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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Animators say ‘AI isn't going to get you an Oscar’

Comic book writers and animators fear the growing impact of artificial intelligence. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2024-01-11 00:15:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #comic book #artificial intelligence


AI: Copyright Challenges Now Include a New York Times Lawsuit

The newly launched lawsuit of OpenAI and Microsoft by The New York Times parallels legal actions from the book publishing industry. The post AI: Copyright Challenges Now Include a New York Times Lawsuit appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-01-04 19:59:05 UTC ]
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‘Where does the bot end and human begin?’: what the legendary @Horse_ebooks can teach us about AI

By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today’s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the accountMore than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-03 15:00:04 UTC ]
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Beware the ‘botshit’: why generative AI is such a real and imminent threat to the way we live | André Spicer

Unless checks are put in place, citizens and voters may soon face AI-generated content that bears no relation to realityAndré Spicer is professor of organisational behaviour at the Bayes Business School at City, University of LondonDuring 2023, the shape of politics to come appeared in a video.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-03 12:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #book business #ron desantis #generative ai #hillary clinton


For all the hype in 2023, we still don’t know what AI’s long-term impact will be | John Naughton

As with the printing press and the dotcom boom, initial frenzy and speculation obscures the lasting legacy of new technologies“Innovation,” wrote the economist William Janeway in his seminal book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, “begins with discovery and culminates in speculation.”... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-30 16:00:37 UTC ]
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How one of the world’s oldest newspapers is using AI to reinvent journalism

Berrow’s Worcester Journal is one of several papers owned by the UK’s second biggest regional news publisher to hire ‘AI-assisted’ reporters On 7 October 1779 a letter appeared in Berrow’s Worcester Journal. “To the printer,” wrote a disgruntled reader. “I take the liberty of informing you and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-28 14:03:33 UTC ]
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Apple is reportedly looking to team up with news publishers to train its AI

Apple has been noticeably missing in the list of companies with their own generative AI product, but based on a new report by The New York Times, it's looking to change that real soon. In recent weeks, Apple has reportedly started negotiating with major publishers and news organizations to ask... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-12-23 07:43:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #novelists #john grisham #rights holders #generative ais #legal issues #news articles


Powell’s Books Workers Ratify New Union Contract

Unionized workers at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., have ratified a new contract, according to ILWU Local 5, the union which has represented Powell's staff since 2000. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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How Publishers Can Navigate the AI Revolution

Despite the hype, publishing is still looking at what impact large language models and similar technology may bring. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Spotify is testing AI-generated playlists

Spotify is testing an AI-powered feature that creates playlists from text prompts. TikTok user @robdad_ posted a short clip of it, captioned, “I just randomly discovered Spotify’s ChatGPT?” For the chosen guinea pigs, the feature is available as an option under Your Library after tapping the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-12-14 18:18:00 UTC ]
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Copyright, AI, and Provenance

Generative AI stretches our current copyright law in unforeseen and uncomfortable ways. In the US, the Copyright Office has issued guidance stating that the output of image-generating AI isn’t copyrightable, unless human creativity has gone into the prompts that generated the output. This ruling... Continue reading at O'Reilly Radar

[ O'Reilly Radar | 2023-12-12 10:54:00 UTC ]
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Read these great books published by Lit Hub staff members in 2023.

As you probably know, Literary Hub is produced by a small staff; most of us are writers, and/or moonlight as editors on other projects. This year, four of our number—that would be 36% percent of full time Literary Hub staffers, not too shabby—published books, which is certainly worthy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-11 17:52:31 UTC ]
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2023 in books: Protests, bannings and the rise of AI helped shape the story of publishing

The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2023-12-08 14:55:07 UTC ]
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The Generative AI Copyright Fight Is Just Getting Started

The Authors Guild and other artists’ groups say that it's unfair to train AI algorithms on their work without permission. Tech companies generally argue that it counts as “fair use.” Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2023-12-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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CBC News analysis finds thousands of Canadian authors, books in controversial dataset used to train AI

A CBC News investigation has found at least 2,500 copyrighted books written by more than 1,200 Canadian and Québécois authors were shared online as part of a massive — and now defunct — dataset used to train artificial intelligence. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-12-07 09:00:49 UTC ]
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AAP Calls Big Tech's AI Arguments 'Nonsense'

In comments submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office this week, the Association of American Publishers slammed assertions by the tech industry that fair use permits AI developers to use copyrighted works to train their systems without permission or compensation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #copyrighted works #tech industry #copyright office


Why AI, revenue diversification and ad spend are the defining 2024 trends for media companies

Will Barker, manager, strategic customer success, BlueConic The media and publishing industry is constantly evolving. With this, it’s often difficult to keep up with the latest trends, especially with fast-evolving technologies emerging all the time and ripple effects remaining from the global... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2023-12-05 15:08:37 UTC ]
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Would I use AI to write my novels? I'd get better results from a monkey with an iPhone | Monica Ali

I asked ChatGPT to improve my latest novel and lost no sleep over the results. But I do worry about diverse voices being crowded out This summer two worlds – literature and technology – collided. News stories began appearing about authors suing OpenAI and Meta for using their works to train... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-01 06:00:07 UTC ]
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Scholastic Union Reaches Tentative New Contract Agreement

Unionized magazine employees at Scholastic have reached a tentative agreement with management, establishing a $65,000 salary floor, general wage increases, ratification bonuses, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-01 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #scholastic #tentative agreement


Can digital watermarking protect us from generative AI?

The Biden White House recently enacted its latest executive order designed to establish a guiding framework for generative artificial intelligence development — including content authentication and using digital watermarks to indicate when digital assets made by the Federal government are... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-11-30 18:45:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #nielsen #generative ais #security researchers