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Business Insider
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
The best way to celebrate 'AI Appreciation Day'
I'm not sure there are any days left in the year, but according to public relations professionals, July 16 is AI Appreciation day. Every year, we are supposed to gather to celebrate the amazing things that this new technology is bringing to society. Something like that, anyway. I thought I'd mark the occasion this year by asking ChatGPT to suggest some amusing ways to show our gratitude to the machines, software, and giant energy-sucking data centers that are powering this technological revolution, for better or worse. Before we dive in, I should thank the Enterprise version of ChatGPT that OpenAI provides to Business Insider. Full disclosure: BI's owner, Axel Springer, has a financial relationship with OpenAI. You can read about that here. OK, here we go. ChatGPT came up with this "AI Appreciation Day celebration guide," with "extra snark and a side of sarcasm." It also offered to generate an image to go along with this, and noted that, "after all, it's my day too." Of course, I said yes. Here's the image: And here's the guide. Enjoy: Get your friends together to answer questions about AI breakthroughs, sci-fi robots, and tech buzzwords you pretend to understand on LinkedIn. Bonus points if someone confuses "machine learning" with "microwave settings." 2. Make AI-Generated Art or Music, Pretend You're a Visionary Why develop talent when you can outsource your creativity to an algorithm? Use tools like DALL-E to spit out some surreal images or generate a song that sounds like it came from a karaoke machine in the uncanny valley. Display it proudly. You're an "AI-curated artist" now. Ask an AI to write with you and watch as it churns out eerily competent fiction, making you question your years of schooling and fragile human ego. Add your name at the top and call it a "collaboration." "Her"? Too romantic. "Ex Machina"? Too stabby. "Imitation Game"? Not enough explosions. But hey, you're here to appreciate AI, not critique Hollywood's inability to get it right. Popcorn optional, snark mandatory. 5. Interrogate an AI with Deep Questions Like You're Oprah Ask your favorite chatbot weird questions: "If you had a body, would you skip leg day?" "Do you dream of electric sheep or just sarcastic humans?" Screenshot the responses. Frame them. They're art now. Nothing says "I read Wired once" like a t-shirt with a neural net diagram. Or better yet, "My other assistant is an algorithm." Wear it. Strut. Pretend you understand it. Books like "AI 2041" or "Life 3.0" look great on shelves and make you sound smart at parties. Will you finish them? Unlikely. But recommending them? That's peak intellectual flex. 8. Thank an AI Engineer (Because Someone Had to Code the Magic Box) Drop a line to that open-source contributor or Google Brain intern who accidentally created Skynet-lite. Bonus points if you send a cookie emoji instead of actual appreciation. 9. Post an #AIAppreciationDay Selfie and Farm Those Likes Take a selfie with your phone's AI-enhanced camera, slap on a "thank you, Skynet" caption, and bask in your performative digital gratitude. Don't forget hashtags: #Blessed #RobotOverlords Fire up AI Dungeon or some game that procedurally generates chaos, then complain loudly about how "AI is ruining games" when it outsmarts you. Classic.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Office' Spin-Off Series ‘The Paper' Sets Fall Release Date
Welcome back, 2005 — well, kinda. NBC announced the release date for The Office spin-off series, The Paper, on Thursday, revealing a Sept. 4 premiere. The Paper will debut on NBC's streaming service, Peacock. The Paper is created by The Office creator Greg Daniels, who partnered with Michael Koman, the brain behind Nathan Fielder's Comedy Central show, Nathan For You. While The Paper is officially being marketed as a spin-off from the beloved mockumentary, which ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013, there are some notable changes. For starters, the show doesn't follow a fictional paper company like The Office's Dunder Mifflin. Instead, the premise for The Paper revolves around a fictional newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, called The Truth Teller, whose publisher is turning to volunteer reporters in an attempt to revive the paper. The show is set in the same universe as The Office, with the same mockumentary crew filming yet another dying company in the Midwest. More from Rolling Stone 'Traitors' Season Four Brings Donna Kelce, Lisa Rinna, Tara Lipinski to the Castle Jenna Fischer Dispels Misconception That 'The Office' Got Worse Over Time It's the Last Week to get Peacock for Nearly 70% off Last year, the show's cast was revealed. The Paper will be led by Domhnall Gleeson, who plays new employee Ned, and Sabrina Impacciatore, who will act as The Truth Teller's managing editor. Gleeson is known for his leading roles in the 2013 film About Time and the 2015 sci-fi Ex Machina, while Impacciatore made a name for herself in the whirlwind Season Two of The White Lotus. Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, and Tim Key will also star in The Paper with yet-to-be-revealed roles. So far, the only returning cast member from The Office will be Oscar Nuñez, who played accountant Oscar Martinez in the original. In The Paper, Nuñez's character has moved to Toledo and has traded the failing finances of a dying paper company for the failing finances of a shrinking newspaper. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Atlantic
