Technology

Tupac Shakur's estate is laying down the law on Drake ... threatening to drag him to court for using an AI-generated version of the late rapper's voice for a diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar.

TMZ has obtained the cease-and-desist letter fired off by the attorney for Tupac's estate, Howard King, and it calls out Drake for the AI verse on "Taylor Made Freestyle" ... saying, "Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupac's publicity and the estate's legal rights, it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time."

The estate goes on to say it would never have given approval for this -- and it issues an ultimatum: take down the track in less than 24 hours, and explain how it was made ... or else.

Una pobre mujer perdió la vida porque ella y su presunto asesino estaban siendo estafados por un tercero, y hablamos con algunos expertos que dicen que esto no va a parar.

El experto en tecnología Lance Ulanoff -que ha estado cubriendo este campo como periodista durante años- estuvo en "TMZ Live" el miércoles para discutir el tiroteo fatal de Loletha Hall, que fue asesinada a tiros a finales del mes pasado en Ohio después de que William Brock, de 81 años de edad, la confundió con una estafadora.

Lance nos dice que este es un caso extremo de este tipo de historias, y asegura que suceden todo el tiempo. Dice que por lo general no llegan a este nivel de violencia y tragedia. Desgraciadamente, en este caso sí... y dice que es un cuento con moraleja sobre los peligros de estos malos actores.

A poor woman lost her life because both she and her alleged murderer were being scammed by a nefarious third party -- and we talked to some experts who say ... this ain't gonna stop.

Tech expert Lance Ulanoff -- who's covered this field as Editor at TechRadar -- came on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss the fatal shooting of Loletha Hall ... who was gunned down late last month in Ohio after 81-year-old William Brock mistook her for someone trying to secure a ransom out of him.

Lance tells us this is an extreme case of these types of stories -- which he says happen all the time, but usually don't rise to this level of violence and tragedy.

Unfortunately, here it did, and he says it's a cautionary tale on the dangers of these bad actors.

Will.i.am is set to be a proud graduate of Harvard Business School -- an education, he says, his years of boom boom powing the music industry could have never taught him -- and he's ready to school people on the pros of AI!!!

TMZ Hip Hop recently caught up with Will in NYC, where he praised Harvard's Owner/President Management program for its influence on his FYI app.

Will sounded like he's reading a computer syntax error at times -- dropping acronyms like NLP, NLU and OPM -- but it was clear he's excited to help create a world boosted by AI ... and he's urging the general public not to fear the innovation.

Will points out the invention of the calculator didn't disrupt human advancement, and notes today's buildings are made by AI programs ... it's all about making life easier.

6:07 PM PT -- A rep for Jeff Beacher tells TMZ ... he was not driving during the accident, he had been dropped off at the gym and was checking to see if everyone was safe. His assistant was driving his car.

The most L.A. car crash you could imagine went down in La La Land this week -- with three electric vehicles touching tips on the road ... and yes, they're all Elon's creations.

Check out these pics taken from a crash scene in Bev Hills Wednesday -- where a 3-way Tesla pile-up occurred at the intersection of Rexford Drive and Beverly Drive, and it looks like there were a few different models in the mix, not to mention varying degrees of damage.

A job offer letter signed by none other than Steve Jobs is up for grabs ... and could be yours if you've got close to $100K burning a hole in your pocket.

Momentsintime.com is offering a January 1986 letter addressed to Caroline Rose, offering her a gig at Jobs' tech company NeXT, which was acquired by Apple a decade later -- and for $95,000, you could own a slice of Silicon Valley history.

The letter not only offers Rose a starting salary of $50,000 .... but also informs her, "If you’re as good as you tell us you are (and we expect), your salary will increase."

Gene Simmons ain't lumping himself in with other musicians threatened by the emerging use of AI in the biz -- in fact, he's leaning into it, and is ready to live on as a hologram in music.

The KISS singer spoke to us on "TMZ Live" Thursday about the band's upcoming digital avatar residency ... saying he and his bandmates are ready to rock out as digital pixels for years to come, because if they don't they'll just become yesterday's news.

