How to talk about AI (even if you don’t know much about AI)
Here are seven things to pay attention to when talking about AI.
1. Don’t worry about sounding dumb ... And “prompt engineers” are just people who know how to talk to the AI to get what they want. ...
2. Be specific about what kind of AI you’re talking about ... are you talking about natural-language processing and language models, or computer vision? Or different applications, such as chatbots or cancer detection? If you aren’t sure, here are some good definitions of various practical applications of artificial intelligence.
3. Keep it real ... discussions about AI are usually better served by being pragmatic and focusing on the actual, not the what-ifs, Vincent adds. ...
4. Adjust your expectations ...It’s important to remember that language models aren’t search engines that are built to find and give the “right” answers, and they don’t have infinite knowledge. ...
5. Don’t anthropomorphize ... “Don’t give it a [gendered] pronoun, [or] say that it can feel, think, believe, et cetera.” Doing this helps feed into the misconception that AI systems are more capable and sentient than they are. ...
6. It’s all about power ... key to understanding who can afford to get an advanced degree in computer science and who is in the room during the AI model design process,” Johnson says. ... “Sometimes the conversation around AI is less about the technology and more about the people.” ...
7. Please, for the love of God, no robots ... “Remember that AI is basically computer programming by humans—combining big data sets with lots of compute power and intelligent algorithms,” says Sharon Goldman, a senior writer at VentureBeat. ...
See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/05/30/1073680/how-to-talk-about-ai-even-if-you-dont-know-much-about-ai/
The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that play nothing on purpose
... In a way, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black screen in HD!” as a perfect microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is part entertainment platform, part information library… and part tools repository. ...
I even understand now why a seven-day-long video, which is just a timer counting down 168 hours, has 3.7 million views. One commenter summed it up thusly, “This is the timer you need when you need to stay active on your computer while working from home. No one will notice you were gone because this video keeps playing.” As long as the computer’s awake, I can be wherever I want.
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/28/23738957/youtube-videos-24-hours-blank-screen?mc_cid=fe632d05ac&mc_eid=cf24d7da5b
Reality Is Broken. We Have AI Photos to Blame.
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Astronaut, fighter pilot, pediatrician. I turned myself into all of them in under a minute each. The AI-generated images did have noticeable issues: The uniforms were strange and had odd lettering, the stethoscope seemed to be cut in half and the backgrounds were warped and blurry. Yet the final images are fun, and the quality will only get better.
I used the free beta Firefly web suite, which just requires an Adobe account. The Firefly generative-fill tool is also available in the Photoshop beta app.
You don’t have to go to extremes when using AI to recognize, swap and remove objects in a photo. In FaceApp, for iOS and Android, I was able to change my frown to a smile—with the right amount of teeth! I was also able to add glasses and change my hair color. Some said it looked completely real, others who know me well figured something was up. “Your teeth look too perfect.” Invisalign, here I come. ...
Firefly adds a “content credential,”digital information baked into the file, that says the image was manipulated with AI. Adobe is pushing to get news, tech and social-media platforms to use this open-source standard so we can all understand where the images we see came from. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/reality-is-broken-we-have-ai-photos-to-blame-de00b23?page=1
Watch video here: https://m.wsj.net/video/20230526/ea3f97f6-7344-4679-97bf-5a712253e1c6/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8#t=0
Just what is phygital art, and why is Dubai going big on it?
“Phygital art” may not be the most elegant phrase in the English language, but it is generating a buzz in certain circles.
“Phygital” is a portmanteau of physical and digital – describing artworks that bring together the best of both worlds to create something entirely new. ...
Dubai is seemingly determined to put this artform on the map.
The Art Dubai international fair has a digital component exploring new media and technology trends, including phygital works. ...
CNN asked some of Dubai’s most progressive art institutions why the city is among the vanguard of this innovative format, and whether phygital is a significant new movement in art, or just an unwelcome addition to our vocabulary. ...
See the full article here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/29/middleeast/dubai-phygital-art-spc-intl/index.html
Beyond Freud: Acquiring New Body Parts in Virtual Reality
- Avatars in VR are not limited by the biological constraints of the human body.
- In one study, participants reported they could move and even feel an extra arm fabricated in VR as their own.
- As technology advances, avatars may be endowed with multiple and/or unique sex organs.
See the full article here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-future-of-intimacy/202305/beyond-freud-acquiring-new-body-parts-in-virtual-reality
The movie studios should be worried about AI
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Today, generative AI is in its infancy. The output is generally mediocre and easy to dismiss. But we dismiss it at our peril because today’s output is the worst that it will ever be. Each week it gets a little bit better. The pace of improvement is relentless.
The proverbial elephant outside the room at the WGA-AMPTP negotiations is not really a single big creature, it is more like a million mice. Together, they add up to a titanic unstoppable force. ...
No contract will shield any part of the motion picture business from the inexorably accelerating rate of AI-fueled innovation.
