Canva's AI play, Universal Music settlement & more (October 31, 2025)

Good morning,

Today’s AI stories center on new monetization and maturity: OpenAI moves Sora toward paid usage, Canva launches its design-aware AI OS, and Anthropic pushes research into self-aware reasoning. The mix captures how AI is evolving from experimental to operational, across creativity, business, and cognition.

Let's dig in👇

💰 Money Moves

🎵 Universal settles with AI music platform Udio

Universal Music Group settled its copyright dispute with AI music platform Udio, ending months of legal tension between record labels and generative-audio startups. The agreement sets a key precedent for how training data and royalties will be handled across the music industry. Expect this to unlock more mainstream collaborations between rights-holders and AI-driven producers.

💼 Nvidia invests up to $1 billion in AI startup Poolside

Nvidia is reportedly investing up to US$1 billion in AI startup Poolside AI as part of a larger $2 billion funding round. It matters because the size of the bet signals Nvidia doubling down on software and model-play, not just hardware-sales. In the broader context this could accelerate the consolidation of chip-plus-software ecosystems in the AI stack.

💸 OpenAI now sells extra Sora credits for $4

OpenAI is now selling additional Sora credits for $4, marking a shift toward tighter monetization of its video model. It matters because OpenAI’s strategy signals a more sustainable model for compute-heavy tools as demand soars. The move foreshadows a future where generative AI features become fully tiered and enterprise-priced.

🚀 New Launches

📢 Canva’s design model, ‘Creative Operating System’

Canva launched its “Creative Operating System” — a design-aware AI model built to unify creative tools, data, and collaboration. This matters because it transforms Canva from a consumer design app into a platform-level creative infrastructure. The rollout intensifies pressure on Adobe, Figma, and Notion to integrate contextual AI into their ecosystems.

🔬 Extropic’s 10,000× AI energy breakthrough

Extropic detailed a “10,000× energy efficiency breakthrough” using thermodynamic computing principles to reduce AI’s power consumption. It matters because energy and cooling have become bottlenecks in AI scaling. If verified, Extropic’s physics-based architecture could redefine how efficiently large-scale compute operates.

🧰 Tools of the Day

→ ScaryStories Live — AI-generated story worlds that unfold in real time
→ Perplexity Patents — AI-powered patent search for everyone
→ Skyvern — Automate anything in the browser

✍️ Prompt of the Day

“You’re my strategic advisor. Review this business proposal [paste it] and identify the top 3 risks and opportunities. For each, provide a specific mitigation strategy or action plan. Format as an executive briefing with bullet points.”

⚡ Quick Hits

→ SWE-1.5 released Cognition’s faster agentic coding model
→ Claude shows limited ‘self-awareness’ according to scientists
→ Cartesia has raised $100M to launch Sonic-3
→ Impossible bench: measuring reward hacking in LLM coding agents.
→ Nvidia expands global AI rollout with bumper South Korea deals.

🧾 TLDR

OpenAI’s Sora going paid highlights a maturing market where compute costs drive real pricing, just as creative platforms like Canva turn AI into infrastructure and Anthropic probes cognition itself. The field’s no longer just about generative novelty; it’s about sustainable business models, design ecosystems, and introspective AI.

Cheers,
David