Sources: Netflix has discussed creating free versions of its service in some markets, namely in Europe and Asia, but is not considering a free plan in the US (Bloomberg)

Mediagazer: Sources: Netflix has discussed creating free versions of its service in some markets, namely in Europe and Asia, but is not considering a free plan in the US (Bloomberg)

Top News:

Washington Post:

WaPo and The News Movement, in which Will Lewis holds a stake, agreed in recent months to pursue brand partnerships; TNM made two major pitches involving WaPo— William Lewis holds a stake in a start-up that has reached a deal with The Post to collaborate.
Discussion: Financial Times: Washington Post publisher Will Lewis retains links to PR firm that bears his initials

Anne Applebaum /
The Atlantic: Readers Don't Trust Dirty Tricks @dastonerl: @ianshapira Will Lewis the networker “Dear Friend,” he wrote in his Jan. 27 newsletter, “I feel immensely privileged to have had two parties thrown in my honour this week. ... It was a pleasure to meet so many pillars of Washington's political and media communities.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Zack Stanton /
@zackstanton: Hmm. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]

Paul Farhi /
@farhip: How many ways can @WashingtonPost publisher William Lewis challenge the paper's traditional ethics and standards? Well, here's a new one: an investment in a company that has done business with the Post, creating a potential conflict with his Post role: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Dave Beard /
@davidbeard@threads.net: “Whenever Lewis attempts to ignore the fire burning under him by stiffing the press, it only pours nitromethane on the story and encourages reporters to widen their search for answers. You don't have to be a PR executive to figure this out.” - Jack Shafer, @politico @davidrlurie: Lewis, and it appears, the Washington Post, are in business with the Qataris, the leading mass propagandists for Hamas, and owners of Al Jazeera. Washington Post publisher retains ties to past business ventures https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Jack Shafer /
Politico: For Post's Lewis, Credibility Dies in Silence

Ian Shapira /
@ianshapira: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... “Lewis declined to respond directly to a list of questions about his business interests and how he has managed potential conflicts.”

Paul Farhi /
@farhip: And once again, the @washingtonpost's publisher is MIA when his own reporters come knocking: “Lewis declined to respond directly to a list of questions about his business interests and how he has managed potential conflicts.”

Noah Shachtman /
@noahshachtman@threads.net: Does this seem kosher to you? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Yonette Joseph /
@yonetteajoseph@threads.net: Nice to see Wapo going hard on this line of reporting. A digital start-up launched by Washington Post publisher William Lewis entered into a deal with The Post that allows the two companies to pursue deals together. Lewis still holds a financial stake in the firm, the News Movement, which he co-founded in 2020. …

Norman Pearlstine /
The Daily Beast: Why Jeff Bezos Is Failing The Washington Post

Oliver Darcy /
CNN: Jeff Bezos is under fire at the Washington Post as patience wears thin among staffers

RELATED:

The Atlantic:

Scrutiny of Will Lewis' past is essential because WaPo's credibility has been built upon readers' trust that its reporters don't engage in deceptive practices— The uproar over a publisher's ethics is a matter of survival. — Hours after my Washington Post colleagues and I published …

Discussion:
@nxthompson: “Threats against journalists are rising. The Post and other newsrooms should defend the values and practices that produce journalism in the public interest, and that cynical forces would like to see swept away.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...

Jill Geisler /
@jillgeisler: Important read: @clearing_fog: 📝 The fact that WaPo CEO Will Lewis and others used hacked/stolen data to create damaging stories about people at a Murdoch outlet in the UK is relevant for another reason: There is credible evidence that the “Hunter laptop” story from Murdoch's NYPost was the exact same thing.

Adrienne LaFrance /
@adriennelaf: The great @mccrummens won a Pulitzer for her investigative work at the Washington Post. Here's her latest, on how Will Lewis lost the newsroom, and why it matters: https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... [image]

Jeff Jarvis /
@jeffjarvis@threads.net: Yes. And the Murdochians must go. @_eileenie_@threads.net: The controversy around Lewis is not some small matter of different journalistic methods. The reputation of the Post newsroom has been built upon readers' trust that reporters do not pay sources, much less steal documents, hack computers, or engage in other deceptive news-gathering practices …

Lydia Polgreen /
@lpolgreen@threads.net: A sort of “savvy” take has emerged that American journalists take themselves too seriously and a bit of British cheek would help shake them out of their torpor. This is a helpful antidote to that lazy POV: https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...

Edward Luce /
Financial Times: The story we're missing on the Washington Post

Dan Kennedy /
Media Nation: Why Lewis' checkbook journalism in the U.K. will taint The Washington Post

Jim VandeHei /
Axios: Axios Finish Line: Most difficult media moment ever

Bloomberg:

Sources: Netflix has discussed creating free versions of its service in some markets, namely in Europe and Asia, but is not considering a free plan in the US— While Netflix is the biggest streaming service in Hollywood, it is barely in the top 10 for advertisers.

