The major music companies are reportedly in licensing talks with controversial AI music generators Udio and Suno. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reported on Sunday (June 1), citing people familiar with the discussions, that Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment are seeking license fees from the platforms plus “a small amount” of equity in both Suno and Udio.
Source: Labels in licensing talks with AI music generators Suno and Udio (report)
Netflix chairman Reed Hastings joined the board of directors of Anthropic, an AI company whose backers include Amazon. “Anthropic is very optimistic about the AI benefits for humanity, but is also very aware of the economic, social and safety challenges,” Hastings said in a statement. “I’m joining Anthropic’s board because I believe in their approach to AI development, and to help humanity progress.”
Source: Netflix’s Reed Hastings Joins Board of AI Company Anthropic, a Rival to OpenAI
Buried in the Republican budget bill is a proposal that will radically change how artificial intelligence develops in the U.S., according to both its supporters and critics. The provision would ban states from regulating AI for the next decade. Opponents say the moratorium is so broadly written that states wouldn’t be able to enact protections for consumers affected by harmful applications of AI, like discriminatory employment tools, deepfakes, and addictive chatbots.
Source: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act would ban states from regulating AI
For decades, Hollywood directors, including Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron and Alex Garland, have cast artificial intelligence as a villain that can turn into a killing machine. Now Google—a leading developer in AI technology —wants to move the cultural conversations away from technology as seen in “The Terminator,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Ex Machina.”
Source: Inside Google’s plan to have Hollywood make AI look less doomsday
The launch of Lyria RealTime via API comes amidst an explosion of AI-powered music apps. There’s Udio and Suno, as well as the recently debuted Riffusion — among many others. Many of these have proven to be controversial, particularly those driven by models trained on copyrighted music without permission. But Google pitches Lyria RealTime as a collaborative tool.
Source: Google brings a music-generating AI model to its API with Lyria RealTime | TechCrunch
Already this year, 26 laws governing various kinds of deepfakes have been enacted, following 80 in 2024 and 15 in 2023, according to the political database Ballotpedia. This month in Tennessee, sharing deepfake sexual images without permission became a felony that carries up to 15 years of prison time and as much as $10,000 in fines.
Source: Deepfake Laws Bring Prosecution and Penalties, but Also Pushback
The revolution of artificial intelligence in digital entertainment content is a once in a life time opportunity, said Cheng Lu, president and CEO of Chinese artificial intelligence technology company CreateAI, adding that AI will reshape the industry landscape of video games and anime. “In Hollywood and Japan, top-tier studios are drowning from rising production costs, labor shortage and long development cycles,” Lu said.
Source: CreateAI CEO: AI revolutionizing digital entertainment industry
AI startup Stability AI has released Stable Audio Open Small, a “stereo” audio-generating AI model that the company claims is the fastest on the market — and efficient enough to run on smartphones. Stable Audio Open Small is the fruit of a collaboration between Stability AI and Arm, the chipmaker that produces many of the processors inside tablets, phones, and other mobile devices.
Source: Stability AI releases an audio-generating model that can run on smartphones | TechCrunch
Audible is now offering AI-powered narration and production services to select audiobook publishers, with AI translation services to launch in beta later this year. “Audible believes that AI represents a momentous opportunity to expand the availability of audiobooks with the vision of offering customers every book in every language, alongside our continued investments in premium original content,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan said.
Source: Audible Expands Catalog with AI Narration and Translation Services
Today a federal judge in San Jose ordered Anthropic to address allegations that one of its expert witnesses referenced a non-existent academic paper in the company’s court filing. The citation is purportedly from the journal American Statistician and was included in the filing to bolster Anthropic’s argument that the reproduction of copyrighted song lyrics is a “rare event.”
Source: Music Publishers Accuse Anthropic AI of ‘Hallucinating’ Citations