Bizarro Devs - Issue 156
Issue 156🎥🇨🇳 YouTuber finds AI replica of herself all over Chinese social media. New AI report reveals surprising findings. Is the world ready for a “SmellGPT?”Happy June Bizarro Readers! There’s been lots of interesting things happening all over the internet the past few weeks, and we’re here to share it with you. From Google algorithm leaks to the first ever satellite made from wood, to an interesting project that’s attempting to decipher the language of sperm whales, to…well, let me not give it all away. Let’s start with our top stories and take it from there:
Enjoy the read. 📰 From the Newsroom🎥🇨🇳 YouTuber Finds AI Replica of Herself All Over Chinese Social MediaImagine waking up one day to find out that an AI-generated duplicate of you has become mini-famous on Chinese social media. You have no idea who did it or how it happened, but the more you learn, the more disturbing the story gets. That’s exactly what happened to Olga Loiek shortly after she started a YouTube channel last year.
What makes this story even more maddening is putting yourself in Olga's shoes as a Ukrainian whose likeness was co-opted to promote Russian-Chinese narratives – all while her homeland is embroiled in a devastating war with Russia. The frustration of having her face and voice misappropriated is bad enough on its own, but then portraying her as a Russian propagandist has got to be extra frustrating. 🤖📝 New AI Report Reveals Surprising FindingsA recent report published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford has revealed some eye-opening statistics. The report was based on a survey conducted by YouGov that took place between the 28th of March and the 30th of April 2024. The countries surveyed were Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and USA, with approximately 2,000 participants in each country.
For those who work in tech or tech-adjacent fields, the data from this report can be quite surprising. We’ve all been bombarded by AI content for more than a year now, which has probably skewed our perception of how popular AI tools actually are. It turns out that among the general population - at least according to this survey - AI isn’t quite as popular as it seems to be for us tech folk. 💻👃 Is The World Ready for a “SmellGPT?”Your smartphone can already see and hear the world around you, but what if it could smell it too? Sounds like sci-fi, right? Well, hold on to your nose, because that’s exactly where technology is headed.
As the field of machine olfaction continues to advance, it's clear that the future smells sweet (or maybe savory? musky perhaps? 🤔). Some of the likely outcomes we’ll see from this research include personalized perfumes, better insect repellents, and maybe even scent-based disease detection gadgets. ⛓️ Ten Must See Links of the Month
🎤 It’s How They Said It"As a top-down, built environment, the internet has become something that is done to us, not something we collectively remake every day." – Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon, from a long, but highly thoughtful read (if you care about the internet). 🧮 The Numbers Game
⌨️ Code ConundrumSponsored by Optimole, the best image optimization tool on the internet. Last issue’s JavaScript winner was Tanja Klopper. Congrats Tanja! Several others also sent messages with the correct answer, which was that response.json was referenced without calling it as a function. Nicely done everyone. 👏🏻 Let’s do another Python one for this issue: Send me an email once you spot the error. Please put "Code Conundrum" in the subject line. Once again, the first person who emails me with the correct answer (either saying what the error is or sending back the snippet error-free) will get a shoutout in the next issue. Also, a quick tip, don’t assume that if you are reading this a day or two after it was published that someone submitted the correct answer already. Just because someone else responds quickly doesn’t mean that they respond correctly. Interested in sponsoring this section? Reach out to me with “Bizarro Sponsorship” in the subject line. ⚒️ Tools and ResourcesVitePress: VitePress is a static site generator designed to build fast, content-centric websites. In short, VitePress takes your source content written in Markdown, applies a theme to it, and generates static HTML pages that can be easily deployed anywhere (e.g., Cloudflare Pages) All Boiler Plates: If you’re planning on building an app or a piece of software and you want to save some serious time, then this directory is a gold mine of resources. It has a default layout you can browse, but it also includes two search filters so you can organize everything by either a specific anchor technology or by features. 🖼️ What Am I Looking At?The above is a side-by-side comparison of the same written text. One side was handwritten in cursive by Amy Goodchild. The other side was typed in her custom-made cursive font that she created using p5.js. Creating a custom font is one thing, but creating a custom cursive font is much more challenging. As opposed to regular font, where each letter stands on its own next to other letters, cursive handwriting weaves from one letter to the next. This means that you not only have to create the 26 letters of the alphabet, but you also have to map out the various connections between letters. It’s a time consuming process, but the end result is really cool. As someone who’s been lamenting the gradual loss of cursive handwriting that’s been happening over the past few decades, I really appreciate Amy’s experiment and her write up describing the process. 💬 What’s the Word?Sprezzatura (Italian) is an Italian word that roughly means to display effortless mastery and make the difficult look easy. This month, embrace the spirit of sprezzatura in your work. Whether you’re coding with nonchalant mastery or designing interfaces that radiate elegant ease, let sprezzatura guide you in making your work appear stunningly simple. 🧑🏻💻👨🏽💻👩🏼💻 Tell a Friend or ColleagueIf you’d like to help us grow, just use the refer a friend button below and if any of your referrals subscribe to Bizarro Devs, then we’ll not only be forever grateful, but we’ll also recognize your efforts in the following way:
