philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

AI is causing anxiety about the future of the workforce. But are there AI-proof jobs?

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I came upon a list that takes a thousand or so jobs and ranks them on something called AI exposure. That's essentially a measure of how much AI can help you do your job. As you'd expect, at the top of the list, more exposed are knowledge workers - writers, physicists, concierges. At the bottom, blue-collar and physical jobs - dancers, welders, short-order cooks. But here's the thing - exposure is not the same as this job will be automated. ...

He said if you can use AI to get a lot more productive and the world wants even more of what you're producing, then maybe your field will see an explosion of growth. ...

She wrote a paper with the economist Roberto Rigobon, and they kind of turned Daniel Rock's research inside out. Instead of looking at what tasks AI can help do, they asked, what are humans good for? ...

She and her co-author came up with something called the EPOCH score. It's an acronym. Covers empathy, presence, opinion, aka ethical judgment, creativity and a silent H, hope, the ability to plan and execute a vision. ...

If you have a very human task to do and a linked task that's very automatable, then you might be in a sweet spot where AI doesn't automate your job but rather augments it.  ...

Of course, this is all just a theory. AI might get a lot more human-like, or we might just not care that it's only simulating something like empathy. ...

See the full story here: https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5544378/ai-is-causing-anxiety-about-the-future-of-the-workforce-but-are-there-ai-proof-jobs

OpenAI won’t say whose content trained its video tool. We found some clues.

... To explore what content OpenAI may have used, The Washington Post used Sora to create hundreds of videos that show it can closely mimic movies, TV shows and other content. The accuracy of the tool’s re-creations suggests Sora had been trained on a version of the originals, experts said. The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI. ...

As Ghibli-ified images flooded social media, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that ChatGPT was signing up a million users in just an hour. The company said at the time that it continued to prevent generation of images mimicking individual living artists but permitted copying “broader studio styles.”

If millions of ChatGPT users had fun playing around with Ghibli’s carefully crafted aesthetic, “should [the studio] really be making zero percent?” said actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has done voice-over work for Studio Ghibli. He recently argued on his Substack that workers, not corporate rightsholders, should be paid when their art is used to train AI. Studio Ghibli declined to comment.

Altman has said on multiple occasions that artists should be compensated if an AI system creates something in their style. “People have got to get paid,” he told podcast host Lex Fridman in 2024. Wood, the OpenAI spokesperson, declined to comment on whether the company has made progress on such a program.

See the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/openai-training-data-sora/

“Physical Bodies Required for True Intelligence”: AI Researchers Explore Whether Soft Robotics and Embodied Cognition Unlock Artificial General Intelligence

AI scientist says ‘learning how to learn’ will be next generation’s most needed skill

Google's DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says the most valuable human skill for the future will be “learning how to learn” as artificial intelligence transforms education, careers and daily life

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Hassabis emphasized the need for “meta-skills,” such as understanding how to learn and optimizing one’s approach to new subjects, alongside traditional disciplines like math, science and humanities.

“One thing we’ll know for sure is you’re going to have to continually learn ... throughout your career,” he said. ...

see the full story here https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/googles-top-ai-scientist-learning-learn-generations-needed-125526617

Albania Appoints World’s First AI “Minister”

Albania has made history by introducing an AI-generated cabinet member named Diella, tasked with overseeing all government procurement. Prime Minister Edi Rama says this move is designed to eliminate corruption and bring complete transparency to public tenders. ...

The Decode:

1. AI Minister for Public Tenders - Prime Minister Rama announced that Diella will manage every public tender decision to make the process “100% corruption-free.” By removing human involvement from procurement decisions, the government aims to reduce bribery and ensure transparent use of public funds.

2. Background and Capabilities - Launched in January as a digital assistant, Diella has already issued 36,600 digital documents and delivered nearly 1,000 services via Albania’s e-Albania platform. Designed as a virtual figure in traditional Albanian attire, she is now being elevated from a helpful assistant to a decision-making cabinet member.

3. EU Ambitions and Anti-Corruption Drive - This appointment supports Albania’s bid to join the European Union by 2030, with anti-corruption as a key requirement. Rama believes an incorruptible AI overseer strengthens the country’s case for EU membership while showcasing a bold integration of AI into governance.

Albania’s decision highlights both the promise and risk of embedding AI into critical government operations. If successful, it could set a precedent for corruption-free procurement globally, but the lack of clarity around human oversight raises concerns about accountability, security, and potential manipulation of the system.

See the full original story here: https://www.politico.eu/article/albania-apppoints-worlds-first-virtual-minister-edi-rama-diella/

A California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law

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California has taken a big step toward regulating AI. SB 243 — a bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users — passed both the State Assembly and Senate with bipartisan support and now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Newsom has until October 12 to either veto the bill or sign it into law. If he signs, it would take effect January 1, 2026, making California the first state to require AI chatbot operators to implement safety protocols for AI companions and hold companies legally accountable if their chatbots fail to meet those standards.

The bill specifically aims to prevent companion chatbots — which the legislation defines as AI systems that provide adaptive, human-like responses and are capable of meeting a user’s social needs — from engaging in conversations around suicidal ideation, self-harm, or sexually explicit content.

The bill would require platforms to provide recurring alerts to users — every three hours for minors — reminding them that they are speaking to an AI chatbot, not a real person, and that they should take a break.  ...

Padilla also stressed the importance of AI companies sharing data about the number of times they refer users to crisis services each year, “so we have a better understanding of the frequency of this problem, rather than only becoming aware of it when someone’s harmed or worse.”

SB 243 previously had stronger requirements, but many were whittled down through amendments. ...

