GlossAi can turn full-length videos — or even whole libraries of video and podcast content —into an array of short clips and posts suitable for dissemination across a wide swathe of outlets. The Israel-based firm has raised $8 million in a seed round as it enters an emerging market in which Adobe and AI startup QuickVid are already playing, but no single app has definitely taken hold. GlossAi has the ability to take a video and automatically generate not only a highlight reel, but also things like 15-second snippets, blog posts (from a transcript), slide decks and more. Continue reading GlossAi Content Propagation App Raises $8M in Seed Round

Microsoft unveiled a ChatGPT-powered version of its Bing search engine on Tuesday, following Google’s announcement it is testing a conversational artificial intelligence app called Bard, expected to launch publicly in the coming weeks with applications for products starting with Google Search. Google will next month begin onboarding developers, creators and enterprises for its generative language API (which will initially utilize a lightweight version of LaMDA and eventually offer “a range of models”). Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and Google’s new plans may be putting pressure on Apple and Meta. “A race starts today,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. Continue reading Google and Microsoft Announce AI-Based Search Functions

Google has taken a 10 percent stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for about $300 million. The move follows reports that the Alphabet-owned company has prioritized an acceleration of AI efforts, so as not to get left behind by OpenAI and its increasingly popular ChatGPT app. The cash infusion gives Google a roughly 10 percent stake in the San Francisco-based Anthropic, which Financial Times described as among “a new generation of companies trying to claim a place in the booming field of ‘generative AI,’” a sector that has triggered a veritable “AI arm’s race,” according to FT. Continue reading Google’s Investment in Anthropic Heats Up the AI Arms Race

Alphabet is touting artificial intelligence advances as it faces disappointing Q4 earnings, with CEO Sundar Pichai, who is also CEO of Google, telling analysts the company will soon share its own generative AI system with the public, competing head-on with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E. “In the coming weeks and months, we’ll make these language models available, starting with LaMDA, so that people can engage directly with them,” Pichai said. Google’s parent company reported a 3.6 percent decline in core ad revenue, at $59 billion in Q4, while overall revenue was up 1 percent to $76 billion. Continue reading Alphabet Reveals Major AI Push, Plans to Take On ChatGPT

OpenAI is piloting a $20 per month subscription plan called ChatGPT Plus for its text-generating chatbot. The paid plan offers benefits over the free version that include faster response times, access to ChatGPT even during peak periods and early access to new features. OpenAI will soon begin inviting U.S. customers to subscribe and said it plans to offer the Plus plan in more territories. Since debuting ChatGPT, the company has received feedback from “millions of people” using the viral to draft prose, edit content, brainstorm ideas, educate and assist with programming. Continue reading ChatGPT, the Fastest Growing App, Intros Subscription Plan

Microsoft is expanding its relationship with OpenAI, entering what it calls “the third phase of our long-term partnership” with a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world.” Although the companies did not disclose financial terms, Microsoft’s investment was previously reported as $10 billion. The New York Times reports OpenAI is also in talks to complete a tender offer for as much as $300 million (contingent on the number of employees selling stock), “which would value the company at around $29 billion.” Continue reading Microsoft Invests $10 Billion in OpenAI, Valued at About $29B

ChatGPT came too late (end of November) to make a significant impact on CES this year, but the cacophony of opinions about the generative AI model definitely made its way to Vegas. The timing was perfect. Just as the crypto crash left the hype industry paralyzed, OpenAI launched ChatGPT in what now feels like a nerdy and frustrating tech version of the Rolling Stones’ Altamont concert in ’69 (with computer scientists as the Hells Angels). Make no mistake: this is a landmark achievement in machine learning — perhaps the single greatest since the 2006 paper by Hinton, Salakhutdinov, Osindero and Teh on backpropagation in deep neural networks. However, it’s critical that industries, including M&E, distinguish between hype and reality. Continue reading CES: Generative AI Is Having Its ‘War of the Worlds’ Moment

The idea that gaming might be the industry sector that eventually leads everyone else into the metaverse is being discussed extensively online and elsewhere. During a compelling CES panel, GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi moderated an exploratory conversation about that possibility with a group of today’s leading game innovators and executives. Takahashi noted that the panel’s concept comes in part from Meta vice president of content & play Jason Rubin, who said that the metaverse will need a game engine, therefore game developers will be the first to create it. Continue reading CES: Experts Ask If Gaming Will Lead Shift to the Metaverse

QuickVid is a new AI-driven text-to-video platform aiming for a mass market user base. The tool draws on various generative AI systems to automatically create short-form videos for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. Created by former Meta Platforms programmer Daniel Habib “in a matter of weeks,” QuickVid is quite rudimentary, though Habib says he plans to continue fine tuning and adding features. Unlike Google and Meta have done with their nascent text-to-video systems, QuickVid has bypassed the formalities of research papers and industry previews and jumped directly to a public-facing website. Continue reading QuickVid Uses AI to Create Short Videos from Text Prompts

For four days in Las Vegas, CES 2023 becomes the nucleus of global innovation. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), owner of CES, predicts a show significantly larger than CES 2022, emerging from two pandemic restricted years on January 5. The annual confab will open more than two million square feet of exhibit space with more than 2,400 exhibitors and the expectation of as many as 100,000 attendees, more than double the last show. ETC@USC will have its team in place, on the ground and online, to explore the show floor and over 175 sessions and keynotes. We’ll be reporting on the latest in AI, Web3, multiverses, image displays and other emerging CE tech impacting M&E. Continue reading CES 2023: What to Expect When the Show Opens in January

Microsoft has entered into a multi-year deal with Nvidia to build what they’re calling “one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers,” powered by Microsoft Azure’s advanced supercomputing infrastructure combined with Nvidia GPUs, networking and full stack of AI software to help enterprises train, deploy and scale AI, including large, state-of-the-art models. “AI is fueling the next wave of automation across enterprises and industrial computing, enabling organizations to do more with less as they navigate economic uncertainties,” Microsoft cloud and AI group executive VP Scott Guthrie said of the alliance. Continue reading Microsoft, Nvidia Partner on Azure-Hosted AI Supercomputer