Technology

The Sleepy Copyright Office in the Middle of a High-Stakes Clash Over A.I.

For decades, the Copyright Office has been a small and sleepy office within the Library of Congress. In recent months, however, the office has suddenly found itself in the spotlight. Thousands of artists, musicians and tech executives have written to the agency, and hundreds have asked to speak at listening sessions hosted by the office. The attention stems from a first-of-its-kind review of copyright law that the Copyright Office is conducting in the age of artificial intelligence.

Source: The Sleepy Copyright Office in the Middle of a High-Stakes Clash Over A.I.

CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus Seeks Greater AI Protections

The CISAC President and ABBA founder called for sustained support for copyright and the protection of creators by the European Union as Belgium takes the six-month presidency of the EU. Belgium will be overseeing discussions to finalize the text of the EU AI act. Ulvaeus urged the establishment of proper transparency principles in the EU AI Act and to require AI operators to adhere to copyright regulations.

Source: CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus Seeks Greater AI Protections

Royalty-embedded blockchains can help NFT artists get paid

Blockchains with royalties embedded within their code can guarantee that creator royalties will be respected, according to professionals working in Web3. While some platforms continue to hop on the optional royalty trend, others are going the other way, implementing built-in royalty enforcement tools within their blockchains. In June 2023, NFT-focused blockchain platform Enjin released a blockchain mainnet with royalty enforcement embedded in the blockchain’s foundational code.

Source: Royalty-embedded blockchains can help NFT artists get paid

Artificial intelligence could be ‘devastating’ to these musicians

The American Federation of Musicians, the union that represents music performers and artists, could be the latest entertainment industry union to go on strike over artificial intelligence. The AFM is starting negotiations with Hollywood producers. Shelly Palmer, of Syracuse University, said artificial intelligence will hit the musicians who produce TV theme songs and instrumental music for stores and theme parks the hardest.

Source: Artificial intelligence could be ‘devastating’ to these musicians

Two-Thirds of Young Creatives Use AI in Their Creation Process

A new survey finds that nearly two-thirds of young creatives aged 16-24 use AI in some part of their creation process. For younger generations, AI programs have become ingrained into their workflow, with those interviewed sharing the ways it has aided in increasing their productivity, whether they had adopted it over the last few years or tested it only for a couple of months.

Source: Two-Thirds of Young Creatives Use AI in Their Creation Process

French MPs want to amend EU’s copyright rules to cover generative AI

A commission of the French National Assembly published an opinion on Thursday (18 January) recommending amending the EU’s Copyright Directive to elaborate an international AI treaty and regular reviews of the EU’s AI Act. The EU’s Copyright Directive became law in April 2019, three years before the public release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which quickly became the world’s most famous chatbot and a household name.

Source: French MPs want to amend EU’s copyright rules to cover generative AI

TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn’t

TikTok has launched many songs that have gone viral over the years, but now it’s testing a feature that lets more people exercise their songwriting skills… with some help from AI. AI Song generates songs from text prompts with help from the large language model Bloom. Users can write out lyrics on the text field when making a post. TikTok will then recommend AI Song to add sounds to the post, and they can toggle the song’s genre.

Source: TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn’t

Anthropic to Enable Image Analysis in AI Chatbot Claude

Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is reportedly working on a new feature for its chatbot Claude that would enable it to analyze images. Although Anthropic has not publicly discussed this new feature, a review of the company’s website code using Chrome developer tools has revealed unpublished wording related to image analysis, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Jan. 17). 

Source: Anthropic to Enable Image Analysis in AI Chatbot Claude

The Right Way to Regulate AI (Opinion)

The past decade’s belated, disjointed, and ultimately woefully insufficient efforts to govern social media’s use of algorithmic systems are a sobering example of the consequences of passively hoping that social benefits will trickle down as an emergent property of technological development. Political leaders cannot again buy the myth—peddled by self-interested tech leaders and investors—that supporting innovation requires suspending government’s regulatory duties.

Source: The Right Way to Regulate AI

ChatGPT will get video-creation powers in a future version 

The web’s video misinformation problem is set to get a lot worse before it gets better, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman going on the record to say that video-creation capabilities are coming to ChatGPT within the next year or two. Speaking to Bill Gates on the Unconfuse Me podcast (via Tom’s Guide), Altman pointed to multimodality – the ability to work across text, images, audio and “eventually video” – as a key upgrade for ChatGPT and its models over the next two years.

Source: ChatGPT will get video-creation powers in a future version – and the internet isn’t ready for it

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