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AI ASMR
Gaming Gear

I watched some of the viral ASMR videos made with AI and I feel more confused than soothed

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  • Google’s Veo 3 Fast generates 720p AI videos twice as fast as standard
  • Gemini Pro users can create three videos per day
  • Flow Pro users pay just 20 credits per clip

There’s a strawberry made of glass that someone is cutting like it’s made of jelly, then the same thing happens to several other berries and the Pokémon Charizard. A woman dips tongs into a platter of molten rock and takes a bite of the apparently delicious treat before spreading some on a waffle and taking a bite.

These aren’t a cough-syrup-induced hallucination; it’s the latest trend in ASMR videos, created with Google’s Veo 3 and other AI movie generators.

You might have seen these and other bizarre videos on your TikTok algorithm. I’m not the biggest proponent of ASMR videos and their gentle whisperers, rhythmic tapping, and other soporific audio, but I understood the appeal. I’m not so sure the AI version is just as good. These aren’t your traditional low-fi lo-fi tapping-and-brushing videos.


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Google Veo is definitely the most popular choice of AI video generators for ASMR. As good as the model is at producing realistic videos (for a given value of realism in this case), it still creates videos with a sheen of artificiality, lacking the errors and imprecision that are the hallmark of human-made ASMR.

Friends of mine who are much bigger fans of ASMR claim it’s not just the sounds and voices that entice them. It’s the intimacy and immediacy that they like. One said that the ‘tingle triggers’ are there in the AI videos, but it’s just not the same.

AI ASMR

That’s not a universal opinion, though. These videos rack up millions of views. The comments are full of both excitement and confusion, with people unable to explain why they like the videos, or who are amazed how they can’t stop watching them.

Part of the appeal might be novelty. Anything new will have a fanbase at least for a little while, and Veo’s video quality is unlike anything most people have seen before. It mimics natural lighting, shadow, and realistic camera motion. Perfect glass statues of Pokémon that can be cut in half with ease, because they’re all AI-generated, are an eye-catcher for sure.

As fun as it is, I wonder if anyone seeking a pure ASMR experience will choose an AI video. The sounds may scratch that auditory itch, but I wonder how many lists of favorite ASMR videos will include them.

Not every AI trend has to make sense. Some of them very much don’t. AI ASMR may have a niche place in the overall ASMR ecosystem. Still, I don’t think the majority of people who fall asleep to sweet whispers will prefer the sound of simulated glass crunching under an invisible knife.

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The Steve Jobs Archive shares stories, videos, and notes of his famous commencement speech
Gaming Gear

The Steve Jobs Archive shares stories, videos, and notes of his famous commencement speech

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Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech, and the Steve Jobs Archive has marked the occasion by uploading an HD version of the speech, publishing notes Jobs emailed to himself, and sharing details about the leadup to the speech. You can see everything on a page on the Steve Jobs Archive’s website and watch the HD video on YouTube.

The website’s page about the speech is a little saccharine, but there’s no denying that the address has been very influential – LeBron James used the speech to help inspire the Cleveland Cavaliers during their championship NBA Finals run in 2016, for example – so I found it pretty cool to read some of the history of it all.

I particularly liked reading Jobs’ emailed notes with various outlines, themes, and drafts he was trying out. The website also has the interesting detail that Jobs “read his text verbatim” – given the confidence he had in his many famous presentations for Apple, I figured he might have ad-libbed parts of it. It’s all worth checking out, if you have a few minutes.

Jobs’ friends and family launched The Steve Jobs Archive in 2022 as a place to share things like photos, documents, and stories of the Apple co-founder.



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Esports

YouTube rolls out more unskippable ads that make viewers wait even longer to watch videos

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YouTube is testing a series of new unskippable ads that will appear far more often for viewers.

Google-owned YouTube has been upping its ad game for years now, introducing pause screen ads, shutting down adblockers and even using AI to show ads when viewers are most engaged.

