YouTube has added a new feature to its Dream Track toolset, which lets select U.S. creators use AI to generate songs using the vocals of artists including John Legend, Demi Lovato, Charli XCX, Charlie Puth and others. Now users can remix Dream Track songs using natural language to describe the changes they would like, stylistic and otherwise. Selecting the “restyle a track” option will steer users to creating a 30-second generative snippet for use in YouTube Shorts. The remixed snippets will credit the original song with “clear attribution” through the Short itself and the Shorts audio pivot page. It will also clearly indicate that the track was restyled with AI, according to Google. Read more

DeepL, a German company that gained a profile with online text translation, has released DeepL Voice, a B2B tool that translates to captions in real time. DeepL Voice debuts in two iterations: DeepL Voice for Meetings, which allows participants to speak in their preferred language while serving colleagues with captions, and DeepL Voice for Conversations, which works on mobile devices, facilitating in-person, one-on-one conversations “with customers, colleagues or anyone else, in the language that works best for them,” the company explains, noting that real-time voice translation offers specific challenges. Read more

Reports indicate that Meta Platforms is preparing to introduce advertising to Threads, perhaps as soon as January. Threads is the year-old social platform it launched to compete with Twitter in July 2023, the same month Elon Musk was rebranding that platform as X. Meta is looking to begin Threads’ transition to ad support by initially allowing only a small group of advertisers to create and publish ads before opening the platform to the ad industry at large later in the year. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, who also runs Threads, has said Meta is “definitely” planning to open ad inventory on Threads. Read more

Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has added video call features that could position the company as a rival to communication platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Signal has also added a “Calls” tab that lets users initiate new calls, review call history and create call links, which can conveniently be shared with colleagues via normal messaging instead of having to create specific call groups. The reusable links also make it easy to share invites for recurring calls. Signal Calls is available for iOS, Android and desktop. The desktop app lets users choose between grid, sidebar and speaker views. Read more

Particle, the AI-powered news aggregator created by a pair of Twitter alums, has launched after a year in beta. The iOS app summarizes current events in quick hits the startup says do not violate the copyrights of publishers whose news it shares. Instead of simply scraping publishers’ work for proprietary use, the startup seeks to compensate publishers and drive traffic to news sites with prominent links to sources accompanying each AI news summary. Developed by Sara Beykpour and Marcel Molina, Particle has raised more than $11 million in early funding led by Lightspeed. Read more