Google has reconsidered its previously announced plan to turn off third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome browser in favor of an option to be controlled by consumers. The original plan was pushed back a few times but was expected to take place early next year. Competitors and regulators have raised concerns about the deprecation that would have left Google — which hauled in more than $237.86 billion in ad revenue last year — free to use its own tracking to serve targeted ads to those using Chrome. Google is now developing a new plan to let consumers make their own informed decisions about whether to allow third-party cookies. Continue reading Google Changes Direction with Plans for Third-Party Cookies

Streaming rose to 40.3 percent in June, setting a record as it nudged past the previous single-category high point of 40.1, set by cable in June 2021. The percentage marks the highest share of TV ever reported in the three years since Nielsen debuted its monthly measurement report The Gauge. Google’s YouTube and Fox’s Tubi both claimed personal bests, respectively hitting 9.9 and 2.0 percent of TV viewing. Four streaming platforms achieved double-digit usage growth: Disney+ (+14.8 percent), Tubi (+14.7 percent), Netflix (+11.8 percent) and Max (+11.0 percent) — each with 20 percent or more of that growth attributable to younger viewers. Continue reading Nielsen: Streaming Reps 40 Percent Share of June TV Viewing

A consortium of top tech firms have joined forces to launch a security group focused on artificial intelligence applications. The cybersecurity-focused non-profit OASIS will oversee operational aspects of the Coalition for Secure AI, to be known as CoSAI, described as an “open-source community.” OASIS lists Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia and PayPal as founding Premier Sponsors of CoSAI, whose “additional founding sponsors” include Amazon, Anthropic, Cisco, Chainguard, Cohere, GenLab, OpenAI and Wiz. “CoSAI is an initiative to enhance trust and security in AI use and deployment,” OASIS announced at the Aspen Security Forum. Continue reading Google, OpenAI, Nvidia and Others Form AI Security Coalition

U.S. tech companies are fighting back against what they feel are overly oppressive European Union regulations by withholding products from that market. Meta Platforms will not release its next Llama multimodal AI model there, along with future products. Apple last month said certain Apple Intelligence AI features will not be released in the EU. Previously, tech companies would accommodate regional laws by adapting global strategies so they could do business everywhere with the same products. Given the restrictions of the Digital Markets Act and other EU rules, Big Tech is signaling that may no longer be possible. Continue reading Tough EU Laws Prompt Meta, Apple to Withhold New Products

Samsung Electronics has agreed to acquire UK-based Oxford Semantic Technologies, a knowledge graph firm whose tech will help improve Samsung’s AI-equipped smartphones, TVs and home appliances. When combined with Samsung’s own on-device Galaxy AI, Oxford’s tech will allow “hyper-personalized” user experiences that keep data secure, Samsung said, adding that “knowledge graph technology stores information as an interconnected web of related ideas and process data in a manner similar to how humans acquire, remember, recall and reason over knowledge,” offering insight on “how people use a product or service.” Continue reading Samsung Buying Oxford Semantics to Boost AI Personalization

TikTok owner ByteDance lost its court battle challenging the European Union’s classification of it as a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act. The victory for EU antitrust regulators underscores its seriousness about reining in the power of Big Tech. As a gatekeeper, China’s ByteDance is lumped in with behemoths Google, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, among others. The DMA, which was passed in 2022 and came into effect this year, says gatekeepers must make certain aspects of their apps interoperable with rivals and forbids self-dealing, with stiff fines imposed for those found to fail. Continue reading ByteDance’s DMA Gatekeeper Appeal Dismissed by EU Court

Google has launched the beta version of its Gemini-powered Google Vids productivity app, which lets users create work-related video presentations that embed documents, slides, audio recordings and even additional videos into a timeline. Incorporated into Workspace Labs, Google’s AI preview space, Google says invited participants can use Vids to “build a narrative with high quality templates” or “get to a first draft faster.” Access to Google’s royalty-free stock content library and Vids recording studio means a project can be completed “without ever leaving Workspace,” according to the company. Continue reading Gemini Powering Google Vids Multimedia Presentation Builder

