22 Comments

Have you ever thought about producing Glenn merchandise? I would love a t-shirt of Glenn ( and John) in this animation style. Please, please consider this. I think it could be a moneymaker for you.

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Will look. I liked the animation effect when I first saw it in recent months.

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Mar 27, 2022·edited Mar 28, 2022Liked by Nikita Petrov

Honestly, I don't care for this format.

What is gained by replacing Glenn's naturally expressive face and body language by a cartoon?

Moreover, for the first five minutes, in lieu of Glenn's brilliant spontaneous oratory, we have... Glenn reading someone else's words from a page.

I find that highlighting each word as Glenn says it is distracting.

Sorry to be negative, Nikita. To end on a positive note, I'll add that I do really like the "Glenn head" logo itself. It's one of the best on Substack. I also like these little experiments you are trying with the Glenn Show (the puzzles were my favorite), so don't take my negative reaction to this one in particular as a negative reaction in general. Best wishes to you in faraway Russia.

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author

Thanks, Seth!

This cartoon is really just packaging for audio content, and one of the main reasons we do experiment with audio-only recordings is they allow for seamless editing—I can cut out mistakes, false starts, and even whole sentences without it being noticeable for the listener/viewer. It's nice to have this option especially when we're in experimentation mode, trying something new just to see if it works.

It's also a way to expand our toolkit. For example, this face animation is something we will now be able to do quickly, if there's ever a need. If I was making the videos for those puzzles today, I'd have Glenn's logo on the left to move its mouth and eyes.

It's also just me learning new skills. The body animation (minimal as it is) is done in a rotoscoping app called EbSynth, with which I have little experience. I don't know what future uses we'll find for it, but the more things we know how to do, the more likely we are to create something cool down the road.

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Mar 28, 2022·edited Mar 28, 2022

Ah, that makes sense. Audio is so much simpler to edit than video - as I learned when preparing online lectures for my students during the pandemic.

Good luck with these experiments. I must bear in mind that this all falls under the banner of "The Lab"!

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The head logo and cartoon head being identical is duplication. Like have two Amex blue box logos on the same screen.

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Mar 28, 2022Liked by Nikita Petrov

I’d put Glenn’s head logo in a circle because otherwise it looks like a shrunken head on the desk.

I’d prefer seeing real Glenn. The added nonverbal communication of his expression. I didn't look at cartoon Glenn for more than an occasional moment. OTOH much of my youtubing is listening while doing the dishes.

I did watch the highlighted words that reinforce the dialogue. Adds value.

Interesting and thought-provoking commentary regardless of the format. The message is supreme.

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This is sort standard AI ethics talk. I find the format very distracting and difficult to follow.

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Mar 27, 2022Liked by Nikita Petrov

I suspect this is the same tech in Scotus-Toons - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-hTNobvl0o0vsPBF1J1BfA

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Mar 27, 2022Liked by Nikita Petrov

Enjoyable production quality, keep up its evolution (pun intended). As for AI, everything that extends from humanity, reverts to the unknowable, begetting tragedy!

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I would love to hear Glenn talk about the news!

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Believing the results of an algorithm that can not be explained is nuts.

As for the format I really don't get it, nor do I particularly like it. Glenn's voice comes across very robotic and unnatural.

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(If we can't even explain why the algorithm does what it does we have no reason to believe it is so much smarter than us that it has to have wisdom and be obeyed. We can say that the results it gives us are not ethical.)

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My reaction was that I need to know more about racist algorithms in particular, but I got on the email list of the Stanford HAI center when they did that topic and have seen additional videos from them. I was very bemused that the Chinese are taking control of this process when we don't really have coordination here in the United States. An AI is like any other computer program in that humanistic values determine what it is allowed to do whether the programmers on the inside or the regulators on the outside. A civil liberties-focused regulator with a Western notion of civil liberties might help to avoid this dystopia.

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IDK anything about AI really. Like any computerized system can it be hacked? Would it recognize a hack? Can it self-repair, need a human or another AI?

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The thing with animating a highlight over every single word as its spoken makes videos unwatchably distracting.

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Mar 27, 2022Liked by Nikita Petrov

I liked that aspect of it because I am bad at active listening and if I can see the words on the screen it makes things much easier.

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CC words on the screen is one thing, but literally lighting up every single word is crazy. Never seen that before, it's maybe something I'd expect out of software that's teaching another language.

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I didn't need lighting up the words :) Maybe it is in fact meant for people for whom English isn't their first language.

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I like it too because I have hearing loss and so I don’t miss anything with the captions.

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Rubbish

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Great format. AI in the hands of a social credit tyrannical government would be a disaster. Justin Trudeau and US Democrats openly covet such power. If the last 2 years are any indication, Black Mirror's "Nosedive" episode and "Minority Report" are being ushered in. All of humanity must resist.

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