Twitter has reversed its decision to label public broadcasters as “government funded” or “state affiliated” — designations that under previous ownership were reserved for propaganda arms. The Friday move came after NPR and Canada’s CBC paused their Twitter accounts in protest. The BBC was also hit with a state-sponsored appellation. Outlets that challenged the state-sponsored appellation say only part of their funding comes from the government, and stress their terms include editorial independence. The reversal came one day after Twitter began removing the blue verification check marks from the accounts of thousands of non-paying users. Continue reading Backlash Prompts Twitter to Drop State-Affiliated Media Label

There’s been a lot of noise recently about music generated by artificial intelligence tools. The clamor is on multiple fronts: generative mimicry of specific artists’ vocal styles, the potential to put Muzak-style background tunesmiths out of business with potentially cheaper alternatives, and the particulars of takedown orders. The matter came to a head this month after generative AI vocals prompted to sound like Drake and The Weeknd performed a song called “Heart on My Sleeve,” written and produced by a TikTok user. The tune quickly went viral, raising numerous concerns. Continue reading Music Industry Contends with Artificial Intelligence Disruption

More than 3 million users are now using the $3.99-per-month Snapchat+ subscription service that launched last June. The premium offering got a boost when the company added early access to its AI chatbot, called My AI. Snap will soon make My AI available free to Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users, the company announced Wednesday at its annual partner summit in Santa Monica, California. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told attendees the company is targeting 10 million users as a “medium-term goal” for Snapchat+, which in addition to the U.S. is available in the UK, Germany and United Arab Emirates. Continue reading ‘My AI’ Will Be Free for All as Snapchat+ Hits 3M Paying Subs

Canon USA is preparing to launch a curated photography marketplace for NFTs called Cadabra that is expected to go live in the U.S. later this year and expand globally thereafter. Canon previewed Cadabra at the annual NFT.NYC show, revealing few details other than it will mint its NFT transactions on the Ethereum blockchain and allow participating photographers to offer physical prints along with their NFT drops, which Canon will fulfill. Although some NFT marketplaces require customers to make purchases with specific cryptocurrencies, Canon says Cadabra will support credit and debit cards along with cryptocurrency wallets. Continue reading Canon Will Launch Ethereum-Based NFT Art Market Cadabra

Twitter appears to be angling for a slice of the newsletter market, with tweets of up to 10,000 words now available to Twitter Blue subscribers in the U.S. That’s more than double the 4,000-character limit paid accounts were extended in February. Those using the platform’s free tier are still allowed only 280-character tweets. The lengthy posts are intended to help users monetize through subscriptions, which can be priced at $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99 per month. In addition to the character cap increase, Twitter Blue subscribers will also gain access to support for bold and italics text formatting. Continue reading Twitter Pushes Subscriptions and Increases Its Character Cap

Montana law may soon include a total ban on TikTok, as governor Greg Gianforte decides whether to sign a first-of-its-kind prohibition approved by the state’s House of Representatives on Friday. The legislation would also seek to prevent app stores doing business in the state from carrying TikTok. Gianforte will also have the option to veto the proposal, or take no action for 10 days after the bill hits his desk, in which case it becomes law without his signature. Such a ban would likely be challenging to enforce at the state level. Blocking users from TikTok has gained bipartisan support at the federal level, though efforts to pass nationwide legislation have failed. Continue reading Montana Is First State to Send TikTok Ban to Governor’s Desk

Gen Z creators keen to monetize content are increasingly turning to Fanfix, which has amassed about 10 million users — among them 3,000 creators — since its August 2021 launch. Active creators are said to average about $70,000 per year, and the platform itself reportedly commanded an eight-figure purchase price by beauty accelerator SuperOrdinary in June 2022. Fanfix requires 10,000 followers to start an account, which means creators will have to cultivate a base elsewhere before applying to join. All content is paywalled, with account holders choosing their own rates, between $5 and $50 per month. Continue reading Gen Z Creators Find New Revenue Opportunities with Fanfix

