Bestsellers to Blockbusters: Stephen King Reflects on the Adaptations of His Work

I was just another horror-writing wannabe when I got to college, but one of those growth spurts happened while I was in a poetry seminar, where I fell under the influence of poets like William Carlos Williams, whose famous dictum was “No ideas but in things.” I was never much of a poet (although I tried hard), but Williams’s advice spoke to me. Thus, characters in my stories never swing open a medicine cabinet and see generic aspirin—they see Excedrin or Anacin. They never open the fridge and grab a beer, they grab a Bud or a PBR.

Good advice this.

Anthropic’s Claude gets a ‘memory’ upgrade by Robert Hart

Anthropic is rolling out an update for Claude that will let the AI chatbot “remember” past conversations without prompting. The upgrade for all paid subscribers should make Claude more useful and convenient.

ChatGPT already has this. It can be useful in principle. But it has the potential to taint the context.

Meet Mico, Microsoft’s AI version of Clippy by Tom Warren

“You can see it, it reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad you’ll see its facial expressions react almost immediately,” explains Andreou. “All the technology fades into the background, and you just start talking to this cute orb and build this connection with it.”

I still don’t know how I feel about ChatGPT having a character. But clearly they’re going through with it.

Copilot is getting more personality with a ‘real talk’ mode and group chats by Tom Warren

Copilot Groups is designed for groups of friends, classmates, and even teammates to use Copilot in a single session. Microsoft is targeting this at people who need to make a plan or solve problems together, and the company is supporting up to 32 people in Copilot Groups, in an effort to make AI more social.

Not out for the enterprise yet. WhatsApp also added AI to group chats, which sounds like a different product.

Rivian’s first e-bike is unlike anything you’ve ever seen by Thomas Ricker

Rivian’s micromobility spinoff Also has just taken the wraps off its TM-B e-bike, TM-Q pedal-assisted electric quad bike, and Alpha Wave helmet that represents “a breakthrough in rider safety and connectivity.”

I love how it looks too. It has a retro sci-fi vibe to it. I love it!

But it’s costly at 4500. I don’t know why I was expecting it to be cheap. I guess I wasn’t. I just wanted it to be. Anywho!