Latest / Connecting the Dots / Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Meta’s Teen Accounts, and Spotify’s AI Policy

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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Meta’s Teen Accounts, and Spotify’s AI Policy · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfle Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome back. You're tuned in for our
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  look at today's sources here on Thursday, September
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  25th, 2025. I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan. Good morning.
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  So before we really get into it today, looking
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  at mobile chips, teen safety online, and AI music.
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  Let's just quickly check the climate. Absolutely.
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  We're coming to you from Sacramento, of course.
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  Looking like a high of 88 degrees today. Maybe
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  a slight chance of showers later. Decent day.
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  Looking at the markets from yesterday, things
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  were a bit down. The Dow Jones closed off 247
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  points. That's about... 0 .53%. Yeah, and the
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  S &P 500 followed suit down about 31 points.
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  So almost half a percent there, too. Bitcoin
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  also took a hit down over $1 ,900. Ouch. Ouch,
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  indeed. But some good news on the sports front
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  are San Francisco Giants. They pulled off a win
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  against the Cardinals yesterday. Oh, fantastic.
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  What was the score? 4 to 3. Close one, Jose Boteau
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  got the win and Casey Schmidt went three for
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  four. Nice solid performance. We needed that
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  one. Definitely needed that. All right, a little
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  bit of sunshine before we dive into tech. Exactly.
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  let's transition then. We've got three really
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  interesting stories pulled from the Morningstar
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  report today. First up, raw mobile power. Oh,
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  yeah. Qualcomm, they just held their Snapdragon
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  summit and basically dropped the mic with their
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  new chip. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC. They're
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  calling it the world's fastest mobile system
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  on a chip. Big claim. It is a big claim, but
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  the tech behind it, it's a three nanometer chip.
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  Yeah. Which is tiny. And a tiny size is key,
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  right? It's not just about being faster, it's
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  about being more efficient. Yeah. You have less
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  power to get that speed. Exactly. So the numbers
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  they're throwing around, the new Orion CPU, their
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  third gen, is apparently up to 35 % faster than
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  the last one. 35 % is a jump. But the efficiency
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  part. That's maybe even more important for everyday
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  use. They're saying 16 % power savings compared
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  to the predecessor. 16%. Okay, so that means
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  potentially better battery life, even when the
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  phone's doing more. That's the idea. They've
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  got this core set up to really fast prime cores,
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  hitting up to 4 .6 gigahertz, and then six performance
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  cores. It balances power and, well, performance.
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  Makes sense. But it sounds like the really big
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  story here isn't just games running faster, it's
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  AI. Totally. They're leaning hard into this idea
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  of the agentic AI era, future -proofing, you
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  know? Agentic AI, meaning the AI sort of acts
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  for you more proactively on the device itself.
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  Yeah, that's the vision. Moving that heavy AI
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  processing from the cloud. Right onto your phone.
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  The new Hexagon NPU, the Neural Processing Unit,
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  is 37 % faster. 37%, wow. So they're pinning
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  this picture of AI agents that can see what you
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  see through the camera, hear what you hear. And
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  process it all, right there, in real time. Think
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  with you, as they put it. Which has huge implications
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  for privacy too, doesn't it? If it's happening
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  locally. It really does. Less data potentially
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  going off to server somewhere, plus the connectivity
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  is nuts. Right. Wi -Fi 7, Bluetooth 6. And the
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  5G modem. The X85 5G modem. They're talking peak
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  download speeds of 12 .5 gigabits per second,
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  which is just theoretical maybe, but still. Bonkers
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  speed. OK. And you know cameras are always a
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  huge selling point for phones. What's new there?
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  Well, that AI focus continues. There's a new
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  AI image signal processor working with that faster
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  NPU. Yeah. Get this, it can segment images into
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  over 250 layers. Think about the editing possibilities.
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  It's 150 layers, wow. Yeah. And new features
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  like video object eraser, pretty self -explanatory,
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  but also something called TruePic with C2PA support.
