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A DATING SHOW WITHOUT DATES CYBERCULTURE

South Korea is launching a new dating show. One without human dates. AI partners is the alleged answer.

My AI Partner: Strange Romance, proposes a decidedly human experiment to the test: Can people develop genuine romantic feelings for an algorithm?

The show brings together television personalities, including 41-year-old webtoon creator Kian84, comedian Jang Do-yeon and actress Lee Yu-bi, and pairs each with an AI companion tailored to their individual tastes, from physical features such as short hair to sensory details such as a deep voice. The virtual partners travel with the cast on portable tablets, joining them on poolside retreats, restaurant dates and theme park outings, as well as in more intimate late-night conversations, as reported by the Korean Herald.

“As AI continues to catch up with, and in some cases surpass, human capabilities, we began to ask: Is AI capable of love as well?” a show producer said. “If AI can truly love, I believe that would go beyond simply representing an advance in technology. It would raise the question of whether AI has moved to an entirely different level of existence.”

People have been downloading AI boyfriend and girlfriends through ChatGPT or other platforms. Several YouTubers have been experimenting with their created companions to test the scientific guardrails (which unsurprisingly are almost non-existent.) The alpha testing of AI agency bots have resulted in cringeworthy results.

But South Korea is really pushing AI on its people. It wants to be the leader in AI technology. Government agencies have been pushing AI into its culture, including music and film projects. Lost in the AI dependency push is the fact that AI companions can addictively replace human compassion and companionship, which is the death-knell for a country with a dangerously low birth rate.

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COPYRIGHT WRONGS LAW

The South Korean copyright office has drastically changed its rules in regard to AI works. Last month, AI-generated music can now qualify for copyright registration in Korea. New registration guidelines that allow the registration of AI-assisted musical works in which a human has played a “substantial and leading role” in the creative process.

Previously, AI-assisted music had been barred from copyright registration. Creators registering songs have to certify that no AI had been used. If the work was later found to have involved AI, the copyright association suspended royalty payments, removed the work from its registry, reclaimed royalties and triple damages for violations. The revised rules do not extend copyright protection to music created simply by entering one or two prompts into an AI program, a practice commonly referred to in Korean as “one-click composing.”

Registration under the new rules requires creators to disclose the role AI played in the work, including the tools used, how they were used and the applicant's own creative input. Applicants must also certify the accuracy of the information. AI “tools” have rapidly gained traction for composing, arranging and even generating vocals. The new rules are totally subjective. AI tools are not the same as a musician using ProTracks or Garageband to edit, arrange, multi-track, adjust volume, panning, and effects per track, etc.; a human being controls the output levels and final product.

In the US, there have been lower court rulings holding AI training on copyrighted materials is infringement. If one prompts AI to create a song from a specific Artist, it will pull data from that Artist's files to output an inferior but derivative copy of prior songs and lyrics. No human being is playing instruments, singing vocals or composing lyrics to get to the AI generated output. It is all sampled, glued together, and spit out. This is why the US copyright office bans any AI generated content from registration.

The reason for the South Korean change is simple: its major music agencies are pushing virtual groups and AI songs. And the Korean government is all-in on AI technology; it wants to be the leader in the field. More and more people are unaware or do not care if the newest Spotify songs are AI generated. AI is not a human creative equivalent since it has no creativity: the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

Even if a human tweaks AI generated music, it is still objectively a non-registerable AI song. Musicians and songwriters are having a hard time making a living in the current landscape of music distribution and meager royalty payments from digital platforms. Big music and entertainment companies are looking to cut out the human creators (who would be owed royalties) from the new revenue model.

AI is not a human being. Therefore, AI is not entitled to human copyright protections. Remember the ape selfie case where the camera owner claimed copyright to a picture he did not take? He lost because he did not create the picture, an animal did. AI is just a technology animal.

iToons

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THE CORRECTION FUTURE

U.S. and European stocks are scaling record highs as investors pile into the AI boom, but economists at the European Central Bank warn that history points to a sharp downturn ahead. “Economic research on past technological revolutions points to a worrisome conclusion: a correction of current stock market valuations is likely,” the economists wrote in a blog, citing two potential scenarios. A correction could occur because “overconfident, over-optimistic investors” push prices up beyond their fundamental worth, leading to a crash when that exuberance fades, they said. CNBC points out that the economists cite parallels with the 19th century railway boom, the expansion of electricity and radio in the 1920s, and the rise of the internet in the 1990s, not the first time the current AI wave has been compared to the dot.com bubble of the early 2000s.

AI leaders continue to tout the benefits of their AI technology. Agency bots can replace humans. AI can be the backbone for business productivity. AI can be dangerous (which equates to a marketing tag of being “powerful.”) It is a hype train because they are selling a product/service no one really needs or understands. The big money is pouring in from venture capital and investors. Huge amounts of money. Vast sums to build bigger data centers so computers can scrap data to train AI on how to respond to prompts. When suppliers of the hardware to build date centers invest in the AI companies in order to get more hardware orders, it is like a pyramid scheme or house of cards. It is a form of circulating financing not a true arms length, passive investment.

