Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

January 14, 2025

A low-angle view of a video camera.

4: Social media creators are selling their unused video footage to AI companies hungry for content to train their generative AI models. OpenAI, Google, and others are reportedly paying up to $4 a minute to license this footage.

300 million: The private equity giant Blackstone invested $300 million in an AI data company called DDN, valuing the firm at $5 billion. DDN provides specialized data analytics for businesses developing and running AI models, helping them process and store large amounts of data.

32 million: The defense tech startup Overland AI raised $32 million in venture capital as the Pentagon ramps up demand for artificial intelligence. The company’s OverWatch software specializes in “ground autonomy” to help unmanned vehicles navigate off-road terrains.

10,000: Adobe’s new AI suite, called Firefly, can perform edits on 10,000 images at once. For example, it can resize tons of pictures or replace their backgrounds in one fell swoop.

China’s “dangerous” helicopter maneuver escalates tensions with US and Philippines

A Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Harbin Z-9 helicopter sits on CNS Yulin during a display of warships ahead of an exhibition at Changi Naval Base in Singapore on May 18, 2015.

REUTERS/Edgar Su

A Chinese naval helicopter flew nearly 10 feet from a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday over a contested reef in the South China Sea, escalating tensions with Manila and Washington in the airspace over international waterways Beijing claims as its own.

Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

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Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

More from GZERO Media

The move expands the Trump Administration's free speech clashes to Brazil, raising tensions between the two largest economies in the Americas.

All presidents issue executive orders, but in the first month of his second presidency, Trump has been signing them like they're going out of style.

The Trump administration is moving to expand presidential authority over key independent regulatory agencies that were set up to be guarded from the executive’s influence.

“There is a sort of doubt about freedom of expression here or protection of free speech in Europe,” says Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

The war of words between US President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky has hit a new low, with Trump labeling the Ukrainian president a “dictator” who “has done a terrible job.”

The CDU/CSU is very likely to win, making Friedrich Merz the country’s new chancellor. But he’s likely to lead a coalition government with a weak mandate, in part because he has vowed to reject any cooperation with the AfD.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya joins GZERO Reports to discuss the fight against Lukashenko’s dictatorship, Belarus’ ties to Russia, and why she believes her country’s future depends on Ukraine’s victory.

A Chinese naval helicopter flew nearly 10 feet from a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday over a contested reef in the South China Sea, escalating tensions with Manila and Washington in the airspace over international waterways Beijing claims as its own.