Happy Wednesday!

In Today’s Email:

• Google and Universal on AI deepfakes 🎤

• Nvidia’s new AI chip 📟

• What is Disney’s newest task force? 👀

Google and Universal on AI deepfakes 🎤

‘Deepfakes’ produced by generative AI are on the rise.

As generative AI has grown in popularity, deep fakes have shifted the music industry. Some companies like Google and Universal Music aren’t just sitting back as the threat of new technology grows. Both companies are in talks to license voices for songs generated by AI. According to four people familiar with the matter, the two companies are aiming to strike a partnership to deal with the music industry’s biggest threat.

“An artist’s voice is often the most valuable part of their livelihood and public persona, and to steal it, no matter the means, is wrong,” Jeffery Harleston, Universal Music general counsel told US lawmakers last month. This comes as more AI-generated deep fakes hit the industry. Some popular examples include Johnny Cash’s voice being used to sing “Barbie Girl”, and “Gangsta’s Paradise” being performed by the voice of the legendary Frank Sinatra.

How do the artists feel about AI? Some are already fed up with the technology. In April, Drake denounced AI, calling it “the final straw,” after his voice was used to mimic Ice Spice’s “Munch”. Rapper Ice Cube has described cloned tracks as “demonic.” Some artists are in a different boat, as they openly embrace the new technology. Grimes has offered to split the royalties with people that use her voice in AI-generated songs.

How do you feel about AI in music?

Nvidia’s new AI chip 📟

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently announced their newest chip.

Nvidia is dominating the AI hardware space, even with fierce competition from AMD, Google, and Amazon. Some estimates believe the company has over 80% market share for AI chips. The company’s graphics processing units have quickly become the preferred chips for large AI models that drive generative AI software.

On Tuesday, Nvidia announced the GH200, a new chip designed specifically to run AI models. The GH200 uses the same GPU as the H100, the company’s highest-end AI chip. However, the GH200 boasts a 72-core ARM central processor and 141 gigabytes of memory. The new chip will be available from distributors in the second quarter of next year.

“This processor is designed for the scale-out of the world’s data centers,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Nvidia’s primary GPU rival, AMD, also recently announced its own AI-focused chip, the M1300X, which can support 192GB of memory. Google and Amazon are also said to be designing their own custom AI chips.

What is Disney’s newest task force? 👀

Legacy media companies like Disney must figure out AI if they want to survive.

Disney is determined to figure out AI. A task force, launched earlier this year, is looking to develop AI applications in-house and form partnerships with AI startups, according to sources close to Reuters. Disney is clearly interested in AI, considering the 11 current job openings seeking candidates with experience in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The openings touch nearly every aspect of Disney. From the company’s theme parks and engineering group, Walt Disney Imagineering, to the company’s production group, Walt Disney Studios. Even its advertising team, which is seeking to build an AI-powered ad system, has job ad descriptions posted.

AI is set to explode in Hollywood, even writers and actors view the technology as a threat to jobs. Many contract negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America are focused on AI. “AI research at Disney goes back a very long time and revolves around all the things you see being discussed today: Can we have something that helps us make movies, games, or conversational robots inside theme parks that people can talk to?” an anonymous executive who has worked with Disney told Reuters.

That’s it for today, we’ll see you back here on Friday!