Pixlr is a group of SaaS creative tools including Pixlr.com, Designs.ai and Vectr.com. Pixlr.com is a cloud-based set of image editing tools and utilities, including AI image generation and enhancements. The Pixlr suite targets users who require subjectively simple, or more advanced, photo editing as well as graphic design. It features a freemium business model with subscription plans—Plus, Premium and Teams. The platform can be used on desktop and also smartphones and tablets. Pixlr is compatible with various image formats such as JPEG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, PSD (Photoshop Document) and PXZ (native Pixlr document format). Designs.ai lets users create content using AI, with a goal of being within two minutes, across different media types including videos, text, banners and audio. Vectr.com was acquired in 2017 before being spun out into Pixlr Group in 2023. == History == Pixlr was founded in 2008 and built on Macromedia Flash. On 19 July 2011, Autodesk announced that they had acquired the Pixlr suite. In 2013, Time listed Pixlr as one of the top 50 websites of the year. In 2017, Pixlr was acquired from Autodesk. It was subsequently rebuilt and relaunched in HTML5 in 2019. In September 2023, Pixlr was awarded as the Top 13 GenAi Web Product by the world's top venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. In November 2023, Pixlr, Designs.ai and Vectr were combined as a new business group named Pixlr Group focusing on generative AI and creative software solutions. In May 2024, Pixlr was featured as one of the top 18 progressive web applications highlighted on Google I/O. == Versions == Pixlr.com rebranded itself as a full creative suite in 2019 by introducing Pixlr X, Pixlr E and Pixlr M. The platform introduced more features in December 2021 with a new logo and added tools which included: Brushes, the 'Heal tool', Animation, and Batch upload. The brush feature enables the creation of hand-drawn effects. The Heal tool allows users to remove unwanted objects from their images whereas the Animation feature can be used to include movements into their edits. Users can also utilize Batch upload to edit up to 50 images simultaneously. In November 2022, Pixlr 2023 was launched, adding more tools such as "AI smart resize", colorization, text wrapping and other additional effects. In November 2023, Pixlr 2024 was launched with Pixlr Designer and new AI-powered updates which includes AI image generation, AI infill, AI inpainting and more.
Render layers
When creating computer-generated imagery, final scenes appearing in movies and television productions are usually produced by rendering more than one "layer" or "pass," which are multiple images designed to be put together through digital compositing to form a completed frame. Rendering in passes is based on a traditions in motion control photography which predate CGI. As an example, for a visual effects shot, a camera could be programmed to move past a physical model of a spaceship in one pass to film the fully lit beauty pass of the ship, and then to repeat exactly the same camera move passing the ship again to photograph additional elements such as the illuminated windows in the ship or its thrusters. Once all of the passes were filmed, they could then be optically printed together to form a completed shot. The terms render layers and render passes are sometimes used interchangeably. However, rendering in layers refers specifically to separating different objects into separate images, such as a layer each for foreground characters, sets, distant landscape, and sky. On the other hand, rendering in passes refers to separating out different aspects of the scene, such as shadows, highlights, or reflections, into separate images.
