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Future

Computers Claiming Copyright And Other Puzzles Of Our AI Era

Painter, musician, writer
Painter, musician, writer
Bertrand Hauger

-Analysis-

Do GIFs have a place in serious publications? Where the hell is my giraffe emoji? Do androids dream of electric sheep? The digital world is presenting us with questions we never could have imagined we'd have to answer — and maybe we don't.

But there are also those brand new mind-boggling questions of a much more down-to-earth and practical nature that maybe we need to start thinking about. After Dutch researchers unveiled The Next Rembrandt: a computer-generated painting bearing every resemblance to the 17th-century artist, the website The Conversation asked: "Should robot artists be given copyright protection?" At stake, beyond our ability to discern between a man-made and an algorithm-fed work of art, is the status of machines as legal entities and creative forces. This follows a debate over whether a monkey could claim a photograph copyright.

The issue isn't limited to the rise of Michelangelos 2.0: A software engineer from Colorado has recently fed into an artificial intelligence network George R.R. Martin's five-book series, on which the HBO show Game of Thrones is based, in order to have an algorithm write a sixth installment of the series:

Jon rode the dragons in a steep circle, buried fingers in the sand and there a burnt slope. "With a man should leave us clean, wench," he said. "Stop him. Is that much? Until you're at Winterfell simply get inside "em o" wildlings, or on the sound of a bastard dies."

True, the result is clunky — though I've met worse flesh-and-blood writers. And with the exponential progress in AI, deep learning and recurrent neural networks, books by bots (that you would actually buy) are hardly science fiction. Who, then, would be credited for the art created: the engineer who built the machine, the mathematician behind the algorithm, or the computer itself?

Give it a little bit of time, and AI machines will stop being mere copycats and may soon be able to paint masterpieces, compose music hits and write articles like this one — and there won't be any way for you to 00100001 tell.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

A Profound And Simple Reason That Negotiations Are Not An Option For Ukraine

The escalation of war in the Middle East and the stagnation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive have left many leaders in the West, who once supported Ukraine unequivocally, to look toward ceasefire talks with Russia. For Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Piotr Andrusieczko argues that Ukraine simply cannot afford this.

Photo of Ukrainian soldiers in winter gear, marching behind a tank in a snowy landscape

Ukrainian soldiers ploughing through the snow on the frontlines

Volodymyr Zelensky's official Facebook account
Piotr Andrusieczko

-Analysis-

KYIVUkraine is fighting for its very existence, and the war will not end soon. What should be done in the face of this reality? How can Kyiv regain its advantage on the front lines?

It's hard to deny that pessimism has been spreading among supporters of the Ukrainian cause, with some even predicting ultimate defeat for Kyiv. It's difficult to agree with this, considering how this war began and what was at stake. Yes, Ukraine has not won yet, but Ukrainians have no choice for now but to continue fighting.

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These assessments are the result of statements by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, and an interview with him in the British weekly The Economist, where the General analyzes the causes of failures on the front, notes the transition of the war to the positional phase, and, critically, evaluates the prospects and possibilities of breaking the deadlock.

Earlier, an article appeared in the American weekly TIME analyzing the challenges facing President Volodymyr Zelensky. His responses indicate that he is disappointed with the attitude of Western partners, and at the same time remains so determined that, somewhat lying to himself, he unequivocally believes in victory.

Combined, these two publications sparked discussions about the future course of the conflict and whether Ukraine can win at all.

Some people outright predict that what has been known from the beginning will happen: Russia will ultimately win, and Ukraine has already failed.

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