🎬️ Hollywood Replacing Actors with AI

Hey TEDchats Fam!

Happy Friday! For decades, people have speculated that one day films might be made without actors at all. With AI now stepping onto the Hollywood stage, that prediction is inching closer to reality. Lionsgate’s new partnership with an AI startup could revolutionize filmmaking—but at what cost to the people behind the magic?

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🍕 QUICK BITES

Lionsgate Teams Up with AI to Revolutionize Filmmaking

Lionsgate, the studio behind John Wick and The Hunger Games, has signed a groundbreaking deal with AI startup Runway, allowing the company to train its generative models on the studio's expansive catalog of films and TV shows. The collaboration is set to offer filmmakers cutting-edge tools to augment their creative processes, from pre-production visualizations to post-production enhancements. While the studio sees this as a cost-efficient way to innovate, the deal also stirs ongoing concerns in Hollywood about AI's impact on jobs, particularly in light of recent Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike tensions (see official announcement).

OpenAI's o1: A Brilliant Overthinker?

OpenAI's latest model, o1, codenamed "Strawberry", brings advanced reasoning to the forefront by "thinking" before delivering answers, making it ideal for tackling complex problems. However, this approach can lead to overly detailed and lengthy responses for simple questions, such as a 700-word breakdown on where to find oak trees. While it excels at multi-step reasoning for bigger decisions, its higher cost and tendency to overanalyze may make it less practical for everyday use. Proceed with caution—and a budget! (see OpenAI’s o1 demo)

Newsom’s AI Dilemma: Balancing Innovation with Catastrophe Prevention

Governor Gavin Newsom is caught between protecting California’s booming AI industry and addressing the looming risks of AI. SB-1047, a bill designed to prevent AI from causing catastrophic events, faces criticism for its potential chilling effect on innovation. While Newsom remains undecided on the bill, he has signed five others addressing real-world AI issues, including election misinformation, sexually explicit deepfakes, and AI use in Hollywood. His balancing act continues, with two weeks left to make a decision on SB-1047 (read the bill).

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🤯 MIND SPARK

LinkedIn’s AI Data Grab: Are You In? LinkedIn has quietly opted users into a setting allowing their data to be used for training AI models without explicit consent. While you can opt out moving forward, any data already used is permanent. If you’d rather not contribute, you’ll need to disable the setting in the "Data for Generative AI Improvement" tab and submit a separate objection form for other machine learning activities (see LinkedIn's new AI FAQ page).

Veo Powers Up YouTube Shorts: Google's cutting-edge AI video model, Veo, is set to be integrated into YouTube Shorts later this year. Creators will soon be able to generate cinematic backgrounds and standalone six-second video clips, bringing higher quality and seamless storytelling to short-form content (see YouTube’s announcement).

$30B AI Megafund on the Horizon: BlackRock, Microsoft, and MGX are teaming up to launch a massive $30 billion AI-focused fund, with the potential to reach $100 billion in total investments. The initiative aims to supercharge data center infrastructure and address the energy demands of advancing AI technologies, with Nvidia also contributing its expertise (see Microsoft’s announcement).

Google to Flag AI-Generated Images: Google will soon introduce a feature in Google Images, Lens, and Android’s Circle to Search that flags AI-generated or edited images using C2PA metadata. While this move aims to curb the spread of deepfakes and misinformation, the adoption of these standards faces hurdles, as many popular AI tools still don’t support C2PA (see Google’s announcement).

Sam Altman Steps Back from OpenAI's Safety Committee: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stepped down from the internal Safety and Security Committee, leaving oversight of the company’s critical safety decisions to an independent board. This move comes amid growing concerns over OpenAI's governance and Altman’s stance on AI regulation, all while the company intensifies its lobbying efforts and targets a potential $150 billion valuation (see OpenAI’s announcement).

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