Spotify has announced that it will start putting AI Persona badges on some artist profiles in mid-September. The badges are meant to let users know that an artist may have used AI to generate their identity. In other words, the artist’s identity doesn’t represent a real person.

Artists can choose to disclose their AI personas themselves, but Spotify has decided it won’t rely on an honor system anymore. The company will take a proactive approach by reviewing profiles and applying badges to artists whose names and imagery seem to be photorealistic AI-generated identities. Continue reading “Spotify Will Label AI Artists but AI-Generated Music Can Still Go Unlabeled” →

X is piloting a new transparency tool called Under the Hood that lets eligible users see whether visibility-related labels have been applied to their accounts or posts.

The social media giant introduced the tool on August 13, along with the release of a much larger portion of the code behind its For You feed, including details about how posts are ranked and filtered.

The news will likely come as a relief for X users who’ve wondered whether the platform was limiting the reach of their posts or if they’d been shadowbanned. Continue reading “X Lets Users Under the Hood to See If They’ve Been ‘Shadowbanned’” →

After more than a decade, Bumble has ended the women-message-first rule that had come to define the app. The company announced the decision on August 11, saying that now either men or women could make the first move after a match.

On any other dating app, a small change in how users communicate wouldn’t be big news. However, the company had made the policy central to its identity. Upon launch, it branded itself as the only dating app on the market that puts women in the driver’s seat.

Prohibiting unsolicited messages from men had been what set Bumble apart from competitors like Tinder. However, it turned out that many women didn’t like having to act first. Reversing that policy means the company will need to find a new differentiator. Continue reading “Bumble Removes Women-First Messaging Policy, Leaving Itself With an Identity Problem” →

OpenAI announced on August 6 that free ChatGPT users will get unlimited everyday text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna.

Luna is becoming the default model for the free tier, and OpenAI’s announcement means ChatGPT is about to become a lot more useful for people who don’t have a subscription.

The company is also adding a Think button to Luna to give it more time to work through all those tough questions users ask it.

While users are getting unlimited text chats, OpenAI will continue to limit file uploads, images, and other tools for free users.

Even with those limits in place, if you mostly use ChatGPT to ask questions, brainstorm ideas, write or edit text, or just to get help with everyday tasks, you’ll soon be able to keep the conversation going without running into a text-chat limit. Continue reading “Now That ChatGPT Offers Free Unlimited Chat, Is the Paid Tier Still Worth $20 a Month?” →