📰 News Roundup

• 60% of the UK population is now Norman Reedus: With the UK’s “Online Safety Act” law coming into force this week, Reddit users have been using the Death Stranding video game to bypass the government’s AI facial-recognition. Read more below…

• You can now buy a humanoid robot for under $6,000: Chinese company Unitree has managed to get one of its humanoid robots under a five-figure sum, in a push to be at the forefront of the AI consumer robotics boom. Separately Elon Musk recently pointed towards our AI robot future stating: “If we are not roughly making 100,000 Optimus robots a month in 60 months, I would be shocked.”

• AI is teaching Children: Alpha School is a new AI school, based in Austin, Texas. Students learn for two hours per day on math and reading, spending the rest of the day relying on AI and an adult “guide” (specifically not a teacher), to help students develop practical skills in areas such as entrepreneurship, public speaking and financial literacy.

• New York Times partners with Amazon: The publisher has sold training rights on its content for $20 million a year to Amazon, in a deal that may surprise publishers. The new deal accounts for almost 1% of the NYT’s revenue, and will potentially open the flood-gates of publishers being renumerated for retrospectively training AI. The NYT is still in a legal battle with OpenAI.

🛠️ Tool Of The Week: Midjourney

Midjourney, as tool of the week? I hear you cry. It’s been around since 2022!
That may be true, and when ChatGPT launched their new image generation update last month many of us thought Midjourney could be over, crushed by the weight of Altman’s resources.

But Midjourney has fought back with one of the best video generation updates we’ve seen. Any image can now be generated into four video options, and the quality, accuracy, and ability are incredible. In our tests we’ve been creating what would have taken a 3D modeller days to make in mere minutes, with the quality of the same caliber.

Give Midjourney a try… again, HERE.

👾 AI is in Vogue… Literally

The fashion world potentially had its AI-watershed moment this week, as without warning Vogue saw AI models take to the fashion bible, in the form of a Guess campaign. The campaign, created by Valentina Gonzalez and Andreea Petrescu, appeared in the British Vogue issue, with the duo stating that they were asked to create the AI model for this campaign by Paul Marciano, co-founder of Guess, via a message on Instagram.

Friend of Artist and the Machine, Moin Roberts-Islam delves into the topic in this detailed Forbes article. Read here for the full story.

👾 THE AI & CREATIVITY SUMMIT: LA Edition

After a hugely successful NY Summit in April, we're back by popular demand - this time in Los Angeles, bigger and bolder than ever 😈.

​This Fall, join 300 decision makers, top VC-backed founders, GenAI artists, and cultural pioneers as we explore and celebrate the intersection of AI, Creativity, and human-machine collaboration. We’re offering a full-day deep dive experience thoughtfully curated across intimate conversations, live showcases, and spaces designed to foster deep connection and real-time insights.

​Please note: To ensure a high-quality, curated experience, space is extremely limited, and all ticket purchasers are subject to approval.

📦 60% of the UK population is now Norman Reedus

The United Kingdom rolled out facial age-verification for certain websites this week such as Reddit, Discord, and PornHub, as part of the UK Online Safety Act. But Reddit users aren’t easily beaten and very quickly found a way around the AI facial-recognition software. Taking to video game Death Stranding, starring Norman Reedus, and created by iconic designer Hideo Kojima, which has a photo mode, that can be manipulated to provide the AI facial-recognition with a face in ‘open mouth’, ‘close mouth’ type poses. Passing the verification with ease.

There’s something poetic about a draconian law that’s enforced by AI being beaten by a dystopian video game. As one Redditor joked “60% of the UK population is now Norman Reedus”.

🤖 Artist Emily Xie renders the Guggenheim with AI

Artist Emily Xie and Titles.xyz have created a custom-trained AI model to render The Guggenheim in partnership with the iconic museum. TITLES states that: “In prompting the model, we were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's distinctively organic architecture, seemingly futuristic yet classically recognizable. These elements are complemented by artist Emily Xie’s creative coding, which explores the interplay of materials and patterns, weaving together themes of mythology, memory, tradition, and heritage."

Til next time,

Dani Van de Sande (Founder), James Joseph (The Weekly Newsletter’s Editor) & the Artist and the Machine team.

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