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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Donald Trump
You can always count on Donald Trump and his family to find a new way to scam.
Fresh off the latest alleged “assassination attempt” on his life, which he wasted no time fundraising on, the disgraced former president hit an X Space for a 40-minute interview where he rehashed his greatest hits on the latest attempt on his life, the border, the evil forces conspiring against him and his granddaughter’s ability to speak foreign languages.
He touched on all of that in an X Space where he was supposed to speak about his latest scam; oops, we mean business venture, a new “crypto platform.”
When he finally got to the point, he touched on World Liberty Financial, which, according to a statement shared on his X account per The Verge’s reporting, “Trump’s new decentralized finance project is to drive “the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance.”
Even The People Involved Can’t Explain This Mess
According to the website, Trump or any of the other people involved in the Space on X on Monday night did a sh*tty job of explaining what World Liberty Financial is.
Helping to try to explain what the hell the platform is, Corey Caplan, founder of some sh*t called Dolomite, another “decentralized lending platform,” is also working as an adviser on Trump’s latest attempt to scam people out of money and fatten his wallet.
In his explanation, Caplan said World Liberty Financial would “sell and otherwise distribute governance tokens called WLFI.” He notes that sales of the token will be limited to “certain persons who would be eligible to participate in transactions that are exempt from registration under US federal securities law.”
What made the whole thing even funnier was Barron Trump, the family’s expert on Crypto, not being present when it was his turn to speak.
Per The Daily Beast:
Trump’s youngest son Barron, 18, was nowhere to be found when it came time for him to speak, some two hours into the meandering promotional for World Liberty Financial, which even Trump’s crypto sector allies reportedly think is a stupid idea.
“He’s not here anymore,” said Farokh Sarmad, the crypto entrepreneur who hosted the livestream on X. “We took too long. We’re gonna try and get him back.” It would have marked Barron’s first major speaking role in public.
“Damned teenagers,” joked Trump’s eldest child, 46-year-old Donald Jr., who sat in on the livestream along with his 40-year-old brother, Eric.
The gallery below shows more reactions to Donald Trump and his son’s latest scam.
1. Ruh Roh
4. Sounds about right
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. Fujifilm is just one of the many digital camera brands that allow you to capture memories you can relive forever. From […]
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.
Looking for an easier way to stream your favorite shows and movies this fall season? If so, consider adding this onn. Google TV 4K Streaming Box, which helps you stream premium content efficiently at just $19.88.
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Get ready to level up your streaming experience in just minutes. With the power of Google assistant, you can use your voice to find your favorite shows across 10,000+ apps or explore more than 800 free channels for endless entertainment options. It also features a Chromecast built-in for streaming videos and music from your phone or tablet, making it easier to browse and watch content without going through menus. One Walmart customer said, “I love this little streaming device. It works very well and was easy to set up.”
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With its sleek design and advanced performance, the Google TV 4K streaming box is a versatile addition to any entertainment setup. If you are looking to experience quick and easy access to your favorite apps, this is a great option that lets you access everything you want to watch effectively and efficiently without any lags.
“This box does handle the apps better. I haven’t experienced any app crashes and the constant lag I was experiencing with my Roku TV is gone. The box is very easy to install and takes up minimal space,” said one Amazon customer.
You can find this onn. Google TV 4K Streaming Box on Amazon or Walmart.
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onn. Google TV 4K Streaming Box, 4K UHD Resolution
Customers love how easy it is to set up. One Walmart customer said, “You sign into your apps and watch. You can use voice to search. This is my second time buying one of these.”
What are you waiting for? Level up your home entertainment and enjoy all your favorite movies and series from the comfort of your couch.
For more product recommendations, check out the Best Deals from the Samsung Fall Sale Event, these top 7 Headphones & Earbuds to add to your shopping list, and wifi extenders, laptop deals and more.
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Source: BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive / Stray
Annapurna Interactive, the game company best known for publishing indie titles like Stray and Neon White, no longer has a staff.
According to Bloomberg, Annapurna Interactive’s entire staff quit after failing to convince Megan Ellison to let them spin off Annapurna Studio’s gaming division into a new company.
“All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,” former president Nathan Gary and staffers said to Bloomberg. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make, and we did not take this action lightly.”
A spokesperson for Annapurna said existing games and projects will remain under the company.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gary along with Annapurna Interactives coheads Deborah Mars and Nathan Vellat would be leaving the company.
The website also reports the company planned to “integrate its in-house gaming operations with the rest of Annapurna’s divisions, which include film, TV and theater.”
