philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Stars Learn to Love Their AI Doppelgängers

As Julia writes, this is “a case where the experience of famed artists might offer us a peek at our own future." Stars may not live like the rest of us, but by establishing “the contractual language, court decisions and ethical standards” overseeing digital doubles, they may teach us how to defend our own turf in the age of AI.

See the full story here: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/stars-learn-to-love-their-ai-doppelgangers

Toy Trains Lets You Build Your Dream Train Set In VR

Developer Something Random this week announced Toy Trains, a new VR game coming soon to major VR platforms. Described as a “playful track-building VR game,” this nostalgia-inducing experience allows you to craft complex virtual railways and solve open-ended puzzles using your motion controllers. ...

Toy Trains is scheduled to launch in Q4 2023 on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 3 (via App Lab), and PC VR via Steam followed by PlayStation VR2 and Pico headsets at a later date. Those lucky enough to be attending Gamescom 2023 can try the game out for themselves over at Hall 10.2 – Booth E040.

See the full story here: https://vrscout.com/news/toy-trains-lets-you-build-your-dream-train-set-in-vr/

Apple’s Display Team is also exploring the use of ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (fLCoS) display panels for AR/VR Glasses+

PhilNote: Lots of "may" in this speculative report.

Earlier this morning, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple continues to Explore the use of LCoS Displays in Future Devices such as AR Smartglasses, Macs and more." In another patent that we discovered in Europe this morning, we see that Apple is also working in parallel on a similar display technology that they refer to as ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (fLCoS) display panel. Apple's display team have worked on this since 2020. The patent was published in Europe on August 16, 2023. ...

See the full story here: https://www.patentlyapple.com/2023/08/apples-display-team-is-also-exploring-the-use-of-ferroelectric-liquid-crystal-on-silicon-flcos-display-panels-for-arvr-gl.html

‘Don’t Put Your Head in the Sand’: Stars Are Quietly Inking Deals to License Their AI Doubles

In 2008, while working with Will Smith on the set of a film that never ended up getting made, Remington Scott had an epiphany. The visual effects director was watching Smith stand in a photogrammetry booth, with dozens of cameras capturing the actor’s facial features from every possible angle. “Every single major star on that level, they go in and they get scans,” Scott said. Visual effects artists then translate those 2D images into 3D computer-generated models that can later be manipulated for the purposes of the film. Watching Will Smith go through this process led Scott to wonder, “Why doesn’t he own his own scans?” ...

Scott—who has worked with directors including Peter Jackson, Zack Snyder and Robert Zemeckis and has scanned the likes of James Franco, Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins—launched his own “digital human” company, Hyperreal, in 2020. The idea was to give performers an opportunity to create and own the rights to their own digital identities, called Hypermodels, which they could then license to productions themselves for a fee. (Hyperreal takes a cut of that fee as the management platform for those assets.) ...

See the full story here: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/dont-put-your-head-in-the-sand-stars-are-quietly-inking-deals-to-license-their-ai-doubles

AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause

... Copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found.

The opinion stressed, “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement.” ...

There’s been a consistent understanding that human creativity is “at the core of copyrightability, even as that human creativity is channeled through new tools or into new media,” the ruling stated. ...

 “Plaintiff can point to no case in which a court has recognized copyright in a work originating with a non-human,” the order, which granted summary judgment in favor of the copyright office, stated. ...

In March, the copyright office affirmed that most works generated by AI aren’t copyrightable but clarified that AI-assisted materials qualify for protection in certain instances. An application for a work created with the help of AI can support a copyright claim if a human “selected or arranged” it in a “sufficiently creative way that the resulting work constitutes an original work of authorship,” it said.

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ai-works-not-copyrightable-studios-1235570316/

The history of artificial intelligence: Complete AI timeline

... AI can be considered big data's great equalizer in collecting, analyzing, democratizing and monetizing information. The deluge of data we generate daily is essential to training and improving AI systems for tasks such as automating processes more efficiently, producing more reliable predictive outcomes and providing greater network security.

