Matthew McConaughey has successfully filed federal trademarks for his legendary "Alright, alright, alright" line, securing a sound mark that captures the precise pitch variations of his delivery. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved the registration, which specifies the unique cadence: "wherein the first syllable of the first two words is at a lower pitch than the second syllable, and the first syllable of the last word is at a higher pitch than the second syllable."
The eight trademarks, registered to McConaughey's J.K. Livin Brands Inc., also cover video clips and audio of him saying "Just keep livin', right?" followed by "I mean." According to Jonathan Pollack, of-counsel attorney at Yorn Levine, this gives McConaughey "a tool now to stop someone in their tracks or take them to federal court" in the ongoing scramble to address AI misuse.
Kevin Yorn, partner at the firm representing luminaries like Scarlett Johansson and the South Park creators, noted, "I don't know what a court will say in the end. But we have to at least test this." The move is complicated by McConaughey's own embrace of AI on licensed terms. Last November, he announced a partnership with AI voice company ElevenLabs, where he's an investor, to create Spanish-language versions of his "Lyrics of Livin'" newsletter using AI voice replication.
This highlights a growing divide in Hollywood, with some artists viewing AI as an existential threat while others see it as a tool—so long as they control the terms. McConaughey's stance appears to land somewhere in between: unauthorized AI use is not alright, but licensed, consent-based use is a different conversation.
Meanwhile, the broader AI landscape continues to evolve. X announced it is restricting image generation and editing features tied to Grok, limiting access to paid users after the chatbot was used to create non-consensual sexualized images of real people, including minors. In an update, the company added technical restrictions to limit how users can edit images of real people through Grok.
On a more optimistic note, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, during a recent TED Talk, suggested AI could drive a "Cambrian explosion" of new innovation and job creation. "We’re on a curve of rapidly accelerating job creation, which I like to call the ‘job singularity,’ a Cambrian explosion of not just new jobs but new job families across every imaginable field," Tenev said.
In the crypto space, scams became faster, more convincing, and more profitable in 2025, with AI and impersonation tactics pushing estimated losses to a record $17 billion, according to a new report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The average scam payment rose to $2,764 in 2025, up from $782 a year earlier—a 253% increase.
