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Canva Went Full AI — and Music Labels Are Joining In

Canva Went Full AI — and Music Labels Are Joining In

Plus: Check these AI Tools

Not So Artificial Newsletter
October 31, 2025

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👋 Hey Reader!

If it feels like the music, design, and AI worlds all hit “upgrade” at once… you’re not wrong. 🎛️💥

Today, Universal cuts a historic AI music deal, Canva rolls out its own foundation model to take on Adobe (again), and Big Tech keeps writing billion-dollar checks like it’s pocket change.

Let’s jump in 🚀

🎶 Universal Strikes a First-of-Its-Kind AI Music Deal with Udio

From court battles to collabs — the sound of peace hits the music industry.

Universal Music Group just shocked the industry by dropping its lawsuit against AI music platform Udio… and signing a joint venture to launch a licensed AI music platform in 2026. 👀

Big shift: From “Sue them all” ➜ to “Train with us, pay us, let’s build together.”

Key beats:

💰 Financial settlement + UMG licensing secured
✍️ Artists paid for model training + song remixes
🙅‍♂️ Udio disables downloads → users furious
🤝 UMG also teams up with Stability AI for “ethical AI tools”

Why it matters:
This could become the blueprint for how labels partner with AI — legal battles → structured licensing → shared upside.

But creators feel blindsided. ✂️ Creative freedom vanished overnight, proving AI-music peace still comes with collateral damage.

🎵 Future vibe: remix-as-a-service might be the new playlist.

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🚀 Canva Unveils AI "Creative Operating System"

AI design goes pro — and Canva wants to be your entire studio.

Canva just dropped a monster update: their own design-trained foundation model, plus an end-to-end Creative Operating System for everything visual.

Translation: This isn’t clip-art Canva anymore.

What’s inside:

🧠 Canva Design Model — understands layouts, hierarchy, brand style
🎬 Video 2.0 — smarter auto-editing + animation features
🧩 Integrates with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
📊 Grow — AI-powered ad library + variation generator
🎨 Affinity relaunch — pro editing suite now built into Canva

Why it matters:
Canva is pulling an Apple move — build the ecosystem, own the workflow, keep users from jumping to Adobe or Figma.

AI isn’t just automating design anymore — it’s thinking like a designer. 🎨🤖

The “pros vs amateurs” line just blurred again.

📰 Other News You Shouldn’t Miss

🧠 OpenAI eyes a 2026 IPO
Could hit a $1T valuation — Sam Altman says massive capital needs make going public “likely.”

🔍 Perplexity launches free AI patent search tool
Search IP with natural language across global databases. Innovation meets transparency.

🇯🇵 Anthropic opens first APAC office in Tokyo
Also signs safety partnership with Japan’s AI Safety Institute — Asia AI race heating up.

🎬 Figma buys AI creative startup Weavy (now “Figma Weave”)
Aiming to expand into video, VFX & animation. Figma isn’t just for UI anymore.

🎭 OpenAI releases Sora “character cameos”
Create reusable AI characters. Multi-scene videos. No invite needed (for now).

🏭 Samsung building “AI Megafactory” w/ 50k Nvidia GPUs
Goal: super-charging chip manufacturing + robotics. 20x performance gains? 👀

🍏 Apple says third-party AI inside iOS is just getting started
ChatGPT was step one — expect more AI engines baked directly into the OS.

💻 Mastery tools of the day

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LyricEdits creates lyric videos from any of your audio files and gives you full control over styling without editing experience.