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  C2PA, hang on, that's the content provenance
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  and authenticity thing, right, for verifying
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  media? Exactly, the coalition. It basically embeds
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  cryptographic proof into photos and videos. So
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  you know where and when it was taken and if it's
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  been messed with. Precisely. Building that capability
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  right into the ship at the moment of capture.
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  That's a potentially massive step against, you
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  know, deep fakes and misinformation. That's actually
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  huge. Connecting chip speed directly to content
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  trust. Okay, so which phones are getting this
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  powerhouse first? Well, the usual suspects in
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  the Android world are lining up. Samsung, obviously.
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  Sony, OnePlus, Xiaomi. Asus, Honor, Vivo. Basically
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  everyone. Pretty much. Confirmed first launch
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  though. Looks like the Xiaomi 17 series. Apparently
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  they're skipping the number 16. Xiaomi 17 first.
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  Okay. Any other purge with that one? Yeah, they're
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  also boasting 100 watt universal fast charging.
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  Finally, some standardization maybe. 100 watts
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  in universal. That's great. But the one everyone
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  really watches is Samsung, right? The S26 Ultra.
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  Always. And Samsung usually gets a slightly souped
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  up version that for Galaxy chip, probably the
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  best binning. Right. Squeezed for every last
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  drop of performance. And maybe faster charging
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  finally. Rumors say maybe 60 watts for the S26
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  Ultra. Not the 100 watts Xiaomi's doing, but
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  still a decent bump for Samsung. We'll probably
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  see that early next year. Okay, definitely one
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  to watch. Alright, let's shift gears. From tiny,
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  powerful chips to big platform safety concerns.
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  Yeah, story number two is about Meta, Facebook,
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  Messenger, Instagram. They're making some major
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  moves globally regarding teen accounts. This
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  sounds like a response to all the pressure and
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  lawsuits they've been facing. No doubt. They're
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  basically rolling out mandatory restricted teen
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  accounts worldwide now for Facebook and Messenger.
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  It mirrors what they already did on Instagram.
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  And they say this already covers hundreds of
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  millions of teens. That's the number. Yeah. So
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  mandatory restricted. What does that actually
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  mean for a teen user? It means the defaults are
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  much tighter, especially for the younger group
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  like 13 to 15 year olds. They now need explicit
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  parent permission to change safety settings.
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  So parents have to actively approve changes.
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  It's not just suggested oversight. Right. It's
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  built in. And the tools for parents are beefed
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  up too. They can monitor screen time and importantly
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  see who their kids are messaging. Plus they're
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  using AI to try and catch kids who might be fibbing
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  about their age to get around the restrictions.
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  Okay, so it's a pretty comprehensive system they're
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  putting in place. It feels like they're trying
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  to get ahead of regulators. It's definitely par
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  -compliance, part trying to genuinely manage
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  a huge complex platform, but it's not just about
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  individual accounts. They're also expanding their
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  school program. Right, the Instagram School Partnership
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  Program. You mentioned that's going to all U
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  .S. middle and high schools now. All of them,
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  which is significant. Why should, say, a busy
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  school principal care about partnering with Instagram?
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  Because it gives schools a dedicated, fast -track
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  channel to report serious safety issues directly
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  to Metta. Things like bullying, harassment. dangerous
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  content. And Meta promises a faster review. They're
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  aiming for review within 48 hours for reports
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  coming through that channel. For a school dealing
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  with an urgent issue, that quicker response time
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  could be critical. Yeah, 48 hours is a big improvement
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  over trying to navigate standard reporting tools.
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  Exactly. They're also providing resources like
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  an online SACE curriculum they develop with Child
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  Help. It's free for parents and educators aiming
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  to reach a million middle schoolers. So trying
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  to build safety nets both technically through
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  account restrictions and socially through education
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  and school partnerships. It seems like a multi
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  -pronged approach to show they're taking responsibility.
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  It connects back in a way to the first story
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  who controls the experience, the chip's local
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  AI or the platform's global rules. Interesting
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  parallel. All right, let's talk about control
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  in a different arena. Music. Our third story
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  is Spotify's fight against, well, AI generated
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  music spam. Yeah, AI slump, as some are calling
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  it. Spotify just announced three big updates
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  to their AI policy to try and manage the flood
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  of generated content and outright fraud. It feels
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  like AI music exploded overnight. What's Spotify
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  doing about it? Three things. Three main things.
