philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Hamilton song written by AI features odd reference to Hillary Clinton

To come up with the song's lyrics, Eli Weiss, a film production student at California's Chapman University, used Shortly Read, an AI application designed for writing that incorporates GPT-3, the powerful third-generation machine learning language model used by OpenAI,  a nonprofit artificial intelligence research group backed by Elon Musk. 

GPT-3 has been supplied with 45TB of text data, presumably including the full lyrics to Hamilton, and can generate a range of written content with simple inputs.  

Weiss and team entered this one sentence: "Here are the lyrics to a new song from the hit musical Hamilton: An American Musical." The program then created lyrics to a tune with four verses, a chorus and a bridge that correctly identifies characters in the story and their relationships to each other. 

"It messes up a few times, like when Hillary Clinton makes a brief appearance," says Weiss, a huge Hamilton fan, "but overall it's incredibly convincing."   

Weiss' friend Michael Gribble, a film music student, put the AI-written song to music and performs it in the video above. This isn't the first time AI has written a new Hamilton song, however. A few years ago, creative Max Deutsch trained a neural network on the musical's lyrics and asked it to come up with a new tune. 

See the full story here: https://www.cnet.com/news/hamilton-song-written-by-ai-features-odd-reference-to-hillary-clinton/

How the future looked, before the pandemic

Six books, all written before the coronavirus pandemic, explore how different aspects of technology may shape our lives in 2021 and beyond.

In Parenting for a Digital Future, LSE academics Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross watch numerous real-life parents navigate the tricky, shifting digital landscape. The parents they meet -- some the same ones they visited four years ago for Livingstone and Julian Sefton-Green's The Class (2016) -- all hope that digital technologies will give their children better lives, but are unclear about how this will happen at a time when two children in the same family, just five years apart, may be grappling with very different technologies.  

Today's 14-year-olds, for example, may choreograph video dances for TikTok, which didn't exist in 2015 when, at that same age, their 19-year-old siblings were testing out Instagram filters...which in turn didn't exist in 2010 when today's 24-year-olds were deciding whether they preferred Twitter, Tumblr or Reddit. Today's 29-year-olds grew up without smartphones and tablets. As Livingstone and Blum-Ross write, "The question was not just 'What kind of future will my child have?' but also 'What kind of world will they live in?'" 

See the full story here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/holiday-reading-roundup-how-the-future-looked-before-the-pandemic/

Volkswagen unveils R2-D2-like charging robot that autonomously steers and refills parked electric vehicles while making noises similar to the Star Wars character

• Volkswagen's robot that autonomous charges parked electric vehicles
• The robot tows a battery pack to a vehicle and communicates with the EV
• It prompts the vehicle to open its charging socket flap and plugs right in
• The robot will be activated with a companion app and will roll out in 2021 

See the full story here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9093665/Volkswagen-unveils-R2-D2-like-charging-robot-autonomously-steers-refills-electric-vehicles.html

Maestro Dudamel takes virtual reality Symphony on tour

The Venezuelan's latest project is a virtual reality film, Symphony, which aims to take participants to the beating heart of music and sound through technology, remarkable visuals and the genius of Beethoven, Mahler and Bernstein. And it has just premiered in Madrid.

'Language without words'

Dudamel wants the film to help inspire young people to plunge into classical music, and for the symphony eventually to be the sound of a world of different ideas harmonising together. 

"Music is a language without words: it comes to each of us in a unique way and yet it also unites us even though we appreciate it in different ways. For me that is a beautiful symbol for these times - we can embrace each other through music," says the 39-year-old music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Symphony is a four-year project organised by Spain's La Caixa Foundation involving 250 people, including 100 musicians from 42 countries.

Mr Dudamel takes on the role of virtual guide on a tour that takes us from the creation of instruments and how they vibrate and channel sound to the synapses of the brain where sound is processed as the orchestra plays around us.

See the full story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55344970

Project to use virtual reality technology to teach Nisga’a culture and language (Indigenous Canadian)

Parent said that no one in the Nisga'a Nation has yet used virtual reality to facilitate traditional language learning. That portion of the project will feature interviews with Nisga'a speakers and land-based walking tours.

Wal-aks (Keane Tait) teaches Nisga'a language and culture at Nisga'a Elementary Secondary School in Gitlax̱t'aamiks, B.C., 775 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. 

