AI Lawsuits, Creative Commons for Data, and Seals Playing Video Games

AI Training Data Lawsuits

• ⚖️ A group of authors has sued Microsoft in New York, alleging the company used nearly 200,000 pirated digital books without consent to train its Megatron AI model.
• 💰 They are seeking a court order to halt Microsoft's actions and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work.
• 🏛️ A US District Judge dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Meta from 13 authors, stating they made the wrong arguments, but clarified this does not mean Meta's use of copyrighted materials was lawful.
• ❓ The ruling on Meta's case was narrowly applied, suggesting a better-presented case might yield a different outcome, leaving the door open for further legal challenges.
• 🌐 The Getty Images case against Stability AI in the UK is focusing on secondary copyright infringement due to jurisdictional challenges, as most training occurred on US servers.

Creative Commons for Datasets

• 💡 Creative Commons has launched CC Signals, a framework to guide the use of datasets in AI development, mirroring its approach to creative works.
• 🔑 This initiative allows data holders to specify how their content can be reused by machines, using tools similar to existing Creative Commons licenses.
• 🚀 The hope is that CC Signals will address data extraction practices and prevent the internet from becoming more closed off and paywalled.
• 🗓️ Public feedback is being requested ahead of an alpha launch in November 2025.

AI and App Store Regulation

• 📱 A bipartisan group of US senators has revived the Open App Markets Act, targeting Apple and Google's control over their mobile app stores.
• ⚖️ The bill aims to prevent tech giants from exerting "gatekeeper power" by allowing developers to inform users of cheaper pricing, enabling side-loading of apps, and supporting third-party app stores and payment systems.
• 🏢 Intel is shutting down its automotive chip business and laying off most of its employees, shifting focus to its core client and data center portfolios.
• 🎮 Nearly 970,000 Fortnite players are set to receive a share of $126 million in refunds following an FTC settlement with Epic Games over deceptive in-game purchase practices.

YouTube's AI Features and Animal Navigation

• 📺 YouTube is introducing an AI-powered search results carousel for premium users in the US, offering AI-generated video suggestions and topic descriptions.
• 💬 The conversational AI tool is also being extended to non-premium users, allowing them to ask questions about video content within the app.
• 🧪 Scientists have taught seals to play an ocean simulation video game to understand how they navigate underwater in dark and cloudy environments.
• 🧠 The experiment revealed that seals use the movement of objects past their eyes (optic flow perception) to navigate, a finding that could inform future underwater vision applications.