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Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Welcome to a four-day week! The WGA is targeting executive pay, the FT is explaining a decision to spike a #MeToo story, right-wing media is hyping Kevin McCarthy's war with Christopher Wray, Fidelity is saying Twitter has lost two-thirds of its value, and the ratings are in for the series finale of "Succession." But first, the A1.

THE A1

A.I.'s Oppenheimer Moment

CNN Photo Illustration/RomoloTavani/iStock/Getty Images

Human extinction.

Think about that for a second. Really think about it. The erasure of the human race from planet Earth.

That is what top industry leaders are frantically sounding the alarm about. These technologists and academics keep smashing the red panic button, doing everything they can to warn about the potential dangers artificial intelligence poses to the very existence of civilization.

On Tuesday, hundreds of top A.I. scientists, researchers, and others — including OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis — again voiced deep concern for the future of humanity, signing a one-sentence open letter to the public that aimed to put the risks the rapidly advancing technology carries with it in unmistakable terms.

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," said the letter, signed by many of the industry's most respected figures.

It doesn't get more straightforward and urgent than that. These industry leaders are quite literally warning that the impending A.I. revolution should be taken as seriously as the threat of nuclear war. They are pleading for policymakers to erect some guardrails and establish baseline regulations to defang the primitive technology before it is too late.

Dan Hendrycks, the executive director of the Center for A.I. Safety, called the situation "reminiscent of atomic scientists issuing warnings about the very technologies they've created. As Robert Oppenheimer noted, 'We knew the world would not be the same.'"

"There are many 'important and urgent risks from AI,' not just the risk of extinction; for example, systemic bias, misinformation, malicious use, cyberattacks, and weaponization," Hendrycks continued. "These are all important risks that need to be addressed."

And yet, it seems that the dire message these experts are desperately trying to send the public isn't cutting through the noise of everyday life. A.I. experts might be sounding the alarm, but the level of trepidation — and in some cases sheer terror — they harbor about the technology is not being echoed with similar urgency by the news media to the masses.

Instead, broadly speaking, news organizations treated Tuesday's letter — like all of the other warnings we have seen in recent months — as just another headline, mixed in with a garden variety of stories. Some major news organizations didn't even feature an article about the chilling warning on their website's homepages.

To some extent, it feels eerily reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic, before the widespread panic and the shutdowns and the overloaded emergency rooms. Newsrooms kept an eye on the rising threat that the virus posed, publishing stories about it slowly spreading across the world. But by the time the serious nature of the virus was fully recognized and fused into the very essence in which it was covered, it had already effectively upended the world.

History risks repeating itself with A.I., with even higher stakes. Yes, news organizations are covering the developing technology. But there has been a considerable lack of urgency surrounding the issue given the open possibility of planetary peril.

Perhaps that is because it can be difficult to come to terms with the notion that a Hollywood-style science fiction apocalypse can become reality, that advancing computer technology might reach escape velocity and decimate humans from existence. It is, however, precisely what the world's most leading experts are warning could happen.

It is much easier to avoid uncomfortable realities, pushing them from the forefront into the background and hoping that issues simply resolve themself with time. But often they don't — and it seems unlikely that the growing concerns pertaining to A.I. will resolve themselves. In fact, it's far more likely that with the breakneck pace in which the technology is developing, the concerns will actually become more apparent with time.

As Cynthia Rudin, a computer science professor and A.I. researcher at Duke University, told CNN on Tuesday: "Do we really need more evidence that A.I.'s negative impact could be as big as nuclear war?"

THE SIDEBAR

"I don't think AI will lead to the end of civilization as we know it in the near future. But I do think an awful lot of corporations are champing at the bit to replace as many expensive humans as they can with AI," writes Arwa Mahdawi. (Guardian)
"The White House press shop has found itself on one of the many front lines of the A.I. battles," reports Eli Stokols and Lauren Egan. (POLITICO)
Nvidia temporarily became a trillion-dollar company on Tuesday morning, courtesy of the A.I. boom. (The Verge)
One of A.I.'s biggest challenges is its tendency to lie, writes Gerrit De Vynck. To mitigate the issue, a team of MIT researchers had multiple artificial intelligences debate various subjects, forcing them to discursively deduce the correct answers that their discrete biases were incapable of discerning in isolation. (WaPo)
Kevin Roose explains "why an Octopus-like creature has come to symbolize the sate of A.I." (NYT)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/gotpap/STAR MAX/IPx/AP

