World’s first ‘retina resolution’ holograms have arrived, startup claims
UK startup VividQ claims to have created the first-ever holograms with a “retina resolution.”
The milestone means holography can now match the resolution and real-life focus cues expected by the human eye, according to VividQ. The result is a “more natural viewing experience than ever before,” the company said. It now plans to deploy the tech in next-generation VR headsets. ...
VividQ projects the computer-generated images through high-performance 4K display hardware. Consequently, 3D holographic objects can be placed at any distance within a person’s focal range. Users can then naturally shift focus between the objects. ...
To showcase the benefits, VividQ has displayed the retina resolution holograms with a high-performance LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) display from JVCKenwood (JKC), a Japanese electronics firm. The two companies are now collaborating to commercialise the tech. ...
See the full story here: https://thenextweb.com/news/vividq-first-retina-resolution-holograms
Disney unveils ‘HoloTile’ floor technology for omnidirectional VR experiences
Walt Disney Imagineering has unveiled the ‘HoloTile’ floor for omnidirectional VR experiences, created by Disney Research fellow Lanny Smoot.
The new technology was revealed as Smoot, a member of Walt Disney Imagineering’s research and development (R&D) division, is being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. ...
In a new Disney Parks video, Smoot explains: “It will automatically do whatever it needs to have me stay on the floor. What’s amazing about this is multiple people can be on it and all walking independently. They can walk in virtual reality and so many other things.” ...
See the full story here: https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/disney-imaginnering-holotile-floor-lanny-smoot/?fbclid=IwAR3J31262fMA9NN7amfwmUajeVrM4U1qwerUl0zxmBrhFwQP1X6wtita-hQ
Meet qd.pi (“Cutie Pie”), will.i.am’s AI Co-Host of His AI-Themed SiriusXM Show (Exclusive)
'Will.i.am Presents the FYI Show' will debut on Jan. 25, and the musician will chat about topics like music, pop culture and technology with his artificial intelligence co-host, the first of its kind on SiriusXM. ...
The interactive show is powered by will.i.am’s FYI app, an AI-powered communication and creative collaboration tool he launched last year. ...
See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/will-i-am-ai-co-host-siriusxm-show-1235788455/
CES: Session Details the Impact and Future of AI Technology
By Phil Lelyveld
January 10, 2024
Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Stanford professor and co-director of Stanford HAI (Human-Centered AI), and Andrew Ng, venture capitalist and managing general partner at Palo Alto-based AI Fund discussed the current state and expected near-term developments in artificial intelligence. As a general purpose technology, AI development will both deepen, as private sector LLMs are developed for industry-specific needs, and broaden, as open source public sector LLMs emerge to address broad societal problems. Expect exciting advances in image models — what Li calls “pixel space.” When implementing AI, think about teams rather than individuals, and think about tasks rather than jobs.
Rajeev Chand, partner and head of research at Wing Venture Capital in Palo Alto, moderated the discussion.
From left to right: Rajeev Chand, Dr. Fee-Fei Li, Andrew Ng
Will the Current AI Hype Cycle Lead to Another AI Winter?
Ng responded that because AI is a general purpose technology, like electricity, it has many use cases and will continue to grow. Li added that media coverage will go in waves, but this is a “deepened horizontal technology” that is a true transformative force in the next digital revolution. It is changing the very fabric of our societal, political and economic landscape.
Predictions for the Near Future
We are at the verge of exciting advances in pixel space, Li suggested — a shift from large language models to image models. Ng added that this is a shift in both creating images and analyzing images for any situation where you have a camera (example: for self-driving cars).
Public sector AI, or open source AI, will be better resourced and develop alongside of private sector AI, said Li. Open source LLMs will reach the level of closed LLMs, but the development of the two will diverge because they will be developed with very different data sources. The closed source LLMs will deepen with industry-specific knowledge, while the open source LLMs will broaden as they address wider societal matters.
Autonomous agents that can plan and execute a sequence of actions in response to a request are barely working now, but Ng expects significant advances in the near future. Li respectfully requested changing the language from autonomous agent to assistive agent. As the tech rolls out, long-tail results matter and human intervention is required to catch errors such as AI hallucinations. Part of the work can be autonomous, but part of the work must be collaborative with humans.
