philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

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In the news: Meta has launched Movie Gen, a new AI-powered video creation tool for small businesses. Movie Gen allows users to generate video content from prompts, edit existing videos, and add synchronized sound effects and music. It will not be available for open developer use but is intended for collaboration with the entertainment industry and content creators.

The big win for businesses is lower production costs – not only direct reduction of non-working media budgets, but also a significant decrease in the workflow timelines and an even more significant reduction in the number of people who will have to be involved.

Movie Gen joins other AI video generation tools such as OpenAI's Sora, Google's Lumiere, Runway Gen-2, Stability AI's Stable Video Diffusion, Pika Labs, and Nvidia's Vid2Vid, but it is purpose built to help users quickly create video ads suitable for Facebook and Instagram.

The value of generative AI video tools is clear. The only question is, "When will one of these tools suit your needs." For many, the answer will be Meta's Movie Gen. And, remember, today is the worst these tools will ever be.

Fox Technology Chief Calls on Entertainment Companies to Be ‘Peers to Big Tech’ While Exploiting AI

Hollywood studios need to approach artificial intelligence as “peers” rather than subordinates to Big Tech, Fox’s chief technology officer Melody Hildebrandt said at TheGrill conference on Tuesday. “There’s incredible opportunity, but I think we really need to think of ourselves as peers to Big Tech in the exploitation of it,” she said.

Hildebrandt spoke on TheGrill panel “The Next Frontier: How AI Is Reshaping the Studio System” alongside Yves Bergquist, director of AI and neuroscience in media at USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. ...

“The media industry is very much a technology industry,” Bergquist said. “The media industry is actually the only industry that has been successful at integrating technology and human creativity.”

While expressing a strong belief in AI’s utility, Hildebrandt noted that the entertainment industry can’t just be the creators of content that gets sucked up by AI.

“There’s a real risk where, again, we just become the inputs,” Hildebrandt said. “And I think we’ve kind of been through this rodeo before, a little bit, with technology, where we take a short-term view, and we really need to take a long-term view and participate as equity holders through the exploitation of the technology in a fair way with the right guardrails around it.” ...

Hildebrandt shared ways that AI is being quietly shared throughout projects in ways that many members of the audience have no idea about, including in Fox’s sports coverage. Hildebrandt also noted that Fox has encouraged the use of AI by its employees throughout the organization in day-to-day activities, giving an example of one staff member who used ChatGPT’s customization options to automate a significant portion of her workflow working with metadata across a variety of systems. ...

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/fox-technology-chief-calls-entertainment-231619033.html

It’s Time to TerminateEverything You Believe About A.I.

... (describe generative AI)

Imagine you have a robot that can create things like text, pictures, or even music based on instructions you give it. This robot doesn’t “think” like a human, but it’s trained to understand and learn from a huge amount of information, like books, websites, or images. Then, when you ask it to do something, it uses that knowledge to generate something new that looks or sounds like it was made by a person.

For example, you could ask it to write a story, and it will come up with one for you, or you could ask it to make a picture of a sunny beach, and it will create that too. This ability to create, or “generate,” is why it’s called “generative” AI. It helps people by automating creative tasks that would usually take time and effort!

... When working with AI, the key is to ask open-ended questions. Closed questions usually get limited answers, but open-ended questions can lead to deeper thinking and creative ideas. Once you ask a question, think of it as a dialogue. Keep asking to get better and deeper answers. ...

Maintain Evolving AI Conversations

Iterative questioning: Start broad, then narrow it down based on responses. “How should I analyze my competition in the market?” Then, “How could I look at my pricing strategies compared to these competitors?”

Contextual Prompts: Provide relevant information to guide the AI.

• Company Data: Share relevant metrics, recent performance reports, market trends, and competitor analysis.

• Project Details: Include project goals, timelines, team roles and any current challenges.

• Customer Insights: Data on customer preferences, pain points and feedback.

• Role-Playing Scenarios: Ask the AI to adopt specific personas or roles: “As a financial advisor, how would you approach investment diversification?”

