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AI-created images lose US copyrights in test for new technology

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Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the US Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters.

“Zarya of the Dawn” author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Tuesday.

The decision is one of the first by a US court or agency on the scope of copyright protection for works created with AI, and comes amid the meteoric rise of generative AI software like Midjourney, Dall-E and ChatGPT.

The Copyright Office said in its letter that it would reissue its registration for “Zarya of the Dawn” to omit images that “are not the product of human authorship” and therefore cannot be copyrighted.

The Copyright Office had no comment on the decision.

Kashtanova on Wednesday called it “great news” that the office allowed copyright protection for the novel’s story and the way the images were arranged, which Kashtanova said “covers a lot of uses for the people in the AI art community.”

Kashtanova said they were considering how best to press ahead with the argument that the images themselves were a “direct expression of my creativity and therefore copyrightable.”

Midjourney general counsel Max Sills said the decision was “a great victory for Kris, Midjourney, and artists,” and that the Copyright Office is “clearly saying that if an artist exerts creative control over an image generating tool like Midjourney …the output is protectable.”

Midjourney is an AI-based system that generates images based on text prompts entered by users. Kashtanova wrote the text of “Zarya of the Dawn,” and Midjourney created the book’s images based on prompts.

The Copyright Office told Kashtanova in October it would reconsider the book’s copyright registration because the application did not disclose Midjourney’s role.

The office said on Tuesday that it would grant copyright protection for the book’s text and the way Kashtanova selected and arranged its elements. But it said Kashtanova was not the “mastermind” behind the images themselves.

“The fact that Midjourney’s specific output cannot be predicted by users makes Midjourney different for copyright purposes than other tools used by artists,” the letter said.

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WhatsApp rolls out new ‘text editor’ experience

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Meta-owned WhatsApp has announced back-to-back new features for its users and recently, the messaging app is rolling out a new text editor experience, WaBetaInfo reported. 

According to the app-tracking website, the new feature has been released to some of the beta testers as of yet and will be rolled out to more users in a future update. 

Through the revamped text editor, users will be able to edit images, videos, and GIFs with the help of new tools and fonts. The new feature is also being developed for the iOS version of the app. 

— WaBetaInfo
— WaBetaInfo 

The screenshot shows that users should open the text editor to check this feature is available in their accounts. If the new update is available, users will be able to use several features. 

Even though it was possible to change the font of a text, through this feature users will quickly be able to switch between different fonts by tapping one of the font options shown above the keyboard. 

Through this, users have more control over how to format text within images, videos, and GIFs as they will be able to align the text to the left, centre, or right. 

“Users can change the text background colour, which makes it easier for users to differentiate important text from the rest,” said WaBetaInfo

Some of the new fonts that have been released to beta testers include Calistoga, Courier Prime, Damion, Exo 2, and Morning Breeze. 

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Pakistan, China to deepen cooperation in meteorological science

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In a major development, time-tested friends Pakistan and China have agreed to strengthen cooperation in meteorological science and technology.

The development came during a meeting of meteorological officers and experts from China and Pakistan held in Beijing last week.

Both sides reviewed the cooperation in the field of meteorological science and technology, and consulted on topics like early warning supporting system, operational capacity building, and training, China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Thursday.

During the meeting, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Deputy Administrator Zhang Zuqiang said that Beijing looks forward to promoting the construction of cloud-based early warning supporting system with Pakistan.

“Pakistan will continue to support CMA in international meteorological governance,” said Mahr Sahibzad Khan, Director General of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and permanent representative of Pakistan with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). “Pakistan is grateful for CMA’s technical support when Pakistan was hit by severe floods last year.”

Mahr Sahibzad Khan and the Pakistani delegation also visited relevant agencies under CMA to learn about the progress of the cloud-based early warning support system in Pakistan and discussed customized plans for Pakistan. “PMD and CMA will strengthen cooperation in monitoring, forecasting, hydrology and communication, and research & training,” he said.

China and Pakistan are important members of WMO Regional Association II. Bilateral cooperation between the two countries is of vital significance for meteorological development in Asia.

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Humanity at risk: Musk, others ring alarm bells over hasty ‘giant AI experiments’

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Hundreds of celebrated artificial intelligence (AI) researchers including Tesla owner Elon Musk have undersigned an open letter recommending AI labs to revisit gigantic AI systems, ringing alarm bells over the “profound risks” these bots pose to society and humanity.

According to the letter, published by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, AI labs are currently locked in an “out-of-control race” to develop and deploy machine learning systems “that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control.”

“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” said the open letter.

“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.

AI engineers around the world want to make sure that these powerful AI systems should be allowed to take logical time for the researchers to make sure they were safe.

Among the signatories of the letter are author Yuval Noah Harari, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, politician Andrew Yang, and several well-known AI researchers and CEOs, including Stuart Russell, Yoshua Bengio, Gary Marcus, and Emad Mostaque. 

The letter was mainly prompted by the release of GPT-4 from the San Francisco firm OpenAI.

The company says its latest model is much more powerful than the previous version, which was used to power ChatGPT, a bot capable of generating tracts of text from the briefest of prompts.

“Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4,” says the letter. “This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”

Musk was an initial investor in OpenAI, spent years on its board, and his car firm Tesla develops AI systems to help power its self-driving technology, among other applications.

The letter, hosted by the Musk-funded Future of Life Institute, was signed by prominent critics as well as competitors of OpenAI like Stability AI chief Emad Mostaque.

The letter quoted from a blog written by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who suggested that “at some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems”.

“We agree. That point is now,” the authors of the open letter wrote.

“Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”

They called for governments to step in and impose a moratorium if companies failed to agree.

The six months should be used to develop safety protocols, AI governance systems, and refocus research on ensuring AI systems are more accurate, safe, “trustworthy and loyal”.

The letter did not detail the dangers revealed by GPT-4.

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