News

Instagram‘s take on CapCut has finally arrived. Edits, the Meta-owned app that carries on a long tradition of copycat features on Instagram, is surging up the download charts on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.

Edits looks to offer a similar experience to CapCut, which millions of TikTokers use to touch up their videos before uploading them. With its second-to-second controls, green screen tools, and video capture capabilities, the Edits interface resembles CapCut. The most noticeable difference between the two apps is a cosmetic one: Videos created through Edits will have no watermark, which could help Instagram promote original content for its Reels format.

When Instagram announced Edits earlier this year, platform head Adam Mosseri noted that the CapCut competitor is more professionally oriented than its TikTok-affiliated rival. Edits, he said, is “more for creators than casual video makers. Not just video editing,...

Brad Haugen has joined Lionsgate as their EVP of Digital Strategy & Growth.

He’ll be spearheading original content creation for digital platforms, brand partnerships and other storytelling initiatives in the digital space while monetizing Lionsgate’s 20K-plus title film and TV library on social. Haugen will also team with 3 Arts managers to bring their clients new brand opportunities and grow their businesses in the digital sphere.

Haugen has created premium content for across social including Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and X in collaboration with Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Justin Bieber, Ryan Reynolds, Megan Thee Stallion and others in building their digital businesses.

“Brad’s expertise in digital media and the creator economy are a great fit for our entrepreneurial culture, and he will supercharge our efforts to bring one of the world’s most valuable portfolios of brands & franchises to top digital media platforms and a whole new generation of talent,...

Lionsgate has tapped former Westbrook Media executive Brad Haugen to lead the studio’s digital strategy.

As the studio’s executive vice president of digital strategy and growth, Haugen will be responsible for spearheading its original content creation for digital platforms, brand partnerships and other storytelling initiatives in the digital space.

He will also be tasked with helping Lionsgate continue to expand original branded content and advertising, as well as monetizing the more than 20,000 titles in its film and TV library into collaborations with digital platforms like YouTube, Snap, Pinterest, Meta and TikTok. Additionally, he will collaborate with 3 Arts managers to bring their clients new brand opportunities and grow their businesses in the digital world.

“Brad’s expertise in digital media and the creator economy are a great fit for our entrepreneurial culture, and he will supercharge our efforts to bring one of the world’s most valuable portfolios of...

Instagram is reportedly working on a feature that would bring more interconnectedness and collaboration to its disappearing Stories. The Meta-owned app is cooking up Storylines, which would facilitate linked sequences of Stories uploaded by multiple creators.

Alessandro Paluzzi, a tech leaker known for uncovering upcoming features on prominent apps, posted about Storylines on his Threads account. Paluzzi — who previously spotted in-development Instagram updates like long-form Reels and multiple links-in-bio — posted a screenshot that explains how Storylines will function.

Creators will be able to append responses to Stories uploaded by accounts they follow. Their followers can then continue the chain by adding their own input. The posts that are part of a Storyline will “show up together,” per Paluzzi’s post.

Assuming that Storylines do eventually show up on the Instagram app, the feature will be part of Meta’s push to bring a greater sense of community to its photo- and video-sharing platform.

Emerging technology, when first being presented to the public-at-large, is bound to get people fearful and protective of the status quo. Such is the current case with AI and its practical application in multiple industries, particularly in the space of visual media arts, but rather than turn away, renowned filmmaker and technological innovator James Cameron is choosing to lean in. Last year, he joined the board of the generative AI company Stability AI and during a recent interview on the “Boz to the Future” podcast, he explained how the tech’s ability to shorten VFX workflow could truly be a game-changer without creating a massive disruption to the jobs market.

“If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I’ve always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see — ‘Dune,’ ‘Dune: Part Two,’ or one of my films, or big effects-heavy,...

James Cameron On AI(Photo Credit –Instagram)

James Cameron is one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood, and his way of thinking and making a movie can never be replaced by AI. Why? Because the filmmaker doesn’t believe in text prompts. Even though he appreciated the new technology and technicalities of AI, he couldn’t wrap his head around how it could mimic great talents with just a few prompts.

In a recent conversation, Cameron opened up about it and even shared his experience after joining the board of AI firm, Stability AI, last year. Scroll ahead.

The director who is known for his films like Avatar, Titanic, and Terminator, James Cameron, recently appeared on the latest episode of Boz to the Future, a podcast (Via Meta) hosted by Andrew Bosworth. Andrew is a huge name in the technology field as he is the Cto of the giant Meta.

