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Robert Downey Jr. isn’t someone who shies away from sharing his brutally honest thoughts on a tricky subject matter. Recently, he confessed to wishing Elon Musk controlled his behavior slightly more. Now, the Iron Man star’s thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming widely popular.

Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3 — Official Trailer | Credit: Marvel Studios

The Oscar winner went as far as to threaten future Marvel executives with a lawsuit if they ever dared recreate his iconic MCU character using an AI likeness of him. Along the same lines, Downey Jr. also candidly confessed why he stays away from engaging with AI companies in any way.

Real Reason Robert Downey Jr. Despises AI Companies

Robert Downey Jr. was confronted with some pressing questions during his recent appearance on “On With Kara Swisher” podcast. Most importantly, this new interview made the Avengers: Endgame legend’s feelings about...

Robert Downey Jr. appeared on a recent episode of the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast and sent a stern warning to Hollywood in the age of AI: “I intend to sue all future executives” who sign off on the creation of a Downey digital replica. The Oscar winner does not want his likeness being used on screen through AI technology and/or deepfakes. The topic came up in relation to Downey’s Marvel tenure as Iron Man, but he’s confident Marvel would not recreate his Tony Stark through AI.

“There’s two tracks. How do I feel about everything that’s going on? I feel about it minimally because I have an actual emotional life that’s occurring that doesn’t have a lot of room for that,” Downey said when asked about being digitally recreated in the future.

“To go back to the MCU, I am not worried...

The rapid advancement in the field of artificial intelligence has given birth to a number of Large Language Models (LLMs), each of which is distinct and has various applications. This post is examining the position of OpenAI’s models within the context of other AI platforms, their competitive analytics as well as potentialities in the market, and the user audiences.

What is OpenAI?

OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

What is Llm?

Let’s start with the basics.

A Large Language Model (Llm) is an advanced AI system trained on vast amounts of text data to understand, generate, and predict human language, enabling tasks like translation, summarisation, and conversation.

Five popular Large Language Models (LLMs) include:

Gpt-4 (by OpenAI) Bert (by Google) Lamda (by Google) LLaMA (by Meta) PaLM (by Google) OpenAI at a Glance

Any discussion of OpenAI...

As AI companies hoover up troves of content across the internet, search traffic is positioned as the next front in the tug-of-war between publishers and Big Tech. Media organizations are pushing to shape the tools that create AI-generated summaries of their news stories, sometimes without attribution or citation, allowing users to bypass their articles.

The New York Times has sent generative AI startup Perplexity, backed by Jeff Bezos and YouTube’s ex-chief executive, a cease and desist for copying its articles and using them to create summaries of articles. The publisher says the practice constitutes “egregious and ongoing violations” of its intellectual property rights since the answers are “substitutive of our protected works.”

So far, most battles in the AI world have largely revolved around the use of copyrighted content to train large language models, the systems that power ChatGPT and other chatbots. But publishers also take issue with AI...

For WME chief operating officer Dan Limerick, consolidation in Hollywood gave way to the tech giants that have encroached upon the territory historically held by legacy media.

Limerick, who joined The Hollywood Reporter co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan on Wednesday in a keynote conversation at THR’s annual Power Business Managers event, presented by City National Bank, likened the current state of the entertainment industry to the 2000s during the height of broadcast TV that started to see incumbents gobble up competitors.

“Times like this give rise to tech,” he said.

By his thinking, the shift isn’t all that bad. He observed that the companies that are now a part of the Hollywood landscape are contributing to solving the issues that the mergers and acquisitions feeding frenzy triggered. “As we consolidate, there’s a lot of sameness that starts to percolate,” he added. “With a more diverse slate of studios to work with,...

Nothing succeeds like success, but in Silicon Valley nothing raises eyebrows like a steady trickle out the door.

The exit of OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati announced on Sept. 25 has set Silicon Valley tongues wagging that all is not well in Altmanland — especially since sources say she left because she’d given up on trying to reform or slow down the company from within. Murati was joined in her departure from the high-flying firm by two top science minds, chief research officer Bob McGrew and researcher Barret Zoph (who helped develop ChatGPT). All are leaving for no immediately known opportunity.

The drama is both personal and philosophical — and goes to the heart of how the machine-intelligence age will be shaped.

It dates back to November, when a mix of Sam Altman’s allegedly squirrelly management style and safety questions about a top-secret project called Q* (later renamed Strawberry...

OpenAI has closed a massive $6.6 billion funding round that values the generative artificial intelligence giant at $157 billion.