Consider the following from the past three weeks:
- GenAI text-to-animation
- GenAI photo-to-animation
GenAI music - GenAI recording artists
GenAI podcasts - GenAI actors
- GenAI humans
- GenAI advertising from Google and Meta
- AI movie studios that generate hyperpersonalized content on demand
These concepts range from hypothetical to awkward to amazing. Please resist the impulse to dismiss them. Remain seated with your seatbelt fastened and watch this space. Turbulence is expected. ...
A personal anecdote on a human scale. A few weeks ago, I was a judge in a one-day movie hackathon held at the University of Nebraska’s Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Art.
The students began working at 9 AM on a Saturday morning with no more than instructions to generate a script for a 3-minute film using ChatGPT. Next, they generated images to accompany their scripts, using tools like Midjourney. Then they used other AI tools to animate the characters, render motion video sequences, generate character voices with dialog and crank out soundtracks. By the 6 PM deadline, seven teams had submitted 3-minute films, complete with music and titles. Almost 100% of these films were generated by artificial intelligence.
The films weren’t great. They were student films, after all. But they were complete, coherent linear narratives, all original and generated by AI. ...
When they graduate, these Carson Center students will be equipped with two superpowers that neither the WGA members nor the AMPTP seem to possess: fluencyand agency in the technological vernacular that will redefine video entertainment forever. ...
See the full essay by Rob Tercek here: https://tercek.substack.com/p/the-movie-studios-should-be-worried?r=qs5c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&fbclid=IwAR1eqgYDQXiOO1WVyWSE4VmQFLJ8SpkzlMUuvUt2aPaHWqV7d9rZVkaugNY
Dreamwaves: augmented reality with virtual 3D-sound to help guide the blind
● In Vienna, Austria, a start-up created by a Portuguese entrepreneur has developed an augmented-reality audio technology, which in combination with a map-based guidance system, enables users to follow a route marked by audio signals.
● Enhanced by computer vision, the software directs users to safe obstacle-free spaces, and recognizes street signs and pedestrian crossings.
● Dreamwaves has also signed a partnership with a traffic signal management company to enable users with disabilities to request priority to cross at intersections.
See the full story here: https://hellofuture.orange.com/en/dreamwaves-augmented-reality-with-virtual-3d-sound-to-help-guide-the-blind/
I ordered a bubble tea by drone in Shenzhen
... I found that the reality of drone delivery is still far from ideal, and people may be turned away by the steep learning curve. But at the same time, it was an exciting experience—the prospect of routine drone delivery feels more realistic than it’s ever been.
Meituan currently operates more than a hundred drones from five delivery hubs (or launchpads) in the city. Together, they completed over 100,000 orders in 2022. While the platform itself can deliver basically anything, from dinner to medicine to fresh flowers to electronic devices, the drones are mostly used for food and drinks. ...
... the drones never run into traffic—it’s easier to precisely control the time it takes for the meal to be delivered. The drones usually arrive within seconds of the estimated time. ...
Indeed, at exactly the time that the app predicted, the drone came and landed on the kiosk. I typed in my phone number on a screen, and after what sounded like robotic arms moving, a door lifted up, allowing me to retrieve a cardboard box. Inside was my order: an iced orange black tea, sealed in an insulating bag. My drink hadn’t spilled, and it was still cold. And I had finally accomplished my goal of getting a drone delivery in Shenzhen.
Shelly Palmer – Think About This
... At its annual Build conference, Microsoft announced upcoming features for its Bing Image Creator and Designer, which will allow consumers to verify whether content was AI-created.
This isn't as simple as slapping on a visible watermark. The new system uses cryptographic methods to sign AI-generated content with metadata about its origin, but there's a hitch; to read this signature, platforms will need to adopt the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) interoperable specification, a standard developed with input from industry heavyweights including Adobe, Arm, Intel, and Truepic.
Microsoft's move aligns with broader industry trends. As generative AI takes hold, other companies are also adopting mechanisms to track media provenance. ...
See the full story here at Shelly's Blog: https://www.shellypalmer.com/?mc_cid=6e19ef5ab9&mc_eid=f55a714a2f
Cannes Diary: Will Artificial Intelligence “Democratize Creativity” or Lead to Certain Doom?
... The panelists had more technologies for them to try. Bulakh’s company re-created James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader voice as it sounded in 1977 for the 2022 Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Vince Lombardi’s voice for a 2021 NFL ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Bulakh drew a distinction between Respeecher’s work and AI that is created to manipulate, otherwise known as deepfakes. “We don’t allow you to re-create someone’s voice without permission, and we as a company are pushing for this as a best practice worldwide,” Bulakh said. She also spoke about how productions already use Respeecher’s tools as a form of insurance when actors can’t use their voices, and about how actors could potentially grow their revenue streams using AI. ...
One of the panel buzz phrases was “hyper-personalized IP,” meaning that we’ll all create our own individual entertainment using AI tools. Saar shared a video from a company he is advising, in which a child’s drawings came to life and surrounded her on video screens. “The characters in the future will be created by the kids themselves,” he says. Avoyan said the line between creator and audience will narrow in such a way that we will all just be making our own movies. “You don’t even need a distribution house,” he said. ...
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