[The results of a new neuroimaging study support the idea that the more vividly we imagine a stimulus or perceive one that is “virtual” (mediated by technology), the more likely our brain will struggle to determine whether it is real. The news release from University College London below summarizes the study and is followed by two key paragraphs from the published journal article. –Matthew] [Image: A graphical representation of the supported hypothesis. Part of Figure 1b in the article “Subjective signal strength distinguishes reality from imagination”] Humans struggle to differentiate imagination from reality April 21, 2023 The more vividly a…

[We are moving closer to a day when not only models, as in this story from Vogue Business, but many people can have (increasingly realistic) ‘digital twins’ made of themselves and send them off to interact with the world, even after they themselves have passed away. The story explores just some of the many questions and issues this raises. See the original story from two more images. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Dimension Studios and Unsigned Group] Brands can now hire supermodel Eva Herzigová’s digital twin The model has participated in an elaborate process to digitise her likeness and movements, allowing her…

[The Daily Beast reports on an interesting demonstration by researchers from Google and Stanford University of how generative AI can be used to create fictional characters that interact independently in ways that realistically simulate human interactions. The story below points to both positive implications such as the possibility of more realistic, presence-evoking non player game characters, as well as some serious ethical concerns. See the original version for five more images and for more coverage see coverage from Ars Technica. The researchers have posted a recorded interactive demonstration here. Note also the link below to an earlier Daily Beast story…

[This press release from Vodafone describes a recent demonstration of spatial and social presence in which professional tennis player Emma Raducanu appeared as a hologram to give real-time tennis lessons to two young amateur players who were over 4300 miles away. It also includes some interesting predictions about how presence-evoking and other technologies will be used to enhance both playing and watching tennis in the future. See the original press release for two different images and a 1:26 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [T’nae Diamond Paisley, 12, learning from and practicing tennis with a hologram of Emma Raducanu…

[In what Futurism describes as “an absolutely delightful new experiment,” researchers have demonstrated that domesticated parrots can be taught how to make video calls that allow them to experience presence. Since these birds have “high social, cognitive, and emotional needs” often lacking in captivity, the findings suggest a way to improve the parrots’ quality of life. The story below is from Northeastern University’s Global News website, where the original features many more images and two short videos. The study is reported in the Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, where it includes two longer…

[This story from ZME Science draws on a recent story in The Guardian that demonstrates how effective widely available generative AI technology already is at creating illusions of humanness that can fool even expert academic peer reviewers. –Matthew] Researchers submitted an academic paper written by ChatGPT to see if it gets accepted. It did So uhm, this happened. by Mihai Andrei; Edited and reviewed by Zoe Gordon March 22, 2023 AI is making it more and more difficult to detect plagiarism and to reward originality — and what better way to do that than with a paper that’s written by…