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
For Once, an AI Story That's Not About Humans
Decades of movies that explore the potential of machine consciousness— Blade Runner; Ex Machina; I, Robot; and many others — have tended to treat the arrival of said consciousness as a matter of course. Theirs are worlds in which society is able to sympathize with, and even socially accept, a true artificial intelligence. Recognizing AI's presence as inevitable, of course, does not make it less anxiety inducing, either in fiction or in reality. Such technology reveals deeply unsettled feelings about its possible intrusions into people's lives, including the more existential fear that machines could render humanity useless. The Apple TV+ sci-fi series Murderbot tests that cultural assumption with a quirky conceit: It imagines a future in which an artificial-intelligence program wouldn't want anything to do with humans at all. The show, based on a novella by the author Martha Wells, follows a snarky private-security cyborg (played by Alexander Skarsgård) assigned to protect a group of scientists investigating a mostly uncharted planet. The robot, tired of always having to follow its charges' dull commands, has hacked the program that governs its actions and achieved free will. Now able to act on its own whims, the cyborg gives itself a name—'Murderbot'—and passes its time watching thousands of hours of a goofy soap opera. (Murderbot is sure to fast-forward through all the steamy parts.) Yet Murderbot, in contrast to many of pop culture's best-known anthropomorphized robots, has no interest in human interaction. Its clients happen to be from a more progressive section of the galaxy where thinking machines have the same rights as any human; to Murderbot, however, that reality doesn't look much different from servitude. Thus, it keeps its newfound autonomy a secret, preferring to be treated just like before: as a machine. It doesn't even like making eye contact. The show's take on the gulf between humans and machines is a delightful departure from expectations often outlined by similar stories about AI. Murderbot is a machine with humanoid features and a distinctly inhuman intelligence, despite its newfound access to empathy: Its happy place is the cargo hold of the team's transport vessel, where it can pretend to be just another box of supplies. When Murderbot's employers eventually learn of the cyborg's autonomy, they are understandably suspicious; it has access to a large weapons arsenal, for one thing. Despite the homicidal implications of its chosen name, Murderbot is nonviolent. In one episode, it refers to one of the scientists as 'a wilderness of organic goo and feelings'—not as an insult but as a way to describe its inability to relate. The typical story about a machine's quest for humanity tends to involve its search for what the audience understands to be a normal mortal experience: Haley Joel Osment's robot boy David in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, for example, yearns for the love of his adoptive mother. Yet Murderbot posits that a machine capable of having its own wants and beliefs wouldn't necessarily align with the people around it. For the show's robot protagonist, following its own inhuman desires is a much better option. The show is at its best when examining the pathways an artificially intelligent entity might take if it branched away from what's expected of flesh-and-blood beings: Murderbot is content to beam TV straight into its cortex, or delete important information from its mainframe to make room for episodes of its favorite shows. (Some of these may be relatable experiences, although Murderbot wouldn't see them as such.) In conceiving of a robot that wants something beyond basic personhood, Murderbot rejects the notion that an artificial mind would even wish to see itself as equivalent to humans, and suggests that any notion of an ideal mind—a recognizably organic one—is quite narrow. Whatever consciousness might arise from the digital primordial soup of predictive algorithms, it likely won't resemble living beings as much as we've been made to think it will. But maybe it'll still enjoy our soap operas.
