we have to many Ph.D's and when you need to do this to keep your slot = the college system is broken.

They are students not PhDs. And you don't "need" to do this to keep "your slot". Nobody is entitled to a slot. What you have to earn is not owed to you.

It's a competitive system, and you have to maintain certain level of merit and academic progress.

There is a right way. Either follow the rules or quit, and go do something more productive. And somebody deciding to become a criminal does not mean the system is broken.

from my overpriced Disney+ subscription was user-generated "AI" slop.

The article says a selection. Presumably terms will let them cherrypick videos they like, so it will probably be not slop, but whatever generations they deem high quality. Likely involving extra work by the end user, since actor voices aren't included for the characters.

Earth and are paying 1 billion to give it away. Make it make sense.

In short.. they are Not giving it away; they are expanding monetization into an area they'd not get money from before. They are earning billions in license fees for allowing limited use for limited time.

First AI came for the artists And I did not speak out Because I was not an artist

AI has not come for the artists. Artists are still necessary to create quality work.

There is simply a technical improvement, and you may have to learn new AI-based tools now required for the trade of creating animations.

More importantly: They set a business precedent for media companies that it is appropriate to demand licensing and expect generative AI companies have to pay for creating images resembling any of their characters/trained on their characters - even in a short video or internet meme context.

What they have licensed for now they can de-license in a few years, when Disney releases their own generative AI service.

That is the way with trademarks. X management has been very clear about stopping to use the name Twitter;
which means they won't use it anymore, therefore, they have no business continuing to claim a trademark.

That said the artists who drew the Twitter icon still get the copyright to their Logo and art assets, so another company shouldn't be able to just start using those. They will need to have to have their own art created.

If Elon really cared about the Twitter mark it would be, or would have been extremely easy; to keep a service Live using the mark.
Such as a Testbed website for X, for example, or an extra service to still be marketed under the Twitter name.. so called "Token use" wouldn't be sufficient, But you only need to have one actual service still using the branding to prevent it from being "abandoned". You can have a limited service with 100 customers, and still have the rights to your trademark. So If Elon/Twitter/X cares about this in the slightest; they should be able to easily block this proceeding. And you just need to resume use of it within 3 years to avoid it being abandoned under US law. So it's odd for them to petition the trademark office so early.. X can apply a new use of the mark within any schedule they want before that date. The attempt to usurp their IP would easily be blocked if X still cares in the slightest.

It will do nothing of the sort.

I have 4 kids, and we do not allow any of them on social media. I cannot help but question the sanity of any parent that does.

my generation grew up with AOL chat rooms, and anonymous web forum, and all the toxicity and grooming that entails. We lived through the rise of porn from text, to stills, to grainy video, up through to the 4k fire hose that is internet porn today.

anyone letting their kid on social media, or onto the internet in general without guide rails in place, needs to have their head examined. I use pihole to monitor DNS lookups, and admin privileges on all their devices to keep tabs on what they are trying to use. No social media accounts until 16-18 (depending on the site). I know that if they are motivated, they can find ways around this stuff, but they will have to work for it until they are old enough to move out.

They made that one mouse everyone liked. Remember that?

I'm happy to be a cyborg, you fuckweasel.

Shut up you moron.

No shit. We raised the price to $5 per letter, and now no one is writing any letters....

What makes the researchers think there are any humans on these channels anymore?

You just know that some dufus at the gym would bring a 10kg steel dumbbell into the MRI room and ruin things for everyone.

No.. this would have to be a locked restricted room where only MRI techs and their clients may access.
However; the equipment is A. Very expensive. Your Gymn is not likely to buy it.

B. Due to the expense.. It is likely that your nearest local Hospitals will guarantee you are not able to obtain the necessary permits in order to protect their monopoly. They've got a huge investment to protect, And they actually have to successfully sell MRIs at those rates to make the return on that investment. Can't have some random additional facility installing one nearby. Guaranteed it would be blocked by the government due to the availability of another provider's location and the lack of public necessity for yours.

Because TPM takes the users computer and makes it Microsoft's. It is a builtin, pre-installed rootkit. It was never about making the computer safer for the user, but safer for Microsoft.