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Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is doing numbers, giving Ubisoft a much-needed win.
Take that haters. After plenty of rumbling and hoping Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be a massive flop for Ubisoft, the highly-anticipated next chapter in the Assassin’s Creed franchise is already a hit.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows reached 2 million players three days after its release. According to a post from Ubisoft, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey.”
This milestone follows after Shadows reached 1 million players in the first 24 hours of its release, easily eclipsing AC Valhalla’s record. According to Ubisoft, Valhalla was the biggest launch on PC when it was launched in 2020.
We zap five years later, and Shadows seemingly smashed that record.
What also could have contributed to that record was that Shadows was launched on Steam from day one and immediately verified for Steam Deck use. It took two whole years for Valhalla after its original release to land on Steam.
Currently, Shadows’ all-time peak concurrent numbers on Steam are at 64,825, officially putting it past Odyssey’s 62,069 but easily blowing past Origins (41,551) and Valhalla (15,679).
If Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues at this pace, it could become one of the biggest releases of the year. To put things in perspective, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which was a very well-reviewed title, took two weeks to hit the 2-million player mark; it only took days for Shadows to reach that goal.
Ubisoft Finally Gets A Win With Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Shadows’ performance is a much-needed win for Ubisoft, which has been reeling thanks to commercial flops like Star Wars Outlaws and Skull and Bones. This could be the shot in the arm the video game developer has been looking for.
It also showed that all the social discourse around Shadows, specifically about the game’s dual protagonist, Yasuke, the Black Samurai, and Naoe, the female shinobi assassin, didn’t matter in the end.
Hell, it might have even helped the game sell.
Who knows.
Well, we loved Shadows and wrote in our review of the game that “Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an exceptional entry into the franchise that brilliantly combines all of the good features from the games over the years and stuffed them into a game that doesn’t require you to play 100+ hours to complete. It’s so good that you want to spend as much time in its world as possible to uncover more of the story because it’s absolutely worth it.”
Congrats to the Ubisoft team for the successful launch. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. A good speaker can make or break just about any party or gathering, and it can even set the mood when […]
Generative AI — the creation of compositions from nothing in seconds — isn’t disrupting music licensing; it’s accelerating the economic impact of a system that was never built to last. Here’s the sick reality: If a generative AI company wanted to ethically license Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” to train their models, they’d need approvals from more than 30 rights holders, with that number doubling based on rights resold or reassigned after the track’s release. Finding and engaging with all of those parties? Good luck. No unified music database exists to identify rights holders, and even if it did, outdated information, unanswered emails, and, in some cases, deceased rights holders or a group potentially involved in a rap beef make the process a nonstarter.
The music licensing system, or lack thereof, is so fragmented that most AI companies don’t even try. They steal first and deal with lawsuits later. Clearing “Sicko Mode” isn’t just difficult; it’s impossible — a cold example of the complexity of licensing commercial music for AI training that seems left out of most debates surrounding ethical approaches.
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For those outside the music business, it’s easy to assume that licensing a song is as simple as getting permission from the artist. But in reality, every track is a tangled web of rights, split across songwriters, producers, publishers and administrators, each with their own deals, disputes and gatekeepers. Now multiply the chaos of clearing one track by the millions of tracks needed for an AI training set, and you’ll quickly see why licensing commercial music for AI at scale is a fool’s errand today.
Generative AI is exposing and accelerating the weaknesses in the traditional music revenue model by flooding the market with more music, driving down licensing fees and further complicating ownership rights. As brands and content creators turn to AI-generated compositions, demand for traditional catalogs will decline, impacting synch and licensing revenues once projected to grow over the next decade.
Hard truths don’t wait for permission. The entrance of generative AI has exposed the broken system of copyright management and its outdated black-box monetization methods.
The latest RIAA report shows that while U.S. paid subscriptions have crossed 100 million and revenue hit a record $17.7 billion in 2024, streaming growth has nearly halved — from 8.1% in 2023 to just 3.6% in 2024. The market is plateauing, and the question isn’t if the industry needs a new revenue driver — it’s where that growth will come from. Generative AI is that next wave. If architected ethically, it won’t just create new technological innovation in music; it will create revenue.
