Synthetic Media Summit June 8 at USC

The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California held its inaugural Synthetic Media Summit on June 8 on the USC campus to chart the course of AI-driven future. As artificial intelligence promises to change the way media content is produced, distributed and consumed, even altering the nature of media itself, are we fully ready? This high-level event included top AI experts and media executives who discussed the state, media use cases, and ethics of synthetic media for the news and entertainment industries.

The Speakers:

• Dr Morten Bay, Lecturer / Research Fellow, Center for Digital Future (USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism)
• Yves Bergquist, AI Researcher / Director, AI & Blockchain project (ETC@USC)
• Stella Biderman, AI Ethics Researcher (Eleuther.ai)
• Elizabeth Daley, Dean, USC School of Cinematic Arts
• Laura Davis, Associate Professor, Professional Practice (USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism)
• Angela Dunning, Partner (Cooley LLC)
• Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting (BBC R&D)
• Emilio Ferrara, Associate Professor, Communication, Computer Science and Preventive Medicine (USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism)
• Anthony Guarino, EVP, Global Production & Studio Technology (Paramount)
• Evo Heyning, Executive producer/ CEO (Realitycraft)
• Melody Hildebrant, CISO (Fox Corp )/ President (Blockchain Creative Labs)
• Renard Jenkins, SVP, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services (Warner Bros. Discovery)
• Julianna Kirschner, Lecturer, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
• Dr Mark Lemley, Professor, Director of the Program in Law, Science & Technology (Stanford University)
• Ryan Luu, Director of Product, CoreUX & Personalization (The Washington Post)
• Dr Gary Marcus, Author, Entrepreneur, and Professor of Psychology (NYU)
• Margaret Mitchell, Chief Ethicist (Hugging Face)
• Sanjay Pandit, CTO (Creative Artists Agency)
• Jennifer Peterson, Associate Professor of Communication / Director, Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Studies (USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism)
• Nikki Pope, Head of AI Legal (NVIDIA)
• Nikola Todorovic, Founder & CEO (Wonder Dynamics)
• Ken Williams, Executive Director, Entertainment Technology Center at USC
• Simon Yuen, Sr Director (NVIDIA Omiverse)