philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Report on deepfakes: what the Copyright Office found and what comes next in AI regulation

December 18, 2024 - On July 31, 2024, the Copyright Office released part one of its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, specifically addressing the topic of digital replicas, or "deepfakes" — i.e., AI-generated video, image, or audio recordings that realistically but falsely depict an individual. The report is the result of a broad initiative to explore the intersection of copyright and AI, informed by a series of listening sessions and meetings with stakeholders, as well as more than 10,000 public comments from authors, artists, publishers, lawyers, academics, industry groups, and more.

The report's conclusions are stark: It finds that existing laws, in copyright and other intellectual property areas, are vastly insufficient to redress the harm posed by unauthorized digital replicas, which have the potential to threaten not only those in entertainment and politics, but private individuals, too. ...

 Most alarming, the report warns that digital replicas pose a danger to our political system and news reporting "by making disinformation impossible to discern." ...

The report found existing federal laws largely inapplicable. For example, it is black-letter law that copyright does not "protect an individual's identity in itself, even when incorporated into a work of authorship." Thus, while it might be a copyright violation to reproduce a copyrighted image or song that contains the copyright owner's likeness or voice, merely replicating someone's image or voice in a deepfake would not implicate copyright protections.

The Lanham Act "require[s] proof of commercial use and a likelihood of consumer confusion," so it is not useful in cases of harmful but personal and non-commercial deepfakes. ...

Meanwhile state laws were deemed uneven and often too narrow. ...

Based on this analysis, the Copyright Office did not mince words as to its conclusion. It stated in blunt terms: "new federal legislation is urgently needed." Looking ahead, the call for action is likely to accelerate congressional focus on an issue that has already sparked numerous pieces of draft legislation. ...

See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/report-deepfakes-what-copyright-office-found-what-comes-next-ai-regulation-2024-12-18/

The 51 most disruptive startups of 2024

See the full story with brief summaries of each startup here: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/13/the-51-most-disruptive-startups-of-2024/#P

Memo to AI: Does it hurt when we pull your plug?

... Fish’s report ties into the idea of artificial general intelligence (AGI) a goal of AI reaching human-level abilities—thinking, learning and even potentially feeling. OpenAI’s search for an “AI Welfare Specialist” signals a growing concern: if AI ever becomes conscious, how should we treat it? ...

The discussion centers on a question that has long challenged philosophers and computer scientists alike: what defines consciousness? Smolinski points to philosophical perspectives that define consciousness as the ability to independently affect oneself and the surrounding world. Current AI systems, he notes, operate purely by reacting to external inputs, rather than through independent agency. ...

Researchers exploring AI consciousness propose borrowing tools from animal cognition studies to hunt for signs of machine awareness, while conceding that definitively proving artificial consciousness remains a formidable challenge. ...

See the full story here: https://www.ibm.com/think/news/ai-welfare-debate

Where Humans Still Have the Edge on AI [HBR]

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Areas Where Humans Still Have an Edge Over AI

In speaking to hundreds of experts, consumers, and skeptics of AI over the past few years, four strongholds for humans keep coming up:

• Emotion: Understanding, connecting with, and responding sensitively to human feelings.
• Complexity: Navigating ambiguous, broad-context challenges with holistic problem-solving.
• Physicality: Tasks requiring dexterity and interaction with the physical world, particularly where human presence and responsiveness matter.
• Creativity: The ability to generate original, novel ideas and solutions.

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Despite the fanfare surrounding the launch of new AI media-generating technologies, we don’t care much for it as consumers. Spotify now includes AI music in its catalog, but all the big hits are by flesh-and-blood musicians. Very few people are watching AI-generated films, nor do they want to. And although an AI-generated painting recently sold for $1 million, it’s a long way off the $450 million paid for da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. We value history and scarcity, and these two qualities are beyond AI. ...

See the full story here: https://hbr.org/2024/12/where-humans-still-have-the-edge-on-ai

In Major AI Deal, YouTube Teams With CAA to Give Celebrities Control Over Likenesses

In a major deal that could have implications for the broader use of generative artificial intelligence in Hollywood, YouTube and CAA are teaming up on tools that will let celebrities manage their likenesses on the platform, including on videos that may use generative AI to recreate a star’s appearance. ...

YouTube says that over the next few months, it will also begin testing the tools with “top YouTube creators, creative professionals, and other leading partners representing talent.” ...

The specifics on the new tools are a little vague for now, with the platform saying that it is “early-stage technology designed to identify and manage AI-generated content that features their likeness, including their face, on YouTube at scale.”

In addition to surfacing content that features their likeness, celebrities will also be able to submit requests for removal via YouTube’s privacy complaint process. ...

