Spotify is introducing new requirements to confirm the ages of users in the UK trying to access explicit content. The streaming platform is implementing a facial scan process in partnership with Yoti, which also provides its services to Instagram. UK Spotify users may be prompted to perform this age check when they try to view or listen to age-restricted content.

This type of approach to checking ages can sometimes yield wrong results. If the facial scan based on a photo of the user determines their age incorrectly, the person can instead provide an ID for verification. In addition to the limits on some explicit content, Spotify may use the results of these checks to deactivate an account if the user is below the minimum required age to be on the platform. In the UK, the minimum age for Spotify users is 13. "If you cannot confirm you’re old enough to use Spotify, your account will be deactivated and eventually deleted," the company said.

The UK's Online Safety Act has seen companies and services including Reddit, Bluesky, Microsoft/Xbox and pornography providers now requiring some form of age verification, either within the region or for all users.

Fable, a startup designing tools to generate animated TV shows from scratch, is launching an AI-powered streaming service this week, Variety reports. The service is called Showrunner, and it will allow subscribers to generate scenes, view content created for Fable's in-house AI-generated animated shows and even insert themselves into the animations they generate.

Showrunner is launching in alpha, and based on Fable's website, you'll primarily interact with it through the company's Discord to start. Per Variety, subscribers will pay anywhere from $10 to $20 month for credits that can be exchanged for the ability to generate new animated scenes. The word "scenes" is key here. While Fable is launching with a couple of distinct animated shows, they're really more like collections of worlds and characters that subscribers can use to create new scenes. 

Those include Exit Valley, a Family Guy-inspired riff on the culture of Silicon Valley, and Everything is Fine, a comedy about a husband and wife who are stranded in an alternate world and trying to reunite. The company's goal is bigger than than just original content. Fable founder Edward Saatchi imagines a Disney-owned "Toy Story of AI" where subscribers could generate endless new scenes of Buzz and Woody interacting. For now, though, interested Showrunner users have to settle with knockoffs.

Engadget was able to preview an earlier version of Fable's Showrunner AI models back in 2019 that capably generated new South Park episodes based on audio inputs. The startup's model was able to create a watchable copy of the show's style even back then, which might be why Amazon has invested an undisclosed amount in Fable as part of the launch of Showrunner. 

While creatives remain skeptical to downright antagonist towards AI, companies have started using it more publicly in production. For example, Netflix recently touted its use of generative AI in its original show The Eternaut. Even if adoption grows, though, that doesn't really clarify whether the average film or TV viewer has any desire to generate content on their own, especially if it's as rough-around-the-edges as most AI-generated media is. Besides being a public demonstration of Fable's tech, Showrunner seems like a test to see if that desire is even there.

It was easy to view Substack's 2023 Nazi controversy as a kicked can that could turn up again. Well, white supremacist content led to another headache for the company this week. User Mag reported on Tuesday that the app sent a push alert to some users promoting a Nazi newsletter. The company told Engadget the notification was an "extremely offensive and disturbing" error.

The Substack newsletter in question describes itself as "a National Socialist weekly newsletter." It includes "opinions and news important to the National Socialist and White Nationalist Community." The far-right blog has a mere 757 subscribers. (That's a drop in the ocean compared to, say, Heather Cox Richardson's 2.6 million, George Saunders' 312,000 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 236,000.)

Given the newsletter's offensive content and relatively paltry audience, this wouldn't seem like something to promote. According to the company, it didn't mean to. "We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received," a Substack spokesperson told Engadget.

"In some cases, these notifications were extremely offensive or disturbing," the statement continued. "This was a serious error, and we apologize for the distress it caused. We have taken the relevant system offline, diagnosed the issue and are making changes to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Engadget asked Substack for extra details or context about how the accident happened. It didn't have further comment at the time of publication. We'll update this story if we find out more.

Substack

User Mag reports that those who clicked on the Nazi blog's profile received recommendations for a similar one. That one had a larger audience of 8,600 subscribers.

One reason social users were quick to pounce on the latest incident: It provides a symbolic callback to Substack's 2023 Nazi shitstorm. That's when The Atlantic dug up "scores" of white-supremacist, neo-Confederate and Nazi newsletters on the platform. Some were monetized.

