avalanche Archives - usatoday24

An AI publishes 11,000 podcasts a day by copying local journalists. And at the moment there is no way to stop the avalanche

February 26, 2026 by usatoday24

An automated podcast network publishes more episodes in 24 hours than many broadcasters do in a year, using AI to convert news articles to audio in minutes. A specific case, that of the channel ‘The Daily News Now!’, helps us to consider how far the scraping of content in the era of generative AI. To loot. The case was put on the table indicator: On January 31, at 2:57 in the afternoon, the newspaper ‘The Chronicle’ (a completely marginal publication: despite being 120 years old, it is published by Duke University, in Durham, and is run and produced entirely by students) published an article about Gemma Tutton, a student and pole vaulter who had won a university competition. Seventeen minutes later, a podcast called ‘Durham News Today’ uploaded an episode titled ‘Gemma Tutton’s Triumphant Return to Pole Vault’ to Spotify. The podcast, of course, had no connection with the newspaper. But it reproduced almost all the data from the original article in the same order, including practically identical phrases. And it is not an isolated case: ‘Durham News Today’ is one of at least 433 programs that make up ‘The Daily News Now!’ podcast network created by Corey Cambridge. As of January 23, ‘DNN’ has published more than 350,000 episodes (approximately 11,000 per day). How they do it. Obviously, with AI: a system of scraping (software automation that extracts large volumes of content) monitors media websites, excises text from published articles, processes it using natural language synthesis tools, converts it into audio and distributes it on platforms such as Spotify. All in a matter of minutes. And they don’t bother to dissemble: according to Indicator, they reproduce the structure, data and writing of pieces published by outlets such as local Fox and NBC affiliates, ‘TechCrunch’, ‘Toronto Star’, ‘The Verge’ or the radio station ‘WRAL’. The tools. To understand why an operation of this type is technically possible today, we must take a look at the ecosystem of tools that has been democratizing synthetic audio production for two years. In September 2024, Google activated the feature globally Audio Overview of NotebookLM. The tool converts any document uploaded by the user into an audio summary. The impact was immediate: NotebookLM went from 652,000 monthly visits in August of that year to 10.5 million in September, an increase of 371% in thirty days. In the three months following the global launch, users accumulated audio with a total duration greater than 350 years of continuous reproduction. NotebookLM normalized the idea of the synthetic podcast, and it was all downhill from there. ElevenLabsspecialized in speech synthesis and valued at more than a billion dollars, launched its GenFM function in December 2024, which allows you to generate complete episodes from text. Wondercraftfunded in part by ElevenLabs, introduced support for editing podcasts generated with NotebookLM. Podcastle, aimed at podcast creators, incorporated speech generation with text to complete or replace fragments of speech. The secret: the price. In an analysis from a similar network (Inception Point AIwhich generates around 3,000 episodes per week with more than fifty AI announcers) producing an episode costs approximately one dollar, and with just 20 listeners the episode is profitable thanks to programmatic advertising. The model does not seek loyal audiences, but search engine positioning: by publishing hyper-specific episodes on cities or niche topics minutes after local media launch their articles, these networks anticipate humans’ capacity for informative immediacy. In other words: ‘The Daily News Now!’ appears in the top Spotify results for local news searches in dozens of American cities. It directly competes (and in many cases surpasses) the media from which it steals content. Legal issues. Cambridge defends itself by saying that its network only accesses “publicly available information” and merely summarizes it. But Indicator found almost thirty episodes of ‘Durham News Today’ that reproduced the structure, order and specific sentences of articles from ‘The Duke Chronicle’: it is not a specific pattern. And Cambridge may still be legally protected, but the problem is more about information ethics than legal details. In any case, in May 2025, the United States Copyright Office came to the conclusion that “publicly accessible” material is not necessarily free to use. There are legal precedents in that direction: in November 2025, a federal judge from New York did not reject the lawsuit by fourteen major publishers (including Forbes, The Atlantic and the Los Angeles Times) against the AI company Cohere, considering that their summaries could constitute direct infringement if they reproduced “structure, sequencing, tone and expressive choices” of the original articles. On the contrary, in April of the same year, the case NYT vs. Microsoft dismissed claims related to the Copilot-generated summaries on the grounds that they were not “substantially similar” to the source articles. Meanwhile, and still without trialthere is the case of the New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft, accused of using journalistic content to train their models Very clever. There is another detail: we are not talking about the ‘New York Times’, but rather ‘DNN’ concentrates its production on local niche news (university athletics, student councils, cats trapped in trees), first because these contents generate specific searches with little competition on Spotify. And second, because legally it is safer. They point to more fragile journalism models. Meanwhile, distributors like Spotify are developing tools to detect artificial music (removed more than 75 million tracks), but the next step is to make big brands aware that they do not benefit from the exploitation of newsrooms that cannot defend themselves. In Xataka | AI is already a battlefield: Anthropic has just accused DeepSeek and other Chinese companies of “distilling” Claude

plans to increase production of the H200 in the face of an avalanche of orders, according to Reuters