Ironically, the very thing being painted as an existential threat to the industry may be the thing capable of saving it. AI is reshaping music faster than anyone expected, yet its ethical foundation remains unwritten. So we need to move fast.
A Change is Gonna Come: Why Music Needs Ethical AI as a Catalyst for Monetization
Let’s start by stopping. Generative AI isn’t our villain. It’s not here to replace artistry. It’s a creative partner, a collaborator, a tool that lets musicians work faster, dream bigger and push boundaries in ways we’ve never seen before. While some still doubt AI’s potential because today’s ethically trained outputs may sound like they’re in their infancy, let me be clear: It’s evolving fast. What feels novel now will be industry-standard tomorrow.
Our problem is, and always has been, a lack of transparency. Many AI platforms have trained on commercial catalogs without permission (first they lied about it, then they came clean), extracting value without compensation. “Sicko Mode” very likely included. That behavior isn’t just unethical; it’s economically destructive, devaluing catalogs as imitation tracks saturate the market while the underlying copyrights earn nothing.
If we’re crying about market flooding right now, we’re missing the point. Because what if rights holders and artists participated in those tracks? Energy needs to go into rethinking how music is valued and monetized across licensing, ad tech and digital distribution. Ethical AI frameworks can ensure proper attribution, dynamic pricing and serious revenue generation for rights holders.
Jen, the ethically-trained generative AI music platform I co-founded, has already set a precedent by training exclusively on 100% licensed music, proving that responsible AI isn’t an abstract concept, it’s a choice. I just avoided Travis’ catalog due to its licensing complexities. Because time is of the essence. We are entering an era of co-creation, where technology can enhance artistry and create new revenue opportunities rather than replace them. Music isn’t just an asset; it’s a cultural force. And it must be treated as such.
Come Together: Why Opt-In is the Only Path Forward and Opt-Out Doesn’t Work
There’s a growing push for AI platforms to adopt opt-out mechanisms, where rights holders must proactively remove their work from AI training datasets. At first glance, this might seem like a fair compromise. In reality, it’s a logistical nightmare destined to fail.
A recent incident in the U.K. highlights these challenges: over 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush and Damon Albarn, released a silent album titled “Is This What We Want?” to protest proposed changes to copyright laws that would allow AI companies to use artists’ work without explicit permission. This collective action underscores the creative community’s concerns about the impracticality and potential exploitation inherent in opt-out systems.
For opt-out to work, platforms would need to maintain up-to-date global databases tracking every artist, writer, and producer’s opt-out status or rely on a third party to do so. Neither approach is scalable, enforceable, or backed by a viable business model. No third party is incentivized to take on this responsibility. Full stop.
Music, up until now, has been created predominantly by humans, and human dynamics are inherently complex. Consider a band that breaks up — one member might refuse to opt out purely to spite another, preventing consensus on the use of a shared track. Even if opt-out were technically feasible, interpersonal conflicts would create chaos. This is an often overlooked but critical flaw in the system.
Beyond that, opt-out shifts the burden onto artists, forcing them to police AI models instead of making music. This approach doesn’t close a loophole — it widens it. AI companies will scrape music first and deal with removals later, all while benefiting from the data they’ve already extracted. By the time an artist realizes their work was used, it’s too late. The damage is done.
This is why opt-in is the only viable future for ethical AI. The burden should be on AI companies to prove they have permission before using music — not on artists to chase down every violation. Right now, the system has creators in a headlock.
Speaking of, I want to point out another example of entrepreneurs fighting for and building solutions. Perhaps she’s fighting because she’s an artist herself and deeply knows how the wrong choices affect her livelihood. Grammy-winning and Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, producer and music-tech pioneer Imogen Heap has spent over a decade tackling the industry’s toughest challenges. Her non-profit platform, Auracles, is a much-needed missing data layer for music that enables music makers to create a digital ID that holds their rights information and can grant permissions for approved uses of their works — including for generative AI training or product innovation. We need to support these types of solutions. And stop condoning the camps that feel that stealing music is fair game.
Opt-in isn’t just possible, it’s absolutely necessary. By building systems rooted in transparency, fairness and collaboration, we can forge a future where AI and music thrive together, driven by creativity and respect.
The challenge here isn’t in building better AI models — it’s designing the right licensing frameworks from the start. Ethical training isn’t a checkbox; it’s a foundational choice. Crafting these frameworks is an art in itself, just like the music we’re protecting.
