"The increasingly distorted images produced by an artificial-intelligence model that is trained on data generated by a previous version of the model. Credit: M. Boháček & H. Farid/arXiv (CC BY 4.0)" - Nature (ext link)

Unfortunately, or fortunately, researchers have found that feeding AI LLMs AI results leads rapidly to the generation of nonsense.

This is rather important as there's tons of AI data being generated, and unless we find and apply some sort of watermarking or branding of this data as AI generated, results may become unusable or worse unrecognizable as unusable. 

The problem turns out to be especially acute as human generated data is becoming sparcer quantitatively when compared to the availability of AI generated data.

“The message is, we have to be very careful about what ends up in our training data,” says co-author Zakhar Shumaylov, an AI researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK. Otherwise, “things will always, provably, go wrong”. he says.” The team used a mathematical analysis to show that the problem of model collapse is likely to be universal, affecting all sizes of language model that use uncurated data, as well as simple image generators and other types of AI...even before complete collapse, learning from AI-derived texts caused models to forget the information mentioned least frequently in their data sets as their outputs became more homogeneous...(this) is a concern when it comes to making AI models that represent all groups fairly, because low-probability events often relate to marginalized groups, says study co-author Ilia Shumailov, who worked on the project while at the University of Oxford, UK. How much synthetic data is used in training matters. When Shumailov and his team fine-tuned each model on 10% real data, alongside synthetic data, collapse occurred more slowly." - Nature

So, it's time to get a handle on all this before we start seeing the phenomenon in the wild.

"You are what you eat." has meaning in preventive medicine and, it appears in AI, as well.

This was only a brief summary and I didn't talk about the experiments the researchers conducted. It's well worth reading the original article linked above.

Have a great weekend!

Photocredit reference: Bohacek, M. & Farid, H. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.12202 (2023).

This is AI, as well as computing...so, I found this while cruising and figured you all (or at least a lot of you) would be interested in it. It isn't every day that scifi becomes reality, although it does seem that a good deal of scifi is doing just that.

"In the quest to train robots for real-world tasks, researchers have created “Holodeck,” an AI system capable of generating detailed, customizable 3D environments on demand, inspired by Star Trek’s holodeck technology. This system uses large language models to interpret user requests and generate a vast array of indoor scenarios, helping robots learn to navigate new spaces more effectively." - SciTechDaily.com 

[video]https://youtu.be/LWYGVjr9lIA[/video]

Take a trip over here: https://yueyang1996.github.io/holodeck/

and read what the researchers have done. It's a system to generate 3D environments to teach robots (AI). Used to be that artists would take a week to construct such didactic environments. Now,

"Using everyday language, users can prompt Holodeck to generate a virtually infinite variety of 3D spaces, which creates new possibilities for training robots to navigate the world." - ibid

Hope you find this as amazing as I have...

Happy Fourth, folks! Hope you all have a safe, wonderful day with friends, neighbors and family!

Love that picture!

Don't forget the folks who made it and continue to make it possible...our armed forces, intelligence community, and emergency services. Grill a burger and hoist one for them, too!

[video]https://youtu.be/euH0ucM6RN0?si=-QT4eUz7ITs5w9RX[/video]

Celebrate our independence.

Celebrate our freedom!

🇺🇲

It has been requested that we provide a pinned post with the urls of Master Skinners' commercial sites.

We're happy to post this since it helps members and Masters who have brought so much to WinCustomize, and to the wider skinning community over the years. Let's not forget to thank them for their creativity and craftsmanship which brought us all together here and other sites which may have vanished in the past.

We will update things as more come to hand.

Since members may learn of changes before we do, please feel free to post any changes you become aware of and we will amend the list.

1. LightStar:

https://lightstardesign.com/ 

On this site, LightStar provides updated skins, both free and premium. He also has provided vStyler's premium skins which he updates with vStyler's consent. His updated free skins are in the Windowblinds gallery here, as well. You can keep current and see his updated skins here as well with links to them on his site: https://forums.stardock.com/521200/page/1/#replies

2. adni18: 

https://www.adni18.com/ 

On his site, adni18 provides free and premium skins, and live (animated) wallpapers as well as UHD wallpapers and AI wallpapers (frequently updated), gadgets, docks and icons. There is also a link at the bottom of the home page to adni18's digital paintings (https://art-paintings.adni18.com/)

3. neone6:

At the time of this post, the link no longer leads to neone6's themes and neone6's skins are not there. The old link leads to spam sites per LightStar and bobj420 (our thanks!). It's our hope that neone6 will reactivate his site sometime in the future.

Here's a link to Brad Sams's post regarding the change to the Master Skin (Premium skin) program: https://forums.stardock.com/521160/page/1/#replies

As stated above, don't hesitate to add verified changes or additions, etc. as they become known to you.

Several Masters graciously made their Master skins freely available:

MikeB314

retiredmaster (essorant)

2of3

don5318

RedneckDude

Vampothika

[and probably more]

Use the Galleries' search function...no promises as to which may have been updated, although many probably are. 

