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Artificial Intelligence was the most determining technology of 2023. The software has been revolutionary, causing all manner of panic and excitement and creating a tech craze that will change our future, in predictable and unexpected ways. No artform was untouched by AI; The tech meddled with music, photography, writing, acting, and much more. Scroll down to read some of the biggest AI news that happened this year:
Bad Bunny battles AI songs
When used in music, AI can create recordings of performers without their input. It can be a cause for celebration; in the case of The Beatles, it allowed them to release a song 45 years after the band’s dissolution and the death of one of its founding members. The song, titled “Now and Then,” has been one of the year’s biggest hits. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI, so that then we could mix the record as you would normally do. It gives you some sort of leeway,” explained Paul McCartney to CNBC.
Other artists weren’t so keen on this idea. Bad Bunny recriminated fans after a song made with AI went viral, recreating his voice. “If you guys liked that shit of a song that’s viral on TikTok, leave this group right now,” wrote Bad Bunny in his WhatsApp channel in Spanish. “You don’t deserve to be my friends and for that [reason] I made the new album, to get rid of people like that. So then ‘chu chu’ out of here. … My God, I don’t want you at the tour either.”
AI models make a splash
AI models also took off this year, with there being various digital personalities that have gone viral and made thousands of dollars. These people, generally women, are created by a team of designers, coders and marketers, who come up with personalities and share their images on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Evania Aria Luxardo is one of the first Latina AI models and has thousands of followers.
ChatGPT made all sorts of headlines
ChatGPT appeared overnight and became the bread and butter of offices everywhere. While incredibly helpful in thoughtless actions that drain time, like redacting emails and PR posts, the tech also resulted in the loss jobs. Various companies and websites began publishing articles written by AI, often containing inaccurate information. It’s a demonstration that, for the time being, ChatGPT is an incredibly useful tool that still needs human supervision to operate correctly.
AI panic affected schools and Hollywood
Students and universities were mired in ChatGPT drama, with the former using it to write papers and do homework. The pervasiveness of AI also caused the opposite problem; in one instance, a professor at Texas A&M University flunked their entire class after believing them to have plagiarized their papers with ChatGPT. They hadn’t done it, the professor simply didn’t understand how the technology worked.
In the case of Hollywood, actors and writers went on strike, asking for better deals from their studios. One of the main topics of concern was AI, which can be used to replicate the likeness of actors and can write and rewrite material. Fortunately, actors and studios were able to secure some concessions, at least temporarily, until AI grows more refined and the conversation will have to be addressed again.