AI in the Arts – Spotlight #467
News

Good Monday Morning

It’s July 24th. Paralyzing heat creeps into the Midwest this week and the east by late this week. Our friends at Moms Clean Air Force have published a helpful fact sheet, Keeping Your Family Safe in Extreme Heat.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,247 words — about 4 1/2 minutes to read.

3 Stories to Know

1. Apple has threatened to remove services like FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than comply with a potential update to its surveillance laws, which would demand immediate disabling of security features without public knowledge. The company argues that such changes would threaten global data security and infringe on privacy rights.

2.The Federal Reserve announced its FedNow® Service, which lets banks and credit unions instantly move money for their customers at any time. Starting with 35 early adopters, the system allows quicker transactions, including getting paid instantly and settling bills in real-time. For everyday people, this means faster access to funds and more control over spending and savings timing.

3.Reflecting the growing value for generative AI and the arts, Big Tech is increasing prices. Microsoft’s new AI tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot, will cost an extra $30 per user per month. Meanwhile Spotify is expected this week to raise its U.S. subscription prices, following similar moves by Apple Music and Amazon Music. 

Spotlight on Arts & The Concern Over AI

Image by MidJourney 5.2, prompted by George Bounacos

Generative AI is at the heart of arts discussions with new Hollywood projects effectively stalled and artists such as musicians and painters raising legal and ethical objections to the use of AI in the arts. 

The disruption is occurring throughout the arts, not just in movie and television productions although its successful use there has led to two union strikes. Artists are worried about disrupted compensation, the use of their past works to derive new computer based works, and whether we non-artists will accept AI-created art as equivalent or superior to art created by people.

How AI in the Arts Already Disrupted Music and Graphics

We told you three months ago about “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song credited to music superstars Drake and The Weeknd,  but generated by voice cloning and other software. Neither artist had performed on the track, and while music companies moved fast to remove the song from social media, it’s still easy to hear that and thousands of other computer-related compositions.

The U.S. Copyright Office ruled earlier this year that art created solely by AI is ineligible for copyright protections and said that any protected works would have to include substantial human involvement. Last week, a judge said that he is inclined to dismiss a case against popular art generators Stability AI and MidJourney and platform Deviant Art. 

Comedian and author Sarah Silverman and two other authors have filed a separate suit against Meta and ChatGPT owner Open AI that alleges that large language models built by those companies accessed their works while being trained and thus infringed their copyright.

Artists say that these powerful programs can only create derivative works. Another critical concept woven throughout this issue is the idea of “fair use,” that is, the ability for later works to use elements verbatim from an earlier work to provide reporting, criticism, parody, or research.

What About Jobs?

Automation sometimes radically changes job markets. Writers at G/O Media, publisher of The Onion, Gizmodo, and other popular websites, savaged the company after layoffs were announced and then a “modest test” of AI content was announced.

Axios shared last week that it had created a demonstration video using Showrunner AI, a new app that created a five minute South Park themed video featuring an Axios writer and former actor that was generated by text prompts. While critics quickly dismissed that video as a distraction, a developer used ChatGPT to write the remaining two novels in the Game of Thrones book series.

AI is even threatening fashion model roles. Jeans maker Levi Strauss said this spring that it will create virtual models to show off its clothing. 

You can be certain that AI in the arts is a major concern for anyone you know in any creative field. Ethical, legal, and multibillion dollar commercial issues take a long time to resolve. The Hollywood strike may be over soon after contract terms are reached, but the conundrum of AI in the arts is going to be with us a long time.

Practical AI

Quotable: “47% of Americans have used ChatGPT for stock recommendations.”
— A Motley Fool study covering ChatGPT’s first six months of public access.

Noteworthy: Google co-founder Segey Brin, the world’s 11th richest person, has returned to work at Google several days a week and is meeting with the team assembling Google’s new AI model called Gemini, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Tool of the Week: Google AppSheet is now being offered at no additional charge on paying (or free nonprofit) Google Workspace accounts. The program allows users to create rudimentary no-code apps based on spreadsheets.

Did That Really Happen? — Yes, Sen. Tuberville Reneged On Vet Donations

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has single-handedly blocked the promotions of more than 250 senior military officers, has reneged on donating his salary to veteran’s charities. Tuberville made a campaign pledge three years ago to “donate every dime” of his Senate salary to veterans in Alabama. Detailed research shows that he hasn’t made any of the donations.

