... Right now, everyone’s searching for “the iPhone of AI,” but we’re not getting that anytime soon. We might not get it ever, for that matter, because the promise of AI is that it doesn’t require a certain kind of perfected interface — it doesn’t require any interface at all. What we’re going to get instead are the Razr, the Chocolate, the Treo, the Pearl, the N-Gage, and the Sidekick of AI. It’s going to be chaos, and it’s going to be great.
See the full story here; https://www.theverge.com/24117865/ai-gadget-era-humane-rabbit-brilliant-meta
“This is not real audio/video of Drake or Queen Elizabeth II. All video and speech was computer generated to help others learn about math, physics, and engineering,” @onlocklearning writes in the caption for a video of the rapper and the late monarch explaining trigonometry.
And according to the comments on the platform, it appears that these celebrity deepfakes are genuinely helping young viewers understand mathematical theories.
“I learned something in one minute [that] my teacher would have taken a whole class or two to teach us,” a TikTok user comments. ...
“They may pay attention to these for a very short period of time, but the question is how much do they really learn from these? Does this really promote deep learning?”
See the full story here: https://petapixel.com/2024/04/02/a-deepfake-taylor-swift-is-teaching-math-to-kids-on-tiktok/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Researchers from The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology’s ICFO–Institut de Ciències Fotòniques have developed the first ever semi-transparent image sensor.
This sensor comprises an 8×8 array of semi-transparent photodetectors and electrodes disposed on a fully transparent substrate. Each pixel in the array is of size 60 x 140 μm and has an optical transparency of 85-95 percent, according to the study.
These photodetectors capture light while allowing a considerable portion of it to pass through— a necessary trait for applications where transparency is essential, such as in smart displays on AR and VR devices.
Additionally, this sensor sports a design that balances light capture with visibility, making it suitable for applications requiring both sensing capabilities and transparency. ...
See the full story here: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/first-semi-transparent-image-sensor
Big tech has substantial influence over the direction of R&D in the US. According to the National Science Foundation and the Congressional Research Service, US business R&D spending dwarfs domestic Federal or state government spending on research and development. ...
Of course, business R&D spending focuses mainly on development–76 percent versus 14 percent on applied research and seven percent on basic research. ...
Private sector R&D is quite concentrated in a handful of companies with dominant market shares and capitalizations. From a tech perspective, these companies might claim to be on the bleeding edge of innovation, but are all protecting cash cow legacy stacks and a legacy architecture mindset. The innovations they’re promoting in any given year are the bright and shiny objects, the VR goggles, the smart watches, the cars and the rockets. Meanwhile, what could be substantive improvement in infrastructure receives a fraction of their investment. Public sector R&D hasn’t been filling in these gaps. ...
I hope the US, which has seemed to be relatively leaderless on the R&D front over the past decade, can emulate more visionary European efforts like this one from the Swiss in the near future.
See the full story here: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/rd-misdirection-and-the-circuitous-us-path-to-artificial-general-intelligence/
Talent agency WME has inked a partnership with Loti, a Seattle-based firm that specializes in software used to flag unauthorized content posted on the internet that includes clients’ likenesses. The company, which has 25 employees, then quickly sends requests to online platforms to have those infringing photos and videos removed.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. ...
Loti co-founder Luke Arrigoni launched the startup about a year and a half ago. He previously ran an artificial intelligence firm called Arricor AI and before that was a data scientist at Creative Artists Agency, WME’s main rival.
Arrigoni said Loti began working with WME about four or five months ago. WME clients give Loti a few photos of themselves from different angles. They also record short audio clips that are then used to help identify unauthorized content. Loti’s software searches the web and reports back to the clients about these unauthorized images and sends takedown requests to the platforms.
“There’s this kind of growing feeling that this is an impossible problem,” Arrigoni said. “There’s this almost adage now where people say, ‘Once it’s on the internet, it’s on the internet forever.’ Our whole company dispels that myth.” ...
See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-04-02/wme-loti-deepfakes-artificial-intelligence
Apple researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can understand ambiguous references to on-screen entities as well as conversational and background context, enabling more natural interactions with voice assistants, according to a paper published on Friday.
The system, called ReALM (Reference Resolution As Language Modeling), leverages large language models to convert the complex task of reference resolution — including understanding references to visual elements on a screen — into a pure language modeling problem. This allows ReALM to achieve substantial performance gains compared to existing methods. ...
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/ai/apple-researchers-develop-ai-that-can-see-and-understand-screen-context/
On Tuesday, the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA) announced an open letter critical of AI signed by over 200 musical artists, including Pearl Jam, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, and the estate of Frank Sinatra. In the letter, the artists call on AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services to stop using AI to "infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists." A tweet from the ARA added that AI poses an "existential threat" to their art. ...
In considering AI's potential impact on music, it's instructive to remember historical instances where tech innovations initially sparked concern among artists. For instance, the introduction of synthesizers in the 1960s and 1970s and the advent of digital sampling in the 1980s both faced scrutiny and fear from parts of the music community, but the music industry eventually adjusted.
