Amazon shuts down Wondery podcast studio, cuts 110 jobs
Despite securing big names in the business, the company is now shifting its strategy in an effort to better compete with rivals like Spotify and YouTube.
Media & Entertainment
Mastercard denies pressuring game platforms, Valve tells a different story
Mastercard seemingly denied playing a role in a recent marketplace crackdown on games with adult content, while Valve says the pressure was indirect.
The uproar over Vogue’s AI-generated ad isn’t just about fashion
“Modeling as a profession is already challenging enough without having to compete with now new digital standards of perfection that can be achieved with AI,” Sarah Murray told TechCrunch.
The sequel to ‘The Social Network’ may have just found its lead actors
While the 2010 original film focused on Mark Zuckerberg’s rise, “Social Network Part II” is said to draw from Jeff Horwitz’s “The Facebook Files,” which exposed Facebook’s harmful effects on teens and its role in spreading misinformation.
Meta to spend up to $72B on AI infrastructure in 2025 as compute arms race escalates
Meta is pouring money into the physical and technical infrastructure needed to scale its AI ambitions. The company said Wednesday in its second-quarter earnings report that it plans to more than double its spend on building AI infrastructure – like data centers and servers.
“We currently expect 2025 capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, to be in the range of $66-72 billion…up approximately $30 billion year-over-year at the midpoint,” Meta said.
YouTube loosens profanity rules for monetized videos
YouTube is tweaking its profanity-related rules to allow creators to monetize videos with swearing in them, provided the profanity is contained to the first seven seconds of the video.
YouTube rolls out age estimation tech to identify US teens and apply additional protections
YouTube is introducing age detection technology to identify teens on the platform in the U.S. and apply prtections.
‘Wizard of Oz’ blown up by AI for giant Sphere screen
The massive Las Vegas venue known as Sphere will be screening its first classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” starting on August 28. And as detailed in a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, this isn’t just a matter of taking the existing movie and projecting it on Sphere’s 160,000 square foot, wraparound LED screen.
Astronomer winks at viral notoriety with ‘temporary spokesperson’ Gwyneth Paltrow
After spending the past week-plus in the headlines due to a seemingly inescapable social media scandal, data operations startup Astronomer is trying to shift the narrative with a tongue-in-cheek video starring actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow.