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- Taylor Swift’s AI Fight
Hola Hollywood tech nerds!
In this week’s post:
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Taylor Swift’s AI Fight
The last time I mentioned Taylor Swift in this newsletter, a reader wrote me the following email:
Taylor Swift has such a big budget because she's astroturfed as a hero to women as part of the depopulation agenda.
"Don't have kids, just have fun serial monogamous relationships"
Here in Canada, our state media pushes an article about her every day. She's over-promoted above every other artist, even Canadian artists. It is bizarre. Seems incredibly fake.
Apologies to this clearly well-adjusted and normal man, but I have to write about Taylor again. I promise I’m not pushing a “depopulation agenda”! This is about - what else? - AI!
Taylor Swift is looking to add to her portfolio of trademarks, a legal move that appears to be aimed at pushing back against unauthorized artificial intelligence productions.
Two of the trademark applications, filed on Friday, seek protection of her voice. They feature clips of her saying “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.” A third, meant to combat AI images created on the internet using AI, features a photograph of the singer holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-colored bodysuit with silver boots.
Further in the article is this information, which was new to me:
Last year, an AI-generated version of Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” entered Spotify’s Top 50 chart in Brazil before being removed. The track used AI to blend Swift’s voice with synthetic audio modeled after top Brazilian singers.
Swift taking this step to protect her image is likely the path many artists will follow over the next few years. There certainly won’t be any protection guaranteed by the AI companies, who of course will continue to follow tech’s “move fast and break things” ethos. Swift luckily has an army of lawyers and handlers who will assist in the prevention of unauthorized AI use of her image, something unachievable for many less-famous or less-powerful artists, creators, actors, and influencers.
Wait, I just figured something out. Taylor Swift is trying to “depopulate” AI fakes of herself. She truly does have a depopulation agenda!
The Binge Bust
Twitter was briefly abuzz over this chart about the declining-ratings of later seasons of Netflix TV shows:
I’m obviously not reinventing the wheel with this observation, but this is so clearly the result of Netflix’s all-at-once release plan for its TV shows it boggles the mind that the company continues to stick with it so loyally. How do they expect to generate any conversation about the show that lasts beyond its initial days of release?
Not to Pitt-post again, but that show successfully generates 15 weeks of discussion with every season, that’s over 25% of the year passing with viewers talking about The Pitt. Why aren’t they doing the same with Beef or Bridgerton? Because all the episodes are released simultaneously! AND the shows often go by with years between seasons. That’s the tech-led entertainment industry for you, folks!
Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)
Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:
The TV OS wars continue. (link)
How the LA mayoral candidates plan to bring production back to Hollywood. (link)
Inside The Forbidden City’s wildest fight scene. (link)