Fake Drake, real problems… Last week, an AI-generated song featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd racked up millions of streams across TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and other platforms. Universal Music Group, the world’s largest label, which reps the artists, had the song taken down on infringement grounds. Then another Drake fake was uploaded. Labels like UMG, Warner, and Sony Music have aggressively protected their music (think: YouTube vids removed), but AI tracks could be a game of Whac-a-Mole until rules are established.
Selling the forest for the trees… just in time for Arbor Day. American logging titan Weyerhaeuser has found a profitable new venture in carbon offsets: credits that can be bought by companies to counteract their industrial emissions. A Wall Street Journal report found that the tree-chopping lumber producer is selling the CO2-sponging abilities of its 10.6M acres of forest to companies looking to cut emissions. But critics say the environmental-benefit math is fuzzy. The logger expects to generate $100M/year selling offsets by 2025.