The Futures - No. 46

Journalism struggles to redefine itself / The era of AI-generated videos / Instagram child influencers

Mar 12, 2024

In this issue

The Quantumrun team shares actionable trend insights on generative AI overhauling newsrooms and democratizing video production, the future app-less smartphones, and the disturbing rise of girl influencers.

Future signals to watch

Deutsche Telekom introduced a smartphone concept powered entirely by AI, eliminating the need for traditional applications, such as messaging, gaming, and social media. This device, developed with Qualcomm and Brain, aims to use advanced language models for personalized assistance, suggesting a future where apps become obsolete.
Microsoft Copilot for Finance is offering AI-driven assistance within Microsoft 365 applications to automate and enhance financial workflows, linking with systems like Dynamics 365 and SAP.
Researchers have developed a generative AI worm that can spread across systems, potentially stealing data or deploying malware, highlighting new cybersecurity vulnerabilities with AI technologies.
In Spain, electricity prices drastically fell in February 2024, hovering around €10 per megawatt-hour, as the country's wind and solar energy production soars. Solar output reached its highest since early October 2023 and is expected to continue rising into March 2024.
In China, tech-savvy officials are increasingly relying on AI and robotic technologies to manage the extensive paperwork and handwritten documents required by their roles. (Lazy > bureaucracy)
RMIT University researchers created a photonics-based processor, which enhances the efficiency of quantum computers by reducing light losses, a crucial advancement for maintaining computations for practical applications like drug discovery.
The New York Times’ investigation reveals a troubling trend: Little girls are commercialized through their social media accounts (often managed by their moms). This ecosystem is fueled by sales of personal items and interactions to a predominantly male audience.

Culturally // Trending

YouTube → The Idea of You // X → The Dune sand snakes // Reddit → This handy population chart // TikTok → Laid off videos // Instagram → Paris Fashion Week // Spotify → “Saturn”

👥 Generative AI is forcing a journalism overhaul

Artificial Intelligence (AI) started as a means for production efficiency, but it has quickly evolved into a juggernaut, now potentially redefining roles within news organizations. According to Columbia Journalism Review’s study of 134 media workers across notable publications, such as The Guardian, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, AI's integration into journalism is driven by the industry's urgent need to adapt to technological advancements and financial pressures.

Despite concerns over hallucinations and inaccurate content, the technology is currently used for various tasks, from dynamic paywalls to automated transcription. Moreover, Big Tech—like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—is becoming increasingly integral to the operations of newsrooms, creating a dependency that could compromise the autonomy of these institutions. This dependency is partly due to economic considerations, as the high costs of custom AI development push smaller publishers toward more affordable, third-party solutions.

Nonetheless, media companies are heavily leaning into AI’s capabilities. For example, The New York Times is hiring an AI editorial director to develop digital journalism initiatives, blending journalistic insights with AI/ML in newsroom operations and reporting. Likewise, the BBC published its guidebook on how to use AI in the newsroom.

However, the media’s experimentation with AI has also resulted in layoffs. Vice's decision to stop digital content distribution, coupled with layoffs and a pivot to a studio model, reflects the harsh realities of once-established companies grappling with technological disruptions and economic challenges.

The choices news organizations make regarding the application of this technology will likely define the future of journalism. While AI presents opportunities for enhancing the accessibility and efficiency of journalism (e.g., scaling up content translation), its impact on job displacement and the quality of journalism remains a concern. The narrative of AI aiding rather than replacing journalists is prevalent, but AI’s underlying risks and potential to supplant human roles cannot be ignored.

Actionable trend insights as media companies increasingly adopt generative AI solutions

For corporate innovators

Publications can experiment with new business models to thrive without selling subscriptions or display ads. Depending on the publication, this can include providing consulting and research services, licensing proprietary technology and digital publication tools, branded events/conferences, content licensing and syndication (especially to generative AI companies), e-commerce and affiliate marketing, and offering educational programs and workshops (online or inside universities).
As AI-generated content enables the creation of limitless content that can distort people’s perception of reality, there is an opportunity for publications to double down on their age-old fact-checking expertise to help their readers discern fact from fiction.
Publications can experiment with automating the production of diverse content formats from a single source material, such as turning news articles into podcasts, videos, or interactive web experiences. An example is a system that automatically generates a visually rich video summary of a written investigative report, complete with AI-generated narration and visuals.

