Commentary and a selection of the most important recent news, articles, and papers about AI.
Today’s Brief Commentary
As I’ve mentioned before, discussions about agentic AI are accelerating rapidly. Generative AI still dominates, but the combination of GenAI with orchestrated agent roles is becoming more widely understood. I’ve included tutorials by IBM and NVIDIA in today’s links for you to explore this further.
When I’m not working, I often read science fiction, with Jack McDevitt being one of my favorite authors. His characters frequently embark on long space journeys, and to pass the time, they watch what we’d call films. The twist? They become characters in these narratives, seamlessly integrated by advanced technology. The spaceship is AI-controlled, and perhaps the AI even generates the personalized film experience.
Is this yet another sci-fi concept that’s only a few years away from reality? It seems possible. Film and voice actors, along with those in visual effects and animation, are concerned about the implications. One of my links covers a recent conference in Portugal, where these issues were discussed at length, sparking both outrage and constructive conversation.
General News, Articles, and Analyses
Neural Network Model Restores Damaged Historical Artifacts From Photos
https://aibusiness.com/ml/neural-network-model-restores-damaged-historical-artifacts-from-photos
Author: Berenice Baker
(Monday, November 4, 2024) “Researchers have developed a novel neural network model that uses old photos to reconstruct damaged cultural heritage objects as restored 3D virtual reality (VR) images using old photos.”
Agentic AI
Agentic AI: 4 reasons why it’s the next big thing in AI research
https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/agentic-ai
Author: Cole Stryker
(Tuesday, October 8, 2024) “There are good reasons to think that the hype around agentic AI is justified.”
What Is Agentic AI? | NVIDIA Blog
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/what-is-agentic-ai/
Author: Erik Pounds
(Tuesday, October 22, 2024) “Agentic AI connects to enterprise data and uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems.”
Microsoft’s new Magentic-One system directs multiple AI agents to complete user tasks | VentureBeat
Author: Emilia David
(Thursday, November 7, 2024) “To this end, Microsoft researchers recently unveiled a new multi-agent infrastructure called Magnetic-One that allows a single AI model to power various helper agents that work together to complete complex, multi-step tasks in different scenarios. Microsoft calls Magnetic-One a generalist agentic system that can “fully realize the long-held vision of agentic systems that can enhance our productivity and transform our lives.””
Music and the Arts
As generative AI gets better, what will happen to artists? | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/05/as-generative-ai-gets-better-what-will-happen-to-artists/
Author: Amanda Silberling
(Tuesday, November 5, 2024) “AI builders might argue that they’re making tools to help creative people augment their work, like the drum machine or the synthesizer. And some artists might say that these tools are training off of their work without consent to market a product back to them that could take their jobs. But some entrepreneurs see these powerful music, video, and image generators as inevitable.”
‘I’m going to sue the living pants off them’: AI’s big legal showdown – and what it means for Dr Strange’s hair | Movies | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/06/ai-evangelists-pope-dr-strange-portugal-legal-showdown
Author: Steve Rose
(Wednesday, November 6, 2024) “AI has given us the pope in a puffer, but it is also predicted to wipe out 200,000 entertainment jobs. We report from a crucial event in Portugal, full of angry artists, digital miracles – and a surprising amount of optimism”
Analysis and Insights from The Futurum Group
AI + Quantum: Hype or True Breakthroughs? – Report Summary
https://futurumgroup.com/insights/ai-quantum-hype-or-true-breakthroughs-report-summary/
Author: Dr. Bob Sutor
(Friday, November 8, 2024) “Explore the potential of AI and quantum tech integration, where AI aids quantum computing, but quantum AI remains largely in research.”
Generative AI and Models
New Zemeckis film used AI to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright – Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/11/new-zemeckis-film-used-ai-to-de-age-tom-hanks-and-robin-wright/
Author: Benj Edwards
(Monday, November 4, 2024) “Metaphysic developed the facial modification system by training custom machine-learning models on frames of Hanks’ and Wright’s previous films. This included a large dataset of facial movements, skin textures, and appearances under varied lighting conditions and camera angles. The resulting models can generate instant face transformations without the months of manual post-production work traditional CGI requires.”
Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://news.mit.edu/2024/generative-ai-lacks-coherent-world-understanding-1105
Author: Adam Zewe
(Tuesday, November 5, 2024) “Large language models can achieve incredible performance on some tasks without having internalized a coherent model of the world or the rules that govern it, MIT researchers find. This means these models are likely to fail unexpectedly if they are deployed in situations where the environment or task slightly changes.”
The promises and pitfalls of open-source generative AI
https://www.fierce-network.com/cloud/promises-and-pitfalls-open-source-generative-ai
Author: Julia King
Commentary:
Good discussion, including the question of what it really means for an AI model to be “open source.” I’m glad the Open Source Initiative is taking up the challenge.(Tuesday, November 5, 2024) ““Open source” is a term buzzing around the generative AI community. For certain GenAI applications, open-source models present benefits like cost savings, community input and transparency. But the true definition of open-source GenAI is still being debated, and these models also present some challenges.”
The Open Source AI Definition – 1.0
https://opensource.org/ai/open-source-ai-definition
“Open Source has demonstrated that massive benefits accrue to everyone after removing the barriers to learning, using, sharing and improving software systems. These benefits are the result of using licenses that adhere to the Open Source Definition. For AI, society needs at least the same essential freedoms of Open Source to enable AI developers, deployers and end users to enjoy those same benefits: autonomy, transparency, frictionless reuse and collaborative improvement.”
