... The hyper-realistic Jenner-active AI is part of a recent initiative by Meta — which owns WhatsApp and Instagram — in which they’re paying celebrities millions of dollars for their likenesses so they can create AI assistants to connect to their audience.
In accordance, these bots answer queries and engage the user in naturalistic, real-time conversations using responses based on their celeb’s personality.
Billie is just one member of the AI assistant roster, which includes Paris Hilton as a “forensic specialist who solves crimes,” Tom Brady as Bru, the wisecracking “sports debater,” Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as a trainer, and Snoop Dogg as a red cape-wearing “Dungeon Master” who encourages the user to “get medieval.” ...
... On October 5th, they unveiled a patent for an augmented reality (AR) pair of glasses. This isn’t just another tech gadget; it’s a vision of the future where smartphones might become obsolete. ...
One of the standout features? A swappable battery design coupled with an internal charge storage. This ensures that users can enjoy extended usage, even when a charging source isn’t within reach. ...
... To date, there are no overarching federal regulations on the responsible development and use of AI. In practice, states are leading the way on new AI guidance. Much of the current focus at the federal level is about the impact of AI on jobs and the economy, equity in AI and maintaining the U.S.’s competitive edge. ...
Gallagher described these recent federal-level activities:
White House: In October 2022, the White House released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights around principles that people should be able to expect from automated systems such as requiring entities to disclose when they use AI, giving individuals the ability to opt out, putting into place legal protections where the use of AI may cause someone harm, and ensuring individuals have agency over how their data is used and how it may affect equity.
Commerce/NIST: The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) influences and sets standards for AI use in the federal government. In 2019, NIST issued the first tools for mitigating bias. In January 2023, the agency released a voluntary AI Risk Management Framework with a focus on governance and consideration of the entire AI life cycle when measuring, mapping and managing risks.
FTC, CFPB, DOJ, EEOC: In April 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) jointly issued a statement on enforcement efforts against discrimination and bias in automated systems. In 2023, the FTC began new investigations into inaccuracies stemming from the use of generative AI.
Congress: U.S. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York is leading a bipartisan effort called the Safe Innovation Framework for AI with three other senators. First announced in June 2023, the bipartisan AI framework has five themes for AI legislation: safety, innovation, accountability, alignment with democratic values, and transparency.
Milo has since become one of Obsidian’s most outspoken users, with a popular YouTube channel and e-course that calmly explains not just how to use Obsidian, but why. (A popular comment on his first video: “This wasn’t a product walkthrough. This was a guided meditation.”)
He’s not alone in seeing the light: Obsidian estimates that it has one million users, and its Discord channel has more than 110,000 members, who use the app for everything from task management and bookmarking to organizing their daily thoughts. On Reddit, Obsidian ranks in the top 5% of communities, with 94,600 members. All this happened without any venture capital backing or outside investment. ...
The threat harks back to videos nearly a decade ago from the Islamic State, which spread fear and won attention by posting videos showing the beheadings of journalists, aid workers and other civilian captives. But those videos were prerecorded and edited. Hamas’s pledge to record and air executions that have yet to take place is new and seems calibrated to incite fear over the barbarism to come.
“Hamas’s entire strategy is to inflict as much damage as possible and drive as much attention to that damage as possible, in order to incite fear for the broader public,” said Graham Brookie, a senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “This is one of the first times we’ve seen this glossy propaganda content recorded in real time.” ...
... Virtual production technology has altered the writing process when it comes to writing for films and series that use the technology. “The difference – or at least in my singular experience working on 1899 – was that much of the rewriting in post is happening in pre-production or during production latest,” says Juliana Lima Dehne, who was Story Editor and wrote Episode 5 of the Netflix series, a show that relied on virtual production to create its vivid landscapes. ...
“One of the reasons for it is that locations – for example – are set. You can’t change your mind; nor will the controlled environment change once you start production. It’s all definitive,” Dehne adds. “The sets and the images projected onto the LED screens have already been designed, and the soundstage has already been dressed to match it. It’s like a game. You have to work with what’s there. You can’t decide to go off script in the middle of a game because you want to enter a door that doesn’t open because nobody designed what’s behind that door. ...
