Register

    Google, Jay Z among 2014 Webby winners

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1506 Views
    NEW YORK (AP) --

    Google, Jay Z and crowdfunding site Kickstarter are among the winners of this year's Webby Awards, a celebration of Internet achievement that got its start nearly two decades ago.

    The awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group of about 1,000 Web experts and Internet professionals. Judges included Tumblr founder David Karp and "House of Cards" actor Kevin Spacey.

    Each Webby category is split in two: There's an award from the academy and a "people's voice" award for which anyone can cast an online vote. Winners in the latter category include Beyonce, Tumblr, the NASA website and satirical news site The Onion (which was also the academy's pick in the humor category).

    The website "Reasons My Son Is Crying" received both the Webby and the people's voice award in the personal blog or website category. The site features photos of bawling children captioned with the reasons they are upset, which range from "I wouldn't let him eat dog food" to "we told him that his dinosaur is blue."

    Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig won a lifetime achievement award. Lessig co-founded Creative Commons, which provides a way for people to license their online work for public use.

    The Jamaican Bobsleigh Team won Athlete of the Year honors for using crowdfunding to finance its trip to the Sochi Olympics. The team raised $129,687.17 from the crowdfunding site Crowdtilt and also received unsolicited donations from the supporters of Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency inspired by a silly Internet meme.

    The awards will be handed out on May 19 in New York in a ceremony famous for restricting winners to five-word acceptance speeches. Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt will host.

    Tags:Webby Awards



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

    MySHOOT Profiles


    Add A Comment