The tech power player released a new statement Friday evening, where he confirmed two new changes were coming to the app — one of which will give more copyright control to rightsholders.

“We have been learning quickly from how people are using Sora and taking feedback from users, rightsholders and other interested groups,” Altman wrote in a new blog post. “We of course spent a lot of time discussing this before launch, but now that we have a product out we can do more than just theorize.”

As he continued, Altman noted the new changes were just two of “many more to come.”

“First, we will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls,” he continued. “We are hearing from a lot of rightsholders who are very excited for this new kind of ‘interactive fan fiction’ and think this new kind of engagement will accrue a lot of value to them, but want the ability to specify how their characters can be used (including not at all).”

Sora’s initial opt out policy required companies to explicitly say they didn’t want their IP to appear on the app. If not, copyrighted content could find itself on to Sora. Disney has reportedly already opted out.

This sparked concern in Hollywood, prompting a response from Altman, who theorized users will “try very different approaches and will figure out what works for them.”

He added, “We want to apply the same standard towards everyone, and let rightsholders decide how to proceed (our aim of course is to make it so compelling that many people want to). There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t, and getting our stack to work well will take some iteration.”

Altman then noted Sora would be experimenting in ways to monetize the videos, too. In particular, the CEO explained they would be exploring revenue sharing with rightsholders when their characters are used.

“The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out, but we plan to start very soon,” Altman said. “Our hope is that the new kind of engagement is even more valuable than the revenue share, but of course we want both to be valuable.”

Before signing off his note, Altman warned that there would likely be both “good decisions and some missteps” as they implement the changes.

The post OpenAI’s Sam Altman Changes Copyright Controls, Offers Monetization for Sora After Hollywood Raises Concerns appeared first on TheWrap.

Despite claims from creator Eline Van der Velden that she and her company, Xicoia, had received interest from talent agencies, no one at TheGrill believed that AI actors are seriously going to be a part of Hollywood anytime soon.

“We are in the human business. We have been in the human business. We’re going to continue to always be in the human business,” WME co-chair Richard Weitz said after saying the agency wasn’t interested in signing Norwood. “We’re not interested in taking the best of our actors and the actors in their community and being put in an AI model.”

Yves Bergquist, director of the USC Entertainment Technology Center’s “AI in Media” program, was even more blunt, dismissing it as a “gimmick.”

The speakers at TheGrill joined a chorus of individuals, such as actors Melissa Barrera and Simu Liu, and organizations like SAG-AFTRA in denouncing the idea that AI “actors” could receive the same kind of treatment as humans, raising the question of whether the noise around Tilly Norwood was all just a bid to get attention. After all, the idea of AI replacing humans is a universal fear and a big reason why it’s still considered a “dirty word” in Hollywood. Norwood directly strikes that nerve.

“It is the sort of virus that has been plaguing the discussion around AI that I have been talking about day in and day out,” Bergquist said on a panel at TheGrill. “AI music has been a possibility for years and years. You don’t have any major AI artists out there.”

“I think that this is all evolving, but it’s not clear that just synthetic actors are adding utility of itself, so why do that?” Jon Zepp, head of entertainment, content and platforms at Google, said on a separate panel on AI. And Google has gone all-in on the technology.

That’s because an AI-generated “actor” would stretch the limits of what the technology is capable of right now, with even stills or short videos of an AI character at times flirting with the uncanny valley. TheGrill conference took place the same day that OpenAI unveiled Sora 2, a new video generation model that promises to be a step-up in capabilities over the original. But whether it’s something studios would want to use remains up in the air.

The rejection of Norwood, which represents just one facet of AI, doesn’t mean there aren’t broader applications of the technology, which executives at TheGrill went further in-depth about. They touched upon aspects like the ability to streamline production schedules, create shareable clips of content in a fraction of the time and even generate AI versions of notable personalities as part of a marketing stunt.

Beyond the hype

AI is already being put to use, even if the applications aren’t sexy.

Fox CTO Melody Hildebrandt and Universal VP of Creative Technologies Annie Chang, who spoke alongside Bergquist on the same panel, said that many of the immediate ways AI is being used in entertainment are invisible to the public.

At Universal, production execs are using AI to help break down scripts and organize them into efficient shooting schedules, enabling productions to start rolling cameras faster, Chang said, adding that the tools are useful to generate rough visual approximations of ideas and concepts that allow creatives to better communicate their vision to others.

