philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Upcoming Changes to AI Regulation in the New Administration

With the second Trump Administration set to take power in January 2025, one can expect a pendulum swing in many aspects of technology policy. For example, while it is expected that President Trump will will continue efforts by the Biden Administration to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology, the SEC is expected to be much more crypto-friendly. What is unclear, however, is how the new federal government will address AI regulation.

It’s a good bet that a Trump White House will take a lighter approach to the oversight of the AI industry than the preceding Biden Administration and do little to upset the current favorable environment for AI investments and start-up companies. Regardless of the exact route forged by the new Trump Administration, the U.S. already dominates private-sector investment in AI, and the government will likely take efforts to nurture this trend. ...

See the full story here: https://natlawreview.com/article/upcoming-changes-ai-regulation-new-administration

The impact of AI on the film industry

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Casting and location scouting: AI can streamline the casting process by analyzing facial expressions, voices, and physical characteristics to match actors with suitable roles. Examples of this technology already exist: for instance, Casting Matching Process AI (CMP-AI) creates the character profile by analyzing it directly from the script, based on keywords using three narrative elements: physical-aesthetic, psycho-aptitude and scenic. Also, it can aid location scouting by analyzing hundreds of images or providing insights about weather predictions, crowd control and logistics.

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As expected, one of the primary concerns is how AI uses copyrighted material as input for training its models. The 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market introduced exceptions for text and data mining (TDM), allowing rights holders to control or exclude their content from these processes. The proposed AI Act builds on this by requiring AI model providers to respect copyright and provide detailed summaries of the data used for training. But a recent landmark judgment issued by a German Court (Kneschke v. LAION), which held that a nonprofit organization copying images didn't infringe copyright law, may have significant impact in the application of the TDM exceptions. For example, according to the ruling, creators cannot opt out of having their work used for AI training in scientific research. ...

The draft law on AI approved in April in Italy proposes to revise national copyright law by clarifying that protected "intellectual works" must be of "human" origin and that AI-assisted works may still qualify for protection if their creation derives from the author's intellectual work. The draft law also aims to complement European legislation by facilitating the identification and recognition of AI systems in the creation of textual, photographic, audiovisual and radio content. ...

See the full story here; https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=ca7cb00c-1668-4838-8f86-c10aeda6e2cb

ChatGPT blocked 250,000 AI image requests of US election candidates

ChatGPT refused more than 250,000 requests to generate images of the US election candidates using their artificial intelligence (AI) platform. 

OpenAI, the company behind the AI chatbot, said in a blog update on Friday that their platform DALL-E, used to generate images and video, rejected requests to make images of president-elect Donald Trump, his choice for vice president JD Vance, current president Joe Biden, democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and her vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz. 

The refusals were due to “safety measures” that OpenAI put in place before election day, the blog post said. 

“These guardrails are especially important in an elections context and are a key part of our broader efforts to prevent our tools being used for deceptive or harmful purposes,” the update read. ...

The company said in August it stopped an Iranian influence campaign called Storm-2035 from generating articles about US politics and posing as conservative and progressive news outlets.  ...

See the full story here: https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/11/11/chatgpt-blocked-250000-ai-image-requests-of-us-election-candidates

Anthropic, Palantir, Amazon team up on defense AI

Palantir and Anthropic are partnering with Amazon Web Services to make Anthropic's Claude models available to U.S. intelligence and defense agencies, the companies announced Thursday.

Why it matters: As Washington rushes to bring AI to every nook and cranny of government, companies that have already mastered the public sector's complex contracting requirements have a leg-up.

The companies said in a release that access to the Claude models from within Palantir's data analytics platform will help agencies with tasks like:

• "processing vast amounts of complex data rapidly, 
• elevating data driven insights, 
• identifying patterns and trends more effectively, 
• streamlining document review and preparation, 
• and helping U.S. officials to make more informed decisions in time-sensitive situations while preserving their decision-making authorities." 

Between the lines: Contractors providing software services to government agencies, particularly in high-security applications, need to be accredited under a variety of classifications.

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See the full story here: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/08/anthropic-palantir-amazon-claude-defense-ai?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Trump’s Second Presidency Could Mean AI Chaos, or a Flurry of Innovation 

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Nobody can tell if removing U.S. safeguards addressing AI development would result in locally sourced AI disasters, of course, and it’s likely that some state safeguards would remain in force, with California authorities, for example, very much on top of this idea. But as TechCrunch pointed out on election day, while “all” the AIs the news site looked at were “behaving” and ensuring responsible and correct info was being shared by their systems when the public asked for election info, one AI was significant for its openness to sharing blatant misinformation: Musk’s Grok.

Is this a sign that under the next Trump presidency the public really should fear AI, and its implications for stealing people’s jobs and violating their privacy? ...

See the full story here: https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/trumps-second-presidency-could-mean-ai-chaos-or-a-flurry-of-innovation/91000751

AI Robot Artist’s Turing Portrait Fetches $1.1 Million at Sotheby’s

A portrait of computer science pioneer Alan Turing by humanoid robot artist Ai-Da sold for $1.08 million at Sotheby's, marking another milestone in AI art's rapid market ascent. The sale price exceeded pre-auction estimates building on momentum from previous AI art breakthroughs. ...

