The Walt Disney Company has struck a “landmark” three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI in which the studio will become the first major content partner for the Sora AI video generator. The deal will make more than 200 characters available from the Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars vaults. The companies announced that fan-inspired social videos are expected by early 2026, some of which will stream on Disney+. The Hollywood giant will also become an OpenAI customer, “using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.” In addition, Disney is planning a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI. Continue reading Disney Strikes Licensing Deal with OpenAI, Invests $1 Billion

Amazon’s Trainium3 accelerator chip — the company’s first AI silicon built on 3nm technology — is now in general release. It comes to market with the Trainium3 UltraServer, a high-density integrated system purpose-built for large-scale GenAI model training. Trn3 UltraServers can scale to 144 Trainium3 chips, delivering up to 362 FP8 PFLOPs. The Trn3 chips are viewed as challengers to Nvidia’s AI GPUs and Google’s Tensor TPUs. But Amazon also announced it will provide enterprises with turnkey AWS AI Factories that utilize key Nvidia components and support its AI chips, allowing customers to choose or combine brands. Continue reading Amazon Rolls Out New AI Chips, UltraServers and AI Factories

AI agents that can work for days on end without human direction and new Nova 2 models were the big announcements on day two of AWS re:Invent, where Amazon also introduced Nova Forge, a service that lets companies build their own models. The autonomous agents include Kiro for software development, the AWS Security Agent to protect against cyber threats and the AWS DevOps Agent, which monitors and improves the performance of applications across AWS, multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Amazon explains they are part of a new class of “frontier agents” that are autonomous, can operate for hours or days without requiring intervention, and are scalable. Continue reading AWS Frontier Agents Can Work for Days Without Human Help

Runway Gen-4.5 is rolling out, and the text-to-video model grabbed the No. 1 spot on the Video Arena leaderboard for generative models that don’t simultaneously output sound, beating the non-audio versions of Google’s Veo 3 and OpenAI’s Sora 2 Pro. Offering what Runway AI calls “unprecedented visual fidelity” across cinematic and “highly realistic” outputs, it is also built for creative freedom, providing “precise control over every aspect of generation.” The new model is good at understanding physics, cause and effect through casual reasoning, camera movements and human emotion, claims the New York-based startup. Continue reading Runway Gen-4.5 Video Debuts at No. 1 on Video Arena Chart

Google has added four new features in Flow, its AI tool for storytelling, that offer more precise control over images and videos. The upgrades include generative imaging with Nano Banana Pro, doodle prompts, an object insertion/removal tool and camera motion. Flow was introduced in May and offers the ability to edit and build scenes using natural language. The improvements aim to make Flow output more polished. “In Flow, you can use images to serve as the characters, subjects and starting points for your clips” with pictures you upload or create in Flow with the new “Images” tab, according to the company. Continue reading Google Adds New Features to Its Flow GenAI Storytelling Tool

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the Department of Commerce, announced new guidelines before the holiday weekend meant to clarify when inventions that are developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence can be legally patented. The agency defines generative AI systems to be “analogous to laboratory equipment, computer software, research databases, or any other tool that assists in the inventive process,” explained USPTO Director John Squires. According to the updated guidelines, AI systems “may provide services and generate ideas, but they remain tools used by the human inventor who conceived the claimed invention.” Continue reading Patent Office Updates Guidelines for Inventions Created by AI

TikTok is testing a new tool that aims to help users determine how much AI-generated content they see in their For You feeds. The ByteDance-owned company becomes the first of the giant social media platforms to try putting that control in user hands amidst growing animosity toward “AI slop.” Pinterest added a GenAI user filter in October, while Spotify and Jack Dorsey’s Vine relaunch diVine have implemented system-level filters. TikTok’s AI controls fall within its Manage Topics tool. The platform is also adding more advanced AI labeling technology. Continue reading TikTok Testing User-Controlled Feed Filter for GenAI Content

Amazon Prime is providing viewers with Video Recaps, AI-powered highlight rewinds to bring them quickly up to date on seasonal episodes they may have missed for their favorite shows. Amazon is touting the new feature as a “first-of-its-kind application of generative AI,” thought it does follow the X-Ray Recaps — spoiler free text summaries Amazon AI began providing last year. Prime Video Recaps are now available in beta for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S. It is likely Amazon will eventually extend the Recaps to premium licensed shows, too, if it can work out rights issues. Continue reading Amazon Prime Introduces GenAI ‘Video Recaps’ for TV Series

