Google has announced the reactivation of the character image generation feature for its AI chatbot Gemini, aimed at producing diverse content including photo-realistic landscapes and textured paintings. This feature is powered by Google's AI text-to-image generator Imagen3 and currently supports only English. It will be available to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users in the coming days. The newly upgraded Imagen3 model offers improved performance and includes built-in safety measures optimized to avoid historical inaccuracies.

Google AR&VR, in collaboration with a research team from the University of Central Florida, has released a virtual character library called 'VALID' to promote diversity and inclusion. The library includes 210 validated, fully equipped virtual characters representing seven different races, including Asian, Black, and White. Research findings show consistent recognition of Asian, Black, and White virtual characters among participants of various races, but the representation of races such as Native American, Alaskan Native, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, North African, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander is still lacking.

The Writers Association has initiated a public survey to address concerns regarding AI-generated books and the use of writers' materials to train AI. The survey contains eight questions, focusing on whether writers agree to have their works used for developing AI systems and if they should receive appropriate financial compensation. The association emphasizes the threat of AI-generated text to the writing industry and calls for the establishment of policies to protect the future of literary creation. Survey results indicate that 90% of writers believe that compensation should be provided for the use of their works in training generative AI, and 65% support the creation of a collective licensing system.

The recent changes in the OpenAI board, which is entirely male, have raised concerns. Forbes has recommended ten women AI leaders to join the OpenAI board to enhance gender diversity. The nominees include co-directors of the Stanford AI Research Institute, former Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud, among others. There is a call for OpenAI to prioritize these women leaders in elections to ensure the board represents a diverse global community.

Scientists have developed AI cameras and microphones to track wildlife in the UK, identifying various species. Through AI analysis, it can accurately locate and identify animals such as foxes, deer, hedgehogs, and bats. The UK's railway network company plans to expand the application of AI monitoring technology to include rural areas and forests.