AI

While a shot has yet to be fired, some of the nation’s largest newsrooms are actively taking defensive measures to safeguard their content from ChatGPT, the groundbreaking artificial intelligence chatbot that is seen as a potential aggressor to an already struggling news industry.

Declaring “the age of artificial intelligence is upon us,” the superindie has set up a fund to finance television formats that have AI at their heart.

Charles Jennings: “My years of work in AI have convinced me a huge AI dividend awaits if we can somehow muster the political will to align AI with humanity’s best interests. With so much at stake, it’s time we in the United States got serious about AI policy. We need garden variety federal regulation, sure, but also new models of AI leadership and governance. And we need to consider an idea that would have been unthinkable a year ago. We need to nationalize key parts of AI.”

Some of the world’s biggest advertisers, from food giant Nestle to consumer goods multinational Unilever, are experimenting with using generative AI software like ChatGPT and DALL-E to cut costs and increase productivity, executives say. But many companies remain wary of security and copyright risks as well as the dangers of unintended biases baked into the raw information feeding the software, meaning humans will remain part of the process for the foreseeable future.

Pia Blumenthal, design manager for the AContent Authenticity Initiative at Adobe and co-chair of the UX Task Force at the Coalition for Content, Provenance and Authenticity, is on the front lines against news disinformation. She explains how the proliferation of generative AI is making that job a lot harder. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Google-owned U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant said on Thursday it had seen increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct manipulative information campaigns online in recent years, though the technology’s use in other digital intrusions had been limited so far. Researchers at the Virginia-based company found “numerous instances” since 2019 in which AI-generated content, such as fabricated profile pictures, had been used in politically-motivated online influence campaigns.

For weeks, The Times and the maker of ChatGPT have been locked in tense negotiations over reaching a licensing deal in which OpenAI would pay The Times for incorporating its stories in the tech company’s AI tools, but the discussions have become so contentious that the paper is now considering legal action.

For overworked TV meteorologists pushing out continuously updated weather content across multiple platforms for 10 hours a day, AI may offer the help they need at a time when the industry needs it most.

The New York Times has decided not to join a group of media companies attempting to jointly negotiate with the major tech companies over use of their content to power artificial intelligence. The move is a major blow to efforts to Barry Diller’s efforts to establish an industry united front against Google and Microsoft.

Walt Disney Co. has created a task force to study artificial intelligence and how it can be applied  across the entertainment conglomerate, even as Hollywood writers and actors battle to limit the industry’s exploitation of the technology. Launched earlier this year, before the Hollywood writers strike, the group is looking to develop AI applications in-house as well as form partnerships with startups, according to three sources.

Gary Gensler, who has studied the consequences of artificial intelligence for years, said that the technology could lead to future financial crises.

Following a recent workshop on the potential impact of AI on the communications sector, The FCC has voted to launch a Notice of Inquiry into non-federal spectrum usage and explore how new data sources, methods and technologies like AI would allow the agency to better manage increasingly congested commercial spectrum. This NOI will explore how new tools can promote effective spectrum management and identify new opportunities for innovation, the FCC said.

The technology for morphing flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars has been improving for years. Now it has become an issue in the actors’ strike.

With its seemingly boundless applications for news, AI is likely to deepen the divide between best-in-class and worst-in-class station owners. The better ones will recognize its capacity to augment and expand their reporting capacities.

Channel 1 News, from former Tosh.0 veteran Scott Zabielski and entrepreneur Adam Mosam, plans to use generative AI to create personalized newscasts.

Damning want ad surfaces just days after Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos pledges his commitment to end talent union strikes.

Mipcom Cannes is putting AI and FAST channels at the center of its conference program this year. The annual TV industry get-together this morning unveiled a program that also includes co-production sessions, a new awards show and plans for several Media Mastermind keynote series events. World premiere screenings will be revealeded later.

Amazon, Google and Meta are among the companies that announced the new commitments on Friday as they race to outdo each other with versions of artificial intelligence.

The product, Google Genesis, pitched as a helpmate for journalists, has been demonstrated for executives at The New York Times, The Washington Post and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal.

With up to twice the speed and greater accuracy than human stenographers, AI-based captioning has taken the edge, especially as captioning requirements for content are poised to expand. Pictured: Ai-Media’s LEXI in action.

Newswire launched two tools Tuesday based on artificial intelligence to help marketers, copywriters, and content creators craft and optimize press releases and other content. Almee, an artificial intelligence (AI) writing assistant and recommendation engine, allows users to answer a short questionnaire to generate a press release. Users also can submit text of their own for the technology to review and improve.

Tech giant Meta’s large language model will be available for free commercial and research use, rivaling OpenAI’s GPT-4 that powers the popular ChatGPT tool, the social media company said Tuesday. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is releasing its open source Llama 2 large language model, which can power artificial intelligence tools, in partnership with Microsoft.

Many ads are easier to make with the fast-improving technology. It also poses a threat to an industry already in flux. Pictured: A Virgin Voyages campaign using artificial intelligence allowed users to prompt a digital avatar of Jennifer Lopez to issue tens of thousands of customized video invitations to a cruise.

Media bosses keep promising AI will benefit journalists. But who’s actually using the tools — and to what end?

AI is transforming broadcast compliance, and the right tool provides essential added features through automatic speech recognition. Broadcasters can leverage this technology to gain actionable insights and automate content indexation, increasing their reach and creating new monetization strategies.

The agency sent OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, a letter this week over consumer harms and the company’s security practices.