Fuck AI

Jason Allen, the AI "artist" whose image he created with Midjourney won a fine arts competition two years ago, is still mad that the government won't let him copyright his opus — and, in an amazing lack of self-awareness, is also crying that his work is being stolen as a result.

The prizewinning image, "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial," was deemed to not wholly exhibit human authorship because a significant amount of it — as Allen himself disclaimed — was AI-generated, the US Copyright Office said in a ruling last September. As such, Allen could only claim credit for specific portions of the image that he created with Photoshop — not the thing as a whole.

Now he's making another appeal, Creative Bloq reports, complaining that he's losing money to the tune of "several million dollars" because, without a copyright, his work is being used without his approval. Does this argument ring any bells?

Udemy, an e-learning platform with more than 250,000 online classes, recently announced that it would train generative AI on the classes that its users contribute to the site. Not only were class teachers automatically opted in to having their classes used as training, Udemy said teachers would have only a three-week "window" to opt-out of training. That window has now passed.

"We want to officially announce that the opt-out period for our Generative AI Program (GenAI Program) begins today, August 21st, and goes through September 12th. The choice to participate in the GenAI program is yours. If you want to participate, no action is needed!," Udemy said in a post on its community forums August 21. In an "Instructor Generative AI Policy" document, it says it plans to offer "Annual Periods designated by us" during which instructors can opt-out of having their classes trained on, and said that when people opt-out of training, it will remove the instructors' classes from its dataset "by the end of the calendar year." It has also told instructors that "By opting out, you'll lose access to all AI features and benefits, which may affect your course visibility and potential earnings." With the first opt-out window having passed, instructors are now seeing a grayed-out option in their settings if they didn't know about the window or would like to opt-out now.

... and neither does the author (or so I believe - I made them both up).

On the other hand, AI is definitely good at creative writing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/dinosaurs-found-roaming-playground.html

Note this is problematic for a number of reasons including someone who wants to summarize a real article/thread won’t be informed an accurate summary may be impossible.

No thanks, if I have a powerful PC/laptop with NPU. I prefer to run AI locally on Linux

“Many developers say AI coding assistants make them more productive, but a recent study set forth to measure their output and found no significant gains. Use of GitHub Copilot also introduced 41% more bugs, according to the study from Uplevel”

study referenced: Can GenAI Actually Improve Developer Productivity? (requires email)

Consumers could end up paying the (personalized) price as AI becomes more popular, FTC Chair Lina Khan recently warned.

At the 2024 Fast Company Innovation Festival, Khan said that although AI may be beneficial, it's already becoming some of the FTC's "bread and butter fraud work."

"Some of these AI tools are turbocharging that fraud because they allow some of these scams to be disseminated much more quickly, much more cheaply, and on a much broader scale," she said.

AI is already helping automate classic online scams like phishing and even introducing new, alarming frauds like voice cloning that can target unsuspecting consumers.

But Khan also took the opportunity to talk about a different way AI could be used to target consumers: retailers using surveillance technology and customer data to change the prices they offer to specific shoppers. Khan said the FTC is looking into AI's potential role in increasing the risk of price discrimination.

Archive : https://archive.is/Hzxt1

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20268162

For the past few years, a conspiracy theory called "Dead Internet theory" has picked up speed as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT increasingly generate text and even social media interactions found online. The theory says that most social Internet activity today is artificial and designed to manipulate humans for engagement.

On Monday, software developer Michael Sayman launched a new AI-populated social network app called SocialAI that feels like it's bringing that conspiracy theory to life, allowing users to interact solely with AI chatbots instead of other humans. It's available on the iPhone app store, but so far, it's picking up pointed criticism.

After its creator announced SocialAI as "a private social network where you receive millions of AI-generated comments offering feedback, advice & reflections on each post you make," computer security specialist Ian Coldwater quipped on X, "This sounds like actual hell." Software developer and frequent AI pundit Colin Fraser expressed a similar sentiment: "I don’t mean this like in a mean way or as a dunk or whatever but this actually sounds like Hell. Like capital H Hell."

Lionsgate has become the first significant Hollywood studio to go all-in on AI. The company today announced a “first-of-its-kind” partnership with AI research company Runway to create and train an exclusive new AI model based on its portfolio of film and tv content.

Lionsgate’s exclusive model will be used to generate what it calls “cinematic video” which can then be further iterated using Runway’s technology. The goal is to save money – “millions and millions of dollars” according to Lionsgate studio vice chairman Michael Burns – by having filmmakers and creators use its AI model to replace artists in production tasks such as storyboarding.

In corporate jargon terminology, Burns said that AI will be used to “develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities.” He added that “several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process.”

As AI deepfakes sow doubt in legitimate media, anyone can claim something didn't happen.

Original post.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20513234

• Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of World Wide Technology, told CNBC that people are “too smart” to accept artificial intelligence won’t alter their work environment.

• Business leaders shouldn’t “BS” employees about the impact of AI on jobs, Kavanaugh said, adding that they should be as transparent and honest as possible.

• Kavanaugh, who has a net worth of $7 billion, stressed that overall he’s an optimist when it comes to AI and its ability to improve productivity.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19885024

Media and search engines nowadays need a flag system and a filter for AI junk results

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19846762

        (archived link)

This article is perhaps the most idiotic pro-AI propaganda yet published on a mainstream news site, but I gotta emphasize 'yet'.