association

The Motion Picture Assn. has struck its first agreement with an artificial intelligence company, saying Monday that ByteDance has strengthened copyright guardrails into its AI video and image tools that drew legal threats from every major Hollywood studio in February.

ByteDance, a Chinese company, is the former majority owner of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The MPA, the trade association that lobbies for major studios such as Disney, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment, said it has had constructive engagement with ByteDance over the last several months to rein in Seedance, a text-to-video generation tool, and Seedream, which produces images using text commands.

“Today’s agreement illustrates our belief that copyright is a cornerstone of the film and television industry – and reinforces our commitment to protect creative content,” said MPA Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Rivkin.

MPA declined to share the specific guardrails in the agreement.

The agreement comes as some studios have expressed concerns about AI models training on their copyrighted material without permission or compensation. In February, MPA issued a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging Seedance 2.0 was trained on copyrighted material and generating unauthorized videos featuring characters such as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and visuals replicating a scene from sci-fi series “Stranger Things” without studios’ permission. It was the first time the MPA had filed a cease-and-desist letter to a major AI firm.

“ByteDance is engaged in pervasive and widespread infringement of our members’ valuable intellectual property that it must stop immediately,” MPA’s global general counsel Karyn Temple wrote in a Feb. 20 letter to ByteDance’s global general counsel John Rogovin.

ByteDance in response said it was taking steps to strengthen its safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of IP or likeness.

Since then, ByteDance has released Seedream 5.0 Pro and Seedance 2.5, which reflect “ByteDance’s continued advances in IP protections,” the tech company and MPA said in a news release.

“ByteDance respects the intellectual property rights that underpin creative industries around the world, and we believe responsible innovation in AI goes hand in hand with meaningful protections for rightsholders,” ByteDance’s Rogovin said in the statement.

Seedance has emerged as a leader in AI tools among some indie filmmakers, who say it is more cost-effective than other options. AI tech companies are eager to find ways to partner with studios to make their tools better, but are also facing competition from rivals to gain more customers as quickly as possible. That has caused some companies to quickly launch their AI products without first putting in more mechanisms to prevent images from appearing without copyright holders’ permission.

Hong Myung-bo’s appointment under scrutiny amid raids with lack of proper interview process previously alleged.

Seoul ‌police have raided the Korea Football Association (KFA) offices ⁠⁠as part of an “obstruction of business” investigation into the appointment of former coach Hong Myung-bo.

Hong returned as national ⁠team coach in 2024 after a previous spell in charge from 2013 to 2014.

His appointment came under scrutiny after the KFA abandoned a months-long search involving foreign candidates ‌and appointed him following a brief meeting.

The issue resurfaced after South Korea’s disappointing FIFA World Cup campaign, which ended in a group-stage exit.

At a parliamentary hearing last month, Hong rejected suggestions by lawmakers that he had received special treatment in his appointment, ⁠while taking responsibility for South Korea’s ⁠failure at the tournament.

South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in October 2024 that the KFA breached its own rules in the appointments of Hong and former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, finding that the technical director’s ⁠meeting with Hong did not constitute ⁠a proper interview.

However, it found no evidence of illegal conduct and did not order Hong’s contract to be cancelled.

Police had already been ‌investigating complaints alleging improper interference in Hong’s appointment before the World Cup.

No criminal findings have been announced ‌against ‌Hong or KFA officials.

The KFA did not immediately respond to a request by Al Jazeera for comment.

BERLIN — An experiment with artificial intelligence at the famed annual Richard Wagner festival in the southeastern German town of Bayreuth drew boos from the audience after producing a staging that appeared to leave some spectators confused.

Curator Marcus Lobbes and his team were greeted with boos and whistles as they took to the stage at the end of Saturday evening’s performance of “Götterdämmerung,” German news agency DPA reported. However, there was warm applause for the singers and musicians, and particularly for conductor Christian Thielemann.

