A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), formerly Universal Resource Identifier, is a unique sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource, such as a webpage, service, email address, phone number, book, real-world object (such as person or place), or concept.[1]: 1,4,5,7 In particular, the resource need not be retrievable via the Internet, or any computer network.[1]: 5
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and Uniform Resource Names (URNs) are both subordinate classifications, and non-mutually exclusive. URLs are those which both identify and provide means of locating a resource "by describing its primary access mechanism" (e.g. its network or file system location). URNs identify resources with names which can be location independent.[1]: 7 (Full article...)
15.ai was a free non-commercial web application and research project that used artificial intelligence to generate text-to-speech voices of fictional characters from popular media. Created by a pseudonymous artificial intelligence researcher known as 15, who began developing the technology as a freshman during their undergraduate research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the application allowed users to make characters from video games, television shows, and movies speak custom text with emotional inflections. The platform was able to generate convincing voice output using minimal training data; the name "15.ai" referenced the creator's statement that a voice could be cloned with just 15 seconds of audio. Described by AI researchers as unusually advanced for its time, with its voice synthesis outperforming contemporary models, 15.ai was one of the first mainstream applications of generative artificial intelligence during the initial stages of the AI boom.
Launched in March 2020, 15.ai became an international Internet phenomenon in early 2021 when content utilizing it went viral on social media and quickly gained widespread use among Internet fandoms, such as the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Team Fortress 2, and SpongeBob SquarePants fandoms. The service featured emotional context through emojis, precise pronunciation control, and multi-speaker capabilities. Critics praised 15.ai's accessibility and emotional control but criticized its technical limitations in prosody options and non-English language support, with mixed results depending on character complexity. 15.ai is credited as the first platform to popularize AI voice cloning in memes and content creation.
Voice actors and industry professionals debated 15.ai's implications, raising concerns about employment impacts, voice-related fraud, and potential misuse. In January 2022, it was discovered that a company called Voiceverse had generated voice lines using 15.ai without attribution, promoted them as the byproduct of their own technology, and sold them as non-fungible tokens (NFT) without permission. News publications universally characterized this incident as the company having "stolen" from 15.ai. The service went offline in September 2022 due to legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence and copyright. Its shutdown was followed by the emergence of commercial alternatives whose founders have acknowledged 15.ai's pioneering influence in the field of deep learning speech synthesis. On May 18, 2025, 15 launched 15.dev as the sequel to 15.ai; on May 28, 2026, 15 announced the indefinite closure of 15.dev to focus on founding Artist Alley, a fandom marketplace catered toward artists. (Full article...)
... that the emoji of the unofficial flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon is often used online by Basques because it features the flag of the Basque Country, which does not have its own emoji?
Image 5The digital divide measured in terms of bandwidth is not closing, but fluctuating up and down. Gini coefficients for telecommunication capacity (in kbit/s) among individuals worldwide (from Internet access)
Image 20Postage stamp of Azerbaijan (2004): 35 Years of the Internet, 1969–2004 (from History of the Internet)
Image 21
Broadband affordability in 2011
This map presents an overview of broadband affordability, as the relationship between average yearly income per capita and the cost of a broadband subscription (data referring to 2011). Source: Information Geographies at the Oxford Internet Institute. (from Internet access)
If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.
This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk·contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Internet}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.