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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Amazon says its next-gen chips are four times faster for AI training

Amazon Web Services (AWS) just kicked off its Las Vegas-based re:Invent conference with a stream of announcements, most of which involve the year’s most popular technology, AI. These news items, taken as a whole, give us a sneak peek at the company’s long-term goals for... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-11-28 20:00:28 UTC ]
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IPA’s Karine Pansa Opens Guadalajara: ‘A Union of Cultures to Build’

The 37th iteration of the Guadalajara International Book Fair opens with IPA's Karine Pansa flagging world publishing's challenges. The post IPA’s Karine Pansa Opens Guadalajara: ‘A Union of Cultures to Build’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-11-26 16:46:54 UTC ]
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Project Gutenberg Produced 5,000 AI Audiobooks, but How Do They Sound?

Project Gutenberg's AI audiobook project is yet another instance of AI encroaching on the book industry. But how do the audiobooks sound? Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-11-22 11:36:00 UTC ]
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Workers at Two More B&N Stores Vote to Unionize

The union drives at Barnes & Noble are spreading beyond East Coast stores, to California and the Midwest, as workers at locations in San Jose, Calif., and Bloomington, Ill., have voted join unions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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How advertisers can deal with generative AI’s copyright conundrum

To what extent copyright law applies to generative AI tools is a legal gray area -- and cause for concern among companies using these tools for commercial purposes. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2023-11-20 05:01:00 UTC ]
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IAC and News Corp call out generative AI companies for scraping their content without compensation

During News Corp’s and IAC’s latest earnings calls, the publishers reiterated their anger toward generative AI companies scraping their content without permission or payment — and what they think the next steps will be. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2023-11-17 05:01:00 UTC ]
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Workers Unionize at Drawn & Quarterly, Vaunted Literary Graphic Novel Publisher

Employees at D&Q, the Montreal-based literary graphic novel publisher, and its sister bookstore, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, are unionizing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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How to watch AI Book Club Night with authors Fei-Fei Li and Joy Buolamwini

Fei-Fei Li, author of "The Worlds I See," and Joy Buolamwini, author of "Unmasking AI," join the L.A. Times Book Club. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-11-14 20:40:08 UTC ]
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Why Reddit’s COO Thinks It Might Be AI-Proof

As artificial intelligence impacts the operations of digital media publishers, Reddit chief operating officer Jen Wong believes that the community platform might be one of the few companies insulated as a result of being focused on human interactivity and first-hand knowledge sharing. "We think... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-11-14 18:47:50 UTC ]
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How Marketers Are Navigating AI’s Language Gap

When Mike Sotelo, vice president of digital content and experience at ad agency Alma, experimented with OpenAI's generative artificial intelligence tool GPT-3 in Spanish earlier this year, it wasn't long before he came across a language gap. Sotelo entered two prompts: "How does a guey [a... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-11-13 21:00:00 UTC ]
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Judge Will Toss Part of Authors’ AI Copyright Lawsuit

A federal judge said he will dismiss part of a lawsuit filed by a group of authors including comedian Sarah Silverman that claims Meta’s Llama AI application infringes their copyrights. However, a core claim of the suit—that Meta’s use of unauthorized copies to train its AI model is... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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‘It is a beast that needs to be tamed’: leading novelists on how AI could rewrite the future

Novelists and poets, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen Marche and others, consider the threats and thrilling possibilities of artificial intelligenceChatGPT seems to have blindsided us all. In less than a year it has proved that it can make writers redundant, which is one of the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 09:00:30 UTC ]
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G/O Media Shutters Jezebel, Lays Off Staff and Editorial Director Merrill Brown

The digital publisher G/O Media has shuttered Jezebel, the feminist publisher, amid a broader sweep of layoffs across the G/O Media portfolio that will affect 23 staff in total, according to an internal memo shared by chief executive Jim Spanfeller. The cuts come just two days after the company... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-11-09 16:29:51 UTC ]
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NWU Releases Platform and Principles for Generative AI Policy

The National Writers Union, the U.S. trade union for freelance and contract writers and authors, has identified six core principles and five key policy areas that will guide its organizing efforts around generative artificial intelligence. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Academic Publishing: Springer Nature Acquires Slimmer AI’s Science Division

The Dutch Slimmer AI's science division moves to Springer Nature in a partnership intended to support editors and research writers. The post Academic Publishing: Springer Nature Acquires Slimmer AI’s Science Division appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-10-27 11:34:24 UTC ]
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Why this AI pioneer is calling for 'human centered' computing

Fei-Fei Li, author of 'The Worlds I See' and co-director of Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute, joins the L.A. Times Book Club Nov. 14. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-20 14:00:28 UTC ]
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Marianne Moore and AI Helped Make Sean Michaels' New Novel

The author of 'Do You Remember Being Born?' explains how he created a "Moorebot" to generate the verse in the novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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‘The potential to undermine democracy’: European publishing trade bodies call for action on generative AI

Three organisations argue that more transparency is needed after research found AI models have been trained using pirated works by authors such as Zadie Smith and Stephen KingThree major European publishing trade bodies have urged the EU to “act now” on transparency over artificial intelligence... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-10-19 13:53:46 UTC ]
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Arnold Intelligence: Schwarzenegger Spoofs AI to Promote His New Book

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been many things: bodybuilder, movie star, governor of California-and now a self-help guru. This month, Schwarzenegger released a self-help book titled, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life. Since he's no ordinary star, publisher Penguin Press knew it couldn't promote the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-10-18 13:30:00 UTC ]
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From ancient Jewish texts to AI, a sequence of figures turns matter into meaning

Computer languages are ultimately rendered in ones and zeros, even AI programs. Though this technology is new, the concept it’s hinged on is not. Isaac Asimov’s iconic science fiction collection I, Robot, tells the story of androids created at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Inc. The androids... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2023-10-17 06:00:00 UTC ]
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