philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Mercedes to unveil ultrawide ‘Hyperscreen’ at CES 2021

Mercedes-Benz will unveil its MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) Hyperscreen at January’s CES 2021 event, marking the brand’s first foray into full-width dashboard displays.

The ultrawide screen – set to make its production debut in the forthcoming EQS electric sedan – will span the car’s entire dashboard, and form part of the existing Mercedes infotainment system.

The MBUX Hyperscreen will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to enable an enhanced method of controlling entertainment and vehicular functions. What exactly this means is unclear, but the in-car features such as navigation, music and performance preferences will benefit from a significant display upgrade to keep the brand ahead of the pack when it comes to car interiors (as yet, no other manufacturer has announced plans to implement full-width, single-monitor displays in their vehicles).

And boy, is it a big display. The curved screen unit extends along the entire width of the vehicle in front of the driver and front passenger, for whom, say Mercedes, the new display will offer an intuitive and easy-to-use system of in-car control.

See the full story here: https://www.techradar.com/news/mercedes-to-unveil-ultrawide-hyperscreen-at-ces-2021

10 AI Predictions For 2021

3. The total number of academic research papers published on federated learning will surge.

Data privacy is becoming an increasingly urgent issue for consumers and regulators. Given this, privacy-preserving AI methods will continue to gain momentum as the most sustainable way to build machine learning models. The most prominent of these methods is federated learning.

The number of academic research papers published on federated learning has grown from 254 in 2018, to 1,340 in 2019, to 3,940 in 2020, according to Google Scholar. This exponential growth will continue: in 2021, over 10,000 research papers will be published on the topic of federated learning.

6. The U.S. federal government will make AI a true policy priority for the first time.

The United States has lagged other countries, notably China, when it comes to proactive public policy support for artificial intelligence. This will begin to change in 2021 with a Biden White House and a more motivated Congress.

The Biden administration will put forth, and Congress will pass, a federal budget that dramatically increases government funding for AI. Congress will also pass into law a national strategy for AI that addresses topics like AI ethics, research priorities, national security implications and labor automation.

9. AI will become an important part of the narrative in regulators’ antitrust efforts against big tech companies.

Regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe formally initiated antitrust proceedings against Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google this year. To this point, regulators have not explicitly focused on artificial intelligence as they have articulated the antitrust cases against the technology giants.

In the coming year, expect regulators and commentators to begin invoking AI more frequently as they frame how and why these companies are unfairly stifling competition. The core argument will be that the companies’ data monopolies give them insurmountable advantages in developing effective machine learning algorithms.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/12/22/10-ai-predictions-for-2021/?sh=41820f86d1a0

The data that apps use to track you, according to Apple

Details: Apple identified a set of data types including purchases, financial information, location, contact information, diagnostics, search history, health & fitness, browsing history, and more. An app may collect each of these types of data in three ways: 

1. "Data linked to you" is data that is tied to a users' identity via information from their device, account on an app, and other sources.
2. "Data used to track you" is data that links user or device data collected from an app with user or device data collected from other companies’ apps or websites for the purpose of targeted advertising or ad measurement. It could also refer to sharing user or device data with data brokers.
3. "Data not linked to you" is data that cannot be linked to the user in any identifying way.

Between the lines: It's helpful to know the number of data types an app collects from you, but that doesn't give you any insight into the actual volume of data the app may be collecting.

See the full story here: https://www.axios.com/data-apps-use-track-you-apple-privacy-nutrition-labels-d88c2def-06cb-4bf5-8fc5-7ca09a704db4.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkdSaE16Z3dNVFEwWkRVeCIsInQiOiJNRUlTamZ0UDNcLzVlellBdkZVclhYNjlzVm9nMG9MNzluS2VZWCtNTlpZUUJOU1VOVGwrZkEwRVRMV1NMXC9uYWdJSWNXQWNVa0lpNmhrTmgzb2pWaElGXC9pZVlTVElsaW5CQ1lSem5tdklFVWV3ZEhRYWRlS1h5NHkwVmF4T0lkNSJ9

Deloitte: Augmented and virtual reality set to grow in 2021

Growth factors

Though virtual and augmented reality’s future is uncertain, the report highlights some findings that point toward greater adoption in the future:

• Cheaper high-quality VR headsets are expected to be released that cost under $1,000, which the report calls the magic point.
• Hard numbers on some enterprise programs are showing an average 32 percent improvement in productivity.
• Academic research suggests that employees prefer AR to video in work settings. Their problem-solving improves, they make fewer errors, and they perceive it as more efficient than a regular video call.
• AR training yields a 75 percent retention rate, higher than almost any other form of training. Lectures and readings have only a five to ten percent rate for example.
• VR is safer and less risky for training in dangerous environments, such as firefighters.

The Delloitte report is here: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/US93838_TMT_Predictions_2021/DI_2021-TMT-predictions.pdf

See the full story here: https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2020/12/deloitte-augmented-and-virtual-reality-set-to-grow-in-2021/

Fable Studio unveils two AI-based virtual beings who can talk to you

Fable Studio has announced two new conversational AI virtual beings, or artificial people. Their names are Charlie and Beck, and they will be able to hold conversations as if they were real people.

