philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Jeff Bezos and OpenAI back robot startup Physical Intelligence, valued at $2.4 billion

... Founded in 2023, Physical Intelligence has the long-term goal of developing artificial physical intelligence that users can ask to perform any task they want, similar to the widely popular large language models (LLMs) and chatbot assistants in use now.  ...

Last week, the robot startup published a paper demonstrating pi-zero’s capabilities of performing household tasks such as folding laundry, grocery bagging, and bussing tables.

Physical Intelligence shared that its model is trained on diverse data and can follow text instructions. However, the startup also added that the model had “a long way to go” and would see to the advancements on “reasoning and planning, autonomous self-improvement, robustness, and safety” frontiers within the next year. ...

While Physical Intelligence provides technical details about pi-zero on its website, it lacks discussion on the ethical implications of generative AI in robotics and its long-term repercussions. ...

See the full story here: https://americanbazaaronline.com/2024/11/05/jeff-bezos-and-openai-back-robot-startup-physical-intelligence-238/

How Disney’s Use of AI/AR Impacts the Entertainment Sector

... The company's commitment to innovation in this space is further evidenced by the recent return of Kyle Laughlin to Disney. As the new Senior Vice President of research and development for Walt Disney Imagineering, Kyle's background in AR, VR and AI positions him well to drive innovation in theme park attractions. ...

Industry implications and future outlook

Disney's proactive approach to emerging technologies reflects the urgency to stay competitive regarding the rise of AI, as well as its recognition of its transformative potential. ...

Jamie brings a wealth of experience to the role, having led the development of Disney's application for the Apple Vision Pro, a state-of-the-art mixed reality device.

The Office of Technology Enablement will also operate under the direct supervision of Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment.

Initially launching with a core leadership team, the group is projected to expand to approximately 100 employees. ...

See the full story here: https://technologymagazine.com/articles/how-disneys-use-of-ai-ar-impacts-the-entertainment-sector

Jamie Voris heads new Tech Enablement initiative

... The Walt Disney Office of Technology Enablement group is led by the company’s [now ex] CTO Jamie Voris, who will help the firm understand how emerging technologies can help cement its foothold in the media industry, including film, television, and theme parks. 

Moreover, Jamie Voris will now focus on his role within the Office of Technology Enablement, with Eddie Drake becoming Walt Disney’s new CTO. This shows a serious investment and focuses on using emerging XR and AI technologies, as seen with such a significant role taking a step back and transferring to the new group. ...

See the full story here: https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/disney-cto-steps-down-to-lead-internal-xr-ai-group/

AI That Can Invent AI Is Coming. Buckle Up.

Leopold Aschenbrenner’s “Situational Awareness” manifesto made waves when it was published this summer.

In this provocative essay, Aschenbrenner—a 22-year-old wunderkind and former OpenAI researcher—argues that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be here by 2027, that artificial intelligence will consume 20% of all U.S. electricity by 2029, and that AI will unleash untold powers of destruction that within years will reshape the world geopolitical order.

Aschenbrenner’s startling thesis about exponentially accelerating AI progress rests on one core premise: that AI will soon become powerful enough to carry out AI research itself, leading to recursive self-improvement and runaway superintelligence. ...

At the frontiers of AI science, researchers have begun making tangible progress toward building AI systems that can themselves build better AI systems. ...

If AI systems can do their own AI research, they can come up with superior AI architectures and methods. Via a simple feedback loop, those superior AI architectures can then themselves devise even more powerful architectures—and so on. ...

At first blush, this may sound far-fetched. Isn’t fundamental research on artificial intelligence one of the most cognitively complex activities of which humanity is capable? ...

In the words of Leopold Aschenbrenner: “The job of an AI researcher is fairly straightforward, in the grand scheme of things: read ML literature and come up with new questions or ideas, implement experiments to test those ideas, interpret the results, and repeat.” ...

... research on core AI algorithms and methods can be carried out digitally. Contrast this with research in fields like biology or materials science, which (at least today) require the ability to navigate and manipulate the physical world via complex laboratory setups. ...

Consider, too, that the people developing cutting-edge AI systems are precisely those people who most intimately understand how AI research is done. Because they are deeply familiar with their own jobs, they are particularly well positioned to build systems to automate those activities. ...

Sakana’s “AI Scientist” is an AI system that can carry out the entire lifecycle of artificial intelligence research itself: reading the existing literature, generating novel research ideas, designing experiments to test those ideas, carrying out those experiments, writing up a research paper to report its findings, and then conducting a process of peer review on its work. ...

As the Sakana team summarized: “Overall, we judge the performance of The AI Scientist to be about the level of an early-stage ML researcher who can competently execute an idea but may not have the full background knowledge to fully interpret the reasons behind an algorithm’s success. ...

The most important takeaway from Sakana’s AI Scientist work, therefore, is not what the system is capable of today. It is what systems like this might soon be capable of. ...

OpenAI’s GPT-1 paper, published in 2018, was noticed by almost no one. A few short years later, GPT-3 (2020) and then GPT-4 (2023) changed the world. ...

Just last month, Anthropic updated its risk governance framework to emphasize two particular sources of risk from AI: (1) AI models that can assist a human user in creating chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons; and (2) AI models that can “independently conduct complex AI research tasks typically requiring human expertise—potentially significantly accelerating AI development in an unpredictable way.”

