May 11, 2019

Selfies with Salvador Dalí

Dalí in Barcelona. Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty

Thirty years after his death, Salvador Dalí wants to take a photo with you.

What’s happening: In a Florida museum dedicated to the surrealist’s life, a new installation reanimates him in an interactive AI-altered video, or deepfake, The Verge’s Dami Lee reports.

  • The video was created by training an algorithm on hours of old Dalí interviews. The program pastes the artist's face onto an actor who mimicked him, and he’s voiced by an impersonator.
  • Faux Dalí, invoked with a button mounted on a kiosk, lives in the present day: In the video, he can comment on the weather and read today’s New York Times.
  • After delivering a short spiel about his life, Dalí pulls out the biggest surprise: He turns around and takes a selfie with his audience. If you like how you look in the shot, he can text it to you.

Go deeper: Deepfakes for good

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Inside hackers' pivot to medical espionage

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

A wave of cyber-spying around COVID-19 medical research is once more demonstrating the perils of treating cybersecurity as a separate, walled-off realm.

Driving the news: U.S. officials recently announced an uptick in Chinese-government affiliated hackers targeting medical research and other facilities in the United States for data on a potential COVID-19 cure or effective treatments to combat the virus. Additionally, “more than a dozen countries have redeployed military and intelligence hackers to glean whatever they can about other nations’ virus responses,” reports the New York Times.

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The downsides of remote work

Data: Reproduced from Prudential/Morning Consult "Pulse of the American Worker Survey"; Chart: Axios Visuals

The coronavirus pandemic has forced a large-scale experiment in working from home. It has gone well enough that many companies are expanding their remote work expectations for the foreseeable future, and remote employees want to continue to work that way.

Yes, but: The downsides of remote work — less casual interaction with colleagues, an over-reliance on Zoom, lack of in-person collaboration and longer hours — could over time diminish the short-term gains.

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Hong Kong's economic future hangs in the balance

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

As Beijing forces a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, the once semi-autonomous city's status as one of Asia's largest financial hubs is at risk.

Why it matters: Political freedoms and strong rule of law helped make Hong Kong a thriving center for international banking and finance. But China's leaders may be betting that top firms in Hong Kong will trade some political freedoms for the economic prosperity Beijing can offer.

Go deeper (3 min. read)Arrow38 mins ago - Economy & Business