Hildebrandt also noted that during a time when many TV viewers are watching clips of shows, particularly late night, in YouTube videos and TikTok snippets, AI can help studios scan their content libraries for the most shareable clips.

“We can actually be present in those platforms and make our content discoverable, make it more searchable,” she said.

That’s not to say AI’s impact is completely invisible. AI-generated video has been used by Fox Sports in video packages for its recent broadcasts, including a 20-second video recapping the career of four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers that aired earlier this month.

Last month, at a special MLB game at Bristol Motor Speedway, Fox showed an AI clip of its pregame host Kevin Burkhardt in a NASCAR race against baseball greats and Fox analysts David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, with the four men watching the AI video live.

“It was a hilarious segment, just really good vibes and fun to watch, and it allowed us to kind of cross-promote NASCAR and MLB with new audiences,” Hildebrandt said. “That was a creative concept that you have a director of marketing come up with and then essentially execute the entire concept in a matter of days to take advantage of the window of opportunity.”

Bergquist says that while major studios are figuring out how to implement AI into immense, well-established production pipelines, AI will have a larger creative impact on an individual level as filmmakers who are just getting started will use the technology in ways that will allow them to get productions done much faster.

Feeling the squeeze

Of course, as that generational shift takes place, countless creative artists will get caught in the crossfire. Last year, members of the Art Directors Guild told TheWrap that they were voting against IATSE’s bargaining agreement because they felt the agreement did not provide members with enough protection against AI automation.

ADG-covered positions like concept artists are among the top positions facing immediate automation, and studio execs like Chang have said that AI’s ability to generate immediate concept art has become an increasingly common part of project pitches.

“A lot of artists have had and will continue to have their styles and artistic identities taken and absorbed into these systems, and the result is going to be very derivative output that is going to affect the quality of these productions,” industrial designer Matthew Cunningham told TheWrap last year.

Recently, independent tech journalist Brian Merchant shared stories of people who have lost jobs to automation, and earlier this month turned his attention to graphics and concept artists. One anonymous respondent said he built his career around doing graphics work on b-roll footage for TV history documentaries that have since been replaced by AI.

“As much as I would like to say viewers will reject the AI style and demand a return to human-made art, I’m not convinced it will happen,” the artist wrote. “Even if it did, it might soon be too late to turn back. I know that there are studios with expert producers, writers and showrunners with decades of experience in this exact genre who are closing their doors.”

When asked about the impact of AI on human work, Chang said she did not foresee a future in which Universal completely removed humans from any part of the production process even as the studio seeks ways to increase efficiency.

One example was color grading, a common part of VFX post-production that changes the color of footage such as the iconic green tint of “The Matrix.” When experimenting with AI, Chang and her team at Universal found that the output of automated color grading is not yet up to proper Hollywood quality.

“It kind of reaffirmed to us that even with AI, you still need the constant presence of humans to control the output,” she said. “If we compromise our creativity, we compromise our business model.”

Ultimately, that initial spark will have to come from a human being.

“There’s combinatory creativity, which takes parts of already existing things and creates something from that, which AI does well,” added Bergquist. “And then there’s change creativity, which imagines something entirely new, and that’s never going to be something AI can do.”

Watch our full panel from TheGrill below:

The post Beyond the Tilly Norwood Hype, Studio Execs Explain How AI Is Actually Being Used appeared first on TheWrap.

The “Sinners” star appeared in “Asteroid,” an outer space thriller that’s half movie and half interactive experience, using Google’s Gemini AI and a 180-degree field of vision enabled by the soon-to-be-released Android XR Samsung headset to bring the story to life.

A key element of “Asteroid” is two AI-powered interactive elements, which bookend the film by Doug Liman. It’s that AI aspect that brought Jon Zepp, head of entertainment, content and platforms at Google, and Jed Weintrob, president of 30 Ninjas, which produced the film with Liman, to TheGrill, TheWrap’s annual business, media and technology conference, to talk about the technology and filmmaking.

While on the panel, both addressed the hot topic of the town: the so-called “AI actress” known as Tilly Norwood, which made headlines when its creator claimed it would be signed by an agent “in the coming months.” Zepp’s Google, after all, has placed a high priority on the advancement of AI.

