This week on So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie dig into the EU's sweeping new Kids Act and OpenAI's sponsored agents, a brand-new ChatGPT ad format that gives every advertiser its own chatbot. Plus: why Comcast's Universal Ads is selling ordinary TV slots around creator channels, how Mastercard and Kenyan startup Flowchart are turning a WhatsApp thread into a checkout, and Google's busy week, escaping an ad tech breakup, testing payments to publishers whose content feeds AI Overviews, and adding cart transfer ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Follow Us:

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Resources:

• The EU doesn't just want to ban kids from social media. It's blocking chatbots and gaming, too.
• OpenAI tests advertiser-sponsored agents, expands AI tools for ChatGPT ads
• Universal Ads Expands Creator Content Into TV Advertising
• Mastercard, Flowcart Team Up To Promote Social Commerce In Africa
• Who wins and loses from the remedies to Google’s ad tech monopoly
• Google Rolls Out Pay Value AI Licensing Program To Publishers
• Boost your holiday sales with these agentic commerce updates

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This week on So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie step away from the usual news roundup to unpack the AI-ready media enterprise panel Nathalie chaired on the Future Tech state at IBC in Amsterdam. Panelists Sean King (Veritone), Marcus Edel (Collaboro) and Rory McVicar (Hydrolix) explain what media organisations still need to build underneath AI to move it from pilot to production, including data infrastructure, open source versus proprietary models, tokenomics, organisational readiness and trust. Jess and Nathalie share their own take on what it means for media companies actually trying to deploy this.

Sean King (Veritone) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-p-king/

Marcus Edel (Collabora) https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-edel-0200391b5/

Rory McVicar (Hydrolix) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorymcvicar/

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Resources:

• What is an agent harness? https://www.earlyadoptr.ai/episodes/what-is-an-ai-agent-harness-how-better-ai-setup-makes-agents-more-reliable
• Open Weight AI: https://www.earlyadoptr.ai/episodes/open-weight-ai-models-how-to-cut-your-dependence-on-big-ai

Timestamps:

00:08 Welcome and IBC Reflections

03:06 Nathalie's AI-Ready Media Enterprise Panel at IBC

06:52 What Media Executives Get Wrong About AI Deployment

09:48 Open Source AI vs Proprietary AI Models Explained

09:48 Navigating the Conversation Flow

09:48 Understanding Open Source vs Proprietary AI

11:20 Hybrid AI Models: Open Source Plus Proprietary

14:48 AI Tokenomics and Data Infrastructure Costs

17:52 Using AI Metadata to Unlock Archive Content

21:26 Why "Boring AI" Delivers the Best ROI

25:04 Domain Expertise and the Human in the Loop

27:05 Key Takeaways for Building an AI-Ready Media Enterprise

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This week on So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie break down Depop and Spotify's move to link secondhand fashion shopping with music discovery and what Australia's decision to ban AI-generated songs from its charts means for the industry. Plus: Paramount and Legendary's playable Street Fighter trailer built inside YouTube Playables, why Vidio is betting on Shopee to turn its dramas into a shopping channel, and how Comscore's tracking tool is turning OpenAI's ChatGPT ads into a measurable market.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Resources:

• Depop And Spotify Team Up To Link Secondhand Fashion With Music Discovery - https://dtcdispatch.com/2026/08/23/depop-and-spotify-team-up-to-link-secondhand-fashion-with-music-discovery/
• Australia’s music industry bans AI songs from charts - https://apnews.com/article/australia-ai-generated-music-charts-ban-aria-9bfb0c91166ae4405a6df1a3c4891687
• Want People To Pay Attention To Your Movie Trailer Turn It Into A Playable Game - https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/09/02/want-people-to-pay-attention-to-your-movie-trailer-turn-it-into-a-playable-game/
• Turning dramas into carts: Inside Vidio’s ecommerce playbook- https://www.techinasia.com/turning-dramas-carts-vidios-ecommerce-playbook
• Comscore Expands Its AI Intelligence to Measure Sponsored Chat Advertising and Its Business Impact- https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2026/9/Comscore-Expands-Its-AI-Intelligence-to-Measure-Sponsored-Chat-Advertising-and-Its-Business-Impact

