Machine Society

2 weeks ago | machinesociety.ai | Mike Elgan

AI and robotics companies understandably want the public to engage with their products as if they were people. If AI is essentially human, then the corporations that make AI get two benefits. First, their customers will care more about their products, could become addicted to them, and may feel they need them. This helps the AI companies make more money.

1 month ago | machinesociety.ai | Mike Elgan

My mother told me I could be anyone I wanted to be when I grew up. Turns out she was right. ByteDance (yes, the TikTok people) just unveiled an AI model called DreamActor-M1. It can take a single still image and turn it into a fully animated video with lifelike facial expressions, natural head movements, and even full-body motion. Even now in its "beta" phase, or whatever, it's easy to use. Just upload a picture of one person or cartoon character, then upload a video of a person talking.

2 months ago | machinesociety.ai | Mike Elgan

Social networks are filled with AI-generated images. Billions have been created using text-to-image AI tools since 2022, many posted online. To roughly quantify: 26% of marketers use AI to create marketing images. 39% for marketing images posted on social. 71% of images shared on social media were AI-generated. In Canada, it's 77%. AI is ubiquitous on social media. But there's one genre that fascinates me. It’s all over Facebook.

2 months ago | machinesociety.ai | Mike Elgan

Apple made a 3D VR movie. The short film "Submerged," made exclusively for Apple Vision Pro, will be available tomorrow (October 10). You can watch what they falsely call a "trailer" (it's actually a featurette on the making of the movie) here now. The movie, directed by Edward Berger, takes place on a submarine during World War II. The sub is torpedo-attacked, and the movie is about the crew fighting for survival.

2 months ago | machinesociety.ai | Mike Elgan

Tesla rolled out two shiny new cars in Burbank yesterday. With Elon Musk presiding over the company's "We, Robot" event at the Warner Bros. Studios, Tesla showcased a self-driving two-seat "robo-taxi" without a steering wheel or pedals and designed to cost less than $30,000 when it ships in 2027, according to the company. They also showed a 20-passenger art deco van. Wall Street was unimpressed. Tesla's stock dropped 8%. The star of the show was the Optimus robot.