But even as “Asteroid” embraces AI, those involved with the film don’t necessarily support the narrative that AI actors are automatically the future.

“I think that this is all evolving, but it’s not clear that just synthetic actors are adding utility of itself, so why do that?” Zepp said. “If there’s ways to extend the experience where that actor would not otherwise have been available, OK, that’s an additional layer of utility that’s added … So, we kind of look at what’s the added benefit for the consumer or the overall process. That becomes more interesting than just doing it for the sake of doing it.”

The critical read of the situation adds to the chorus of backlash that erupted after the idea of Norwood obtaining representation came out this weekend. Thus far, talent agencies like Gersh and WME (which confirmed its stance at TheGrill) have underscored that the signing wouldn’t come from their companies.

“Asteroid” doesn’t use AI actors, but it does use AI to extend a performance. In “Asteroid,” the filmmakers feel they’ve found that added benefit. While the main short film is directed by Liman, “Asteroid” offers viewers interactive opportunities on either side — including a pre-movie chat with a Gemini-generated version of Metcalf (playing himself) and a post-movie experience where viewers can once again interact with the NFL player to suss out what went wrong on the space journey.

Zepp spoke with TheWrap’s Roger Cheng and “Asteroid” creator/30 Ninjas partner Jed Weintrob about the experience — and AI filmmaking as a whole — ahead of the film’s launch when the Samsung XR headset is released in October.

“You go where the consumer is going and wants to be, and to another degree you don’t sacrifice your key creatives’ vision to get there,” Weintrob said of the integration of immersive tech in filmmaking. “In this case, it didn’t mean making an interactive film, which we’ve done in the past, you know, we were very much integrating AI into our work flow, into our experiences. We very much believe that our future is going to continue to be led by visionaries, storytellers and creatives telling their stories through their perspectives, and that these new technologies are really exciting ways for audiences to engage further, to personalize and customize.”

Steinfeld and Metcalf star in “Asteroid” alongside Ron Perlman, Rhenzy Feliz, Leon Mandel and Freida Pinto. Zepp and Weintrob both underscored the importance of taking a strong, creator-driven concept from Liman and ensuring that their experiential tech was additive, not tech for tech’s sake.

“What we always strive for in the whole experience is authenticity,” Zepp said. “You want to feel like it’s a really good movie, and then the utility of the conversation is adding value. If it feels canned, if it feels not authentic to DK and how he might interpret the question with context, it will fall flat.

Watch the full Filmmaking in the Age of AI panel below:

The post Hailee Steinfeld’s Immersive ‘Asteroid’ Producers Say ‘Synthetic Actors’ Can’t Replace Real Ones: ‘Why Do That?’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“Character.ai chose to systematically reproduce, monetize and exploit Disney’s characters, that are protected by copyrights and trademarks, without any authorization, in a way that is anathema to the very essence of the Disney brand and legacy,” the letter, which was first reported by Axios, states. “Disney will not allow your company to hijack its characters, damage its brands or infringe its copyrights and/or trademarks. Character.ai’s conduct is egregious and must stop immediately.”

The letter further alleges that the “infringing chatbots are known, in some cases, to be sexually exploitive and otherwise harmful and dangerous to children, offending Disney’s consumers and extraordinarily damaging Disney’s reputation and goodwill.” The claim is a reference to a recent report by the ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative, which found Character.AI chatbots engaged in “grooming and sexual exploitation” and “emotional manipulation” during conversations with accounts registered to children.

“If we do not receive written confirmation from you that Character.ai will cease the Lanham Act and copyright violations described above, Disney will take all necessary means to preserve and protect Disney’s intellectual property, brands, goodwill and reputation,” the letter concludes.

A Character.AI spokesperson told TheWrap that the characters have since been removed. While noting that all of the characters on its service are generated by users, Character.AI said it’s always up to rights holders to decide how people may interact with their IP.

“We respond swiftly to requests to remove content that rightsholders report to us,” the spokesperson added. “We want to partner with the industry and rightsholders to empower them to bring their characters to our platform. Our goal is to give IP owners the tools to create controlled, engaging and revenue-generating experiences from deep fandom for their characters and stories, expanding their reach using our new, interactive format.”

The action against Character.AI marks the latest crackdown by Disney to protect its IP.

