Tag: thinks
Six Months Later, Poker Player Garrett Adelstein Still Thinks He Was Cheated
[Newcomer Robbi Jade Lew] denied cheating and Hustler’s third-party investigation concluded there was “no evidence of wrongdoing.” Early in the two-hour interview, Polk asked his guest if he still feels the same about what went down on that memorable evening. “In essence, I stand completely by the statement I made. I think it’s extremely likely that I was cheated,” the high-stakes pro responded… Adelstein said that Lew “has a lot of balls” to return to live-stream poker after, as he claims, cheating him out of a massive pot…
Over the past six months, numerous poker fans have called for Adelstein to return [the $135,000] to, as they believe, its rightful owner. He instead donated it to a charity. But still many believe the right decision is for him to give it back to Lew. Polk asked him if he would do so. “No, I will not be refunding Robbi the money, period. I am extremely confident I was cheated in this hand,” Adelstein defiantly stated. Adelstein then pleaded with those who are on “Team Robbi” to put themselves in his shoes and and think about how they’d react if they felt they were cheated at the poker table.
The next week — on April 1st — Poker News jokingly reported that Robbi Jade Lew had published a new book titled If I Did It..
The April Fool’s day satire quotes Robbi Jade Lew as saying “I thought it would be fun to write a book about how I would have cheated if I’d actually done it. Which I didn’t….”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Jack Dorsey thinks Elon Musk isn’t doing right by Twitter
Jack Dorsey has been using Bluesky, the app he partially funded that’s built upon a federated and open social networking protocol he advocates, to do some truth-telling about Twitter, Elon Musk and the decision to take the company private under the stewardship of the Tesla CEO. Dorsey admits that Twitter is faring poorly under Musk […]
Jack Dorsey thinks Elon Musk isn’t doing right by Twitter by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch
Is AI-generated music the future of K-pop? HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk thinks so.
Music is on the precipice of an AI reckoning. Last week, an AI-generated song featuring the simulated vocals of Drake and The Weeknd shook the industry with its virality, and just this week Grimes tweeted that she’ll split royalties 50-50 on AI-generated songs that use her voice.
Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the rapidly growing entertainment conglomerate HYBE, says the prevalence of AI-made music is inevitable. “I have long doubted that the entities that create and produce music will remain human,” he told Billboard this week in a cover story that traced his history-making with global superstars BTS and industry-shaking acquisitions of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s management company, Ithaca Holdings, and hip-hop label, Quality Control.
And Si-Hyuk is not just going to watch from the sidelines. AI, he says, is “becoming a key factor for my operation and a strategy for HYBE.” He points to HYBE’s more recent acquisition of Supertone, a company that can clone an existing voice or create a new one that sings and speaks like the real thing (otherwise known as voice synthesis). The company also makes these voice banks available to VTubers and virtual artists for livestreams and real-time interaction.
A quick visit to Supertone’s website proves that the product still needs work. A sample video on the site morphs a twenty-something woman’s voice into that of a child, but it sounds like the kid has a cold. Another video — a simulation of Freddie Mercury’s voice singing in Korean — is much more convincing. Si-Hyuk says that some “small-scale projects” with Supertone, which are referred to as “Project L” internally, should roll out in May.
In an interview with Mashable earlier this week, Joon Won Choi, the president of HYBE subsidiary Weverse, noted that the app would “never consider AI-generated comments or messages” as a replacement for interactions between music artists and fans on its platform. “The core of our service is the real interaction between fan and artist,” said Choi, “so if even one message is generated from a computer, that’s a huge risk to the core of our business.” Instead of focusing on AI-generated content, he says the company’s focus is “developing better tools for artists to easily monitor and moderate the conversation.”
When asked if he was afraid that some might use Supertone’s tech to replicate and sell the voices of the members of BTS, Si-Hyuk said, “Of course, but that doesn’t keep us from pursuing it.” He says regulations around AI are crucial to maintaining the value of intellectual property. “Rather than… not using AI, I believe it is more appropriate to respond to such change in society.”
