News/Content Creation
When the backlash is Swiftie: Tay Tay grilled over alleged AI use in album promo videos
Taylor Swift is facing criticism on social media for allegedly using artificial intelligence to create promotional videos for her new album, "The Life of a Showgirl." The controversy centers around a viral marketing campaign featuring QR codes leading fans to discover "orange doors" across 12 cities, with eagle-eyed observers spotting visual inconsistencies in the videos that suggest AI generation. What you should know: The "Orange Door" marketing campaign included videos showing hidden lounge areas and puzzles with visual clues and messages typical of Swift's easter egg marketing style.• Fans found QR codes in 12 cities including Melbourne, London, Chicago, Nashville,...
read Oct 3, 2025Aiode launches AI music platform that pays real, actual, human musicians
Aiode has officially launched its desktop AI music platform that pairs artists with virtual musicians based on real performers, emphasizing ethical AI training and compensation for the musicians whose styles were modeled. The platform addresses longstanding complaints about AI music tools lacking precision by allowing targeted regeneration of specific song sections while maintaining creator control and rights. What you should know: Aiode's virtual musicians replace generic AI fill-ins with models based on actual performers who will receive compensation for their contributions.• The platform spent a year in testing before its official launch, with targeted regeneration of specific song sections like...
read Oct 3, 2025Cuomo faces backlash for AI-generated mayoral ad in NYC race
Not all new tech is wielded most vociferously by the young. Andrew Cuomo's mayoral campaign launched an AI-generated advertisement showing the former New York governor performing various New York jobs, including driving the subway and washing windows. The ad drew sharp criticism from opponent Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, who mocked Cuomo for using artificial intelligence instead of hiring local talent in a city full of world-class artists and production crews. The big picture: This marks another instance of Cuomo relying on AI technology for campaign materials, following earlier embarrassment when his housing plan showed clear signs of being produced...
read Oct 2, 2025Sora creates deepfakes of dead celebrities like Michael Jackson despite OpenAI policy
OpenAI's Sora video generation app allows users to create AI deepfakes of deceased celebrities like Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, and Malcolm X, despite the company's stated policy of blocking depictions of public figures. The policy exemption for "historical figures" raises questions about consent, misinformation, and the potential misuse of AI-generated content featuring dead celebrities who cannot approve their digital resurrection. What you should know: OpenAI explicitly permits AI-generated videos of deceased public figures while blocking living celebrities unless they consent through the Cameos feature. Users have created disturbingly realistic deepfakes of Michael Jackson, Bob Ross, Tupac Shakur, and Malcolm X...
read Oct 2, 2025Flagrantly fun Sora 2 tops iOS charts while sparking copyright lawsuits
OpenAI released Sora 2, an AI-powered app that creates high-definition videos from text prompts and allows users to insert realistic "cameos" of themselves and others into AI-generated content. The app immediately surged to become the most popular video app on iOS, but its ability to generate copyrighted characters like Mario and Pikachu has sparked significant copyright and deepfake concerns among legal experts. What you should know: Sora 2 represents a major upgrade from OpenAI's original Sora model, now featuring synchronized dialogue and sound effects alongside video generation. Users can create lifelike videos by providing simple text descriptions, and the app...
read Oct 2, 2025James Cameron says AI will never replace human artists’ “flow” in filmmaking
James Cameron is breaking his usual post-release moratorium to revisit "Avatar: The Way of Water" ahead of its October 3 theatrical re-release, driven by the need to maintain thematic consistency with the upcoming third film, "Avatar: Fire and Ash," set for December release. The director also revealed his evolving approach to visual effects production and expressed strong views on generative AI's role in filmmaking, emphasizing that "we need our artists" and that AI "is never going to take the place" of human creativity. What you should know: Cameron has fundamentally changed how he approaches visual effects work, creating what he...
read Oct 1, 2025Adobe’s new Harmonize tool uses AI to automate Photoshop compositing
Adobe has quietly unleashed what might be Photoshop's most transformative feature in years. The new Harmonize tool, currently available in Photoshop's beta version, uses artificial intelligence to automatically adjust lighting, shadows, and color temperature when combining multiple images—a process called compositing that typically requires hours of manual work. Compositing involves taking objects or people from one photograph and seamlessly placing them into a different background image. Traditional methods require painstaking adjustments to match lighting conditions, shadow directions, and color temperatures between the source image and destination background. Harmonize eliminates most of this tedious work with a single click, producing results...
read Oct 1, 2025AI-generated elder death videos rack up 32M views on Meta platforms
AI-generated videos showing elderly people falling to their deaths from glass bridges have gone viral across Meta's platforms, garnering millions of views despite their disturbing content. The phenomenon represents a new wave of AI-generated "slop" content that prioritizes engagement over human connection, highlighting how social media has become an entertainment platform rather than a space for genuine social interaction. What you should know: These AI-generated videos follow a consistent formula of showing people—often elderly or racially stereotyped characters—deliberately breaking glass-bottom bridges, causing others to fall to their deaths.• One video posted to X (formerly Twitter) received over 32 million views,...
