Unbound: No 121

Jaguar Uses Artificial Intelligence To Create Unique Social Media Artwork
by BRAD ANDERSON | Carscoops

Jaguar

Jaguar is dipping into the art world with its [un]reality social media showcase that uses an advanced artificial intelligence system to transform text into an image.

The state-of-the-art artificial intelligence system, dubbed DALL·E, creates realistic images and art based on text descriptions. The British automaker says it is becoming a pioneer of next-generation technologies as part of its Reimagine overhaul that will see it become an all-electric modern luxury brand from 2025.

“AI embodies the daring and curious self-expression unique to Jaguar,” Jaguar Land Rover chief creative officer Gerry McGovern described in a press release. “It felt fitting to be one of the first brands to meaningfully utilize this technology by devoting our key social platforms to this unique creative form. Innovative and courageous, ‘[un]reality’ offers a glimpse of our ambitions for the brand.”

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No, the metaverse is not dead – it’s inevitable
by | Venturebeat

Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

Over the last few weeks, many people have asked me the same question: Is the metaverse dead? This pessimism is not surprising, considering that Meta stock has lost over half its value since formally announcing its strategic pivot to the metaverse. Adding insult to injury, last week Meta announced major layoffs across the company, increasing fear throughout the industry.

Trying my best to be objective, I see the current struggles at Meta as a reflection of its legacy business rather than an indication that its metaverse strategy is failing. I believe it will take another year or two before we can really predict whether Meta will be successful in this space, or if other large players will emerge as the true leaders of the metaverse.

My bigger concern is that the general public is still confused about what “the metaverse” is and how it will benefit society. You’d think this would be clear by now, but even simple definitions of the metaverse are hard to come by. Personally, I blame influencers from the Web3 space for creating the confusion, describing the metaverse in terms of blockchains, cryptocurrencies and NFTs. These are profoundly useful technologies but are no more relevant to the metaverse than 5G, GPS or GPUs.

The metaverse is not about any specific pieces of infrastructure

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Quantum computing: Should it be on IT’s strategic roadmap?

by Mary Shacklett in Innovation | TechRepublic

Image: Bartek Wróblewski/Adobe Stock

Quantum computing is far from being a mature technology, but now is the time to pencil it into IT strategic roadmaps.

Quantum computing is defined by NASA as a phenomenon “where a particle can be in many different states at once” due to quantum entanglement. If you are looking for more terms related to quantum computing, the experts at TechRepublic Premium have put together a glossary with all the definitions you’ll need.

Why does quantum computing matter in IT and in areas like analytics and AI?
In the classical computers that everyone uses, the bits that are processed can be either 1 or 0. In quantum computing, where bits are replaced by qubits, the individual qubits values still come out as a 1 or a 0; however, the difference is that any qubit can represent a different outcome that is based on a unique combination of events only encountered by that qubit.

Qubits are able to capture these individual points between poles depending upon the events and conditions each qubit encounters during processing. Because of this, quantum computing can deliver many different possibilities for solving a problem. These diverse possibilities lead to unique business insights.

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🌙 NASA - Best Photo from Last Week
Hubble Views a Billowing Cosmic Cloud

A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. CB 130-3 is an object known as a dense core, a compact agglomeration of gas and dust. This particular dense core is in the constellation Serpens and seems to billow across a field of background stars.

Dense cores like CB 130-3 are the birthplaces of stars and are of particular interest to astronomers. During the collapse of these cores enough mass can accumulate in one place to reach the temperatures and densities required to ignite hydrogen fusion, marking the birth of a new star. While it may not be obvious from this image, a compact object teetering on the brink of becoming a star is embedded deep within CB 130-3.

Astronomers used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to better understand the environment surrounding this fledgling star. As this image shows, the density of CB 130-3 isn’t constant; the outer edges of the cloud consist of only tenuous wisps, whereas at its core CB 130-3 blots out background light entirely. The gas and dust making up CB 130-3 affect not only the brightness but also the apparent color of background stars, with stars toward the cloud’s center appearing redder than their counterparts at the outskirts of this image. Astronomers used Hubble to measure this reddening effect and chart out the density of CB 130-3, providing insights into the inner structure of this stellar nursery.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & STScI, C. Britt, T. Huard, A. Pagan

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
301-286-1940

Last Updated: Nov 18, 2022
Editor: Andrea Gianopoulos


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