An AI-focused film festival is coming to New York in February

One of the companies behind text-to-image AI system Stable Diffusion is hosting a film festival exclusively for shorts that were made with AI. Organizers of Runway ML’s AI Film Festival are accepting films with a runtime of between one and 10 minutes that either include AI-generated content or were pieced together with AI-powered editing techniques.

According to Fast Company, Runway said creators won’t be penalized if they use AI tools from other companies. Along with text-to-image generation, creatives can use techniques such as background removal, frame interpolation and motion tracking to help make their films.

“I think we’re heading to a future where a lot of the content and the entertainment and the media that you see online will be generated,” Runway cofounder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said. While many observers are concerned that content generated by AI might displace human creatives, advocates such as Valenzuela suggest that such tools can level the playing field for budding moviemakers. “What I’m really excited about is how AI is really opening the doors for nontechnical people and creatives at large,” he said.

The AI Film Festival is scheduled to take place in February online and in New York. The submission window is open until January 15th. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t give creatives much time to create a piece and submit it, but they may be able to put together a movie much faster with the help of AI.

The judges, who include Valenzuela and Holly Herndon, will assess the films based on originality, narrative cohesion, the quality of composition and the AI techniques that were employed. The folks behind the top five films will receive cash awards, with the grand prize winner taking away $10,000.

Blue Origin makes another bid for a NASA lunar lander contract

Blue Origin has made another attempt to secure a contract to build a lunar lander for NASA’s future Artemis missions. It teamed up with several other companies for the proposal, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Draper. Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics are also involved.

In 2021, NASA gave SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use a version of Starship as a lunar lander. Blue Origin challenged that move, claiming that NASA’s “decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon.”

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote in an open letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson in July last year that his company was willing to waive up to $2 billion in payments in exchange for a fixed-price lander contract. Bezos also complained that the decision to award a single contract gave SpaceX “a multiyear, multibillion-dollar head start” and claimed it “broke the mold of NASA’s successful commercial space programs by putting an end to meaningful competition for years to come.”

NASA had intended to award two lunar lander contracts, but it opted to only issue one due to funding concerns. In August 2021, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA over its handling of the Human Landing System program. However, a Federal Court of Claims judge ruled against Blue Origin. The lawsuit held up work on SpaceX’s lander and delayed a crewed mission to the Moon until 2025.

Earlier this year, NASA said it would again accept proposals for a second lunar lander project. Now, Blue Origin is taking the agency up on the offer. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Blue Origin will face competition from Northrop Grumman and Leidos Dynetics. Northrop Grumman worked with Blue Origin during the first round of contract bids.

Epic Games rolls out limited accounts to protect young ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Fall Guys’ players

Epic Games is rolling out a new type of account for younger players that will require parental consent before they can do things like make purchases from Fortnite‘s in-game store with real money or use voice chat. Epic says these so-called “cabined accounts” will provide a “tailored experience that is safe and inclusive for younger players using the store or launcher.”

In a blog post, Epic positioned cabined accounts as a “new way for kids to join the metaverse.” It wrote that some companies try to provide a safe environment for kids in an online ecosystem by “by creating isolated experiences solely for their younger players, but these experiences are usually restrictive and unappealing when compared to the full game or activity and may encourage false reporting of age. Another approach has been to offer a fulsome experience for younger players, but if kids do not obtain permission from their parents, they are locked out entirely with no alternatives. Neither of these are optimal.”

Starting today, players will see a one-time request for their age when they log into the Epic Games Store or the company’s games. If someone indicates they are under 13 or a country’s age of consent to use digital services, they will now have a cabined account. Although they’ll still be able to play Fortnite, Rocket League or Fall Guys with access to previously purchased and earned in-game content, they’ll need to provide a parent or guardian’s email address and get consent from them to use certain features.

Several other features are disabled in cabined accounts, including any purchases with money, free text chat, making trades in Rocket League, buying or downloading Epic Games Store titles not owned by Epic, custom display names and SMS-based two-factor authentication. Without parental consent, younger players will not be able to link their Epic account to services such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitch. Developers with cabined accounts will also be prevented from accessing some Unreal Engine features.

Epic will lift the restrictions when a parent or guardian provides consent or the player turns 13 or their region’s age of digital consent. In the meantime, those with such an account can still use any funds that are already in their Epic wallet to buy things in Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys and other Epic-owned games.

After a parent or guardian has verified a cabined account, they can set up parental controls. Among other things, they’ll be able to approve friend requests on the younger player’s account, grant access to voice and text chat and track their offspring’s Fortnite play time.