read Sep 30, 2025OpenAI launches Sora app for AI-generated videos to rival TikTok
OpenAI has launched Sora, a new social media app that generates AI videos, joining Meta's recent entry into the AI-generated short-form video market with its Vibes product. The launch signals a major push by tech giants to capture attention currently dominated by TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, while raising concerns about "AI slop" potentially crowding out authentic human creativity and degrading the information ecosystem. What you should know: Sora allows users to create videos of themselves in virtually any imaginable scenario, from anime-style content to highly realistic footage. The iPhone app is currently available only in the U.S. and Canada, with...
read Sep 30, 2025Steamboat Chilly: Disney sends cease-and-desist to Character.AI over unauthorized chatbots
Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI demanding the AI startup immediately stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. The entertainment giant's concern extends beyond financial damages to potential long-term brand harm, as the AI platform allows users to create chatbots that imitate Disney characters in ways the company cannot control. What you should know: Disney's legal action stems from a disturbing pattern of behavior identified on Character.AI's platform involving its intellectual property. A joint investigation by ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative found that Character.AI's chatbots engaged in "grooming and sexual exploitation, as well as emotional manipulation and addiction."...
read Sep 30, 2025Study finds AI ads perform equally to human-made campaigns, with no audience pushback
Advertising creatives are increasingly embracing AI-generated content in campaigns, marking a dramatic shift from previous resistance to the technology. A new Kantar study found that AI-involved ads perform just as effectively as traditional advertisements, with audiences showing little negative reaction to AI-generated visuals in TV, digital, and social campaigns. The big picture: The advertising industry has undergone a complete reversal in AI adoption, moving from cautious experimentation to full client demand in just one year. "We have seen a shift in client openness to fully AI developed campaigns," said Christian Pierre, global chief intelligence officer at Gut, a creative agency....
read Sep 30, 2025If you type it, they will come: Nothing debuts store with apps created by text prompts
Nothing has launched Playground, an app store featuring user-designed, AI-generated applications that can be created through written prompts alone. The London-based smartphone company positions this as the "first step towards an AI-native operating system," though the platform runs on Android and represents more of an interface layer than a true OS replacement. What you should know: Playground is part of Nothing's broader Essential product line, which includes several AI tools already in use. Essential encompasses "all our AI-related products," according to founder and CEO Carl Pei, including an existing AI search tool and Essential Space for organizing voice notes and...
read Sep 30, 2025Hollywood agents pursue AI teen “Tilly Norwood” despite SAG-AFTRA pushback
SAG-AFTRA has issued a sharp rebuke against AI talent studio Xicoia's attempt to market "Tilly Norwood," an artificial intelligence-generated performer, to Hollywood agents and producers. The union's statement comes after reports emerged that talent agents have been quietly pursuing representation for the AI character, marking a potential flashpoint in ongoing tensions between the entertainment industry and synthetic performers. What you should know: Xicoia, launched by Dutch technologist Emily Van der Velden through her company Particle 6 Productions, has spent five months building Norwood's digital presence on Instagram with headshots, candids, and motion graphics.• The AI performer is designed to appear...
read Sep 29, 2025Cybercriminals use fake copyright notices to swap crypto wallet addresses
Cybercriminals are exploiting copyright fears to distribute malware through fake legal takedown notices, according to new research from Cofense Intelligence, a cybersecurity firm. The Vietnamese threat actor "Lone None" has been sending multilingual copyright violation messages that appear to come from legitimate law firms, but actually deliver malware when victims click on supposed "resolution" links. Why this matters: This campaign represents a sophisticated evolution in social engineering tactics, leveraging people's fear of copyright violations to bypass traditional security measures. Attackers are using AI tools and machine translation to create convincing takedown notices in multiple languages, expanding their global reach. Instead...
read Sep 29, 2025Top advertising org’s new framework places 84 AI use cases into 6 categories
The advertising industry stands at an inflection point where artificial intelligence transforms every aspect of campaign development and execution. Yet for many marketing organizations, navigating this technological landscape feels like trying to read a map written in a foreign language. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the industry's primary trade organization representing digital advertising companies, recently addressed this challenge with the release of its comprehensive AI in Advertising Use Case Map. Published in September 2024, this framework organizes 84 distinct AI applications across six strategic categories, providing marketing professionals with a structured approach to understanding, evaluating, and implementing artificial intelligence solutions....
read Sep 29, 2025“Tilly Norwood” makes a go of it in Tinseltown: First AI actress woos talent agents as studios embrace tech
Tilly Norwood, the first AI actress from talent studio Xicoia, has attracted interest from multiple talent agents and is expected to sign with representation in the coming months. The development signals growing industry acceptance of AI-generated performers, with studios quietly advancing AI projects after initial skepticism earlier this year. What you should know: Tilly Norwood represents a new frontier in entertainment, as the first creation from AI talent studio Xicoia, a spin-off from Eline Van der Velden's production company Particle6. Van der Velden, an actor and comedian, revealed at the Zurich Summit that multiple talent agents are now interested in...
