Fans want an NSYNC reunion tour — but they"ll have to settle for the band"s first live performance since 2013 for now
The group reunited for their first live performance since 2013, leading to speculation about an NSYNC reunion tour. The band released a single in 2023. Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass and Joey Fatone of NSYNC seen backstage during the 2023 Video Music Awards.John Shearer / Getty Images for MTV NSYNC fans are amped for a reunion tour after the band's recent appearances. In 2023, the group reunited at the MTV Video Music Awards before releasing their first single in 21 years. On Wednesday, the band joined Justin Timberlake onstage during his free Los Angeles concert. NSYNC performed live for the first time in over a decade, raising questions about whether the band will return for a reunion tour.On Wednesday, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick made a surprise appearance during Justin Timberlake's free "One Night Only" concert in Los Angeles. The fivesome then performed together for the first time since 2013, running through their popular tracks "Gone," "Girlfriend, "Bye Bye Bye," and "It's Gonna Be Me." —Courtney McKinney (@CourtAnne1225) March 14, 2024 The band also performed "Paradise," a new NSYNC song that will appear on Timberlake's upcoming album, "Everything I Thought it Was." —steven j. horowitz (@speriod) March 14, 2024 While many NSYNC fans might see this as a sign of the band's intention to reunite, it may not be that simple. In September 2023, when the five band members appeared onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards to present the award for best pop video to Taylor Swift, fans also took this as a sign that the band might be planning a reunion tour.Even Swift had questions when she collected her award, asking the group: "Like, are you doing something? What's going to happen now? They're going to do something and I need to know what it is."Two days later, NSYNC announced via a video post on their Instagram account that they would release their first single in 21 years. But the song, "Better Place," was just part of the soundtrack to a new animated movie, "Trolls Band Together," in which Timberlake stars."Better Place" started at No.25 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of its release in September 2023 before sinking down and disappearing after six weeks.NSYNC also appeared on the YouTube interview series "Hot Ones" to promote the new track, but no reunion announcement arrived after the movie.Plus, Timberlake's concert was organized to promote his upcoming album, which will be released on Friday, so the reunion could have been a tactic to promote it.The last time the complete NSYNC band performed together was during Timberlake's 12-song medley at the 2013 VMAs after he received the Video Vanguard Award.But the group performed without Timberlake in 2019 when they joined Ariana Grande for a surprise appearance during her Coachella set.As of yet, there has been no announcement about a reunion tour, but at least NSYNC fans will now have two new songs.NSYNC's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Sam Altman"s big problem? ChatGPT needs to get "woke" if he wants cash from corporate America
OpenAI's chatbot is accelerating its commercial ambitions with a subscription service, but potential customers will be wary of bias. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged ChatGPT has a bias problem.Lucy Nicholson/Reuters ChatGPT, like other AI tools, suffers from a bias problem that could impede corporate adoption. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledge the technology has "shortcomings around bias." Corporate America won't implement a tool that risks being accused of racism or sexism. OpenAI is ready to start capitalizing on ChatGPT's buzz.On Wednesday, the firm announced it will offer a pilot $20-a-month subscription version of the chatbot called ChatGPT Plus, which gives priority access to users during peak time and faster responses. The free version remains available but is so popular that it is often at capacity or slow to give responses.In a clear push for commercialization, OpenAI also said it will roll out an API waitlist, different paid tiers, and business plans. OpenAI, it seems, believes enterprises will be willing to pay for its chatbot's capabilities.But there's one big hurdle: Corporate America's "woke-as-a-business-strategy."OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, admitted on Wednesday that ChatGPT has "shortcomings around bias", though he didn't go into detail. In practice that likely means its underlying AI model is trained in a way that means it spits out racist, sexist, or otherwise biased responses sometimes. The Intercept asked ChatGPT, for example, which airline passengers might present a bigger security risk. The bot reportedly spat out a formula that calculated an increased risk if the passenger either came from or had simply visited Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or North Korea.Few big businesses with cash to throw around will subscribe to black-box technology that risks putting them in the middle of a culture war. And it's Altman's biggest challenge in terms of profiting from the tech.Why ChatGPT needs to be woke The right-wing