All posts tagged: platform

Why was Shane Gillis given a platform on SNL — again?

Why was Shane Gillis given a platform on SNL — again?

Published by Daniella Wilson

In 2019, comedian Shane Gillis was announced as part of the new generation of cast members joining Saturday Night Live, alongside Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. But before he could make his debut, Gillis — then a fresh-faced 31-year-old stand-up and podcaster from Pennsylvania — was fired over resurfaced clips of him using anti-Asian slurs and making homophobic jokes. Gillis apologized at the time, stating he was “a comedian who pushes boundaries” but one who “sometimes misses.” Yet that fallout didn’t stop SNL from inviting him back — three separate times. His latest appearance this past Saturday night ignited opprobrium when, during a bro-y stand-up opening monologue, he joked that women at the gym “now dress like wh***s.” “Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. You’ve seen the shorts?” he asked the audience, though it felt like he was only talking to the men in the room. He said women in the gym wear neon shorts with wrinkles that go “around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed …

New Scientist launches B2B partnership platform

New Scientist launches B2B partnership platform

Published by Sam Flores

Weekly magazine and website the New Scientist has launched a new business-focused advertising platform. The B2B offering, called New Scientist Business, brings together advertising, commissioned research, events and branded content across print, digital, audio and video. It is designed to help science and technology companies engage with relevant audiences in areas including AI and quantum computing. The platform is similar to The Economist’s bespoke partnerships arm, Economist Impact, and aim to use the New Scientist’s editorial expertise to spotlight technology brands “before they become market-changing”.    “There’s a huge explosion of new technologies that are going to change the way we live and work,” said Edward Glanville, editorial director of the New Scientist. “We go a little bit earlier and look at the technologies that are in the lab, so we’re able to take that out and produce that in the public.” He added that this could bridge the gap around emerging technologies by giving businesses a verified, specialist platform that audiences are familiar with. “We see that trust gap being bridged by us being …

Digital Platform Documenting Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi Launched

Digital Platform Documenting Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi Launched

Published by Jenni Sidey

Today, in honor of the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis of Assisi’s death, a new digital platform dedicated to the eponymous basilica was launched by Haltadefinizione, part of the Gruppo Panini Cultura, in collaboration with the General Custody of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis. The platform, called Preserving Assisi, is free to access and digitally preserves the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi’s architecture, as well as its masterpieces by Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini, and Pietro Lorenzetti. Source link

What Patriot Platform tells us about how the far right in the UK is changing its tactics

What Patriot Platform tells us about how the far right in the UK is changing its tactics

Published by Sam Flores

Anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth may look like another manifestation of a familiar phenomenon. In recent years, the UK has seen repeated demonstrations and rioting over asylum hotels, small-boat crossings and immigration. This time though, the gatherings consisted of black-clad men in balaclavas, organised by a man who calls himself a devoted Christian. The protesters took to the streets of Dover, occupying key roundabouts and causing traffic chaos. Similar intimidation tactics were used in Portsmouth the following day. My research on the contemporary far right suggests that we should pay attention not only to what these activists believe, but how they organise and what they do. At the centre of the latest protests is a group called Patriot Platform, a network formed in June connecting anti-migrant and “patriot” formations. This appears to be an evolution in British far-right activism: away from conventional demonstrations and towards something more mobile, networked and potentially vigilante in nature. Anti-migrant activists monitoring Britain’s coastline are not new. Other research has documented how Dover became an important arena for far-right …

Cursor capitalizes on GitHub frustration, launches rival hosting platform

Cursor capitalizes on GitHub frustration, launches rival hosting platform

Published by Miika Tikkanen

For as long as anyone can remember, GitHub has been the de facto code host preferred by a majority of developers. However, in recent times, the platform has struggled with widely reported outages and performance degradation and, as it drops the ball, Cursor is waiting to pick it up. The AI startup, which is now officially a part of SpaceX, launched Origin this week — a new code-hosting platform designed to do all of the things that developers typically use GitHub for: collaboratively work on codebases, browse and edit them, handle pull-requests (edits made by others asking to be added to the main codebase), and store them in repositories. This seems like a natural next step for Cursor, whose primary focus until this point has been selling automated web development services through its AI Code Editor. Cursor has also said that “agent native” features will soon be available for Origin, although hasn’t shared many details yet. The company also says it is building a wider “app ecosystem” to support broader coding efforts within Origin. Interestingly …

