MAROKO133 Update ai: Creator of “Wallace and Gromit” Says Heck, He’ll Start Using AI Wajib

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Creator of “Wallace and Gromit” Says Heck, He’ll Start Using A

Did Nick Park wake up and put on the wrong trousers this morning?

In a recent interview with Radio Times, the creator of the beloved claymation series “Wallace and Gromit” said his animation studio, Aardman, would “embrace” AI — albeit in a “cautious” manner.

“When ‘Toy Story’ came out [in 1995], we thought, ‘How long have we got?’ But we’ve managed to survive CGI,” Park told Radio Times, as spotted by GamesRadar. “In fact, there’s been a resurgence of interest over the years in our stop-motion animation. We use CGI as well, but AI is a whole new thing.”

“Obviously a lot of people will be fearing for their jobs,” Park admitted. “We want to embrace the technology and find in what ways it’s going to be useful to us, maybe to do animation a bit quicker, but we’re going to be very cautious not to lose our values.”

“The clay is our USP [unique selling point],” he said, “and we pride ourselves in that. Authenticity is the most important thing. It’s where the charm is.”

It’s not quite the grovelingly glowing pro-AI press release we’ve numbed ourselves to hearing from many an artist and celebrity who’ve caved to that sweet tech startup money. But while Park may not be crackers about AI, it’s still an intriguing — or worrying, depending on your perspective — thing to hear from one of the key figures at Aardman, which built its reputation for its meticulously handcrafted claymation across films like “Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” and “Chicken Run.” AI usage remains hugely controversial among creatives, who fears its potential to destroy jobs and steal original work, on top of arguably being antithetical to creativity itself.

Park seems to be in a similar camp with legendary director and special effects wizard James Cameron, who joined the board of the image generation company Stability AI last year. Cameron, however, has since come out strongly against the tech’s use in entertainment, calling generative AI replacing actors “horrifying,” and emphasizing that his upcoming “Avatar” film, “Fire and Ash,” does not use generative AI whatsoever.

“I’m not personally interested in using those tools, in using any pathway that uses technology to replace human creativity,” he said in a CBS Sunday Morning interview. But echoing Park’s stance, Cameron also said he could see AI being used to improve workflows as long as it’s implemented “ethically, morally and practically.”

To this kind of fence-sitting, we retort by quoting a classic Wallace-ism: “It’s no use prevaricating about the bush.”

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The post Creator of “Wallace and Gromit” Says Heck, He’ll Start Using AI appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Marble enters the race to bring AI to tax work, armed wit

Marble, a startup building artificial intelligence agents for tax professionals, has raised $9 million in seed funding as the accounting industry grapples with a deepening labor shortage and mounting regulatory complexity.

The round, led by Susa Ventures with participation from MXV Capital and Konrad Capital, positions Marble to compete in a market where AI adoption has lagged significantly behind other knowledge industries like law and software development.

"When we looked at the economy and asked ourselves where AI is going to transform the way businesses operate, we focused on knowledge industries — specifically businesses with hourly fee-based service models," said Bhavin Shah, Marble's chief executive officer, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "Accounting generates $250 billion in fee-based billing in the US every year. There's a tremendous opportunity to increase efficiency and improve margins for accounting firms."

The company has launched a free AI-powered tax research tool on its website that converts complex government tax data into accessible, citation-backed answers for practitioners. Marble plans to expand into AI agents that can analyze compliance scenarios and eventually automate portions of tax preparation workflows.

Marble's backers share Shah's conviction about the market. "Marble is rethinking the accounting system from the ground up. Accounting is one of the biggest — and most overlooked — markets in professional services," Chad Byers, general partner at Susa Ventures, told VentureBeat. "We've known Bhavin from his time as an executive in the Susa portfolio, and have seen firsthand how sharp and execution-driven he is. He and Geordie bring the perfect mix of operational depth and product instinct to a space long overdue for change — and they see the same massive opportunity we do."

The accounting industry lost 340,000 workers in four years — and replacements aren't coming

Marble enters a market shaped by structural forces that have fundamentally altered the economics of professional accounting.

The accounting profession has shed roughly 340,000 workers since 2019, a 17% decline that has left firms scrambling to meet client demands. First-time candidates for the Certified Public Accountant exam dropped 33% between 2016 and 2021, according to AICPA data, and 2022 saw the lowest number of exam takers in 17 years.

The exodus comes as baby boomers exit en masse. The American Institute of CPAs estimates that approximately 75% of all licensed CPAs reached retirement age by 2019, creating a demographic cliff that the profession has struggled to address.

“Fewer CPAs are getting certified year over year," Shah said. "The industry is compressing at the same time that there's more work to be done and the tax code is getting more complicated."

The National Pipeline Advisory Group, a multi-stakeholder body formed by the AICPA in July 2023, released a report identifying the 150-hour education requirement for CPA licensure as a significant barrier to entry. A separate survey by the Center for Audit Quality found that 57% of business majors who chose not to pursue accounting cited the additional credit hours as a deterrent.

Recent legislative changes reflect the urgency. Ohio now offers alternatives to the 150-hour requirement, signaling that states are willing to experiment with pathways that could reverse enrollment declines.

Why AI transformed law and software development but left accounting behind

Despite the profession's challenges, AI adoption in accounting has moved more slowly than in adjacent knowledge industries. Harvey and Legora have raised hundreds of millions to bring AI to legal work. Cursor and other coding assistants have transformed software development. Accounting, by contrast, remains largely dependent on legacy research platforms and manual processes.

Geordie Konrad, Marble's executive chairman and a co-founder of restaurant software company TouchBistro, attributes the gap to how people conceptualize AI's capabilities.

“It was obvious to many people that LLMs could do meaningful work by manipulating code for software developers and manipulating words for lawyers. In the accounting industry, LLMs are going to be used as reasoning agents," Konrad said. " That requires a bit more of a two-step analysis to see why it's a big opportunity."

The technical challenge is substantial. Tax regulations form one of the most complex, interconnected information systems that humans have created — tens of thousands of interlocking rules, guidance documents, and jurisdiction-specific requirements that frequently overlap or conflict.

"If you want to put AI through its paces and ask how far it's come in replicating cognitive functions, this is an unbelievable playground to work in," Konrad said.

A dramatic shift: AI adoption among tax and finance teams doubles in one year

Recent data suggests the accounting profession's stance toward AI is shifting rapidly.

A 2025 survey from Hanover Research and Avalara found that 84% of finance and tax teams now use AI heavily in their operations, up from 47% in 2024. The 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report from Thomson Reuters Institute found that 21% of tax firms already use generative AI technology, with 53% either planning to adopt it or actively considering it.

Large accounting firms have invested heavily in AI infrastructure. Deloitte has developed generative AI capabilities within its audit platform. BDO announced a $1B investment in AI over the next five years. EY launched an AI platform combining technology with strategy, transactions, and tax services. PwC estimates a complete A…

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🔗 Sumber: venturebeat.com