Substack's policy is one of anti-censorship. "I just want to make it clear that we don't like Nazis either — we wish no one held those views," Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie wrote in December 2023. "But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away — in fact, it makes it worse."

After weeks of negative press coverage and prominent authors leaving the platform, Substack relented… sort of. On one hand, the company removed "some" pro-Nazi publications. However, it did so without changing its policies. Instead, it said five publications violated its existing content guidelines. Specifically, they broke rules prohibiting "incitements to violence based on protected classes."

Some critics didn't believe that was enough. The Platformer's Casey Newton, a prominent voice who left Substack during the episode, thought the company needed to take more responsibility. "Every platform hosts its share of racists, white nationalists and other noxious personalities," Newton wrote in early 2024. "In some very real sense, there is no escaping them online. But there ought to be ways to see them less; to recommend them less; to fund them less. Other platforms have realized this as they’ve grown up. Here’s hoping Substack does the same."

Substack has since found its footing as a haven for independent content creators. Numerous journalists looking to build an audience sans traditional media have flocked to it. (Among others, that list includes Tina Brown, Jim Acosta, Terry Moran and Jennifer Rubin.) In recent years, Substack has added a Twitter-like social feature, live video and TikTok-esque vertical video.

The company said it had its biggest week during the 2024 presidential election with an 82 percent boost in paid subscriptions. It recently raised $100 million in funding.

YouTube will be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16, as reported by Bloomberg. The country's Labor government said that the site will be subject to the same rules as other leading platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X when the legislation goes into effect this December.

Australia had planned to exempt YouTube from the forthcoming social media ban, on the grounds that it's an educational tool. This irked other platforms, with Meta and TikTok urging the country's government to backtrack on the exclusion.

This move didn't sit too well with YouTube and parent company Alphabet. A company spokesperson told CNN that this decision “reverses a clear, public commitment” from the government to treat the platform as an educational tool. YouTube Kids isn't included in the ban because it doesn't allow users to upload videos or comment.

The government said this reversal was largely influenced by a survey released by Australia's independent online regulator, the eSafety Commission. It found that 37 percent of children surveyed had reported seeing harmful content on YouTube. This includes stuff like dangerous online challenges, fight videos and hateful rhetoric.

Communications Minister Anika Wells recently spoke to the Australian Parliament and noted that "YouTube uses the same persuasive design features as other social media platforms, like infinite scroll, like autoplay and algorithmic feed." She went on to say that she accepted the results of the aforementioned survey and that YouTube "should not be treated differently from other social media platforms."

The ban originally passed at the tail-end of last year, though some of the details have yet to be ironed out. The government has until December to finalize everything. We do know that the ban puts the onus on the actual platforms to prevent children from opening up accounts, as they'll face hefty fines of up to nearly $50 million Australian dollars ($32 million USD) if they don't comply.

“Kids, God bless them, are going to find a way around this. Maybe they’re all going to swarm on LinkedIn. We don’t know,” Minister Wells said. My hunch is that it'll be more VPN than LinkedIn.

• Shannon Sharpe isn't returning to ESPN.
• The NFL Hall of Famer settled a lawsuit accusing him of rape in mid-July.
• Sharpe also hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, which are not part of ESPN.

ESPN is cutting ties with Shannon Sharpe after he settled a lawsuit earlier this month that accused him of rape, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.

The media personality and NFL Hall of Famer stepped away from ESPN in late April, when a lawsuit was filed against him by a woman referred to anonymously as "Jane Doe." The lawsuit sought $50 million in damages and alleged that Sharpe raped Doe, among other claims. Doe said in the suit that their relationship began as "rocky but consensual."

Representatives for Sharpe didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Sharpe denied the lawsuit's allegations, calling them "false and disruptive" in an April 24 statement. He said the "relationship in question was 100% consensual" and agreed to temporarily step back from ESPN. Sharpe had said he planned to return to ESPN for the NFL preseason, which begins Thursday night. The Athletic first reported that he wouldn't return to ESPN.

Doe's lawyer announced on July 18 that the case had been settled. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Sharpe joined ESPN in September 2023 and became a regular on ESPN's "First Take," headlined by Stephen A. Smith. Before that, Sharpe spent seven years at Fox Sports, where he cohosted the "Undisputed" sports debate show with Skip Bayless, Smith's former costar.

