Top News:
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs — The Washington Post has used AI to build a pick-your-own-format news podcast, letting listeners choose the topics, hosts and length to create custom versions.
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Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: WaPo's top standards editor decried “frustrating” errors in its new AI-generated personalized podcasts, announced this week for users of its mobile app — The Scoop — The Washington Post's top standards editor Thursday decried “frustrating” errors …
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The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, Mediaite, @claytonguse, @mugrimm.bsky.social, @ericfingerhut, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, @maxwelltani, Podnews, @jimantle and Raw Story
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer — The Walt Disney Company on Thursday announced it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and will allow users …
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a message to members, the WGA says Disney's licensing deal with OpenAI “appears to sanction” OpenAI's “theft of our work”, and it plans to meet with Disney
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bob Iger says the OpenAI deal “does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all” because it doesn't include name, likeness, or character voices
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney sends Google a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Google of “massive scale” copyright infringement and using AI to “exploit and distribute” its content
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Axios:
The OpenAI deal gives Disney a fair amount of oversight and control over how its IP is used, including a joint steering committee to monitor user creations
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Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost — The loss of federal funding forced a difficult decision, the executive director of Arkansas TV said: Cut PBS, or go off the air entirely.
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Associated Press, TVNewsCheck, Current, Fortune, Cord Cutters News, ArkansasTimes, Financial Post and Talk Business & Politics
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: the tenure of Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, Fortune's outgoing CEO, was marked by turmoil over a clash with Victor Pang, a lawyer for the company's owner — Last week, the financial news publisher Fortune abruptly parted ways with chief executive Anastasia Nyrkovskaya.
Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz:
[Thread] Substack quietly added a feature that forced subscribers to download the app to read full newsletters but say they've rolled it back after complaints — I love Substack. Always have. Their team is great. But a silent change could force me off the platform if it stays. They broke email. My paid subscribers cannot read today's paid newsletter on mobile without downloading the Substack app. @SubstackInc: roll this back. Now. [image]
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@tkwoncpa, @selviano, @precious_m_e, @denk_tweets, @staysaasy, @gergelyorosz, @raulriera, @dceddia and @leozera, more at Techmeme »
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps — Fallout's season one recap wrongly stated that The Ghoul's flashback takes place in the 1950s, rather than the year 2077.
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IGN, @FediThing@social.chinwag.org, @jaspar.bsky.social, TechRadar, PCMag, GameSpot, Engadget, Kotaku, Gizmodo, TheGamer, GamesRadar and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
YouTube launches an option for US-based creators to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD — Big Tech continues to tiptoe into crypto. The latest example is a move by YouTube to let creators on the video platform choose to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin.
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Guardian names Netflix's former director of product Allan Donald as its first VP of product; Donald oversaw the content discovery operation at Netflix — Netflix's former director of product has been appointed for newly created position. — Netflix director of product Allan Donald …
Discussion:
InPublishing and Journalism.co.uk
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service launches on “eligible” Comcast and Rogers X1 and Xfinity stream boxes in the US and Canada — Luna relaunched earlier this year, and now, it will be available on more devices. … Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service is coming to cable boxes from Comcast and Rogers.
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Ubergizmo, Business Wire, Notebookcheck, Streaming Better, CNET, Cord Cutters News, The Streamable, Financial Post and TheDesk.net
Alex Heath / Sources:
An interview with Nikita Bier, who wants to lure journalists back to X with a rebuilt recommendation algorithm with no keyword suppression or manual downranking — X wants its haters back Product chief Nikita Bier on journalists who left: “We have to earn their trust.”
Discussion:
Implicator.ai and @alexeheath.com, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Australia to overturn its social media ban for under-16s, saying it “infringes the implied freedom of political communication” — Message board website Reddit (RDDT.N) on Friday filed a lawsuit asking the High Court to overturn Australia's social media ban …
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