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This week on So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie break down YouTube and Amazon's move to make creator videos directly shoppable and what a proposed class action over AI training means for streamers on Twitch. Plus: X's overhaul of creator payouts to reward original posts, why wishlist app GoWish thinks "wish signals" are the next commerce data layer, and how OpenAI's push to build ads inside ChatGPT looks on track to pay off.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

03:29 YouTube and Amazon partner to let creators sell a “curated catalog of highly requested and trending 

09:03 Twitch Amazon Hit With Lawsuit For Training AI With Streamers Content

14:02 X Creates A New Revenue Model For Creators But Will It Actually Win Them Over

20:30 Social Shopping And Wishlist Platform GoWish Lands 13.4 Million Investment

27:31 ChatGPT Surpasses $1 Billion in Annualized Ads Revenue

Resources:

• YouTube and Amazon partner to let creators sell a “curated catalog of highly requested and trending products” - https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/08/27/youtube-amazon-creator-product-selling-affiliate-marketing-shopping/?_bhlid=99fe83186b3d6f9fddb8e010ce95c149809e6f6e
• Social Shopping And Wishlist Platform GoWish Lands 13.4 Million Investment At 200 Million Valuation - https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/social-shopping-and-wishlist-platform-gowish-lands-134-million-investment-at-200-million-valuation
• Twitch Amazon Hit With Lawsuit For Training AI With Streamers Content - https://www.engadget.com/2242283/twitch-amazon-hit-with-lawsuit-for-training-ai-with-streamers-content/
• X Creates A New Revenue Model For Creators But Will It Actually Win Them Over - https://digiday.com/media/x-creates-a-new-revenue-model-for-creators-but-will-it-actually-win-them-over/
• ChatGPT Surpasses $1 Billion in Annualized Ads Revenue - https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/chatgpt-openai-billion-advertising-revenue/

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This week on So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie break down Discord's new outcome-based advertising model and what TikTok's move into in-app payments means for creator commerce. Plus: the Motion Picture Association's AI copyright deal with ByteDance, two very different plays for the creator economy's paying fans from Club and Bilibili, and why Asia's telcos are betting on bundled AI.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

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Contact: [email protected]

Resources:

• Discord Adds Lower Funnel With Outcomes Push: https://digiday.com/marketing/discord-adds-lower-funnel-with-outcomes-push/
• Tiktok Explores Expanding In Stream Payment Options: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-explores-expanding-in-stream-payment-options/828350
• Motion Picture Association Inks AI IP Protection Deal With ByteDance: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/mpa-inks-ai-video-ip-protection-bytedance-1236675016/
• Club Kick Stake Founders Creator Monetization Platformhttps://www.tubefilter.com/2026/08/18/club-kick-stake-founders-creator-monetization-platform
• After becoming China’s answer to YouTube, BiliBili has its eyes on the rest of the worldhttps://www.tubefilter.com/2026/08/20/bilibili-china-youtube-west-expansion-plan/
• Asia’s telcos bundle AI into mobile plans. Will it pay off? https://www.techinasia.com/asias-telcos-betting-ai-payoff-unclear

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In this episode of So This Happened..., hosts Jess and Nathalie cover Australia's new News Bargaining Incentive, which charges Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn a share of ad revenue to fund local news, Dentsu's CHARAMO platform for building and licensing AI-driven brand characters, Disney's new content deals with TikTok and iHeartMedia, AppLovin's rise from mobile-gaming ad seller to a real rival to Google and Meta in performance advertising, and Perplexity blocking Time's paid AI-answer placements as deceptive.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atonik/

Contact: [email protected]

Resources:

• Labor Push to Make Social Media Companies Cough Up to Be Introduced Into Parliament
• Dentsu launches CHARAMO AI platform with Yoshimoto-linked Flipples debut
• Disney TikTok Partner on Content Sharing as Creators Fuel Fandom
• Disney Doubles Down on Video Podcasts, Inks Streaming Deal With iHeartMedia
• Applovin Wants to Persuade the World That Its Ad Platform Is the Real Deal
• Perplexity Blocks Times Ads Served to AI Agents Calling Them Deceptive

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In this episode of So This Happened, Jess and Nathalie cover Google Maps gaining agentic food ordering through Ask Maps, Amazon losing its court ban on Perplexity's Comet agent, Reddit testing watchable versions of their posts, GEMA's copyright win against Suno alongside PLAI, its licensed dataset of 178,000 recordings, and MODRA, the Seattle startup betting an AI assistant can make local boutiques feel like one on-demand marketplace.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Nathalie's guest appearance on Early Adoptr: How Conversational Commerce Will Change How We Shop

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atonik/

Contact: [email protected]

Resources:

• Now you can chat with Google Maps to order food, reserve hotels and more
• Amazon Loses US Court Ban On Perplexity's AI Shopping Tools
• Reddit Is Testing A New Way To Watch And Listen To Its Viral Posts
• As GEMA Awaits Its Suno Copyright Verdict, The German Collecting Society Launches PLAI, A Fully Licensed Dataset For Training AI Music Tools
• German Court Rules AI Music Firm Suno Broke Copyright Rules
• Startup Spotlight: This Seattle Area Plumber Wants To Unclog Retail With AI Powered Delivery

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In this episode of So This Happened... Time magazine sells sponsored content directly to AI bots, the EU AI Act's transparency rules coming into force from 2nd August, and Gap opening its creator programme to employees. Jess and Nathalie also dig into Kaon's platform that generates a different video story in real time for each viewer, and Roblox's catalogue deal with independent music distributor Too Lost .

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

Find So This Happened...

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gURXag5C

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atonik/

Contact: [email protected]

Resources:

• https://digiday.com/media/time-has-started-serving-ads-to-ai-bots/
• https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ai-omnibus-enters-force
• https://www.retaildive.com/news/gap-inc-opens-creator-influencer-program-staff-employees/826238/
• https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/kaon-uses-ai-to-build-a-different-video-story-for-every-viewer/
• https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/07/28/bbnos-roblox-conerts-too-lost-music-licensing-rights/

Atonik's Two Tier Internet Series:

• https://futureweek.com/the-two-tier-internet-when-ai-agents-became-the-new-gatekeepers-of-commerce/
• https://futureweek.com/strategy-in-a-two-tier-internet-how-you-actually-compete-when-discovery-splits-in-two/
• https://futureweek.com/the-two-tier-internet-how-the-holiday-season-showed-shopping-is-changing/

Timestamps:

00:08 Introduction

01:24 Time Has Started Serving Ads To AI Bots

10:27 AI Omnibus enters into force

19:41 Gap Inc. opens creator program to employees

25:54 Kaon Uses AI to Build a Different Video Story for Every Viewer

32:08 After hosting another hit concert, Roblox gets more music rights for creators

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In this episode, Jess and Nathalie cover Amazon's move to bring cloud gaming inside Prime Video, and what its franchise page model means for IP holders, retail media, and what Prime could look like. They also unpack the EU's €890 million fine against Google under the Digital Markets Act, alongside a major data-sharing order, and Zellerfeld's Spotify-inspired footwear marketplace, where creator-led discovery and on-demand 3D printing sit inside the same platform. Roblox's new prompt-based creation tool and DoorDash's integration inside Shopify round out the episode.

Nathalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielethbridge/

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarlin/

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In this episode of So This Happened..., hosts Jess Carlin and Nathalie Curtis Lethbridge cover Australia's innovative new AI policy, book publishers filing a class action against Google demanding Gemini's training data be destroyed, updates on publisher alliances Ozone and the European Media Market, Whatnot's acquisition of AI recommendation startup Shaped, and TikTok's managed services pilot.

Other stories we referenced:

TikTok as a Super App

Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google

Key Discussion Topics:

00:00 - Introduction

03:28 - Australia rules out the text and data mining exception

10:24 - Book publishers sue Google to destroy Gemini's training data

14:43 - Ozone signs US publishers and the European Media Market launches a rival ad marketplace

21:05 - Whatnot acquires Shaped

28:04 - TikTok pilots managed services to run brand shops end to end

35:30 - Wrap-up and where to find So This Happened...

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