Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, said it is investing $2 million in the Sundance Institute to train more than 100,000 artists in foundational AI skills, arriving as creators and technologists push for clearer, enforceable rules governing how artificial intelligence is trained and used across the entertainment industry.
Source: Google Funds AI Training for Artists as Hollywood Debates the Tech’s Role – Decrypt
Global news media revenue was steady overall in 2025 according to a new estimate published by WAN-IFRA, with ‘other’ revenues growing. The report stated: “Considering the continuing structural decline of traditional revenue sources on the print side, it is clear that news publishers are innovating and investing on the digital side of the business, and increasingly in diversification.”
Source: Global news industry revenue level in 2025 as publishers diversify beyond print
A song that topped Spotify‘s Swedish charts has been banned from the country’s official rankings after an investigation revealed that it was created using artificial intelligence by a Danish music publisher. Jag vet, du är inte min by an artist called Jacub reached No. 1 on Spotify‘s Swedish Top 50 before music industry body IFPI blocked it from Sverigetopplistan. It also landed at No. 14 on Spotify’s Top 50 chart in Norway.
Major book publishers Hachette Book Group and Cengage Group filed a motion Thursday to intervene in an existing class action lawsuit filed last year against Google, accusing the tech giant of orchestrating “historic copyright infringement” to build its Gemini platform. The complaint alleges Google “chose to steal a massive body of content from Plaintiffs and the Class to train its AI model” rather than obtain proper licenses, engaging in deliberate infringement “at every stage” of development.
Source: Book Publishers Seek Entry Into Google AI Copyright Fight – Decrypt
Cloudflare is acquiring artificial intelligence data marketplace Human Native, the company said Thursday, as it expands its push to develop transactions between AI developers and content creators. “Content creators deserve full control over their work, whether they want to write for humans or optimize for AI,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in a release announcing the news.
Source: Cloudflare acquires AI data marketplace Human Native
As part of its 25th birthday celebration, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a series of new partnerships with AI tech companies that are now customers of its commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. Developed by the foundation, Wikimedia Enterprise allows large-scale reuse and distribution of Wikipedia content, as well as content from other Wikimedia projects.
There are many more buyers in the marketplace today and they bring a wide range of approaches. Some are highly disciplined, while others are focused on acquiring deals to build portfolios of assets that are not correlated to the financial markets. Some buyers concentrate on legacy-only catalogs, others target newer songwriter catalogs with go-forward songwriting arrangements attached.
Generative AI start-up Udio has formed a licensing agreement with Merlin, a popular digital licensing provider for thousands of independent labels and distributors. The announcement — which arrives a few months after Udio signed similar licenses with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — will now allow independent labels, distributors and artists to earn money by allowing their recordings to be used in AI training.
Source: Udio Strikes AI Licensing Deal With Merlin for Independent Labels
A leading Google public affairs executive has admitted that the tech giant does not believe it should have to pay to use unpaywalled content for AI training. Roxanne Carter told the Lords Communications and Digital Committee on Tuesday that Google wants to create “wholly new content” and not replicate publishers’ work. “What the AI model is trying to do is analyse huge amounts of data to identify patterns and statistical relationships between words, language concepts. It is not an information retrieval system.”
Source: Google IP boss: We shouldn’t pay for AI training on ‘freely available’ content
News publishers have urged the government to fundamentally reconsider the proposed “hybrid” copyright licensing framework for artificial intelligence (AI) training, recommending that news content be categorically excluded from any mandatory or blanket licensing regime. Publishers argue that journalism warrants a distinct policy treatment given its constitutional role, time-sensitive value, and implications for national security and democratic governance.
Source: Publishers urge govt to exempt news from AI copyright regime, back voluntary licensing