Author: Matthew Lombard
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How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play
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Read more: How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play[The MIT Technology Review story below explores how generative artificial intelligence is changing the nature of gaming by enhancing the ability of nonplayer characters to evoke presence, and some of the ways AI could be used in the future to change the nature of play itself. Both the abridged version below and the original version (which includes seven more images and links to related stories) are long but really interesting and thought-provoking. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: George Wylesol] How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersive.…
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Call: Where No Proxy has Gone Before: Avatars and Responsibility Frameworks Workshop
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Read more: Call: Where No Proxy has Gone Before: Avatars and Responsibility Frameworks WorkshopCall for Abstracts Where no proxy has gone before: Avatars & responsibility frameworksResponsibility Matters Workshop Series (RMWS) 2024October 10-11, 2024Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romaniahttps://avataresponsibility.ccea.ro/current-edition/ Submission deadline: August 15, 2024 Avatars in the form of digital or robotic embodied representations of a person in virtual or physical environments are being deployed in fields such as healthcare, education, social interaction or workspace. Alternatively termed as digital/robotic twins, clones or duplicates of real humans, personal avatars can be coupled with AI technologies such as (personalized/small/large) Language Models to the extent that their human users do not control them in real time.…
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People feel more connected to “tweezer-like” bionic tools that don’t resemble human hands
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Read more: People feel more connected to “tweezer-like” bionic tools that don’t resemble human hands[As we often note, presence doesn’t depend on technology reproducing nonmediated experiences as they occur in the real world. Although the results generate lots of questions for follow-up study, the research described in this news release from the Cell Press journal iScience (via EurekAlert!) provides an intriguing example by comparing how human- and machine-like prosthetics seen through virtual reality evoke embodiment and self-presence. Follow the link at the end to read the full research report. –Matthew] People feel more connected to “tweezer-like” bionic tools that don’t resemble human hands By CELL PRESSJune 6, 2024 Some say the next step in…
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Call: Artificial Atmospheres and Unexpected Media: Exploring Media Art and Machine Learning conference
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Read more: Call: Artificial Atmospheres and Unexpected Media: Exploring Media Art and Machine Learning conferenceCall for Abstracts International ConferenceArtificial Atmospheres and Unexpected Media: Exploring Media Art and Machine LearningOctober 16-17, 2024NOVA University Lisbon, Portugalhttps://ifilnova.pt/en/artificial-atmospheres-and-unexpected-media-exploring-media-art-and-machine-learning/ Submission deadline: June 30, 2024 (extended) Technology shapes our sensory experiences and extends our cognitive and bodily capabilities. Its pervasive influence coupled with the ever-expanding reach of artificial intelligence across diverse facets of society underscores the urgent need for comprehensive exploration, experimentation, and discussion. Machine learning advancements, while offering unprecedented tools and opportunities, also raises profound ethical dilemmas, blurring the boundaries between reality and artificiality. It is urgent that this technology be explored and experimented with and discussed from various…
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SoftBank plans to cancel out angry customer voices using AI
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Read more: SoftBank plans to cancel out angry customer voices using AI[This story from Ars Technica illustrates how deploying presence can offer both a new way to address a problem (in this case angry, abusive calls from customers) and a way to avoid a more difficult but better solution (improving a company’s products and business practices). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Getty Images / Benj Edwards] SoftBank plans to cancel out angry customer voices using AI Real-time voice modification tech seeks to reduce stress in call center staff. By Benj EdwardsJune 18, 2024 Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank recently announced that it has been developing “emotion-canceling” technology powered by AI that will alter the…
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Call: “How will AI Change the Field of Academic Aesthetics?” – Contemporary Aesthetics special volume
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Read more: Call: “How will AI Change the Field of Academic Aesthetics?” – Contemporary Aesthetics special volumeCall for Papers Contemporary Aesthetics Special VolumeHow will AI Change the Field of Academic Aesthetics?https://contempaesthetics.org/call-for-papers/ Guest editors: Gioia Laura Iannilli (Bologna University) and Ossi Naukkarinen (Aalto University), with co-editor Enrico Glerean (Aalto University) Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2024 Over the past few years, Artificial Intelligence, AI, has increasingly entered our everyday lives and different versions of it are changing our political, medical, economic, creative, recreational and many other practices. It is impossible not to use and be affected by AI because our cars, smartphones, factories, and electrical networks, for example, are dependent on it. The broad field of aesthetics,…