Take a stroll along the AI timeline

The introduction of AI in the 1950s very much paralleled the beginnings of the Atomic Age. Though their evolutionary paths have differed, both technologies are viewed as posing an existential threat to humanity. ...

See the full story here: https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/The-history-of-artificial-intelligence-Complete-AI-timeline

‘This Is an Existential Threat’: Will AI Really Eliminate Actors and Ruin Hollywood? Insiders Sound Off

... The suits in Hollywood are clearly intrigued by AI, as are executives in every industry. About 96% of AI decision-makers at media and entertain­ment companies said they plan to increase their spending on generative AI technology in the next 12 months, according to a survey of 6,000 employees by enterprise search-engine vendor Lucidworks conducted between May and July. They add that they’re not looking to use it to eliminate workers; just 4% of those surveyed said they ex­­pect AI adoption to result in “job displacement.” ...

Forms of artificial intelligence, of course, have existed for decades (think spell-check programs or digital thermostats). What’s new — and, to Bateman and others, extremely alarming — is how rapidly gen AI has advanced to be able to create snippets of film or television that, if you squint, can look like actual humans in scenes produced by human directors. An AI-generated script can read like something written by a professional writer. A tipping point came in November 2022 when software firm OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that can spit out fully formed essays on a range of different topics. ...

“For years, everyone has known AI was coming,” says Jason Vredenburg, an associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology who teaches American film history. “But when ChatGPT came out, everyone was shocked. They realized it was coming faster than anyone thought.” ...

What the industry might need is some kind of truth-in-labeling regulations for generative AI, similar to the way the FDA requires standardized food labeling, says Michael Huppe, CEO of SoundExchange, a nonprofit rights management organization for digital sound recordings. “Maybe you’ll end up paying more for a ‘human-only’ streaming service,” he says. ...

Echoing Russo’s thought experiment, Bateman predicts that rights holders will sooner or later let consumers insert themselves into classic movies — imagine yourself starring in “Citizen Kane.” Or maybe AI generates some kind of derivative work cobbled together from an AI database trained on existing stories and characters trending in your feeds. Either way, in Bateman’s doomsday outlook, the market for human-created entertainment will wither away, replaced by synthetic fare produced at a fraction of the cost.

“There’s no scenario I can think of where this doesn’t happen,” Bateman says. “Generative AI can’t make great films. But it can create a high volume of content and regurgitate sequels.” ...

See the full story here: https://variety.com/2023/digital/features/hollywood-ai-crisis-atificial-intelligence-eliminate-acting-jobs-1235697167/

77 Ultimate AI Cheat Sheets

https://www.facebook.com/groups/aifire.co/permalink/1327430237862282/

The Impact of High-End Accelerometers on Virtual Reality and Gaming Experiences

... High-end accelerometers have the ability to detect even the slightest movements, translating them into digital signals that can be processed and interpreted by VR systems and gaming consoles. This has led to the creation of more responsive and intuitive gaming experiences, where the player’s physical movements are mirrored in the virtual world. For instance, in a VR boxing game, the player’s punches, jabs, and dodges are accurately represented in the game, providing a more engaging and realistic experience. ...

However, the impact of high-end accelerometers on VR and gaming experiences is not without its challenges. The increased complexity of these systems can lead to higher costs, potentially limiting their accessibility to a wider audience. Furthermore, the reliance on physical movements can also raise concerns about user safety, particularly in more intense VR experiences. ...

See the full story here: https://fagenwasanni.com/news/the-impact-of-high-end-accelerometers-on-virtual-reality-and-gaming-experiences/61071/

The World Isn’t Ready for the Next Decade of AI

Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind and Inflection AI, talks about how AI and other technologies will take over everything—and possibly threaten the very structure of the nation-state.

ON THIS WEEK’S episode of Have a Nice Future, Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Mustafa Suleyman, the cofounder of DeepMind and InflectionAI. They discuss his new book, The Coming Wave, which outlines why our systems are not set up to deal with the next great leap in tech. Suleyman explains why it's not crazy to suggest that chatbots could topple governments, and he argues for a better way to assess artificial intelligence.

Listen to the 40 minute podcast or read the transcript here: https://www.wired.com/story/have-a-nice-future-podcast-18/