Tech companies adopt C2PA watermarking standard; AI deciphers the secrets of ancient scrolls; Microsoft's next big AI push; OpenAI has a plan to make AI more democratic
Babies vs AI; Semafor partners with Microsoft for AI-driven news content; AI is changing software development; Nvidia uses AI to produce chips faster
If the 2010s was the era of user generated content taking over the social internet, the 2020s will be dominated by AI-generated images, audio and video. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALLE-3, Midjourney, AIVA, Respeecher and ElevenLabs have been used to write books, make music, record audiobooks or create cover art for magazines. And while AI video is still in its early adopter phase, we should expect that within three to five years, it too will become indistinguishable from its human-made equivalent. Therefore, very soon we will get to a place where the vast majority of content available online will be AI-generated or, at least, AI-modified.
While AI technology for content creation is advancing at unprecedented speed, it’s important that we also accelerate the quest to develop more effective solutions that tackle the issues of transparency and authenticity related to the content shared on the internet.
The Partnership on AI has produced the visual guide below and it remains one of my favorite ways to explain the transparency methods available for AI generated media.
Metadata refers to descriptive information or attributes that accompany digital content, providing context, structure, and administrative details. Metadata can include information about the title, author, creation date, location, and copyright status of a piece of content, among others. While metadata itself does not serve as a unique identifier like watermarks or fingerprints, it plays a crucial role in content management, searchability, and provenance tracking. It’s also one of the oldest indirect disclosure mechanisms available so it’s limited in its ability to verify content, as it can be easily modified or falsified.
Fingerprinting is a more modern method for authenticating content. Initially developed for digital rights management (DRM) solutions, fingerprinting represents the process of generating a unique identifier (also known as a hash) for each piece of content. The hash allows tracking even if the content is later modified or transformed but it is not embedded in the content file itself. Rather, it is stored in a database where it can be used to verify future content against the original. For example, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) maintains a database of hashes of terrorist and violent extremist content posted on the internet which is used by companies to quickly identify such harmful content and take it down more effectively.
Finally, one promising technology that has garnered a lot of attention this week is watermarking. By embedding imperceptible marks within digital content, watermarking offers a potential mechanism for tracking and verifying the authenticity of information shared on the internet. These marks serve various purposes, including authentication, copyright protection, and tracking. Two watermarking methods exist, each catering to specific use cases:
Visible watermarks: These are intentionally visible marks overlaid on media content. They often include logos, copyright symbols, or text. While they deter casual theft, they can be easily removed or cropped.
Invisible watermarks: These are embedded within the content itself and are imperceptible to the human eye. They survive cropping, resizing, and other alterations. Digital watermarking technologies like
Several companies have announced support for watermarking in addressing trust and safety challenges on the internet: OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 3 will be adding watermarks to image metadata using the standard developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Meta is also embracing C2PA, announcing on Tuesday that it's building new tools to identify AI-generated images uploaded to Facebook, Instagram and Threads and will automatically label them as such. And Google is the latest technology company to join the C2PA initiative, stating on Thursday that it will serve on its steering committee alongside other members including Adobe, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, Publicis Groupe, Sony and Truepic.
By embedding metadata, hashes or watermarks to content on the internet, technology and media companies are aiming to build an ecosystem of trust that is better able trace the origin of media and identify potential sources of false information. As AI technology evolves, striking the right balance between privacy, freedom of expression, and safety remains crucial; watermarks may not be a silver bullet, but they will contribute significantly to building a more trustworthy digital ecosystem.
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Our top news picks for the week - your essential reading from the world of AI
What babies can teach AI [MIT Technology Review]
Can AI Unlock the Secrets of the Ancient World? [Bloomberg]
Meta pushes to label all AI images on Instagram and Facebook in crackdown on deceptive content [The Guardian]
Microsoft in deal with Semafor to create news stories with aid of AI chatbot [FT]
Designing Chips Is Getting Harder. These Engineers Say Chatbots and AI Can Help. [WSJ]
How competition between big and small AI will shape the tech's future [Axios]
How A.I. Is Remodeling the Fantasy Home [New York Times]
Did You Use ChatGPT On Your School Applications? These Words May Tip Off Admissions [Forbes]
How AI is quietly changing everyday life [Politico]
How VCs can assess and attract winners in a landscape that’s now crowded with AI startups [TechCrunch]
Microsoft’s next big AI push is here after a year of Bing [The Verge]
AI Is Driving More Layoffs Than Companies Want to Admit [Bloomberg]
⚙️Computer does
AI in the wild: how artificial intelligence is used across industry, from the internet, social media, and retail to transportation, healthcare, banking, and more
