Om Malik

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More

A very misty weekend

Good morning my friends over here! Earlier this morning, I got a message from another friend that someone was imitating me on IG by stealing my photos. I sadly had to go there and report the account. It was one of my first visits to IG since I quit the service in 2020. And the visit to IG made me realize that the reasons I quit the service and the negative feelings it brought up are still in place. I reported the account and came back here.

In sharp contrast, the calm and zen of my new photo community, Glass, makes me appreciate it even more. It is almost like living in a community where everyone knows and cares about you and what you share and create. Thank you, team Glass. On another note, we had a rainy weekend, and that meant an amazing morning of fog, mist, and rain

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On Photography
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Why snow loves the trees

Utah 2019. Leica SL2.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”

Lewis Carroll

Today is the first day of November. We have officially started marching toward the winter. The time when there is snow in the mountains. And my favorite time to put the camera to use. I wanted to share this photo I made in 2019 when visiting Utah during mid-winter.

November 1, 2022. San Francisco

On Photography
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MacBook Pro displaying island

Adobe’s Future

Adobe has to embrace AI and become an even better fast follower in order to survive & thrive in the future.

Every year at its annual launch fest, the Adobe Max, Adobe announces enhancements to its flagship software products. I keep an eye on photography-related offerings — Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. This year’s product enhancements tapped into Adobe’s “artificial intelligence” technology, Adobe Sensei.

The new “Sensei” powered features will allow Adobe’s software to do Photo Restoration that can eliminate scratches and other minor imperfections on old photographs) and Select People, aka detect a person within a photograph, and then create masks specific to their facial skin, body skin, eyebrow, iris, pupil, lips, teeth, mouth, and hair. There is a massive improvement in the ability to make detailed selections of complex objects — say, the hair of an Icelandic horse. The list of features is long and impressive,

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Technology
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Augmenting (our) Intelligence

The popular narrative these days is that AI (aka artificial intelligence) is evil and will end the human race. To paraphrase a roman leader, the only thing to fear is the fear itself. As I have said before (on multiple occasions), AI will be a necessary co-pilot in our increasingly digitized, highly networked, and data-saturated world.

I think of AI as augmented intelligence, and I am hopeful it will help us make substantial gains in dealing with our medical needs, climate-related challenges, and everything else. I make my case over on The Spectator in my latest piece, Why we should stop worrying and learn to love AI.

Previously: The Hype and Hope of Artificial Intelligence, The New Yorker. (2016)

Technology
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A Salty Dreamscape

When I see a landscape, all I see is a dreamscape. And that is when I know it is time for me to press the shutter. Here is a vintage photo from 2019, when I last visited Utah. I hope to go back soon. This is reimagined with a new preset I recently developed with my friend Rebecca Lily.

On Photography
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So is the On Demand Economy Dead?

man riding bicycle near vehicles
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Delivery startups don’t deliver — that is the gist of the big feature story on GoPuff, a delivery service that started selling hookahs and other smoking paraphernalia in Philadelphia. The company is the latest in what seems to be a long line of money-losing attempts at instant (or near-instant) delivery. From Amazon to Deliveroo to Instacart — all have learned that hard lesson. GoPuff isn’t the first.

The story might give you the impression that the “on-demand” economy that gained enormous traction during the pandemic was dead. Or that the nearly $10 billion of venture capital that went into quick commerce companies in 2021 was dead money. But I don’t buy that — on-demand has now become an endemic (urban) social behavior, and it will only become more pervasive. 

***

But first, let’s talk about GoPuff. Like many others before, you can easily tell

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Technology
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The Forever Immigrant Challenge

Photo by Sachin Kushwaha Photography on Unsplash

I am reminded daily that the Internet and online media can be awful places. Today, the reminder came in the form of reactions to the election of form Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, as the British Prime Minister. Whether these are bots doing the bidding of some hidden powers, or just plain old-fashioned racism, it is depressing to read comments about Sunak’s race and ethnicity.

To call him Indian would be a stretch. Is he of Indian origin? Of course. But make no bones – Sunak is British. He was born in Southampton and educated at Winchester College, & Oxford. Sunak is the grandson of Indian migrants who moved to the U.K. from Kenya. That leads me to the bigger question: if birth doesn’t make you “British,” then what does? 

To be clear, I am not naive enough to think that these

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Musings
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Who’s Streaming’s Top of The Pops?

man listening to Soundcloud music on smartphone
Photo by Rachit Tank on Unsplash

When Apple announced that it now has 100 million songs on its music streaming platform, it started a conversation. Bruce Houghton, founder of Hypebot puts the conversation to the rest with his estimates: 

  • Soundcloud: 300 million
  • Apple Music: 100 million
  • YouTube: 100 million
  • Amazon Music: 90 million
  • Tidal: 90 million
  • Deezer: 90 million
  • Spotify: 82 million

With just over 100,000 songs being uploaded every day, the totdaily, this number will soon balloonal number of songs on streaming services will continue to increase. The rise of generative AI will redefine music and creative an exponential boom in available musical content.

“The internet has the power to reach everybody, nearly instantly. But we’ve found out that there’s so much stuff that it’s hard to reach anybody.”

Bob Lefesetz

The elephant in the room is that with this many songs on tap, how much can we listen,

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Technology
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Lana has lost her drive

As a Lana Del Ray fan, I sometimes keep up with the news about her. Today, a news alert popped up — a laptop, three video cameras, and hard drives were stolen from her car. The computer has her book manuscript, and music and videos are on those drives. The singer took to Instagram to share her story and her loss. 

“I had to remotely wipe the computer that had my 200-page book for Simon & Schuster, which I didn’t have backed up on a cloud.  And despite that, people are still able this week to remotely access my phone and leak our songs and personal photos.”

Lana Del Ray

I feel a certain kinship with her. Nothing as radical as a car break-in, but we have lost hard drives to corruption and age. We have forgotten to back up our data to the cloud. I remember back in early

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Technology
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