Online graphic design platform Freepik, has unveiled F Lite, a text-to-image generator that the company says was trained only on licensed content, making it safe for commercial use. The 10 billion-parameter F Lite — currently available in two openly-licensed versions — was developed in partnership with Fal.ai, a San Francisco-based AI startup that uses a proprietary inference engine and APIs to enable fast training, inference, and scaling of image, video, audio, and multimodal AI models. Freepik Head of AI Iván de Prado describes F Lite as “a significant milestone in open, responsible AI.” Continue reading Freepik Introduces a Responsibly Trained AI Image Generator

Los Angeles-based AI startup Moonvalley has released a video generator purpose-built for entertainment and advertising. Called Marey, its creators say it was designed with the “specifications and tastes” of filmmakers and studios in mind and trained exclusively on owned or fully licensed source data to protect users from lawsuits. Asteria, a partner in the venture, owns a large documentary library through its subsidiary XTR. Its founders say Marey aims to usher in “a new era of GenAI video built to empower — not replace — the creative forces behind modern motion pictures.” Continue reading Moonvalley and Asteria Unveil Cinematic GenVid Model Marey

Disney’s new streaming businesses — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — have now accrued more than 100 million subscribers worldwide. With the release of blockbuster “Hamilton” on Disney+, that service hit 60.5 million subscribers after only nine months. That was a (low-end) number that Disney originally hoped to achieve at the end of five years. Disney has also announced that it would release its $200 million feature “Mulan” on Disney+, on a premium basis rather than movie theaters, in the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe. Continue reading Disney’s Streaming Services Hit 100 Million Subscriber Mark