Nvidia AI turns sketches into photorealistic landscapes in seconds →
Today at Nvidia GTC 2019, the company unveiled a stunning image creator. Using generative adversarial networks, users of the software are with just a few clicks able to sketch images that are nearly photorealistic:
What if All the World's Economic Woes Are Part of the Same Problem? →
Interesting hypothesis on the interconnectedness of global economic challenges.
The faces of Microsoft : Type Magazine →
More detail than you could ever want to know about the people and history behind the typography teams at Microsoft.
The Fireworks King →
Roughly 70 percent of all Chinese fireworks entering the United States come here under the control of a Chinese businessman who has used his influence to raise prices and block competitors, leaving many U.S. executives fearful of losing access to their most important Fourth of July inventories.
The Best Way To Save People From Suicide →
[Jerome Motto] was the only American to devise an experiment that dramatically reduced suicide deaths. His technique didn't involve a complicated thousand-page manual to follow or $1 billion in pharmaceutical research and development. All he did was send occasional letters to those at risk.
Study after study has shown our well-being, mental health, and ability to resist addiction correlated with our connectedness to one another or our sense of isolation. See also Rat Park.
Rembrandt in the Blood: An Obsessive Aristocrat, Rediscovered Paintings and an Art-World Feud →
An interesting detour into the world of old masters.
This is Microsoft's AI pipeline, from research to reality →
It's not enough to have brilliant researchers and a bunch of popular products. You've got to have a system - or several systems - for melding raw technology into experiences that make a difference for businesses and consumers.
Cool look into how some of the Artificial Intelligence efforts within Microsoft have taken off.
Open Federal Data is Now the Law of the Land →
Federal agencies must publish all public data in a machine-readable format and appoint chief data officers to oversee open data efforts under a new law.
What if Cities Are No Longer the Land of Opportunity for Low-Skilled Workers? →
[...] cities no longer offer low-skilled workers the economic advantages they once did, according to new analysis by the M.I.T. economist David Autor.
The 50/50 Murder →
A great series of essays on the impact of technology, privitization, globalization, probability, and governance. The kicker is probably:
As time passes and a community grows, the odds of someone from it doing something bizarrely awful go from slim, to high, to near-certain.