Now, the video platform is once again finding another way to implement advertisements by beta testing 30-second non-skippable ads in regular campaigns.

In other words, YouTube is giving advertisers yet another method to show you commercials.

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YouTube tests new 30-second unskippable ad format

As reported by Search Engine Land, 30-second ads used to be reserved through YouTube Reservation deals, but now, Google Ads is allowing more advertisers to include 30-second ads in regular campaigns.

According to Swipe Insight, this ad format will allow advertisers to show video ads between 16–30 seconds exclusively on TV screens, which include Smart TVs and Chromecast devices.

Additionally, these 30-second unskippable ads are being rolled out alongside 6-second bumper ads and 15-second unskippable ads.

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This test is already being well received with Anthony Higman, the CEO of ADSQUIRE, claiming that users will “probably” watch 30-second ads.

“…the 15 second non-skippable YouTube ad format is my all time favorite,” he said. “These can be targeted to keywords and audiences and the user must watch the ad to get to the content they want to watch.”

Search Engine Land also warns that viewers will need to get used to waiting longer to watch videos than they already do, or opt to bite the bullet and subscribe to Premium.

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However, if you watch a lot of Shorts, you may want to avoid Premium Lite, as YouTube recently announced that ads will begin appearing on that content, even for paying users.

That said, for those wanting to save money, the platform is working on a new Spotify-style subscription that will give two people access to Premium for a little bit less than purchasing two individual plans.

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Data servers with colourful wires inside a meshed metal cupboard
Gaming Gear

Google can now generate your AI videos more quickly than ever

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  • Google’s Veo 3 Fast generates 720p AI videos twice as fast as standard
  • Gemini Pro users can create three videos per day
  • Flow Pro users pay just 20 credits per clip

Google’s revving up its AI video-making engine Veo 3 with a sped-up version called Veo 3 Fast. Both Gemini Pro and Flow users can access the faster Veo 3 model, which produces 720p videos at more than twice the speed of the previous iteration.

Gemini Pro users get three daily video generations using Veo 3 Fast as part of their subscription. Google Flow Pro users on Google’s creative platform can now generate each Fast video for 20 credits, which is far less than the cost of 720p videos before. Gemini Ultra subscribers get far more for their 250-per-month subscription, of course.

Google Veo 3 Fast doesn’t just shorten wait times for impatient video-makers, though. It’s part of scaling up Google’s AI video infrastructure, allowing more people to use the tools simultaneously without waiting too long.


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Josh Woodward, who oversees Gemini and Labs at Google, has also outlined plans in the works to incorporate better subtitle rendering and smoother playback as a result of the improved video creation foundation represented by Google Veo 3 Fast.

Making videos more quickly and efficiently is also useful, as it facilitates the incorporation of additional features. Google’s already testing picture-to-video with voice prompts, where, instead of typing a prompt, you could just say “turn this selfie into a soap opera starring supercomputers” and watch as Gemini gives you a low-resolution clip of “Crays Of Our Lives.”

Businesses could also get involved, generating internal update videos or onboarding materials without ever filming anything.

🔥Veo 3 keeps growing like crazy. To keep up, we’re introducing Veo 3 Fast in @GeminiApp and Flow. It’s >2x faster, has the same 720p resolution, and a bunch of serving optimizations. The big headline: we can serve more of it, even for the Yetis!How to get started:1) Get a… pic.twitter.com/peEteJqmBzJune 9, 2025

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Google Veo 3 Fast also aligns with Google’s strategy to integrate AI tools into absolutely everything it offers customers. They don’t need new products every quarter when infusing AI features like Veo into Gemini and Flow attracts new consumers and increases use among existing customers.

Now, Veo 3 Fast isn’t perfect, of course. Topping out at 720p might leave resolution snobs a little cold, and better subtitles are not the same as flawless or nuanced subtitles. Words can be misunderstood, and those parenthetical emotional clues, like people speaking sarcastically or using irony, can be challenging for an AI to interpret accurately at times.