Gene tells us despite his band never touring as KISS in the flesh again, things for them are only just beginning -- this after selling their entire music catalog, name, and likeness to Pophouse Entertainment for about $300 million.

Gene Simmons no se siente amenazado por el uso emergente de la IA en el negocio, de hecho, se está inclinando hacia ella y está listo para vivir como un holograma músical.

El cantante de KISS habló con nosotros en "TMZ Live" el jueves sobre la próxima residencia avatar digital de la banda, diciendo que él y sus compañeros de banda están dispuestos a rockear como píxeles digitales en los próximos años, porque si no lo hacen solo se convertirán en noticias de ayer.

Gene nos dice que a pesar de que su banda nunca volverá a girar como KISS en carne y hueso, las cosas para ellos no han hecho más que empezar, esto después de vender todo su catálogo de música, nombre y semejanza a Pophouse Entertainment por unos 300 millones de dólares.

Automated tattoo machines are just a passing fad and won't ever replace human-to-human interaction in the ink game -- that's how a couple flesh-and-blood masters of the craft see it.

We spoke with "Ink Master" winner Bobby Johnson and fellow contestant Aaron Davis -- who both appeared in Season 15 together -- about the recent robot-human tattoo collab that took the internet by storm, and both guys slammed the entire concept.

Right off the bat, Bobby calls the tech tattoo trend ridiculous ... likening it to a factory production line of food, and calling it out for lacking heart and passion.

Robots are taking more jobs traditionally performed by humans ... and artists better watch their backs too ... 'cause machines can ink about as well as flesh-and-blood tattoo artists.

Dillon Forte -- a Texas-based tattoo artist with some serious celebrity clients -- worked on a new tat alongside Blackdot ... a tech startup that created the world's first automated tattoo machine.

You gotta watch this robot at work ... the client gets their arm strapped down to a table while a giant machine goes to work on the limb, using fast-working mechanisms to tattoo.

Los robots están ocupando cada vez más puestos de trabajo tradicionalmente desempeñados por humanos... y más vale que los artistas también se cuiden las espaldas, porque las máquinas pueden tatuar tan bien como los artistas de carne y hueso.

Dillon Forte, un tatuador de Texas con clientes famosos, ha trabajado en un nuevo tatuaje junto a Blackdot, una empresa tecnológica que ha creado la primera máquina de tatuar automática del mundo.

Tienes que ver al robot en acción... el cliente tiene su brazo atado a una mesa mientras la máquina gigante va trabajando en la extremidad, utilizando mecanismos muy rápido.

Forte y Blackdot asumieron cada uno una parte distinta en el proyecto conjunto, cortando la responsabilidad directamente por la mitad, 50-50, y haciendo un diseño inspirado en la NASA y el libro de ciencia ficción "La Guía del Autoestopista Galáctico".

Échale un vistazo a las fotos, hay una serie de símbolos y referencias espaciales, además de muchas imágenes que aparecen en el Voyager de la NASA Golden Record enviado en 1977 para darle cierto realismo al trabajo. Es muy difícil distinguir la parte entintada por Forte de la de Blackdot.

Nos dicen que Blackdot ha tatuado la parte media, mientras que Forte hizo los contornos... añadiendo su propio toque personal en la parte superior e inferior. La diferencia es muy pequeña, y definitivamente te hace pensar en el futuro de los artistas del tatuaje.

Forte es un nombre bastante grande en el mundo del tatuaje, y que ha entintado a grandes celebridades como Usher, Kat Von D, y Chris Hemsworth, aunque nos atreveríamos a decir que esto podría haber sido su experiencia más extraña hasta la fecha.

Elon Musk finalmente ha decidido mostrar lo que Neuralink ha estado haciendo. Resulta que han mostrado al primer sujeto utilizando su tecnología... y es increíble.

El jefe de Tesla -que también dirige Neuralink- publicó un video de cerca de 9 minutos mostrando por primera vez a alguien usando su tecnología. Hablamos del testimonio de un tipo llamado Noland Arbaugh, un tetrapléjico de 29 años de edad que pasó por el quirófano para poder usar Neuralink.

