Daily 8/31: Anthropic lyrics lawsuit, YouTube 24/7 Stations, China's AI actor shift

Sony Music and Warner Chappell sue Anthropic over lyrics and sheet music used in AI training, YouTube expands 24/7 Stations for creators, and China's short-drama market pushes AI actor replacement into labor and rights disputes.

• [Seoul Economic Daily] Sony Music and Warner Chappell Sue Anthropic Over Lyrics and Sheet Music ↗

  Sony Music and Warner Chappell filed suit in the Northern District of California, alleging that Anthropic used lyrics and sheet music from tens of thousands of songs to train AI models without permission. The complaint also names CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants. The labels say Anthropic drew from pirated books downloaded from illegal sites, books it bought and scanned, and bulk web data collected in violation of website terms. They are seeking up to $150,000 per copied song and the permanent destruction of the allegedly illegal lyric database and training files.

• [Legit.ng] YouTube Expands 24/7 Stations for Creators, Podcasts, and Media Channels ↗

  YouTube is widening its 24/7 Stations feature beyond the Coachella 2026 test into creator content, podcasts, media channels, and more music artists. Creators can package existing videos into always-on channels that viewers can leave running instead of searching for one clip at a time. The product pushes YouTube closer to a television-style programming layer. It also gives the platform another way to raise watch time and compete with free ad-supported streaming services.

• [Chosun Ilbo] China's Short-Drama Industry Replaces Human Actors with AI Replicas ↗

  China's short-drama production market is moving quickly toward AI replicas that can replace human performers. The article says 95% of short dramas are AI-generated and that AI actors are 90% cheaper than human actors. Producers gain lower costs and faster output, while performers are raising disputes over digital rights, compensation, and shrinking work. The story shows generative video moving past experiments and into the labor structure of low-cost mass entertainment production.