Festival organizers said ahead of the performance that it would be the first time AI took part on stage at the event, “not as a character, but as an image-generating force.” They said that singers would be “the fixed point within a visually seething cosmos of light, texture, history, and association, amidst projections that erupt, constantly shift, and merge into one another.”

The AI-assisted projections included scenes from previous performances of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle and historical themes, and drew from images preselected by Lobbes, the director of the Academy for Theater and Digitality in Dortmund, and his team.

The collage that the technology projected on stage puzzled the audience, DPA reported, with images including late former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the towers of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a special postage stamp marking German reunification in 1990.

The festival website said that “every performance will be unique — because the images and associations never stand still.” Two more performances are scheduled.

Justin Gaethje waited a long time to become an undisputed UFC champion.

Now the 37-year-old MMA star might have to wait another six months or so before fighting again.

Gaethje upset former two-weight champion Ilia Topuria with a technical knockout in a lightweight unification championship bout at the UFC Freedom 250 event Sunday on the White House South Lawn.

Topuria was a bloody and swollen mess by the time his corner stopped the fight between the fourth and fifth rounds. Gaethje executed a soaring back flip off the cage to celebrate his first undisputed belt, but it turns out that the former two-time interim champion also suffered significant injuries during the bout.

Both Gaethje and Topuria were among the five UFC Freedom 250 fighters who received 180-day medical suspensions from the Association of Boxing and Combative Sports Commissions, according to a list issued by the commissions and viewed by The Times.

Ilia Topuria suffered two broken orbital bones during his loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 in Washington.

(Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

Gaethje’s suspension can be shortened if he is cleared with negative MRIs for his right wrist and left knee. Topuria, who suffered two broken orbital bones, can return early if cleared by a an Oral and Maxillofacial Foundation specialist.

Both men also are required to serve mandatory rest days (45 for Gaethje, 60 for Topuria).

Alex Pereira, who lost his interim heavyweight title bout to Ciryl Gane by TKO, was medically suspended for 180 days or until he’s cleared with a negative maxillofacial CT scan. Undercard fighters Aiemann Zahabi and Steve Garcia also received 180-day medical suspensions.

Topuria won the UFC featherweight championship by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in February 2024. He vacated that title a year later and in June 2025 defeated Charles Oliveira by knockout to claim lightweight belt.

In November, Topuria announced he was temporarily stepping away from fighting. Gaethje earned the interim lightweight title in January by defeating Paddy Pimblett by unanimous decision.

That set up the unification bout between Gaethje and Topuria, which was the final fight of an elaborate event at the White House held on President Trump’s 80th birthday and billed as part of a summer-long celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary.

June 2 (UPI) — Officials have rescheduled the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner for July 24, several weeks after a gunman disrupted the original event.

Weijia Jiang, president of the association and a senior White House correspondent for CBS, said Tuesday that the event will be a “more intimate gathering” with additional security precautions.

“When gunfire interrupted this year’s event, it further clarified the WHCA’s mission to advocate for the freedoms that are protected in the First Amendment,” Jiang wrote in an email to WHCA members. “We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for.”

The original event April 25 ended when an armed man charged a security checkpoint outside the event at the Washington Hilton, and the president and other officials evacuated. The suspect, Cole Allen, 31, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal law enforcement official with a deadly weapon and other offenses. Allen pleaded not guilty to all charges.

President Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday that he will attend and speak at the dinner, which he called a ” ‘HOT’ ticket!”

Trump said the dinner will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., which is the former Trump International Hotel. In the email announcing the rescheduling, Jiang did not mention a site.

“This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program,” she wrote. “It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence. As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.”

The Washington Post reported after the prior event that some critics thought the president should not be so prominently featured.

“Why do I need to pay hundreds of dollars and dress up in a tuxedo to go listen to the president of the United States insult my colleagues?” Steven Herman, executive director of the University of Mississippi’s Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation, said in the Post. “I think he’s made it pretty clear he is not a champion of free speech or a free press. He only likes press or speech when it reflects positively on him.”