Microsoft has released an AI-generated video of the famous Mona Lisa, created by Leonardo Da Vinci, rapping ‘Paparazzi,’ written and performed by Anne Hathaway.
The video has left viewers torn between how to feel about the latest promotional stunt.
The video was a means to demonstrate Microsoft’s new AI technology, VASA-1, which can take a still image and an audio clip, and combine them to create lifelike videos of talking faces.
Videos can be created using photorealistic faces, cartoons or artwork.
Microsoft has said the “out-of-distribution generalization” method shows “the capability to handle photo and audio inputs that are out of the training distribution.”
“For example, it can handle artistic photos, singing audios, and non-English speech. These types of data were not present in the training set.”
In a blog post by the company announcing VASA-1, Microsoft said, “While acknowledging the possibility of misuse, it’s imperative to recognize the substantial positive potential of our technique.”
“The benefits – such as enhancing educational equity, improving accessibility for individuals with communication challenges, offering companionship or therapeutic support to those in need, among many others – underscore the importance of our research and other related explorations.”
It was warned, however, that the technology was not intended to “mislead or deceive” and that there could be a risk of misuse.
Microsoft claimed they have “no plans to release an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings until we are certain that the technology will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations.”
OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, created a similar technology called Sora, which can turn text prompts into realistic videos. Google also has a similar technology called Lumiere, however, these tools are in limited availability.
Microsoft are also heading more in the direction of AI, having recently announced an event, that will take place in May, where it will discuss its “AI vision across hardware and software,” including its vision for “AI PCs,” according to The Verge.