Transparent licensing frameworks and artist-first models aren’t just solutions; they’re the guardrails preventing another industry freefall. We’ve seen it before — Napster, TikTok (yes, I know you’re tired of hearing these examples) — where innovation outpaced infrastructure, exposing the cracks in old systems. This time, we have a shot at doing it right. Get it right, and our revenue rises. Get it wrong and… [enter your prompt here].
Shara Senderoff is a well-respected serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist pioneering the future of music creation and monetization through ethically trained generative AI as Co-Founder & CEO of Jen. Senderoff is an industry thought leader with an unwavering commitment to artists and their rights.
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Tesla is continuing to face record numbers of protests and, at times, vandalistic acts at dealerships around the country in response to Elon Musk’s government-gutting DOGE efforts as he heads the agency. The electric automotive giant saw itself trending on X, also owned by Musk, with observers taking note of a recent recall of Tesla Cybertrucks and reports of $1.4 billion going missing.
As seen on CNBC, Tesla is moving to recall over 46,000 Cybertrucks because of a faulty exterior trim panel that has the potential to detach while driving, prompting valid safety concerns. The outlet adds that the recall is for a part on the truck known as a cant rail and all trucks manufactured between November 2023 and February 2025, as the company confirmed in a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this past Tuesday (March 18). The company says that if owners are in possession made in that time frame can take the vehicle to a service department to have the cant rail replaced free of charge.
This recall comes as a new report from the Financial Times notes that $1.4 billion in funds have seemingly disappeared, and the timing couldn’t be worse for Tesla as stock prices continue to sink while Musk spends much of his time heading DOGE and ordering unpopular cuts and firing to essential government services in a bid to halt fraud and waste. Further, global protests against the brand have marred its image as a leader in the EV space with other companies making gains as the market landscape shifts in other directions.
On X, formerly Twitter, there are reactions to Tesla’s stock numbers, the missing funds, and the decrying of vandalism and protests. We’ve got those listed below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft hopes to restore the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise to its former glory without disappointing purists who have been on board since day one while pleasing the newbies who picked up the sticks following AC’s pivot into an action-RPG format. With Assassin’s Creed Shadows, did Ubisoft Quebec accomplish its goal? Resoundingly, yes.
Assassin’s Creed is one of those video game franchises that I hold dear to my heart. I remember getting deeply entrenched in the battle between the Order of Assassins and the Templar Order when the first game arrived in 2007, putting us in the shoes of Altaïr.
Altaïr’s story was shortlived, passing the hidden blade to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who carries the AC torch in what many say is the strongest trilogy in the video game franchise history, Assassin’s Creed II (2009), Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (2010) and Assassin’s Creed Revelations (2011).
Others would lead the franchise that has seen its games grow into massive undertakings following 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which expanded on the action-RPG element first introduced in 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. It was the first Assassin’s Creed game to allow players to choose between a male or female version of the game’s protagonist.
While fans initially welcomed the change, it quickly became an issue. Many gamers, including myself, felt the games became too bloated and action-oriented, burying what we adored about Assassin’s Creed, such as the stealth play and intense story.
With Shadows, creative director Jonathan Dumont and his team at Ubisoft Quebec aimed to deliver an experience where fans who enjoyed the different variations of AC games can now press start on an experience suited for them without sacrificing what made the franchise great.
A Gripping Narrative Experienced In Multiple Ways
Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The story in Assasin’s Creed started strong but has since become confusing for most, especially to those whose first AC experience started with Odyssey and on. Shadows took multiple steps, hoping to bring players up to speed with everything that has happened in the franchise inside and outside the Animus.
One step is the new Animus Hub, now a one-stop section for Assassin’s Creed, which will be featured in all games in the future. There, gamers can catch up on the other games via brief rundown, launch other AC games they own, access regularly released missions, exchange keys earned from completing projects, and archive collected data files.
Then there is Shadows story itself, which is told through the eyes of two characters: Naoe, a young shinobi, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai.
Source: Ubisoft / Ubisoft Quebec / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The game introduces you to Naoe, who quickly learns the way of the shinobi after a series of tragic events push her out into the open world of the late Sengoku period, where she will have to hone her assassin skills to complete her quest for revenge.
