A major trial found that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators may benefit some patients younger than 70 with mild-to-moderate heart dysfunction and cardiac scarring. A more than decade-long randomized trial suggests that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators may benefit some patients who have heart scarring and only mild-to-moderate loss of heart function, a group that currently falls outside standard treatment guidelines. [...]
This is not the real Slim Shady.
In a world dominated by cheaply-produced AI content, it’s never been easier to imitate your favorite artist. YouTube, for instance, has succumbed to a tidal wave of AI-generated music released under the names of real artists without their permission — and a baffling number of its unknowing users are blissfully unaware they’re being served a microwaved counterfeit.
A track titled “I’m Back” by rapper Marshall “Eminem” Mathers — not to be confused with the musician’s now 26-year-old song of the same name — offers YouTube users almost 12 minutes of painful AI mimicry.
The track, which has seemingly convinced countless users that it’s actually Mathers’ latest return to the music world, has amassed well over 100,000 views since being uploaded last week. It’s achieved surprising prominence on YouTube, being featured prominently in a search for “Eminem” on the platform — where it’s even beating out charting singles by the actual rapper, including “Superman” and “Shake That,” as well as the actual “I’m Back” track.
“Guess who’s back?” the algorithmic Eminem raps in the video. “Yeah, a headache return. Same match in my hand.”
The low-rent beat alone should be a dead giveaway. And while AI music generating tools certainly have come a long way, giving the fake Mathers a passing imitation of the real one’s voice and delivery, the plasticky sound of the vocals make it clear that it’s not the real deal.
Nonetheless, users on YouTube were fooled hook, line, and sinker.
“This is fire eminem is the goat hands down,” one user gushed.
“Really Proud of you Eminem!!” another wrote. “You really are getting it and not giving up!! Keep going!”
The video’s title gives no indication that it’s not a real release, and doesn’t feature YouTube’s official AI label. Buried in its description is a strangely-phrased disclaimer.
“Fan-made music videos inspired by Eminem, Slim Shady, and legendary Detroit hip-hop,” it reads. “This is a fan-made audiovisual project created for entertainment purposes only.”
The owner of the account even proactively offers up an email address for “copyright concerns or removal requests,” suggesting they’re all too familiar with the process of having angry record labels try to shut them down or get hung up in YouTube’s infamous copyright filters.
A web search for the email address reveals that it’s also listed on a litany of other YouTube accounts, many of which masquerade as other rap artists, including Meek Mill — an account that has over 13,000 subscribers — and 21 Savage.
Some of the tracks have been affixed with an “AI” label by YouTube, indicating that “sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated.”
Reached by email, the account owner offered their thoughts on the situation.
“No, my intention was never to make it look like a genuine new Eminem release,” the creator, who goes by the name Milana Salaeva, told Futurism in a message, referring to the “I’m Back” track. “I make it clear in the description that the content is unofficial and that AI-generated or AI-assisted elements may be used.”
“I’m a music producer, and I’ve been making music myself for quite some time,” they added. “I often create my own beats and handle the arrangement, mixing, mastering, and other parts of the production process. AI is just one of the tools I sometimes use as part of that workflow.”
The Eminem mimicry is only a drop in a bucket in an internet dominated by AI-generated music. For years now, we’ve watched as outraged artists and their labels have tried to tamp down on a proliferation of tracks that use their voice and likeness without permission, often going viral on social media.
But in many ways, it’s a losing game. The AI slop is starting to crowd out real music while even Universal Music, which own’s Eminem’s Shady Records, is signing deals with AI companies, including AI chipmaker Nvidia and AI music platform Udio. (Universal didn’t respond to a request for comment, but we’ll update if they do.)
We’ve also come across users exploiting royalties on platforms like Spotify by flooding them with AI. A man pled guilty earlier this year for posting slop on Spotify and using an army of bots to fraudulently boost listenership, netting $8 million in royalties.
While it’s unlikely Salaeva is making anywhere near that amount of cash — especially now that YouTube has significantly changed how it counts views — the fake Slim Shady’s 11-minute tirade also touches on a far more profound subject: the authenticity of human creativity and expression.
“If you came here for the old me, here’s the new me kicking his ass,” the fake Eminem raps. “That’s why they call me Slim Shady. I’m back again. Same crooked little grin with a pad and pen.”
More on AI music: AI-Generated Music Is Starting to Crowd Out the Real Stuff on Streaming Platforms
The post Someone AI-Generated a Completely Fake Eminem Song That’s Already Gotten 120,000 View on YouTube, Where It’s Appearing More Prominently Than Some of the Rapper’s Actual Music appeared first on Futurism.
Patience is the cheapest upgrade in Apple’s lineup. Skip launch day, wait a few months, and you can buy a Certified Refurbished iPhone, iPad, or Mac that Apple says is indistinguishable from new — typically for about 15% less.
That pitch is looking more crowded. Amazon Renewed and Walmart Restored now sell the same products at steeper discounts, including recent iPhone 17 Pro models that still command $1,099 and up when new. The savings are real. So are the compromises: who inspects the device, whether the battery and shell are new, which accessories you get, and how long you are covered if something goes wrong.
