Head of IFPI says allowing AI companies access to online content would be a'huge mistake' and damage Australia's reputation While local creatives have raised constitutional issues and threatened political backlash, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), representing recording industry bodies worldwide, said its members were worried about Australia potentially agreeing to demands other nations had rejected. "Why would Australia do this? Why would a sophisticated, democratic country that has a phenomenal cultural power of its own choose to make this very odd decision and buy into the promises of a few large AI companies, and throw away their own culture and creativity?" Victoria Oakley, the chief executive of IFPI, told Guardian Australia. "I don't think Australia wants to be the weakest link in this situation, the one that believed the promises and gave in and threw creativity under the bus on behalf of everyone else. That doesn't feel very Australian to me. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email "You just need one safe harbour, because then you can train on music from anywhere in the world.

It rips the authenticity out of it, because it's not been made by anyone who has the connection the artist's family lineage is not there, the lived experience is not there.' It rips the authenticity out of it, because it's not been made by anyone who has the connection the artist's family lineage is not there, the lived experience is not there.' AI is stealing Indigenous Australian art and churning out'Temu slop', artist says Chair of National Gallery's First Nations advisory group says the technology is undermining artists' agency and the authenticity of their work AI is taking First Nations art and turning it into "Temu slop", the Pitjantjatjara artist Sally Scales has said. Scales, the chair of the National Gallery of Australia's First Nations advisory group, said the technology is undermining the agency of First Nations artists and the authenticity of their work and represents a "a theft" of cultural knowledge. But experts are particularly worried about the risks to Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP) and in a world where AI companies can hoover up anything that may be found online, including songs and paintings that include sacred and cultural knowledge.

Image caption, The Gruffalo has been a staple of children's bookshelves since 1999 Axel Scheffler, whose illustrations have captivated children since 1999, said he wanted AI companies to stop using artists' work without permission. The Gruffalo, written by London-born children's author Julia Donaldson, tells the story of a mouse who outsmarts a beast. I've been in touch with a lawyer in Germany, Scheffler said. There have been illustrators taking legal action against AI companies and I'm seriously considering it. I just want them to stop.

Look Up Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Trending Now Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net All Series Walmart says it won't personalize prices despite personalized pricing patents A new report alleges that Walmart is developing technology to personalize prices. Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Instagram .

Your Next Great Read Might Be Certified'Organic' Amid a sea of AI writing slop, a new stamp for "organic literature" will help readers to pick out books authored by real, corn-fed, free-range humans. As scandals involving the use of artificial intelligence by professional authors pile up, a British startup has established a way for publishers to certify their books as "organic"--written by real people, no machines in sight. On Wednesday, Books by People confirmed it had received approval from the UK's Intellectual Property Office to begin distributing a mark that indicates a published book has been authored by a human. The stamp, which looks like a thumbprint, will be displayed on the cover. "If people are going to be writing AI books or seeking it out for their own enjoyment, that's their prerogative," Esme Dennys, cofounder of Books by People, tells WIRED.

Viral internet character Tung Tung Tung Sahur was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI's image-generation tool. Viral internet character Tung Tung Tung Sahur was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI's image-generation tool. Who owns'brain rot'?: inside the international legal drama over a beloved meme O ne of the most beloved characters in an absurdist genre of online video content has become the center of an international legal battle that could determine where human creativity ends and artificial intelligence begins. Tung Tung Tung Sahur, also known as Triple T, was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI's image-generation tool. Based on a kentongan - a type of drum used to wake south-east Asian Muslims for their pre-dawn meal during Ramadan - the character is an anthropomorphized version of the instrument with a broad smile and a vacant stare.

In this summary article, organisers of a tutorial and a workshop at IJCAI-ECAI 2026 pick their key takeaways from their respective sessions. This tutorial was a practical, hands-on tutorial on the theory and methods for handling missing data in tabular and imaging settings, from statistical baselines to autoencoders and generative adversarial networks. The missingness mechanism is more important than the choice of imputation method. MCAR, MAR, and MNAR settings call for different treatment, and MNAR, the most challenging mechanism, is the one that most methods do not handle well. Deep generative imputation is not always better.

The company is also apparently willing to let bygones be bygones -- Disney has announced that it's hiring Karandeep Anand, the former CEO of Character.AI, as its first chief technology officer. "Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney," Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro said in a statement. "He also has real enthusiasm and respect for Disney, a clear sense of where technology and creativity meet and shares our belief that technology creates the most value when it helps people do their best work." Since becoming CEO in February, D'Amaro has leaned hard into Disney's capabilities as a technology company, pitching the Disney streaming service and app as central to its future. Hiring Anand, and making him a direct report, is a further attempt to sell that idea.

A comparison of a T-shirt as sold by Lonely Kids Club and Temu. The business owner says AI may have been used to scrape the content of his site and replicate the designs. A comparison of a T-shirt as sold by Lonely Kids Club and Temu. The business owner says AI may have been used to scrape the content of his site and replicate the designs. 'Brutal': thousands of T-shirt designs stolen and listed on Temu, Sydney label claims After 15 years running a small business making T-shirts, Warwick Levy says it was "brutal" when he first discovered an identical design for sale on Temu.

The Albanese government is considering giving AI companies access to Australian creatives' works by default as it pursues a compromise with US tech giants. "It would mean putting AI companies' interests over everyday Australians, giving AI companies access to all Australians' content, unless they opt out," Pocock said on Tuesday. "The burden should not fall on Australians to defend the rights they already hold over content they create and own and invest in." The proposals were contained in a document Pocock described as screenshots of government's consultation proposals, tabled in the Senate on Tuesday and titled "AI on Australian Terms". The document raises as a key issue the vast number of small individual creators of online content, for which voluntary deals with AI companies "is not realistic/possible".