philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Experience Ancient Egypt Like Never Before

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced a new AR experience in partnership with Meta to explore ancient Egyptian artifacts in stunning detail and share your journey through time. 

This project was launched at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to celebrate its 122nd anniversary. Instagram's Revival project utilizes advanced augmented reality (AR) filters to virtually restore artifacts that are on display at both the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC). ...

Visitors to the Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) can now scan QR codes located near selected artifacts. By using these codes, they can access augmented reality (AR) filters on Instagram. These filters digitally reconstruct statues, carvings, and other ancient objects, allowing visitors to see how they would have appeared in their original state.

See the full story here: https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/136243/Experience-Ancient-Egypt-Like-Never-Before

A Powerful AI Breakthrough Is About to Transform the World

... In a recent demonstration, a Physical Intelligence-powered pair of robot arms does what is, believe it or not, one of the hardest tasks in all of robotics: folding laundry. Clothes can take on any shape, and require surprising flexibility and dexterity to handle, so roboticists can’t script the sequence of actions that will tell a robot exactly how to move its limbs to retrieve and fold laundry. ...

Powerful as they can be, these systems still have limits and unpredictability that mean they won’t be able to completely automate people’s jobs, says Dettmer.

The AI at the heart of EvolutionaryScale, for example, can suggest new molecules for humans to try in the lab, but humans still have to synthesize and test them. ...

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/a-powerful-ai-breakthrough-is-about-to-transform-the-world-095b81ea

Growing Up: Navigating Generative AI’s Early Years – AI Adoption Report

This new Wharton rpt gives an AI update.

Navigating Generative AI’s Early Years – AI Adoption Report

Democratising AI for good: Global AI pioneer Dr. Ben Goertzel launches $1m+ in grants for international developers, advancing the mission of creating benevolent Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

• Dr. Ben Goertzel, the CEO of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, and the Founder of SingularityNET - the world's first decentralised AI platform is on a mission to accelerate the emergence of human-level Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence for the benefit of all mankind
  
• More than $1M in funding will be awarded to multiple developers who design disruptive applications to push the frontiers of AGI development
  
• For further details on entry visit https://deepfunding.ai/all-rfps/ before 1st December 2024

See the full article here: https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/democratising-ai-for-good-global-ai-pioneer-dr-ben-goertzel-launches-1m-in-grants-for-international-developers-advancing-the-mission-of-creating-benevolent-artificial-general-intelligence-agi-302304470.html

... At the heart of this research lies the ARC benchmark, a sophisticated tool that challenges AI systems to demonstrate genuine understanding rather than mere memorization. Unlike traditional benchmarks, which often rely on pattern recognition, the ARC benchmark pushes AI into uncharted territories of thought, requiring it to solve problems creatively and adaptively. Coupled with innovative methods like test-time training, which allows AI to learn and adapt in real-time, these advancements have propelled AI models to achieve human-level reasoning—and even beyond. ...

TL;DR Key Takeaways :

• MIT’s study highlights a novel approach to abstract reasoning as a key to achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), using the ARC benchmark to test machine intelligence creatively and adaptively.
• The ARC benchmark serves as an IQ test for machines, assessing AI’s ability to apply abstract reasoning to novel situations, marking a significant leap in reasoning capabilities.
• Test-time training, which updates model parameters during inference, has enabled AI systems to surpass human-level reasoning on the ARC benchmark, representing a major advancement toward AGI.
• Search algorithms enhance AI’s problem-solving abilities by allowing efficient exploration of solutions, crucial for achieving human-level performance and advancing toward AGI.
• The study indicates AI models have surpassed human reasoning on the ARC benchmark, suggesting AI can now perform tasks once exclusive to human intelligence, paving the way for future AGI development.

See the full article here: https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/artificial-general-intelligence-advancements/

OpenAI to Launch Autonomous AI Agent

OpenAI is set to launch an autonomous AI agent, code-named "Operator," early next year. ...

Unlike traditional AI interfaces (which work on specific tasks), Operator and its counterparts will actively engage with your computer, completing tasks without human intervention. In success, the agents will jump from program to program doing stuff like cutting and pasting, answering emails, doing rudimentary computer maintenance, and more. ...

"Agentic," which is just a fancy word for agency, is a new vocabulary word that will be on this week's test. All kidding aside, agents are the future. We'll see if the pre-canned, purpose-built computer agents are going to live up to the hype. ...

See the full post here: https://shellypalmer.com/blog/

A Wannabe ‘Pixar of AI’ is Signing Up Stars

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In a nutshell, Asteria is using AI to speed up projects and help human artists make better use of their time by using tech that’s trained on their work to do things like test out different visual concepts or convert storyboards to animatics. 

The ultimate goal of all of this is to become the “Pixar of AI” and, in fact, they’ve hired some employees who were laid off from the storied company. (Not to say that established animation heavyweights like Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks aren’t using AI. They are.)

The tech helps them keep costs down, and Mooser tells me the sweet spot is under $10 million per project. That means they’re able to take risks on projects that wouldn’t see the light of day at a traditional studio — whether because they’re too expensive or not in line with that particular company’s current brand persona — and use an indie financing model that gives backend to creatives. ...

In this issue, you’ll learn . . .

• How a potential new AI-based studio model could soon become the norm
• How much time Asteria’s AI tools promise to shave off development — and the opportunities that creates for an indie studio to compete
• How Asteria is trying to solve AI’s original sin
• Why the company believes movies made with its AI tools will still be copyrightable
• Asteria’s bold profit-participation model — and whether talent dealmakers think it can work
• The major questions top lawyers ask before considering a backend deal
• Why dealmakers say Hollywood’s attitudes about AI are changing

...

See the full story here: https://theankler.com/p/asteria-film-wannabe-pixar-of-ai-natasha-lyonne-bryn-mooser?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share

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