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Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

Technology has gone absurd, surely. But that absurdity is not yet evenly distributed. I was in Best Buy the other day and there was a distinct lack of bizarre AI gadgets like mirrors that make you look like a cartoon sloth or speakers that respond in iambic pentameter.

Clearly as an industry we need to get these new products on shelves for the masses.

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(Blog author here) I mean, I'm making a clock that tells the time with rhyming couplets haha* -- I'll do my best to get it into Best Buy, and work on the mirror next!

But you are absolutely right. We should be having way more fun with our technology!

* obligatory plug, here's the clock: https://poem.town/ks

Cool idea. Reminds me of the author clock https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195310640/author-clock...

Or https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/genmon/poem-1-the-ai-po... complete with AI hallucinations.

You just linked to GP's kickstarter.

You can tell I read HN for the comments. Embarrassing!

I love that project! And also that they did so well.

As cool as your clock is, it would be even cooler if it printed the poems out on ticker tape:) And hey, recurring revenue stream!

Shameless self plug, but in order to guarantee rhyming, you might want to read this paper:

https://paperswithcode.com/paper/most-language-models-can-be...

> "mirrors that make you look like a cartoon sloth"

Isn't that kind of selfie modification stuff, like, 50% of the appeal of Snapchat?

It's not a physical product, but that makes it more culturally significant IMO. A mirror is viewed only by you, but manipulating your broadcasted image speaks of how you want to be seen in society.

Don’t tell the AI bros that we’ve had filters that don’t replace your face for years.

Also the other kind, which are arguably more popular.

This sort of long tail weird stuff belongs in AliExpress or similars.

> speakers that respond in iambic pentameter

:shut-up-and-take-my-money.gif:

This is very much in the realm of something ChatGPT can write for you, just so long as you tell it how the OpenAI APIs work because those were published after the training cut-off.

I need a speaker that would respond with the dialogue trained on Marvin the Paranoid Android.

I need a self-help mirror that would respond like Chrisjen Avasarala, so that there's at least one adult in the room.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the sweariest anti-hero of them all"

"Who the fuck cares, get back to your goddamn work!"

Anura is working on something vaguely similar.

From the ad copy: The Anura MagicMirror, made by digital health company NuraLogix, is the first mirror of its kind that analyzes the blood flow in your face to check vitals like blood pressure and estimate your risk of heart disease. It also guesses your age based on your skin, as well as how stressed you might be.

https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/this-smart-mirror-scans-...

If one of the wake-up word options isn't "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" I'm going to be disappointed.

Pull yourself the fuck together!

Shut UP and TAKE my MOney DOT jPEG

:be-quiet-and-take-my-cash-good-sir.gif:

[Note for those who weren't required to study Shakespeare at school: that's iambic pentameter.]

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