Latest news with #Emmy-Worthy
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hollywood Gets a Major Boost From a Republican Senator in the Fight Over AI Copyright
Media and entertainment personalities worried that their work is being unlawfully fed into AI copyright models gained a prominent ally Wednesday when Missouri Senator Josh Hawley went after a YouTube executive for how Google trains its models in a tense Capitol Hill session. 'That seems like a big problem to me,' Hawley said in a Judiciary subcommittee hearing after the executive, Music Policy chief Suzana Carlos, had explained that videos uploaded to the site are used to train Gemini and other Google AI products for any user agreeing to the terms of service, a requirement for uploading. 'That seems like a huge, huge problem to me. And the fact that YouTube is monetizing these kinds of videos seems like a huge problem to me.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Streaming Hits Another High in April, Cable and Broadcast Rise Too YouTube Stars Make the Case for Why Their Shows Are Emmy-Worthy: "That's the Future" YouTube Closes TV's Upfront Week With Creators, Confidence and Lady Gaga Hawley said that Congress and tech companies needed to find ways to 'give individuals powerful enforceable rights and their image and their property and their lives back again.' The Republican lawmaker was speaking at a hearing for the No Fakes Act, where earlier in the session Carlos, country star Martina McBride and RIAA chief executive Mitch Glazier had been among those testifying on behalf of the bill, which aims to impose limits on how users might create AI versions of an artist or other person's face or voice. The previous two iterations of the bill had not gained enough support to pass, but backers hope YouTube coming aboard, as it recently did, could spell the difference. But it was Hawley's remarks on an only partly-related issue that were among the most notable at the hearing. AI copyright has been a key battle area between media and tech companies, with The New York Times currently suing OpenAI over how models are trained on its articles in a closely watched case for anyone who creates or holds intellectual property. Tech companies need the content company's material to build their models, which rely on tens of thousands of news stories, images, videos, songs and other content to generate their output. Trump's removal of the head of the U.S. Copyright Office earlier this month after she expressed hesitation that what OpenAI and others were doing is legal has further stirred concern that copyrighted material is being used unlawfully without artists' and companies' consent. Hawley has previously positioned himself as an anti Big Tech-populist, going after Meta for a host of alleged missteps and, more specifically on AI, urging the Labor Department to protect workers in the wake of AI shifts and criticizing OpenAI for its accelerationism. But Wednesday marks some of his strongest public words yet on the copyright issue, and makes the Republican lawmaker something of a strange bedfellow to SAG-AFTRA, Justine Bateman, Hollywood artist Reid Southen, The New York Times and others in creative fields who have raised alarm bells that a business is being built on the backs of others' work without compensation. 'We've got to do more. YouTube is I'm sure making billions of dollars off this,' Hawley said Wednesday. 'The people losing are the artists and creators and the teenagers whose lives are upended.' (The last point was a reference to deepfakes involving bullying and non-consensual images, which Hawley also said YouTube needs to police harder.) For the most part tech companies have said the material they train their models on is allowed under laws of fair use. Carlos repeated several times during Hawley's questioning that Google trains its models on videos uploaded to YouTube. 'We do share data in accordance with our agreements,' she said. Hawley said he believed that none of the major tech companies have sufficiently explained how they're protecting a creator's copyright and that more of them need to answer for their training actions. Hawley criticized those firms too. 'I'm glad you're here today,' he told Carlos. 'I wish there were more tech companies here today.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ilana Glazer Calls Out the 'Broligarchy's Speeding of the Onslaught of Fascism' at Webby Awards
The 2025 Webby Awards theme may have been 'All Good,' as the annual ceremony celebrated the best of the internet from the past year, but host Ilana Glazer wasn't shy about going after politics or the more problematic elements of technology. Glazer kicked off the evening by joking that the 'All Good' theme was selected because an alternative like ''The Broligarchy's Speeding of the Onslaught of Facism in the Face of the Climate Catastrophe at the Point of No Return' would have bummed everybody out.' More from The Hollywood Reporter YouTube Stars Make the Case for Why Their Shows Are Emmy-Worthy: "That's the Future" The Hollywood Reporter Names Heidi Linnebach VP Entertainment and Awards Strategy Tom Cruise Intends to Keep Making Movies Into His 100s: "I Will Never Stop" As she continued her monologue, Glazer spoke about the continued uncertainty around the fate of TikTok and joked that Signal is the app that should truly be banned. 'TikTok and the Trump administration were the Ross and Rachel of social media — a real will they, won't they,' Glazer joked. 'They banned it and then they quickly brought it back. Now they're talking about banning it again. Make a decision already. There are women out there who need people to get ready with them. If we're going to ban anything, ban Signal. No one's ever making war plans on TikTok. The closest thing to war plans on TikTok is a skinny bitch doing a 'what I eat in a day.' Pete Hegseth really did use Signal to coordinate war plans and then accidentally included a journalist on the group chat. Signal is for organizing protests and ordering drugs. Maybe that's what he was trying to do? Maybe 'bombs' is his dealer's code word for cocaine?' Earlier on the Webby Awards' red carpet, Glazer previewed to The Hollywood Reporter that she did indeed plan to address the current political climate during her time onstage. 'I definitely will be touching on the onslaught of fascism several times,' Glazer said ahead of the New York event. 'That's really all I have to say. I'm not really concerned with individuals or naming names. I want to name the system that is endangering us all and uplift the people who are working to resist it.' But Glazer was also happy to celebrate the 'creative people leading the culture who are actively making good on the internet,' as she said during her monologue. Earlier, she teased that as host, she was hoping to 'create a space where everyone feels included and excited to celebrate themselves.' When Glazer was announced as this year's host, the Webby Awards noted that her five-season Comedy Central show Broad City began as a web series. And she told THR that she still sees online platforms as places for creative freedom. 'The internet is a place where creatives and artists can put things out into the world without waiting for someone to tell them yes or no,' Glazer said. 'I still feel that way about putting things out.' Honoree Amelia Dimoldenberg, who received a special achievement prize, used her five-word acceptance speech, a Webby Awards hallmark, to encourage others to take advantage of the ingenuity provided by digital platforms. 'Don't wait. Make it yourself,' Dimoldenberg said, accepting her Webby from Hot Ones' Sean Evans, who has also reconceived the format of the celebrity interview online. Earlier, Dimoldenberg, who, in addition to her Chicken Shop Date web series, has been interviewing people for the Oscars and other Film Academy events, told THR that she was especially appreciative of the Webbys recognizing digital content. 'Sometimes I feel like as people who make videos online, it's not taken seriously and I think it's amazing that an award like this exists to credit all of the hard work that we do,' she said. As for coming up with her five-word speech, Dimoldenberg said it was 'quite easy' compared to the bridesmaid speech she has been working on for her best friend, which she said is 'so much more difficult.' In addition to Dimoldenberg, this year's honorees included Snoop Dogg, whose speech was 'Break bread or fake dead,' Walton Goggins (speech: 'If it happens, be grateful') and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (speech: 'Only organized outrage overcomes oppression'). This year was the first Webby Awards for both a new group of creator categories and recently appointed executive director Jesse Feister. 'What I love most about the internet is that it gives talented, self made, creative people a way in. And tonight's winners are proof of that,' Feister said in part during his remarks onstage. Noteworthy winners this year included Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez, Gracie Abrams, Keke Palmer, Jimmy Fallon, Taika Waititi, Simone Biles and Andrew McCarthy's Brats documentary, in which he reunites with his fellow Brat Pack members Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Rob Lowe. McCarthy, who declared 'Long live the Brat Pack' onstage, told THR he was happy both to be recognized ('whenever anybody's nice to you, it's nice') and to see the '80s reunions continue with the cast of The Breakfast Club gathering in Chicago recently. 'It's fantastic,' he said. 'I think it's been a long road, the relationship that people had with that early success, so it's nice for everyone to come around and realize for a certain generation there's so much goodwill back.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hollywood Gets a Major Boost From a Republican Senator in the Fight Over AI Copyright
Media and entertainment personalities worried that their work is being unlawfully fed into AI copyright models gained a prominent ally Wednesday when Missouri Senator Josh Hawley went after a YouTube executive for how Google trains its models in a tense Capitol Hill session. 'That seems like a big problem to me,' Hawley said in a Judiciary subcommittee hearing after the executive, Music Policy chief Suzana Carlos, had explained that videos uploaded to the site are used to train Gemini and other Google AI products for any user agreeing to the terms of service, a requirement for uploading. 'That seems like a huge, huge problem to me. And the fact that YouTube is monetizing these kinds of videos seems like a huge problem to me.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Streaming Hits Another High in April, Cable and Broadcast Rise Too YouTube Stars Make the Case for Why Their Shows Are Emmy-Worthy: "That's the Future" YouTube Closes TV's Upfront Week With Creators, Confidence and Lady Gaga Hawley said that Congress and tech companies needed to find ways to 'give individuals powerful enforceable rights and their image and their property and their lives back again.' The Republican lawmaker was speaking at a hearing for the No Fakes Act, where earlier in the session Carlos, country star Martina McBride and RIAA chief executive Mitch Glazier had been among those testifying on behalf of the bill, which aims to impose limits on how users might create AI versions of an artist or other person's face or voice. The previous two iterations of the bill had not gained enough support to pass, but backers hope YouTube coming aboard, as it recently did, could spell the difference. But it was Hawley's remarks on an only partly-related issue that were among the most notable at the hearing. AI copyright has been a key battle area between media and tech companies, with The New York Times currently suing OpenAI over how models are trained on its articles in a closely watched case for anyone who creates or holds intellectual property. Tech companies need the content company's material to build their models, which rely on tens of thousands of news stories, images, videos, songs and other content to generate their output. Trump's removal of the head of the U.S. Copyright Office earlier this month after she expressed hesitation that what OpenAI and others were doing is legal has further stirred concern that copyrighted material is being used unlawfully without artists' and companies' consent. Hawley has previously positioned himself as an anti Big Tech-populist, going after Meta for a host of alleged missteps and, more specifically on AI, urging the Labor Department to protect workers in the wake of AI shifts and criticizing OpenAI for its accelerationism. But Wednesday marks some of his strongest public words yet on the copyright issue, and makes the Republican lawmaker something of a strange bedfellow to SAG-AFTRA, Justine Bateman, Hollywood artist Reid Southen, The New York Times and others in creative fields who have raised alarm bells that a business is being built on the backs of others' work without compensation. 'We've got to do more. YouTube is I'm sure making billions of dollars off this,' Hawley said Wednesday. 'The people losing are the artists and creators and the teenagers whose lives are upended.' (The last point was a reference to deepfakes involving bullying and non-consensual images, which Hawley also said YouTube needs to police harder.) For the most part tech companies have said the material they train their models on is allowed under laws of fair use. Carlos repeated several times during Hawley's questioning that Google trains its models on videos uploaded to YouTube. 'We do share data in accordance with our agreements,' she said. Hawley said he believed that none of the major tech companies have sufficiently explained how they're protecting a creator's copyright and that more of them need to answer for their training actions. Hawley criticized those firms too. 'I'm glad you're here today,' he told Carlos. 'I wish there were more tech companies here today.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