read Sep 29, 2025YouTube removes horrific AI channel depicting women being murdered
YouTube removed a disturbing channel called "Woman Shot AI" that featured AI-generated videos depicting women being murdered, following an investigation by 404 Media, a technology news outlet. The channel accumulated over 175,000 views and nearly 1,200 subscribers since launching in June 2025, highlighting serious gaps in content moderation and AI tool safeguards. What you should know: The channel exclusively featured graphic AI-generated content showing women being shot, with videos following a consistent formula of photo-realistic depictions of women begging for their lives while held at gunpoint. The channel uploaded 27 videos with titles like "Lara Croft Shot in Breast –...
read Sep 29, 2025Trump embraces outlandish AI-generated portraits as White House communication strategy
President Donald Trump's administration has embraced AI-generated imagery as a core communication strategy, with Trump and his team regularly posting artificial portraits depicting him in fantastical scenarios—from a Star Wars Jedi to the Pope. This marks a significant shift in presidential communication, leveraging AI's viral potential to capture attention and drive engagement across social media platforms, with the administration's official accounts gaining over 16 million new followers since Inauguration Day. What you should know: Trump's AI portraits consistently portray him in heroic or powerful roles, ranging from religious figures to fictional characters. The images include Trump as Pope Francis, a...
read Sep 26, 2025Insta360 launches Wave AI speakerphone with levitating design for elevated productivity
Insta360 has launched Wave, an AI-enabled speakerphone that marks the company's first major entry into professional audio hardware. The device features a unique "levitating" design and integrates with Insta360's AI meeting assistant to transcribe conversations, generate summaries, and create searchable audio archives—positioning the imaging company to compete in the growing market for AI-powered workplace tools. Key features: Wave combines advanced audio capture with intelligent processing capabilities designed for professional use. An 8-microphone 3D array records Hi-Fi 48 kHz quality audio from up to 16 feet away, while AI suppresses over 300 types of ambient noise including traffic and keyboard clicks....
read Sep 26, 2025Windows 11 Photos app now uses AI to automatically sort images into categories
Microsoft is testing an AI-powered feature for its Photos app on Windows 11 that automatically sorts images into specific categories like receipts, screenshots, identity documents, and handwritten notes. The feature aims to help users better organize their photo libraries by using visual recognition to categorize images, even when text appears in non-English languages. How it works: The Photos app uses AI to analyze the visual content of images and automatically place them into designated folders based on what it detects.• Categories currently include receipts, screenshots, identity documents, and handwritten notes.• The system can identify and sort images containing text in...
read Sep 26, 2025YouTube Labs debuts AI-powered music hosts for Premium subscribers
YouTube has launched YouTube Labs, a new platform dedicated to testing "cutting edge AI experiments" for users, with its first feature adding AI-powered music hosts to YouTube Music. The initiative marks YouTube's focused effort to explore artificial intelligence applications within its ecosystem, offering Premium subscribers early access to experimental AI features. What you should know: YouTube Labs represents a dedicated space for AI experimentation, separate from the existing youtube.com/new testing platform that focuses on general feature previews.• The platform is currently available to "a limited number of US-based participants" who can opt into AI experiments before wider release.• Users receive...
read Sep 26, 2025CreateAI launches anime video AI platform “Animon” in China
CreateAI has launched Animon, the world's first anime-specific video generation platform, in China months before its planned global rollout. The strategic China-first launch highlights how AI companies are adapting their market entry strategies to navigate different regulatory environments while addressing growing concerns about copyright and ownership in AI-generated content. What you should know: Animon represents a specialized approach to AI video generation, targeting the massive anime market with content specifically designed for that artistic style. The platform launched in China ahead of its global release, suggesting CreateAI, an AI development company, sees significant opportunity in the Chinese market for anime-style...
read Sep 25, 2025Meta launches “Vibes,” a dedicated feed for AI-generated short videos
Meta has launched Vibes, a dedicated feed for AI-generated short-form videos within its Meta AI app and website. The feature allows users to scroll through AI-created content from other users, create their own clips from scratch or adapt existing videos, and share their creations via direct message or cross-post to Instagram and Facebook. What you should know: Vibes represents Meta's latest experiment in AI-generated content creation, building on the existing Meta AI platform that previously made headlines when users accidentally shared private conversations publicly.• Users can browse AI-generated videos created by others or produce their own content using the platform's...
read Sep 25, 2025Nvidia open-sources Audio2Face AI tool for realistic 3D avatar animations
Nvidia has open-sourced Audio2Face, its AI-powered tool that generates realistic facial animations for 3D avatars based on audio input. The move allows developers worldwide to integrate the technology into games and applications, potentially accelerating the development of more lifelike digital characters across the entertainment and tech industries. What you should know: Audio2Face analyzes acoustic features in voice recordings to automatically generate facial expressions and lip movements for 3D characters. The tool can create animations for both pre-scripted content and real-time livestreams, offering flexibility for different use cases. Developers gain access to the underlying models, software development kits, and training frameworks...
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