Spotify and Archewell Audio, Meghan and Harry’s production company, said Thursday in a joint statement that they were ending their contract.
“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,”
the companies said.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wanted to move away from Spotify’s exclusive distribution to find a new outlet for their audio projects.
According to another source, however, Spotify was expecting more content from Archewell Audio – noting that nearly three years into the contract, they have only delivered one series, essentially putting the overall deal in limbo.
Another Spotify exclusive podcast was with Barack and Michelle Obama, which ended a year ago. In that case, Spotify said it declined to renew the deal. According to sources, the Obamas wanted their podcast programming to be distributed as widely as possible, rather than exclusive to Spotify. The pair’s Higher Ground subsequently inked a first-look deal with Audible.
Who will be the next celebrity with a short-lived exclusive podcast on the music streaming platform remains to be seen.
And which celebrity would you like to listen to on Spotify? Email us at [email protected].
]]>But first – what does it actually represent?
Generative AI is a subfield of machine learning, used mostly in text-to-speech and text-to-design software.
Seeing your work ruined – the frustration of filmmakers
Co-CEO and founder of the neural network lab Flawless Scott Mann, a Hollywood director and producer who has worked with Hollywood’s top actors, expresses his concerns about the interference of artificial intelligence in filmmaking.
“I had written a script with the actors, directed it, edited it, adjusted it and been so careful with not just the words, but the nuance of the sound of a word or the inflexion in what’s implied or, the detail of expression. And then to see it ruined or almost like a caricature with all the wrong dialogue – it was awful.”
said Scott Mann.
The solution
The action he took was the development of his company’s own software called TrueSync. Through a process Flawless calls “vubbing,” he makes the actor’s mouth movements match the dubbed dialogue when the film is translated into another language.
Generative artificial intelligence is applied to videos to create something that didn’t exist before, using very basic training data of the original to make it as real as the original.
For Mann, it’s a way to make the speech authentic and capture the nuances of the actor.
The company is currently working with studios in the area of post-production editing.
F-bombs are the enemy of film censors
The company has discovered a second use case for its technology – removing obscene words from film footage.
Mann notes that the film industry already has frameworks in place on issues such as film rights, permissions, compensation and consent, and also that it is working on updating them to adapt to new technologies.
AI replaces humans?
Mann notes that voiceovers won’t go away anytime soon.
“Synthetic audio is not at the stage where there are nuances to make it better than a human. And that’s going to be the case for some time.”
Mann believes that in the next five years, more filmmaking tools will emerge that will allow film technicians to bring things to the post-production environment that were previously confined to the sets.
Although Flawless is developing software for high-level use cases, such as the IMAX cinematic experience, there is an opportunity to push it into a variety of sectors in the future, including B2C and YouTube.
The future of film production in doubt
According to Mann, reducing production costs will not only improve film production, but also increase quality and expand audiences.
With each passing day, artificial intelligence is becoming more and more preferred and taking over all industries, even the beloved Hollywood, which very soon might not be as we have always known it.
]]>Now is the time when you can quite easily spend more time watching a technology movie that will not only help you relax, but also give you an extensive overview of the latest advancements in technology and innovation.
It’s time to enjoy the Christmas and New Year holidays, but what’s better than combining the useful with the pleasant at the same time? Learning new things while you relax. Sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? Today we have chosen to present to you 10 movies that Benjamindada recommends to watch during the holidays.
The Social Network
The American drama is among the best picks for developers. The Social Network traces the origins and journey of social networking giant Facebook and the many lawsuits that the company had to face in its initial years.
Every programmer and software developer should watch the Social Network to see the life journey of Mark Zuckerberg, a coder at heart who achieved success through his sheer passion for coding.
The Imitation Game
This American historical drama film was released in 2014. This movie as it portrays the journey of investing in the world’s first computer. The movie is recommended for developers to understand the initial struggles of Alan Turing and his team. The Imitation Game tells the story of mathematical genius Alan Turing (Benedict) and his fellow mathematicians, who built the world’s first computer that cracked the German Enigma code.
Based on the real-life story of the computer scientist and crypto-analyst, the movie brilliantly takes you on a tour of the dark days of war and how Britain eventually won the War for the Allies.
Jobs
This American biopic movie is based on the early life of Steve Jobs. The movie takes you through the journey of Apple’s early years to its downfall when Jobs was kicked out of his own company. If the life of Steve Jobs fascinates you, and you’d like to dig deeper into his story to follow his’ ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century. The movie is recommended for programmers, as Jobs remains an inspiration for young developers and tech entrepreneurs.
The Intership
The Internship is a story of two middle-aged salesmen who get coveted internships at Google, where they compete with young tech nerds for landing a full-time job. Vaughn and Wilson portray two old school salesmen who, finding themselves suddenly unemployed and passed by in the digital world, try to reinvent themselves by becoming interns at a major tech company.
Google allowed this movie to be shot at Googleplex HQ (the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc.) for five days, while the rest of the film was shot at Georgia Institute of Technology, where they made a replica of Google HQ.
Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet
Five years after his first documentary, award-winning producer/director Torsten Hoffmann revisits Bitcoin and sets out to explore the evolution of the blockchain industry and its new promise. A deep dive into the crypto ecosystem and blockchain technology, Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet reveals the good, the bad and the ugly of the controversial industry, its major narratives, conflicts and the major players behind it.
Coded Bias
This documentary investigates the bias in algorithms after M.I.T. Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini uncovered flaws in facial recognition technology. To solve this dilemma, she embarks on a journey to push for the first-ever U.S. legislation against bias in algorithms that impact us all.
Coded Bias explores how tech can be racist and sexist: Code switch facial recognition systems from large tech companies often misidentify black women as male — including the likes of Michelle Obama and Serena Williams. This documentary, “Coded Bias” unpacks why.
The Social Dilemma
This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. The Social dilemma is an eye-opener for people who spend hours on social media and allow the technology to intrude on their privacy. The movie blends documentary investigation and narrative drama to disrupt the disruptors, unveiling the hidden machinations behind everyone’s favorite social media and search platforms.
The Great Hack
Another recent technology documentary on Netflix, The Great Hack tells the in-depth story of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Numerous people involved in the case are interviewed in the documentary, giving a birds-eye view of one of the most controversial scandals in the history of technology.
The Great Hack offers an alarming glimpse of the way data is being weaponized for political gain—and what it might mean for future elections. A number of whistle-blowers appear in the documentary to explain how the dubious partnership has influenced world-changing political decisions.
Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg’s journey into virtual reality is a celebration of nostalgia at its heart, as people of the year 2045 use Virtual Reality to revisit familiar characters and settings from pop culture. The movie is a film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s international best-selling novel, Ready Player One. Ready Player One delivers an action-packed show if you love video games and virtual reality.
Crypto
Demoted back to his hometown, a young Wall Street banker is drawn into investigating a tangled web of corruption and fraud in Upstate New York, affecting both his personal life and business career. Crypto uncovers a money laundering scheme that involves an art gallery and a ruthless Russian gang.