Hector Sanchez, the former head of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine games business and a cofounder of Annapurna’s gaming division, revealed last month that he would be president of interactive and new media at Annapurna.
Annapurna is no stranger to success. After releasing award-winning films like Her, American Hustle, and Zero Dark Thirty , the company looked to duplicate that success in gaming.
The company announced in 2020 that it would begin developing its own games, launch an in-house animation division in 2022, and work on a film based on Stray.
Last month, Annapurna partnered with Remedy Entertainment to explore ways to bring popular games Control and Alan Wake to television and theaters.
As expected, the reaction to the news of Annapurna Interactive’s entire staff walking has shocked the video game community.
You can see those reactions below.
2. We had a very similar reaction the news
3. It sure does suck
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. Karaoke machines have made it possible to belt out your favorite songs with friends from the comfort of your home. Whether […]
When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president on Tuesday (Sept. 10), the singer said she was spurred to action by her fears about artificial intelligence — namely, an incident last month in which Donald Trump posted AI-generated images that falsely claimed the superstar’s support.
Swift’s endorsement, which landed on Instagram just minutes after the conclusion of the Harris-Trump debate, called the Democratic nominee a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” But before those reasons, she pointed first to last month’s deepfake debacle.
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“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
Her fears are well-founded, as Swift has been one most prominent victims of AI deepfakes. At the start of 2024, a flood of fake, sexually explicit images of Swift were posted to the social media site X (formerly Twitter). Some were viewed millions of times before they were removed.
At the time, Woodrow Hartzog, a professor at Boston University School of Law who studies privacy and technology law, told Billboard that the Swift deepfakes highlighted a “particularly toxic cocktail” that was bubbling up on social media in 2024: “It’s an existing problem, mixed with these new generative AI tools and a broader backslide in industry commitments to trust and safety.”
Then last month, Trump posted several AI-generated images to social media falsely suggesting Swift had endorsed him. Several showed women in t-shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump”; another showed Swift herself, dressed up as Uncle Sam alongside the message, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump himself responded to the false endorsement: “I accept!”
At the time, experts told Billboard that Swift likely had grounds to file a lawsuit over Trump’s phony endorsement by citing her right of publicity — the legal power to control how your name, image and likeness are used by others.
But they also predicted — accurately, it turns out — that the star was better off fighting Trump’s fake endorsement with a legitimate endorsement of her own, broadcast across social media to her millions of die-hard fans: “I think Swift probably has more effective political rather than legal recourse here.”
Whether or not Swift’s endorsement has its intended effect, the next president will have a chance to shape federal policy on AI and deepfakes. Numerous bills aimed at regulating the cutting-edge tech are pending before Congress, including one that would create a federal right of publicity that would allow people like Swift to more easily sue over the unauthorized use of their likeness.
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Source: PlayStation / PS5 Pro
Sony’s worst-kept secret, the PS5 Pro, is officially here, and it’s sparking a social media discussion that the PlayStation 3 missed out on when it was first revealed.
During a very brief technical presentation, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny proudly helped unveil the mid-gen refresh, which he boasts will give players the high frame rates they have been longing for on a console.
The PS5 Pro features a much larger GPU, improved Ray Tracing, and custom hardware for PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. The companies take on machine learning.
The technical presentation confirmed the PS5 Pro leaks design-wise. It is a taller version of the latest PS5 Slim model, but it has three stripes on both sides of the console.
Via the PlayStation Blog, Hideaki Nishino, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Platform Business Group, broke down the console’s performance specs:
Upgraded GPU: With PS5 Pro, we are upgrading to a GPU that has 67% more Compute Units than the current PS5 console and 28% faster memory. Overall, this enables up to 45% faster rendering for gameplay, making the experience much smoother.
Advanced Ray Tracing: We’ve added even more powerful ray tracing that provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light. This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.
AI-Driven Upscaling: We’re also introducing PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, an AI-driven upscaling that uses a machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.
The PS5 Pro is also a disc-less console and includes a 2TB SSD, a DualSense wireless controller, and a copy of Astro’s Playroom pre-installed. The vertical stand is sold separately.
Source: PlayStation / PS5 Pro
These Games Will Be Enhanced For PS5 Pro
We also what games will be getting the “PS5 Pro Enhanced” designation, and they will be Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and more.
How Much Does It Cost?
As expected, the PS5 Pro won’t be cheap; it’s going to cost you a lot of money if you want to play with improved graphics and frame rates.
How much, you ask? The PS5 Pro will cost $699.99 / £699.99 / €799.99 / ¥119,980.
Well damn.
As you can imagine, the reactions to the price have many looking at PlayStation with a “you bugging” face and asking why they priced the console so high.
