Met Gala Deepfakes Flood Social Media

This ain’t your mama’s bake sale. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art runs one of the most glittering annual fundraising parties in the world. Known fondly as the “Met Gala,” tickets cost $50,000 a pop, and attendance is by invitation only. The guest list is scrubbed ruthlessly by Anna Wintour, legendary editor of Vogue, to eliminate the has-beens, the wannabe’s, and the merely rich who have no class.

The Gala funds the Met’s Costume Institute, and invitees spare no expense to make their dress a success on the red carpet. In a sign of the times, this year the greatest social media buzz of Monday’s Gala was generated by ultrarealistic deepfakes of celebrities who didn’t even attend, clad in over-the-top outfits not seen in this or any other reality.

The example below, of Katy Perry clad in a floral dress with real flowers and a hemline made of moss, even fooled Katy’s mother, who sent her congratulations by text.

Met Gala Deepfakes

Apple announces new iPad with powerful AI chip

Apple has been hinting mightily that big AI doings are coming at their annual World Wide Developers Conference in June. Yesterday, they gave a little teaser, announcing, among other things, an updated iPad that has a monster AI chip inside, the all-new M4. Although critics may carp that this is like putting a Ferrari engine inside a go-kart, it signals that Apple may be going all in on AI-on-your-device, not AI-in-the-cloud. Such a strategy would make sense for Apple, the premiere device company, who has no cloud to speak of. (So we shan’t speak of it further.)

Apple announces new iPad with powerful “M4” AI chip

Microsoft readies new AI mega-model equal to ChatGPT

A tale in 4 acts: Act I. Microsoft invests $13 billion in OpenAI to get access to their world-leading ChatGPT AI technology. Act II. OpenAI famously narrowly avoids a total meltdown, with the Board firing CEO Sam Altman before Sam rallies the OpenAI employees and ends up firing the Board, all this playing out over one very long weekend. Act III. Microsoft begins busily hedging its bet on OpenAI in a number of ways, including by buying former Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman out of his own billion-dollar AI startup. Act IV. Suleyman, now as head of Consumer AI for Microsoft, oversees development of a large AI model that can directly compete with OpenAI.

Microsoft is in it to win it in AI, folks. As the saying goes, if you want a friend in Silicon Valley, get a dog.

Microsoft readies new AI mega-model

Tesla Autopilot still crashes cars - the Feds want to know why

Tesla recently recalled 2 million of its cars - basically 100% of its entire fleet on the road - because its much-vaunted self-driving AI known as Autopilot kept crashing its cars. So, all set right? 100% of the cars is all there is, yes? Not so fast. It turns out that the “new” Autopilot is still crashing cars at an alarming rate. Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened yet another investigation into why. To encourage Elon to cooperate, the NHTSA is threating fines of up to $135 million.

Tesla Autopilot still crashes cars - the Feds want to know why

AI gives stroke-silenced singer his voice back

Country singer Randy Travis lost his mellow baritone to a stroke in 2013. Now with the help of AI voice cloning, the same deepfake technology that was used to make fake robocalls in Joe Biden’s voice urging Democrats not to vote in January’s New Hampshire primary election, he has released a new song. The AI was trained on 42 of his former recordings, then, under the supervision of Travis and his producer, a fellow country singer James Dupre recorded the vocal tracks that the AI then transformed into Travis’ voice. The song, “Where That Came From” can be heard on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming platforms. Travis’ tunes were always a bit too sentimental for my taste, but this tale of a man using AI to recapture his voice brought a bit of moisture even to these jaded eyes.

AI gives stroke-silenced singer his voice back

AI decodes sperm whale “alphabet”

Underwater researchers record whale songs a lot. Now they are using AI to decipher them, and recently scientists from MIT and Project CETI used AI to discover that sperm whale clicks are not just simple vocalizations similar to a grunt or a squeal. They have a combinational property, analogous to the syllable of human speech, or the letters of an alphabet. Sperm whales can combine their clicks in a multitude of ways, and the order of the clicks appears to carry meaning. Yeah, sperm whales seem to be “talking”, or maybe - spelling?

AI decodes sperm whale “alphabet”

Air Force Secretary rides AI-controlled fighter jet

The US Air Force is planning for a fleet of 1,000 AI-controlled warplanes, with the first ones to be deployed in 2028. To highlight how far this technology has come already, the Secretary of the Air Force participated in a simulated dogfight between his fighter plane, controlled by AI, against a human-controlled attack aircraft. The AI-powered warplane acquitted itself well, through several rounds of aerial maneuvers, and the Secretary alit groundside all smiles, though one does wonder about the state of his underwear after all that.

Air Force Secretary rides AI-controlled fighter jet

AI helps England’s women’s cricket team beat Australia

The coach of England’s Women’s Cricket team credits their recent win over rival Australia partially to an AI-powered simulation that allows the coach to project how different rosters of his players would match up against the various players of the opposing side. The software apparently runs thousands of simulated games with various selections of the players of each team, so that the coach can get a sense of how the real matchups might play out. The England coach asserts that his use of the AI system helped him choose his final player selections, which were ultimately victorious.

AI helps England’s women’s cricket team beat Australia

Inside Ukraine’s killer drone startup industry

Ukraine’s strategy of deploying drones against the massive Russian invasion force is rewriting military doctrine for the 21st century. But to be successful, Ukraine needs lots and lots of these military drones. To procure them, the Ukraine military is funding its own DARPA-meets- Silicon-Valley defense-tech startup culture. This article gives a peek at what that looks like - and at the future of warfare.

Inside Ukraine’s killer drone startup industry

Microsoft makes massive renewable energy buy for AI

AI requires vast amounts of electricity. In order to feed its hungry servers with green energy, Microsoft has agreed to support development of 10.5 Gigawatts of renewable energy around the world, enough to run a small city. This is projected to cost between $11 billion and $17 billion, 8 times larger than the next largest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history.

Microsoft makes massive renewable energy buy for AI

FDA approves Apple Watch for use in clinical studies on AFib

Most smart watches and fitness trackers can track your heart rate, and several can analyze your heart’s rhythm for abnormalities. Recently the Apple Watch rhythm analyzer was tested by the FDA, and found to be sufficiently accurate that the data from an Apple Watch can be used in clinical trials looking for an effect on atrial fibrillation.

FDA approves Apple Watch for use in clinical studies on AFib

OSU’s AI predicts clinical effectiveness of drugs

Ohio State University researchers developed an AI model that emulates randomized clinical trials to determine the most effective treatment options to prevent stroke in patients with heart disease. The model was based on health care claims data for millions of patients. The goal of the model is to select promising treatment regimens that can then be tested in real world RCTs.

OSU’s AI predicts clinical effective ness of drugs