This Week in AI: Google Veo Videos Go Viral

Video games developers have almost always used their creations to tell stories, but sometimes it's even more fun when fans get to flip the script and tell our own. I mean, of course, projects like Red vs. Blue, which used game tools for Microsoft's Halo series to tell stories about the routine days of the game's soldiers when they're not always fighting epic universe-shaking battles.

Google may have created a similar moment with its latest video generation technology, Veo 3. Though its best features are currently locked behind a $250 per month subscription, excited internet denizens have been using it to create all manner of videos with just a text prompt. Some of the most popular have been selfie-style videos of characters like Star Wars stormtroopers, and the "why didn't I think of that?" comedy duo of Yeti and Big Foot.

Once you get over the surprise that these videos were created from AI -- powered by legally murky intellectual property sources -- you might start to wonder how people who make content for a living feel about all of this.

Some of them are excited, especially executives in Hollywood who've begun exploring the technology despite industry pushback. Others are wary about what this means for our society, particularly at a time when technology seems to be distorting our shared sense of reality and basic facts. In the world of writing, for example, AI slop has become a well-established term for lazily published AI-written content that's easy to spot, but there's increasingly believable AI-powered misinformation as well. In photos, the AI has supercharged the already existing debate around what an image is, and what constitutes a "real" vs "manipulated," one. Even the music world is struggling with AI-generated songs.

Despite people's feelings, AI technology isn't slowing down. The popular design service Canva has built Veo 3 into its creator tools, and other companies aren't far behind. OpenAI of course offers its Sora video generation technology, and this week Midjourney announced one too.

Speaking of OpenAI...

ChatGPT 5 planned for this summer

OpenAI said it is preparing the next version of its wildly popular ChatGPT, version 5 for release in the next few months. The news, delivered by a new podcast series from the company, comes despite numerous media reports that tech giants including OpenAI are struggling to add new features and capabilities that are meaningful enough for big announcements. (Business Insider recently reported though that early ChatGPT 5 testers say it's "materially better." )

While you wait...

Starbucks adds AI to coffee orders

The worldwide coffee chain announced a new "Green Dot" assistant it's testing in stores to help baristas pull up recipes and information from company manuals using in-store iPads the company says will provide "instant, conversational responses."

"We’re simplifying access to essential information in the flow of work for partners, making their jobs a little easier while they build confidence and expertise," Starbucks wrote in its announcement.

Starbucks has always had an itch for technology, funding research and development teams that have often attended and participated in industry events and trends. Starbucks, for example, was one of the first retail companies to embrace Apple's App Store when it first launched, at one point offering customers free music and downloads when shopping in stores.

Speaking of coffee shops...

More university students caught cheating with AI

AI misuse and overuse in academia has already gone way past a trend to become a regular part of daily life among students and teachers. Some universities have even resorted to old-school pen-and-paper tests to keep AI out of their classrooms.

Still, a new survey of academic integrity violations found thousands of recorded instances, according to an investigation from the Guardian. One silver lining: while proven academic integrity violations for AI cheating have grown 5x the number in the 2022-2023 academic year, to 7.5 cases per 1,000 students, old-fashioned plagiarism cases have fallen by a little more than half in the same timeframe.  

"I would imagine those caught represent the tip of the iceberg," one professor told the publication. “It is unfeasible to simply move every single assessment a student takes to in-person. Yet at the same time the sector has to acknowledge that students will be using AI even if asked not to and go undetected.”

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Ian Sherr is a widely published journalist who's covered nearly every major tech company from Apple to Netflix, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more for CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and CNET. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.