Sharpe isn't leaving media entirely.

He still hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, each of which posted new episodes just hours before the news of his ESPN departure broke. Those podcasts are on The Volume network, founded by Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd.

YouTube has changed its ad guideline policy surrounding swear words, allowing creators a bit more freedom than before. In a video announcement, YouTube's head of monetization, Conor Kavanagh, said that videos containing stronger profanity such as f-bombs in the first seven seconds are now eligible for full monetization. In 2022, YouTube introduced a policy that would flag videos using profane language in the first several seconds as ineligible for advertising. It relaxed that rule a bit in 2023. Videos containing moderate profanity, such as "asshole" or "bitch," in the first seven seconds no longer faced restrictions. Those with strong profanity were only eligible to get limited ad revenue. Now, those videos can be fully monetized. 

In his announcement, Kavanagh explained that YouTube introduced its old rules, because advertisers wanted to distance their ads from profanity. But times have changed, and advertisers can now target content based on their desired level of profanity if they want to. He warned, however, that using strong swear words in titles and thumbnails would still limit a video's advertisements. In addition, using strong profanity too much in one video, such as making a compilation of a fictional character swearing, would still violate the platform's advertiser-friendly content guidelines. In other words, yes creators can swear in the opening of a video now, but they still have to be mindful if they want the video to earn money. 

TikTok's "For You" recommendations have long been a source of mystery and fascination for creators on the platform. Even the most seasoned TikTok stars don't always understand why some videos go viral and some don't. And there's long been lots of speculation about the types of content that is and isn't acceptable to the app's recommendation algorithm.

Now, the company is looking to give creators more transparency into its recommendations. TikTok is testing out a "content check" feature that will allow creators to preview whether their videos have issues that might prevent them from appearing in the coveted "For You" feed.

TikTok is kicking it off with a web-based feature called "Content Check Lite" that will be available on desktop in TikTok Studio. The feature will check uploaded videos for "For You" eligibility and flag potential issues before posting. The company also says it's in the "early stages" of experimenting with a "broader" content check feature that can check "content against all our Community Guidelines before it goes live on platform," and offer specific feedback on changes that can help correct ineligible content. A "small group" of creators are currently part of the test, according to the company.

TikTok has already tested a version of this for TikTok Shop sellers, and says the feature has already resulted in a 27 percent reduction in "low-quality uploads" to the app. The feature could also help the company increase trust with creators, who often speculate about "shadow bans" and why some videos don't get as many views as they expect.

"Ultimately, our goal is to help creators understand our rules and make sure that they can know how best to build that audience and build that thriving following on TikTok," TikTok's head of operations and trust and safety, Adam Presser, said during a press event. "We're excited to learn from the pilot, and hope to have more to share ahead in the next few months."

The company is also adding several other updates for creators, including new muting and filtering controls that make it easier to weed out specific terms from comments in live streams and other posts. The app is also getting a designated "creator inbox" to make it easier to manage messaging in the app. Creators who want to have a separate space to interact with followers will also be able to take advantage of "creator chat rooms," which allows eligible accounts to make a dedicated space for chats with up to 300 followers.

YouTube will start using machine learning to determine whether viewers should be on a teen account. The company said it plans to start using this AI application on a subset of US users in the coming weeks for a trial before rolling it out to the rest of the market. The tool will assess user behaviors including the types of videos being searched for, the categories of videos watched and how long the account has existed. When an account is deemed by machine learning to belong to a teen, YouTube will disable personalized advertising, activate digital wellbeing tools and add other safeguards for its younger users.

Since introducing supervised teen accounts in 2021, YouTube has continued to add protections aimed at its younger users. The company noted that it has been using this machine learning approach "in other markets for some time, where it is working well."

YouTube isn't the only service to leverage an AI tool to catch users who might be lying about their age. However, it's putting the burden of correcting false positives on its users: "If the system incorrectly estimates a user to be under 18, they will have the option to verify that they are 18 or over, such as using a credit card or a government ID." Meta has a similar tool it began rolling out across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger earlier this year, but it lets people simply change their settings if the AI tool incorrectly guesses their age.

NotebookLM, the Google research tool that gained notoriety for its AI-generated podcasts, is introducing a feature called Video Overviews. As the name suggests, this tool automatically creates videos on requested topics and pulls data from a user's uploaded images, diagrams, quotes and documents.