For public sector innovators

Governments can establish new subsidy/grant programs to support news publishers to fund their local and investigative reporting functions. This form of reporting is often the least profitable but the most necessary for the public good.
Government agencies can enhance public engagement and education on important issues through interactive and personalized content. For example, an environmental agency could use AI to create personalized educational campaigns about climate change, generating content that resonates with individuals’ local environments and concerns.
Governments can use generative AI to produce real-time, personalized information and updates during emergencies. For instance, during a natural disaster, an AI system could automatically create and disseminate content that provides residents with the most current information tailored to their location, language, and situation, such as water levels in their neighborhood or the closest available shelters.

Trending research reports from the World Wide Web

Consultancy firm Oliver Wyman thinks generative AI can contribute as much as $20 trillion to the worldwide GDP by 2030 while also reducing annual work hours by 300 billion.
A survey of 2,500 UK firms reveals that managers anticipate the current remote work trends to persist through 2028 due to the growth of younger, more remote-friendly companies, which also tend to exhibit higher productivity and slower wage growth.
The University of Washington conducts a deep dive into how large language models (LLMs) can make future search engines unreliable.
The US Government Accountability Office report highlights the potential for climate change to disturb nuclear waste in Greenland and the Marshall Islands, noting rising sea levels could disperse contamination in the Marshall Islands.
Environment America's analysis shows rooftop solar in the US has the technical potential to meet 45% of the country's electricity needs.

🖥️ Generative AI is democratizing video production

OpenAI has done it again. Less than two years after it launched ChatGPT, effectively disrupting … everything, the company released its prompt video generator, Sora. It wasn’t long before people started posting their Sora-generated videos, and they have been impressive (far from the uncanny valley, robotic iterations of early models). Some examples are this glass turtle, this smart cat, and this alien taking a casual stroll.

This text-to-video AI model is opening up video production by offering capabilities previously available only to those with extensive resources and technical skills. Sora's introduction is seen as a catalyst for storytelling innovation.

The technology's ability to understand motion and simulate directorial techniques offers opportunities for creative experimentation without requiring substantial budgets or specialized equipment. This shift challenges the established norms of content creation, potentially leading to a more inclusive and diversified media industry.

However, AI-generated video also raises concerns about the future of jobs and copyright issues within the industry. Filmmaker Tyler Perry's decision to pause an $800 million expansion of his studio after seeing the latest Sora video samples highlights the apprehension surrounding the displacement of traditional filmmaking practices and roles. Furthermore, legal experts caution against the seamless integration of generative AI in professional workflows, pointing out the complexities of copyright law in the context of AI-generated content. (For instance, using AI to storyboard an entire script from scratch.)

Perhaps the most dangerous implication of AI video generation so far is the production of more sophisticated deepfakes. For example, Alibaba Group's "Animate Anyone" app can create highly realistic videos from still images, but it also poses a high risk of misuse.

Women are already highlighting how this technology could further advance exploitative deepfake material. (In January 2024, Taylor Swift’s image was used to create deepfake porn content.) This trend is a warning that democratizing content production should come with strict regulations and a whole lot of caution.

Actionable trend insights as generative AI democratizes video production

For entrepreneurs

As AI tools reduce the costs of photorealistic special effects, independent filmmakers (entrepreneurs in their own right) can apply these new AI tools to think more ambitiously about the types of stories they want to produce. By the 2030s, budget may become a secondary concern for storytellers looking to make their name in the film industry.
Entrepreneurs can create immersive learning experiences that cater to various educational needs, including virtual reality (VR) simulations for remote learning environments. For instance, startups could develop platforms that use AI-generated videos to create realistic historical reenactments or scientific simulations, allowing students to explore ancient civilizations or molecular biology in a highly interactive way.