In an effort to create a safer environment for teens, social platform Snapchat is providing educators with resources to familiarize them with the app and help them understand how students use it. The company has launched a website called “An Educator’s Guide to Snapchat.” The announcement, timed to the start of the new school year, comes as lawmakers have been pressuring social networks to do more to protect children, with Florida and Indiana going so far as to enact school cell phone bans. Legislators in California and New York have been exploring similar prohibitions. Continue reading Snapchat Puts Focus on Teen Safety Resources for Teachers

New York-based speech synthesis software startup ElevenLabs has launched its latest AI development — Voice Isolator and an API to go with it. Voice Isolator is designed to extract background noise, leaving clear dialogue for film, podcast, and interview post-production. The Voice Isolator API lets developers integrate the new product into third-party applications. To use the technology, content is uploaded and processed by the Voice Isolator model, resulting in what the company claims is speech comparable in quality to that obtained in a recording studio. The app is described as “free, with some limitations.” Continue reading ElevenLabs Voice Isolator Audio Post Tool Released with API

Generative video creation and editing platform Captions has raised $60 million in Series C funding. Founded in 2021 by former Microsoft engineer Gaurav Misra and Goldman Sachs alum Dwight Churchill, the company’s technologies — Lipdub, AI Edit and the 3D avatar app AI Creator — have amassed more than 10 million downloads for mobile, the firm says. The C round brings its total raise to $100 million for a stated market valuation of $500 million. With the new funding, Captions plans to expand its presence in New York City, which is “emerging as the epicenter for AI research,” according to Misra. Continue reading Captions: Generative Video Startup Raises $60 Million in NYC

New York-based AI startup Runway has made its latest frontier model — which creates realistic AI videos from text, image or video prompts — generally available to users willing to upgrade to a paid plan starting at $12 per month for each editor. Introduced several weeks go, Gen-3 Alpha reportedly offers significant improvements over Gen-1 and Gen-2 in areas such as speed, motion, fidelity and consistency. Runway explains it worked with a “team of research scientists, engineers and artists” to develop the upgrades but did not specify where it collected its training data. As the AI video field ramps up, current rivals include Stability AI, OpenAI, Pika and Luma Labs. Continue reading Runway Making Gen-3 Alpha AI Video Model Available to All

United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has renewed his push for Congress to enact social media warning label advising of potential mental health damage to adolescents. Murthy also called on tech companies to be more transparent with internal data on the impact of their products on American youth, requesting independent safety audits and restrictions on features that may be addictive, including autoplay, push notifications and infinite scroll, which he suggests “prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.” His federal campaign joins a groundswell of local laws restricting minors’ access to social media. Continue reading U.S. Surgeon General Calls for Social Media Warning Labels

The New York legislature passed a bill prohibiting social media companies from providing children with so-called “addictive feeds” without parental consent. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act specifies addictive feeds as those that prioritize exposure to content (using a recommendation engine, or other means) based on information collected about the user or device. “Non-addictive feeds,” in which the algorithm serves content in chronological order, are still permitted under the bill, which New York Governor Kathy Hochul has vowed to sign into law. Continue reading New York Lawmakers Aim to Make Social Feeds Safe for Kids

Micron Technology has been selected to receive up to $6.14 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding from the federal government. The Boise, Idaho-based tech firm says it will use the funds to construct four new fabrication plants — two in its hometown and two in New York State. Micron has committed an investment of up to $125 billion across both states over the next two decades as it endeavors to build a leading-edge memory manufacturing ecosystem. President Biden announced the preliminary funding agreement during a trip to the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology in Syracuse, New York. Continue reading Micron Awarded CHIPS Funds for Fabs in Idaho and New York