The company announced the news in a blog post Wednesday, writing that “the new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools that help people solve hard problems.”

The round was led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital, and also includes Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, Fidelity and other high-profile investors.

OpenAI, of course, is arguably the most significant AI company on the planet (technically, of course, it is a non-profit). Its ChatGPT product changed the conversation around generative AI, and its Dall-e image generation software demonstrated the potential for that tech. It is also wading into the AI-generated video world with its Sora product, announced earlier this year.

The startup, led by CEO Sam Altman, has in recent months cut a...

Welcome to WiC Weekly, where we recap all the latest and greatest goings-on here on this website dedicated to all things sci-fi, fantasy, movies, books and TV. First up, we have an early review of the new season of Daryl Dixon, and it is going to blow your head clean off:

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— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) September 29, 2024

Next up, George R.R. Martin gets flack for working on projects other than The Winds of Winter, but when they're this good, it's hard to complaint:

How George R.R. Martin became involved in AMC's excellent Dark Winds series: https://t.co/ZDfpthmSYz https://t.co/ZDfpthmSYz

— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) September 29, 2024

Back to The Walking Dead, we interviewed a writer on the Daryl Dixon show to get her perspective on...

Elon Musk is regularly the richest man in the world thanks to being at the head of companies like Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. He also famously bought Twitter in 2022, renaming the platform X and changing it up so much that advertisers fled and use went down by a fifth. Musk tweets regularly, sometimes about stuff you'd expect, and often about some pretty weird stuff; just the other week he pointed out to his nearly 200 million followers that "No one is even trying to assassinate" President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, a tweet that brought a rebuke from the White House.

Never a dull moment on that account. Musk is also fond of taking shots at Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI. OpenAI, of course, is the hugely successful artificial intelligence company behind ChapGPT. Musk used to be part of the company, but left under reportedly bad terms a...

Some familiar voices will be coming to Meta’s AI chatbots on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

At a Meta Connect event on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the voice updates to the company’s suite of AI products alongside other offerings like AI dubbing and tools to use AI to edit photos.

Zuckerberg said that the voice functionality will begin rolling out this week.

“We want to make this fun, all right? So in addition to the different system voices that we built in that I think are are pretty good, we’ve also worked with some of the most iconic voices out there to bring them to Meta AI,” Zuckerberg said onstage before beginning a live demo featuring the voice of Awkwafina.

“Are live demos risky?” Zuckerberg asked.

“Live demos can be risky, yes,” the AI system responded in Awkwafina’s voice. “They can be unpredictable, prone to technical issues and potentially embarrassing,...

For the first time, OpenAI will provide access to its training data for review of whether copyrighted works were used to power its technology.

In a Tuesday filing, authors suing the Sam Altman-led firm and OpenAI indicated that they came to terms on protocols for inspection of the information. They’ll seek details related to the incorporation of their works in training datasets, which could be a battleground in the case that may help establish guardrails for the creation of automated chatbots.

The agreement stems from a trio of lawsuits initiated by top authors, including Sarah Silverman, Paul Tremblay and Ta-Nehisi Coates, accusing OpenAI of harvesting mass quantities of books across the web, which were then allegedly used to produce infringing answers by ChatGPT. It comes after the court in July dismissed a claim alleging that the company engaged in unfair business practices by utilizing their works without consent or compensation.

The term “artificial intelligence” can mean a lot of different things, depending on who’s hearing it. Some fear AI as a threat, while others welcome it as a way to make their life easier. Where is the truth? Oprah Winfrey will dig into that question in her new special “AI and the Future of Us,” which airs on ABC on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. Et. Winfrey will welcome a series of experts on the subject of AI to answer all the questions she can think to ask, and anyone who wants to learn more on the topic should tune in. You can do so with a 5-Day Free Trial of Directv Stream.

How to Watch Oprah Winfrey’s ‘AI and the Future of Us’ When: Thursday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. Et TV: ABC Stream: Watch with a 5-Day Free Trial of Directv Stream 5-Day Free Trial $79.99 / month directv.

Tom Hanks warned fans about AI-generated ads featuring his likeness to sell “wonder drugs.”

“There are multiple ads over the internet falsely using my name, likeness, and voice promoting miracle cures and wonder drugs,” the actor wrote. “These ads have been created without my consent, fraudulently and through AI.”

Hanks confirmed that he has “nothing to do with these posts or the products and treatments, or the spokespeople touting these cures. I have type 2 diabetes and I Only work with my board certified doctor regarding my treatment.”

