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artificial intelligence

Joy

You can use ChatGPT to create the human version of your pet, and it's adorably addictive

Well here's a wholesome use of AI.

ChatGPT

Some are a little…too accurate.

You’ve probably heard about how dogs tend to resemble their owners (or rather, how owners tend to pick dogs that resemble them). But this new TikTok trend takes that concept to whole new levels.

Similar to the previous trend of turning yourself into a Barbie doll or action figures, people are now using ChatGPT to transform their pups into humans. Some are eerily realistic, others are laughably weird, but all are incredibly entertaining.

Below is one particularly viral video, where we first see a picture of a red Irish setter demurely laying on a bed. Cut to an equally demure redhead in a green sweat, and even sporting a dog bone necklace, similar to the collar in the previous image.

@roisintheredsetter what do we think? 😂 the necklace 😂 #dog #chatgpt #redsetter #irishsetter #dogsoftiktok ♬ original sound - MOTORSPORT FILES


“Reminds me of Helly from Severance,” one person noted. Another quipped, “oooo she classy.”

Here’s another one for pug lovers (technically this is a Brussels Griffon). The facial expression is uncanny.

@juliac0p3land I can’t unsee it 😔 #dogsoftiktok #chatgpt #ai #brusselsgriffon ♬ original sound - MOTORSPORT FILES

“Your dog is Tyrion Lannister,” a Game of Thrones fan wrote.

And yes, this fun is not exclusive to dogs. Any species can go through this AI Animorphing. Over on Reddit, a Calico became a Goth rocker sporting an orange streak and three baby ducks became three yellow clad toddlers, just to name a few.


With chat GPT you can transform your cat into real person
byu/AndrewJumpen inChatGPT


Going back to TikTok, someone even human-ified a chicken. And it's every bit as great as you’d hope it would be.


@themissysmith the hair, the sass, the bookshelf...nailed it!! 📚🤣 #chatgpt #trending #chicken #pet #pets #booktok #bookish ♬ original sound - MOTORSPORT FILES


Perhaps the greatest thing about this is how easy it is to do.

How to turn your dog into a human with AI using ChatGPT

  1. First, you need to go to the ChatGPT website or app. Then, log in or create an account if you haven’t got one already.
  2. After that, press the + and upload a photo of your dog that you want to turn into a human. Make sure it’s a clear, high-quality image.
  3. Underneath the picture, write this prompt with the correct gender: “What would my *male/female* dog look like as a person?”
  4. Now, all you need to do is click the arrow to send the message and wait for Chat GPT to turn your dog into a human.

Out of curiosity I did this with my cat, Clyde.

Before generating an image ChatGPT was kind enough to imagine his personality, which was quite enjoyable. The "he probably drinks coffee or herbal tea” part was my favorite.

After a few minutes, a human version of Clyde appeared…who is apparently Hozier.

To get a little more specific, I then added some things about his personality: he’s affectionate, sweet, soulful, and sometimes a bit mischievous. Here's what ChatGPT came up with:

So…happy Hozier. Honestly it’s pretty spot on.

As with most things ChatGPT, it helps to be as specific as possible. Lucky for pet owners, they could talk about their fur babies all day! With all the unsavory news regarding AI, it’s nice to have something pretty wholesome thrown in the mix.

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Celebrity

'Unreal' Keanu Reeves account is so good that many of its fans don't know it's entirely fake

Deepfake AI tech is becoming so good it's scary.

@unreal_keanu/TikTok

Keanu Reeves deepfakes are impressively real.

Even if they're not sold on him as an actor, people in general love Keanu Reeves as a person. With his down-to-earth vibe and humble acts of kindness, the Canadian star is just a genuinely good guy. Appreciating Keanu Reeves is like an inviolable law of the universe or something.

So it's understandable that people would be eager to follow Reeves on social media—except there's one problem. He has made it clear he doesn't use it.

