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    Webby nominees range from Citi Bike to Jay Z

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1675 Views
    NEW YORK (AP) --

    This year's list of nominees for Webby awards celebrating Internet achievement range from celebrities such as Beyonce and Ellen DeGeneres to Google and GoPro, the maker of popular mountable video cameras.

    The organizations with the most nominations are Vice Media with 11, The New York Times with 10 and Google Inc. with nine. Among the online videos nominated is "24 Hours of Happy," a 24-hour music video starring Pharrell Williams.

    The winners of the 18th annual awards will be announced on April 29. The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group of about 1,000 Internet experts and professionals. Webby categories are split into a regular award, chosen by the academy, and a "people's voice" award, which lets members of the public vote.

    Among the mobile apps and games nominated are the secret-sharing app Whisper, vacation rental site Airbnb and QuizUp. The viral ads category includes "The Epic Split" featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, in which the action film star does a split in between two Volvo trucks, along with "Real Beauty Sketches" by Dove. The Citi Bike app, used for New York City's bike sharing program, is among the apps nominated in the city and urban innovation category which also includes PulsePoint, an app that lets people trained in CPR help people nearby who are in need of assistance.

    This year's awards received more than 12,000 entries from over 60 countries. Of these, 8 percent were selected as nominees.

    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

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