Newsom Signs Executive Order to Rein in AI and other news
After more than a year of turmoil from artists protecting their work from generative AI platforms, with some going to court over copyright violations, a new open letter was signed by, no doubt, a different group of artists who use generative AI in their workflow. But it’s not all praise for the platforms because a group of well-known authors is suing Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement. Elsewhere, big-name actors are protecting and monetizing their AI likeness, and AI-generated artwork can’t be copyrighted…yet.
Newsom Signs Executive Order to Rein in AI
California Governor Gavin Newsome signed an executive order for state agencies to look at the benefits and risks of AI-generated text, images, and other content. The order will first examine the potential benefits of using generative AI content in the workplace, as well as training needs, and potential risks to individuals, communities, and government workers. The focus will be on high-risk use cases, such as where the technology is used in decisions affecting access to goods and services. In addition, it will look at cybersecurity risks from bad actors, poorly guarded government systems, and potential risks to public health and safety, the economy, and democratic and legal processes.
Directors Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro Against AI
Hollywood Directors Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro have expressed doubts over the potential of AI to revolutionize filmmaking. Burton described AI as, “What it does is it sucks something from you…” and … “It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.” It reminds me of similar concerns when photography was first invented 150 years ago. Back then, prominent artists and thinkers were cautious about the new technology and how it would never compare to painting. Of course, photography didn’t replace painting, it revolutionized image-making. On the other hand, Guillermo del Toro is “worried about natural stupidity.” In other words, “If anyone wants movies made by AI, let them get it immediately. I don’t care about people who want to be fulfilled and get something shitty, quickly,” he said, “why not buy a printer, print the Mona Lisa and say you made it.” Toro criticizes the need for instant gratification, the deterioration of the artist’s craft, and the threat to authorship and authenticity.
US Rejects AI Copyright For First Midjourney Art Winner
The US Copyright Office Review Board has rejected copyright projection for the AI-generated artwork that gained a lot of attention last year when it won a Colorado State Fair art contest. US copyright states that human authorship is required for registration. I first wrote about the controversy the win caused and the tsunami that followed from artists protecting their authorship from data-scraping AI art generators like Midjourney and Dall-E. Last August, artist Jason M. Allen created Theatre D’opera Spatial using the generative AI platform, Midjourney, and won in the fair’s “Digital Arts/Digitally Manipulated Photography” category. To attain copyright, the artist must formally acknowledge that the AI-generated content is not his or her own creation when applying for copyright registration. Allen refused to disclaim the AI-generated content and the artwork was rejected for US copyright registration on the basis of non-human authorship. Expect the rules to change because one could argue that a photograph created by a digital camera and edited in Adobe Photoshop is not human-created.
AI Altered Content in Political Ads Require Discloser
Google and YouTube will require that political ads using AI must provide full disclosure of synthetically altered content. Election ads that use generative AI to alter people or events must include a prominent disclaimer. The new regulations start in November, a year before the US elections and in the run-up to local campaigns in the European Union, India, and elsewhere. Generative AI technology has advanced so much in the past year that identifying real images, videos or audio clips is getting tougher.
Artists Defend Generative AI in Open Letter
Creative Commons published an open letter signed by more than 160 artists stating that AI tools have been used in the creative process for some time and that there are misconceptions about how artists use AI in their workflow. Rather than AI copying other work with limited human input, AI-generated artwork is as creative and experimental as any other art form. The letter was addressed to Senator Chuck Schumer and members of Congress and comes after months of debate about authorship and numerous copyright lawsuits by artists to protect their work. The Creative Commons artists hope that Congress will see their point of view in ongoing discussions about generative AI regulation.
Museum Exhibition Created by ChatGPT
ChatGPT will curate a new exhibition at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art. The challenge was set by chief curator Marshall Price to see if AI could organize an exhibition and potentially but not seriously replace his curational staff. The exhibition, “Act as if You Are a Curator,” runs until mid-January and is one of the first exhibitions that uses AI to organize a program. ChatGPT was used to identify themes and develop a checklist of 21 artworks owned by the museum with directions about where to place them in the exhibition. Thankfully for the human curators, ChatGPT didn’t perform as well and lacked expertise and mistitled objects. The museum collection has nearly 14,000 objects and ChatGPT was used to make the search process less time-consuming.
Google Launches AI Digital Futures Project
Google announced the Digital Futures Project aimed at bringing together a variety of voices to address questions and concerns about AI. The project will support researchers and encourage debate on public policy and the responsible development of AI applications. Google has $20 million in grant money to support academic institutions and leading think tanks. The Institute for Security and Technology, MIT Work of the Future, and the Brookings Institution were some of the first grant recipients.
Authors Sue OpenAI and Meta For Copyright Infringement
Michael Chabon and four other well-known authors have brought a class action lawsuit against OpenAI and Meta claiming that their published work was used to train the companies’ large language AI models. Chabon, along with Matthew Klam, Rachel Louise Snyder, David Henry Hwang, and Ayelet Waldman, filed a complaint in the Northern District of California demanding a federal jury trial against the two two tech giants. The lawsuit comes after a number of lawsuits filed by artists with similar concerns against the big tech giants. Author and comedian Sarah Silverman sued OpenAI and Meta in August for copyright infringement.
Actors Protect Their AI Likeness With Metaphysic Pro
Actors are taking proactive ownership of the data used to reproduce their AI likeness. Startup company Metaphysic AI says its Metaphysic Pro tool can provide protection around issues of impersonation and compensation of their likeness. The company says that actors Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, and Octavia Spenser are using their platform and have scanned and stored their likeness within the platform. Users can sign up for a full face or body scan in a studio. The scans contain the characteristics that make up the individual and are stored in their database. Users retain the traits required to train an AI model on their likeness and voice. Users can also upload images from their smartphones. The London-based Metaphysic AI time was launched in 2021 and is best known for its deepfake avatar of Elvis Presley’s “live performance” on America’s Got Talent and for “Deep Tom Cruise,”
Amazon Uses Generative AI to Write Sales Listings
Amazon released its new generative AI tool that creates copy for sales listings based on written prompts. The tool is designed to simplify the selling process for users selling items on the e-commerce platform. Users can enter brief descriptions of the product for sale and the AI tool will generate the copy. Amazon’s large language model (LLM), a computer algorithm that processes language inputs and predicts words based on previous inputs, was originally built to support its smart assistant, Alexa.
Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood’s Ginger Media & Entertainment, a Ph.D. Researcher in artificial intelligence and visual arts media — specifically grief tech, digital afterlife, AI, death and mourning practices, AI and photography, biometrics, security, and policy, and an author, writer, artist photographer, and filmmaker. Listen to the Podcast — The Digital Afterlife of Grief.