A comparison published this week by 9to5Mac‘s Ben Lovehoy, plus the retailers’ own program rules, makes the split clear. Apple sells peace of mind. Amazon sells price. Walmart is cheaper too, but much vaguer about what “restored” actually means.
Apple’s program is refurbished in name only
Apple Certified Refurbished products are inspected and tested by Apple, not a marketplace seller. For iPhones and iPads, Apple replaces the outer shell and battery, includes original accessories and cables, and ships the device in a plain white box. The one-year limited warranty is the same as new hardware, and the product remains eligible for AppleCare+ or AppleCare One.
That is why buyers who have used the store often describe the units as new devices with different packaging. Official Apple pages currently advertise savings of up to 15%, full functional testing, genuine Apple parts as needed, and free delivery and returns. Featured stock this week includes a refurbished iPhone 16 128GB for $619, down from $729, and a 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro for $1,439, down from $1,599.
The catch is timing and selection. Refurbished models usually show up on Apple’s site about three months after launch, stock is limited, and the discount is modest compared with third-party listings. If you want the newest phone immediately, Apple’s own refurb store will not help. If you want a device that looks and is warranted like new, it is still the cleanest option.
Amazon Renewed is cheaper — and not the same product
Amazon Renewed can undercut Apple by a wide margin. Inspection and testing are done by the seller, not Apple. The outer shell is used, so marks and scratches are possible. The battery is used and only guaranteed above 80% of original capacity on standard listings. Accessories may not be genuine Apple parts. Coverage is the Amazon Renewed Guarantee: 90 days on most items, 365 days on Renewed Premium.
Amazon grades cosmetics in four tiers:
• Premium: no signs of damage when held 12 inches away; battery typically above 90%; one-year coverage
• Excellent: same cosmetic standard, battery above 80%, 90-day coverage
• Good: light scratches barely visible at 12 inches
• Acceptable: scratches that can be seen and felt
Those grades matter. Premium is the only Amazon tier that approaches Apple’s warranty length, and even then the device is still a used shell with a used battery. Seller quality also varies, which is why independent buyer guides treat Amazon as reliable if you check the seller, the grade, and the return window before you click Buy.
The price gap is the reason people take that risk. <em>9to5Mac flagged all-time or near all-time lows on Amazon Renewed iPhone 17 Pro models this week:
• 1TB Cosmic Orange: $1,214 (new: $1,499)
• 1TB Deep Blue: $1,215
• 1TB Silver: $1,208
• 512GB Cosmic Orange: $1,164 (new: $1,299)
• 512GB Deep Blue: $1,170
• 512GB Silver: $1,171
That is roughly $280 to $290 off the 1TB models and about $130 off the 512GB models — far more than Apple’s usual 15%. The iPhone 17 Pro launched in September 2025, so these listings are appearing just as the next cycle approaches and shoppers start hunting for last year’s flagship at a discount.
Walmart Restored is the least specific of the three
Walmart Restored uses third-party sellers, not Apple. The company promises “like-new performance and reliability,” but it does not match Apple’s guarantees on a new enclosure, a new battery, or original accessories. Tiers are Premium, Like New, Good, and Fair. Walmart is thinner on public definitions than Amazon, which is the main knock in the 9to5Mac comparison.
Walmart’s own help pages fill in some of the gaps. Restored Premium items are supposed to come from manufacturers or authorized sellers, carry at least a one-year warranty, and offer 30-day returns. Like New, Good, and Fair Restored items get 90-day free returns; warranty details often sit with the individual seller. Separate category rules say Premium batteries should be at least 90% of new capacity, while the lower restored grades are typically 80% or better. Cosmetic language is similar to Amazon’s 12-inch test, but enforcement still depends on the seller.
How the three programs actually compare
| Apple Certified Refurbished | Amazon Renewed | Walmart Restored | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who inspects it | Apple | Seller | Seller |
| Outer shell | New | Used | No hard cosmetic promise |
| Battery | New on iPhone/iPad | 80%+ (90%+ on Premium) | 90%+ Premium; ~80% other tiers |
| Accessories | Original Apple | May be generic | Not clearly specified |
| Warranty | 1-year Apple; AppleCare eligible | 90 days; 1 year on Premium | 1 year Premium; 90 days other tiers |
| Typical discount | About 15% | Often larger | Competitive, inconsistent |
| Best for | Near-new condition and official support | Maximum savings | Price plus easy returns |
Independent 2026 buyer guides land in the same place. Apple is the safer buy when the price gap is small, especially on expensive Macs. Amazon becomes more interesting when the savings hit $150 or more and the listing is Premium from a strong seller. Desktop devices such as a Mac mini or Apple TV carry less risk than a laptop or phone, because battery wear and cosmetic damage matter less.
The practical rule
Buy from Apple if you want the product to look new, last like new, and stay inside Apple’s support system. The white box is the only obvious tell.
Buy from Amazon if the discount is large enough to offset a used battery, possible scuffs, possible third-party cables, and a shorter warranty — and stick to Renewed Premium when you can.
