Source: Microsoft’s AI demand under scrutiny as investors seek payday
Technology
UK prime minister: AI companies should pay publishers for content
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said in a letter to the News Media Association that his government “recognizes the basic principle” that publishers should seek compensation for the use of their content by artificial intelligence companies. Marking the start of the NMA‘s annual “Journalism Matters” week, the Labour leader said both AI and the media were “central” to the government’s growth goals and he hoped to “rebalance” the relationship between platforms and publishers using the Digital Markets and Consumers Act.
Source: Keir Starmer: AI companies should pay publishers for content
Universal Music Strikes Strategic Deal With “Ethical AI Music Company” Klay Vision
Universal Music Group, led by chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, is teaming up with L.A.-based AI music company Klay Vision on what they described as “a pioneering commercial ethical foundational model for AI-generated music that works in collaboration with the music industry and its creators.” The two companies said that they share “the conviction that state-of-the-art foundational AI models are best built and scaled responsibly through constructive dialogue and consensus.”
Source: Universal Music Strikes Strategic Deal With “Ethical AI Music Company” Klay Vision
Forget AI image generators, an autonomous AI artist just made $351,600 at Sotheby’s
One of the assurances we’re often given in responses to the fear that AI image generators could replace human artists is that there will always need to be a human involved. Generative AI needs a human creative to tell it what to do. But don’t tell that to Botto, a fully autonomous ‘AI artist’ who just raked in $351,600 in sales at the auction house Sotheby’s, setting a new milestone in the history of AI art.
Source: Forget AI image generators, an autonomous AI artist just made $351,600 at Sotheby’s
Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text
Google’s SynthID text watermarking technology, a tool the company created to make AI-generated text easier to identify, is now available open-source through the Google Responsible Generative AI Toolkit, the company announced on X. Watermarks have become increasingly important tools as large language models are used to spread political misinformation, generate nonconsensual sexual content, and for other malicious purposes.
Source: Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text
Meta signs its first big AI deal for news
Meta’s AI chatbot will soon begin citing Reuters reporting while answering news-related queries. The two companies have struck what Axios describes as a “multi-year deal” that will allow Meta to use Reuters content for its chatbot responses. The deal is the first of its kind for Meta, in an era of news outlets agreeing to provide their content to AI companies.
Meet Hollywood’s AI Doomsayer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt emerged Tuesday as one of Hollywood’s most vocal critics of artificial intelligence, saying the new technology represents a threat to the work he and other performers do. “The sleight of hand of calling something ‘artificial intelligence’ makes you ignore the fact that these were created by humans,” he said in an interview at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live. The companies have to answer for the years of work they are using to train models now valued in the billions of dollars, he said.
More than 10,500 actors, musicians and authors protest tech’s AI data grab
More than 10,500 creative professionals, including Thom Yorke from Radiohead, actress Julianne Moore and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, have signed an open letter condemning “unlicensed use of creative works” to develop artificial intelligence systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Use of creative work without a license for AI development is “a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” the brief, 29-word letter says.
Source: More than 10,500 actors, musicians and authors protest tech’s AI data grab
OpenAI and Microsoft are funding $10 million in grants for AI-powered journalism
OpenAI and Microsoft are funding projects to bring more AI tools into the newsroom. The duo will give grants of up to $10 million to Chicago Public Media, the Minnesota Star Tribune, Newsday (in Long Island, NY), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Seattle Times. Each of the publications will hire a two-year AI fellow to develop projects for implementing the technology and improving business sustainability.
Source: OpenAI and Microsoft are funding $10 million in grants for AI-powered journalism
Painting by AI robot Ai-Da could bring more than $120,000 at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s will sell its first work credited to a humanoid robot using artificial intelligence (AI) later this month. A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024) was created by Ai-Da Robot, the artist robot and brainchild of Oxford gallerist Aidan Meller. The painting is estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $120,000 and $180,000 on 31 October. Fittingly, Sotheby’s will accept cryptocurrency for the transaction.
Source: Painting by AI robot Ai-Da could bring more than $120,000 at Sotheby’s