The Writers Guild of America‘s east and west chapters have sent a strongly-worded letter to the heads of the major Hollywood studios, criticizing them for inaction as artificial intelligence appears to be taking copy-written scripts and using it to “plagiarize stolen works.” The WGA officers go on to criticize the studios for doing “nothing to stop this theft. They have allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation.”
Technology
Khan Is Gone: Trump Appoints Andrew Ferguson As Next Chair Of FTC
As major media companies eye consolidation, Ferguson has signaled that he will be more lenient that Lina Khan, the FTC chair under President Joe Biden. Punchbowl News last week reported on a pitch made to Trump’s team for Ferguson, and it included the argument that he would stop Khan’s “war on mergers.” He also said he would “protect freedom of speech and fight wokeness” and that he would “fight back against the trans agenda.”
Source: Donald Trump Appoints Andrew Ferguson As Next Chair Of Federal Trade Commission
HarperCollins CEO touts Spotify’s audiobooks entry, AI’s impact on publishing
Of note, Murray said that audiobooks continue to outsell e-books in terms of total revenues and are helping to offset declines from lagging e-book sales. In terms of AI, the CEO declined to discuss specifics of licensing deals, like the one it signed with Microsoft for AI model training, citing NDAs, but stressed that it’s early days for AI licensing, calling it a “fascinating time” in the industry.
Source: HarperCollins CEO touts Spotify’s audiobooks entry, AI’s impact on publishing
Paul McCartney warns AI ‘could take over’ as UK debates copyright laws
Paul McCartney has backed calls for laws to stop mass copyright theft by companies building generative artificial intelligence, warning AI “could just take over.” The former Beatle said it would be “a very sad thing indeed” if young composers and writers could not protect their intellectual property from the rise of algorithmic models, which so far have learned by digesting mountains of copyrighted material.
Source: Paul McCartney warns AI ‘could take over’ as UK debates copyright laws
OpenAI’s o1 model lies more than any major AI model.
Apollo Research tested six frontier models for “in-context scheming” — a model’s ability to take action they haven’t been given directly and then lie about it. After being told to achieve a certain goal “at all costs,” evaluators introduce contradictory information to see if the model will remove any restrictions in its path and deceive developers.
Source: OpenAI’s o1 lies more than any major AI model. Why that matters
Why OpenAI is only letting some Sora users create videos of real people
OpenAI launched its video-generating tool, Sora, on Monday. But the company’s opting not to release a key feature for most users pending further testing. The feature in question generates a video using an uploaded photo or footage of a real person as a reference. OpenAI says that it’ll give a “subset” of Sora users access to it, but that it won’t roll out the capability broadly until it has a chance to fine-tune its “approach to safety.”
Source: Why OpenAI is only letting some Sora users create videos of real people
Is The Art Market Ready For A.I. Authentication?
The possible use of A.I. for authenticating artworks is a topic that has made headlines in recent years but has, so far, had next to no real-world applications within the art market. Last month saw the very earliest signs that this may be changing, with Germann Auction House in Zurich pioneering the use of A.I. authentication to back the sale of three artworks.
Source: Is The Art Market Ready For A.I. Authentication? | Artnet News
Aptos co-founder: AI training consent a ‘perfect use case’ for blockchain
Giving artificial intelligence models consent to use content for training is a “perfect use case” for blockchain technology, according to Avery Ching, co-founder and chief technology officer of Aptos. He highlighted the potential for blockchain to provide clear consent mechanisms for determining whether specific content can be used for AI training.
Source: AI training consent a ‘perfect use case’ for blockchain — Aptos co-founder
Market for Gen AI outputs to be worth over $16bn annually by 2028: CISAC report
A new report from CISAC, the global umbrella group for authors’ societies, has a sobering prediction: 24% of music creators’ revenue could be taken by generative AI by 2028. The news is almost as bad for creators in the audiovisual industry (TV, film, video, etc.). By 2028, they face a loss of 21% of the income they would have made if generative AI didn’t exist.
Would you watch a foreign film dubbed with AI to sound like the original actors?
An Argentine horror-fantasy film called The Witch Game is coming to theaters in the U.S. and UK, but the Spanish-language movie doesn’t rely on subtitles or English speakers to voice the performances. Instead, AI tools will recreate the original actors’ voices and have them speak English. It’s a controversial move as it is an actual instance of the frequent warnings about AI taking people’s jobs.
Source: Would you watch a foreign film dubbed with AI to sound like the original actors?