Robert Tercek and Peter Csathy: When It Comes to Media and AI, Copyright Law Is Not an Open and Shut Case

... Csathy argues that AI’s reliance on copyrighted content necessitates fair compensation for creators. He said the use of AI to generate content raises concerns about the loss of control and the potential devaluation of creative works. ...

Playing devil’s advocate, Tercek laid out some of the defense that Big Tech will use to justify training on copyrighted work as “fair use.”

It’s an interesting argument, and goes like this:

“The AI reads all the books, or looks at all the images, or listening to all the music and then that model begins to build parameters. A big question about this is, is it fair use? Is it okay to look or read or listen? There is no law that prohibits reading a book. There’s no law that says, You can’t learn by looking at a picture.” ...

It’s not replicating any of Van Gogh’s paintings but we have millions of incredibly precise, measurements about his paintings. Those are facts and facts can’t be copyrighted. What we can recreate in LLM is a factual representation of all those different values that go into creating that work.” ...

“What LLMs are doing is transforming those fixed works into something that is participatory, that billions of people can interact with to build new creative things,” he says. ...

See the full story here: https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/ic-ai-copyright-law-robert-tercek-peter-csathy/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Mohammad Hosseini: What will happen to generative AI after November’s election?

... Over the past year and a half, federal agencies, among many others, have used GenAI models such as ChatGPT to generate text, images, audio and video, making GenAI a priority concern for the U.S. government. And while we may assume President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are at opposite ends of the political spectrum on this issue, as they are on practically every issue, their approach to AI has actually been very similar. They have pampered AI developers with significant funding and deregulation, giving them global leverage, credit and visibility. 

While Biden and Trump have expressed concerns about citizens’ privacy, safety and security, the way they have regulated AI shows they’re actually on the developers’ side. ...it is the climate policy of the next president that will affect GenAI developers the most. ...

Last July, the Biden administration announced securing voluntary commitments from seven AI companies — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI — under the guise of underscoring “safety, security and trust.” But in reality, these so-called commitments were more like gifts because their scope is limited to GenAI tools that are overall more powerful than existing ones. ...

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the executive order for GenAI developers is in Section 10.1(f)(i), which discourages federal agencies from “imposing broad general bans or blocks on agency use of generative AI.” This means that even in cases when an oversight agency has reasons to believe that using GenAI is harmful, it cannot ban the use. ...

See the full editorial here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/06/10/opinion-artificial-intelligence-ai-joe-biden-donald-trump-regulations/

Exploring Zero-Knowledge Artificial General Intelligence Within The Context Of DePIN

... DePIN empowers a more democratic future for computing power through a vast global network where everyone can participate in a resource-sharing economy. As a peer-to-peer infrastructure, it unlocks efficient distribution of computing resources and allows users to earn rewards for their contributions. ...

The emergence of DePIN has paved the way for innovators to create cost-effective solutions to the inefficiencies and limitations of the existing critical infrastructure such as transportation, water supply, energy, communication systems, financial services, healthcare, and defense. Most especially, it is set to eliminate centralization and encourage decentralized ownership of these critical services.

As an independent researcher, I find DePIN projects fascinating enough to be studied individually. In this article, we explore Aten Krotos (aka Suraj Venkat) and Arthava’s works on  Zero-knowledge Artificial General Intelligence(ZkAGI), an open-source AI project built on DePIN. Leveraging Zero-Knowledge and DePIN, the duo proposed ZkAGI to tackle the privacy concerns in AI. ...

See the full story here: https://hackernoon.com/exploring-zero-knowledge-artificial-general-intelligence-within-the-context-of-depin

... And it was obvious from day one with Vision Pro that Apple poured everything it had into the headset. It looked nothing like the competition and the experience immediately outstripped anything you could find on Meta Quest and HTC Vice headgear. ...

Even if some ideas seemed ill-advised, I couldn’t shake the impression that this was a revolutionary step in mixed reality, VR, and computing. I felt that way for months, right up until after I finished my Vision Pro review. ...

There was, though, the reality of my daily life. When I wore the headset at work, I’d get looks. Some were intrigued, others smirked and may have been thinking, “Weirdo.” At home, well, I don’t live alone, and some family members thought I was being downright rude when I put on the Vision Pro and shut them out. I started to look for times when no one was home, and I could spatial compute in peace. ...

I know how long and hard Apple worked on Vision Pro, but sometimes it feels as if Apple passed along the price of a decade of development.  ...

What Apple failed to achieve so far in the business market is inspiring consumers to want to do what they did with the iPhone and bring their own tech (BYOT) to work. I haven’t used a company-supplied smartphone in years. My iPhone is my personal and business phone. Vision Pro will succeed in business when workers demand that companies let them bring theirs to work and use them at their desks.

