How artists and writers are adapting AI technology to gain creative control over their work.

Welcome to Asia Business 5, a look at the top business stories for the region. I’m Chris Casquejo. That story in a moment but first making business headlines.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with cryptocurrency industry leaders at the White House on Friday to discuss how the government will enact his vision of making the country the "crypto capital of the world." Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish a strategic reserve of bitcoin and four other crypto currencies.

President Trump is hailing a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock to buy most of the $22.8 billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, which includes assets along the Panama Canal. The sale involves CK Hutchison's 80 percent stake in Hutchison Ports. CK Hutchison is the world's largest privately-owned port operator.

Japan and Britain's foreign and economy ministers have agreed to promote free and open international trade at their first "two-plus-two" dialogue in Tokyo. Without directly referring to tariff threats from the U.S., the UK's Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said it's "crucial to counter the increasing trade fragmentation.” Japan and Britain are the world's fourth and sixth largest economies.

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is expanding investment in the United States because of large U.S. customer demand. Company CEO CC Wei says its U.S. production lines are already fully booked for 2025 through 2028. The world's largest contract chipmaker last week also announced it is investing $100 billion dollars in the U.S. to build five more chip facilities.

Artificial intelligence companies train their AI models using the works of writers, artists and creatives who typically aren’t credited or compensated. But as VOA’s Tina Trinh reports, instead of fighting AI, some tech companies are encouraging creators to take advantage of it.

When the old masters created their works of art, intellectual property rights were likely not top of mind …

But these days, the advent of generative artificial intelligence has some artists concerned that AI models are using their works without their knowledge or consent.

“The way AI is designed today is to consume everything everyone is creating, to train their models. And then to churn out results without giving any rewards and any opportunity for a gain for these creators.”

Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelancers, recently hosted an event in New York to introduce tools that let workers create and train their own AI models by feeding them their existing body of work.

Writers, artists and other creatives get a personalized AI model trained on their particular style and aesthetic. They can then offer it to their customers.

Some freelancers are optimistic.

“I feel like this gives you a better tool, a better amount of control over what it is that you do, what you love and how to market it.”

Dee Smith is also a voiceover artist on Fiverr.

He says AI-generated voiceovers could help him service more clients like small businesses who might not be able to afford him.

“There are certain clients that don't necessarily need that perfected, beautiful, beautifully crafted voice. They need something a little more simple.”

Fiverr isn’t the only company tackling the copyright issues for creative professionals and AI.

Trip Adler is the CEO of Created by Humans, a startup which acts as a sort of AI broker for published authors.

“We are building a marketplace for AI rights that allows human creators to license their content and their AI rights to AI companies.”

“You sign up, you verify your identity, you claim your books, you select your licensing options. Just a few minutes and you can start AI-licensing your books.”

AI systems would need to get an author’s permission before using their books for training.

These companies posit that AI models will need to train on higher-quality data in order to improve their results.

In this AI era, Adler says it’s about building bridges between human creators and AI companies.

Tina Trinh, VOA News, New York.

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Finally, painting roofs white to ease extreme heat in India’s western Gujarat state.

The white coating contains highly reflective titanium dioxide. Researchers say it helps ease the amount of heat being absorbed into the homes.

Thanks for watching Asia Business 5.