The Forrest Gump star then told fans to “not be fooled, not be swindled” and “not lose your hard earned money.”

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This isn’t the first time someone has used Hanks’ likeness to hawk products. In October 2023, he shared a screenshot on Instagram of a false ad, writing, “Beware!! There’s...

The always-in-demand Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale, Peacock’s upcoming Teacup) now is set to headline and executive-produce a series adaptation of Karin Tanabe’s A Woman of Intelligence, our sister site Deadline reports.

The 2021 novel follows a 1950s New York City socialite who becomes an FBI informant. A platform for the adaptation has not yet been announced.

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Real Housewives Trailer, Harris/Walz Ratings, Trump Town Hall and MoreLaw & Order: Oc: Dean Norris Upped to Series Regular for Season 5TVLine Items: Legend of Vox Machina Trailer, Superstore Alum Joins Lauren Graham Comedy and More ‘A Woman...

Oprah Winfrey will host an eye-opening new special that explores the profound impact of artificial intelligence on people’s daily lives, demystifying the technology and empowering viewers to understand and navigate the rapidly evolving AI future.

The one-hour primetime event, AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special, airs Thursday, September 12 (8:00-9:03 p.m. Edt) on ABC. It will stream the next day on Hulu.

Photo Courtesy of ABC

The special features Winfrey’s exclusive interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in the field, including the following:

Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, will explain how AI works in layman’s terms and discuss the immense personal responsibility that must be borne by the executives of companies.

Microsoft Co-Founder and Chair of the Gates Foundation Bill Gates will lay out the AI revolution coming in science, health, and education and warns of...

Oprah Winfrey is taking a deep dive into AI with a new hourlong special AI and the Future of Us, set to air Thursday, September 12 at 8 p.m. on ABC and streaming next day on Hulu.

The special “provides a serious, entertaining and meaningful base for every viewer to understand AI, and empowers everyone to be a part of one of the most important global conversations of the 21st century,” according to the official logline.

The special will include interviews with Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft co-founder and chair of the Gates Foundation Bill Gates, YouTube creator and technologist Marques Brownlee, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, co-founders of Center for Humane Technology, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson.

Altman “will explain how AI works in layman’s terms and discusses the immense personal responsibility that must be borne by the executives of AI companies. Gates...

Oprah Winfrey is delving into the realm of artificial intelligence.

Winfrey will host an ABC special titled AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special on Sept. 12, in which she’ll talk to some leading figures in the artificial-intelligence space, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI head Sam Altman, as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray and a couple of skeptical voices.

The hourlong special is the second one Winfrey has hosted this year; in March, she led a discussion about weight loss and wellness tied to the rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy.

In addition to Gates, Altman and Wray, the special will feature interviews with technologist and widely followed YouTube tech reviewer Marcus Brownlee; Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, co-founders of the Center for Humane Technology who warn of the risks of AI growing too powerful, too fast; and author Marilynne Robinson,...

Oprah Winfrey is set to host a primetime special for ABC that will tackle the use and impact that artificial intelligence has on people’s everyday lives.

The special, titled “AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special,” is set to air Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. Et and stream on Hulu the next day. The event will feature conversations with tech and media pundits like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, former Microsoft CEO and Gates Foundation chair Bill Gates, content creator Marques Brownlee and many more.

” ‘AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special’ provides a serious, entertaining and meaningful base for every viewer to understand AI and empowers everyone to be a part of one of the most important global conversations of the 21st century,” reads the log line.

“Altman will explain how AI works in layman’s terms and discusses the immense personal responsibility that...

Oprah Winfrey will sit down with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for an exclusive interview as part of a new ABC primetime special, “AI and the Future of Us,” premiering Sept. 12 at 8 Et. The hour-long special will stream the next day on Hulu.

Meant to explore the impact artificial intelligence is having on people’s daily lives, demystify the technology and empower viewers to understand and navigate the rapidly evolving AI future, the interview will see Altman explain how it works in layman’s terms and discuss the immense personal responsibility borne by executives of AI companies.

Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder and Gates Foundation chair Bill Gates will lay out the AI revolution in science, health and education and the once-in-a-century type of impact it could have on the job market.

Winfrey will also speak with YouTube creator and technologist Marques Brownlee, who will demonstrate AI’s capabilities, and Center for Humane...

Even Elon Musk wants to see California legislation to safeguard against the unrestricted rise of artificial intelligence and today politicians in Sacramento moved one giant step closer to protecting actors from a virtual afterlife of sorts.