December 16, 2025 by usatoday24

NVIDIA once again finds itself in the center of the game. According to Reutersthe company analyzes increasing the production of its chip H200 after orders from China have exceeded what its current capacity can cover. But this time the result will not be decided in Washington, but in Beijing, where the government must authorize the entry of the hardware. The Chinese response will determine whether the window opened by the United States translates into real sales or remains a gesture caught between opposing interests. What has changed in Washington. The turnaround began in Washington on December 8, when Donald Trump announced that the United States would allow the H200 to be exported to commercial customers approved and validated by the Department of Commerce, with a 25% tax on each sale. The measure marked a turning point with respect to previous restrictions and introduced a more flexible control model: the US Government will supervise shipments from Taiwan, subject processors to a security review before authorizing their departure to China and apply the corresponding surcharge. NVIDIA celebrated the announcement as a balance that, according to its own statement, seeks to make national security compatible with commercial activity, while in the markets its shares rose around 2% in subsequent operations. Avalanche of orders. The signal that has led NVIDIA to consider increasing production is clear. According to the aforementioned agency, H200 orders from China already exceed the current manufacturing capacity of the chip. AND, as we pointed out last weektechnology groups such as Alibaba and ByteDance have contacted the company to explore volume purchases, aware that availability is very limited. NVIDIA has informed these clients that it is studying adding capacity, although without commitments or figures, in a context marked by scarcity and the priority that other more advanced generations have today. The interest in the H200 is also explained by its place in the NVIDIA catalog. It is the most powerful chip of the Hopper generation and a clearly superior alternative to the trimmed models designed for China, although it falls behind Blackwella generation with which, Trump explained, NVIDIA’s American customers are already moving forward. That position makes it an awkward balance: it’s not state-of-the-art, but it’s advanced enough to make a difference in training large-scale models. What China decides. Beijing is not limited to giving a yes or no. According to sources cited by Reuters, the internal debate revolves around how to allow access to H200 without weakening the momentum of its domestic semiconductor industry. The authorities are studying imposing specific conditions on each order and reviewing the final destination of the chips, in a context in which Manufacturers like Huawei or Cambricon continue to be priorities for the country’s industrial policy. NVIDIA H200 Capacity and bottlenecks. Increasing H200 production is not an immediate or easy decision. The chip is manufactured at TSMC using its 4nm process, an advanced capability that is hotly contested today. NVIDIA is prioritizing Blackwell production and preparing the transition to Rubinwhile competing with other large clients, such as Google, for space in the Taiwanese manufacturer’s most advanced lines. That context explains why the company has warned its customers of tight supply even if it ultimately decides to add capacity. National security and industrial pressure. The H200 debate goes beyond NVIDIA. In Washington, fear persists that the sale of advanced chips will contribute to strengthening China in sensitive areas, while the Administration itself has defended that completely cutting off access to American chips could reinforce the efforts of local manufacturers. The solution adopted by the Trump Administration seeks that balance, but keeps alive a controversy that conditions both exports and the real possibility of expanding production. With demand pressing and supply at a minimum, the outcome is now being played out in the offices of the Chinese regulator. If Beijing authorizes the purchases, NVIDIA will have to decide to what extent it can reallocate capacity without compromising its industrial priorities. If it doesn’t, the H200 will join the list of advanced chips caught between politics and strategy. In both scenarios, the episode confirms that access to hardware has become as determining a variable as the chip design itself. Images | NVIDIA + Photoshop In Xataka | Microsoft has reduced its ambition with AI. It has been realized that almost no one uses Copilot, they say in The Information

Spotify is dealing with an avalanche of songs made with AI. So you have decided to react to mark the limits

