The most charming video that's come across my newsfeed in recent days is of a fluffy cat wearing a pirate hat and riding around someone's lounge on a robotic vacuum cleaner. The video has the familiar, slightly shaky look of a candid clip recorded on someone's smartphone.
Only, the cat and the vacuum cleaner aren't real, and neither is the house. The 12-second clip was created by Sora, the new text-to-video generator driven by artificial intelligence from OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT AI chatbot.
Sora uses a so-called diffusion AI model which works by examining a vast number of videos and learning to identify the objects and actions in them. It can then assemble completely new videos by responding to text prompts. Sora understands what the user has asked for in the prompt, as well as how those things exist in the physical world.
For instance, the prompt for that cat video was: "An adorable kitten pirate riding a robot vacuum around the house." That's exactly what Sora delivered.
Denne historien er fra April 13-19, 2024-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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Denne historien er fra April 13-19, 2024-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