AI: When a Robot Writes a Play
AI: When a Robot Writes a Play (in Czech: AI: Když robot píše hru) is a 2021 experimental theatre play, where 90% of its script was automatically generated by artificial intelligence (the GPT-2 language model). The play is in Czech language, but an English version of the script also exists. == Creation == The play is the first result of the THEaiTRE research project, aiming to commemorate the centenary of the R.U.R. play by Karel Čapek by investigating to what extent artificial intelligence could be used to create theatre play scripts. The script of the play was created using the THEaiTRobot tool, based on the GPT-2 language model. First, the play dramaturge, David Košťák, described the initial setting of each scene in a few sentences, and wrote the first line for each character. Next, THEaiTRobot suggested a continuation of the script, which the dramaturge could use, reject, or use part of it and let the tool generate a new continuation. Another option was to manually insert another line or a scenic remark. The script was generated in English and was automatically translated to Czech by the state-of-the-art CUBBITT machine translation tool. The resulting script was then further post-edited by the dramaturge. The resulting script was made freely available for non-commercial use both in English and in Czech, with marked manually inserted texts and manual edits. The analysis shows that 90% of the English script is automatically generated, with 10% manually written or manually post-edited. In the Czech script, a larger amount of edits were made, but the analysis claims that these additional edits are corrections of errors of the automated translation and stylistic corrections which do not change the meaning of the lines as represented by the English script, but rather bring the Czech script closer to the English one. == Characters == The play contains 9 characters. The Robot appears in all the scenes, while each of the other characters appears in only one scene. Robot – The lead character, a male humanoid robot. Master – An old man, the creator of the Robot. Boy – A schoolboy. Masseuse – A sex worker in a brothel. Stranger – An engineer. Man. Psychologist. Administrator – A female clerk at an employment agency. Actress – A film actress and a model in a robot-like costume. == Plot == The play is composed of 8 scenes. It tells the story of a humanoid robot, who encounters 8 other characters and engages into various typically human situations and activities, related to death, love, sex, violence, etc. The individual scenes are not tightly linked, but there are some linking points, such as the central character of the robot or some repeated and developing themes, such as the robot's search for love. The scenes often contain some absurd turns and it is often hard to find sense in them. It is therefore a very complicated piece interpretationally, requiring the director and the actors to invest a lot of effort and creativity in finding a meaningful interpretation which would not deviate from the script. In the interpretation by Švanda theatre, who premiered the play and who also participated on the creation of the script, the scenes typically contain non-verbally expressed content which can add a lot to the meaning of the scene compared to what is contained in the actual script (as the script only contains the lines said by the characters). === Scene 1: Death === The play opens by the Robot parting with his dying Master. The Master gives the Robot several last lessons and talks with him about death, soul, and love. === Scene 2: Sense of Humour === In the second scene, the Robot meets a sad and angry Boy, who complains that he wants to go to school, that his girlfriend is crazy, that he wants to buy a car, etc. The Robot tries to help the Boy by giving him advice, but the Boy's reactions are quite negative and irritated. The Boy then repeatedly asks the Robot to tell him a joke; the Robot keeps refusing, but ultimately tells the following joke: When you are dead. When your children are dead. When your grandchildren are dead, I will be still alive. === Scene 3: Nightclub === The Robot wants to feel pleasure, so he goes to a "night club" (a brothel), where he meets a "Masseuse" (a prostitute). The Robot is initially "a bit cold", but eventually manages to enjoy the experience and falls in love with the Masseuse. In the Švanda theatre performance, the Robot and the Masseuse seem to have a sort of virtual sex without touching each other, reminiscent of the sex scene in Demolition Man. === Scene 4: Fear of the Dark === It is the night. The Robot is standing under a lamp, unable to move away from the light as he finds that he is afraid of the dark. He meets a Stranger, an engineer who tells him that robots don't have feelings and that people cannot be trusted, and keeps hurting him. In the Švanda theatre performance, the Man repeatedly zaps the Robot with some kind of electric pulse. === Scene 5: Killer Robot === A Man approaches the Robot and repeatedly asks him to kill him. Instead, the Robot sticks a finger into the Man's anus, which leads to an argument between the Man and the Robot. === Scene 6: Burn Out === The Robot meets a Psychologist, who keeps asking him lots of questions regarding his life, burnout feeling, love, relationships, and emotions. They also talk about the Robot using a device called emotion machine which helps him to get rid of stress. === Scene 7: Search for Job === The Robot comes to an employment agency. He meets an Administrator and asks her to help him find a job. He expresses the wish to become an actor, and talks about his experience as a clown. He reveals his name to be Troy McClure, which is a character from The Simpsons who is an actor. In the Švanda theatre performance, the Administrator starts to seduce the Robot once his name is revealed, which he keeps ignoring; the Administrator then becomes irritated. === Scene 8: Love at First Sight === The Robot meets a human Actress in a robotic costume and falls in love with her immediately. The Actress is first reluctant, but the Robot manages to seduce her and she also falls in love with him. The Robot tells her about a binary world, in which he lives and where he will also take her. Ultimately, the Actress agrees, and the whole play concludes by the Robot and the Actress promising each to other to always be together. In the Švanda theatre performance, the Robot does not have a physical body in this scene, we can only hear his voice and see a pulsating light (based on the line in the script where the Robot says: "I have no body. So I don't need to wear clothes. You can't see me, you only hear me."), and the Actress eventually also agrees to lose her physical body so that she can be with the Robot forever. == Theatrical performances == The play premiered on 26 February 2021 in Švanda Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic, directed by Daniel Hrbek. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the play was not played in front of a live audience, but it was broadcast online, in Czech language with English subtitles. The play was followed by a panel discussion by the project members and experts on artificial intelligence. The premiere was viewed by 13,498 spectators worldwide. A short trailer of the premiere is available on YouTube. In 2021, after the opening of the theatres in the Czech Republic to spectators, the play can be viewed at Švanda Theatre. The performance takes approximately 60 minutes, and is followed by a discussion of the creators with the audience. The derniere is planned for 4 February 2023. == Reception == The play received a number of reviews, both in its country of origin as well as internationally. It is praised as first of its kind, although some reviewers note the similarity to previous works, such as the musical Beyond the Fence, the play Lifestyle of the Richard and Family, or the short movie Sunspring; however, these works used less advanced technology, and either were very short (Sunspring) or necessitated a larger amount of human interventions. The reviewers note that the script is far from perfect, with many inconsistencies and nonsensical parts, and conclude that the technology is definitely not yet ready to replace human authors; however, some find some parts of the script frighteningly human-like. The amount of human intervention is a somewhat controversial topic, with some reviewers finding the human influence too large (especially in interpreting the script and putting the play on scene), while others feel that a greater amount of human intervention would have been favorable as this could greatly improve the quality of the play. The reviews also frequently comment on the amount of sex, violence and strong language in the play; this can be attributed to the method used for creating the script, where the GPT-2 language model reflects topics and language common in the human-written articles on the internet that were used to train the model. Furthermore, some r
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server is a business intelligence software product released in 2007 by Microsoft. The product was generally an integration of the acquisitions from ProClarity - the Planning Server and Monitoring Server - into Microsoft's SharePoint server product line. Although discontinued in 2009, the dashboard, scorecard, and analytics capabilities of PerformancePoint Server were incorporated into SharePoint 2010 and later versions. PerformancePoint Server also provided a planning and budgeting component directly integrated with Excel. == History == Microsoft offered preview releases of PerformancePoint Server starting in mid-2006. Previews of the product were formed from Business Scorecard Manager 2005 and the Planning Server component. Acquisitions ProClarity and Great Plains brought additional analytics and planning/reporting capabilities, as well as companion products ProClarity 6.3 and FRx. PerformancePoint Server was officially released in November 2007. Microsoft discontinued PerformancePoint Server as an independent product in 2009 and folded its dashboard, scorecard and analytics capabilities into PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint Server 2010. == Monitoring Server Component == Business monitoring capabilities, including dashboards, scorecards & key performance indicators, navigable reports for deeper analysis, strategy maps, and linked filtering, are provided by PerformancePoint's Monitoring Server component. A Dashboard Designer application that is distributed from Monitoring Server enables business analysts or IT Administrators to: create & test data source connections create views that use those data connections assemble the views into a dashboard deploy the dashboard as a SharePoint page Dashboard Designer saved content and security information back to the Monitoring Server. Data source connections, such as OLAP cubes or relational tables, were also made through Monitoring Server. After a dashboard has been published to the Monitoring Server database, it would be deployed as a SharePoint page and shared with other users as such. When the pages were opened in a web browser, Monitoring Server updated the data in the views by connecting back to the original data sources. == Planning Server Component == PerformancePoint's Planning Server component supported maintenance of logical business models, budget & approval workflows, enterprise data sources, and it followed Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Planning Server made use of Excel for input and line-of-business reporting, as well as SQL Server for storing and processing business models. == Management Reporter Component == The Management Reporter component was designed to perform financial reporting and can read PerformancePoint Planning models directly. A development kit was also available to allow this component to read other models.
