NaNoWriMo, the non-profit organization that grew out of the annual tradition National Novel Writing Month, had a solid 25-year run encouraging writers to speedrun the novel writing process, but it has come to an end. On Monday, the organization announced that it would cease operations due to ongoing financial issues, as well as some very public drama that has played out in recent years.
Source: Longtime Writing Community NaNoWriMo Shuts Down After AI Drama
Kunlun claims that Mureka O1 outperforms competing models like Suno V4 across multiple metrics, with strong results in mixing quality, vocal textures, and background instrumentation. The company says its AI models’ ability to carry out subjective assessments places them “among the top-tier” in the category.
Agentic AI and quantum computing are crashing into the music industry faster than anyone is ready for. The pace of change is breathtaking: what used to take years is now happening in weeks. These technologies also bring massive potential – but also present some pretty alarming challenges.
Source: The AI tipping point is happening – and here’s how it will affect the music industry
A cybersecurity company that combats AI deepfakes called GetReal Security has closed a $17.5 million Series A funding round. GetReal says it “specializes in the detection and mitigation of malicious generative AI threats” including deepfakes and impersonation attacks. Its technology is used by “multinational corporations, financial institutions, media organizations, government agencies, and social media companies”.
Source: GetReal Security raises $17.5m to combat AI deepfakes
Today’s refined GPT-4o model makes it easier for consumers, and businesses, to create more life-like images and paragraphs of comprehensible text—and even company logos and slide decks, OpenAI said. Behind the improvement to GPT-4o is a group of “human trainers” who labeled training data for the model—pointing out where typos, errant hands and faces had been made in AI-generated images.
Source: OpenAI Claims Breakthrough in Image Creation for ChatGPT
The fundamental problem of licenses undermining libraries and scholarly research remains, even as technology and business models shift. Today, some publishers are attempting to implement new contractual bans on artificial intelligence by sending impromptu addendums to their customers and, in some cases, claiming that they’re unable to waive these bans because they intend to create their own AI tool.
Source: AI Is Reigniting Decades-Old Questions Over Digital Rights, but Fair Use Prevails | TechPolicy.Press
Rohan Sahai, who leads the Sora product team, tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that there’s been considerable interest from the entertainment industry, without specifying the contours of the conversations. He sees utilization of the tools across most stages of production as the tools improve. “For some of these bigger production companies, the ones who are forward-looking, they see where things are going and try to think about how to change their whole workflows to make the best fit at this moment in time,” he says.
In recent weeks, Meta, Google, OpenAI and others have asked the Trump administration to block state A.I. laws and to declare that it is legal for them to use copyrighted material to train their A.I. models. They are also lobbying to use federal data to develop the technology, as well as for easier access to energy sources for their computing demands. And they have asked for tax breaks, grants and other incentives.
Source: Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules
In a closely watched battle between music publishers and AI developer Anthropic, a California court has denied a request to halt the use of copyrighted song lyrics with its refusal to grant a preliminary injunction. The court ruled that the music publisher failed to demonstrate immediate and irreparable harm, while the scope of the requested restrictions was “ever-expanding.”
Source: Anthropic Scores Preliminary Victory in AI-Copyright Clash Against Music Companies * TorrentFreak
In a significant executive shuffle announced Monday, OpenAI is expanding COO Brad Lightcap’s responsibilities while CEO Sam Altman shifts his attention more toward the company’s technical direction. Lightcap will now “oversee day-to-day operations,” international expansion, and manage key partnerships with tech giants like Microsoft and Apple, according to Bloomberg.