Salesforce has launched AI Cloud, adding generative AI across all its sales, service, marketing, commerce and IT tools. The AI Cloud suite for enterprise is built around Einstein, which Salesforce says is the first AI for CRM, and its new Einstein GPT Trust Layer, designed to deter large-language models from retaining sensitive customer data. “This separation of sensitive data from the LLM will help customers maintain data governance controls while still leveraging the immense potential of generative AI,” Salesforce says. The AI Cloud platform integrates Salesforce tools including Data Cloud, Flow, MuleSoft and Tableau and works with third party apps. Read more

A bill passed by the Louisiana State Legislature that bans minors from creating social media accounts without parental consent is the latest in a string of legal measures that take aim at the online world to combat a perceived mental health crisis among America’s youth. Utah also recently passed a law requiring consent of a parent or guardian when anyone under 18 wants to create a social account. And California now mandates some sites default to the highest privacy for minor accounts. The Louisiana legislation stands out as extremely restrictive, encompassing multiplayer games and video-sharing apps. Read more

Open-world action role-playing game “Diablo IV” has become the biggest out-of-the-gate seller in Blizzard Entertainment history, generating $666 million in global sales within the first five days of its June 6 launch. The game developer equated the record to box-office movie performance, crediting “Diablo IV” for the company’s “biggest opening week of the year.” The online game, which accommodates single or multi-players, combines a gothic atmosphere with monster-slaying. The heroes of Sanctuary, the world in which “Diablo” is set, have already played more than 276 million hours, or more than 30,000 years. Read more

A group of independent ad-supported streaming companies have joined forces to leverage collective reach, launching the Independent Streaming Alliance. Founding members include Allen Media Group, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cineverse, Scripps and Vevo. The members — representing smaller or niche platforms — plan to pursue a combined approach to measurement (working with iSpot.tv) as well as promotion, distribution and demand. On launch, the group claims to represent “over 2,200 independent streaming touchpoints” generating “more than half a billion hours” of monthly global consumer viewing time. Read more

Google-backed AI startup Runway has released Gen-2, an early entry among commercially available text-to-video models. Previously waitlisted in limited release, the commercial availability is impactful, since text-to-video is predicted as the next big bump in artificial intelligence, following the explosion of AI use generating text and images. While Runway’s solution may not be ready to serve as a professional video tool, this is the next step in development of tech expected to impact media and entertainment. Filmmaker Joe Russo recently predicted that within the next two years, AI may have the ability to create feature films. Read more