11 hours ago
"I want to be alone." The despairing words spoken by Greta Garbo while being spied on by a thief in her 1932 film Grand Hotel, have been injected with chilling new irony. Using the latest AI technique, the starlet has been brought back to life to flog ball bearings in an advert by the industrial Swedish Company SKF. And what a terrifying spectacle it makes.
The lifelike precision is terrific, from the smoky, undulating voice to the thin pencilled eyebrows that twitch between anxiety and hauteur.
At the same time there is something deathly about the figment. What made Garbo so brilliant to watch was that you didn't know where the woman started and the character began; when the camera was rolling she didn't so much perform as emerge. Her AI rendition has magnetism without presence.
True, the animation deploys cutting-edge AI techniques to evade successfully what is known as the "uncanny valley" trap, the nausea that people feel when faced with simulations that nearly – but do not quite – resemble real humans. But simulations like Greta's arguably occupy a new ******* e that one might call the "immaculate void".
Garbo's family gave their permission for the ad. But it's impossible to know how Garbo herself would have felt about it. As we extract commercial value from the departed without their consent, it begs the question: are we any better than Egyptian grave robbers, who sacrilegiously plundered the dead?
#greta #grand
The lifelike precision is terrific, from the smoky, undulating voice to the thin pencilled eyebrows that twitch between anxiety and hauteur.
At the same time there is something deathly about the figment. What made Garbo so brilliant to watch was that you didn't know where the woman started and the character began; when the camera was rolling she didn't so much perform as emerge. Her AI rendition has magnetism without presence.
True, the animation deploys cutting-edge AI techniques to evade successfully what is known as the "uncanny valley" trap, the nausea that people feel when faced with simulations that nearly – but do not quite – resemble real humans. But simulations like Greta's arguably occupy a new ******* e that one might call the "immaculate void".
Garbo's family gave their permission for the ad. But it's impossible to know how Garbo herself would have felt about it. As we extract commercial value from the departed without their consent, it begs the question: are we any better than Egyptian grave robbers, who sacrilegiously plundered the dead?
#greta #grand
1 day ago
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday morning and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation, authorities said.
Ross, whose legal name is William Roberts II, faces a felony charge of battery by strangulation, as well as a misdemeanor battery charge, according to online court records.
An attorney for Ross, 50, released a statement saying Ross is being wrongfully accused by an ex-girlfriend whose true motivations are unclear.
"The ex did not even file a police report until a month after the claimed incident allegedly took place," defense attorney Steve Sadow said in the statement. "Mr. Roberts is innocent and has pled not guilty to the charges. He respectfully requests that his friends, fans and the general public not prejudge the situation and allow the judicial process to run its course."
Jail records showed that Ross was being held Thursday morning on $5,000 bail. An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22.
#thursday #morning #records
Ross, whose legal name is William Roberts II, faces a felony charge of battery by strangulation, as well as a misdemeanor battery charge, according to online court records.
An attorney for Ross, 50, released a statement saying Ross is being wrongfully accused by an ex-girlfriend whose true motivations are unclear.
"The ex did not even file a police report until a month after the claimed incident allegedly took place," defense attorney Steve Sadow said in the statement. "Mr. Roberts is innocent and has pled not guilty to the charges. He respectfully requests that his friends, fans and the general public not prejudge the situation and allow the judicial process to run its course."
Jail records showed that Ross was being held Thursday morning on $5,000 bail. An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22.
#thursday #morning #records
