AI

With up to twice the speed and greater accuracy than human stenographers, AI-based captioning has taken the edge, especially as captioning requirements for content are poised to expand. Pictured: Ai-Media’s LEXI in action.

Newswire launched two tools Tuesday based on artificial intelligence to help marketers, copywriters, and content creators craft and optimize press releases and other content. Almee, an artificial intelligence (AI) writing assistant and recommendation engine, allows users to answer a short questionnaire to generate a press release. Users also can submit text of their own for the technology to review and improve.

Tech giant Meta’s large language model will be available for free commercial and research use, rivaling OpenAI’s GPT-4 that powers the popular ChatGPT tool, the social media company said Tuesday. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is releasing its open source Llama 2 large language model, which can power artificial intelligence tools, in partnership with Microsoft.

Many ads are easier to make with the fast-improving technology. It also poses a threat to an industry already in flux. Pictured: A Virgin Voyages campaign using artificial intelligence allowed users to prompt a digital avatar of Jennifer Lopez to issue tens of thousands of customized video invitations to a cruise.

Media bosses keep promising AI will benefit journalists. But who’s actually using the tools — and to what end?

AI is transforming broadcast compliance, and the right tool provides essential added features through automatic speech recognition. Broadcasters can leverage this technology to gain actionable insights and automate content indexation, increasing their reach and creating new monetization strategies.

The agency sent OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, a letter this week over consumer harms and the company’s security practices.

The Associated Press on Thursday said it reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, to share access to select news content and technology. The deal marks one of the first official news-sharing agreements made between a major U.S. news company and an artificial intelligence firm.

Advertising — specifically television, cable, broadcast, CTV, radio, and print — is being quietly reshaped by AI. The most interesting thing about this transformation is that it’s not just about technology; it’s about people, local businesses, and communities. The high costs and logistical complexity involved in advertising on channels like television have, until recently, made them unattainable for small businesses. AI has quietly stepped in to rewrite this narrative — in a very significant way. 

Avid’s Craig Wilson, host of the Making the Media podcast, shares insights he’s gleaned over the past 50 episodes on AI, FAST channels, a skills shortage and leaps forward in video news storytelling in a particularly meta edition of Talking TV. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

In a statement, IATSE, a labor union that represents over 160,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, said, “Our approach as a union must be comprehensive, focused on research, collaboration, education, political and legislative advocacy, organizing, and collective bargaining.” The statement comes at a time when AI remains an important topic in SAG-AFTRA and WGA negotiations.

After G/O Media, which owns sites including The Onion, The Root and Deadspin, announced it is rolling out AI-created content next week, “appalled” unionized editorial staffers blasted the company, saying, “The hard work of journalists cannot be replaced by unreliable AI programs.”

A string of uncanny videos show what generative A.I. and advertising have in common: They chew up the cultural subconscious and spit it back at us.

NewsGuard identified 141 brands that are feeding programmatic ad dollars to low-quality AI-generated news and information sites operating with little to no human oversight.

Generative AI models are changing the economy of the web, making it cheaper to generate lower-quality content. We’re just beginning to see the effects of these changes.

Brian Morris, CISO of Gray Television, says that building successful defenses against ever more frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks on broadcasters depends on having a strong culture of cybersecurity from the C-suite down. A full transcript of the conversation is included. For more information about TVNewsCheck‘s Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat on Oct. 26, click here.

A new bipartisan bill would establish a commission to explore potential regulations for artificial intelligence. The  National AI Commission Act — introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) — calls for establishing a 20-member panel that would be tasked with reviewing the current approach to regulation, and developing a “risk-based framework” for the technology.

Marvel’s Secret Invasion is already causing a commotion on social media, though not for reasons that the studio may have hoped. The series, which debuted on Disney+ on Wednesday with just one episode, has touched a sore spot after director Ali Selim confirmed to Polygon that the opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence. Designed by Method Studios, Selim said he thought that the idea of using AI for the opening credits fit into the themes of the show.

Morgan Murphy Nedua is rolling out Waymark IP across all its TV and radio stations nationally after a pilot program, allowing the creation of AI-generated ads in minutes.

While AI has been a powerful tool for media across multiple functions, generative AI poses numerous threats that should give all companies pause as they assess its potential upsides.

Estimating that half of all advertising will be influenced in at least some way by AI by the end of this year, GroupM Global President of Business Intelligence Kate Scott-Dawkins predicts the burgeoning technology also will be Madison Avenue’s next big category boom.

With half of all media already AI-enabled to some degree, media currently is the primary use of AI on Madison Avenue, according to a research analysis presented recently to the board of directors of the American Association of Advertising Agencies by the equity research analysts at New Street Research.

Paul Caluori, AP’s VP of global products, and Derl McCrudden, AP’s VP and head of global news production, discuss the organization’s new AI-based archive search tool that circumvents the need for metatags and the shadow that generative AI casts over the industry at large. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

The New York Times and NBC News are among the media companies that have started preliminary discussions about potential protections against generative AI systems. Digital Content Next, the digital media’s trade organization, published seven generative AI principles this week to help guide discussion. “It’s the beginning of what is going to be a hellfire,” Axios CEO Jim VandeHei said in an interview.

AI-based storage solutions are evolving, saving media companies substantial time and money.

Phony imagery isn’t new to campaigns. What has changed is that synthetic media has become far easier to create with the rollout of so-called generative AI systems that can quickly transform simple inputs into sophisticated-looking videos, photos, music and text. That has left campaign officials bracing for 2024 to usher in a level of digital creation and proliferation unlike any previous election season now that millions of users have access to such tools.

Leaders from OpenAI, Google Deepmind, Anthropic and other A.I. labs warn that future systems could be as deadly as pandemics and nuclear weapons.

Its president, Brad Smith, said companies needed to “step up” and governments needed to “move faster” as artificial intelligence progressed.