The Weirdest Shit to Come Out of Silicon Valley
Weirdest Shit Out of Silicon Valley is a weekly series from The Bold Italic documenting the bizarre news, gadgets, and developments in the tech world.
What a fricking year. AMIRITE? Here’s hoping you’re looking forward to less anxiety and more socializing post-vaccine-stravaganza.
I’ve been writing this column on weird tech news for more than a year now and starting this month, we went weekly instead of monthly (tell us if you 👍 or 👎 in the comments), so you’ll be hearing even more about bizarre bits of news coming out of Silicon Valley.
In December, I front-loaded my weird shit, assuming there would be little to talk about later in the month. I was WRONG, so as well as the delicious links to our four weird stories last month, I’m also linking you to a few more bizarre stories up front.
Know of some ridic stuff happening in tech? Email, DM, or tweet me to include it in next month’s edition.
1. SimpliSafe creates a social distancing sweater
This piece of clothing sings a siren song if anyone broaches your six-foot boundary. Unfortunately, it’s purely promotional — they aren't for sale — and the few they are giving away lack the actual siren electronics. Still, a great idea and sure would have beat those toilet-roll Christmas tree ornaments as gifts to commemorate 2020.
2. A rapping robot
On the cooler end of the spectrum is Shimon the Rapping Robot, designed by a badass music technologist, who can throw down some lines and rap in real time. This deep-learning bot can compose lyrics and perform. Shimon was “intentionally designed to sound machinelike (listen here), is meant to be a one-of-a-kind musical collaborator — or an inhuman rap-battle opponent,” according to Scientific American.
3. Disney World awkwardlyphotoshopped masks on riders
Disney went the passive-aggressive route by photoshopping masks onto riders not wearing them. That didn’t go over too well.
4. Artificial intelligence helps people find their ‘twin stranger’
You can now upload a photo and let A.I. help you find people that look nearly identical to you around the world. Spooky? Fun? You be the judge.
5. Microsoft ugly Christmas sweaters let you pretend it’s 1995
They sold out quickly.
6. People living in boutique hotels during the pandemic
Bougie people, that is.
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