On a third reading, the state Senate Tuesday passed a bill that would require studios, streamers and other employers to seek specific permission from performers to create digital replicas.

Well before Assembly Bill 2602 was introduced back in April, the bill has been strongly supported by SAG-AFTRA. On all political fronts, the guild has pressed over the year for federal and state legislation to codify many of the provisions in their strike ending agreement with the AMPTP last fall.

“We are thrilled that one of our top legislative priorities, Bill Ab 2602 has passed in the State of California,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree Ireland told Deadline tonight. “The bill...

“Sorry, my dog is escaping,” said Jon Hamm to IndieWire, breaking off an answer midway through a phone interview. “I just opened the door and he went for it.”

The Hollywood heavyweight is managing a lot these days. Formerly known as Don Draper from “Mad Men,” the A-list actor is juggling two Emmy nominations against the backdrop of his ever-boiling film career. The multi-faceted bad guys who Hamm plays — Sheriff Roy Tillman in FX’s “Fargo” Season 5 and billionaire tech mogul Paul Marks in Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” Season 3 — earned the versatile performer nods for both Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The Television Academy has recognized Hamm with 18 nominations (and one win) to date, but this is the fourth year he’s been nominated for two parts simultaneously.

“The pressure of any kind of award stuff is baked in,...

It was inevitable. Almost all data on the web is being trained by AI giants with the help of 3rd party dataset generators and without any permission. PoofNews.org reveals that even your YouTube videos are being used for that purpose and without any consent.

Will OpenAI destroy Hollywood? Everybody’s work is being exposed to AI dataset generators

As stated by Proof News: “Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic, and other big tech companies used thousands of swiped YouTube videos to train AI. Creators claim their videos were used without their knowledge”. The research site claims that tech companies are turning to controversial tactics to feed their data-hungry artificial intelligence models, vacuuming up books, websites, photos, and social media posts, often unbeknownst to the creators.

OpenAI founder, Sam Altman, and Hollywood. Remaining in secrecy

Proof News adds that AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation...

OpenAI has been sued by a YouTuber whose videos were transcribed and used to train its artificial intelligence system, opening a new front in the legal battle against companies leading development of the technology.

With the lawsuit, creators on YouTube join sprawling litigation over the unauthorized utilization of copyrighted material to power ChatGPT. Creators who’ve initiated legal action against AI firms include artists, authors, news publishers and record labels.

The complaint brought by David Millette on Friday in federal court in San Francisco builds off a report from The New York Times published in April over OpenAI’s creation of a speech recognition system called Whisper. Faced with a supply problem in late 2021 after exhausting nearly every reservoir of text on the internet, the Sam Altman-led company allegedly built the tool to transcribe audio from YouTube videos, with the aim of training the next version of Gpt.

According to the complaint,...

If you were to stick a pin in a timeline at the exact moment Silicon Valley declared war on Hollywood, it would likely land on Aug. 29, 1997. That’s the date Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph got together in Scotts Valley, about an hour south of San Francisco, and started a little DVD delivery company called Netflix.

The rest is history: Within just a couple of decades, all the traditional pillars of the old entertainment order started to crumble. Linear television, cable TV, theatrical box office — nothing was left standing, at least not as tall as it once had. This we all know, all too well.

But here’s what’s new. Very recently, just over the past several weeks, there have been signs that Southern California once again is rising — or trying to, at any rate. This time, though, the civil war with the north isn’t over digital platform...

Elon Musk is reigniting a legal battle against OpenAI over its for-profit pivot, this time looking to void the company’s partnership with Microsoft.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California on Monday, alleges fraud and breach of contract over claims that the Tesla founder was swindled when he invested roughly $45 million into the AI venture, which he says betrayed its original mission to safely develop the technology “for the benefit of humanity.” In Musk’s telling, chief executive Sam Altman illegally partnered with Microsoft to establish a web of illicit affiliates and plunder its nonprofit arm of assets and staff in violation of their deal.

Musk seeks a court order invalidating OpenAI’s exclusive license with Microsoft giving it unique access to the underlying code of Gpt-4, as well as treble damages and disgorgement of profits attributed to his investments in the company. It names Altman, president...

Exclusive: Not a day seems to go by that Elon Musk isn’t being sued or threatening to sue someone, but now the X/Twitter owner is back in a legal war with OpenAI, with a twist.

Former OpenAI co-founder Musk will square off anew with his old partners CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman in federal court in a just filed suit that might be one of the biggest tests of the wild growth of the OpenAI venture and the hundreds of billions on the table.