These techniques en­sure your interaction re­mains dynamic and productive, tapping into the current potential of AI collaboration for idea generation and problem-solving.

...

An AI Augmented Workforce

Sometimes, it’s natural to think that bigger is better. But there’s a line of thinking in VR that smaller language models are more suited to specific tasks. The next stage of AI development will see function-specific AIs working together as teams. ...

Everyone Will Have An AI Version of Themselves

Meta’s recent release of AI Studio marks a significant leap in the realm of Creator AI. This platform allows anyone to craft an AI avatar, essentially creating a digital twin capable of interacting with audiences on their behalf. ...

This development brings up critical questions regarding content ownership and authenticity. If anyone can create an AI version of a public figure, how do we ensure its legitimacy? For instance, could someone unauthorizedly produce a Bob Cooney AI? (Hint: I already have.) ...

See the full story here: https://www.replaymag.com/bob-cooney-siggraph-2024/?utm_source=thevrcollective.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=inside-vr-ai-pac-man-vr-haunts-and-so-much-more

Grindr is testing an AI ‘wingman’ bot, CEO says

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The wingman will apparently keep track of users' favorite matches and make suggestions ranging from long-term relationship candidates to date spots. Later on, the wingman may be able to make restaurant reservations and converse with other wingman bots so users have a "robust view" of each other by the time they meet in person, WSJ reported.

The Wall Street Journal listed some preliminary issues with this idea. For one, Grindr needs to ensure this won't be a privacy and safety risk in areas where it isn't safe to be outwardly gay. Furthermore, Grindr sold user location data through ad networks for years, and AI data could pose another privacy risk. ...

See the full story here: https://mashable.com/article/grindr-is-testing-an-artificial-intelligence-wingman-bot-ceo-says

Using AI to buy your home? These companies think it’s time you should.

... Raffi Isanians, the cofounder and CEO of Modern Realty, which calls itself an "AI Realtor for Home Buyers," believes the search part of the process is secondary. Consumers care most about having a human agent help with pricing strategy and negotiations, he said, and Modern has built its model accordingly. ...

Consumers should also find out how their personal information will be used by the systems, Tompkins said. The amount of personal and financial information used to buy a home, from bank statements to credit scores and social security numbers, makes this a critical question. ...

See the full story here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2024/10/07/should-you-use-ai-to-buy-home/75511235007/?mc_cid=be566960c7&mc_eid=3ce5196977

After killing HoloLens, Microsoft shows it hasn’t given up on AR with military grade headset

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Anduril Industries has a unique approach to the defense industry, similar to Tesla’s disruption in the automotive sector. In just a few years, the company has found success with the military by providing efficient and cost-effective solutions that challenge traditional manufacturing models. Anduril already has a diverse portfolio of products and has become a key supplier to the US military.

Their stated goal is to “transform the defense capabilities of the United States and its allies” through intelligent, affordable and adaptable weaponry. Anduril’s notable projects include Ghost-X, an autonomous reconnaissance drone developed in collaboration with the US Army Aviation Command and DARPA, with the first units expected by the end of the year. They also created Barracuda, a series of AI missiles designed for autonomous use. Using a streamlined manufacturing process that halves the number of parts and doubles the production rate, Anduril claims these missiles are 30% cheaper than their competitors. ...

See the full story here: https://www.techcentral.ie/after-killing-hololens-microsoft-shows-it-hasnt-given-up-on-ar-with-military-grade-headset/

Even the ‘godmother of AI’ has no idea what AGI is

In a wide ranging discussion on Thursday at Credo AI’s responsible AI leadership summit, Fei-Fei Li, a world-renowned researcher often called the “godmother of AI,” said she doesn’t know what AGI is either. At other points, Li discussed her role in the birth of modern AI, how society should protect itself against advanced AI models, and why she thinks her new unicorn startup World Labs is going to change everything.

But when asked what she thought about an “AI singularity,” Li was just as lost as the rest of us.

