Adobe announced new versions of its family of video applications, including the fastest and most reliable version of Premiere Pro, which adds AI-powered text-based video editing to make life simpler for professionals and creators. Adobe made the announcement ahead of the NAB Show 2023 in Las Vegas. It also touted automated tone-mapping capabilities, plus dozens of under-the-hood improvements addressing top user requests. This is the kind of thing that needs to happen to make creators more productive and get them ready for massive content demands for applications like the metaverse. Additionally, Adobe is celebrating 30 years of After Effects, the world's most popular motion design software for video professionals, adding a context-sensitive Properties Panel and community-requested improvements, the company said in a press briefing.

Generative AI, or AI used to create new images, text and sound based on prompts and training data, has had a contentious history in the game development community recently. While generative AI has become a commonly used tool for those who create user-generated content (UGC), its use as a tool for game developers has come with criticism. In particular, some users question why AI should be used when a human developer could do the job. Despite this pushback, game developers and publishers have started openly using AI tools. Major games companies such as Unity, Epic Games, Roblox and Ubisoft have all announced generative AI integrations in their development kits.

Metaphysic CEO Tom Graham runs a company that creates authorized "deep fakes" of people using AI. As the industry leader in creating hyperreal content powered by generative AI, Metaphysic champions individual ownership and control of their AI likenesses and biometric data. By leveraging legal institutions and existing law and regulation, Graham, through this submission, demonstrates the increasingly fine line between reality and computer-generated media as he and Metaphysic seek to create, for the first time, a new bundle of intellectual property rights that must be available to any individual in the future. "Generative AI can create content that looks and feels real, and regular people's avatars can be inserted into content by third parties without their consent. This is not right, and we should never lose control over our identity, privacy or biometric data," said Graham, in a statement.

The 14th annual Nvidia GTC online event will have more than 650 sessions, including 70 alone on generative AI. The online event will take place on March 20 to March 23, and my own session on the industrial metaverse will air on the morning of March 22. Greg Estes, vice president of marketing at Nvidia, said in an interview that much of the content for the event about Nvidia's technology ecosystem will center on talks about generative AI, the metaverse, large language models, robotics, cloud computing and more. Leaders from hundreds of organizations will present including AWS, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, Epic Games, Ford, GM, Google, HPE, Jaguar Land Rover, Lenovo, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle Cloud, Pixar, Samsung, Shell, Target, TSMC, U.S. Space Force and VMware. You'll hear from the brightest minds within the gaming industry to share their updates on the latest developments.

Sony AI and Polyphony Digital have released Gran Turismo Sophy, a hyper-realistic AI racing agent for Gran Turismo 7. The agent is based on research by Sony's AI researchers and Polyphony Digital's developers and it fits Gran Turismo's mission of being the most realistic racing simulation game. The PlayStation 5 agent was trained on a neural network and moved from a research project to its commercial release after two years of work. It learns the best way to drive through reinforcement training, and then it's ready to take on humans. The aim isn't just to put on a good show, as with many racing games. The mission is to create AI that will challenge and even beat the best human racers. "For the first time, actually, this is a really competitive AI.

Ready Player Me is launching an experimental trial where players can use generative AI to craft their own avatar outfits. Combining user-generated content and generative AI is becoming a popular trend in gaming. The avatar outfit customization feature is a project of Ready Player Me Labs, a new division focused on testing new ideas, said Timmu Tõke, CEO of Ready Player Me, in an interview with GamesBeat. "We're just launching RPM Labs, which is like the experimental part of the product where we try all kinds of new features, and this is the first version of that," Tõke said. "Generative AI will definitely change how 3D content is created and avatars are created. We are aiming to be at the forefront of that and understand how things are changing and then change ourselves with that."