Travis Scott making the jump from Aggro Dr1ft to hang out with Bunny Boy?

The kids from Kids meeting up with Alien and the Spring Breakers?

Something else Harmony Korine hasn’t come up with yet?

Korine’s studio Edglrd is making a first-look deal with Runway, the New York-based film-focused machine-intelligence firm, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The pact will allow Edglrd to deploy the company’s generative AI tools in new ways across all of its creative products, including traditional films, immersive pieces and brand videos.

“This open up all kinds of creative output — visual styles and identities that haven’t been explored before,” Alon Soran, chief commercial officer at Edglrd, told THR.

The companies have previously worked together in a less formal way. Runway helped provide the AI baby faces in last year’s Venice Film Festival premiere Baby Invasion, a hybrid movie-videogame centered on a...

If there’s going to be a TikTok ban in the United States, Instagram is hellbent on becoming the go-to platform for displaced users. It has already rolled out TikTok-like features and dangled financial incentives in front of creators. Now, it’s turning its attention to the search industry, where it will apply some of the same ideas that have worked wonders for TikTok.

Instagram Head Adam Mosseri commented on the platform’s potential as a search engine during an appearance on the Build Your Tribe podcast. He admitted that Instagram has a lot of room for growth among users who search for videos to learn about local businesses, global trends, and cultural happenings. To accelerate development in that area, Instagram is expanding the team that works on search products.

“We’re … starting to invest more in search on Instagram because there’s so much amazing content,” Mosseri said. “And quite frankly,...

You can transport yourself to the NBA All-Star Game without leaving the comforts of home this season.

NBA fans with Meta Quest mixed reality headsets likely already know how cool it can be to watch games using these devices. The Meta Quest can transport you into the stadium, allowing you to watch the game courtside even though you’re really just sitting at home. For the first time in 2025, the NBA All-Star Game on Saturday, Feb. 15 and Sunday, Feb. 16 will also be presented for Meta Quest owners. Find out more about how to stream it below!

How to watch the 2025 NBA All-Star Game on Meta Quest When: Saturday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. (All-Star Game) TV: Xtadium or NBA Arena on Meta Quest From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a Vpn. About watching the 2025 NBA All-Star Game on Meta Quest

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game will...

Despite Meta pouring billions of dollars into an attempt to become the world’s #1 metaverse hub, Roblox and Fortnite continue to outclass it. Both games rely on a steady stream of new digital items from content creators–and are willing to pay those creators for what they make (and sell).

Fortnite just reported that it paid creators $352 million over the course of 2024. Now here comes Roblox to dwarf that amount: During its latest earnings call, it revealed that it paid creators $280 million in Q4 alone, bringing it to a total of nearly $930 million paid out in 2024.

“We are continuously investing in growing our economy to further expand opportunities for creators, from professional studios to individual content creators, digital clothing designers and brands–already estimated at nearly 18,000 full-time job equivalents just in the U.S. between 2017 and 2023,” Matt Curtis, Roblox‘s VP of Developer Relations, said on the call.

Higher creator...

Jesse Eisenberg is talking Mark Zuckerberg.

If you forgot, the 41-year-old Oscar-nominated actor played the 40-year-old Facebook founder in 2010′s The Social Network.

In a new interview, Jesse admitted that he hasn’t been following Mark‘s “life trajectory, partly because I don’t want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that.”

Keep reading to find out more…“It’s not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I’m a great golfer,” Jesse continued in his interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today. “It’s like this guy that’s doing things that are problematic — taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened.”

In recent weeks, Zuckerberg announced that replacing its fact-checking systems on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” model similar to Elon Musk’s X. He also met with...

When setting up a new Meta Quest 3 headset, there are several account-creation options. One option is to create a Meta account using a preexisting Facebook account. While this is a quicker way to set things up, not everyone is thrilled to link their public social account with their Meta headset.

If you have an active Facebook or Instagram account, you've likely already come across the collective Meta hub, maybe without even realizing it. Most Meta-owned accounts are already linked, which is why you can share Instagram posts directly to Facebook or tag Facebook friends on Instagram, and your new Meta Quest headset now has the option to link with these things as well.

Quick Links Do I Need A Facebook Account For Meta Quest 3? There Are Multiple Ways To Setup A Meta Quest 3 How To Set Up A Meta Quest 3 Account Without Facebook Use An Email To Make A Meta...

Meta is talking up its vision for the future of content creation–and that vision involves human creators posting their stuff alongside posts from AI bots.

