The Hollywood Reporter reports: “After several long consecutive days of negotiations, the Writers Guild of America and the labor group representing studios and streamers have reached a tentative deal on a new contract in a major development that could precipitate the end of a historic, 146-day writers strike.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “Roblox has acquired Speechly, a Finnish AI start-up specialising in voice moderation technology, for an undisclosed amount. Speechly’s technology will be used to improve the platform’s voice chat service, which was introduced in 2021. Ahead of the acquisition, Speechly was backed by Y Combinator and raised €2 million in a seed funding round in 2019 led by Berlin’s Cherry Ventures, TechCrunch reported.”
Gizmodo reports: “In its latest bid to adopt artificial intelligence technology, Amazon announced on Monday that it is investing a bundle in OpenAI competitor Anthropic. The investment will reach up to $4 billion, making Amazon Web Services (AWS) the primary cloud provider for Anthropic. Anthropic said it will collaborate with the tech giant to run “secure, reliable infrastructure,” adding that Amazon’s investment “will make Anthropic’s safe and steerable AI widely accessible to AWS customers.'”
The Verge reports: “What if podcasters could flip a switch and instantly speak another language? That’s the premise behind Spotify’s new AI-powered voice translation feature, which reproduces podcasts in other languages using the podcaster’s own voice. The company has partnered with a handful of podcasters to translate their English-language episodes into Spanish with its new tool, and it has plans to roll out French and German translations in the coming weeks.”
Digital Music News reports: “Four months after inking a partnership deal with relaxation app Endel, Universal Music Group (UMG) has revealed plans to release Sollos, a “music-centric wellness app.” The major label disclosed the approaching launch of Sollos (and separate deals with companies operating in the health and wellbeing spaces) as part of its first “Music + Health summit.'”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Universal Music Group-owned artist and label services company Virgin Music has formed a strategic partnership with Position Music, an independent publisher, record label and management firm with a catalog of over 35,000 songs. The deal will see Virgin Music distributing Position Music’s existing catalog and its new releases, and assist Position Music in marketing and promoting its frontline label roster, the companies said in a joint press release on Wednesday (September 20).”
TechCrunch reports: “Several years ago, Aleksander Caban, the co-founder of Carbon Studio, a Polish VR game developer, observed a major problem in modern game design. He had to create rocks, hills, paths and other basic elements of video game environments manually, which often turned out to be a time-consuming — and laborious — process. So Caban decided to develop tech to help automate the process.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio of Hayao Miyazaki, will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corp., both sides said Thursday. Succession worries had been a priority at Ghibli, as Miyazaki has turned 82, and producer Toshio Suzuki is 75, the companies said in a joint statement.”
Variety reports: “Paramount Global wants to start a new game in sports advertising. In an era of streaming, sports broadcasts command some the highest ad prices in the medium. Now Paramount wants to broaden the playing field for sponsors by working with them to have a big team of influencers help them with their pitch.”
The Verge reports: “More content on YouTube is going to be created at least in part using generative AI. The video platform announced several new AI-powered tools for creators at its annual Made on YouTube event on Thursday. Among the features coming later this year or next are AI-generated photo and video backgrounds, AI video topic suggestions, and music search.”
