The latest AI tech announcements

What do they mean for the photo & video industry?


With a barrage of recent generative AI technology news from the likes of Midjourney, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, NVIDA, Runway, Adobe + additional announcements expected in the coming weeks, this Spotlight will host a panel with industry experts to share their perspectives on what these announcements mean for various parts of the photo & video industry. They’ll also help you see the forest through the unwieldy trees of AI tech news!

Prior to the panel discussion we’ll have a fireside chat discussion with Boris Eldagsen, who recently won – but then refused accepting – the Sony World Photography Awards in the Creative Open Category. We’ll hear – and see – how he created his image, learn why he submitted it for this prestigious awards contest, and find out how the media and photography worlds responded to his disclosure that the image was AI-generated and he had chosen to refuse to accept the award.

Hosts & Moderators:

This Spotlight was held May 17, 2023. 70 attendees.

Check out our takeaways article.

Fireside Chat Presenter:


Boris Eldagsen
Photomedia Artist
Prompt Whispering

image: copyright_(c) www.catonbed.de

Boris Eldagsen studied fine arts at the art academies of Mainz, Prague, and the University of Hyderabad (India) - as well as philosophy at the universities of Cologne and Mainz. 

As a photomedia artist, he has exhibited in institutions and festivals since 2000, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, CCP Melbourne, ACP Sydney, EMAF Osnabrück, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, FORMAT Festival Derby, Singapore International Photography Festival, Noorderlicht Groningen and Kochi-Muziris Biennale.   

As a freelance strategist and idea generator, he has worked since 2001 for agencies such as R/GA, Razorfish, MRM McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi Pro, Scholz & Friends, Endemol Shine and others. 

Since 2004 he has been teaching at international art colleges (Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne, Photography Studies College Melbourne, NTU Singapore, Pathshala South Asian Media Institute Dhaka, Akademie für Bildende Künste Mainz, Hochschule Furtwangen and Escola d'Art i Superior de Disseny) and gives workshops for the Goethe Institute, festivals and museums (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Westlicht Wien, Australian Centre for Photography Sydney a.o.). 

Boris is "Head of Digital" at the German Photographic Academy (DFA), member of the AI working group of Deutscher Fotorat and digital advisor to Roger Ballen

His background as a university lecturer, photo artist and digital media freelancer makes him one of the AI experts in the German photography scene. 

THE ELECTRICIAN
by Boris Eldagsen

Winner of the not-accepted 2023 Sony World Photography Awards, Creative Open Category

More about the refused award controversy: Photographer admits prize-winning image was AI-generated

Panelists:


Bios

Michael Osterrieder

Michael Osterrieder is a creative professional, serial entrepreneur and content licensing veteran with nearly two decades of IP production experience under his belt. Combining vast experience in 3D graphics, photography and videography, Michael has sold over 500,000 media licenses and engineered dozens of commercial design and web projects worldwide.

Alongside Nicolas Menijes, Michael co-founded vAIsual in 2021, from which he is also the CEO, an artificial intelligence company generating synthetic media for the B2B IP licensing market, and was instrumental in developing its base technology. The company launched Dataset Shop, a dataset marketplace building generative AI and facial recognition technology with datasets that have full biometric and copyright clearances, providing peace of mind to corporate customers who need full assurance they are not breaking international laws.

Julia Enthoven

Julia is the CEO and cofounder of Kapwing, a video creation platform for modern teams. Kapwing now serves hundreds of thousands of creative teams using AI and cloud collaboration to speed up content operations.

Before Kapwing, Julia studied computer science at Stanford and worked at Google as an Associate Product Manager.

Javier Ideami

A multidisciplinary and award-winning engineer, researcher, creative director, artist and entrepreneur, Javier’s projects and talks have taken him from Silicon Valley to the jungles of Bali, including Stanford University and UC Berkeley, the United Nations FAO HQ, the financial center of London, the International Cultural Diplomacy Conference in Berlin and many others. Javier also shared his perspectives in the opening fireside chat at our Visual 1st conference last year.

In 2021 Javier co-founded The Geniverse, one of the first platforms in the world that facilitates access to the latest Generative AI technology.

Most recently, Javier directed Hamelin 77 – A movie about prompt engineering and generative AI, which reflects upon the topic of prompt engineering and simultaneously uses a number of generative AI techniques within the movie.

Keith Barraclough

Keith is responsible for product, technology and platform operations at Zenfolio.  Under his leadership, the company developed its "NextZen" SaaS solution to build and host photographers' businesses. He was also instrumental in integrating the application and services of Format, a provider of website building and business services for creative professionals and photographers, which Zenfolio acquired late 2021, and in overseeing the development of Zenfolio’s PhotoRefine.ai photo curation application, which won the Best Business Potential Award at last year’s Visual 1st conference.

Prior to Zenfolio Keith was the founding CTO, EVP products and Board Member at Texture, the "Nextflix of magazines" service acquired by Apple in 2018 and since integrated into Apple's News+.  Prior to Texture Keith was the co-founder of Avvenu, an online file sharing service which was acquired by Nokia in 2007.  Post-acquisition Keith was GM and head of development for a number of Nokia's mobile and online services.


Banner image by Drew Dizzy Graham on Unsplash