Good morning, AI enthusiast.

A new investigation has uncovered that major AI models were trained on over 15 million YouTube videos, scraped without permission from creators. The report from The Atlantic exposes a foundational issue at the heart of the AI boom.

This widespread data harvesting is being called AI’s ‘original sin,’ pitting the industry’s need for data against the rights of millions of creators. With legal battles mounting, will this revelation force a fundamental shift in how AI models are trained?

In today’s AI recap:

• AI's 'original sin' of YouTube data

• Albania appoints an AI government minister

• Hollywood sets new AI guidelines

• 8 trending AI Tools

AI's 'Original Sin'

The Recap: A bombshell investigation from The Atlantic reveals that major tech companies scraped over 15 million YouTube videos without permission to train their AI models.

Unpacked:

• The data grab includes content from 2 million channels, with tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Google treating YouTube as their personal training ground.

• Creators are discovering their own work is being used to build their competitors — AI tools that could eventually replace human-made content.

• Legal battles are mounting as both individual creators and major studios like Disney file lawsuits challenging this scrape-first approach.

Bottom line: This widespread data harvesting exposes a fundamental clash between AI development and creator rights. The legal fallout could reshape how future AI models access training data and determine whether the creator economy survives the AI revolution.

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Albania's AI Minister

The Recap: In a world first, Albania appointed a virtual minister named 'Diella' to its government cabinet. The AI is tasked with overseeing all public procurement to eliminate corruption.

Unpacked:

• The move directly targets Albania's long-standing issues with corruption in public contracts, a key hurdle in its bid for EU membership.

• Diella isn't entirely new; she already serves as the AI-powered assistant for the e-Albania platform, helping citizens access government services digitally.

• Prime Minister Edi Rama states that all tender decisions will eventually be handled by Diella, aiming for a system that is 100% incorruptible and transparent.

Bottom line: This represents a significant real-world test for using AI to solve complex governance problems like corruption. Its success will depend heavily on the undisclosed details of human oversight and the system's resilience to manipulation.

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Hollywood's AI Rulebook

The Recap: In response to industry-wide anxiety, the Television Academy released its first formal guidelines for generative AI. The principles urge its 30,000+ members to prioritize creative integrity, proper licensing, and transparency.

Unpacked:

• The guidelines stress creative integrity, ensuring that the use of AI supports human collaborators and acknowledges that filmmaking language and understanding remain crucial.

• A central pillar is using AI models trained on ethically sourced data, directly addressing copyright fears that have sparked major legal battles in the industry.

• For accountability, the Academy urges creators to be transparent with production teams, distributors, and stakeholders about when, where, and how AI was used.

Bottom line: These principles signal Hollywood’s shift from fearing AI to actively shaping its responsible use in creative workflows. The guidelines provide a practical framework that could set the standard for other creative industries grappling with generative tech.

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Dr. ChatGPT Will See You Now

The Recap: A growing number of patients are using AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude to get instant interpretations of their medical lab results. This trend offers immediate clarity but introduces serious questions about accuracy and data privacy.

Unpacked:

• This isn't a niche behavior—nearly one in four adults under 30 use AI for health information, according to a 2024 KFF poll.

• The primary risks are twofold: AI models can "hallucinate" inaccurate medical advice, and patient data entered into public chatbots is not HIPAA-compliant, raising significant privacy concerns.

• Healthcare providers are also exploring this space, with institutions like Stanford Health Care now using AI to help physicians draft easy-to-understand summaries of lab results for patients.

Bottom line: Patients using AI for instant health insights is quickly becoming the new normal. The next major step for the healthcare industry is to develop secure, provider-guided tools that meet this demand safely.

The Shortlist

Oracle signed a reported $300B deal with OpenAI to provide the cloud computing power for its Project Stargate data center initiative, sending its stock soaring.

Anthropic experienced a major service outage for its Claude models, temporarily disrupting workflows for developers and highlighting the growing industry reliance on AI coding assistants.

Amazon added new AI-powered features to its Thursday Night Football broadcasts, including a "Pocket Health" tool that analyzes real-time threats to the quarterback.

Signing off,

David, Lucas, Mitchell — The Recap editorial team