The Morning After: TikTok bans and Airbnb cams
The biggest story this week was TikTok and the US government going at it again, with the house voting in favor of a bill that could force TikTok’s parent company to sell to a US owner or face getting banned outright. Don’t worry, though; your elected officials didn’t waste the…
Oppenheimer ruled 2024 Oscars as Apple TV+ and Netflix were nearly shut out
Despite combining for 32 nominations, Netflix and Apple TV+ were nearly shut out of of the 2024 Oscars, with Netflix winning a single award for Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Best Live Action Short Film). The big surprise was Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple…
Amazon accused of using AI to ‘replicate the voices’ of actors in Road House remake
Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie’s remake, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of using AI to clone actors’ voices in…
Let’s talk about Xbox | This week’s gaming news
No one is suggesting that Microsoft should stop making video game hardware. What we’ve been considering, here in the dark and twisted Engadget Slack channels, is whether Microsoft should keep making generationally distinct consoles in the traditional hardware cycle. Basically, does Xbox need a box? Microsoft has been busy building…
The EU wants to criminalize AI-generated porn images and deepfakes
Back in 2022, the European Commission released a proposal for a directive on how to combat domestic violence and violence against women in other forms. Now, the European Council and Parliament have agreed with the proposal to criminalize, among other things, different types of cyber-violence. The proposed rules will criminalize…
Scammers use deepfakes to steal $25.6 million from a multinational firm
Bad actors keep using deepfakes for everything from impersonating celebrities to scamming people out of money. The latest instance is out of Hong Kong, where a finance worker for an undisclosed multinational company was tricked into remitting $200 million Hong Kong dollars ($25.6 million). According to Hong Kong police, scammers…
Joe Rogan nabs an estimated $250 million from Spotify to share his big-brained ideas
Everyone’s favorite former Fear Factor host Joe Rogan has signed a new deal with Spotify that’s likely to be worth $250 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s even more money than his first deal back in 2020, which was estimated to give the comedian $200 million. There’s no…
Universal Music threatens to pull songs from TikTok over payment terms
Universal Music Group (UMG) is threatening to pull all of its music from TikTok today following a breakdown in negotiations over royalties, the company wrote in an open letter. That would mean TikTok creators would lose access to songs from stars including Taylor Swift, Billy Eilish, The Weeknd, Drake and…
Microsoft’s legal department allegedly silenced an engineer who raised concerns about DALL-E 3
A Microsoft manager claims OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 has security vulnerabilities that could allow users to generate violent or explicit images (similar to those that recently targeted Taylor Swift). GeekWire reported Tuesday the company’s legal team blocked Microsoft engineering leader Shane Jones’ attempts to alert the public about the exploit. The…
The Morning After: That AI-generated George Carlin comedy special was written by humans
As generative AI (and access to AI tools) continues to grow, expect to see more things like the tumult over “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Released on (then pulled from) YouTube, it’s framed as an hour of new “material” by the comedian, who died in 2008. Of course, it’s…