In the past (autism became a diagnostic category only in 1943), the ‘idiot savant’ was a paradox, who confounded categorisation because there was no unified way of comprehending how such exceptional musical and numerical skills might co-exist alongside their polar opposite: profound disability. - Aeon
The idea of a permanent underclass has recently been embraced in part as an online joke and in part out of a sincere fear about how A.I. automation will upend the labor market and create a new norm of inequality. - The New Yorker
The thing is, “music classes require ukuleles, recorders, and sheet music for every student. Visual arts classes require painting supplies –– easels, paper, paint brushes, paint. Dance classes require mirrors and bars.” How’s the $35 arts tax doing? - Oregon ArtsWatch
At least, at the University of Minnesota: “Students come to our courses not only for practical career training but to fulfill their love of reading, passion for writing, and hunger to reflect on essential questions about who we are as individuals and communities.” - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Eliza was worth a lot more than her quick summing up in two minutes at the end of a 165-minute musical. "Eliza’s widowed years a kind of breakout,” actually, and the U.S. (and Washington, D.C.) would have looked quite different without her. - The Atlantic
Researchers found “that those with ADHD may experience more frequent episodes of mind-wandering, and that that, in turn, could lead to greater creative thinking abilities.” - Fast Company
“Dean was symbolic of the burgeoning country’s place in the world: rough-hewn and handsome, young and hungry, pure potential. That his potential was never realized transformed him from movie star to legend.” - Washington Post (MSN)
The question isn’t whether the future will be synthetic; it already is. Our challenge now is to ensure that it is also meaningfully human. - The Conversation
Artificial intelligence, George Miller said, represents “the most dynamically evolving tool in making moving image.” “As a filmmaker, I’ve always been driven by the tools. AI is here to stay and change things. The balance between human creativity and machine capability, that’s what the debate and the anxiety is about.” - Variety
The backlash has grabbed far more attention than the product itself, so I wondered: How does Avi Schiffmann, the 22-year-old founder and CEO of Friend, feel about being the most despised tech founder in America’s largest city? - The Atlantic
High-engagement, AI-generated posts on Reddit are an example of what is known as “AI slop” – cheap, low-quality AI-generated content, created and shared by anyone from low-level influencers to coordinated political influence operations. Estimates suggest that over half of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are written by AI. - The Conversation
“Ultimately they said: ‘We only want to prevent the implementation of technology as it is harmful, as it is injurious to the working man.’ So they weren’t trying to stop technology. What they were trying to do was stop the monopoly of the wealth that technology created. - The Guardian
Most of the time, our intuition tells us that what we are seeing (or hearing or feeling) is an accurate representation of what is out there, and that anyone else would see (or hear or feel) it the same way. But we all know that’s not true and yet are continually surprised by it. - Aeon
Of course, a writer can in theory always refuse an A.I.-generated suggestion. But the tools seem to exert a hypnotic effect, causing the constant flow of suggestions to override the writer’s own voice. - The New Yorker
Human connections have been eroding for some time. We’re all dwelling in Uncanny Valley now, staring into our personal screens, not sure what’s real or fake, to the detriment of talking, dating, reading, living. - The New York Times
