Melissa Regan

When we talk about ‘human in the loop’, stress the importance of focusing on the aspects of any process that Generative AI is good at then leaving the others to humans, rarely do tools appear to be empathetic to that mantra. Perhaps it’s the ‘great AI-arms race’ to be the best or the blistering speed of development that hampers thoughtful human-computer design in most AI tools we have seen in the last 2 years. Yet, Wonder Dynamics https://lnkd.in/ghxnGBNg should be applauded for flying in the face of the norms in this regard. As well as looking like a super-exciting advancement in a very laborious task - animation, their use of GenAI in the process carefully positions the user and the tech. To me, this shows the way forward for AI tool development. I want to be able to quickly understand where I have control in a creative process and where I don’t. And I want the software developers to have used domain specific expertise to have found that out. Surely, this sort of basic design thinking 101 is the way forward. #ai #generativeai #design #animation Leigh Harder Philip Murdoch 🤙 Dante St James Tom Oliphant Emil Zankov Dr Sophie Fenton Sofia Fenichell Darren Coxon Matthew Esterman 🧔🏻 Ghazali bin Abdul Wahab Ray Parker MBA Dan Bowen 🎸 Michael Sankey Michael Henderson Robert Love Chantelle Love Seshnie Taylor Chris Goodall Joanne Villis Gary Liang Ed Fairfield Gary Henderson Ben Stratton Nick Johns Jacqueline Manison

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Exciting new research from Microsoft explores VASA-1, a system capable of generating incredibly realistic facial expressions and head movements synchronized with speech audio. This extends beyond unseen talking faces in photos to even handle singing voices, demonstrating its versatility. Key advancements include: ❇️High-fidelity lip-syncing with natural facial dynamics. ❇️Real-time generation of high-resolution (512x512) videos at 40 FPS online. ❇️Minimal startup delay for smooth virtual avatar interactions. The impact? VASA-1 has the potential to revolutionize real-time interactions by enabling lifelike virtual avatars that can engage in natural conversation. This technology has the potential to create more engaging virtual assistants, but there are concerns that it could be misused to create deepfakes. What are your thoughts on VASA-1 and its potential applications? Share your comments below! 👉 Source: https://lnkd.in/gMdRCBhB 👉 Follow me if you're also exploring how Generative AI is changing the way we create, design and tell stories in art, design, entertainment, and beyond. https://lnkd.in/dtRMyMHW #generativeAI #AI #VAs #deepfakes #MicrosoftResearch

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🚀 Exciting Developments in XR Technology! 🚀 Not having controllers is an exciting problem to solve for many XR creators. It pushes us to think beyond "which button should I use for X?" and instead, focus on the most natural way for users to interact with their hands, while ensuring the headset can recognize those movements. As XR becomes fully adopted, we won’t want to carry controllers everywhere; we'll want seamless interactions through XR glasses. However, some XR activities, like firefighter training, require controllers for interacting with various tools and providing haptic feedback. It’s thrilling to see companies working on controller solutions for Apple headsets, unlocking a new realm of XR content on the AVP. https://lnkd.in/gMXWcQHU #VRTraining #AppleVisionPro #XRDevelopment

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During our MBA program entrepreneurship class, each group had to come up with a business idea. My friend Rao Murukurthy is taking his idea to market! It's a way cool idea! Check it out, share it, and please contribute if you can!

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Advanced technology is reshaping the movie industry, with AI applications leading the charge. At the "AI on the Lot" conference, experts emphasized AI's role as a tool for writers, video producers, and others in the creative community. Tech companies (NVIDIA, Dell Technologies, Adobe ) in attendance highlighted that with semiconductor and processing improvements, AI will enhance graphics and audio generation. Example: Studio Aideal's AI-created short video that can be done without human actors or filming outside https://lnkd.in/gezzAuBP . This showcased AI potential, indicating a transformative era for filmmakers to innovate and democratize storytelling. #AI #MovieIndustry #Innovation

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We're witnessing the innovations of XR unfold before our very eyes! It’s thrilling to be part of this ever-evolving landscape and see firsthand how XR is transforming training, healthcare, and climate change initiatives. This technology isn’t just for gaming; it’s revolutionizing how we learn and work. Organizations must embrace these changes responsibly to maximize their positive impact on society and leverage innovations to better ourselves. https://lnkd.in/e46S5hWW

