Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
YouTube Is Rolling Out an Age-Estimation Algorithm to Identify US Teens
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
YouTube on Tuesday announced it’s beginning to roll out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience. The company says it will use a variety of signals to determine the users’ possible age, regardless of what the user entered as their birthday when they signed up for an account.
Well-intentioned though I think this is, it still feels more than a little dystopian.
Sony Sues Tencent for Allegedly Ripping Off ‘Horizon’ Video Games
Reuters:
Sony released the first game in the Horizon series, Horizon: Zero Dawn, on its PlayStation 4 in 2017. The games follow a red-headed woman named Aloy as she navigates a post-apocalyptic world populated by human tribes and robotic animals.
Sony said in its complaint that it declined an offer from Tencent to collaborate on a new Horizon game last year. Tencent later announced Light of Motiram, which Sony said features identical gameplay, story themes and artistic elements to Horizon as well as many other similarities.
Sony said that video game journalists have characterized Light of Motiram as a “knock-off” of Horizon, including one who called the game Horizon Zero Originality.
Tencent is the Chinese software giant behind, amongst many other things, WeChat, China’s “everything app”.
The E-Book Editions of Timothy Snyder’s ‘On Tyranny’ Are Just $2
Back in March I linked to and recommended Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, a cogent collection of 20 short essays. I was never a big e-book reader, both because I love printed books so much and because I welcome any respite from reading on screens of any sort. But if e-books are your thing, note that Apple Books currently has it for just $2. Amazon’s Kindle edition is also $2 — and the paperback edition, which is the lovely little thing I own, is an oddly but low-priced $7.31.