2026 jul 21

[rcjordan]

Music streamer Deezer says more than 50% of daily uploads are AI-generated | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/music-streamer-deezer-says-more-than-50-of-daily-uploads-are-ai-generated/

Ben Affleck's AI company is sold for more than $500 million - Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-07-21/ben-afflecks-ai-company-is-sold-for-more-than-500-million

Economists Say AI Could Trigger a Layoff Trap That CEOs Can't Escape - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/economists-say-ai-could-trigger-layoff-trap-ceos-cant-escape-2026-7

The next enterprise AI frontier is the optimizable company - Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/91574442/next-enterprise-ai-frontier-is-the-optimizable-company?partner=rss

AI minister role boosted but tech department axed in Burnham shake-up
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz97x8k4zqzo

Meta's smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk? | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/21/meta-smartglasses-child-filmed-ai-risk-technology

Election voting advice from AI chatbots 'inaccurate and unreliable' | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/21/election-voting-advice-ai-chatbots-inaccurate-unreliable-hungary

State AGs are not waiting for new regulations to exercise authority over AI use | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/state-ags-are-not-waiting-new-regulations-exercise-authority-over-ai-use--pracin-2026-07-20/

Head of US AI safety agency resigns | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/head-us-ai-safety-agency-resigns-2026-07-20/

Anthropic's landmark $1.5B copyright settlement is approved | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/anthropics-landmark-1-5b-copyright-settlement-is-approved/

[ergophobe]

> Affleck

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company's earnings call this week that about 300 productions currently use AI in their process, mostly in post-production.

Reminds me of a comment Scott Galloway made after someone noted that the credits for Avatar 2 listed 3500 people, most of whom were employed in post-production. He made some comment like, "When Bob Igr saw that, he saw 3000 jobs that could be replaced with AI."

>> Layoff Trap

"The main question we wanted to understand is who's going to be left to buy products if everyone gets automated and replaced by a robot?"

I still think the best overview of this is Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, from the early 1950s.

>> copyright
"He ruled that training an AI model on copyrighted text counts as fair use"

That's a tough question. If I go to a library and read a book and retain bits of it in my memory, I'm covered by fair use, right up until identifiable parts of that book get spat out in my own book. But if I make a copy of that book, I'm in violation of fair use whether I actually ever use any part of that book.

At the very least in the cases where Anthropic did not have legal access to the digital text, it was in violation. But if it made a copy for training purposes, it should have been in violation there too.

This seems like a watershed moment for copyright law. I will not be surprised if some of the judges in other cases reach different rulings.