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In this Machination segment, EIT Industries is forced to close on December 21, 2012 much to the dismay of Tony Welland who expected his seat to change from CFO to CEO. For any emerging creatives out there I will disclose a sure certainty about the problems that occur in production....... Lighting and audio were the biggest obstacles in these scenes with only two crew which was the DP and me, who is also the creator of the story. This is a big boys game and it ain't enough deadcats and reflectors to bounce you and your light into pristine perfection when working with sparse resources. The story still needs to be told. The few production glitches in this 12 minutes: Changes in tone (yells/whispers) with the actors during heated arguments Frame dropping caused by differing settings/color noise (ISO/FPS) per shot Being careful not to show the tail numbers of the private jets Organic light shifting by the minute as the only source of interior scenes It was tough to assemble but proof of concept work isn't perfect. What can you do? You have an idea, but is there a script? You have a script but what's your plan, to produce or sell it? You want to produce and sell your project, but can you "showrun" it, i.e. cast actors, edit it, film it, get close enough to finality to where it looks interesting enough to keep our attention? These are the questions you need to answer if you're a guerrilla. If it's a cakewalk for you, please disregard this notice.

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Let’s talk about AI and filmmaking. There are a myriad of directions we could take this, all valid. Today, however, I want to focus on collaboration… or the apparent interest in removing collaboration in lieu of AI tools amongst ‘AI filmmakers’ (I don’t know why ‘filmmaker’ needs a qualifier). Let’s first start with the premise and belief that AI can be a useful tool for storytelling. What I’ve noticed with a lot of AI generated films is a lack of collaboration. I’ve never thought of filmmaking as a solo act. Even the greatest auteurs have/had incredible relationships with fellow artists. Spielberg and…. Michael Kahn, John Williams, Kathleen Kennedy, Janusz Kaminski, Rick Carter, Tom Hanks, Tony Kushner, etc, etc, etc… Scorsese and Schoonmaker, and DeNiro, and DiCaprio, and etc, etc, etc. There are tons more. I'm not just cherry picking. So why are filmmakers avoiding this with AI? I understand that AI is capable of doing all of the jobs, but why would you want it to? I kind of get it if you don’t have a network of artists to collaborate with, but that begs another question… Why don’t you have a network of artists to collaborate with? What I find most valuable about AI filmmaking tools is it allows me to create images and worlds that I wouldn’t otherwise have the BUDGET to create. But I have a network of incredibly talented filmmaking friends who I can call on to help with voice talent, motion capture, video editing, sound editing, and sound mixing, scoring, etc. In fact, in most cases, they’re thrilled to help. Storytellers want to be part of telling stories! AI filmmaking tools can be industry changing in the way they can democratize storytelling, but please, don’t let it be something to eliminate one of the most unique and crucial elements of filmmaking: collaboration. Build your network. Use your network. They’re part of your community and we need community!  Use AI tools to blow past gatekeepers, not to eliminate the iron we need to sharpen our craft. #ai #AIFilmmaking #storytelling #filmmaking #community #network

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Time wasted manually doing prospect research is perhaps the biggest killer of productivity for Advancement teams at independent schools. 🗡 💔 That's why we are taking action here at ChalkBooks (www.chalkbooks.com) to help free up hours for more important Advancement work. 🚀

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Overall, this analysis rings true, primarily because magic demands consistency. Anyone who writes science fiction or fantasy understands this. Both SF and Fantasy employ magic in some way, though the magic may be expressed as warp drives and teleporters vs. wands and spells. However, once you introduce a magical system, then cause and effect still applies - you have to explain why accelerating to warp speed does not instantly turn everyone within a ship into a molecule thin pancake (intertial dampening), why your speedster superheroes don't burn up as they encounter air resistance at 10,000 miles a second and so forth. Even if you don't explain how the magic works (no one except extreme geeks really wants to know), if you don't have a consistent set of rules then your narrative falls apart and becomes less believable. Rules are patterns. An LLM by itself doesn't perform detailed calculations about every item in the viewed universe. Instead, it looks for patterns of occurrence within its training set that most closely align with the requested prompt, and then uses this to project forward to the limit of what it can extrapolate, before repeating the process. Unsupervised, this can break down pretty quickly, especially with poor guidance, one reason why most video generators are usually only reliable for ten seconds or so, especially with novel content likely not in its store. Consistency does not necessarily mean reality - if you trained a model on nothing but videos of starships, then the model will be very good at rendering ships going into warp drive, firing photon torpedoes, and enabling tractor beams, despite the fact that none of these things are "real" in a scientific sense. When you create a model (whether an LLM or anything else), you are in effect creating a world, and the success of that world in turn depends upon the degree to which the information in that world is internally consistent. This is actually another good argument about why AGI won't succeed as a single, monolithic model - consistency requires agreement, and agreement in turn requires trust in the assumptions being presented. Science works not because it is perfect, but because the assumptions have been tested enough that people trust the patterns, the consistency, and even then science also works because people challenge those same assumptions. Social structures are usually much harder to test, and as such consistency tends to be much harder to discern (and in many cases may be seen as undesireable by some).

