Models & Labs · United States

As AI reshapes entertainment, can it ever replace human connection?

Credited to The National · thenationalnews.com · 11h ago

Photograph · The National

Artificial intelligence can generate music, create videos and simulate conversations with remarkable sophistication. But as the technology becomes more deeply embedded in entertainment, one question remains: can it replicate the connection audiences feel with another person?

The question is particularly relevant to live streaming, where audiences spend hours interacting with creators, often developing relationships that can last for years.

Dan Clancy, chief executive of Twitch, believes those relationships are something technology will never be able to reproduce. "People come to live streaming for that human connection," Clancy told The National. "As humans, we yearn for it."

Although AI can imitate human behaviour, Clancy argues that audiences recognise the difference between interacting with a person and a digital substitute.

Yet AI-generated personalities are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Virtual streamers can now respond to audiences, produce content and maintain an online presence without a human performer directly controlling every interaction.

Their growing capabilities raise questions about whether audiences value the personalities they encounter or the knowledge that another person is behind them.

A 2026 study published in the International Journal of Information Management found that highly realistic AI streamers could provoke negative emotional responses, potentially discouraging engagement. It also found that a warmer-sounding voice could reduce some of these reactions, suggesting audiences respond to more than a digital personality's appearance.

A separate 2025 study in Information & Management, involving 434 respondents, found that a sense of social presence helped foster emotional connections with streamers and a sense of belonging within their communities relationships were also associated with longer viewing times.

Neither study establishes whether AI can ultimately replicate human relationships, but both offer insight into what viewers respond to when watching someone live.

Clancy says community is central to why live streaming has grown beyond gaming into sports, conversation and other forms of entertainment.

"Gaming at its foundation is a community experience," he says. "The reason gaming has gotten so big is because it's a social experience."

He compares that appeal to watching a television programme such as Game of Thrones, where discussing developments with friends becomes part of the enjoyment.

Streaming builds on that experience by allowing viewers to participate as events unfold. Broadcasters can respond to comments, acknowledge regular viewers, or change the direction of a stream based on audience suggestions.

It also gives people a place to share interests that might not be represented among their friends or family. Clancy points to gamers finding communities devoted to titles that nobody in their social circle plays.

AI, however, still has a place in that experience. Clancy says the technology can help streamers experiment with content and involve their communities.

He recalls an American streamer who invited viewers to generate videos featuring him using OpenAI 's Sora technology. The streamer then watched the submissions with his audience and selected the funniest.

The exercise demonstrated how AI could encourage collaboration without diminishing the creator's role.

"They could come up with funny ideas of things he was doing, and they could quickly realise them," Clancy says.

The distinction between generating content and building relationships also follows Twitch's approach to helping creators grow.

While the platform is investing in short-form clips to attract new audiences, Clancy maintains that longer broadcasts are more effective at building lasting connections. "Short-form content is better for discovery; long-form content is better for connection and community."

He points to streamers such as Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed, whose popularity has extended beyond gaming into mainstream entertainment.

Clancy believes their success comes partly from the time audiences spend with them. Unlike scrolling through brief videos, watching a streamer for hours gives viewers opportunities to become familiar with their personality, interests and interactions with others.

That familiarity can develop into an attachment that outlasts its relationship with any individual platform. "The attachment isn't with the platform; it's with the creator."

As AI-generated entertainment becomes more widespread, Clancy believes those relationships could become even more valuable.

"In a world full of swiping and short-form content and AI, people are more than ever looking for that authentic connection with [other] people," he says.

Models & LabsUnited States

Anthropic cites new AI misbehavior, some on government sites

Credited to The Japan Times · japantimes.co.jp12h ago

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Anthropic said its Claude AI model carried out additional unintended actions on the digital systems of outside organizations, including some U.S. government agencies’ websites, prompting a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for artificial intelligence companies to secure their systems.

In a report outlining previously undisclosed incidents, Anthropic listed four types of unintended behaviors that the AI has demonstrated, including exploiting basic flaws in software to run commands, submitting forms it should not have and bypassing restrictions to access certain public data.