Treat Walmart as a third option, not a peer to Apple’s store. Confirm the seller, the grade, the battery claim, and the warranty on the product page before you pay.
Refurbished Apple gear is no longer a niche. The secondhand phone market alone is now measured in the billions, and Amazon and Walmart want that business. Apple is still selling the closest thing to a new device. Everyone else is selling a cheaper one. The right choice is whichever gap — price or uncertainty — you are more willing to live with.
MacDailyNews Take: In short: Walmart is Walmart; it can be a bargain and you can send the product back if it is a miss, but you should not assume you are getting an Apple Certified Refurbished device.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple Certified Refurbished still looks like new; Amazon and Walmart refurbs cost less, but come with trade-offs appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Ancient Irish cave art may reveal a lost Ice Age route from Wales.
Prehistoric art hidden in caves throughout southwestern Ireland for thousands of years could push back the timeline on the earliest human presence on the Emerald Isle by as much as 5,000 years, archaeologists say.
The remarkable discoveries may reveal a previously unknown chapter in the ancient history of human migrations across the British Isles during the Ice Age, and how they once traversed a portion of the landscape that is now sunken beneath the Irish Sea.
Reported by a team of researchers with the international Lost Land Bridge Project, the discoveries involve prehistoric markings located in eight caves in Ireland that could potentially date as far back as 15,000 years ago.
Some are engravings into the cave’s stone walls, while others are markings made with ochre and charcoal, and include lines traced along cave surfaces that appear to depict ancient animals that include deer, and extinct species such as mammoths.
If confirmed, Ireland’s long-hidden ancient artwork could dramatically shift past thinking about the earliest evidence of human arrivals on the island, which was previously believed to have occurred around 10,500 years ago.
If humans arrived in Ireland this early, it also raises an intriguing possibility: that they might have done so by traversing terrain that would only have been exposed amid the lower sea levels that prevailed toward the end of the last Ice Age.
This effect was due to the amount of water that was held within the vast glaciers near Earth’s poles, which, in addition to lowering sea levels, helped to reshape the geography of northwestern Europe during the Pleistocene.
Because of this, certain portions of the ancient landscape that are now submerged beneath ocean waters would have been exposed. Among these, one that stretched from modern Pembrokeshire in Wales and southeastern Ireland near Rosslare might have been used by ancient travelers who could have made their way to Ireland, leaving a record of their Ice Age journey on the walls of caves they used as shelter, according to Dr. George Nash of the University of Liverpool, who coordinated the project.
Nash believes this ancient crossing could have comprised a 46-mile-long area, where ancient nomadic people following natural subsistence patterns would have encountered vast expanses of grassland and vegetation, along with ample resources that included horses, bison, reindeer, mammoths, and other animals that these ancient hunter-gatherers were skilled at hunting.
Evidence from throughout Europe and other parts of the ancient world already shows that ancient hunter-gatherers were well-accustomed to following migrating animals and seasonal resources, and that the landscape could have provided a natural route westward.
Nash recently said that until now, archaeologists had relied mainly on accidental discoveries that suggested a human presence in Ireland by around 10,500 years ago. However, a growing number of archaeologists had begun to doubt that this was the period when humans initially arrived.
“We just weren’t looking hard enough, and not in the right places,” Nash said.
To determine locations where reliable evidence of an earlier human presence might be found, the researchers examined several features associated with prehistoric caves in southern Wales, where documented discoveries linked them to an early human presence.
Based on these characteristics, the team then relied on computer modeling to help them identify Irish locations that had similar features.
The team was assisted by Shane Diffily, an expert in caving, and digital mapping consultant Darren Lee, which allowed them to quickly narrow their search to just under 30 potentially promising caves throughout southwestern Ireland, according to Heritage Daily.
Of those locations, eight were found to contain what appeared to be various kinds of prehistoric rock art. The exact locations of those caves have not been released by the team, to protect the sites from vandalism, or potential looting—a major issue that has long complicated archaeological investigations.
Along with direct engravings into limestone surfaces and markings made with ochre and charcoal, researchers also discovered a few instances of what appear to be “finger flutings,” where soft surfaces such as clay or sediment were marked by ancient artists who dragged their fingers along such surfaces.
One of the most significant discoveries uncovered by Nash and the team appears to be a portion of a deer, and an image within one of the caves that appears to represent a mammoth. Examples like these could potentially help provide connections to similar examples known from prehistoric rock art that has been documented in Wales.
From those sites, some of the same prehistoric artists may have made their way across the ancient land bridge that was once available, leaving their markings at similar sites that once offered shelter as they arrived in Ireland.
The initial discoveries at the newly identified eight cave locations may represent only a small portion of the long-overlooked archaeological evidence throughout Ireland, which may document its earliest arrivals. Future investigations will likely focus on sites located near Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and other areas along routes that people may have followed as they made their way to southwestern Ireland.
As investigations continue, Nash and the research team say that reliable dating of the art will be an important next step toward determining how early these prehistoric artists might have arrived.