Consider it a sign of things to come. ...

The most limited and precious resource in the world of artificial intelligence is talent. Despite the fervor around AI today, there are still no more than a few thousand individuals in the entire world who have the training and skillset to carry out frontier AI research. Imagine if there were a way to multiply that number a thousandfold, or a millionfold, using AI. OpenAI and Anthropic cannot afford not to take this seriously, lest they be left behind. ...

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2024/11/03/ai-that-can-invent-ai-is-coming-buckle-up/

Exclusive: Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta’s Llama

• Papers show China reworked Llama model for military tool
• China's top PLA-linked Academy of Military Science involved
• Meta says PLA 'unauthorised' to use Llama model
• Pentagon says it is monitoring competitors' AI capabilities

See the full article here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/chinese-researchers-develop-ai-model-military-use-back-metas-llama-2024-11-01/

What if A.I. Is Actually Good for Hollywood?

... “The difference here is that A.I. has the potential to disrupt many, many places in our pipeline,” says Lori McCreary, the chief executive of Revelations Entertainment, a production company she owns with Morgan Freeman, and a board member of the Producers Guild of America. “This one feels like it could be an entire industry disrupter.” ...

A.I. applications are often divided into two broader categories. The first is generative A.I., which helps artists and studios create things. Then there is “agentic” A.I., which helps them get things done. A new A.I. tool called Callaia, for instance, reads scripts and generates 35-page coverage reports, along with historical comparisons and suggested theatrical release patterns — the core duty of countless junior studio executives’ daily work life, though perhaps not for long. ...

Filmmaking is often described as the most collaborative art form, and Metaphysic was just one among many creative contributors to the trickiest scenes of Hanks and Wright as young lovebirds in “Here.” The actors performed in full period costume, not in green suits covered with Ping-Pong balls. The makeup department taped back the loose skin around Hanks’s neck and pulled up his droopy ears, so Hanks’s A.I.-generated young face would match Hanks’s real-life old head. And, of course, they had award-winning actors to deliver all the lines. “You still need the warmth of the human performance,” Zemeckis told me. “The illusion only works because my actors are using the tool just like they use their wardrobe, just like they’d use a bald skull cap.” It was the future of Hollywood, and it looked uncannily like its past.

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/magazine/ai-hollywood-movies-cgi.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawGR-ghleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcxK6Z4OMMxfylRfp7bBbxk13vjUeR1bT55xLS4cor3vA1IxAuoSthftgA_aem_JiH_RPbU5NxO4815k0kqlQ

Fox News Plans a “Super Desk” and Virtual Set For Election Night Coverage (Exclusive)

... Whereas Hemmer (and King and Kornacki) previously relied on a touchscreen that is more akin to a giant iPhone, Hemmer will now be able to display data in 3D space on set, interacting with the data thanks to infrared sensors that can track him. The company is also using a voice to text language model, allowing Hemmer to call up data just by speaking it.

Among other bells and whistles are a “path to 270 map,” which will place a 3D map in the studio letting anchors explain how the electoral votes are stacking up, as well as a “top 5 closest races” tool, which will visualize certain key close races.

And Studio M itself is getting an upgrade, including a “Super Desk” which will be the home base for anchors, correspondents and analysts over the course of election night. Fox also built a two-story tall accent wall, as well as a 20-foot long ultra HD video wall that will display photos and video over the course of the evening. ...

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/fox-news-election-night-super-desk-augmented-reality-1236045655/

Michael Parkinson’s son defends new AI podcast

...

In 2022, the union Equity launched a "Stop AI Stealing the Show" campaign. The use of AI was a major factor in the strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill last year. 

However, as Sir Michael is dead and therefore no longer has a livelihood to protect, the debate in this case is more about whether or not it is ethical to have him say things he never said in real life, and also whether AI versions of real hosts is something listeners even want. ...

Explaining how the podcast would work, Anderson said: "These are brand new interviews, and the AI we’ve created is as close to the late Sir Michael as we could possibly get it. 

"He is autonomous, so we let him start the interview and after that it is up to AI Sir Michael, who is trained on Sir Michael’s style and the interview questions.

He added: "We can’t tell you the guests yet, we have a few slots remaining, but they are notable, noteworthy people." ...

See the full story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn42x2gxl0jo

Haptic artificial muscle skin for extended reality

Abstract

Existing haptic actuators are often rigid and limited in their ability to replicate real-world tactile sensations. We present a wearable haptic artificial muscle skin (HAMS) based on fully soft, millimeter-scale, multilayer dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) capable of significant out-of-plane deformation, a capability that typically requires rigid or liquid biasing. The DEAs use a thickness-varying multilayer structure to achieve large out-of-plane displacement and force, maintaining comfort and wearability. Experimental results demonstrate that HAMS can produce complex tactile feedback with high perception accuracy. Moreover, we show that HAMS can be integrated into extended reality (XR) systems, enhancing immersion and offering potential applications in entertainment, education, and assistive technologies.

See the full paper here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr1765

CAA Inks Deal With AI Company Veritone To Store Talent’s Digital Assets

In a sign of the times, Creative Artists Agency has inked a deal with an artificial intelligence company to store clients’ digital assets.

See the full story here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/caa-inks-deal-with-ai-company-veritone-to-store-talent-s-digital-assets/ar-BB1mmFiU?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1