NBCUniversal is hoping to kickstart NextGen TV by rolling out a more personalized, hyperlocal viewing experience using ATSC 3.0 in four owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami. The new service features extra video content and, for advertisers, hyper-targeted buy-in opportunities, dynamic ad-insertions and improved “real-time” audience measurement, the company said at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. NBCU says there are plans to expand NextGen outreach to additional NBC and Telemundo stations in the months ahead, and it will likely feature in NBC’s Paris Olympics summer telecast. Continue reading NBCUniversal Rolls Out NextGen ATSC 3.0 TV in Four Markets

Oregon has signed into law one of the strongest right to repair bills in the United States. With the new law, it will become the first state to ban “parts pairing,” which is when replacement parts are prevented from working unless the manufacturer’s software approves them. The pairing protections also forbid companies from limiting functionality for off-brand parts. Apple — which endorsed California’s right to repair law, passed in October — pushed back against the pairing provision. Only devices made after January 1, 2025, when the Oregon law goes into effect, are prevented from parts pairing. Continue reading Oregon’s Right to Repair Law Is the First to Ban Parts Pairing

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Sports Illustrated, has selected the London-based Minute Media to continue publishing the storied magazine in print and digital editions in a deal that runs for 10 years, with an option to extend for up to 20 more years. The Minute partnership will “usher in the future of the SI brand,” announced Authentic, whose portfolio includes fashion and sports, as well as IP rights to celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, who it is leveraging into a chatbot. Minute owns sports and culture resources including athlete-driven The Players’ Tribune, the FanSided network of websites and newsletters, and sports highlights platform STN Video. Continue reading Minute Media Secures a 10-Year Future for Sports Illustrated

Soul Machines debuted a synthetic Marilyn Monroe last week at SXSW. The New Zealand-based company teamed on the Digital Marilyn project with Authentic Brands Group, a New York management firm that represents a host of fashion labels as well as personalities such as Elvis Presley, David Beckham and Muhammad Ali. The result is a sophisticated chatbot that Soul Machines describes as an “interactive experience.” Drawing on biological AI, Soul Machines is packaging a “personalized engagement opportunity” for fans and brands, which could lead to new approaches in advertising and promotions. Continue reading Soul Machines Aims for Photorealistic Marilyn Monroe Chatbot

GlobalFoundries has been selected to receive the first major grant in the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act program to reinvigorate U.S. chip production. The $1.5 billion in grants will be used to construct and expand facilities in Vermont and New York. Additionally, the administration plans to make available $1.6 billion in federal loans. The grants are estimated to triple GlobalFoundries’ New York state production capacity within the next 10 years. Chipmakers including Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics and TSMC have submitted grant applications for government assistance in building new or updating existing facilities. Continue reading GlobalFoundries Receives $1.5 Billion in First U.S. CHIPS Grant

The Browser Company, which last year issued an iPhone web browser called Arc, has now released Arc Search, which combines artificial intelligence functionality. The five-year-old New York-based company is stressing speed and an absence of clutter for its new search experience, which it concedes is still in “the earliest stages.” The main Arc Search feature is the AI-powered “Browse for Me,” which compiles results from at least six different sources into a summarized presentation informed by models from OpenAI and others. Basically, Browse for Me builds a mini webpage instead of just returning links with abstracts. Continue reading Browser Company’s Arc Search Uses AI to Upgrade Browsing

The Federal Communications Commission has set its sights on Internet service providers, formalizing an understanding with state attorneys general to protect consumer data and police privacy abuses. Initially, the memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force includes the attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, but could expand. As per the MOU, the entities will “share close and common legal interests in working cooperatively to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute or otherwise take enforcement action” in relation to privacy, data protection and cybersecurity issues. Continue reading FCC Teams with States to Monitor ISPs on Consumer Privacy

Meta Platforms has been sued in federal court by 33 states including California and New York that claim its Instagram and Facebook platforms addict and harm children. The action is to date the most sweeping state action to contend with the impact of social media on the mental health of children. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Meta violates consumer protection laws by targeting children and deceiving users about platform safety. Also that day, the District of Columbia and eight states filed separate complaints addressing the same issues. Continue reading Dozens of States Sue Meta for Social Media Addiction in Kids