JAWS IN A HOT TUB

​Created by Markus Graf​

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OCTOBER 31, 2024

🤖 Innovation Dispatch: Your Daily Dose of AI

Welcome back, Innovators!

Today: Researchers Develop Method for Telling AI Text from Human​​​; How Cronkite Would Handle AI; Wonder Dynamics Intros Live-Action-to-3D Animation; Reddit Finally Profitable Thanks to AI; Scams Cost Consumers Millions; Chatbots Are Cutting Wait Times by A Lot

There may not be a better way to say Happy Halloween than a pic of Jaws in a Hot Tub sipping a glass of champagne. It comes to us courtesy of Midjourney user Markus Graf, whose work typically involves role reversals between humans and animals.

Want to have a creation of your own featured in a future edition of Innovation Dispatch, image or video? Send a link to your creations here.

Now on to...

🎯 Today's Innovations

• Researchers Develop Method for Telling AI Text from Human​​​
• How Cronkite Would Handle AI​
• TOP HEADLINES FOR OCTOBER 31, 2024
• AI Tool News: Wonder Dynamics Intros Live-Action-to-3D Animation

FEATURE

Researchers Develop Method for Telling AI Text from Human​​​

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Researchers at Northeastern University have developed a method to identify AI-generated text by focusing on syntactic structures, or "templates," that AI language models commonly produce.

AI models like ChatGPT tend to generate patterns in sentence structure, such as specific sequences of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that appear more formulaic than human writing.

Byron Wallace, director of Northeastern’s data science program, explains this pattern-based approach highlights how "formulaic" and repetitive AI outputs can be, underscoring the "off" feeling many readers notice when reading AI-generated text.

The study involved prompting AI models to create various forms of text—movie reviews, news summaries, and biomedical research—and then analyzing the resulting patterns.

Each model exhibited a unique “signature” in its syntactic choices, such as dual adjectives (e.g., "unique and intense"), which appear more frequently in AI outputs than human-written content. Interestingly, the templates AI follows often align with its training data, with about 75% of these syntactic structures found in the original dataset.

While the researchers note this method doesn’t create a foolproof way to identify AI-generated content, it offers a new framework for discussing and analyzing the distinct "feel" of AI text, validating why it may seem unnaturally repetitive or overly structured.

​READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE​

FEATURE

How Cronkite Would Handle AI

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The Cronkite School's Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University is using ChatGPT to help students with investigative reporting. Through the AI Innovation Challenge, students use ChatGPT to sort data, write legal arguments to get records, and make simple code to speed up data requests.

This often saves money, like in one case where a $2,000 data request was lowered to $40 with ChatGPT’s help.

Key Techniques and Benefits

1. Simple Code for Faster Data Requests​
   Public agencies sometimes say it’s too hard or costly to find data. ChatGPT helps students write simple code to make it easier. This saves time and money.
2. Legal Arguments for Access​
   Sometimes students need to explain why they have a right to certain records. ChatGPT helps write these legal points, even including past cases. Students double-check all facts. This way, AI helps but doesn’t replace research.
3. Quick Data Analysis​
   Big datasets often hold useful patterns, but sorting by hand takes time. ChatGPT lets students analyze and show this data quickly, finding facts in hours instead of days.
4. Building Public Trust​
   Students clearly show how they use ChatGPT. They link to the AI’s work so that editors and readers can see how it was used. This transparency builds trust.
5. Staying True to Journalism’s Values​
   Greenblatt and his team teach students to use AI as a helper, not a replacement for fact-checking and storytelling. The saying “If your mother says she loves you, check it out” reminds them to check everything, even AI output.

Impact on Journalism

The Howard Center’s work shows how AI can support investigative journalism by speeding up routine tasks. This gives reporters more time to focus on the story. ASU students are learning to be strong reporters, building public trust, and helping democracy by holding leaders accountable.

​READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE​

📰 Top Headlines

• ​China's Proposed AI Labelling Regulations: Key Points​
• ​'Sickening' Molly Russell chatbots found on Character.ai​​
• ​DHS Touts AI Work and Pilots a Year After Executive Order​
• ​Animation Guild Contract Extended as Artificial Intelligence Talks Continue​
• ​Google CEO Says Over 25% of New Google Code Is Generated by AI​
• ​Reddit Hits First Profit Fueled by AI Feature​
• ​Are We Ready for Genuine Communication with Animals Through AI?​
• ​AI-Powered Scams Cost U.S. Consumers Millions​
• ​Survey: AI Chatbots Best Used for Cutting Wait Times​

AI Tool News: Wonder Dynamics Intros Live-Action-to-3D Animation

Wonder Dynamics has launched a groundbreaking AI tool, Wonder Animation, which converts live-action footage into fully animated 3D scenes. Released in beta on October 30, this video-to-3D tech lets artists transform scenes shot with any camera into 3D animated environments featuring CGI characters, all powered by AI.

Building on their original Wonder Studio platform, Wonder Animation adds the ability to reconstruct entire sequences with multiple camera angles and cuts, while precisely matching character positioning and movements within the environment.

The result is a comprehensive 3D scene, where artists can edit animation, character movements, environments, lighting, and camera tracking data within their preferred software like Maya, Blender, or Unreal.

Co-founder Nikola Todorovic highlights the tool’s design philosophy, which goes beyond automated outputs to offer artists full creative control, contrasting it with the “black-box” nature of typical AI.

With Autodesk’s acquisition of Wonder Dynamics in 2017, the startup’s vision is to provide studio-quality VFX and CGI tools that are affordable even for indie filmmakers.

​LEARN MORE ABOUT IT HERE​

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