Dice que tuvo un extraño accidente de buceo hace unos 8 años que lo dejó paralizado de los hombros para abajo, y tras enterarse de lo que Neuralink podía hacer, se inscribió.

El video muestra cómo funciona exactamente esta tecnología, y efectivamente, se puede ver a Noland utilizando su mente para mover el cursor de un ordenador portátil que tiene delante en el que está jugando al ajedrez. Se ve bastante fluido, ¡y lo tiene dominado!

Noland es capaz de mover las piezas de ajedrez en la pantalla e incluso bajar el volumen de la música, todo con solo pensarlo. Se complica un poco al describir cómo lo hace exactamente, diciendo que está implementando algo llamado "movimiento imaginado", y utilizando el "poder de la mente".

Como hemos dicho, parece tenerlo todo bajo control, y es aún más sorprendente lo bien que se encuentra luego de la cirugía. Otro tema que toca en el video.

Noland respalda a Neuralink y reconoce que todavía hay mucho trabajo que hacer para perfeccionarlo, pero asegura que el progreso que han hecho hasta ahora es prometedor. Afirma que el número de personas a las que podría ayudar es asombroso, y se alegra de ser el paciente número 1.

Es bastante sorprendente, y puedes imaginar que habrá muchos que querrán prestarse como conejillos de indias, sobre todo viendo lo bien que ha resultado hasta ahora.

Elon Musk has finally pulled back the curtain on what Neuralink has been doing behind the scenes -- showing off their very first subject using their tech ... and it's incredible.

The Tesla chief -- who also heads Neuralink -- posted a link from his company that featured about 9 minutes of video from Neuralink ... and it's a full-blown testimonial from a guy named Noland Arbaugh -- a 29-year-old quadriplegic who went under the knife for this.

He says he was in a freak diving accident about 8 years ago, and it left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. After hearing about what Neuralink could do, however, he signed up.

The clip goes on to show how exactly the technology works -- and sure enough ... you can see Noland using his mind to move a mouse around on a laptop that's set up in front of him ... on which the guy's playing chess. It looks pretty seamless, and he's got it down pat!

Noland is able to move chess pieces on the screen and even turn down music -- all by simply thinking about where he wants the mouse to go. He gets into the weeds a bit in describing how exactly he does it ... saying he's implementing something called imagined movement, trying to pivot away from attempted movement with a whole lot of brain power.

Like we said ... he certainly seems to have a knack for it now -- and even more amazing is how well he appears to be doing post-surgery, something else he touches on in this video.

Noland gives a ringing endorsement for Neuralink -- acknowledging there's still much work to do to perfect it ... but saying the progress they've made so far is promising. He says the number of people this could potentially help is staggering ... and he's happy to be patient #1.

It's pretty powerful visuals ... and you gotta imagine more folks are gonna put their names down to be guinea pigs for this effort -- especially seeing how well it's gone thus far.

Don Lemon's not letting up on Elon Musk one bit ... hitting his new nemesis repeatedly in an explosive interview -- and making some pretty big insinuations.

The talk show host sat down with People in an interview published Sunday to promote his upcoming talk with Musk -- scheduled for release Monday -- and said he thinks Elon was put in a very unfamiliar position.

Among his comments, Lemon said this, "He's not used to being held to account. He's not used to having to answer to anyone, especially someone like me who doesn't share his worldview, who doesn't look like him. You know what I'm saying?"

Reading between the lines a bit here ... it seems Don's saying Elon's not used to answering to Black people -- instead usually dealing with white people who think the same as him -- a pretty huge implication if we're being honest.

And, it sorta falls in line with one of the questions Don asked Elon during their talk. He shared a clip while promoting the upcoming interview on "The View" where he asked Musk if he thought minority pilots were less qualified than their white male counterparts.

Lemon went after Elon a couple more times in the new interview ... he also called Musk naive if he thought questions about diversity wouldn't come up, and Don claimed he really believes in free speech -- while saying EM doesn't.

DL says Elon and his team wanted to see the interview before it aired BTW ... a request Don says he straight-up denied.

