On the 30th of September 2021, on the first anniversary of its incorporation, MPAI approved Version 1 of its Multimodal Conversation standard (MPAI-MMC). The standard included 5 use cases: Conversation with Emotion, Multimodal Question Answering and e Automatic Speech Translation Use Cases. Three months later, MPAI approved Version 1 of Context-based Audio Enhancement (MPAI-CAE). The standard included 4 use cases: Emotion-Enhanced Speech, Audio Recording Preservation, Speech Restoration System and Enhanced Audioconference Experience. A lot more has happened in MPAI beyond these…

After a series of ups and downs that lasted about sixty years, the set of technologies that go by the name of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has powerfully entered the design, production and strategy realities of many companies. Although it would not be easy - it would perhaps be an ineffective use of time - to argue against those who claim that AI is neither Artificial nor Intelligent, the term AI is sufficiently useful and indicative that it has found wide…

AI has generated easy enthusiasms but also fears. The narrative that has developed sees in the development of AI more a potentially dystopian machine-ruled future than a tool potentially capable to improve the weel being of humanity. Indeed, some AI technologies hold the potential to transform our society in a disruptive way. That possibility must be kept in check if we want to avoid potentially serious problems. Just think of video deep fakes, but also of the possibility of advanced…

In the business world, goods are delivered based on technical and commercial specifications. In the standards world, there are good reasons why the goods (the standards) of a Standards Developing Organisation (SDO) are not delivered according to commercial requirements normally accepted in the business world. However, this is not a good reason for an SDO to stay with commercial requirements called “patent declarations” that simply bind the originators to license their SEPs at so-called Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms.…