philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

US university enrolling AI-generated students to participate in lessons and assignments

The project is a way to help the university learn how to make education more accessible to all 

A Michigan university is believed to be the first in the US to enrol artificial intelligence students onto its classes.

The AI students won’t have a physical, robotic form but will be attending classes virtually.

Ferris State associate professor Kasey Thompson said the two virtual students will tune in to lectures, interact in hybrid classes, and complete assignments. 

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Thompson told MLive: “Like any student, our hope is that they continue their educational experience all the way up as far as they can go, through their PhD.

“But we are literally learning as we go, and we’re allowing the two AI students to pick the courses that they’re going to take. ...

See the full story here: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tech/us-artificial-intelligence-enrol-university-students-b1132027.html

The Right Way to Regulate AI

... The United States does not need so many new AI policies. It needs a new kind of policymaking. ...

The problem with reaching for a twentieth-century analogy is that AI simply does not resemble a twentieth-century innovation. ...

Instead of reaching to twentieth-century regulatory frameworks for guidance, policymakers must start with a different first step: asking themselves why they wish to govern AI at all. Drawing back from the task of governing AI is not an option. ...

Technologies that went undergoverned are now hastening democratic decline, intensifying insecurity, and eroding people’s trust in institutions worldwide.

But when tackling AI governance, it is crucial for leaders to consider not only what specific threats they fear from AI but what type of society they want to build. ...

The Biden administration has begun to make moves to apply the same approach to AI. In October 2022, the White House released its Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which was distilled from engagement with representatives of various sectors of American society, including industry, academia, and civil society. The blueprint advanced five propositions: AI systems should be safe and effective. The public should know that their data will remain private. The public should not be subjected to the use of biased algorithms. Consumers should receive notice when an AI system is in use and have the opportunity to consent to using it. And citizens should be able to loop in a human being when AI is used to make a consequential decision about their lives. The document identified specific practices to encode public benefits into policy instruments, including the auditing, assessment, “red teaming,” and monitoring of AI systems on an ongoing basis. ...

If policymakers return to first principles such as those invoked in the AI Bill of Rights when governing AI, they may also recognize that many AI applications are already subject to existing regulatory oversight. ...

It is much less common in the world of policymaking. But NIST’s use of policy versioning will permit an agile approach to the development of standards for AI. NIST also accompanied its framework with a “playbook,” a practical guide to the document that will be updated every six months with new resources and case studies. ...

Democratic leaders must understand that disrupting and outpacing the regulatory process is part of the tech industry’s business model. Anchoring their policymaking process on fundamental democratic principles would give lawmakers and regulators a consistent benchmark against which to consider the impact of AI systems and focus attention on societal benefits, not just the hype cycle of a new product. ...

AI governance need not be a drag on innovation. Ask bankers if unregulated lending by a competitor is good for them. ...

See the full story here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/right-way-regulate-ai-alondra-nelson?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Studios’ Now-or-Never Choice: Sue AI Companies or Score a Major IP Deal

... If they sue, major studios could force AI companies to the bargaining table to get leverage. Most creators who’ve already filed suits have signaled they’re willing to take licensing deals. The Authors Guild is heading that way, with plans in motion to unveil a platform for its members to opt in to the offering of a blanket license. Discussions involve a fee to use works as training data and a prohibition on outputs that borrow too much from existing material. “We have to be proactive because generative AI is here to stay,” says Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the organization, who notes that best-selling author James Patterson helped fund the project. “They need high-quality books. Our position is that there’s nothing wrong with the tech, but it has to be legal and licensed.”

In the meantime, as courts wrestle with novel questions of copyright law, concept artists like Southen are seeing a diminishing market for their services as they’re increasingly being forced to compete with the chatbots they unwillingly helped create.

“Business this year has been absolutely terrible,” Southen says. “I know there were the strikes, but there’s definitely more to it than that.”

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/studios-sue-ai-companies-or-ip-deal-1235785627/

AI Has a Trust Problem. Can Blockchain Help?

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Blockchain can be used to track exactly what data an algorithm was trained on, when, by whom, as well as what other steps were taken to vet and verify that data, said Scott Zoldi, FICO’s chief analytics officer. Companies building AI models typically try to follow that data trail, but using blockchain would make it easier to end up with shared, consistent, trustworthy records, he said. 

Blockchain won’t stop algorithms from going off the rails or exhibiting bias—but it would offer an auditable record that could show why, he said.

