Useful tips, AI movies, and my favourite - fooood! :)

Back for more AI enthusiasts? 😎

Happy to see and calm you down after all the ChatGPT hurricanes 🌀 you must have been experiencing the week before. The glitches of an AI ‘helper’ and, subsequently, all apps depending on it made me remember the butterfly effect 🦋 and question how persistent and stable the world is that (partly) depends on such a young-ish tool. Should we back up our activities with old-school methods like paper diaries, or imagine me sending you this letter by Royal Mail? ✉️ 

I’ll let this thought sit with you and, meanwhile, will provide more food for your mind from last week’s news landscape. Ready, reader? 😜

1. Through the Looking-Glass 🐇

Curiouser and curiouser. You might have seen those Instagram feeds 🤳 of people tagging Instagram, stating that their content and face can’t be used, etc. So let me clarify—it does not work this way 👎🏻 Let’s see what all the hustle is about.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has announced changes to its data collection policy: the company plans to leverage user information, including photos and posts, to train its AI systems 😨 Prepare yourself as the new policy will extend beyond targeted advertising to improve AI functionalities, such as virtual assistants and language models like ChatGPT-style systems. Although Meta assures users that private messages will not be used for AI training, virtually all (!) shared content on Facebook and Instagram is subject to analysis 🧐 

Meta justifies this data processing under the legal basis of "legitimate interests" outlined in the EU and the UK's General Data Protection Regulation. As required by the GDPR, Meta allows users to object to their information being used this way. Seems simple: to opt-out, fill out a short form on Instagram's website, provide reasons and some personal details 🎉 And then Meta will review requests according to data protection laws and honour successful appeals…

However, despite objections, Meta may still use your data to train its AI, even if you don't use its platforms 😡 This affects you if you appear in posts, photos, or captions on Instagram and Facebook. Welcome to Wonderland, Alice 🪞

2. Palme d’AI 🎥

Cannes, California, Venice…Burcheon! New times need new measures, you know. And just recently, we were talking about a fully-generated AI TV series as a joke. Now we are discussing the whole festival 🙀 dedicated only to AI-generated movies; how bizarre is that?

The Bucheon International Film Festival in South Korea 🇰🇷, also known as BiFan, has introduced its first competition focused on AI filmmaking, showcasing 15 selected titles from the US, Asia, and Europe. These films were chosen from 114 submissions, imagine! So it’s not about a rare case, it’s more about a new wave of cinematography 🎞️ The selection will be featured in a dedicated section during the festival from June 7-14, 2024. Noteworthy entries include "One More Pumpkin" by Hansl Von Kwon, "Another" by Dave Clark and "Kiss/Crash" by Adam Cole.

All films are under 10 minutes and will compete for awards and a share of $11,000 💸 In case you are intrigued and want to try your luck next time - to qualify, films must utilise AI in script, audio and video. Maybe you have an unlocked director's potential within you. Organisers say that their aim is to explore AI's creative potential and reduce production costs. However, I'm not sure it’s a realistic path to unlock the future generation’s creativity 🎭

3. Eat, drink, film, repeat 🍔

Who doesn’t want to be fit and healthy? Topics of diets, nutrition, calorie counting, and fat reduction have been around for years 🥗 If you are still on the search for the perfect food instructor – search no more as scientists at the University of Waterloo in Canada 🇨🇦 are developing advanced artificial intelligence technology that monitors and analyses video footage of you eating to determine the caloric intake and nutritional value. I know, if you are a pro in this, you have already been using some systems that require you to take images 🎑 of your meals; however, this AI continuously observes each spoonful, forkful or chopstick (is that a word?) of food as it is consumed! The margin of error with this app is only 4.4%, so there is no need to question the huge amount of calories in that lemon drizzle 🍋

The current iteration of this AI technology does not yet identify specific food items but is being trained to recognise a wide variety of foods, even those not previously encountered 👏🏻 The researchers aim to integrate capabilities from large language models, like ChatGPT, to improve food identification and analysis.

This dietary monitoring tool might help us not only with observing ourselves eating and potentially address but also potentially addressing global health issues like obesity and poor nutrition. So here is to a healthier future, one byte at a time! 🕰️ 

Shut up and take my money 💷 💷 💷 !!!

That’s enough for now. Go and have some lunch 🥪 and, if you decide to film 🎦 yourself while eating, send it straight to the festival 🏆 rather than posting to Instagram - it might give you at least some financial benefit 💳

I love you and will leave you till next week. 

Stay curious 🔎

Max