philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Anthropic CEO Says Mandatory Safety Tests Needed for AI Models

Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said artificial intelligence companies, including his own, should be subject to mandatory testing requirements to ensure their technologies are safe for the public before release. 

“I think we absolutely have to make the testing mandatory, but we also need to be really careful about how we do it,” Amodei said in response to a question on the topic Wednesday at an AI safety summit in San Francisco hosted by the US Departments of Commerce and State. ...

“There’s nothing to really verify or ensure the companies are really following those plans in letter of spirit. They just said they will,” Amodei said. “I think just public attention and the fact that employees care has created some pressure, but I do ultimately think it won’t be enough.” ...

See the full article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-20/anthropic-ceo-says-mandatory-safety-tests-needed-for-ai-models?srnd=phx-technology&leadSource=uverify%20wall&embedded-checkout=true

New AI Entertainment Studio Gets Backing From Peter Chernin, Andreessen Horowitz

PhilNote: they plan to start delivering “within three years,” so other than the financing they aren’t that special.

... The studio, Promise, is the brainchild of George Strompolos and Jamie Byrne, two former YouTube executives who were early to the influencer space, along with Dave Clark, a generative AI artist.

Unlike traditional studios that are starting to experiment with generative AI for storyboarding or some visual effects, Promise is creating an entire studio centered on using these tools. It is creating production software, called Muse, for its artists to take advantage of generative AI tools, and will look to use them for everything from conceptualizing scenes to actual production, rather than exploring around the edges like others are doing. ...

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/new-ai-entertainment-studio-gets-backing-from-peter-chernin-andreessen-horowitz-8c840236

US government commission pushes Manhattan Project-style AI initiative

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Noting that energy infrastructure is a significant bottleneck for training large AI models, Helberg suggested that streamlining the permitting process for data centers might be an example of how a public-private partnership could accelerate AI development.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which last week released a proposed blueprint for U.S. AI strategy, has also called for more government funding for artificial intelligence. ...

The USCC, established by Congress in 2000, provides annual recommendations on U.S.-China relations. Known for its hawkish policy proposals, the commission aims to guide lawmakers on issues of economic and strategic competition with China. ...

See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/us-government-commission-pushes-manhattan-project-style-ai-initiative-2024-11-19/

Experience Ancient Egypt Like Never Before

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced a new AR experience in partnership with Meta to explore ancient Egyptian artifacts in stunning detail and share your journey through time. 

This project was launched at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to celebrate its 122nd anniversary. Instagram's Revival project utilizes advanced augmented reality (AR) filters to virtually restore artifacts that are on display at both the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC). ...

Visitors to the Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) can now scan QR codes located near selected artifacts. By using these codes, they can access augmented reality (AR) filters on Instagram. These filters digitally reconstruct statues, carvings, and other ancient objects, allowing visitors to see how they would have appeared in their original state.

See the full story here: https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/136243/Experience-Ancient-Egypt-Like-Never-Before

A Powerful AI Breakthrough Is About to Transform the World

... In a recent demonstration, a Physical Intelligence-powered pair of robot arms does what is, believe it or not, one of the hardest tasks in all of robotics: folding laundry. Clothes can take on any shape, and require surprising flexibility and dexterity to handle, so roboticists can’t script the sequence of actions that will tell a robot exactly how to move its limbs to retrieve and fold laundry. ...

Powerful as they can be, these systems still have limits and unpredictability that mean they won’t be able to completely automate people’s jobs, says Dettmer.

The AI at the heart of EvolutionaryScale, for example, can suggest new molecules for humans to try in the lab, but humans still have to synthesize and test them. ...

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/a-powerful-ai-breakthrough-is-about-to-transform-the-world-095b81ea

Growing Up: Navigating Generative AI’s Early Years – AI Adoption Report

This new Wharton rpt gives an AI update.

