philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

The New A.I. Deal: Buy Everything but the Company

In 2022, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left their jobsdeveloping artificial intelligence at Google. They said the tech giant moved too slowly. So they created Character.AI, a chatbot start-up, and raised nearly $200 million.

Last week, Mr. Shazeer and Mr. De Freitas announced that they were returning to Google. They had struck a deal to rejoin its A.I. research arm, along with roughly 20 percent of Character.AI’s employees, and provide their start-up’s technology, they said.

But even though Google was getting all that, it was not buying Character.AI.

Instead, Google agreed to pay $3 billion to license the technology, two people with knowledge of the deal said. About $2.5 billion of that sum will then be used to buy out Character.AI’s shareholders, including Mr. Shazeer, who owns 30 percent to 40 percent of the company and stands to net $750 million to $1 billion, the people said. What remains of Character.AI will continue operating without its founders and investors.

The deal was one of several unusual transactions that have recently emerged in Silicon Valley. While big tech companies typically buy start-ups outright, they have turned to a more complicated deal structure for young A.I. companies. It involves licensing the technology and hiring the top employees — effectively swallowing the start-up and its main assets — without becoming the owner of the firm.

These transactions are being driven by the big tech companies’ desire to sidestep regulatory scrutiny while trying to get ahead in  ...

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/technology/ai-start-ups-google-microsoft-amazon.html

6G: the catalyst for artificial general intelligence

6G might integrate 5G and AI to merge physical, cyber and sapience spaces, transforming network interactions and enhancing AI-driven decision-making and automation. The semantic approach to communication will train AI while selectively informing on goal achievement, moving towards artificial general intelligence, presenting new challenges and opportunities. ...

See the full story here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44287-024-00090-1

The RIAA, villain of the Napster era, turns its sights on AI firms — ‘It’s a lot more fun now’

... Back in the ‘90s and 2000s, young music fans were aligned with tech firms against labels. Now, you see more fans allied against tech. How have those allegiances changed since you’ve been at the RIAA?

Record companies are not gatekeepers anymore. They don’t control their own distribution. The control is now with the tech platforms. I think we stand on the same side as fans and artists today, because we have the same interests. The Man has changed, and the tech platforms are now The Man. ...

See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2024-08-07/the-riaa-villain-of-the-napster-era-turns-it-sights-on-ai-firms-its-a-lot-more-fun-now

Submersive: Meow Wolf co-founder launches immersive spa concept

Meow Wolf co-founder Corvas Brinkerhoff is leaving the company to launch an immersive spa called Submersive in Austin, Texas.

Due to open from 2026, the 25,000-square-foot wellness space will feature immersive art, video projections, lasers and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Subversive is described as a new kind of bathhouse that “takes you beyond relaxation into elevated states of consciousness including awe, wonder, inspiration, transcendence, euphoria, and hyper-presence”. 

The new concept is “reinventing the art of bathing” with spaces that “integrate immersive art, neuroscience and social bathing elements to deliver measurable and repeatable state changes”. ...

The plans are for 12 unique and immersive bathing rooms around a main gathering space. The Submersive team is currently working on an AI-powered quiz that could provide an ideal route through these rooms based on a visitor’s state of mind. ...

Brinkerhoff’s goal with Submersive is to “amass the world’s deepest understanding of how multisensory experiences affect us on a physiological level”, he added. ...

See the full story here: https://blooloop.com/immersive/news/submersive-immersive-spa-meow-wolf-corvas-brinkerhoff/

A booming industry of AI age scanners, aimed at children’s faces

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But the most critical ingredient has been the companies’ growing photo collections of kids in the real world. Sottil, the Incode executive, said the company had paid a contractor to get kids’ facial photos with their parents’ permission across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, sometimes in exchange for Amazon gift cards.

Yoti, which collected face data in Nairobi years before “Share to Protect,” had hoped the South Africa project would be well received by parents because of its stated focus on keeping kids safe. “People share photos of their children all the time,” Dawson, the chief policy officer, said at the time.

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But as Riaan van der Bergh remembered it, many parents refused to sign up because of their “fear of the unknown.” The offer of money for each photo backfired, he added, making it all seem uncomfortably transactional. ...

