Meta's moderation policy to allow more "free expression" was viewed as the latest effort to appease President-elect Donald Trump, which could help AI efforts.

AI using AI to pay for AI? It could soon become a reality.As AI systems become more ubiquitous, those systems will further interact with other AI systems, requesting data, resources, or functionalities. Theyll also need to pay for those requests, in many cases, which will require transactions. Typically, thatd require some human interactionbut not if a payment system exists that allows for autonomous payments between those systems, which is exactly what one firm has in mind.Nevermineda company that provides AI payment infrastructurerecently announced that its raised $4 million to build out and further develop a system that will allow for AI-to-AI transactions. In effect, the company is developing what it describes as a PayPal for AI, which wont require human interaction.AI agents are a type of artificial intelligence system that can perform certain tasks without any human intervention, such as collect or analyze data, answer customer questions, and more. Theyre already being used by numerous companies, such as Amazon. In some respects, theyre designed to, and are actively replacing human workers. And now, it seems that Nevermined is determined to help them transact with one another, removing even more human fingerprints from the mix.The future of commerce isnt just about humans trading with humans anymore. Its about AI agents transacting with other AI agents, and we need entirely new payment systems to facilitate that, said Don Gossen, CEO of Nevermined, in a release provided to Fast Company. This funding will allow us to accelerate our mission of building the financial rails for the emerging AI economy.The new payment infrastructure will be one of the first of its kind, and has some heavyweights behind it. Nevermined was founded by Don Gossen and Aitor Argomaniz, who previously founded Ocean Protocol, a decentralized data exchange protocol and platform, and Nevermineds investors include Valory, Naptha, and others.Will it work?As for why this all matters? For one, itll likely be the first time that humans have not actively participated in an active micro-economy. What that means going forward is anyones guessbut for now, an AI-incorporated future is looking a lot less like a scary Terminator scenario, and more like a real-time strategy game, in which non-playable characters transact automatically.From a technology perspective, facilitating payments between AI agents shouldnt look all that different from a human-to-human transaction, at least at this point, according to Dimitri Dadiomov, the cofounder and CEO of Modern Treasury, a payment operations platform. But every AI agent would need a bank account, he says, which could be owned by the agents respective owner.Dadiomov says some other kinks might be in the mix, too, such as hallucinations or erroneous transaction data. That could cause problems, but its likely that will get sorted out over time, but for now, he has a hard time believing that finance teams and CFOs will sleep soundly having handed off transactions to an AI system.The accounting department is not going to be the early adopter in your company, he says. A controller isnt going to trust the AI agent, and theyll want the human to look things over.

When I was growing up, my otherwise frugal father leased a new car every three years. He claimed that, as a financial planner, his clients expected him to look successful, which meant driving a nice, late-model car. He reasoned that nobody would take investment advice from a financial planner who drove a 14-year-old Datsun Bluebird. His message to me was clear: Invest in your career.Even as a kid, I had my doubts about Dads logic. Spending money to make money never sat well with me, especially when there was no direct relationship between the purchase and the ROI. (I also suspect Dad hated long-term auto maintenance and he used his clients expectations as a convenient fig leaf.)Considering my early skepticism, it should come as no surprise that I tend to under-invest in my career as an adult. But avoiding financial investments that could advance my professional ambitions has cost me opportunities, which has sometimes led to me overspending as an over-correction.Figuring out the appropriate level of career investments is never going to be easy, but the following guidelines can help you decide if a financial outlay is worthwhile.When it makes sense to spend moneyCompared to trying to suss out which opportunities are worth the money and which should get a pass, just saying no to all professional investments is an easier call.This is why I have consistently under-invested in my career. Im more comfortable saying no to everything rather than trying to figure out a good use of my money. But there are times when investing money into your career is the right thing to do. These include:When you can increase the value of your timeYou are probably well aware of the numerous online calculators that can help you pinpoint the dollar value of your time. Productivity experts often recommend using these types of equations to help determine what tasks you can outsource, since hiring an assistant can free up your time to focus on more lucrative tasks.But outsourcing is not the only way you can make your time more valuable. Getting certification or other education can often lead directly to higher pay, which literally means your