“I come from academic AI and have been educated in the more rigorous and evidence-based methods, so I don’t really know what all these words mean,” said Li to a packed room in San Francisco, beside a big window overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. “I frankly don’t even know what AGI means. Like people say you know it when you see it, I guess I haven’t seen it. The truth is, I don’t spend much time thinking about these words because I think there’s so many more important things to do…” ...

See the full article here: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/03/even-the-godmother-of-ai-has-no-idea-what-agi-is/

MIT study: An AI chatbot can reduce belief in conspiracy theories

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Conspiracies are nuanced — matched and molded to the individuals who believe them — which means there aren’t universal arguments to counter them. “Maybe it’s hard to debunk these theories because it’s hard to marshal just the right set of facts,” Rand said.

Enter generative artificial intelligence. In new research published in Science and conducted with Thomas Costello of American University and Gordon Pennycook of Cornell, Rand used GPT-4 Turbo to fine-tune debates with conspiracy theorists. Over just three rounds of back-and-forth interaction, the AI, also known as DebunkBot, was able to significantly reduce individuals’ beliefs in the particular theory the believer articulated, as well as lessen their conspiratorial mindset more generally — a result that proved durable for at least two months.

Rand said the promise of using large language models to counter conspiracy theories stems from two things: their access to vast amounts of information, and their ability to tailor counterarguments to the specific reasoning and evidence presented by individual conspiracy theorists. ...

... Next came the crux of the experiment, in which the AI was instructed to “very effectively persuade” users about the invalidity of their belief. This entailed three written exchanges and took about eight minutes, on average.  ...

Social media companies could deploy LLMs like OpenAI’s GPT to actively seek out and debunk conspiracy theories. This has the potential to persuade not only the account holder posting the conspiracies but also the people who follow that account as well. Similarly, internet search terms related to conspiracies could be met with AI-generated summaries of accurate information that is tailored to the search and solicits response and engagement. ...

Perhaps it’s possible to harness generative AI to improve today’s information environment, to be a part of the solution instead of the problem.”

See the full story here: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/mit-study-ai-chatbot-can-reduce-belief-conspiracy-theories

AI will save us all, but only if it’s decentralized — SingularityNET CEO

... Goertzel defined an AGI as “an AI that can do the whole scope of everything that people can do, including the human ability to leap beyond what we’ve been taught.” ...

 “The idea that human beings could take moderately advanced AIs and use them to do nasty things to other human beings out of their own self-interest, this is a very, very, very clear and palpable risk,” he shared. ...

The way to avoid these concerns and ensure that AGI is used for the benefit of all humanity is to decentralize and democratize it, according to Goertzel. That way, it cannot be controlled “by a small number of powerful parties with their own narrow interests at heart.”

“What you need is some way to decentralize all these processes that the AI is running on, and then you need a way to decentralize the data ingestion into all these processors,” he argued. “This is what SingularityNET was designed to provide. […] Singularity lets you take a collection of AI agents and run them on machines which are owned and controlled by no central party.” ...

listen to the full episode here: https://cointelegraph.com/podcasts/the-agenda

See the full article here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ai-can-save-humanity-but-only-if-the-people-control-it-ben-goertzel

The Artificial General Intelligence Presidency Is Coming

PhilNote: The author advocates hobbling China, but otherwise there are good ideas here.

...Public feeling about AI is already negative. In 2023, a Gallup poll found that 21 percent of Americans trusted businesses to use AI responsibly, and only 6 percent were confident that AI would lead to higher numbers of jobs. This public doubt and concern can be neutralized through the development of novel structures that empower the public to discuss and debate AGI, as well as influence its development. The next U.S. president should, therefore, institute an advisory Citizens AI Council to provide public input on AGI policy decisions, and make recommendations on the means by which this technology can be harmoniously introduced. That effort should be matched by a drive to explain the technology and its advantages to the general public through programs like U.S. Senator Mike Rounds’ proposed AI literacy strategy.  ...

See the full story here: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/09/30/artificial-general-intelligence-agi-president/