A law that could see TikTok shut down in the U.S. threatens to ensnare other Chinese social media apps gaining traction in the country, legal experts say.
As the world continues to work through how to handle the explosion of deepfake content online, it seems that not all AI-created videos are stirring controversy. Synthesia, a London startup building products around highly realistic AI avatar technology, says it’s a big hit with enterprises, with some 60,000 of them — 1 million users — […]
This week’s Future of TV Briefing reports on the meetings that Netflix held with ad buyers during last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, during which it discussed its advertising road map for the year.
Nextflix
Venu’s shutdown, creators’ AI deals, TikTok’s ban likelihood and more
Nextflix
If Netflix’s Christmas Day games were a touchdown — and they were in ad buyers’ minds — then the company is now going for a two-point conversion.
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As of today, Jan. 15, Walmart has doubled down on its push into the metaverse by launching Zepeto’s first-ever e-commerce experience for physical goods.
Zepeto is a digital avatar creation platform that allows its user base — which skews female and is roughly 70 percent Gen-Z, per Walmart and Zepeto — to create and share virtual experiences using digital representations of themselves. Now, Zepeto app users viewing virtual Walmart clothing items can use the app to log into their Walmart accounts and order physical versions of those items to be shipped directly to their doorsteps. Additionally, purchases of select physical garments in brick-and-mortar Walmart stores will also come with free downloads of their virtual equivalents on Zepeto.
The launch is Walmart’s third metaverse e-commerce experience, evidence that the retailer is playing the long game in its approach to virtual worlds. In April 2024, Walmart partnered with Roblox to open that platform’s first e-commerce experience for physical goods; in May 2024, Walmart opened its own virtual world platform featuring e-commerce opportunities, Walmart Realm.
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Last July, the period care brand Viv saw its monthly traffic spike by 400%, which “came out of nowhere,” according to Viv’s marketing and design director Kelly Donohue.
After some digging, Donohue discovered that the jump in traffic was driven primarily by Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT search recommendations for non-toxic period care. At the time, a study by the scientific journal Environment International came out that found that many popular tampon brands contain heavy metals like lead and arsenic. Many people were asking the AI assistants about toxins in tampons and searching for sustainable period products, which led them to Viv’s blog.
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The copyright infringement trial between The New York Times and OpenAI kicked off in a federal court hearing on Tuesday.
A judge listened to arguments from both parties in a motion to dismiss brought by OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft. The New York Times — as well as The New York Daily News and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which have filed their own lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft — claim OpenAI and Microsoft used the publishers’ content to train their large language models powering their generative AI chatbots. Doing so means the tech companies are competing with those publishers by usingtheir content to answers users’ questions, taking away the incentive for a user to visit their sites for that information and ultimately hurting their ability to monetize those users through digital advertising and subscriptions, they claim.
OpenAI and Microsoft say what they’re doing is covered by “fair use,” a law that allows the use of copyrighted material to make something new that doesn’t compete with the original work.
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The likelihood of a future without TikTok is getting more real as the deadline to sell or be banned in the U.S. is just days away. While Tiktok’s future hangs by a thread, brands that rode a wave of virality thanks to TikTok’s algorithm, like Bogg Bag, Duolingo and Cakes, now grapple with the challenge of recreating virality elsewhere (if that can be done).
For some companies, TikTok’s algorithm has been a big get, one of the last cost-effective ways to reach a broad audience in an increasingly pay-to-play and fragmented social media landscape. While some brands are going down with the ship, posting to TikTok with a business as usual cadence, others have outlined contingency plans on TikTok competitors, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and even LinkedIn, in hopes to strike viral gold again. Or at the very least, maintain its social currency.
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Criteo yesterday announced an end to its months-long search for a new CEO with the unveiling of former Dentsu Americas chief Michael Komasinski.
He takes over the reins from Megan Clarken both as CEO and board member beginning next month in what’s likely to be a pivotal year for both the ad tech company and the broader digital media industry as a whole.
While maintenance of the stock price is the core priority of any publicly listed company’s CEO, Komasinski’s task is a multifaceted one if he is to build on Clarken’s five-year tenure, during which time she took the company on a transformative period.
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Nelly wants to become the biggest fintech startup in the healthcare industry. The Berlin-based startup is already working with more than 1,200 medical practices in a handful of European countries. But there are thousands more that could benefit from an upgrade for their administrative workflows. That’s why Nelly recently raised €50 million in funding (around […]
Los Angeles' local stations saw a spike in viewership when the fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena started on Tuesday. Stations went wall-to-wall with coverage. Variety said the local stations saw their normal viewership double and even triple in some cases, especially as the fires began to spread. According to Nielsen data, market leader KABC...
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday over an alleged securities violation relating to his acquisition of Twitter, now called X. The SEC claims Musk failed to disclose his 5% ownership stake of Twitter in a timely manner, violating federal securities law, according to a complaint filed in federal […]
Nvidia has been doubling down on the opportunity to build robotics and other industrial AI applications, with the launch of its Omniverse platform, and most recently Mega, an Omniverse Blueprint framework to create digital twins to operate these applications. It’s also investing in digital twin startups to get the effort off the ground. Taiwan’s MetAI […]
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has resulted in a federal lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that he broke securities laws with a late disclosure, and saved $150 million in the process.
