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

Netflix has decided to focus on fewer, but higher quality, originals, and has restructured its film group to accommodate the change. Fifteen-year Netflix veteran Lisa Nishimura, who oversaw low-budget features and original documentaries is exiting, along with film group VP Ian Bricke, who logged more than 10 years at the company. Live-action films will now be the purview of a trio of execs: Kira Goldberg, Ori Marmur and Niija Kuykendall. Goldberg and Marmur, who joined Netflix in 2021, were tasked with developing high-end commercial projects. Kuykendall, who joined later that year from Warner Bros., was assigned mid-budget films. Continue reading Netflix Restructures Film Units, Cuts Back on Original Content

Google is launching an Ads Transparency Center. The “searchable hub” rolls out to global users in the coming weeks and lets anyone look up who’s behind an ad, which ads an advertiser ran and where across Google Search, YouTube and the Google Display Network. Additional details are provided for political ads, including the amount spent, number of impressions and any location targeting criteria. In 2020 Google began requiring that advertisers verify their identities, and a year later began letting users access some ad info, but its transparency move follows Facebook’s similar offering, which launched in 2019. Continue reading Google Ads Transparency Center Offers Searchable Ad Data

Apple has acquired WaveOne, a Mountain View-based startup that has been developing AI algorithms for video compression. Cupertino has been mum about the purchase, but the deal reportedly closed in January, and WaveOne employees are said to have been absorbed into Apple’s machine learning groups. WaveOne’s codecs use machine learning to squeeze more picture out of less bandwidth, including optimizing for signal interruptions, so the picture doesn’t freeze or disappear, making it ideal for mobile. As Netflix and YouTube tout picture improvements, WaveOne could potentially advantage Apple TV+ and a mixed reality headset. Continue reading Apple Eyes AI Video Compression with WaveOne Acquisition

Despite threats by U.S. lawmakers to ban popular social video app TikTok, parent company ByteDance continues to drive its apps to the top of the charts. The Chinese company’s latest hit is Lemon8, described as a rival to Instagram that serves a “lifestyle community.” As of Monday, Lemon8 was No. 10 across apps and games in the U.S. App Store’s Top Charts. On Tuesday it climbed to No. 9 among apps. The video- and photo-sharing app was launched internationally in March 2020, but ByteDance appears to have taken a new interest in promoting it. Last month, media outlets reported the company was paying influencers to post on it. Continue reading ByteDance Pushes Lemon8, a Possible Instagram Competitor

On the heels of its success debuting the new Bing AI search engine, Microsoft has revamped Teams, promising twice the performance using half the memory resources and allowing users to appear as 3D avatars in video meetings. Teams now features AI and the interface has been redesigned. For now, the new Teams is available only to those who opt-in to a public preview for Windows users, though Microsoft plans to make it more widely available (including on Apple devices) later this  year. In January, Microsoft reported Teams had 280 million monthly active users, up from 250 million in July 2021. Continue reading Microsoft Upgrades Teams with Avatars, AI, Improved Speed

Canva, the web-based design platform, is debuting “Magic” AI-powered tools that can automate a variety of tasks, from logo design to video editing. The idea is to empower people without design training to do these things, and more. Infographics, advertising materials, illustrations and presentations are among the types of output Canva AI offers. The company is also adding brand management tools to its Visual Worksuite, including a Brand Hub that provides assets for creative application, with permission settings that can restrict off-brand use of things like color or fonts. Continue reading Canva Launches New Branding Features and Magic AI Tools

The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on fraudulent tech advertising, which escalated substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing orders to eight social media and video streaming platforms seeking information on commercial practices that are deceptive or expose consumers to false health-care products, financial scams and counterfeit or fake goods. The action compels services including Meta Platforms’ Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, ByteDance’s TikTok and Amazon’s Twitch to provide answers in 45 days so the FTC can analyze their practices. In addition to fact-finding, the order is intended to pressure the companies to self-regulate. Continue reading FTC Demands Info from Tech Firms in Fight Against Ad Fraud

New York-based Runway is releasing its Gen 2 system, which generates video clips of up to a few seconds from text or image-based user prompts. The company, which specializes in artificial intelligence-enhanced film and editing tools, has opened a waitlist for the new product that will be accessed through a private Discord channel by an audience grown over time. Last year, Meta Platforms and Google both previewed text-to-video software in the research stage, but neither detailed plans to make their platforms public. Bloomberg called Runway’s limited launch “the most high-profile instance of such text-to-video generation outside of a lab.” Continue reading Runway Opens Waitlist for Its Gen 2 Text-to-Video AI System

A video editing app from China’s ByteDance is gaining in popularity in the U.S. even as the parent company comes under fire for its viral video app TikTok potentially threatening national security. App-tracking firms including Shanghai-based Diandian show CapCut has more U.S. downloads than TikTok in recent weeks. CapCut lets users quickly create online memes and videos using templates and filters that include music and visual effects. Users say the app helps them achieve professional-looking results that are more likely to go viral on TikTok, as well as Facebook, Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube. Continue reading ByteDance Video Editing App ‘CapCut’ Gains Traction in U.S.

The Biden administration has reportedly come to the conclusion that ByteDance must sell its stake in TikTok or face the possibility of a U.S. ban. The decision comes as Congress turns up the heat on action against TikTok, which is suspected of compromising U.S. data and potentially manipulating news feeds to influence opinion. It follows a quiet, years-long assessment by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which The Wall Street Journal says “made the sale demand recently.” The Treasury Department, which oversees CFIUS, declined to comment. Continue reading ByteDance Must Sell Chinese TikTok Stake or Face U.S. Ban

YouTube TV is rolling out a new feature aimed at live sports fans. Called “multiview,” it lets people watch up to four different streams at once. Just in time for March Madness, multiview is debuting in early access to select U.S. subscribers and only for sports content, YouTube says, adding that it’s exploring how to apply the quad-screen format across a variety of content and will gradually make it available to more users. Slow-walking the initial launch will allow the platform to collect feedback and improve the feature in time for the fall NFL football season. Continue reading YouTube TV Launches Its ‘Multiview’ Display, Ideal for Sports

Google is readying an API and other enterprise tools for its Pathways Language Model (PaLM) — a large language model similar to GPT — to encourage developers to create chatbots and other apps using the platform. PaLM is one of Google’s most advanced systems, with the capability to generate text, images, code, video and audio from natural language prompts. Much like OpenAI’s GTP series and the LLaMA family from Meta Platforms, it is suitable for a wide variety of general tasks. To facilitate PaLM’s use for specific tasks, Google is launching the MakerSuite along with the PaLM API. Continue reading Google’s PaLM API, MakerSuite Coming to Select Developers