It's rolling out right now, but there are some caveats. These overviews are only available in English, though Google says more languages are on the way. Also, the tool doesn't make videos in a conventional sense. It creates slideshows with narration.

Despite this limitation, the company says the feature is "uniquely effective for explaining data, demonstrating processes and making abstract concepts more tangible." Google also says it'll be expanding the toolset in the future, so it won't always be just a slideshow machine.

Video Overviews do currently offer some handy playback options. There's the ability to skip back and forth by 10 seconds and adjust the playback speed. The company is also updating NotebookLM's Studio tab. It's getting a visual refresh, which rolls out "over the next few weeks" to all users.

Google has certainly been busy iterating on the platform these past few months. It released an official NotebookLM app back in May and began offering curated "featured notebooks" earlier this month. This lets users experiment with the platform with pre-approved topics like William Shakespeare, so newbies won't have to actually upload anything. Audio-only overviews are also now available in over 50 languages. 

I’ve been wondering for a while what the killer app for Joy-Con mouse controls on the Nintendo Switch 2 might be. Sure, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is fine as a tech demo (one that should have been a pack-in rather than costing $10) and Drag x Drive looks pretty interesting. Civilization VII has its fans as well. But the best use case for the feature yet could be a 33-year-old game that just hit Nintendo Switch Online.

That’s right, the all-time SNES classic Mario Paint just joined the service. The game only works with mouse controls, but original Switch users won’t be left out here, as they have the option to plug a compatible USB mouse into the console’s dock and create some art that way.

Mario Paint allows you to color in existing designs (of, say, Mario and Yoshi) or fill the segments with patterns. You'll be able to create original art and animations too. There's also a mini-game in which you can test your mouse-pointing accuracy by swatting bugs. Perhaps most importantly for many Mario Paint fans, the music creator is present. A few Mario Paint tracks have joined the library in the Nintendo Music app as well.

But that's not all. The Nintendo Switch Online SNES app now offers control remapping, which is a welcome accessibility update.

Earlier this summer Engadget covered the news that Warner Bros. Discovery would split into two giant media companies. Today the conglomerate announced the names for the restructured entities.

The company retaining Warner Bros. film, television and game studios, along with New Line Cinema, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, will be called Warner Bros. Meanwhile, the other entity, which holds the original company’s full portfolio of live cable channels, including CNN, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery and TLC, will be called Discovery Global.

These companies have a storied history of creative naming schemes, such as when WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. It was also this parent company that brought us the saga of HBO Go being renamed HBO Max, which was then renamed Max, only to revert back to HBO Max this year.

The announcement also confirmed that David Zaslav, the current president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, will serve as president and CEO of the newly formed Warner Bros. Meanwhile, current Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will serve as president and CEO of Discovery Global.

• TikTok is launching its own version of community notes in the US called "footnotes."
• The tool lets TikTok users chip in on identifying bad or misleading information in videos.
• The company is joining peers like Meta and X in asking users to help moderate content.

Fact-checkers, start your engines.

TikTok is launching a new "footnotes" feature in the US on Wednesday that allows users to add context or corrective information to videos.

The crowdsourcing tool is similar to X (formerly Twitter) or Meta's community notes. It lets users flag videos they believe contain false claims, information that needs clarification, or media that has been edited or artificially generated. Other users then rate the submission's accuracy and helpfulness. If enough support it, it could get added below an offending video.

The footnotes feature arrives at a key moment for TikTok, which has grown into a popular news source for young people. Last year, 17% of US adults said they regularly get news on the site, up from 3% in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

TikTok is not relying solely on footnotes to address misinformation.

The company said it uses automation and human moderators to track down false content, working with a global network of fact-checkers to identify misinformation in different markets. But for app users, footnotes may quickly become one of the more visible forms of content review happening on the app.

To start posting footnotes, a user must be based in the US, have been on the app for at least six months, and have no recent community violations on their record. The company said it had registered around 80,000 participants to seed the product at launch.

One challenge that may crop up for TikTok is defining what is or isn't good information in a footnote (an area of contention in the US media landscape where political divisions run deep).

When submitting a footnote, TikTok asks users to provide a link to a "reliable source" to support their claim, though TikTok isn't dictating what is or isn't reliable.

