Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group is restructuring its C-suite. Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang announced that on September 10 he will step down to be replaced by Eddie Yongming Wu as CEO and Joe Tsai as chairman. Zhang will continue to run Alibaba’s cloud computing division for now, which the company plans to spin off in an IPO. Tsai is currently Alibaba’s executive vice chairman (and owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets) and Wu is chairman of Alibaba’s Taobao Tmall Commerce Group. Wu will maintain his role with the e-commerce interests along with his new duties at Alibaba, where he will also replace Zhang on the company’s board of directors. Continue reading Alibaba Announces a Major Overhaul to Its Top Management

Meta Platforms has unveiled Voicebox, an AI model that can produce high-quality audio clips and edit pre-recorded audio. It also uses artificial intelligence for speech generation efforts, using what Meta calls “in-context learning” to accomplish tasks it was not specifically trained for. The company says Voicebox is first in class with this type of generalized learning for audio. Untrained tasks include sampling, stylizing and editing. As an editor, it can isolate and remove sounds like car horns and background animal noise while preserving the content and style of the source audio. The multilingual model generates speech in six languages. Continue reading Meta Creates Voicebox Generative AI Model for Audio Synth

Elon Musk and new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino shared a platform vision heavy on creator-commerce partnerships as well as video, which has grown vertical engagement to “more than 10 percent” of user time on the social service. The duo said on a video call with investors last week that the company is pursuing collaborations with entertainment figures, politicians, media publishers and payment services, and that Twitter is securing “money transmitter licenses” in each of the 50 U.S. states as part of Musk’s vision to turn the service into a super app. Continue reading Twitter’s New Business Plan Marks Shift to Video, Commerce

The European Parliament on Wednesday took a major step to legislate artificial intelligence, passing a draft of the AI Act, which puts restrictions on many of what are believed to be the technology’s riskiest uses. The EU has been leading the world in advancing AI regulation, and observers are already citing this developing law as a model framework for global policymakers eager to place guardrails on this rapidly advancing technology. Among the Act’s key tenets: it will dramatically curtail use of facial recognition software and require AI firms such as OpenAI to disclose more about their training data. Continue reading European Union Takes Steps to Regulate Artificial Intelligence

Meta Platforms has debuted what’s being called “ChatGPT for audio.” MusicGen is an AI music generator that can create tunes from natural language or song snippets. The company says MusicGen was trained on 20,000 hours of music, including 10,000 hours of “high-quality” licensed songs and 390,000 instrumental tracks. Meta released MusicGen on GitHub this past weekend, and is currently demoing the app on Facebook’s Hugging Face page. Visitors can generate tunes by describing the sound they want. Among Meta’s prompts: “80s driving pop song with heavy drums and synth pads in the background.” Continue reading Meta’s MusicGen AI Works with Language and Song Prompts

Entertainment and communications leaders explored the impact of artificial intelligence and anticipated the larger changes ahead at the inaugural Synthetic Media Summit, presented by the Entertainment Technology Center at USC in partnership with NAB Amplify, SMPTE and sponsor Wizeline, in conjunction with the USC School of Cinematic Arts and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Speakers addressed how new technology will make VFX cheaper and faster for studios, while for indies it will open new frontiers. Teaming AI with tools such as Unreal Engine is expected to level the playing field and launch a new era of virtual production. Continue reading Thought Leaders Analyze AI at ETC Synthetic Media Summit

Meta Platforms continues to make progress on a mission to develop artificial intelligence that can teach itself to learn how the world works. Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has taken a special interest in developing the new model, called Image Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture, or I-JEPA, which learns by building an internal representation of the outside world and analyzing image abstracts instead of comparing pixels. The approach allows AI techto learn more like humans do, with their ability to figure out complex tasks and adapt to new situations. Continue reading Meta Develops Computer Vision AI That Learns Like Humans

