Marketplace

SPUR publishes ‘common language’ for tracking AI use of publisher content

Publisher AI standards coalition SPUR has shared details of a proposed “common language” for tracking content usage by AI companies. SPUR aims to come up with a standard technical foundation for how AI platforms report on use of the content they scrape. This could be used by publishers when agreeing licensing deals. SPUR was launched at the start of the year by The Guardian, the Financial Times, BBC, Sky News and The Telegraph and has since added more than 20 other publisher members.

Source: SPUR publishes ‘common language’ for tracking AI use of publisher content

Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

A new study sponsored by the Authors Guild examining the causes of the decline in authors’ earnings found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription. The study, conducted by the Codex Group, notes that while books are available in more formats and channels than ever before, average author earnings, now pegged at about $10,000 annually, have declined about 42% since 2009, the year Kindles first entered the market.

Source: Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

61 Years Ago Today: Sony Brings Video Recording into American Homes

On this day in June 1965, Sony Corporation made a bold leap into consumer electronics by introducing one of the world’s first home video tape recorders to the U.S. market. The device, known as the CV-2000 Videocorder, carried a suggested retail price of $995 and promised to revolutionize how families captured and replayed moving images in their living rooms. It marked a significant milestone as the first fully transistorized video tape recorder designed with home users in mind. 

Source: 61 Years Ago Today: Sony Brings Video Recording into American Homes

What do UK watchdog’s new rules on Google AI results mean for publishers?

The CMA hopes this will give publishers greater leverage in content deals with Google, by forcing the company to seek permission to use their intellectual property. The CMA will wait to see how its first wave of interventions pan out before it decides whether to act further. This announcement at least signals a direction of travel.

Source: What do UK watchdog’s new rules on Google AI results mean for publishers?

OpenAI not planning to share advertising revenue with publishers

The company behind ChatGPT has no plans to share advertising revenue with publishers, OpenAI’s vice president of media partnerships has confirmed. Varun Shetty was asked at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille on Tuesday whether they are considering a revenue share model on publisher content being surfaced next to adverts, which are being trialed on ChatGPT. Shetty responded: “Not at this point.”

Source: OpenAI not planning to share advertising revenue with publishers

Martin Scorsese Is Embracing A.I.

Martin Scorsese, the living embodiment of cinema as high art and a conscience for modern Hollywood, on Tuesday threw his weight behind an A.I. start-up that specializes in image generation. In a statement and an accompanying video made in his New York City office, Mr. Scorsese discussed how he had used technology from Black Forest Labs, a fast-rising A.I. venture, during preproduction for a new film. Black Forest Labs said Scorsese had signed on last year as a partner and an adviser.

Source: Martin Scorsese Is Embracing A.I.

The case against AI: writing isn’t meant to be easy

All authors are influenced – consciously or unconsciously – by what they have read or seen before. In fact, this has often been seen as one of the defining features of literary creation. Seneca the Younger argued that, just as bees make honey and wax from the pollen of flowers they leave behind, so writers should craft new works from the materials they encounter in their reading. As T.S. Eliot wryly put it, ‘immature poets imitate, mature poets steal. This being so, can we really draw such a line between literary borrowing and AI-powered appropriation? 

Source: The case against AI: writing isn’t meant to be easy

Book publishing’s AI panic is here. And nobody knows what to do about it

Some have contended that AI may be having its Napster moment, when the music file-sharing software upended the economics and gatekeeping structures of the music industry in the late 90s by enabling millions of users to download and distribute copyrighted songs online. Now, generative AI is forcing book publishing into a long overdue reckoning over what counts as original human work and how the tech should be ethically deployed or disclosed at all stages of the book production pipeline. 

Source: Book publishing’s AI panic is here. And nobody knows what to do about it

Now in Theaters: Hit Movies From YouTube Stars

“Backrooms” is part of a growing wave of breakout films from fledgling directors who honed their instincts on YouTube rather than inside the Hollywood ecosystem. Two other creators with no Hollywood track record — Curry Barker and Mark Fischbach — have already turned online followings into surprise box-office hits this year. “It’s not an anomaly,” Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s film school, said in a phone interview. “It’s the start of a gigantic shift. These are the cinematic insurgents of our era.”

Source: Now in Theaters: Hit Movies From YouTube Stars

Spotify now lets you stream narrated magazine articles, too

In Spotify’s rapidly evolving quest to become the home of everything audio-related, the company announced on Tuesday that it’s bringing narrated long-form magazine articles to its app. The articles will be available to Premium subscribers as part of their 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month. Free users can opt to purchase stand-alone articles for $1.99.

Source: Spotify now lets you stream narrated magazine articles, too

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