Navigating Generative AI’s Early Years – AI Adoption Report

Democratising AI for good: Global AI pioneer Dr. Ben Goertzel launches $1m+ in grants for international developers, advancing the mission of creating benevolent Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

• Dr. Ben Goertzel, the CEO of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, and the Founder of SingularityNET - the world's first decentralised AI platform is on a mission to accelerate the emergence of human-level Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence for the benefit of all mankind
  
• More than $1M in funding will be awarded to multiple developers who design disruptive applications to push the frontiers of AGI development
  
• For further details on entry visit https://deepfunding.ai/all-rfps/ before 1st December 2024

See the full article here: https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/democratising-ai-for-good-global-ai-pioneer-dr-ben-goertzel-launches-1m-in-grants-for-international-developers-advancing-the-mission-of-creating-benevolent-artificial-general-intelligence-agi-302304470.html

... At the heart of this research lies the ARC benchmark, a sophisticated tool that challenges AI systems to demonstrate genuine understanding rather than mere memorization. Unlike traditional benchmarks, which often rely on pattern recognition, the ARC benchmark pushes AI into uncharted territories of thought, requiring it to solve problems creatively and adaptively. Coupled with innovative methods like test-time training, which allows AI to learn and adapt in real-time, these advancements have propelled AI models to achieve human-level reasoning—and even beyond. ...

TL;DR Key Takeaways :

• MIT’s study highlights a novel approach to abstract reasoning as a key to achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), using the ARC benchmark to test machine intelligence creatively and adaptively.
• The ARC benchmark serves as an IQ test for machines, assessing AI’s ability to apply abstract reasoning to novel situations, marking a significant leap in reasoning capabilities.
• Test-time training, which updates model parameters during inference, has enabled AI systems to surpass human-level reasoning on the ARC benchmark, representing a major advancement toward AGI.
• Search algorithms enhance AI’s problem-solving abilities by allowing efficient exploration of solutions, crucial for achieving human-level performance and advancing toward AGI.
• The study indicates AI models have surpassed human reasoning on the ARC benchmark, suggesting AI can now perform tasks once exclusive to human intelligence, paving the way for future AGI development.

See the full article here: https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/artificial-general-intelligence-advancements/

OpenAI to Launch Autonomous AI Agent

OpenAI is set to launch an autonomous AI agent, code-named "Operator," early next year. ...

Unlike traditional AI interfaces (which work on specific tasks), Operator and its counterparts will actively engage with your computer, completing tasks without human intervention. In success, the agents will jump from program to program doing stuff like cutting and pasting, answering emails, doing rudimentary computer maintenance, and more. ...

"Agentic," which is just a fancy word for agency, is a new vocabulary word that will be on this week's test. All kidding aside, agents are the future. We'll see if the pre-canned, purpose-built computer agents are going to live up to the hype. ...

See the full post here: https://shellypalmer.com/blog/

A Wannabe ‘Pixar of AI’ is Signing Up Stars

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In a nutshell, Asteria is using AI to speed up projects and help human artists make better use of their time by using tech that’s trained on their work to do things like test out different visual concepts or convert storyboards to animatics. 

The ultimate goal of all of this is to become the “Pixar of AI” and, in fact, they’ve hired some employees who were laid off from the storied company. (Not to say that established animation heavyweights like Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks aren’t using AI. They are.)

The tech helps them keep costs down, and Mooser tells me the sweet spot is under $10 million per project. That means they’re able to take risks on projects that wouldn’t see the light of day at a traditional studio — whether because they’re too expensive or not in line with that particular company’s current brand persona — and use an indie financing model that gives backend to creatives. ...

In this issue, you’ll learn . . .

• How a potential new AI-based studio model could soon become the norm
• How much time Asteria’s AI tools promise to shave off development — and the opportunities that creates for an indie studio to compete
• How Asteria is trying to solve AI’s original sin
• Why the company believes movies made with its AI tools will still be copyrightable
• Asteria’s bold profit-participation model — and whether talent dealmakers think it can work
• The major questions top lawyers ask before considering a backend deal
• Why dealmakers say Hollywood’s attitudes about AI are changing

...

See the full story here: https://theankler.com/p/asteria-film-wannabe-pixar-of-ai-natasha-lyonne-bryn-mooser?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share