-
3 Songs From 1979 That Teens Couldn’t Stop Playing in Their First Car
The article highlights three chart hits from 1979 that it says were especially popular with teenagers listening in their first cars. – “Heart of Glass” by Blondie blended new wave and disco, reaching number one in both the US and UK. – The Knack’s “My Sharona” became a major radio hit, topping the Billboard Hot…
-
‘Rideshare Stimulator’ Developers Disclose AI Use Steam After Days Of Controversy
Saber Interactive has added a detailed disclosure to Rideshare Stimulator’s Steam page after several days of controversy about the game’s use of generative AI. The issue intensified when former developer Stella Sacco said she had been replaced by ChatGPT during production, prompting criticism of the studio’s transparency and its treatment of staff. The disclosure says…
-
SpaceX has officially acquired AI coding startup Cursor
SpaceX has completed its acquisition of Cursor, the AI coding startup, following an announcement in June and earlier collaboration on model training. The deal matters because Cursor says access to SpaceX’s extensive computing resources could let it develop stronger AI models while reducing costs for customers. SpaceX reportedly paid $60 billion and had already merged…
-
Netflix Officially Says Goodbye to Vin Diesel’s 119-Minute Sci-Fi Epic
Netflix will remove Vin Diesel’s 2013 sci-fi film Riddick on 31 August, ending its current run on the service. The departure also affects the earlier films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, meaning the full trilogy will no longer be available there and no replacement streaming service has been announced. Riddick, which runs for…
-
BFI Boss Ben Roberts, Picturehouse’s Clare Binns on Gen Z’s Cinema Renaissance, AI Slop and British Indie Film: “We’re Not Great at Comedy”
BFI chief executive Ben Roberts and Picturehouse creative director Clare Binns discussed the future of British independent film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, focusing on funding, audiences and cinema’s role in local communities. Roberts argued that publicly and Lottery-funded films can create value beyond box-office returns by helping launch careers, while warning that the UK…
-
Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?
Independent second-hand booksellers are reporting unusually large bulk orders, prompting suspicion that the books are being bought to train artificial intelligence systems rather than for readers. The trend matters because some books may be digitised through “destructive scanning”, where their spines are removed and pages scanned before the remains are recycled. The speculation follows a…
-
Amazon Can Use Your Twitch Content to Train Its AI—Unless You Opt Out
Twitch has introduced a setting allowing streamers to opt out of having their posts, streams and videos used to train generative AI models for its parent company, Amazon. The change gives creators more control, but has prompted concern because the option is enabled by default and it is unclear when, or how extensively, their content…
-
‘Incredibles 3’: Pete Docter Teases A Powerful New Villain In Upcoming Threequel As Violet & Dash Step Up To Plate – D23
Pixar has revealed early story details for *Incredibles 3* at Disney’s D23 event, including the arrival of a powerful new villain and a greater focus on Violet and Dash Parr. The sequel will explore the children’s attempts to establish themselves as superheroes, while Bob Parr faces doubts about his place in an expanding superhero world.…
-
Anthropic says text watermarking scheme relies on inconsequential words
Anthropic has announced a plan to watermark text produced by its Claude AI models, partly to help comply with the EU AI Act and make AI-generated material more detectable. The scheme subtly steers the model towards alternative but inconsequential word choices, creating a statistical signature that can later be identified with a digital key. The…