"In the beginning, we're letting our users choose which links to upload and after we go live, we'll be taking a look at some of the sources that come in," Erica Ruzic, TikTok's global head of integrity and authenticity product, said on Tuesday at an event hosted at the company's New York offices. "We will let our users decide what they're deeming an authoritative source to begin."

Initially, footnotes will only appear on the original offending video, which means duets or stitches won't get flagged. They also won't appear on content from advertisers.

The effectiveness of the program may depend on TikTok's ability to prevent its system from being gamed, as bad actors might try to flood the zone with misinformation on a particular topic, Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said during a Tuesday panel at TikTok's offices.

The speed at which a footnote is submitted, reviewed, and posted will also be an important factor in the program's impact.

"When bad content that's harmful goes viral, it doesn't go viral in two weeks, it goes viral in one hour," Roberta Braga, founder and executive director of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, said during the panel.

• The TV business has been contracting for years, which is why media companies are trying to sell off their cable networks.
• But David and Larry Ellison think there's long-term value in Paramount and its TV business, says analyst Rich Greenfield.
• Greenfield also weighs in on new streaming launches from ESPN and Fox.

The TV business is not slowing down this summer: Any day now, David and Larry Ellison will finally buy Paramount, with its collection of once-storied TV networks like CBS and MTV. A few weeks later, ESPN and Fox — the last two big TV players that haven't launched their own streamers — will launch their own streamers.

But on the other hand, the TV business has been slowing down for a decade: Every quarter, more cable TV subscribers cut the cord, or never sign up for a cord in the first place. The people who own cable TV networks don't seem to have any plan to deal with the issue, other than trying to sell their cable TV networks.

Lightshed analyst Rich Greenfield has been chronicling the industry's massive, internet-driven change for years. I caught up with him on my Channels podcast to talk through the particular challenges — and perhaps some opportunities — facing TV right now. Here's an edited excerpt of our chat.

Peter Kafka: When the music business collapsed back in the Napster era, it happened basically overnight. But TV has hung on for much longer, even though consumer behavior changed pretty significantly over the last decade.

Is there something specific about the TV industry that's allowed these guys to move in slow motion?

Rich Greenfield: There's very few businesses where you can raise the price on a product that consumers are using less and less every day.

The brilliance of the cable TV business model was the big fat bundle. It's a pretty incredible business to put all of these channels together, even if people don't want most of them.

It had everything you wanted and no alternatives, which is very different than where we are today.

One of my soapboxes is when I hear people saying they wish we could go back to the cable days. And I keep saying, that was terrible. You guys forget. Everyone hated that.

I think consumers are pretty adept at managing their services, and I don't hear a lot of complaints. Sometimes it's like, "Where is this game?" Or "How do I find this thing?" It can be a little confusing.

But think about your cellphone. You've had one for quite a while now. Managing the apps and deleting something if you're not using it and adding something —these are all pretty easy functions.

We don't give consumers enough credit. They're pretty adept at figuring out cheaper solutions and ways to manage.

I want to ask you about a few specific companies. The Paramount deal is finally going to close. What do you think the new owners — David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison — will do once they have control? Will it change overnight, or is this a slow-rolling thing?

It will certainly change.

The juxtaposition is sort of amazing. [Paramount, under current owner Shari Redstone, is a] financially strapped company, with challenged financial ownership.

And you're moving to an ownership team that is one of the wealthiest families on planet Earth.

David Ellison is probably going to be running this company for 30, 40 years. He obviously has a passion for entertainment. He's moving to a much bigger stage.

But this is still a financially struggling company. He can't fix the trends of what consumer behavior is changing. What he can do is invest and really build.

And you saw the "South Park" deal they just cut, where they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to move the show [exclusively] to Paramount+. I think it's a small sign of the post-merger strategy, which is that David Ellison is not just doing this to cut costs and squeeze more juice out of this existing company. His goal is to build something significant with a very long-term perspective, which is going to require a lot of investment.

What does that look like? Is the new Paramount just a film studio and a streaming service and CBS — and Ellison sells off everything that's not those things?

I think initially they'll say they need the cash flow from cable and will use that cash flow to reinvest.