For Emma Needell, writer and director of the short film “Life Rendered,” virtual production greatly affected the writing process. “This was because I embraced the tools of virtual production for story development specifically. I first learned how to use Unreal Engine – which is free to download and use – then I created an animatic of my short film in the program, experimenting with pacing, cinematography and music all before we began pre-production in earnest,” Needell remarks. “As a filmmaker, the ability to iterate through ‘drafts’ of your film via an animatic is extremely advantageous. ...
The “as a service” model allows companies to avoid purchasing solutions outright. Instead, companies pay for the solutions they need on a subscription basis. For software as a service, this means paying for access to specific software and solutions each month.
Metaverse as a service combines this flexible purchasing model with the opportunities offered by the metaverse, allowing companies from all landscapes to build their own digital experiences. ...
A promotional poster for the new series features a spiralling clock in the background which eagle-eyed viewers believe was generated using artificial intelligence. From seemingly meaningless shapes to inconsistent styling, the hallmarks are there – and several AI image checkers seem to have confirmed that image, apparently taken from Shutterstock, is AI-generated.
The Shutterstock image, catchily titled 'Surreal infinity time spiral in space', isn't actually marked as AI-generated, even though one Twitter user ran four tests, three of which came back as 'AI positive' (is that the right terminology? I'm using it now). ...
Adobe, in collaboration with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), has launched the “icon of transparency.” This symbol – embeddable in images, videos, and PDFs – reveals content provenance, including its creation via AI tools. When viewers encounter this icon online, hovering over it discloses details about the content’s ownership, the AI tool utilized, and other production specifics.
Content Credentials (the icon’s underlying technology) is a decentralized, trustless, and verifiable system for content creators to prove the authenticity of their work. It uses blockchain technology to create a tamper-proof record of content creation and ownership. This could be used to prevent plagiarism, copyright infringement, and other forms of content fraud.
The C2PA – which includes members such as Intel, Microsoft, and Nikon – is working to standardize this symbol across digital platforms. I really like the way the C2PA is thinking about this issue, and I’ll be very interested to see if creators and rights holders start to use it.
'Adobe Introduces “Icon of Transparency” for GenAI Content'
... “We actually were kind of shooting blind because the Sphere itself did not turn on the screen until August,” Aronofsky said. “So we had no idea what this would feel like or look like.” Instead, the director and his team (which included editor Jennifer Lame and cinematographer Matthew Libatique) made do with 4k headsets (“nowhere near the quality that you need to understand what was going on in the shot”) and Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s Big Dome, a fourth the size of the Sphere in Burbank.
But even that couldn’t prepare them for seeing the 18k footage they’d captured across the globe with a camera and lens so powerful that even a speck of dust could mar the shot. Even armed with some knowledge, the filmmakers weren’t prepared for the quirks of such a new camera. A shot involving a helicopter was thought to be an easy fix: remove the blades in post. But the camera’s sensitivity meant that the sunlight passing through the chopper’s blades would make the whole image flicker. ...
[The camera] was literally coming off the assembly line,” Aronofsky said of the filmmaking process. “Often it took 12 people just to turn it on. It was outputting 32 gigs per second. So it has a huge hard drive wired to it. [And] the lens was very unwieldy because it’s a 270-degree lens. So it’s an incredible piece of glass, [but] it’s a very hard piece of machinery to work with. And it became clear that we were going to be limited in how to move the camera to give some type of propulsion. ...
The end result is a 50-minute combination of film and Vegas attraction that takes viewers from the Grand Canyon to close-ups of a praying mantis that no one in the history of the world has ever seen rendered with such clarity. And not just see — a sequence in a Parma, Italy, opera house includes a solo violinist whose performance is rendered in such minute detail, thanks to the immersive sound powered by Holoplot, that one can hear her fingers on the strings. ...
