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

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

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

image via bbc.com
image via bbc.com

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

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

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

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

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

Chegg CEO calls 48% stock plunge over ChatGPT fears ‘extraordinarily overblown’

image via cnbc.com
image via cnbc.com

On Monday’s earnings call, Rosensweig said ChatGPT, the suddenly popular chatbot from startup OpenAI, was “having an impact on our new customer growth rate.” The company, which initially became well known for developing a textbook rental model for college students, has expanded into homework and exam help products. Chegg said it was only providing guidance for the coming quarter and not for the full year because it’s “too early to tell how this will play out.” Rosensweig reminded investors, during the CNBC interview, that Chegg generates free cash flow and earnings, on an adjusted basis, and has “more than enough cash to pay off our debt.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/02/chegg-ceo-chatgpt-stock-plunge-was-extraordinarily-overblown.html

AI Is Tearing Wikipedia Apart

image via vice.com
image via vice.com

The concern is that machine-generated content has to be balanced with a lot of human review and would overwhelm lesser-known wikis with bad content. While AI generators are useful for writing believable, human-like text, they are also prone to including erroneous information, and even citing sources and academic papers which don’t exist. This often results in text summaries which seem accurate, but on closer inspection are revealed to be completely fabricated.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7bdba/ai-is-tearing-wikipedia-apart

Siri is being left behind – and Apple knows it

image via techradar.com
image via techradar.com

According to “more than three dozen former Apple employees who worked in its AI and machine learning groups,” Apple’s attempts to improve Siri have been hampered by “organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition,” with the software now “widely derided” by many still working at the company. According to “more than three dozen former Apple employees who worked in its AI and machine learning groups,” Apple’s attempts to improve Siri have been hampered by “organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition,” with the software now “widely derided” by many still working at the company.

https://www.techradar.com/news/siri-is-being-left-behind-and-apple-knows-it