AI firms are spending more money on marketing to sell its services than operating expenses. The reason is simple: average people do not want to pay for a weird, hallucinating program. Business consumers with big tech budgets who can spend millions for access tokens are the target. But some early adopters have found themselves running through their entire AI spending in less than 6 months. Some have also learned that the output needs human review otherwise it turns into slop.

Others have decided the risk to reward to increase profitability is lacking. It is taking a long time for people to realize that AI cannot replace a human worker. AI is not a personal Data from Star Trek. AI firms are losing their core customers. The hype machine needs more hype to secure more investor money which has led to huge debts and no profits. No pure AI provider is profitable. They are really cash burning machines.

AI processing companies are borrowing and issuing stock because they have less disclosure rules than doing an IPO. The dot.com allegory is reasonable. Both are new technologies sold to everyone as something you had to have or be passed over then crushed by the technology used by your peers. The dot.com bubble was a historic stock market boom and bust. Investors poured money into new Internet ("dot.com") startups. Many of these companies had no profits or real business plans, but their stock prices soared before crashing, wiping out trillions of dollars. As always, chasing a fad is like trying to get the golden goose when all the gold eggs have already been gathered by insiders. Buyer beware.

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FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET

A large European vulture landed on a Ryanair plane just prior to take off. It remained on the wing even though pilots tried to move it off by adjusting the flaps. Ground crews tried to shoo it away. But it did not budge. It was only when it left could the plane take off. Ground crews caught the bird on the grounds/ Later, it was taken to a nature reserve. This vulture had a 9-foot wingspan, which could cause serious damage to an airplane. This was one of the stranger nature ground stops in aviation history.

Source: NY Post

In other nature news, a photographer captured a rare half-male, half-female bird in the Chicago metro area. The bobolink has the trademarks of both male and female appearance cues. This is not the first duality bird. We have seen half white, half red cardinals that are from a genetic mutation.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago's Lake Shore Drive is a very scenic roadway. There was even a song about it. It is congested highway that hugs the Lake Michigan shoreline and Chicago's vast park system. But 100 years ago, it looked quite different. This 1926 photograph captures a different way of life. This is why archiving photographs and re-examining history is important to give clarity to the present.

Source: IG/heychicago

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QUICK BYTES CYBERCULTURE

ANOTHER RE-BOOT. Amazon Prime is re-booting the Grand Tour, the famous autophile show that itself was rebooted by the three hosts of the BBC's famous Top Gear program after they got the boot. The Clarkson, Hammond and May trio of car shows lasted for more than 20 years. There have been many re-boots, global versions, with little success. But the folks at Amazon Prime have hired three digital content creators to host the new program. The trailer shows many of the zany premises that the original Top Gear guys did in the past. Amazon hopes younger viewers will connect to the new hosts, but in reality most younger generations are just not into automobiles.

ATTACK THY ENEMIES. Reason Magazine reported that DHS/ICE agents admitted that they went after a critic who lambasted their boss. Last June, two investigators employed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showed up at David Streever's house in Rochester, New York. Streever was not home, so they left him a note. That note, presented as an official warning from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is at the center of a First Amendment lawsuit that Streever filed last month, alleging that ICE agents investigated and threatened him based on his constitutionally protected criticism of their boss. This month, the government responded to Streever's lawsuit, confirming his allegations while attempting to rebut them. The current administration's knack for using government agencies, including the DOJ, to go after people they do not like, including unconstitutional behaviors, is not new. Even after court admonishments, they continue without accountability.

ANOTHER BLACK EYE. Speaking of seeking submissions, CBS, which bowed to the White House when it fired late night host Stephen Colbert for being too critical of the administration, and gutted its news department for being too liberal, is now changing its now gutted news magazine, 60 Minutes, by planning to resurrect the closing commentary segment made famous by Andy Rooney. The network has approached Jerry Seinfeld, John Cleese and Stephen A. Smith about taking turns behind the desk, according to a report in the New York Post. It is ironic that it takes an entertainment comedy host off the air, while now courting two comedians and a sports pundit to try to attract prime time viewers.

RIPPING THE PAGES. There is story circulating around the web that AI companies have been buying up tons of used and rare books. The story states they take these physical copies of books, tear them off the bindings, feed the pages into the program, then shred or destroy the books. It has been said that AI had scraped all it could scrap off the Internet It was then scraping the AI output of other AI to get more data. Now, it is scraping and scrapping books is taking away actual copies of knowledge from humanity. But AI itself has no moral or ethical component, no love for books or human creative processes. It has no soul to think destroying books is not a good idea.

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THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

Question: Whether USB flash drives are becoming obsolete?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether court rulings holding Meta social media apps liable for Internet addiction as a public nuisance, or violation of consumer protection laws, will be reversed on appeal?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether gambling firms will get predictive markets classified as gambling apps?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

OUR STORE IS STILL UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION.

THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER.

APOLOGIES.