[AI] DIsney
Well, this was inevitable: Disney strikes deal with OpenAI to let Sora generate AI videos of its characters.
The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it had reached a three-year agreement with OpenAI to bring its popular characters to the company's Sora artificial intelligence video generator.
Disney will also make a $1 billion investment in the ChatGPT owner. The company said it will become a “major customer” of OpenAI, using its services to develop new products and experiences, including for its Disney+ streaming service.
“Under the agreement, Disney and OpenAI are affirming a shared commitment to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and the rights of creators,” the companies said in a statement.
This might not be for the reasons you think. And I seriously doubt that Disney gives a damn about anything mentioned in the last paragraph. They just wanted to get paid.
AI companies have bottomless amounts of cash right now. They'll make the worst deal in the hopes that it will give them more momentum or market share. What Disney received in return wasn't disclosed, but I guarantee it was far, far too much.
This is the continuance of a cycle where AI companies massively overpay for everything and other companies let them. It's so strikingly similar to the late nineties when Internet commerce were bottomless wells of cash and paid massive amounts of money for everything.
Every non-AI company will siphon off as much money as they can before the bubble bursts, and when it does, it will be spectacular. This is not to say that companies the size of Google and Amazon won't emerge in the AI space, because they absolutely will. But there will be a massive reduction in the number of companies when they money starts to run out. And it will.
I Mean, This Is Everything You Need to Know
Even cats like the Golden Girls.
Zimbabwe (2)
These are Eli 24.4s post-race souvenirs:
That race number, in particular, is special.
Here's another souvenir:
These aren't so good, at least for now. And that 10-mile downhill to the finish cost him several toenails.
I sent him this:
That's supposed to be a dog. It was unsuccessful. But mine look pretty great in comparison.
Zimbabwe, Manhattan, and the Great Adventure
"Dad, I have good news and bad news." The connection is terrible. All kinds of chaos in the background. Happy chaos.
I start laughing. "I already know the bad news."
"The good news is I finished ninth and I was the first non-Zimbabwean. The bad news is I only got 59,000 steps. I'm sure I'll get another thousand, but I need you to do 40,000."
"Not a team player," I said. He laughed.
Earlier in the week, he sent me this picture from a training run:
Just your totally normal normal giraffe encounter. He also sent a short video of zebras running across the trail in front of him.
Zimbabwe was familiar--at least in terrain--because he'd spent so much time in Zambia. And the weather was perfect--low sixties, which was incredibly cool for this time of year.
Climbing up the tallest mountain in the country, though, about five hours in, it started pouring.
He climbed for the first twenty-five miles of the race, then got it all back in the last ten, but at such a steep angle that he said it was the worst part of the race, by far.
C and I had walked about 15,000 steps already when I got his call. I'd been mentally preparing myself for the possibility, though, so I wasn't entirely surprised by his number.
We'd already walked around Central Park, so we kept going.
The first 30,000 steps weren't bad at all. And C stayed with me for 17.5 miles, which was genuinely incredible. She already had more than 40,000 steps at that point because she's almost a foot shorter than I am. I was only at about 35,000, though.
Those last two and half miles were very very tough. It's easy to say, "All I need to do is keep walking," but it still gets hard.
His kids will have come catching up to do. More tomorrow.
The SkyRun 56k
Everything's a go in Zimbabwe. And here.
Eli 24.4 starts at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. All the races of various distance start at the same time, which is great, because he'll have fewer stretches by himself. He'll be greeted by excellent weather except for a significant chance of rain. He'll already have been running for eight hours (at least) by the time I start, and I got lucky. The weather here will be cold but entirely tolerable.
I don't really know how this will go. If he doesn't get the 70,000 steps he expects, I may be in big trouble, because I'm not sure I can put in more than 30,000.
It's just walking, though. All I have to do is keep walking.
The Headington Shark: Late-Breaking News
David Gloier let me know that the shark has actually been in that house since 1986. Incredible!
The
Wikipedia entry has lots of interesting information. Oh, and its length? 25 feet.
Oxford (3): The Headington Shark
You find the funniest things in the strangest places, sometimes.
We had a long discussion at a pub on graduation night about the Headington Shark. In Headington (only a few miles from Oxford), a man decided--for unknown reasons--to put a fake gigantic shark through his roof.
None of that was a typo.
The city council fought him on it for 5+ years and finally gave up. Which is how the shark now has a permanent residence in Headington.
The discussion (with three of Eli's friends) was long and complex. The neighbors must all hate it, we agreed, but what could they do about it? I suggested they put animals through their own roofs (a giraffe, for example) in hopes of driving down the shark's novelty. We went into such detail that it almost approached Shaq v Gorilla complexity.
The next morning, Eli 24.4 was running 30k as part of his Zimbabwe training program. I felt quite ill, but couldn't stand the thought of being in the room for hours while he was running, so I decided to go see the shark. About six miles, round trip.