Source: Ubisoft / Ubisoft Quebec / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
You will eventually don the armor of Yasuke, the legendary African samurai who gains favor and freedom from his Portuguese slavers thanks to Lord Nobunaga.
Naoe and Yasuke’s stories are uniquely intertwined with Dumont and his team, crafting a narrative that will lead you down a gripping tale as you explore each of the protagonists’ personal mysteries. These mysteries are worth the time and effort to uncover and experience.
Choice is also important, as some decisions will impact particular outcomes. For example, Naoe forgives a target during one mission rather than killing them. Or you can even forge romantic relationships or gain allies with your choices. You can opt for “Canon mode,” which Ubisoft says is the definitive way to experience the game by removing the dialogue options.
No One Way To Play
Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
What kind of AC player are you? If you enjoy sneaking in the high grass or stalking the shadows and rooftops to take out foes, this game is for you.
Or, do you enjoy just cutting your foes down with wreckless abandon and don’t give a damn about your foes calling in reinforcements because, hey, “they can get this smoke too!” Guess what? This game is also for you.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows blends two distinct playing styles with its two protagonists system.
With Naoe, players get the stealth action they have sorely missed, but with a shinobi twist. Naoe feels different from other assassins in previous titles based on how she moves around the world.
Source: Ubisoft / Ubisoft Quebec / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Her cool vaults and flips over obstacles, dashing across rooftops, tossing shurikens, use of smoke bombs, and other weapons and tools specific to ninjas give her a feel gamers have wanted for a long time and get thanks to the series finally shifting to Japan.
Yasuke is the exact opposite and is designed to give players that powerful tank that can cut down any foe that stands before them. While he can also use stealth elements, his power pushes you to run through doors literally and confidently take on several foes simultaneously because he is still skillful and, unlike Naoe, can take more damage.
Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The best part is you are also not locked into one character; you can switch at any time, and the story will remain the same. So you’re not punished for playing favorites in Shadows.
Other Welcomed Features
Source: Ubisoft / Ubisoft Quebec / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed is always best known for the living worlds that players roam in each game. That is taken to another level in Shadows, thanks to the changing seasons.
Japan changes dramatically during the seasons, which is reflected beautifully in Assasin’s Creed Shadows. This feature is not just aesthetically pleasing; it also affects gameplay.
For example, during the winter, bodies of water Naoe and Yasuke could normally swim in completely freeze; grassy areas to hide in are gone, but they return when spring or summer returns.
The changing seasons also affect particular missions, as specific targets will only appear during the summer.
The new objective board is also a welcomed addition to the game, giving players a more efficient way to track quests. As you progress through the game, explore the many different regions, circle zones featuring the faces of the significant characters you meet, and objectives you can complete.
Most of the objectives are optional, and if you opt not to partake in the side quests, which I am happy to say aren’t mindless fetch quests, you can probably complete the game’s main story in 30 hours or less.
Again, play how you want, but it will be hard not to be distracted and wander off the beaten path because, unlike in previous games, this is a living world worth exploring.
Base building is another welcomed addition to the game, allowing players to build a home where their allies and pets can hang out, plus add passive benefits like extra scouts that help you find objectives on the map and pick up resources you tag while out on missions.
Final Verdict
Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
When Dumont first announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was being delayed to allow more time in the oven, people thought it would be bad news for the game.
It turns out that it was the best decision. With Shadows, Dumont and his team needed to deliver an Assassin’s Creed that is not just a bloated fetch quest, which is a story that no one will remember or care about by the time the credits roll; they needed to give players a game on par with the original and it’s subsequent sequels.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an exceptional entry into the franchise that brilliantly combines all of the good features from the games over the years and stuffed them into a game that doesn’t require you to play 100+ hours to complete. It’s so good that you want to spend as much time in its world as possible to uncover more of the story because it’s absolutely worth it.
Shadows’ story is engaging, and despite some instances of weak voice-over work, the performances are top-notch. The introduction of the two-protagonist system gives players two different ways to enjoy the game while delivering a narrative to give a damn about again.
I’m still embarking on my adventure in Shadows, but I’m 100% invested and can confidently say this is the best game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise since Brotherhood.
With Shadows, Assassin’s Creed is back. We just hope that this momentum continues.
