Technology

From college plagiarism to cybercrime scams, generative AI is eroding trust in online content. Digital watermarking is no quick fix for the problem. Watermarking “is pretty much one of the few technical alternatives that we have available,” says Florian Kerschbaum, a computer scientist specializing in data security at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “On the other hand, the outcome of this technology is not as certain as one might believe. We cannot really predict what level of reliability we’ll be able to achieve.”

Source: Tech Companies’ New Favorite Solution for the AI Content Crisis Isn’t Enough

The Walt Disney Company has formed a task force to investigate the potential applications of AI throughout its various business units, reports Reuters, including cutting costs and enhancing customer experiences. This comes despite ongoing Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes that have put some AI technologies in the crosshairs.

Source: Disney explores cutting costs through AI use

Almost two-thirds of American adults said they thought entertainment unions were justified in making AI a centerpiece of their negotiating demands. “This is [not just] a Hollywood phenomenon,” said Greg Cross, chief executive of the AI avatar startup Soul Machines. “AI is literally eating the world.”

Source: Actors and writers aren’t the only ones worried about AI, new polling shows

The technology has the potential to affect nearly every aspect of how books are produced — even the act of writing itself. “The entire marketplace is going to be affected,” said Mary Rasenberger, the chief executive of the Authors Guild. “I wouldn’t be surprised if A.I. got pretty good at some kinds of genre fiction in the not too distant future.”

Source: A.I.’s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity

Not every use-case of the emerging technology involves generating computer-made songs or voices instantaneously. While some applications of AI certainly present urgent legal and ethical concerns, there are also many applications that give musicians and rights holders new creative opportunities from the way it’s created to how it’s released and beyond.

Source: 5 Ways AI Has Already Changed the Music Industry

On August 9, a collection of 3,000 non-fungible tokens or NFTs of music superstar Elvis Presley will be released on The Sandbox metaverse to honor the legacy of the iconic musician. Each NFT will showcase a moment from Presley’s career, highlighting signature sartorial choices, haircuts, and dance moves that fans of the beloved legend can memorialize through digital collectibles.

The AudioCraft family of AI models can produce high-quality audio with long-term consistency—something current music AI generation models lack. Meta says it has simplified the overall design of generative models for audio compared to prior work in the field, while giving people the full recipe for people to play with its existing models.

Source: Meta Introduces AudioCraft — An AI Text-to-Audio Generator

As the debate over artificial intelligence-generated tracks intensifies, and concerns about ethical usage of artists’ voices in AI creations persist, Arpeggi Labs has created an AI voice cloning and licensing platform backed by Steve Aoki, Lionel Richie and Wyclef Jean that has now achieved over 1 million audio clip conversions in just weeks since its launch.

Source: AI voice platform Kits.AI, backed by Steve Aoki, Lionel Richie and Wyclef Jean, hits 1m ‘voice transformations’

In recent years, AI has found its way into the hands of independent artists. A study by digital music company Believe and its subsidiary, TuneCore, has found that AI is in an “early and rapid adoption phase” among indie artists. Believe and TuneCore have conducted a survey of close to 1,600 self-releasing artists from over 10 countries.

Source: 27% of indie artists have used AI music tools, according to TuneCore study

AIMS API is the latest startup tapping prompt engineering in a musical context. Having started with AI music search and tagging features, its new ‘Prompt Search’ tool will help people to find music within catalogues by typing in natural language prompts, rather than just keywords and tags. “Unlike other attempts at this type of music search, ours genuinely works,” said CEO Martin Nedved.

Source: AIMS API adds ‘Prompt Search’ tool to make finding music easier – Music Ally