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  First is transparency. They're adopting an upcoming
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  industry standard called DDEX for labeling AI
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  in music credits. DDEX. OK, so this isn't just
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  a simple AI yes -no tag. No, much more detailed.
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  It allows labels to specify how AI was used.
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  Was it AI -generated vocals, AI instruments,
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  or just AI in the mixing process, that kind of
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  granularity? That's actually a really useful
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  context. Who signed on to use this? Already got
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  15 labels and distributors, including big players
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  like DistroKid and CD Baby. Good momentum there.
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  Okay. Transparency is step one. What's step two?
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  Dealing with the sheer volume. Exactly. They're
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  rolling out a new, much more sophisticated spam
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  filter. They said they removed over 75 million
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  spam tracks last year alone. 75 million? That's
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  insane. It really is. Shows the scale of the
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  problem. This new filter targets specific tactics.
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  Like what? Just mass uploads. That, but also...
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  excessive duplicates, people trying to game search
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  results with keywords, uploading tracks to the
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  wrong artist's page. Ah, the profile mismatch
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  thing. Yeah, and that classic trick. Uploading
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  tons of tracks that are just over 30 seconds
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  long. Right, because 30 seconds is the minimum
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  to trigger a royalty payment. Precisely. So the
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  filter aims to catch all that so real music discovery
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  isn't drowned out. Makes sense. Okay, and the
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  third measure. That tackles the deepfake voice
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  issue. Yep. They're drawing a clear line. unauthorized
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  AI, voice clones, deepfakes, vocal replicas basically,
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  pretending to be an artist using AI without permission
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  that's not allowed. Full stop. But if an artist
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  wants to license their voice for an AI project,
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  that's still okay. That's fine, as long as it's
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  authorized by the artist. It's about consent
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  and protecting the artist's identity and income.
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  They're cracking down on impersonation. Got it.
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  And Spotify is making it clear they aren't generating
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  any of this stuff themselves, right? There were
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  rumors. Yeah, they explicitly denied that. Yeah.
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  No generating, owning, or uploading music by
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  Spotify itself. Their focus is on being a platform
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  for legitimate creators and stopping the fraud
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  that hurts everyone. Okay, so a big push for
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  authenticity and system integrity. It feels like
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  a necessary move. Definitely. Okay, before we
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  wrap this all up, we should thank our other partner
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  Very nice. Okay, so quick recap of the big themes
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  from the Morningstar today. Alright, Qualcomm's
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  new Snapdragon chip is bringing serious speed,
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  especially for on -device AI, and even includes
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  things like C2PA for photo verification. Huge
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  potential there. Then Meta is going global with
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  mandatory restricted teen accounts and expanding
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  school partnerships, a major attempt to address
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  safety concerns across Facebook, Messenger, and
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  Instagram. And finally, Spotify is deploying
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  a three -part strategy transparency via DDEX,
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  a new spam filter, and a crackdown on voice clones
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  to combat the rise of AI music frog and protect
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  real artists. It really feels like the connecting
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  thread this week is all about control and authenticity
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  in the digital space, doesn't it? Yeah, verifying
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  photos, managing platform access for safety,
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  ensuring music royalties go to actual creators.
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  It's all about trust and who's in charge of the
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  data. And maybe the thought to leave you with
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  today is... If these new chips, like the Snapdragon,
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  are built for AI that thinks with you, instantly
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  and personally, how do our slower, more deliberate
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  human systems laws, platform rules like Meta's
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  actually keep up? How do we balance that immediate
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  personalized power with the need for thoughtful
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  oversight? That is definitely the challenge.
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  Lots to think about. Indeed. We're here to help
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  at Snarfl, so reach out on our website if you
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  have any more questions. That's a wrap on today's
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  top stories. Remember, tech doesn't have to be
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  complicated, and we're here to help connect the
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  dots. If you've got questions or want to learn
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  more, visit us at snarful .com. Thanks for listening,
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  and we'll catch you next time.