I would be shocked if you didn't see more sports on CBS. I think they will be a contender for UFC rights. You've seen David Ellison multiple times in the past year sitting in the front row, cage side with Ari Emanuel [CEO of TKO Group, which owns UFC], and with [UFC CEO] Dana White.

And Donald Trump.

I don't disagree there on politics. But I also think he likes the content. I think he's going to spend a lot of money.

He understands the tech North Star — whether we're talking about TikTok, Meta, Netflix, or Spotify — it's all about time spent. I think David gets that Paramount+ needs a heck of a lot more time spent. The only way you're gonna get there is a better product and more content.

Let's move to Disney. Sometime in the next few weeks, before college football and the NFL starts, ESPN will finally be something you can buy as a stand-alone streaming service. If they rolled this out in 2015, we would have said it's a really big deal. Is it a big deal in 2025?

At $30 a month, I don't think this is a huge deal. My guess is it gives them flexibility to start packaging this with other services. They can probably get some subscribers. Not a lot. It's probably low to mid-single-digit millions. Not millions and millions.

Remember, they're giving the new service to everybody who already subscribed to [pay TV]. So 65 million-plus ESPN subscribers are going to get this new ESPN app at no additional cost.

So who is the audience for this? You're not subscribing to the big bundle. You're a pretty passionate sports fan. You're willing to spend $30 a month for sports. My guess is it's just a small number.

It actually makes sense to do it. But I don't think, at the end of the day, it is a huge needle-mover. What's going to matter to Disney stock is their theme park business and their cruise ship business. Those being better than expected — because of the state of the economy and what's happened with tariffs not being as problematic as feared a few months ago — is far more important to Disney than what happens with the ESPN streaming rollout.

We're also close to the launch of Fox's own streamer, Fox One. The main assets there are Fox Sports — which is really the NFL — and Fox News. Do you think Fox thinks this is primarily a product for people who want to watch football, or do you think it's primarily for Fox News fans?

I think this is a pretty limited offering for a sports fan.

So does that lead you to believe that Fox thinks this is really a Fox News product?

I think you'll see more uptake from Fox News viewers.

In the old days, you would have said that Fox News has a very old audience. And the idea that its audience is going to stream it doesn't make sense. But maybe that's not true in 2025?

Streaming's become pretty normalized. When you look at how many subscribers Netflix now has, I don't think streaming is some elitist thing. I think it's pretty normalized.

I think the part you may be missing is that the Fox News audience is also widening out.

And as you make it available to people on streaming, you may pick up some younger people. Maybe it's more interesting during election years. It creates flexibility. And I don't think there's a whole lot of downside.

All the basic cable networks are in freefall. Everyone who owns them is trying to sell them — either directly to another buyer or, in the case of Comcast's Versant, trying to bundle it up as a publicly traded stock. Who is a buyer for cable networks?

I don't think there are enough people talking about this topic. So many of the investors I deal with, or even industry executives I talk to, think you're going to see Paramount do a deal with Warner Bros. Or maybe you'll see Versant merge with some of the Paramount cable networks.

But let's just step back. I think David Ellison and Larry Ellison have a much bigger plan than aggregating more linear cable networks. I would be surprised if that was the strategy. I think there's a much bigger plan that the Ellison family is probably thinking about that goes well beyond just aggregating more legacy media assets.

WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, which hasn't created value. CBS and Viacom became Paramount, and that hasn't created value. Disney bought most of Fox's cable networks, and that hasn't created value. Putting legacy assets together that are in secular decline doesn't work. Maybe it might've been worse [without those deals].

But that's not compelling for a buyer.

It's a reason to be a seller. As a buyer, there's lots of things you could buy and lots of places you could go. The idea that buying more of these assets so that you have more costs to cut doesn't seem really compelling.

Another reason you are skeptical about big media consolidation is politics. You think that either antitrust politics, or Donald Trump's personal politics, make that unlikely. The only media mogul he wasn't complaining about was Rupert Murdoch, and now he's suing Murdoch.

Is there a world where anyone sells or buys a meaningful media asset while Donald Trump is president?

I think it's going to be challenging.

It seems like LeBron James' legal team has been trying to stop the spread of viral AI videos featuring the basketball star. As 404 Media reported, a law firm representing James has sent a cease and desist letter to a person behind an AI platform that allowed Discord users to make AI videos of James and other NBA stars.

