THE GRAIN Newsletter: Google lawsuit, AI labeling, human-made elitism, and political deepfakes
AI news I'm thinking about this week
I’m Ronit Novak. I'm an art director and photo editor. I'm a mentor, a teacher, a writer, and a public speaker. Just like you, I’ve been increasingly curious about the conversations surrounding creativity and artificial intelligence. I wonder about the impact it will have on my career in the creative industry. I created THE GRAIN to be a platform for meaningful dialogue with critical thinkers, and to share them with you. Leave your comments or write me at ronit@thegrain.ai.
These are the news stories and critical insights I’ve recently shared about the impact of artificial intelligence on our creative industry: How creatives can take on Google’s monopoly and encourage innovation, what the sparkle emoji says about the struggle to communicate authenticity, how a no-AI allowed film festival can foster elitism, how Elon Musk sharing a deepfake video of Kamala Harris reflects a new era of political irreverence.
Click to read my fresh perspectives…
Google loses landmark anti-trust lawsuit
My first encounter with Google was in university when a professor introduced it as “this cool new thing that is handy for looking things up on the world wide web.” He described the company as a plucky startup, that is “probably going to do big things in the future.”
To sparkle or not to sparkle? That is the question
If I ever had a nightmare about AI destroying human creativity, it would be like Apple’s recent iPad Pro commercial. It depicts a giant vice crushing iconic symbols of analogue creation—a record player, musical instruments, paint, camera lenses, books, a sculpture—finishing with the “flushed face” emoji. The vice lifts to reveal the new thinnest-ever iP…
Justine Bateman and the 'No AI Allowed' film festival
Actress Justine Bateman coming front and centre to the AI in film debate, this time with a sense of urgency by spearheading a ‘No AI Allowed’ film festival. Her bold and defiant move aligns with the strong stance she took last year as the artificial intelligence adviser to SAG-AFTRA,
The political media revolution is entering its 'shitposting' era
In an apparent violation of his own policies, Elon Musk recently shared an AI generated parody campaign video of U.S. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris on his platform, X. Because when you own the sandbox, you can do whatever you want in it. The video was a
Some other stories I’m following…
Your new AI Friend is almost ready to meet you [The Verge]
The orb doesn’t talk back, though; it mostly communicates through text via the Friend app on your phone.Music labels' AI lawsuits create new copyright puzzle for U.S. courts [Reuters]
Suno and Udio said their use of existing recordings to help people create new songs is a quintessential 'fair use.”The Atlantic's staff Is furious about Its deal With OpenAI [Futurism]
"Our editorial leaders say that The Atlantic is a magazine made by humans, for humans. We could not agree more."Tedeschi Trucks Band apologize for AI-generated concert posters [Stereogum]
”In our development process, we believed we were giving an artist with a reputable portfolio in other disciplines of art a first opportunity.”The internet’s favorite animal gets a disturbing AI makeover [The Washington Post]
The content is so easy to grasp that even young children can understand it. But some AI cat storylines can turn very dark.
More takes from THE GRAIN…
