The week's developments on the intersection of AI and creative content | 21.11.23

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This week's news is dominated by cutting edge AI, and brewing copyright debates. WMG are using AI to recreate Édith Piaf's voice for a biopic, and Meta unveiled their text-to-animation tool Emu Video. Meanwhile, artists across all industries are calling for urgent copyright reforms to safeguard against AI's unchecked use of copyrighted content. 

YouTube unveiled "Dream Tracks," a tool that imitates the voices of popular artists. Alongside this, they implemented stringent guidelines allowing record labels to delete AI-generated content that replicates their artists' voices with permission. Will this compromise between the rights of creators and AI progress work?

- Charlie and the Research and Intelligence Team

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Cinema and Industry

🏆 The strikes are over: Who won? Who lost? Winners include SAG-AFTRA and WGA leaders. Loser’s include the Directors Guild, Disney’s Bob Iger, Drew Barrymore, and the Californian economy.

🎥 Meta launched Emu Video, an upgrade of its Emu image generation tool, which creates four-second animations from captions or images. Users can also modify these animations with Emu Edit, using natural language commands. 

🇫🇷 WMG will use AI to recreate the voice of French singer Edith Piaf, to narrate her story in upcoming biopic “Edith”. WMG claims the re-creation will “further enhance the authenticity and emotional impact of her story”.

⚖️ Artists are demanding the US government reform copyright laws to protect against AI, specifically in model training. Their appeals contrast with big tech, who argue that using copyrighted material to train AI models is covered under fair use.

Arts and Entertainment

🎙️ YouTube is introducing an AI tool to clone famous voices. “Dream Tracks” lets users create 30-second long songs, from text prompts, in the style of pop artistslike John Legend and Demi Lovato. 

📉 AI videos are failing. Shows like AI Seinfeld, have struggled to maintain audience interest despite initial curiosity, with a significant decline in viewership. Are these numbers set to improve, as AI gets better? 

🎮 Atlas launched a 3D gen-AI platform for virtual worldbuilding designed for gaming and virtual experiences. Currently available for commercial use, the platform is soon set to enter alpha testing for public access. 

🚩 Record companies can remove AI generated songs under new Youtube guidelines, if the content mimics an artist’s voice. The platform is also updating its privacy process to flag deep fakes and manipulated content.

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In case you missed it

Check out "White Rabbit," a short film inspired by AI hallucinations, made with Runway's Gen-2.

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