Instagram now supports GIFs in stories Instagram has finally launched the GIF Library on Stories. Previously, users could upload GIFs if first converted to a MP4 video file, this new feature now seamlessly allow GIF integration directly onto Instagram Stories.
To use, simply tap the “Stickers” icon usually found at the top of Stories and select the new GIF button. Users can select from more than 100,000 moving stickers and view trending ones. This new feature successfully eliminates the need to use Giphy on a separate app to convert a GIF to video.
Twitter has incorporated A.I. for smarter cropping of photos when posting. The platform’s previous cropping algorithm wasn’t always successful in including the main purpose of the image as that relied on face recognition.
The new method of saliency better predicts more interesting regions of a photo and focuses the crop around that. This thus eliminates badly displayed images on users’ Twitter feed, especially for mobile view, where images are cropped and fitted into a horizontal rectangle.
The A.I. Takeover
Late last year, the Internet has nefariously used machine learning and AI to swap celebrities’ faces onto X-related platforms. The result was seamless fake celebrity obscene videos which could be mistaken for the real thing. This gross phenomenon is attributed to a “Fakeapp”, that anyone and everyone can download and use without much instructions needed. Even if users did not have the proper graphic processing units, they can utilise cloud services like Google Cloud Platform for renders.
Fast forward to 2018, it seems like this trend isn’t going to fade away. The latest rendition comes in the form of Nicholas Cage, invading almost every mainstream film scenes you ever know. While the internet has its fun, if everyone (including publishers) started using this to alter reality in social conversations, feeds, and even news without laws or restrictions, this technology could have far reaching consequences than the fake adult films.