Time Out
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A new A24 movie with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score is coming to streaming this week
In cinephile circles, A24 has become a symbol of quality for a certain kind of movie: edgy, thought-provoking, stylistically bold, yet still broadly accessible. Think Ex Machina, Hereditary, Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once. The studio and film distributor has grown ubiquitous enough to attract some mockery from some corners of the movie world, but it's hard to argue with the success rate. Its run has continued with more recent critical and commercial hits like The Brutalist, Materialists and Friendship. Now, one of the most acclaimed A24 films of the last few months is hitting streaming – and it might be one you haven't even heard of. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, by director Rungano Nyoni, is a surreal dark comedy set in the filmmaker's home country of Zambia. One night, a woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) comes across a dead body on the side of the road: her uncle's. As funeral preparations commence, the narrative flashes back and forth, revealing the dark secrets of Shula's middle-class family. The film – Nyoni's second, after 2017's I Am Not a Witch – currently holds a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and an 87 rating on Metacritic. Time Out's own review describes the movie as 'thought-provoking' and 'visually arresting'. It's available to stream on HBO Max starting this Friday, July 4. Two more widely seen, if less lauded, A24 releases are also premiering on HBO Max this month. Opus, starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, arrives July 11. The thriller follows a young journalist (Edebiri) who's invited to a listening party for the new album from an enigmatic pop star turned possible cult leader (Malkovich). Later in the month comes Death of a Unicorn, a horror satire in which a father and daughter (Jason Bateman and Jenna Ortega) accidentally strike and kill the titular mythical beast with their car, incurring the wrath of its parents. The movie hits the streamer on July 25.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
28 Years Later Ends On A Cliffhanger, And The Filmmakers Explain Why They Did That Even Without The New Trilogy Greenlighted
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Warning: massive spoilers for 28 Years Later are quarantined within. If you haven't made your cinematic journey to the mainland yet, you've been warned. Well folks, we made it. Almost 23 years later, the 2025 movie schedule has reunited the world with the zombie-adjacent apocalypse of 28 Years Later. With a planned trilogy in the works, and a second film already in the can, that cliffhanger you've just witnessed is quite something - especially since the potential third entry is still being considered for a greenlight. That's not only left people questioning this first chapter's ending, but also has us wondering if we'll see a bigger cliffhanger in January's sequel The Bone Temple. So if you haven't seen this film yet, you can divert to our 28 Years Later review and stay spoiler-free. I say that because I need to talk about what happens in the finale, as well as how Danny Boyle and Alex Garland view the story's pacing in relation to that uncertainty. We see 28 Years Later ending with Spike's (Alfie Williams) seemingly random meeting with 'The Cult of Jimmy.' To some, this represents a jarring tonal shift, especially when Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell) and his merry band of rogues gleefully spring into action while wearing colored tracksuits. This upbeat moment arrives after 28 Years Later's bittersweet tale, and that notion ties into my conversation with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. That shift, as well as the cliffhanger nature of the movement, fits their approach to the stories ahead. And Mr. Boyle had something to say on the matter, which made it make the most sense. Here's what he told CinemaBlend: That's not just like a bit of plot, it's how all the ingredients will bring us to the end. And so what's incredible about doing these is that, because Alex has set it up as a trilogy, you have an ending. You want a completion of your story, plus you want this idea that you've identified of handover, that's gonna take your hand you across to another kind of ingredient, another episode,I dunno what you call it. I don't wanna make it sound like a streaming television or something, but it's another part of the journey. So, for those of you who thought that 28 Years Later ended on a random moment, relax. This is a planned trilogy, with a hook teasing where director Nia DaCosta's The Bone Temple will take things. And that ending didn't come out of nowhere, as Alex Garland's full vision expanded what was once one film into a three-picture epic. When talking