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Macklemore shared a statement Monday alleging that he was kicked off Sheeran's US tour dates because of what he said on stage in support of Palestinians.

The Los Angeles Times reports: Chen Yilong has racked up plenty of film and TV credits in his two decades as an actor, but with work getting scarcer he signed a contract in August to license the image of his face to a Chinese production studio. Chen's role will be to sit in front of a video camera and make facial expressions at the prompt of a director. A neutral stare. An angry glare. A look of surprise. Using artificial intelligence, the studio will use images of Chen's face to generate an avatar, also known as a "digital human," to star in an AI-generated movie. "If you can't beat it, join it," said Chen, 38, who works in Beijing. The Chinese film and video industry is being transformed by AI-driven storytelling, fueled by rapid advances in video generation software, and at ground zero are the so-called micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones. Typically just a minute or two in length, the videos are devoured by Chinese audiences... And the cost of producing them has been cut drastically through the use of AI software developed by Chinese technology juggernauts including Kuaishou Technology and TikTok's global owner, ByteDance. The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said.... Sun Wei founded Feixiang Universe, the Shenzhen-based studio that cast Chen. The fear of accidentally "stealing someone's face" was a big reason she said she decided to license real people's likenesses for an AI production set during China's Tang Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. Thanks to AI's training data bias, AI-generated performers tend to have similar features and share a homogenous look, Sun said. Many have flawless skin and extremely symmetrical faces, requiring her and other Chinese AI filmmakers to cast a wide net to "buy" new faces and digitize actor's expressions. Lu Beike, who directed the big-budget Chinese series "Three-Body," felt theAI-generated scenes he'd tried came out sub-standard. "Lu added that if 90% of a film was generated by AI, a real human performance could appear jarring. A real actor's expressions carried more nuance and emotion. The skin textures did not match. Sometimes the only solution was to process the live-action material until the person looked a little less real — until they fit back into the 'AI world,' Lu said." But at Sun Wei's studio, they're thrilled they can produce a 90-minute AI film for $500,000 where professional productions used to cost millions of dollars. According to the article, Sun's team works with ChatGPT, Kimi or DeepSeek to flesh out entire screenplays from a short paragraph. The screenwriter takes over, but "to produce the finished product, Sun's team uses Chinese video-generation models to input the type of scenes, backgrounds and performers they want, with the AI generating 15 seconds of footage each time." Still, the article points out that "Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China's entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what's to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA. Already, Chinese companies that sell AI-powered video-generation software are seeking inroads in Hollywood..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Job losses under Labour have soared past 200,000 as higher taxes, minimum wages and red tape crush hiring, official figures showed yesterday.

CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT: Schoolboy Dominick Cebula has endured three surgeries and several rounds of rabies shots.

A Commons debate was told it is unfair that people who are not tourists will have to pay the new Overnight Visitor Levy being imposed by Labour's regional mayors.

IAN HERBERT: Raheem Sterling told police he had 'a problem' with laughing gas after submitting rush hour motorists to a terrifying 90-minutes of dangerous driving.

While 1980s audiences took to the character, who she believes was 'ahead of her time', she doesn't think the response would be so positive in 2026.

I booked a property in Belfast at a cost of £972 for three nights. The night before, I received details of the lock box where I should collect the keys.

Brinkley stunned as she strutted the catwalk during Dennis Basso's Spring 2027 ready-to-wear show.

Kardashian, 45, lost $10million-worth of jewelry in the terrifying October 2016 raid.

The Housing Secretary used an after-dinner speech to poke fun at her Cabinet rival who is now the Defence Secretary.

Joseph and Arlene Kutzko said their daughter Sophie, 17, was taken from their care after she secretly began to transition with the help of her school in Massachusetts, a new report claims.

September Patch Tuesday part 2?

The University of Northampton is laying on the online course for first year students as part of their induction for Freshers' Week.

Brantham Parish Council has issued an update after a night of searching for a missing three-year-old boy.

Brantham Parish Council has issued an update after a night of searching for a missing three-year-old boy.

As flu season arrives, doctors reveal the best time to receive the flu shot to fight off the highly contagious infection.

Intel spin-off Cornelis and newcomer Delos Data pitch open alternatives for scaling AI beyond the rack

Nusrat Osman, 47, was reportedly seized at around 12.30pm local time on Friday in the city of Blantyre by four men in a grey Nissan Dualis.

Hundreds of people have joined the search for missing three-year-old Noah in Brantham on the Essex and Suffolk border.