Even John Draper Would be Worried
In November 2018 the Chinese State run news agency, Xinhua (state), unveiled it 1st AI generated news anchor based on an actual Chinese newscaster named Zhang Zhow. The artificially generated newscaster is able to mimic the actual broadcaster’s movements and speech, allowing him to be available to the news desk on a 24 hour basis, with a female AI broadcaster developed about a year later, based on another well-known Xinhua broadcaster. These clone reporters are able to mimic complex facial and body movements that are derived from the AI being trained on the specific person’s video images and fill in for the broadcaster when an event happens quickly or the actual person is unavailable or on assignment.
Xinhua AI News Anchor - Source: Xinhua via CNBC
Xinhuaa Female AI News Anchor - Source: Interesting Engineering
Real & AI Version of Chinese newscaster - Source: Richard Agular Podcast
In April 2016 a Japanese Advertising agency pitted a human creative director against an AI system to compete for program ideas for Chlorettes’s Mint Gum, with the AI ‘creative director’ developed by the Japanese arm of McCann (IPG). While the human CD won the contest, although the vote was close (54% to 46%) and similar contests for two other advertising programs went to the AI. Taking the AI concept a bit further in the advertising world are a number of Ai companies that specialized in the creation of digital models that can be used for advertising without the time and expense consumer photoshoots that are typically used. The models shown below were generated by Rosebud.ai (pvt), a company backed by a ‘Who’s Who’ of Silicon Valley cognoscenti, and now seemingly focused on helping users generate NFT’s, with companies like DataGrid (pvt) https://youtu.be/8siezzLXbNo and NEON (pvt) https://youtu.be/2UlBFiL6noU creating even more life-like models that are more expressive than those mentioned earlier.
AI generated Digital models - Source: Topbots.com
In 2017 Japanese advertising agency Dentsu (4324.JP) introduced AICO, short for AI Copywriter, a system that is able to generate advertising copy that could generate vast amounts of copy after researching (being trained on) specific topics and given a bit of context on the target idea. Since then many AI based copywriting tools have been developed, a number of which are easily accessible on line. Here’s a demo from Anyword (pvt) on “Coffee-Making Software” generated by their AI system:
“Everybody needs coffee. Our state-of-the-art machine does not discriminate.
No matter the type of coffee you enjoy, there is a setting for it on our coffee maker. We priced ourselves on being able to offer options for everyone, making our machine versatile enough to be used by anyone.
The process couldn’t be easier! Choose your favorite roast from our custom selection, then choose which brew method fits your lifestyle best. From there the AI will take care of the rest, using precision technology that won’t burn your coffee beans or brew too fast so your grounds can properly steep to release their flavor before being round.
Give us a try today!”
The ultimate (for the time being) escalation of the use of AI in the advertising world is Rozy, an incarnation of Korea’s Sidus Studio X (035420.KS), who is a ‘virtual influencer and model’ who earned close to $1m last year. While the 22 year old influencer looks and acts like more typical influencers or pop stars that sign deals to hawk various items to those who are predisposed to follow whatever trend is current, she is not a real person and is therefore available 24 hours/day and does not need to be flown (along with a retinue of make-up artists, wardrobe specialists, hair designers, and aides) to exotic locations for a few hour shoot, with only the background footage being necessary, which can be shot by local videographers. She does not age, nor does she get negative publicity after heavy partying with other celebs, and she has picked up endorsements from over 100 sponsorships since her ‘creation’ in 2020, but the ultimate in AI based ‘advertising’ is expected to be MAVE, a virtual only all girl group devised by Kakao Entertainment (103260.KS) that will follow in the footsteps of ‘aespa’, the SM Entertainment (SMCE) actual girl group that has a virtual equivalent.
“Everybody needs coffee. Our state-of-the-art machine does not discriminate.
No matter the type of coffee you enjoy, there is a setting for it on our coffee maker. We priced ourselves on being able to offer options for everyone, making our machine versatile enough to be used by anyone.
The process couldn’t be easier! Choose your favorite roast from our custom selection, then choose which brew method fits your lifestyle best. From there the AI will take care of the rest, using precision technology that won’t burn your coffee beans or brew too fast so your grounds can properly steep to release their flavor before being round.
Give us a try today!”
The ultimate (for the time being) escalation of the use of AI in the advertising world is Rozy, an incarnation of Korea’s Sidus Studio X (035420.KS), who is a ‘virtual influencer and model’ who earned close to $1m last year. While the 22 year old influencer looks and acts like more typical influencers or pop stars that sign deals to hawk various items to those who are predisposed to follow whatever trend is current, she is not a real person and is therefore available 24 hours/day and does not need to be flown (along with a retinue of make-up artists, wardrobe specialists, hair designers, and aides) to exotic locations for a few hour shoot, with only the background footage being necessary, which can be shot by local videographers. She does not age, nor does she get negative publicity after heavy partying with other celebs, and she has picked up endorsements from over 100 sponsorships since her ‘creation’ in 2020, but the ultimate in AI based ‘advertising’ is expected to be MAVE, a virtual only all girl group devised by Kakao Entertainment (103260.KS) that will follow in the footsteps of ‘aespa’, the SM Entertainment (SMCE) actual girl group that has a virtual equivalent.
Virtual Influencer "Rozy" - Source: KoreaBoo.com
'aespa' - The Physical Band - Source: Billboard
'aespa' - The avatars - Source: soompi.com
All in, the use of AI in broadcast and advertising continues to increase and as the technology improves it will get increasingly more difficult for consumers to know whether they are being served by a human or a virtual copywriter, newscaster, product influencer, or even a friend, as some of the AI imaging products can be used to ‘prank your friends’ by creating virtual images of on-line videos and changing dialogue or actions. While advertisers extol the use of AI to ‘personalize’ the advertising experience by having the systems write ‘better’ and higher volumes of copy and targeting that copy to the collected data for individuals, and news networks justify their Ai use as a cost-saving measure, we wonder how much humanity gets lost when an AI does the interpretation of an image or a headline and whether the Ai has even the smallest bit of conscience when it comes to advertising (not to say more advertisers have much). In 1937 radio journalist Herb Morrison’s onsite broadcast about the crash of the airship Hindenburg, which killed 35 people in a fiery explosion might have been this:
“The airship is combusting and falling down with flames and smoke as it nears the mooring mast. There are passengers screaming and the air is filled with acrid smoke”
Instead of the historic rendition that expressed a bit more emotion:
“It’s fire and it crashing! . . . This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it’s crashing . . . oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it’s a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There’s smoke, and there’s flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here!
. . . I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it’s just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage, and everybody can hardly breathe and talk . . . Honest, I can hardly breathe. I’m going to step inside where I cannot see it. . . .”
“The airship is combusting and falling down with flames and smoke as it nears the mooring mast. There are passengers screaming and the air is filled with acrid smoke”
Instead of the historic rendition that expressed a bit more emotion:
“It’s fire and it crashing! . . . This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it’s crashing . . . oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it’s a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There’s smoke, and there’s flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here!
. . . I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it’s just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage, and everybody can hardly breathe and talk . . . Honest, I can hardly breathe. I’m going to step inside where I cannot see it. . . .”
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