Following Up — Biden Gets Big Tech AI Pledge

The Biden Administration gained a voluntary pledge commitment from 7 leading Big Tech firms to share data about their algorithms, develop and use watermarks to identify AI created data, and allow independent safety experts access. The pledge can be enforced by the FTC.

Protip — iPhone Can Diagnose Car Warning Lights

An iPhone using the upcoming iOS 17 can decipher your car’s warning lights and dashboard controls as part of its Visual Look Up upgrade. 9 to 5 Mac has details.

Screening Room — Boy (cat) Band & Meow Mix

The new boy (cat) band with the jingle remix is Tabby 5, and that’s former *N SYNC singer JC Chasez at the end.

Science Fiction World —  Amazon One Palm Payment Rolling Out at Whole Foods

The number of places where people can pay by palm recognition will double in the next few months. Amazon announced last week that its hand scanning technology will be available at Whole Food locations by the end of this year. The technology is also used for age verification services at arenas and casinos.

 Coffee Break — “An Online Network Called Internet…”

Happy 30th birthday to this NBC news story about being able to send electronic mail to Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, or Billy Idol on a new-fangled computer network. A helpful graphic displays each of their email addresses in this nostalgic clip and shares a prediction about video conference availability by 2010.

 Sign of the Times

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What to Know About Chinese Tech Companies – Spotlight #466
Articles

Good Monday Morning


It’s July 17. Despite annual attendance approaching 150,000 people, expect little news when Comic-Con begins in San Diego on Thursday. With actors and writers on strike, studios including Marvel, Lucasfilm, Sony, Netflix, and Universal have reduced their presence or canceled events.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,338 words — about 5 minutes to read.

3 Stories to Know

1. Uber Eats purged 8,000 ghost kitchen listings beginning in March after the number of listings had doubled in only one year. The company’s new rules require that a ghost kitchen menu differs at least 60% from the restaurant’s regular menu. Ghost kitchen brands operated by famous restaurants include Pasqually’s (Chuck E. Cheese), Conviction Chicken (TGI Fridays), and Thrilled Cheese (IHOP).

2.Twitter stopped receiving privacy auditing services from Ernst & Young because of outstanding invoices totaling more than $500,000. As Twitter filed a complaint last week asking a judge to block the FTC from monitoring its data security, Elon Musk and Republican allies on the House Judiciary Committee misrepresented the FTC’s involvement. Twitter signed a consent decree in 2011 to have a third party monitor its data privacy after being accused of deceiving consumers and putting their data at risk.

3. Health data for as many as 11 million Americans is available for sale on the dark web. HCA announced the hack on July 10 and originally reported no clinical health data was included. Industry website Data Breaches later obtained examples of breached data that included a lung cancer assessment.

Spotlight on Chinese Tech Companies

Apptopia top Android Apps w/e July 15. 4 of them are made in China.

It is difficult to keep up with all the news about Chinese tech companies. The hacking of U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, announced last week, has escalated the situation.

Here’s our look at what’s happening and companies you might want to rethink.

Hacking

Chinese exports have been tempered by the U.S., and the Commerce Department has repeatedly threatened Beijing over its involvement with Russia’s tech industry. Raimondo became a prime target of a Chinese hacking attack that officials say began in May and lasted for weeks. The attacks also targeted high level officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It is not the first time U.S. government emails have been compromised. Russian hackers successfully breached multiple agencies in 2015.

E-Commerce: Temu & Shein

Temu and Shein are two of the biggest e-commerce success stories ever, but based on Wired’s analysis of Temu’s costs, the company loses an average of $30 per order and hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This does not include $14 million spent on Super Bowl advertising last January. A company source told Wired that the company is targeting annual spending of $1,500 per household. That is possible because of a legal loophole that allows Temu to ship orders under $800 duty-free to the U.S.

Temu and Shein both exploit that loophole, according to a June House Select Committee report, but the committee focused on allegations that captive Uyghur Muslims were being forced to work for the companies. According to the Australian press, Shein’s clothing contains toxic chemicals and contributes to microplastic pollution.

Engagement & Attention — TikTok, Cap Cut, Lemon8

When Congress and other nontechnical organizations criticize Chinese tech companies involved in social media, they often miss the mark. Due to its superior algorithm, TikTok has been able to reach previously unknown engagement levels compared to Meta and Western social media companies.

