creativity

Sora 2 and other video generation models introduce new storytelling capabilities + other items re: AI in general

On 10/06/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, creativity, digital audio, digital storytelling, digital video, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, ethics, experimentation, Google, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, journalism, media/film, multimedia, Open AI, platforms, skills, story, storytelling, strategy, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, United States, vendors, visualizing information, workplace, by Daniel Christian

AI agents: Where are they now? From proof of concept to success stories — from hrexecutive.com by Jill Barth

The 4 Rs framework
Salesforce has developed what Holt Ware calls the “4 Rs for AI agent success.” They are:

Redesign by combining AI and human capabilities. This requires treating agents like new hires that need proper onboarding and management.
Reskilling should focus on learning future skills. “We think we know what they are,” Holt Ware notes, “but they will continue to change.”
Redeploy highly skilled people to determine how roles will change. When Salesforce launched an AI coding assistant, Holt Ware recalls, “We woke up the next day and said, ‘What do we do with these people now that they have more capacity?’ ” Their answer was to create an entirely new role: Forward-Deployed Engineers. This role has since played a growing part in driving customer success.
Rebalance workforce planning. Holt Ware references a CHRO who “famously said that this will be the last year we ever do workforce planning and it’s only people; next year, every team will be supplemented with agents.”

Synthetic Reality Unleashed: AI’s powerful Impact on the Future of Journalism — from techgenyz.com by Sreyashi Bhattacharya

Table of Contents

Highlights
What is “synthetic news”?
Examples in action
Why are newsrooms experimenting with synthetic tools
Challenges and Risks
What does the research say
- Transparency seems to matter. —What is next: trends & future
Conclusion

The latest video generation tool from OpenAI –> Sora 2

Sora 2 is here — from openai.com

Our latest video generation model is more physically accurate, realistic, and more controllable than prior systems. It also features synchronized dialogue and sound effects. Create with it in the new Sora app.

And a video on this out at YouTube:

Per The Rundown AI:

The Rundown: OpenAI just released Sora 2, its latest video model that now includes synchronized audio and dialogue, alongside a new social app where users can create, remix, and insert themselves into AI videos through a “Cameos” feature.
…
Why it matters: Model-wise, Sora 2 looks incredible — pushing us even further into the uncanny valley and creating tons of new storytelling capabilities. Cameos feels like a new viral memetic tool, but time will tell whether the AI social app can overcome the slop-factor and have staying power past the initial novelty.

OpenAI Just Dropped Sora 2 (And a Whole New Social App) — from heneuron.ai by Grant Harvey
OpenAI launched Sora 2 with a new iOS app that lets you insert yourself into AI-generated videos with realistic physics and sound, betting that giving users algorithm control and turning everyone into active creators will build a better social network than today’s addictive scroll machines.

What Sora 2 can do

Generate Olympic-level gymnastics routines, backflips on paddleboards (with accurate buoyancy!), and triple axels.
Follow intricate multi-shot instructions while maintaining world state across scenes.
Create realistic background soundscapes, dialogue, and sound effects automatically.
Insert YOU into any video after a quick one-time recording (they call this “cameos”).

The best video to show what it can do is probably this one, from OpenAI researcher Gabriel Peters, that depicts the behind the scenes of Sora 2 launch day…

Sora 2: AI Video Goes Social — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
OpenAI’s latest AI video model is now an iOS app, letting users generate, remix, and even insert themselves into cinematic clips

Technically, Sora 2 is a major leap. It syncs audio with visuals, respects physics (a basketball bounces instead of teleporting), and follows multi-shot instructions with consistency. That makes outputs both more controllable and more believable. But the app format changes the game: it transforms world simulation from a research milestone into a social, co-creative experience where entertainment, creativity, and community intersect.

Also along the lines of creating digital video, see:

What used to take hours in After Effects now takes just one text prompt. Tools like Google’s Nano Banana, Seedream 4, Runway’s Aleph, and others are pioneering instruction-based editing, a breakthrough that collapses complex, multi-step VFX workflows into a single, implicit direction.

The history of VFX is filled with innovations that removed friction, but collapsing an entire multi-step workflow into a single prompt represents a new kind of leap.

