Benj Edwards' interests in science and the arts inspire his written works on the past, present, and future of technology. As a collector and student of vintage computers and video games for over 30 years, he has brought a deep sense of tech history to publications such as The Atlantic, Ars Technica, Fast Company, PCWorld, Macworld, How-To Geek, Edge, and PCMag.
During his time as a journalist, Edwards has broken stories about the need for software preservation (and the surprising preservative effects of piracy), early video game history, the first computer art, minority and female tech pioneers, and online service archeology. In the AI space, he also wrote the first news stories about prompt injections, the first generative AI copyright, Bing Chat vulnerabilities, private medical photos in AI training data, social media photo deepfakes, the AI cinema movement, and more. His deep interviews and features have introduced tech icons like Jerry Lawson, Carol Shaw, Ralph Baer, and Ed Smith to a new generation of readers on the web and have been cited in numerous books and referenced in museums worldwide. He's also interviewed tech legends like Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell, and Tim Sweeney. In 2020, he coined the term "cultural singularity" related to history-disrupting AI-generated deepfakes and wrote about the dangers of "historical context attacks" empowered by AI tools. In 2022, Edwards founded the AI beat for Ars Technica, covering the mainstream emergence of generative AI like DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT. Along the way, he popularly coined the term "confabulation" (confabulate) to describe LLM hallucinations as creative gap-filling phenomena. * * * Edwards is also founder and Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming (VC&G), a blog dedicated to classic technology. VC&G's unusual dual devotion to both computer and video game history has attracted millions of visitors since 2005. As a songwriter and musician, Edwards previously formed the world's first "dot-com band," Request-A-Song.com (2002-2005), which explored audience interactivity, online music distribution methods, and new music business models, gaining repeated airplay on Dr. Demento's radio show and acclaim from Billboard and USA Today. In 2018, Edwards began making highly-acclaimed custom joysticks for classic video game systems and selling them online under the name BX Foundry. In the process, he created the world's first third-party Virtual Boy controller (and also its first fighting stick). He lives in Raleigh, NC, USA. |
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Articles about Benj Edwards
- 02/21/2024: This old ‘Fast Company’ article is a touchstone for the AI deepfake age
- 06/14/2023: Guy Buys Physical Encyclopedia Set to Prepare for Information Doomsday (Futurism)
- 02/17/2023: Bing AI Flies Into Unhinged Rage at Journalist (Futurism)
- 08/06/2022: A Farewell Tour of Benj's Best HTG Computer History Articles (How-To Geek)
- 02/07/2019: In Total Control: BX Foundry's Handmade Joysticks (Tedium)
- 01/29/2019: Improving Old-School Experiences with Custom Console Joysticks (Racketboy)
- 01/10/2019: Talented Individual Creates Arcade Stick for Nintendo's Virtual Boy (NintendoLife)
- 01/09/2019: Someone Made an Arcade Stick for Virtual Boy, Of All Things (Kotaku)
- 01/02/2019: RetroRGB Weekly Roundup #130 (RetroRGB Podcast)
- 01/01/2019: World's First Virtual Boy Dual Arcade Stick (RetroRGB)
- 10/18/2018: Check Out These Awesome Homemade Retro Arcade Sticks -- That You Can Buy (VentureBeat)
- 10/01/2018: ANTIC Atari Podcast, Episode 53 (ANTIC)
- 03/15/2018: Want to Buy This Lovingly Curated Collection of Classic Computers? (Raleigh News & Observer)
- 10/09/2018: Gear Envy: My Collection of 500+ Pieces of Computer and Gaming Hardware (PCMag)
- 12/15/2016: A Look Back at My Family's Love of PCs in the 80s (PCMag)
- 02/02/2011: Five Years of Archiving Video Games' Retro, Silly Past In Print (Kotaku)
- 03/08/2004: The Internet’s first on-line songwriting service proves to be a big hit (Ink19)
- 02/27/2004: Writing His Future (Raleigh News & Observer)
- 07/29/2003: He Writes the Songs on Demand (Raleigh News & Observer)
- 06/10/2003: ALL REQUEST, ALL THE TIME (Billboard)
Interviews of Benj Edwards
- 09/13/2024: Poshumous Handwriting using AI (Transcript) (As It Happens/CBC Radio)
- 05/20/2024: Benj talks Virtual Boy book (Retronauts)
- 04/15/2024: The Nintendo Virtual Boy Deserves Your Respect (Gizmodo)
- 12/29/2023: What is the new language of AI? (Looks Like New)
- 12/15/2022: Reasonably Spontaneous Conversation with Benj Edwards (Dennis Tardan)
- 10/26/2022: Representation and Popularity in Early PC Gaming (Decoding the Past)
- 06/05/2022: Benj talks Tech History (Still Loading)
- 03/23/2022: Benj talks GORILLA.BAS (Video Game History Foundation)
- 04/06/2018: Benj's Classic Computer Collection (Retronauts)
- 11/02/2015: Benj Edwards, Creator of VC&G (Harry McCracken)
- 07/18/2014: Resurrecting Prodigy (VentureBeat)
- 02/06/2012: Piracy: The Modern Scroll of Historic Salvation (NHPR)