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AI Humans Go Mainstream in South Korea, Reads, Sings, Sells

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Her face is a deep fake. Her body belongs to a team of similar-sized actors. But she sings, reads the news, and sells luxury clothes on TV as AI humans go mainstream in South Korea.

Meet Zaein, one of South Korea’s most active virtual humans, who was created by Pulse9, an artificial intelligence company that is working to bring corporate dreams of the perfect employee to life.

Pulse9 has created digital humans for some of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, including Shinsegae, with research indicating the global market for such life-like creations could reach $527 billion by 2030.

In South Korea, AI humans have enrolled as students at universities, interned at major companies, and appear regularly on live television driving sellouts of products from food to luxury handbags.

But Pulse9 says this is only the beginning. They are “working on developing the technology to broaden AI human use”, Park Ji-eun, the company’s CEO, told AFP.

“Virtual humans are basically capable of carrying out much of what real people do,” she said, adding that the current level of AI technology means humans are still needed – for now.

The demand for AI humans in South Korea was initially driven by the K-pop industry, with the idea of a virtual idol – not prone to scandals and able to work 24/7 – proving popular with the country’s notoriously hard-driving music agencies.

But now, Pulse9 is “expanding their roles in society to show that these virtual humans aren’t just fantasy idols but can coexist with humans as colleagues and friends”, Park said.

– K-pop face –

Zaein’s face was created by a deep learning analysis – an AI method that teaches computers to process complex data – of the faces of K-pop stars over the last two decades.

Doe-eyed with delicate features, fair skin and a willowy figure, she is brought to life by overlaying the deepfake on a human actor.

More than 10 human actors, each with different talents — from singing, dancing, acting, to reporting — help animate Zaein, which is what makes this particular AI creation so “special”, Park said.

On a Monday morning, AFP met with one of the actors as she was preparing to deliver a report as Zaein on a live morning news programme on South Korean broadcaster SBS.

“I think it can be a good practice for people who want to become celebrities and that’s what appealed to me,” said the actor, who could not be named due to company policy.

A representative for Pulse9 said the identities of all human actors are concealed and their real faces are not shown.

Despite the strict measures to keep their profiles hidden, the actor said playing as a virtual human opened new doors.

“Typically, a lot of people in their teens and young people become K-pop idols and I’m way past that age, but it’s nice to be able to take on that challenge,” the actor, who is in her 30s, told AFP.

“I’d love to try acting as a man if I can manage my voice well, and maybe a foreigner — something that I can’t become in real life.”

– ‘Real and fake’ –

Creating artificial humans will continue to require real people “until a really strong AI is created in the future which will be able to process everything by itself”, Park said.

The potential — and potential perils — of AI have exploded into the public consciousness in recent months since ChatGPT burst onto the scene at the end of last year.

Experts around the world, including AI pioneers, have spoken out about its dangers, and several countries are seeking regulation of the powerful but high-risk invention.

But Park is not concerned. Her company is working on new virtual idols, virtual influencers, and virtual sales agents to take over customer-facing tasks for South Korean conglomerates, which are increasingly struggling with recruitment in the low-birthrate country.

South Korea — and the world — needs better, clearer regulations on what AI can do, she said, adding that when done properly, the technology can add to “the richness of life”.

The trouble, however, is that a deepfake can “make it impossible to tell what is real and fake”, Kim Myuhng-joo, a professor of information security at Seoul Women’s University, told AFP.

“It’s an egregious tool when used to harm others or put people in trouble. That’s why it’s becoming a problem,” he added.

AFP

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USA

US Election: Kamala Harris Gets 82 Nobel Prize Winners’ Endorsement

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No fewer than 80 Nobel Prize winners have endorsed Kamala Harris for the presidency, warning that Donald Trump  would “jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living” given his earlier proposals for enormous cuts to science funding.

In an open letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, 82 Nobel prize winners from the US in the fields of physics, chemistry, economics and medicine, said “this is the most consequential presidential election in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States”.

The letter, which commends Harris for recognizing that “the enormous increases in living standards and life expectancies over the past two centuries are largely the result of advances in science and technology”, called Trump a potential threat to progress who could “jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living and impede our responses to climate change”.

The Nobel laureates range from a physicist involved in the discovery of remnant light from the Big Bang, to an immunologist instrumental in the development of a specific type of COVID-19 vaccine.

They includes signatories who won Nobels this month such as the molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun, the chemist David Baker, the physicist John Hopfield and the economist Daron Acemoglu.