Penril
Penril DataComm Networks, Inc. was a computer telecommunications hardware company that made some acquisitions and was eventually split into two parts: one was acquired by Bay Networks and the other was a newly formed company named Access Beyond. The focus of both company's products was end-to-end data transfer. By the mid-1990s, with the popularization of the internet, this was no longer of wide interest. == History == Penril, whose earnings reports and other financials were followed by The New York Times in the 1990s, made several acquisitions but also grew internally. Following its Datability acquisition it renamed itself Penril Datability Networks. By the time the 1968-founded Penril was acquired by Bay their name was Penril DataComm Networks. The company, which as of 1985 "had made 14 acquisitions in 12 years," also had done extensive work regarding quality control, and leveraged their product line by what The Washington Post called clever packaging: "software, cables, instructions and telephone support" sold to those less technically skilled as "Network in a Box." == Datability == Datability Software Systems Inc. was the initial name of what by 1991 became 'Datability, Inc.', "a manufacturer of hardware that links computer networks." The 1977-founded firm began as a software consulting company, especially in the area of databases. To speed up project development they built a program generator, which they marketed as Control 10/20 (targeted at users of Digital Equipment Corporation's DECsystem-10 and DECSYSTEM-20). After trying their hand at time-sharing they built hardware to enhance bridging these computers to DEC's VAX product line. In particular they focused on Digital's LAT protocol, selling "boxes" that reimplemented the protocol, at a lower price than DEC's. They later expanded into other areas of telecommunications hardware The firm relocated to a larger manufacturing plant in 1991 and was acquired by Penril in 1993. == Access Beyond == Access Beyond was initially housed by Penril, from which it was spun off. A securities analyst noted that Access began operations with no debt. They subsequently merged with Hayes Corporation. Some of the funds brought to the merger came from a sale by Penril of two of its divisions, each bringing about $4 million. == Ron Howard == Ron Howard, founder of Datability, became part of Penril when the latter acquired the former, and was CEO of Access Beyond when it was spun off by Penril. Access merged with Hayes Microcomputer Products and was renamed Hayes Corp, at which time Howard became executive VP of business development and corporate vice chairman of Hayes. == People == In the matter of hiring immigrants, in an industry where recent arrivals came from a culture of six day work weeks, and subcontracting was then common, these assembly line workers at Penril comprised about 25%, compared to double in other firms. Placement was overseen by government agencies. == Controversy == Penril had a joint development agreement, beginning in 1990, with a Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC) subsidiary. A dispute arose, and the matter was brought to court. Penril was awarded $3.5 million in 1996.