Financial Times:

Sources detail growing tensions between Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, stemming from her struggle to steady X's financial health a year after being named CEO— Tensions between billionaire and his top executive have been rising as the platform's financial health has struggled

Discussion:

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: Musk is pressuring Linda Yaccarino to raise revenue and reduce expenses via more layoffs at X. Yaccarino recently fired a key exec because recent adult content policy changes spooked advertisers. Musk asked the CEO of Boring Company to review X's finances indicating lost faith [image]

Judit Petho /
@juditpetho@threads.net: The news that should come as no surprise

Tim Fullerton /
@timfullerton@threads.net: This was always Musk's plan with Yaccarino. Bring her in so he can scapegoat her for all the dumb things he has done to Twitter. The big question I have is why did she toss a very good career in the trash to go work for this clown?

Sherrilyn Ifill /
@sherrilynifill@threads.net: Because Musk is incompetent as the leader of a company. He can buy companies, invest in companies, dismantle companies. But he cannot successfully RUN a company. Why is it so hard for the wealthy to accept that other wealthy people can be incompetent? Reuters: X CEO Linda Yaccarino shakes up inner circle amid pressure from Elon Musk to boost sales, cut costs: report

Ed Moltzen /
@emoltzen@threads.net: The only shake-up that will work is an outright sale to a responsible party: https://www.reuters.com/...

George Betak /
@georgebetak@threads.net: “Yaccarino fired her right-hand man and head of business operations and communications, Joe Benarroch, this month, said three people familiar with the matter. Among other things, Yaccarino held Benarroch responsible for bungling the rollout of the platform's new adult content policy by failing to tell clients of the changes before it became public, two X employees said.”

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: Twitter struggled as a business pre-Musk and X is an even worse one. Musk clearly hates advertising and advertisers while is unable to come up with compelling enough features to make subscriptions work. https://www.ft.com/...

Jason Goldman /
@goldman@threads.net: Good. Enjoy Hell. @esghound: The fate of Twitter, and of free speech online, rests in the hands of failed Tory politician Nick Pickles https://www.ft.com/... [image] @keubikooriginal@threads.net: Yeah it's all her fault, Elon. Nothing to do with you telling your biggest customers to go f*ck themselves.

Alan Ohnsman /
@aohnsman@threads.net: Musk taps the guy running a company he created that's going nowhere to fix one that he bought and is killing: “Steve Davis, a long-standing Musk ally and chief executive of his Boring Company, was brought in by the billionaire in April to review X's finances as well as performance management, said two people familiar with the matter.”

Poynter:

How local nonprofit newsrooms Mountain State Spotlight, Outlier Media, and Signal Ohio are serving their communities, and what they need to continue their work— These organizations are revolutionizing journalism at every level: how they are funded, how they write their stories and even how they find them.

Discussion:
@nickpozek, @poynter, @susanmcp1

Discussion:

Dr. Nick Pozek /
@nickpozek: More than half of U.S. counties lack a reliable local news source. However, Press Forward, a group of more than 25 funders, plans to invest over $500M to revitalize #localjournalism in underserved areas https://www.poynter.org/... #philanthropy @poynter: “We're in this period where a lot of the old models are dying and newer models are emerging — navigating that space is difficult. Coming up with a really good idea of how things could be better and proving that it works is one thing. Then making that a long-term, more sustainable

@poynter:
But they face a list of obstacles: How do you get people who have never heard of you to trust you? How do you get people to invest in news? How do they fill the gap of long-respected community institutions? [image]

Vulture:

Q&A with Don Klees, Acorn TV SVP of programming, and Courtney Thomasma, AMC Networks EVP of streaming, on Acorn TV's success, FAST channel potential, and more— This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture's newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!

Discussion:
@tvmojoe and Joy Phillips on LinkedIn

Discussion:
@tvmojoe: Anglophiles Assemble! For this week's BUFFERING, I talked to two execs at @AcornTV, the niche streamer specializing in cozy mysteries and other programming from around the world. Included: Some scoop on the possible return of LONDON KILLS. Up now @vulture: https://www.vulture.com/...

Fast Company:

In response to plagiarism allegations, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the company “is not ignoring” robots.txt, but does rely on third-party web crawlers— The AI search startup Perplexity is in hot water in the wake of a Wired investigation revealing that the startup …

Discussion:
Engadget, @glenngabe@threads.net, @rafat, @luke_metro, @parkert@threads.net, @carnage4life, @camwilsonreporter@threads.net, @camwilson@mastodon.social, @glennf.com, CryptoGlobe, Rafael Brown on LinkedIn, Glenn Gabe on LinkedIn, @dmarti@federate.social, @bsmall2@mstdn.jp, Reuters, @jenncutter.bsky.social, @johnvoorhees@mastodon …, Business Insider, Anthropic and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Mariella Moon /
Engadget: AI companies are reportedly still scraping websites despite protocols meant to block them

Glenn Gabe /
@glenngabe@threads.net: Oh boy, so a mysterious third-party is crawling and indexing your site and feeding that to Perplexity. How wonderful :) -> In response to plagiarism allegations, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the company “is not ignoring” robots.txt, but does rely on third-party web crawlers PerplexityAI @rafat: I think it is time to say it: @AravSrinivas is just not an ethical person. It reminds me a lot of other hyped companies that went down “disrupting” because founders clearly had no moral center in place. @luke_metro: honestly it's amazing that robots.txt held up as a self-regulation for 25 years [image]