Hot and muggy here...so went for the cooler colors on my desktop...hope it's cooler and drier where you are...

Aero11 (twilight substyle) by SimplexDesigns with tinted start menu background W10 style, with Dungeon font. Wallpaper adni18_0100_48. slightly modded Workshelf docks Windows7 Extreme with transparent backgrounds. Fences 5.54 also using Dungeon font.

Some seriously good news for those whose computers won't support upgrade to W11. 0Patch which supports at present Windows7 will support W10 until 2030. That's 200 million W10 devices granted a pardon.

Martin Brinkmann brings us this good news at gHacks:

"Come October 2025, owners of Windows 10 devices will have these five options, if they want to keep on using their devices:

 

• Upgrade to Windows 11 -- only available if the device is supported officially. Yes, there are workarounds, but Microsoft may introduce changes that are incompatible with older hardware. This happened once already.
• Join Windows 10 ESU -- Extended Security Updates will be offered to all customers for three years (until 2028). Microsoft has yet to reveal the price for home users. Businesses may pay more than $400 for three years of patching for a single machine.
• Continue using Windows 10 -- as more vulnerabilities are detected, unpatched Windows 10 systems face more risks.
• Migrate to Linux -- the best option in many regards, but also the most daunting one, as it means learning a new system and facing the stress of migration. Best, because it is free and not time-limited. Join 0Patch -- the company will create security updates for Windows 10."- gHacks

Please read more on the 0Patch blog: https://blog.0patch.com/2024/06/long-live-windows-10-with-0patch.html . Here's how it works:

"Here is how it works:

• Price: Consumers pay about $25 + tax per year to gain full support for that year. This includes security updates for Windows 10, but also for other Microsoft products, including older Office versions.
• Patching: A software applies the small patches "to running processes in memory". In other words, no Microsoft binary files are changed.
• Convenience: Since patches are applied in memory, there is no rebooting involved. gHacks"

I recommend you read the page linked, and the FAQs at the end of the blog post. I recommended 0Patch years ago, and one member here at WC is still using W7 safely thanks, in part to that software.

In short, 0Patch will take over the security patches for W10 in 10/2025, and patch W10 for at least five years...maybe more depending on the demand.

I'm really glad to be bringing this news to you W10 users.

Enjoy your weekend!

Links:

0Patch: https://0patch.com/

0Patch registration for free account: https://central.0patch.com/auth/register

gHacks: https://www.ghacks.net/2024/06/28/windows-10-support-until-2030-0patch-makes-it-possible/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e2962%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e33ph

There's a serious privacy and control problem with MS. They are positive your computer is really theirs to do with as they wish.

The latest is now Windows 11 has altered whichever settings you determined in your backup preferences for OneDrive. 

I'm not against backing up data, as all here know, I am however against MS determining and acting, without obtaining your permission, to determine what you must back up from your privately owned computer.

The article linked above informs you how to regain control. 

I strongly recommend reading it, but if time is short, here are the steps:

"If you do not want your computer to back up everything on your desktop or other folders, here is how to turn the feature off (you can also set up Windows 11 in offline mode):

1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the tray area, click the settings icon and then press Settings.
2. Go to the "Sync and Backup" tab and click "Manage backup."
3. Turn off all the folders you do not want to back up in OneDrive and confirm the changes.
4. If you have an older OneDrive version with the classic tabbed interface, go to the Backup tab and click Manage Backup > Stop backup > Stop backup"

June is here...I'm sticking with Tubular by Lightstar (recolored), and Tanger Winstep ported by Giz from the WB by Lightstar.

The wall is Planet Arrakis from Frank Herbert's Dune (actually Mars), and Space Guild Heighliners transporting Duke Leo Atreides and his House to Arrakis from Planet Caladan to take over spice production from House Harkonnen.

Post yours!

Today is Memorial Day.

We pause on this day which we have set aside and made special, to remember our fallen, and those who fought and fell along side us, in the defense of our freedoms.

Their sacrifice made this day more than a national holiday. They made it holy, for in every generation they gave their last full measure of devotion protecting all we hold dear...our homes, our land, our values, our freedoms, our lives and the lives of all those we love as well as our posterity. They wore the uniforms of our armed services. We also remember those who fell in our clandestine services who wore civilian clothing.

Our fallen are the core of our being and pride as a people, and a nation. They are our heroes. Remember to thank them, and to help their families.

Red recently commented in the Desktop Screenshot post that he wanted to restore his Gallery.

That's no small thing, at least 116 pages, atm...and maybe Jafo isn't done restoring it, just yet.

At "Hogwart's - WinCustomize Branch", Jafo's wand has the most magic, and this job needed the max. Luckily for Jim, Jafo was in a good mood. [e digicons];)[/e]  

So, without further ado, pop over to Master Jim's Gallery and fill up your shopping bags with all manner of Redneck goodies...and remember to say thanks to the guy who made all those goodies, and the one who restocked the shelves, because...as the Eminem album and song said...

He's  b-a-a-c-c-ck!