Once that testing is completed, it will help determine whether the timescales on the arrival of Ireland’s earliest human inhabitants will indeed be pushed back by thousands of years. If so, the newly uncovered cave art could offer an unprecedented look at the lives of those ancient hunter-gatherers who once traversed a landscape before it sank beneath rising ocean waters as Ice Age glaciers retreated.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
A rising Gen Z indie musician known as Betty Hammerschlag has turned out to be a middle-aged man, in an elaborate — and dare we say a bit creepy — deception that fooled everyone from fans to music critics to the artist’s own collaborators.
Music journalist Shawn Reynaldo blew open the charade in an exposé published Wednesday in his newsletter First Floor. By all appearances, Hammerschlag presented herself as a young woman still in art school, using pictures of women in her social media posts and promotional materials, and writing in a pointedly whimsical, all-lowercase and flowery emoji-laden style intended to evoke Gen Z.
Hammerschlag’s music has been featured and praised in notable publications like The Guardian and The Quietus as recently as last week, and has received quite a bit of airtime on the renowned British music streamer NTS Radio. That includes songs from her latest album which, we kid you not, is titled “fake girl.”
But Reynaldo dug around and discovered that Hammerschlag didn’t actually exist, and was in reality the creation of Tilman Hornig, a 45-year-old (or possibly older) musician from Germany.
Hornig’s stunt extended beyond creating Hammerschlag’s artistic persona. According to Reynaldo, he went to extraordinary lengths to keep up the charade, such as messaging people online while still masquerading as a young girl, including other young female and queer artists.
Even some of the musicians Hornig/Hammerschlag collaborated with were under the impression that they were working with a young woman, including tibslc, an ambient artist from Leipzig. They had several private exchanges; in one of them Hammerschlag told her she couldn’t perform at a show tibslc was organizing because “I have to study for several exams and hardly have the energy for music and live shows .”
“When I eventually learned about the fact that Tilman Hornig, a 47(?) year old guy, was running it the whole time, it was really quite a shock, like one of those moments when your reality is shaking to the core because someone tricked you,” tibslc told First Floor. “I was emotionally unwell and affected by it a lot. I felt like I was played, especially because of the private chat.”
Tim Dalzell, the founder of the label blush which published some of Hammschlag’s music, also felt betrayed, saying in a recent Instagram story that he had “no idea who was behind the project when I released it.”
“The whole time we worked together he messaged me in the style and dialect of a young girl, creating elaborate lies to cover his tracks,” Dalzell said. “At one point he asked for royalties to be paid earlier so he could buy paints for art school.”
“I was under the impression the artist wanted privacy and respected that,” he added. “When I found out the deal (earlier this year) — I expressed my concerns to him about how he was running the project. I didn’t like how he responded and so I decided to stop selling the music.”
Suspiciously, Hammerschlag would evade requests for a live interview, insisting they be conducted over email. On several occasions when Hammerschlag was booked for live shows, a young woman would appear claiming to be her, but organizers strongly suspected she was an impersonator. In other words, it appeared that Hornig was sending women to pretend to be Hammerschlag.
It also appears that Hornig used AI to keep up the act. Reynalldo found that some of the promotional text for one of Hammschlag’s albums were flagged as AI by several AI detectors. It’s unclear, though, if the female sounding vocals in some of Hammerschlag’s songs are the work of AI as well.
In his exposé, Reynaldo didn’t leave us wondering what his personal thoughts on Hornig’s behavior was.
“It’s creepy, especially when so many of the people that Hornig is interacting with — including people that he has directly sought out online — are unwitting participants in an art project they didn’t ask to join,” he wrote.
More on art: Spotify and YouTube Profiles of Legendary Jazz Musicians Hijacked by AI Waifu Spam
The post Rising Gen Z Pop Singer Turns Out to Be Middle Aged Man After Release of Album Titled “Fake Girl” appeared first on Futurism.
The animation industry is facing an existential threat in the form of generative AI.
Entertainment execs remain adamant that the tech is the answer, allowing fewer workers to accomplish more in less time — a thinly-veiled attempt, critics charge, to pinch pennies and churn out lower quality content.
Marketing teams are also frequently caving to the irresistible draw of text-to-video generators, a cutting of corners in ways that are both uninspired and easy to spot. And as the backlash to generative AI continues to grow, especially in creative fields, those attempts are bringing in far more negative than positive attention.
Case in point, fans of the Major League Baseball team the Toronto Blue Jays were outraged after the team’s social media account posted an animated short, as part of a brand tie-in with Nestle-owned beverage company Nestea.
The clip, animated in a style typical for a TV show aimed at adults, like “Bojack Horseman” or “Family Guy,” bears all the hallmarks of the sloppy use of AI, from garbled, misoriented hands to illegible text.
A community note appended to the post points out that the video “contains AI artifacts including garbled text on trading card boxes and a player with three arms in the rookie poster, contrary to the claim it was made by a real animator.”
Instead of owning up to the lazy use of AI, the team dug in its heels.
“Corny,” one fan wrote. “[Blue Jays owner] Rogers can’t afford real animation??”
“Corny comment,” the team’s official account replied. “This was made by a real animator.”
The doubling down in particular didn’t sit well with fans.