The name-calling's gone on for a few days now ... late Friday night, Elon compared Don to spoiled child Veruca Salt from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" -- best known for repeatedly whining to her dad in the '71 flick.

Kate Middleton's Mother's Day photo appears to be littered with Photoshop edits -- and upon closer inspection ... we think we've pinpointed all the major ones, and they're noticeable.

The Princess of Wales has already copped to altering the picture seen round-the-world -- but neither she nor Kensington Palace have clarified what exactly was doctored and how. According to Sky News ... metadata for the original photo -- which they seem to have obtained -- shows the picture was taken at their Adelaide Cottage home in Windsor.

They also report that the metadata shows it was taken with a DSLR camera ... and more importantly, it was apparently saved twice in Photoshop on an Apple MacBook -- once on Friday night and again on Saturday morning before it was released to the public by the Palace.

Remember, when it first went up on social media -- Prince William was credited as the photog -- and they said this snap was taken last week sometime ahead of Mother's Day.

Now, though, in light of the photo being reported to be manipulated -- and Kate falling on the sword as the one to blame -- everyone is picking this photo apart and analyzing it to see exactly how it may have been tweaked ... and we actually have some ideas of our own.

Take a look at what graphic designers in our own building say are apparent Photoshop edits ... or more accurately, Photoshop fails. The big red flag everyone has been pointing out is Princess Charlotte's hand overlapping with Kate's left hand ... where you see a blur.

Our own experts say this seems to be a bad use of the stamp tool in Photoshop ... that, or a possible flub in duplicating layers of two different images and not lining them up correctly.

In terms of Kate missing her wedding ring -- we know magazines are notorious for editing stuff like that, including copying/pasting body parts ... and our team here says that may well have been what happened with Kate's hand here. Basically, that whole section looks edited.

There's also the issue of Prince Louie's sweater pattern not lining up -- something our team noticed -- and Kate's jacket zipper seemingly disappearing and reappearing in the shot.

Even Kate and Charlotte's awkwardly overlapping appears to be a Photoshop mistake ... that's our own team's take anyway. It's just a handful of apparent mistakes we honed in on -- but there are certainly more others have picked up on ... and the conspiracies are flying.

Some are suggesting that Kate's face here is actually cropped from a Vogue cover -- but according to our graphic designers ... that doesn't seem likely since the lighting is all off.

The Palace isn't explaining itself here ... at least not fully. We've reached out to them for further explanation on what exactly was changed here -- but haven't heard back yet.

There's more intrigue ... with a new photo of Kate riding with Prince William as they drove to a private appointment -- and here, too, she's heavily obscured ... shying away from cameras.

It's the latest shot paps have gotten of her outside of Windsor ... but it's hard to really see her.

At this point ... people are calling for Kate to just come out and address the public -- because anything short of that won't appease everyone's curiosity or suspicions. With the fake photo being put out ... it's quite clear that Kensington Palace was okay with trying to pull a fast one -- or at the very least, wanted to make her seem like she's doing better than she is.

One last thing ... a lot of people have suggested AI is afoot in this Mother's Day pic -- but we talked to AI expert Paul Dawes -- CEO of More.Ai -- and he tells TMZ ... this photo appears to be more Photoshopped than AI-generated ... although it's possible it could be.

Dawes says an AI tool may have been used to edit real photos -- but this image does appear to be thrown together with actual photographs of real people ... that's his take.

Ditto for AI expert Mike Gioia of Pickaxe, who says this picture is likely more Photoshopped than tinkered with AI. He tells us the teeth, hands and eyes all seem fairly normal (or human) ... and he would know, as those are telltale signs of whether AI created it, or if it's the real McCoy. In this case, he says he thinks these features look more authentic than not.

Gioia does say this might've been created with the help of something in Photoshop these days called Generative Fill ... which uses AI to pop in generic images. It's just hard to tell.

Bottom line ... this is a bad Photoshop job -- but the question remains ... WHY??? Kensington Palace has been tight-lipped ... and they're letting Kate herself take the heat.