Thomson Reuters
Appeals court: training an AI on Westlaw notes is not fair use
The Third Circuit upheld Thomson Reuters' win over Ross Intelligence in the first US appellate ruling on AI training, and the court's reasoning is sealed.
Business
Deals, funding, lawsuits and the money behind AI video.
right of publicity
Urvashi Rautela seeks ₹7,000 crore from Bollywood.AI
Her team says the Los Angeles company used her name, photos and videos without permission, and its chief executive called the claim ridiculous.
General Intuition
World-model startup General Intuition raises $220M at $6.2B
A year after spinning out of game-clip platform Medal, the lab says its MIRA model renders training footage at 20 frames per second across four players.
AMD
AMD buys Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2 billion
The chipmaker gets the spatial-intelligence lab behind Marble, and founder Fei-Fei Li joins AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist.
spacexai
NYC Council subpoenas Elon Musk in AI safety probe
The council wants Musk or a SpaceXAI witness on October 5, after four other AI companies agreed to appear; the Grok lawsuits are the wider context.
youku
Youku used an AI face swap to bring back a banned hit drama
The 2016 romance returned in 4K with a new actress's face over the original lead, and the swap is the product now.
kling
Kling AI sells 1.14% to China's state AI fund for 1.4bn yuan
Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are competing with vouchers and rent, while China's film regulator cleared the 90-minute AI feature Sanxingdui: Future Memories for cinemas.
copyright
Wuhan court: an AI micro-drama is a copyrightable film
The Jiang'an District People's Court held that a 47-episode AI-assisted micro-drama is a protected audiovisual work, and counted token and tool-licensing costs when it set damages.
Equity
Equity pushes AI contract protections as Tilly Norwood turns one
The UK performers' union says film and TV contracts will carry mandatory AI terms and wants the government to legislate personality rights over voice and likeness.
Particle 6
The Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff in talks for an AI film
Variety reports Minkoff is in advanced discussions to lead story, characters and script on Storm Dogs, a family film mixing live action with photorealistic AI characters.
Suno
Sony and Universal Music sue Suno again over 60,202 songs
The September 18 complaint alleges Suno trained its v6 models partly on outputs of its earlier, unlicensed models, a practice the labels call model laundering.
Katzenberg
Katzenberg plans an AI animation studio for film and TV
The DreamWorks co-founder says AI output stopped looking like slop to him in the last couple of months, and talent is the constraint he expects.
ByteDance
ByteDance's YouTube scraping defense draws a skeptical judge
A San Francisco judge questioned the company's argument that downloading public YouTube videos is not the unauthorized access the DMCA's anti-circumvention rule covers.
OpenAI
Sora's API shuts down without its $1B Disney deal
Disney agreed to a $1 billion equity investment alongside a three-year character license, and Reuters reported the transaction never closed.
Higgsfield
Higgsfield says it is on pace for a $1B run rate
The company told Bloomberg it expects a $1 billion annualized run rate within a year, after finishing August at $700 million in annualized revenue.
California
Gavin Newsom signs law requiring AI actors in ads to be labeled
The law takes effect January 1, 2027 and puts AI actors inside California's false advertising statute.
Lightstorm Vision
James Cameron's Lightstorm Vision buys 3D studio Outsyders
The deal folds an AI-driven stereoscopic pipeline into Cameron's 3D technology company, with the price undisclosed.
OpenAI
OpenAI hires Patreon's Sam Yam to lead a creator division
Yam brings Patreon's former product and engineering leads with him, and OpenAI's September 29 DevDay is the first date he points to for new tools.
Adobe
Adobe completes Topaz Labs purchase and keeps the brand
The video and image enhancement company stays a standalone brand, and its CEO Eric Yang joins Adobe's Digital Video and Audio team.
Brahma AI
Brahma AI raises $150M at a $2B valuation from Multiples
Multiples Alternate Asset Management put in $100 million through preferred shares, and Brahma says it has another $100 million of investor interest still to place.