From the moment that people started getting nasty with Johannes Gutenberg’s newfangled printing press, sexually explicit content has led the way towards wide-scale adoption of mass communication technologies. But with every advance in methodology has i…
Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift fiasco sparks Senate antitrust hearing
Ticketmaster’s chaotic handling of Taylor Swift’s tour ticket sales has brought the company under increased scrutiny, including from lawmakers. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcomm…
Hitting the Books: How Dave Chappelle and curious cats made Roomba a household name
Autonomous vacuum maker iRobot is a lot like Tesla, not necessarily by reinventing an existing concept — vacuums, robots and electric cars all existed before these two companies came on the scene — but by imbuing their products with that intangible qui…
Elon Musk begins unbanning some high-profile Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and Kathy Griffin
Elon Musk is acting on his vow to rethink permanent bans on Twitter users. Twitter has reinstated the accounts of three controversial users, including conservative satire site Babylon Bee, conservative author (and former YouTube personality) Jordan Pet…
The DOJ was reportedly investigating Ticketmaster before the Taylor Swift debacle
The Department of Justice has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation, the parent of Ticketmaster, to determine if the company has abused its power in the live music industry. The investigation is said to have been ongoing over th…
Jeff Bezos plans to give most of his money to charity
Former Amazon chief Jeff Bezos is the latest tech CEO hoping to be known for his philanthropy. The Amazon founder told CNN in an interview that he intends to give most of his net worth (currently $124 billion) to charity during his lifetime. Most of it…
Chris Rock’s upcoming comedy special will be Netflix’s first-ever livestream
Netflix is finally ready to dip into livestreaming months after word emerged of its plans. The service has confirmed that Chris Rock will debut a comedy special live on the service sometime in early 2023. He’s the “first artist” to receive the distinct…
Netflix’s ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ teaser depicts a fantastical, bloody world
Netflix’s The Witcher franchise is going through some major changes, with Henry Cavill, the star of the main show, set to depart. Before Cavill’s swansong in season three, though, a miniseries set in the same universe will hit the streaming service, an…
Synth pioneer Don Lewis has died at 81
Don Lewis, a pioneer in the worlds of synthesizers and electronic music, died on Sunday at the age of 81. In the 1970s, Lewis created the Live Electronic Orchestra. The system enabled him to control multiple synthesizers and other instruments simultane…
Listen to an AI sing an uncannily human rendition of ‘Jolene’
AI-powered image generators have been getting most of the press recently. But musical machine learning models have quietly been making great strides in recent years. Holly Herndon has been at the forefront of that revolution. She co-developed (along wi…