ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is backing the production of a feature-length animated film created largely with artificial intelligence tools, aiming to prove the technology can revolutionize Hollywood filmmaking with faster timelines and lower costs.The movie, titled “Critterz,” follows woodland creatures on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, with producers hoping to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 before a global theatrical release, they said in statement on Monday.The project has a budget of under $30 million and a production timeline of just nine months — a fraction of the typical $100-200 million cost and three-year development cycle for major animated features.”Critterz” originated as a short film by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began developing the concept three years ago using the company’s DALL-E image generation tool. Nelson has partnered with London-based Vertigo Films and Los Angeles studio Native Foreign to expand the project into a full-length feature.”OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,” Nelson said in the news release. “That’s a much better case study than me building a demo.”The production will blend AI technology with human work. Artists will draw sketches that are fed into OpenAI’s tools, including GPT-5 and image-generating models, while human actors will voice the characters. The script was written by some of the same writers behind the successful “Paddington in Peru.”However the project comes amid intense legal battles between Hollywood studios and AI companies over intellectual property rights.Major studios including Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against AI firm Midjourney, alleging the company illegally trained its models on their characters.The film is funded by Vertigo’s Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios, with about 30 contributors sharing profits through a specialized compensation model.Critterz will not be the first animated feature film made with generative AI. In 2024, “DreadClub: Vampire’s Verdict,” considered the first AI animated feature film and made with a budget of $405, was released, as well as “Where the Robots Grow.”Those releases, as well as the original “Critterz” short film, received mixed reactions from viewers, with some critics questioning whether current AI technology can produce cinema-quality content that resonates emotionally with audiences.

A former top security executive at WhatsApp filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging that parent company Meta systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures.Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for WhatsApp from 2021 to 2025, claims that approximately 1,500 engineers had unrestricted access to user data without proper oversight, potentially violating a 2020 US government order that imposed a $5 billion penalty on the company.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Meta failed to implement basic cybersecurity measures, including adequate data handling and breach detection capabilities.According to the 115-page complaint, Baig discovered through internal security testing that WhatsApp engineers could “move or steal user data” — including contact information, IP addresses, and profile photos — “without detection or audit trail.”The filing claims Baig repeatedly raised concerns with senior executives, including WhatsApp head Will Cathcart and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Baig alleges he faced escalating retaliation after his initial reports in 2021, including negative performance reviews, verbal warnings, and ultimately termination in February 2025 for alleged “poor performance.”The lawsuit also claims Meta blocked implementation of security features intended to address account takeovers affecting an estimated 100,000 WhatsApp users daily, choosing instead to prioritize user growth.Meta strongly disputed the allegations.”Sadly, this is a familiar playbook in which a former employee is dismissed for poor performance and then goes public with distorted claims that misrepresent the ongoing hard work of our team,” Carl Woog, vice president of communications at WhatsApp, told AFP in a statement.”Security is an adversarial space, and we pride ourselves on building on our strong record of protecting people’s privacy,” Woog added.The company said Baig left due to poor performance, with multiple senior engineers independently validating that his work was below expectations.Meta also noted that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration dismissed Baig’s initial complaint, finding that Meta had not retaliated against him.The company further insisted that Baig’s self-description as head of security was an exaggeration of his role at WhatsApp, and that he was a lower-level engineer.Prior to joining Meta, Baig worked in cybersecurity roles at PayPal, Capital One, and other major financial institutions. The case adds to ongoing scrutiny of Meta’s data protection practices across its platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — which serve billions of users globally.Meta agreed to the 2020 government settlement following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved improper harvesting of data from 50 million Facebook users. The consent order remains in effect until 2040.In his whistleblower complaint, Baig is requesting reinstatement, back pay, and compensatory damages, along with potential regulatory enforcement action against the company.In a separate case targeting Meta first reported by the Washington Post on Monday, current and former employees allege the company suppressed research on child safety risks in its virtual reality products.Meta denies these claims, stating it prioritizes youth safety and complies with privacy laws.