“The PS5 Pro has lines across the middle of the console which are a nod to the lines Sony executives were doing when they priced the thing,” one post on X, formerly Twitter, reads.
Another user on X wrote, “YOU GUYS ARE SELLING THE DISC DRIVE SEPARATELY FOR A $700 DOLLAR CONSOLE!?!? WE HAVE TO PAY OVER $800 TO GET THE FULL PS5 PRO EXPERIENCE!?! THERE’S JUST NO WAY THEY THOUGHT THIS WAS OK!!!”
Some folks are defending the console’s price.
“Dudes who spent 1500$ on a graphics card are telling you that a more compelling ps5 with better hardware is not worth 6-700$,” a post on X read.
Another post defending the console’s steep price reads, “Get yourself a PC if you got it like that. I just spent $423 on a CPU alone to fix a microcoding issue. Yet, $700 gaming console is just too bonkers for you – cmon now lol.”
Still ahead of the console’s November 7, 2024 release, the general consensus is PlayStation is bugging. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
4. Peep this
5. Howling
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. Looking for a new pair of headphones or earphones on a budget? To make it easier for you, we’ve put together […]
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With just a few months until the holiday shopping season heats up, Apple is going full throttle with a slew of new gadgets. The tech giant debuted iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4, AirPods 2 earbuds with hearing-aid capabilities, five new colors of the AirPod Max and more during Monday’s (Sept. 9) Apple Event.
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Apple’s AirPods 4 ($129) feature upgraded acoustic technology, an H2 interactive chip, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking and the ability to answer Siri by “gently” shaking your head. The battery on AirPods 4 lasts up to 30 hours and Apple promises that the new earbuds are comfortable for various ear shapes.
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Apple AirPods 4 Wireless Earbuds
“With AirPods 4, customers can enjoy Active Noise Cancellation and the most advanced audio experience ever in an open-ear design,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. “And with a revolutionary update to the world’s bestselling headphones, AirPods Pro will deliver groundbreaking new capabilities — including Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features — to help more than a billion people affected by hearing loss.”
AirPods 4 with ActiveNoise Cancellation ($179) feature Transparency mode and Adaptive Audio which “dynamically blends Transparency mode and ANC based on the conditions of a user’s environment,” according to a news release. Conversation Awareness lowers the volume on your AirPods when you start speaking to someone closeby.
The AirPods 4 case is 10 percent smaller than its predecessor and it has a USB charging cable. Besides the cable, you can charge AirPods 4 with ANC on an Apple Watch charger or Qi-certified charger.
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Apple AirPods 4 Wireless Earbuds with Active Noise Cancellation
AirPods 4, AirPods 4 ANC and AirPods Max are up for pre-order at Amazon and Apple.com and will be released on Friday, Sept. 20.
Apple’s new hearing health features will be available for AirPods Pro 2 starting this fall.
As more music industry entrepreneurs rush into the nascent AI sector, the number of new companies seems to grow by the day. To help artists, creators and others navigate the space, Billboard has compiled a directory of music-centric AI startups.
Given how quickly the sector is growing, this is not an exhaustive list, but it will continue to be updated. The directory also does not make judgment calls about the quality of the models’ outputs and whether their training process is “ethical.” It is an agnostic directory of what is available. Potential users should research any company they are considering.
Although a number of the following companies fit into more than one business sector, for the sake of brevity, no company is listed more than once.
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To learn more about what is considered to be an “ethical” AI model, please read our AI FAQs, where key questions are answered by top experts in the field, or visit Fairly Trained, a nonprofit dedicated to certifying “ethical” AI music models.
General Music Creation
AIVA: A music generator that also provides additional editing tools so that users can edit the generated songs and make them their own.
Beatoven: A text-to-music generator that provides royalty-free music for content creators.
Boomy: This music generator creates instrumentals using a number of controllable parameters such as genre and BPM. It also allows users to publish and monetize their generated works.
Create: A stem and sample arrangement tool created by Splice. This model uses AI to generate new arrangements of different Splice samples, which are intended to spark the songwriting process and help users find new samples.
Gennie: A text-to-music generator created by Soundation that produces 12-second-long samples.
Hydra II: A text-to-music generator created by Rightsify that aims to create royalty-free music for commercial spaces. It is trained on Rightsify’s owned catalog of songs.
Infinite Album: A music generator that provides “fully licensed” and “copyright safe” AI music for gamers.
Jen: A text-to-music generator created by Futureverse that was trained on 40 licensed music catalogs and uses blockchain technology to verify and timestamp its creations.