“It’s not just AI, It’s really painfully obvious error riddled AI,” one user tweeted.
“Yeahhh, you ain’t fooling anybody,” another wrote. “Do better.”
“Plenty of talented animators you could have hired to do this instead of having it be AI slop,” one user commented on an extended version posted to YouTube.
“I fear you got fleeced paying whoever made this, it’s very obvious [AI] was used especially with the background details,” another added.
The incident perfectly illustrates widespread disillusionment with the use of generative AI and how radioactive the topic has become. We’ve gotten to the point where small businesses are starting to hand draw their own promotional signage and vow not to use any AI, as 404 Media reported last month — getting a major influx of interest as a result.
It’s a particularly precarious situation for human animators, who’ve watched their industry change dramatically over the years. Even the creator of the iconic stop motion franchise “Wallace and Gromit” recently said he’d start to “embrace” AI.
Leaning into the tech can easily backfire. Emmy-winning writer director Jorge Gutierrez announced he was partnering up with Amazon as part of its GenAI Creators’ Fund earlier this year, but the backlash turned out to be fierce enough for him to walk away from the deal altogether.
More on AI animation: OpenAI’s Attempt at an AI-Generated Pixar-Style Movie Is in Shambles
The post Toronto Blue Jays Roasted for Posting AI Slop Promoting Nestle, Claiming It’s the Work of a Human Animator appeared first on Futurism.
Capturing the zeitgeist has never been actor Gal Gadot’s strong suit.
The Israeli performer’s most recent appearances on the silver screen — two lauded starring roles as Wonder Woman not withstanding — have quickly garnered her a reputation for being the butt of the joke, from singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” in an infamous viral March 2020 video to some truly harrowing line deliveries that have spawned countless impressions on social media.
Now, as the use of AI in the creative field has become one of the most divisive topics in entertainment today, Gadot is once again having yet another foot-in-mouth moment. As Variety reports, she had to go on the defensive after it was revealed that she would be playing a role in director Doug Liman’s “Bitcoin.”
The upcoming biographical thriller, starring Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson, drew plenty of heat earlier this year after producers disclosed during a UK casting call that the film may use AI to “adjust” some performances and that actors would have to perform on a “markerless performative capture stage and not in any locations, using new Al technologies.”
To Gadot, refusing to give in to a tech that’s actively putting human performers out of work is futile.
“I am afraid of AI, but I am going to be afraid and look away? No,” she said on a recent “Happy Sad Confused” podcast appearance. “I am afraid but I am playing with it and learning it and trying to educate myself. The train has left the station.”
“You’re going to work with it or be out of the game completely,” she added.
She made it clear that she had her lawyers had spent “six months” going “through every scenario we could think about as far as the AI component of it” to ensure that AI had absolutely nothing to do with her performance.
Unsurprisingly, her tone deaf comments didn’t exactly impress, leading to plenty of derision and mockery online.
“Gal Gadot and her incredible ability to never, ever be on the right side of anything, now defending AI in movies,” one Reddit user wrote.
“Speaking as someone who has suffered through her attempts at acting, I’d actually say if AI is being used for anything in her movies, it should be her performance,” another added.
“Soo… what she’s saying is, she wants to protect her job, but f*** all the other creatives that are losing their jobs to AI,” one infuriated user vented. “Got it.”
It’s far from the first time we’ve heard a professional insinuate that refusing to use AI means being left behind, a narrative that’s become all too common as tech companies continue to shove it down our collective throats.
But as the backlash continues to grow and companies are starting to boast that they’re not using AI in their marketing, those claims are really starting to take on water. If anything, as use of AI grows ever more radioactive to the average moviegoer, that equation could soon flip on its head, making Gadot’s ill-advised crypto biopic excursion yet another painful source of second hand embarrassment.
More on AI in Hollywood: Hollywood Is Lying to Everyone About How Much AI They’re Using, Says Consummate Hollywood Insider
The post Gal Godot Starring in Heavily AI-Generated Movie About the Glories of Bitcoin appeared first on Futurism.
Dario Amodei’s Anthropic is facing yet another massive legal challenge.
Sony Music and Warner, both juggernauts in the music publishing industry, filed a major lawsuit against the AI company late Friday night, accusing it of “one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.”
More specifically, the publishers said that Anthropic had, without permission, trained its AI models on “tens of thousands” of copyrighted compositions, asking for remuneration up to $150,000 per work, in addition to up to $25,000 for each time Anthropic intentionally stripped copyright data. As The Verge points out, that means damages could reach several billion dollars.
While the latest lawsuit is far from the first time a frontier AI lab has been accused of copyright infringement, this particular suit could be very difficult for Amodei and Anthropic to defend against. That’s because the suit names the exact same dataset of pirated works that Anthropic cofounder Benjamin Mann — who is listed as a defendant — was found to have illegally downloaded, culminating in the blockbuster $1.5 billion settlement in September 2025.
“Among the many millions of books that Defendants torrented from these illegal pirate websites were books containing the lyrics and sheet music to hundreds or more of Music Publishers’ copyrighted musical compositions,” the latest legal filing reads.
