Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Recording Companies Adopt Book Publishers’ Tactics To Sue Suno Over Copyright Theft
The complaint suggests that Suno may have ‘stream-ripped’ millions of copyrighted sound recordings to train its model. The timing of the new allegations appears directly connected to Anthropic’s recent USD...
First There Was Clickbait. Now There’s AI Chatbait
Lately, chatbots seem to be using more sophisticated tactics to keep people talking. In some cases, like my request for headache tips, bots end...
How Art Has Historically Depicted Aging
Physical signs of aging — baldness, wrinkles, stooped postures — first figured prominently in Roman portraiture in the 4th century BCE, but old age...
Can AI Help With Promoting Literacy? (Or Hurt…)
Across the US, parents, educators, and community groups are trying AI-powered tutors that listen as children read, correct mistakes in real time and adapt...
Citizen Historians Are Documenting The Smithsonian Before It Changes
"We came up with this idea to call for volunteers to go out and, in a systematic way, go exhibit by exhibit, room by...
Big Shift: Human Evolution Through Culture Rather Than Genes
Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes,...
Trump’s Chilling Effect On Hollywood
Trump’s pressure campaign has had its intended effect: Hollywood is paralyzed creatively. In meetings, studio executives say they don’t want projects that are political...
Will The Magicians Of LA’s Iconic Magic Castle Let Their Landlord Take Over?
For decades, visitors have been drawn by the idea of dressing to the nines and roaming room to room, sipping cocktails as conjurers and...
The Latest Micro-Genre: Books With AI
The major imprints have been churning out a robust collection of books (more than 20 this year, by my count) that explain, extol, deride,...
College Is Not Just About Acquiring Information
Higher education is not merely the transfer of knowledge. We live in an age of informational opulence; we are awash in readily available data...
A Fake Review Plague Is Threatening Businesses
Fraudsters are extorting businesses for hundreds of dollars each by threatening to post fake negative reviews on Google Maps — or posting fake negative...
Internet Archive Settles Suit With Recording Companies Over ’78 Recordings Archive
For IA—which strove to digitize 3 million recordings to help historians document recording history—the lawsuit from music publishers could have meant financial ruin. Initially, record...
The Jimmy Kimmel Suspension Is a Crisis For Free Speech
The right-wing cancellation campaign that has come to encompass all individuals and institutions that have expressed anything less than cloying adulation of Kirk is ongoing, with...
Broadway Musicals Are In Trouble
None of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made a profit yet. Some still could, but several have been...
YouTube Is Going All In On AI
Its anniversary product announcements this week touted AI features that will let creators use AI to enhance or produce videos. After all, Google Deepmind’s Veo 3 technology was YouTube’s for...
The Lucas Museum — So What, Exactly Is Narrative Art?
What is narrative art? Or, to be more precise, what is visual narrative art, since stories without pictures—as in novels, plays, and operas—don’t fit the museum’s...
Free Speech’s Corporate Media Problem
Paramount isn’t the only media company that needs FCC approval for something — and thus finds itself needing to kiss Carr’s ring. Nexstar, which...
What Happens To Democracy When The Comedians Are Gone
"Because there’s no platform, no space or infrastructure for that kind of satire to be accepted, we were basically pushed out … We are...
FTC, Seven States Sue Ticketmaster Over Deceptive Practices
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, accused Ticketmaster of deceptive practices that advertised lower...
Time To Rethink What An “Emerging” Artist Means?
Our institutions insist on enforcing chrononormativity. They set age caps, define categories vaguely, and reward those who stay closest to the script. My experience...
Harvard Is Translating Archives Into AI Databases
In June, the initiative shared nearly a million books from a Harvard Library collection with AI researchers, spanning more than 254 languages and dating...
Are Visa And Border Issues Causing International Performers To Reconsider US Tours?
Performers, event presenters, booking agents and lawyers tell NPR that they are dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now – and they have...
Inside Philly’s New Calder Museum
It is one of the strangest cultural complexes to be built anywhere in recent years. On an unpromising site no larger than a football...
What AI Doomers Get Wrong About Artificial Intelligence
To take one of their examples, a superintelligent chatbot “trained to delight and retain users so that they can be charged higher monthly fees...
How Late Night TV Fell Apart
Though late-night shows still attract millions of viewers across more channels than ever—including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram—writers say that networks have still not figured...
