philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

OpenAI, Meta and Google Sign On to New Child Exploitation Safety Measures

... “This project was intended to make abundantly clear that you don’t need to throw up your hands,” said Rebecca Portnoff, vice president of data science at Thorn. “We want to be able to change the course of this technology to where the existing harms of this technology get cut off at the knees.”  ...

When Thorn approached AI companies, they found that while some companies already had large teams focused on removing child-sexual-abuse material, others were unaware of the problem and potential solutions. There is also a tension between the imperative to safeguard these tools and business leaders’ push to move quickly to advance new AI technology.  ...

Today, watermarks are removable, and AI companies are still looking for ways to mark AI-generated images permanently, said Ella Irwin, senior vice president of integrity at Stability AI, the company behind the open-source image-generation model Stable Diffusion. ...

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-developers-agree-to-new-safety-measures-to-fight-child-exploitation-2a58129c

Will AI help or hinder trust in science?

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AI working alongside an expert scientist, who confirms and interprets the results, is a perfectly legitimate way of working, and is widely seen as yielding better performance than human scientists or AI systems working alone.

On the other hand, general AI systems are trained to carry out a wide range of tasks, not specific to any domain or use case. ...

When it comes to general AI, the problems of hallucinations and bias are most acute and widespread. That doesn’t mean general AI isn’t useful for scientists — but it needs to be used with care. ...

One danger when it comes to these scientific assistants could arise if the human scientist takes the outputs for granted.

Well-trained, diligent scientists will not do this, of course. But many scientists out there are just trying to survive in a tough industry of publish-or-perish. Scientific fraud is already increasing, even without AI. ...

Only if researchers responsibly design, build, and use the next generation of AI tools in support of the scientific method will the public’s trust in both AI and science be gained and maintained. ...

See the full story here: https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2024/April/AI-trust-in-science

Art from a long-dead civilization springs back to life

... The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East recently launched an augmented reality Snapchat Lens that offers a new way to experience their “From Stone to Silicone” exhibition. Visitors can view the AR on a smartphone or tablet anytime by searching “Intimidation Art” in the Snapchat app and aiming the device at the art. Every detail of the scenes — from colors used in the animation to music playing in the background — is based on historical research. ...

See the full story here: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/04/art-from-a-long-dead-civilization-springs-back-to-life/

This camera trades pictures for AI poetry

... Instead of merely capturing images, the Poetry Camera takes the concept of photography to new heights by generating thought-provoking poetry (or, well, as thought-provoking as AI poetry can get) based on the visuals it encounters. ...

“What if you took a camera, but it was a reaction to Instagram culture? What if text comes out instead of a photo? … Everyone prefers the book version over the movie, so it’s like that for capturing moments.” ...

As they refined their prototype, Zhang and Mather began to share their creation with friends and family at social gatherings. The reactions they received were nothing short of astonishing. People were fascinated by the concept of a camera that could generate poetry based on what it saw. The device quickly became the center of attention, sparking lively discussions and igniting the imagination of all who encountered it. ...

“For me, this continues to be art because it’s about expressing. It’s a vehicle for shaping a world that we want to see, which is a world where people can play with this new technology: AI is not all doom and gloom. And it’s not just about AI mimicking humans in a deeper, faster and worse way,” concludes Zhang. “It’s about making something entirely new with its new technology and bringing out that inner child again. For this project, it’s not about making money — it’s about making that childish wonder possible again.”

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/20/poetry-camera/

Massachusetts Attorney General Issues Advisory on Artificial Intelligence

... The Advisory lists a series of consumer harms from AI, including that (1) “consumers are harmed when AI does not function as intended or does not meet minimum quality and efficiency standards,” (2) AI developers “continue to market and sell AI systems knowing these shortfalls and that they may cause harm to consumers,” and (3) “AI systems are being deployed in ways that can deceive consumers and the public.” ...

The Advisory identifies several activities as violations of the Massachusetts consumer protection law:

• Falsely advertising the quality, value or usability of AI systems;
• Misrepresenting the reliability, manner of performance, safety or condition of an AI system, including unsubstantiated claims about its capabilities;
• Misrepresenting a person’s audio or video content for the purpose of deceiving another, including the misleading use of deepfakes, voice cloning or chatbots;
• Supplying an AI system that is defective, unusable or impractical for the advertised purpose; and
• Offering an AI system for sale that is not fit for its ordinary purpose or the specific purpose for which it is offered.