Lemonaide: A “melodic idea” generator. This model creates musical ideas in MIDI form to help songwriters get started on their next idea.
MusicGen: A text-to-music generator created by Meta.
Music LM: A text-to-music generator created by Google.
Ripple: A music generator created by ByteDance. This product can convert a hummed melody into an instrumental and can expand upon the result.
Song Starter: A music generator created by BandLab that is designed to help young artists start new song ideas.
Soundful: This company has collaborated with Kaskade, Starrah and other artists and producers to create their own AI beat generators, a new play on the “type-beat.”
SoundGen: A text-to-music generator that can also act as a “musical assistant” to help flesh out a creator’s music.
Soundraw: A generator that creates royalty-free beats, some of which have been used by Trippie Redd, Fivio Foreign and French Montana.
Stable Audio: A text-to-music generator created by Stability AI. This model also offers audio-to-audio generation, which enables users to manipulate any uploaded audio sample using text prompts.
Suno: A text-to-music generator. This model can create lyrics, vocals and instrumentals with the click of a button. Suno and another generator, Udio, are currently being sued by the three major music companies for alleged widespread copyright infringement during the training process. Suno and Udio claim the training qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law and contend the lawsuits are attempts to stifle independent competition.
Tuney: A music generator. This model is known for soundtracking brand advertisements and offering “adaptive music” to make a generated track better fit any given project.
Udio: A text-to-music generator that can create lyrics, vocals and instrumentals with a keyboard stroke. This model is best known for generating “BBL Drizzy,” a parody song by comic Willonius Hatcher that was then sampled by Metro Boomin and became a viral hit. Udio, like Suno, is defending itself against a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the three major music companies. Udio and Suno claim their training counts as fair use and accuse the label groups of attempting to stifle independent competition.
Voice Conversion
Covers.AI: A voice filter platform created by Mayk.It. The platform offers the ability to build your own AI voice, as well as try on the voices of characters like SpongeBob, Mario or Ash Ketcham.
Elf.Tech: A Grimes voice filter created by CreateSafe and Grimes. This tool is the first major artist-voice converter, and Grimes debuted it in response to the virality of Ghostwriter977’s “Heart on My Sleeve,” which deepfaked the voices of Drake and The Weeknd.
Hooky: A voice filter platform best known for its official partnership with Lauv, who used Hooky technology to translate his song “Love U Like That” into Korean.
Kits.AI: A voice filter, stem separation and mastering platform. This company can provide DIY voice cloning as well as a suite of other generic types of voices. It is certified by Fairly Trained.
Supertone: A voice filter platform, acquired by HYBE, that allows users to change their voice in real time. It also offers a tool called Clear to remove noise and reverb from vocal stems.
Voice-Swap: A voice filter and stem separation platform. This company offers an exclusive roster of artist voices to choose from, including Imogen Heap, and it hopes to become an “agency” for artists’ voices.
Vocoflex: A voice filter plug-in created by Dreamtonics that offers the ability to change the tone of a singer’s voice in real time.
Stem Separation
Audioshake: A stem separation and lyric transcription tool. This company is best known for its recent participation in Disney’s accelerator program.
LALA.AI: A stem separation and voice conversion tool.
Moises AI: A stem separation, pitch-changer, chord detection and smart metronome tool created by Music AI.
Sounds.Studio: A stem separation tool created by Never Before Heard Sounds.
Stem-Swap: A stem separation tool created by Voice-Swap.
Dynamic Music
Endel: A personalized soundscape generator that enhances activities including sleep and focus. The company also releases collaborations with artists like Grimes, James Blake and 6LACK.
Lifescore: A personalized soundtrack generator that enhances activities like driving, working out and more.
Plus Music.AI: A personalized soundtrack generator for video-game play.
Reactional Music: A personalized soundtrack generator that adapts music with actions taken in video games in real time.
Management
Drop Track: An AI-powered music publicity tool.
Musical AI: An AI-powered rights management tool that enables rights holders to manage their catalog and license their works for generative AI training as desired.
Musiio: An AI music tagging and search tool owned by SoundCloud. This tool creates fingerprints to better track and search songs, and it automates tagging songs by mood, keywords, language, genre and lyrical content.
Triniti: A suite of AI tools for music creation, marketing, management and distribution created by CreateSafe. It is best known for the AI voice application programming interface behind Grimes’ Elf.Tech synthetic voice model.
Other
Hook: An AI music remix app that allows users to create mashups and edits with proper licensing in place.
LANDR: A suite of plug-ins and producer services, many of which are powered by AI, including an AI mastering tool.
Morpho: A timbre transfer tool created by Neutone.