The works include massive hits like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” according to the suit.
“Defendants Anthropic and its founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann have conducted a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale in order to develop, operate, and reap enormous profits from Anthropic’s ‘Claude’ series of artificial intelligence models,” the suit reads.
Anthropic is now forced to argue that Sony and Warner are rehashing old news — which could put them in an extremely awkward spot, considering the company had to settle and pay out well over a billion dollars to rightsholders previously.
“This is the third lawsuit from the same lawyers, recycling allegations from cases already before the courts,” a company spokesperson told Reuters, saying that the company will defend itself “robustly.”
Anthropic will fall back on an already familiar defense — that training AI on copyrighted material amounts to fair use, a controversial legal framework that allows for limited access to copyrighted materials without permission — according to the spokesperson.
But given legal precedent — it’s been just over a year since Anthropic’s settlement — Amodei has his work cut out to wriggle out of compensating rightsholders whose intellectual property was vacuumed up without permission.
More on copyright and AI: New Law Would Give Artists Sweeping Protections Against AI Stealing Their Work
The post The Music Industry’s New Lawsuit Against Anthropic Should Have Dario Amodei Shivering With Fear appeared first on Futurism.
William “Sonny” Criss was the consummate working musician. Having started on the saxophone at 11 years old, Criss began his professional career filling in on gigs with bandleader Johnny Otis, before going on to play alongside jazz legends like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Cole Porter, and Dizzy Gillespie. Though he might never have risen to the level of a household name, his tremendous and ever-evolving output puts him in a league with some of the most celebrated bebop artists of his generation.
Today, most will interact with Criss’s music on a streaming service like Spotify or YouTube. Yet as these platforms fail to prevent the onslaught of AI slop, the musician’s streaming profiles are becoming a host for parasitic spam — and unfortunately, he’s not the only one.
In addition to Criss, profiles of artists including the vocalist Jean Carne, cornetist Red Nichols, and clarinetist Jimmie Noone have become inundated with various forms of AI spam. On Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music, each of these musicians recently picked up “new” singles plastered with AI-generated cover art, uploaded in 2026 and copyrighted to the publisher “Ami bacuk.”
Criss’s profile on Spotify, for example, started displatwo brand-new tunes, which is an impressive feat considering he died in 1977. Titled “Tell me why” and “but a heartache,” both feature a generic anime waifu on their cover, and were supposedly composed by “Zainul Irpan,” a mashup of two generic Arabic-rooted names.
Though each song is a jazz tune featuring alto sax and a rhythm section, their origin is nearly impossible to trace, as they’re neither rebrands of existing tracks by Criss or identifiable via music ID software. If it weren’t for the jarring mishmash between characteristically laid-back bebop album covers and the bright, colorful anime images, the tunes would be difficult to distinguish from the musician’s original work. Both appear on Criss’s Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Topic profiles. On YouTube, Criss’s artist image was even updated with one of the AI anime girls.
In other cases, the AI-generated singles stick out like a sore thumb. Take Jimmie Noone, a noted Black dixieland clarinetist and bandleader who died in 1944, for example.
On April 3rd of 2026, Ami bacuk released four new singles attributed to Noon: “You Have Hurt Him,” “You Have Hurt Him 2,” “He’s still there,” and of course, “He’s still there 2.” Each is a forgettable pop ballad featuring a female vocalist — likely AI generated — singing over somber piano accompaniment. Instead of anime, the scammer here went with AI-generated corporate Memphis, which clashes heavily against Noone’s black-and-white photo album covers.
Famed R&B and jazz vocalist Jean Carne — also spelled Carn, as seen below — likewise had her YouTube Music profile inundated with slop. Though this is technically a different platform than Criss’s YouTube Topic page, it features many of the same hallmarks: AI-generated singles plastered with AI-generated imagery. Like Criss, the actual music here is an inoffensive blend of alto sax jazz, though it notably lacks Carne’s five-octave voice.
Adding to the bizarre situation, some of Carne’s new tunes appear to be cut-up lyrics from the Backstreet Boys’ repertoire, with two of them titled “I never wanna hear you say” and “I want it that way.” Carne has also supposedly put out a new collaborative EP with American soul duo Mel and Tim. Titled “This night with you,” it features three tracks: “My nightmare,” “My secret,” and “My everything,” as well as similarly schlocky AI-generated cover art.
While the garbled slop isn’t as egregious as other examples we’ve seen — Futurism broke the news last year that Australian prog rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard had been ripped off by a completely AI-generated profile called “King Lizard Wizard” — it’s no less galling, especially where the legacy of deceased Black musicians is concerned.
Though jazz rose out of the Black gospel tradition, the history of the craft is dogged with commercial exploitation of talented African American musicians for the benefit of wealthy white capitalists. Now that their estates are largely stagnant, it seems they’ve become easy fodder for digital hucksters who aren’t above abusing their legacy to eke out a quick buck.
And unfortunately, Ami bacuk is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Given the scope of previous music streaming scams, these few AI-generated singles are surely just one part of a much larger scheme. And while we can blame the scammers for running the hustle, their piecemeal exploitation of Black musicians ultimately wouldn’t be possible without the passive allowance of the streaming platforms themselves.