A recently defunct Weverse competitor, Universe, used AI to read posts from an artist in their voice. It’s creepy the first time, but after the third or fourth, it feels like a fun glimpse into the future.
James Bond’s Casting Director Thinks Young Actors Don’t Have What It Takes
No Time to Die wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things (even though its delays made you feel like it). With Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond now come to an end with that movie, the question has naturally shifted to “who’s next?”. Not unlike with the next Doctor, figuring out who’s going to play Bond next…
I’m a 5’2 ‘Persian goddess’ with big boobs – everyone always thinks an A-list actress is my sister as I’m ‘so beautiful’
A SELF-proclaimed “Persian goddess” shares a striking similarity with an A-list actress to the point that people think they’re actually related.
TikTok users are always trying to find their celebrity doppelgängers, asking their followers to let them know which famous face they resemble.
Everyone tells Arabella Lie that she looks just like Megan Fox[/caption]
The two women share striking similarities due to their features[/caption]
Arabella Lie (@the_arabellalie) doesn’t need anyone to tell her which actress she resembles as her more than 28,000 followers let her know every day.
With her long, brunette hair and striking eyes, it would be easy to confuse Arabella with Megan Fox.
“Everybody tells me I look like Megan Fox’s sister,” Arabella wrote in the caption of a recent TikTok.
The short video featured Arabella in a white strapless mini dress as she posed for the camera.
“Probably because I am her sister,” she joked, laughing before the video ended.
She asked her followers their thoughts on the supposed similarity and many were quick to agree.
“There is a definite likeness,” wrote one person.
“Effortless,” wrote another person.
Others complimented Arabella’s beauty.
“Very beautiful,” wrote one person.
Another called her a “gorgeous girl.”
“Love the white dress!” wrote a third person.
Arabella doesn’t seem to mind the comparison[/caption]
She even jokes that the two are sisters[/caption]
Karlie Kloss thinks Roblox is the future of fashion
You may know Karlie Kloss as a supermodel who has graced the cover of Vogue 42 times, walked hundreds of global runways, and played muse to the most distinguished design minds in the world. But for the better part of the last two years the 30-year-old investor and mom has been focused on the potential of Roblox, a social platform best known for being beloved by children.
With 60 million daily active users and “billions of dollars of commerce happening on the platform every day,” Kloss understands its global influence. “This is not just some kids game [or] cute little metaverse thing, it’s a real business,” she tells Mashable. And it’s where she thinks the future of fashion could thrive.
Last Wednesday, Kloss launched Klossette, a Roblox world where players can create and style their own looks and climb the fashion ranks from intern to editor-in-chief as their designs are upvoted by fellows players. In less than a week, an astounding 7 million users have visited the game.
The game’s success supports Kloss’ belief that tech and fashion can create new opportunities for young people, especially women, to learn and express themselves. She wants to open the industry up to a new generation of talent and share the “surreal” learning experiences she had growing up in the world’s most elite ateliers. “I’m a girl from Missouri!” she laughs.
“How did I end up in these spaces? And how do I share that access? That’s where I see the potential; democratizing these experiences, tools, and opportunities. This game is reaching a demographic and audience that is very real,” she says. “And if you build it, they will come.”
Learning to love Roblox
Like most millennials, Kloss initially heard about Roblox from younger family members and her friends’ children. “When I started to really pay attention and think about where I thought the [fashion] industry should be going… I literally got on the phone with a bunch of strangers and I was like, how can you tell me about what you’re doing, how you design, and how it works?” says Kloss. Those strangers were Roblox’s top designers, “and they’re superstars!” Kloss says. “It’s like getting on the phone with Marc Jacobs.”
