[Participants in a study by student researchers at Utah Valley University (UVU) couldn’t distinguish real and deepfake video of political actors, as reported in this story from The Salt Lake Tribune. More details about the study are provided in an excerpt from coverage in Deseret News that follows below, including the fact that the deepfake video “was perceived as more knowledgeable, as more trustworthy, as more persuasive, and of better content quality.” For much more information including images and videos, see the UVU website. –Matthew] [Image: Hope Fager speaks as Utah Valley University students present a deepfake study, in Orem…

[Although it doesn’t use academic terminology, this CNN story reports that Microsoft wants its AI technology to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence in the company’s billion-plus users. Microsoft’s CEO says Copilot should be a “companion” with a “personality” and have a “warm tone and a distinct style, providing not only information but encouragement, feedback, and advice as you navigate life’s everyday challenges.” But he also says AI companions “should give us enough of a sense that they’re comfortable and fun and familiar to talk to, while still being separate and distant [from humans] … that boundary is how we form trust.” Finding…

[As it announced its Quest 3S mixed reality headset, a Meta blog post mentioned a potentially exciting new tool: “Anything your computer can do, our MR headset can do better—thanks to the magic of presence. And speaking of presence, we’re improving that, too. We’re working to bring photorealistic spaces into the metaverse, enabling a profound new way to be together in spaces that look and feel like you’re physically there—we call it Hyperscape.” The story below from Cointelegraph provides key details and links to a hands-on ZDNet report on the new tool; an entry in The Ghost Howls blog provides…

[This essay from The Baffler does a nice job describing the sense of presence people experience in virtual reality despite the relatively low perceptual realism the medium provides, and arguing that the worse our reality gets, the more appealing an escape into even a perceptually inferior virtual one becomes. This is only an abridged version of the much longer essay – see the original for more observations, including on the history of VR. See also an apparently related essay in MIXED, in which the author argues that “VR games like Gorilla Tag, Yeeps, and I am Cat seem like the…

[Abridged versions of a detailed report and an opinion essay in The New York Times, both about a recent tragedy, illustrate some of the potential dangers of medium-as-social-actor presence. For more details and images, see the unabridged versions (if you have access). –Matthew] Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? The mother of a 14-year-old Florida boy says he became obsessed with a chatbot on Character.AI before his death. By Kevin RooseOctober 23, 2024 On the last day of his life, Sewell Setzer III took out his phone and texted his closest friend: a lifelike A.I. chatbot named after…

[A potentially very valuable application of presence-evoking technologies is described in this report from the University of Rhode Island about the work of Professor Krishna Venkatasubramanian. For more information about his work see the NSF website, an earlier URI report, and the website for his Lab. –Matthew] URI professor exploring virtual reality as tool to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities deal with trauma’s aftermath Research is backed by $600K grant from National Science Foundation By Tony LaRocheOctober 21, 2024 KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 21, 2024 – Virtual reality devices have become a popular alternative for entertainment, communications, and…

[The story below from Tom’s Guide describes a “game-changing” AI video generation tool from the Google-backed company Runway. The tool reproduces the subtleties of a human performance on any video character or actor (or multiple characters/actors) without costly and complex motion capture techniques. The original story includes an animated image and a 1:21 minute demonstration video (also available on YouTube); see Runway’s blog post for more information and many videos. Coverage from The Decoder highlights the potential for creating (presence-evoking) live action video: “While the obvious use case is transferring human facial expressions and voice to animated characters for games…

[Concern continues to grow about the use of audio and video tools, especially those that utilize AI, to produce messages about the U.S. elections that are increasingly effective at deceiving the public by hiding the roles of these technologies. This story from NBC News reports on a new public service announcement designed to increase media literacy about this (and other) malicious deception. Ironically, the original story includes the embedded PSA but not a link to a copy on YouTube, or the website of the non-profit sponsoring organization RepresentUs, or a website that provide resources for voters like Vote411.…

[Presence experts will be familiar with the trends, benefits and concerns involving increasingly sophisticated AI bots that act as companions and evoke medium-as-social-actor presence, but this story from Forbes provides a useful summary; see the original version for six more images. –Matthew] [Image: This illustration photo shows a user interacting with a smartphone app to customize an avatar for a personal artificial intelligence chatbot known as a Replika in Warsaw, Poland on 22 July, 2023. Credit: Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images] When Humans Swipe Right For An AI Companion By Sandy Carter, Contributor and COO at…

[The evolution of presence-evoking simulations for training and practice in football is nicely illustrated in this story from The Athletic. A December 2023 story from the same publication (where it includes more images and three videos) provides more context, noting that “studying the intricacies of neuroscience and biomechanics“ shaped the perspective of Christian Hartman, co-founder of the company Cognilize: “Alongside [Verena] Krakau, whom he’d known since high school, Hartmann pursued an answer to the following question: How could they present information to athletes’ brains that the brain would treat as if it is real practice? They settled on building an…

[This Hackster.IO report describes a new system developed at Northwestern University that could substantially increase the use of full-body tracking to generate “intuitive and immersive” (presence) experiences for technology users. See the original story for three different images and a 31 second video, and find more information and a 2:34 minute video (also available on YouTube) in coverage from Northwestern. –Matthew] [Image: Side-by-side image of a real-life scenario next to the motion-capture video generated by MobilePoser. Credit: Karan Ahuja/Northwestern University. Source: The Engineer] Tracking Movement on the Move MobilePoser uses AI and the sensors already present in our wearable devices…

[There’s a long, interesting history of virtual musical artists (see Music Business Worldwide for details). Until recent advances in artificial intelligence enabled software to automatically generate their material and performances, specific and often anonymous human beings did that creative work. This review of a “fan concert” by the virtual boy band Plave from the Korea JoongAng Daily describes the “most uncanny experience” provided by a “real-life virtual concert” in which remotely located musicians interact with a crowd of fans via digital avatars. The review includes interesting observations about the appeal of this social presence experience; see the original version of the…