YouTube Music is working to improve its discovery capabilities. The Google unit is testing an AI-powered personalized radio feature for Premium subscribers in the U.S., and is also gradually rolling out something called Sound Search, which lets users describe a type of sound, including by humming it, then having it searched from a catalog that features “over 100 million official songs,” according to YouTube Music. The feature was introduced on a limited basis on Android in May, and is now expanding to iOS users, albeit on what is still a limited basis. Continue reading YouTube Music Expands Its Sound Search and Tests AI Radio

Paris-based global streaming platform Deezer is fielding an AI playlist generator in an international beta launch. The move makes the indie-centric service more competitive with Spotify and Amazon Music, which have already been testing the feature. YouTube is reportedly also experimenting with AI-powered personalized radio. As of now, 5 percent of Deezer’s paid subscribers have been selected at random to try Playlist with AI, which creates playlists from text prompts that invoke moods, genres, decades, activities or “anything else that comes to mind,” according to Deezer. Continue reading Deezer Adds AI Playlists to Compete with Spotify and Amazon

YouTube Shorts has added six new creator features designed to make it more competitive with TikTok. The automatic reconfiguration tool that converts long-form videos into Shorts is coming to Android, while another upgrade lets users type in dialogue that becomes narrated speech. An “Add Yours” sticker will now invite others to share content related to a video that’s been posted, while special effects that evoke the look and feel of “Minecraft” celebrate the 15th anniversary of the popular video game. Stylized captions and a remix tool round out the add-ons announced by YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich. Continue reading YouTube Shorts Offers New Features to Compete with TikTok

New York-based speech synthesis software startup ElevenLabs has launched its latest AI development — Voice Isolator and an API to go with it. Voice Isolator is designed to extract background noise, leaving clear dialogue for film, podcast, and interview post-production. The Voice Isolator API lets developers integrate the new product into third-party applications. To use the technology, content is uploaded and processed by the Voice Isolator model, resulting in what the company claims is speech comparable in quality to that obtained in a recording studio. The app is described as “free, with some limitations.” Continue reading ElevenLabs Voice Isolator Audio Post Tool Released with API

YouTube has released an eraser tool update that makes it easy to remove copyrighted music from videos without disturbing the remaining audio, like dialogue and sound effects. The Erase Song update uses an AI algorithm to detect and remove the offending material, making it more accurate than what had previously been available, as well as easier. Creators whose material has Content ID claims can now excise the objectionable material without having to manually edit and upload a new video, thereby avoiding potential restrictions on where the video is viewable or whether it can be monetized. Continue reading YouTube AI Song Eraser Easily Removes Copyright Material

Meta’s popular instant messaging service WhatsApp is reportedly beta testing a feature that would allow the already integrated Meta AI chatbot to edit and reply to images. The capability was spotted in the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.14.20, with AI powered by Llama 3, the company’s newest large language model released in April. The beta version works via a camera button added to the text box for Meta AI chat in WhatsApp. When pressed, the button triggers a pop-up that indicates Meta AI can analyze and edit photos, though it’s currently unclear to what extent. Continue reading Meta AI Image Analysis and Editing Beta Tested for WhatsApp

San Francisco-based optics company Solos has debuted its latest smart glasses, the Solos AirGo Vision, which offer a camera that takes photos and provides computer vision, and integrates OpenAI’s GPT-4o. The AirGo Vision can provide real-time information using visual input, recognizing people, objects and places, and providing information such as directions or instructions. Both the camera and AI functionality are hands-free, making the AirGo Vision “especially convenient for visual progress and next steps on activities like cooking, home improvement projects, education and studies, and even shopping,” the company explains. Continue reading Solos AirGo Vision Smart Glasses Tout a Camera and GTP-4o

YouTube is rewarding paid subscribers with early access to test features. Available now to those on the Premium tier are smart downloads and picture-in-picture for YouTube Shorts. Smart downloads populate automatically for convenient offline viewing, while PiP is touted as a convenience for multitaskers. The platform is also rolling out its “Jump Ahead” navigational feature to all Premium subs, starting with Android and coming to iOS “in the next few weeks,” the streamer explains. Powered by “a combination of AI and viewership data,” Jump Ahead lets users double-tap to skip ahead through a video. Continue reading YouTube Premium Offering Smart Downloads, PiP for Shorts