working hours are worth more.Similarly, you might also spend money to ensure you bring your A-game to work. For example, a nervous flyer who is traveling to make a major presentation might upgrade their flight to feel more comfortable. The additional cost could be worth the money if it means feeling calm and ready for the meeting, instead of frazzled and stressed.One could argue that my fathers car-leasing habit helped increase the value of his time. By keeping cars no longer than three years, Dad saved himself the time and brainspace he would have needed to keep an older, paid-for car humming along.When you can expand your networkA large and diverse network is one of the best ways to open doors to new jobs and opportunities. This is why career investments that widen your network can be a great use of your money.Whether you are considering attending a conference, joining a professional organization, taking a class related to your industry, or joining a community association, the potential cost of these investments can often be worth it because of the professional connections you will make.When you should save your moneyNot every career investment is a good reason to break out the credit card. While it can be easy to talk yourself into spending money to increase your income (just ask anyone who has been suckered into multi-level marketing), its helpful to remember that not all investments will benefit your career.Heres when you should think twice about putting your money into a career investment.When youre substituting money for actionAnytime we dont know how to do something, it can be very tempting to throw money at the problem. For example, lets say a small business owner is struggling to build their clientele. They hear about a $2,000 seminar that promises to help them scale up their marketingand they get excited about using it to increase their client base.The seminar itself might be a very useful opportunity. But the entrepreneur could improve their situation in a number of free or cheap ways before spending two grand on a seminar. The high cost of the seminar can trick the business owner into thinking that they are taking significant action, but its instead allowing them to avoid the work they need to do. And its putting them in a worse financial situation.When you feel pressuredThere are a number of ways you might be pressured into investing money in your career. The more overt (and easier-to-avoid) version is the urgent sales pitch. These kinds of time-bound sales are common in every industry, including career development. This kind of pressure looks like a ticking clock counting down minutes left before the incredible career coaching deal is gone forever.While that sense of urgency can feel a bit stressful, committing to a 24-hour waiting period before purchasing anything can help you avoid succumbing to this kind of pressure.The more subtle pressure feels more like wanting to fit in. For example, if your coworkers all look like they could walk the runway, you might spend more than you can comfortably afford on your work wardrobe. Or you might attend conferences or weekly happy hours to look like a team player, even though you dont want to be there.If youre feeling this kind of pressure, remind yourself of what you really want from your career and your budget. Having clarity about your own values makes it much easier to resist pressure.You work hard for the moneyInvesting in your career can potentially give you a leg upor waste your money.You can figure out which investment is which by asking yourself which opportunities increase the value of your time or expand your network, and which ones allow you to substitute money for action or make you feel pressured.And if you find yourself leasing a new car every three years, just be honest that its for you and not your clients.

The sun is bright. A caucasian grandma sits on the grass. She smiles at the camera. Caresses two small dogs. Its a peaceful summer day. Three seconds later, your brain notices something is off. Her face morphs slowly. Her mouth twitches. Suddenly, the dogs turn into reptilesyellow Komodo dragons, maybe. One has two heads. They open their mouths wide. Granny starts picking their scales. And then she starts to eat them.The lovely video is now a nightmare, one that is as real as the original candid shot. I feel uneasy. I feel a pinch of horror. The bizarre tornado doesnt stop there: The woman, now Asian, leans forward as the slimy animals start moving, transforming into a Jet Ski that granny rides into a river, leaving the scene.I dont know what I just watched, but as I flick my finger up, I go deeper into this Instagram rabbit hole. There are more posts. Some of them are strange satires that play on the idea of the illuminati controlling the world featuring everyone from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to Kamala Harris and Elon Musk. Others show disgusting monsters that feel too close to reality. All live in the same uncanny valley that is as deep as the Mariana Trench. Suddenly Im trapped in this Bermuda Triangle of stupid, freakish, and odd, and I cant help but keep looking, feeling awe and disgust at the same time. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lucas Miranda | INTELIGNCIA ARTIFICIAL (@lucasflame.ai)Im not alone in this twisted dimension. As Oslo-based interdisciplinary visual artist Edmond Yang tells me through Instagram: At the moment, two of my videos have over 300 million views combined, with an accumulated watch time of nearly 100 years. Its surreal to think Ive consumed a century of human attention.Yang tells me he has been working in visual design and communication for more than two decades. When I discovered generative AI and the powerful tools it brought with it, a whole new world opened up for me, he says. These tools allow me to visualize almost any idea in my head, all from my phone. What started with still images has evolved into videos as video generation models have quickly caught up, he says. Ive always loved creating and sharing work, but now I can do it faster and on a much bigger scale, seeing how people react and engage in almost real time. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Dor Brothers (@thedorbrothers)Yang says he is only one of many artists who are using video AI to explore these unnerving fantasies, all loosely grouped under the #weirdcore tag. TikTok is full of them, too.Weirdcore 2.0The earliest documented examples of weirdcore date back to 2016. Its origins remain unclear but we know that YouTuber DavidCrypt first popularized the term in a now-disappeared video explaining its themes. Weirdcore was framed as a visual and emotional aesthetic that evokes feelings of confusion, nostalgia, and unease through low-quality amateur photography combined with strange phrases and other graphical elements.It recycled the graphic style of early internet visuals from the late 1990s and early 2000s, which were a product of the technology limitations of those times: primitively shaded 2D and 3D graphics typical of software like CorelDraw, badly compressed imagery, GIFs, and lots of terrible typefaces. All of those things were hammered together with blunt tools like Microsoft Paint. The revival aesthetic became popular in places like Reddit and Tumblr, where it still lives today. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ari Kuschnir (@arikuschnir)Somehow, the combination of out-of-context elements resulted in compositions that live between familiarity and strangeness. The images of early weirdcore provoked an unusually visceral and personal interpretation, which made many people feel weird in response. Some people perceived these images as eerie or unsettling. Others found them nostalgic. A few experienced a sensation of comfort in the surreal presentations.Then with the advent of diffusion artificial intelligence and video creation platforms, artists like Yang took the weirdcore banner and evolved it into new ultrarealistic, sharp-as-vampire-fangs visualizations that you can be enjoyed (or suffered through) on social media. But despite the dramatically different aesthetic, the new weirdcore 2.0 shares the same ultimate objective of triggering a visceral response in the viewer. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daryl Anselmo (@darylanselmo)Daryl Anselmo is a professional art director for games and new media who has worked at EA, Disney, Zynga, and Improbable Worlds. He tells me via email that he doesnt have a specific goal with his weirdcore videos, but he has always been drawn to the idea of benign violation theory, which he says describes how people cant control their laughter in situations of discomfort, or they laugh as a safety mechanism when their worldview is being threatened. Its a place in which some comedianslike Ricky Gervaisthrive.[The fictional show within a show] Itchy & Scratchy in The Simpsons was benign violation theory perfected, Anselmo points out. I have found that these generative AI tools are kind of perfect for exploring that space and creating that emotional response in the viewer, and social media is probably the best platform to share it on. His videos are purely surreal, and somehow bring me vibes of Chilean filmmaker and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (Insert): dial up sound effect (@junkboxai)For self-described JunkBoxAi artist Mike W, its all about emotional impact, even if the medium is absurd or surreal. I draw inspiration from pop culture, the unpredictability of weirdcore, and the humor of unexpected juxtapositions, he tells me via Instagram messaging. His weirdcore leans harder on celebrities and current news, which is another main avenue for weirdcore 2.0. Whether hes placing a celebrity in a ridiculous alternate reality or turning a mundane concept into something dreamlike and unsettling, he tells me, the primary goal of his art is to entertain, spark curiosity, and connect with people, to be a source of joy and surprisesomething that makes people pause their scrolling, laugh, or wonder how it was made. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Edmond Yang (@edmondyang)Yang says his weirdcore work helps him push boundaries and challenge himself to explore new ways of storytelling. Its about finding humor in unexpected places. I categorize my creations into two types: The first is day-to-day, reactive videos inspired by trends, memes, or hype. These are quick, experimental pieces where I play with current cultural moments, he says. Whenever he sees something happening, he thinks about making it hilariously over-the-top or imagining an alternate outcome. For him, the goal is to surprise people and evoke a reaction. The second type is more intricatevideos with refined concepts that take more time to produce and edit, Yang says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Edmond Yang (@edmondyang)Other weirdcore creators tend toward absolute horror, like Belgian artist Florian Nackaerts, who focuses on body horror surrealism.How the weirdcore sausage is madeTheir tools and workflows are all similar. Nackaerts started using generative AI in 2021 with the arrival of DALL-E mini and quickly moved through Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and, finally a combination of video generators. He says he animates with Hailuo (a tool favored by most artists that is developed by a Shanghai-based company) or Kling (another Chinese tool made by Beijing-based Kuaishou), and sometimes Dream Machine (developed by Portland, Oregon-based Luma Labs). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Niceaunties (@niceaunties)Like other video artists, Nackaerts uses different tools depending on the feel he wants to achieve, as each has its own aesthetic, with Hailuo producing the most realistic imagery. Each of these video tools generates very short clips, about five seconds in length, so they need to be edited into a full-length video. Nackaerts creates voice tracks using AI text-to-speech and voice-cloning tool ElevenLabs and the music on Udio. Once generated, his clips and tracks are edited together using a free app on his smartphone. I make all the videos only with my smartphone from the beginning of the process to the end, Nackaerts tells me.The artists I spoke with follow similar workflows. Mike W starts by brainstorming a concept (usually a single absurd or thought-provoking idea, like placing a celebrity in an impossible scenario, he says). From there, he refines the idea into a series of prompts that capture the vibe, composition, and emotional tone he wants. Mike Ws quiver of tools includes ComfyUI (a free tool that helps users create any diffusion AI workflow imaginable), Flux (a text-to-video tool developed by Black Forest Labs in Germany), NYC-based Runway, and the grandaddy of diffusion AIs, MidJourney, which is a still-image generator used to create starting frames to animate in the other tools. The use of these keyframes is crucial in order to maintain continuity between the clips, which are roughly five to eight seconds long. I meticulously craft each frame or animation to ensure consistency and style, he says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (Insert): dial up sound effect (@junkboxai)Its a similar process for Yang, who focuses on creative experimentation. Most of his videos start with a base image that he sends to a video generator, using image-to-video tools to create the clips he needs to assemble his final piece. Its a numbers game. I often create 20 to 30 variations before landing on the right clip to move forward, he says. Like Nackaerts, he handles everything on his phone, from start to finish, which makes the workflow both efficient and portable. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ari Kuschnir (@arikuschnir)Anselmo follows a more traditional path that goes from pre-production to production to post. In preproduction he explores an idea with the help of generative AI, seeing what the machine imagines. Sometimes I have a clear picture and I am trying to force an image generator to bend to my will, he says. Other times I only just have a loose concept so I lean into the AI more as a crutch [to] see what kind of journey it wants to take me on. Once he has a group of cohesive still images, he sometimes storyboards them into a rough cut before taking the ones he likes most into a video generator to produce his footage. Much like an analog director, he usually does a few takes per image, generating between five and eight minutes of footage per day that will get cut down into a 30-second reel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daryl Anselmo (@darylanselmo)Meanwhile, Im generating a song, trying to find a sound that vibes with the look of the world, Anselmo says. Once he has all the audiovisual resources complete, he brings them back into the editing suite for a more complete edit, doing postproduction tasks such as color grading, sharpening, film grain, and other effects like pans or zoom. This is all done on his computer, where he also runs the footage through an AI image upscaler/enhancer at the very end, right before he uploads it to his phone for posting. It usually takes me a couple of hours per day, he says, noting that his goal now is to speed up the volume of output.: I really just want to get some of these stupid ideas out of my head and onto the next one to see what else I can learn from the process. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daryl Anselmo (@darylanselmo)Now what I want to know is how I can get all these stupid ideas out of my head without having to flick my thumb up one more time to see more.It may not matter, as this black hole of weird has already reached critical mass. Creators like Yang and the Dor brothers have made the jump from social networks to regular media, sometimes getting into the news cycle, like when the latter turned politicians into bodega robbers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Dor Brothers (@thedorbrothers)They have been creating videos for musicians like Snoop Dogg as well as ads that have been playing in Times Square. While these are quite far from the disturbing material they put up on social media, you can see that the times are a-changing. A new generation of video artists are coming from the fringe of weirdcore 2.0 into the mainstream. Perhaps ironically, their uncanny valley art and provocations are doing more than anything else to bring reality crashing down in flames.

