Technology

Audiences believe AI will help podcast producers improve their craft, resulting in a better, more holistic listening experience, judging by a new study by Acast. The surprising thing is “just how open listeners are to AI infiltrating nearly every aspect of their current listening experience and for the technology to mold new ways for them to engage with the medium,” says Tommy Walters, director of insights at Acast.

Source: Publishers Daily: Podcast Audiences Think AI Will Improve The Experience

Several large news and magazine publishers are discussing the formation of a new coalition to address the impact of artificial intelligence on the industry, according to people familiar with the matter. A specific agenda hasn’t been decided, and some publishers haven’t yet committed to participating, the people said. While publishers agree that they need to take steps to protect their business from AI’s rise, priorities at different companies often vary.

Source: WSJ News Exclusive | Big News Publishers Look to Team Up to Address Impact of AI

The head investor of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund worries more about AI affecting the country’s portfolio than his own collection of paintings. “Hey, if it creates better art that’s fantastic,” says the Norwegian philanthropist, art historian and boss of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund. “If you create something which is even more aesthetically pleasing, what’s wrong about that?”

Source: ‘If artificial intelligence creates better art, what’s wrong with that?’ Top Norwegian investor and art collector Nicolai Tangen

The boss of British industry body UK Music, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, has set out his views on what AI technologies mean for music. It’s a blend of welcoming the potential of ‘assistive’ AI tech for musicians, while outlining concerns about deepfakes and unlicensed training. There is a new phrase though. “Music laundering – a process where you could steal someone’s work, feed it into an AI, and then generate clean, ‘new’ music, just as a money laundering operation might do with stolen money.”

Source: UK Music boss criticises use of AI for ‘music laundering’ – Music Ally

YouTube says that “casual fans” might have a feed that helps them passively consume more content relating to their fandom, “from lore to behind-the-scenes content.” “Rapid technological change in media and creativity has given viewers new expectations, and it has also generated opportunities for all of us to engage with the things we care about,” says YouTube.

Source: AI Accounted for 1.7 Billion YouTube Views Last Year

The Interplanetary File System provides technical resilience against censorship but, for those who offer IPFS gateways, pressure to self-censor is mounting. Reports indicate that major publishing companies are carpet-bombing these volunteers with tens of thousands of DMCA notices, despite being fully aware that they are not responsible for the content in question and cannot take it down.

Source: Publishers Carpet-Bomb IPFS Gateway Operators With DMCA Notices * TorrentFreak

Stable Diffusion XL v0.9 is now out, and the AI image results it offers can compete against MidJourney in quality and ease of use. This means, among other things, that Stability AI’s new model will not generate those troublesome “spaghetti hands” so often. Also, you won’t have to introduce dozens of words to get an amazing image, because the model was trained to do most of the heavy lifting for you. Communicating with the model will be more natural.

Source: Stable Diffusion Gets an Upgrade—Here’s How Its AI Model Stacks Up Against MidJourney – Decrypt

Lots of people give up new creative hobbies because they get frustrated when their early efforts are poor. Music in particular is put on a high pedestal. And so, even as technology to create music has become cheaper and more accessible, music’s ego-based barrier to entry has remained high. But it is finally lowering thanks to these new platforms, where users can create something halfway decent on their first try.

Source: Who tomorrow’s music business is being built for

Paul McCartney has clarified how artificial intelligence has been used to create a new Beatles song, saying that nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. “It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years. We hope you love it as much as we do,” he wrote.

Source: Paul McCartney says there’s nothing artificial in new Beatles song made using AI

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a fund of $100 million to bolster startups focusing on generative AI. Known as the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, the program is designed to connect AWS-affiliated data scientists, strategists, engineers, and solutions architects with customers and partners. The aim, in Amazon’s words, is to “accelerate enterprise innovation and success with generative AI.”

Source: Amazon Pledges $100 Million for Generative AI Startups – Decrypt