*PS5 Review Key Provided By Ubisoft*
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Source: Anti Social Social Club / Assassin’s Creed ShadowsWe are just days away from the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Anti Social Social Club is dropping a dope capsule collection to celebrate the game’s release.
Like the highly-anticipated video game, the Anti Social Social Club x Assassin’s Creed Shadows capsule collection captures both the samurai and shinobi elements inspired by feudal Japan accurately depicted by the game’s protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke.
At the same time, it allows gamers to showcase their love for video games by encapsulating it in street style, featuring the game’s two protagonists and Assassin’s Creed Shadows branding on staple Anti Social Social Club pieces.
Source: Anti Social Social Club / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
A press release for the collaboration reads:
The ASSC x Assassin’s Creed Shadows partnership, which was facilitated by IMG Licensing, will offer fans a chance to really immerse themselves in the latest major installment of the Assassin’s Creed series. The collection will feature a range of staple streetwear items like tees, hoodies and hats in black, white, grey, red and pink while also offering exciting and fresh pieces like a football jersey, coaches jacket and track suit. Seizing the perfect opportunity to create game-inspired accessories, this capsule will also feature a unique sake glass set, imagined through the creative lens of both ASSC and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
A breakdown of the capsule collection includes:
Shadows Tops: includes tees, hoodies, and hats with the Assassin’s Creed Shadows logo on the front and ASSC logo on the back with the two main protagonists
Eyes Tops: includes tees and hoodies with the eyes of the two protagonists on the front alongside ASSC branding and the ASSC logo on the back with the Assassin’s Creed logo
Yasuke Tops: includes tees and hoodies with a graphic of the samurai character Yasuke superimposed onto the ASSC logo on both the front and back
Shuriken Tops: includes tees with 4 shuriken “thrown” into the ASSC logo on both the front and back
Fight Tops: includes tees, hoodies, and hats with imagery of fighting stances on the front underneath an ASSC logo and both brand logos on the back
Naoe & Yasuke Tops: includes tees and hoodies with an Assassin’s Creed Shadows logo on the front atop a graphic of both main characters and an ASSC logo on the back with an Assassin’s Creed logo
Football Jersey: designed to incorporate all brand logos on the front and include a huge ASSC logo on the back with imagery of the two main characters superimposed
Coaches Jacket: designed to show both Naoe and Yasuke in a battle scene throughout the entire jacket, ASSC’s logo is featured on the front while the Assassin’s Creed logo is featured on one sleeve and the rear
Track Suits: the jacket features the game’s logo on the front along with kanji and the ASSC logo on the back with an additional game logo, the matching pants have kanji and the ASSC logo on the front and an Assassin’s logo on the rear
Sake Glass Set: features ceramic sake glasses and a sake pourer with shared co-branding
When Can You Get Your Hands On The ASSC x AC Shadows Capsule Collection
The collection officially drops on Saturday, March 29, starting at 8 AM PST (11 AM EST) exclusively on Anti Social Social Club’s website. Prices range from $40-$125 with sizing from XS-2XL.
For more photos of the collection, visit the gallery below.
1. Assassin’s Creed Shadows Taps Anti Social Social Club for Capsule Collection
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Source: Razer / Razer Iskur V2 X
While stuck in the crib during the panorama, gaming chairs became one of the hottest furniture items as everyone and their momma became “content creators,” “gamers,” and “podcasters.” Razer, one of the few companies that has been producing high-quality gaming chairs, is offering one of its popular models, the Iskur V2 X, in a new color.
Look, we’re not going to hold you, but the biggest scam on the internet has to be gaming chairs. Ninety-five percent are overpriced, poorly designed, and don’t offer gamers the comfort to endure long gaming and streaming sessions.
Razer, the legendary consumer electronics company, has delivered one of the best gaming chairs on the market with its award-winning Iskur V2 X model. It is now offering a light gray color option.
Razer’s guaranteed high-quality doesn’t come cheap, the chair will cost you some coins, coming in at a reasonable $299
Here’s what you get when you hit the purchase button:
Core Ergonomics: Retains the integral lumbar support and high-density foam cushions from the Iskur V2, ensuring optimal posture and comfort during extended gaming sessions.
