AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Prove You’re Human
Good Morning,
A small publisher, buried under AI-generated pitches, will now take them only by phone (Nieman Lab). When producing a plausible submission costs nothing, the only useful filter is one the machine can’t cheaply fake, and right now that’s a voice on a live line.
That verification cost is everywhere. More than a million people have already clicked LinkedIn’s AI-reporter button (The Verge), so the slop is arriving faster than anyone can sort it. Police have been reduced to announcing that the Cat in the Hat is not real, after AI TikToks persuaded people otherwise (BBC). SFMOMA’s AI-assisted Matisse poses the institutional version: what exactly is a museum vouching for when it hangs one (The Atlantic)?
The distribution end of culture, meanwhile, is being settled in private. Trump intervened in the Live Nation antitrust prosecution (WSJ), while California’s attorney general walked out of Paramount settlement talks and looks set to demand channel divestitures (The New York Times).
And in Iceland, where murders barely happen, crime novelists work overtime to make a body believable (The New York Times). Scarcity as a craft problem.
All of our stories below.
- The Classical Music Superfans
These stories from the classical music world are particularly jarring. It’s easy to stomach the idea of Swifties doing what they do: that’s part of their culture. But classical music fans have long cultivated an image of sophistication. – The Conversation
- Was Howard Zinn’s “People’s History” Too Simplistic?
Zinn presented his readers with genuinely admirable dissidents, from Bartolomé de las Casas to Ida Tarbell and Langston Hughes. At a moment when the country needs effective dissidents, Zinn, the scholar-activist, is in that pantheon. But A People’s History’s had flaws: It can flatten complex problems and people into apparently simple ones. – The New Republic
- Why Is It So Hard To Buy Movie Tickets Right Now?
Theater chain apps suffered apparent outages as moviegoers waited in long virtual lines, hoping to finally glimpse a seat map with some empty spots left on it. In Manhattan, those who have grown mistrustful of this unreliable tech found time on a weekday morning to line up around the block at AMC Lincoln Square. – Wired
- Smithsonian Considers Workaround For National Latino Museum
On Aug. 31, the Smithsonian will consider whether to give the Latino Museum its Arts and Industries Building, which was built in 1881 and is on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s Castle and Hirshhorn Museum. – The New York Times
ISSUES
- Smithsonian Considers Workaround For National Latino Museum
On Aug. 31, the Smithsonian will consider whether to give the Latino Museum its Arts and Industries Building, which was built in 1881 and is on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s Castle and Hirshhorn Museum. – The New York Times
- Does AI Really Belong In A Museum?
It’s not like most of these flyers were ever going to be high art anyway. Still, the issue nags at me constantly, whenever I pass one of these synthetic images plastered over the real world. – The Atlantic
- A New Report Accuses A Marseille Museum’s Director Of Sexual Misconduct
The report “accuses Pierre-Olivier Costa, the recently suspended president of Marseille’s Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM), of sexual and moral harassment, breaching rules for granting public contracts, and putting the southern French city’s only national museum ‘at risk.’” – ARTnews
- Designer Error, By About 10,000 Miles
Sydney, Australia, has an Allianz soccer stadium, and so does Munich, Germany. Guess which one appears on the Sydney Marathon medal? – The Guardian (UK)
- The Smithsonian Plan For A Latinx Museum Avoids A Congressional Vote
“The Smithsonian Institution has called a board meeting to discuss giving one of its current buildings to the National Museum of the American Latino, which would bypass the need for congressional approval for a new site.” – The New York Times
MEDIA
- LinkedIn Added An AI Slop Button, And People Are Clicking It A Whole, Whole Lot
Since July 30th, more than a million people have clicked on the button accessible on each post. – The Verge