For creators, this means the skill ceiling is no longer defined by technical know-how, it’s defined by imagination. If you can describe it, you can create it. For the industry, it points toward a near future where small teams and solo creators compete with the scale and polish of large studios.

Bilawal Sidhu

OpenAI DevDay 2025: everything you need to know — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
Apps Inside ChatGPT, a New Era Unfolds

Something big shifted this week. OpenAI just turned ChatGPT into a platform – not just a product. With apps now running inside ChatGPT and a no-code Agent Builder for creating full AI workflows, the line between “using AI” and “building with AI” is fading fast. Developers suddenly have a new playground, and for the first time, anyone can assemble their own intelligent system without touching code. The question isn’t what AI can do anymore – it’s what you’ll make it do.

Vernacular Architecture and Mossy Trees Fill Michael Davydov’s Tiny Worlds [Davydov & Mothes]

On 09/29/2025, in art, creativity, by Daniel Christian

Vernacular Architecture and Mossy Trees Fill Michael Davydov’s Tiny Worlds — from thisiscolossal.com by Michael Davydov and Kate Mothes
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Tenderness and Empathy Prevail in Bisa Butler’s Nostalgic and Vibrant Quilts [Butler & Mothes]

On 09/28/2025, in art, creativity, Emotion, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, relationships, society, sociology, by Daniel Christian

Tenderness and Empathy Prevail in Bisa Butler’s Nostalgic and Vibrant Quilts — from thisiscolossal.com by Bisa Butler and Kate Mothes

OpenAI and NVIDIA announce strategic partnership to deploy 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems — from openai.com

Strategic partnership enables OpenAI to build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI datacenters with NVIDIA systems representing millions of GPUs for OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure.
To support the partnership, NVIDIA intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI progressively as each gigawatt is deployed.
The first gigawatt of NVIDIA systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026 on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform.

Also on Nvidia’s site here.

The Neuron Daily comments on this partnership here and also see their thoughts here:

Why this matters: The partnership kicks off in the second half of 2026 with NVIDIA’s new Vera Rubin platform. OpenAI will use this massive compute power to train models beyond what we’ve seen with GPT-5 and likely also power what’s called inference (when you ask a question to chatGPT, and it gives you an answer). And NVIDIA gets a guaranteed customer for their most advanced chips. Infinite money glitch go brrr am I right? Though to be fair, this kinda deal is as old as the AI industry itself.

This isn’t just about bigger models, mind you: it’s about infrastructure for what both companies see as the future economy. As Sam Altman put it, “Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future.”
…
Our take: We think this news is actually super interesting when you pair it with the other big headline from today: Commonwealth Fusion Systems signed a commercial deal worth more than $1B with Italian energy company Eni to purchase fusion power from their 400 MW ARC plant in Virginia. Here’s what that means for AI…

…and while you’re on that posting from The Neuron Daily, also see this piece:

AI filmmaker Dinda Prasetyo just released “Skyland,” a fantasy short film about a guy named Aeryn and his “loyal flying fish”, and honestly, the action sequences look like they belong in an actual film…

SKYLAND | AI Short Film Fantasy
Skyland is an AI-powered fantasy short film that takes you on a breathtaking journey with Aeryn Solveth and his loyal flying fish. From soaring above the futuristic city of Cybryne to returning to his homeland of Eryndor, Aeryn’s adventure is… https://t.co/Lz6UUxQvEx pic.twitter.com/cYXs9nwTX3

— Dinda Prasetyo (@heydin_ai) September 20, 2025

What’s wild is that Dinda used a cocktail of AI tools (Adobe Firefly, MidJourney, the newly launched Luma Ray 3, and ElevenLabs) to create something that would’ve required a full production crew just two years ago.

The Era of Prompts Is Over. Here’s What Comes Next. — from builtin.com by Ankush Rastogi
If you’re still prompting your AI, you’re behind the curve. Here’s how to prepare for the coming wave of AI agents.

Summary: Autonomous AI agents are emerging as systems that handle goals, break down tasks and integrate with tools without constant prompting. Early uses include call centers, healthcare, fraud detection and research, but concerns remain over errors, compliance risks and unchecked decisions.

