With more than 1,300 dead and approximately 60,000 infected, the coronavirus has left China amid a public health crisis. The virus has led businesses across the country to close their doors, affecting China’s domestic economy as well as the global economy. A recent article by CNN spotlights one of the industries most affected by the crisis, the entertainment industry, mainly focusing on the Hollywood film industry.

Disney’s long-awaited release of its live-action remake of Mulan is set to hit theaters in North America on March 27th. Mulan tells the story of a female Chinese warrior, fighting to protect her country from invaders. Disney invested over $200 million in the remake, expecting it to be wildly successful among Chinese box offices. China is the second-largest movie market in the world, the United States taking the top spot. Disney anticipated that the release of Mulan would break records across China. The success of the film now depends on how the country recovers from this crisis and how quickly businesses across the country can operate as usual. Given the fact China is the second-largest movie market in the world, a large portion of ticket sales depends on Chinese box offices. A film cannot gross millions or even billions worldwide without help from Chinese moviegoers. Although Mulan could still perform well on a global scale, with China out of the equation, for now, its success is limited.  

Although the crisis in China has raised concerns among countless studios set to release films in China, the case of Mulan is different. Disney created Mulan to be a “tailor-made success in China.” This is likely due to the fact the storyline of Mulan has “significant roots in Chinese lore.” This factor has made China a crucial player in the film’s release strategy and subsequent success following release. Alongside, Disney has built extensive infrastructure across China in recent years through theme parks and merchandising. Disney was hoping for significant pay off with the release of Mulan. The film features an international cast and revised storyline, making it more “straightforward” than the original animated version of the film. Given the cultural relevance and family-friendly nature of the film, Disney was expecting massive success, as family films are among the most successful films among Chinese audiences. Just last year, China contributed over $9 million to international box office sales. This continued disruption across the Chinese film market has the potential to affect studios beyond just Disney alone. Studios must now consider how to achieve success in releases with China out of the equation.

Facial recognition software is no longer a hypothetical instrument used in the future it’s here and now. London and Chinese police have already begun to implement the software in real time in their respected countries closed-captioned TV network. The software is able to track the whereabouts of any individual that it targets. Facial recognition is a huge topic in today’s politics and cities like San Francisco have already banned the technology for police use and other government agencies. This new technology is problematic however covering your face is a simple hack to beat the software. Wearing a facemask in public isn’t exactly practical either. To combat this artist and fashion designers are creating new ways to fool the software.

One method to beat facial recognition is anti-facial recognition makeup. The makeup design template was developed by artist Adam Harvey as a way to promote conversations about being under surveillance in public spaces. The make up makes the individual stand out in reality but hides their identity digitally by blending lines, shapes, and colors that create a façade to hide ones face from recognition software.  This method won’t stop all facial recognition software however. For instance your Iphone and other technologies use an infrared dot-mapping grid that can easily discern your face no matter what makeup tricks you use. So to fight this researches from china and Indiana University have developed a hat that emits an infrared light pattern that completed disrupts the infrared recognition software.

In order to beat facial recognition software you have to know what you are up against. As soon as the software can be beaten the developers will make updates and fortify their technology. The cat and mouse game of facial recognition is in full swing.

Article: https://www.freethink.com/articles/anti-facial-recognition

image: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/01/privacy-campaigners-dazzle-camouflage-met-police-surveillance

AI such as the Amazon ‘Alexa’ or the Google Home has become a common part of the every day American household. I even have one in my apartment, not necessarily that my roommates and I wanted one, but that it was given to us as a free prize. These devices are being handed out and distributed through millions of homes world wide. When it finally came out that this tech is listening in on our conversations and recording it, people became much more weary of what they had to say around them, or buying them in general. Now, years since this information came out, Ben Zhao and his wife Heather Zheng, both computer science professors, came up with a device that would make the Alexa unable to hear your conversations after having their own debate on whether or not that should have an Alexa in the house.