“The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions,” declares the fraud and breach of contract filing (read here) this morning in the court docket in the Northern District of California.

“Once OpenAI’s technology approached Agi (Artificial General Intelligence), Altman and his accomplices flipped the script,” the unspecified multi-damages complaint adds. “OpenAI’s focus shifted from its advertised charitable purpose – to benefit...

Top authors suing OpenAI over the use of their novels to train its artificial intelligence chatbot have hit a stumbling block, with a federal judge narrowing the scope of their case.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Tuesday evening dismissed a claim accusing the Sam Altman-led firm of unfair business practices by utilizing the works of authors — including Sarah Silverman, Paul Tremblay and Ta-Nehisi Coates — without consent or compensation to power its AI system.

The writers’ primary claim for direct copyright infringement was left untouched.

In February, the court dismissed other claims for negligence, unjust enrichment and vicarious copyright infringement. It denied dismissal of the unfair competition law claim, but lawyers for the authors tweaked it after lawsuits from Silverman, Tremblay and Michael Chabon — all of whom originally brought their own class actions — were grouped together. OpenAI seized upon the changes for a second try at dismissal, which was challenged by the plaintiffs.

Over a month ago, OpenAI introduced its new, flirty voice assistant named Sky. The voice used for the assistant sounded strikingly similar to Scarlett Johansson, prompting the ‘Black Widow’ star to contact her lawyers.

Johansson disclosed that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, had twice requested to license her voice for a virtual assistant, both times met with refusal. Despite her rejections, Johansson asserts that OpenAI used a voice that closely resembles hers for their new assistant.

For Scarlett Johansson, the situation feels like life imitating art. In 2013, she voiced an A.I. system in the movie ‘Her,’ which told the story of a man falling in love with a virtual assistant named Samantha, highlighting the potential dangers of realistic technology. Despite OpenAI distancing itself from accusations of “borrowing” her voice, Sam Altman himself referenced the movie in a social media post with the word “her.”

OpenAI stated it couldn’t...

Over a month ago, OpenAI released its new, flirty voice assistant named Sky. The voice they used for the assistant sounded eerily like Scarlett Johansson, and that’s when the ‘Black Widow’ star decided to contact her lawyers.

Johansson revealed that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, twice requested to license her voice for a virtual assistant, which she declined both times. Despite her refusals, Johansson claims that OpenAI used a voice that sounded similar to hers in their new assistant.

For her, the situation feels like life imitating art. In 2013, she voiced an A.I. system in the movie ‘Her,’ which depicted a man falling in love with a virtual assistant named Samantha, focused on the potential dangers of realistic technology. Despite OpenAI distancing itself from the fact that it “borrowed” the voice, Altman himself referenced the movie on social media in a post with the word “her.”

OpenAI stated...

Scarlett Johansson turned producer for the first time with the upcoming conspiracy comedy Fly Me to the Moon. The actress is also set to make her directorial debut with Eleanor the Great and is even part of the upcoming Jurassic World spinoff. This is the second big franchise she is a part of after playing Black Widow in the MCU.

The actress, who has had a tumultuous relationship with Marvel and Disney since they simultaneously released Black Widow in theaters and streaming, revealed that she shared a text chain with her The Avengers co-stars. She mentioned that they discussed negative reviews and box office collections in their messages.

Scarlett Johansson Confirms The Existence Of An Avengers Text-Chain Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2 | Credits: Marvel Studios

Remember the hilarious superhero text-chain memes? Well, that might just be a reality as Scarlett Johansson revealed that the Og Avengers stars of the...

Actor, who claimed ChatGPT update used an imitation of her voice, says she declined to provide her own as ‘it went against my core values’

Scarlett Johansson has spoken out against OpenAI and deepfake technology, saying it was “so disturbing” and she was “so angry” after the company seemingly mimicked her voice for its ChatGPT system Sky.

The actor made headlines earlier this year when she issued a public statement saying OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, had contacted her in September 2023 to provide the voice for Sky, in an ode to her role in the Spike Jonze film Her, but she had declined for “personal reasons”. In May, as the company released Sky, Altman shared a tweet that simply read “her”.

Scarlett Johansson’s animosity towards Disney went out with its former CEO.

Johansson infamously filed a lawsuit against the conglomerate for the day-and-date streaming release of standalone Marvel film “Black Widow” in 2021. Lead star Johansson’s contract for the film included that the feature be released exclusively in theaters with backend compensation in addition to her $20 million salary. As Disney alleged Johansson had a “callous disregard” for the Covid-19 pandemic amid a theatrical release, Johansson’s lawyer John Berlinski claimed it was a “misogynistic attack” against the actress with further arbitration. Johansson settled the lawsuit.