The company (like many others in our space) has been bullish on AI since the metaverse failed to work out for it. Over the summer, it rolled out a new tool that lets users create their own AI bots. The tool came with a Black Mirror-esque tagline: “Now anyone can create an AI character based on their interests, and creators can even build an AI extension of themselves. Start chatting with these AIs on Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Now, Meta’s VP of Product for Generative AI, Connor Hayes, tells Financial Times that hundreds of thousands of these characters have been created. The vast majority have been kept private for now, but Meta hopes that will change.

“We expect these AIs to actually,...

David Fincher’s movie about how Facebook started and became the mammoth that it is today, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, has been added to the National Film Registry, and it is no surprise why.

Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg In The Social Network | Credits: Sony Pictures Entertainment

The Social Network no doubt still holds up as a must-watch, not just for its take on the messy birth of Facebook that ushered in a new era of the internet, but for its sharp commentary on power, ambition, and most importantly the thin line between good and bad. In a world ruled by social media, the film’s themes hit harder than ever, making it a modern classic that still sparks conversations.

Andrew Garfield’s The Social Network is now immortal!

Out of the 2 million films in the Library of Congress, only 900 have made...

We've noted, on more than one occasion, what a weird position James Gunn holds in the Hollywood hierarchy. As the only director (and now studio head) who's actually pretty good, on a personal level, at social media, Gunn clearly delights in having a more direct line to his audience than most people in his position.

One of the best action thrillers from the 1990s, nay, one of the highest rated action thrillers of all time, is now available to stream for free. Just in case, you know, youre trying to escape from any real-life drama thats going on right now. Starring Hollywood icon Harrison Ford, the 1993 action outing The Fugitive finds the Star Wars and Indiana Jones (and soon to be MCU) star on the run from a dedicated U.S. Marshal after hes framed for the murder of his wife and sentenced to death.

The Fugitive is nothing less than an action thriller classic, and stands at a hugely impressive 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is now available to stream for free on Tubi, so sit back and watch Ford deliver a powerhouse performance in this intense blockbuster, the kind of which they just dont make anymore. Directed by Andrew Davis and...

Blumhouse and Meta are partnering on Meta Movie Gen—a suite of AI models that show how you can use simple text inputs to produce custom videos and sounds, edit existing videos, and transform a personal image into a unique video. For the pilot, Blumhouse—a driving force in horror—selected a group of filmmakers to test out the technology and provide feedback before its public debut.

“While we’re not planning to incorporate Movie Gen models into any public products until next year,

Meta feels it’s important to have an open and early dialogue with the creative community about how it

can be the most useful tool for creativity and ensure its responsible use,” says Connor Hayes, VP of

GenAI at Meta.

Those filmmakers—Aneesh Chaganty, The Spurlock Sisters (The Breakline and participants in Blumhouse’s first annual Screamwriting Fellowship) and Casey Affleck —collaborated with Blumhouse...

Meta has put its generative AI video system in the hands of some Hollywood filmmakers — hoping to build goodwill with the industry and gather feedback on how to improve the tool.

The tech giant announced Thursday that it has been working with horror studio Blumhouse and select creators as part of a pilot program for Movie Gen, its generative-ai video models. The company said it will continue to expand the program in 2025.

Meta earlier this month unveiled Meta Movie Gen, a suite of AI models that can use text inputs to produce realistic-looking videos as well as edit existing videos. Movie Gen can generate video clips up to 16 seconds in 1080p HD format (at 16 frames per second) with corresponding audio tracks. Movie Gen will be “coming to Instagram” in 2025, according to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg. Before its wide release, the company is working with filmmakers and creators to integrate their...

Hollywood's inevitable embrace of artificial intelligence (which was a central sticking point in last year's writers and actors strikes) continued on Thursday with the announcement of a partnership between Blumhouse and Meta. Meta recently unveiled its A.I. model Movie Gen, which can generate video and audio, among other features.

Exclusive: Chris Hemsworth (Thor & Extraction movies) and Sam Rockwell are “helping out” their stunt-world buddies in the first of an initial four-part movie series called Stuntnuts – yes, it’s a palindrome- which are being made under Matthew Vaughn’s Marv Films banner.

You may have spotted the Stuntnuts title being introduced in the trailer- directed by Vaughn- that Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently posted on his official Instagram page to promote Meta’s RayBan Smart Glasses.

It features Zuckerberg, initially seen with an arm ablaze, launching into a series of stunt set pieces with John Cena and Benson Boone choreographed to the tune of Junior Senior’s high energy pop classic Move Your Feet (And Feel United) .