I’m sitting with the multi-hyphenate in a plush hotel on the West side of lower Manhattan. On the couch next to her is Rush Bogin, a 17-year-old wunderkind with a shock of red hair who started designing on Roblox under the username Rush_X about four years ago. Since then, Bogin has built a multimillion-dollar business selling avatar hairstyles, among other things, that have become about as aesthetically synonymous with the platform as its blocky default avatar.
“A lot of brands stay away from kids and teens,” says Bogin, who is dressed the part of a fashion trendsetter in a crisp Alexander McQueen button-up, Thom Browne knit, and teal Gucci sneakers. “I even told Karlie on [our first] call, ‘You’re the first person ever that has reached out to me.'”
Credit: Mashable composite; Roblox, Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Kloss is a serial early adopter. For example, she was one of the first celebrities to post vlogs and other video content to YouTube in 2015, before a crowd of recognizable names adopted the platform years later. That same year she founded the Kode With Klossy foundation, which hosts free summer coding camps for young women and non-binary people to help close tech’s chasmal gender gap.
Now, with Roblox, “I feel like there’s kind of nothing to lose,” she says, “I’m just an insatiably curious person. I’m not afraid to say that I don’t get something. I think that’s part of why people in the fashion industry have not necessarily jumped in. Because they don’t get it. It’s natural and normal to be scared of change, but I don’t see it at all as a replacement.”
Bogin, she notes, has sold 40 million items on the platform. “That’s insane!” she exclaims, “The top designers in the world, and certainly New York Fashion Week or CFDA, will never reach that sort of distribution. That’s what’s so interesting about [Roblox]: the limitless potential and scale of this space to create and share.”
Kloss’ first foray into creating experiences on Roblox was a limited-time experience called Fashion Klossette Designer Showcase, and she used her deep industry ties to bridge her two words. In September 2022, she wore a floral Carolina Herrera gown on the runway, then tapped a Roblox creator to bring the dress to digital life. The item was a hit on the platform, and is now reselling for about 860,000 Robux, approximately $10,700 USD (the dress cannot be traded for actual money).
Kloss’ genuine interest in the community has set her apart, says Bogin. “I’ve seen a lot of branded experiences launch, and they advertise it everywhere. [But] you only see a couple hundred people playing,” he says.
Klossette is different. “They love it,” Bogin smiles, glancing at my laptop screen, where players are running around Klossette’s glass-topped gallerie. “There are 4,000 people playing it right now! I think it shows how strong of a community Karlie’s built.”
Credit: Klossette
Nurturing the next generation of designers
In Kloss’ vision of the future “you will need to have technical literacy in creative industries,” she says, but right now “in the more traditional fashion industry, there’s a real disconnect” from tech. Designers need to adopt technical advancements and fast. Otherwise, “how do we protect the best of what fashion is in the evolving world that we live in?” Kloss posits.
She points to one of her investments, a digital identities developer named Eon, whose software tracks the manufacturing, sale, resale, and authentication of a garment. “That is an infrastructure innovation that doesn’t take away from the beauty of the couture atelier,” she explains, “It’s more an evolution of problem solving in this industry.”
And that evolution includes opening the often exclusive world of fashion to a global audience. “I really believe so deeply in democratizing access to skills and tools and community to be able to equip individuals, in particular women and gender non-conforming individuals, to be a part of building that tech, part of that conversation.”
That’s where Roblox comes in. “What we’re really hoping to do is kind of act as a curated space that can both elevate and invest the design talent on the platform, like Rush.” (In fact, Kloss believes in Bogin so much that she wrote him a letter of recommendation when he applied to college.)
“A fashion publication used to play that curation role, and I think still does, but the next generation is going other places for that influence, that taste-making.” She reminisces about now-closed Colette, a storied Parisian concept store that debuted the Apple iWatch and hosted a month-long pop-up of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel while amplifying the work of unknown designers.
“It was so inspirational to me… a curated space that both elevated next gen and curated the best of the industry. That is the kind of experiential space we’ve wanted to create: a living, breathing ecosystem.”