Bob Chapek was formerly the controversial CEO of Disney. Upon his exit, the company reinstated past CEO Bob Iger.

Now, Johansson is confirming she does not have a “grudge” against the Marvel parent company.

“I don’t hold a grudge,” Johansson told The New York Times. “I think it was just poor judgment and poor leadership at that time.

Scarlett Johansson is using her very real voice to virtual snipe at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In an interview with The New York Times, the Her actor suggested Altman would make a good Marvel villain, “maybe with a robotic arm.”

Johansson and Altman publicly feuded in May when Altman’s OpenAI allegedly used an imitation of Johansson’s voice as an AI virtual assistant in the 2013 film Her. While OpenAI reluctantly agreed to withdraw the Her-like voice option while maintaining it was not, in fact, a Johansson imitation, the Her star herself says she was “shocked” and “angered” by the seeming use of her voice after she had specifically nixed the company’s offer.

“I felt I did not want to be at the forefront of that,” Johansson said about turning down OpenAI’s original request. “I just felt it went against my core values. I don’t like to kiss and tell.

Scarlett Johansson recently spoke to The New York Times and said she has no grudge against Disney after their legal battle over the release of her Marvel movie “Black Widow.” The two parties became legal adversaries when Disney opted to release “Black Widow” in theaters and on streaming via Disney+ Premier Access amid the pandemic in July 2021. Johansson’s contract contained a stipulation that “Black Widow” be released exclusively in theaters, so she sued the studio as moving the film to Disney+ would result in forgoing millions of dollars in backend compensation.

“I don’t hold a grudge,” Johansson said. “I think it was just poor judgment and poor leadership at that time. It just felt very unprofessional to me, the entire ordeal. And honestly, I was incredibly disappointed, especially because I was holding out hope until, finally, my team was like, ‘You have to act.’”

The legal battle was...

Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to the ugly side of the industry and the actress has braced through it all to become one of the highest-paid actresses. Through her star vehicles and other celebrated works, the actress has built a successful career and has always stood up for herself and what films she wants to associate with.

Scarlett Johansson currently stars in Fly Me To The Moon | Sony Pictures Releasing

The Marvel star was recently embroiled in a controversy where one of OpenAI’s models used a voice eerily similar to hers. The actress reflected on the whole scenario and how shocked she was when she found out that Sam Altman had been allegedly manipulating her voice in an era where AI has become a big threat to creativity.

Scarlett Johansson Was Disturbed And Angry At Her Recent OpenAI Controversy

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. | Credit: TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons.

Scarlett Johansson...

Scarlett Johansson is married to SNL’s Colin Jost, who is known for hosting the Weekend Update segment in the long-running sketch comedy show. The Fly Me to the Moon actress has worked with Jost multiple times during her appearances on the show and appreciated his comedic chops multiple times.

However, one aspect of Josts’s SNL gig reportedly has her terrified. Jost and fellow host Michael Che have a tradition of swapping jokes every year, with both of them making each other say increasingly offensive material live. Johansson mentioned that she blacks out when the jokes are made at her expense.

Scarlett Johansson’s AI Battle Made It To SNL Scarlett Johansson stars in Fly Me To The Moon | Credits: Columbia Pictures

Scarlett Johansson has started a legal battle against OpenAI who have allegedly used the likeness of her voice for their ChatGPT voice assistant, despite the actress not consenting.

July in full swing sees top media executives and an impressive political cohort gathered at a storied mountain resort to hike, chat and whitewater raft. The elixir of relaxed proximity distilled in Sun Valley’s rustic woods is credited with hatching a number of consequential deals over the decades.

But this year could one deal be undone? It’s unlikely, but Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount, and Barry Diller, who might like to, are both present and Par’s recent merger agreement with Skydance has a 45-day window for other interested buyers to jump in.

Skydance CEO David Ellison is not at Sun Valley but quite likely will be next year as a major studio owner-operator.

With the media and entertainment industry continuing to undergo unprecedented change, streaming bundles, sports rights, the overall state of film, TV and tech, as well as the current political climate are in the mix at the conference,...

It doesn’t take the Wizard of Oz to recreate Judy Garland’s voice — just AI.

The late, legendary actress is being reintroduced to audiences via AI audio company ElevenLabs, which received permission from Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli to use her voice in its new “Iconic Voices” option on the Reader App. Users will be able to hear “Garland” read them books, articles, and essays.