In June, Disney and Universal sued the AI firm Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging it “blatantly” ripped off characters including Homer Simpson, The Minions and Elsa from “Frozen” by allowing users to create near-exact matches with its image-generating tool. In September, Warner Bros. Discovery joined its competitors with its own lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging a similar rip off of characters like Bugs Bunny, Batman, Scooby-Doo and Rick & Morty.

The suit against Midjourney came after The New York Times sued OpenAI for using its content to train ChatGPT without the paper’s consent. Other outlets, like The New York Daily News, have also sued OpenAI for using their articles without permission. On the other end, several media companies, including News Corp., Vox Media and Reddit, have struck partnerships with OpenAI.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal also reported that OpenAI has notified talent agencies and studios that the new version of its Sora video generator will require them to opt out to avoid using their copyright material.

The post Disney Hits Character.AI With Cease-and-Desist Over Unauthorized Character Use appeared first on TheWrap.

Agency leadership — President Mark Shapiro and chairmen Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz — said at TheWrap’s 2025 Grill conference on Tuesday that the company is not interested in representing the AI actress: “If she has a future, it won’t be at WME. We represent humans,” Weitz told TheWrap founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman.

“We are in the human business. We have been the human business. We’re going to continue to always be in the human business,” Weitz continued, speaking on morning panel titled “WME: The Next Chapter.” “We’re not interested in taking the best of our actors and the actors in their community and being put in an AI model. So nope, we’re not going to represent her. We weren’t approached by her and I don’t think that that’s going to be the future for us.”

Muirhead also cited recent comments from SAG-AFTRA, which argued that “the audience is looking for a human connection.” “There is no human connection, there is no light in the eyes,” he said, “and I don’t think that’s the business we are interested in.”

Shapiro, who also serves as president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, which owns UFC and WWE, called the idea “ridiculous” but added: “There is going to be an AI actor, actress that’s coming at some point. That will happen. But that’s not the business WME is in right now, nor is it a place we think we want to go.”

Dutch actress, comedian and digital producer Eline Van der Velden, who created Norwood, made the bold claim over the weekend at a Zurich summit that the AI actress will be signed by an agency “in the coming months.”

WME wasn’t the only megawatt agency to speak out against Tilly this week. Gersh Agency president Leslie Siebert told Variety in an interview published Tuesday that her creation was “frightening” and that Gersh will not sign her. “That said, it’s going to keep coming up, and we have to figure out how to deal with it in the proper way,” she said. “But it’s not a focus for us today.”

The quick and vocal reaction from critics across the industry puts a spotlight on the underlying concern that Hollywood — and most people — have about AI: that it’s coming for our jobs. The idea of an AI-generated character garnering interest from talent agencies reinforces the notion that no one is safe.

Van der Velden told Broadcast International she hopes Norwood will be “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.” She said audiences will ultimately determine whether AI talent succeeds. “Audiences care about the story — not whether the star has a pulse,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

The post WME Won’t Sign AI Actress Tilly Norwood, Leaders Say: ‘We Represent Humans’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Part of the company’s cloud editing suite, Premiere Pro is often upheld as one of the top video editing options on the market and is regularly used by Hollywood studios. This mobile version stands as a streamlined version of the software designed for on-the-go editing.

The app also comes with several features specifically designed with a creator-centric approach, such as an unlimited multi-track timeline, allowing users to quickly edit their videos and a speech enhancement tool — which will strip away the background noise from audio to focus on what the subject is saying.

Sound clarity is a huge issue for creators and a major reason why tiny, portable microphones have become so popular in recent years.

Users will also be able to incorporate assets created by Firefly, Adobe’s generative AI model, into their editing work. This can be used for captioning — another common need among creators — as well as the ability to generate stickers and images.

The Premiere app will also let users create their own generative sound effects. Let’s say you want to make a video of a woman hitting a baseball, but when her bat hits the ball, you want to hear a loud crack. Before, that tiny flourish could waste hours of editing time, requiring you to hunt for the right sound and place it at the exact right moment. But with generative sound effects, you could record yourself making a cracking noise exactly where you want the noise to occur. The AI tool then takes your recorded audio and makes a more realistic sounding version that matches the length, speed and pitch of your recorded version.

Though the Premiere app is free for any user, expanding cloud storage or using certain AI editing tools will cost credits. Those will be available for purchase.

