Legal
Abbie Chatfield sued by former friend
The omnipresent social media personality is being taken to court by Heath Kelley, who claims she called him a “delusional genocide supporter” and “pathetic man” to her 500,000 Instagram followers.
The Australian’s Will Seitam and Joanna Panagopoulos report court documents allege Chatfield shared private messages and labelled Kelley a “right wing troll” in a series of May posts.
Kelley, for his part, is not playing, having hired top defamation lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC.
Former Australian actor faces possible execution in China
Karm Gilespie, who had guest parts on Blue Heelers and The Man From Snowy River, is facing the prospect of execution in China after more than a decade behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
As The Daily Telegraph’s Charlotte Karp reports, Gilespie, now 61, was arrested in 2013 when Chinese authorities found 7.5kg of methamphetamine in his luggage at Guangzhou’s Baiyun Airport.
He has always insisted he was innocent.
Media
Taylor Swift shuts down Super Bowl rumours
Swifties, you need to calm down.
The BBC’s Pete Allison reports Tay-Tay has confirmed she didn’t reject a slot at the Super Bowl halftime show.
The singer telling Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show the rumour “isn’t true”, and that talks between her team and the NFL never even got that serious.
Streaming
Streamers push back on Aussie content quotas
TV Tonight’s David Knox reports that Australia’s long-promised streaming quotas remain on pause, and fresh FOI documents show why.
Netflix, Prime Video, Stan, Disney and Paramount, via the Australia NZ Screen Association, rejected two models proposed by Arts Minister Tony Burke, arguing there’s no “market failure” to fix.
Prime Video and Paramount said they’d support a “fair and flexible” system, while Stan and Nine dismissed quotas outright.
California bans loud streaming ads
No dad, it wasn’t your imagination. Those ads during those Seinfeld re-runs on Netflix are louder than the show.
Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom has done something about it.
As The Hollywood Reporter’s Erik Hayden details, he’s signed a new law requiring platforms like Netflix and Disney+ to ensure ads aren’t louder than the shows or movies they interrupt.
Social Media
Denmark plans social media ban for under-15s
The Guardian’s Miranda Bryant reports that Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has announced plans to ban social media for under-15s, warning that phones and apps are “stealing our children’s childhood”.
Their ban goes even further than Australia’s proposed one, which will come into force for under-16s in December.
AI
Aussie authors set for payout after AI book theft
Hundreds of Australian writers, including Trent Dalton, Helen Garner and Charlotte Wood, could receive payments from a US$1.5 billion AI copyright settlement.
As The Australian’s Caroline Overington reports, the deal follows claims that Anthropic used more than 500,000 books to train its AI models without permission, with authors tipped to earn around $4,500 per title.
Zelda Williams calls out AI recreations of her late father
The BBC’s Emma Saunders and Helen Bushby writes that Robin William’s daughter has pleaded with fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her late father.
Taking to Instagram, she said the clips are “dumb” and “not what he’d want.”
The open web faces its biggest shake-up in decades
The open web, the network of sites built on Google search traffic, is facing its biggest disruption in decades.
Google’s new AI Overviews now serve direct answers instead of links, cutting publishers out of the loop.
As the ABC’s James Purtill details, Aussie news outlets are reporting sharp drops in search traffic, with one recording a 35 per cent fall.
OpenAI’s Sora watermark already easy to remove
OpenAI’s new video tool, Sora 2, adds a cloud-shaped watermark to flag AI-generated clips, but users are deleting it in seconds.
A quick search for “Sora watermark” brings up multiple free tools that erase it instantly, 404 Media’s Matthew Gault found.
Spotify links up with ChatGPT
Ashley King from Digital Music News reports that Spotify has teamed up with ChatGPT to deliver personalised music and podcast recommendations directly inside the chat app.
Users can now connect their Spotify accounts, free or premium, and ask for songs, albums or playlists based on mood, genre or vibe.
Companies
IREN brothers top Australia’s CEO rich list
Capital Brief’s Daniel Van Boom reports that former Macquarie bankers Dan and Will Roberts each earned $109 million last financial year, making them Australia’s highest paid CEOs.
Their company, IREN, became the world’s most valuable Bitcoin miner while expanding into AI data centres.