Snapchat has introduced AI Video Lenses for those paying $16 per month for its Platinum tier. Powered by Snap’s custom-built generative video model, the initial three releases are a fox that perches on your shoulder, rambunctious racoons and a large bouquet of flowers with a zoom out effect. After selecting an AI Video Lens and applying it to a Snap, the AI video generates in the background, auto-saving save to Memories while users are free to continue messaging and Snapping on the app. The resulting video can be shared with friends or to Stories and Spotlight. Continue reading Snap Launches Generative AI Video Lenses for Platinum Subs

Feeling the pressure from the “open agent” movement and specifically Chinese startup Butterfly Effect and its new product Manus, OpenAI has expanded the capabilities of its own AI technology, launching new tools to help businesses and developers build their own agents. The company’s new Responses API has the functionality of two earlier tools, the Chat Completions API (facilitating ChatGPT queries and responses) and the Assistants API (for multi-step reasoning and file access). The company is also issuing an Agents SDK, a suite of tools for creating and deploying agents that bundles the Responses API. Continue reading OpenAI Ramps Up Its Agent Functions as Competition Surges

Meta Platforms has reportedly begun “a small deployment” of its first in-house chip designed for AI training. The accelerator chip is engineered around the open-standard RISC-V architecture. TSMC produced the working samples now being tested. The goal is to create purpose-specific chips that are more efficient than Nvidia’s general purpose GPUs, enjoying the cost-savings that would come with wide use and reducing reliance on outside chip suppliers in a tight market. If the tests go well, Meta plans to scale up production for expanded use by 2026. Details of the new chip’s specifications remain unknown at this time. Continue reading Meta Tests New AI Accelerator Chip Designed with Broadcom

Sony Corporation has launched the Sony Audio Institute at NYUs Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, focusing on innovation in the business and technology of music. Opening this spring, the Sony Audio Institute will serve as an interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together the expertise of Sony’s professional and consumer audio businesses and their leading-edge technologies with NYU students, facilities and faculty. The institute opens with NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program Director Larry Miller at the helm. Miller will focus on the new outfit’s operations full time beginning this fall. Continue reading $7.5M Funds NYU’s Sony Audio Institute, Opening This Spring

Amazon is experimenting with AI dubbing so Prime Video customers globally can experience content from other territories, gaining access more quickly and efficiently to licensed films and TV series. The company is using a hybrid “AI-aided” system in which localization professionals oversee the AI output to ensure quality control. Currently limited to a dozen movies and series that will be AI-dubbed in English and Latin American Spanish, the pilot will expand if the results prove popular with audiences. In December, Netflix experienced backlash against AI-assisted dubbing, with viewers complaining generative mouth adjustments looked unnatural. Continue reading Amazon Prime Video Tests AI Dubbing for Movies and Series

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles Apple’s iPhones, has built its own AI. Called FoxBrain, the company says the large language model was trained in just four weeks with help from Nvidia, using 120 of that company’s H100 chips. FoxBrain has reasoning and mathematical skills and can analyze data and generate code. Initially built for in-house use, Foxconn says it intends to open source the model and hopes it will become a collaborative tool for its partners and enable advancements in manufacturing techniques and supply-chain management. Continue reading Foxconn AI Trained in Four Weeks, Suggesting Industry Shift

Popular social media platform Pinterest is now labeling generative AI content. The app, which earned a reputation as fertile ground for design inspiration related to hand-crafted goods and human artistry, has recently been plagued by an onslaught of “AI slop,” something its regular users have been complaining of on Reddit and to Pinterest directly. The GenAI content was often used to redirect people to spammy sites, according to a recent report. Pinterest’s labeling news coincides with an earnings report of $1.15 billion in Q4 revenue, marking an 18 percent increase year-over-year. Continue reading Pinterest AI Labeling Policy Unveiled as Q4 Earnings Top $1B

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

Netflix revealed plans to boost its 2025 original programming expenditure to $18 billion, a more than 10 percent increase over 2024, which could place pressure on other streaming services. Additionally, the company notes that this spending plan does not represent its cap by any means. In the wake of this news, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos joined Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to unveil a plan to spend $1 billion producing content over the next four years south of the border. The company will also invest $2 million upgrading Mexico City’s Churubusco Studios, its new home base there. Continue reading Netflix Spending $18B on Originals, Commits $1B to Mexico

Butterfly Effect is the latest Chinese AI firm to get global attention, having drummed up interest in Manus, positioned as a “general agent” that can scour online resources to produce reports. Companies like OpenAI and Google are competing in this space, called deep research. Butterfly Effect says Manus has surpassed OpenAI Deep Research on the GAIA benchmark and the world is listening. The Manus Discord server swelled to more than 138,000 members in the past weeks, and “invite codes” to gain access at this “invitation-only” phase are allegedly going for thousands of dollars on Chinese sales app Xianyu. Continue reading Startup Claims AI Agent Manus Is an Autonomy Breakthrough

Rivalry between World Network, also known as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s “other company,” and Elon Musk’s X is heating up in an escalating race to be first out with an “everything app.” World Network is trying to accelerate adoption of a log-in system that relies on “ocular verification” — mapping the unique pattern of the iris — for “anonymous proof-of-human” validation. World already has a free app for iOS and Android, and recently launched a “mini app store” within it, including functions such as chat, transferring cryptocurrency and shopping for microloans. Continue reading Altman’s World Takes on Musk’s X in Race to Everything App

Google has added Gemini Embedding to its Gemini developer API. This new experimental model for text translates words, phrases and other text inputs into numerical representations, otherwise known as embeddings, which capture their semantic meaning. Embeddings are used in a wide range of applications including document retrieval and classification, potentially reducing costs and improving latency. Google is also testing an expansion of its AI Overviews search feature as part of a Gemini 2.0 update. Called AI Mode, it helps explain complex topics by generating search results that use advanced reasoning and thinking capabilities. Continue reading Google Updates AI Search and Intros Gemini Text Embedding

Alibaba is making AI news again, releasing another Qwen reasoning model, QwQ-32B, which was trained and scaled using reinforcement learning (RL). The Qwen team says it “has the potential to enhance model performance beyond conventional pretraining and post-training methods.” QwQ-32B, a 32 billion parameter model, “achieves performance comparable to DeepSeek-R1, which boasts 671 billion parameters (with 37 billion activated),” Alibaba claims. While parameters refer to the total set of adjustable weights and biases in the model’s neural network, “activated” parameters are a subset used for a specific inference task, like generating a response. Continue reading Alibaba Says Qwen Reasoning Model on Par with DeepSeek

Instagram is experimenting with a community chat feature that lets users gather in groups of up to 250. Meta’s photo- and video-sharing network is prototyping the feature internally, though external sources with knowledge of it are comparing it to Discord since it reportedly allows users to form chats around different topics and control who can join. While participation is said to be capped at 250 simultaneous users per community, all are invited to join and message. Instagram has had a flurry of new features, among them a video tool called Edits, and “profile cards” geared toward small businesses that want a more professional presence on the app. Continue reading Instagram Is Internally Testing Discord-Style Community Chat

Staircase Studios AI — the film, television and gaming studio launched by “Divergent” franchise producer Pouya Shahbazian — has announced its investors and shared plans to produce more than 30 projects at budgets under $500,000 over the next 3-4 years. The company will be using a proprietary AI workflow it invented called ForwardMotion that the company says will revolutionize film and television production. The company has acquired multiple pieces of IP, including more than 20 scripts that have appeared on the Black List, which tallies the most popular unproduced scripts. Continue reading Staircase Studios AI Plans 30 Projects Over Next 3 to 4 Years