Microsoft is offering authors $5,000 per book to license their works for AI training through publisher HarperCollins, according to a detailed report by Alice Robb in Bloomberg. Authors would receive half of the licensing fee, amounting to $2,500 before agent commissions. The deal gives Microsoft permission to train its AI models on selected books from …
OpenAI and Microsoft are investigating whether Chinese AI startup DeepSeek improperly used OpenAI’s technology to develop its new R1 language model. According to reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times, the companies are probing whether DeepSeek obtained data output from OpenAI’s technology in an unauthorized manner. David Sacks, a venture capitalist and Trump administration member, …
The U.S. Copyright Office has issued new guidelines confirming that AI-generated content can receive copyright protection when humans make substantial contributions or modifications. This clarification came in a document titled “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability,” as reported by Carl Franzen for VentureBeat. The guidelines outline three scenarios where AI-generated material qualifies for copyright …
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued legal advisories warning artificial intelligence companies that many of their current practices may violate state laws. According to an article by Lucas Ropek, the memo identifies three main areas of concern: the use of AI for deception through deepfakes and chatbots, false advertising of AI capabilities, and discriminatory …
The founder and former CEO of San Francisco-based AI chatbot company GameOn has been indicted on fraud charges. According to Reuters reporter Jonathan Stempel, Alexander Beckman, 41, faces 23 criminal counts for allegedly defrauding investors of over $60 million. His wife Valerie Lau Beckman, 38, was also charged with 16 counts. Prosecutors claim Beckman misled …
Scale AI, a company valued at $13.8 billion, is confronting three lawsuits within roughly a month over its treatment of workers. According to Charles Rollet’s report in TechCrunch, the latest class action lawsuit, filed on January 17 in California, involves six workers who claim they suffered psychological trauma from reviewing disturbing content without adequate support. …
Major technology companies Google and Mistral AI have announced separate partnerships with leading news agencies to enhance their AI chatbot services. Google has entered an agreement with The Associated Press (AP) to incorporate real-time news feeds into its Gemini app, while Paris-based Mistral AI has partnered with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to improve its Le Chat …
Internal documents unsealed in a copyright lawsuit show that Meta used pirated books from LibGen to train its artificial intelligence systems. The revelations emerged from a case filed by several prominent authors, including Junot Diaz, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, as reported by Wired magazine and commented on by Lithub. The documents contain direct quotes …
A Ukrainian-American company, Triplegangers, experienced severe website disruption when OpenAI’s web crawler attempted to scrape its entire database of 65,000 3D human model products. According to Julie Bort’s report in TechCrunch, the incident occurred when OpenAI’s bot sent tens of thousands of server requests using 600 different IP addresses. CEO Oleksandr Tomchuk described the bot’s …
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg authorized the use of LibGen, a dataset of pirated e-books and articles, to train the company’s Llama AI models, according to new court documents. The revelation comes from a copyright lawsuit filing reported by Kyle Wiggers in TechCrunch. The lawsuit, Kadrey v. Meta, includes plaintiffs Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Court …