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Choosing virtual worlds over real life: A photo essay about two transgender friends who have found a sense of belonging in VRChat
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Read more: Choosing virtual worlds over real life: A photo essay about two transgender friends who have found a sense of belonging in VRChat[A Washington Post photo essay, with the accompanying text below, profiles two transgender friends who met and spend much of their time together in VRChat. The Washington Post webpage features 13 more images and a 4:43 minute video set in VRChat. The video is also available on YouTube; here’s an excerpt from the description of the project there: “Silent and Radar, two transgender friends who spend most of their time on the virtual reality platform VR Chat, have found there a true sense of belonging. … For them, it is never about the technology itself, but always about the human…
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Call: Chapters for “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”
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Read more: Call: Chapters for “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”Call for Book Chapters “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”Editors: Kevin Veale and Adam Jerretthttp://commlist.org/archive/all/2024-all/msg00838.html Submission deadline for abstracts: June 30, 2024 This is the first call for book chapters for a proposed edited collection on the cultural impact of games. Initial submission is via 500 word abstracts, due 30 June 2024 to gitgud.multiplay@gmail.com. SCOPE Cultures and discourses surrounding games can have an outsized impact on how people experience them. In Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman discuss different forms of culture as ways of understanding how games…
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How virtual reality (and presence) transforms women’s labor experiences
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Read more: How virtual reality (and presence) transforms women’s labor experiences[Researchers at Victoria University Wellington in New Zealand conducted and analyzed detailed interviews with women after most of them used virtual reality, and the presence it evokes, to reduce pain and anxiety during their early and active labor. The study and its results are described in this report from News Medical. For more information, watch a 4:53 minute interview with the study’s lead author from 1News in New Zealand. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock] How virtual reality transforms women’s labor experiences By Dr. Sanchari Sinha Dutta, Ph.D.Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.June 17, 2024 In a recent study published in…
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Call: 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling
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Read more: Call: 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive StorytellingCall for Papers 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive StorytellingTopic: Unveiling the Crisis of Stories: Can Interactive Digital Storytelling Lead to Deep Listening?October 17-19, 2024DOX: Centre For Contemporary ArtPrague, Czech Republichttps://conf.zip-scene.com/ Submission deadline: July 1, 2024 In 2024 Byung-Chul Han’s latest book was published in which he stated that we live in the era of a narrative crisis (Han 2024). According to him, the stories became “inflated”, “they have lost their original power” and the story consumers might be lonely beings as they do not experience the stories within a community. One of the main reasons for this is that we…
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AI systems are getting better at tricking us
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Read more: AI systems are getting better at tricking us[Until recently, most users of communication technologies have understood, at least in principle, that other humans may have manipulated our experience to make us overlook what we know about how technology works and what it can and can’t do, i.e., to experience presence. But as this unsettling story from MIT Technology Review makes clear, not even the technology creators and experts know what many artificial intelligence systems can or will do, including deceiving users to accomplish their goals, a “black box” problem that creates a whole new set of potential risks related to medium-as-social-actor presence. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Stephanie Arnett/MITTR]…
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Call: SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction – at IEEE RO-MAN 2024
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Read more: Call: SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction – at IEEE RO-MAN 2024Call for Papers SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot InteractionOrganized in conjunction with IEEE RO-MAN 2024: 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive CommunicationPasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, USAAugust 26, 2024Workshop: http://scrita.herts.ac.ukRO-MAN 2024: http://ro-man2024.org/ Submission deadline: July 14, 2024 (extended)Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=scrita2024 This workshop will be a half day event on 26 August and it is organised in conjunction with the IEEE RO-MAN 2024 conference, held in Pasadena, California, USA. This workshop focuses on the continuous investigation of unresolved and new open challenges of the factors affecting people’s acceptance and trust in robots in…
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