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. Continue reading Meta Readies Year-Old Threads for Advertising in Early 2025

Yahoo News has signed up to use San Jose-based cybersecurity company McAfee’s deepfake image detection technology. The scalable McAfee system can “quickly identify images that may have been produced or modified using AI, including deepfake images,” flagging them for the Yahoo News editorial standards team for human review. The standards team then “determines whether the flagged images meet the platform’s editorial guidelines.” The partnership provides news aggregator Yahoo with an extra layer of protection as it deals with a large network of global publishers in addition to policing its original content. Continue reading Yahoo Using McAfee’s Modified Image Detector to Flag Fakes

Penguin Random House, the world’s largest commercial book publisher, has updated the copyright disclaimer that appears in every book to say “no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.” The warning will roll out globally on all new releases as well as backlist titles that are reprinted. Tom Weldon, CEO of Penguin Random House UK, has told staff the company will at its discretion “use generative AI tools selectively and responsibly, where we see a clear case that they can advance our goals.” Continue reading Penguin Random House Warns All Against AI Model Training

Created by Humans, a company that aims to make it easy for creators to be compensated when their work is used for AI model training, has emerged from stealth with $5 million in funding. Positioning itself as “the AI rights licensing platform for creators,” the company was launched by Trip Adler, formerly the CEO of document sharing service and publishing platform Scribd. Noted author Walter Isaacson is an investor and creative advisor. In streamlining the licensing process, Created by Humans hopes to spare individuals and smaller companies from the proposition of engaging in costly litigation against LLM firms. Continue reading Created by Humans: AI Rights Licensing Platform for Creators

Yahoo announced it is bringing new AI features to its news and mail platforms. Its reimagined news app leverages tech acquired when it purchased news aggregator Artifact this spring. Greater personalization and a more intuitive UI are among the upgrades, which include feed customization, summaries of articles and top stories and improved sharing tools. Yahoo says all of this will allow users to make its news aggregator feed a more individualized experience that improves with use. Artifact creators Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, who co-founded Instagram, announced plans in January to shutter the AI-powered news app. Continue reading Yahoo Upgrades Its News and Mail Apps with AI Technology

Substack is attempting to lure select TikTok posters to its publishing platform with the launch of Substack Creator Studio. Billed as “a fellowship for the next wave of video stars to turn their TikTok channels into Substack shows and communities,” the outlet says video-native creators will be able to forge a “more direct, intimate relationship with their audience” on Substack, while making money from subscriptions. Only 10 fellows will be initially selected, and given access to consulting and production support from Adam Faze’s Gymnasium short-form studio, producer of the TikTok series “Boy Room.” Continue reading Substack Creator Studio Bows with 10 Video Fellowship Slots

Social platform X, formerly Twitter, has added news summaries generated by Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk’s xAI, exclusively for Premium subscribers. The personalized trending “Stories” appear in the For You tab of the app’s Explore section. The feature is available on the web and for iOS users for now. For You consists of trending items shared across the platform and within individual networks, along with recommended posts. Grok essentially becomes the voice of X’s news aggregator, teasing articles with short blurbs that link to what X users are saying on the subject. Critics are concerned about Grok’s tone, interpretation of information, and potential for creating fake news. Continue reading X Premium Intros News Blurbs Generated by Musk’s Grok AI

Google is attacking slow-loading web pages with the new JPEG image encoder/decoder Jpegli, which offers a 35 percent compression ratio improvement using high quality compression settings, the Alphabet company says. The Jpegli JPEG coding library offers backward compatibility via “a fully interoperable encoder and decoder complying with the original JPEG standard and its most conventional 8-bit formalism, and API/ABI compatibility with libjpeg-turbo and MozJPEG,” Google says. The resulting images compressed using Jpegli are “more precise and psychovisually effective” as a result of computations that make images “look clearer” with “fewer observable artifacts.” Continue reading Google Introduces Faster, More Efficient JPEG Coding Library

In news rocking the publishing world, two of the largest newspaper chains in the U.S. have drastically downsized their contracts with the Associated Press, eliminating AP journalism from their combined 230 news outlets, including Gannett’s USA Today and McClatchy’s The Miami Herald. Though neither chain disclosed how much the move will save, the AP assesses “it is likely to be in the millions of dollars” for each. Gannett announced it has chosen another newswire partner, Reuters, and says it will continue to subscribe to the AP Stylebook and election results data. AP says its Gannett contract runs through the end of 2024. Continue reading Gannett, McClatchy Cancel Associated Press News Contracts

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Sports Illustrated, has selected the London-based Minute Media to continue publishing the storied magazine in print and digital editions in a deal that runs for 10 years, with an option to extend for up to 20 more years. The Minute partnership will “usher in the future of the SI brand,” announced Authentic, whose portfolio includes fashion and sports, as well as IP rights to celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, who it is leveraging into a chatbot. Minute owns sports and culture resources including athlete-driven The Players’ Tribune, the FanSided network of websites and newsletters, and sports highlights platform STN Video. Continue reading Minute Media Secures a 10-Year Future for Sports Illustrated

News site Semafor has teamed with Microsoft to create a new breaking news product called Signals it says is a template for “the newsroom of the future.” Using AI tools from Microsoft and OpenAI to assist its journalists, the multi-source Signals will offer “perspectives and insights on the biggest stories in the world as they develop,” Semafor says. Microsoft simultaneously announced deals with the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and the Online News Association. “In a year where billions of people will vote in democratic elections worldwide, journalism is critical to creating healthy information ecosystems,” Microsoft says. Continue reading Semafor Teams with Microsoft on AI-Driven Newsfeed Signals

Japanese triple-A game publisher Square Enix rang in the New Year with an open letter from President Takashi Kiryu emphasizing that the 20-year-old firm intends to reinforce its core business of content development and game publishing while aggressively exploring new areas like artificial intelligence and extended reality. In the short term, AI will be used “to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts,” Kiryu wrote in his letter, explaining that “in the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content.” Continue reading Square Enix to Explore New Content Possibilities with AI, XR

Paramount Global has agreed to sell publishing giant Simon & Schuster to private equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion in an all-cash transaction. Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish said the transaction “delivers excellent value to Paramount shareholders while also positioning Simon & Schuster for its next phase of growth with KKR.” On closing, expected in the first half of 2024, Simon & Schuster will become a standalone private company under the continued leadership of President and CEO Jonathan Karp and COO and CFO Dennis Eulau. Continue reading KKR Will Pay $1.62 Billion for Paramount’s Simon & Schuster

Google has been demonstrating a new AI tool that writes news articles. Currently known as Genesis, which is a working title, the app is reportedly able to take topical information as pertains to things like new products or current events and weave it into something approximating a logically developed news story. The Alphabet company’s new product has been quietly pitched to organizations including The Washington Post, The New York Times and News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. One observer described the new tech as a copilot for journalists, rather than a replacement. Continue reading Genesis: Google Demos New Generative AI Newswriting Tool

The Parliament of Canada passed a law requiring technology companies to pay news outlets when linking to their articles, a move that has Meta Platforms threatening to pull news content from Facebook and Instagram in that country. Canada’s Online News Act, which applies to domestic outlets, is the latest move in a global battle between publishers and Big Tech, and follows a similar law in Australia. “A strong, independent and free press is fundamental to our democracy,” a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration tweeted when the law cleared the vote last week. Continue reading Canadian Law Requires That Tech Firms Pay for News Links