The WGA's Wish: As the writers strike enters its one-month mark, the Writers Guild of America is targeting executive pay. WGA West chief Meredith Stiehm on Tuesday wrote shareholders for Netflix and NBCU parent Comcast, urging them to vote against the hefty compensation packages for executives. "Approval of this compensation package is inappropriate in light of the ongoing WGA writers' strike," the letters said. The move from the WGA comes ahead of each company's annual meetings, with Netflix's slated for Thursday and Comcast's next week. THR's Alex Weprin has more here.

THE WRITERS ROOM

WGA negotiating committee co-chair David Goodman talks to Matt Belloni, telling him he doesn't assume the strike will have to last six months: "I think these companies are hurting from this strike." (Puck)
Belloni talks to Derek Thompson about how the strike can "change the future of TV and movies." (The Ringer)
"The WGA wants to lock in higher streaming compensation for screenwriters, but some members say they're not hopeful for dramatic change amid a focus on TV issues," Jeremy Fuster reports. (The Wrap)
The strike means that the Tony Awards, which are due up on June 11, will be unscripted. (Patch)
The strike is dominating discussion at the LA Screenings. (Deadline)

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

FT Firestorm: Financial Times reporter Madison Marriage had a scoop this past winter that Guardian columnist Nick Cohen had resigned amid #MeToo allegations, but it was spiked by her editor, Roula Khalaf, The NYT's Jane Bradley reported Tuesday. The move did not sit well with some of Cohen's accusers, who spoke to Bradley. Lucy Siegle, who alleged Cohen groped her in the newsroom years ago, said it "amplified this sense that #MeToo is nothing but a convenient hashtag for the British media." A spokesperson for the FT told Bradley that "some reporting leads to published stories" and "some not." Asked by Bradley about the #MeToo allegations, Cohen said he had struggled with alcoholism and now looks back on his "addicted life" with "deep shame." Read Bradley's full story here.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Danny Funt looks at Defector, writing that the outlet is "in pursuit of a journalists' utopia." (CJR)
Cox, Fox, and CBS have reached a $48 million settlement to put to rest an advertising antitrust complaint. (THR)
Viola Davis' Ashé Audio Ventures has struck a deal with Audible. (THR)

MEDIA MOVES

The WaPo hired Laura Wagner as a media reporter. (WaPo)
Gizmodo hired Dan Ackerman as its new editor-in-chief. (Twitter)
Universal tapped Cathy Nam as SVP of global comms. (Deadline)
CNN Business hired Luciana Lopez as managing editor. (Talking Biz)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Warring With Wray: Kevin McCarthy's threat to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for not playing ball in the House GOP's Hunter Biden probe is the biggest story in right-wing media. The story has received little attention (so far) from the mainstream press. But it has been front and center in places like Fox News. McCarthy actually used the right-wing channel to send Wray his initial warning on Tuesday, threatening to hold Wray in contempt if he didn't comply with a subpoena from House Oversight Chair James Comer. Comer, who has a history of making baseless allegations, said the FBI had informed his committee it would not turn over the desired documents. Comer said he would "now be taking steps" to hold Wray in contempt, which rocketed to the top story on Fox News.

🔎 Zooming in: The battle with Wray comes at an opportune time for House GOP leadership, which is struggling to sell the debt deal to some of its supporters in right-wing media. By focusing on Wray, McCarthy & Co. have tossed red meat out for their supporters and helped divert attention away from the not-so-popular debt deal.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

More corporate warfare? Chick-fil-A's hiring of a director of diversity has prompted discussion about a potential boycott among some right-wing internet pundits. (Daily Beast)
Over the weekend, Jim Rutenberg, Michael Schmidt, and Jeremy Peters published a deeply reported story about the "missteps and miscalculation" at Fox Corporation that ultimately led to the company paying Dominion $787.5 million. The story put the spotlight on Fox chief legal officer Viet Dinh. (NYT)
"It's the defamation, stupid": While some are eager to place the blame on Dinh, Matt Gertz writes that "the problem with Fox's Dominion defamation wasn't the lawyering." (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Stephane Lemouton/Pool/Sipa/AP

Musk's Mark: Twitter has seen two-thirds of its value evaporate since Elon Musk acquired the company, according to Fidelity. Bloomberg's Aisha Counts and Tom Maloney, who reported the news, noted that it's not the first time since Fidelity lowered its value of the embattled social media company. "It's unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new, lower valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company," the duo wrote. Read their full story here.