See the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/07/face-scanning-kids-online-privacy/

Quantum internet on the horizon after hybrid network success

Researchers have designed a new kind of transmitter-receiver which could send entangled photons over an optical fibre.

The concept could see a future “quantum internet” merged with current telecommunications technologies.

Quantum internet could see the strange effect of quantum entanglement be used to make uncrackable encryption. Not even quantum computers – themselves still in the development phase – would be able to crack the security of a quantum internet. ...

This technique combines a mixture of photon frequencies (colours) with the entangled information to be unmixed at the other end.

But the authors of the new study say, “more resource-efficient approaches are required”. ...

“We can change the colour of a laser pulse with a high-speed electrical signal so that it matches the colour of the entangled photons,” explains first author Philip Rübeling, also from the Leibniz University Hannover. “This effect enables us to combine laser pulses and entangled photons of the same colour in an optical fibre and separate them again.”

This method could see today’s internet merged with the quantum internet. ...

See the full story here: https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/internet/quantum-internet-transmitter-optical-fibre

Atlanta museums turn to AI to enhance visitor experience

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“Our early research has shown that having this mixed-reality platform improves children’s learning by 5 times compared to equivalent tablet or computer games that are only on a screen, while also improving their enjoyment,” said Dr. Nesra Yannier, the creator of NoRILLA, in an interview with CMA in 2021.

Historically, the role of museums was to preserve humanity’s collective heritage, culture, history and art for future generations. In the digital age, however, museums are increasingly adopting tools such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) — which rely on AI technology — to engage visitors beyond traditional exhibition layouts. Additionally, robots and AI chatbots haven seen a rise in activity across notable museums in Europe and the Americas. ...

See the full story here: https://capitalanalyticsassociates.com/atlanta-museums-turn-to-ai-to-enhance-visitor-experience/

This Professor Has a Path Toward Human-Level AI. It Isn’t Through Language.

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The Gist

• Real-world learning. Deepak Pathak emphasizes the need for AI to understand and interact with the physical world to build true intelligence.
• Sensory-motor base. AI must develop sensory-motor common sense through real-world experiences before achieving language-based intelligence.
• Adaptive robots. Using adaptive reinforcement learning, robots learn to navigate new environments and perform complex tasks by imitating human actions.

See the full story here: https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/this-professor-has-a-path-toward-human-level-ai-it-isnt-through-language/

Warren Buffett Doesn’t Understand Artificial Intelligence (AI). But It Could Soon Make Him a Boatload of Money.

... Buffett mentioned that someone showed him a video that featured a deepfake of himself. He warned that AI "could become the growth industry of all time" for scammers. Buffett added, "As someone who doesn't understand a damn thing about it, it has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm and I just don't know how that plays out." ...

However, arguably, the most important thing Apple Intelligence will do is boost iPhone sales. The new AI functionality will only work on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and newer models. Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan thinks Apple Intelligence will create strong demand for iPhones. Morgan Stanley believes Apple's new AI capabilities will provide a "clear catalyst for a multi-year product upgrade cycle." 

iPhones make up roughly 55% of Apple's total sales. The smartphone also drives additional revenue through accessory products and services. If AI fuels a major upgrade cycle for iPhones, Apple's revenue and profits will likely increase significantly. ...

See the full story here: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/warren-buffett-doesnt-understand-artificial-intelligence-ai-it-could-soon-make-him

Meta courts celebs like Awkwafina to voice AI assistants ahead of Meta Connect

Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina are among multiple “actors and influencers” whose voices could become part of Meta’s AI offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The company is apparently working to wrap up deals quickly so it can develop and show off the new voices at its Meta Connect conference in September.

Specifically, at least one tool will be “a digital assistant product called MetaAI,” according to multiple unnamed sources in a New York Timesreport. Meta is negotiating with all of the top talent agencies in Hollywood to secure the voices, the Times writes. And it may pay the actors who sign on “millions of dollars.” Meta doled out similarly fat stacks to the celebrities represented by the recently-discontinued Meta AI chatbots from last year’s Connect. ...

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/3/24212580/meta-ai-voice-assistant-celebrity-voices-judi-dench-awkwafina-keegan-michael-key