Hello, tech editor Alexei Oreskovic here, pitching in for Allie today. As you gather around the Thanksgiving table tomorrow, you may find yourself debating the state of the AI bubble with your guests. There’s plenty to chew over, from sky-high valuations and capital expenditures to circular business models and mouth-watering salaries.
So allow me to flag one new item on the table that may have gone unnoticed: Warner Music Group’s legal settlement with AI music startup Suno. The deal, announced on Tuesday, ends Warner’s copyright lawsuit against Suno and establishes a partnership that will let consumers create AI-generated music with the voices, compositions, names, and likenesses of any Warner Music artists who choose to participate.
This is a big deal not just for Suno, which raised $250 million at a $2.45 billion valuation earlier this month, and for its investors (including Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, and Nvidia’s NVentures), but for AI in general. I’m not making a judgement here about whether the deal is good or bad for musicians or for the future of music as an art form; I’m simply recognizing how remarkable of a statement it is about the business world’s attitude towards artificial intelligence.