Their device made in the form of a bracelet emits ultrasonic signals when it is turned on by its user. This creates a sound impossible for humans to hear but is still able to be picked up by and recording microphones so that instead of hearing what people are saying, it can only hear the high pitch noise coming from the bracelet. People have created tech to block out Amazon speakers where you cover the speaker with the device to block out sounds from being recorded. To Zheng and Zhao, they believe that a device to keep people safe from being recorded should be portable so that people can move about their daily lives without having the fear of their conversations being recorded. In the wake of almost total surveillance, inventors are coming out each year with new way to combat the invasion of their own privacy. Since 2012, people have come up with eyeglasses to blur their face from security cameras, clothing to mask heat signatures from drones, and even coats to jam radio waves from people trying to collect information from your phone. There is no doubt that with each passing year, people will become more and more innovation to prove their privacy should remain intact despite the growing amount of surveillance tech.

Remember those days where holographic tech assistants seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi movie? Well, would ya look at the time because those freaky Black Mirror days might be among us after-all. AI might soon hit its next level with Neon’s ‘Artificial Humans’.

A company backed by Samsung has recently revealed plans for a project of artificial humans and that are geared up to become our professors, yoga instructors, and even BFFs. I don’t know about you guys, but while these techy advancements totally make me twitch, I’ll admit the idea is just trippy enough to keep me curious about how far a project like this could go.

Additionally it makes me question how well communication could be translated between a human-to-machine relationship. We’ve all seen HER right? It didn’t work out too well there. But, if we’re gonna dive into the future of cyber beings.. I wonder if Scarlett Johannson would be down to voice our real-life AI friends, too.. Hm..

SO, is this weird?
Is this rad?
Is this… happening? Survey says: maybe, maybe not.
The producers admit that the tech still needs work before it takes over the world— I MEAN, innocently joins our homes and social circles.

I dunno, the whole thing is kinda #yikes but, I won’t totally diss anything that’ll bring me closer to fulfilling my Phil of The Future fantasies. #MoveOverSiri #AlexaWHO

According to an article by Time, ABC’s airing of the 2020 Academy Awards was watched by the smallest audience in history, reaching only 23.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Now, nearly 24 million may seem like a large number, but this is a 20% decrease from the 2019 Oscars. The 2018 Oscars, which initially held the record for lowest ratings, was 26.5 million. These ratings were a surprise to some who considered this year’s Oscars to be one of many historical and cultural firsts. Parasite became the first-ever foreign language film to win the best picture, the night’s top award. Others felt that the early February airing of the show might be to blame for the low ratings, as it prevented the adequate promotion of the show. 

As one journalist put it, “It was too predictable, too white and too boring.” Those who took home some of the night’s top awards were Joaquin Phoenix, Renee Zellweger, and Brad Pitt, who had also been among the winners and previous awards. This left very few surprises for viewers who anticipated the trend of earlier awards would carry over to the Oscars. Although Parasite’s win was a surprise to some, a large number of viewers had not yet seen the movie, leaving little emotional investment in the film.  

This was the second year in a row where the Oscars were without a host, a detail some critics felt was detrimental to viewership numbers. Other critics joked that the broadcast was on “autopilot,” adding the show was “three and a half hours of Hollywood cruising along at 35,000 feet.” The lack of structure and sensible flow made the show feel somewhat disorganized and random. In the past, the Oscars fluctuated between 35-45 million viewers. It was often considered the second most-watched cable program of the year behind, of course, the Super Bowl. As little as five years ago, the show received 37.3 million viewers. 

Still, the Motion Picture Academy is not entirely to blame here. Live television has experienced a significant drop in viewership in recent years due to the upsurge in streaming services. With that being said, as streaming services continue to advance and grow in popularity, cable network event producers must consider how this growth may affect the success of their program. Similar award broadcasts, including the Golden Globes and Grammy Awards, also experienced declines in viewership, although neither were as steep as this year’s Oscars.