Stand back and take a look at the last two years of AI progress as a whole... AI is catching up with humans so quickly, in so many areas, that frankly, we need new tests.

Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) has released the seventh annual issue of its comprehensive AI Index report, written by an interdisciplinary team of academic and industrial experts.

This edition has more content than previous editions, reflecting the rapid evolution of AI and its growing significance in our everyday lives. It examines everything from which sectors use AI the most to which country is most nervous about losing jobs to AI. But one of the most salient takeaways from the report is AI’s performance when pitted against humans.

Microsoft researchers have revealed a new, experimental AI model, called VASA-1 (which stands for "visual affective skills”), that can mimic people's facial movements and expressions, releasing a clip–generated by the model–of the Mona Lisa rapping Lady Ga Ga’s song “Paparazzi” to demonstrate the model’s capabilities.

VASA-1 can take a still image or drawing of a person, pair it with a speech audio clip, and (almost) instantaneously generate video footage of their face, realistically mimicking their facial expressions and head motions, synchronizing their lips so it looks and sounds like they’re talking or singing.