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Would you buy teeth from fake Tom Hanks?
10th October 2023
Welcome to AI Collision,
In todayās collision between AI and our world,
Bonoās in our technology again š±
Tomās future dental plan šŖ„
Dr Seussās ass š
If thatās enough to get your teeth chattering, read onā¦
Oh, and before I get started today, just a heads up that this week and next weāll have some exclusive first-look video content for you as well. But more about that on Thursday.
AI Collision š„ Sphere and Aura will blow your mind
My car has this weird quirk every time I connect my phone via the USB cable.
Normally, I connect the phone via Bluetooth, the carās MMI system (thatās what Audi calls its navigation system) picks it up and I play my Spotify playlists through it ā so far, so good.
However, when I connect the USB cable, the Bluetooth disconnects and it goes into āJukeboxā mode. Itās annoying because while I can still play Spotify, when I press the ānext trackā button on the steering wheel, it opens up a U2 album that exists deep in my iPhoneās memory.
I never put U2 on the phone. I doubt anyone ever put a U2 album on their iPhoneā¦ but we all have it. Weāve all been getting pushed U2 albums on our i-devices since 2014 when Apple and U2 came to some bizarre agreement to push āSongs of Innocenceā onto every damn Apple device out there.
Annoying much?
Anyway, it seems like U2 has become the go-to band for jamming their music into something quite game-changing.
Just over a week ago, the Las Vegas Sphere officially opened with its first concert with none other than U2ās new show (in residence) titled, āUV Achtung Babyā.
From all accounts, it is like nothing else weāve ever seen before in our lives.
Or as AV Club put it, āEveryone agrees: Humanity peaked with U2ās first performance at the Las Vegas Sphereā.
I must admit, while Iām no U2 fan (especially when theyāre rammed down my i-deviceās throat) next time Iām in Vegas, Iām almost certainly going to go see the show.
Thatās because the Las Vegas Sphere looks amazing ā I wouldnāt be surprised if it became one of the new wonders of the world.
Whatās fascinating about the Sphere is that itās owned by a publicly listed company, Sphere Entertainment (NYSE:SPHR).
Sphere Entertainment was actually spun out of Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment (NYSE:MSGE) to separate all of MSGEās live entertainment assets.
Thereās also talk of MSGE building a Sphere in London ā Stratford to be precise.
You can see the impact that the debut show (which was all over social media) had on the SPHR stock price!
So where exactly does AI collide with all this?
Well, thereās no doubt that the future of entertainment, both live and not-live, will be impacted by AI. Weāll save the AI Collision between the music industry and AI for another day, but whatās happening at the Sphere is a glimpse into the whole live music experience of the future, with AI as your friendly guide.
The Sphere is rolling out a number of humanoid robots, complete with AI, as part of its customer experience.
As the company explained in the announcement,
Notably, though, Aura will learn from its experiences with guests, making them more advanced over time and more helpful to visitors.
It might appear as a gimmick, but this is arguably the most advanced live event venue in the world, deploying AI-capable humanoid robotics to help guests.
Expect to see more of this in areas of live events, hospitality, robotics, AI and entertainment all colliding to provide a more enjoyable, immersive and hassle-free experience for paying guests.
Itās a ready-made glimpse into the future, right there, with U2 jamminā away in the backgroundā¦
AI Gone Wild š¤Ŗ
When is Tom Hanks not Tom Hanks?
Thatās not some movie-based joke with a comical punchline. Itās a deep philosophical question.
The answer of course is: when heās an AI avatar in a dental plan ad.
Ok, so maybe the answer is a comical punchline. It would be a joke if only it wasnāt so true.
I guess the line āfunny because itās trueā certainly rings a bell here.
Recently Tom Hanks ā well not quite Tom Hanks ā was used in an advertisement for a dental plan company. The only problem was that it wasnāt Tom Hanks.
It was Tomās AI avatar and voice clone used to advertise this company without Hanksās approval. He obviously had to go public, saying that he had no affiliation with the company and that he hadnāt approved the use of his image or voice.
Whether or not it leads to a legal caseā¦ weāll see, but it certainly opens Pandoraās box.
However, this isnāt new and it certainly isnāt unexpected.
Let me give you an example from my own first-hand experienceā¦
What youāll see below is like what happened to Tom Hanks. The person in the video below is me, but itās also not me.
This is my AI avatar. Also, itās my AI voice clone.
I used an AI video company to set up my own avatar and voice clone to see what AI could do. And while itās a bit weird still and a little on the robotic side from the voice, itās me (more or less).
The thing about this video is that all of it is AI.
The script that my voice is reading is generated by ChatGPT
The AI-me, voice and images, text and transitions of the video ā all generated and rendered through Elai.io.
Now, I had full control over all this, but what if I didnāt?
What if someone else took this and changed the text-to-voice so that it said something I really didnāt want it to say? Or what if the video was used in a way that I really didnāt want it to be usedā¦ such as an unauthorised dental plan commercial?
Or if Iām using this myself in control but publishing it into the public domain, should I have to tell you that itās AI? Or should I expect youāll just know itās AI? Itās pretty clear from this example (especially because the AI avatar renderingĀ really struggles with beards apparently!).
That is, until you canāt tell itās AI.
This is a Pandoraās box that has people worried about scammers, fraud, and the misuse of the image rights of people with a public profile.
These are legitimate concerns and it shows that technology is advancing a lot faster than regulations or rules can keep up.
There is no answer right now as to where this leads. But the use, abuse, and progress of this kind of AI technology is coming at us, at you, and it can be useful and functional, but can also take a nastier turn.
The first step towards figuring out where we end up with AI technology is to at least recognise itās there and itās happening right now.
Boomers & Busters š°
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).
Boom š
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) up 8.59%
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) up 6.12%
Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) up 3.93%
Bust š
Vicarious Surgery (NYSE:RBOT) down 17.82%
Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) down 8.76%
Darktrace (LSE:DARK) down 7.86%
From the hive mind š§
Artificial Polltelligence: The Results Show
Will the AI stocks boom or bust over the next 5 years?
This was the red hot question we wanted you to answer.
The potential answers were,
Boom,
Bust,
The whole market is going to zero.
Well, itās been a week now andā¦
The results are inā¦
The winner, of the inaugural Artificial Polltelligence, isā¦
BOOM!
Thatās right, of all the people that responded to our first poll, an overwhelming number of peopleĀ said they believe that AI stocks wouldĀ boomĀ over the next five years.
Itās no great surprise to me, truth be told. Itās evident from the coverage that AI is getting bigger and the wild performance of AI-focused companies like Nvidia shows that investor appetite for AI stocks is red hot.
That is of course why I put together our special reports:
Make sure to read them in full if you havenāt already.
As for our next AI pollā¦ well, you best keep an eye out on Thursday. The next one I promise is going to make you really think about AI, morality, ethics and the future of our society!
Weirdest AI image of the day
āBanned Dr. Suess booksā ā From r/weirddalle posted by u/unintellisense
ChatGPT quote of the day
Thanks for reading, see you on Thursday. And if youāre enjoying our work, please like, share and leave comments below,