Socially Assistive Robot Enabled Home-Based Care for Supporting People with Autism

The growing number of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an issue of concern in Australia and many countries. In order to improve the engagement, reciprocity, productivity and usefulness of people with ASD in a home-based environment, in this paper the authors report on a 9 month Australian home-based care trial of socially assistive robot (Lucy) to support two young adults with autism. This work demonstrates that by marrying personhood (of people with ASD) with human-like communication modalities of Lucy potentially positive outcomes can be achieved in terms of engagement, productivity and usefulness as well as reciprocity of the people with ASD. Lucy also provide respite to their carers (e.g., parents) in their day to day living

A Right in Search of a Coherent Rationale-Conceptualizing Persona in a Comparative Context: The United States Right of Publicity and German Personality Rights

This Comment examines United States publicity rights in light of the autonomy critique and its civil law parallel in German personality rights to argue that a publicity right based on autonomy theory is not only possible, but plausible

Cyber-Narrative in Opera: Three Case Studies

This dissertation looks at three newly composed operas that feature what I call cyber-narratives: a work in which the story itself is inextricably linked with digital technologies, such that the characters utilize, interact with, or are affected by digital technologies to such a pervasive extent that the impact of said technologies is thematized within the work. Through an analysis of chat rooms and real-time text communication in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (2011), artificial intelligence in Søren Nils Eichberg’s Glare (2014), and mind uploading and digital immortality in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers (2010), a nexus of ideologies surrounding voice, the body, gender, digital anthropology, and cyber-culture are revealed. I consider the interpretive possibilities that emerge when analyzing voice and musical elements in conjunction with cultural references within the libretti, visual design choices in the productions, and directorial decisions in the evolution of each work. I theorize the expressive power of the operatic medium in dramatizing and personifying new forms of technology, while simultaneously exposing how these technologically oriented narratives reinforce and rely upon operatic tropes of the past. Recurring themes of misogyny and objectification of women across all three works are addressed, as is the framing of digital technology as a mechanism of dehumanization. This analysis also focuses on the unique sung and embodied aspect of opera, and how the human voice shapes concepts of identity, agency, and individuality in the digital age. All three case studies demonstrate how opera gives the cyber-narrative every possible mode of expression to explore the complexities and anxieties of human-machine relationships in the digital era, as all three operas question how the thematized technologies may come to re-define our perception and experience of humanity itself

The AI-Copyright Challenge: Tech-Neutrality, Authorship, and the Public Interest

Many of copyright’s core concepts—from authorship and ownership to infringement and fair use—are being challenged by the rapid rise of generative AI. Whether in service of creativity or capital, however, copyright law is perfectly capable of absorbing this latest innovation. More interesting than the doctrinal debates that AI provokes, then, is the opportunity it presents to revisit the purposes of the copyright system in the age of AI. After introducing the AI-copyright challenge in Part 1, Part 2 considers the guiding principles and normative objectives that underlie—and so ought to inform—copyright law and its response to AI technologies. It proposes a substantive approach to tech-neutrality aimed at achieving normative equilibrium in the face of technological disruption. Applying this frame—with its corresponding emphasis on authorship and the public interest—Part 3 goes on to explain why AI-generated outputs are therefore uncopyrightable and AI-training inputs are non-infringing

Understanding the impact of Artificial Intelligence on newsroom social culture and journalistic performative roles : a qualitative case study of AI as an emerging digital innovative technology in newsrooms

Throughout the evolution of journalism, innovative technology has played a pivotal role in shaping the production and consumption of news. The transformative power of disruptive technology has revolutionized the journalism industry in the past by impacting the society it serves through the diffusion of innovation. Artificial Intelligence, when operationalized for use in journalism, has the propensity to be a disruptive technology, possibly transforming the industry in significant and meaningful ways. This research investigates the impact of Artificial Intelligence as an emerging digital innovative technology on journalism and mass communication from a sociological and historical context. The aim of this study is to examine how the use of innovative AI technology may influence sociocultural perceptions and behavior in U.S. and UK-based news reporters and their semi-automated newsrooms by comparing present-day news reporters and newsrooms against the behavior of news reporters and newsrooms at the start of the last century when television and radio emerged as previous disruptive technologies. Present-day semi-automated newsrooms employ smart technology based on Artificial Intelligence to aid in the production of news information. AI technology has been operationalized at every measurable level, from simple intelligent content management system agents to fully-autonomous robust agents capable of producing natural human-language news reports and short articles. Pioneering news organizations that push the limits of AI operationalization capabilities have partnered with technology companies to generate lifelike digital avatars based on living human news reporters. These avatars are capable of rendering news reports that can be presented on digital video publishing platforms such as YouTube or websites owned and operated by the parent organizations. Creating a new social role generates contention in a shared social space, leading existing occupants to consider their existing role and the opportunities or challenges posed by this new role. This phenomenon is examined using Diffusion of Innovation theory, Human-Machine Communication theory, and Actor-network theory to help understand the emergence of new social roles in shared social spaces. Such a perspective enables a more nuanced understanding of how new social roles emerge and gain influence, and how existing roles may be challenged or reinforced. Data collected through semi-structured interviews from news reporters at a global news organization with offices in the U.S. and the UK have been analyzed using a comparative framework to study social behavior, customs, and culture evident in semi-automated newsrooms. The goal of this research is to better understand the impact that the diffusion of emerging digital innovative technology may have on the social culture of journalists and the newsroom within which they perform as newsmakers.Includes bibliographical references

Van Gogh TV's »Piazza Virtuale«

Piazza virtuale by the group of artists known as Van Gogh TV was not only the biggest art project ever to appear on television, but from a contemporary point of view the project was also a forerunner of today's social media. The ground-breaking event that took place during the 100 days of documenta IX in 1992 was an early experiment with entirely user-created content. This is the first book-length study of this largely forgotten experiment: It documents the radicality of Piazza virtuale's approach, the novel programme ideas and the technical innovations. It also allows, via QR codes, direct access to videos from the show, which until now have been inaccessible

Van Gogh TV's "Piazza Virtuale": The Invention of Social Media at documenta IX in 1992

'Piazza virtuale' by the group of artists known as Van Gogh TV was not only the biggest art project ever to appear on television, but from a contemporary point of view the project was also a forerunner of today's social media. The ground-breaking event that took place during the 100 days of documenta IX in 1992 was an early experiment with entirely user-created content. This is the first book-length study of this largely forgotten experiment: It documents the radicality of 'Piazza virtuale's' approach, the novel programme ideas and the technical innovations. It also allows, via QR codes, direct access to videos from the show, which until now have been inaccessible