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Blockchain isn’t the answer to explainability, or the “black-box” problem in AI models. On its own, it won’t determine why an AI model spit out a particular answer. What it does promise are better records to help answer that question, Zoldi said.

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See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-has-a-trust-problem-can-blockchain-help-ba3b26f7#

What’s next for AI in 2024

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1 Customized chatbots ...

2 Generative AI’s second wave will be video ...

Runway has set up an annual AI film festival that showcases experimental movies made with a range of AI tools. This year’s festival has a $60,000 prize pot, and the 10 best films will be screened in New York and Los Angeles. ...

3 AI-generated election disinformation will be everywhere ...

In Slovakia, deepfakes of a liberal pro-European party leader threatening to raise the price of beer and making jokes about child pornography spread like wildfire during the country’s elections. And in the US, Donald Trump has cheered on a group that uses AI to generate memes with racist and sexist tropes.  ...

4 Robots that multitask ...

See the full article here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/04/1086046/whats-next-for-ai-in-2024/

How to get a job in the age of AI, according to a top LinkedIn exec

... Shapero: The biggest unknown, and probably the biggest change, is that almost every role is going to be rewritten in the context of AI. From engineers to salespeople, marketers, finance professionals to lawyers — everyone’s going to be leveraging AI in some way. And so how does the talent team think about hiring people based on knowledge of leveraging AI? And how do they equip people to learn the new skills that are required?

You could argue it’s the largest skills transformation that we’re likely to go through in our lifetimes. You might even say that one of the most important skills in any job is just going to be understanding how to unlock the power of AI in your day-to-day. And that’s a pretty abrupt evolution of what’s going to be required to be successful. ...

What advice would you give a young person entering a world in which AI is changing so much?

I would say, learn how to use the tools, try them out, and see what they can do. People who are comfortable with these tools — just like people who are comfortable with technology in general — are going to have opportunities.

And as much as there’s going to be demand for technical skills, there’s going to be increased demand for human skills: communication and creativity. Successful schools will be the ones that foster those kinds of learning experiences for people in a way that’s going to be what employers are looking for. ...

See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-03/how-to-get-a-job-in-the-age-of-ai-according-to-a-top-linkedin-exec

Election deepfakes and high-profile bankruptcies: Here’s what AI will bring in 2024

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Regulators will step in, and not everyone will be happy about it. ...

Authenticity will grow more important than ever. ...

The steam engine of innovation will keep chugging along …

… Unless the bubble bursts. ...

See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2024-01-02/ai-predictions-2024-competency-tests-election-ads-bankruptcies

Nobel Prize Winner Cautions on Rush Into STEM After Rise of AI

A Nobel Prize-winning labor market economist has cautioned younger generations against piling into studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, saying “empathetic” and creative skills may thrive in a world dominated by artificial intelligence.

Christopher Pissarides, professor of economics at the London School of Economics, said that workers in certain IT jobs risk sowing their “own seeds of self-destruction“ by advancing AI that will eventually take the same jobs in the future.

While Pissarides is an optimist on AI’s overall impact on the jobs market, ..., jobs requiring more traditional face-to-face skills, such as in hospitality and healthcare, will still dominate the jobs market. ...

See the full story here: https://time.com/6551407/ai-stem-jobs-pissarides/

“A landmark generation”: Introducing Gen Alpha

... The big picture: Enter Generation Alpha, the first entirely online cohort. Its members have grappled with a climate crisis and pandemic — and can spend money more easily at their age than even their savviest close elders. ...

43% of millennial parents say their kids have had a virtual playdate or hung out with friends in virtual spaces, per YPulse.(Not just on Zoom — Minecraft playdates are a thing.) ...

Children and teens have access to payment apps, debit cards and driving services — all made for youth. ...

See the full story here: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/01/gen-alpha-charactertistics-technology-school-climate?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Police investigate ‘rape’ in metaverse after group of men attack girl in virtual reality room

The girl, who is aged under 16, was using a headset to access a VR room when adult men attacked her avatar.

She was not injured given the assault happened within an immersive reality game, but she is said to be psychologically and emotionally traumatised.

Details about the case have reportedly been kept under wraps to protect the child amid concern a prosecution for the online assault is not viable.

It has led to questions over whether police time is being wasted investigating such problems when it has a backlog of real rape cases to deal with.

But home secretary James Cleverly told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "I know it is easy to dismiss this as being not real, but the whole point of these virtual environments is they are incredibly immersive. ...

See the full story here: https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/police-investigate-rape-metaverse/