Before Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion, before he tried to back out of that deal, before he was forced to go through with it, and before he changed its name to X, he started by acquiring a substantial stake in the company but didn’t reveal that fact until weeks later.
The only problem, as the SEC pointed out then, is that by the time he disclosed that stake, it was outside the agency’s required 10-day window. They claim that he should’ve filed his paperwork by March 24th, 2022, instead of when he actually did, on April 4th (and then again on April 5th). During that period, they say he purchased more than $500 million in shares of the company.
However, with only a few days left before the Trump administration takes over and installs a new head of the SEC (along with Elon Musk reportedly snagging an office in the White House complex), it’s unclear how far the lawsuit will go.
The SEC claims Musk cost investors at least $150 million due to the late disclosure and that he harmed any investors who sold stock between March 25th, 2022, and April 1st, 2022. Its lawsuit is seeking the money Elon made as a result of holding off on the disclosure, as well as a civil penalty and other punishments.
For over a decade, you couldn’t easily fly a DJI drone over restricted areas in the United States. DJI’s software would automatically stop you from flying over runways, power plants, public emergencies like wildfires, and the White House.
But confusingly, amidst the greatest US outpouring of drone distrust in years, and an incident of a DJI drone operator hindering LA wildfire fighting efforts, DJI is getting rid of its strong geofence. DJI will no longer enforce “No-Fly Zones,” instead only offering a dismissible warning — meaning only common sense, empathy, and the fear of getting caught by authorities will prevent people from flying where they shouldn’t.
In a blog post, DJI characterizes this as “placing control back in the hands of the drone operators.” DJI suggests that technologies like Remote ID, which publicly broadcasts the location of a drone and their operator during flight, are “providing authorities with the tools needed to enforce existing rules,” DJI global policy head Adam Welsh tells The Verge.
But it turns out the DJI drone that damaged a Super Scooper airplane fighting the Los Angeles wildfires was a sub-250-gram model that may not require Remote ID to operate, and the FBI expects it will have to “work backwards through investigative means” to figure out who flew it there.
“The FAA does not require geofencing from drone manufacturers,” FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor confirms to The Verge.
But former DJI head of global policy, Brendan Schulman, doesn’t seem to think this is a move for the better. Here are a few choice phrases he’s posted to X:
This is a remarkable shift in drone safety strategy with a potentially enormous impact, especially among drone pilots who are less aware of airspace restrictions and high-risk areas.
There was substantial evidence over the years that automatic drone geofencing, implemented using a risk-based approach, contributed significantly to aviation safety.
Interesting timing: Ten years almost to the day after a DJI drone infamously crash-lands on the White House lawn, DJI has removed the built-in geofencing feature that automatically impedes such an incident, replacing it with warnings that the user can choose to ignore.
Here are the questions we sent DJI, and the company’s answers:
1) Can you confirm that DJI no longer prevents its drones from taking off / flying into any locations whatsoever in the United States, including but not limited to military installations, over public emergency areas like wildfires, and critical government buildings like the White House?
Yes, this GEO update applies to all locations in the U.S and aligns with the FAA’s Remote ID objectives. With this update, prior DJI geofencing datasets have been replaced to display official FAA data. Areas previously defined as Restricted Zones (also known as No-Fly Zones) will be displayed as Enhanced Warning Zones, aligning with the FAA’s designated areas.
2) If it still does prevent drones from taking off / flying into some locations, which locations are those?
Not applicable.
3) Did DJI make this decision in consultation with or by direction of the US government or any specific government bodies, agencies, or representatives? If so, which? If not, why not?
This GEO update aligns with the principle advanced by aviation regulators around the globe — including the FAA — that the operator is responsible for complying with rules.
4) Did DJI run any risk analysis studies beforehand and if so, did it see a likelihood of abuse? What likelihood did it see? If not, why not?
The geofencing system that was in place prior was a voluntary safety measure introduced by DJI over 10 years ago when mass-produced small drones were a new entrant to the airspace, and regulators needed time to establish rules for their safe use.
Since then, the FAA has introduced Remote ID requirements, which means that drones flown in the U.S. must broadcast the equivalent of a “license plate” for drones. This requirement went into effect in early 2024, providing authorities with the tools needed to enforce existing rules.
“This update has been in development for some time, following similar changes successfully implemented in the E.U. last year, which showed no evidence of increased risk,” says Welsh. However, last year’s changes reportedly kept mandatory no-fly zones around UK airports.
Here in the United States, Welsh seems to suggest its apps won’t go that far. “To be clear: DJI flight apps will continue to voluntarily generate warnings if pilots attempt to fly into restricted airspace as designated by the FAA, provided that pilots keep their flight apps up to date,” he tells The Verge.