Teaser ends with a befuddled Zuckerberg looking at his torched arm, exclaiming: “Hey, Meta, am I on fire?” You can watch it here:

View this post...

Some familiar voices will be coming to Meta’s AI chatbots on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

At a Meta Connect event on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the voice updates to the company’s suite of AI products alongside other offerings like AI dubbing and tools to use AI to edit photos.

Zuckerberg said that the voice functionality will begin rolling out this week.

“We want to make this fun, all right? So in addition to the different system voices that we built in that I think are are pretty good, we’ve also worked with some of the most iconic voices out there to bring them to Meta AI,” Zuckerberg said onstage before beginning a live demo featuring the voice of Awkwafina.

“Are live demos risky?” Zuckerberg asked.

“Live demos can be risky, yes,” the AI system responded in Awkwafina’s voice. “They can be unpredictable, prone to technical issues and potentially embarrassing,...

Exclusive: Noah Centineo and Ivanna Sakhno are set to star in the animated short film, Meta, from award winning Prime Render Studios. The short film is under the banner of Centineo’s Arkhum Productions. Bozo Balov, Milivoj Popovic and Veljko Popovic will direct. Popovic penned the pic Centineo will produce alongside Arkhum’s Head of Production Enzo Marc, Prime Render Studios’ Veljko Popovic and Milivoj Popovic and Sacrebleu Productions.

The film follows a lonely photographer, lost in a disconnected and isolated world dominated by virtual reality, who makes an unexpected connection with an AI, which challenges him to question the nature of consciousness and the blurred boundaries between reality and delusion.

“We are beyond thrilled to be collaborating with Ivanna and Prime Render Studios. Bozo, Milivoj, and Veljko are pushing boundaries in the animation space and this film Meta will be like nothing the world has ever seen,” said Arkhum’s Enzo Marc.

Some social media companies see augmented reality (Ar) effects as a promising revenue stream for creators. But not Meta. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp has announced that its Ar platform Spark will no longer be available after January 14, 2025.

Meta announced the decision in a company blog post. The shuttering of Spark will make Meta’s third-party effects unavailable across its platforms. An Faq provides details about the effects that will still be present once January 14 rolls around.

“This decision is part of our larger efforts to prioritize the products we believe will best serve the future needs of our consumers and business customers alike,” reads the post. “We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.”

Spark has been available throughout Meta’s communities for five years, and the decision to axe the program caught many artists off guard. Irate effects creators took to...

Après ses premiers sponsors, PodParis annonce les premiers podcasts à l’affiche du festival. Ils seront sur scène, en direct et en public!

Une programmation hétéroclite

Fidèle à son Adn, l’association BadGeek souhaite représenter la diversité du monde du podcast sur scène. Elle annonce aujourd’hui la couleur de cette édition parisienne avec les quatre premiers noms de l’édition 2024.

L’Apéro du Captain, le podcast irrévérencieux traitant de l’actualité Web et High Tech, se produira sur la scène de PodParis. Méta de Choc, animé par Élisabeth Feytit, qui décrypte nos pensées les plus profondes à l’aide de la pensée critique sera aussi en direct et en public. Présent au festival PodRennes, également organisé par l’association BadGeek, Le Podcast de l’Assommoir sera de retour à Paris pour une émission pleine de rires, de débats et d’échanges. Enfin, Un Podcast Trans viendra animer la scène...

Move over, mom and dad.

Tom Alison, who heads Facebook’s development and strategy across News Feed, Stories, Groups, Video, Marketplace, Gaming, News, Dating, Ads and more, posted Friday on Meta about the company’s direction.

The post, “The Future of Facebook,” detailed plans to “set Facebook up for success going forward.

“We’re focused on two big things: building the next generation of social media for young adults and leaning into new product capabilities enabled by AI.”

The way people use social media is changing, Alison said. “Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” he wrote.

Facebook has upgraded Reels and Feed ranking technologies, he said. “We invented a new model architecture – that can learn from large datasets very efficiently – and it drove significant improvements in our pilot with Facebook Reels.

Meta Quest 2 users are content with their devices, but the Quest 3 library growing in 2024 could spark upgrades for longevity. High profile Aaa VR exclusives like Alien: Rogue Incursion and Batman: Arkham Shadow launching on Meta Quest 3. Quest 3 games library is already solid, and players can carry over purchases from Quest 2.

