Alexa (finally) gets AI

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Good morning! Today, we’ve cooked up fun AI tools, exciting updates, and some salty drama. Shall we get to it? 🤗

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ALEXA (FINALLY) GETS AI 🦾

“Alexa, order me some French fries!” 🍟

What’s new? After almost two years of promises, Amazon is finally launching Alexa Plus, a generative AI-powered upgrade that promises a more natural and intelligent voice assistant experience.

What can it do? Unlike older versions, Alexa Plus aims to remove the frustration of clunky voice-controlled tech, making everyday tasks smoother and more intuitive. With Alexa Plus, you can do things like order groceries, send event invites, and even have it remember personal preferences like your diet or favorite movies. It will also assist with research, trip planning, and even study guides. Plus, it can carry on conversations without needing repeated wake words. It also features vision capabilities, allowing it to analyze images and reference documents you provide. To pay for powering costs, Amazon will charge users $19.99 per month for Alexa Plus, but it will be free for Amazon Prime members. According to Amazon, Alexa Plus will work on most existing Alexa devices.

CHRISTIE’S AI ART AUCTION STIRS THE POT 🖼️

Q: What did the painter do when she got cold?

A: She put on another coat, duh! 👩‍🎨

What’s going on? Christie’s latest auction, Augmented Intelligence, is making waves as the first major sale exclusively featuring AI-generated art.

What’s the controversy? The event has drawn in high-dollar bids, with some pieces of AI art selling for over $150,000, but it has also sparked major backlash from artists concerned about copyright infringement. The controversy centers on how AI models used in the artworks were trained. Critics argue that many AI tools, such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, were built using copyrighted material without permission. These tools were then used to create the art that is selling for massive dollar amounts. Over 6,400 artists have signed an open letter urging Christie’s to cancel the auction, arguing that AI-generated works threaten human artists’ livelihoods. Supporters, however, see AI as a natural evolution of artistic creation. Some artists featured in the auction claim they trained their AI models using only their own data. Christie’s maintains that this debate is healthy and sees AI as transformative for the art world. Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s director of digital art, noted, “I’m not a copyright lawyer, so I can’t comment on the legality, but from a theft-influence angle, artists have been influenced by other artists for centuries.”

BRITISH MUSICIANS ARE MAD AT AI 😡

Q: Did you hear about the cow that joined the choir?

A: They needed some more beef flat. 🐮

What’s up? British musicians have released a silent album titled “Is This What We Want?” to protest government plans allowing tech companies to use their work for AI training without permission.

Want the details? The album features 12 silent tracks recorded in empty studios and performance spaces “to symbolize what we expect will happen if the government’s proposals go through.” The album includes contributions (or lack thereof) from artists like Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens, and Damon Albarn. This initiative condemns the UK government’s proposal to permit tech companies to utilize copyrighted material for AI training unless creators opt out, a change that artists argue could erode artistic control and harm the creative industry. Profits from the album will benefit the charity Help Musicians. Prominent figures like Elton John and Paul McCartney have also expressed opposition to the proposal. The government is currently consulting to balance creators’ control with AI development needs, with a decision pending.

TASTE-TEST THURSDAY 🍽️

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