Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creators Walt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI start-up’s Sora video generation tool to use its characters. Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters as part of a three-year licensing agreement between OpenAI and the entertainment giant. Continue reading...

Paramount says its offer “provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion to WBD shareholders” Back in China, car sales have fallen for the second month running. Retail vehicle sales fell about 8% to 2.1 million units in November, according to data published by the China Passenger Car Association today. This shows a 22% slump in sales of gasoline cars, with new-energy vehicle sales rising 4.2% for the month. “Usually the trend at the end of the year is that the car market should get stronger and stronger from October. But the retail sales in November compared to previous years is unusual.” “Mortgage rates continue on the downward trend and November was particularly fruitful for fixed rate cuts. The re-pricing by lenders led to the average five-year fixed rate dropping below 5% for the first time in over two years and sits at its lowest point since before the ‘mini-Budget’ in September 2022, alongside its two-year counterpart. Continue reading...

YouTube video by Turner Classic Movies

An employee at the Ashland, Virginia, area liquor store on Saturday found the trash panda passed out on the bathroom floor at the end of his drunken escapade.