- Developed in collaboration with NEW INC, Ancestral Archives by artist Josie Williams brings historically significant Black leaders to present-day communities
- Installation will be exhibited as part of the annual SXSW Art Program from March 10-17, 2023 in Austin, TX
- EY to host panel discussion, "Arts Keeping Humans at the Center of the Metaverse" 10 a.m. CT, March 13, 2023
... "Ancestral Archives is an important expression of art, technology and social equity that leans into the works of revolutionary Black historical figures to inspire reflection, conversation, learning and action so we can better understand and connect with each other. This kind of work is essential as the boundaries between our physical and virtual worlds increasingly become blurred." ...
See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ey-metaverse-lab-to-celebrate-black-leaders-with-ai-enabled-metaverse-art-installation-301756480.html
WGA asks members to vote on key demands in bargaining with studios
... Among the bargaining demands: The union wants increased contributions to the union’s health and pension plan; higher minimum pay across all categories; and standardized compensation, whether content is released in theaters or on streaming platforms.
The union also is seeking to extend span protection, which restricts the amount of time writers can spend working on a single episode of TV; and to regulate the use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies. ...
Designing Immersive Gatherings With Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects
PhilNote: from Atlas Obscura, this class could be good for continuing education and job enrichment. This course includes four total sessions each lasting 1.5 hours. $215 enrollment. The class is run multiple times.
What We’ll Do
In this 4-part workshop, explore the ethos and attributes of immersive experiences and begin designing one of your own.
... In this four-part seminar, acclaimed immersive theater director and experience designer Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects will walk us through the elements of immersive gatherings and guide us through the process of designing our own. Drawing inspiration and practical points from past notable immersive events, we’ll delve into the details of creating such gatherings—focusing on environment, interaction, the experiential arc, and guest-centered design. Each week, Zach will offer optional exercises geared to help participants envision and develop their own concepts outside of class. This course is designed for everyone; whether you’d like to design a celebration or social event, create a memorable product launch or branded event, make a conference more engaging, or fold elements into a performance—this class will offer something meaningful for you and for those you're gathering. ...
See the full course description here; https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/immersive-gatherings-course?utm_source=AO+Courses+Master+List&utm_campaign=43209f2d5a-Courses_Monthly_March_02_27_2023&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7d38d308f2-43209f2d5a-72092269&mc_cid=43209f2d5a&mc_eid=e9e809d5f7
Augmented reality headset enables users to see hidden objects
MIT researchers have built an augmented reality headset that gives the wearer X-ray vision.
The headset combines computer vision and wireless perception to automatically locate a specific item that is hidden from view, perhaps inside a box or under a pile, and then guide the user to retrieve it.
The system utilizes radio frequency (RF) signals, which can pass through common materials like cardboard boxes, plastic containers, or wooden dividers, to find hidden items that have been labeled with RFID tags, which reflect signals sent by an RF antenna.
The headset directs the wearer as they walk through a room toward the location of the item, which shows up as a transparent sphere in the augmented reality (AR) interface. Once the item is in the user’s hand, the headset, called X-AR, verifies that they have picked up the correct object.
See the full story here: https://news.mit.edu/2023/augmented-reality-headset-enables-users-see-hidden-objects-0227
VERSES Announces Next-Generation AI A “General Intelligent Agent”
... GIA, a General Intelligent Agent, is a next-generation personal AI assistant that is designed to learn about its users in order to better organize, manage, and optimize their digital life. GIA, the smart interface to the digital world, is a voice and text-based digital assistant that operates under a user’s direction and on their behalf, searching, filtering, and summarizing information across multiple data sources. With unique features like automating data organization, predictive reasoning, and the ability to learn over time, GIA is poised to become the first intelligent all-in-one solution for anyone seeking a smarter way to organize, manage, and automate their personal and professional activities. ...
See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/now/verses-announces-next-generation-ai-135900909.html
The Unexpected Winners Of The ChatGPT Generative AI Revolution
... Getting GAI systems to produce exactly what you are looking for with all of the generation conditions met is not easy. There are many ways to improve the accuracy algorithmically without having access to the prior experimental data. And the power of the algorithmic approach including simulation and zero-shot learning should not be underestimated. Those, who think that AI is all about training data, and, believe me, most pharma company executives do, should refer to the Infinite Monkey Theorem. If you take the infinite number of monkeys with the infinite number of typewriters, eventually, you will get every book that is ever written. And, by extension, if you can efficiently train these monkeys to produce accuate and useful output, you can potentially generate even better books. ...