🔎 Zooming in: Regardless of whether Fidelity has access to private company data, there is plenty of public information that signals Twitter is in real trouble. Musk has wrecked absolute havoc on the company since taking over last year. He has laid off most of its staffers, alienated advertisers, launched a weak subscription business, flirted with right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists, dissolved the verification system, and watched as basic features on the website break down. Mixed together, it is not exactly a cocktail for success.

TOO MANY TABS

A fake Twitter account, which sports a blue check because it subscribes to Twitter Blue, has been impersonating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, raising alarm about disinformation ahead of the 2024 election. (Mediaite)
France's digital minister said if Twitter fails to comply with the E.U.'s forthcoming standards, it will be banned: "Disinformation is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies." (POLITICO)
TikTok "has stored the most sensitive financial data of its biggest stars — including those in its 'Creator Fund' — on servers in China," Alexandra Levine reports. (Forbes)
Snapchat has introduced its AR Learning Hub. (Adweek)
The Vatican urged Catholic social media users, both faithful and clerical alike, to be "reflective, not reactive" online, warning that the latter seldom reaps ecclesiastical "loving neighbors" values. (AP)
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has reported to prison, marking the beginning of her 11-year sentence. (CNN)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/HBO

The 'Succession' Swan Song: The series finale of HBO's prestige drama "Succession" ended on a high note, drawing 2.9 million viewers on Sunday night. That marks the largest audience the show has amassed during its four-season run. Millions more, of course, will stream the episode on-demand. The Wrap's Loree Seitz and Lucas Manfredi have more here.

► The final shot of "Succession" was filmed on a frigid New York evening in which the "windchill was minus-something in Fahrenheit," director and executive producer Mark Mylod revealed to Variety's Ethan Shanfeld.

► Jeremy Strong said to Deadline's Dominic Patten that he believes Kendall Roy was "capable and should have taken over" Waystar Royco. Strong adds that his character "lost his soul" when he was denied the job and that he told series creator Jesse Armstrong that he believed Kendall needed "to try and end" his life at the conclusion: "I don't see any other way for Kendall. I don't see any way out."

► Strong added to THR's Josh Wigler that there isn't a scenario in which there isn't a tragic ending for Kendall: "To get what he wants, he has mortgaged off every last ounce of what was good in him. He's mortgaged off his integrity, his moral center. He's lost his children, he's lost love, his siblings, his father. He made a devil's bargain to elect [Jeryd Mencken] as president."

► The Ringer's Brian Phillips wonders in an excellent piece, "How will 'Succession' be remembered?"

OFF STAGE

Disney's live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid" brought in $117 million at the domestic box office over opening weekend. (CNN)
Sarah Rumpf noted that the "woke backlash" the film received didn't hinder it from success at the box office. (Mediaite)
Initial projections estimate "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" will open with an $80 million debut. (Variety)
A tweet from the "Ted Lasso" account is fueling speculation that Wednesday's season finale will also be the series' finale. (The Wrap)
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are accused in a new book of fostering a toxic work culture on the set of "LOST." Cuse has not commented, but Lindelof said he "failed" due to his "fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss." (Deadline)
Martin Scorsese revealed that his next movie will be about Jesus. The director's announcement comes after he met with Pope Francis over the weekend. (THR)
Benedict Cumberbatch's London home was damaged in an attack by a fish knife-wielding ex-chef while the actor and his family were inside. (LAT)
John Cleese said a controversial scene from Monty Python's 1979 "Life of Brian" will not be cut as the film is rewritten for the stage. (Variety)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.