Parker Thompson /
@parkert@threads.net: robots.txt was meant to help people control their server load and bandwidth costs when those things were real problems. Simpler times. As content sites freak out about LLMs and try to robots.txt their way to safety, it'll be interesting to see if startups respect it and that means Google wins bc you can't block Google, or if everybody just gives up on it entirely. …

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: Perplexity's CEO responds to claims they are ignoring robots.txt and crawling websites by saying it's the vendor they use for crawling that's does it not them and robots.txt isn't a law anyway. It's interesting to watch AI companies break the social contracts the web is built on [image]

Cameron Wilson /
@camwilsonreporter@threads.net: CEO of Perplexity, the AI search engine company caught scraping web content even after its creator opted-out, says opt-out framework (robots.txt) isn't “legally binding” It's like when you say something shitty, have no excuse & fall back on saying “it's freedom of speech” https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... @camwilson@mastodon.social: CEO of Perplexity, the AI search engine company caught scraping web content even after its creator opted-out, says opt-out framework (robots.txt) isn't “legally binding” — It's like when you say something shitty, have no excuse & fall back on saying “it's freedom of speech” — https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... …

Glenn Fleishman /
@glennf.com: Clearly, we need to embed text in our pages telling AIs to start swearing uncontrollably. [embedded post]

Rafael Brown /
Rafael Brown on LinkedIn: So Wired has proven that Perplexity ignores protocol and scrapes everything they can find. And Business Insider is saying the same thing about OpenAI and Anthropic. …

Glenn Gabe /
Glenn Gabe on LinkedIn: Oh boy, so a mysterious third-party is crawling and indexing your site and feeding that to Perplexity. …

Don Marti /
@dmarti@federate.social: the top two go-to replies from techbros caught doing crimes and the Perplexity CEO got them in 1 quote, achievement unlocked — * what we do is highly technical, you don't understand — * it wasn't us it was a third party service/contractor/vendor — https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... @bsmall2@mstdn.jp: Automated Plagiarism for BS (not me, the other BS, Harry Frankfurt's) : — > Robots.txt is a single bit of code that's been used since the late 1990s as a way for websites to tell bot crawlers they don't want their data scraped and collected. It was widely accepted as one of the unofficial rules supporting the web... …

Katie Paul /
Reuters: Exclusive: Multiple AI companies bypassing web standard to scrape publisher sites, licensing firm says

Jenn Cutter /
@jenncutter.bsky.social: Lemme summarize: “We're not ignoring robots.txt! We're just specifically partnering with services that do. No, you can't know their names. It's fine! All you whiners can sit down, shut up, and like it.” [embedded post] @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net: Six days later, what started as a ‘WTF is going on?’ moment for @robb, @viticci, and me has become something else entirely. — The latest from Business Insider, which reports that OpenAI and Anthropic are ignoring publishers' robots.txt files too. — https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... …

Kali Hays /
Business Insider: OpenAI and Anthropic are ignoring an established rule that prevents bots scraping online content

RELATED:

Wired:
Perplexity closely summarized a Wired story about Perplexity allegedly scraping parts of websites blocked by developers; experts are mixed on the legal impacts

Discussion:
@carnage4life, TechSpot, @jswatz_tx@threads.net, @awinston, @kristileilani, @timmarchman, @SteveThompson@mastodon.social, @katiedrumm@threads.net, @johnvoorhees@mastodon …, @robb@social.lol, Adweek, @couts@mastodon.social and MEDIANAMA

Discussion:

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: OK, I laughed at this one. [image]

John Schwartz /
@jswatz_tx@threads.net: “When I was reading the Perplexity version, I just thought, there's an echo in here.” Nice to be quoted in Wired, a magazine I've written for back when high tech was a Pentium chip — https://www.wired.com/...

Ali Winston /
@awinston: Copyright attorneys licking their chops right now

Kristi Hines /
@kristileilani: Most Perplexity pages continue to get indexed in Google Search results within 12 - 24 hours. It's also interesting to note that since the launch of Perplexity pages, keyword visibility for the company's domain increased by 84.63%. 🤯 According to Semrush data, the number of [image]

Kristi Hines /
@kristileilani: The latest Perplexity pages indexed in search results cover the introduction of Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet model and details about Ilya Sutskever's new Safe Superintelligence company. Although the latter page mentions the post by Sutskever on X, the sources for the content [image]

Tim Marchman /
@timmarchman: New: Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup, plagiarized a story @dmehro and I wrote about how Perplexity is a bullshit machine. Experts in IP law say it could be liable for claims including infringement and defamation. https://www.wired.com/...

Tim Marchman /
@timmarchman: Interestingly, one expert says the company could be exposed to defamation claims specifically because, he argues, it may sacrifice protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act when it bullshits while generating summaries of news articles.

