A new documentary from the director of Who Killed the Electric Car? is now available to stream for free this weekend, courtesy of entrepreneur Elon Musk. Do You Trust This Computer? explores the rise of artificial intelligence in all aspects of modern society, and features commentary from industry figures such as Stanford University professor Jerry Kaplan, director Johnathan Nolan, and journalist John Markoff. The film premiered recently at the Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Los Angeles.
“[Director] Chris [Paine] and his team have done an amazing job with this movie. It’s a very important subject that will affect our lives in ways we can’t even imagine — some scary, some good. It’s a subject that I feel we should be paying close attention to,” said Musk in an announcement. “I think it’s important that a lot people see this movie, so I’m paying for it to be seen to the world for free this weekend.”
Nothing will affect the future of humanity more than digital super-intelligence. Watch Chris Paine’s new AI movie for free until Sunday night at https://t.co/WehHcZX7Qe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 6, 2018
Musk, who has a rather dark outlook on the future of artificial intelligence, is one of the many prominent figures interviewed by director Chris Paine. He cautions that evil tyrants of the past were limited by the fact they were human, a problem not shared by intelligent supercomputers. “You would have an immortal dictator from which we can never escape,” he says in the film.
Science fiction has certainly embraced that philosophy, as some of the most sinister villains in the genre have been artificial intelligent entities run amok.
Musk says that we need to assimilate machine learning before we get overtaken by it. That’s the premise behind Neuralink, a startup venture that wants to implant chips in people’s brains.
Nolan, one of the creators of HBO’s Westworld, has a more nuanced take on the subject. When Nolan shared the stage with Musk at a South by Southwest Q&A session last year, he said some of Musk’s fears were overblown, and he had no plans for a chip implant. “I’m keeping my brain air-gapped,” Nolan quipped.
After the free premiere weekend, the film will be available to purchase or rent at the company’s website, as well as through various streaming video providers.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.