DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Sonic world of animals: Listen to an extinct bird's mating call
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What’s sometimes lost in this feast for the eyes is the sonic world of animals — audible to humans in the case of birdsong. Source: British Library“Animals: Art, Science and Sound” showcases the British Library’s wildlife collection, which contains over 250,000 recordings of animals from around the world. Source: British LibraryThe species was declared extinct in 2000. The song of a nightingale Published by the Gramophone Company Ltd. in 1910, it was the first published recording of any animal. Source: British LibraryThe groundbreaking release marked the beginning of commercial wildlife recording that culminated in the 1970s.

☆ Exclusive: German authors, performers call for tougher ChatGPT rules amid copyright concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, April 19 (Reuters) - Forty-two German associations and trade unions representing more than 140,000 authors and performers on Wednesday urged the European Union to beef up draft artificial intelligence rules as they singled out the threat to their copyright from ChatGPT. The letter underlined the growing worries about generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT which can mimic humans and create text and images based on prompts. "Generative AI needs to be at the centre of any meaningful AI market regulation," it said. The European Commission, which last year proposed AI rules, will in the coming months thrash out the final details with EU lawmakers and member states before the rules become legislation. The rules should be beefed up to regulate generative AI across the entire product cycle, especially on providers of foundation models, the groups said.

☆ I make $7,000 a month writing children’s books and teaching others how to self-publish. Here’s how I got started.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ren Lowe is an author, the CEO of Brown Unicorn Publishing, and a self-publishing coach. While on maternity leave in 2021, I wrote seven children's books with my daughter, Kameryn, which was the start of my self-publishing business. I started my sister company, Brown Unicorn Publishing, in October 2021, which offers "done for you" publishing services that range in price from $3,000 to $4,500, and my monthly income increased. From November 2021 through August, I earned a little more than $30,000 from the publishing services alone. In my first children's book, the illustrator created the images in the wrong sizing dimensions, and I panicked.

☆ 8 in-demand creative skills for freelancers―many can pay more than $100 per hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Demand for 3D animation grew 44% year over year on freelancer platform Upwork, for example, according to a recent report. Graphic designGraphic designers work on visuals for client brochures, websites, social media posts and so on. 3D animators on Upwork charge as much as $110 per hour. These designers charge as much as $125 per hour. Cartoonists on Upwork charge as much as $70 per hour.

☆ The Happy Meal inventor says McDonald’s didn’t want it at first
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But four decades ago, when the first Happy Meal debuted, the company didn’t quite get it. They didn’t immediately embrace it,” Bob Bernstein, an advertising executive who created the Happy Meal in the late 1970s, said in a video interview from his Kansas City office, which is decked out with Happy Meal memorabilia and original art. The meal’s name was an offshoot of a 1960s McDonald’s jingle, in which it called itself the “happy place.” “It’s such a happy place / Hap, hap, hap, happy place,” it went. For some reason, the company’s corporate offices outside Chicago were reluctant to roll out the Happy Meal nationally. Mario Anzuoni/ReutersIn the 1990s, Beanie Babies, Transformers and Power Rangers Happy Meal toys were massive hits for McDonald’s.

☆ Artists say AI image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new images — and it's completely out of their control
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

"My name is being used a lot to generate AI images, along with the names of other working artists." "So if an AI is copying an artist's style and a company can just get an image generated that's similar to a popular artist's style without actually going to artists to pay them for that work, that could become an issue." Representatives from Open AI said both publicly available sources and images licensed by the company make up DALL-E's training data. Copyright laws around AI images are murkyIt's unclear whether copyright laws will protect the new artwork that AI programs generate. "I have friends in the industry who will storm out of the room if I even bring up using AI," he said.

☆ A musician raised an AI 'baby' to harmonize with — and her newest experiment could usher in a brave, new world of art
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Drew Austin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

In the world of art, misgivings about AI have been particularly acute. Despite this widespread apprehension, Holly Herndon — an experimental musician and artist — doesn't think AI is nefarious or will ruin art. In her blog post announcing Holly+, Herndon said she envisioned a future where digitally created voices "soon become standard practice for artists and other creatives." While the project has yielded an ever-growing array of fascinating art, Holly+ also raises questions about the future of that art. (Anyone can use the Holly+ voice tool itself without submitting the output to the DAO, however.)

☆ The creator of the viral Black fetus image will have his illustrations published in a book
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-13 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“Mind the Gap: A clinical handbook of signs and symptoms in Black and Brown Skin,” was first published in 2020. Chidiebere IbeIbe says that a lack of illustrations of skin conditions in Black skin makes it hard for medical students to diagnose them. Ibe is working on a textbook on birth defects in children, which he says will be illustrated with Black skin images. Even in Nigeria, White skin images dominate the medical literature, says Ibe. Ibe plans to become a pediatric neurosurgeon and is also working on a textbook on birth defects in children, which will be illustrated with Black skin images.

Search resuls for: "Illustrators"

8 mentions found