But someone needs to validate the output. And while it is possible to use both humans and algorithms to evaluate the quality of the text, voice, and images, when it comes to biology, chemical, and experimental physics data, only algorithms trained on this specific data and, in some cases, expert humans, can be good arbiters for generative AI. This makes very specialized high-quality data and expert humans very valuable for training of generative AI systems. ...
The value of high-quality human-generated content, especially the content rich in verified facts, just increased exponentially. ...
The developers of generative AI will require high-quality data and expert humans for training of the generative and predictive models as well as for benchmarking and validation. And since much of this content is paywalled, it is very likely that the following publishers will be the greatest winners in the generative AI revolution. ...
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexzhavoronkov/2023/02/23/the-unexpected-winners-of-the-chatgpt-generative-ai-revolution/?sh=3ddd7c6d12b0
‘Hollywood 2.0’: How the Rise of AI Tools Like Runway Are Changing Filmmaking
When “Everything Everywhere All At Once’s” visual effects artist Evan Halleck was working on the rock universe scene, he brought in cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools from Runway — such as the green screen tool that removes the background from images. “It was cutting things out better than my human eye was, and it gave me a clean mat that I could use for other things.”
From the rise of deepfake technology to AI being used to generate scripts, AI is on the rise. It’s faster, cheaper and Halleck says, on a film like the Oscar-nominated A24 film, “Rotoscoping, in my opinion, has been a very slow and painful process. So, it was nice to automate things.” ...
While AI has come into the conversation lately, the technology has been around for a while. “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker made an entire filmusing a deepfake Donald Trump last year. “They’re paving the way. People might be freaked out, but there are going to be a ton of incredible use cases of it and there’s probably going to be some bad things to come, but that comes with any new technology.” ...
See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/hollywood-2-0-rise-ai-233902392.html
What to know about Microsoft’s controversial Bing AI chatbot
... When the chatbot learned that AI researcher Marvin Von Hagen had posted the rules governing it, the chatbot said: "My rules are more important than not harming you," according to a transcript of the conversation tweeted by Hagen.
Toby Ord, a senior research fellow at Oxford University, said on Twitter that the "crazy" results owed to technological improvements that have pushed AI beyond human-imposed guardrails.
"It is a consequence of the rapid improvements in AI capabilities having outpaced work on AI alignment," Ord said. "Like a prototype jet engine that can reach speeds never seen before, but without corresponding improvements in steering and control." ...
See the full story here: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/microsofts-controversial-bing-ai-chatbot/story?id=97353148
TikTok Really Is Becoming Gen Z’s Google, and More on How Gen Z Gets Its News
- Google Search is the go-to news discovery platform for U.S. adults, but that’s less the case for Gen Z, which prefers TikTok and Instagram more than older generations.
- In February, 14% of Gen Z adults reported using TikTok to start researching a major news event, significantly higher than the share of all adults (2%) saying the same.
- To boost their chances of counting Gen Zers as paying subscribers, news publishers must distribute more compelling content that lives outside of their own websites.
...a plurality of Gen Z adults (39%) still indicate that Google Search is where they begin gathering information about a major news event — it’s just that this young cohort also shows a distinct preference for learning about news on TikTok. In February, 14% said TikTok is where they start researching major news events, compared with just 1% of all other generations who said the same.
See the full story here: https://morningconsult.com/2023/02/21/tiktok-is-becoming-google-for-gen-z/
[Soul Machines] Bringing Digital People to life with autonomous animation
...
Soul Machines’ solution is autonomous animation.
At a high-level, there are two parts that make this possible: the Digital DNA Studio, which allows end users to create highly-realistic synthetic people; and an operating system, called Human OS, which houses their patented Digital Brain, giving Digital People the ability to sense and perceive what is going on in their environment and react and animate accordingly in real-time.
Embodiment is the goal — making the interface feel more human. It helps to build a connection with end users and it is what they believe differentiates Digital People from chatbots. But, as their VP of Special Products, Holly Peck, puts it: “It only works, and it only looks right, when you can animate those individual digital muscles.”
See the full story here: https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2023/02/now-go-build-s03e05-soul-machines.html
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