The next shift is already peeking around the corner, and it’s going to make prompts look primitive. Before long, we won’t be typing carefully crafted requests at all. We’ll be leaning on autonomous AI agents, systems that don’t just spit out answers but actually chase goals, make choices and do the boring middle steps without us guiding them. And honestly, this jump might end up dwarfing the so-called “prompt revolution.”

Chrome: The browser you love, reimagined with AI — from blog.google by Parisa Tabriz

A new way to get things done with your AI browsing assistant
Imagine you’re a student researching a topic for a paper, and you have dozens of tabs open. Instead of spending hours jumping between sources and trying to connect the dots, your new AI browsing assistant — Gemini in Chrome ¹ — can do it for you. Gemini can answer questions about articles, find references within YouTube videos, and will soon be able to help you find pages you’ve visited so you can pick up exactly where you left off.

Rolling out to Mac and Windows users in the U.S. with their language set to English, Gemini in Chrome can understand the context of what you’re doing across multiple tabs, answer questions and integrate with other popular Google services, like Google Docs and Calendar. And it’ll be available on both Android and iOS soon, letting you ask questions and summarize pages while you’re on the go.

We’re also developing more advanced agentic capabilities for Gemini in Chrome that can perform multi-step tasks for you from start to finish, like ordering groceries. You’ll remain in control as Chrome handles the tedious work, turning 30-minute chores into 3-click user journeys.

Cosmic Wonders Abound in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest

On 09/20/2025, in art, creativity, digital photography, photography, by Daniel Christian

Cosmic Wonders Abound in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes and various/incredible photographers

Small, Rural Central California High School Continues To Defy Standardized Education — from gettingsmart.com by Michael Niehoff

Key Points

Minarets High School prioritizes student-centered learning with innovative programs like project-based learning, digital tools, and unique offerings.
Emphasis on student voice and personalized learning fosters engagement, creativity, and real-world preparation, setting a benchmark for educational innovation.

Let High Schoolers Do Less? Let High Schoolers Experience More — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark and Nate McClennen

Key Points

High school should focus on personalized and purposeful learning experiences that engage students and build real-world skills.
Traditional transcripts should be replaced with richer learning and experience records to better communicate students’ skills to higher education and employers.

“Americans want to grant more control to students themselves, prioritizing a K-12 education where all students have the option to choose the courses they want to study based on interests and aspirations.”

Research on motivation and engagement supports personalized and purposeful learning. Students are more motivated when they see relevance and have some choice. We summarize this in six core principles to which schools should strive.

New Effort Pushes the U.S. to Stop Getting ‘Schooled’ and Start Learning — from workshift.org by Elyse Ashburn

The Big Idea: A new collaborative effort led out of the Stanford center aims to tackle that goal—giving clearer shape to what it would mean to truly build a new “learning society.” As a starting point, the collaborative released a report and set of design principles this week, crafted through a year of discussion and debate among about three dozen fellows in leadership roles in education, industry, government, and research.

The fellows landed on nine core principles—including that working is learning and credentials are a means, not an end—designed to transition the United States from a “schooled society” to a “learning society.”

“Universal access to K-12 education and the massification of access to college were major accomplishments of 20th century America,” Stevens says. “But all that schooling also has downsides that only recently have come into common view. Conventional schooling is expensive, bureaucratic, and often inflexible.”
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How Substitute Teachers Can Connect With Their Students — from edutopia.org by Zachary Shell
Five enriching strategies to help subs stay involved and make a difference in the classroom.

I’ve since found enrichment in substitute teaching. Along the way, I’ve compiled a handful of strategies that have helped me stay involved and make a difference, one day at a time. Those strategies—which are useful for new substitutes still learning the ropes, as well as full-time teachers who are scaling back to substitute duties—are laid out below.

A Quiet Classroom Isn’t Always an Ideal Classroom — from edutopia.org by Clementina Jose
By rethinking what a good day in the classroom looks and sounds like, new teachers can better support their students.