Kos has been recognized as a 2025 Honoree in the XR Technologies & Accessories category at this years CES event in Las Vegas for its Mixed Reality Makeup 0 min try-on studio. This innovation from the J-beauty leader offers an entirely new makeup try-on experience utilizing cutting-edge high-speed projection mapping technology. The new makeup simulation system will replicate the color and texture of makeup on the skin in a way that AR simply cannot.According to CES, the system enables customers to experiment with numerous makeup designs in a true 3D environment, allowing them to select products more swiftly and with greater confidence compared to traditional try-on methods or AR makeup filters. Thus, it is a worthy honoree.Designer: Kos CorporationThis innovative Mixed-Reality Makeup (MR Makeup) Color Machine utilizes high-speed projection mapping technology, which Yoshihiro Watanabe Laboratory of the Tokyo Institute of Technology developed. This technology allows makeup to be projected on the face. MR Makeup allows the makeup to smoothly follow the human bodys movements and changes at the facial expression. The high-speed face recognition and projection technology, updated 1000 times per second, completes the process from facial movement to MR Makeup projection with a few milliseconds delay or less, said the corporation.What makes it even more interesting is that since it is a projection, it can be adapted to any section or shape. The makeup can be easily changed or worked over without actually having to remove it. This is a boon, especially if youre someone who always messes up their eyeliner and needs to remove and re-apply it all the time! The high-speed projection mapping is paired perfectly with the color correction tech to create a realistic makeup simulation in no time. By combining these, we have succeeded in developing an immersive makeup simulator that can achieve a natural finish that looks like you are actually applying makeup, even on a moving face, said Kos.The final result is seamless and wonderful, beating the AR-enabled virtual makeup try-on applications we often find on smartphones and smart mirrors. It reproduces natural colors and textures that AR cannot hope to replicate. Since the colors are directly projected onto the skin, the makeup is realistic, perfectly adapting to the persons skin tone. AR filters cannot achieve this realism. Kos believes this makes the MR Makeup Color Machine quite versatile in its potential. They believe it can be used beyond makeup and cosmetics. They say shortly, everyone should be able to try their makeup anytime and anywhere that is their goal.The MR Makeup technology has been showcased at CES 2025, allowing visitors to try the one-of-a-kind makeup service. It is designed to encourage personalized self-expression and offer potential for entertainment applications. Check it out if youre attending CES this year!The post Mixed Reality Makeup Simulator Creates The Ultimate Makeup Look That Even AR Cannot Reproduce first appeared on Yanko Design.

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In case you haven't checked outArchinect's Pinterestboards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various ArchinectFirmandPeopleprofiles.Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the boardDoors & Gates.Tip:Use the handyFOLLOW featureto easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles. The Old Town Hall's Ground Floor Interior inPrague, Czech Republic byStudio Olgoj Chorchoj; Photo:Honza Zima IMA House inSan Jos del Cabo, Mexico byEzequiel Farca Studio; Photo:Fernando Marroqun SC Residence inManhattan Beach, CA byLaney LA; Photo:Roger Davies Lake Hayes Home inQueenstown, New Zealand byBen Hudson Architects; Photo:John Williams West Seattle Chalet inWest Seattle, WA bySHED Architecture & Design House in Kutn Hora inKutn Hora, Czech Republic byBYR architekti; Photo:Alex Shoots Buildings Ju+ Coffee inNanjing, China bymodum atelier; Photo:Howie Fergie-Whistler Cab...