He Helped Directors Imagine Their Films. Then AI Let Him Make One Himself

Robert Gaudette used generative AI to move from visualizing films for clients to making finished work, testing whether judgment can become the real product in production.

France’s Goncourt prize drops a novel over claims AI wrote it
France’s Goncourt prize drops a novel over claims AI wrote it

The Académie Goncourt has dropped Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir from the first selection for France’s top literary prize. In a statement on Friday, the academy cited plagiarism by the author and analyses showing that AI had most likely …

Netflix’s Wonka show uses an AI Gene Wilder voice, and viewers object
Netflix’s Wonka show uses an AI Gene Wilder voice, and viewers object

Netflix’s new reality competition, Wonka’s The Golden Ticket, uses an AI recreation of Gene Wilder’s voice, and viewers have pushed back. The voice narrates the show and explains the rules to contestants. Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film…

Meta’s Muse AI Agent Tests Who Controls Digital Distribution

Meta’s Muse exposes a bigger fight over digital distribution as Shopify opens its doors, Amazon blocks access and AI agents challenge who controls the customer.

Hollywood studios want film graduates who already use AI, Semafor reports
Hollywood studios want film graduates who already use AI, Semafor reports

Hollywood studios are turning to film schools for graduates who already know how to use AI video tools, rather than training their own staff, Semafor reported on Thursday. “How do we find people who already know how to use this?” studios are now asking…

ChatGPT now sends 95.1% of AI referral traffic to websites, BrightEdge says
ChatGPT now sends 95.1% of AI referral traffic to websites, BrightEdge says

ChatGPT sent 95.1% of the traffic that AI chatbots referred to websites in August, its highest share this year, according to new data from BrightEdge. The search marketing company said referral traffic from ChatGPT grew 101% between January and August….

Yahoo CEO says micropayments will never be enough for publishers
Yahoo CEO says micropayments will never be enough for publishers

Yahoo will keep its AI answer engine Scout full of links back to publishers, CEO Jim Lanzone said on Wednesday. He spoke on stage at HumanX in Amsterdam. He also said micropayments from AI companies will never pay publishers enough. “The large language…

DOJ defends Trump’s White House ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW
DOJ defends Trump’s White House ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW

The United States Justice Department has requested that a federal judge dismiss the emergency application submitted by CNN, Politico, and MS NOW to get their reporters readmitted to the White House. In a court document filed on Tuesday evening, the gov…

A Microsoft scientist called AI training the largest theft of labor
A Microsoft scientist called AI training the largest theft of labor

A 92-page brief unsealed on Thursday opens by quoting the same Microsoft employee twice. Dr Brent Hecht, the company’s Director of Applied Science, wrote that people would come to see large models hoovering up their work as “an astonishing theft of unp…

Universal and Sony sue Suno again, this time over 60,202 recordings
Universal and Sony sue Suno again, this time over 60,202 recordings

“The magnitude of the alleged infringement is not a defense,” the court told Suno in August. Universal and Sony have now sued the AI music company a second time. They filed the complaint in the District of Massachusetts on Friday, as case 1:26-cv-14275…