“It’s exciting to see our mother’s voice available to the countless millions of people who love her,” Minnelli, who is the representative of Garland’s estate, said in a statement to media. “Through the spectacular new technology offered by ElevenLabs, our family believes that this will bring new fans to Mama, and be exciting to those who already cherish the unparalleled legacy that Mama gave and continues to give to the world.”

Other voices that ElevenLabs has recreated include James Dean, Burt Reynolds,...

It started with the conspicuous TV news crews. “I get out of my car and see five media vans with the dishes and everything. It was weird. It’s very different than last year. There are reporters everywhere,” so relayed one Sun Valley attendee, speaking anonymously to The Hollywood Reporter for a July 1999 news item in the trade daily.

Until then, investment banker Herb Allen’s exclusive “summer camp for moguls” was said to be (mostly) free of large numbers of reporters roaming about asking executives outside the Idaho conference for quotes or looking for deal gossip. There were few of the candid images of Patagonia-fleeced execs — name tag and sunglasses on, to-go coffee cup in hand, warily eying a photographer — that now litter Getty Images annually, to be reused for M&a chatter or eye-popping salary disclosure items.

The potential of the internet was just beginning to turn into a tsunami on Wall Street,...

OpenAI is partnering with Apple to give the iPhone maker a role on its board, Bloomberg reported, affording the Sam Altman-led firm another foothold into Hollywood as the industry grapples artificial intelligence tools that have the potential to upend production, along with livelihoods of creators who’re concerned about being replaced by the tech.

As part of a seismic agreement announced last month, head of Apple App Store and former marketing chief Phil Schiller will assume the so-called “observer” position, according to Bloomberg. Under the pact, he’ll be able to attend board meetings and gain a glimpse into company operations — part of which involves courting Hollywood to adopt its products — but won’t be allowed to vote.

The move follows OpenAI unveiling in February Sora, an AI tool capable of creating hyper-realistic videos. In response to a text prompt of just a couple of sentences, it can seemingly...

Ari Emanuel insists he’s a kinder and gentler man these days, but in the wake of June 27’s presidential debate, the hard-driving agency head is still fighting mad at Joe Biden and his top aides.

Appearing before a packed house at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, the Endeavor CEO had been invited to talk with the festival’s acting curator Tina Brown about his Hollywood career. But with Biden’s frail performance dominating the headlines, Brown made a quick detour. “Democrats are jumping out of the window,” she began after Emanuel took his seat. “What are you thinking?”

“Well, I’m pissed off at the founding fathers,” said Emanuel. “They had the start date of 35 years old, they just didn’t give us the end date. And, well, everybody died [back then], so they didn’t have to give the end date.”

Emanuel blamed Biden’s advisers for being less...

Morgan Freeman is the latest star to speak publicly about alleged attempts to replicate celebrities’ voices using AI.

The Oscar-winning actor, who is known for his voiceover work, took to social media Friday to express his appreciation for fans who have notified him about AI-generated imitations of his voice.

“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” Freeman posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday. “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful.” Hashtags on his post included “scam” and “IdentityProtection.”

According to media reports, a TikTok user describing herself as Freeman’s niece had recently posted videos to the platform that allegedly feature narration from an AI-generated version of the actor’s voice.

Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.

Morgan Freeman shared a note giving thanks to his fans Friday morning, expressing gratitude for users’ efforts calling out unauthorized AI imitations of the actor’s recognizable voice.

The celebrated 87-year-old actor has become legend for his narration in films such as “March of the Penguins,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Million Dollar Baby.” The sterling reputation of Freeman’s voice has made him a particularly popular target of AI-generated voice imitations, including in a recent viral series of TikToks created by a woman posing as the actor’s “nepo niece.” Freeman is not a fan of the practice.

“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” the actor wrote. “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful. #AI #scam #imitation #IdentityProtection”

Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in...

OpenAI and Microsoft have been sued by another news organization for using articles to train its artificial intelligence systems, this time by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

In a lawsuit filed in New York district court, the nonprofit newsroom, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, alleges the Sam Altman-led firm “copied, used, abridged, and displayed” the Center for Investigative Reporting’s content without consent or compensation, in violation of copyright laws. It argues that users of AI tools from OpenAI and Microsoft can obtain variants of copyright-protected material, undercutting the market for articles from the organization.

The lawsuit is at least the fifth from a news organization against OpenAI over novel copyright issues associated with training its AI system. In recent months, similar complaints have been brought by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Denver Post. It expands a multifront legal battle that may have far-reaching implications on the news publishing industry,...

