INTERVIEWS
Dylan Fox, CEO & Founder of AssemblyAI – Interview Series
Dylan Fox is the CEO & Founder of AssemblyAI, a platform that automatically converts audio and video files and live audio streams to text with AssemblyAI’s Speech-to-Text APIs.
What initially attracted you to machine learning?
I started out by learning how to program and attended Python Meetups in Washington DC, where I went to college. Through college courses, I found myself leaning more into algorithm-type of programming problems, which naturally led me to machine learning and NLP. ...
“What if you could build a Twilio-style API company using the latest AI research that was just much easier for developers to access state-of-the-art AI models for speech recognition, with a much better developer experience.”
And it was from there that the idea for AssemblyAI grew. ...
See the full story here: https://www.unite.ai/dylan-fox-ceo-founder-of-assemblyai-interview-series/
A terrifying AI-generated woman is lurking in the abyss of latent space
... We are all regularly amazed by AI’s capabilities in writing and creation, but who knew it had such a capacity for instilling horror? A chilling discovery by an AI researcher finds that the “latent space” comprising a deep learning model’s memory is haunted by least one horrifying figure — a bloody-faced woman now known as “Loab.” ...
... From what dark corner or unconscious associations sprang Loab, fully formed and coherent? We can’t yet trace the path the model took to reach her location; a trained model’s latent space is vast and impenetrably complex.
The only way we can reach the spot again is through the magic words, spoken while we step backward through that space with our eyes closed, until we reach the witch’s hut that can’t be approached by ordinary means. Loab isn’t a ghost, but she is an anomaly, yet paradoxically she may be one of an effectively infinite number of anomalies waiting to be summoned from the farthest, unlit reaches of any AI model’s latent space.
It may not be supernatural … but sure as hell ain’t natural.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/13/loab-ai-generated-horror/
Should the EU Regulate General-Purpose AI Systems?
The French presidency recently proposed expanding the scope of the EU’s draft law for regulating high-risk AI tools to include a new class of systems: General-purpose AI systems, which are those that can perform a wide range of tasks and often power more specific applications. Examples include models for image and speech recognition, pattern detection, and translation. Those who support the French proposal argue it is the only way to ensure future high-risk AI applications that rely on these models pose as little risk as possible. Those who oppose it argue its broad-brush approach will capture a swath of systems not intended for high-risk use cases and ultimately do more harm than good.
Join the Center for Data Innovation for a discussion on the proposed amendments to the EU’s AI Act for general-purpose systems and its implications for AI development, innovation, and deployment in the EU and beyond. ...
See the full story here: https://datainnovation.org/2022/09/should-the-eu-regulate-general-purpose-ai-systems/
Northeastern Bomber Targeted Virtual Reality Club on Campus: Report
Police found a note denouncing virtual reality and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to multiple reports. ...
CNN also reported overnight on the note left at the scene of the bombing, citing “several” law enforcement sources. CNN described the note as “rambling,” though Boston Police and Northeastern University did not respond to emailed questions overnight about the note. ...
See the full story here: https://gizmodo.com/facebook-meta-northeastern-bomb-virtual-reality-zuck-1849533437
Halle Bailey Turns White In Little Mermaid Remake Video Altered By AI
Whoever decided to let A.I. create entertainment knew that it would cause massive issues. ...someone decided to allow artificial intelligenceto transform Halle Bailey into a white woman for The Little Mermaid live-action remake. ... The film has been surrounded with controversy, as people oddly take issue with Ariel not being white in this new live-action remake. Fans on Twitter have been coming to the defense of Bailey. ...
See the full story here: https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/halle-bailey-little-mermaid-ai-remake.html
WATCH: Disney Plus spills movies into your lounge with AR feature
Streaming service Disney Plus, to celebrate Disney Plus Day has introduced an AR experience worth remembering.
The new feature is available to Disney Plus subscribers, and will allow users to experience certain coded films in a different way.
In its most interesting reveal, Disney Plus launched Remembering, an AR-powered short film starring Brie Larson. ...
The Remembering app is 202MB in size and requires iOS 15.0 or higher, with a device with A12 Bionic chip or later. ...
See the full story here: https://memeburn.com/2022/09/watch-disney-plus-spills-movies-into-your-lounge-with-ar-feature/
Also here: https://screenrant.com/disney-remembering-short-film-ar-app-use-how/
Snap, Ipsos: Consumers Begin Turning to AR for Practical Purposes, Like Shopping
... As for brands, 83% that used AR effects, filters or lenses believe it helped improve awareness of their brand, while 87% said AR helped them boost brand engagement and appeal to younger audiences, and 86% feel that the technology helps them acquire new customers and drive performance metrics.
Augmentality Shift was based on a survey of nearly 25,000 people between the ages of 13 and 44 who own and use smartphones, as well as roughly 1,000 senior decision makers from agencies or brands that have used or are open to using AR, and it was conducted in 11 markets: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S. ...
See the full story here; https://www.adweek.com/media/snap-ipsos-consumers-begin-turning-to-ar-for-shopping-utility/
Artificial intelligence is here in our entertainment. What does that mean for the future of the arts?
... What surprised even more people than just Allen was that he had created his work––a rendering of three lushly robed figures staring through a gleaming portal into another world––with the artificial intelligence tool Midjourney. For Allen, the win was an unexpected triumph, but for others it was the fuse that sparked a heated debate over AI's potential uses––and misuses––in the arts. ...
"It can't produce anything that it hasn't already been trained on, so it's impossible for it to create legitimately new things," Curry says. ...
"Everybody talks about, 'the algorithm did this' or 'the algorithm did that.' From my experience, it doesn't feel like the algorithm is doing much of anything. You have to push it into whatever it is that you actually want it to do." ...
Like any other piece of technology, the way AI is used changes when it gets into the hands of artists—not the other way around. Loughridge compares it to Auto-Tune, a pitch correction processor that was once controversial but has become a music industry standard. ...
In order to bridge what they see as a gap in technological literacy when it comes to AI, Gradecki and Curry worked together to develop a creative computing minor at Northeastern. The aim is to provide students with a critical and creative understanding of how artificial intelligence can be used. ...
See the full story here: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-09-artificial-intelligence-future-arts.html
THE CHALLENGE: ETHICS OF VR AND AR IN MEDIA
... De la Peña was bullish about blockchain, but from the perspective of identity protection: “As a journalist, how do we know that a story is accurate, that it’s not a fake character, and yet protect individuals who might be revealing information that’s very dangerous. If you’ve got communities around blockchain that provide a way to protect identity, but they still have a way to track provenance of information. So I think blockchain is extraordinarily powerful.” ...
See the full story here: https://www.ibc.org/features/the-challenge-ethics-of-vr-and-ar-in-media/9112.article