AI professional headshots are quick and easy. But should you use one? [Washington Post]
AI-Powered Zambian Copper Mine May Become World’s Third Largest [Bloomberg]
Microsoft’s Copilot AI can explain stuff to you in Notepad [The Verge]
London Underground Is Testing Real-Time AI Surveillance Tools to Spot Crime [Wired]
Instagram might let you use AI to write messages [Instagram]
AI is mixing up how liquor brands make and sell their spirits [Fortune]
How AI is ‘amplifying creativity’ in the fashion world [The Guardian]
How the world of recycling is about to be transformed with AI [Washington Post]
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out. [MIT Technology Review]
A chatbot helped more people access mental-health services [MIT Technology Review]
Bumble’s new AI tool identifies and blocks scam accounts, fake profiles [TechCrunch]
I'm the global director of talent acquisition at Ancestry. Here's how I use AI and other tools to diversify the workforce. [Business Insider]
How Google Lookout's AI can describe images for the visually impaired [ZDNet]
LinkedIn’s New AI Chatbot Wants to Help You Find Your Next Job [LinkedIn]
Microsoft is rolling out a Copilot tool to internal teams as it tries to get more developers to use AI [Business Insider]
Roblox breaks language barriers with AI-based real-time chat translation [VentureBeat]
Ikea’s AI assistant gives design inspiration — at least it tries to [The Verge]
These are 13 of the most popular generative AI apps on OpenAI's brand new GPT Store [Business Insider]
Students studying for the TOEFL can get free access to AI-powered test prep. [The Verge]
AI's most popular chipmaker Nvidia is trying to use AI to design chips faster [Business Insider]
Human resources gets AI upgrade with ADP Assist [VentureBeat]
Derby City Council to save £200,000 through job losses due to AI [BBC]
🧑🎓Computer learns
Interesting trends and developments from various AI fields, companies and people
Disney harnesses 'AI' to drive streaming ad-technology [Reuters]
Sam Altman Seeks Trillions of Dollars to Reshape Business of Chips and AI [WSJ]
If you're looking for a job, the most important skill is adaptability amid the rise of AI and ChatGPT [Business Insider]
Baidu partners with Lenovo in third China AI smartphone deal [Reuters]
Glass supercharges smartphone cameras with AI — minus the hallucinations [TechCrunch]
Google Prepares for a Future Where Search Isn’t King [Wired]
OpenAI’s Secret Weapon Is Sam Altman’s 33-Year-Old Lieutenant [Bloomberg]
Google DeepMind proposes ‘self-discover’ framework for LLMs, improves GPT-4 performance [VentureBeat]
We are deeply into bubble territory when it comes to AI, MBMG Group’s Paul Gambles says [CNBC]
Rize launches AI productivity coach, targeting work-life balance in remote work era [VentureBeat]
Brilliant Labs’s Frame glasses serve as multimodal AI assistant [VentureBeat]
News Corp in ‘advanced negotiations’ with AI companies over access to content, CEO says [The Guardian]
Google releases ‘Gemini’ in new effort to cash in on generative AI [FT]
Legal profession should work out best way to use AI [The Times]
Google's AI product lead explains why the company is doing a 'clean-up' and renaming everything 'Gemini' [Business Insider]
Big insurance companies want more private credit. Here's how Blackstone is using AI to win them over. [Business Insider]
Why influencer-marketing firm Izea is betting big on AI campaigns with a new image-generation tool [Business Insider]
Microsoft's Super Bowl ad is a sign of the company's shifting AI priorities [Business Insider]
China’s generative video race heats up [TechCrunch]
The AI trust gap that is worrying both workers and executives [CNBC]
Meet ‘Smaug-72B’: The new king of open-source AI [VentureBeat]
OpenAI Shifts AI Battleground to Software That Operates Devices, Automates Tasks [The Information]
Microsoft brings new design-focused features to Copilot [TechCrunch]
AMD unveils Embedded+ architecture for edge AI hardware [VentureBeat]
Apple releases ‘MGIE’, a revolutionary AI model for instruction-based image editing [VentureBeat]
AI is moving too fast to keep pace for 4 in 5 workers [Fortune]
Hugging Face launches open source AI assistant maker to rival OpenAI’s custom GPTs [VentureBeat]
Apple has the most to gain from smartphone-sized AI [Fast Company]
AI chip demand forces Huawei to slow smartphone production [Reuters]
Nvidia, Cisco to Help Companies Build In-House AI Computing [Bloomberg]
AI is setting humanity on the path to a new age of discovery [Business Insider]
Stability AI launches SVD 1.1, a diffusion model for more consistent AI videos [VentureBeat]
AI chatbots tend to choose violence and nuclear strikes in wargames [New Scientist]
Apple’s new AI research promises high performance without the high price tag [VentureBeat]
Elon Musk Says He’ll Help Fund AI Effort to Decipher Roman Scrolls [Bloomberg]
OpenAI is adding digital watermarks to its AI-generated images — but it's not a perfect solution [Business Insider]
Microsoft brings new AI image functionality to Copilot, adds new model Deucalion [VentureBeat]
AI was the talk of Davos. Here's what marketers need to know [Business Insider]
OpenAI launches ChatGPT app for Apple Vision Pro [VentureBeat]
The boss is going to look very different in the age of AI [Business Insider]
The AI hypefest might just save San Francisco from its office space doom loop [Fortune]
When is ART useful? When it’s IBM’s Adversarial Robustness Toolbox for AI [VentureBeat]
Tim Cook is finally talking about AI on his own terms [Business Insider]
Europe faces an aging population and a shrinking workforce. AI can fill the gap [Fortune]
Cisco launches Motific, a SaaS offering to accelerate generative AI deployments [VentureBeat]
DeepMind’s GenEM uses LLMs to generate expressive behaviors for robots [VentureBeat]
4 ways to help your organization overcome AI inertia [ZDNet]
Advertising agencies should survive AI-driven disruption [FT]
Menlo Ventures’ vision for the future of security for AI [VentureBeat]
How Lenovo works on dismantling AI bias while building laptops [ZDNet]
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