Together, with SFER IK’s Creative Director Marcello Dantas, Roth has launched The SFER IK Award, a new award for artists to create a work using artificial intelligence. The winning artist will receive $100,000 USD to develop their AI-integrated artwork, as well as a two-month residency with access to on-site resources at AZULIK Uh May—a sprawling creative campus with several workshops, local artisans, and a suite of new digital facilities called FabLab. Art residencies will also be offered to second- and third-prize winners. ...
The award is open to international artists from all disciplines to create an AI-integrated work addressing themes of biodiversity, interspecies collaboration, ancestral knowledge, and the harmonious integration of science, technology, and nature. The purpose of the open call is to create an opportunity for artists to generate new and daring artworks that will expand the boundaries of technology and their artistic practices within the natural environment of the Mayan jungle. The winning artwork will ultimately be showcased at SFER IK’s upcoming open-air museum in Tulum, close to the Jardín de la Esperanza (Garden of Hope), an artistic natural space currently under development by artist Cristina Ochoa that will be a sanctuary of biodiversity and ancestral memory. ...
By inviting artists to create their work in the middle of the jungle, we hope they will be inspired and transformed by the environment and have the chance to intervene in the landscape. ...
3.4. What does it mean that provenance data is cryptographically bound to the asset?
The provenance data and the asset are the two parts of the same puzzle - a unique puzzle. The possibility of any other pieces ever matching, either by coincidence or by purposeful creation, is so low that it would be practically impossible. This is known as a hard binding.
This inability to always be able to verify the provenance of an ingredient is not problematic, because the trust of the asset remains in the signer of the asset’s C2PA Manifest. However, having the ingredient’s C2PA Manifest included in the asset’s C2PA Manifest Store, enables the verification of the ingredient’s assertions (which are important trust signals), even if its hard bindings cannot be validated.
3.5. Use of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML)
3.5.1. How does C2PA address the use of AI/ML in the creation and editing of assets?
Each action that is performed on an asset is recorded in the asset’s C2PA Manifest. These actions can be performed by a human or by an AI/ML system. When an action was performed by an AI/ML system, it is clearly identified as such through it’s digitalSourceType field. ...
Pico to cut jobs with 'hundreds' of staff to be affected-sources
ByteDance has pared back efforts to develop Pico brand-sources
Multiple senior managers have left Pico this year-source
... However, VR demand has sputtered this year. Augmented reality (AR) and VR headset shipments have fallen for the last four consecutive quarters, according to data from research firm IDC ended June 30, with volumes down 44.6% in the second quarter year-on-year.
Since the acquisition, Pico has been aggressively expanding both inside and outside China. In China, it has become the leading VR producer by total shipments and globally it trails only Meta. ...
Natasha Sandmeier: I am an architect and educator based in Los Angeles, where I lead the postgraduate Entertainment Studio at UCLA AUD. At the Entertainment Studio, we work predominantly in the visualizationspace, thinking about ways to build stories centering on the built environment, how we live in the world, and how it might transform in the imminent near future of the next quarter century. Our speculations intentionally stay in the near present or near future, so that we don’t stray too far into the fanciful or unattainable. For example, 25 years ago from now was 1998, and although the world was quite different then, it wasn’t alien to where we are today.
Beyond the Entertainment Studio, I recently became the Executive Director of the A+D Museum here in Los Angeles, where we are working to advance the next generation of museum programming and community building. During the pandemic, the museum transitioned to a virtual programming format, so our most present mission is guiding our re-entry into the physical museum world, which we have been doing over the past few months. ...
Recently, I was studying the roles and responsibilities of architects in designing cities and suburbs, including Ellen Dunham-Jones’ observation that architects design only a small percentage of suburban development. Massive developments are largely developer-led with in-house designers and architecture teams. If we as a profession can offer more affordable services by outsourcing repetitive work, there is hope that we can capture some of the growth opportunities in areas currently dominated by developers. ...
To conclude, I wanted to switch focus from academia and ask about the A+D Museum, of which you have recently become the Executive Director. Do you expect computation and artificial intelligence to manifest in some way across the museum’s future program?
It undoubtedly will. The question of how technology is changing the face of architecture and media is a relevant question for the museum. For example, October sees us host a conversation with Paul Debevec, the Chief Research Officer of Eyeline Studios – Powered by Netflix, which dwells on themes of computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, and their connection to visual, virtual, and animated media.
For us, the question of how forces such as technology can change and give opportunities to the profession is more productive than thinking about ways they can destroy the profession. In the media, it is all about the ‘death of labor.’ That is not to say jobs in society will be immune to disruption, but if architects have one skill, it is agility. Now is a moment to capitalize on that agility.
... Existing research on AI technology adoption can help support this prediction. Dr. George Dagliyan uncovered through his research during the Executive Doctorate of Business Administration program at Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School, that there are both facilitators and inhibitors of AI adoption:
Facilitators of AI adoption:
Convenience,
Customization
Efficiency
Inhibitors of AI adoption:
Uncertainty
Privacy risk
Loss of control risk
For consumers, AI applications that disproportionally facilitate convenience, customization, and efficiency will become prevalent and second nature, such as recommender systems. Social media and streaming platforms use AI algorithms to analyze clicks and viewing habits and preferences to suggest relevant content, making search convenient and personalized, and saving consumers lots of effort and time browsing through countless options. There is a loss of privacy because the algorithms mine consumer demographics and past choices, but as the massive adoption so far shows, facilitators more than compensate for this loss. ...
For consumers, Dagliyan’s study also uncovered that trust in a brand can enhance facilitators and dim inhibitors. ...
... The scientists discovered that, like us, rats can think about places and objects that aren’t immediately in front of them – by using their imaginations.
The rodents were even found in tests to be able to use their minds to move objects in their virtual realities – much like Jedis in the Star Wars franchise.
The innovative research serves as proof that the minds of rats – and most likely other animals, too – harbor imaginations like ours. ...
This ability to imagine locations elsewhere from our current positions is crucial to recalling past events and imagining future possible scenarios. ...
The system uses a brain-machine interface – or BMI – which provides a direct connection between brain activity and an external device.
This BMI produces a connection between the electrical activity in the rat’s hippocampus – a complex brain structure embedded deep into the temporal lobe – and its position in a 360-degree virtual reality arena. ...
The researcher’s BMI allows them to test whether a rat can activate hippocampal activity to merely think about a location in the arena without physically going there – essentially, to assess whether the animal is able to imagine going to the location. ...
... Most peculiarly, Kitty will be making her debut on the virtual universe game, Roblox, where fans can interact with her at the 'My Hello Kitty Cafe'. A custom photo booth, mini-games, avatars, costumes, and emotes will be available with a distinct "Y2K feel," according to PR Newswire. ...
... the self-balancing two-wheeled evoBOT can already do up to 60 km/h (37 mph) on its extendable legs, lifting up to 65 kg (143 lb) in its self-locking lifting arms – that's more than three times the lifting work, at up to 10 times the speed. ...
It's relatively compact, lightweight at around 40 kg (88 lb), and efficient, running for up to 8 hours on a battery charge. If there's enough grip, Fraunhofer says it can "comfortably" handle slopes up to a ridiculous 45 degrees, even on uneven ground, and it zips around with surprising agility and speed, like the love child of the TARS robot from Interstellar and a common Segway. If it falls over for some reason, it can quickly and easily get back up. ...
Chinese technology giant Alibaba (9988.HK) said on Tuesday it has updated its artificial intelligence (AI) model Tongyi Qianwen and released a suite of industry-specific AI models amid an intensifying AI race among tech companies. ...
It also said it has launched eight AI models for the entertainment, finance, healthcare and legal industries.
The upgrade comes just six months after the model's initial release, reflecting the pace at which tech companies are racing to control China's nascent and quickly expanding AI market. ...