Some people who come across an "Unreal Keanu" video on TikTok, however, are being duped into thinking he does, despite multiple disclaimers—including the account name—that it's not really his account.

The @unreal_keanu account has more than 8 million followers, some of whom appear to think they're following the actual actor.

Whoever owns the account shares fun little video creations with "Keanu Reeves" in various relatable scenarios. He never speaks, so there's no voice to compare to the real deal, but his face and body are a darn good dupe.

The account clearly says "parody" in the bio, but if people don't click the bio to see that, they may very well believe the video to be Keanu Reeves himself. And judging by the comments, that's exactly what a lot of people do.

@unreal_keanu

Who isn't comfortable at parties either? #keanureeves #introvert #party

And this:

@unreal_keanu

Life with a girlfriend. #keanureeves #relationship #girlfriend

People who are familiar with deepfake videos or who have seen Keanu Reeves more recently (with his scruffy, salt-and-pepper beard) can fairly quickly discern that they can't be real, but the casual observer who sees these videos in passing can be forgiven for assuming it's him. The TikTok account has been around for almost a year and the technology has only gotten better and better. The first few videos are pretty clearly deepfakes, but the recent ones are genuinely hard to tell.

Here's the first video that was shared on January 18, 2022, where the AI element is a lot more obvious:

@unreal_keanu

Welcome to my TikTok🙂#keanureeves #reeves #actor

The progression of AI tech in just under a year is both impressive and a little terrifying. This account is clearly using Keanu's likeness for silly giggles and is pretty harmless, but it's easy to see how someone with nefarious intent could create serious problems for public figures as well as the average person.

The good news is that as AI technology is getting better, so is the technology to detect it. The bad news is that some people are prone to believing misinformation and resistant to fact-based correction, so even if a deepfake is detected as such, the truth may not fully break through people's blinders and biases.

The future of AI, for better or worse, is a big ethical question mark for us all. But in the meantime, it's pretty incredible to see what humans have figured out how to do.

Almost as incredible as how Keanu Reeves refuses to age. Unreal, indeed:

@unreal_keanu

Do I look my age? #reeves #keanu #thisismyage

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Joy

Top iPad app takes a stand for human creativity, flat refusing to offer generative AI tools

The CEO and co-founder of Procreate made a blunt, powerful statement in a viral video.

Photo by Ivan Samkov/Pexels

The use of generative AI tools in art software is up for debate.

Whether we like it or not,artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived in our lives. Once only the subject of sci-fi films and tech geeks' imaginations, various iterations of AI technology are now in use across nearly every industry.

Depending on your beliefs about and understanding of AI, that's either a good or a bad thing. At this point, most people seem to recognize and acknowledge that there are some profoundly helpful uses for AI, while also feeling trepidation about the reliability of popular language learning models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI tools many of us have begun using regularly.

One realm that has seen significant backlash against AI is art. It's one thing for a machine to do complex equations or write code or or analyze medical images or defuse a bomb. It's another to replace human creativity with AI, which is why Procreate co-founder and CEO James Cuda is saying "no" to incorporating AI tools into the company's art software.

Procreate is a popular iPad app with the slogan "Art is for Everyone," which allows users to sketch, paint, illustrate and animate. In a video shared on X, Cuda was blunt. "I really f__king hate generative AI," he said in a post captioned, "We're never going there. Creativity is made, not generated."

"I don't like what's happening in the industry, and I don't like what it's doing to artists," he said. "We're not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products. Our products are always designed and developed with the idea that a human will be creating something."

Watch:

"We believe we're on the right path supporting human creativity," he concluded. Cuda's announcement comes as its biggest competitor, Adobe

A statement on the Procreate website explains further:

"Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things. Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future. We think machine learning is a compelling technology with a lot of merit, but the path generative AI is on is wrong for us.

We're here for the humans. We're not chasing a technology that is a moral threat to our greatest jewel: human creativity. In this technological rush, this might make us an exception or seem at risk of being left behind. But we see this road less travelled as the more exciting and fruitful one for our community."