Adjustable Design: Features the 152-degree recline that gamers loved with the Iskur V2 and Enki Line, with adjustable 2D armrests, allowing for personalized comfort and support.
Breathable Materials: Upholstered with multi-layered fibers for enhanced breathability and cooling even during long hours of gaming.
Sleek Aesthetic: Available in a stylish light gray finish that complements any gamer’s space while providing superior comfort and support.
The new light gray color, available now, joins the other finishes, including Razer’s iconic black and green color, black leather ($350), and dark gray.
Visit Razer’s website to pick up the light gray Iskur V2 X model, which will take your gaming room or man cave to the next level.
Hit the gallery below for more photos.
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JD Vance is certainly getting things done. In the middle of February, the vice president went to Munich to tell Europeans to stop isolating far-right parties, just after speaking at the Paris AI Action Summit, where he warned against strict government regulation. Talk about not knowing an audience: It would be hard to offend more Europeans in less time without kvetching about their vacation time.
This week, my colleague Kristin Robinson wrote a very smart column about what Vance’s — and presumably the Trump administration’s — reluctance to regulate AI might mean for copyright law in the U.S. Both copyright and AI are global issues, of course, so it’s worth noting that efforts by Silicon Valley to keep the Internet unregulated — not only in terms of copyright, but also in terms of privacy and competition law — often run aground in Europe. Vance, like Elon Musk, may simply resent that U.S. technology companies have to follow European laws when they do business there. If he wants to change that dynamic, though, he needs to start by assuring Europeans that the U.S. can regulate its own businesses — not tell them outright that it doesn’t want to do so.
Silicon Valley sees technology as an irresistible force but lawmakers in Brussels, who see privacy and authors’ rights as fundamental to society, have proven to be an immovable object. (Like Nate Dogg and Warren G, they have to regulate.) When they collide, as they have every few years for the past quarter-century, they release massive amounts of energy, in the form of absurd overstatements, and then each give a little ground. (Remember all the claims about how the European data-protection regulation would complicate the Web, or how the 2019 copyright directive would “break the internet?” Turns out it works fine.) In the end, these EU laws often become default global regulations, because it’s easier to run platforms the same way everywhere. And while all of them are pretty complicated, they tend to work reasonably well.
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Like many politicians, Vance seems to see the development of AI as a race that one side can somehow win, to its sole benefit. Maybe. On a consumer level, though, online technology tends to emerge gradually and spread globally, and the winners are often companies that use their other products to become default standards. (The losers are often companies that employ more people and pay more taxes, which in politics isn’t so great.) Let’s face it: The best search engine is often the one on your phone; the best map system is whatever’s best integrated into the device you’re using. To the extent that policymakers see this as a race, does winning mean simply developing the best AI, even if it ends up turning into AM or Skynet? Or does winning mean developing AI technology that can create jobs as well as destroy them?
Much of this debate goes far beyond the scope of copyright — let alone the music business — and it’s humbling to consider the prospect of creating rules for something that’s smarter than humans. That’s an important distinction. While developing AI technology before other countries may be a national security issue that justifies a moon-shot urgency, that has nothing to do with allowing software to ingest Blue Öyster Cult songs without a license. Software algorithms are already creating works of art, and they will inevitably continue to do so. But let’s not relax copyright law out of a fear of needing to stay ahead of the Chinese.
Vance didn’t specifically mention copyright — the closest he got to the subject of content was saying “we feel strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias.” But he did criticize European privacy regulations, which he said require “paying endless legal compliance costs or otherwise risking massive fines.” If there’s another way to protect individual privacy online, though, he didn’t mention it. For that matter, it’s hard to imagine a way to ensure AI remains free from bias without some kind of regulatory regime. Can Congress write and pass a fair and reasonable law to do that? Or will this depend on the same Europeans that Vance just made fun of?
That brings us back to copyright. In the Anglo-American world, including the U.S., copyright is essentially a commercial right, akin to a property right protected by statute. That right, like most, has some exceptions, most relevant fair use. The equivalent under the French civil law tradition is authors’ rights — droit d’auteur — which is more of a fundamental right. (I’m vastly oversimplifying this.) So what seems in the U.S. to be a debate about property rights is in most of the EU more of an issue of human rights. Governments have no choice but to protect them.