Rupert Murdoch’s children have reached a settlement in the legal dispute over control of the right-wing media mogul’s companies, News Corp and Fox Corp announced Monday.The agreement resolves litigation after siblings had contested Murdoch’s effort to install as successor his son Lachlan, who shares his father’s political orientation. But a Nevada court had blocked the 94-year-old’s effort.The new deal establishes a trust to replace the Murdoch Family Trust that had included Lachlan plus three other Murdoch siblings. Under the agreement, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will receive cash based on equity sales and cease to have holdings in either media company.US media said the value of the settlement would be $3.3 billion, to be split evenly among the three siblings.The eldest daughter, Prudence, has had little involvement in the family business, but James and Elisabeth are known as more politically centrist.”New trusts will be established for the benefit of Lachlan Murdoch, Grace Murdoch and Chloe Murdoch,” said a press release from Fox and News Corp.Meanwhile “the departing beneficiaries” will “cease to be beneficiaries in any trust holding shares in News Corp or Fox Corporation.”- Media transformation -Friction over the future of the holdings — a stable that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and a host of British and Australian media — had been the inspiration for the hit TV series “Succession.”The complicated structure of the trust reflects the colorful familial relationships that shaped Rupert Murdoch’s life as he built the multibillion-dollar empire.The original trust was reported to have been the result of a deal with his second wife — mother of Lachlan, Elisabeth and James — who wanted to ensure her offspring would not be disenfranchised by children Murdoch had with his third wife, Wendi Deng.Murdoch’s daughters with Deng — Grace and Chloe — will be beneficiaries of the new trusts, along with Lachlan.The agreement establishes LGC Holdco, which will own all shares of News Corp and Fox Corp previously held by the original family trust. Voting control for these shares “will rest solely with Lachlan Murdoch through his appointed managing director,” said the press release.The Murdoch empire has transformed tabloid newspapers, cable TV and satellite broadcasting over the last few decades while facing accusations of stoking populism across the English-speaking world.Brexit in Britain and the rise of Donald Trump in the United States are credited at least partly to Murdoch and his outlets.

The Trump administration on Monday launched a new immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, saying the latest federal crackdown in a US city would target the “worst of the worst criminals.”The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement of “Operation Midway Blitz” comes after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to send National Guard troops into Illinois, sparring with the state’s governor JB Pritzker in social media posts in recent days.”For years, Governor Pritzker and his fellow sanctuary politicians released Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago’s streets — putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.Pritzker, a Democrat, slapped back at the accusations, posting on X that the operation “isn’t about fighting crime” because Washington had done no coordination with Chicago authorities and “the Trump Administration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians.”The DHS statement included a list of names, images and rap sheets for 11 “criminal illegal aliens” it said had been released back onto Illinois streets and are now sought for arrest.Having declared victory with his unpopular troop deployments and deportation raids in Washington and Los Angeles, Republican Trump has turned to Democratic-run Chicago as a fresh talking point in his militarized rollout of anti-immigrant policy. He calls the city a “hell-hole” ravaged by gun crime.US Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois criticized the move as actions that “don’t make us safer. They are a waste of money, stoke fear, and represent another failed attempt at a distraction.””As President Trump continues to wrongly hyper-fixate on deploying the military to Chicago, his administration is now ramping up its campaign to arrest hardworking immigrants with no criminal convictions,” Durbin said.Trump posted new anti-immigrant messaging to social media Monday, sharing sketchy memes and cable news clips, decrying weekend violence and saying “I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt!”The president’s move to dial back his provocative tone against The Windy City came after brazen threats to unleash the military, and public protests that drew thousands of defiant demonstrators to Chicago’s streets.Over the weekend, Trump posted an apparently AI-generated image of himself costumed as blood-thirsty Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore of “Apocalypse Now,” tweaking the famous line to say “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” and depicting the Chicago skyline inundated by smoke, flames and helicopters.In the original line in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film, Kilgore says he loves the smell of napalm, the highly flammable deadly weapon dropped on Vietnam. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the president wrote Saturday on Truth Social.Pritzker rebuffed the president’s threats saying: “This is not a joke. This is not normal… Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”Pritzker posted advice for how to cope with raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), telling his followers to be loud in their opposition and advising them of their right to deny entry to any agent who lacks a valid warrant.