Latest news with #synthetic
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alien: Earth's Timothy Olyphant didn't want to copy some of the Alien franchise's most notable characters for a specific reason : 'No-one wants to hear me do that'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Timothy Olyphant had a very simple hack to get into character for Alien: Earth The fan-favorite actor plays a synthetic called Kirsh in the sci-fi horror TV show He didn't want to imitate actors who've played android characters in other Alien projects, either Timothy Olyphant has lifted the lid on the surprisingly easy way he got into character for Alien: Earth – and the one thing he thought it would be "unfair" to do in the sci-fi horror show. In the forthcoming FX TV Original, Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic created by Prodigy Corporation, aka one of the five multinationals that effectively rule planet Earth. For the uninitiated: synethics are biomechanical humanoids – or, in layman's terms, androids – that carry out various tasks for their human creators. The Alien franchise is as renowned for its synthetics as it is for its iconic monsters and its bleak, dystopian sci-fi aesthetic. From Ian Holm's Ash in the 1979 original, to Michael Fassbender's David in 2011's Prometheus and 2014's Alien: Covenant, the Xenomorph-fronted multimedia property is full of memorable – not to mention mostly duplicitous – android characters. So, how did Olyphant set about differentiating Kirsh from synthetics we've seen in Alien: Earth's movie siblings? And what's the mysterious thing he avoided doing so Kirsh wouldn't be compared to Ash, David, or other androids like Aliens' Bishop and Alien: Romulus' Andy? "Quite honestly, bleaching my hair was intended to do exactly what you're talking about," Olyphant said when I asked him what he did to make Kirsh as distinct as possible. "That was just to say 'Oh look, now he's separated himself a little bit from what we've seen before'. "In the first movie, they [Alien's creative team] just made him [Ash] British. I felt it was unfair to do that [play a sinister character with a British accent] again. Quite honestly, no-one wants to hear me do that anyway! "I do think that, in the simplest way, that little aesthetic adjustment does a lot of the work for me," Olyphant added. "After that, I can just play the scenes and try not to get lost too much with overthinking it and just let all of the puzzle pieces fall into place. "When a scene's really well written, it does so much the work for you. It gives you a lot of room to play, because I always find it such a fun exercise to see how far you can take it in either direction and still feel like the scene holds together. It's a fun place to work from." Alien: Earth launches with a two-episode premiere on Hulu (US) on August 12 and Disney+ (internationally) on August 13. Before it's released, read my Alien: Earth review to see what I thought of its first six episodes, and then check out the section below for more coverage of the Noah Hawley-created project. You might also like Alien: Earth: everything we know so far about the forthcoming Hulu and Disney+ show Is Alien: Earth's scheming tech bro inspired by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, or Mark Zuckerburg? One of the Disney+ show's stars has his say on the matter Alien: Earth introduces new creatures as terrifying as the Xenomorph, but the show's creator didn't want to squeeze in 'a vending machine of alien life' for the sake of it Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
One Tech Tip: Is that song by AI or a human? Here are some things to check
Is it The Velvet Underground or Velvet Sundown? The fictitious rock group, Velvet Sundown, which comes complete with AI-generated music, lyrics and album art, is stoking debate about how the new technology is blurring the line between the real and synthetic in the music industry, and whether creators should be transparent with their audience. Computer software is widely used in music production, and artificial intelligence is just the latest tool that disc jockeys, music producers and others have added to their production pipeline. But the rise of AI song generators such as Suno and Udio is set to transform the industry because they allow anyone to create songs with just a few prompts. While some people do not care whether they're listening to AI-generated music, others might be curious to know. If you encounter a new song that leaves you wondering whether it's 100% made with AI, there are some methods that could reveal how it was created. Do a background check If you're wondering who's behind a song, try some old-fashioned detective work. The 'most obvious cues' come from 'external factors,' said Manuel Mousallam, head of research and development at streaming service Deezer. Does the band or artist have social media accounts? Lack of a social presence might indicate there's no one there. If they do exist online, examine the kind of content they post, and how long it goes back. Is there any sign that the artist or band exists in real life? Are there any upcoming concerts and can you buy a ticket for a gig? Is there footage of past concerts on YouTube? Has an established record label released their singles or albums? Try going to the source. Song creators often — but not always — publish their generated tunes on the Suno or Udio platforms, where they can be found by other users. The catch is that you'll have to sign up for an account to get access. Users can look up songs by track name or the creator's handle, and browse genres and playlists. But it can still be difficult to spot a song, especially if you don't know the name of the song or creator. Song tags Deezer has been flagging albums containing AI-generated songs, as part of its efforts to be more transparent as it battles streaming fraudsters looking to make quick money through royalty payments. The Deezer app and website will notify listeners with an on-screen label — 'AI-generated content' — to point out that some tracks on an album were created with song generators. The company's CEO says the system relies on in-house technology to detect subtle but recognizable patterns found in all audio created by AI song generators. The company hasn't specified how many songs it has tagged since it rolled out the feature in June, but says up to 18% of songs uploaded to its platform each day are AI-generated. Song scanners There are a few third-party services available online that promise to determine whether a song is human-made or generated by AI. I uploaded a few songs I generated to the online detector from IRCAM Amplify, a subsidiary of French music and sound research institute IRCAM. It said the probability that they were AI-generated ranged from 81.8% to 98% and accurately deduced that they were made with Suno. As a cross-check, I also uploaded some old MP3s from my song library, which got a very low AI probability score. The drawback with IRCAM's tool is that you can't paste links to songs, so you can't check tunes that you can only hear on a streaming service. There are a few other websites that let you both upload song files and paste Spotify links for analysis, but they have their own limitations. When I tried them out for this story, the results were either inconclusive or flagged some AI songs as human-made and vice versa. Check the lyrics AI song tools can churn out both music and lyrics. Many serious users like to write their own words and plug them in because they've discovered that AI-generated lyrics tend to be bad. Casual users, though, might prefer to just let the machine write them. So bad rhyming schemes or repetitive lyrical structures might be a clue that a song is not man-made. But it's subjective. Some users report that Suno tends to use certain words in its lyrics like 'neon," 'shadows' or 'whispers.' If a song includes these words, it's 'a dead giveaway' that it's AI, said Lukas Rams, a Philadelphia-area resident who has used Suno to create three albums for his AI band Sleeping with Wolves. 'I don't know why, it loves to put neon in everything.' No easy answers AI technology is improving so quickly that there's no foolproof way to determine if content is real or not and experts say you can't just rely on your ear. 'In general, it can be difficult to tell if a track is AI-generated just from listening, and it's only becoming more challenging as the technology gets increasingly advanced,' said Mousallam of Deezer. 'Generative models such as Suno and Udio are constantly changing, meaning that old identifiers – such as vocals having a distinctive reverb – are not necessarily valid anymore.' ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.
Entrepreneur
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Entrepreneur
AI-Generated Band Velvet Sundown Has Millions of Streams
Hot new band Velvet Sundown has revealed itself to be "not quite human." If you are one of Velvet Sundown's adoring fans, seeing them perform in a city near you is going to be problematic. After releasing two albums, Floating On Echoes and Dust And Silence, that have earned the group 1.2 million listeners on Spotify, the folk-country music "band" revealed itself to be an AI creation — everything from their music to their images and backstory. In a post on X from Velvet Sundown's official account, the poster wrote, "The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence. This isn't a trick - it's a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI." Related: Is AI Worth the Layoffs? Inside a CEO's Ethical Nightmare The post went on to state, "All characters, stories, music, voices and lyrics are original creations generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools employed as creative instruments. Any resemblance to actual places, events or persons - living or deceased - is purely coincidental and unintentional. Not quite human. Not quite machine." The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence. This isn't a trick - it's a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of… — The Velvet Sundown (@tvs_music) July 5, 2025 As The Guardian points out, Spotify and other streaming services are under no legal obligation to identify AI-generated work. This raises concerns over consumer transparency and infringing on the works of the human bands that the AI was trained on, say experts the paper spoke to. Sophie Jones, the chief strategy officer of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), told The Guardian that the organizaion was calling on law makers to "protect copyright and introduce new transparency obligations for AI companies so that music rights can be licensed and enforced, as well as calling for the clear labelling of content solely generated by AI." Related: 10 AI-Proof Jobs With Highest Pay, Fastest Growth Jones added, "The rise of AI-generated bands and music entering the market points to the fact that tech companies have been training AI models using creative works – largely without authorisation or payment to creators and rights-holders – in order to directly compete with human artistry." Velvet Sundown isn't the first AI-generated music act to gain traction. The 2023 track "Heart on My Sleeve" was created using AI-generated voices that mimicked The Weeknd and Drake, and Variety reports that the human behind the song submitted it for Grammy consideration.
