Ars Technica – Page 3

Study finds AI-generated meme captions funnier than human ones on average

A new study examining meme creation found that AI-generated meme captions on existing famous meme images scored higher on average for humor, creativity, and "shareability" than those made by people. Even so, people still created the most exceptional individual examples. "I regret to announce that the meme Turing Test has been passed," wrote Wharton professor Ethan Mollick on Bluesky after reviewing the study results. Mollick studies AI academically, and he's referring to a famous test proposed by computing pioneer Alan Turing in 1950 that seeks to determine whether humans can distinguish between AI outputs and human-created content.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/ai-beats-humans-at-meme-humor-but-the-best-joke-is-still-human-made/

Will the future of software development run on vibes?

Instead of being about control and precision, vibe coding is all about surrendering to the flow. On February 2, Karpathy introduced the term in a post on X, writing, "There's a new kind of coding I call 'vibe coding,' where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists." He described the process in deliberately casual terms: "I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works."
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/is-vibe-coding-with-ai-gnarly-or-reckless-maybe-some-of-both/

As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders

"It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was colonized by platforms, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, why it matters, and what we can do about it," Doctorow explained in a follow-up article. "We’re all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. It’s even terrifying."
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/

Gentrified Doom remake trades chainsaw for cheese knife

Doom: The Gallery Experience, created by Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone, transforms the iconic E1M1 level into a virtual museum space where players guide a glasses-wearing Doomguy through halls of fine art as classical music plays in the background. The game links each displayed artwork to its corresponding page on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/01/doom-marine-crashes-art-gallery-politely-sips-wine/

iOS 18.2, macOS 15.2 updates arrive today with image and emoji generation

Apple has announced that it will be releasing the iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates to the public later this afternoon, following weeks of beta testing for developers and users. As with iOS 18.1, the headlining features are new additions to Apple Intelligence, mainly the image-generation capabilities: Image Playground for general images, and "Genmoji" for making custom images in the style of Apple's built-in Unicode-based emoji characters.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/12/ios-18-2-macos-15-2-updates-arrive-today-with-image-and-emoji-generation/

Itch.io platform briefly goes down due to “AI-driven” anti-phishing report

Itch.io management posted about the domain takedown on social media overnight, complaining of a chain of events that started because "Funko of 'Funko Pop'… use some trash 'AI Powered' Brand Protection Software called BrandShield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar, iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain," the post said.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/12/itch-io-platform-briefly-goes-down-to-ai-driven-anti-phishing-report/

Welcome to Google’s nightmare: US reveals plan to destroy search monopoly

Predictably, Google is not happy with the DOJ's plan, which requires the company to sell its Chrome browser. It also retains the option of forcing Google to divest Android if competition doesn't increase from behavioral remedies, including bans on exclusive default deals with other browsers and device makers. Additionally, Google is prohibited from building any new browsers and must fund an education campaign that shows people how to switch search engines and potentially even pays people to switch. Google may also be restricted from using its data scale advantage to benefit its AI products.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/welcome-to-googles-nightmare-us-reveals-plan-to-destroy-search-monopoly/