There’s going to be a similar debate about privacy. AI algorithms may soon be able to identify and find or deduce information about individuals that they would not choose to share. In some cases, such as security, this might be a good thing. In most, however, it has the potential to be awful: It’s one thing to use AI and databases to identify criminals, quite another to find people who might practice a certain religion or want to buy jeans. The U.S. may not have a problem with that, if people are out in public, but European countries will. As with Napster so many years ago, the relatively small music business could offer an advance look at what will become very important issues.
Inevitably, with the Trump administration, everything comes down to winning — more specifically getting the better end of the deal. At some point, AI will become just another commercial issue, and U.S. companies will only have access to foreign markets if they comply with the laws there. Vance wants to loosen them, which is fair enough. But this won’t help the U.S. — just one particular business in it. And Europeans will push back — as they should.
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Source: Konami / NeoBards Entertainment / Silent Hill ƒ
Silent Hill as a franchise has been in limbo for quite some time after Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills was canceled by Konami in 2015. The survival horror franchise is enjoying new life thanks to the exceptional Silent Hill 2 remake and now we have our first look at Silent Hill ƒ.
Silent Hill ƒ marks the first new entry in the iconic survival horror franchise in quite some time. This entry is taking the scares and all of the horror out of the town of Silent Hill and transporting players to 1960s Japan for what Konami for an experience that Konami describes as an “eerie and haunting world where horror and psychological tension intertwine in an unforgettable narrative experience to find beauty in terror.”
Motoi Okamoto Assembled A Dream Team To Bring This Beautiful Nightmare To Gamers
Source: Konami / NeoBards Entertainment / Silent Hill f
Producer Motoi Okamoto is leading this project, which follows the highly successful Silent Hill 2 remake, which made our list of the best games of 2024.
Okamoto aims to revitalize the franchise by reimagining Silent Hill, which is taking its beloved psychological horror to its first-ever Japanese setting. It brings with it all of the elements fans of the Silent Hill franchise have come to love, combining them with the distinctive aesthetic of Japanese folklore and fear.
Okamoto works with acclaimed writer Ryukishi07, artist kera, and legendary composers Akira Yamaoka and Kensuke Inage to bring this new beautiful nightmare to consoles and PC.
The official synopsis for the game reads:
Find the beauty in terror in this new Japanese psychological horror. When Shimizu Hinako’s secluded town of Ebisugaoka is consumed by a sudden fog, her once-familiar home becomes a haunting nightmare.
As the town falls silent and the fog thickens, Hinako must navigate the twisted paths of Ebisugaoka, solving complex puzzles and confronting grotesque monsters to survive. Immerse yourself into Hinako’s world as imagined by renowned author Ryukishi07, with entrancing soundscapes by Akira Yamaoka and beautiful visuals in a gripping tale of doubt, regret, and inescapable choices.
Will Hinako embrace the beauty hidden within terror, or succumb to the madness that lies ahead? Discover a new chapter in the SILENT HILL series, blending psychological horror with a haunting Japanese setting.
Source: Konami / NeoBards Entertainment / Silent Hill ƒ
When Is Silent Hill ƒ Dropping?
There is no release date for Silent Hill ƒ, but you can wishlist the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles or on PC via Steam, Microsoft Store, and the Epic Games Store.
According to PlayStation Lifestyle, Silent Hill ƒ will be a PS5 Pro Enhanced title.
We look forward to working our nerves while playing this one, and other gamers feel the same excitement combined with dread.
You can see those reactions plus more screenshots in the gallery below.
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Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance represented the U.S. at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. In a speech addressing top leaders from around the world, he declared, “I think our response [to AI] is to be too self-conscious, too risk-averse, but never have I encountered a breakthrough in tech that so clearly calls us to do precisely the opposite. […] We believe excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”
Vance’s comments marked a stark shift from the Biden administration, which often spoke about weighing AI’s “profound possibilities” with its “risks,” as the former president put it in his farewell address in January. In the wake of Vance’s remarks in Paris, it’s clear that in the Trump White House, AI safety is out and the race for dominance is in. What does that mean for the music business and its quest to protect copyrights and publicity rights in the AI age?
