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Daily Archives: March 7, 2024

The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use However You Like

Open Culture: “Since the J. Paul Getty Museum launched its Open Content program back in 2013, we’ve been featuring their efforts to make their vast collection of cultural artifacts freely accessible online. They’ve released not just digitized works of art, but also a great many art history texts and art books in general. Just this week, they announced an expansion of access to their digital archive, in that they’ve made nearly 88,000 images free to download on their Open Content database under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). That means “you can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.” The Getty suggests that you “add a print of your favorite Dutch still life to your gallery wall or create a shower curtain using the Irises by Van Gogh.” But if you search the open content in their archive yourself, you can surely get much more creative than that. The portal’s interface lets you search by creation date (with a timeline graph stretching back to the year 6000 BC), medium (from agate and alabaster to woodcut and zinc), object type (including paintings, photographs, and sculptures, of course, but also akroteria, horse trappings, and tweezers), and culture. The selection reflects the wide mandate of the Getty’s collection, which encompasses as many of the civilizations of the world as it does the eras of human history…”

Report – AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation

The Guardian – Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groups – “Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, with the technology instead likely cause rising energy use and turbocharge the spread of climate disinformation, a coalition of environmental groups has… Continue Reading

The Lifeblood of the AI Boom

The Atlantic – The Lifeblood of the AI Boom – [unpaywalled]  “Applications such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have captured the world’s imagination—but AI companies are focused on something else. Artificial intelligence can appear to be many different things—a whole host of programs with seemingly little common ground. Sometimes AI is a conversation partner, an illustrator,… Continue Reading

Pretend Plastic Recycling

Data is Beautiful – Only 1% of all plastics have ever been recycled and put back into use. Most have been dumped (~60%) or incinerated (10%). The remaining 30% are still in use. See also Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse Science Advances – Production, use, and fate of… Continue Reading

The Mental State of the World Report

“The Mental State of the World Report is an annual publication of the Global Mind Project (previously the Mental Health Million Project) that provides a view of the evolving mental wellbeing of the global Internet-enabled population. Each year the report presents the mental state of populations over the year, trends relative to previous years, and… Continue Reading

Are you experiencing ‘time poverty’? Find out how to finally catch up

Forbes [unpaywalled]: “Many people feel like they’re experiencing “time poverty,” which is when it feels like there’s a lack of time to fulfill responsibilities, pursue interests or engage in activities that contribute to your well-being. Heavy workloads, long commutes and other factors can lead to this feeling of not having enough time in the day… Continue Reading

Every March, Tournament of Books is a month-long battle royale among year’s best novels

Tournament of Books: “But it’s not really a contest. We’re not even sure it’s a “tournament.” What the ToB has been and will be, as long as we’re putting it on, is a month-long conversation about novels and reading and writing and art that takes place on weekdays in March. Here’s how it works. Throughout… Continue Reading

Redfin rolls out new AI assistant tool that answers homebuyer questions

GeekWire: “Redfin wants to help answer homebuyer questions in a more efficient way with the assistance of AI. The real estate giant is rolling out a new generative AI-powered virtual assistant called “Ask Redfin” that can quickly answer questions about a particular home listing. The tool combines the latest in large language model technology with… Continue Reading