“[OpenAI CEO Sam Altman] lives in a different world and has a different understanding of what artists do and what they own, literally and ethically and morally,” Lourd said at a Financial Times conferencein June. “To OpenAI’s credit, they took [the voice] down when I asked them to take it down. I don’t think they did that out of the goodness of their heart. I think they took it down because they realized how complicated a situation they’d created and stepped into.” ...

CAA and New Enterprise Associates’ Connect Ventures also led a $20 million investment round into Deep Voodoo, a deepfake company founded by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. ...

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/youtube-caa-generative-ai-celebrity-likeness-deal-1236088491/

Lawmakers Debut Bill to Create ‘Immersive Technology’ Strategy

House and Senate members introduced legislation on Dec. 11 that would take the first steps toward creating what the lawmakers called a “national immersive technology strategy” for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. ...

The panel would have two years to produce its findings. ...

“We cannot allow ourselves to be left behind in the burgeoning XR field,” said Rep. DelBene, who is co-chair of the House Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality Caucus. ...

See the full story here: https://meritalk.com/articles/lawmakers-debut-bill-to-create-immersive-technology-strategy/

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Gets Live AI and Live Translation

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Live AI: With Live AI, Meta’s AI technology is capable of seeing what you see so you can engage with it regarding your surroundings. This means you can get hand-free assistance with activities from meal preparation and gardening to exploring your local area.

You can ask questions, interrupt at any time during your exchange with the AI, and even reference previous conversations you have had with it. Meta imagines that one day AI will be able to offer you helpful suggestions before you have even asked.

Live translation: Live translation, as the names suggests, can translate speech in real-time from English to Spanish, French, and Italian. ...

See the full story here: https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-gets-live-ai-and-live-translation/

Bizarre Autonomous Robot Sphere Being Tested As Police Assistant

... The robot’s official name is Rotunbot, though it’s called RT-G for short. It was created at Zhejiang University by researchers. And while it is rather compact, don’t underestimate its size. It is said to weigh about 275 pounds and can get up to 22 miles per hour. ...

Part of the appeal of a police robot like this, they say, is that it can scare off would-be attackers. Plus, these robots are equipped with net guns, tear gas, and speakers. These items are also said to be useful in areas that would be particularly dangerous for a human to enter.

“This robot can cope with dangers such as falling or being beaten,” Wang explains, “and can perform tactical actions such as enemy identification, tracking, and capture after modular modification.”

See the full story here: https://www.inspiremore.com/bizarre-autonomous-robot-sphere-being-tested-as-police-assistant/

New 2025 California laws: Artificial intelligence, octopuses, cannabis cafes and more

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(SB 926) Deepfakes
Makes it a crime to create and distribute sexually explicit images of a real person that are artificially generated but made to appear authentic with the purpose of causing that person emotional distress.

(SB 981) Sexually Explicit Images
Requires that social media platforms establish a mechanism for users who are California residents to report sexually explicit images that were created or altered digitally but made to appear authentic. Social media companies must take down the content while they investigate the complaint.

(AB 1836 & 2602) Digital Likeness
Protects deceased actors and performers from having their image, likeness or voice reproduced without authorization by artificial intelligence. The law requires consent from the actor's estate before their likeness can be digitally replicated. A similar law (AB 2602) allows performers to back out of existing contracts if the language is vague enough to allow studios to digitally clone their image or voice in the future without expressed consent.

...

See the full story here: https://abc7news.com/post/new-2025-california-laws-artificial-intelligence-protection-octopuses-cannabis-cafes-more/15652909/

China stamps out tech misuse to preserve national literature and ideology

... The Chinese government says AI's "peculiar adaptations" from classic television dramas based on Chinese literature are "highly deceptive." ...

The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), the agency that oversees state broadcasting, last week issued a notice calling on its supervisory bodies to clean up videos that use AI to create jokes derived from Chinese cultural touchstones. ...

The broadcast watchdog said these AI-remastered jokes "seek to gain traffic without boundaries and disrespect classic intellectual properties."

It added that they "challenge traditional cultural perceptions, go against the core spirit of the original works and may constitute copyright infringement." ...

The call to clean up AI-remastered content aligns with China's campaign to control online information and clean up information it deems undesirable, such as that deemed contrary to traditional values or related to materialism, extreme individualism and "historical nihilism."

Historical nihilism is a term coined by the Communist Party for challenges to its official version of history, which it sees as undermining its legitimacy. ...

Beijing has taken many efforts to regulate AI, including its "Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis in Internet-based Information Services" implemented in January 2023, which require clear labelling of content that could confuse or mislead the public. ...

See the full story here: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/12/501_388504.html