Major labels sue AI music generators

PLUS: OpenAI continues acquisition spree

Author

Rowan Cheung
June 25, 2024

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

The copyright clashes just spread to a new frontline — and it may be time for AI to finally face the music.

With top record labels seeking BILLIONS in damages, are new lawsuits set to hit the pause button on the rise of AI tunes? Let’s get into it…

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Suno and Udio sued by major record labels

  • Synthesia’s major AI avatar upgrades

  • Build a Siri-like voice assistant

  • OpenAI acquires screen-sharing startup

  • 5 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs

  • More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment just filed lawsuits against Udio and Suno, alleging the music generation startups illegally trained their AI models on copyrighted material.

The details:

  • The Recording Industry Association of America is spearheading the lawsuits, seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work with potentially billions in damages.

  • The labels claim Suno and Udio trained their AI models on copyrighted recordings without permission or compensation.

  • The RIAA alleges that the platform's outputs mimic specific artists and hit songs and that the companies have admitted to training on copyrighted material.

  • Both startups have raised significant funding recently, with Suno securing $125M in May and Udio receiving $10M.

Why it matters: The same legal issues we saw face text and image generation platforms have come for AI music — but unlike the other sectors, record labels have seemed more proactive in looking to work with AI firms. Time will tell if these latest suits will set actual precedents for the industry, or just hefty settlements and eventual licensing deals.

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SYNTHESIA

Image source: Synthesia

The Rundown: AI avatar startup Synthesia just unveiled a major platform upgrade, introducing a series of new features, including full-body AI avatars, AI Video Assistant, translation, and more.

The details:

  • New ‘Personal AI Avatars’ allow users to create digital twins of themselves using HD cameras, a webcam, or a phone, with lip-syncing and realism.

  • Synthesia also teased full-body avatars coming ‘later this year’, which will be fully controllable and have more personality and animation options.

  • An upgraded AI Video Assistant will be capable of producing entire video libraries from existing knowledge bases, complete with brand-specific elements.

  • The company is also building a new video player with personalized, interactive experiences that automatically adapt to viewer’s languages.

Why it matters: Just last month, the founder of Zoom said a world is coming where our digital twins attend meetings for us — and while we aren’t there yet, AI avatar platforms are getting into territory that’s nearly indistinguishable from reality. Video communication is about to be redefined sooner than most people think.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: This custom iPhone shortcut lets you create a lightning-fast, Siri-like voice assistant powered by the Llama 3 language model and Groq's free API keys.

Step-by-step:

  1. Sign up for a free account at Groq and generate an API key.

  2. Create a new shortcut in the iPhone Shortcuts app.

  3. Add actions to capture voice input, store your API key, and set the Groq API endpoint for Llama 3.

  4. Call the Llama 3 API using a "Get Contents of URL" action with the appropriate headers and request body.

  5. Extract the generated response and use the "Show Results" action to have your iPhone show it to you!

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OPENAI

Image source: Multi

The Rundown: OpenAI just completed an acqui-hire of Multi (formerly Remotion), a startup focused on remote collaboration and screensharing tech via Mac computers.

The details:

  • Multi’s standalone product developed a video-first platform for teams to work together seamlessly across shared screens.

  • The five-person Multi team is being integrated into OpenAI’s ChatGPT desktop team.

  • Following the acquisition, Multi is sunsetting its own platform.

  • The deal marks OpenAI’s second in the last week, with the company also acquiring database analytics and infrastructure firm Rockset on Friday.

Why it matters: There have always been rumblings about the eventual agentic capabilities of ChatGPT, and this acquisition hints at broader plans for OpenAI’s products to be able to integrate more deeply into users’ computers in ways that go far beyond basic chatbots.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

  • 🎥 Revid - An all-in-one TikTok growth tool that creates short videos with AI

  • 🖼️ Lenso - Reverse image search with AI

  • 💃 Cartwheel - Text-to-animation platform for videos, games, and more

  • ⚒️ Databricks Mosaic AI - Build, deploy, and monitor ML solutions

  • 💼 COACH - AI career coach for students and job seekers

QUICK HITS

Free resource: The Executive's Guide to Generative AI. If you need an all-in-one resource on AI leadership, we recommend this one. Download here.*

TikTok parent company ByteDance is reportedly collaborating with U.S. chip designer Broadcom on an AI chip, aiming to secure high-end processors amid ongoing US-China tech tensions.

Pietro Schirano unveiled Claude Engineer, an open-source tool enabling 3.5 Sonnet to interact with local files and create and edit code through a chat interface.

Google announced that students will now gain access to its Gemini AI assistant through school accounts, also introducing a series of new AI-powered tools for educators.

Amazon’s AI upgrades to its voice assistant will reportedly be called ‘Remarkable Alexa’, with an expected $5-10 monthly fee for access.

Emergence emerged from stealth with $97.2M in funding for its AI agent platform, also open-sourcing its ‘orchestrator’ tool for optimizing model selection during AI workflows.

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