Time magazine has struck a strategic partnership with Sam Altman’s OpenAI that will see its current and historical content land on ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence products.

The multiyear licensing agreement will see OpenAI gain access to Time’s archives over 101 years to bolster its generative AI products and display, and which will include a citation and link back to the original source on Time.com.

Time, which was founded in March 1923, has digitized a vast trove of its history via its Time Vault section, including covers and original scans of individual issues. The newsweekly, which dropped its paywall last year in a bid to attract more advertising revenue vs. digital subscription revenue, has a print subscriber base of more than 1.1 million, per the Alliance of Audited Media.

In January, the magazine’s edit union said that 15 percent of its members were subject to layoffs in a round of cuts.

Im Rahmen einer eigenen Kolumne beleuchten Rechtsexperten von Fieldfisher für Spot media & film wichtige Branchenthemen aus juristischer Sicht. Den Anfang macht eine Beitragsreihe von Dr. Gerd Hansen, auf Media & Entertainment Law spezialisierter Rechtsanwalt und Partner bei Fieldfisher. Sie widmet sich in diesem dritten Teil den rechtlichen Fallstricken beim Einsatz generativer Ki im Synchrobereich.

Rechtsanwalt Dr. Gerd Hansen (Credit: Nathalie Podena)

Dr. Gerd Hansen ist auf Urheber- und Medienrecht spezialisierter Rechtsanwalt aus München. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt seiner Arbeit liegt in der umfassenden juristischen Begleitung von nationalen und internationalen Film-, TV- und Streamingproduktionen über sämtliche Stadien hinweg; von der Entwicklung und Finanzierung über die Produktion bis hin zum Vertrieb. Seit April 2024 ist Dr. Gerd Hansen Partner bei der internationalen Wirtschaftskanzlei Fieldfisher und dort Teil der Practice Group Media & Entertainment Law. Zuvor war er lange Jahre als Head of Legal Affairs Sky Studios Germany sowie als Legal Director Content Production bei ProSiebenSat.

The sultans of media and tech will break out their windbreakers and puffy vests for Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley conference next month. It’s a chance for these high-net-worth individuals to look “oh so casual” as they discuss the state of their industries and the world. The vibe is relaxed, but things aren’t going swimmingly for these denizens of one-percent-dom. The economy remains wobbly, new technologies are upending old ways of minting money, share prices are tumbling and geopolitical turbulence is intensifying. And though we don’t know exactly what will go down at the weeklong confab (Sun Valley is an off-the-record affair), we have a pretty good sense of what’s on these moguls’ minds as they hit the Idaho resort.

Who Gets the Keys to the Magic Kingdom?

Bob Iger is bringing his merry band of potential successors to Sun Valley. The Disney chief, who...

To hear it from Apple or Elon Musk, AI is our inevitable future, one that will radically reshape life as we know it whether we like it or not. In the calculus of Silicon Valley, what matters is getting there first and carving out the territory so that everyone will be reliant on your tools for years to come. When speaking to Congress, at least, someone like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will mention the dangers of artificial intelligence and need for strong regulatory oversight, but in the meantime, it’s full steam ahead.

Elon Musk can huff, post and puff, but looks like he won’t be blowing the OpenAI house down.

Three and a half months after declaring that he was sueing to compel the Sam Altman-led firm he co-founded to stop chasing profits and “return to its mission to develop Agi for the benefit of humanity,” the X owner today withdrew the lawsuit.

No reason was given for dropping the action. However, being that Musk dismissed his own suit without prejudice, the tempestuous billionaire is free to file again if he chooses.

Noticeably, the dismissal comes about 24 hours before a Bay Area judge had set a hearing on OpenAI and Altman’s motion to toss the case out. Musk’s self-dismissal also comes just over 24 hours after the Tesla boss went on a social media rant about Apple bringing OpenAI’s ChatGPT on board as a backup of sorts for...

Elon Musk has dropped a lawsuit against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman over the company allegedly straying from its founding mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity to instead focus on corporate profits.

The X. Corp owner moved on Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit “without prejudice,” indicating that a settlement wasn’t reached to resolve the case. The complaint can be refiled.

In 2015, Musk helped found OpenAI, agreeing with co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman, president of the firm, to focus on non-profit work. He left the board of the start-up in 2017 before the company launched a for-profit arm and sued in March. The lawsuit targeted OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft.

Under its founding agreement, OpenAI agreed to make its code open to the public instead of walling it off for private company’s gains, the lawsuit said. But by embracing a close relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI...