Technology

No one confused early Sora demonstrations with art, but what startled filmmakers is these semi-professional and quasi-lifelike images introduced a doomsday scenario: Studios will use this rapidly evolving tech to replace them. “It’s a fraught time because the messaging that’s out there is not being led by creators,” said producer Diana Williams, a former Lucasfilm executive. “It’s really being led by the business people and by publicly owned companies.”

Source: Despite the Panic, Generative AI Won’t Be on the Big Screen Any Time Soon

As deepfakes proliferate, OpenAI is refining the tech used to clone voices — but the company insists it’s doing so responsibly. Today marks the preview debut of OpenAI’s Voice Engine, an expansion of the company’s existing text-to-speech API. Under development for about two years, Voice Engine allows users to upload any 15-second voice sample to generate a synthetic copy of that voice.

Source: OpenAI built a voice cloning tool, but you can’t use it… yet | TechCrunch

Just as in film and TV, only more so, AI represents a gathering storm for video game actors. Some studios are experimenting with tools that can clone voices, alter voices and generate audio from text. In interactive, multi-choice games, this can generate a potentially endless number of characters and conversations – and is far more efficient than asking performers to record huge quantities of dialogue.

Source: ‘It’s very easy to steal someone’s voice’: how AI is affecting video game actors

With the breakneck speed at which artificial intelligence has been progressing, there have undoubtedly been some stumbles. One of the biggest issues has been the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models as well as images that may be inappropriate or raise privacy issues. But a technique referred to as “machine unlearning” developed by researchers at the University of Texas Austin may offer a solution to those concerns.

Source: ‘Machine Unlearning’ May Be the Solution to Problematic AI Data

Can journalism survive artificial intelligence (AI)? The answer will depend on whether journalism can adapt its business models to the AI era. If policymakers intervene to correct market imbalances, they must enforce intellectual property rights and ensure that journalism has a fighting chance in the era of generative AI. Last year alone, the U.S. journalism industry slashed 2,700 jobs, and 2.5 newspapers closed each week on average.

Source: Can journalism survive AI? | Brookings

Can detection be universal without empowering those with access to exploit it? If not, how can we prevent misuse of the system itself by those who control it? Once again, we find ourselves back to square one and asking who gets to decide what is real? Without standards and public education, AI watermarking will serve as little more than a plaster, failing to address issues of misinformation.

Source: Why watermarking won’t work

The first people who have gained access to Sora are “red teamers” who are looking for vulnerabilities in the software, but OpenAI is giving Hollywood notables advanced access so that they can explore the ways the generative AI technology could assist their work. According to Bloomberg, “a few big-name actors and directors” have been invited to take Sora for a test drive.

Source: OpenAI wants to use video generation model Sora to break into Hollywood – Tubefilter

AI spending is expected to crest above $13 billion by 2028, with the spread falling fairly evenly across analytics, development/delivery and customer experiences like personalization and discovery, media analysts announced at a Series Mania presentation on Thursday. However, the analysts do not anticipate the content creation apocalypse that has underscored much AI coverage of late.

Source: AI Spending to Surpass $13 Billion by 2028, Media Analysts Predict