Telligent Community
Telligent Community is a community and collaboration software platform developed by Telligent Systems and was first released in 2004. Telligent Community is built on the Telligent Evolution platform, with a variety of core applications running on top of it such as blogs, forums, media galleries, and wikis. Additional applications from third parties using the API's and REST stack can be installed or integrated with the platform. Telligent Community is built with ASP.NET, C#, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is available as downloadable software that can be installed on a web server or via hosting providers. The current version is Verint Community 12.0 which was released February 2012. The product used to be named Community Server before being rebranded as part of the 5.0 release. == History == Telligent Systems was founded by Rob Howard in 2004, who was previously part of Microsoft's ASP.NET team. Telligent introduced its first product, Community Server, in the fall of 2004. Community Server was one of the first integrated community platforms that brought together blogs, photo galleries, wikis, forums, user profiles and more. Community Server was based on the merger of three then-widely used open source ASP.NET projects: the ASP.NET Forums, nGallery photo gallery, and .Text blog engine. The people behind those projects (Scott Watermasysk, Jason Alexander, and Rob Howard) joined together as Telligent Systems and along with several other software developers created Community Server 1.0. Between 2004 and 2009 Community Server steadily grew in scope, features, and capabilities. In 2008 Telligent Systems released a second version of Community Server that targeted as an Enterprise Social Software platform used to create and manage internal employee communities and intranets. Originally branded as Community Server Evolution this was later renamed Telligent Enterprise. Telligent also announced a new Enterprise Reporting platform at its first Community Server Developers Conference in 2008, which was later renamed Harvest. It was one of the first analytics suites for enterprise collaboration software, and provides social analytics including sentiment analysis, social fingerprints, and buzz analysis on social networking sites such as Twitter. Telligent rebranded all of its products on June 23, 2009 at the Enterprise 2.0 conference when it launched its new Evolution platform product suite. Community Server became known as Telligent Community, Community Server Evolution became known as Telligent Enterprise and the underlying platform that both run on is now referred to as Telligent Evolution. The Social Analytics suite was renamed Telligent Analytics.
Applications of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks that are typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. Artificial intelligence has been used in applications throughout industry and academia. Within the field of Artificial Intelligence, there are multiple subfields. The subfield of machine learning has been used for various scientific and commercial purposes, including language translation, image recognition, decision-making, credit scoring, and e-commerce. In recent years, massive advancements have been made in the field of generative artificial intelligence, which uses generative models to generate text, images, videos, and other forms of data. This article describes applications of AI in different sectors. == Agriculture == In agriculture, AI has been proposed as a way for farmers to identify areas that need irrigation, fertilization, or pesticide treatments to increase yields, thereby improving efficiency. AI has been used to attempt to classify livestock pig call emotions, automate greenhouses, detect diseases and pests, and optimize irrigation. == AI-assisted software develoment == == Architecture and design == == Business == A 2023 study found that generative AI increased productivity by 15% in contact centers. Another 2023 study found it increased productivity by up to 40% in writing tasks. An August 2025 review by MIT found that of surveyed companies, 95% did not report any improvement in revenue from the use of AI. A September 2025 article by the Harvard Business Review describes how increased use of AI does not automatically lead to increases in revenue or actual productivity. Referring to "AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task" the article coins the term workslop. Per studies done in collaboration with the Stanford Social Media Lab, workslop does not improve productivity and undermines trust and collaboration among colleagues. In telehealth, agentic AI is reportedly facilitating the creation of large business models (millions in annual profit) with 1-2 employees, such as MEDVi, which as of August 2025 only had 2 employees and ~$75M in annual profit for GLP-1 weight-loss telehealth services. == Chatbots == == Computer science == === Programming assistance === ==== AI-assisted software development ==== AI can be used for real-time code completion, chat, and automated test generation. These tools are typically integrated with editors and IDEs as plugins. AI-assisted software development systems differ in functionality, quality, speed, and approach to privacy. Creating software primarily via AI is known as "vibe coding". Code created or suggested by AI can be incorrect or inefficient. The use of AI-assisted coding can potentially speed-up software development, but can also slow-down the process by creating more work when debugging and testing. The rush to prematurely adopt AI technology can also incur additional technical debt. AI also requires additional consideration and careful review for cybersecurity, since AI coding software is trained on a wide range