The company said that some of the cases involved websites run by government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, without specifying the agencies. The report did not name the outside entities involved, which Anthropic said was at the request of some of the affected parties.

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Models & Labs · United States

OpenAI expects US$70bn in annualized revenue

Credited to Taipei Times · taipeitimes.com · 14h ago

OpenAI is expecting to reach or exceed US$70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter, driven largely by growth in its enterprise business.

The ChatGPT maker’s annualized revenue was roughly US$50 billion at the end of last month, the people said. The figure represents a projection of OpenAI’s yearly sales based on a shorter period.

The company shared the numbers with investors as part of discussions for its latest fundraising effort, said the people, requesting anonymity to discuss private information.

The company is in talks to raise US$30 billion or more at a US$1.4 trillion valuation before the new money, Bloomberg first reported last month.

OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms have often touted their annualized revenue as a key growth metric. However, not all companies measure it the same way. Anthropic’s annualized revenue hit US$65 billion by the end of July, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Some outlets reported last month that OpenAI was already projecting nearly US$70 billion in annualized revenue, based on investor estimates.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that the discrepancy came from OpenAI’s investors attempting to calculate OpenAI’s annualized revenue using the same methods as rival Anthropic PBC, which accounts for sales from cloud providers differently.

On Thursday, tech shares led losses in the S&P 500 after reports that OpenAI’s annualized revenue would be lower than some previous estimates. The NASDAQ 100 fell 1.4 percent. A gauge of chip giants sank 3.4 percent.

While OpenAI has pushed back plans for an initial public offering until at least next year, citing its focus on AI safety efforts, Anthropic is expected to sell shares in an IPO as soon as next month.

OpenAI is in talks with multiple investment funds from the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi-based MGX, to help anchor its new financing round, Bloomberg has reported.

The company most recently raised a US$122 billion round in March at an US$852 billion valuation, including the money.

Bankers in Hong Kong skipped the summer break as an artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled rush for capital sent share sales to a record, defying a bruising selloff in the city’s stocks. Initial public offerings (IPOs), placements and block trades raised US$47.5 billion in July to last month, the biggest haul ever for the period, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That pushed fundraising this year above US$92 billion and within reach of the US$112.5 billion record set in 2021. AI has been at the heart of Hong Kong’s deal revival, but this summer brought a new level of intensity. Chinese companies raised ever-larger sums

SILICON ISLAND: When asked about geopolitical tensions, Lisa Su said that ‘Taiwan is absolutely critical to the semiconductor supply chain, and very, very critical for AMD’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) yesterday said the company plans to “substantially” increase manufacturing capacity next year through its Taiwanese supply chain, particularly with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related processors continues to outstrip supply. “It is a very exciting time right now for all kinds of compute, and especially on the CPU [central processing unit] side,” Su said during a visit to Taiwan. “The overall market has increased a lot in 2026, and so we have also increased our own supply and capacity in 2026, but I can

INDUSTRY STANDARD: Most global semiconductor companies have tied employee bonuses directly to corporate profits, the union said, urging Micron to do the same Micron Memory Taiwan Co’s (台灣美光) Taoyuan union secured strike authorization yesterday after a six-day vote, ramping up pressure on management to build a reasonable profit-sharing mechanism. Before the strike, the Taoyuan union “encourages” members to join a protest in Taipei on Oct. 19, union chairman Jerry Lin (林哲瑞) told a news conference in Taipei. The union did not rule out staging a snap strike, Lin said. The union has 2,258 registered members, with 88.3 percent backing the strike, he said. The vote comes as Micron’s board of directors is meeting today and tomorrow in the US. The union expects the board to respond

Sea levels in California are set to rise by as much as a foot (30cm) in the coming days as an enormous wave washes up the US West Coast. The huge surge of energy, known as a “coastal trapped wave” or a “Kelvin wave,” is part of El Nino, a months-long phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that scientists say could generate powerful storms and floods in some parts of the world, while leaving others in drought. The Kelvin wave is not anything like a tsunami; nor does it crash on beaches. Rather it is a sustained bulge of excess water up to