[On this US holiday, here’s a fun presence game to play – as described by HypeArt (and recommended by Free Technology for Teachers), Google’s Odd One Out challenges players to identify AI-generated images and could enhance media literacy regarding AI and presence. Of course, because generative AI is evolving so quickly the task will soon become too challenging unless it’s rigged to allow players to win. The related story from Futurism that follows below illustrates the challenges even companies like Google and Sony face in distinguishing ‘real’ and ‘fake’ images.  –Matthew] Google’s New Online Game Challenges You to Guess Which…

[An AI research lab is beta testing technology that provides users with their own personalized digital AI assistant to not only help them be more productive at work but offer advice for their personal life. The story below  from Venture Beat includes some of the details and touches on some of the benefits and dangers; see the original version of the story for more pictures. Others are working to develop similar technology too; for more information see “Bill Gates says the winner of the A.I. race will be whoever creates a personal assistant—and it’ll spell the end for Amazon” from…

[Local TV stations in the US including NBC-Dallas-Fort Worth, WINK, WISH and WFMZ recently aired the same news report (with their own anchors’ introduction) based on a promising application of presence being explored by researchers at the University of Central Florida, as described in more detail in the UCF Today story below. –Matthew] [Image: A UCF RESTORES team member conducts a simulated therapy session designed to help a patient overcome PTSD resulting from their stay in intensive care] Innovative VR Therapy Helps Patients Overcome PTSD Caused by Hospital Stays Assistant Professor of Nursing Brian Peach is leading the study, which…

[A group of researchers at Ohio State University are using machine learning analyses of old maps to create VR-viewable 3D models of neighborhoods as they existed decades ago. This story is from Ohio State News and an earlier report (at the link in the editor’s note at the end) includes this quote from Professor Harvey Miller: “Our ultimate goal would be to come up with 3D visualizations that are realistic enough to give people a visceral feeling of what those neighborhoods were like… We see this as a crossover between science and humanities.” –Matthew] [Image: A 3D model of the…

[Others have used marketing campaigns, in some cases including presence-evoking technologies like VR, to bring audience members into the world (or ‘universe’) of a film or TV series, but as the Sound & Vision story below explains, Netflix has created a particularly clever cross-media campaign that brings audiences into the dystopian reality portrayed in “Joan is Awful,” the first episode of the latest season of Black Mirror. A story in LADbible describes how some audience members have had their name and picture used in real-world billboards for the campaign; and a story in DesignTAXI that includes more pictures of the…

[What psychological, ethical and other differences are there between pornographic images or videos that feature fictional rather than real people? This story from Rolling Stone raises lots of thought-provoking questions about the use of presence-evoking technologies in the context of sexuality. Despite the certainty expressed here regarding sexual deepfake videos featuring real people, see also the Wired essay “Deepfake porn reveals a ‘pervert’s dilemma’: What’s the moral difference between indulging in a sexual fantasy about someone and watching a deepfake of them?” –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Photo illustration uses photograph by Svetlana Fedoseeva/Adobe Stock] They’re Selling Nudes of Imaginary Women on…