After layoffs and an AI scandal, CNET's staff is unionizing

CNET, the venerable tech site which began publication nearly 30 years ago, has become the latest digital media company whose staff have chosen to band together and demand more. The CNET Media Worker's Union (CMWU) today sent a letter to Red Ventures, the private equity concern which purchased CNET in 2020, seeking recognition of a bargaining unit of nearly 100 workers including editors, writers, and video producers. According to CMWU, a supermajority of those in the unit signed union authorization cards.Like the overwhelming majority of other organized digital publications, the workers who make up CMWU are responding in large part to an increasingly hostile financial climate in the industry. CNET has not been spared the same tumult that has led to the shuttering of Buzzfeed News and VICE's decision to file for bankruptcy: the company went through three brutal rounds of layoffs over recent months, the most recent of which stripped approximately a dozen staffers from the masthead. "We lost a lot of really great reporters," Laura Michelle Davis, an editor with CNET and organizing committee member, told Engadget.According to Davis, that sense of uncertainty led to a number of voluntary departures, but also to the surviving staff choosing to organize. Despite those cuts, according to the union's statement sent to management today, staff have continue to be "subjected to ongoing restructuring, cost-cutting austerity measures, shifting job roles and promotion freezes." CMWU has... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-05-16 16:13:18 UTC ]
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Writers' Guild of Great Britain Publishes Report on AI

Sixty-five percent of those responding to a survey conducted by the U.K. union that represents writers in such professions as books, film, and said that they believed that the increased use of AI will reduce their income from writing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Anthropic releases Claude 2, a more capable, less gullible AI chatbot

Just five months after Anthropic debuted its ChatGPT rival, Claude, the company is back with an updated version that promises longer answers, more detailed reasonings, fewer hallucinations and generally better performance. It also now scores in the 90th percentile of graduate school applicants... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-07-11 16:00:53 UTC ]
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Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books

For colleges and libraries seeking a big name for a guest lecturer, few come bigger than Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court justice who rose from poverty in the Bronx to the nation’s highest court Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2023-07-11 14:02:45 UTC ]
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Animated GIF generator from Picsart makes AI fun again

Remember the early days of the AI hype train, when everyone spent their time making stupid images using text prompts? If you want to recapture the nostalgic haze of, uh, late 2022, Picsart has got you covered. The popular image editor just launched an AI-powered animated GIF generator.The major... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-07-03 17:59:35 UTC ]
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World Editions publishing has been bought out by a senior staff member.

Fans of the publisher World Editions, which has brought translations of work by Maryse Condé, Amin Maalouf, Pilar Quintana, Jaap Robben and Zhang Yueran to English-language audiences, has found a new owner—none other than the US director Christine Swedowsky. A rare fairy-tale finish! World... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-30 13:57:16 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Workers at Main Brooklyn Store Join Union

After an 88% vote in favor of unionization, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union will represent more than 30 workers at the store when contract negotiations commence this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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All the big tech layoffs of 2023

The tech industry is reeling from the combination of a rough economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and some obvious business missteps. And while that led to job cuts in 2022, the headcount reductions have unfortunately ramped up in 2023. It can be tough to keep track of these moves, so we’ve compiled... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-29 15:28:56 UTC ]
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French newspaper staff strike after ‘far-right personality’ made editor

Public figures back strike at Le Journal du Dimanche to protest against appointment of Geoffroy LejeuneActors, novelists and leftwing politicians have joined support for major strike action at France’s flagship Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, to protest against the appointment, ahead... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-27 15:32:49 UTC ]
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Cannes Today—AI obsession, Edelman stalked, Spike Lee's Cannes take and more

Welcome to Day Four of Ad Age’s Cannes Today newsletter. Reading online and want it delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here.  For real-time updates, follow our live blog. And see all our coverage here. Click here for a recap of Day Three. AI overload As everyone knows, unless you are... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2023-06-22 19:48:12 UTC ]
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Cannes Today—Twitter and Meta make pitches, Omnicom hooks up with Google AI and Grand Prix latest

Welcome to Day Two of Ad Age’s Cannes Today newsletter. Reading this online and want it delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here.  For real-time updates, follow our live blog. And see all our coverage here. Plus, click here for a recap of Day One. Twitter is beachless but bullish and Meta... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2023-06-20 20:38:54 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Why AI won't be taking our cosmology jobs

The problem with studying the universe around us is that it is simply too big. The stars overhead remain too far away to interact with directly, so we are relegated to testing our theories on the formation of the galaxies based on observable data. Simulating these celestial bodies on computers... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-18 15:30:05 UTC ]
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‘AI Voices’ in Audiobooks: Storytel in ElevenLabs Partnership

Storytel invests in ElevenLabs, looking to offer automated audiobook readings and 'voice switching' for users between preferred voices. The post ‘AI Voices’ in Audiobooks: Storytel in ElevenLabs Partnership appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-06-13 21:58:52 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Flagship Store in NYC Unionizes

The third Barnes & Noble store to unionize, the bookstore workers voted 97% in favor of joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, citing safety issues, substandard pay and lack of workplace structure. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Google and Facebook urged by EU to label AI-generated content

Call comes amid moves to combat disinformation from Russia, while Twitter is warned to comply with new digital content lawsSocial media companies including Google and Facebook have been urged by the EU to “immediately” start labelling content and images generated by artificial intelligence as... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-05 13:06:04 UTC ]
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Authors Guild Issues Contract Clause Changes to Account for AI

As part of its campaign to protect its members from the rise of large language models and other artificial intelligence tools, the Authors Guild has released four new model contract clauses concerning the technology. Earlier, the Guild released a survey of members that found that 69% of those... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Morning After: Industry leaders say AI presents 'risk of extinction' on par with nuclear war

With the rise of AI language models and tools like ChatGPT and Bard, we've heard warnings from people involved, like Elon Musk, about the risks posed by AI. Now, a group of high-profile industry leaders has issued a one-sentence statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-05-31 11:15:45 UTC ]
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Microsoft appeals for a new US agency to regulate AI

Microsoft has called for the US federal government to create a new agency specifically focused on regulating AI, Bloombergreports. At a speech in Washington, DC attended by some members of Congress and non-governmental organizations, Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith remarked that... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-05-26 09:55:10 UTC ]
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Workers at Third B&N Store File for Union Election

Barnes & Noble workers at the Park Slope, Brooklyn, store filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 25, making them the third B&N store to do so in less than two months. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury admits using AI-generated artwork for Sarah J Maas novel

Publisher says cover of House of Earth and Blood was prepared by in-house designers unaware the stock image chosen was not human-madePublisher Bloomsbury has said it was unaware an image it used on the cover of a book by fantasy author Sarah J Maas was generated by artificial intelligence.The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-19 14:30:22 UTC ]
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How R. F. Kuang turned every recent book scandal into the satirical thriller 'Yellowface'

In 'Yellowface,' R. F. Kuang has traded in fantasy fiction for a wild satire on literary scandals over appropriation and plagiarism. How and why she did it. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-15 13:00:29 UTC ]
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