That, of course, won’t happen until Vision Pro’s price drops – and by a lot. ...

Eventually, we’ll remember this first year fondly and know that without it, we would never have arrived at what I expect to be a truly transformative, wearable computing experience.

See the full article here: https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/vision-pro-at-one-i-love-apple-revolutionary-headset-so-why-do-i-hardly-ever-use-it

AI at Wharton

There are some interesting posts and articles at this link. They also have an online lecture series that is on summer hiatus but will start again in the Fall.

People feel more connected to ‘tweezer-like’ bionic tools that don’t resemble human hands

Summary: Some say the next step in human evolution will be the integration of technology with flesh. Now, researchers have used virtual reality to test whether humans can feel embodiment -- the sense that something is part of one's body -- toward prosthetic 'hands' that resemble a pair of tweezers. They report that participants felt an equal degree of embodiment for the tweezer-hands and were also faster and more accurate in completing motor tasks in virtual reality than when they were equipped with a virtual human hand. ...

See the full story here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240606152145.htm

Big Tech Launches Campaign to Defend AI Use

Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition whose members include Amazon, Apple and Meta, is launching a campaign to defend the legality of using copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems.

The group says the campaign, called “Generate and Create” and unveiled on Thursday, will aim to highlight “how artists use generative AI to enhance their creative output” and “showcase how AI lowers barriers for producing art” as part of an initiative to “defend the longstanding legal principle of fair use under copyright law.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/big-tech-lobby-ai-use-1235916540/

Doing Stuff with AI: Opinionated Midyear Edition

Every six months or so, I write a guide to doing stuff with AI. A lot has changed since the last guide, while a few important things have stayed the same. It is time for an update. This is usually a serious endeavor, but, heeding the advice of Allie Miller, I wanted to start with a different entry point into AI: fun.

Experiencing AI through play

I have given talks to thousands of people about AI, and there are lots of things that I can demo that tend to amaze or worry folks, but there is one thing that never fails to delight: making a song.

So, before you do anything else, go to Suno (which you can also access via Microsoft Copilot) or Udio and make a song. Even if you have done it before, the updated models are so much better, that you should try again. Here, for example, is the modern jazz pop rendition of the abstract to Attention is All You Need, the paper that kicked off Large Language Models. It’s surprisingly catchy. Seriously give it 25 seconds, I have been singing the chorus to myself all day. ...

But if you want another playful audio way to experience the same paper, take a listen to the first entry in Google’s Illuminate demo, which turns papers into NPR-style radio interviews. It is worth a few moments of your time to play one to see how realistic it sounds - the little breaths, pauses, and interactions between the virtual hosts all sell the idea. ...

I know this may not seem particularly profound, but “always invite AI to the table” is the principle in my book that people tell me had the biggest impact on them. ...

If you really want to do research, however, a specialized AI model, Perplexity, may be a better choice, as it has a great interface and specialized tools that are optimized for research. ...

Sees video: As the immediate memory, or context window, of AIs grow, they can start to work directly with videos, keeping an entire video in memory at once. Gemini has a startlingly large context window, and I can give it a 30 minute video of a museum walkthrough and ask it to tell me what happens when, and which moments might appeal to kids. A complex task for humans takes less than a minute for AI and suggests why working with video is something that will have large implications. ...

Read the full story here: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/doing-stuff-with-ai-opinionated-midyear

Megan Thee Stallion announces virtual reality concert tour

Megan Thee Stallion just shared some exciting news with her fans.

The “Hot Girl Summer” singer announced Monday that her "Enter Thee Hottieverse" virtual reality concert tour will take place in 10 cities between April and July.

Fans will be able to go to their local movie theater and enjoy the VR concert performance featuring a variety of environments and custom wardrobes. The virtual tour begins April 5-10 in Los Angeles, followed by stops in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and New York City. ...

"A VR Concert by AmazeVR opens up the possibilities for fans to encounter artists in a completely new way, while knocking down all the barriers to entry that have made it hard to access the amazing experiences VR can provide." ...

See the full story here: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/megan-thee-stallion-announces-virtual-reality-concert-tour-83177540

Web3 Cybersecurity Company GoPlus Raises $10M to Build Permissionless Security Layer

...

GoPlus is building a permissionless, modular Web 3 security layer, designed to be integrated with any blockchain network, to help architects enhance user safety and protection from cyber threats.

To supplement the growth of its security layer, GoPlus also plans to introduce a token, which will be used primarily for gas fees and act as an incentive for developers to engage with GoPlus services. ...

See the full short story here: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/06/05/web-3-cybersecurity-company-goplus-raises-10m-to-build-permissionless-security-layer/