The writers’ strike—a component of the growing movement of workers internationally across all industries—is against the world’s most powerful capitalist media conglomerates. It involves both the methods and the content of movies and TV series that are watched in theaters, living rooms and, increasingly, on mobile devices by billions of people around the globe.
Source: Artificial intelligence and the film and television writers’ strike
Much of the public discourse around generative AI and creative jobs has focused on the potential threats – but researchers are pointing out that this technology also brings opportunities in terms of enhanced productivity, efficiency and profits. The potential impact of generative AI was a major focus at the World Economic Forum’s Growth Summit 2023, held in Geneva earlier this month.
An artificial-intelligence-generated track featuring Biggie Smalls’s voice rapping “N.Y. State of Mind” by Nas landed on social media, its quality garnering rave reviews from fans. But it also sparked a debate: Did it represent a violation of the rapper’s legacy? “Just hearing him on something new is like uncovering something from the vault,” Deiana said in an interview. But thinking deeper “brought it back down to earth and made me realize this isn’t real. … AI made this.”
Source: AI can bring the Notorious B.I.G.’s voice back to life. Should it?
ChatGPT and other generative AI tools should not send publishers into “panic mode”, digital bosses at Conde Nast and William Reed have said. Instead, they suggested AI can most usefully be implemented as productivity tools – for example, to improve headlines, for search engine optimisation, to generate ideas around an SEO theme and to better understand the likely intent of users.
Source: Publishers using ChatGPT to improve headlines and suggest feature ideas
CEO Maria A. Pallante’s outline of AI’s considerations for publishing was the highlight of Association of American Publishers’ 2023 annual meeting. “AI developments have been nothing short of astonishing this year. Technology is nothing new for society,” she said. “But AI is in a category by itself. It’s not about a shift in delivery models. It’s a paradigm shift. Meaning we can’t go back to the world before AI, any more than we can go back to the world before the Internet.”
Source: AI and the Book Business: AAP’s Annual General Meeting
Corporations may breathlessly talk about A.I. as “the way of the future” to shareholders and countless Twitter users have also taken to A.I. as a symbol of living in a futuristic utopia. In reality, though, the very concept of A.I.-generated movies and TV shows is antithetical to the very concept of art. Going this route with creating pop culture properties would surely save some coins for already exorbitantly wealthy executives. However, A.I. can never function as a proper replacement for real artists.
Source: AI-Generated Movies & TV Will Never Replace the Real Thing
Less than a week after uploads to Spotify from AI-powered music creation app Boomy were blocked over concerns about artificial streaming, Boomy says it’s back in business on the prominent music streaming platform. “We are pleased to share that curated delivery to Spotify of new releases by Boomy artists has been re-enabled,” the company wrote on its Discord server on Saturday (May 6).
AI channels very deep fears, bred not by the technology itself, but by capitalist society and its deeply rooted alienation. Under capitalism, humanity lacks control over its own technology, because of the anarchy of the market. Technology is used not to meet the needs of humanity, but to make profits, with no consideration given to the long-term effects.
Source: Artificial Intelligence: doomsday for humanity, or for capitalism?
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has launched an official inquiry into the impact artificial intelligence may have. Large language models and generative artificial intelligence are impacting how people create art with remarkable speed. The investigation seeks to understand how these AI models are developing and to produce an assessment of the conditions and principles that will guide the development of these models and their use in the future.
Source: British Government Regulators Launch Formal Investigation Into AI
A new report from The Information suggests TikTok is internally working on a tool to allow content creators to disclose whether content was made using generative AI. Song mashups like the Drake/The Weeknd collabs that have gone viral on TikTok use generative AI to create music that ‘sounds’ like these two artists mashed together. Right now, it’s unclear how this disclosure will take place.
Source: TikTok Developing Generative AI Disclosure System for Creators