SB 243 is moving toward becoming law at a time when Silicon Valley companies are pouring millions of dollars into pro-AI political action committees (PACs) to back candidates in the upcoming midterm elections who favor a light-touch approach to AI regulation. ...

“I reject the premise that this is a zero-sum situation, that innovation and regulation are mutually exclusive,” Padilla said. ...

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/11/a-california-bill-that-would-regulate-ai-companion-chatbots-is-close-to-becoming-law/

Nvidia unveils AI chips for video, software generation

... As AI systems grow more sophisticated, tackling data-heavy tasks such as "vibe coding" or AI-assisted code generation and video generation, the industry's processing needs are intensifying.

AI models can take up to 1 million tokens to process an hour of video content — a challenging feat for traditional GPUs, the company said. Tokens refer to the units of data processed by an AI model.

To remedy this, Nvidia will integrate various steps of the drawn-out processing sequence such as video decoding, encoding, and inference — when AI models produce an output — together into its new chip. ...

See the full PR here: https://www.reuters.com/business/nvidia-unveils-ai-chips-video-software-generation-2025-09-09/

Creators Get Bigger Star Treatment Across Entertainment — and Brands Are Noticing

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At a time when traditional media companies are consolidating and scrambling to find growth, user-generated content and the creator space is seeing a surge of interest and investment. The creator economy — defined as everything from ads pulled in from YouTube content to merchandising and marketing partnerships — is expected to grow to $480 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs. ...

“They’re modern media companies,” Jared Carneson, global head of social at Adobe, said. “They have circulation that rivals traditional media companies. They have more watch time and eyeballs on them than Hollywood blockbusters.”

To further that point, Khare noted that her content sits alongside traditional shows on the home pages of connected televisions, signaling that this content goes beyond something quick you watch on your phone. ...

“Creators are building businesses off of the products that are genuine to them. It’s not just selling themselves or the content they create but being able to find natural extensions of themselves as well,” Catanese explained. “That’s just a natural evolution in a capitalist economy.” ...

Nowhere is that acceptance more apparent than in the living room. In August, YouTube broke yet another Nielsen viewership record, beating The Walt Disney Company as the media distributor responsible for the most overall TV watch time. YouTube accounted for 13.4% of all TV usage during the month compared to Disney’s 9.4%. It’s now not uncommon to see the YouTube app living next to tiles for major streamers like Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV+. ...

The influencer economy has always required creators to wear multiple hats — talent, writer, editor and producer, just to name a few of the most common roles. But with the rise of AI tools, time-consuming tasks like sound clarification or adding in captions can be automated.

“It’s hard to master a single tool, never mind master a suite of tools, to be able to do all of that stuff effectively. It’s exciting to see AI coming in and helping close that gap,” Carneson said.  ...

“There is no storytelling that isn’t human centered,” Carneson added. “AI is a great optimizer. It’s a great augmenter of things. But it is a tool.” ...

As for Khare, she likened AI’s potential impact on entertainment to the evolution of “Survivor.” The CBS reality show first premiered in 2000. Over the years, the camerawork and storytelling has evolved and become more sophisticated, but the main conceit of the show has never changed. ...

See the full story here: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/creators-bigger-star-treatment-across-200000825.html

RSL: A New AI Licensing Standard

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Yesterday, a coalition of major publishers (including Reddit, Yahoo, Medium, and Quora) announced their support for Really Simple Licensing (RSL), a new open standard that lets web publishers set machine-readable licensing terms for AI crawlers. ...

RSL builds on the familiar robots.txt protocol, but instead of just saying yes or no to crawlers, publishers can now embed licensing terms directly into their files. Want to charge per crawl? Set a subscription fee? Demand payment every time an AI model references your content in a response? RSL supports all these models.

The technical implementation looks straightforward. Publishers add XML-based licensing terms to their robots.txt files.  ...

Unfortunately, RSL by itself cannot block bots from visiting websites. The standard relies entirely on AI companies voluntarily respecting the licensing terms they encounter. Given that AI model builders have repeatedly been accused of ignoring robots.txt files, expecting them to suddenly honor payment requirements seems optimistic.

The RSL Collective has partnered with Fastly to provide enforcement capabilities. Fastly acts as “the bouncer at the door,” checking whether AI crawlers have agreed to license content before granting access. However, this only works for publishers using Fastly’s content delivery network. Everyone else can ask for payment but has no mechanism to enforce compliance. ...

Cloudflare took a different approach. Since July 2025, the company blocks AI crawlers by default for all new domains. More than one million customers have enabled AI crawler blocking since the feature launched. ...

The RSL Collective’s success hinges entirely on achieving critical mass. ...

See the full story here: https://shellypalmer.com/2025/09/rsl-a-new-ai-licensing-standard/

United Arab Emirates Joins U.S. and China in Giving Away A.I. Technology

In a move that shows the growing influence of the United Arab Emirates in the global artificial intelligence race, a new research lab backed by the Persian Gulf nation said on Tuesday that it was freely sharing an A.I. model meant to compete with systems released by companies in the United States and China. ...

Now the new Emirati lab, the Institute of Foundation Models, has released its first open source model, K2 Think. The lab said the system performed on a par with the leading open source technologies from OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek, according to standard benchmarks. ...

The university is led by Dr. Xing, a Chinese-born American researcher who was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. He and the Emirati university recently opened satellite offices in Paris and Silicon Valley. ...

Like DeepSeek, which demonstrated its success early this year, the lab aims to show that powerful technologies can be built without access to the enormous amounts of computer hardware amassed by the likes of OpenAI and Google. ...

K2 Think is a “reasoning model” that can spend time “thinking” through complex problems before settling on an answer. ...

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/technology/uae-emirates-ai-open-source.html