If your classroom hums with the energy of students asking questions, debating ideas, and working together, you haven’t failed. You’ve succeeded in building a space where learning isn’t about being compliant, but about being alive and present.

In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World [Perry & Ebert]

On 09/09/2025, in art, creativity, education, Emotion, ideas, society, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World — from thisiscolossal.com by Pat Perry & Grace Ebert

To conceptualize the work, the collective helped to contact and secure permissions from the teachers pictured, and with the exception of the woman in the red floral garment at the bottom of the piece—she’s the artist’s mother and a retired educator—all work in the area. And why teachers? Perry explains:

Day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together. Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.

While you’re out there, also see:

Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence — from thisiscolossal.com by Song Dong and Kate Mothes

The Transformative Power of Arts Education; Moving to Student-Centered Environments; + Transforming Career Connected Learning

On 09/05/2025, in active learning, art, career development, collaboration, creativity, education, engagement / engaging students, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, more voice more choice more control, participation, pedagogy, project-based learning, real-world assignments, by Daniel Christian

The Transformative Power of Arts Education | A Conversation with Dr. Lucy Chen — from gettingsmart.com by Mason Pashia

Key Points

Arts education boosts academic performance, communication skills, and student engagement, supported by long-term data.
Tailoring arts programs to individual student needs creates impactful pathways, from foundational exposure to professional aspirations.

12 Shifts to Move from Teacher-Led to Student-Centered Environments — from gettingsmart.com by Kyle Wagner

Key Points

Despite modern technological advancements in classroom tools, many educational settings still center around a traditional model where the teacher is the primary source of information and students passively receive content.
Slowly, learning environments are inviting students to actively participate and take ownership of their learning through collaborative projects, inquiry-based experiences, and real-world problem-solving, thereby transforming traditional educational roles and practices.

From Readiness to Relevance: 3 Ways to Transform Career Connected Learning — from gettingsmart.com by Dr. Mahnaz R. Charania

Key Points

Career-connected learning must start early and be integrated across K–12 to provide students with exposure and informed choices for their futures.
Real-world, immersive learning experiences enhance student engagement and help build critical skills, social capital, and opportunities for success.

Introducing Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, our state-of-the-art image model [Google]

On 08/28/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, design, experimentation, Google, graphics, multimedia, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, our state-of-the-art image model — from developers.googleblog.com

Today [8/26/25], we’re excited to introduce Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (aka nano-banana), our state-of-the-art image generation and editing model. This update enables you to blend multiple images into a single image, maintain character consistency for rich storytelling, make targeted transformations using natural language, and use Gemini’s world knowledge to generate and edit images.

When we first launched native image generation in Gemini 2.0 Flash earlier this year, you told us you loved its low latency, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use. But you also gave us feedback that you needed higher-quality images and more powerful creative control.

Google’s new image model is BANANAS… — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey

Here’s what makes nano-banana special:

Character consistency that actually works: Google built a template app showing how you can keep characters looking identical across scenes.
Edit photos (or drawings) with just words: Their photo editing demo lets you remove people, blur backgrounds, or colorize photos using natural language…and this co-drawing demo lets you draw and ask AI to fix it.
Actual world knowledge: Unlike other image models, this one knows stuff—like how the co-drawing demo turns doodles into learning experiences.
Multi-image fusion: You can now merge multiple images; fx, you can drag and drop objects between images seamlessly with their home canvas template.

Artificial Intelligence in Vocational Education [Furze]

On 08/28/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, bots, career development, creativity, design, education, graphics, health, multimedia, passions, skills, social learning / networks, social media, student-related, teachers, vocational / trades, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Artificial Intelligence in Vocational Education — from leonfurze.com by Leon Furze

The vocational education sector is incredibly diverse, covering everything from trades like building and construction, electrical, plumbing and automotive through to allied health, childcare, education, the creative arts and the technology industry. In Canberra, we heard from people representing every corner of the industry, including education, retail, tourism, finance and digital technologies. Every one of these industries is being impacted by the current AI boom.
…
A theme of the day was that whilst the vocational education sector is seen as a slow-moving beast with its own peculiar red tape, it is still possible to respond to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, and there’s an imperative to do so.

