ai – Page 26 – Tech News

AI-powered BeFake is a real app, not a BeReal parody…and it has $3M in funding | TechCrunch

BeFake, a social networking app that combines concepts from popular Gen Z app BeReal along with AI technology has netted itself $3 million in seed funding to create an AI-augmented social network. The app’s name, a clear reference to BeReal’s authentic photo sharing among friends, is meant to suggest it does the opposite. Instead of showing what you’re up to right now, BeFake users also snap photos with both the front and back cameras, but then customize their photos using AI technology using either in-app presets or custom prompts.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/31/ai-powered-befake-is-a-real-app-not-a-bereal-parody-and-it-has-3m-in-funding/

Google tests watermark to identify AI images

Google is trialling a digital watermark to spot images made by artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to fight disinformation. It works by embedding changes to individual pixels in images so watermarks are invisible to the human eye, but detectable by computers.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66618852

Snapchat is jumping on the AI selfie train with ‘Dreams’

Snapchat is now jumping on the AI selfie bandwagon with a new feature called Dreams. The first pack of Dreams is free to make and each additional one costs $1 as an in-app purchase. Snapchat users in Australia and New Zealand are getting access to Dreams starting today, followed by access opening up to the rest of the world over the coming weeks.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/29/23849611/snapchat-releases-ai-selfie-feature-dreams

AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, rules a US Federal Judge

United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Friday that AI-generated artwork can’t be copyrighted, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. She was presiding over a lawsuit against the US Copyright Office after it refused a copyright to Stephen Thaler for an AI-generated image made with the Creativity Machine algorithm he’d created. Nobody really knows how things will shake out around US copyright law and artificial intelligence, but the court cases have been piling up. Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed suit against OpenAI and Meta earlier this year over their models’ data scraping practices, for instance, while another lawsuit by programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick alleges that data scraping by Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI amounted to software piracy.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/19/23838458/ai-generated-art-no-copyright-district-court

Zoom denies training AI on calls without consent

Zoom has updated its terms of service after a backlash over fears that it trained its artificial intelligence (AI) models on customer calls. Talking to the BBC, before the terms of service were updated, data protection specialist Robert Bateman said: "The terms appeared to give the service provider a lot of freedom to use data generated by its users for many different purposes." He said that while there was a question mark over the risks that could arise, "alarm bells should ring when you encounter broad contractual provisions like these".
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66430429

Mobile website builder Universe launches AI-powered designer

Universe’s new tool is similar to one launched by Wix earlier this month, which is called the AI Site Generator. The tool allows users to describe their intent and generate a website complete with a homepage, inner pages and text and images — as well as business-specific sections for events, bookings and more. One of the main ideas behind both companies’ products is to help small and medium-sized businesses launch and maintain websites to drive sales, which can be a challenging process. For context, a 2022 survey by Top Design Firms, a directory for finding creative agencies, found that nearly 27% of small businesses still don’t have a website and that low traffic, followed by adding “advanced” functionalities and cost, are the top challenges they face with their website.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/27/mobile-website-builder-universe-launches-ai-powered-designer/

Google’s AI pitch is a recipe for email hell

But Google’s onstage ideas were almost impressive in their ability to serve precisely none of writing’s core purposes. Its examples of Help me write calcify the worst tendencies of “professional” communications. They’re bland, bloated boilerplate that turns a human prompt into something that uses more words to say less.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/13/23719115/google-ai-help-me-write-communications-email