philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

How AI Is Taking Over Our Gadgets

[PhilNote: this is a really good short primer on AI at the edge and AI on board devices.]

Modern AI, which is primarily used to recognize patterns, can have difficulty coping with inputs outside of the data it was trained on. Operating in the real world only makes it tougher—just consider the classic example of a Tesla that brakes when it sees a stop sign on a billboard.

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ai-is-taking-over-our-gadgets-11624680004

Psychedelic VR meditation startup Tripp raises $11 million Series A

As the name implies, there have been some efforts by the startup to create visuals and audio experiences that mimic the feelings people may have during a psychedelic trip — though doing so sans hallucinogens.

“Many people that will never feel comfortable taking a psychedelic, this is a low-friction alternative that can deliver some of that experience in a more benign way,” CEO Nanea Reeves tells TechCrunch. “The idea is to take mindfulness structures and video game mechanics together to see if we can actually hack the way that you feel.”

Tripp has apps on both the Oculus and PlayStation VR stores and subscription experiences that can be accessed for a $4.99 per month subscription.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/24/psychedelic-vr-meditation-startup-tripp-raises-11-million-series-a/

Virtual reality brings prehistoric Lascaux caves back into view

From July 8th, groups of six people wearing virtual reality headsets will be able to take a 45-minute tour through the 235 metre-long cave network, dubbed the Sistine Chapel of the prehistoric era.

The cave, located near the village of Montignac in France's Dordogne region, was closed to the public in 1963 after the carbon dioxide, heat and humidity of nearly 2,000 visitors a day began damaging the paintings.

See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/virtual-reality-brings-prehistoric-lascaux-caves-back-into-view-2021-06-24/

AI Regulation: What You Need to Know to Stay Ahead of the Curve

In this foundational report, Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry team co-leader Peter J. Schildkraut systematically lays out when and how—not whether—artificial intelligence will be regulated.After briefly presenting the reasons motivating AI regulation, including its accuracy and bias, overall power and market failures, the report discusses regulation through generally applicable law as well as legislation expressly addressing artificial intelligence; emerging US, UK and European approaches to AI regulation; risk mitigation; and oversight and documentation.

See the article here: https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/publications/2021/06/ai-regulation-what-you-need-to-know?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=LinkedIn-integration

See the full report here: https://www.arnoldporter.com/-/media/files/perspectives/publications/2021/06/ai-regulationstaying-ahead-of-curveschildkraut0621.pdf?la=en

The Hottest Streamer (Right Now)

Who is winning the platform wars?

To figure out where things stand in the battle for dominance, we evaluated seven major streamers (that have been operating for at least one year) according to five different metrics, from overall heft to what folks in Hollywood and on Wall Street are saying. We ranked them all within each category — assigning seven points for first, six for second, and so on — then tallied all those scores to come up with a final overall standing.

Peacock

42 million users; 2020 debut

Overall Size: 1
Originals Output: 1; “Maybe the Olympics will be the breakthrough,” says one top agent. (It will exclusively stream 12 hours of coverage daily via sister network NBC.)
Critical Buzz: 1
Industry Ranking: 1
Momentum: 1; “Someone lend these people some money so at least they can pretend to be contenders,” says one PR chief. “It’s a joke that they think they’re going to contend in a real way when they don’t spend — in content or marketing.”
Total Score: 5

...

See the full story here: https://www.vulture.com/2021/06/who-is-winning-the-streaming-platform-wars.html?mkt_tok=ODUwLVRBQS01MTEAAAF94icMXZz66XwybPrEDxZso_3f2Ibo-8QYc-0bFriykECNvsMHOYTahqwg6ty5g2I9xw8hdAhirw4KJ2M4Vl0EDnE0vW1bd8iMGykiTN1i6NTm

Facebook registers patent for AR Hat

Now the latest AR hat of the platform will let you forget about the previous AR glasses as the platform has filed a patent for its latest augmented reality product and it will inflate the involvement of the device and will assist more advanced augmented reality practice within a single separate unit. 

This augmented reality hat gives more three-dimensional possibilities for the obligatory modules than augmented reality glasses, which can mark it as an upgraded selection for individual standing AR treatment. However, Founderslegal has said that the spare space of the product will allow the addition of further sensors such as face-recognition instruments and other sensors as well.

Now the question is that will this product look cool?

See the full story here: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/06/facebook-has-registered-patent-for-its.html

Matthieu Lorrain, Head of Creative, Google AR Partnerships

Hear the podcast here: https://www.thevrara.com/podcast-posts/matthieulorrain

Fake news generated by artificial intelligence can be convincing enough to trick even experts

The results of a new study could set off an AI arms race between misinformation generators and detectors.

Imagine the possibility of misinformation – information that is false or misleading – in scientific and technical fields like cybersecurity, public safety and medicine.

There is growing concern about misinformation spreading in these critical fields as a result of common biases and practices in publishing scientific literature, even in peer-reviewed research papers. As a graduate student and as faculty members doing research in cybersecurity, we studied a new avenue of misinformation in the scientific community. We found that it is possible for artificial intelligence systems to generate false information in critical fields like medicine and defence that is convincing enough to fool experts.

To test this threat, we studied the impacts of spreading misinformation in the cybersecurity and medical communities. We used artificial intelligence models dubbed transformers to generate false cybersecurity news and Covid-19 medical studies and presented the cybersecurity misinformation to cybersecurity experts for testing. We found that transformer-generated misinformation was able to fool cybersecurity experts.

Misinformation arms race

Although examples like these from our study can be fact-checked, transformer-generated misinformation hinders such industries as health care and cybersecurity in adopting AI to help with information overload.

See the full story here: https://scroll.in/article/997898/fake-news-generated-by-artificial-intelligence-can-be-convincing-enough-to-trick-even-experts

AR can improve the lives of older adults, so why are apps designed mainly for youngsters?

The danger of older adults falling through the gaps has been highlighted by research carried out by scientists at the University of Bath in the UK in collaboration with designers from the Bath-based charity Designability. A paper describing their work has received an honourable mention at this year's Human Computer Interaction Conference (CHI2021) - the world's largest conference of its kind.

The study concludes that adults aged 50+ are more likely to be successful at completing AR-prompted tasks (such as 'pick up the cube' followed by 'move the cube to the blue area') when the steps are shown by a 'ghosthand' demonstrating the action rather than the more commonly used arrow or some other visual aid.

According to the research team, many manufacturers of AR software are failing to factor the needs and preferences of older people into their application designs.

INCLUSIVITY

So why are older adults being left out of AR research? "Designers often find it difficult to know how non-designers and older people think if they're not big users of tech." explained Dr Jones.

"Another common problem is that designers often prioritise in a way that's not inclusive - they worry about the aesthetics of an application more than the ease of use for everyone. This is fine if you're a regular user of an application but it violates an essential principle of usability: you shouldn't have to read a manual to achieve what you're trying to achieve."

See the full story here: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/uob-aci062221.php

Soundscape VR Launches Magic Mirror with Desert Dwellers, Desert Hearts, Good TV & More

Magic Mirror provides a platform for content creators that brings the entire universe of 2D content into virtual reality, from music videos, concert footage, visualizers, to live streams and more. Building off the beautiful soundscapes of the SVR platform, this "digital drive-in" brings music lovers together from around the globe and is designed to scale infinitely, with no limit to the number of viewers who can take part in this shared musical experience.

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/soundscape-vr-launches-magic-mirror-with-desert-dwellers-desert-hearts-good-tv--more-301318331.html