Natasha Sandmeier: I am an architect and educator based in Los Angeles, where I lead the postgraduate Entertainment Studio at UCLA AUD. At the Entertainment Studio, we work predominantly in the visualizationspace, thinking about ways to build stories centering on the built environment, how we live in the world, and how it might transform in the imminent near future of the next quarter century. Our speculations intentionally stay in the near present or near future, so that we don’t stray too far into the fanciful or unattainable. For example, 25 years ago from now was 1998, and although the world was quite different then, it wasn’t alien to where we are today.
Beyond the Entertainment Studio, I recently became the Executive Director of the A+D Museum here in Los Angeles, where we are working to advance the next generation of museum programming and community building. During the pandemic, the museum transitioned to a virtual programming format, so our most present mission is guiding our re-entry into the physical museum world, which we have been doing over the past few months. ...
Recently, I was studying the roles and responsibilities of architects in designing cities and suburbs, including Ellen Dunham-Jones’ observation that architects design only a small percentage of suburban development. Massive developments are largely developer-led with in-house designers and architecture teams. If we as a profession can offer more affordable services by outsourcing repetitive work, there is hope that we can capture some of the growth opportunities in areas currently dominated by developers. ...
To conclude, I wanted to switch focus from academia and ask about the A+D Museum, of which you have recently become the Executive Director. Do you expect computation and artificial intelligence to manifest in some way across the museum’s future program?
It undoubtedly will. The question of how technology is changing the face of architecture and media is a relevant question for the museum. For example, October sees us host a conversation with Paul Debevec, the Chief Research Officer of Eyeline Studios – Powered by Netflix, which dwells on themes of computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, and their connection to visual, virtual, and animated media.
For us, the question of how forces such as technology can change and give opportunities to the profession is more productive than thinking about ways they can destroy the profession. In the media, it is all about the ‘death of labor.’ That is not to say jobs in society will be immune to disruption, but if architects have one skill, it is agility. Now is a moment to capitalize on that agility.
... Existing research on AI technology adoption can help support this prediction. Dr. George Dagliyan uncovered through his research during the Executive Doctorate of Business Administration program at Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School, that there are both facilitators and inhibitors of AI adoption:
Facilitators of AI adoption:
Convenience,
Customization
Efficiency
Inhibitors of AI adoption:
Uncertainty
Privacy risk
Loss of control risk
For consumers, AI applications that disproportionally facilitate convenience, customization, and efficiency will become prevalent and second nature, such as recommender systems. Social media and streaming platforms use AI algorithms to analyze clicks and viewing habits and preferences to suggest relevant content, making search convenient and personalized, and saving consumers lots of effort and time browsing through countless options. There is a loss of privacy because the algorithms mine consumer demographics and past choices, but as the massive adoption so far shows, facilitators more than compensate for this loss. ...
For consumers, Dagliyan’s study also uncovered that trust in a brand can enhance facilitators and dim inhibitors. ...
... The scientists discovered that, like us, rats can think about places and objects that aren’t immediately in front of them – by using their imaginations.
The rodents were even found in tests to be able to use their minds to move objects in their virtual realities – much like Jedis in the Star Wars franchise.
The innovative research serves as proof that the minds of rats – and most likely other animals, too – harbor imaginations like ours. ...
This ability to imagine locations elsewhere from our current positions is crucial to recalling past events and imagining future possible scenarios. ...
The system uses a brain-machine interface – or BMI – which provides a direct connection between brain activity and an external device.
This BMI produces a connection between the electrical activity in the rat’s hippocampus – a complex brain structure embedded deep into the temporal lobe – and its position in a 360-degree virtual reality arena. ...
The researcher’s BMI allows them to test whether a rat can activate hippocampal activity to merely think about a location in the arena without physically going there – essentially, to assess whether the animal is able to imagine going to the location. ...
... Most peculiarly, Kitty will be making her debut on the virtual universe game, Roblox, where fans can interact with her at the 'My Hello Kitty Cafe'. A custom photo booth, mini-games, avatars, costumes, and emotes will be available with a distinct "Y2K feel," according to PR Newswire. ...