The new characters are a blend of storytelling and artificial intelligence, a marriage that Fable is pioneering in the belief that virtual beings will become a huge market as people seek companionship and entertainment during the tough climate of the pandemic.

...virtual beings companies — from Genies to AI Foundation — have raised more than $320 million.

And now Lucy is being joined by Charlie and Beck. You can sign up to make friends with them at fable-studio.com. The characters are powered by the Fable Wizard, an AI tool to bring characters to life through visuals, dialogue, voice, and animation.

Saatchi said that in the six weeks since launching Lucy’s alpha, the company has received interest from seven billion-dollar intellectual property companies to use the Wizard to create virtual beings from their characters. And it has a deal in the works to co-create a virtual being with a well-known influencer.

Beck is a world-class athlete who is scheduled to go to the Tokyo Olympics 2021 to represent Canada on the rowing team. 

Charlie is more of an introvert. She is a French musician and poet living in Paris and finding her voice. She studied art history.

“We haven’t had anything negative,” Saatchi said. “If you’re doing anything inappropriate, Lucy won’t respond or she might disconnect. But this is such kind of powerful technology, and has such powerful psychological implications for people that we need to build up trust.”

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/18/fable-studio-unveils-two-ai-based-virtual-beings-who-can-talk-to-you/

Cai Guo-Qiang’s VR fireworks bring together advanced technology and traditional craft

And what makes Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City truly unique is the way it was created. We might mistakenly assume that Cai relied on 3D animation software, which these days can create images that are virtually indistinguishable from reality. In fact he wanted to avoid the kind of computer-generated effects associated with Hollywood movies, believing that they lacked in ‘warmth’ and ‘animalistic energy’. So he commissioned the artwork’s components in real life and went about filming them, bringing an analogue dimension to what is often a purely digital medium.

Craftsmen from his hometown of Quanzhou, where Cai had launched his career-defining Sky Ladder five years ago, spent five months painstakingly creating a model of the Forbidden City in alabaster. What we see through our VR headsets is in fact an intricate 3D scan of the model, with its handcrafted textures, rather than a mere rendering. (The model has been included in the Palace Museum exhibition to clue viewers into the physicality of the production process). ‘I believe that for certain works, I shouldn’t use the cleverest way [of making],’ explains Cai.

See the full story https://www.wallpaper.com/art/cai-guo-qiang-virtual-reality-fireworks-forbidden-city

Landmark artificial intelligence legislation advances toward becoming law Defense bill awaits possible presidential veto and Congressional override; includes 63 pages of legislation authorizing new AI policies and funding by the federal government

This publication provides an overview of the key AI initiatives and the funding provided for AI programs.

National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (Division E) 

The NDAA includes a 63-page portion of the bill titled Division E, the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020. As explained in the House-Senate Joint Explanatory Statement, the provision was contained only in the version that the House passed earlier this year, but the Senate agreed to include it in the final compromise version with certain changes. Division E draws heavily on legislation introduced earlier this year, (HR 6216), the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, as well as legislation from 2019, the Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act or AI–IA (S 1558), to establish a coordinated, civilian-led federal initiative to accelerate research and development and encourage investments in trustworthy AI systems for the economic and national security of the United States. The NDAA includes both Department of Defense (DoD) and non-DoD AI provisions.

Among the Division E highlights:

See the full article here: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=81ec9b64-7454-45d3-ae35-a79a6dffad3f

Verizon Bets on Virtual Reality With Entain Gambling Partnership

Verizon Media has formed a global tech partnership with Entain, the gambling operator formerly known as GVC Holdings, to innovate the next generation of sport betting products, including a combination of gambling and virtual reality.

The two companies say they’ll work together to build a VR platform that integrates live sports with layers of data and gambling. The goal is to create an immersive experience where sports fans can view games, check stats, place wagers and socialize, all within the same platform.

The gambling will take place through Entain’s brands, which include bwin, Ladbrokes, Coral, PartyPoker and BetMGM, a joint venture with MGM Resorts. Terms of the partnership were not disclosed.

See the full story here: https://sports.yahoo.com/verizon-bets-virtual-reality-entain-115500913.htmlhttps://sports.yahoo.com/verizon-bets-virtual-reality-entain-115500913.html

Augmented Reality and the Surveillance Society

By Mark Pesce

To work well, AR must look through our eyes, see the world as we do, and record what it sees. There seems no way to avoid this hard reality of augmented reality. So we need to ask ourselves whether we’d really welcome such pervasive monitoring, why we should trust AR providers not to misuse the information they collect, or how they can earn our trust. Sadly, there’s not been a lot of consideration of such questions in our rush to embrace technology’s next big thing. But it still remains within our power to decide when we might allow such surveillance—and to permit it only when necessary.

See the full article here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/augmented-reality-and-the-surveillance-society

A Data-Driven Guide to Whether a Machine Will Be Doing Your Job By 2025

Humans and machines will clock the same work hours by 2025 (and other startling findings from the World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs 2020’ report).

See the full story here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/88a575/a-data-driven-guide-to-whether-a-machine-will-be-doing-your-job-by-2025?utm_source=reddit.com&fbclid=IwAR1Ddfcrt0ayDjpvGtq3jez1iO9M9kTILxp4NyeEIi1OfPEmCXIoKpsQBts