NEW RESOURCES

Library of Congress: Library of Congress Releases Newly Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts. “The Library of Congress has released some 230 newly digitized manuscripts written in Hebrew and similar languages such as Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian and Yiddish. The collection, available online for researchers and the public for the first time, includes a 14th century collection of responsa by Solomon ibn Adret of Barcelona, considered one of the most prominent authorities on Jewish law of all time.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Anthropic To Launch Paid Plans For Access To Claude. “In a notable shift from its existing user model, Claude.ai, the web interface for Anthropic’s Claude 2, has begun limiting access for unpaid users. Claude.ai, in open beta, gives users access to the latest model of Claude with 100k context windows (175 pages of text) and file upload capability.” I haven’t used Claude as much as I have used ChatGPT, but Claude’s UI is my opinion far better.

The Verge: Linus Sebastian addresses error handling and ethics in a new video. “Over a week after Linus Media Group paused video production after allegations of theft, ethical missteps, and sexual harassment, Sebastian provided a partial response to the issues and updated viewers on what’s changing.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: An alt text guide to ensure everyone can enjoy your memes. “Accessible memes make the internet a fun place for all, but the practice is helpful in a variety of ways. 3Play Media, a captioning and video accessibility company, notes that adding alt text to your memes is a beneficial practice for companies and creators, too. ‘Alt text allows bots to “read” and better understand the content, similar to how they read closed captions on video content,’ the company explains. ‘This means your content can be better recommended to viewers, gain more exposure, and ultimately lead to increased site traffic.’ Here’s how to get started making your jokes available for all, whether you’re a meme connoisseur or a brand cashing in on a trendy bit.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Tubefilter: The Creators Guild of America is a new “service organization” for online video professionals. “The CGA officially launched on August 24. It resembles a labor union, but it’s actually a ‘professional service organization’ that provides a litany of benefits to a varied roster of digital media pros. The CGA does not engage in collective bargaining on behalf of its members, but some of its services — such as creator advocacy and networking opportunities — are decidedly union-esque.”

BBC: China state media calls on British Museum to return artefacts. “A call for the British Museum to return Chinese artefacts after the recent theft of about 2,000 items is heating up social media in the country. The demand became the most trending topic on Weibo after an editorial in a state-run nationalist newspaper.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: A Global Cyber-Scam Industry Is Booming in Plain Sight in Cambodia . “Around the world, reports of cyber-scam schemes targeting unsuspecting victims online have proliferated rapidly. Southeast Asia has become a center of gravity for those criminal syndicates, often in remote and war-torn corners. But in Cambodia, the scam industry has been flourishing well within the reach of officials.”

Australian Financial Review: Big tech urges government to go slow on AI rules. “Responding to the government’s call for ideas on how Australia can develop safe and responsible AI practices, the peak body representing the likes of Apple, Google, Twitter, Meta, TikTok and Yahoo advised the government to base its AI policy ‘on existing regulation, rather than introducing new legislation aimed at regulating AI as a technology’.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Autonomous cars worse at detecting children and dark-skinned pedestrians, study finds. “Researchers from King’s College London (KCL) tested the software on over 8,000 images of pedestrians. They found that the average detection accuracy was almost 20% higher for adults than it was for children. The systems were also 7.5% more accurate for light-skinned pedestrians than hey were for darker-skinned ones.” And for night driving conditions, as you might expect, it’s even worse.

Irish Times: Karlin Lillington: Technology helps piece together archive lost in 1922 Four Courts fire. “This is an absorbing tale of imagination, diligence, chance discoveries and fruitful relationships with other national archives, many in the UK which hold copies of records here, and myriad small partners such as Killruddery, with its 400 years of documents including land records and correspondence.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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