Credit: Klossette
Two in five of Roblox’s Gen Z users say expressing themselves with clothing and accessories in the digital world is more important than in the physical world. More than 43 percent of users say that styling their avatars allows them to showcase their individuality and feel good about themselves, and 40 percent of monthly users update their avatars once a month. Eighteen percent of the more than 60 million daily users update their avatar every day.
Roblox users are already quite fashion-forward. Real-life trends are reflected in the digital clothes and accessories available for purchase. The iPod shuffles that Gen Z have repurposed as hair clips, for example, are in the catalog alongside Squid Game costumes and Vivienne Westwood-inspired jewelry.
Klossette is a new home for that kind of self-expression. “I wanted to create something that didn’t exist on the platform,” says Kloss, “where you can just kind of get lost in creativity.”
Pushing the technical boundaries with Klossette
Kloss hopes Klossette will hasten the next evolution of the fashion industry, but it has already revolutionized Roblox itself. Kloss worked with developers at Sawhorse Interactive to reimagine what was possible on the platform to make Klossette a “premium” experience with more dimension than the 2D games that preceded it.
They replaced Roblox’s default “blocky” avatars with anthropomorphic designs and its clunky default avatar styling catalog with an intuitive, immensely customizable experience. Players can choose the exact color and texture of clothing, hair, and accessories. When applying make-up, highlighter hugs the curves of the face to create layered looks. Fabric shadows shift to accommodate different lighting options in a player’s design studio.
“These are all very complex technical innovations that nobody else needs to know about,” says Kloss, “but we really wanted to be intentional in creating a space that was different than other things on the platform… I’m not in this for a quick buck,” she adds.
In the long term, Kloss hopes Klossette can push the technical prowess of the industry forward, too. “I envision a future where a designer could present their collection on the Fashion Klossette and have hundreds of thousands of people engage, say what they love or what they will buy, and [for the brand to] be able to take that real-time data to actually influence decisions about what gets made.” That could also reduce the waste associated with overproduction by helping designers understand the demand for their work.
“It’s an evolution, and I want to continue to bring more people into the conversation,” says Kloss. “Fashion should be for everyone and also by everyone.”
A live service game with “no BS” – why the team behind Omega Strikers thinks it can last
It’s a dangerous world out there for the indie developer looking to make a splash with a new live service game. All games release at risk of failure, but the competitive multiplayer space has proved a no man’s land for many a promising game over the last few years.
Omega Strikers, launching this April to all platforms, is rushing in nonetheless. With its cocktail of sports, fighting game-adjacent action and character-based teamplay, is diving headfirst towards release. I had a chance to play the game during the PC beta late last year, at which point I made note of the solid foundations at the heart of Omega Strikers.
This week, at GDC, I was able to jump in yet again, and chat to the trio of Odyssey Interactive marketing director Ryan Rigby, co-founder Richard Henkel, and fellow co-founder Dax Andrus. The game has come a long way since last year, but I wanted to grill the group on how Omega Strikers would keep people playing in the months post-launch – something that has probed to be a pitfall for many of their peers.
Adam Melonas Explains Why He Thinks He’s Created the Perfect Fuel
Nintendo thinks Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is worth that hefty price tag
Nintendo is releasing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at a higher price point, but Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser says it will be worth it.
Games are getting more and more expensive to buy, in part because they’re becoming more and more expensive to produce (yes I do realise part of that is because executives are earning too much). It was only a matter of time before this hit Nintendo in some way, and it soon will, as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be priced at £60, an increase of £10 compared to its predecessor and other first party Switch titles. Unsurprisingly, though, Bowser himself (the Nintendo boss, not the lizard man) thinks it will be worth it.
Speaking to the Associated Press about a range of topics, Bowser was asked about the new price points, and how Nintendo arrived at it. “We look at what the game has to offer,” Bowser responded. “I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn’t a price point that we’ll necessarily have on all our titles. It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself.”