Microsoft accidentally deletes its own AI

📰 News Roundup

• Microsoft accidentally deletes its own AI. In an update to Windows 11 the update is accidentally removing CoPilot from machines by uninstalling it. Microsoft are rolling out a patch, and users can re-install the app. But it’s nice to know at least for now if AI ever became a problem, we can wipe it out with an accidental keystroke.

• Roblox is integrating AI. Roblox is launching an open source software, Cube3D, the first version of its AI model to generate 3D objects. It’s an exciting development that will allow Roblox developers to create with AI, expect Roblox to get even more creative over the next year.

• xAI has acquired Hotshot. XAI’s rumored text-to-video integration now seems almost definite as the company acquires AI video generation platform Hotshot. Keep your eyes peeled for Grok to have text-to-video added soon, as Hotshot is likely integrated into the ChatGPT alternative.

• Amazon decides privacy is dead. Amazon’s Alexa will now send all voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud as the firm decides to ramp up its AI product. The ‘Do not send voice recordings’ feature will end on March 28th. With Amazon stating “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature”

• China confiscates DeepSeek engineer’s passports. DeepSeek has been given the ‘National Treasure’ status in China. In a bid to defend itself in the AI race, key DeepSeek engineers have handed in their passports to the Chinese Government with an imposed travel ban to 'prevent the leak of ‘confidential information that could constitute trade secrets or even state secrets’.

🛠 Tool of the Week: Titles

Titles is a tool that might have finally cracked a way for creators and designers to work with their favorite artist’s styles. The model allows artists to easily create and share their own custom AI models, where they retain attribution and make money when they’re used. Creators then can choose the specific AI models to generate images, allowing for work created in an artist’s style, with everyone getting a fair deal.

🤌 Check it out: [HERE]

👾 Summit Spotlight: Acrylic Robotics

As part of the AI & Creativity Summit on April 24, we’ve partnered with Acrylic Robotics for a live painting that will be happening throughout the day. Acrylic Robotics make robots that paint with precision, turning any image or idea into a masterpiece with real brushstrokes. Their robots capture the painting process from start to finish with exactly the same moves an artist makes. No two strokes, and no two paintings, are perfectly identical.

🔦 AI Spotlight

Get an AI Ideas report, in minutes! AE Studio’s AI-Ideas feature, has a free instant AI powered form, that will look at your business needs and help identify where AI can help or grow your business. With their AI powering Berkshire Hathaway, Samsung and Scotch and Soda, the possibilities are endless.

🤖 Interview: Jamie Umpherson

This week we interview Jamie Umpherson, the Head of Creative at Runway. A respected figure and voice in the industry, Jamie is speaking at our AI & Creativity conference in New York, on April 24 by taking part in a fireside chat with Harry McCracken [Technology Editor for Fast Company]. We caught up with Jamie ahead of the summit to delve into his insight on film and creativity in AI.

AI video tools have opened up new possibilities for independent creatives. How do you see Runway empowering filmmakers who may not have access to traditional big-budget resources?
Filmmaking has always been a resource-intensive endeavor. Time, money, hyper-specific expertise – these are historical barriers to entry for new voices. Our aim at Runway is to create tools that can eliminate those barriers so that new voices can be heard and more stories can be told. This is something we're seeing play out every day in the creative community.

Hollywood is already experimenting with AI. How do you see major studios adopting AI video tools, and do you think it will complement or replace certain roles in filmmaking?
We’re already seeing many major studios eager to implement our technology into their workflows – a trend that will only increase as more studios begin to understand not only the value that generative AI presents but also where in their existing pipelines and workflows it fits. Last fall, we struck an industry-first partnership with Lionsgate, putting our tools into the hands of their filmmakers, directors and other creative talent. We’re seeing widespread interest in similar deals across Hollywood, as well as from indie studios looking to tell more stories for less money. Often, for projects that simply would never otherwise see the light of day.

Our tools are empowering everyone from independent filmmakers to Hollywood directors, giving them new ways to explore ideas, concepts and executional approaches that can help bring their creative visions to life – acting as an extension of the users' creativity, rather than a replacement for it. At the end of the day, the story and the unique perspective of the person telling that story will always be the most important and irreplaceable part of what makes a movie. Not the how it was made, but the why.

The Runway AI Film Festival has quickly become a platform for innovation. What inspired its creation, and what kind of impact do you hope it has on the future of filmmaking?
Our core mission is to help artists tell their stories. A large part of that is accomplished by creating tools that can empower them to do so, regardless of expertise, time or resources.

But an equally important part, and one where I spend the majority of my waking minutes, is by fostering our incredible community of artists and creatives. Building new ways to celebrate and spotlight the work that they're doing, bringing their stories to a broader audience.

The film festival is our yearly moment to do that on a global scale. Every year it serves as a historical snapshot of where the technology is and how artists are expanding their storytelling capabilities with it in previously impossible ways. As we come up on our third year of AIFF, we're beyond excited to welcome some truly incredible industry icons from film and television. To our jury, to our panels and the gala events themselves. Lots of exciting things to come.

Have there been any standout films from the festival that surprised you in how they used AI to push the boundaries of storytelling?
Each year I'm surprised in new ways. The common misconception with AI is that you ask it to do something and it will. But the reality is, it's like any other tool. It requires guidance and taste and your own creativity and point of view to yield truly interesting results. For me, that's the beauty of AIFF. You get to see how filmmakers from all over the world choose to use the same tools in such vastly different ways in order to tell the stories they want to tell. It leads to visual languages and narrative structures we haven't seen before. And that's such a refreshing experience in contrast to so much of what and how we consume media these days. It departs from the sameness.

One of the biggest barriers for indie filmmakers is cost. In what ways do you think AI-generated backgrounds and filler shots can help reduce production budgets while maintaining high-quality storytelling?
Generated backgrounds and b-roll are definitely a use case we see today. And it's a great way for those with smaller budgets to make bigger films. But the studios and filmmakers we work with are beginning to leverage the tools throughout the entire production process – from early storyboarding and pre-visualization all the way through post-production. The tools and technology are improving at a pace where soon enough, more and more filmmakers will be able to make choices based on their creative vision, instead of their budget constraints.

Looking ahead, what’s next for Runway in terms of innovation? Are there any upcoming developments that will further democratize access to high-quality AI filmmaking?
We are constantly evolving and pushing the boundaries of what's possible at Runway – that starts with our research and creative teams, and carries through the products that we put into the world. We have a number of exciting launches coming soon…stay tuned.

AI & Creativity Summit April 24, New York City

Til next time,

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

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