Human-Centered AI (HAI): Running AI on your laptop is possible, even though it is not as powerful as a full LLM. Ng believes that manufacturers will market laptops powerful enough to run AI locally, and that will trigger another wave of sales as companies and consumers upgrade.
Guidelines for Implementing AI
Li stressed the importance of distinguishing between replacing jobs and replacing tasks. For example, a nurse’s 8-hour shift involves hundreds of tasks, she said, and some of them can be AI-assisted.
Li described the levels of the implementation problem. There is understanding of the data versus the decision-making versus the intention. We are getting very good at understanding patterns in the data. The second, decision-making, is much more nuanced. We are just scratching the surface in AI’s understanding of intention.
Look at ‘team’ rather than the ‘individual,’ and look at the ‘task’ rather than the ‘job,’ Ng recommended. Assess what can be augmented by AI with a clear ROI (return on investment). He stressed that the highest ROI task is often not obvious.
It may be tempting to let AI read an X-ray instead of a radiologist, but the highest ROI for AI implementation may be gathering patient data. He has seen that it is often niche tasks specific to an industry rather than an obvious general tasks that benefit most from AI implementation.
Another way to assess where AI adds value is to look where you have the most good-quality data, said Li. If you can discern repeatable patterns in the data, then the patterns can be actionable.
Video of the 40-minute panel — “Great Minds, Bold Visions: What’s Next for AI?” — is available on the CES site.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-session-details-the-impact-and-future-of-ai-technology/
CES: VW Press Event Emphasizes a Future Transformed by AI
By Phil Lelyveld
January 9, 2024
Volkswagen’s CES press conference on Monday gave us a window into what we expect to see during this week’s CES 2024. The presentation centered entirely around artificial intelligence. VW has partnered with Cerence to speed the integration of AI tech into their vehicles’ in-cabin experience. The implementation touches on combining AI with spatial web capabilities. And VW has worked to make the in-car experience seamlessly compatible with AI-enhanced in-home and mobile device experiences that consumers are embracing. Not once during the presentation did they mention anything about car design or performance other than how it relates to AI implementation.
VW will be adding ChatGPT to the voice control system in all of its new models, including internal combustion engine models. Their pitch is two-fold: first, democratizing technology is in VW’s DNA — and second, AI is relevant to their customers, who expect intuitive experiences and human-like interactions in their cars similar to the ones in their homes and on their phones.
Because human language is very complex, VW has partnered with Cerence, which specializes in automotive AI integration. Chat Pro, Cerence’s implementation of AI with the existing VW IDA voice assistant, seamlessly responds to questions, routes car-specific voice commands, and allows VW to feed the system with customized information. It is integrated into the infotainment, navigation and climate control systems.
The live demo covered a number of areas. When the person sitting in the front passenger seat said “Hello IDA. Turn on the temperature to 74 degrees,” IDA responded with “All right. I’m setting the temperature in the right front area to 74.0 degrees.” Cerence audio AI detected the location of the speaker and provide an appropriate location-specific response. Think of this as the pairing of AI with spatial audio, which will evolve over time to spatial web implementations.
In another situation, you can tell IDA that you need medicine, or you want to buy a phone charger, and it will respond with a list of and map to nearby stores that sell the item.
Finally, they demonstrated in-car natural language search and voice response of any general knowledge query by asking it to explain a student’s homework assignment. Cerence CTO Iqbal Arshad said the system is “safe, secure, and instant.” Only general knowledge questions will be routed up to the LLM, he noted. Everything else will be processed in-car for low latency.
The AI assistant will be offered in Europe in the Golf, Passat, Tiguan, ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.7 starting second quarter 2024. They have not yet decided when to make it available in the US market.
The longterm goal, Cerence CEO Stefan Ortmanns explained, is to work with VW to evolve the system from an in-car assistant to a human-like companion.
They closed the event by asking IDA to provide closing remarks, which was effectively a general demo of ChatGPT and text-to-voice rather than anything related to VW, thereby reinforcing the idea that this year AI will be the star of CES.
The Volkswagen Newsroom offers details on its integration of ChatGPT. The 20-minute CES presentation is available on YouTube.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-vw-press-event-emphasizes-a-future-transformed-by-ai/