Less than a quarter mile from Nuffield, I passed a prison nearly a thousand years old, which had tours prominently advertised. In fact, I could go in and see one in ten minutes.
Let's see. Thousand year old prison, full of history and unforgettable lore? Or a shark through a roof?
It was an easy choice. Off to Headington.
What they don't tell you about Headington, though, is there's not much else to see in Headington. Not the part I was in, at least. And once you've walked nearly three miles to see a shark, and you look at it for thirty seconds, there isn't much to do except turn around and go back.
That thirty seconds, though, was glorious:
That's not a small shark, as you can clearly see. I both felt awe at the sheer zany stupidity of it all and tremendous empathy for the neighbors who have to put up with it.
Greatness, as always, has its costs.
Oxford (2)
Oxford is a remarkable place, particularly on or near campus. You're in the company of so many highly intelligent, hilarious people, and every conversation is interesting (a detailed discussion of the Headington Shark--which I'll tell you about tomorrow--followed by a deeply philosophical discussion of advanced directives, for example). It's totally unique.
The Harry Potter tourists that blanket the shops around campus are neither amazing nor unique. That part isn't so great, and Eli 24.4 said it was a light time for tourists (who were absolutely everywhere). He said you can't even walk on the sidewalks in summer.
One of the things that consistently happens near campus is seeing something that you'd literally never see anywhere else. Like this:
The person on the right is walking down the street holding a scepter. Business as usual here.
Plus, there's the architecture:
The buildings are centuries old and look like something out of the seventeenth century (or sooner) because many of them are. It's utterly memorable.
Everywhere we went, Eli was welcomed as a friend. Teachers, administrators, friends, even places like coffee shops or retail shops he frequents. He's filled his life with healthy, friendly, warm people. It made me so happy to see. He said once that Oxford was the place where he felt like he most belonged, and I understand why now.
Oxford (1)
Sorry, it took me a while to get to this because I've been sick.
I can hardly keep up with Eli 24.4--he sent me pictures yesterday from a trail run where there were giraffes and zebras--but let's go back to Oxford first.
I've shown this before, but this is the theatre (the Sheldonian, designed by Christopher Wren, built 1664-1669) where the ceremony was held:
Waiting in line, seeing all the people in line to celebrate their kids (now adults), I started tearing up. Everyone seemed to have two parents and grandparents and siblings, and Eli had...me. I felt so bad that Gloria wasn't there, too. She deserved to be there.
This is the inside of The Sheldonian:
It's shockingly beautiful. Hard to comprehend, really.
Eli walked in, saw me, and waved with a big smile on his face.
This graduation ceremony was first performed over eight centuries ago, and the only change has been the addition of a presenter explaining why most of the ceremony is in Latin and why there's so much doffing of caps (it's done as a sign of respect).
I did everything I could to not start crying, even though I was tearing up quite a bit (later, Eli told me he'd been doing the same). The arc of his life is hard for me to fathom in moments like this. He's so young, but what a life he's already had.
Here we are after the ceremony.
I don't think either one of us could have been any happier.
I Had a Clever Title, But It's Been Forgotten
Eli 24.3 is leaving for Zimbabwe tomorrow for the
SkyRun, which is 56k of incredibly difficult ultra-marathon. He'll be there for a week to acclimatize to the altitude, and the race is on December 6.
We talked on the phone this week about family records.
We have family records for everything (all held by him or me), and also have an endless amount of fun talking about them.
"I wish we had a combined record," Eli said. "Something my kids and their kids would have a real challenge to beat. Like a combined 100,000 step day."
"Maybe the time for that is past--"
"Wait a minute! I'll probably get 70,000 steps during the race."
"Uh-oh, I see where this is going," I said.
And so it did. On the day he runs the ultra, I'll be chugging through Manhattan, trying to reach 30,000 steps to get us to 100,000.
I haven't walked 15 miles in one day in a long time, but we did do 24,000 steps one day in Japan. And it's an opportunity to walk the length of Central Park and all the way down to the Financial District. I think I can get through it.
Here's hoping, anyway.
A Star is Born
We're hate-watching a show on Netflix called The Beast In Me.
Everyone involved in the show mailed it in--writers, directors, producers. The actors, too.
Well, except for one striking example.
"What that episode needed was more Steve," I said.
"They're giving him less and less screen time," C said.
"He's the only one doing his job. They're really handcuffing him with the script. I mean, he barked when the bad guy came in, so he's suddenly not going to know he's behind a door? He can smell him! Why isn't he barking?"
"There's no chance he doesn't smell him," C said.
"It's embarrassing that he's having to do this lowbrow show, but actors have to work. I bet he looks at this garbage script, puts his paws over his eyes, and does everything in one take. He's the only professional in the entire series."
"Has he been in anything else?"
"I don't know. I wonder if he has an IMDb page."