- Viral, Often AI-Generated, TikToks Have Police Announcing The Cat In The Hat Isn’t Real
Wild: “Many of the AI generated images have been centred on the Irish counties of Limerick and Wexford, where shaky videos purportedly showed the character wandering through the streets, causing alarm and confusion among residents.” – BBC
- The Mayor Of Los Angeles Suddenly Loves The Warnermount Merger
What in the rolling over for rich people hell, Karen Bass? – Vulture
- Weird Idea Spreads On Chinese Internet That Tang Dynasty Never Existed
The Tang era (618-907 CE) is considered a golden age, a period of territorial expansion, prosperity and high culture which every Chinese schoolchild learns about. Claiming it never happened is like telling Brits there was no Norman Conquest. Yet the bogus idea has caught on widely enough that China’s government is weighing in. – CNN
- How The COVID Crisis Shifted Culture Funding
In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. – SMU Cultural Data
MUSIC
- In A Country With Almost No Actual Murders, Writers Have To Make Mysterious Deaths Believable
The authors’ “plots have to be built on buried grudges and horrifying secrets hidden in the fog and the fjords. Otherwise, how else could they convincingly kill off their characters?” – The New York Times
- This Small Publisher Will Now Only Accept Pitches By Phone
The strategies to defeat AI are getting, well, old-school: “We’re re-humanizing the process with a dedicated hotline (which has the added benefit of weeding out supposed reporters who aren’t in the habit of ringing up strangers.” – Nieman Lab
- California Has The Publishing Rizz Right Now
But it’s a bit nervewracking: “I feel like for a small press you really need to, not just catch a break, but catch a break every time, … if you want to last.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- How Winnie Became The Pooh Bear, A Century Ago
“Sometimes words need pictures and pictures need words. When they find each other, characters spring to life.” – NPR
- Writing Is Hard, And Young Writers Are Getting Extra Discouraged
“They’re simultaneously struggling to figure out if they need to use AI to keep up in today’s competitive industry—or eschew it altogether in order to maintain trust.” – Fast Company
PEOPLE
- Prove You’re Human
Good Morning,
A small publisher, buried under AI-generated pitches, will now take them only by phone (Nieman Lab). When producing a plausible submission costs nothing, the only useful filter is one the machine can’t cheaply fake, and right now that’s a voice on a live line.
That verification cost is everywhere. More than a million people have already clicked LinkedIn’s AI-reporter button (The Verge), so the slop is arriving faster than anyone can sort it. Police have been reduced to announcing that the Cat in the Hat is not real, after AI TikToks persuaded people otherwise (BBC). SFMOMA’s AI-assisted Matisse poses the institutional version: what exactly is a museum vouching for when it hangs one (The Atlantic)?
The distribution end of culture, meanwhile, is being settled in private. Trump intervened in the Live Nation antitrust prosecution (WSJ), while California’s attorney general walked out of Paramount settlement talks and looks set to demand channel divestitures (The New York Times).
And in Iceland, where murders barely happen, crime novelists work overtime to make a body believable (The New York Times). Scarcity as a craft problem.
All of our stories below.
- The Classical Music Superfans
These stories from the classical music world are particularly jarring. It’s easy to stomach the idea of Swifties doing what they do: that’s part of their culture. But classical music fans have long cultivated an image of sophistication. – The Conversation
- Was Howard Zinn’s “People’s History” Too Simplistic?
Zinn presented his readers with genuinely admirable dissidents, from Bartolomé de las Casas to Ida Tarbell and Langston Hughes. At a moment when the country needs effective dissidents, Zinn, the scholar-activist, is in that pantheon. But A People’s History’s had flaws: It can flatten complex problems and people into apparently simple ones. – The New Republic
- Why Is It So Hard To Buy Movie Tickets Right Now?
