Headlines

UK’s plan to make copyright law more AI-friendly raises concerns

Among the many initiatives in a 50-point AI Opportunities Action Plan presented to Parliament on Monday (January 13) is a commitment to reforming the UK’s text and data mining regime to be “at least as competitive” as the European Union. “The current uncertainty around intellectual property (IP) is hindering innovation and undermining our broader ambitions for AI, as well as the growth of our creative industries,” the plan states.

Source: UK’s plan to make copyright law more AI-friendly raises concerns

Created by Humans AI Rights Platform Launches for Authors

The platform allows authors to claim their works via ISBN or direct upload and set licensing preferences. AI companies can then browse and license content through what the company describes as an automated interface. The system currently supports rights for AI model training and reference via Retrieval Augmented Generation models. Created by Humans plans to add licensing for transformative rights in the future.

Source: Created by Humans AI Rights Platform Launches for Authors

Chartmetric tracks 11m Spotify artists. Fewer than 1.6m have over 10 listeners

How many artists are releasing music right now? Analytics firm Chartmetric has a new figure: 11.3 million. That’s how many its platform is now tracking, and it represents a 1.7m increase from a year ago according to its annual report. “On average, 4.6k artists were added to our platform every day,” noted the company. “Alongside artists, a total 25.7 million tracks were ingested into the Chartmetric system in 2024.”

Source: Chartmetric tracks 11m Spotify artists. Fewer than 1.6m have over 10 listeners

Suno boss targets ‘bigger, brighter future’ with music industry

AI music startup Suno is being sued by major labels, but its CEO Mikey Shulman seems optimistic that it can build bridges with rightsholders again. “There’s the traditional Silicon Valley mentality of, like, ‘Screw you, existing industry! I will disrupt you, there’s nothing that you can do about it’ and then there’s the existing incumbent approach, which is like ‘I will sue you until you go away!’ Both of those are obviously wrong,” Shulman told the 20VC podcast.

Source: Suno boss targets ‘bigger, brighter future’ with music industry

Copyright concerns create need for a fair alternative in AI sector 

The growth of AI has already sparked transformation in multiple industries, but the pace of uptake has also led to concerns around data ownership, privacy and copyright infringement. Because AI is centralised with the most powerful models controlled by corporations, content creators have largely been sidelined. There’s an opportunity for decentralised AI projects like that proposed by the ASI Alliance to offer an alternative way of AI model development.

Source: Copyright concerns create need for a fair alternative in AI sector – AI News

CMA to investigate Google search dominance and impact on news publishers

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Google‘s search services, beginning a process that may ultimately see the tech giant regulated under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The CMA said the investigation “will assess Google’s position in search and search advertising services and how this impacts consumers and businesses including advertisers, news publishers, and rival search engines.

Source: CMA to investigate Google search dominance and impact on news publishers

Tech companies are turning to ‘synthetic data’ to train AI models – but there’s a hidden cost

A primary concerns is that AI models can “collapse” when they rely too much on synthetic data. This means they start generating so many “hallucinations” – a response that contains false information – and decline so much in quality and performance that they are unusable. For example, AI models already struggle with spelling some words correctly. If this mistake-riddled data is used to train other models, then they too are bound to replicate the errors.

Source: Tech companies are turning to ‘synthetic data’ to train AI models – but there’s a hidden cost

Reuters Institute: Publishers Pivot To Video Amid Search Disruption

As social media referral traffic from platforms like Facebook and X continues to decline—67% and 50%drops over the past two years—publishers are increasingly turning to Google Discover. The Reuters Institute notes that Discover grew by 12% year over year, and many publishers now rely on it as their primary referral source. Its personalized recommendations have made it a focus for publishers looking to replace lost traffic from other platforms.

Source: Reuters Institute: Publishers Pivot To Video Amid Search Disruption

Music Industry Funding Data Provides Insights As 2025 Ramps Up

The music industry funding landscape delivered several key trends during 2024. First, 2024’s music industry funding would have decreased substantially from 2023 if not for a few massive capital disclosures on the catalog side. Hipgnosis led the pack with its almost $1.5 billion asset backed securitization, followed by an over $1 billion funding confirmation from Iconic Artists Group and then an $850 million ABS from Concord.

Source: Music Industry Funding Data Provides Insights As 2025 Ramps Up

AI Startup Anthropic Raising Funds Valuing It at $60 Billion

Anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would value it at $60 billion, more than triple its valuation from a year ago. The funding round is being led by the venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, people familiar with the matter said. The $60 billion valuation includes the money Anthropic plans to raise in the round.

Source: AI Startup Anthropic Raising Funds Valuing It at $60 Billion

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