Meta Sees Double-Digit Growth for the First Time Since 2021

Meta Platforms had a successful Q2, reporting double-digit growth for the first time since Q4 2021. The performance was attributed to a rebound in the digital advertising sector. The good news comes with a warning, as the company says it plans to increase spending on virtual reality and artificial intelligence next year. The parent of Facebook and Instagram reported revenue of just under $32 billion for the period ending June 30, an 11 percent gain over 2022. Advertising contributed a whopping $31.5 billion, growing nearly 12 percent year-over-year. Continue reading Meta Sees Double-Digit Growth for the First Time Since 2021

Genesis: Google Demos New Generative AI Newswriting Tool

Google has been demonstrating a new AI tool that writes news articles. Currently known as Genesis, which is a working title, the app is reportedly able to take topical information as pertains to things like new products or current events and weave it into something approximating a logically developed news story. The Alphabet company’s new product has been quietly pitched to organizations including The Washington Post, The New York Times and News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. One observer described the new tech as a copilot for journalists, rather than a replacement. Continue reading Genesis: Google Demos New Generative AI Newswriting Tool

Netflix Shutters Cheapest Streaming Plan Without Advertising

Netflix is marshalling resources around its ad-supported Standard plan, pulling the plug on ad-free Basic in an effort to drive more eyeballs to the service’s sponsored tier. The $9.99 per month Basic plan is no longer available “for new or rejoining members” in the U.S. and UK and was dropped in Canada last month. Existing Basic subs can continue the plan until they decide to change tiers or cancel. Standard with Ads has since its November launch accrued more than 5 million subs, according to Netflix, which says 25 percent of new sign-ups have chosen that package. Continue reading Netflix Shutters Cheapest Streaming Plan Without Advertising

AP and OpenAI Join Forces for News-Sharing and Tech Deal

OpenAI has entered into a precedential agreement to license content from Associated Press for use training large language models. OpenAI is “licensing part of AP’s text archive,” presumably leaving the door open to negotiation for video and breaking news. For its part, AP intends to “leverage OpenAI’s technology and product expertise,” according to the outlet’s own article. Financial terms were not disclosed, nor details as to AP’s intended AI use cases. Although AP is in a class by itself as a member-owned cooperative, the agreement could bode well for print journalism, which has had challenges transitioning to the digital age. Continue reading AP and OpenAI Join Forces for News-Sharing and Tech Deal

Adobe Pursues Ethical, Responsible AI in the Creative Space

As a next step in its advances in ethical AI, Adobe has announced its Firefly generative AI platform now supports text prompts in more than 100 international languages. The company says its Firefly AI app has generated over one billion images in Firefly and Photoshop since implementation in March. Adobe has also deployed artificial intelligence in Express, Illustrator and the Creative Cloud. Positioning its latest news as an expansion of global proportions, Adobe’s generative AI products will now support text prompts in native dialects in the standalone Firefly web service, with localization coming to more than 20 additional languages. Continue reading Adobe Pursues Ethical, Responsible AI in the Creative Space

ByteDance Bows Ripple AI for Music Creation, Audio Editing

China’s ByteDance is testing an AI tool called Ripple. The free app for creating music and editing audio is being made available in closed beta in the U.S. with a small group of invited testers. Aimed at creators who want to up their sound game, Ripple is designed in the manner of a portable smart digital audio workstation (DAW). Ripple incorporates what TikTok’s parent company ByteDance calls a “virtual recording studio” that allows users to record and edit audio files on a mobile device, and the company plans to release additional mobile-friendly audio tools. Continue reading ByteDance Bows Ripple AI for Music Creation, Audio Editing

NBCUniversal to Introduce Dozens of FAST Channels in July

NBCUniversal has plumbed its vaults to fuel nearly 50 new FAST channels launching in July on Amazon Freevee and the new Xumo Play joint venture from NBCU parent Comcast and Charter Communications. The lineup, taken from NBCU’s Television and Streaming and Global Distribution libraries, includes verticals for “Saturday Night Live,” “Top Chef,” “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Real Housewives,” as well as Spanish-language programs from Telemundo. There are also nostalgia channels featuring “The Lone Ranger,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Murder, She Wrote,” and genre-based streams of comedy, criminality and monsters. Continue reading NBCUniversal to Introduce Dozens of FAST Channels in July