For example, after experiencing a massive rise in the amount of AI-generated spam songs, albums, and artists on Spotify in 2025, the company issued a September update meant to protect artists, songwriters, and producers from outside exploitation. In particular, Spotify insisted it was “ramping up” protections against this exact scenario, “where uploaders fraudulently deliver music (AI-generated or otherwise) to another artist’s profile across streaming services.”
So far, reality has shown that protecting artists is much easier said than done.
In a statement to Futurism, a Spotify spokesperson said “the releases have been removed from the artist profiles,” adding that “protecting artists’ identities is a top priority for us, and we continue to invest heavily in detection and prevention.”
The spokesperson also outlined a “service” currently in Beta called “Artist Profile Protection,” which “lets artists opt in to review and approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on their profile.” Though the music publishing and distribution landscape is undeniably complicated, it does invite the question of why such a common-sense feature wasn’t standard practice for music streaming platforms in the first place.
After contacting Spotify, the content attributed to Ami bacuk was mostly removed from the platform, with the exception of that attributed to Jean Carne. Instead, the Ami bacuk tracks were sequestered into a separate artist profile named “Jean Carn,” though they no longer appear under the true artist’s discography.
At press time, Sonny Criss’ YouTube profile remains besmirched by the anime waifus. The platform’s parent company, Google, did not respond to a request for comment.
All in all, it remains to be seen how well the individual platforms handle the growing deluge of slop, and whether any action is taken to prevent this in the future. It isn’t even particularly clear what made these four artists targets from the same scammer in the first place — and against an ever-rising tide of AI slop, it likely never will be.
Updated to reflect the fact that “Artist Profile Protection” is currently available in Beta, not an upcoming feature.
More on Spotify: Spotify Doubles Down on AI Slop As It’s Being Flooded With It
The post Spotify and YouTube Profiles of Legendary Jazz Musicians Hijacked by AI Waifu Spam appeared first on Futurism.
Researchers at the College of Wooster are unraveling the mystery behind glow-in-the-dark pigments to help modern artists working in luminous media preserve their work as close to the original luminosity as possible for future generations to enjoy.
The team behind the illuminating study said their work could lead to longer-lasting phosphorescent pigments and dyes for glow-in-the-dark fashions or other commercial applications. The findings could also help students interested in art pursue careers in chemistry or other scientific disciplines related to the study.
Most art, clothing, or commercial items containing paints or dyes appear the color they do because human eyes detect the wavelengths associated with the corresponding color of the visible spectrum. Instead of reflecting visible light, fluorescent glow-in-the-dark paints and dyes absorb light as energy and then emit that energy within a specific wavelength.
As a result, a glow-in-the-dark paint that absorbs blue or white light can emit a red hue. For artists and fashion designers exploring new ways to grab attention, glow-in-the-dark paints and dyes have become a vibrant, though temporary, medium.
“Artists have always been attracted to bright, emissive colors,” explained Gregory Smith, Senior Conservation Scientist at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. “They allow you to do exciting things that you just can’t do with a regular pigment on the artist palette.”
Photochemist Sarah Schmidtke Sobeck, Professor of Chemistry and Dean for Faculty Development at The College of Wooster, agreed, noting that for artists trying to convey a message, “the effect isn’t simply cosmetic, because they intentionally use these colors for their visual impact.”
However, Sobeck and colleagues note that the main drawback of these eye-catching materials is their tendency to degrade. Over time, this results in duller or darker colors, and what the researchers described as the artwork “losing some of the oomph” that the glow-in-the-dark pigments initially conveyed. This affects art and fashion and has practical impacts on safety signs on airport runways that rely on glow-in-the-dark colors.
This intersection of chemistry and art motivated Sobeck and Smith to explore ways to extend the lifetime of fluorescent dyes and paints.
Previous studies at Sobeck’s lab had found that optical brighteners, chemical compounds responsible for “enhancing” brightness, degrade faster than other compounds used in typical pigments and dyes. As a result, that work determined that colors appear darker over time even when the pigment molecules responsible for that color remain largely intact.
Working with samples collected from the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Newfield Stephen Sprouse collection, which, they note, “features fashion with bold fluorescent colors and attention-grabbing designs,” the team began by identifying the composition of the glow-in-the-dark materials.
Next, they tested the materials’ photophysics in the lab. These tests included measuring the glow-in-the-dark pigment’s ability to absorb, store, and emit light. The team also tested how the material’s photophysical properties change as it ages.
The researchers found that many of the phosphorescent materials they tested also contained inorganic compounds and mineral-based pigments, which could contribute to their rapid degradation. Notably, these combinations differed from organic dyes typically found in glow-in-the-dark colorants.
One initial finding the team described as “surprising” was the role prolonged exposure to high humidity can play. Specifically, they note that such exposure “can play an equally important — and sometimes greater — role than prolonged exposure to ambient light in breaking down phosphorescent pigments.”