* The story or article needs to be relevant to the subject material we typically cover and is subject to editorial approval. In other words, it should be something that we would include in the newsletter naturally. Thanks for reading! If this is the first time you're here at Bizarro Devs and you enjoyed the content, then sign up here to join the fun for the rest of 2024 and beyond. Until we see each other again, Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Bizarro Devs, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |
Older messages
Issue 155.5
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
💰⏱️ $25 million heist pulled off in 12 seconds by MIT students. NYC restaurant hires remote cashiers from Philippines to take orders. Phones can now tell if their owners are depressed. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Issue 155
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
🧑🚀🚀 Humanity has entered the 3rd space age. Professional fraud fighter goes undercover at a “Yahoo Boy School.” The AI music app that actually makes good music. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Issue 154.5
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
🧑🍳🍺 The mashup you didn't know you needed: AI x beer. WordPress plugin developer faces backlash for anti-piracy tactic. DALL E-3: Innocent image generator or battlefield tool? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Issue 154
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
🦹💸 Multinational firm loses $25 million in deepfake scam. Swarms of AI killer robots are the future of war. 17 mysteries that researchers still haven't solved. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Issue 153
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
🤖🏆 ChatGPT defeats humans in series of thinking tests. Globetrotting millennial caught selling $7m of weapons parts to Russia. Generative AI is killing the internet but we can save it. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
You Might Also Like
Import AI 399: 1,000 samples to make a reasoning model; DeepSeek proliferation; Apple's self-driving car simulator
Friday, February 14, 2025
What came before the golem? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Defining Your Paranoia Level: Navigating Change Without the Overkill
Friday, February 14, 2025
We've all been there: trying to learn something new, only to find our old habits holding us back. We discussed today how our gut feelings about solving problems can sometimes be our own worst enemy
5 ways AI can help with taxes 🪄
Friday, February 14, 2025
Remotely control an iPhone; 💸 50+ early Presidents' Day deals -- ZDNET ZDNET Tech Today - US February 10, 2025 5 ways AI can help you with your taxes (and what not to use it for) 5 ways AI can help
Recurring Automations + Secret Updates
Friday, February 14, 2025
Smarter automations, better templates, and hidden updates to explore 👀 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The First Provable AI-Proof Game: Introducing Butterfly Wings 4
Friday, February 14, 2025
Top Tech Content sent at Noon! Boost Your Article on HackerNoon for $159.99! Read this email in your browser How are you, @newsletterest1? undefined The Market Today #01 Instagram (Meta) 714.52 -0.32%
GCP Newsletter #437
Friday, February 14, 2025
Welcome to issue #437 February 10th, 2025 News BigQuery Cloud Marketplace Official Blog Partners BigQuery datasets now available on Google Cloud Marketplace - Google Cloud Marketplace now offers
Charted | The 1%'s Share of U.S. Wealth Over Time (1989-2024) 💰
Friday, February 14, 2025
Discover how the share of US wealth held by the top 1% has evolved from 1989 to 2024 in this infographic. View Online | Subscribe | Download Our App Download our app to see thousands of new charts from
The Great Social Media Diaspora & Tapestry is here
Friday, February 14, 2025
Apple introduces new app called 'Apple Invites', The Iconfactory launches Tapestry, beyond the traditional portfolio, and more in this week's issue of Creativerly. Creativerly The Great
Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1689 [Medium]
Friday, February 14, 2025
Daily Coding Problem Good morning! Here's your coding interview problem for today. This problem was asked by Google. Given a linked list, sort it in O(n log n) time and constant space. For example,
📧 Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR
Friday, February 14, 2025
Stop Conflating CQRS and MediatR Read on: my website / Read time: 4 minutes The .NET Weekly is brought to you by: Step right up to the Generative AI Use Cases Repository! See how MongoDB powers your