In reality, TikTok is a broadcasting platform with social media features. Consider it more like a TV network with a like button. In the real world, TikTok isn’t capable of hacking a phone or spying on your content choices any more than American companies. It is the ability to create and distribute compelling influence operations that poses the real threat. Last year, FBI director Christopher Wray warned against the app for those very reasons, but Luddite-like lawmakers and state officials have ignored staff recommendations and instead raised unrealistic security concerns.

High Tech — Hikvision, Huawei, ZTE

A video surveillance company called Hikvision is often sanctioned by Western governments and has been involved in a number of controversies, including poor security, involvement in Chinese genocide efforts, and espionage. Most recently, Russia invaded Ukraine with support from Hikvision. Just last week, industry trade group IPVM announced that child pornography was being sold online by hackers who exploited the security holes in the company’s products and also used the company’s connectivity features to sell child abuse images on Hikvision’s own networks.

Meanwhile Huawei and ZTE are phone tech firms that have been effectively banned in the U.S., Japan, and Australia, but still remain a popular low cost option in other countries. Both companies have assisted the Chinese government efforts in holding Uyghurs in internment camps. In addition to industrial spying, the companies engaged in espionage efforts in Iran and North Korea.

Next: Chinese tech companies have lost nearly $1 trillion in market capitalization in two years. A good deal of the loss comes from internal Chinese government and financial pressure on those companies that may soon be lifted.

Practical AI

Quotable: “I don’t feel that this kind of technology is yet at a place where I would want it in my family’s health care journey … but it takes the places in health care where AI can be beneficial and expands them by 10-fold.”

— Google Senior Research Director Greg Corrado to the Wall Street Journal about the company’s new medical AI product that reportedly has a diagnosis rate similar to human doctors.

Noteworthy: The FTC has opened an investigation into ChatGPT maker OpenAI to determine the amount of consumer harm from privacy and accuracy concerns.

Tool of the Week: Ask Your PDF summarizes PDFs and other file types and lets you question the chatbot about the data. There are a few extra steps because ChatGPT doesn’t directly accept uploaded documents, but it’s a nice indicator of where we’re going.

 Waiting in the Wings

  • How algorithms are automatically denying medical claims
  • Amazon’s data about you expands beyond shopping

Put your email address in the form at this link and you’ll get a free copy of Spotlight each Monday morning to start your week in the know.

If you’re already a free subscriber, would you please forward this to a friend who could use a little Spotlight in their Monday mornings? It would really help us out.

Trends, Spends & TikTok

Did That Really Happen? — Yes, Rep. Burchett Claimed UFO Coverup

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) appeared on a Fox News segment last week and accused the U.S. government of a decades long cover-up regarding UFOs. Snopes has details and a video of the wacky interview.

 Following Up — IRS Considers Tax Filing Business

Following abuses by major tax preparation companies that led to their ouster from the IRS’ free tax filing portal, the agency announced that it was entering a limited pilot to develop its own software. The IRS originally created a free tax filing portal to avoid directly competing with products from companies like H & Block and TurboTax.

Protip — Printing Directly from Android Phones

Stop emailing files to yourself. Digital Trends shows you how to print directly from your phone. There’s also a 2021 link there for iPhones if you need those directions.

Screening Room —  Progressive’s Dr. Rick

The always funny Progressive pitchman helps new homeowners navigate social media.

Science Fiction World —  Drones, Big Drones

Companies are racing to build new drone equipment that functions like a low-flying satellite above commercial jets while not landing for weeks. Don’t mistake these for your personal use drones. These have wingspans stretching 80 feet or more.

Coffee Break — Take the Font Finder

This really smart interactive feature lets you test your reading speed against different fonts and choose the one that works best for you. I’ve already changed the font in my word processor. 

Sign of The Times

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Articles

Good Monday Morning


It’s July 10. Amazon Prime Days are tomorrow and Wednesday. The FTC has sued Amazon for what it calls deceptive behavior in coaxing people to sign up for Prime and when they try to cancel. Check out Protip below to learn how you can spot dark patterns.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,034 words–about 4 minutes to read.

3 Stories to Know

1. The Canadian government is battling Meta and Google. The Online News Act of Canada takes effect at the end of this year and mandates that digital platforms pay news organizations for the content they use. Meta and Google both oppose the law and have threatened to block Canadians from accessing news content. A similar bill was passed in Australia in 2021. After originally blocking news content, the companies eventually paid millions of dollars in order to comply.

