😺 Copyright Controversy

Welcome, humans.

Happy November and welcome to The Neuron. We help you understand AI like Sal Khan helps you understand Algebra: simple explanations, a soothing tone, and witty Dad jokes. Repeat after me: Sal Khan is the GOAT!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

• A judge mostly tossed out claims that AI platforms violated artists' copyrights.
• Windows 11’s Copilot is rolling out.
• Andrew Ng calls out Big Tech for lying about AI’s existential risk.
• Elon Musk and Kamala Harris will both attend the U.K.’s AI summit.

Judge Largely Rejects Claims Against AI Art Platforms.

art by Sarah Anderson, one of the case’s plantiffs

In January, three artists sued three AI art platforms—Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DeviantArt.

The allegation was clear: AI image generators stole our art without asking and made something new from it.

Lawsuits. Take. Forever.

Yesterday, a District Court Judge dismissed most of the claims made by the three artists, allowing only one count of copyright infringement to proceed.

Current Score: AI Platforms: 1, Artists: 0.

The decision is pretty nuanced (here’s a solid breakdown), so let's unpack a few key points:

• The three artists failed to prove that the AI images had “substantial similarity” to their own work.
• Infringement is only valid if you own the copyrights to your art. Two of the artists hadn’t registered copyrights before filing the ‘suit.
• The third artist, Anderson, can refile her case by pinpointing the specific images that Stable Diffusion took from a website called LAION.

Anticipate round 2 to take forever. In the meantime, you know what could be really freaking helpful?

Concrete rules on what is allowed (hi Congress).

Hopefully, we get some answers from The U.S. Copyright Office, which just wrapped up a three-month-long study—with public input—on AI and copyright.

Whatever happens next will set an important precedent for future battles…

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Microsoft 11’s AI Assistant Is Finally Here.

Finally.

Microsoft is finally starting to roll out Copilot for Windows 11 after over six months of buzz.

In layman’s terms: Boot up Windows 11, and you'll be greeted by a ChatGPT-esque aide on your screen.

It’s supposed to be the ultimate work assistant (think Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S.), and you can direct it to:

• Switch between apps.
• Sum up notifications.
• Summarize websites (thanks to Bing integration).
• Close all active tabs.
• Activate 'Do Not Disturb' mode.

Stay tuned for best practices as we dig deeper. Meanwhile...

Here’s how to turn it on: Settings → Windows Update → select "Get the latest updates as soon as they are available” → toggle On.

Around the Horn.

• DeepMind CEO: we’re not trying to achieve “regulatory capture” via corporate lobbying.
• Elon Musk and Kamala Harris will both attend the U.K.’s AI summit today.
• Hacker News: Andrew Ng calls out Big Tech for lying about AI’s existential risk.
• Investor hysteria could overvalue AI startups, says Vinod Khosla (early OpenAI investor).

Wednesday Wirings.

1. Shield AI, which builds AI military tech, raised $200M.
2. Arteria AI, which streamlines all things documentation, secured $30M.
3. Eve, an AI assistant for legal teams, raised $14M.
4. Guidde, an AI tool for creating video documentation, snagged $11.6M.
5. Direqt, a chatbot platform for publishers, raised $4.5M.

We curated the top 27 tools you need for work in our “Top Tools For Business”!

1s & 0s.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a number is probably worth 100 words.

• 35%: proportion of women use AI at work, compared to 48% of men.
• $4B: what Olive AI, a healthcare automation startup, was once valued at—now it’s winding down.
• 11/6, 10am: the date & time of OpenAI’s highly anticipated developer event.
• 20B: the rumored parameter count for ChatGPT-3.5 Turbo.

A Cat's Commentary.

That’s all for today, for more AI treats, check out our website.

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