Regardless of the pedestal that customers and companies have placed OpenAI on this last year, the reality is that the innovation and technology that the industry is known for does not begin and end with one company, let alone one man. AI competition is fierce; companies of all sizes are now happily seizing the window of opportunity OpenAI’s travails have opened.
Source: The AI industry is even stronger after the drama with Sam Altman and OpenAI
In August 2022, TikTok struck up a ticketing partnership with Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster to allow TikTok users to buy concert tickets from within the TikTok app. Now the companies are expanding that partnership into more than 20 new markets, following the beta launch in the US in 2022. The feature is available now for over 75,000 artists.
Source: Over 75,000 artists in 20+ countries can now sell concert tickets directly within the TikTok app
The agreement for Google to make an annual payment of $100 million follows Canada passing into law Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, to compel U.S. digital giants to negotiate commercial licensing deals with Canadian publishers for their local platforms. The agreement leaves Meta as a U.S. digital tech holdout in choosing not to pay local publishers for news snippets repurposed on its local Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Source: Google Strikes $100M Online News Sharing Deal With Canada After Standoff
On Wednesday (November 29), US Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer held an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum to discuss the importance and role of creative copyright and intellectual property in the development of AI. Dennis Kooker, Sony Music Entertainment‘s President of Global Digital Business & US Sales, delivered a speech at the Forum, outlining the major music company’s position on AI and copyright law.
A group of visual artists has filed an amended copyright lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney and other companies for allegedly misusing their work to train generative artificial intelligence systems. U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed parts of the lawsuit last month but gave the original plaintiffs permission to pursue their claims again in a new complaint. Their amended lawsuit, adds a new defendant Runway AI, as well as more details on the alleged infringement.
Source: Artists take new shot at Stability, Midjourney in updated copyright lawsuit
Stability AI, the British artificial intelligence startup behind the Stable Diffusion image generator, has explored selling the company as management faces increased pressure from investors over its financial position. The London-based firm has presented itself as an acquisition target in recent weeks, and held early-stage conversations with multiple companies, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Source: Stability AI Has Explored Sale as Investor Urges CEO to Resign
Amazon has upped its ante in the generative AI arena with today’s announcement of its new image generator as part of Amazon Titan, the name of the full suite of multimodal foundation models (FMs) now available through Amazon Web Services. The Amazon Titan Image Generator allows content creators to generate high-quality, realistic images using simple English language prompts—or even by using other images as references.
ADA, Warner’s independent distribution and label services arm, distributes music for a number of indie labels, and now it will also distribute music from Boomy, a platform that enables artists to create music with the aid of AI. The platform also functions as a label and music distributor. According to California-headquartered Boomy’s website, artists on the platform – which launched in 2019 – have created more than 18.1 million tracks to date.
How far should politicians and regulators get involved in the business of the music industry, and particularly the music streaming economy? A vote in the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee yesterday is raising the question again. In the view of the MEPs on that committee, they absolutely should get involved with new legislation. The vote centered on a report – ‘Cultural Diversity and the Conditions for Authors in the European Streaming Market.’
Source: MEPs call for new music streaming rules in the European Union – Music Ally
A $55 million raise allows the generative video startup Pika Labs to compete against giants Meta, Adobe, and Stability AI. Pika is coming out of beta just six months after the company’s inception and serves the company’s vision of enabling everyone to become their own video director to democratize the field of video production. With a growing community of half a million users, Pika has tapped into the growing demand for accessible video creation tools.
Source: Pika Wows in Debut as AI Video Generator Takes Aim at Tech Giants – Decrypt