🎉 AI In Paris 2024, Iconic Voices, 2x New Video Gen-AI Releases, Apple Vision Pro AI
Al Michaels Olympic Recaps, Judy Garland Reads Wizard of Oz, New Competition in Hollywood AI, Apple Vision Pro Soon to Get AI Upgrades
Welcome to this week’s edition of AImpulse, a five point summary of the most significant advancements in the world of Artificial Intelligence.
Here’s the pulse on this week’s top stories:
What’s Happening: NBC is launching an AI-generated version of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels to narrate personalized Olympic highlight reels on its Peacock streaming service for the 2024 Paris Games.
The details:
Subscribers can customize the 10-minute recap packages based on preferred sports, athletes, and content types, narrated by an AI clone of Michael’s voice.
The AI system was trained on Michaels' past NBC broadcasts to recreate his signature style, with the broadcaster giving his approval for the process.
NBC said they estimate nearly 7M unique variations of recaps generated throughout the Olympics.
Human editors will reportedly review all AI-generated content for accuracy before being released to viewers.
Why it matters: The launch of A.I. Michaels marks a major leap into the tech for a media giant, something we’ve seen reluctance or even outright dismissal of in the past for fear of backlash. The tide is changing — and things like AI-recreated voices are gradually moving from controversial to the norm.
What’s Happening: AI audio company ElevenLabs just announced a new ‘Iconic Voices’ feature for its recently released Reader App, allowing users to have text read by AI-generated voices of famous Hollywood stars.
The details:
The initial lineup includes AI-recreated voices of Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds, and Sir Laurence Olivier, with more being added in the coming months.
ElevenLabs reached licensing agreements for the voices with CMG Worldwide, which manages the estates of late-featured celebrities.
Users can have the AI voices read books, articles, PDFs, and other text content available within the Reader App.
The voices are only useable within the Reader App itself, and cannot be selected to create shareable content on the platform.
Why it matters: If you’re a voice actor, the competition just got a whole lot fiercer. ElevenLabs is not only showing off the powerful future of AI-generated voice clones, but also setting a strong licensing precedent for the industry by working directly with the estates of the late Hollywood stars.
What’s Happening: Runway just announced that its AI video generator, Gen-3 Alpha, is now available to all users following weeks of impressive, viral outputs after the model’s release in mid-June.
The details:
Runway unveiled Gen-3 Alpha last month, the first model in its next-gen series trained for learning ‘general world models’.
Gen-3 Alpha upgrades key features, including character and scene consistency, camera motion and techniques, and transitions between scenes.
Gen-3 Alpha is available behind Runway’s ‘Standard’ $12/mo access plan, which gives users 63 seconds of generations a month.
Why it matters: Despite impressive recent releases from KLING and Luma Labs, Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha model feels like the biggest leap AI video has taken since Sora. However, the tiny generation limits for non-unlimited plans might be a hurdle for power users.
What’s Happening: Apple is reportedly working on bringing its new AI features from its Apple Intelligence push to the Vision Pro headsets, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The details:
Apple Intelligence was announced for Mac, iPhone, and iPad during WWDC, but is now being adapted for the Vision Pro headset as well.
Bloomberg said the capabilities are not expected on the device this year, despite the company looking for ways to boost sales for the product line.
The Apple Intelligence suite will include an improved Siri, writing tools, and an OpenAI-powered chatbot, among other AI-infused features.
The report also expanded on the WSJ’s rumored Apple-Meta partnership, saying Apple has ‘zero interest’ in the deal.
Why it matters: The futuristic capabilities of the Apple Vision Pro and the advanced workflows unlocked with AI are a match made in heaven — assuming anyone is willing to pay the high price tag. Users might need to see a significant price cut to come around to the new tech, regardless of what AI is infused into it.
What’s Happening: Odyssey, a new startup co-founded by self-driving car industry veterans, just emerged from stealth with a ‘Hollywood-grade’ AI video generation platform aimed at revolutionizing visual effects and storytelling capabilities.
The details:
Odyssey is developing four specialized AI models focused on geometry, materials, lighting, and motion, aimed at giving more control over outputs.
The company's team includes AI researchers from tech giants, as well as artists who've worked on blockbusters like Dune and Avengers.
Odyssey is reportedly gathering its own 3D, real-world data for training instead of scraping existing video data, building on learnings from self-driving AI experience.
The startup also announced a $9M funding round with participation from Google Ventures, Y Combinator’s Garry Tan, DeepMind’s Jeff Dean, and more.
Why it matters: While we’ve already seen Hollywood start to experiment with AI video platforms like Sora, the capabilities (at least publicly) seem a bit off from longer Hollywood-type outputs. Odyssey’s ambitions could accelerate the tech’s use on the big screen, video games, and other media — but it certainly will have some stiff competition as other models improve.