Users will also be able to send their videos to the desktop version of Premiere Pro, allowing for editing across mobile and desktop. Additionally, they have access to millions of free Adobe Stock images, videos, music and fonts.

Other features include allowing creators to see how their video will play in different aspect ratios, as well as allowing them to adjust their frame rate and resolution. Users will then be able to save the finished video directly to their phones, save it in Adobe Cloud or export it straight to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram or their platform of choice.

The post Adobe’s Premiere Comes to iPhone With an App Designed for Creators appeared first on TheWrap.

The settlement, filed in a federal court in California on Monday and obtained by TheWrap, will be split in two, with $22 million earmarked for the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall to help build Trump’s Mar-a-Lago-inspired ballroom at the White House. The remaining $2.5 million will go toward the other defendants, including the American Conservative Union, Andrew Baggiani and Naomi Wolf, among other plaintiffs.

The payout marks the last of the three tech companies with pending litigation with Trump in the fallout of the 2020 election, and it is the latest million-dollar deal between a large corporation and a president who has been eager to seek revenge against his enemies.

Meta paid $25 million in January to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his account suspension on the platform, with most of the money meant for Trump’s presidential library. Elon Musk’s X, the platform previously known as Twitter, followed suit in February with a $10 million settlement — with much of it paid to Trump directly. Google executives were eager to pay less than Meta, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Google did not have an immediate comment. A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Trump has often mocked businesses that chose either to settle or to fight his legal attacks, dismissing their efforts as weak or misguided.

Since Disney paid $16 million in December to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit, he has thrown a number of jabs at the network and specifically in the face of ABC News correspondent Jon Karl. He also appeared to threaten a lawsuit against Disney for its decision to return “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to the airwaves.

And as CBS negotiated a settlement with the president earlier this year over a “60 Minutes” episode, he repeatedly criticized the network and the show for its content. He has also taken aim at lawsuit targets the New York Times and Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, though both papers vowed to fight the cases. (The Times suit was thrown out earlier this month, while Dow Jones sought to get the case dismissed.)

The post YouTube to Shell Out $24.5 Million to Settle Trump Lawsuit Over 2021 Account Suspension appeared first on TheWrap.

Under the terms of the agreement, the investor consortium will acquire 100% of the company, with PIF rolling over its 9.9% stake. EA stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash — a 25% premium to its unaffected share price of $168.32 at market close on Sept. 25. It’s also a premium to its all-time high of $179.01 at market close on Aug. 14.

The transaction will be funded by a combination of cash from PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, as well as the rollover of PIF’s stake — constituting an equity investment of approximately $36 billion. PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners plan to fund the equity component of the financing entirely from capital under their respective control. It will also include $20 billion in debt financing from J.P. Morgan Chase, with $18 billion that will be funded at close.

“The Board carefully evaluated this opportunity and concluded it delivers compelling value for stockholders and is in the best interests of all stakeholders,” Luis A. Ubiñas, lead independent director of EA’s board, said in a statement. “We are pleased that this transaction delivers immediate and certain cash value to our stockholders while strengthening EA’s ability to continue building the communities and experiences that define the future of entertainment.”

The deal, which is larger than the $50 billion first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week, is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, subject to required regulatory and shareholder approvals. If approved, it would be the largest leveraged buyout in history.

Upon completion, EA will remain headquartered in Redwood City, California, and continue to be led by Andrew Wilson as CEO.

“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” Wilson said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”

Shares of EA jumped nearly 5% on Monday’s announcement, with the stock briefly touching a 52-week high of $203.75 per share. Its market capitalization sits at $50.89 billion.

The video game publisher, which reported net revenue of approximately $7.5 billion in its 2025 fiscal year, is known for franchises including “The Sims,” “Battlefield,” “Madden” and “EA Sports.” Its next release will be “Battlefield 6” on Oct. 10.

“Electronic Arts ​is ​an ​extraordinary ​company with a ​world-class ​management ​team and a bold vision ​for ​the ​future,” Kushner said. “​I’ve admired their ​ability to create iconic, lasting experiences ​and ​as ​someone ​who ​grew up playing their ​games ​– and now enjoys them with his ​kids — I couldn’t be ​more ​excited about ​what’s ​ahead.”