The Meta Quest 3 has been around for a while now, having launched in October 2023 as a successor to the Quest 2, but with a smaller design, improved processor, better speakers, and higher resolution. The Quest 3 also started adding more mixed-reality features to the experience to blend virtual and real-world environments, but many Quest 2 users have been content with their devices - the Quest 2 was only released three years prior and still holds up extremely well for VR after all - and therefore haven't felt the need to upgrade, and VR, in general, has been somewhat overlooked.

In 2024 that seems to be changing,...

Director James McTeigue has signed with Gersh for representation in all areas.

McTeigue is the filmmaker behind several major features and series, including his 2005 directorial feature debut “V for Vendetta,” the cult favorite dystopian comic book adaptation starring Natalie Portman, John Hurt and Hugo Weaving. He followed that film with the 2009 martial arts film “Ninja Assassin,” led by Korean star Rain. His other films include the Edgar Allan Poe detective thriller “The Raven,” starring John Cusack, Luke Evans and Brendan Gleeson, as well as “Survivor,” starring Milla Jovovich and Pierce Brosnan.

More recently, McTeigue produced the 2021 sci-fi revival “The Matrix Resurrections” and the commercially successful Gabrielle Union thriller “Breaking In,” which he also directed. His TV directorial credits include episodes across two seasons of “Sense8,” the political thriller “Messiah” and the historical series “Marco Polo.” McTeigue has also directed commercials for Heineken, Samsung, Powerade, Rexona, Deutsche Bank and Guild Wars 2, amongst several other brands.

Exciting news for fans waiting for the sequel to The Social Network! It’s official, Aaron Sorkin, the Oscar-winning mastermind is currently working on the script for the long-awaited sequel. This time around, judging by his recent statement, fans are bracing themselves for a deep dive into some dark and heavy truths intertwined with the Zuckerberg empire, as Sorkin is determined to shed light on the shadows lurking behind the Mark Zuckerberg company.

Aaron Sorkin Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Aaron Sorkin Is Determined to Reveal the Dark Side of Facebook in The Social Network Sequel

In a recent episode of The Town podcast, Aaron Sorkin confirmed his involvement in the sequel to The Social Network. As his enthusiasm practically jumped through the mic, signaling this movie was a serious passion project for the writer.

Suggested“Featuring Elon Musk?”: Wildest Fan Reactions to David Fincher’s The Social Network 2 Update – Will Andrew Garfield Return?...

Meta reported first quarter revenue of $36.5 billion, up 27 percent from the year-earlier period and above Wall Street expectations.

The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and more, had issued guidance of $34.5 billion to $37 billion for the first quarter. Meta reported income of $12.4 billion, up 117 percent from the year-earlier period.

“It’s been a good start to the year,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “The new version of Meta AI with Llama 3 is another step towards building the world’s leading AI. We’re seeing healthy growth across our apps and we continue making steady progress building the metaverse as well.”

On the earnings call, Zuckerberg said the rollout last week of the new Meta AI, an assistant that can be used within search to answer complex queries, make recommendations and create animations from still images and more, is going well, with tens of million of people trying it and giving positive feedback.

My Hero Academia is an action-packed superhero anime series with an increasingly complex and thematically deep storyline for any shonen fan to lose themselves in. At first, the story was fairly straightfoward, being yet another zero-to-hero story with a teenage hero who aims to become someone great one fight and training session at a time. Before long, though, My Hero Academia started treating fans to a breathtaking plot of redemption, shocking betrayals, cunning tricks and moral ambiguity about the divide between heroes and villains.

My Hero Academia got the story moving with a few cool plot twists to raise the stakes and subvert expectations, and then the anime's story started delivering one hard-hitting plot twist after another. Each season featured game-changing plot twists that kept all the Pro Heroes and students on their toes in their never-ending war against villainy, and some of the most recent plot twists set up...

Minutes into the medieval intro of “The Faceless Lady,” a fair maiden rips off her face. You immediately feel a bit nauseated. But did the violence trigger that reaction — or is it the fact that the action seems to be happening somewhere deep in your visual cortex?

“The Faceless Lady,” a collaboration between Meta and producer Eli Roth, is billed as “the first known scripted original VR live action, stereoscopic (3D) series ever produced of its size.” Although it’s designed for the Meta’s Quest headset, the story and scope seem wide enough to exist out of the headset. It’s a complete package that could bring fresh eyes to next-gen storytelling.

The six-episode undertaking, written by Jerome Velinsky and directed by John William Ross, is an escape room spin on ghostly lore. Three twentysomething couples head to the mysterious Kilolc Castle in Ireland to play deadly games for...

