Mark Pesce

@mpesce@arvr.social
2K Followers
282 Following
2.4K Posts
Futurist, VRML co-inventor, author, educator & speaker. Multi-award-winning columnist for The Register, columnist Cosmos Magazine, award-winning podcaster of both The Next Billion Seconds and This Week in Startups Australia. šŸ³ļøā€šŸŒˆ Gadigal Land. (he/him)
Websitehttps://new.markpesce.com
Biohttps://new.markpesce.com/bio
The Next Billion Secondshttps://nextbillionseconds.com
Getting Started with ChatGPT and AI Chatbotshttp://new.markpesce.com/book
Mark PesceApr 17

Mo Meta, Mo Problems: Could Facebook be broken up?

From Radio New Zealand's "Nine To Noon": Meta - the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and much more besides - finds itself fighting for its life against a suit from the US Federal Trade Commission, charging abuse of monopoly power - because they acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in order to neutralise up-and-coming competitors. Even in Trump's America, that could result in the break-up of the trillion-dollarā€¦

https://nextbillionseconds.com/2025/04/17/mo-meta-mo-problems-could-facebook-be-broken-up/

Mo Meta, Mo Problems: Could Facebook be broken up? - The Next Billion Seconds

From Radio New Zealand's "Nine To Noon": Meta - the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and much more besides - finds itself fighting for its life against a suit from the US Federal Trade Commission, charging abuse of monopoly power - because they acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in order to neutralise up-and-coming competitors. Even in Trump's America, that could result in the break-up of the trillion-dollar social media giant. Plus: are you up for a Day of Unplugging? No devices, no screens, for 24 hours? How about giving it a go - tomorrow? Would that excite or terrify you?

The Next Billion Seconds
Mark PesceMar 20

Should we give up copyright to beat China in the race for AI?

Christie's held its first auction of AI-generated art, earning a million dollars. Those AI artworks had been 'trained' from countless images, owned by other people. Is that legal? OpenAI and Google claim that unless they have free right to use - well, basically everything everywhere ever created by humanity - to train their AI models, the Chinese will win the AI race. Meanwhile, Hollywood's A-listers calledā€¦

https://nextbillionseconds.com/2025/03/21/should-we-give-up-copyright-to-beat-china-in-the-race-for-ai/

Should we give up copyright to beat China in the race for AI? - The Next Billion Seconds

Christie's held its first auction of AI-generated art, earning a million dollars. Those AI artworks had been 'trained' from countless images, owned by other people. Is that legal? OpenAI and Google claim that unless they have free right to use - well, basically everything everywhere ever created by humanity - to train their AI models, the Chinese will win the AI race. Meanwhile, Hollywood's A-listers called for protection of artists and their works against what they see as copyright theft. Plus: A Clockwork Orange comes to life for prisoners in solitary confinement - and is your chatbot flattering you?

The Next Billion Seconds
Mark PesceFeb 13

AI WARTECH ā€“ Has technology turned to the dark side?

For the last five years I've been a regular guest on RNZ's Nine to Noon. This week, host Kathryn Ryan and I discussed the pivot in big tech - away from consumers, and toward the defense sector. (Originally broadcast on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon on 13 February 2025) Last week Google amended its ethical AI policies to allow their AI tools to be used in weapons - to preserve 'national security'.

https://nextbillionseconds.com/2025/02/14/ai-wartech-has-technology-turned-to-the-dark-side/

AI WARTECH - Has technology turned to the dark side? - The Next Billion Seconds

For the last five years Iā€™ve been a regular guest on RNZā€™s Nine to Noon. This week, host Kathryn Ryan and I discussed the pivot in big tech ā€“ away ā€¦ Read More "AI WARTECH ā€“ Has technology turned to the dark side?"

The Next Billion Seconds
Mark PesceJan 16

After some considered meditation I've made a decision to step away from the socials for the next little while.

It's looking to be rather spicy over the next... period of time. I'll be happier the further I am from the midst of the fray.

Those of you who might want to reach out to me already know how.

I wish you all the best.

Mark

Mark PesceJan 16

"Failed lord mayoral candidate has campaigned before on platforms of forcing workers into the office and free coffees"

It looks like it's generated by an AI... only... apparently... it's... the... truth.

Mark PesceJan 16
Listening to the Reznor/Ross score for "Queer" and it's depressingly gorgeous.
Mark PesceJan 15
"anonymous-but-authenticated"
Mark PesceJan 15
The RegisterJan 15

Even modest makeup can thwart facial recognition

You may not need to go full Juggalo for the sake of privacy Researchers at cyber-defense contractor PeopleTec have found that facial recognition algorithms' focus on specific areas of the face opens the door to subtler surveillance avoidance strategies.ā€¦
#theregister #IT
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/01/15/make_up_thwart_facial_recognition/

Even modest makeup can thwart facial recognition

You may not need to go full Juggalo for the sake of privacy

The Register
Mark PesceJan 15
Jeff JarvisJan 15

Important paper by scholars Petter Tƶrnberg and Juliana Chueri brings data to show that the alleged epidemic of disinformation is not widespread across the political spectrum or manufactured by technology but is a specific tactic of far-right extremists exploiting the vulnerability of both an open society and mass media's attention economy. I've been shouting this into the void and I'm delighted by the research. 1/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/19401612241311886

Mark PesceJan 15
Flipboard Science DeskJan 15

Female family ties were at the heart of social networks in Celtic society in Britain before the Roman invasion, a new analysis suggests. Genetic evidence from a late Iron Age cemetery shows that women were closely related while unrelated men tended to come into the community from elsewhere, likely after marriage. @AssociatedPress reports:
https://apnews.com/article/celtic-women-iron-age-britain-89c1cc54090afe389fdf61594986851b

#Celtic #Archaeology #Britain #IronAge

Ancient DNA suggests women were at the heart of social networks in Celtic society in Britain

Genetic evidence from a late Iron Age cemetery in southern Britain shows that women were closely related while unrelated men tended to come into the community from elsewhere, likely after marriage. The study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that female family ties were central to the organization of Celtic society in southern Britain before the Roman invasion. Researchers studied ancient DNA from 57 graves in Dorset in southwest England. They found that two-thirds of the individuals who lived between 100 B.C. and 200 A.D. were descended from a single maternal lineage. This pattern is historically rare.

AP News