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As a long-time supporter of BizzTech's ultra-realistic streamed virtual reality platform, I'm excited to share that the city of Montgomery is set to use their Urban Metaverse platform to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march. By using their accessible web-streamed virtual reality platform, with AI guides who can answer visitors questions in real time, Montgomery dont just seek to preserve history, but bringing it to life in a fully immersive and interactive 3D environment. This initiative is just the latest example of BizzTech's commitment to leveraging the Metaverse for meaningful and transformative experiences, in this case blending the physical and digital worlds to create smart, resilient, and inclusive communities. BizzTech have already been featured at SXSW Sydney as well as supporting my own companies RIIoT Digital Ltd and SITE Network in our global digital twinning initiatives A big shout out therefore to their visionary leaders Dirk Schmidt, Jason Shuster and Rosi Vieira who have tirelessly pushed this groundbreaking VR platform from strength to strength. Watch this space for real time footage of the Montgomery experience and its incredible AI guides (I've already had a sneak peek and, trust me, you're going to be blown away) Check the comments below for the link to the full article in Forbes #BizzTech #UrbanMetaverse #DigitalTransformation #SmartCities #Montgomery #ForbesFeature #InnovationInHistory #CivicEngagement Claire Alexander Jaime Schwarz Brian R. Yurachek Damian Pike

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There are many things I do. It would be better to show than tell because actions speak louder. The advancement of generative AI for a wordsmith like me is fascinating because I have painted pictures with words for years. Thought a meeting with George Lucas and a tour of Industrial Light & Magic would fulfill the pathway to immersive storytelling for but in 2022, "George Lucas" became Midjourney, Runway, MiniMax, Suno, ElevenLabs, Luma AI, OpenAI and many more services are my own Industrial Light & Magic. Every poem and concept produced I have told through documentary, stage play, short film, television or through recording but now........? Wone

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Day by day we are building something we believe in unconditionally. 📯 Knowledge becomes actions, actions lead to realization. When you ask no more questions Why you make it, this is truly your role in life. #Sacramento #Theatron #filmdevelopment

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Hey, it's Friday :) "Houston, we have a problem." or should I say "Cupertino, you have a problem." This is not good news for the #VirtualReality #AugmentedReality #ExtendedReality #MixedReality or #SpatialComputing community. But hopefully it is a wake up call for Apple. I wonder what Steve Jobs would say about this decision to "suspend work on #VisionPro2". Cost: 3,500 USD. What is going on at Apple? Has Apple forgotten how to innovate? Does suspending work on Vision Pro 2 to develop a device with fewer features for $1,600, wich is 4X more expensive that #OculusQuest2 and 2.5X more expensive that #OculusQuest3 make any sense? But, after all the typical fanfare at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5, 2023, where the new Apple Vision Pro that was announced, the device failed to win the minds and hearts of consumers, like the legendary iPod, iPhone, iPad did. I am curious to hear opinions from the #VR #AR #XR #MR and #spatialcomputing community. I am an Apple user, an iOS product developer and long time Apple fan. I own an iPhone, a MacBookPro, and an Apple Watch. I love Apple products. But, when I tried Apple's Vision Pro for the first time at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in Feb 2024, I was disappointed. Our company MYND Therapeutics Inc. would have loved to develop great #MR experiences for the Vision Pro. But, we'll have to wait and see. P.S. Here's a link to Vision Pro if you want to learn more about it:

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