IN EARLY AUGUST, an anonymous X account started making big promises about AI. "You're about to taste agi," it claimed, adding a strawberry emoji. "Q* isn't a project. it's a portal. altman's strawberry is the key. the singularity isn't coming. it's here," it continued.
"Tonight, we evolve." If you're not part of the hyperactive cluster of AI fans, critics, doomers, accelerationists, grifters, and rare insiders that has congregated on X, Discord, and Reddit to speculate about the future of AI, this probably sounds like nonsense. If you are, it might have sounded enticing at the time. Some background: AGI stands for "artificial general intelligence," a term used to describe human-or superhuman-like abilities in AI; the strawberries are a reference to an internal code name for a rumored "reasoning" technology being developed at OpenAI (and to a post from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman minutes before, which included a photo of strawberries); Q* is either a previous code name for the project or a related project; and the singularity is a theoretical point at which AI or technology more broadly becomes self-improving and uncontrollable. All this coming that night? Wow.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 09 - 22, 2024-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 09 - 22, 2024-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