Warner Music Group has settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio and will collaborate on development of the startup’s licensed AI music creation service, set to launch in 2026. “Through this collaboration, Udio will develop a next-generation music creation, listening, and discovery platform powered by generative AI models trained on licensed and authorized music,” WMG announced, noting the deal — which includes recorded music and publishing — “creates new revenue streams for artists and songwriters, while ensuring their work remains protected.” The agreement caps a week in which the major labels also pacted with AI streaming startup Klay. Continue reading WMG Resolves Litigation with Udio in a Big Week for AI Music

Tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, is reviving Vine in an AI-free iteration that welcomes back 100,000 archived clips while barring generative AI content. The new app, diVine, maintains the concept of six-second continually looped videos, letting past users reclaim their old accounts while inviting new members — though there’s already a waitlist. In order to manage “AI slop,” diVine will identify suspected generative AI videos and prevent them from being uploaded. The refreshed app will draw on the decentralized elements Dorsey deployed in his other social media platform, Bluesky, including customizable content moderation controls and choice of feed algorithms. Continue reading Dorsey’s Vine Relaunch, diVine, Embraces Nostalgia, Shuns AI

AI audio firm ElevenLabs has secured deals with actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine, who will use the company’s tech to generate AI versions of their iconic voices. The announcements, made at the inaugural ElevenLabs Summit, came as the company revealed plans to aggregate AI availability of more than 25 famous voices — including Maya Angelou, Alan Turing and Liza Minnelli — in its new Iconic Marketplace, a platform focused on “ethical sourcing and licensing of some of the world’s most recognizable voices.” ElevenLabs said McConaughey is signing on as an investor in the company. Continue reading ElevenLabs Adds Well-Known Voices to Its Iconic Marketplace

Samsung has begun rolling out conversational AI in several languages for its 2025 TVs using Vision AI Companion, a generative AI-based version of the company’s smartphone virtual assistant Bixby. The move, announced in September, lets viewers ask questions about what’s onscreen — or any topic — and receive customized recommendations or help managing tasks using natural two-way dialogue. Samsung describes the experience as interactive viewing that brings a visual element to query sessions and says it turns the TV into a connected community hub for the household powered by models from Perplexity and Microsoft. Continue reading Samsung Debuts Conversational Vision AI Companion on TVs

Sony AI has introduced the Fair Human-Centric Image Benchmark (FHIBE, pronounced “Fee-bee”), a new global benchmark for fairness evaluation in computer vision models. FHIBE addresses the industry challenge of identifying biased and ethically compromised training data for AI, aiming to trigger “industry-wide improvements for responsible and ethical protocols throughout the entire life span of data — from sourcing and management to utilization — including fair compensation for participants and clear consent mechanisms,” Sony AI says. The FHIBE dataset is publicly available now, following publication in the science journal Nature. Continue reading Sony Debuts Benchmark for Measuring Computer Vision Bias

Amazon’s generative AI voice assistant Alexa+ is coming to the Amazon Music mobile app for iOS and Android for customers across all subscription tiers in Alexa+ Early Access. Alexa+ was announced in February at Amazon’s Devices & Services event, and began rolling out in early access in the spring. It is reported to now have more than a million users. Customers were able to get early access by registering for it on the Amazon website or purchasing a compatible product. Adding generative AI to Amazon Music is seen as a competitive move following Spotify’s October integration with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Continue reading Alexa+ for iOS and Android Now Available for Amazon Music

Canva has retooled the pricing of its Affinity image-editing and publishing apps to better compete with Adobe. The company announced a new offering that bundles Affinity’s Photo, Publisher and Designer apps into a software package called “Affinity by Canva” that is free for users with a Canva account but requires a paid subscription to access generative AI features. Canva’s paid subscription plans start at $120 a year for individuals. Previously, Affinity software was available by perpetual license, a pricing option that Canva — which purchased Affinity late last year — is retiring. Canva also had to reconcile its acquisition’s anti-AI stance, something it seems to have accomplished. Continue reading Affinity by Canva Is a Free Photo, Design and Layout Bundle