2. New FTC rules aim to crack down on businesses selling and manipulating online reviews. As many as 40% of online reviews are fake, according to advocacy groups. New rules create tens of thousands of dollars in penalties each time a consumer seesa fake review. In the absence of adequate fraud prevention, critics say platform providers, such as Amazon and Yelp, should be held accountable by the FTC. Others worry that the new rules will stifle free speech. 

3. You’re almost certainly eligible to receive money from Google and Facebook from class-action lawsuit payouts. Sometimes they’re nothing to sneeze at. Our family received $120 from Yahoo! earlier this year, although the Google and Facebook payouts are expected to be much lower.  

To file for Google if you used the search engine between 2006 and 2013, start here to get a “Class Member ID” and then file here by July 31.

To file for Facebook/Meta if you used that network between 2007 and 2022, file here by August 25.

Spotlight on Threads

Image by MidJourney 5.2, prompted by George Bounacos

Threads, the new social media network, launched last week and became the most successful app launch in history. By Sunday, Threads boasted nearly 100 million accounts and had left Twitter owner Elon Musk ranting on his network that, “Zuck is a cuck.” Musk had previously threatened to sue Meta over similarities between Twitter and Threads.

Threads offers little that is inherently new. For now, it’s tied to Instagram and Threads users can follow their Instagram followers on the new app by clicking a button. The software functions as if Twitter and Instagram were merged. Messages are limited to 500 characters and can include links, images, or emoji. The Instagram integration makes it easy to share content between the two apps.

Some features are unavailable or different from Twitter. There’s no edit button or trending topics. You also can’t change your feed to only show the accounts you follow. You can’t send private messages either. And surprisingly, there is no advertising yet. There’s also one caveat.

Executives say that because Threads was built on top of Instagram instead of as a stand-alone service, canceling your Threads account will also cancel your Instagram account. 

Using Twitter as a public square, journalists and politicians gather and sometimes create news on the popular social network that shot to viral fame in 2006. Twitter lost some relevance in recent years, a slide that Musk’s purchase accelerated. Musk has implemented new account limits and restrictions while continuing to post bragging, capricious content.

Meanwhile, government agencies, large consumer brands, and everyone in between is trying to understand how to effectively use and report on Threads. Consider it an online gold rush where you can hang out with tens of millions of like-minded people.

Practical AI

Quotable: “Don’t ask an LLM to review your source code and find a particular bug” – an internal Adobe email covered by Business Insider that tells employees they  can’t use personal email accounts or corporate credit cards when signing up for AI tools.

Noteworthy: Video game platform Steam is “quietly removing” titles that include content produced by generative AI over copyright liability concerns.

Tool of the Week:Microsoft is offering a free certificate program on LinkedIn Learning about Generative AI. There are undoubtedly plenty of such programs, but this one is offered by the company that invested $10 billion in ChatGPT creator Open AI.

 Waiting in the Wings

  • How algorithms are automatically denying medical claims
  • Amazon’s data about you expands beyond shopping

Put your email address in the form at this link and you’ll get a free copy of Spotlight each Monday morning to start your week in the know.

If you’re already a free subscriber, would you please forward this to a friend who could use a little Spotlight in their Monday mornings? It would really help us out.

Trends, Spends & TikTok

Did That Really Happen? — Oregon Has More Voters Than Residents

The latest election lies have social media users falsely claiming that there are more registered voters in Oregon than residents. The Associated Press debunks that here.

Following Up —  Lawyers Encouraged to Seek Forgiveness

Remember the lawyers who used ChatGPT for research and included the program’s made-up case citations in a brief? A Manhattan judge has fined them and ordered the pair to send his opinion to all the judges erroneously named. 

Protip — How Dark Patterns Change Your Behavior Online

Let this be the article if you only ever read one thing we’ve linked to or covered. The Pudding is home to some of the best data visualization projects online, and this particular piece shows point-by-point how dark patterns work. With serendipitous timing, one of the 16 examples in the project is Amazon, the company sued recently by the FTC for deceiving consumers using dark patterns. 

Screening Room —  Bud Light

The embattled beer maker takes on summer party mishaps in this fun 60 second spot.

Science Fiction World —  Replacing Undersea Cables 

Those massive undersea data cables that allow global connectivity may one day be replaced by lasers. A team of scientists in Zurich has successfully tested similar data speeds using lasers between their facility and a target more than 30 miles away. 

Coffee Break — Real or Not Quiz

Try your hand at distinguishing whether these marketing images are photographs or AI-generated images.

Sign of the Times

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