... the self-balancing two-wheeled evoBOT can already do up to 60 km/h (37 mph) on its extendable legs, lifting up to 65 kg (143 lb) in its self-locking lifting arms – that's more than three times the lifting work, at up to 10 times the speed. ...
It's relatively compact, lightweight at around 40 kg (88 lb), and efficient, running for up to 8 hours on a battery charge. If there's enough grip, Fraunhofer says it can "comfortably" handle slopes up to a ridiculous 45 degrees, even on uneven ground, and it zips around with surprising agility and speed, like the love child of the TARS robot from Interstellar and a common Segway. If it falls over for some reason, it can quickly and easily get back up. ...
Chinese technology giant Alibaba (9988.HK) said on Tuesday it has updated its artificial intelligence (AI) model Tongyi Qianwen and released a suite of industry-specific AI models amid an intensifying AI race among tech companies. ...
It also said it has launched eight AI models for the entertainment, finance, healthcare and legal industries.
The upgrade comes just six months after the model's initial release, reflecting the pace at which tech companies are racing to control China's nascent and quickly expanding AI market. ...
Among the issues are whether the AI systems they run on actually contain copies of copyrighted images that were used to create infringing works and if the artists can substantiate infringement in the absence of identical material created by the AI tools. Claims against the companies for infringement, right of publicity, unfair competition and breach of contract were dismissed, though they will likely be reasserted. ...
[Stable Diffusion] maintains that training its model does not include wholesale copying of works but rather involves development of parameters — like lines, colors, shades and other attributes associated with subjects and concepts — from those works that collectively define what things look like. The issue, which may decide the case, remains contested. ...
... Primarily, Mashkoor says, AI-generated disinformation is being used by activists to solicit support—or give the impression of wider support—for a particular side. Examples include an AI-generated billboard in Tel Aviv championing Israel Defense Forces, an Israeli account sharing fake images of people cheering for the IDF, an Israeli influencer using AI to generate condemnations of Hamas, and AI imagesportrayingvictims of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
“In terms of general use that I’ve been seeing online, it’s mostly been to drum up support, which is not among the most malicious ways to utilize AI right now,” she says.
A key factor here is the sheer amount of misinformation circulating, which makes it difficult for AI images to shape conversation. ...
Setting aside the apocalyptic view, it’s easier to study how generative AI has actually slotted into the existing disinformation ecosystem. It is, for example, far more prevalent than it was at the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, argues Hany Farid, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. ...
“For a lot of people, the ability to dismiss inconvenient facts is absolutely playing a role in this conflict,” he says.
Some of the most prominent examples of this are the photos of burned children Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on his X account. After they were published, someone fed the images into the detection tool AI or Not, which the users said determined that they were AI. Farid says his team analyzed the photos and concluded AI wasn't used, but the seed of suspicion had already been planted. Things were further confused when someone used AI to replace the child in one of the images with a puppy. ...
In other words, this distribution follows a historic pattern: Misinformation gets shared on social media, then amplified via algorithms and humans. “In the broader picture, in our ability to reason about a fast-moving highly impactful world, I think this conflict is worse than what we’ve seen in the past,” says Farid. “And I think gen AI is part of that, but it is not exclusively gen AI. That’s too simplistic.”
... Using the Defense Production Act, the order will require leading AI developers to share safety test results and other information with the government. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is to create standards to ensure AI tools are safe and secure before public release.
The Commerce Department is to issue guidance to label and watermark AI-generated content to help differentiate between authentic interactions and those generated by software. The order also touches on matters of privacy, civil rights, consumer protections, scientific research and worker rights.
An administration official who previewed the order on a Sunday call with reporters said the to-do lists within the order will be implemented and fulfilled over the range of 90 days to 365 days, with the safety and security items facing the earliest deadlines. ...
The issue of AI was seemingly inescapable for Biden. At Camp David one weekend, he relaxed by watching the Tom Cruise film “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” The film’s villain is a sentient and rogue AI known as “the Entity” that sinks a submarine and kills its crew in the movie’s opening minutes.
“If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” said Reed, who watched the film with the president. ...
