Show Summary:Why do black TikTok creators struggle to earn credit for their original work?This week, TIME staff writer Moises Mendez II explains how TikTok creator Jordyn Williams is fighting for credit after her #NoLove dance went viral. How is Williams’ struggle symptomatic of the struggles black creators encounter on the platform? Further, Mendez outlines the key struggles creators face, from monetization to harassment, and shares his vision of a better social media landscape.About Moises Mendez IIMoises Mendez II is a staff writer at TIME. He covers internet culture, movies, books, TV, podcasts, and music. His work can be seen in the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, HuffPost, and more.Keep up with Moises Mendez IITwitter | Instagram | TIME Magazine🔮 Click here to purchase tickets and livestream for Digital Void's Memes, Myths, and Magic on April 29 in New York City are now available.Show Notes and Resources:Jordyn Williams is Here to Take the Credit for her Viral TikTok Dance - TIMEWhy Is It So Hard for Black Creators to Get Their Due? - Rolling StoneThe Original Renegade - New York TimesHow YouTube’s Beauty Community Fell Apart with an Explosive Feud Called ‘Dramageddon’ - InsiderYouTube Creator: Monet McMichael Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we learn more about AI's design and development to better understand its emergence? Director of Curiouser Institute and AI games designer Reed Berkowitz explains what really happened when New York Times columnist Kevin Roose talked to Bing's Syndey chatbot – and how mainstream media outlets can consider different ways of discussing AI. Further, Berkowitz helps us understand the realities of AI game design and development. What role do artists play in working with developers? How does a recent US copyright ruling stand to impact AI developers, artists, and designers? Berkowitz explains it all – and leaves us with his vision of an ideal AI future.About Reed Berkowitz:Reed Berkowitz is the Director of Curiouser LLC, who has more than 25 years of experience designing, writing, and researching award-winning interactive experiences for companies including Universal Studios, Paramount, Cartoon Network, Peanuts, Sanrio, and many more. He formerly served as the Creative Director of New Games at Latitude, an AI-powered games company.Follow Reed BerkowitzTwitter | WebsiteShow Notes and Resources:CleverbotLatitude’s LoomTwitter teaches Microsoft's AI chatbot to be racist in less than a day - The VergeLatitudeGather.townStable DiffusionAI Copyright Battle over Zarya the DawnControlNetAstropulseEnder's GameReplika Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does an activist Instagram account help bring attention - and change - to New Orleans’ streets? On this week’s episode, we welcome Digital Void collaborator, PhD student, and researcher Alex Turvy to discuss Look at This Fuckin’ Street: an Instagram account that highlights hazardous roads, potholes, and crumbling infrastructure to put pressure on city government to improve long-ignored conditions.This conversation was recorded on February 27, 2023About Alex Turvy:Alex Turvy is a PhD student and researcher focused on digital culture and memes. Currently, he is working on a few different threads of research: how identity and authenticity are performed on social media, niche meme pages on Instagram and memetic literacy, and how boundaries and deviance are managed by communities on TikTok. What ties these together is an interest in understanding how practices on social media are woven through everyday life -- despite what you hear sometimes, social media is very much real life. Prior to this, he spent ten years working in public schools, spending five years as an early elementary teacher and five years as Director of Operations. He lives in New Orleans with his partner Devon and their daughter June.Keep up with Alex Turvy:Twitter | InstagramShow Notes:Look at This Fuckin’ Street Instagram12:47 - Critical Discourse Analysis20:26 - Decorated pothole, Another Decorated Pothole31:00 - MCM Wholesale Instagram32:15 - Digital DualismEditorial note: Turvy’s paper is not yet available to the public. This conversation was recorded to bring attention to a digital activist cause in New Orleans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How will Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter reshape the landscape of social media?Creator and host of the award-winning podcast There Are No Girls on the Internet Bridget Todd explains where people can go to find alternatives to mainstream social media platforms, her vision for a more equitable social media future, and how Musk's Twitter purchase stands to reshape the way we communicate on the platform. How can we best align our values with our digital platforms?This conversation was recorded on October 5, 2022.About Bridget Todd:Bridget Todd is the Director of Communications at UltraViolet, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast There Are No Girls On The Internet, and co-host of City Cast DC. Todd got her start teaching courses on writing and social change at Howard University. Since then, she's trained human rights activists in Australia, coordinated digital strategy for organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Women's March, and MSNBC. She’s the founder and CEO of Unbossed Creative, a mission driven creative studio that makes podcasts and other digital content to push the needle on social change and public good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Jamie takes a deep dive into why civil rights groups are pushing back against Amazon’s new television show, Ring Nation.You can read a written version of this week's episode, Why Civil Rights Groups Are Pushing Back Against Amazon's New Show, on Medium.Show notes and resources:Letter Calling