Sim'oogit (Chief) Duuḵ, from Lax̱g̱altsʼap, B.C., is a key advisor on the project regarding the cultural and historical significance of totem poles. He said that each family has a totem pole of their own and they are the only ones that can tell the story on it.  

See the full story here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/nisga-a-vr-technology-language-culture-1.5846341

Bigscreen Now Features a Virtual Drive-in Cinema

The DRIVE-IN THEATER has been one of the most frequently requested features. It will now be available for both Quest and PC VR users.

The social VR app has also updated its user interface with a major menu makeover. Users can now see an overview of everything that they can do in Bigscreen. These include the following: –

• Windows Desktop: Access your desktop in VR.
• Video Player: Plays the video files on your computer or Oculus Quest locally or via DLNA.
• Movies: Lends 3D movies and also takes you to the virtual cinema screenings
• TV Channels: You can watch livestreams from platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
• Public Rooms: You can meet people from different origins in virtual environments
• Private Rooms: Hang out with your friends in virtual environments

Previously, Bigscreen supported up to 8 users per lobby but with its new beefy servers, it can now support up to 12 users per lobby. In 2021, Bigscreen is also planning to increase the room size limits for the user-created rooms. That means users will be able to create much larger rooms for meetups or conferences that could support anywhere from 25 to 50 users!

See the full story here: http://virtualrealitytimes.com/2020/12/27/bigscreen-now-features-a-virtual-drive-in-cinema/

Local kid-entrepreneurs launch latest augmented reality product

Created and branded entirely by local middle school and high school students, Wrist World is an augmented reality wristband which allows users to access a hologram and play games through the use of their mobile device. The newest product from the team, which launched at OnCue Express convenience stores on Dec. 18, features Hatsune Miku, a Japanese vocal synthesizer hologram.

Wrist World team member, Emma Wheelbarger, said a representative from Crypton, the creators of Hatsune Miku, approached their booth at the New York Toy Fair last year. After seeing a demonstration of the Wrist World tech, he offered the team a Hatsune Miku licensing deal.

“Hatsune Miku fans are called completionists because they collect anything released that features [the performer], whether it’s a jigsaw puzzle, blanket or anything” Wheelbarger said. “When those people see something like Wrist World, and see [Hatsune Miku] can do performances on your wrist, in 3D, that will attract all of those people and hopefully they’ll enjoy it.”

See the full story here: https://www.normantranscript.com/news/local-kid-entrepreneurs-launch-latest-augmented-reality-product/article_02653066-4584-11eb-8025-8b959c94b523.html

Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall goes smart with AR guide

PhilNote: This would be the gov't sanctioned history of Nanjing Road, but it is still useful as a tourist tool.

Dubbed China's "Fifth Avenue," Nanjing Road was known as Park Lane in the mid-19th century, back when it was the nation’s first asphalt roadway. It carried Shanghai’s first car in 1901 and its first tram in 1908. The western end of the road was turned into a pedestrian mall in 1999. It was newly extended to the Bund this year, putting it under spotlight again.

The pedestrian mall, known as China’s No. 1 commercial street, received over 200 million tourists in 2019 with total sales exceeding 18 billion yuan, making it one of the most lucrative commercial hubs in the city. More than 20 international and time-honored local brands are operating on the street, the district government said.

See the full story here: https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2012262187/

‘How Bad Is Your Spotify’ Artificial Intelligence Bot Mercilessly Roasts Your Taste in Music

Users who visit the site get the following greeting: "Hi, I'm an A.I. trained to evaluate musical taste. To get started, I'll need to see your Spotify. I'm just gonna look at what you listen to. I won't post or change anything."

And by "just looking" at your music library, the bot really means, "I'm about to tell you about yourself and your cheesy music selection, so get ready."

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bad-spotify-artificial-intelligence-bot-211306849.html

The seven big tech happenings that we will remember 2020 for

Number seven is Digital Transformation. 

Six is Decentralisation and how Work from Anywhere came home. 

Five is the Tech Lash: 2020 will be remembered for the backlash against Big Tech going mainstream, with many countries across the world uniting against its burgeoning power.

Four was an artificial intelligence (AI) breakthrough called GPT 3, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer Ver 3, created by OpenAI.

Number Three, and an even greater leap forward in AI, is Alpha Fold 2, the protein-folding predictor unveiled by Google-owned DeepMind. 

Number Two is a phenomenon called Elon Musk. 

The number one spot goes to the covid vaccine. 

See the full story here: https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/the-seven-big-tech-happenings-that-we-will-remember-2020-for-11608826430729.html