philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Does A.I. Have an Inherent Governance Problem?

... OpenAI’s dilemma: Commentators have noted the company’s unusual, conflicted, structure. A nonprofit board with a mission to benefit humanity oversees a for-profit arm backed by Microsoft and venture capital firms including Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures. ...

The entire enterprise’s goal is to build an artificial general intelligence, highly autonomous systems that “outperform humans at most economically valuable work” but “benefits all of humanity.” OpenAI’s commercial arm was created to support that enormously expensive goal, but it is hemmed in by limits on profits that flow to investors, as well as no governance rights for investors. That’s why Microsoft, Thrive and others have little direct leverage on how the company is run. ...

That’s not the only unusual corporate structure in the A.I. industry.Anthropic, begun by a dozen ex-OpenAI employees concerned about their former employer’s race for profits, is set up as a B Corp, or public benefit corporation, that is meant to balance the interests of a wide array of stakeholders.

It also has a so-called long-term benefit trust that includes A.I. ethicists and other experts and is allowed to choose a majority of the company’s directors. ...

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/business/dealbook/openai-corporate-governance-altman-board.html

Meow Wolf expands into virtual reality mini golf

Meow Wolf debuts in virtual reality Dec. 7 in Walkabout Mini Golf: Meow Wolf.

The Austin, Texas-based Mighty Coconut has created 23 VR Walkabout Mini Golf games since fall 2020, but this is only its third collaboration with an outside entity. Meow Wolf was the first to be "hands-on partners" with the creation of the game, said David Wyatt, head of communications at Mighty Coconut. ...

Walkabout Mini Golf: Meow Wolf will be available for download as an add-on to the Mighty Coconut base station for $3.99. The base station costs $14.99 and is available at mightycoconut.com/minigolf and can be downloaded to Meta Quest 2, PlayStation VR2, Steam and PICO platforms. ...

See the full story here: https://sports.yahoo.com/meow-wolf-expands-virtual-reality-003300863.html

Queen Latifah on Using AI Versions of Herself to Help People: ‘I Have My Concerns but I Want to Use It For Good’

Queen Latifah says AI is A-okay in her book — as long as it’s being used for good. ...

“Lenovo came to me with the idea, and as someone who came from a startup with our management company Flava Unit, we know how challenging it can be to keep the doors open and the lights on,” says the star of launching her music management company with partner Rakim back in the late '80s and early '90s. ...

This month businesses in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Raleigh, Toronto or Los Angeles are able to apply for a chance to have the Emmy and Grammy-award winner as their superstar digital spokesperson. ...

While the star reiterates that she “always has her concerns” when it comes to AI and the digital replication of her likeness, “I don’t think this is a bell we can unring. So I want to use it in a positive way, which is to help people and help people succeed.” ...

See the full story here: https://people.com/queen-latifah-creating-ai-versions-of-herself-exclusive-8404973

The Statue Wars Turn to Cyberspace

... In 2017, Brewster was working at Google, and he was among the many local activists who tried and failed to persuade lawmakers to remove the towering statue of Christopher Columbus on Fifty-ninth Street. “We were, like, ‘All right, we lost that one,’ ” Brewster recalled. “So we started creating monuments.” Each was fashioned not from bronze or marble but from bits and bytes in the cloud, visible only on screens using augmented reality. ...

This week, without permission from the city’s bureaucrats, Kinfolk is placing four new statues around town. The installations were created in collaboration with the Black artists Hank Willis Thomas, Pamela Council, Derrick Adams, and Tourmaline. Thomas’s piece is a three-hundred-foot Afro pick in the East River, looming over the Brooklyn Bridge. ...

The artist closed the app, eyes welling. “I remember a time when this history was so buried that it wasn’t accessible,” she said. Later, a maintenance man took a smoke break, oblivious of the fact that he was standing precisely in the spot where Mary Jones stood. 

See the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/27/the-statue-wars-turn-to-cyberspace

Early study results show virtual reality can bolster caregivers, LTC seniors relationship

...

Now, a new study shows that VR tech also strengthens the relationship between seniors and caregivers. 

“They [seniors] might remember they did a trip along Route 66 years and years ago,” Chris Brickler, CEO of Mynd Immersive — formerly MyndVR — explained Wednesday. “Now picture a VR series where a caregiver can ‘drive’ the senior along that road. They can unlock a flood of old memories. It makes for happy seniors and a happy caregiver.” ...

An overwhelming majority, 95%, of senior living caregivers, said they felt using the VR was “moderately to extremely beneficial” for building a relationship with residents, according to the study results, which included 245 older adults and 39 caregivers across 16 different senior living communities.

While caregivers don’t always put on the glasses or headset, those who use Mynd Immersive’s tech are given a tablet, with which they can control a VR experience for residents or “just go along for the ride,” Brickler explained, noting that they can “see everything the senior sees.” ...