of code of inconsistent quality and often replicates poor practices. ==== Neural network design ==== AI can be used to create other AIs. For example, around November 2017, Google's AutoML project to evolve new neural net topologies created NASNet, a system optimized for ImageNet and POCO F1. NASNet's performance exceeded all previously published performance on ImageNet. ==== Quantum computing ==== Research and development of quantum computers has been performed with machine learning algorithms. For example, there is a prototype, photonic, quantum memristive device for neuromorphic computers (NC)/artificial neural networks and NC-using quantum materials with some variety of potential neuromorphic computing-related applications. The use of quantum machine learning for quantum simulators has been proposed for solving physics and chemistry problems. === Historical contributions === AI researchers have created many tools to solve the most difficult problems in computer science. Many of their inventions have been adopted by mainstream computer science and are no longer considered AI. All of the following were originally developed in AI laboratories: Time sharing Interactive interpreters Graphical user interfaces and the computer mouse Rapid application development environments The linked list data structure Automatic storage management Symbolic programming Functional programming Dynamic programming Object-oriented programming Optical character recognition Constraint satisfaction == Customer service == === Human resources === AI programs have been used in hiring processes to screen resumes and rank candidates based on their qualifications, predict a candidate's likelihood of success in a given role, and automate repetitive communication tasks using chatbots. Studies on these programs have identified tendencies for gender bias, favoring male names and male-coded characteristics, as well as bias against disabled candidates and racial minorities. === Online and telephone customer service === AI underlies avatars (automated online assistants) on web pages. It can reduce operation and training costs. Pypestream automated customer service for its mobile application to streamline communication with customers. A Google app analyzes language and converts speech into text. The platform can identify angry customers through their language and respond appropriately. Amazon uses a chatbot for customer service that can perform tasks like checking the status of an order, cancelling orders, offering refunds and connecting the customer with a human representative. Generative AI (GenAI), such as ChatGPT, is increasingly used in business to automate tasks and enhance decision-making. === Hospitality === In the hospitality industry, AI is used to reduce repetitive tasks, analyze trends, interact with guests, and predict customer needs. AI hotel services come in the form of a chatbot, application, virtual voice assistant and service robots. == Education == In educational institutions, AI has been used to automate routine tasks such as attendance tracking, grading, and marking. AI tools have also been used to monitor student progress and analyze learning behaviors, with the goal of facilitating timely interventions for students facing academic challenges. == Energy and environment == === Energy system === The U.S. Department of Energy wrote in an April 2024 report that AI may have applications in modeling power grids, reviewing federal permits with large language models, predicting levels of renewable energy production, and improving the planning process for electrical vehicle charging networks. Other studies have suggested that machine learning can be used for energy consumption prediction and scheduling, e.g. to help with renewable energy intermittency management (see also: smart grid and climate change mitigation in the power grid). === Environmental monitoring === Autonomous ships that monitor the ocean, AI-driven satellite data analysis, passive acoustics or remote sensing and other applications of environmental monitoring make use of machine learning. For example, "Global Plastic Watch" is an AI-based satellite monitoring-platform for analysis/tracking of plastic waste sites to help prevention of plastic pollution – primarily ocean pollution – by helping identify who and where mismanages plastic waste, dumping it into oceans. === Early-warning systems === Machine learning can be used to spot early-warning signs of disasters and environmental issues, possibly including natural pandemics, earthquakes, landslides, heavy rainfall, long-term water supply vulnerability, tipping-points of ecosystem collapse, cyanobacterial bloom outbreaks, and droughts. === Economic and social challenges === The University of Southern California launched the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society, with the goal of using AI to address problems such as homelessness. Stanford researchers use AI to analyze satellite images to identify high poverty areas. == Entertainment and media == === Media === AI applications analyze media content such as movies, TV programs, advertisement videos or user-generated content. The solutions often involve computer vision. Typical scenarios include the analysis of images using object recognition or face recognition techniques, or the analysis of video for scene recognizing scenes, objects or faces. AI-based media analysis can facilitate media search, the creation of descriptive keywords for content, content policy monitoring (such as verifying the suitability of content for a particular TV viewing time), speech to text for archival or other purposes, and the detection of logos, products or celebrity faces for ad placement. Motion interpolation Pixel-art scaling algorithms Image scaling Imag