The Faceless Lady, a horror series inspired by Irish folklore, premieres on April 4 in Meta Horizon Worlds. The show follows three couples in a medieval castle facing a deadly weekend competition with Lady Margaret Hodnett. Viewers can experience the immersive horror in 180 format, presented by Eli Roth, with new episodes dropping weekly.

Inspired by seventeenth-century Irish folklore, the first two episodes of The Faceless Lady premiere on April 4 in Meta Horizon Worlds. Crypt TV and Meta's first-ever scripted VR episodic series puts a modern-day twist on the legend of Lady Margaret Hodnett, a spirit rumored to haunt Belvelly Castle. The official synopsis states that the horror story "follows three couples who have been invited to a medieval castle in Ireland for a weekend competition where they will either win her games or lose their lives." It consists of six half-hour episodes, with a new installment dropping every Thursday until the finale.

The Producers Guild of America announced the winners of several categories of their 35th Annual PGA Awards on Thursday night, including their nods for innovation short form awards.

The team for Body of Line won the PGA Innovation Award, and the team for Succession: Controlling the Narrative won for outstanding short form program.

The winners were announced during the PGA’s annual west coast celebration, at Members restaurant in West Hollywood. The celebration is the second in a week’s worth of bi-coastal events which will culminate with the PGA Awards next week.

Earlier this week, the guild awarded the team behind Beckham (season one) with the outstanding sports program award and the Sesame Street (season five, episode three) team with outstanding children’s program.

The PGA Innovation Award recognizes the production of a noteworthy, impactful new media program that significantly elevates the audience’s viewing experience. In alphabetical order,...

The Producers Guild of America have announced the nominees for the PGA Innovation Award ahead of the 35th Annual PGA Awards, set to take place on Feb. 25. The PGA Innovation Award recognizes the production of a noteworthy, impactful new media program that significantly elevates the audience’s viewing experience.

The nominees, in alphabetical order, are Body of Mine (Kost), The Eye And I (Edda), JFK Memento (Targo), Letters From Drancy (East City Films), MLK: Now Is the Time (Time Studios), Ocean of Light: Dolphins VR (Meta Quest), Our Ocean Our Future (Hidden Worlds Entertainment), Out of Scale, A Kurzgesagt Adventure (Meta), Reimagined (Very Cavaliere Productions), Space Explorers: Blue Marble Trilogy (Felix & Paul Studios), Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway (Aardman) and The World’s Largest Tailgate (Kansas City Chiefs).

The recipient of the 2024 PGA Innovation Award, as well as the PGA Award winner of the short form category, will...

Of the 16-page summary detailing the tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and the studios, more than five are spent on provisions over artificial intelligence. It’s the product of months of hard-nosed bargaining by the union on an issue that the studios seemingly didn’t think would emerge as a sticking point walking into negotiations.

The document cites the establishment of a “broad, protective” definition of generative artificial intelligence, along with requirements surrounding notice, consent and compensation around digital replicas of actors and “synthetic performers” created by AI tools. It’s flanked by a first-of-its-kind acknowledgment of “the importance of human performance in motion pictures and the potential impact on employment.”

But SAG-AFTRA members may still have plenty to worry about on AI restrictions — especially on the issue of the creation and deployment of digital replicas in performances that could allow studios to circumvent what were intended to be enhanced protections for actors.

While artificial intelligence has been one of the biggest points of contention in the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA strikes, back in France, Newen Studios has taken a deep dive into AI to deliver daily soaps, as well as source talent and pitch projects in their own metaverse space.

During Mipcom, Newen’s head of innovation, Marianne Carpentier, launched the second edition of the banner’s Meta Pitch Contest. Supported by the Creative Europe Program, the event will see creators pitching their series through an avatar in Newen’s metaverse space before a jury of international producers, distributors, acquisition executives and media professionals. The two finalists will then be invited to Series Mania in Lille for an in-person finale, vying for an audience award. The winner will receive development support.

“Since we created our metaverse in May 2022, we’ve done many things and this Meta Pitch Contest is one of our highlights,...

Jada Pinkett Smith says the notorious Oscar slap carried an additional shock – when husband Will Smith called her “wife.”

When Will Smith charged the stage and slapped host Chris Rock at the 94th Oscars, it was in response to a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense, with the words: “Keep my wife’s name out your f–king mouth!”

Smith now says she was “shocked” by the altercation. “We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” Smith said in an interview with “Today.”

On Wednesday, Smith revealed that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016 but don’t plan on divorcing.