Coming back to GenAI for small business owners, a qualified plumber running their own business, either as a solo operator or as manager of a team, probably doesn’t have many opportunities to keep up to date with the rapid developments of digital technologies. They’re far too busy doing their job.

So vocational education and training can be an initial space to develop some skills and understanding of the technology in a way which can be beneficial for managing that day-to-day job.

And speaking of the trade schools/vocational world…

Social media opens a window to traditional trades for young workers — from washingtonpost.com by Taylor Telford; this is a gifted article
Worker influencers are showing what life is like in fields such as construction, plumbing and manufacturing. Trade schools are trying to make the most of it.

Social media is increasingly becoming a destination for a new generation to learn about skilled trades — at a time when many have grown skeptical about the cost of college and the promise of white-collar jobs. These posts offer authentic insight as workers talk openly about everything from their favorite workwear to safety and payday routines.

The exposure is also changing the game for trade schools and employers in such industries as manufacturing and construction, which have long struggled to attract workers. Now, some are evolving their recruiting tactics by wading into content creation after decades of relying largely on word of mouth.

This Winery is a Stunning Blend of Architecture and Vineyards

On 08/21/2025, in architecture, art, creativity, Europe, geography / geology, by Daniel Christian

This Winery is a Stunning Blend of Architecture and Vineyards — from contemporist.com

Some great artwork as well as some creative architecture!

On 08/15/2025, in architecture, art, creativity, by Daniel Christian

Artist Spotlight: Yuwei Tu — from booooooom.com

Artist Spotlight: Jay Stern — from booooooom.com

Whimsical and Wild, ‘Weird Buildings’ Celebrates Architects Who Think Outside the Box — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes

AI’s Impact on Early Talent: Building Today’s Education-to-Employment Systems for Tomorrow’s Workforce — from bhef.com by Kristen Fox and Madison Myers

To rise above the threshold, consider the skills that our board member and Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun outlines as essential literacies in Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to technical and data literacies, he shares two key components of human literacy.

First, a set of “catalytic capacities” that include:

Initiative and self-reliance
Comfort with risk
Flexibility and adaptability

Second, a set of “creative capacities” that include:

Opportunity recognition, or the ability to see and experience problems as opportunities to create solutions
Creative innovation, or the ability to create solutions without clearly defined structures
Future innovation, or the disposition to orient toward future developments in society

The most effective approach to achieve these outcomes? Interdisciplinary models that embed skills flexibly across curriculum, that engage learners as part of networks, teams, and exploration, and that embed applied experiences in real-world contexts. Scott Carlson and Ned Laff have laid out some great examples of what this looks like in action in Hacking College.

The bottom line: the expectations of entry-level talent are rising while the systems to achieve that level of context and understanding are not necessarily keeping pace.

Experimenting with Color and Reflection, Kenny Harris Brews Beautiful Still Lifes

On 08/11/2025, in art, creativity, experimentation, by Daniel Christian

Experimenting with Color and Reflection, Kenny Harris Brews Beautiful Still Lifes — from thisiscolossal.com by Kenny Harris and Kate Mothes

Gabrielle Garland’s House Portraits Illuminate Daily Life, Individuality, and the ‘Fabric of Society’

On 08/05/2025, in architecture, art, creativity, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Gabrielle Garland’s House Portraits Illuminate Daily Life, Individuality, and the ‘Fabric of Society’ — from thisiscolossal.com by Garbrielle Garland and Kate Mothes

Learning Ecosystems

Vernacular Architecture and Mossy Trees Fill Michael Davydov’s Tiny Worlds [Davydov & Mothes]

Tenderness and Empathy Prevail in Bisa Butler’s Nostalgic and Vibrant Quilts [Butler & Mothes]

Cosmic Wonders Abound in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest

In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World [Perry & Ebert]

This Winery is a Stunning Blend of Architecture and Vineyards

Some great artwork as well as some creative architecture!

Experimenting with Color and Reflection, Kenny Harris Brews Beautiful Still Lifes

Gabrielle Garland’s House Portraits Illuminate Daily Life, Individuality, and the ‘Fabric of Society’

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