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If you make or monetize content, read this like a roadmap, not a press release. Perplexity’s payout is an opening bid to buy legitimacy and links in the AI era. Musk’s lawsuit goes straight at the choke point that decides winners: defaults on iOS. And Microsoft just handed the internet a factory for podcast-length synthetic conversation.
📌 In today’s Generative AI Newsletter:
Perplexity $42.5M pool; $5 Comet Plus sends 80% to publishers
xAI sues Apple and OpenAI; alleges iOS AI monopoly
Microsoft open-sources VibeVoice; 90-min, four-voice TTS
đź“° AI Searches on Perplexity Will Now Pay Publishers
Perplexity co-founder Aravind Srinivas at the company’s offices in San Francisco. Photo: Carolyn Fong for WSJ
Perplexity is rolling out a new revenue-sharing program, pledging $42.5M to pay media outlets when their content shows up in AI search results, in the Comet browser, or inside its AI assistant. The scheme debuts alongside Comet Plus, a $5 monthly subscription that directs 80% of proceeds to publishers.
Here’s how it works:
Traffic triggers payouts: Publishers get a cut when their articles are surfaced, linked, or used by Perplexity’s AI in search or tasks.
Subscription split: All Comet Plus revenue flows to publishers minus compute costs. Pro and Max users automatically receive Comet Plus as part of their existing tiers.
Apple News+ for AI: CEO Aravind Srinivas framed Comet Plus as a subscription for “both AIs and humans to consume internet content.”
Legal backdrop: The launch lands as Perplexity faces copyright lawsuits from News Corp’s Dow Jones and takedown demands from Forbes and Condé Nast.
This is one of the first attempts to formalize a payment channel for publishers in the AI search era, acknowledging that clicks are now split between humans and autonomous agents. A $5 pool spread across dozens of outlets may not cover newsroom costs, but it implies a willingness to negotiate rather than fight every claim in court.
⚖️ Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over App Store AI Monopoly
Source: Lawsuit
Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has filed a lawsuit in Texas against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of illegally locking ChatGPT into iPhones and sidelining rivals like Grok in the App Store. The case seeks billions in damages and could become a landmark in how courts define competition in AI.
Here’s the play:
The allegation: Apple’s integration of ChatGPT into iOS directs hundreds of millions of users toward OpenAI while suppressing competitors in rankings and “must-have” lists.
The money: xAI is seeking billions in damages, claiming the deal creates an illegal moat that blocks fair competition.
The responses: OpenAI called the lawsuit part of Musk’s “pattern of harassment,” while Apple insists its App Store is “fair and unbiased.”
The stakes: Legal experts say this could be the first U.S. antitrust case to test whether AI itself counts as a distinct market
Courts rarely get to set the ground rules of a new industry, but this case might. If judges agree with Musk, it could force Apple to open the gates on how AI is distributed to its global user base.
🎙️ Microsoft Drops VibeVoice, a Long-Form AI Speech Model
Image source: Microsoft
Microsoft just open-sourced VibeVoice, a 1.5B parameter text-to-speech model that can generate up to 90 minutes of multi-speaker audio, producing podcast-quality dialogue with as many as four distinct voices.
Here’s what stands out:
Extended dialogue: Unlike earlier TTS models capped at short exchanges, VibeVoice maintains natural flow across hour-long conversations.
Four voices at once: The system coordinates up to four distinct speakers, preserving individual vocal traits throughout.
Efficiency breakthrough: An 80x compression upgrade means the model can run on consumer devices without massive compute costs.
Smart context handling: Integrated with Qwen2.5, VibeVoice tracks conversational context and enables natural turn-taking.
VibeVoice pushes TTS beyond narration into something closer to live conversation. The next wave of AI audio may not be a solo narrator but full panel shows, scripted podcasts, and group discussions. All generated end-to-end by machines.
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