In the same interview, Smith revealed that Rock apologized to her once the cameras were off, saying, “I meant no harm.” But while Rock was talking to her, Smith was so alarmed by how angry her husband was that she was unable...

Yara Shahidi has a date with Women in Film.

The actress and activist, best known as the star of Black-ish and Grown-ish, has been selected as the 18th recipient of the Wif Max Mara Face of the Future Award at the organization’s Wif honors in Los Angeles on Nov. 30. In conjunction with the honor, Shahidi is currently in Milan, Italy, where she’s meeting with the Maramotti family and attending the Max Mara spring/summer 2024 fashion show.

Per the organization, the Wif Max Mara Face of the Future Award is given to “an actress who is experiencing a turning point in her career through her work in the film and television industries, through her contributions to the community at large, in recognition of her outstanding achievements, and her embodiment of style and grace.” Lili Reinhart, Zazie Beetz, Gemma Chan, Elizabeth Debicki, Alexandra Shipp, Zoey Deutch, Natalie Dormer, Kate Mara,...

San Francisco, Aug 29 (Ians) Twitter’s renaming as X by Elon Musk saw its weekly active users drop 4 per cent over the following weeks after the exercise.

The X app fell four spots in the Overall category rankings to No 36 earlier this month as its installs decreased by 8 per cent, according to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. That included a decline across both iOS and Android, down 22 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.

Average user time spent and sessions on X fell 5 per cent after the rebranding.

“Twitter rebranded to X earlier this week and saw mixed reactions from its users with some notably voicing dissatisfaction with the abandonment of the classic blue bird logo,” said the report.

However, installs for the Twitter Lite app, designed for emerging markets, went up after the name change, reports TechCrunch, citing the data.

Twitter Lite downloads increased, up 50 per cent from the previous time frame.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie grossed a record-breaking $155 million domestically — and $377 million internationally — in its first weekend. The blockbuster film also crushed right-wing efforts to boycott the film for its “man-hating” and “woke feminism,” and Barbie has since driven her pink Corvette over the delicate egos of outraged conservatives to score the biggest film debut of 2023.

While Gerwig didn’t anticipate the right-wing backlash, she continues to maintain that Barbie is for all. “Certainly, there’s a lot of passion,” the director told The New York Times when asked about conservatives...

New Delhi, July 17 (Ians) As Meta’s Threads crosses 150 million sign-ups, the so-called Twitter killer’s daily use has gone down miserably, with time spent by users now down by 50 per cent from 20 minutes to just 10 minutes.

According to Sensor Tower data, Threads platform’s number of daily active users were down about 20 per cent since its debut on July 5.

Data from Similarweb showed a drop of more than 25 per cent in daily active users on Android phones globally. The usage time also decreased by more than 50 per cent, it showed.

However, these are early days and as Meta introduces more Twitter-like features, the daily use may go up and Threads can achieve the momentum it aspires for.

“While it’s early days, we’re excited about the initial success of Threads, which has surpassed our expectations. We launched the app just over a week ago, and our focus...

Long before Hollywood faced a historic double strike, Amazon made a plan to turn one of its hit Prime Video dramas into the appointment TV event of the summer. Now that showrunner Jenny Han and the cast are prohibited from promoting the series, marketing experts believe the tech giant could still manage to persuade viewers to kick the binging habit with the help of social media influencers.

The first season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” which was released all at once in keeping with the popular binge-model, was a viral success. But rather than bet on a repeat, the company opted to release Season 2 weekly: The show premiered the new season’s first three episodes Friday and is set to release episodes weekly through the season finale on Aug. 18.

A television adaptation of Han’s YA trilogy, the show follows Belly (Lola Tung) as she gets entangled in a...

San Francisco, July 13 (Ians) Meta has announced that the gaming platform Roblox is coming to Quest 2 and Pro, starting with an open beta hitting App Lab in the coming weeks.

“On average, more than 66 million users log into Roblox every day, with a community that spans mobile devices (both iOS and Android), desktops, and Xbox, and we can’t wait to add Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro, and (coming soon) Quest 3 to the mix,” Meta said in a blogpost on Wednesday.

The open beta is a good opportunity for the Roblox developer community to optimise their existing games for Quest and build new ones for virtual reality (VR) while gathering input and feedback from the Quest community.

“That means developers will be able to experiment, learn, and iterate on VR experiences before Roblox is ready for prime time and its full release on the Meta Quest Store.”

With more than 15 million active experiences and counting,...