Driven by concerns over the significant cuts to science funding proposed during Trump’s tenure, coupled with what he perceives as the former president’s adversarial stance toward science and academia, Joseph Stiglitz, an economist at Columbia University who won the Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences in 2001, said he was motivated by the “enormous cuts in science budgets” that Trump proposed during his presidency, as well as former president’s “anti-science” and “anti-university” stances.

“I hope it’s a wake-up call for people,” Stiglitz told the New York Times about the letter. “A consequence of this election is the really profound impact that his agenda has on science and technology.”

The letter also lauds Harris for her understanding of the invaluable contributions immigrants make to scientific progress on a national and global scale.

On Thursday, in a separate letter obtained by CNN, 23 living US recipients of the Nobel prize in economics, have expressed their endorsement of Harris’s economic agenda, deeming it “vastly superior” to the economic strategies proposed by Trump.

“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’s economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump,” they wrote.

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Middle East

We’ll Learn from This, Israel Says As Hezbollah Drones Kill Four Soldiers, Injures Many

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Four Israeli soldiers have been killed and more than 60 people injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central-northern Israel, according to first responders and the Israeli military.

The incident late Sunday local time is one of the bloodiest attacks on Israel since the beginning of the war last October.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, launched by Hezbollah hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina, a town north of Tel Aviv that lies some 40 miles from the Lebanese border.

The four killed soldiers were all 19 years old and in infantry training at the base, the IDF said, adding that eight other soldiers were severely injured.

According to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service, a total of 61 people were wounded in the attack, with dozens still hospitalized.

The news comes after Hezbollah said Sunday it had fired a swarm of attack drones on an Israeli infantry training camp in Binyamina.

The Lebanon-based militant group said the attack was in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Lebanon Thursday.

Hezbollah said it had targeted the Golani Brigade, an infantry unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has been deployed in southern Lebanon. The claim of responsibility for the attack came shortly after the militant group released an audio message from its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on its members to “defend your people, your family, your nation, your values and your dignity.”

Earlier on Sunday, the IDF said it had intercepted a Lebanon-launched UAV without specifying where. It was not immediately clear whether this was the same incident that led to the injuries.

Israeli air defence systems tend to be very reliable, but on Sunday, there were no reports of alerts in the Binyamina area at the time of the attack, raising questions of how the drone was able to penetrate so deep into the Israeli territory without being spotted.

Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets toward the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya and Acre to engage Israel’s air defense systems, while simultaneously launching the drone swarm.

“These drones broke through the Israel defense radars without detection and reached its target at the training camp of the elite Golani Brigade in Binyamina,” Hezbollah said.

The IDF’s top spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military would investigate how the drone got through without raising an alarm at the base.

“We will learn from and investigate the incident,” he said in a video statement from the base. “The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense,” he added.

Source: CNN

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World

Finally, UN Sec-Gen Guterres Condemns Iran’s Missiles Attack on Israel

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The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has condemned Iran’s missile strikes on Israel, urging an end to the cycle of escalating violence in the Middle East.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Guterres called for a halt to the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence,” referencing the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the region.

Guterres’ remarks follow a recent fallout with Israeli authorities, who declared him persona non grata. The controversy arose after Guterres initially called for a ceasefire without explicitly mentioning the Iranian attack.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Guterres as “an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists.”

During the Security Council session, Guterres clarified his stance, stating that he had condemned the attack in April and reiterated his condemnation of the recent missile strikes by Iran.

“These attacks paradoxically do not seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people, or reduce their suffering,” Guterres said. He also criticised Israel’s military actions in Gaza, referring to the campaign as “the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as secretary-general.”

On Tuesday, Iran launched approximately 180 ballistic missiles into Israel, most of which were intercepted. Following the attack, Guterres condemned the “broadening of the Middle East conflict” in a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Before Guterres addressed the Security Council, Katz emphasised that any figure who fails to unequivocally condemn Iran’s assault on Israel does not deserve to enter the country. Katz criticised Guterres’ “anti-Israel policy” since the war began.

The missile strikes are the latest in a series of escalations between Iran and Israel, which have been intensifying over the past year. The conflict has involved ongoing clashes between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, and escalated after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 251 were taken hostage.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry reports 41,689 casualties. Throughout the conflict, tensions have also simmered between Israel and the United Nations over the role of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and the agency’s response to Israeli airstrikes that have killed some of its staff.

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