Meta acquires AI audio startup WaveForms to advance emotional voice synthesis and integrate tech into Superintelligence Labs. WaveForms’ main focus is the ‘Speech Turing Test,’ a challenge to create AI-generated speech that is indistinguishable from human voices. The platform incorporates what it calls ‘emotional general intelligence’—software designed to replicate the emotional nuance of human speech within generated speech.
Source: Meta Acquires WaveForms to Boost AI Audio Capabilities
Google announced Genie 3, a general purpose world model that can generate interactive environments from text prompts. As demonstrated by research scientist Aleksander Holynski, it’s possible to use famous paintings as reference images. That allows the user to ‘step inside’ the painting and adjust the view. The AI generates additional details outside of the composition of the original painting, allowing it to be viewed from other angles.
Source: Google’s AI Nighthawks painting misses the point of art
A powerhouse team has launched a new initiative called ‘Doing AI Differently,’ which calls for a human-centred approach to future development. For years, we’ve treated AI’s outputs like they’re the results of a giant math problem. But the researchers – from The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Edinburgh, AHRC-UKRI, and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation – behind this project say that’s the wrong way to look at it.
Source: Alan Turing Institute: Humanities are key to the future of AI
Universal Pictures is taking a new approach to combat mass theft of its movies to teach artificial intelligence systems. Starting in June with How to Train Your Dragon, the studio has attached a legal warning at the end credits of its films stating that their titles “may not be used to train AI.” It’s also appeared on Jurassic World Rebirth and Bad Guys 2.
Source: Universal Pictures to Big Tech: We’ll Sue If You Steal Our Movies For AI
The AI audio-generation unicorn ElevenLabs announced the launch of a new model that allows users to generate music that’s cleared for commercial use. This move marks ElevenLabs’ expansion beyond its main focus thus far in its three years of existence, which has been building AI audio tools. ElevenLabs is a leader among companies making text-to-speech AI products, and it has expanded into conversational bots and tools that translate speech into other languages.
A deepfake Dwayne Johnson is just one part of a broader technological earthquake hitting Hollywood. Studios are scrambling to figure out simultaneously how to use AI in the filmmaking process and how to protect themselves against it. While executives see a future where the technology shaves tens of millions of dollars off a movie’s budget, they are grappling with a present filled with legal uncertainty.
Source: Is It Still Disney Magic if It’s AI?
A report last month from search analytics firm Ahrefs showed Reddit appearing in 5.5% of Google’s AI Overviews responses, the most of any source. Reddit’s position as a repository of knowledge shared and curated by actual people is a big part of the appeal. “Human conversation is not being replaced by AI, instead, it’s becoming more important,” Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman said on the company’s earnings call.
Source: As AI Changes Internet Search, Reddit Lies in a Sweet Spot
News companies have been warned of a “devastating impact” on online audiences as search results are replaced by AI summaries, after a new study claimed it caused up to 80% fewer clickthroughs. The threat posed by Google’s AI Overviews, which summarise a search result with a block of text, has rapidly risen to the top of the concerns among media owners. Some regard it as an existential threat to outlets reliant on search result traffic.
Source: AI summaries cause ‘devastating’ drop in audiences, online news media told
In a court filing Thursday, Microsoft argued that the current version of its Copilot AI assistant for consumers should be excluded from the process of legal discovery — opposing an effort by the plaintiffs to require the team behind the product to turn over documents and materials deemed relevant to the case. But lawyers for the news organizations contend that Copilot is powered by the same core AI systems, performing the same functions, with the same alleged harms.
Source: Microsoft tries to keep its consumer Copilot out of New York Times AI copyright case
UMG today disclosed the high-profile tie-up as well as its aggressive focus on AI patents. Regarding the aggressive descriptor, the label has already filed 15 applications with the self-described IP asset management firm Liquidax. These applications concern technology at the intersection of music and collaboration, “AI threat protection,” multimedia content, health, rights management, and administration, the companies indicated.
Source: Universal Music Eyes AI Patents Under Liquidax Partnership