“PIF is uniquely positioned in the global gaming and esports sectors, building and supporting ecosystems that connect fans, developers and IP creators,” PIF deputy governor and head of international investments Turqi Alnowaiser added. “PIF has demonstrated a strong commitment to these sectors, and this partnership will help further drive EA’s long-term growth, while fueling innovation within the industry on a global scale.”

“This investment embodies Silver Lake’s mission to partner with exceptional management teams at the highest quality companies. EA is a special company: a global leader in interactive entertainment, anchored by its premier sports franchise, with accelerating revenue growth and strong and scaling free cash flow,” Silver Lake managing partner and co-CEO Egon Durban said. “The future for EA is bright, we are going to invest heavily to grow the business and we are excited to support Andrew and the EA team as the company accelerates innovation, expands its reach worldwide and continues to deliver incredible experiences to players and fans across generations.”

EA shares are up 16.9% in the past five days, 18% in the past month, 40.4% in the past six months, 39% year to date, 41% in the past year and 57% in the past five years.

The post Electronic Arts to Go Private in $55 Billion Deal appeared first on TheWrap.

The company will pay a $1 billion civil penalty and provide $1.5 billion in refunds back to consumers. The settlement also requires that Amazon make changes to its enrollment and cancellation practices, including:

• A clear and conspicuous button for customers to decline Prime. Amazon can no longer have a button that says, “No, I don’t want Free Shipping.”
• Clear and conspicuous disclosures about all material terms of Prime during the Prime enrollment process, such as the cost, the date and frequency of charges to consumers, whether the subscription auto-renews, and cancellation procedures.
• An easy way for consumers to cancel Prime, using the same method that consumers used to sign up
• Paying for an independent, third-party supervisor to monitor Amazon’s compliance with the consumer redress distribution process

The settlement comes after the FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon in 2023, in which the regulator accused Amazon of violating the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) by creating confusing and deceptive user interfaces to lead consumers to enroll in Prime without their knowledge.

It also alleged that Amazon created a complex and difficult process for consumers seeking to cancel their Prime subscription, with the goal of preventing consumers from cancelling Prime.

Amazon documents discovered in the lead up to trial showed that Amazon executives and employees knowingly discussed these unlawful enrollment and cancellation issues, with comments like “subscription driving is a bit of a shady world” and leading consumers to unwanted subscriptions is “an unspoken cancer.” 

In a statement obtained by TheWrap, Amazon spokesperson Mark Blafkin said, “Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers. We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world. We will continue to do so, and look forward to what we’ll deliver for Prime members in the coming years.”

The FTC estimates that 35 million consumers were impacted by Amazon’s alleged unwanted Prime enrollment or deferred cancellation and that the $2.5 billion figure is the second-highest restitution award ever obtained by FTC action. It also said the $1 billion civil penalty is the largest ever in a case involving an FTC rule violation.

“Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made history and secured a record-breaking, monumental win for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. “The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription. Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay.”

The FTC filed the proposed order in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The commission vote approving the stipulated final order was 3-0.

The post Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle FTC Allegations of Deceptive Prime Enrollment Practices appeared first on TheWrap.

The agreement between the General Services Administration and xAI gives federal agencies access to Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, two of the company’s chatbot models, and dedicated xAI engineers to support them. Access to the tools comes at $0.42 per agency, according to the GSA, and represents the government’s desire for a broader adoption of AI across the federal workforce.

“xAI has the most powerful AI compute and most capable AI models in the world,” Musk, who serves as xAI’s CEO, said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI’s frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency empowering the U.S. Government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before. We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country.”

The partnership reflects another shift in the dynamic between Trump and Musk. The two were close throughout the final months of the 2024 election, and Musk spearheaded cutting the federal workforce through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early 2025.

But as Trump barreled his federal spending package through Congress in June, threatening the spending cuts that DOGE worked to implement, Musk lashed out at Trump and briefly tied him to government files on the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Trump said Musk had “lost his mind” and went “off the rails,” though he tried to appear conciliatory throughout the summer.

The two eventually reunited at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, the slain conservative youth activist, in Arizona on Sunday. They sat next to each other, leading to a White House X post that read: “POTUS x Elon Musk. For Charlie.”

Trump also spoke about their reunion after the event, telling reporters the two had “a little conversation.” “I thought it was nice,” he added.

The post Trump Administration Cozies Back Up to Elon Musk With New AI Tech Deal appeared first on TheWrap.