Generative AI has been labeled as theft due to the AI models using real art from real artists to generate images. Many artists celebrated Cuda's announcement, praising Procreate for supporting and empowering artists. Others said the company was being overly sentimental and out of touch with the times.

It's important to note that Cuda specifically refers to "generative AI" which does not mean all AI. Artificial intelligence isn't just one thing—there are various AI models, some of which are used for predictions and analysis and others that are used to "create." It's the generative AI used to create that has artists, musicians, writers and other creative professionals up in arms.

The question of what "counts" as art has been debated for centuries, but we've always agreed that art comes from humans. Some see art as the creative expression of the human spirit, which makes machine-created art feel soulless. Easier and more efficient, perhaps, but lacking the intangible, inspiring, intriguing quality of individual human creativity.

As Cuda said, "We don't exactly know where this story ends or where it's going to go." Perhaps resisting generative AI is a losing battle and humans are doomed to be replaced by machines. Maybe AI-generated art will simply make 100% human-created art more valuable and in-demand. Maybe there's another possibility no one has even conceived of yet. However things turn out, it's the real choices real humans make that will determine what direction we will go.

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Science

College students use AI to decode ancient scroll burned in Mount Vesuvius

“Some of these texts could completely rewrite the history of key periods of the ancient world."

scrollprize.org

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., it buried entire cities in volcanic materials. While Pompeii is the most famous site affected by the natural disaster, the nearby villa of Herculaneum was also laid to waste—including over 800 precious scrolls found inside Herculaneum’s library, which were carbonized by the heat, making them impossible to open and recover their contents.

Which brings us to the Vesuvius challenge, started by computer scientist Brent Seales and entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross in March 2023. The contest would award $1 million in prizes to whoever could use machine learning to successfully read from the scrolls without damaging them.

On February 5, the prize-winning team was announced.


The team consisted of three savvy college students— Youssef Nader in Germany, Luke Farritor in the US, and Julian Schilliger in Switzerland—working with each other from across the globe.

Each student had a prior individual accomplishment in the challenge before teaming up. Farritor first deciphered a word from the scroll ((ΠΟΡΦΥΡΑϹ, or “porphyras,” which means “purple” in ancient Greek), after which Nader was able to read multiple column from the scroll, in addition to Julian Schilliger creating 3D map renderings of the papyrus.

Nader, Farritor and Schillinger eventually combined their talents to train machine-learning algorithms to decipher more than 2,000 characters. Contest organizers estimated a less than 30% success rate for even less characters.

So, what exactly did the scrolls say? Turns out, the ancient cultures were just as curious about what makes us truly happy in life as we are today.

From the Vesuvius Challenge/ scrollprize.org

The translated text, thought to be written by Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, appears to be a philosophical discussion on pleasure, and how it’s affected by things like music and food. And quite possibly “throwing shade” as stoicism by calling it “an incomplete philosophy because it has ‘nothing to say about pleasure.”

“We can’t escape the feeling that the first text we’ve uncovered is a 2,000-year-old blog post about how to enjoy life,” the Vesuvius Challenge website writes.

The first Vesuvius Challenge resulted in 5% of one scroll being read. For 2024, the goalpost has been moved to being able to read 90% of all four scrolls currently scanned, and to lay the foundation to read all 800 scrolls, and possibly other texts found at the Herculaneum library.

“Some of these texts could completely rewrite the history of key periods of the ancient world,” Robert Fowler, a classicist and the chair of the Herculaneum Society, told Bloomberg. “This is the society from which the modern Western world is descended.”

Using artificial intelligence to create a future has been a prime topic of conversation as of late, but this story is a great example of how AI can give us rare glimpses into the past as well. It's pretty incredible to think about how many ancient mysteries could be solved as technology continues to advance in the years to come.

But no matter how much knowledge we gain, it feels safe to say that pleasure might always an enigma.

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