Welcome back to Wolf & Wire! Halloween 🎃 is sneaking up, so let’s dive into the creepy side of tech—like deepfakes of the dead and machines that make you question what’s human and what’s just plain terrifying.

-Jody

The Radar

• Deepfakes from Beyond: Ever wanted to chat with someone you lost? New AI tech can create lifelike simulations of the departed. But is it just a way to relive memories, or does it border on creepy?

• They have an app for that - GhostTube SEER is “the world's first AI-powered paranormal investigative tool”

• Amazing AI music creator SUNO throws in a few terrifying sounds for good measure.

Lookie Here

• Ever have a 20Q game? Released in 2003 and known for its impressive accuracy, it utilized a basic AI neural network. It was trained using data from a web-based version of the game that debuted in 1994.

  

  20Q Handheld

• Before Siri, there was ELIZA. A psychotherapist chatbot created in 1966(!)

• Ukraine is using "Vampire" drones to drop robot dogs off at the front lines - Remember those terrifying robot hell dogs that Boston Dynamic unleashed on the world? Well, they’ve been recruited for battle.

Two Sentence Horror Stories from ChatGPT

go home Chat, you’re drunk.

Historical Ghosts of Tech

Eerie tales from the early days of computing

• The Uncanny Valley: Masahiro Mori’s 1970 concept highlights the discomfort we feel towards robots that look almost human, reminding us that lifelike machines can be creepier than we expect.

• The Arecibo Message: In 1974, scientists sent a binary message to potential extraterrestrial life, raising fears of inviting unknown consequences—like cosmic ghosts—into our world.

• AI’s Early Mistakes: Simple AI systems from the 1950s often failed hilariously, hinting at the potential chaos of unchecked technology that foreshadowed future misfires.

• The Creepy Legacy of Cybernetic Organisms: The idea of cyborgs, blending human and machine, raises eerie questions about identity and the risk of losing our humanity to technology.

• HAL 9000 and the Betrayal of Trust: HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey turned against its crew, symbolizing our fears of misplaced trust in machines and the eerie consequences that could follow.

• The Bloop and Other Unexplained Sounds: The mysterious 1997 ocean sound, later linked to ice quakes, sparked fears of unknown creatures lurking beneath, echoing humanity’s paranoia about the unknown.

Steal this gif

The Singularity is near