...

See the full story here: https://www.manatt.com/insights/newsletters/client-alert/massachusetts-attorney-general-issues-advisory-on

A new web3 network is being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control of your data

... Edge & Node is a company focused on creating and supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols. It’s the initial team supporting The Graph, a decentralized network that indexes, queries and organizes data. It has been called the “Google of web3” and aims to organize open blockchain data and make open data a public good. ...

“The one thing that’s really important about AI is that it’s all about data,” Kline said. “There’s a saying that who rules the data rules the world, and so it really is important that data is not owned and controlled by any one company, especially in the AI space.” ...

There needs to be a bit more acceptance in the AI community, but over time, Kline thinks that the AI and blockchain relationship will evolve and shift. “Using new business models and new incentive structures that have emerged via tokens and token economies and decentralized infrastructure, that’s where things will get really interesting for AI.”

See the full story here: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/web3-network-being-built-now-192103600.html

How United Airlines uses AI to make flying the friendly skies a bit easier

... Jason Birnbaum, who became United’s CIO in 2022, manages a team of over 1,500 employees and about 2,000 contractors who are responsible for all of the tech that makes this happen. ...

But that also comes back to reliability. Like all airlines, United still operates a lot of legacy systems — and they still work. “Frankly, we are extra careful as we move through this journey, to make sure we don’t disrupt the operation or create self-inflicted wounds,” he said.

United has already moved and turned off a lot of legacy systems, and that process is ongoing. ...

While all of this work is still going on, United is also looking at how it can best leverage AI.

One story I regularly hear about AI/ML in large enterprises is that ChatGPT didn’t necessarily change how the technologists thought about it, but that it suddenly became a boardroom discussion. That also holds true for United. ...

Not that long ago, it was rather typical to get a notification when a flight was delayed, but no further information about it. Maybe the incoming flight was delayed. Maybe there was a maintenance issue. A few years ago, United started using agents to write short notices that explained the delay and sent those out through its app and as text messages. Now, pulling in data from its chat app and other sources, the vast majority of these messages are written by AI. ...

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/21/how-united-airlines-uses-ai-to-make-flying-the-friendly-skies-a-bit-easier

Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Taylor Swift and A.I. combine on Drake’s follow-up Kendrick Lamar diss track

... There has previously been speculation about the role of Artificial Intelligence in the ongoing spat between the rappers. This time, however, we have been left in no doubt, with the late Tupac and Snoop Dogg featuring in the first two verses in Drake’s latest attack on K. Dot, who kicked the feud off with his guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That”. ...

See the full poorly-written post here: https://en.as.com/entertainment/tupac-snoop-dogg-taylor-swift-and-ai-combine-on-drakes-follow-up-kendrick-lamar-diss-track-n/

Media pros respond to AI images from A24: ‘a huge misstep for their reputation’

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Yesterday, A24 posted six images to its official Instagram page, each depicting an iconic American location in the midst of some kind of armed conflict. Sphere in Las Vegas, for example, is shown as a smoking husk lying in rubble, and the fountain in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park is ringed by heavily armed military transport vehicles.

There’s just one issue: none of the scenes captured in the stills were actually included in the film. ...

Looking closely, one can discern certain sloppy details that wouldn’t have been included by a human artist. The layout of the roads depicted in the image of Washington Square Park doesn’t look quite like the real thing. Another image shows one the Marina Towers in Chicago in the middle of the river – both buildings are, in real life, located on the same side of the water. The misalignment of small details like these is a hallmark of current text-to-image generative AI models. ...

See the full story here: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2024/04/19/marketing-ai-pros-deem-a24-s-ai-generated-civil-war-promo-images-repulsive-insulting

Meet Ada, the Virtual Host Captivating Audiences on Social Media

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The entertainment landscape is taking an innovative turn with Ada Bíró, the first-ever virtual host on Hungarian television. This digital personality, brought to life through the aid of artificial intelligence on Duna TV’s science program “Delta,” has garnered a growing fanbase since her introduction. ...

Her presence demonstrates how technology blurs the lines between reality and virtual interaction, creating new forms of engagement. ...

Ada Bíró’s ascension isn’t just a novelty; it’s a conversation starter about the evolving intersections between technology, information dissemination, and society’s acceptance of non-human personas in traditionally human roles. ...

See the full article here: https://elblog.pl/2024/04/16/meet-ada-the-virtual-host-captivating-audiences-on-social-media/