WIPO: Evidence Suggests That in Some Industries IP Protection is Necessary | Why You Should Watch Sam Altman | OCHA

In this edition

OpenAI Developers Day

“What comes after transformers?” Harry Stebbings

OCHA Reports on OPT, Cuba, and Lebanon

Carsten Fink, WIPO Chief Economist

“Modern research lab, inventors, researchers, big cost”. Newsroom research, lab, digital forensics tools, journalists trained in statistics and data science. Also cost substantial amounts of investment. Democracy hinges on quality, unbiased information, and great news organisations. Great journalists require good salaries and solid back-up from newsrooms. Not only science researchers and doctors in labs in pharmaceutical companies.

Here are the highlights from today’s meeting on Generative AI at the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva. Listen up and read more. Slides by WIPO.

Carsten Fink, WIPO Chief Economist urges economists in all sectors of the economy to pay close attention. Change is fast and the need to adapt mandatory.

The appropriability dilemma? Really? Well, when you put that way.

Their unique social value? What about their economic value?

At the start of today’s session there were three examples of paintings and AI generated imagery of said paintings. The participants both online and in the room could vote. Is that an IP infringement? Could the author of these AI generated images claim authorship? Was it an infringement? The majority, by a narrow margin, voted that it was not passible of IP protection. For many also is considered an infringement. Not only. The image depicted above is a horrible blob glop ghastly mash of colors. It is not art.

To bring this discussion to this uneducated in visual arts and sciences, yes sciences, in the plural, this diverse group of IP lawyers, UN officials, and diplomats, we will need to have someone explain to them what are the processes and effort and thinking that goes in producing original art works. This is of utmost importance as we embark on these discussions. Otherwise it is like inviting a dowdy frumpy badly dressed UN official to an editorial meeting with Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine to decide what goes in the September edition. You do not want that do you? Artists around the world, who’s livelihoods depend on the art they produce with their bare hands would certainly want to have experts in the arts and IP law to contribute to these very important WIPO discussions on what is the value of AI-produced-trash posing as art, and if it needs IP protection and how.

These are two worlds that do not literally see how the other operates. Art and international IP lawyers. They act mesmerized by some technological trick. How much work goes on producing art and “content”? They have no idea, because they never produced a work of art, so they think this AI-generated garbage is Art.

As Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour’s predecessor at Vogue in New York used to say “The eye has to travel” - one needs an education in the arts and art history in order to make sense of what is at stake. That is urgently needed as we embark in these discussions.

Education in the arts and fashion industries for diplomats and UN officials might help.

Ideas are hard to find, good ideas, great ones. That is why the uneducated technologist thinks they can just grab “content” and run. Besides there is no proof yet of real economic gains in productivity.

Don’t shoot the messenger, McKinsey said it.

Cautiously optimistic is the word du jour.

Hum. I don’t know. Nobody knows. Welcome to the era of uncertainty as a marketing device. Or a ploy, or an authentic rebellion to the status quo.

Who does it serve? Who profits from it?

But as Sam Altman said. The value of LLMs is fleeting.

Welcome to the age of uncertainty.

Why We Love Sam Altman. With caveats.

Worth Watching

With caveats. Sam Altman Interviewed by 20VC.

Agentic? What a horrible word.

Some Highlights

20VC does a good job of balancing probing questions and sycophantics.

What? That is a word now too. :-)

“Models are depreciating assets.” Sam Altman

Sam is so good at making you believe the gospel.

His cool vocal fry adds to the charm. He thinks being 30 years-old, is old. How cute.

He absorbs the criticisms and doubts on the viability of OpenAI evolution and observes the possible ways out of hallucinations, etc, while sometimes composing fuzzy flowery meanings and at the same time quite convincing arguments, that there is no playbook, that there are no certainties. Is ChatGPT influencing his thinking? ;-)

And more.

Capital Intensity of building models. (They cost Zillions) Trillions for now.

Not only to build the actual data centers, the cost to the environment.

He dreams of retirement. To write a book. While millions will lose jobs and therefore not contribute to pension funds and therefore end up living in poverty in retirement.

What is with the sad plants background, and the bricks wall, don’t they have billions to pay for a proper office? Just kidding, Millenials are into this brick walls aesthetic for a few years now. Hipster central. Pretend you are just getting by. While raising obscene amounts of capital.

Ageist biases abound throughout this scripted interview.

But you should watch till the end.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world.

UN Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs

Occupied Palestinian Territory

In North Gaza, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya warned of a critical humanitarian crisis, as civilians face a brutal, month-long siege. Msuya said Israeli military actions have left Palestinians without basic necessities and forced them to flee multiple times, with no safe routes remaining.

The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator, Muhannad Hadi, visited a UNRWA school in Gaza city where displaced families endure dire conditions, with limited food, water, and basic sanitation. Amid this devastation, WHO delivered emergency supplies to hospitals under constant bombardment, but one, Kamal Adwan Hospital, was struck, injuring child patients. The UN continues essential healthcare, including a polio vaccination drive in Gaza, but humanitarian operations are strained by ongoing conflict.

Lebanon

The UN and humanitarian partners are intensifying relief efforts in Lebanon as hostilities escalate. A recent convoy delivered medical supplies to Baalbeck-El Hermel, while WHO and Lebanon’s Ministry of Health opened a trauma unit in Sidon to expand emergency care.

UNICEF has reached over 40,000 people with mobile health services. As fatalities rise, Lebanese authorities report 3,000 deaths since September. Public schools will reopen gradually with UNICEF’s support, targeting 387,000 children, many displaced by the crisis. The humanitarian appeal for Lebanon, seeking $426 million, is critically underfunded at just 19 percent, as urgent demands for food, shelter, and medical supplies continue to grow.

Cuba

The UN is coordinating with Cuba to prepare for Tropical Storm Rafael, expected to hit western Cuba tomorrow as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm threatens Pinar del Rio and Artemisa, areas severely impacted by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Following Hurricane Oscar in eastern Cuba, the UN launched a $33 million response plan for shelter, health, and food security, aiming to assist nearly 500,000 affected people. Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya recently allocated $3.5 million from the UN’s emergency fund for Cuba’s recovery. OCHA has urged member states to support the new plan, as Cuba braces for yet another major storm.