While we've seen fear of the unknown related to AI going around quite a bit for the past year, it's possible that AI tools will be integrated into the music production process like any other music production tool or technique that came before. It's also possible that even if that kind of integration comes to pass, some artists will still get hurt along the way—and the ARA wants to speak out about it before the technology progresses further. ...
See the full story here: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/billie-eilish-pearl-jam-200-artists-say-ai-poses-existential-threat-to-their-livelihoods/?mc_cid=913213710c&mc_eid=116e9f337b
... Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.
Instead, Amazon is moving towards Dash Carts, a scanner and screen that’s embedded in your shopping cart, allowing you to checkout as you shop. These offer a more reliable solution than Just Walk Out. Amazon Fresh stores will also feature self check out counters from now on, for people who aren’t Amazon members. ...
See the full story here: https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
... Perhaps the most striking findings in this year’s report relate to the changing nature of social media, partly characterised by declining engagement with traditional networks such as Facebook and the rise of TikTok and a range of other video-led networks. Yet despite this growing fragmentation of channels, and despite evidence that public disquiet about misinformation and algorithms is at near record highs, our dependence on these intermediaries continues to grow. Our data show, more clearly than ever, how this shift is strongly influenced by habits of the youngest generations, who have grown up with social media and nowadays often pay more attention to influencers or celebrities than they do to journalists, even when it comes to news. ...
Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news. It also faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. ...
Despite hopes that the internet could widen democratic debate, we find fewer people are now participating in online news than in the recent past. Aggregated across markets, only around a fifth (22%) are now active participators, with around half (47%) not participating in news at all. In the UK and United States, the proportion of active participators have fallen by more than 10 percentage points since 2016. Across countries we find that this group tends to be male, better educated, and more partisan in their political views. ...
Meanwhile, the proportion of news consumers who say they avoid news, often or sometimes, remains close to all-time highs at 36% across markets. We find that this group splits between (a) those who are trying to periodically avoid all sources of news and (b) those that are trying to specifically restrict their news usage at particular times or for certain topics. News avoiders are more likely to say they are interested in positive or solutions-based journalism and less interested in the big stories of the day. ...
News podcasting continues to resonate with educated and younger audiences but remains a minority activity overall. Around a third (34%) access a podcast monthly, with 12% accessing a show relating to news and current affairs. Our research finds that deep dive podcasts, inspired by The Daily from the New York Times, along with extended chat shows, such as The Joe Rogan Experience, are the most widely consumed across markets. We also identify the growing popularity of video-led or hybrid news podcasts. ...
See the full story here: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/dnr-executive-summary
... The overall goal of Europa, as with ETC’s previous projects, is to experiment with and validate new cinematic techniques while exposing students to a professional environment in preparation for careers in film and television. For this project, the latest technologies to be tested included metadata, artificial intelligence in various forms and a new virtual production stage facility at Sony Pictures Studios, operated by Pixomondo. ...
The production employed cloud-first principles, allowing for global collaboration across different time zones and regions, including the US, Australia, New Zealand, India, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Canada. ...
Sony is one of Europa’s major supporters, providing Stage 7, its state-of-the-art virtual production volume at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. The stage features Sony Crystal LED B-series 1.5mm panels in a classic C-shape with a ceiling and Sony’s proprietary processors. Sony also loaned VENICE 2 cameras with a custom Virtual Production Tool Set to enhance their use in a virtual production environment. Virtual VENICE, Sony’s Camera and Display Plugin for Unreal Engine, is a unique tool that visualizes undesirable moiré artifacts before they can potentially ruin a shot, a key concern in virtual production along with the ability to preview wall content on specific optics and a suite of Color Calibrator tools geared to the VENICE’s sensor. ...
Artificial Intelligence for Virtual Production
Another important area of exploration for Europa is artificial intelligence and how it can enhance virtual production workflows. One of the critical challenges for VP is content creation. To successfully capture in-camera visual effects, the virtual environment displayed on the LED volume must be camera-ready before production commences. This is inverted to the more traditional visual effects workflow, where a significant portion of the frame is captured as a proxy via a greenscreen or other placeholder. Then, the visual effects are completed during a more extended post-production period.
Creating this content can be a bottleneck because virtual production works best with photorealistic backgrounds. Artificial intelligence offers a potentially powerful shortcut by creating custom visuals in minutes rather than weeks or months. Europa used Cuebric, an AI image generator designed for virtual production backgrounds on a test shot, to explore its viability as a tool. Addy Ghani, vice president of virtual production at Disguise, whose show-running software is tightly integrated with Cuebric, says, “Cuebric enables creators to go from concept to the wall within a matter of minutes.” ...
It’s also helpful to distinguish between generative AI tools such as Cuebric and utility AI tools, which are much more commonplace in production workflows. Utility tools help to automatically apply metadata, identify elements within captured footage, maintain color balance and automate quality control. Europa aimed to leverage these existing utility AI while also exploring the more cutting-edge flavors of generative AI. ...
See the full story here: https://virtualproducer.io
