Technology

Google has created an AI system that can generate songs given detailed text descriptions. But it won’t release it for fear of the risks. Detailed in an academic paper, MusicLM was trained on a dataset of 280,000 hours of music to learn to generate coherent songs for descriptions of — as the creators put it — “significant complexity” (e.g. “enchanting jazz song with a memorable saxophone solo and a solo singer” or “Berlin ’90s techno with a low bass and strong kick.”

Source: Google created an AI that can generate music from text descriptions, but won’t release it

Warner Music Group will launch Rhythm City — a “music-themed social roleplay experience” — on the gaming platform Roblox on February 4th.  Not only will Rhythm City host events and shows from Warner’s artists, it will allow users to take on roles like DJ, producer, or dancer as they explore the virtual world and purchase digital items only available on Roblox. Rhythm City was developed in partnership with Gamefam, a metaverse-focused gaming and content company.

Source: Warner Music Group Partners With Roblox on Rhythm City

The use of celebrity promoters heated up in 2021 during the massive bull run in crypto. Last year, celebrity crypto ads filled prominent slots in the Super Bowl, the largest marketing event of the year. Lawyer Sean Masson, of law firm Scott + Scott, who has filed several proposed class-action suits, said celebrities found they could be compensated simply for touting a token, without realizing their legal obligations under federal and state rules governing endorsements and compensation.

Source: Celebrities Who Endorsed Crypto, NFTs Land in Legal Crosshairs After Investor Losses

Artists’ organisations are preparing a push for regulatory changes over concerns that EU law fails to protect the creative industries from fast-developing generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT. Unease has been growing amongst those working in the arts in recent months over the acceleration of generative AI tools that can produce pieces of written or visual content, often controversially dubbed ‘AI Art’. 

Source: Generative AI keeps creative industries on their toes

Springer Nature, the world’s largest academic publisher, has clarified its policies on the use of AI writing tools in scientific papers. The company announced this week that software like ChatGPT can’t be credited as an author in papers published in its thousands of journals. However, Springer says it has no problem with scientists using AI to help write or generate ideas for research, as long as this contribution is properly disclosed by the authors.

Source: ChatGPT can’t be credited as an author, says world’s largest academic publisher

Game developers are more skeptical of metaverse and blockchain projects, according to a new survey by the Game Developers Conference. When asked which company is best positioned to deliver on the promise of the metaverse, Epic Games/Fortnite earned 14% of the vote, the highest of any individual company. However, developers remain wary. Nearly half (45%) of respondents didn’t select any companies/platforms, instead stating that the metaverse concept will never deliver on its promise.

Source: Game devs remain skeptical about metaverse and blockchain projects | GDC survey

According to the most recent Art Market 2022 report that Art Basel and UBS published, the global art market expanded by 29% year over year, increasing to up to $65.1 billion in aggregate art sales. This growth was partly driven by a significant increase in interest in digital art made possible through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which topped $11.1 billion.

Source: AllianceBlock partners with ARTBANX to tokenize physical artwork in Web3

Bradley Metrock, conference organizer, acknowledged that the owners of copyrighted material will likely challenge the use of their content by AI. “There are going to be a lot of lawsuits before this is sorted out,” said Metrock, who owns several companies that invest in various AI and voice related projects. “The point here is that good technology challenges,” citing the lack of innovation in the ebook space over the past 15 years, he said. “Everything stays the same,” he added, ‘“until it doesn’t.”

Source: Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

A new research project – called Scribe ID AI – from St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences will make use of artificial intelligence to identify copyists of manuscripts from the 12th century in the library of Klosterneuburg Monastery. Located in eastern Austria, Klosterneuburg Monastery was founded in 1113 and remained an important monastic site throughout the Middle Ages. Its library contains 1250 medieval manuscripts.

Source: Artificial Intelligence used to learn who penned medieval manuscripts – Medievalists.net

The Frankfurt-based Bookwire has entered a partnership with Google Play Books for broader automated production of audiobooks. The intention, as Bookwire’s media messaging today puts it, is “to provide auto-narrated audiobook creation and expand the offering of text-to-speech technology” on an international level. This new arrangement, the company says, “allows Bookwire customers” in many parts of the world “to produce auto-narrated audiobooks in various languages.”

Source: Bookwire Expands Its Text-to-Speech Audiobook Offer With Google