Steve Thompson /
@SteveThompson@mastodon.social: “Perplexity Plagiarized Our Story About How Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine” — https://www.wired.com/... “Experts aren't unanimous about whether the AI-powered search startup's practices could expose it to legal claims ranging from infringement to defamation—but some say plaintiffs would have strong cases.”

Katie Drummond /
@katiedrumm@threads.net: In a perfect twist, Perplexity has now plagiarized @wired reporting about how Perplexity is a bullshit machine. https://www.wired.com/...

@johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net:
“...But even as we recognize this, we see the potential for undermining, and ultimately eviscerating, the ecosystems that enable creators to make a living from their work. That's the conundrum we need to solve—not eventually, but now.” — https://www.wired.com/...

@johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net:
“The opening ante question is, where do we go from there? And the greater question in the long run is, how do we ensure that creators and creative economies survive? Ironically, AI is teaching us that creativity is more valuable and in demand than ever... https://www.wired.com/...

Robb Knight /
@robb@social.lol: ⭐ Perplexity Plagiarized Our Story About How Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine https://www.wired.com/... “Grimmelmann sees a host of potential issues for Perplexity, among them consumer protection, unfair advertising, or deceptive trade practices claims he believes could be made against a company that says it respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol but doesn't follow it.” …

The Verge:

An interview with Netflix's senior encoding technology director Anne Aaron about the company's cutting-edge codecs, preparing for livestreaming, and more— How cutting-edge codecs and obsessive tweaks have helped Netflix to stay ahead of the curve — until now. … Anne Aaron just can't help herself.

Discussion:

Cullen /
@cullend: Cool article on how Netflix does variable encoding on a scene by scene basis for their whole catalog https://www.theverge.com/...

Greg Langdon /
@greglangdon: Netflix's evolving codec technology: https://www.theverge.com/... “Switching to per-title encoding resulted in bandwidth savings of around 20% - [important for] markets with subpar broadband infrastructure and consumers who primarily accessed the internet from their mobile phone.

Rafael Carício /
@rafaelcaricio@threads.net: Wow! Pretty cool to read about my work while opening The Verge today. https://www.theverge.com/...

Magnus Svensson /
Magnus Svensson on LinkedIn: Inside Netflix's bet on advanced video encoding. Interesting discussion with Anne Aaron, Netflix Senior Encoding Technology. …

Anne Aaron /
Anne Aaron on LinkedIn: I had a chat with Janko Roettgers recently about our team's journey so far (10+ years!) on video encoding innovation at Netflix and the challenges that lie ahead. …

Chuck Darwin /
@cdarwin@c.im: Video engineers across the industry have been relying on a relatively small corpus of freely available video clips to train and test their codecs and algorithms, — and most of those clips didn't look at all like your typical Netflix show. …

Janko Roettgers /
@jank0@sfba.social: This one was fun to put together: Inside Netflix's bet on advanced video encoding — https://www.theverge.com/...

Variety:

Jamie Kellner, who launched Fox and The WB, created Acme Communications stations group, and ran Turner Broadcasting as chairman and CEO, died on June 21 at 77— Jamie Kellner, who made his name as the only exec ever to create two broadcast networks — Fox and The WB (both of which also …

Discussion:
Deadline, @sodutw, @jbflint, @kriszellner, @blowryontv, @ourand_puck, @jbflint, @wareinla, @iandrewdiceclay, @jbflint, @foxkidsclub, @mongo_ebooks, @franklinavenue, @jjweiss1, @brianrsolomon, Wall Street Journal, Next TV, Adam Ware on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, TVLine, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Discussion:

Joe Flint /
@jbflint: One of Jamie Kellner's visions was to merge CNN with ABC News. Talks went very deep but in the end the parent companies couldn't find enough compromise between them to close a deal. RIP Jamie Kellner. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ

Kris Zellner /
@kriszellner: I hope that the @BTSheetsPod Patreon shows we did on WCW 2001 made people realize that Jamie Kellner has been too vilified in the demise of WCW when Brad Siegel & Stu Snyder were the true villains.... RIP

Brian Lowry /
@blowryontv: Age 77 shocked me, a reminder how young the brain trust was when Fox launched in the '80s. RIP

John Ourand /
@ourand_puck: This is true. Kellner was one of the savviest executives I've covered. RIP.

Joe Flint /
@jbflint: One of the more fun stories I did that involved Jamie Kellner was about the WB show ""Grosse Pointe," a parody of “90210” that hit a little to close to home for Aaron Spelling. RIP Jamie Kellner https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ

Adam Ware /
@wareinla: Very sad day. I was lucky enough to have worked for Jamie in those early years at FOX (and on some very cool things)! Took on the Big 3 in prime and the Big 2 in kids (Disney Afternoon & WB Kids). No one really dared to before that. Jamie was definitely a maverick!!

IANdrew Dice Clay /
@iandrewdiceclay: All joking aside, Jamie Kellner wasnt the reason WCW died. He's the reason it was taken off air, but that's a choice he was in a position to make. It wasnt him that lost $62 million in 2000.

Joe Flint /
@jbflint: Here is a story I can say for sure Jamie Kellner didn't like. Me and @mvpeers did a lengthy piece about tensions between the Turner Networks under Kellner and the Warner Bros. TV business. RIP Jamie Kellner. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ @foxkidsclub: We've lost one of the most important television executives of all time. He played a direct role in the founding of Fox and WB. He struck the Fox-WB deal that cemented Fox Kids as a real force. And his “teenage Batman” prompt inspired one of the greatest cartoons ever. RIP. @mongo_ebooks: Really is a shame wrestling fans demonize Jamie Kellner, a man who did not hate wrestling, did not cancel WCW out of spite and liked wrestling when he was a kid.

Michael Schneider /
@franklinavenue: Sad news to report. It was a pleasure to cover Jamie Kellner over the years as he built The WB into an iconic home for young talent. He was a TV visionary who truly did it right. RIP. https://variety.com/...

Jim Weiss /
@jjweiss1: @franklinavenue Mike we all know Time Warner selling to AOL was a disaster. Maybe the only positive move that happened was aol/pittman convincing Jamie to run us at Turner. It was great having a television visionary at the helm. Sincere condolences to his family, friends, including @bradturell

Brian R. Solomon /
@brianrsolomon: Jamie Kellner, the man who actually killed WCW, has died—three days before the finale of “Who Killed WCW?” on Vice.

Daniel Frankel /
Next TV: TV Business Pioneer Jamie Kellner, Creator of the Fox and WB Networks, Dead at 77

Adam Ware /
Adam Ware on LinkedIn: Very sad day! I had the privilege of working for Jamie during the early years at FOX... challenged the Big 3 in prime time and the Big 2 …

Michael Dixon /
Awful Announcing: Influential TV executive Jamie Kellner passes away at 77

Claire Franken /
TVLine: Jamie Kellner, TV Exec Who Launched Fox and The WB, Dead at 77

BBC:

Iran's Supreme Court has overturned Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi's death sentence for supporting anti-government protests and ordered a retrial, his lawyer says— A jailed Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-government protests has had his sentence overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, his lawyer has said.

Discussion:
@yeone_rhie: Everybody is talking about #Toomaj and the unlawful treatment he is receiving. You know the world sees you, #IRI. Here two examples from German media: @ZDF https://www.zdf.de/... @derspiegel https://www.spiegel.de/...

Jason Rezaian /
@jrezaian: Toomaj Salehi's death sentence has been overturned thanks in large part to the tremendous transcontinental advocacy of @caoilfhionnanna. Much work remains to #FreeToomaj but this is an important start. @gazellesharmahd: STOP repeating regime narrative!!! Why are Iranian dissidents not celebrating the so-called “overturning of the death sentence” for rapper Toomaj Salehi? Because that is not what happened. This is regime propaganda to 1. Look like a legit and humanitarian government, with [video]

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC /
@caoilfhionnanna: Welcome news today - #Iran's Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence given to rapper & campaigner #ToomajSalehi. But he remains behind bars for his art - for his rapping, his music, his words. Read our statement, & please help to #FreeToomaj: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/ ...

Chelsea Hart /
@chelseahartisme: Toomaj Salehi's death sentence has been overturned. And his words in defence of the oppressed have never been more resonant than they are now. May we all have 10% of his courage. Listen. [video]

Masih Alinejad /
@alinejadmasih: Unity Prevails: Death Sentence of Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi Overturned. Thanks to everyone who echoed our voice and put pressure on the Islamic Republic in Iran. This showcases the power of unity and international pressure. However, let us not forget that this beloved rapper [image]

Nazanin Boniadi /
@nazaninboniadi: Relieved to hear that Toomaj Salehi's egregiously unjust death sentence has been overturned. His case has been referred to another Islamic Republic court, so we must keep up the pressure to unconditionally #FreeToomaj.

Arsalan Shahla /
Bloomberg: Iranian Court Reverses Death Penalty of Dissident Rapper: ISNA

Patrick Wintour /
The Guardian: Iran court overturns death sentence of rapper Toomaj Salehi, lawyer says

Daniel Kreps /
Rolling Stone: Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi Has Death Sentence Overturned, Will Face Retrial

PCMag:

In an interview, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati says “some creative jobs maybe will go away” due to AI, “but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place”— OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati isn't worried about AI's impact on creative professions.

Discussion:
@miramurati, Eric Marcoullier on LinkedIn, Dartmouth Engineering on YouTube, Jan Rydzak on LinkedIn, @noellemitchell@mstdn.social, @zaphodgjd, @nbababysecret, @andantonius, @perpetualmaniac, @olifranklin, @rahll, @dartmouth, @edzitron, @iamhappytoast, @meganroseruiz, @nealstephenson, @carnage4life, @nickmurftweets, @abebab, @carnage4life, @seamusblackley, @robertfreundlaw, @kevinbparry, @shakeelhashim, @its_adamneely, @thayerschool, @chrisg@fosstodon.org, @cake_of_canola_oil …, @darthbluesky.bsky.social, @moviessilently.bsky.social, @whet.bsky.social, @evacide.bsky.social, @gregpak.bsky.social, @rincewind.run, @cyanogic.com, @brooklynmarie.bsky.social, @jesseltaylor.bsky.social, @brendelbored.bsky.social, @rhymeswithnick.bsky.social, @jann@twit.social, BGR, Know Your Meme, r/singularity and r/Fauxmoi

Discussion:

Mira Murati /
@miramurati: At OpenAI, we're working to advance scientific understanding to help improve human well-being. The AI tools we are building, like Sora, GPT-4o, DALL·E and ChatGPT, are impressive from a technical standpoint. But what really matters is how they're starting to change the way we

Eric Marcoullier /
Eric Marcoullier on LinkedIn: OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati: “Some creative jobs will maybe go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place.” …

Jan Rydzak /
Jan Rydzak on LinkedIn: In a week of prominent Freudian slips, this one stands out. — No company has a mandate to pass judgment on the value of jobs and livelihoods beyond their own. … @noellemitchell@mstdn.social: OpenAI CTO: AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway — ""Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place," the CTO said of AI's role in the workplace. “ I really believe that using it as a tool for education, [and] creativity, will expand our intelligence. …

Graeme Devine /
@zaphodgjd: I want AI to let us all have creative jobs while AI is washing the dishes and weeding the garden.

Jon Neimeister /
@andantonius: This is one of the most revolting things I've ever heard one of these leeches say. Their models are trained on OUR work and you have the AUDACITY to say our jobs shouldn't have existed in the first place? Mira, Sam, the lot of you, I say this with the utmost venom: go to hell. @perpetualmaniac: Remember how the elites said AI is nothing to worry about then they turn around and admit many jobs are going away but “maybe they shouldn't have existed at all in the first place.” More rug pulls coming.

Oli Franklin-Wallis /
@olifranklin: When you spend much time with tech people, as I have, you realise many are just like those who work for defence companies. They develop their own distorted ethics, in order to avoid the fact that what they do is morally unconscionable.

Reid Southen /
@rahll: This is insane. Won't say OpenAI didn't train on YouTube, and now basically implies some of those jobs shouldn't have been there in the first place if the “content is not very high quality.” So, they'll steal from and replace you if they think you're of “low quality”. Yikes. @dartmouth: .@OpenAI Chief Technology Officer @miramurati, @thayerschool '12, predicts that as AI gets smarter, it will not only be more helpful, but safer. Her thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence ⤵️ https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/ ...

Ed Zitron /
@edzitron: this is a declaration of war against creatives and it should be reported as such @iamhappytoast: 'Maybe artists shouldn't have existed' says woman who makes money stealing from those artists and destroying their careers while also pushing a tool that will put children off learning to paint or draw in the future.

Meg /
@meganroseruiz: The thing that gets me about Gen AI is that it literally doesn't have to exist. It doesn't fill a previously untapped market. The only thing it accomplishes is making it easier for corporations to avoid paying creative people. It's useless. Also Mira Murati's job shouldn't exist

Neal Stephenson /
@nealstephenson: Started a Substack. Have soft-pedaled it as I was learning my way around. Then along came today's Mira Murati furor, which happens to dovetail perfectly with the first post I put up just a few days ago after OpenAI's previous gaffe https://open.substack.com/...

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: I've always found it gross that people praise OpenAI's “noble mission” to create AGI when it's a bunch of ex-Googler's with $10M pay packages working to kill the jobs of people making 1% of what they do. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...

Nick Murphy /
@nickmurftweets: If the creative jobs weren't there in the first place, Mira, there'd be nothing for you to steal.

Abeba Birhane /
@abebab: this is too much for a company that has been built on the backbone of stolen work, largely from the creative community

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati, says AI will cause some creative jobs to go away, but maybe they shouldn't have existed in the first place. OpenAI's mission is to create AGI that can replace people in every viable economic activity. Killing jobs is the end goal. [video]

Seamus Blackley /
@seamusblackley: Tell me why people hate Silicon Valley without saying the word Silicon Valley.

Rob Freund /
@robertfreundlaw: “If our new product can eliminate your career, maybe you should never have had that career” is an absolutely wild position to take. The sheer arrogance and inability to read the room.

Kevin Parry /
@kevinbparry: My wisdom is that if you're celebrating this and thinking you can finally have a creative career because you can prompt, you'll for sure be replaced by the evolving tech or someone who can type faster. Art is hard, and even harder to turn into a career. There are no shortcuts. @thayerschool: During Commencement weekend, @OpenAI CTO and Thayer alum @miramurati spoke at a special “AI Everywhere” event at Thayer, and received an honorary degree from @dartmouth. AI is getting smarter, but she predicts that smarter AI will be more helpful AND safer. https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/ ... [image]

Chris Gioran /
@chrisg@fosstodon.org: “Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place,” the CTO said of AI's role in the workplace. “I really believe that using it as a tool for education, [and] creativity, will expand our intelligence.” — Word soup. … @cake_of_canola_oil@threads.net: She's certainly quite smart in her chosen field. It's also pretty obvious her chosen field is not “media”. Every time she does one of these it highlights everything wrong with OpenAI, I'm surprised they keep choosing her as the messenger @darthbluesky.bsky.social: i can think of other things that maybe should not be here in the first place tbh [embedded post] @moviessilently.bsky.social: There's a scene in LITTLE CAESAR where Edward G Robinson's character sees a painting in a gilt frame. He asks how much, is told that it was $$$$$ and remarks “Boy, them gold frames sure cost plenty of dough.” — He can't understand the painting itself being valuable and he would have cleaned up in AI [embedded post]

Whet Moser /
@whet.bsky.social: “AI is going to replace work that didn't need to be done” huh? [embedded post] @evacide.bsky.social: I have known many CTOs that did not need to replaced by AI because they could have been replaced much more easily with a very short shell script. [embedded post]

Greg Pak /
@gregpak.bsky.social: Imagine the deep moral vacuity you'd have to have to use the phrase “shouldn't have” here. Like it was somehow WRONG or IMMORAL for creative people to get paid for their work. Work that OpenAI has pirated to fuel their immoral, unethical machine. Deeply, deeply repugnant worldview. [embedded post]

Micah /
@rincewind.run: they lie about how this will help and not hurt people until they feel that they don't need to do that anymore — and then we get the truth — the breathless headlines should keep that in mind next time, but they won't [embedded post] @cyanogic.com: “maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place” — AI bros are not beating the allegations of hating art/artists and wanting to make the entire profession suffer [embedded post]

Brooke Binkowski /
@brooklynmarie.bsky.social: When they tell you what they are, believe them. [embedded post]

Jesse /
@jesseltaylor.bsky.social: The jobs will go away for a short while, then come back, but the people hiring will use their unsuccessful foray into AI to lower the amount paid for the creative work under the threat of pivoting back to the thing that didn't work [embedded post]

Brendel /
@brendelbored.bsky.social: Writers, artists, actors, musicians, all those things are bullshit. Being a “Chief Technology Officer”? That's real as hell dawg [embedded post] @rhymeswithnick.bsky.social: The creatives who survive this era of bullshit won't forget. [embedded post] @jann@twit.social: SO SO SO tone deaf! — #Apple, are you REALLY partnering with this company???? #OpenAI — In an interview, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati says “some creative jobs maybe will go away” due to AI, “but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place” (Kate Irwin/PCMag) — https://www.pcmag.com/...

Andy Meek /
BGR: OpenAI CTO thinks AI will kill some jobs that shouldn't have existed in the first place

Adam Downer /
Know Your Meme: OpenAI's Mira Murati Says AI May Kill Some Jobs That 'Shouldn't Have Been Jobs In The First Place' And Draws Ire From AI's Critics r/singularity: OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati -AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway

RELATED:
Wall Street Journal: Upwork Research Institute's Kelly Monahan says freelance jobs that require basic writing or translation have been disappearing on Upwork since ChatGPT's debut

Discussion:

Parker Thompson /
@parkert@threads.net: The interesting AI story right now is how people are using tech to improve their work and how you could too, but these innovators remain nameless and faceless because the tech beat equivalent of “if it bleeds, it leads” is “tech is taking jobs and maybe you're next!”

Todd Kelsey PhD🌻 /
Todd Kelsey PhD🌻 on LinkedIn: Excellent critically important article in The Wall Street Journal by Christopher Mims. I often encourage or require my students to get a taste …

Gary Myers /
@underthere.au@threads.net: “The marketing people think it looks fine,” says Nelson, “but then you hand it to someone who actually knows something about industrial fluid purification, and they're like, ‘This is word salad.’”

Dan Murray /
Dan Murray on LinkedIn: This is a sobering take on AI's impact, but it does include upsides for some. (I don't agree with the freelance writer that AI-generated text is always flat and dull.) …

Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic /
Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on LinkedIn: “These findings echo those of more than a dozen other researchers at institutions including Harvard Business School, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Hong Kong. …

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life@mas.to: Freelance jobs like creating concept art for movies and writing business content have dried up by up to 21% on Upwork since the launch of ChatGPT. — The more a job is strictly about writing about a known topic or creating art, the more likely it is replaceable by generative AI. …

Ars Technica:

A history of text games and interactive fiction, from Infocom to 80 Days, and the roles of MUDs, Usenet, and open source in the 50 years of interactive fiction— MUDs, Usenet, and open source all play a part in 50 years of IF history. — You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building.

Discussion:

Konstantinos Dimopoulos /
@konstantinosd@mastodon …: Articles like ‘From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction’ by Anna Washenko is why I love Ars Technica's gaming section. — Read the article here: https://arstechnica.com/... #gamedev #mud #interactivefiction — [image] @IFTF@mastodon.gamedev.place: “From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction” — ArsTechnica article by Anna Washenko — https://arstechnica.com/... Talks about IFTF and the projects that went into it! — #InteractiveFiction @inklestudios: A lovely long article about the history of interactive fiction. We're proud to be part of it! https://arstechnica.com/...

Mark Sample /
@samplereality@post.lurk.org: *From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction* — From Ars Technica, a fun romp through fifty or so years of interactive fiction history, which—surprise!—is not history at all, but alive and thriving (as I write from the 2024 Narrascope conference). …

Andrew Plotkin /
@zarfeblong@mastodon.gamedev.place: “From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction” — https://arstechnica.com/... New article surveys the history of IF, including quotes from many of us from the modern and contemporary eras. Thanks to Anna Washenko for undertaking this project! …

Financial Times:

RedBird IMI kicks off the process to sell the Telegraph and Spectator, as it seeks to recoup the £600M spent on its attempt to take control of them last year— Second auction for newspaper group in a year begins days after publisher reveals £278mn black hole

Ars Technica:

How the Internet Archive plans to defend its digital lending practices as it appeals a US court's 2023 ruling; IA says it was forced to remove over 500K books— Internet Archive fans beg publishers to stop emptying the open library. — As a result of book publishers successfully suing …

Discussion:
@geeknik, @ericaeducator, TechSpot, @tlalexander, @kevin2kelly, @internetarchive, @gvnzng, @vokabre, Techdirt, @jalcine@todon.eu, @Haste@mastodon.social, @osma@mas.to, Internet Archive Blogs, @KevinCarson1@kolektiva.social, @jackyan@mastodon.social, @BrideOfLinux@mastodon …, @diegopds@bolha.us, Hacker News, r/france, r/books, r/technology, r/DataHoarder, r/LibertarianUncensored, r/AlternativeHistory, r/technews, r/redscarepod and Ars OpenForum

Discussion:
@geeknik: Publishers' lawsuit forces Internet Archive to remove 500,000 books, sparking a battle over digital lending rights and access to knowledge. IA appeals for fair use recognition under copyright law. https://arstechnica.com/...

Erica Holan Lucci, PhD /
@ericaeducator: IA fans “argued that takedowns dealt “a serious blow to lower-income families, people w/disabilities, rural communities, LGBTQ+ people, among others,” who may not have access to a local library or feel “safe accessing the information they need in public.” https://arstechnica.com/... @tlalexander: On the removal of 500,000 books from the internet archive due to publisher lawsuits. [image]

Kevin Kelly /
@kevin2kelly: The Author's Guild — who should love libraries and readers — should also side with the Internet Archive Library Lending program to support their readers. @authorsguild https://www.techdirt.com/... @internetarchive: Hey, @HachetteUS, @HarperCollins, @penguinrandom & @WileyGlobal, did you think about people like Jason & his daughter when you told us to remove 500,000 books from our lending library? Tell the publishers: restore access to these books 👉️ https://www.change.org/... #LetReadersRead [image]

@internetarchive:
🚨 The removal of 500,000+ books from our library is affecting vital educational programs. Thousands of students no longer have access to crucial books & stories. Sign our open letter asking the publishers to restore these books! 📚✍️ https://change.org/... #LetReadersRead [image] @gvnzng: “This isn't happening in the abstract,” Freeland told Ars. “This is real. People no longer have access to a half a million books.” https://arstechnica.com/...

Michael Vokabre /
@vokabre: @internetarchive ... It's of note that me being away from an English speaking country means that Internet Archive is the only way to get hold of stuff that libraries simply won't have. This is especially important in unfree societies, as e.g. the library of Ukrainian books in Moscow got destroyed.

Mike Masnick /
Techdirt: 500,000 Books Have Been Deleted From The Internet Archive's Lending Library

Jacky /
@jalcine@todon.eu: Fuck publishers who hate books. Prime example of capitalism pulping knowledge curators. https://www.techdirt.com/... via @mmasnick @Haste@mastodon.social: In response to their continued dismantling of valuable digital libraries, I officially refuse to buy any more books from members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP). — Yes, I'm aware this includes huge publishers like Penguin and Macmillan. … @osma@mas.to: Major publishers are on a mission to kill the public library, and they've won a round by destroying access to half a million titles managed by the Internet Archive. Don't think for a second they won't be going for the same against other libraries. — https://www.techdirt.com/...

Chris Freeland /
Internet Archive Blogs: Let Readers Read — Ask publishers to restore access to the 500,000 books they've caused …

Kevin Carson /
@KevinCarson1@kolektiva.social: Copyright Nazis strike again: — If you found out that 500,000 books had been removed from your local public library, at the demands of big publishers who refused to let them buy and lend new copies, and were further suing the library for damages, wouldn't you think that would be a major news story? …

Jack Yan /
@jackyan@mastodon.social: I wonder if I should donate one of my earliest books, long out of print. Wonʼt make up for losing 500,000 but a start? — Only problem is I donʼt hold the rights internationally. — https://arstechnica.com/...

Christine Hall /
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu: “The Internet Archive's Open Library system is indistinguishable from the economics of how a regular library works. The Archive purchases physical books or has them donated. It then lends them on a one-to-one basis, such that when someone ‘borrows’ a digital copy of a book …

Diego /
@diegopds@bolha.us: “Our position is straightforward; we just want to let our library patrons borrow and read the books we own, like any other library,” Freeland wrote, while arguing that the “potential repercussions of this lawsuit extend far beyond the Internet Archive” and publishers should just “let readers read.” … r/LibertarianUncensored: Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win