Newsletter 9/30/2022: Rolling in the Deepfakes

From the Desk of Dennis:

In order to DiVeRsIfY mY sKiLl SeT this summer, I’ve been coding hard and teaching myself C# and GDScript, the proprietary language for Godot, an open-source game engine.

I believe gaming is an extremely exciting medium that is still in its adolescence as an art form. I know that can be hard to believe for those of us who grew up with the rapid graphical improvements of the 90’s and 00’s, and have seen that progression plateau as new video game consoles are released less frequently and with fewer exponential leaps of computing power. I don’t necessarily think the R&D has slowed down (VR headsets continue to advance in accessibility and fidelity), but if you’re looking for the latest and greatest in gaming, you’ll find generally that gameplay innovations are more exciting than the graphical updates. Check out the games made my independent developers available on a site like www.itch.io and you’ll see games that lovingly revisit aesthetic styles of old with modern quality-of-life improvements. In that sense, gaming is like any other artform in the 21st century - highly referential, and with an ecosystem of creators who are able to quickly move new trends forward using the power of the internet.

I’ve thrown my own hat in the mix with Seraphim Principia, which I made for Godot Wild Jam #49 - a “hackathon” event for making games in Godot over just a week or two. I hope you enjoy Seraphim’s simple controls and design, which I matched to a pastel palette in order to fulfill a “bonus challenge” for the Game Jam. Can’t wait to hear what you think!

TGIF,

Dennis A. Wilson

This Week in Marketing and Technology:

NYTimes, “Even as Iranians Rise Up, Protests Worldwide Are Failing at Record Rates”

“By the early 2000s, two in three protest movements demanding systemic change ultimately succeeded, according to the Harvard data. In retrospect, it was a high-water mark… Around that decade’s midpoint, the trend began to reverse. By the end of the 2010s, though protests continued to grow more common, their success rate had halved, to one in three. Data from the early 2020s suggests that it may have already halved again, to one in six.“

As a private citizen, I’ve longed considered my ability to protest to be one of the most important, legal tools I have in order to voice my grievances - showing up in the street and putting my body in the way of traffic alongside thousands of others certainly gets noticed and brings awareness to issues, especially if you’re a local commuter. It’s distressing to hear that this activity might have diminishing returns in spite of (or perhaps because of) the amplified voices of activists online and the easy distribution of images from protest that social media enables. I also think globalization and the fading irrelevance of one’s physical location might be a bit of factor here - it’s easier for corporate elites to ignore the braying of the crowds outside the office when they’re working remotely.

Collider, “Actor Bruce Willis Becomes First Celebrity to Sell Rights to Deepfake Firm”

“He and his family made an announcement in March that Willis would be "stepping away" from acting after over four decades of films, which was no easy decision for the star. With the use of deepfake technology, Willis was able to make a cameo in a Russian commercial only last year without ever stepping foot on a set..”

I guess deepfakes and other forms of post-flesh performance (Hologram Tupac, Kanye’s editorialized Rob Kardashian ghost) are an acquired taste, because I still squirm whenever I see a character in fiction show up when I know their actor is dead. This move by Willis raises even more of an eyebrow in the context of his team allegedly taking advantage of him to keep him working despite his aphasia. Irrespective of an actor’s personal health situations (Willis specifically cites the limitations on his career due to his aphasia as a reason for cutting this deal), I think we will see many celebrities make these kinds of deals while they are still living, just as we’ve seen celebrities become legally savvy and more protective of other rights to their IP and likenesses over the years.

TechCrunch, “YouTube TV users can now subscribe to standalone networks without a base plan”

“So, rather than spending $64.99 a month for the YouTube TV Base Plan that provides more than 85 channels, consumers can now choose a more flexible option that allows them to mix and match from select entertainment networks, live sports and more, all within one app.”

I’m skeptical. This sounds a lot like the content Shangri-a-La-Carte we’ve all envisioned with the rise of streamers (e.g. paying for what I want and skipping what I don’t), but I’ve been burned enough by similar promises to know that in 6 months they’ll be hiking up the per-channel prices and/or consolidating the deals into “bundles.”