A. Toby Espinosa’s Post

Yesterday, I sent my 4th issue of my newsletter called King Digest. In the last edition, you can dive into: - Why do Nvidia’s chips dominate the AI market? - Meta Shares Tips on How To Avoid Apple’s In-App Fees - Why McDonald’s just flipped its golden arches upside down P.S. Want to go deeper? Join for weekly curated links in one newsletter Here's the link: kingdigest.com

Yesterday, I sent my 4th issue of my newsletter called King Digest. In the last edition, you can dive into: - Why do Nvidia’s chips dominate the AI market? - Meta Shares Tips on How To Avoid Apple’s In-App Fees - Why McDonald’s just flipped its golden arches upside down P.S. Want to go deeper? Join for weekly curated links in one newsletter Here's the link: kingdigest.com

The VASA-1 research is going viral, and it's easy to see why. I am both captivated and slightly unsettled by the latest innovation from Microsoft Research. VASA-1 can generate hyper-realistic talking face videos from a single portrait photo and speech audio. As someone involved in the field of technology, it's a privilege to witness such groundbreaking advancements. The potential of these AI-generated videos is immense, with applications reaching far and wide. However, the realism of these videos also raises important ethical considerations. In the wrong hands, this technology could potentially be used maliciously, making it increasingly challenging to distinguish real videos from AI-generated ones.

There can be many implications with this technology, but the one that came to my mind was video interviews. Assuming this could work in real-time in the near future, candidates could provide their photos to some program and attend a ton of interviews in parallel. A program would just have to listen to questions, then use some LLM to answer all of those questions, and the whole thing would look completely real. Or a much simpler scenario that is already happening - video interviews where a hiring team just comes up with a list of questions and some very real virtual agent does interviews. I see that this could at least solve the problem where hiring teams ignore 80-90% of applications. If there was a cheap way to interview every candidate, this would make the process more fair.

Mind...Blown? Microsoft's VASA-1 Blurs Lines Between Real and AI-Generated Video Okay, this is wild. Microsoft Research just unveiled VASA-1, an AI model that takes a single photo and audio recording to produce realistic talking-head videos. Lip-sync? Check. Natural facial expressions? Check. It's eerily seamless. 🤯 The Potential? Revolutionizing media production, accessibility tools, and personalized online experiences. Imagine video dubbing without re-shoots, or loved ones brought to life through old photos. The Concerns? Deepfakes become even easier to create, eroding trust in digital media. Misuse could fuel disinformation campaigns and have devastating real-world consequences. How Do We Navigate This? Tech Responsibility: Microsoft, and others in this space, must prioritize ethical design and safeguards. They need robust detection tools and clear usage guidelines. Individual Vigilance: We need to sharpen our critical thinking. Question the source, look for inconsistencies, and demand media literacy education for all. The big question: Is a future where we can't trust our own eyes inevitable? Let's discuss 👇 #AI #deepfakes #videomanipulation #mediaethics #techresponsibility #futureofmedia #Microsoft #VASA1

Highlights from this week’s #AnalystANGLE as #GenAI continues to drive sweeping changes in infrastructure demands and business models 🤖💬 theCUBEresearch.com 🔍 NVIDIA is under the spotlight for allegedly hiking prices with their exclusive supercomputers. The community is buzzing, but are they really the game-changers? 👥 OpenAI and Microsoft are emerging as AI pioneers, but it's not all smooth sailing as a governance crisis stirs concern among customers.  Watch the full episode and gain daily insights from our analysts at #theCUBEresearch, including this segment’s David Vellante & Rob Strechay. #TechTalk #IndustryInsights #CTOnews #EnterpriseComputing 

#deepfakes Awesome and scary Our reality is getting altered forever. The Age of AI is coming. AI will be able to replicate better version of you digitally with the help of just one photo and voice sample. People and influencers who are having videos and photos published on social media might become the first target of antisocial elements Advancements in AI technology falling in wrong hand will create multiple problems for us. How would you tackle issues of deepfakes? Will you trust videos of your loved one shown to you ? Would you trust video calls asking for help from your friends and family? Will you have a secret code for your family? #AI #future #ethicalAI

Super intriguing this. While AI-generated videos and audio offer significant advantages in terms of efficiency, cost, and scalability (to name a few) they also present interesting challenges to be carefully managed to ensure quality and ethical standards are maintained. In some cases, does it really matter if the “person” on the video call is human or AI if you can still get the job done efficiently and ethically? It has the potential to make relativley mundane but important tasks in life (like insurance claims, or booking medical appointments) simpler, more efficiently and more enjoyable when I think about the time I’ve spent queuing on calls.

Experience the future of video with VASA-1 by Microsoft Research! This AI-generated technology produces hyper-realistic talking face videos with just one photo and speech audio. Get ready to be amazed! 🚀💻🤖 #MicrosoftResearch #VASA1 #AIgenerated #hyperrealistic #videotechnology

Knowing that it's AI generated, I'm looking at the video more critically. With that critical eye, I can see that there are some indications that it's not a real person. However, without looking closely or critically, this is very impressive...and disturbing.   Thing is, I'm not sure what the use case would be for having pretend people. Further, what is the value of that use case? We all jump to conclusions that this would be used for nefarious purposes, however how could this technology be used beneficially, in a business setting.