San Francisco, July 11 (Ians) Users of Meta’s Twitter rival Threads discovered that Elon Musk has begun limiting search results when they try to find links to Threads on the microblogging platform, despite the platform currently being filled with links to Threads content.

A user on Threads posted, “Twitter is selectively blocking searches for tweets that link to Threads, even though they allow posting Threads URLs (for now).”

However, the behaviour is also being widely reported by Twitter users, reports The Verge. The issue was discovered while searching for links to a specific URL with the “url:” search operator.

Searching “url:threads.net” on Twitter returns zero results, despite there being a lot of tweets linking to the domain.

Similarly, searching for “threads.net” without the “url:” operator returns dozens of irrelevant results from users with their Threads account in their display name, or who discuss Threads without linking to it,...

Twitter may be struggling to court advertisers, keep the site actually running, and prevent users from fleeing to eager competitors — but at least the Taliban likes it.

On Monday, Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in the Taliban, praised Twitter in response to the launch of Meta’s Threads, a Twitter competitor that went live last week and has racked up more than 100 million users in a matter of days.

Haqqani weighed in on his own decision to remain on the Elon Musk-owned platform, writing that it “has two important advantages over other social media platforms.

Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed class-action lawsuits against OpenAI and Meta, claiming that the companies’ artificial intelligence software programs pilfer from their copyrighted works.

The lawsuit reflects a growing debate over when emerging artificial intelligence technology crosses the line into infringing on copyrighted works, a question that came up in a recent congressional hearing featuring OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

In the lawsuit, Silverman and two other authors, Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, claim that OpenAI’s ChatGPT relies on their works for its training dataset.

The authors, who are seeking class-action status, say they did not consent to their works being used in this way, but they were “ingested and used to train ChatGPT.”

“Indeed, when ChatGPT is prompted, ChatGPT generates summaries of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works –something only possible if ChatGPT was trained on Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works,” the lawsuit states.

The suit claims that OpenAI copied Silverman’s book The Bedwetter,...

Meta's Threads app is linked to a user's Instagram account, making it easy to share posts to Instagram. The Threads app caters to the Instagram user base, and as a result, many users who don't have a Twitter account are experimenting with a text-based platform for the first time. While sharing Instagram posts and Stories to Threads is also possible, the app's Ui isn't currently optimized to display Instagram content. The same isn't true for Threads posts shared to Instagram.

Any post on Threads can be shared to Instagram, and isn't restricted to a user's own posts. To share a Threads post on Instagram, tap the share button (arrow icon) underneath the post. This brings up multiple sharing options. Tapping 'Add to story' lets users share to their Instagram Story, while tapping 'Post to feed' lets them share it as an Instagram post. Tap either option, which will open...

Instagram's new microblogging platform, Threads, is finally available for everyone, and users are already wondering how to get verified. The process to sign up for Threads is fairly straightforward for people who already have an Instagram account, but those who don't will need to make one. Threads is available for both iOS and Android, with a desktop version to follow down the line.

Per the official blog post, users' Instagram usernames and verification will carry over to Threads, meaning users don't have to apply and pay for verification separately. So, to get verified on Instagram Threads, users must subscribe to Meta Verified. Before proceeding with the steps, users should ensure that everything is correct in their username, profile name, date of birth, and profile picture, as once the process starts, they won't be able to change anything.

Related: How To Find Out If Someone Blocked You On Instagram (3 Ways...

Within four hours of launching Threads, Mark Zuckerberg posted that 5 million people had registered on the platform.

The Twitter competitor went live in the App Store on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected, and as users signed up in droves, Zuckerberg highlighted the milestone.

“Just passed 5 million sign ups in the first four hours,” wrote the Meta CEO on his Threads account.

Threads alerted users of its rollout through a splashy Instagram cross-promotion. The new Meta app requires an Instagram account to log in, and once signed up, users can...

Updated with launch: Instagram’s text-based Threads launched Wednesday at 4 p.m. Pt. The Meta app was built “for sharing text updates and joining public conversations,” according to the blog post unveiling the launch.

The Threads website on Wednesday featured only a Qr code sending users to their app stores to download the app.

Users can log in using their existing Instagram account. The company said posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos up to 5 minutes in length.

Originally, Meta said the app was “expected” to be available on Thursday.

Previously, July 3 Pm: Twitter users frustrated with the changes in the Elon Musk-led social media platform will now have the option to try Instagram’s Threads.

The app appeared in Apple’s iOS App Store and is expected to launch on July 6. A similar search in Android’s Google Play Store did not yield any results for Threads,...