While there are a fair share of cynics ready to write-off the metaverse before it has a chance to crawl out of its crib, many marketers remain believers. Forty-six percent of consumer branding professionals tell Forrester Research they will be upping their metaverse budgets in 2023, while only 12 percent plan to spend less. But generative AI seems to have stolen some of its thunder, with FactSet reporting AI was mentioned on 163 March earnings calls, up from seven in March 2022. The metaverse got 35 mentions, down from 112 the previous year. Continue reading Metaverse Still Shows Potential for Brand Building, Marketing

Utah has become the first state to pass laws requiring social media platforms to obtain age verification before users can register. The law is designed to force social networks to enforce parental consent provisions. As of March 2024, companies including Facebook, Instagram, Snap, TikTok and Twitter will be required to secure proof of age for Utah users via a valid ID instead of just letting people type in their birth date at sign-up. While Utah is out front on the issue, nine other states have proposed legislation that includes age checks, most recently Arkansas. Continue reading Utah’s Social Media Law Requires Age Verification for Minors

Popular social platform Snapchat is improving its AI chatbot as part of a larger set of updates (that includes an age filter and parental insights) and recently launched premium features (such as generative AI profiles backgrounds). The chatbot, My AI, was launched in February for Snapchat+ subscribers. Snap says it has since received feedback of inappropriate responses from My AI, which was built using OpenAI’s GPT technology, but claims the problems have been due in large part to users trying to “trick the chatbot into providing responses that do not conform to our guidelines.” The new tools are designed to keep My AI’s responses in check. Continue reading Snapchat Adds Safety Moderation Tools to Improve Chatbot

AMD is introducing a new encoder chip designed for energy efficient and economical AV1 video streaming. The AV1 codec is increasingly popular as streamers seek to meet massive bandwidth needs. AMD’s new card, the Alveo MA35D, delivers what promises to be a massive leap in throughput and compression over its predecessor. Compression performance is critical in today’s streaming market, where the model has changed from a one-to-many central server model to a cloud-based distributed many-to-many format as entertainment is vying for bandwidth with video conferences, massively multiplayer online games and social media streaming. Continue reading AMD Touts Advance in AV1 Encoding for Streaming Services

Meta Platforms has published a new AI technology, the Segment Anything Model (SAM) that the company claims can identify objects it hasn’t seen before. Acting on a text prompt, SAM will highlight items in a photo or video, picking out all the cats, for instance, or flowers. It can also execute other functions, such as generating a 3D construct using a single 2D image or extrapolating from things viewed in a mixed reality headset. Segment Anything can work in concert with other models, potentially minimizing the need for voluminous data sets for training. Continue reading New Meta AI Can Detect Objects It Has Not Been Trained On

YouTube is expanding its Analytics for Artists feature with a new Total Reach metric that will include data for fan-uploaded YouTube Shorts. In addition to official content uploaded by the artist as well as user-generated long-form videos, YouTube says Total Reach represents “the most comprehensive snapshot of the size of an artist’s audience on YouTube,” showing how many viewers are experiencing content across all formats. The company is also launching a new Songs section in Analytics “to help artists see how fans are listening to their music or creating with it, across all video formats, all in one place.” Continue reading YouTube Expands Analytics for Artists Tool, Adds Shorts Data

Twitter did not implement the check mark purge set for April 1, when it said it would remove the blue verification symbols from the accounts of celebrities, influencers and politicians who were not paying $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription. The weekend came and went with the status of so-called “legacy verifications” largely unchanged. Twitter’s owner and CEO, Elon Musk, says he still plans to monetize verifications, and that U.S. businesses and governments will be charged $1,000 monthly to retain their checkmarks — gold for businesses and gray for governments. Continue reading Changes to Twitter’s Legacy Verifications Lead to Confusion

SoftBank-owned Alibaba Group — with headquarters in Hangzhou, China — plans to split into six independent companies that may seek separate IPOs, the company announced as Chinese authorities appear to be winding down a regulatory clampdown on the country’s powerful technology sector. The business empire assembled around e-commerce by industrialist Jack Ma these past 20 years was at its peak valued at more than $800 billion but is now assessed at about one-fourth that amount. The company’s stock soared on the news adding about $32 billion in global value, a rising tide that also lifted competitors’ boats. Continue reading Alibaba to Split into Six New Companies with Potential IPOs