03.30.16
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Crowd Control


This week, Jessica and Michael discuss public projects from the New Zealand flag referendum to the mishap that was Tay—Microsoft’s “bizarrely optimistic experiment” with a bot whose persona was informed by the biliousness of Twitter. Tay was “an example of bad design,” as interaction designer Caroline Sinders wrote.

  • Microsoft apologizes for Tay
  • Adrienne LaFrance, "What Is a Robot?," from The Atlantic
  • More on Tay from Sarah Jeong, Ben Brown, and Alexis Lloyd
  • A primer on Boaty McBoatface
  • Apple ResearchKit
  • New Zealand votes to keep its flag
  • Anne Perkins, It’s not enough to tweet your grief

  • Thanks to Stumptown Coffee Roasters for sponsoring this episode.

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    Posted in: Arts + Culture, Technology, The Observatory




    Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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