Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text — OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, @florian4gamers, @papapishu, @bsletten@mastodon.social, Mashable, @nixCraft@mastodon.social, @joannastern@threads.net, Music Technology Policy, Interesting Engineering, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, Colin Crowell on LinkedIn, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, Nikunj Mehta on LinkedIn, Rob Eleveld on LinkedIn, @rosenzweigjane, @gavatron, @markandrejevic, @jcpxdesigns, @_leobriceno, @dschatsky, @dm_cooper, The Verge, Siri Agrell on LinkedIn, Timo Kämäräinen on LinkedIn, @glenngabe@threads.net, @Dhmspector@mastodon.social, @clive@saturation.social, Milton Pedraza on LinkedIn, Ali Manning on LinkedIn, Nigel Caplan on LinkedIn, @edsu@social.coop and The Information, more at Techmeme »
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New York Times:
Sources: Meta debated buying a publisher like Simon & Schuster for AI training data and weighed using copyrighted online data even if that meant facing lawsuits — To make artificial intelligence systems more powerful, tech companies need online data to feed the technology. Here's what to know.
Bloomberg:
Sources: if Skydance and National Amusements merge, David Ellison would become CEO of the combined company; Ellison aims to spend billions to rebuild Paramount — - Producer, tech heir has a month to seal a definitive agreement — He needs to sell Paramount's board on merger with his company
Discussion:
@lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw
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Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Skydance's bid for Paramount, backed by RedBird and KKR, would keep Paramount publicly traded; David Ellison and Jeff Shell would have leadership roles
Sources: Skydance's bid for Paramount, backed by RedBird and KKR, would keep Paramount publicly traded; David Ellison and Jeff Shell would have leadership roles
Discussion:
Reuters, The Information, Wall Street Journal, @jtoonkel, @rogoswami, Variety, The Wrap, Alex Sherman on LinkedIn and Fast Company
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify launches AI Playlist in beta for its Premium users in the UK and Australia, letting users generate playlists using a text prompt — Spotify already found success with its popular AI DJ feature, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation.
Discussion:
@techcrunch and Spotify
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
How Forbes, the Financial Times, Snopes, Trusted Media Brands, and other news publishers are updating on-site search with AI chatbots — Publishers are testing generative AI technology to update a rather boring function on their sites that hasn't been updated in a while: search.
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources say Soros Fund Management's move to became the largest shareholder in radio company Audacy could be the beginning of a bigger audio buying spree — George Soros thinks it's good business, and perhaps good politics, to be in your ears. — Over the last two years, Soros Fund Management …
Bloomberg:
FTC lawsuit filings: Instagram had ad revenues of $22B in 2020, or 26% of Meta's total revenue, and $16.5B in H1 2022 — - Sales figures for the app released in FTC's antitrust lawsuit — Meta Platforms Inc. brought in almost 30% of its revenue from Instagram in the first half of 2022 …
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Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, passed away in March at age 41, according to a post on Genius attributed to his family — Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor …
Discussion:
Moghadam Family on Genius, @joshconstine, @cherrrywood, @sameoldshawn, @typesfast, @markjeffrey, @mattturck, @turnernovak, @dgt10011, @dmitricherniak, @johncoogan, @darbyw, @geoffreywoo, @maiyegun, @bradflora, @schlaf, @amlewis4, @thesamparr, @eriktorenberg, @defidave22, @thedataroom, @iankar_, @joshconstine, @austen, @robaeprice, @azeemk_, @shanazakhan14, @longlivetheduke, @aseidman, @semil and @lutherlowe, more at Techmeme »
Amanda Christovich / Front Office Sports:
Nielsen: the UConn-Iowa women's Final Four match drew 14.2M viewers, a record for women's college basketball and ESPN's most-watched basketball game ever — Even with the men's Final Four about to tip off Saturday, the focus of the national college basketball world turned, again, to the women's tournament.
Discussion:
Variety, Slate, @joepompliano, The Daily Iowan, @mmccarthyrev, @nicoleauerbach, Sports Media Watch, CNN, Forbes, Washington Post, Fox News, Associated Press, Awful Announcing, New York Post, ESPN Press Room U.S., Mashable, USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, Decider, Plain Dealer and TVLine
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Rep. Jim Jordan, who heads the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters to major advertisers including GroupM to explain why they won't advertise on Truth Social — from the not-wanting-to-funnel-money-to- trump? -that's-a-crime! dept — Jim Jordan, who heads the House Judiciary Committee …
Cameron Joseph / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at States Newsroom, a nonprofit network in all 50 US states focused on state politics and policy, with 220 full-time staff and a $22M+ annual budget — In late January, after wrapping up his annual State of the State speech, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum (R) headed out to meet the press.
Discussion:
@cam_joseph, @coreyhutchins, @nbj914@threads.net, Adam Kealoha Causey on LinkedIn and @thestalwart
Anthony Boadle / Reuters:
Elon Musk says X is “lifting all restrictions” it imposed in Brazil after a court ruling to block “certain popular accounts” and is defying the court's ruling — Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Digiday, @shellenberger, Al Jazeera, Reclaim The Net, @globalaffairs, Reclaim The Net, @lorakolodny@threads.net, @shellenberger, @elonmusk, @lindayax, @elonmusk, @esjesjesj, @ggreenwald, The Information, @elonmusk, Wall Street Journal, @arthurvneto, @elonmusk and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »
Matt Binder / Mashable:
X promoted a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel on its Explore page, after Elon Musk promised “real-time customized news for you created by Grok AI” — The AI-generated false headline was promoted by X in its official trending news section.