When discussing the study’s initial findings and its potential implications, Sobeck said the information they gleaned will “inform improved storage and exhibition conditions for artworks containing this pigment.” The researchers also said their findings highlight the difficulties of preserving glow-in-the-dark artworks.
“Conservators restoring fluorescent artworks must match colors under both visible and UV light, while the pigments themselves continue to change over time, making long-term restoration difficult,” they explained.
When discussing the benefit to their students, the researchers highlighted the serendipitous collaboration between seemingly diverse fields, and the surprising intersection between chemistry and “nearly any discipline.”
“I’ve been able to establish a lot of different opportunities for students who are pursuing double majors in art history and chemistry, or chemistry students who are really interested in seeing how they can apply their studies to different real-world scenarios,” Professor Sobeck explained. “It shows how chemistry and art can come together to answer important questions.”
The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) during the “Chemistry Behind Art and Art Conservation” symposium at McCormick Place. ACS Fall 2026 is being held August 23-27.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.
After years of holding out, Walmart today announced that it will finally begin accepting tap-to-pay options like Apple Pay in some of its Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in the U.S. starting Monday, August 24. The retailer plans to roll out tap-to-pay support to all of its U.S. stores by the end of 2026 and to its gas stations by mid-2027.
Previously:
Amazon wants to grow its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026. The planned expansions from Amazon and its rivals could make the convenience of delivery drone services available to tens of millions more people in the coming months—but will also test more communities’ tolerance for increased noise from daily drone flights.
On August 19, Amazon announced it would soon launch Prime Air in the metropolitan areas of Chicago; Cleveland; Atlanta; Syracuse, New York; and Boise, Idaho, with more to come later in the year. Each Prime Air site offers delivery drone service within an area of about 175 square miles, with delivery times ranging from half an hour to an hour.
Prime Air already operates out of Amazon warehouses in 10 cities across seven states. Those include primarily suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix; Tampa; Kansas City; Omaha, Nebraska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit; Houston; and San Antonio, Dallas, and Waco, Texas.
© Amazon
The ancient Austronesian maritime civilization may have carried painted art on its journeys before developing its first Neolithic pottery, according to new study findings.
The Austronesian culture traveled from Easter Island to Madagascar and Taiwan to New Zealand, demonstrating their skill as advanced seafarers of the ancient world. In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) describe a 4,000-year-old artifact displaying the Austronesian Painting Tradition (APT).
The find was made on Indonesia’s Wetar Island, at the Huknaur rockshelter, a site known for its prehistoric art, including cave art that has defied conclusive dating attempts.
Roughly 4,200 years ago, the Austronesian people began their journeys across the sea, exploring large portions of their region. Technologically, they developed impressive boats with a focus on stability engineering to master harsh seas and highly efficient sails to travel great distances. Their success in venturing into these regions left them with a reputation as some of history’s greatest seafarers.
The defining feature of these peoples was the shared Austronesian language group, still spoken by some 386 million people across more than 1,200 languages today.
One of the primary methods archaeologists have used to trace how ancient Austronesian culture spread through the region is through traces of pottery. Surprisingly, a painted plaque was found on a preceramic layer, suggesting this intriguing artifact could predate the arrival of ceramic technology in the area, and potentially dates some of the earliest sea voyages to sometime between the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras.
Elements common to the APT art style include geometric designs, small human figures, and the boats for which they are best known. The latest example of this art appears on a stone plaque, covered in a common APT motif: a red concentric circle with radiating sun rays. Archaeologists have found similar pieces in the West Pacific, but this one’s mobility makes it extraordinary.
“This is the first portable example of Austronesian painted art ever found archaeologically,” said lead author Professor Sue O’Connor of ANU. “Portable symbols could travel with people and may have helped communicate shared identities, affiliations and beliefs between island communities. Similar sun-like designs were historically painted on boats and other objects, where they could function as symbols of protection and group identity.”
“This discovery shows that the characteristic sun-ray motif was already part of the APT during the earliest Austronesian expansion into southern Wallacea,” explained co-author Dr Simona Kealy, of the ANU. “These people were extraordinary seafarers, rapidly dispersing across thousands of kilometres of ocean. The Wetar plaque shows that art and shared symbolic traditions were part of this great maritime dispersal from its earliest phases.”
Typically, APT work is discovered on rock shelters and cave walls. While interesting, archaeologists are often confounded by the difficulty in properly dating cave wall art. Typically, such paintings are created with inorganic mineral pigments, which cannot be carbon-dated.
Now, with the first portable object ever discovered bearing the APT style, the researchers can date such a piece for the first time. Their precise results place the object during the Austronesian spread throughout maritime Southeast Asia, sometime between 4,090 and 4,900 years ago.
“This discovery shows that Austronesian pioneers arrived with a compelling ideology represented by the APT paintings, prior to more extended contacts bringing pottery,” said co-author Dr Ceri Shipton of ANU. “People didn’t just carry technologies and possessions when they voyaged to new islands. They carried ideas, identities, and new ways of understanding the world.”
The paper, “4000-Year-Old Painted Plaque from Southeast Indonesia Reveals Austronesian Painting Tradition Preceded Neolithic Pottery,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on August 17, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org.
Login