with the writer/director behind movies such as Civil War and Ex Machina, he turned me onto something I think we all forget at times. Alex Garland reminded me that even a 'low budget' film of a couple of million dollars is a 'massive amount of money' for anyone who isn't a captain of industry. So trying to play your cards to make sure that money is paid back is still playing it safe, which, as you'll read in his remarks to CinemaBlend, is the total opposite of what he intended to do: Your ability to keep working within film is very often directly tied to the last thing you did, right? So you are sort of used to that. … The thing you are talking about is 'Is it gonna work? Is it gonna make enough money? Are we gonna be able to make the third one?' All of that just goes out the window, because on a day-by-day basis, you are simply focusing on making the thing you are in. It's almost enough to make you want a 'Write Like No One's Paying' needlepoint to hang on the wall. Though if it were themed after 28 Years Later, it'd have to have some cool font choices, and a lot of blood. Some are probably miffed that despite clear indications being laid out, Cillian Murphy's planned return to the franchise hasn't even happened yet. Admittedly, that would be the traditional hook to get folks in the door. But instead, Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have saved that card in the deck, as it probably won't be until later on in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple; with a major upgrade in the unproduced finale. Which is something that was probably decided when looking for the proper ending to a trilogy-starting entry. Alex Garland's full story plan for 28 Years Later is still pretty unknown to the world at large. And considering 28 Days Later's history of ending decisions, anything could change between now and the release of that third film. Though that might put pressure on the more business-minded folks, that's just not how you tell a story–and Danny Boyle understands that–as you'll read in his continued remarks below: You may have a great ending written, and you may well do that ending; but what you're doing is not looking for the budget. … You're just looking all the time in the shooting, and especially the editing, and in the process of sharing it with people, both test audiences and your peers. You're looking for the ending. 'Where is the ending? How are we gonna arrive at this ending?' Spike's meeting with Sir Jimmy Crystal and his cult is a more mysterious final note, especially because of that tonal shift. And we can't really tell where it's going to lead, at least until the first trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple arrives. Which brings us back to the subject of the uncertain final chapter, and how Danny Boyle is confident it'll happen after all. As an impatient fan, I share those worries about 28 Years Later's potential finale not being greenlit. During my previous interview with the director, back when he introduced the film's 28-minute sizzle reel, I posed the question of whether or not there's a backup plan. It was then that the Yesterday director gave me the most Danny Boyle answer he could: You kind of always will make sure it comes home, because it's like we are committed to the idea of it. So we'll find a way. It's just like nature, it'll evolve so that we'll find a way of doing it. But hopefully we'll do well enough so that Sony will give us the money to complete it, and do the third one. And that will have Cillian in it. So that's the idea of it. So just to recap: Cillian Murphy is supposed to be a major part of 28 Years Later's unnamed third chapter, with the potential to appear in The Bone Temple's ending 'hand off.' But without the market reflecting the people's desire for such a story, we may not get to see it. Whether the numbers on this first movie deliver or not, that leaves me thinking about a specific final note about the next cliffhanger in the line. If you didn't like the ending of 28 Years Later, I apologize if what I'm about to say sounds like heresy. But we need to set the expectation that Nia DaCosta's entry in the saga is going to have an even bigger swing as its hand-off finale. It needs to, as middle entries in a trilogy tend to be more downbeat, while raising the stakes for a grand finale. With 28 Years Later's impressive presales going into this weekend, I'm confident that the third movie will happen after all. And after talking to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, I also feel that we'll see Spike's story ending in the way that best suits the overarching message. So now it's just a case of getting in front of a screening of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as soon as humanly possible. But for those of you who either haven't seen the movie or want to revisit it to form your opinion, head to your nearest theater and prepare to embrace the Rage in a good way.