Canadian Law Requires That Tech Firms Pay for News Links

The Parliament of Canada passed a law requiring technology companies to pay news outlets when linking to their articles, a move that has Meta Platforms threatening to pull news content from Facebook and Instagram in that country. Canada’s Online News Act, which applies to domestic outlets, is the latest move in a global battle between publishers and Big Tech, and follows a similar law in Australia. “A strong, independent and free press is fundamental to our democracy,” a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration tweeted when the law cleared the vote last week. Continue reading Canadian Law Requires That Tech Firms Pay for News Links

Music Publishers Take On Twitter for Copyright Infringements

Twitter is being sued for more than $250 million in damages by a coalition of music publishers alleging copyright violations. More than a dozen plaintiffs — including Universal Music, EMI, Kobalt and Sony — are captioned on the complaint, which was coordinated by the National Music Publishers’ Association and filed last week in federal court in Tennessee listing Elon Musk’s X Corp. and Twitter as defendants. The complaint claims songwriters are owed compensation for music-backed videos posted to the platform. The litigation is the latest financial woe for Twitter, which Musk purchased for $44 billion last year. Continue reading Music Publishers Take On Twitter for Copyright Infringements

Meta’s MusicGen AI Works with Language and Song Prompts

Meta Platforms has debuted what’s being called “ChatGPT for audio.” MusicGen is an AI music generator that can create tunes from natural language or song snippets. The company says MusicGen was trained on 20,000 hours of music, including 10,000 hours of “high-quality” licensed songs and 390,000 instrumental tracks. Meta released MusicGen on GitHub this past weekend, and is currently demoing the app on Facebook’s Hugging Face page. Visitors can generate tunes by describing the sound they want. Among Meta’s prompts: “80s driving pop song with heavy drums and synth pads in the background.” Continue reading Meta’s MusicGen AI Works with Language and Song Prompts

Character.AI Lets Users Chat with Wide Variety of Characters

Character.AI is a new chatbot that generates facsimiles of conversations with famous personages or original creations. Napoleon Bonaparte, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande are among the  historical or contemporary characters the site recreates using a neural network. Anyone can use the free app to create a character, whether fictional or real, dead or alive, but a paid offering called c.ai+ provides perks including faster response times, priority access and early previews of new features. In addition to a website, the app launched on iOS and Android this month, triggering 700,000 Android installs within 48 hours. Continue reading Character.AI Lets Users Chat with Wide Variety of Characters

Netflix Plans for Future Growth Include a Focus on Advertising

Netflix, which turns 26 years old this year, is looking to advertising, live events and password sharing crackdowns to power its next growth phase. The company’s 232.5 million global subscriber base makes it the world’s No. 1 paid streaming platform, a position it wants to hold, and expand, as it shifts into an era of new management under co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. At a virtual presentation at Netflix’s first Upfront Wednesday, Sarandos admitted that “we have a long way to go to build scale in advertising,” but said the company intends to focus on improving that share. Continue reading Netflix Plans for Future Growth Include a Focus on Advertising

Music Industry and Copyright Office Advance Positions on AI

The Human Artistry Campaign launched at South by Southwest (SXSW) last week with a goal “to ensure artificial intelligence technologies are developed and used in ways that support human culture and artistry — and not ways that replace or erode it.” With support from over 40 industry organizations — including the Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — the coalition outlined principles advocating AI best practices, emphasizing “respect for artists, their work, and their personas; transparency; and adherence to existing law including copyright and intellectual property.” Continue reading Music Industry and Copyright Office Advance Positions on AI

Microsoft Creating AI Updates for Business Productivity Apps

Microsoft is giving its Office 365 productivity suite an AI update using OpenAI technology, including GPT-4, to power the new Microsoft 365 Copilot, “your copilot for work.” In February, Microsoft generated attention by adding ChatGPT to its Bing search platform, but it says Copilot is a much bigger deal. Combining the power of large language models with data in the Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot promises “more agency” via natural language, a “universal interface.” A new Business Chat feature turns prompts like “update my team on the new product strategy” into a summary of the latest meeting notes, emails and chat threads. Continue reading Microsoft Creating AI Updates for Business Productivity Apps

YouTube Launches Creator Music for Its Partner Participants

YouTube’s Creator Music marketplace is officially rolling out to U.S. Partner Program participants starting this week. Creator Music offers a sizable song catalog whose license and use terms are clearly spelled out. Some music is offered on a revenue-sharing basis, allowing creators and rights holders to earn from the end use. In announcing the service in September, YouTube pointed out its creators identified music rights as problematic. Due to the high cost associated with pop tunes, users often opted for unknown music. Creator Music aims to make licensing more recognizable music easy and affordable. Continue reading YouTube Launches Creator Music for Its Partner Participants