Still, it’s a lot cheaper to just try again with the model. Three videos a day means you don’t have to be precious about your first idea. You can test and experiment with prompts and edits to get the video how you want it.

Veo 3 Fast is not promising a Hollywood trailer in two clicks, but it is promising that you’ll spend less time staring at progress bars and more time testing your wildest video creation ideas. It’s a bit like using models or miniatures to visualize a scene before filming it for real.

And even if a video made with the model won’t win an Oscar any time soon, it could speed along the tests of ideas that help filmmmakers work out what they want to do when they turn to human actors and editors for the big, expensive set piece they only have one shot to get right.

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The eyes of a Dune: Awakening player looking afraid
Gaming Gear

I can’t stop watching these Dune: Awakening videos of players having butt-puckeringly close calls with angry sandworms

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Dune: Awakening’s sandworms aren’t just scary, they’re the most brutally punishing feature of Funcom’s new survival MMO. When you get eaten by a sandworm, you permanently lose all your stuff. Weapons, armor, tools, gear, your entire inventory gets swallowed up when Shai-Hulud sucks you down, and you can’t go back and recover it. Even your vehicle is gone forever.

That’s why crossing the desert gaps between regions is so harrowing: the worm is always out there patrolling and your movements will bring it stampeding toward you, leading to lots of tense moments. Linger too long in the dunes and the sandworm will charge, its mouth the size of a train tunnel, gobbling down everything in front of it.

So my new hobby is jumping onto the Dune subreddit every day to see some white-knuckle, butt-puckeringly close calls with sandworms. Knowing what’s at stake, seeing a player flooring it across the desert with a worm barreling toward them, and jussssssst escaping to safety is utterly thrilling.


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Here’s a few of my favorite sandworm close-calls.

From HunwutP:

Barely made it from r/duneawakening

Soooooo close. I love this video. You know you’re in real trouble when the camera starts zooming out to show the full size of the worm that’s eating you.

The ridiculous airtime of that long bike jump as the worm jusssssssst misses its target is beautiful.

From Lunchable-Toast:

“It’s just about being not the slowest” from r/duneawakening

Just as with a bear, shark, or Jason Vorhees, you don’t really need to be fast to escape a sandworm, you just need to be faster than one other person.

From Sekhen:

Shai-Hulud eating some one else. from r/duneawakening

If you see the worm going after another player, that doesn’t mean you’re safe. Anything that gets in Shai-Hulud’s way gets swallowed, including the unfortunate random player in the clip above. Shai-Hulud almost got a two-fer!

From XirtCS:

Almost shit myself with this worm encounter from r/duneawakening

Tarry a bit too long while scrapping a crashed ship in the dunes, and Shai-Hulud will be along to swallow you and the wreck both. Luckily, the silly worm chose a poor spot to start its charge from and bonked its face against the rocks. Maybe next time!

From Sekhen (again!):

As close as you can get and tell about it. from r/duneawakening

Talk about a rough night. First this player gets targeted by Sardaukar assassins, then downed—twice—while fighting them. Midway through the skirmish a sandworm breaches in the background, but the player is close enough to the rocks to not be in danger, and the worm vanishes.

Surprise! It’s suddenly back again, presumably to swallow the dead soldiers, missing the recovering player by maybe a foot or two. It’s so close they’re actually buried in the sand from the worm’s breach. Yikes.

Threw in my own encounter above, though I didn’t escape through speed, I escaped by cleverly dying of other causes before the worm had a chance to eat me. After getting stuck in Dune: Awakening’s quicksand, my bike sank for a while as I fruitlessly and stupidly tried to gun the engine. Just as the worm appeared and headed my way, my bike exploded, killing me.

I know it doesn’t sound like a happy ending, but I only lost my bike and a couple resources from my backpack. If the worm had gotten me, I’d have lost everything. Thanks, explosions!



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