Amazon has tapped artificial intelligence to summarize some of its product reviews. The feature, currently being tested, sifts through customer reviews to create lists of what purchasers like and dislike. The summaries carry the disclaimer “AI-generated from the text of customer reviews.” The move comes as Amazon is also deploying AI to weed out “fake” reviews supplied by “review brokers” who are also now able to leverage the power of AI. Amazon, which has identified phony reviews as a major problem, now uses machine learning models to detect fraudulent behavior by analyzing thousands of data points. Continue reading Amazon Uses AI to Summarize Legit Reviews and Flag Fakes

Salesforce has launched AI Cloud, adding generative AI across all its sales, service, marketing, commerce and IT tools. The AI Cloud suite for enterprise is built around Einstein, which Salesforce says is the first AI for CRM, and its new Einstein GPT Trust Layer, designed to deter large-language models from retaining sensitive customer data. “This separation of sensitive data from the LLM will help customers maintain data governance controls while still leveraging the immense potential of generative AI,” Salesforce says. The AI Cloud platform integrates Salesforce tools including Data Cloud, Flow, MuleSoft and Tableau and works with third party apps. Continue reading Salesforce Debuts ‘AI Cloud’ Turnkey Generative Tools Suite

Google-backed AI startup Runway has released Gen-2, an early entry among commercially available text-to-video models. Previously waitlisted in limited release, the commercial availability is impactful, since text-to-video is predicted as the next big bump in artificial intelligence, following the explosion of AI use generating text and images. While Runway’s solution may not be ready to serve as a professional video tool, this is the next step in development of tech expected to impact media and entertainment. Filmmaker Joe Russo recently predicted that within the next two years, AI may have the ability to create feature films. Continue reading Runway Makes Next Advance in Consumer Text-to-Video AI

Sam Altman continues to call for coordinated international regulation of artificial intelligence. The OpenAI co-founder and CEO visited Seoul this past weekend to meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who issued a statement saying it is important to act “with a sense of speed” in establishing international standards or face unwanted “side effects.” Altman also virtually delivered a keynote address to Chinese AI researchers at an annual conference hosted by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, calling on China to participate in global rulemaking. Continue reading Altman Calls on China to Participate in Global AI Rulemaking

U.S. senators on June 8 introduced two new bipartisan bills with implications for AI, one focused on artificial intelligence, the other more generally on emerging technologies. The first is an accountability act that would require the U.S. and its agencies inform people when AI is used in government interactions. The second bill, the Global Technology Leadership Act, seeks to establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis (OGCA) that evaluates “competitiveness in technology and innovation sectors critical to national security and economic prosperity relative to other countries,” with emphasis on “strategic competitors.” Continue reading Two New Bills Target Innovation, Transparency Regarding AI

Following nine months of difficult repositioning that included layoffs and consolidation as Meta Platforms segued to its “year of efficiency,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently shared his plans for the company’s future with employees at an all-hands meeting. In a discussion that has been reported as an effort to help bolster staff morale during this challenging period, Zuckerberg explained his strategy regarding job cuts, offered insight on the tech giant’s approach to artificial intelligence, and took a swipe at Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset while talking about his goals for VR and the metaverse. Continue reading Zuckerberg Shares Meta Strategy with Staff After Rocky Year

Google DeepMind has discovered a way to create AI algorithms that run faster than those coded by humans, which could lead to more cost-effective software development and computing that is more efficient and sustainable, according to the Alphabet company. The breakthrough, detailed in the journal Nature, is called AlphaDev. It uses a form of machine learning called reinforcement that allows computers to build on their successes, honing strategies independent of human programmers. In this case, faster algorithms were developed for computer-science functions like sorting and hashing. Continue reading Google DeepMind’s AlphaDev Can Create Faster Algorithms

The European Union wants deepfakes and other AI-generated content labeled, and is pressing signatories to its Code of Practice on Online Disinformation to adopt technology that will clearly identify output that is generated or manipulated by machines. “The new AI technologies can be a force for good” that offers “new avenues for increased efficiency and creative expression. But, as always, we have to mention the dark side,” EU values and transparency commissioner Vera Jourova said, citing “new risks and the potential for negative consequences for society.” Continue reading EU Urges Tech Companies to Label All AI-Generated Content