President Trump has stated he would extend the TikTok sale deadline yet again to avoid a ban of the platform in the US. It’s unclear if any negotiations with ByteDance will be successful—especially since there’s seemingly no pressure to get a deal done by any deadline. The deadline for Chinese company ByteDance to divest from the platform is now June 19 after being extended twice.
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Downtown Licenses Content to Audius Blockchain Platform
The deal encompasses both the recording and publishing side of Downtown’s business, and paves the way for millions of licensed recordings from Downtown’s extensive catalog to be added to Audius. It also unlocks a new way for Downtown’s artists and labels to directly connect with their fans and control how their music is monetized beyond the typical streaming model.
Source: Downtown Licenses Content to Audius Blockchain Platform
Merlin Officially Joins the Music Fights Fraud Alliance
Months after bringing on its first director of content integrity, Merlin has officially joined the Music Fights Fraud Alliance (MFFA). Established in 2023, Music Fights Fraud, in keeping with its name, bills itself as “a global task force aimed at eradicating streaming fraud.” And in pursuit of the objective, MFFA is said to collaborate with the 23-year-old National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) on “a shared database of identified fraud markers.”
Source: Merlin Officially Joins the Music Fights Fraud Alliance
SAG-AFTRA Chief Lays Out AI Protections It Will Be Looking For In Next Studio Contract
Artificial intelligence was a major factor in the actors strike of 2023 and the burgeoning technology will remain a key element in next year’s negotiations. Speaking on a Deadline-moderated panel at SeriesFest in Denver, Crabtree-Ireland, who is National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator at SAG-AFTRA, revealed that the guild would be “starting our preparations for negotiations this fall.” He said that he believes that AI will be an important factor in these talks.
Source: SAG-AFTRA Chief Lays Out What AI Protections It Will Be Looking For In Next Studio Contract
Anthropic CEO Admits We Have No Idea How AI Works
In an essay published to his personal website, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced plans to create a robust “MRI on AI” within the next decade. “When a generative AI system does something, like summarize a financial document, we have no idea, at a specific or precise level, why it makes the choices it does — why it chooses certain words over others, or why it occasionally makes a mistake despite usually being accurate,” the Anthropic CEO admitted.
Why do so many AI company logos look like buttholes?
Feedback examined the logos of OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, Claude and others, and we can confirm that, yes, they do bear more than a passing resemblance to a sphincter, and once you see it you can’t unsee it. DeepSeek and Midjourney are about the only exceptions: their logos look like a whale and a sailboat on the sea. But maybe they will soon get sucked into the circular logo maelstrom.
Source: Why do so many AI company logos look like buttholes?
Ministers reconsider changes to UK copyright law ahead of vote
Ministers are rethinking changes to copyright law before a vote in parliament next week, in a further concession to artists, the Guardian has learned. A source close to Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said proposals to introduce an opt-out system of copyright rules was no longer his preferred option but one of several being given consideration. Kyle said: “We’re listening to the consultation and we are absolutely determined to get this right. We’re not going back to square one. We are moving forward.”
Source: Ministers reconsider changes to UK copyright law ahead of vote
Movie Industry Shocked and Confused By Trump’s 100% Tariffs on Movies Plan
It was unclear how the levies, which were announced over the weekend on social media, would be enforced and which productions are most vulnerable to the tariffs. Yet, there are widespread concerns that if they are enacted, Trump’s latest moves have the potential to upend and potentially decimate a global film business that relies on a network of international incentives and foreign locations to make movies.
Content licensing for publishers: Five key questions answered
As publications fight for increasingly thin slices of advertising budgets and the subscription model for news sites slowly stagnating, it’s more important than ever to maximize your publication’s content to bring in every bit of revenue possible. Many content creators and publications in Europe are overlooking the potential of content licensing to support their brands. The truth is, your existing content can – and should – generate income long after you publish it.
Source: Content licensing for publishers: Five key questions answered
Freepik releases an ‘open’ AI image generator trained on licensed data
Freepik, the online graphic design platform, unveiled a new “open” AI image model on Tuesday that the company says was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, “safe-for-work” images. The model, called F Lite, contains around 10 billion parameters — parameters being the internal components that make up the model. F Lite joins a small and growing collection of generative AI models trained on licensed data.
Source: Freepik releases an ‘open’ AI image generator trained on licensed data | TechCrunch