Startup Battlefield 200
(October 27-29, TechCrunch, San Francisco CA)

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
(October 27-29, TechCrunch, San Francisco CA, $$)

2025 WTF Summit
(October 28-29, The Information, Yountville CA, $$)

Future of Measurement: Metrics to Brand Differentiation
(October 29, Adweek, Kantar, Webinar)

Collaborative Robots at Work
(October 30, WTWH Media, Webinar)

Brandweek 2025
(November 3-5, Adweek, Atlanta GA, $$)

AI in the Enterprise: Powered by Snapdragon
(November 5, Qualcomm, Webinar)

How to Get AI to Recommend and Cite Your Brand
(November 5, Adweek, Similarweb, Webinar)

Retail 2026: What Will Shape the Future of Shopping?
(November 5, Future B2B, Webinar)

Accelerate Investor Conference 2025
(November 5-6, Mason Enterprise, Arlington VA, $$)

DAM Sydney 2025
(November 6, HS Events, Australia, $$)

Winning the Retail Media Game
(November 6, Adweek, Instacart, Webinar)

KubeCon & CloudNativeCon North America 2025
(November 10-13, CNCF, Atlanta GA, $$)

Predictive Targeting That Drives Real Growth and Retention
(November 11, Adweek, Resonate, Webinar)

In less than three years, generative AI has evolved from an experimental toy to a regular presence in studio pitches, previs workflows, and even the festival circuit. Yet one challenge has stymied the full adoption of generative AI in long-form storytelling: establishing and maintaining control over outputs. This challenge also fuels many of the anxieties surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in media production. How can artists maintain their creative voice when a machine is doing all the artistic work, and often doing so with inconsistent results? The Entertainment Technology Center at USC set out to tackle these and related challenges with a new film project, “The Bends.” Continue reading Consistency Is Key: Lessons on Generative AI via ‘The Bends’

Sci-fi short “Europa,” written and directed by Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal, is the Entertainment Technology Center’s latest project to test the expanding possibilities of virtual production and remote collaboration. To call “Europa” a cloud-first production is to rethink filmmaking from the ground up. This wasn’t just a distributed team working online — it was an ecosystem where every workflow, from previs to final VFX, operated entirely in the cloud. It wasn’t a workaround; it was the foundation. And powering that foundation — every tool, every task, every decision — was AWS. Continue reading ‘Europa’: ETC Teams Up with AWS on Cloud-First Production

Unless there is breaking news over the next few days, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming 3-day holiday weekend. We wish you and your families an enjoyable and relaxing Labor Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading ETCentric Will Return Tuesday Following Labor Day Weekend

Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming national holiday. We wish you and your families a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend. Our team will return on Monday with the latest in entertainment technology news. Continue reading Happy Independence Day: ETCentric Will Return Next Week

Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming national holiday weekend. We wish you and your families a happy and safe Memorial Day. Our team will return on Tuesday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading ETCentric to Return After the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend

Cable giants Charter Communications and Cox Communications are merging in a $34.5 billion deal as the industry continues to contend with the impact of streaming services and related trends such as cord cutting. Charter and Cox are among the cable-based companies that have been focusing more on residential broadband businesses in recent years. The corporate name of the newly combined company will be Cox Communications, to be led by current Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey, while Charter’s Spectrum cable and broadband will serve as the consumer-facing brand. The merger will involve $21.9 billion of equity and $12.6 billion of debt. Continue reading Charter and Cox Merge in $34.5 Billion Cable, Broadband Deal

Google has quietly launched a film and television production initiative called “100 Zeroes” to fund projects (initially from respected indie studios) that are positive about tech and could help promote a positive take on Google’s own products and services. Google is teaming with talent management and production company Range Media Partners on the initiative. While product placement is expected to be one element (for example: a movie character uses an Android device rather than an iPhone), Google is reportedly more focused on a broader plan to promote a general positive view on technology, especially to younger demographics such as Gen Z. Continue reading Google Launches Initiative for Positive Film, TV Views on Tech

As part of a larger push to boost its global subscriptions, Google’s YouTube is pilot-testing a discounted two-person Premium plan with select users in France, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan. The tier’s pilot program, which allows users to share their YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium membership with another household member (13 years or older) without committing to a family plan, comes as the platform looks to diversity beyond its advertising business. YouTube is testing whether the plan, similar to the Duo offering from music streamer Spotify, would be appealing to couples or roommates looking to minimize costs while maintaining separate accounts. Continue reading YouTube Tests Two-Person Premium Tier to Help Grow Subs

Cisco Systems announced the development of a networking chip that uses quantum mechanics. The prototype entanglement source chip, which the company claims can generate up to one million entangled photon pairs per second (at room temperature), was created through the Outshift by Cisco incubator in partnership with UC Santa Barbara. While other companies are building quantum computers, Cisco is focusing on infrastructure, network and security frameworks. The company has also opened a new research facility in Santa Monica, California — Cisco Quantum Labs — dedicated to quantum networking tech. Continue reading Cisco Unveils a New Prototype Chip for Quantum Networking

During Nvidia’s GTC AI Conference in San Jose earlier this month, VP and GM of Media & Entertainment Richard Kerris presented the Nvidia Media2 initiative that builds on the company’s Blackwell GPU foundation to enable real-time AI solutions for all aspects of media production workflows. His talk showcased a broad range of generative AI breakthroughs in real-time ray tracing and VFX, video search and summarization, and musically-based sound effects (SFX). Kerris also shared insights on the media industry’s reception to AI thus far and humbly implored the audience to consider using such technology as an effective new tool for storytelling. Continue reading Nvidia Forges AI Initiative to Streamline Production Workflows

Just prior to the start of the weekend, Elon Musk announced that his artificial intelligence company xAI is acquiring his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) “in an all-stock transaction,” valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45 billion less $12 billion in debt). The merger has the potential to create a powerful GenAI-powered content platform. The billionaire purchased Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion, following months of legal skirmishes. According to Musk, X currently touts more than 600 million active users, while “xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale.” Continue reading Elon Musk Announces xAI Corporation Will Purchase X Social

CES 2025 welcomed over 141,000 attendees from around the globe to Las Vegas. With more than 4,500 exhibitors, including 1,400 startups, and more than 6,000 media attendees, CES highlights the innovation and technology trends addressing global challenges and shaping the future. This year’s show focused on artificial intelligence, unveiling a wave of innovative offerings — whether practical, visionary or experimental. Among the show’s major trends were AI integration across all industries, shifting demographics and purchasing patterns (with Gen Z the one to watch), sustainability and security, and smart devices and smarter homes. ETC@USC attended the conference for live reporting on products and services. Our post-show report features extensive coverage and perspectives related to key creative, business, and technology areas. Continue reading ETC’s CES 2025 Report: Focus on AI Innovation & Integration

Google announced last week that its Gemini AI chatbot now offers the ability to provide responses based on earlier conversations. It can also summarize a previous chat and recall information the user has shared in other threads. “Whether you’re asking a question about something you’ve already discussed, or asking Gemini to summarize a previous conversation, Gemini now uses information from relevant chats to craft a response,” according to Google. The new feature is rolling out via Google’s $20-per-month One AI Premium Plan to start and will be available to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise customers in the coming weeks. Continue reading Gemini Recalls Previous Chats to Provide Helpful Responses

Unless there is breaking news this weekend, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish on Monday. We wish you and your families a very happy and safe Presidents Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading Presidents Day: ETCentric to Return After the National Holiday