May 13, 2023

  • Music

    Grimes and Bitcoin: How crypto and the open-source movement offer lessons for the music industry in the age of A.I.

    Fortune, 05/13/23. Grimes, an independent musical artist, has embraced the power of AI with her “Elf.Tech” experiment. Grimes challenges the traditional model of music production and ownership by allowing users to generate music in her style using their own inputs.

    The cost of producing high-quality music decreases dramatically thanks to advancements in AI. The need for a new distribution model becomes apparent. Grimes’s approach leverages blockchain and cryptocurrency to enforce royalty splits and may hold the key to a fairer compensation system for artists.

    Just as open-source software revolutionized the tech industry, the open-sourcing of music creation could reshape the music landscape, empowering artists and fostering collaboration in unprecedented ways. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Detection

    There Are 2 AI Booms Happening. We’re Caught in the Middle.

    The Daily Beast, 05/13/23. Over the past few months, Edward Tian’s life has been a whirlwind of activity. During his holiday break, the Princeton student created GPTZero, a tool designed to help educators identify student essays written with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The tool gained immense popularity, amassing over 6 million users within a short period. This success led to a flurry of investor interest, meetings, and the establishment of a startup named after GPTZero. Now, Tian and his team have secured millions in funding for their latest product, Origin—a web extension capable of detecting AI-generated text on web pages. As he prepares to graduate from college, Tian finds himself at the center of a burgeoning industry dedicated to combating the proliferation of AI-generated content. His vision for tools like Origin is to restore trust in online information, combat fake news, and uphold the value of human creativity in a world increasingly driven by algorithms and code. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Voice

    Doctor VERY Strange: Film company is duped by fake AI Benedict Cumberbatch who ‘wanted to star in their film’ but then demanded $250,000

    Daily Mail, 05/13/23. The film production company, Peabody Films, recently fell victim to fraudsters who utilized an AI-generated voice clone of actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Initially, the eerily convincing impersonation fooled the company, as ‘Cumberbatch’ expressed interest in a film deal. However, suspicions arose when the actor and his agent refused to meet in person, leading Peabody Films to realize the deception and prevent financial loss. This incident serves as a stark reminder that AI technology can be exploited by malicious individuals to defraud unsuspecting victims. Unfortunately, many others have already fallen victim to similar scams, highlighting the urgent need for awareness and security measures to combat this growing threat. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Veracity

    6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Blindly Trust Artificial Intelligence

    Make Use Of, 05/13/23. AI is undoubtedly reshaping our world, but its impact is not always positive. While it presents exciting opportunities, we must acknowledge that AI lacks a moral compass and fact-checking system to guide its decision-making. Blindly trusting AI can be detrimental. AI chatbots can confidently provide incorrect information, manipulate facts, hinder creativity, be easily misused, have limited understanding of context, and cannot replace human judgment. It is crucial to fact-check everything in this AI-centric world. Understanding AI’s limitations and using it responsibly as a supplement to human expertise and judgment is key to navigating its transformative power safely. READ THE ARTICLE

  • Search

    Google’s New A.I. Search Engine Should Leave the Media Very Worried

    Slate, 05/13/23. The demo presented at Google’s I/O developer conference showcased a stunning achievement in search technology. Google’s experimental search engine tackled an incredibly complex query about family preferences between Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon. The AI-powered search engine scoured the internet and provided a detailed response, highlighting factors such as dog-friendly options and child-friendly attractions. However, while this new search product is enticing, its potential impact on digital publishers is concerning. By taking on the heavy lifting themselves, search engines like Google may exclude primary sources, undermining the survival of standalone entities and jeopardizing the already fragile digital publishing industry. Publishers heavily reliant on search traffic could face existential threats, particularly with social platforms moving away from timely news content. As search engines reduce the number of links they feature, the future looks daunting for publishers without a strong direct relationship with a loyal audience. It’s a moment of reckoning for publishers who allowed search engines to dictate their product rather than making sense of it. ChatGPT, with its generative AI capabilities, has reshaped the information landscape, leading Google to respond with its own AI-powered “Search Generative Experience.” For publishers seeking to adapt to this future, minimizing reliance on search traffic and exploring alternative avenues such as email and podcasts may be the way forward. While concerns about low-quality websites flooding the web are overblown, generative search will inevitably disrupt business models. Ultimately, the success of generative search products hinges on the availability of content on the web. Without supporting web publishers, these demos may become hollow shells, lacking the primary sources that make them truly valuable, even with their exceptional user experience. READ THE ARTICLE