Theater chain apps suffered apparent outages as moviegoers waited in long virtual lines, hoping to finally glimpse a seat map with some empty spots left on it. In Manhattan, those who have grown mistrustful of this unreliable tech found time on a weekday morning to line up around the block at AMC Lincoln Square. – Wired
- Smithsonian Considers Workaround For National Latino Museum
On Aug. 31, the Smithsonian will consider whether to give the Latino Museum its Arts and Industries Building, which was built in 1881 and is on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s Castle and Hirshhorn Museum. – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Prove You’re Human
Good Morning,
A small publisher, buried under AI-generated pitches, will now take them only by phone (Nieman Lab). When producing a plausible submission costs nothing, the only useful filter is one the machine can’t cheaply fake, and right now that’s a voice on a live line.
That verification cost is everywhere. More than a million people have already clicked LinkedIn’s AI-reporter button (The Verge), so the slop is arriving faster than anyone can sort it. Police have been reduced to announcing that the Cat in the Hat is not real, after AI TikToks persuaded people otherwise (BBC). SFMOMA’s AI-assisted Matisse poses the institutional version: what exactly is a museum vouching for when it hangs one (The Atlantic)?
The distribution end of culture, meanwhile, is being settled in private. Trump intervened in the Live Nation antitrust prosecution (WSJ), while California’s attorney general walked out of Paramount settlement talks and looks set to demand channel divestitures (The New York Times).
And in Iceland, where murders barely happen, crime novelists work overtime to make a body believable (The New York Times). Scarcity as a craft problem.
All of our stories below.
- The Classical Music Superfans
These stories from the classical music world are particularly jarring. It’s easy to stomach the idea of Swifties doing what they do: that’s part of their culture. But classical music fans have long cultivated an image of sophistication. – The Conversation
- Was Howard Zinn’s “People’s History” Too Simplistic?
Zinn presented his readers with genuinely admirable dissidents, from Bartolomé de las Casas to Ida Tarbell and Langston Hughes. At a moment when the country needs effective dissidents, Zinn, the scholar-activist, is in that pantheon. But A People’s History’s had flaws: It can flatten complex problems and people into apparently simple ones. – The New Republic
- Why Is It So Hard To Buy Movie Tickets Right Now?
Theater chain apps suffered apparent outages as moviegoers waited in long virtual lines, hoping to finally glimpse a seat map with some empty spots left on it. In Manhattan, those who have grown mistrustful of this unreliable tech found time on a weekday morning to line up around the block at AMC Lincoln Square. – Wired
- Smithsonian Considers Workaround For National Latino Museum
On Aug. 31, the Smithsonian will consider whether to give the Latino Museum its Arts and Industries Building, which was built in 1881 and is on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s Castle and Hirshhorn Museum. – The New York Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Was Howard Zinn’s “People’s History” Too Simplistic?
Zinn presented his readers with genuinely admirable dissidents, from Bartolomé de las Casas to Ida Tarbell and Langston Hughes. At a moment when the country needs effective dissidents, Zinn, the scholar-activist, is in that pantheon. But A People’s History’s had flaws: It can flatten complex problems and people into apparently simple ones. – The New Republic
- Study: Language Skills Don’t Decline In Older Adults
Unless impaired by a stroke or dementia, most older people retain their language skills and may even improve them as they steadily gain vocabulary throughout their lives. A new brain imaging study from an MIT-Boston University collaboration now reveals the neural activity underlying this observation. – MIT News
- Movies Have Been Exploring Manhood, Or What It Means To Be A Man, For As Long As Movies Have Existed
But, cautionary moment (akin to making movies about war): “Sometimes the filmmakers, they can kind of get wrapped up in the bad behavior … of the men that they’re trying to critique.” Think Fight Club. – NPR
- Study: More Than One-Third Of Web Pages Created Since 2022 Show Signs Of AI
Over one-third of web pages published after the release of ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew Research released on Thursday. – TechCrunch
- Research: Large AI Datasets Obscure Authorship
It feels counterintuitive, but at sufficiently large scales, they find, you can often remove any single image from the training data, or every image by a given artist, or every photograph of a given person, and the generated sample doesn’t change. – MIT