AI-UPD8

Inspiring and advising on the use of AI in game, film, media, communication and marketing contexts.

The AI-UPD8 project is a co-operation between the “DAE Research” and “Business and Media” research groups of Howest. The goal of this project is to continue being a living knowledge and expertise center for questions from Flemish organizations on the use of AI in game, film, media, communication and marketing contexts. Our intention with this projects is to inspire, to advise, and in specific cases even to help guide implementation. This results in a series of talks, webinars, practical experiments, workshops and in-person meetups, as well as a living database with a curated overview of innovative technology and tools organized by specific use case and with the required information to make informed decissions regarding adoption and integration.

NEW! The aiupdate.be database!

Our curated database of AI tools has launched at aiupdate.be! From text to video to 3d generation or large language models, discover which tools we recommend at the link below. As tools are released we will update the database as we get a chance to test the tools ourselves, and share our opinion both in the database entries, as well as on our blogposts and linkedin posts!

Want to stay up to date without having to regularly check out our database? Join our LinkedIn group where we regularly post about the newest releases and updates, our own experiments and blogposts, as well as our personal “tool of the week”!

AI in Digital Arts, Game Dev & Entertainment Meetups

Want to get a better idea about what AI tools are out there? How other local creators are using these tools in their workflows? Meet up and get to know other creators in the (extended) game and entertainment working with innovative tech? Please join our meetup community and join us at one of our next sessions organized across Belgium.

State of the art Presentations and Hands-on Workshops

Aside from the database and meetups, we also have a user group of companies for whom we organize all kinds of sessions, from broad-scope state of the art presentations to keep up with the newest evolutions, to hands-on experiment days where we provide the opportunity to test out a lot of these innovative tools without the usual boundaries for entry. Any of those sound interesting? Or have a company-specific question you’d like an answer to? Always feel free to reach out to our researchers who will be happy to help out, either through advice, or, if requested, even sessions tailored to your specific needs!

BLOG POSTS

AI Video Revolution

The AI video revolution is not coming—it has arrived. The question for creative professionals is no longer whether to engage with these tools, but how to do so in ways that enhance rather than replace human creativity, maintain professional standards, and navigate the complex landscape of capabilities, limitations, and evolving possibilities that define this transformative moment in visual media creation.

From ideas to visuals: Exploring AI tools for images, video and 3d models

At the start of any project, it’s important to communicate ideas clearly. Creating visualizations is an effective way to convey concepts more precisely than words alone. This blog post explores various tools that help transform ideas into visuals.

Generative AI: The struggle for control

“How do I get it to do what I need it to do? How do we control it?”. Generating images with text-to-image models is cool, but how do I get it to generate what’s in my mind?

RELATED EVENTS

AI in Digital Arts, Game Dev & Entertainment #2

05/06/2024

Hangar K, Kortrijk, Belgium

A series of AI in Digital Arts, Game Dev & Entertainment meetups across Flanders supported by DAE Research, Flanders Game Hub & Datameister. Speakers: – Jeff Luyten (Uncanny): AI to enhance digital creativity – Thomas Valcke (Howest/ATOHMS): The many benefits of AI in product design – Dylan De Waele (Howest DAE Research): Immersive Live Visuals – Hannes Coudenys (Hurae): The Story of AI-generated virtual influencer “Bobbi Lee”

Private AI

28/03/2024

Howest, Campus Kortrijk Weide – The Penta Sint-Martens-Latemlaan 1B · Kortrijk, Belgium

Private AI will dive into the added value, implementation & ethics of private LLMs for your company. During this event we want to immerse you in the world of language models to inspire you about how you can ethically set up these AI models in-house and link your own data to them to maximize the possible economic impact of this technology.

AI in Digital Arts, Game Dev & Entertainment #1

10/04/2024

The Boldhouse, Gent, Belgium

A series of AI in Digital Arts, Game Dev & Entertainment meetups across Flanders supported by DAE Research, Flanders Game Hub & Datameister. Speakers: – Glenn van Waesberghe (Howest DAE Research): Text-to-Image: Deep Dive – Ruben Verhack (Datameister): AI-Driven Breakthroughs in Image-Based Rendering: Light Fields, SMoE, Gaussian Splatting, NeRFs and beyond – Vince Buyssens (Starhaven). Helping brands align their talent with the transformative power of AI.