on MGM to Cancel Ring Nation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're joined by author of Rabbits, CEO of Minnow Beats Whale, and co-creator of The Black Tapes, Terry Miles. Miles explains the origins of The Black Tapes, the playful interactivity fictional podcasts afford creators and audiences, and the worldbuilding required for people to become fully immersed in a story. How do people respond to a paranormal version of Serial? In what ways does it mirror audience's first interactions with Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast?Then, Miles discusses Rabbits: Why do alternate reality games feel appropriate for our digital moment? When experience and time flatten, why can the world feel like an ARG, itself?About Terry Miles:Terry Miles is an award-winning Writer/Director/Producer who was born among the wheat fields in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, raised in the plains beneath the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and forged by rain in the deep emerald gloom of the Pacific Northwest. He’s a novelist, filmmaker, podcaster and the CEO and founder of Minnow Beats Whale. As Writer/Director/Producer, Terry's had three feature films premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and has been nominated for ten Leo Awards (Producing, Writing, Directing, Editing, and Cinematography). Terry created his first few podcasts in 2006, but soon movies took over. Just about a decade later, he founded The Public Radio Alliance which features the hit podcasts: TANIS, RABBITS, and The Last Movie. He also co-created The Black Tapes Podcast and directed a western starring Donald Sutherland and Christian Slater, an action movie starring Steve Austin, Danny Trejo and Serinda Swan, and more. He's also written and directed numerous award-winning short films, web series, and alternate reality games.Show Notes and Resources:The Black TapesTanisRabbitsWar of the Worlds - Orson Welles (1938)Strand InstituteCicada 3301Gravity’s RainbowThe GameThe New Hollywood Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Jamie and Josh discuss the history and context behind Dark Brandon memes. How did Joe Biden become featured in memes with laser eyes and dark aesthetics? How we can make sense of the trend's influence on culture and media narratives? What is its true influence?Show Notes and Resources:Laser EyesStage One Memes: lolspeakStage Two Memes: LOLcats Stage Three Memes: Breakdown of StructureStage Four Memes: Deep Fried EraVince McMahon memeGalaxy Brain MemeDark MAGABased memesBiden calls Trump’s philosophy Semi-FascismUmberto Eco’s 14 guidelines of fascismBiden and Trump Covid memeBiden Neutralized memeBrandon Eyepatch MemeJoe Biden Speech Photo (Sept. 1)Biden IRS MemeBiden Star Wars MemeTrump calls democrats fascists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can the history of virtual reality development teach us about its path forward?On this week's episode, Jamie and Josh look back 30 years to the first attempt to mainstream commercial virtual reality. Why didn't haptics and headsets earn mass adoption?Further, they discuss the other uses for the metaverse and virtual reality. What do corporations stand to gain if VR goes mainstream? What are the risks associated with a centralized VR ecosystem?Show Notes and Resources:Nick BostromDifferentialVRChatJaron LanierGraphical User Interface (GUI)Englebart Mouse DeviceSensoramaSword of Damocles VR (video)VideoplaceSENSE8Palmer LuckeyRoad to Nowhere - Paris MarxPalantirVirtual Reality Is Missing Its Moment...Again - Jamie CohenMoore’s LawReady Player OneMicrosoft HoloLensGoogle Glass Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can memes encoded with aesthetics, nuance, and meta text become accessible to everyone?This week, Jamie and Josh discuss memes, algospeak, and access: How can meme creators and platforms utilize alt-text to help the vision impaired? Why is alt-text essential to help everyone access and understand the rapidly evolving memetic moment?Show notes & resources:Digital DualismJamie Cohen on CBC SparkAlgospeakTikTok Moderators Are Being Trained Using Graphic Images of Child Sexual AbuseThe Secret Lives on Facebook moderators in AmericaSay My Meme Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show Summary:How can humans determine if an Artificial Intelligence is sentient when sentience is what AI is designed to imitate?This week, we’re joined by Artificial Intelligence games designer Reed Berkowitz.Berkowitz discusses former Google Responsible AI team member Blake Lemoine’s claim that Google’s AI chatbot LaMDA is sentient. What made Lemoine believe this? How can we come to understand Lemoine’s belief?To help us, Berkowitz delivers an AI primer: From AI games to the most popular use cases of the technology, he gives a brief explanation of the terms we need to understand. Then, he discusses an experiment he conducted with an open-source AI chatbot to learn if he can achieve the same results as Lemoine.Does Lemoine have a case? If not, where did Lemoine go wrong?About Reed Berkowitz:Reed Berkowitz is the Director of Curiouser LLC, who has more than 25 years of experience designing, writing, and researching award-winning interactive experiences for companies including Universal Studios, Paramount, Cartoon Network, Peanuts, Sanrio, and many more. He formerly served as the Creative Director of New Games at Latitude, an AI-powered games company.Follow Reed BerkowitzTwitter | WebsiteShow Notes and Resources:How to talk with an AI: A Deep Dive Into “Is LaMDA Sentient?” - Reed BerkowitzOpenAI/GPT-3May be Fired Soon for Doing AI Ethics Work - Blake LemoineThe Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has become sentient - The Washington PostIs LaMDA Sentient? - Blake Lemoine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.