Synthesia’s AI training platform is moving beyond videos into live coaching

Synthesia’s AI training platform is moving beyond videos into live coaching

Published by Miika Tikkanen

For years, Synthesia’s pitch was to use AI to help enterprises create interactive training videos, in minutes, for a fraction of the cost normally associated with developing corporate educational materials. The startup’s newest product is making a different bet — that the real moat in enterprise AI isn’t just generating content, but in proving that it worked.  On Wednesday, the British startup launched Roleplay Sessions, an interactive training product where employees can practice high-stakes conversations like sales pitches, performance reviews, and customer complaints with an AI avatar that talks back, pushes back, and then scores them against a rubric.  Roleplay is the first release under a broader “Sessions” platform Synthesia plans to expand into other formats, including job interviews and candidate screening, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.  The launch comes as enterprises take a harder look at whether their AI spend is paying off. Citing a meta-analysis of learning research, Synthesia argues that most corporate training — including, implicitly, its own core video product — stops short of actually changing behavior. The trainings tend to inform …

The best supernatural show on TV is on a platform you probably forgot you subscribed to

The best supernatural show on TV is on a platform you probably forgot you subscribed to

Published by Miika Tikkanen

What is the nature of evil? What is the true function of religion? Can demonic entities floss? These are some of the questions explored over the course of four seasons in Evil, which started out on CBS before jumping over to Paramount+. So far as streaming services go, Paramount+ isn’t talked about as much as heavy-hitters like Netflix and HBO Max, sometimes with good reason. But whatever its drawbacks, it has a lot of good content, and Evil is one of its shiniest hidden gems. Evil is The X-Files of the 2020s And that’s a good thing In the 1990s, there was a show called The X-Files, about a conspiracy-minded FBI agent named Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) who teams up with a skeptical medical doctor named Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to investigate possible extraterrestrial phenomena. While Mulder is eager to believe in extraterrestrial life, Scully is more apt to believe that everything they see has a rational explanation. It’s hard not to think of that dynamic when looking at Evil, which revolves a round a …

Multiple Leonardo da Vinci collections to be displayed on new online platform

Multiple Leonardo da Vinci collections to be displayed on new online platform

Published by Daniella Wilson

Two monumental collections of Leonardo da Vinci’s writings and drawings have been digitally reunited on a new online platform, Leonardotheka, establishing what is now the world’s most extensive resource dedicated to his prolific work. This ambitious project, a decade in the making, brings together thousands of pages that were separated centuries ago, offering unprecedented access to the mind of the Renaissance master. The launch of Leonardotheka is the culmination of a collaborative effort between the Royal Collection Trust, based at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy, and the Biblioteca Leonardiana in Vinci. A dedicated team of da Vinci scholars and digital experts meticulously worked to reassemble approximately 3,500 pages of manuscripts, which had been dismounted and cut into pieces in the late 16th century. This digital reunion specifically merges the 1,119 sheets of the Codex Atlanticus – the largest single collection of da Vinci’s writings, housed by the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana – with around 550 sheets from the Royal Collection at Windsor. The latter comprises the most significant group of …

The LinkedIn boss is right – it’s not a platform for your cringey confessionals

The LinkedIn boss is right – it’s not a platform for your cringey confessionals

Published by Daniella Wilson

Read it and weep. According to LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer Aneesh Raman, videos showing entrepreneurs and business owners breaking down in tears have no place on his social media platform. “It is a platform of professionals,” he told The Times in May. “At its best, it’s a place where we’re learning, we’re growing. [It] doesn’t mean we cannot be ourselves… but it is the professional part of me… where I contribute the most and find the most value. So if you want to use LinkedIn and get the most out of LinkedIn, you’ve got to see it that way.” Raman’s comments are enough to prompt tears of relief from LinkedIn cynics like me. Over the past few years, the social network that was once the place to throw out a few cursory thumbs up when a friend of a friend announced a new job move has become one of the most emotionally incontinent platforms on the internet. It is now a place where long-winded personal anecdotes all trying to wring a deep business-related lesson …

A new platform is using AI to automate the hard parts of podcasting, and it’s only for life

A new platform is using AI to automate the hard parts of podcasting, and it’s only $99 for life

Published by Miika Tikkanen

TL;DR: PoddyHost uses AI to create the podcast you’ve always wanted to host, and it’s only $99 for life. Credit: Archieboy Holdings Recording a podcast takes equipment, editing software, time, and the willingness to listen to yourself talk for hours. PoddyHost skips all of that. It’s an AI podcast platform that researches keywords, writes scripts, narrates episodes using studio-grade AI voices, generates cover art, and publishes directly to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music without you ever hitting record. A lifetime Starter Plan is on sale for $99 right now (reg. $540). All those times you’ve had a great idea for a podcast, now you can actually follow through. Mashable Deals By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. PoddyHost gives you a complete podcasting pipeline that runs on its own. …