The research is a collaboration between Stanford, Mynd Immersive and AT&T 5G Healthcare. ...

See the full story here: https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/tech-daily-news/early-study-results-show-virtual-reality-can-bolster-caregiver-ltc-senior-relationship/

Those complaining the loudest about AI will benefit the most

... Far from diluting star power, AI will make the biggest celebrities bigger than ever, by allowing them to be in all markets, in all formats, at all times. Put your hands together – or insert your earplugs if you prefer – for the rise of the omnistar. ...

AI will give these megastars the ability to be truly omnipresent for their fans. AI-powered dubbing is already allowing actors and podcasters to speak to foreign audiences instantly and in their own voice. It will soon be standard for video to be edited so that their lips match the new language, too. In-demand actors may get more work because AI removes the perennial Hollywood problem of crowded schedules, allowing stars to perform alongside each other while not being together at all. Digital Botox will increase actors’ shelf-life and even enable them to perform posthumously. Disney has acquired the rights to the voice of James Earl Jones, 92, so that Darth Vader can scare children for generations to come. ...

The bigger question is how the age of the omnistar will suit audiences. The risk is boredom. AI is brilliant at remixing and regurgitating old material, but less good at generating the pulse-racing, spine-tingling stuff that is, for now, a human speciality. ...

See the full story here: https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/thanks-to-ai-an-omnistar-is-born-20231112-p5ejdm

AI Tech Company Futureverse Signs With CAA

...  CAA and Futureverse will work collaboratively to create new opportunities for talent and IP, spanning web3, the metaverse, virtual games, worlds and experiences, AI, and beyond.  ..

The announcement arrives on the heels of Futureverse’s launch of JEN 1, an unprecedented universal high-fidelity model for text-to-music generation and extensive research paper that presents an efficient approach and an unparalleled model that exceeds those previously released by Google and Facebook. Futureverse’s JEN 1 offers a promising strategy to pioneer a new licensing framework that compensates both rights holders, producers, and artists....

See the full story here: https://deadline.com/2023/11/futureverse-artificial-intelligence-technology-signs-caa-1235612854/

Niantic is using AI to make Peridot’s fake pets feel more real

Peridot, Niantic’s original augmented reality pet game, will start using generative AI designed to make the game’s cute technicolor aliens behave more like your cat. ...

Starting with today’s update, Niantic’s algorithm will analyze real-world objects captured in game with your phone’s camera and then convert those objects into words to be parsed by a large language model (LLM) — in this case, a customized version of Meta’s Llama 2 program. ...

Additionally, each pet, called Dots, will have their personality profile — which is similar to the different natures of pokémon — also fed to the LLM. Peridot will then ask the LLM how a dot with its specific personality type would interact with the objects around it. Its answers will be how Dots respond in the game. ...

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23962241/niantic-generative-ai-peridot-pokemon-go

Google DeepMind wants to define what counts as artificial general intelligence

... Now a team of Google DeepMind researchers has put out a paper that cuts through the cross talk with not just one new definition for AGI but a whole taxonomy of them. ...

The team also outlines five ascending levels of AGI: emerging (which in their view includes cutting-edge chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard), competent, expert, virtuoso, and superhuman ...

For example, the DeepMind researchers state that an AGI must be both general-purpose and high-achieving, not just one or the other. “Separating breadth and depth in this way is very useful,” says Togelius. “It shows why the very accomplished AI systems we’ve seen in the past don’t qualify as AGI.”

They also state that an AGI must not only be able to do a range of tasks, it must also be able to learn how to do those tasks, assess its performance, and ask for assistance when needed. And they state that what an AGI can do matters more than how it does it.  ...

The researchers suggest that if AGI is ever developed, its capabilities should be evaluated on an ongoing basis, rather than through a handful of one-off tests. ...

One question the researchers don’t address in their discussion of whatAGI is, is why we should build it.  ...

Most engineering projects have well-scoped goals. The mission to build AGI does not. ...

See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/16/1083498/google-deepmind-what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi/

When We Feel Things That Are Not There

... They used virtual reality scenarios in which subjects touched their own bodies with a virtual object. 

To the researchers’ surprise, this led to a tingling sensation at the spot where the avatarized body was touched. This effect occurred even though there was no real physical contact between the virtual object and the body. The scientists led by Dr. Artur Pilacinski and Professor Christian Klaes from the Department of Neurotechnology describe this phenomenon as a phantom touch illusion. ...

“We show that the phantom touch illusion is described by most subjects as a tingling or prickling, electrifying sensation or as if the wind was passing through their hand.” ...

This study involved 36 volunteers wearing VR glasses. ...

See the full story here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/15112023-when-we-feel-things-that-are-not-there/