San-Francisco-based startup Story said Wednesday that it raised $80 million of funding for a blockchain designed to prevent artificial intelligence makers like OpenAI from taking creators’ intellectual property without permission. Story said that it raised the funds in a Series B round — typically the third major round of funding in a private startup’s growth journey after seed and Series A — led by Andreessen Horowitz, which is also known as a16z.
Rights
Anthropic asks court to ‘prune’ Universal lawsuit to focus on fair use’
In a filing with the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Anthropic – which has received multi-billion-dollar investments from Amazon and Google – asked the court to dismiss three of the four counts brought against it last fall by UMPG, Concord Music Group and ABKCO. Anthropic describes many of the claims against it as “implausible and supported by threadbare and conclusory allegations.”
Authors sue Claude AI chatbot creator Anthropic for copyright infringement
A group of authors is suing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, alleging it committed “large-scale theft” in training its popular chatbot Claude on pirated copies of copyrighted books. While similar lawsuits have piled up for more than a year against competitor OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, this is the first from writers to target Anthropic and its Claude chatbot.
Source: Authors sue Claude AI chatbot creator Anthropic for copyright infringement
NVIDIA: Copyrighted Books Are Just Statistical Correlations to Our AI Models
NVIDIA sits front and center of the AI boom. The company provides the much-needed chips and offers its own AI models. NVIDIA admittedly used pirated books to train these models, which triggered a copyright infringement lawsuit. This week, the company informed the court that these claims fall flat, arguing that copyrighted books are nothing more than statistical correlations to its AI models.
Source: NVIDIA: Copyrighted Books Are Just Statistical Correlations to Our AI Models * TorrentFreak
UnitedMasters launches new $20-a-year subscription tier that allows artists to keep 100% of royalties
On Tuesday (August 13), UnitedMasters confirmed the DEBUT+ tier is now available immediately in “priority markets” including the US, UK, Canada, Nigeria and Brazil. “Making it in music has never been more possible for independent artists, but it still requires the right partner. Founder and CEO Steve Stoute said.
UMG, Meta Announce ‘Expanded Global Agreement’ for AI, Monetization and More
Meta — home to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — and Universal Music Group have announced an expanded agreement that addresses compensation and AI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the announcement says the new agreement “reflects the two companies’ shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly.”
Source: Universal Music and Meta Announce ‘Expanded Global Agreement’ for AI, Monetization and More
Hollywood icons’ estates cashing in on AI voice cloning deals
Stars from Hollywood’s golden age are being reborn through celebrity estate AI voice cloning deals, a sign of how some of the “Wild West” concerns about unauthorized AI impersonation are being addressed by new business models. ElevenLabs, an audio technology startup, has penned multiple deals with the estates of legendary actors for its IconicVoices tool that allows users to have AI-generated voices read to them via an audiobook app.
News Corp has begun legal moves against ‘AI aggressors’, CEO reveals
Thomson said in a statement alongside the financial results: “Our landmark agreement with OpenAI is not only expected to be lucrative, but will enable us to work closely with a trusted, pre-eminent partner to fashion a future for professional journalism and for provenance. Meanwhile, we have begun to take legal steps against AI aggressors, the egregious aggregators, who are predatory in the confiscation of our content. ‘Open source’ can never be a justification for ‘open slather.’”
Source: News Corp has begun legal moves against ‘AI aggressors’, CEO reveals
British Director, Writer & Actor Bodies Urge Big Tech Firms To Stop Using Their Work In Generative AI Training
Bodies representing the UK’s directors, writers and actors have written to big tech firms challenging them for using their work to train generative AI models. The Creators Rights Alliance (CRA) has today penned the letter, citing the need to “safeguard human creativity, truthful content and the rights of authors, creators, and performers.”
Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Apple, Meta Targeted in U.K. Creators’ AI Content Crackdown
Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Apple and Meta are facing heat from the U.K.’s creative community over the use of copyrighted material in AI development. The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) has fired off a stern warning to these tech behemoths and others in the software development sector, demanding an end to the unauthorized use of creative works for AI training and operation.
Source: Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Apple, Meta Targeted in U.K. Creators’ AI Content Crackdown