“All the focus is on the competition with China, so national security has become the number one issue with AI in the Trump administration,” says Mitch Glazier, CEO/president of the Recording Industry Association of America. “But for our industry, it’s interesting. The [Trump administration] does seem to be saying at the same time that we also need to be ‘America First’ with our [intellectual property] too. It’s both ‘America First’ for IP and ‘America First’ for AI.”
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That, Glazier thinks, provides an opportunity for the music business to continue to push its AI agenda in D.C. While the president does not have the remit to make alterations to copyright protection in the U.S., the Trump administration still has powerful sway with the Republican-dominated legislative branch, where the RIAA, the Recording Academy and others have been fighting to get new protections for music on the books. Glazier says there’s been no change in strategy there — it’s still full steam ahead, trying to get those bills passed into law in 2025.
Top copyright attorney Jacqueline Charlesworth, partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, still fears that Vance’s speech — as well as President Trump’s inauguration in January, where he was flanked by top executives from Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet — “reflected a lot of influence from the large tech platforms.” Many major tech companies have taken the position that training their AI models on copyrights does not require consent, credit or compensation. “My concern is that creators and copyright owners will be casualties in the AI race,” she says.
For David Israelite, president/CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, it’s still too early to totally understand the new administration’s views on copyright and AI. But, he says, “we are concerned when the language is about rushing to train these models — and that becoming a more important principle than how they are trained.”
Glazier holds out hope that Trump’s bullish approach to trade agreements with other nations could benefit American copyright owners and may influence trade partners to honor U.S. copyrights. Specifically, he points to the U.K., where the government has recently proposed granting AI companies unrestricted access to copyrighted material for training their models unless the rights holder manually opts out. Widely despised by copyright holders of all kinds, the music industry has protested the opt-out proposal in recent weeks through op-eds in national newspapers, comments to the U.K. government and through a silent album, Is This What We Want?, co-authored by a thousand U.K. artists, including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Hans Zimmer.
Organized by AI developer, musician and founder of AI safety non-profit Fairly Trained, Ed Newton-Rex, Is This What We Want? features silent tracks recorded in famous studios around London to demonstrate the potential consequences of not protecting copyrighted songs. “The artists and the industry in the U.K. have done an incredible job,” says Glazier. “If for some reason the U.K. does impose this opt-out, which we think is totally unworkable, then this administration may have an opportunity to apply pressure because of a renewal of trade negotiations.”
Israelite agrees. “Much of the intellectual property fueling these AI models is American,” he says. “The U.S. tackles copyright issues all the time in trade agreements, so we are always looking into that angle of it.”
It’s not just American music industry trade groups that have been following the Trump administration’s approach to AI. Abbas Lightwalla, director of global legal policy for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global organization representing the interests of the recorded music business, says he and his colleagues followed Vance’s Paris speech “with great interest,” and that future trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations are “absolutely on the radar,” given that IFPI advocates across the world for the music industry’s interests in trade negotiations. “It’s crucial to us that copyright is protected in every market,” he says. “It’s a cross-border issue… If the U.S. is doing the same, then I think that’s a benefit to every culture everywhere to be honest.”
Charlesworth says this struggle is nothing new; the music industry has dealt with challenges to copyright protection for decades. “In reflecting on this, I feel like, starting in the ‘90s and 2000s, the tech business had this ‘take now, pay later’ mentality to copyright. Now, it feels like it’s turned into ‘take now, and see if you can get away with it.’ It’s not even pay later.”
As the AI race continues to pick up at a rapid pace, Israelite says he’s “not that hopeful that we are going to see any kind of government action quickly that would give us guidance” — so he’s also watching the active lawsuits surrounding AI training and copyright closely and looking to the commercial space for businesses in AI and IP that are voluntarily working out solutions together. “We’re very involved and focused on partnerships with AI that can help pave the way for how this technology provides new revenue opportunities for music, not just threats,” he says.
Glazier says he’s working in the commercial marketplace, too. “We have 60 licensing agreements in place right now between AI companies and music companies,” he says. Meanwhile, the RIAA is still watching the two lawsuits it spearheaded for the three major music companies against AI music startups Suno and Udio and is working to get bills like the NO FAKES Act and NO AI FRAUD Act passed into law.
“While IP wasn’t on the radar in Vance’s speech, the aftermath of it totally shifted the conversation,” says Glazier. “We just have to keep working to protect copyrights.”