🧑‍⚖️ An industry-shaking lawsuit

ALSO: Stability AI is saved + Gemini is in Gmail

Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes

For years the AI industry has trained using copyrighted materials to make quick, steady progress training their models. Now that might bite them in the ass as the titans of AI-generated music face their biggest lawsuit yet.

• 🎵 Major AI music lawsuit could shake up the AI industry.

• 🛑 Reddit is stopping AI crawlers.

• 🙌 OpenAI delays voice mode and releases Mac app for everyone.

• 💰 Stability AI finds the money.

• 🦾 Gemini is now part of Gmail and Docs.

🎵 Major AI music lawsuit could shake up the AI industry

What happened: AI music companies Udio and Suno (the two biggest AI music companies) are in hot water with a large lawsuit headed their way. Just like most AI companies, Suno and Udio used copyrighted material to train their AI models without permission.

The details: 

• The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suing Udio and Suno for unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train their AI models.

• Suno and Udio have both admitted openly to using copyrighted materials to train their AI models.

• Matrix Partners’ investor Antonio Rodriguez admitted that the startup needed to create its product without label constraints. (You’re making yourself look guilty, dude.)

• Suno and Udio claim the materials fall under fair use. This likely be contested heavily in court.

• If the RIAA proves that Udio and Suno’s models regurgitate copyrighted music, both startups could face severe legal consequences, including injunctions to halt operations.

• The results of this lawsuit could cascade to other AI companies such as OpenAI.

Why it matters: The vast majority of AI companies trained their models on copyrighted material. OpenAI, Google, Midjourney, you name it. Even Adobe, who claimed to be “safe” still used copyrighted material without permission. AI companies are trying to change this by buying copyrighted material, but it might be too little, too late. This lawsuit could spell trouble for the entire AI industry.

🔥 Reddit is updating their Robots Exclusion Protocol to prevent AI bots from crawling the website. The main reason is simple; Reddit wants AI companies to pay for access. Otherwise they could use bots to crawl all over Reddit and train their AI models without Reddit’s permission. Reddit recently launched as a massive social media IPO, and one of their main profit drives was offering AI companies (like Google) access for millions of dollars.

🤝 Apple’s reported deal with Meta to use their AI in IOS has fallen through. According to Bloomberg, Apple has refused to use Meta’s AI tech for privacy concerns, but did have talks with Meta back in March. Plus Apple has an image to maintain, while Meta is… not looked at favorably.

🙌 OpenAI delays voice mode and releases Mac app for everyone

What happened: OpenAI is delaying ChatGPT-4o’s premiere voice mode . But in good news; the ChatGPT Mac app is available for everyone now.

The details:

• ChatGPT-4o’s voice features will be delayed until sometime in July for select ChatGPT Plus users.

• The full public release (still for Plus members) of voice mode may not happen until late Fall.

• The Mac ChatGPT app, which has been available to only select users, is now available to everyone. You can download it here. (It’s mostly an app version of the website for now.)

Why it matters: This was the big feature which impressed everyone. Natural real-time conversations with an AI capable of understanding your emotional state and seeing your screen. A true personal assistant. While some of these features are part of the upcoming Siri update, I think GPT-4o will outshine Siri in pure functionality.

💰 Stability AI finds the money

What happened: Stability AI (makers of Stable Diffusion) has been on the rocks lately. Rumor had it; Stability was looking for a buyer after failing to make payments and going into debt. Now they’ve raised an undisclosed amount of cash to stay afloat a bit longer.

The details: 

• Stability just received a fresh injection of cash, but they won’t disclose the exact amount.

• Among the investors are Greycroft, Sound Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue Management, O’Shaughnessy Ventures as well as ex-Google and ex-Facebook execs… and more! Quite the lineup.

• There’s been some company position changes. Sean Parker has joined as executive board chairman. Prem Akkaraju has been appointed CEO and joins the board alongside other major investors. (Inevitable really.)

• Stability was recently looking for buyers after facing severe debt and mismanagement under ex-founder/CEO Emad Mostaque, who left the company earlier this year.

Why this matters: It’s good Stability is still around but… now they have a ton more investors and board members from major tech companies. Am I the only one who thinks this is dubious for an open-source focused company?

🦾 Gemini is now part of Gmail and Docs

What happened: Google just rolled out Gemini into the sidebar of Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Google Drive. They also added Gemini to Gmail, allowing you to summarize emails and use AI to help write.

The details:

• Basic features includes summarization and AI help filling in the beginning of your emails/documents.

• Additional features include asking Gemini specific questions about your personal information while in Docs/Gmail. For example, you can ask Gemini “when is my next meeting?” while writing in Docs.

• Most of these features will only be available with various Google memberships, such as Google Workspace members, Gemini Business/Enterprise, Google One AI, and Gemini Education.

Takeaway: AI is officially integrating with our daily lives. Writing emails and documents is just the first step. Eventually AI will be used as an assistant for everyone, whether inside or outside business. I’m curious how far these AI assistants will go before privacy barriers disappear altogether. We already see some concerns with Microsoft’s Recall.

🏎️ Rally Cars!

Source: Midjourney

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