Before bashing out emails and text messages by thumb became an accepted form of communication, typing was a fully manual skill. In the 80s, "the office" was an exclusive preserve for freaks who could type 40 words per minute at least. Those too modest or miserly to sign up for brick-and-mortar classes could pick up a software program called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing for 50. At my Catholic high school, the application was the typing class. The priests just switched on the computers.

Lucy, the virtual being AI from Fable Studio's Wolves in the Walls virtual reality experience, is getting around. Now she has busted the fourth wall and moved into the real, or virtual world, of the virtual Sundance Film Festival. This week, Lucy appeared as a guest at Sundance. She appeared in Zoom sessions with other attendees, and they were able to quiz her. As an artificial intelligence character, she responded with her own comments and views on watching expressionist movies at Sundance.

Sundance Multiprocessor Technology has joined Digital Catapult's Machine Intelligence Garage business incubator, in a move that will help to deepen its expertise in the deployment of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) techniques across a diverse range of embedded systems applications. In addition to Sundance's embedded platforms optimised for running deep learning algorithms used for performing autonomous navigation and other computer vision applications, these companies are working on a range of applications that include video analytics for improved livestock welfare management, solutions for reducing greenhouse emissions, interactive podcasting and neural networking. Digital Catapult is the UK's advanced digital technology innovation centre and connects start-up and scaleup companies with large businesses, investors, government and public organisations, and research and academia. Its Machine Intelligence Garage aims to provide support in the AI/ML arena as well as provide access to the compute-intensive power needed by these enterprises to develop and test their models. It is delivered as part of London's CAP-AI project and is part funded through the European Regional Development Fund. "We started the Machine Intelligence Garage to address the challenges the UK's promising early stage AI and ML companies face, accelerating their growth and helping them realise their true potential by providing access to high-level computational power, relevant expertise, mentoring and networking opportunities," said Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult.

On a recent episode of How To!, Brittany O'Neill, the woman who inspired the hit film Brittany Runs a Marathon, revealed what happened to her after the movie came out. A quirky, motivational dramedy, Brittany Runs a Marathon first premiered at Sundance last year. It tells the story of an unhappy, overweight woman who trains for the New York City Marathon and, in the process, revamps her whole life. In this episode of How To!, Brittany opens up about her struggles with weight loss after the movie's happy ending, and how she finally learned to accept herself--one run at a time. This transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Dimension 404 on Hulu is a science fiction anthology show in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. TV writer Andrea Kail loved the fifth episode, "Bob," about a (literal) giant brain who works for the National Security Agency. "I thought this was one of the best things I've seen in a long time," Kail says in Episode 347 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "I thought it was incredibly good filmmaking, and incredibly great writing and acting. There was nothing about it I didn't love."

As Hollywood events go, there are few more congratulatory than film festival awards ceremonies, where everyone wants to cheer for the Next Big Thing before they get huge. Yet, at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the biggest applause at the awards show wasn't for a director or actor--it was for Rachel Morrison, a director of photography on the festival jury. "Earlier this week," host Jason Mantzoukas said while announcing her name, "she became the first woman ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for cinematography. Her historic nod is for last year's Sundance hit Mudbound." Out in the audience, Morrison smiled sheepishly; at her side, fellow jurors Jada Pinkett Smith and Octavia Spencer whooped up a storm. The audience stood to clap.

When I think about what makes a fun VR experience, I constantly come back to the work of Tyler Hurd: lead artist on a batch of experiences that can best be described as smile machines. His beat-heavy bits basically force participants to dance like they just don't care (a trick aided by the fact that eye-covering VR headsets allow you to pretend that you're dancing like nobody is watching). When I first came across his work at the Tribeca Film Festival, where his VR video the Future Islands song Old Friend made a well-received appearance, I spent a fair chunk of time simply watching people glow with joy as they danced with abandon. This January at the Sundance Film Festival, I witnessed a similar stream of smiles with his newest experience, Chocolate, which he produced with Viacom Next. Towards the end of Sundance, I caught up with Tyler to talk about his new experience, and what the secret is to making VR that people seem to really, really like.

Standing in a pink desert landscape, I looked down and realized I'd become a robot, with skinny metal legs and pincers for hands. Without warning or explanation, my hands became cannons and began firing projectiles, which, on further inspection, I saw were small metallic cats. In the sky, a giant cat appeared; it shook an infant's bottle, and stars came out. Earlier that same day, I spent time as a black woman, in a neurocosmetology salon of the future. According to the staff, I needed both hair-styling and a neurological upgrade; namely, "transcranial extensions designed to make the brain's synapses more excitable and primed to increase neuroplasticity."