<p>Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google&#8217;s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model&#8217;s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Elon Musk&#8217;s AI company, xAI, has acquired Hotshot, a startup working on AI-powered video generation tools along the lines of OpenAI&#8217;s Sora. Aakash Sastry, Hotshot&#8217;s CEO and co-founder, announced the news in a post on X on Monday. &#8220;Over the past 2 years we&#8217;ve built 3 video foundation models as a small team — Hotshot-XL, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We’ve been blown away by the overwhelming response to speak at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. After thorough consideration, we’ve selected six standout finalists. The power to choose who will take the stage and share their AI expertise with 1,200 AI leaders and enthusiasts is now in your [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Most of the focus in generative AI has been on text-based interfaces used to generate text, images, and more. The next wave appears to be voice, and it’s rolling in fast. In the latest development, Google today announced that it would be adding Chirp 3 — its speech-to-text and HD text-to-speech models — to its [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The new Netflix movie “The Electric State” depicts a world full of robots — but not robots as we know them. Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (who previously helmed two Avengers blockbusters, “Infinity War” and “Endgame”) for a reported budget of $320 million, “The Electric State” takes place in an alternate version of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When I was 16, I attended a writing workshop with a group of precocious young poets, where we all tried very hard to prove who among us was the most tortured upper-middle-class teenager. One boy refused to tell anyone where he was from, declaring, “I’m from everywhere and nowhere.” Two weeks later, he admitted he [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In an expansion of its existing audiobook efforts, Spotify on Thursday announced the launch of a new publishing program for authors that allows them to submit short-form stories they&#8217;d like to see turned into audiobooks. When Spotify selects a story for audiobook publishing, it will handle the production and distribution of the work to other [&hellip;]</p>

<p>AI-powered image generators, which are at the center of a number of copyright lawsuits against AI companies, are frequently trained on massive amounts of data from public websites. Most of these companies argue that&nbsp;fair use doctrine&nbsp;shields their data-scraping and training practices. But many copyright holders disagree.&nbsp; That&#8217;s why some startups and firms developing image generators [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Food delivery startup Wonder is acquiring media company Tastemade for around $90 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2012, Tastemade produces food, travel, and home videos and operates several free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. The acquisition gives Wonder access to a content studio, production company, and advertising business. Wonder will leverage [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Los Angeles-based startup Moonvalley has launched an AI video-generating model it claims is one of the few trained on openly licensed — not copyrighted — data. Named &#8220;Marey&#8221; after cinema trailblazer Étienne-Jules Marey, the model was built in collaboration with Asteria, a newer AI animation studio. Marey was trained on &#8220;owned or fully licensed&#8221; source [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spotify on Tuesday released its annual Loud &amp; Clear report, detailing information about the music streaming service&#8217;s royalty payments. While Spotify revealed earlier this year that it paid out&nbsp;$10 billion to the music industry in 2024, the new report offers more in-depth numbers about its payments in an effort to dispel reports that the company [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When the first email was sent in 1971, Richard Nixon was president. The video game &#8220;Pong&#8221; was still in development. The Pittsburgh Pirates was a good baseball team. This is to say, technological achievements like the email have lived long enough to have their own grandchildren. And yet, one of the most storied magazines in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Pocket Casts, the podcast app acquired by Automattic in 2021, is now making its web player free. The company says the move offers an alternative to the big platforms&#8217; closed ecosystems, where algorithmic-driven content is prioritized and podcasts are kept behind paywalls. Podcasts were built on open technology — the open, decentralized standard RSS, which [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Nearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christie’s cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on — and reportedly exceeded expectations. According to Christie&#8217;s, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spotify has acknowledged an issue that&#8217;s causing some of its paid Premium subscribers to encounter ads when trying to play music. In an X post published on Thursday by Spotify&#8217;s customer service account, the company said it&#8217;s looking into the problem and linked to its Community website where the issue has been documented by users [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Prime Video is now experimenting with AI-assisted dubbing for select licensed movies and TV shows, as announced by the Amazon-owned streaming service on Wednesday. According to Prime Video, this new test will feature AI-assisted dubbing services in English and Latin American Spanish, combining AI with human localization professionals to “ensure quality control,” the company explained.&nbsp;&nbsp; [&hellip;]</p>

<p>YouTube on Wednesday announced a new premium subscription tier called Premium Lite, which will allow users to watch &#8220;most&#8221; videos ad-free for $7.99 per month. With YouTube Lite, customers will be able to watch videos across verticals like gaming, fashion, beauty, cooking, news, and more, ad-free, but will be shown ads on music content and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When hosting the 2025 Oscars last night, comedian and late-night TV host Conan O&#8217;Brien&nbsp;addressed the use of AI in his opening monologue, reflecting the growing conversation about the technology’s influence in Hollywood. “We did not use AI to make this show,” O’Brien said. His remarks were clearly a reference to the use of generative AI [&hellip;]</p>

<p>AI startup Stability AI has teamed up with chipmaker Arm to bring Stability&#8217;s Stable Audio Open, an AI model that can generate audio including sound effects, to mobile devices running Arm chips. While a number of AI-powered apps can generate audio, like Suno and Udio, most rely on cloud processing, meaning that they can&#8217;t be [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As part of the new Alexa+ experience Amazon introduced on Wednesday, the smart assistant will gain the ability to navigate through movies on Prime Video on your behalf. Thanks to integrations between Alexa, Prime Video, and Fire TV, Alexa+, as the upgraded assistant is called, will be able to &#8220;jump to a scene&#8221; in a [&hellip;]</p>