Auto Car
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
The best EV of 2025? It's not a Tesla
Like its exterior, the EV3's interior follows the lead of big brother EV9. At a glance, it is effectively the same design, just shrunken down. Like so many modern cars, the dashboard is dominated by a large, curved screen that incorporates the digital gauge cluster and the multimedia system. Between the two main parts is a smaller section that's dedicated to the climate controls, making them permanently and easily accessible. Below the main screen sits a small but sensibly chosen selection of physical buttons that give you quick access to primary infotainment functions as well as the cabin temperature, fan speed and air distribution. Some are rendered as part of a touch-sensitive section of trim, others come as rocker switches set in an 'aluminium' trim strip. Pieces of fabric and the two-tone colour scheme complete the lounge-like ambience. It's pretty convincing, with just a few caveats: Kia proudly claims it's expunging leather from its cars, but in the EV3 it has simply replaced it with a synthetic version, which shows a lack of creativity in the materials department. You can have cloth seats, but only on Air trim, which also replaces some of the soft mouldings with hard plastic. The Air still has a high-quality cabin with a very generous level of equipment, but it would be a good idea to have a poke around one at a dealership to decide whether you find that trade-off acceptable. Although the upholstery is disappointing, the seats themselves are very comfortable. In our GT-Line test car, the driver's side is electrically adjustable and features tilt adjustment and lumbar support. You don't sit particularly low, and the steering column comes out at a bit of an angle, but there's no shortage of head room and the driving position is comfortable. Interior space is undoubtedly impressive. The open, airy cabin provides plenty of storage space, even if the centre console could have been even more practical with a few more bins and shelves. Adults have no shortage of leg room in the back, and thanks to the somewhat high-set front seats, can even put their feet beneath. A Cupra Born or VW ID 3 has slightly more rear space still, but the Kia compensates with a bigger boot that has a remarkable amount of underfloor storage. One strange lapse: the luggage cover leaves a gap of about 10cm to the rear seatbacks. This would make sense if the rear seat were adjustable, which it isn't. Multimedia Kia's multimedia system is shared with Hyundai, save for some unique fonts and graphics, and when it's this good, that's something to be pleased about. The graphics are crisp and clean, and the screen responds quickly to your inputs. There's no physical cursor device, but thanks to a sensible menu layout and a good selection of shortcut buttons (including a few customisable ones), you don't really miss one. There's wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and they're well integrated into the system. The built-in navigation is clear and has good, up-to-date traffic information, meaning you don't just default to Google Maps. Kia's smartphone app is easy to pair with the car and its core functions work well, letting you remotely monitor and control the charging, send destinations to the navigation and check that the car is still where you left it. Kia Connect (all the car's networked functions) is free for seven years, whereas many manufacturers offer just a free trial of a few months.
RNZ News
12-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Carpet maker Bremworth reverses wool only policy
Photo: Bremworth Carpet maker Bremworth has reversed its wool only policy and will soon start making synthetic carpets again. The NZX-listed company, which stopped producing synthetic carpets in 2020 in favour of a wool-only policy , will restart production of synthetic carpets at its Auckland facility in the next financial year. It comes following a recent shake-up of the Bremworth board, with group of unhappy shareholders, led by new chair Rob Hewett, prompting the departure of three sitting directors . Its chief Executive Greg Smith has also stepped down after four years. Hewett earlier said the coup was prompted by the company's slumping profits , with revenue falling from $148.1m in 2018 to $80.3m in 2024. The dissenting group said the decision to stop selling synthetic carpets in favour of wool-only products had not resulted in improved sales, while operating costs remained high. Hewett, who replaced former chair George Adams, said there was strong demand from major New Zealand and Australian carpet retailers for Bremworth to produce both synthetics and wool. He said by not having synthetics in their portfolio they had made things more difficult. "The challenge that we have with the business is about 85 percent of the carpet floor covering market is not wool and we're missing out on it. We need to spread our costs across a wider base. Our customers are clearly looking for a synthetic product." He said they were also very mindful of stakeholders. "I am a farmer of wool and I do this with a heavy heart but the company's viability quite frankly is at stake here." It also follows Bremworth settling with rival carpet maker Godfrey Hirst, settling court proceedings in relation to a past marketing campaign Bremworth initiated in 2020 when it ceased producing synthetic carpet and moved to manufacturing wool carpets only. Godfrey Hirst alleged that aspects of that campaign mischaracterised the relative environmental and health impacts of synthetic and wool carpets and breached the Fair Trading Act. Bremworth denied breaching the Act, but acknowledged certain parts of its past advertising from the 2020 marketing campaign may have misled some consumers. These had been removed and would not be used again. The new synthetic range, which will initially comprise a small, but carefully curated, number of products, will be distributed under a separate brand to distinguish these products from its Bremworth-branded all-wool products. No new capital expenditure is required and the company anticipates a minor increase in headcount to support the additional volume. Hewett expected having a complete portfolio will actually help them grow wool product sales. However, Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams said the wool industry was teetering and this would further knock farmer confidence. "It's a tough pill to swallow for the industry." He said it was disappointing but understandable. Williams acknowledged Bremworth was a business though and shareholders had a right to expect returns. He said it was important for people to start recognising the environmental benefits of wool, especially with declining sheep numbers and farmland being converted to carbon forestry . Andy Caughey, chief executive of industry group Wool Impact, said Bremworth manufacturing synthetic carpets again didn't minimise their commitment to wool or their wool carpet offering. "This range extension, which includes synthetics, will strengthen the company's operating model by optimising its manufacturing capacity and generating more revenue as it continues to invest and expand its wool business," he said. "The world needs more wool." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
