Youtube, fueled by their parent company’s artificial intelligence division, Google Brain, has successfully accelerated their recommendation capabilities through a series of micro-improvements. For example, roughly four years ago, YouTube made its first significant improvement to its recommendation algorithm when it decided to value the number of times users spent watching a video more than the number of video clicks per person. With this one move, creator’s saw their view counts decline, who had originally profited from misleading headlines and thumbnails. All of a sudden, higher quality videos which were directly correlated with long watch times came to the forefront. As a result, watch time on YouTube grew 50% year over year over the next three years.
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When A Pack Of Opera Stars Goes Out For Karaoke
“It was a bit like going ice skating at Rockefeller Center, only to discover that Michelle Kwan was also there, breezing through axels and lutzes.” A reporter follows Susan Graham, Paul Groves, Jamie Barton, Barry Banks, and other singers currently at the Met as they let loose at a karaoke bar. “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Piece of cake.
Are You Legally Allowed To Eat An Artwork You Own?
“In the United States, whether or not you are legally allowed to eat (or burn, slash, or destroy) an artwork depends on whether said work falls under the protection of the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). In America, property rights generally reign supreme—meaning that, if you own something, you can pretty much do whatever you like with it. But VARA carves out slight exceptions, affording visual artists certain rights over their art long after it has been sold or otherwise ceases to be their property. In this case, they have the ability to prevent their work from being eaten or otherwise destroyed.”
Here’s What Happened When A Bot Tried To Write A Harry Potter Book
“After the team at Botnik fed the seven Harry Potter novels through their predictive text keyboard, it came up with a chapter from a new Harry Potter story: ‘Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash’.” Here’s one choice sentence: “He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione’s family.”
America’s First Gospel Music Museum To Open In Chicago
The National Museum of Gospel Music, with a planned opening in 2020, “[will be] on the site once occupied by Pilgrim Baptist Church, known as the birthplace of gospel.”
How Ridley Scott’s Team Erased Kevin Spacey From A Film And Edited In Christopher Plummer
When allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by Spacey came out in the fall, he became PR poison, and all Hollywood ran the other way. Sony was inclined to withdraw the planned Christmas release All the Money in the World, in which Spacey played the late billionaire J. Paul Getty III – until director Ridley Scott convinced the studio to let him – on an incredibly tight schedule – reshoot and splice in Getty’s scenes with Christopher Plummer in the role. Brooks Barnes reports on how they pulled it off.
A ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ For The #MeToo Moment
“Since Harvey Weinstein’s unraveling, the list of cultural heavy-hitters accused of sexual misconduct has been growing at a dizzying clip, particularly in Hollywood. Enter Rotten Apples: a searchable database introduced on Tuesday that informs users which films or television shows are connected to those accused of sexual harassment or worse.”
Pianist Willie Pickens, 86, Giant Of Chicago Jazz
“[He was] revered in Chicago – and around the world – not only as a colossal piano virtuoso but as a symbol of Chicago jazz. … [He] summoned immense masses of sound at the piano without succumbing to a percussive clatter. Add to this the extraordinary velocity he could achieve, as well as the melodic and harmonic ingenuity of his improvisations, and you had a pianist held in awe by colleagues and students alike.”
PBS Suspends ‘Tavis Smiley Show’ Amid Charges Of ‘Misconduct’
“[An] investigation found credible allegations that Smiley had engaged in sexual relationships with multiple subordinates, sources said…. In general, witnesses described Smiley as creating a verbally abusive and threatening environment that went beyond what could be expected in a typical high-pressure work environment.”
Merriam-Webster’s 2017 Word Of The Year: ‘Feminism’
Beating out Dictionary.com’s more disheartening choice, “complicit”, “feminism” saw searches spike by 70% over last year – thanks to the Women’s March, #MeToo, and (we’re afraid so) Kellyanne Conway.