Australian retailer tells ceramic artist Hannah Turner it won’t restock the product amid debate over copyright

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UK artist Hannah Turner was shocked by the image of a ceramic flamingo-shaped egg cup that showed up on her screen.

She took in its green eyes, the pattern of the feathers, its thin pink legs and its overall shape. She felt recognition.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Hannah Turner/The Reject Shop

© Composite: Guardian Design/Hannah Turner/The Reject Shop

© Composite: Guardian Design/Hannah Turner/The Reject Shop

On Thursday, The Walt Disney Company announced a $1 billion investment in OpenAI and a three-year licensing agreement that will allow users of OpenAI’s Sora video generator to create short clips featuring more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. It’s the first major content licensing partnership between a Hollywood studio related to the most recent version of OpenAI’s AI video platform, which drew criticism from some parts of the entertainment industry when it launched in late September.

“Technological innovation has continually shaped the evolution of entertainment, bringing with it new ways to create and share great stories with the world,” said Disney CEO Robert A. Iger in the announcement. “The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works.”

The deal creates interesting bedfellows between a company that basically defined modern US copyright policy through congressional lobbying back in the 1990s and one that has argued in a submission to the UK House of Lords that useful AI models cannot be created without copyrighted material.

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An executive left TSMC for Intel. Taiwan’s government says that could threaten its national security.

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The former chief executive of Nexperia, a Dutch chipmaker, said Dutch officials had known for years that the company’s Chinese owner sought to move its technology to China.

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Producer says creatives need to own their intellectual property so they can license it to generative AI platforms

The Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart has said artificial intelligence is an “unstoppable force”, and musicians and other artists should bow to the inevitable and license their music to generative AI platforms.

These platforms use artificial intelligence to analyse existing songs and tracks, using that knowledge to generate completely new ones as prompted by a user. For example, someone could ask the AI platform to generate a song about a boozy night out in the style of a Britpop band, and it would draw on songs with similar sounds and themes to create its own.

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© Photograph: Lawton Howell/Tyler Lee Aubrey

© Photograph: Lawton Howell/Tyler Lee Aubrey

© Photograph: Lawton Howell/Tyler Lee Aubrey