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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Penguin Random House amends its copyright rules to protect authors from AI

Artificial intelligence makers have faced a mountain of criticism for borrowing from the work of others to train its models. Now the world’s largest publishing house is taking steps to ensure its authors don’t have their work plagiarized in the name of progress. The Bookseller reports that... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-10-18 21:04:36 UTC ]
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Wiley Creates AI Partnership Program

Under Wiley AI Partnerships, the company will work with start-ups and scale-ups to develop AI tools that will help researchers use AI responsibly and effectively in their work. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Condé Nast Says It Has Reached Deal With New Yorker Union Amid Strike Threat

It seems that The New Yorker Festival may be picket-free this year. The magazine's union and management at Conde Nast reached a new tentative three-year agreement, the company's human resources department told staffers Monday. (THR) Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2024-10-15 11:54:00 UTC ]
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8 truly useful AI tools that make your life and work easier

Artificial intelligence is the holy grail of the information age and the hot topic du jour. The hype was triggered by the revolutionary chatbot ChatGPT, which has turned our concept of non-human intelligence on its head. With a few key words, the AI creates seemingly authentic essays... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-10-15 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Former Humble Games staff form new publisher that will work with their old company

Two former leaders from video game publisher Humble Games, Alan Patmore and Mark Nash, have launched a new outfit called Good Games Group. And ironically, the first deal this indie publisher has landed is with its team's old parent company. According to the statement from Good Games Group, the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-10-09 21:15:39 UTC ]
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The New Yorker Union Members Unanimously Authorize Strike Ahead of Festival

More than three years ago, The New Yorker's unionized employees authorized and threatened a strike during a contentious first contract negotiation that culminated with scores of protestors descending on the Greenwich Village home of Conde Nast executive Anna Wintour days... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2024-10-04 11:54:00 UTC ]
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Engadget Podcast: Why the Windows 11 2024 update is all about Copilot AI

This week, Microsoft started rolling out the Windows 11 2024 update, but it quickly became clear that the company was far more eager to unveil new features for its Copilot AI and Copilot+ AI PCs. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn chat about Microsoft's current AI priorities, and what it... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-10-04 11:30:26 UTC ]
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AI could be an existential threat to publishers – that’s why Mumsnet is fighting back | Justine Roberts

There is nothing wrong with mining content for data, but it has to be properly regulated and creators must be compensatedJustine Roberts is the CEO of MumsnetAfter nearly 25 years as a founder of Mumsnet, I considered myself pretty unshockable when it came to the workings of big tech. But my jaw... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-09-28 07:00:09 UTC ]
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The art of negotiating AI deals, according to Time COO Mark Howard

Time's chief operating officer took the stage at the Digiday Publishing Summit to share how he evaluates deals with AI companies. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2024-09-27 04:01:00 UTC ]
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Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10+ are tablets built for AI

Samsung is once again expanding its tablet lineup, and this time, the company is doing so with AI at the forefront. Today, Samsung revealed the Galaxy Tab S10 series, two models that it says are "built with AI enhancements available right out of the box." The 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-09-26 16:26:33 UTC ]
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HP printers apparently have AI now, because of course they do

The technology industry over the last few years has felt a lot like an episode of the original Power Rangers: It’s AI, AI, AI. Artificial intelligence already had a nebulous and inconsistent definition here in the real world (almost everything we’re calling “AI” now is machine learning,... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-09-26 13:46:31 UTC ]
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Lionsgate signs a deal with the devil (an AI startup)

Remember when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA went on strike for months, in great part to get protections against AI? Well, while they did get some stipulations in there, it's not stopping AI from coming to Hollywood anyways. Lionsgate, the studio behind the John Wick and Hunger... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-09-18 15:10:46 UTC ]
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Amazon’s Audiobook Narrators Can Now Make Their Own AI Voice Clones

Plus: Meta’s AI scrapes the UK, Google digitizes your passport, Chrome syncs your tabs everywhere, and (have you heard?) Apple announces some new iPhones. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2024-09-14 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Oxford University Press USA Guild is protesting the firing of 13 unionized staffers.

The OUP USA Guild, part of the News Media Guild and representing around 150 workers, is demanding that Oxford University Press reverse the recent firing of US-based workers, claiming the layoffs are in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that management and the union signed just... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-13 16:16:21 UTC ]
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Algonquin Publisher Betsy Gleick, Other Staff Laid Off in HBG's Workman Reorg

The layoffs of Gleick, associate publisher Michael McKenzie, and "other staff" constitute what Little, Brown president and publisher Sally Kim called "the final part of the Workman reorganization." The Algonquin imprint was moved into Little, Brown in July. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Are novelists who worry about the rise of AI really ‘classist and ableist’? | Arwa Mahdawi

An international writing organisation appeared to greenlight the use of AI, prompting anger, the resignation of four board members and an entire creative community to ask: ‘What?!’Please spare a thought for artificial intelligence (AI). It may not have feelings yet but, if it did, it would feel... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-09-11 10:00:07 UTC ]
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ACX Testing AI Program to Replicate Narrators Voices

Under the initiative, narrators will be able submit a sample voice recording for free to ACX, which will turn it into a replica of the participant’s own voice. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Wiley Wraps Up Divestiture Program, Looks at AI Opportunities

The company it has completed the sale of three companies and saw gains from recent AI partnerships in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, with CEO Matthew Kissner promising that Wiley is prepared to "move decisively on AI opportunities." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This startup wants to be the iTunes of AI content licensing

TollBit The 28-year-old founders of TollBit, a New York-based startup that is all of six months old, think we’re living in the “Napster days” of AI. Just like people of a certain generation downloaded digital music, companies are ripping off vast swaths of the internet without paying the rights... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-08-23 16:29:42 UTC ]
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AI startup Anthropic gets sued on allegations of ‘large-scale theft’

Book authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson are accusing Anthropic of copyright infringement. A group of authors is suing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, alleging it committed “large-scale theft” in training its popular chatbot Claude on pirated copies of... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2024-08-20 12:37:17 UTC ]
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