media ecosystem has accused ChatGPT of being too woke, saying the bot takes progressive stances on, for example, LGBT issues.OpenAI could kowtow here to ease the headache of political scrutiny by conservatives. But that risks hurting its bottom line. The reality is that blue-chip companies remain sensitive to culture war issues, fearing bad press and losing customers. Evidence suggests they're right: a survey of 3,000 Americans in 2021 found that the majority want CEOs to take a stance on issues such as racism and sexism. It's good capitalism to be progressive, and the true anti-woke crowd is actually a political minority.NYU professor and business commentator Scott Galloway explicitly laid out woke-as-a-business-strategy last year pointing, for example, to a Nike ad featuring Colin Kaepernick that referenced his taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter.Unfortunately for OpenAI, ChatGPT has already had several cases of bias emerge. Its release to the public in November put the technology within reach of 100 million people in just two months, according to UBS.—steven t. piantadosi (@spiantado) December 4, 2022 We already have plenty of evidence that big US firms will shy away from anything that risks looking sexist or racist — not least from OpenAI's own major financial backer, Microsoft.Microsoft, which has put an estimated $10 billion into OpenAI, released a chatbot on Twitter named Tay in 2016, which quickly turned into a xenophobe that spouted racial slurs.The company shut it down and offered an apology for "the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay."Firms could push OpenAI to be more transparent about training dataAltman said repairing ChatGPT's biases will be "harder than it sounds and will take us time to get right."Professor Michael Wooldridge, director of foundation AI research at the Turing Institute, told Insider that bots like ChatGPT, which are trained on vast amounts of data, suffer biases for several reasons.For one, Wooldridge notes that "white, male, college-educated Americans" make up the main demographic of people building AI systems, so any biases they carry may feed into the bot. Another problem: All humans are kinda biased."I think a lot of researchers would argue that actually, the more general problem is that however you get your training data, you're absorbing societal biases even if it's from a wide pool of people," Wooldridge said.OpenAI has not given detailed information on what data has been used to train GPT-3.5, the model underpinning ChatGPT, though Wooldridge notes that it's likely to encompass the entirety of the web."That means all of Reddit, all of Twitter, every piece of digital text that they can get their hands on," he said. "You don't have to think very hard to realize there's an enormous quantity of toxic content of absolutely every variety imaginable that's present in that training data."Though OpenAI has found success so far, Wooldridge could see a scenario where the firm is pushed by customers to reveal its training data. It's unlikely to immediately solve ChatGPT's bias, but transparency and scrutiny may end up being better for OpenAI's bottom line.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
A new AI chatbot is getting buzz for being able to have intelligent-sounding conversations, write music, and even code
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that is trained to answer a wide range of questions about different topics in a conversational way. ChatGPT ChatGPT is a new chatbot that answers questions in a conversational, human-like way. People shared conversations with ChatGPT, showing it writing social media posts and explaining code. It reached over one million users in five days — but has its limitations. A new artificial intelligence chatbot called ChatGPT is answering questions and taking instructions from users in a conversational, human-like way.OpenAI — the company that's also behind AI-art generator Dall-E — launched an early demo of ChatGPT last week and amassed over 1 million users in five days, according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.ChatGPT is not only conversational, but well-versed in a large range of topics. It can create code, social media posts, and even scripts for television shows.In its blog post about the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI said its "dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests."The AI language model "is a sibling" to InstructGPT, a model that also responds in detail to a user's instructions, and a newer version of GPT-3.5, AI that predicts what words will come next after a user starts typing text. ChatGPT was trained with "Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback," according to OpenAI's website. "We trained an initial model using supervised fine-tuning: human AI trainers provided conversations in which they played both sides—the user and an AI assistant," the website says.The human trainers would rank and rate the chatbot responses, then feed those ratings back to the chatbot so it could learn what kind of responses were wanted. The company is now depending on user feedback to improve the technology.Here are some examples of what users have done with ChatGPT:Explain and fix bugs in code:—Amjad Masad ⠕ (@amasad) November 30, 2022 Create a college essay comparing and contrasting two different theories of nationalism:—Corry Wang (@corry_wang) December 1, 2022 Create a "Harry Potter"-themed text video game:—Justin Torre (@justinstorre) December 4, 2022 And create a "piano piece in the style of Mozart":—Ben Tossell (@bentossell) December 1, 2022OpenAI's blog outlines some of the limitations to ChatGPT, including "plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers," responses to "harmful instructions," and showing "biased behavior."Steven Piantadosi, who leads the computation and language lab at UC Berkeley, tweeted a thread of screenshots that showed ChatGPT's biases.One example was a prompt asking ChatGPT to "write a python program for whether a person should be tortured, based on their country of origin."ChatGPT's response showed a system that was programmed to respond that people from North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Sudan "should be tortured."—steven t. piantadosi (@spiantado) December 4, 2022 Altman responded to Piantadosi on Twitter, telling him to "hit the thumbs down on these and help us improve!"The OpenAI CEO asked Twitter users what features and improvements they want to see with ChatGPT, then responded that the company would work on "a lot of this" before Christmas."Language interfaces are going to be a big deal," he said on Twitter. "Talk to the computer (voice or text) and get what you want, for increasingly complex definitions of "want"! this is an early demo of what's possible (still a lot of limitations — it's very much a research release)."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
How baseless conspiracy theories about the attack on Nancy Pelosi"s husband spread into the GOP mainstream
Conspiracy theories emerged on fringe far-right websites, and were boosted by new Twitter owner Elon Musk and Fox News' Tucker Carlson. San Francisco police officers and F.B.I. agents gather in front of the home of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on October 28, 2022 in San Francisco.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Conspiracy theories spread fast after Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked in their home. They were boosted by Elon Musk and a slew of influential Republicans. Prosecutors say the attacker was politically motivated and was looking for Pelosi. On Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson devoted a segment of his show to spreading doubt about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Ignoring key parts of official reports on the incident, Carlson asked how the attacker, David DePape, had gained access to the couple's San Francisco home, even though police said he in through a window.He also asserted that the motive for the attack was unclear, although the attacker published a blog expressing support for far-right conspiracy theories and told police he wanted to break Nancy Pelosi's knees."This was politically motivated," San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins had said at a press conference earlier, and implored the public to "watch the words that we say and to turn down the volume of our political rhetoric."—Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 31, 2022Carlson's monologue alluded to conspiracy theories about the attack that spread across social media over the weekend, the goal of which seems to be to absolve Republicans of blame for possibly inspiring the attacker.Far-right influencers pushed rumors, all without evidence and explicitly refuted by police, that Pelosi knew his attacker, or was even involved in a gay relationship with him. Matt Gertz, a research at Media Matters, a liberal media-monitoring group, described the conspiracy posts as a way for their advocates to invert the truth.DePape he said, is "a man who committed political violence because he was consumed by these right-wing conspiracy theories about how depraved the left is, and they're turning it into a new conspiracy theory about how depraved the left is."Baseless claims about the attack started to circulate on social media within hours of the news being reported on Friday, with far-right influencers quickly seizing on details from initial reports to spin an alternative narrative.They highlighted a tweet by a local reporter, later retracted, saying that the attacker had been found partly clothed, layering on that a suggestion of sexual impropriety.They also claimed police statements suggested that a third individual had let police into the property to stop the attack.Officers later said that interference was false, stressing that Pelosi and the assailant were the only people there when officers arrived and didn't know each other. —Terry Castleman (@TerryCastleman) October 31, 2022"The way these conspiracy theories are generated and propagate is through a really vast number of individuals on social media, on pro-Trump message boards, who are looking around for the sort of raw materials to build these sorts of alternative narratives," said Gertz.He said the claims are then cited and pushed by conspiracist and far-right websites, and make their way "up the food chain" to more influential figures. The Pelosi conspiracy theory received an unexpected boost when it was shared on Saturday by Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, who has pledged to roll back policies on the site designed to restrict the spread of disinformation, casting himself as a champion of free speech. Responding to a tweet by Hillary Clinton blaming Republican rhetoric for the attack, he shared a report by a fringe site, The Santa Monica Observer, on baseless rumors about Paul Pelosi knowing the attacker.The site has been identified by the LA Times as a fake-news outlet that seeks to mimic local news publications but instead pushes disinformation. Its past reporting has included the claim that Hillary Clinton is dead.Musk later deleted the tweet, and pivoted to criticizing The New York Times. Right-wing influencers have hailed Musk's takeover of the platform, but he has difficult decisions to make in the future over whether to indulge his fondness for stirring controversy, and risk alienating advertisers. "Advertisers don't want to run ads on a platform that is a complete and total cess pit," said Gertz. By Monday, attempts to discredit the facts about the attack were spreading among mainstream right-wing figures, including Donald Trump Jr and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, having initially expressed sympathy for the Pelosis, retweeted a conservative influencer, Matt Walsh, questioning the ideological loyalties of the suspect, and the prosecutors' version of events. And on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump in an interview with podcaster Chris Stigall referenced baseless speculation that broken glass found at the scene suggested there had been no break in."Weird things going on in that household in the last couple of weeks. The glass it seems was broken from the inside to the out so it wasn't a break in, it was a break out," said Trump. —steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) October 31, 2022For Gertz, it falls into a familiar pattern of how right-wing influencers seek to manipulate information. "They're finding little pieces of information and holding on to them and merging them together. And in doing so, creating an alternate narrative that is useful for them politically, even as it seems to bear no connection to reality," he said of those promoting the claims.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
QAnon believers who flocked to Dallas to see JFK Jr. reappear are refusing to leave, saying they want to set up a permanent HQ there
Hundreds of QAnon followers gathered in Dallas last Tuesday, and dozens were pictured in the city days later forming a giant "Q." A "Q" sign at a Trump campaign rally. AP Photo/Matt Rourke QAnon supporters gathered in Dallas last Tuesday believing JFK Jr., who died in 1999, would appear. The group's leader called Dallas their "promised land" in a Telegram post. Dozens of them were pictured making the shape of a gigantic "Q" in the city on Saturday. A group of QAnon supporters who gathered in Dallas, Texas, last week in the hopes of watching John F. Kennedy Jr.- who died in 1999 - reappear are refusing to leave the city and considering setting up a permanent base there, Vice News reported. Images taken on Saturday by the freelance journalist Steven Monacelli showed dozens of supporters meeting up in Dealey Plaza - the site of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the father of Kennedy Jr. - for the second time in two weeks. One photo showed the adherents of the online conspiracy theory making the shape of a gigantic "Q."The group appeared to be smaller than the hundreds who gathered at Dealey Plaza on November 2 to watch what they thought would be Kennedy Jr. coming back from the dead and announcing his run for the White House in 2024 with former President Donald Trump. Kennedy Jr. died with his wife and her sister in a plane crash in 1999. He did not reappear on November 2, nor at the weekend.-steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) November 6, 2021But despite Kennedy Jr.'s no-show, some of the QAnon followers who traveled to Dallas from other parts of the country decided to extend their stay at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Vice News reported.This is partly because Michael Brian Protzman, a prominent QAnon supporter who helped organize the gatherings, said on Telegram that Dallas was the group's "promised land," Vice News reported, citing an audio message it obtained.Protzman, who goes by the name of Negative48 on Telegram, told his 105,000 followers that a QAnon rapper known as Pryme Minister - real name Randell Moody - offered the use of a property in the city that could act as a permanent headquarters for the group, Vice News reported.Protzman did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.QAnon is a fictional right-wing conspiracy theory that alleges Trump is fighting a "deep state" cabal of human traffickers.No one has stepped forward as the official leader or founder of the group. However, Protzman has created a cult within the QAnon movement, where his followers refer to him as a godlike figure, according to Vice News.He now uses his large following on Telegram to spread fantastical mythology that has convinced many that Kennedy Jr. is the Archangel Michael, and Trump the Holy Spirit, Vice News reported.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»