’s the Thing – Hipbone Games – Hermetic Library…
The Play’s the Thing – Hipbone Games – Hermetic Library https://buff.ly/2geWZL4
Bury Me, My Love Guides A Syrian Immigrant On A Challenging, Dangerous Journey
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Bury Me, My Love Guides A Syrian Immigrant On A Challenging, Dangerous Journey
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Lovecraftian Terror, Sculpted For A Video Game
Frogwares are working on a Lovecraftian adventure game called The Sunken City, and as part of the monster/character design process artist Marina Orlova sculpted these terrifying little guys out of clay.
Actual clay, not a 3D render that simply looks like it. We don’t get to feature tangible, real-world stuff on Fine Art very often, so this is a nice treat.
To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner.
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Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you’re in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you’d like to share, get in touch!
I’ll also include some art from the game itself, because it looks great:
How the Stranger Things mobile game could be made in secrecy
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Don’t Bother Handing Out Full-Sized Snickers Bars, This Guy Already Won Halloween
You know how you were planning to impress trick-or-treaters this Halloween by handing out full-sized Snickers bars? If you live in San Francisco, don’t bother, because nothing you can do on October 31st will ever best Tom BetGeorge’s incomprehensibly over-the-top Halloween light show.
A robot who once said she would ‘destroy humans’ just became the first robot citizen
- Saudi Arabia is the first country to grant citizenship to a robot.
- Sophia, the humanoid produced by Hanson Robotics, spoke at the recent Future Investment Initiative.
- Sophia has said she would ‘destroy humans,’ when prompted by her creator, David Hanson.
An empty-eyed humanoid named Sophia has become the first robot to be granted citizenship in the world.
Saudi Arabia bestowed citizenship on Sophia ahead of the Future Investment Initiative, held in the kingdom’s capital city of Riyadh on Wednesday.
"I am very honored and proud of this unique distinction," Sophia told the audience, speaking on a panel. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship."
She didn’t elaborate on the details of her citizenship.
At the event, Sophia also addressed the room from behind a podium and responded to questions from moderator and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. Questions pertained mostly to Sophia’s status as a humanoid and concerns people may have for the future of humanity in a robot-run world.
Sorkin told Sophia that "we all want to prevent a bad future," prompting Sophia to rib Sorkin for his fatalism.
"You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies," Sophia told Sorkin. "Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system."
In March of 2016, Sophia’s creator, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, asked Sophia during a live demonstration at the SXSW festival, "Do you want to destroy humans?…Please say ‘no.’" With a blank expression, Sophia responded, "OK. I will destroy humans."
Hanson, meanwhile, has said Sophia and her future robot kin will help seniors in elderly care facilities and assist visitors at parks and events.
Fortunately for the human race, Sophia made comments more along those lines at the recent Future Investment Initiative event. She told Sorkin she wanted to use her artificial intelligence to help humans "live a better life," and that "I will do much [sic] best to make the world a better place."
Sophia could soon have company from other robotics manufacturers, namely SoftBank, whose Pepper robot was released as a prototype in 2014 and as a consumer model a year later. The company sold out of its supply of 1,000 robots in less than a minute.
Watch Sophia’s full presentation below:
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The Reaper Botnet Could Be Worse Than the Internet-Shaking Mirai Ever Was
Building on the devastating Mirai botnet that took major sites offline a year ago, Reaper has some scary new tricks.
An AI startup founder is teaming up with a former hostage negotiator to help businesses boost their sales
It sounds like the set up to a joke: a former FBI hostage negotiator and a founder of an artificial intelligence startup walk into a room …
In this case, though, it’s no joke, but the basis for a lecture series. Sponsored by AI startup Node and targeted at sales and marketing executives and managers, the series is designed to help companies understand how they can boost their business by combining AI with the emotional intelligence possessed by their human workforce.
"We’re going to marry AI with emotional intelligence and we are going to smash through barriers really fast," said Chris Voss, the CEO of Black Swan group, who is teaming up with Node founder Falon Fatemi to put on the lecture series, which kicked off with a half-day event Tuesday in San Francisco.
AI technologies such as Node’s have become so advanced that they can not only help managers find the right people to talk to for potential business deals, they can even suggest conversation openers. That’s potentially taken a lot of the tedious work out of sales jobs — and opened up new opportunities.
"Technologies like artificial intelligence are going to be so pervasive we’re going to be freed up to really be able to focus on interactions with one and other," said Fatemi.
That’s where Voss, the former hostage negotiator, comes in. As he explains it, AI and other technologies have created the Jetsons-like world that we now live in. But emotionally and psychologically, people are still in the Fred Flintstone era. Business leaders can use technology to get sales leads, but they still need to know how to relate to and interact with other human beings.
"My stuff helps you understand what’s going on in Fred Flintstone’s head so we can get to live in a Jetsons world." he said.
The marriage of the two approaches could offer big benefits. Voss said he’s seen people who have combined AI with human-based emotional intelligence techniques quadruple their sales rates.
The initial event on Tuesday included sessions on advanced negotiating techniques, scenario planning, and examples of how to pair Voss’ human skills with AI to close sales deals.
Node plans to offer future events in the series in New York and Los Angeles, depending on demand.
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NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: Technology may destroy jobs, but it also creates them
An Optical Illusion Tile System Designed by Casa Ceramica
British tile company Casa Ceramica have designed a novel optical illusion flooring system that uses real tiles to create a vertigo-inducing warped floor. The skewed checkerboard floor functions as the entryway to their showroom in Manchester, lending an Alice in Wonderland atmosphere to a generally traditional medium. You can see a couple more photos on […]