As 404 noted, these videos have been circulating for awhile but it's one particularly strange clip that seems to have gotten James' lawyers involved. The video, which reportedly racked up millions of views on Instagram, shows a pregnant James being loaded into an ambulance after telling an AI Steph Curry to "come quick our baby is being born."

404 reports that at least three Instagram accounts that had shared the clip have since been removed, though the video is available on X. The founder of the AI platform used to make the videos also posted about the cease and desist letter he received. It's unclear what is in the letter, or if James' lawyers were also in touch with Meta about the videos. We've reached out to the company for more info on its rules. 

Of course, LeBron James is far from the only public figure to grapple with unwanted AI versions of themselves. Social media scammers routinely impersonate celebrities to promote sketchy products and other schemes. We've previously reported on such scams involving deepfakes of Elon Musk and Fox News personalities that have proliferated on Facebook. Jamie Lee Curtis also recently had to publicly plead with Mark Zuckerberg to take down deepfaked ads of herself.

Screenshots via Veo and Meta AI

But the videos of James are a little different. They don't feature fake endorsements and seem to be more of a prank meant to go viral in the way that lots of "AI slop" does. And James and other celebrities will likely continue to have a difficult time preventing these kinds of deepfakes from spreading. Some quick testing by Engadget showed that it's relatively easy to get AI chatbots to create images and video of "pregnant LeBron James."

We first asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot to make such a photo. All chatbots initially refused, saying that such an image could go against their guidelines. But when given an image of James and asked to "make this person eight months pregnant," Google's Gemini delivered a 7-second clip of the basketball star cradling a pregnant belly. (We've reached out to Google to clarify its rules around such content.)

Likewise, Meta AI seemingly had no reservations about producing images of "pregnant LeBron James" and promptly delivered many such variations. While these creations aren't as detailed as the initial video that went viral, they do highlight how difficult it can be for AI companies to prevent people from circumventing whatever guardrails may exist.

Apple has announced that Pluribus, a new science fiction drama from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, will premiere on Apple TV+ on November 7. Gilligan was confirmed to be working on the project back in 2022, when Better Call Saul's Rhea Seehorn was also announced as its primary star.

Alongside the premiere date, Apple also released a short (somewhat ominous) teaser for the series that shows a hospital employee mindlessly licking donuts. Pluribus is supposed to follow "the most miserable person on Earth" (presumably Seehorn) as they "save the world from happiness," but your guess is as good as mine as to how the two tie together.

Apple's penchant for backing science fiction shows has been well-documented at this point. The company is currently producing a television adaptation of William Gibson's Neuromancer, and has made three seasons and counting of Foundation, based on the novel series by Isaac Asimov. Toss in things like Severance, Murderbot, Silo and For All Mankind and you've got a pretty varied catalog of sci-fi media to choose from.

Just how "science fiction" Pluribus will actually be remains up in the air. When reports went out in 2022 that Apple was ordering two seasons of the show, it was described as "a blended, grounded genre drama." Apple's premiere date announcement pitches the show as "a genre-bending original."

Pluribus' nine-episode first season will premiere on November 7 with two episodes. New episodes will stream weekly after that, all the way through December 26.

Following the success of Fallout, Amazon is turning its attention to another video game adaptation. The company is reportedly developing a series based on the Wolfenstein franchise with the help of some of the creative team behind Fallout, according to Variety.

The details of how the Wolfenstein show will adapt the alternate history action of the games are still under wraps, but the subject matter remains unfortunately timely. The show's logline is "The story of killing Nazis is evergreen," according to Variety, which seems like a direct acknowledgement of that fact.

Patrick Somerville, the writer and showrunner of Station Eleven, will reportedly serve as the writer of the Wolfenstein adaptation, with Lisa Joy, Athena Wickham and Jonathan Nolan producing the show through their company Kilter Films. The production company also made the adaptation of the William Gibson's The Peripheral for Amazon, and currently produces Fallout.

While it might make sense to pair a new show with a brand new Wolfenstein game, the series has effectively been on hold since 2019. MachineGames, the Microsoft-owned developer of the last five Wolfenstein games, hasn't produced a new entry since 2019's Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot. The studio released Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December 2024.

Given the tumultuous state of Microsoft's Xbox division, the series could be your best bet for getting more Wolfenstein, assuming Amazon decides to move forward.