The Information

Art by Clark Miller

Found in Translation: AI Lip-Synch Apps Have Arrived

By Amanda Florian · Oct 14, 2023 6:00am PDT

Growing up in New Delhi, Gaurav Misra found himself surrounded by a cacophony of languages. On any given day, the software engineer, who speaks fluent English, Hindi and French, would hear a variety of dialects in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu. Misra spent years learning French, which helped him grow his network of professional connections in... Growing up in New Delhi, Gaurav Misra found himself surrounded by a cacophony of languages. On...

Art by Clark Miller.

‘It’s a Cult’: Inside Effective Accelerationism, the Pro-AI Movement Taking Over Silicon Valley

By Margaux MacColl · Oct 7, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, Y Combinator president Garry Tan and Notion co-founder Chris Prucha looked up at the cartoon of a shirtless man, his six-pack abs gleaming against a swirling galactic background. They were eager to listen to what the man had to say. The cartoon was the avatar for Beff Jezos (nope, not Jeff Bezos), the... “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, Y Combinator president Garry Tan and Notion co-founder...

If AI researchers can meet Nat Friedman's Vesuvius Challenge, “It’ll be the first time we’ve read handwriting that hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years.” Art by Clark Miller

Nat Versus the Volcano: Can an AI Investor Solve an Ancient Mystery from the Ashes of Vesuvius?

By Margaux MacColl · Sep 22, 2023 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Long before men’s daily thoughts about ancient Rome became a TikTok meme, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman’s mind was regularly turning toward the Roman Empire. In the early pandemic months of 2020, he ripped through Philip Matyszak’s “24 Hours in Ancient Rome,” a book that, by his own admission, was “written... Long before men’s daily thoughts about ancient Rome became a TikTok meme, former GitHub CEO...

Art by Clark Miller

The Next Platform for AI-Generated Art: Your Bicep

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jul 8, 2023 6:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

The Next Platform for AI-Generated Art: Your Bicep

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jul 8, 2023 6:00am PDT

Twelve days before last Christmas, Marina Rosa, an artificial intelligence engineer in São Paulo, Brazil, walked into a neighborhood tattoo parlor and laid her left arm on the table. Rosa then asked artist Nadine Guerra to give her a tattoo made up of various elements, including a 1950s-style female cyborg, an abstract squiggle, and four... Twelve days before last Christmas, Marina Rosa, an artificial intelligence engineer in São...

Art by Clark Miller

How to Grease a Chatbot: E-Commerce Companies Seek a Backdoor Into AI Responses

By Chris Stokel-Walker · May 27, 2023 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

When Andy Wilson’s company received its first successful client referral through ChatGPT, he was shaken to his core. The founder and CEO of Logikcull, a San Francisco–based legal technology company, Wilson “had the exact same reaction to ChatGPT as I had to the internet browser in the early ’90s,” he said.... When Andy Wilson’s company received its first successful client referral through ChatGPT,...

Art by Clark Miller

Tech’s Newest Side Hustle: Prompt Engineers Surf the AI Wave

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Apr 29, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Bohdan Skitenko has been working in the design industry, producing 3D art and animation, for around five years. But it was when version four of generative AI image creator Midjourney was released in November 2022 that he began thinking about pivoting his career toward a more artificial intelligence–integrated one. “I realized that... Bohdan Skitenko has been working in the design industry, producing 3D art and animation, for...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Voice That Launched a Thousand Deepfakes: How One Viral Song Led to a Music Industry Reckoning

By Jessica Lucas · Feb 24, 2023 11:00am PST

When Marc set out to clone the voice of Ariana Grande in January, he didn’t know it would infuriate hordes of his fellow Grande fans. Marc, who asked to remain anonymous to shield him from further online attacks, wasn’t looking to incite a stan riot. He just wanted to experiment with DiffSVC, an open-source software developed by... When Marc set out to clone the voice of Ariana Grande in January, he didn’t know it would...

My Week of Being Gaslit and Lied to by the New Bing

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Feb 17, 2023 12:00pm PST · 12 comments

My Week of Being Gaslit and Lied to by the New Bing

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Feb 17, 2023 12:00pm PST · 12 comments

Like any tech reporter who spends too much time online, I’ve treated Microsoft’s Bing search engine with little more than disdain since its 2009 release. Initially mocked for its stale, staid, retro graphics (its early design included a logo in front of hot air balloons), Bing also gave lackluster search results that paled in... Like any tech reporter who spends too much time online, I’ve treated Microsoft’s Bing...

Midjourney art by Clark Miller

Did a Bot Write This?: New Tools Are Already Taking Aim at AI-Generated Work

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jan 13, 2023 12:00pm PST · 6 comments

If an artificial intelligence program were to engineer a human with the potential to destroy it—or at least slow its march to global domination—it might create Edward Tian. Tian, a 22-year-old Princeton University student, is a computer science major who specializes in natural-language processing. He’s a former researcher for... If an artificial intelligence program were to engineer a human with the potential to destroy...

Midjourney art by Clark Miller

ChatGPT Is on Fire, and a Cottage Industry of Bot Builders Is Exploding Alongside It

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Dec 16, 2022 10:00am PST · 3 comments

Joshua Browder wakes up most mornings wanting to empower the little guy. The entrepreneur, who has been deemed the “Robin Hood of the internet,” has helped people annul marriages, get out of parking tickets and file lawsuits against failed crypto platforms through DoNotPay, his robo lawyer startup. DoNotPay works by automating the... Joshua Browder wakes up most mornings wanting to empower the little guy. The entrepreneur, who...