🟣 SC 🌀 DTech
World models are AI systems that accurately simulate physical reality. How objects move and collide, for example, or how light behaves, or liquid flows. Google DeepMind recently released the astonishing new Genie 3 model; Demis Hassabis calls world models a crucial part of anything we can call true AGI. OpenAI is rumoured to be building a rival. Yann LeCun — Meta's AI chief for years — has left the company to launch his own world model startup.
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Google has introduced one of the most significant updates to Google Maps in more than a decade. The update brings two major features: Ask Maps, an AI-powered conversational assistant, and Immersive Navigation, a new 3D navigation system designed to make directions clearer and more intuitive. Together, these technologies aim to transform Google Maps from a simple navigation tool into a smarter travel and exploration platform powered by artificial intelligence.
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Introducing Wonder 3D, a new generative AI model in Autodesk Flow Studio – built to help you move from imagination to 3D faster than ever.
You can now quickly generate 3D characters or objects—from a simple text prompt or a reference image. Then refine, remix, and reuse them across your projects. Plus, everything stays flexible, so you can create quickly, iterate confidently, and move your work seamlessly into 3D pipelines, game engines, or 3D printing software.
Read more🟣 SC 🔵 FS
A few months back Altera launched Project Sid (its name is a hat tip to Sid Meier, the creator of the iconic Civilisation video game). They poured 1,000 autonomous AI agents into a Minecraft world, and sat back to watch what unfolded.
Altera calls this world, ‘the first agent-based civilisation’. Yang and his colleagues watched as the agents learned to harness the natural resources around them, developed their own economy, and even evolved a culture and religion.
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It’s called Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People. Not a catchy title. But I believe this research will eventually change the world. That’s why I’ve chosen it as the subject of this first in my new series of weekly postcards.
The researcher in question is Joon Sung Park; he’s a PhD student at Stanford University.
He and his team interviewed 1,052 people. They asked them to speak for two hours about themselves and their everyday lives, beliefs and values.
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The foundation of generative AI is data from the past. This raises a question: how does the past generate a future? The human answer to this is embedded in ideologies. We arrive at a set of values, and engage in social arrangements that reflect those values. We sustain these beliefs by confirming those values through the films we watch, the media we consume, the conversations we have and who have them with.
Read more🟣 SC 🔴 HCI
With each example we see a trend towards making technology less like a tool that is a separate entity and more like an extension of the users. It might be clear by now where I’m going with this. A favourable UX has minimum to no interface interaction. This makes technology more accessible and overall enjoyable to use. However, the examples mentioned above are making the interface completely “invisible”.
Read more🟣 SC 🔴 HCI
Freshly emerged from the HCI for UX program at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, I am brimming with ideas for exploring emerging technologies. One area that continually piques my interest is the future of screenless interactions.
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In 2022, over 700 top academics and researchers behind the leading artificial intelligence companies were asked in a survey about future A.I. risk. Half of those surveyed stated that there was a 10 percent or greater chance of human extinction (or similarly permanent and severe disempowerment) from future A.I. systems. Technology companies building today’s large language models are caught in a race to put all of humanity on that plane.
Read more🔵 FS: Future Studies 🔘 Arch: Architecture
I thought about ChatGBT’s use in writing about architecture. Would it encourage more trite, languid, anodyne articles about design published online and in print? I’ll let you decide. Here’s an edited transcript of my 15-minute interview with the bot.
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