### Issue 2107 - Wednesday 12th June, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- REINSW adds AI bot to advisory board, talks about it like it's human
- Adobe to make further changes to T&Cs after last week's brain fade
- RIP Lynn Conway, kid busted by cops for making deep fake porn of classmates, Blackmagic makes camera for spatial videos
- ArchiveBox looks cool
- Cheap Sonos speakers, Valve Steam Deck, iPhone 15, Untitled Goose Game, DJI Pocket 2, PS5 controller, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil

## The News

### REINSW adds AI bot to advisory board, talks about it like it's human

The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales has added an AI bot as a board advisor. They call the bot Alice Ing and say it "has been fed data such as state legislation, regulatory information and details of REINSW meetings, statements and intellectual property" and in an AI-generated statement "Alice" says it will ensure every board decision "aligns with REINSW's mission and code of ethics, calling out any potential inconsistencies or conflicts". REINSW’s CEO reckons "Alice has an IQ of 155", making her "the smartest person in the world". Compared to a real estate agent, yes, an AI bot would be very fucking smart and would probably raise the total IQ of the REINSW's board above room temperature. Giving below average humans the feeling they're a genius is exactly where LLMs/AI can shine.

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### Adobe to make further changes to T&Cs after last week's brain fade

Also in AI related news, Adobe has published a follow-up blog post to last week's changes in its Terms of Use. The terms used effectively gave Adobe free reign to do whatever they liked with user content to "improve the service". This naturally pissed people off, so Adobe will "speak to our customers with a plan to roll out updated changes by June 18, 2024". Further in the post they mention they'll specifically add a clause to the Terms of Use that makes it a "legal obligation on Adobe" to not train generative AI on customer content. Adobe will also allow users to opt-out of their "desktop product improvement programs" (but not mobile?). Why this basic, common sense stuff wasn't there from day one is beyond me, but good to see.

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### RIP Lynn Conway, kid busted by cops for making deep fake porn of classmates, Blackmagic makes camera for spatial videos

- Lynn Conway - a giant of computer science responsible for VLSI chip design and noted transgender activist - passed away on the weekend. Being trans, in the 60s-90s, in that industry, yet still succeeding, is an inspiration to us all.
- Some pervert kid at Bacchus Marsh Grammar has been interviewed by police for making and spreading deep fakes of 50 girls at the school. Will be interesting to see what (if anything) he gets charged with.
- Blackmagic's announced a camera designed to capture 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content (perfect for the Apple Vision Pro) and updated DaVinci Resolve so you can use a Vision Pro headset to monitor that footage while editing.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### ArchiveBox looks cool

Archive Box is an "an open source tool that lets organizations & individuals archive both public & private web content while retaining control over their data. It can be used to save copies of bookmarks, preserve evidence for legal cases, backup photos from FB/Insta/Flickr or media from YT/Soundcloud/etc., save research papers, and more..." - pretty much a self-hosted version of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. You can "feed ArchiveBox URLs one at a time, or schedule regular imports from your bookmarks or history, social media feeds or RSS, link-saving services like Pocket/Pinboard, our Browser Extension, and more". Sounds great!

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## Bargains

- Sonos Era 100 speaker - $279 from The Good Guys
- Valve Steam Deck LCD 512GB - $735 from Tristar Online via Big W
- Apple iPhone 15 128GB - $1104.15 with Zip pay on eBay
- Spend $600 on Penfolds wine, get a free Sonos Era 100 speaker at Bottlemart/SipnSave
- Untitled Goose Game for Switch - $15 on the Nintendo eShop
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo - $541.55 from Amazon Japan
- PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller - $79 from Amazon
- Apple iPad Pro 11" (M4 SoC) 256GB wi-fi - $1410.15 from MacApp's eBay store with Zip pay
- Apple Pencil Pro MX2D3ZA/A - $186.15 from Wireless1's eBay store with Zip pay

## Image Of The Day

I am trans and I am a professor of EECS, Emerita, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I'm a computer scientist who revolutionized information technology by inventing new methods that greatly simplified the design and fabrication of complex microchips. During the late 1970s, I widely shared my knowledge with young people in STEM, both as a university professor and as an author of the seminal textbook on microchip engineering. My work paved the way for the modern microchips found in almost all high-technology systems, including computers, mobile phones, and the internet. Amazingly, I did that groundbreaking work in "stealth-mode" after secretly completing my gender transition in 1968. As I neared retirement in 1998, I quietly came out via the internet, and my website, lynnconway.com, quickly became a beacon of hope for transgender people world-wide. In 2012, I published a memoir revealing how — closeted and hidden behind the scenes — I conceived the ideas and orchestrated the events that disruptively changed an entire industry. (500 Queer Scientists)

## The End

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