"The combination of art and technology is gaining more interest," he said, "particularly among a younger generation of collectors." ...

But as controversial as it is, many artists are already embracing generative AI. From big names like Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinnations to the works of amateur enthusiasts like Terrance Washington’s “Country Woman” the fusion of human creativity and machine learning seems to be more intertwined.

And this is exactly the message Ai-Da wanted to deliver with its artwork: Humans should reflect about the role of AI in the future of human society. ...

And AI bots have proven very capable of making money all by themselves—not just by making art. Most recently, an AI chatbot called Terminal of Truths generated enough social media influence to propel a cryptocurrency, Goatseus Maximus, into the top 100 digital assets by market capitalization, surpassing established tokens like IOTA and Zcash. ...

Major online art forums have banned AI-generated works, with some communities going so far as to exclude human artists whose style resembles AI outputs, so a fully AI-generated artwork being sold by a prestigious auction house is an important endorsement for generative AI advocates. ...

Ai-Da's "AI God" portrait was displayed at the UN's 2024 AI for Good Global Summit. The robot artist spent up to eight hours completing each of the 15 paintings in the collection, using fragmented imagery to comment on society's algorithmic transition. ...

Cuba Elliott, a curator specializing in artificial intelligence in creative industries, noted to Decrypt that while AI art auctions aren't new, Ai-Da's humanoid approach "helps to further broaden the definition of AI art."

See the full story here: https://decrypt.co/290899/ai-robot-artist-turing-portrait-fetches-1million-sothebys

The directors of A24’s new horror film tell BI why they used their movie to slam Hollywood’s ‘weird’ use of AI

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Woods told BI that he doesn't understand why it's legal for generative AI to take in existing creations and use them to regurgitate new work, profiting the company that owns the AI without compensating the original creators.

"Stealing other people's things and then generating something that's better in a matter of seconds is insane," Woods said. ...

Most recently, the horror studio Blumhouse Productions caught flak for partnering with Meta on a new initiative that will allow select filmmakers, including Casey Affleck, to test out the tech company's generative AI video system, Meta Movie Gen.

The system uses text inputs to create and edit realistic videos; in this partnership, the filmmakers would use the AI-generated video clips within larger works. ...

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/directors-a24s-horror-film-used-093102076.html

Jeff Bezos and OpenAI back robot startup Physical Intelligence, valued at $2.4 billion

... Founded in 2023, Physical Intelligence has the long-term goal of developing artificial physical intelligence that users can ask to perform any task they want, similar to the widely popular large language models (LLMs) and chatbot assistants in use now.  ...

Last week, the robot startup published a paper demonstrating pi-zero’s capabilities of performing household tasks such as folding laundry, grocery bagging, and bussing tables.

Physical Intelligence shared that its model is trained on diverse data and can follow text instructions. However, the startup also added that the model had “a long way to go” and would see to the advancements on “reasoning and planning, autonomous self-improvement, robustness, and safety” frontiers within the next year. ...

While Physical Intelligence provides technical details about pi-zero on its website, it lacks discussion on the ethical implications of generative AI in robotics and its long-term repercussions. ...

See the full story here: https://americanbazaaronline.com/2024/11/05/jeff-bezos-and-openai-back-robot-startup-physical-intelligence-238/

How Disney’s Use of AI/AR Impacts the Entertainment Sector

... The company's commitment to innovation in this space is further evidenced by the recent return of Kyle Laughlin to Disney. As the new Senior Vice President of research and development for Walt Disney Imagineering, Kyle's background in AR, VR and AI positions him well to drive innovation in theme park attractions. ...

Industry implications and future outlook

Disney's proactive approach to emerging technologies reflects the urgency to stay competitive regarding the rise of AI, as well as its recognition of its transformative potential. ...

Jamie brings a wealth of experience to the role, having led the development of Disney's application for the Apple Vision Pro, a state-of-the-art mixed reality device.

The Office of Technology Enablement will also operate under the direct supervision of Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment.

Initially launching with a core leadership team, the group is projected to expand to approximately 100 employees. ...

See the full story here: https://technologymagazine.com/articles/how-disneys-use-of-ai-ar-impacts-the-entertainment-sector

Jamie Voris heads new Tech Enablement initiative

... The Walt Disney Office of Technology Enablement group is led by the company’s [now ex] CTO Jamie Voris, who will help the firm understand how emerging technologies can help cement its foothold in the media industry, including film, television, and theme parks. 

Moreover, Jamie Voris will now focus on his role within the Office of Technology Enablement, with Eddie Drake becoming Walt Disney’s new CTO. This shows a serious investment and focuses on using emerging XR and AI technologies, as seen with such a significant role taking a step back and transferring to the new group. ...

See the full story here: https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/disney-cto-steps-down-to-lead-internal-xr-ai-group/