Factsheet: Deepfakes, Hollywood, 23andMe mutiny, YouTube hype

SocialAI promises unlimited replies and personalized conversations without involving other people. It's a wild leap into a bot-powered future.

I know we already did one matrix Reference this week, but: ignorance is bliss.

—Andrew Nusca

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California has had enough of all the deepfakes

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a series of new laws to stop deepfakes.

You can thank (or blame) Elon Musk for this one. The move came after the X owner shared an AI-edited video of presidential candidate Kamala Harris on the service in July.

That didn't please Newsom, who often works with Musk as a sparring partner and occasionally runs as a political candidate himself.

One of the bills makes it illegal to include misleading content about elected officials and candidates in election ads. A second requires online platforms to label or remove misleading content. A third requires disclosures for AI-generated or substantially modified election ads.

Newsom also signed a few bills that prohibit studios from using AI impersonators to copy the work of actors and other artists without permission or payment. (The Golden State is home to Hollywood, after all.)

All this activity is taking place while the tech world awaits the fate of SB1047the AI ​​safety bill on Newsom's desk that would hold AI vendors liable if their technology is used to cause “critical harm.”

Opponents, including OpenAI and Nancy Pelosi, say it will kill innovation; supporters, including none other than Musksay it's necessary. No pressure, Gav. —Jenn Brice

Lionsgate volunteers pay tribute to AI

The big question surrounding AI-generated video tools is when Hollywood will embrace the technology. For all its magic, it threatens jobs and is embroiled in litigation surrounding the content it was trained on.

Yesterday we got the answer. AI startup from NYC runway announced a deal with Hollywood studio LionsgateManufacturers of classics such as The Hunger Games And John Wick.

This unique agreement will allow Runway to train a new AI model using the Lionsgate catalog. Lionsgate creatives will then use the model as a production tool.

Although financial terms are unclear, the deal is a big win for Runway as it faces pressure from OpenAI's Sora. However, it's worth noting that Runway is still facing copyright infringement lawsuits.

As Mr Wick likes to say: Yes. —David Meyer

23andOnlyMe, apparently

In a move that is shocking even by tech startup standards, all seven directors on 23andMe’s board resigned on Wednesday.

In a letter, the former board members – including Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan – reprimanded CEO Anne Wojcicki for failing to provide a “workable proposal” for the direction of the genetic testing company.

Wojcicki – whose older sister, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, died just five weeks ago –has committed to a months-long attempt to take 23andMe off the stock market. The IPO came at the height of the 2021 venture boom; the company hasn't been able to turn a profit since. (Its shares recently traded at $0.34.)

In sent a memo Wojcicki told employees on Tuesday that she was “surprised and disappointed” by the resignations and that she would continue her efforts to privatize 23andMe. —Jessica Mathews

YouTube is hyped

YouTube made history yesterday with the release New features from which creators benefit not named Mr. Beast.

The Google company introduced a new area called Communities and a new mechanism called HypeBoth features are designed to help personalities with smaller audiences encourage interaction with their followers — and perhaps help them break through on a massive platform that can be difficult for newcomers.

Communities allow creators and their subscribers to create new pages where people can chat directly on YouTube, similar to Reddit.

Hype promotes pages and creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers. Any viewer who sees a video that has been on the site for less than a week can now “hype” it, pushing it up a new leaderboard.

At the end of the day, It's about building the business. So get ready to hit the hype button, folks. Bye…sweet. —Kali Hays

Amazon's sales increase

If you work in Amazon's fulfillment or transportation department in the United States, you can expect your next paycheck to be a little bigger.

Amazon says it will increase wages of these employees by at least $1.50 per hour (on an average basis of over $22 per hour for hourly workers) and hand out free Prime memberships on top of that.

The total bill for America's second-largest private employer is more than $2.2 billion.

The move comes as the retailer's warehouse workers seek better contracts and improved working conditions. (The Amazon union associated with the Teamsters in June.)

It also comes just as the company is entering the all-important, competitive holiday shopping season—even though the Prime benefit won't kick in until next year. Sorry, Rings of Power fans. -A

Further data

—Apple withdraws its iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pro models. “She's a brick and I'm slowly drowning,” some users were heard complaining.

—LinkedIn confirms that its AI is trained using your data. And yes, you can Opt out.

—Lawsuit against Meta for defrauding investors dismissed. The lawsuit concerned changes in Apple's privacy practices and Sheryl Sandberg's use of company resources.

—GameStop CEO must pay a million dollar fine. He failed to report the purchase of over $100 million worth of Wells Fargo voting stock. Oops.

—Google wins, Qualcomm fails in EU antitrust case. The search engine giant escapes a billion-euro fine; the chip manufacturer reduces its fine to 239 million euros. -A

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