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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‘Songwriters deserve a bigger piece of the pie’: the music publishing boss on the threat of AI

Shani Gonzales of Warner Chappell says that although people are ‘having fun’ with creating AI songs, ‘what happens when someone tries to sell it?’Arriving in London in the teeth of the pandemic to take a top music industry job, Shani Gonzales had few opportunities to immerse herself in British... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-06-25 13:00:26 UTC ]
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Trip Adler Looks to Build a Bridge Between Creators, AI Companies

The cofounder and former CEO of Scribd envisions Created By Humans as a plug-and-play platform that will encourage AI companies to legally license content from authors and publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Record labels sue AI music generators for ‘massive infringement of recorded music’

Major music labels are taking on AI startups that they believe trained on their songs without paying. Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group sued the music generators Suno and Udio for allegedly infringing on copyrighted works on a “massive scale.” The Recording Industry... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-06-24 17:29:16 UTC ]
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Springer Nature in the UK: Two AI Tools Aim at Fake Research

The bid to protect valid research amid a rising tide of fake content is driving Springer Nature to create new in-house tools for detection. The post Springer Nature in the UK: Two AI Tools Aim at Fake Research appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-06-20 21:56:46 UTC ]
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How to Fix ‘AI’s Original Sin’

Last month, TheNew York Times claimed that tech giants OpenAI and Google have waded into a copyright gray area by transcribing the vast volume of YouTube videos and using that text as additional training data for their AI models despite terms of service that prohibit such efforts and copyright... Continue reading at O'Reilly Radar

[ O'Reilly Radar | 2024-06-18 12:58:16 UTC ]
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Union Strikes Outside U.S. Office of Oxford University Press

Roughly 30 members of the Oxford University Press USA Guild held a strike outside the publisher's U.S. headquarters in Manhattan on June 18 over stalled contract negotiations and allegations of labor law violations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Events Programming at Free Library of Philadelphia 'a Hot Mess' After Staff Firings

After the author events planning team at the Free Library of Philadelphia was fired on June 3, some of the authors scheduled to appear there this month are expressing their support for the former employees—some quietly, others publicly. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Modder gets Android on the Rabbit R1 AI gadget, makes it actually useful

For all the hullabaloo around AI this year, the consumer products that feature AI seem a bit lackluster. They’re either augmenting existing designs (like “AI PCs”) or they’ve flopped hard. Take the Rabbit R1, which was such an instant failure that it made its way into mainstream news.... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-06-10 15:16:41 UTC ]
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The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet

BNN Breaking had millions of readers, an international team of journalists and a publishing deal with Microsoft. But it was just an A.I. chop shop. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-06-06 04:00:25 UTC ]
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Layoffs Hit Little, Brown Editorial; Tracy Sherrod, More Depart

Tracy Sherrod, one of the few prominently positioned Black women in the trade publishing industry, was among a number of established editors recently laid off at Little, Brown. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple WWDC 2024: What we expect including iOS 18 updates, AI and more

It'll soon be Apple's turn to talk about its next major operating system updates, giving developers a chance to get their apps ready ahead of a broad rollout this fall. The company's Worldwide Developers Conference is right around the corner. Apple is sure to reveal some of the main features of... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-06-04 16:29:40 UTC ]
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Media Buying Briefing: Agencies bet on PR with acquisitions and AI investments

Media agencies are buying public relations shops and investing in AI as the rapid growth of digital media presents new opportunities to engage consumers and expand their specialities. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2024-06-03 04:01:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Book Group Restructures Sales Department Amid Layoffs

Hachette Book Group is reorganizing its sales group in order to "strengthen HBG's customer relationships" and "capitalize on marketplace opportunities," according to a spokesperson. The reorg eliminates a number of positions and reenvisions others, and the company has posted eight new job openings. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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These New Books Will Help You Understand AI

In a slate of new books, authors consider the emerging technology’s potential payoffs and pitfalls. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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6 Books on AI in the Workplace

These forthcoming books discuss the future of the workplace amid AI’s ever-increasing reach. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Academic Writers on AI: An Oxford University Press Study

The 2,300+ international researchers responding to Oxford University's Study revealed high interest but also extensive misgivings about AI. The post Academic Writers on AI: An Oxford University Press Study appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-05-30 20:52:30 UTC ]
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Apple WWDC 2024: What to expect including iOS 18, AI and more

It'll soon be Apple's turn to talk about its next major operating system updates, giving developers a chance to get their apps ready ahead of a broad rollout this fall. The company's Worldwide Developers Conference is right around the corner. Apple is sure to reveal some of the main features of... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-30 19:58:03 UTC ]
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Arm’s new Cortex X925 takes on AI, and could land in PCs

Arm has confirmed that it will be offering its next-gen Arm compute platform, called Arm CSS for Client, at Android smartphones. Executives also mentioned that they could be used for PCs as well. The announcement follows an earlier report that indicated that Arm might expand its... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-05-29 22:44:57 UTC ]
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The Atlantic and Vox Media made their own deal with the AI Devil

In the last few months, news organizations have leapt into bed with OpenAI, hatching Faustian bargains where the cash-strapped media industry exchanges a monetary pittance for OpenAI's right to scrape and integrate their content into things like ChatGPT. Those that have signed in blood include... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-29 16:21:28 UTC ]
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The Morning After: AI-generated emoji could soon come to the iPhone

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that AI-generated emojis may be one of the new features Apple shows off at WWDC next month. If the current emoji library weren’t overwhelming enough (let alone my increasingly growing sticker collection both on Messages and WhatsApp), Gurman writes that the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-27 11:15:26 UTC ]
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