September 27, 2025 by usatoday24

You open Spotify, you run with a song that you cannot stop listening and, nevertheless, the name of the “artist” sounds at all. You wonder if there is a band behind or if it is a Track generated by AIand the doubt is not trivial: the trained ear may detect it, but for millions of listeners the border has become blurred. With generators like Suno either You raising their creation quality, catalogs are filled and the context matters. This week, Spotify announced New policies to stop three fronts: “Slop”, impersonations and transparency on the use of AI. The company states that it wants to protect artists and prevent the public from feeling deceived, without prohibiting responsible use of these tools. In just a few months, music generators have become accessible tools capable of producing thousands of subjects ready to be uploaded to streaming platforms. We do not talk about master compositions, but about songs that meet the minimum to sneak into mass catalogs. The result is an avalanche that makes it difficult to distinguish between genuine proposals and simple algorithmic exercises. For stamps and artists, this saturation not only generates confusion among listeners, it also threatens to dilute income in a system where each reproduction counts to distribute royalties. Spotify’s plan against music made with AI Spotify frames its new rules in a simple idea: music has always been crossed by technology, from the multipist tapes to auto-tune. The current difference is that artificial intelligence evolves at a speed that generates uncertainty. In this scenario, the platform states that it wants to reinforce transparency and shield the confidence of listeners, while respecting the freedom of artists to decide how to incorporate these tools into their creative process. One of the most sensitive spotlights for Spotify is the impersonation of identity. The company has hardened its rules and clarifies that it will not allow songs that reproduce the voice of an artist without its explicit authorization. This includes voice clones generated with artificial intelligence, “Deepfakes” and any unauthorized vocal replica. In addition, new measures are tested with distributors to prevent music from foreign profiles, an increasingly common attack. The objective is that musicians can denounce quickly and maintain control over their own artistic identity. Another front that the platform wants to stop is spam. Spotify explains that some users try to manipulate the system by uploading songs of just 30 seconds to accumulate reproductions with Right to paymentor repeating the same theme with minimal changes in metadata. To combat it, in the coming months will deploy a filter that will identify this type of practices and stop recommending them. The company ensures that the measure is necessary to protect the distribution of royalties and remember that in the last 12 months it eliminated 75 million fraudulent tracks. The third leg of the plan is transparency. Spotify collaborates with DDEX, the agency responsible for setting standards in the music industry, to create a metadata system that reflects the role of AI in each song. The objective is that the credits indicate if artificial intelligence has been used in the voice, in the instruments or in the production, so that the listener knows clearly. As reported by the company, 15 seals and distributors have already promised to adopt this standard, although for now there is no release date. The real impact of the new rules will be measured over time. For artists, reinforcement against impersonation and spam can translate into a fairer environment to compete for attention and royalties. For listeners, promise is a clearer experiencewith credits that allow distinguishing which part of a song has been generated by Ia. Even so, there is uncertainty about its scope: from the possibility of errors in automatic detection to the difficulty that stamps and distributors adapt their processes quickly and homogeneously. Spotify will probably continue working after this announcement. The effectiveness of the filters and the adoption of the new credits will depend on the industry as a whole move in the same direction. AI will continue to evolve and new methods are likely to make control systems. In that scenario, the company will have to demonstrate that its measures not only slow the abuses, but also help maintain the confidence of the listeners and the value of artists’ work. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 | @felirbe In Xataka | OpenAi wants to bill as much as Microsoft in five years. For this

Billing record, dismissal avalanche

September 2, 2025 by usatoday24

The Spanish video game sector exceeded 2,400 million euros in turnover in 2024. A historical record that hides a bitter reality: mass layoffs, emblematic studies closures and the first sector strike in history. The panoramic. Spain is the third European market and one of the ten World Cups. More than 22 million people play 75 minutes average and revenues grew 3%. But the industry is fractured: multinationals with record benefits while national studies fall into chain. Between bambalins. The closure of Tequila Works and Novaramatwo of the most emblematic studies in Spain, has been only the tip of the iceberg. The list continues to grow every month. The pattern is repeated: foreign multinationals buy Spanish studies promising growth and stability, and then close or jibarize their templates when business priorities change. The backdrop. Pandemia created a bubble of unreal expectations. The consumption of video games shot 75% during confinement, and that attracted huge investments that expected perpetual growth. But when the world returned to normal, the demand stabilized. By then, business structures had grown excessively. Investors have retired almost 20% in the last two years and large technological ones have responded with mass dismissals: Xbox and PlayStation They accumulate thousands of layoffs this year. Electronic Arts, a almost 700. Globally, more than 14,000 Workers lost their employment in 2024. In 2025 the account continues. Yes, but. The sector continues to generate opportunities. Scopely has opened a HUB In Barcelona With 700 employees. Electronic Arts announced last year The creation of 600 positions in Madrid. The most agile small studies find profitable niches. But these exceptions do not compensate the general bleeding: More than half of Spanish studies invoice less than 200,000 euros per year. The threat. The AI looms over the sector. King used his own workers to create an AI tool that designs levels, as they said The countryand now that same tool replaces them. Microsoft has made it clear that AI will be its “new great mission”, justifying 9,000 layoffs despite achieving record benefits. The workers from Asian countries charge half that Europeans. IA tools promise to reduce development costs by 40%. Investment funds require immediate profitability, not long -term creative projects. What is being said. “It is a crisis with capital letters,” acknowledges the Spanish Association of Developing Companies in a report of eldiario.es. The CSVI union It is more direct: “Our main work is now to accompany in all you are that are being produced.” Workers denounce a systematic pattern of “buying, squeezeing and throwing” by multinationals. The industry claims tax incentives similar to those of the audiovisual sector, which in other European countries reach 30%. Without them, they warn, Spain will lose competitiveness against France, Germany or the United Kingdom, which are already attracting investments with better conditions. Decisive moment. The Spanish video game industry is located at a crossroads. Or it reinvents itself with a more sustainable model that protects local talent and creativity, or will be reduced by cheap labor for multinationals that can close the tap at any time. In Xataka | There are Spanish studies of authentic guerrillas programming games for nes: ‘Malasombra’ is the last example Outstanding image | King

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