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TL;DR

In a hurry? Here's our pick of the top news items of the week.

  • Amazon’s new Alexa voice assistant will use Claude AI as its own in-house generative AI models struggled by comparison. (The Verge)

  • ChatGPT’s weekly users have doubled in less than a year, reaching 200M users since its 2022 launch. (The Verge)

  • Oasis is scheduled to play 17 gigs - its first shows for 15 years - in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on July 4. (AP)

  • The world’s largest TV and movie piracy streaming ring is now dead after The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment helped break up a major illegal movie and TV streaming operation. (Engadget)

  • Yelp is suing Google, alleging in an antitrust lawsuit that Google self-preferenced its own product to dominate local search and advertising markets against competitors. (Axios)

Audiences

  • When it comes to reality TV, the US is particularly interested in talent, as “America’s Got Talent” (42%) “American Idol” (33%) ranked first and second favorite. (NY Post)

  • 90% of Americans accept sports betting as a form of entertainment, and three-quarters support legal sports betting in their home state. (Intergame)

  • Interest in the Paralympics has declined in the UK, with 34% of Britons expressing interest in watching the event, compared to 43% six weeks ago. (YouGov)

  • YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon dominate as US Gen Alpha’s favorite brands, with YouTube leading as 72% of US children aged 7-14 find it "cool." (Emarketer)

Platforms

  • India’s competition watchdog has approved Disney and Reliance Industries' $8.5B merger of their local entertainment businesses. (FT)

  • TikTok’s letting users create AI simulations of their own voice in the app so that you can voice over your TikTok clips with your own digital voice as opposed to the generic template speakers. (Social Media Today)

  • Roku filed a patent application for a “reinforcement learning model for optimizing long term revenue,” essentially aiming to get as much revenue as it can without ruining the user experience. (Daily Upside)

Content

  • BBC Studios and Viu (a Southeast Asian streaming platform operating in 16 countries across APAC and EMEA) have struck a deal with The Korea Creative Content Agency to expand the production, investment, and distribution of Korean television content. (THR)

  • For the first time ever, no original series or movie made the overall top 10 titles in Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of July 29-Aug. 4. (THR)

  • Paris Olympics ratings soared 82% over the Tokyo Games, delivering a big boost to NBC’s Peacock. (CNN)

  • fuboTV launched BKFC TV, a 24/7 streaming channel for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, expanding its combat sports content. (Benzinga)

  • Spotify and Meta are testing a feature that would allow users to continuously share what music they’re listening to through Instagram’s Notes. (Tech Crunch)

Tech & AI

  • Google Gemini will let users create AI-generated people again after its chatbot produced historically inaccurate images. (The Verge)

  • OpenAI and Anthropic will share their models with the US government, granting the AI Safety Institute access to major new models for safety testing. (The Verge)

  • Gmail users on Android devices can now chat directly with Google Gemini about their emails in the Gmail app. (Tech Crunch)

Location-based entertainment

  • "The Notebook" will end its Broadway run on December 15 at the Schoenfeld Theatre. (Deadline)

  • The City of Las Vegas is moving forward with a proposal to create an immersive entertainment district for tourists on 35.5 acres north of Area15. (Las Vegas Weekly)

  • "Inside Out 2" is aiming to break a new record, only needing $8M at the box office to overtake Jurassic World ($653M) to join the domestic top 10. (Comic Book)

Travel & hospitality

  • Travelers are chasing experiences as they plan their trips, and hotels are facing competition from other lodging providers to deliver on these experiences. (Costar)

  • Travel demand in Australia is back to normal after a surge following the COVID-19 pandemic, but spending is mostly driven by older travelers as younger travelers spend less than before. (AFR)

  • Airports all over the US and the world are investing tens of billions of dollars to modernize and expand. (Skift)

  • Holland America Line recently introduced a new Standby Program at an enticing price point for cruise enthusiasts. (Forbes)

Gaming

  • Volkswagen confirmed its AirConsole mobile gaming platform will arrive in select EV models "soon." (Shropshire Star)

  • Savvy Games Group and Xsolla have announced a partnership to strengthen the games industry in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East. (Games Industry)

  • Square Enix will "further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers" following the release of the MMORPG on Microsoft's console. (Eurogamer)

  • Embracer's Q1 reporting shows YoY revenue drops across mobile, PC, console and more. (Pocket Gamer)
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