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Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Happy Halloween! Wolf Blitzer presses IDF spokesperson on refugee camp strike, CPJ expresses alarm over arrest of Alabama journalists, The Guardian blasts Microsoft over A.I.-generated poll, politicians and tech leaders gather in U.K. for A.I. summit, Brian Stelter takes a hard look at Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News, SAG-AFTRA heads back to the bargaining table with studios, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Busting the Bots

CNN Photo Illustration/Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

A top news media trade group is calling out A.I. technology companies for scraping news material to train their chatbots.

The News Media Alliance, which represents nearly 2,000 outlets in the U.S., published research Tuesday that found developers of generative artificial intelligence systems, such as OpenAI and Google, "have copied and used news, magazine, and digital media content to train" their bots. Importantly, the research indicated that A.I. companies have trained their bots to give far more credence to information published by those credible publishers versus material elsewhere across the web.

"The research and analysis we've conducted shows that AI companies and developers are not only engaging in unauthorized copying of our members' content to train their products, but they are using it pervasively and to a greater extent than other sources," said Danielle Coffey, chief executive of the News Media Alliance, in a statement.

"This shows they recognize our unique value, and yet most of these developers are not obtaining proper permissions through licensing agreements or compensating publishers for the use of this content," Coffey added. "This diminishment of high-quality, human created content harms not only publishers but the sustainability of AI models themselves and the availability of reliable, trustworthy information."

In the published white paper, the trade group also rejected arguments that A.I. bots have simply "learned" facts by reading various sets of data, like a human being would. The group said "it is inaccurate" to form such a conclusion "because models retain the expressions of facts that are contained in works in their copied training materials (and which copyright protects) without ever absorbing any underlying concepts."

Publishers, many of which have been in a Cold War of sorts with A.I. companies, have started in recent months taking defensive measures to protect their content. In August, a Reliable Sources review found that a dozen major media companies have inserted code into their websites to safeguard their content from A.I. bots that scrape the web for information. And many more have added it since.

But those defensive measures only protect news organizations from future scraping. The action would do nothing to address the prior scraping of their reporting, which the News Media Alliance — and others — said have been used to train A.I. bots.

To solve for that problem, the News Media Alliance outlined recommendations for news publishers to protect them from going extinct in this brave new world. The recommendations include policymakers recognizing that the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train A.I. bots "is infringing" and that publishers should be able to "license the use of their content efficiently and on fair terms."

"Our culture, our economy, and our democracy require a solution that allows the news and media industry to grow and flourish, and both to share in the profit from and participate in the development of the GAI revolution that is being built upon the fruits of its labor," the News Media Alliance said.

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CNN Photo Illustration/Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

ISRAEL AT WAR

Wolf Blitzer pressed Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht about an air strike on a refugee camp targeting a Hamas commander: "Even if that Hamas commander was there ... Israel still went ahead and dropped the bomb there ... knowing that a lot of innocent civilians, men, women, and children, presumably, would be killed?" (CNN)
Later, another IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus, told Blitzer that a senior Hamas commander and dozens of Hamas fighters were killed in the strike. Conricus argued those deaths should be factored into news coverage. "I think we should be careful when reporting about it," Conricus told Blitzer about the strike.
The Financial Times called for a ceasefire: "It is time for a humanitarian ceasefire. That would ease the suffering of Palestinians and cool regional tensions. Hamas must release all hostages." (FT)
"Will the media get coverage of the crisis in Israel and Gaza right? It all depends on the editors," argued Jonah Goldberg. (LAT)
Eric Cortellessa took a look at Hamas' social media strategy. (TIME)
David D. Kirkpatrick and Adam Rasgon reported on "the Hamas propaganda war." The duo wrote, "However unpersuasive or ham-fisted such propaganda might seem in the West, Ghaith al-Omari — a former adviser to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and a longtime opponent of Hamas — told us that such videos had convinced many Arabs that the group's fighters, unlike isis, 'are humane and respect Islamic laws of war.'" (New Yorker)
Encrypted messaging app Telegram blocked a channel that's been blamed for inspiring an anti-Israel mob at the Makhachkala Uytash airport in Russia, Kevin Collier reported. (NBC News)
Deepfakes continue to obfuscate the truth in an already tense information landscape as the war rages on, Margi Murphy reported. (Bloomberg)
Qatar's role complicates its ties to Hollywood and its various investments in media organizations, Scott Mendelson wrote. (The Wrap)

THE INDUSTRY

THE FOURTH ESTATE

The Committee to Protect Journalists is expressing alarm over the arrest of an Alabama publisher and reporter. "Authorities in Escambia County, Alabama, should immediately drop all charges against Atmore News publisher Sherry Digmon and reporter Don Fletcher and thoroughly investigate the motives behind their arrests." (CPJ)
The Guardian blasted Microsoft after an offensive A.I.-generated poll was placed atop one of its news stories on MSN. (Guardian)
"Austin Russell, the 28-year-old Luminar Technologies CEO who is seeking to buy Forbes, has requested an extension of a Nov. 1 deadline to finalize his $800 million bid," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
Forbes reporters have told management that their sources are concerned about the outlet's reported new ownership, Max Tani reports. (Semafor)
Lester Holt has in recent weeks "nibbled" at David Muir's lead in the key 25-54 demo, Brian Steinberg reports. (Variety)
The Marion County Sheriff's Office police chief who raided a local newspaper "still worked toward criminal charges against a city councilwoman and two journalists" even after the tremendous backlash, Katie Bernard reports, citing obtained documents. (Kansas City Star)

IN THE MARKET

As the Disney and Comcast "Hulu staredown" arrives at its conclusion, George Szalai asks, "Who wins on the price tag?" (THR)
SiriusXM reported losing 96,000 self-pay subscribers in its satellite radio unit, as well as 112,000 Pandora subscribers, in Q3. (THR)
KKR finalized its $1.62 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster. (The Wrap)
After more than four decades in top human resources roles in the media industry, Warner Bros. Discovery chief people and culture officer Adria Alpert Romm is retiring. (TheWrap)

MEDIA MOVES

WBD named Jennifer Remling as its new HR chief. (Variety)
Mother Jones promoted Jacob Rosenberg to articles editor and hired Julianne McShane as a news and engagement writer. (Mother Jones)
Vox hired Abdallah Fayyad as a correspondent on its policy team and Jorge Just as editorial director of audio. (Vox)
The NYT promoted Chris Cameron to a reporter for the politics desk and promoted Ethan Hauser to senior staff editor on the culture desk. (NYT/NYT)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Unified Around A.I.: World leaders and top technology figures are set to gather in the U.K. on Wednesday and Thursday for what is being billed as a landmark global summit on A.I. The summit — which will be attended by key figures including Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Nick Clegg, Brad Smith, and many others — will aim to find some areas of international agreement to manage the rapidly advancing technology which has raised existential questions for humanity. As The WaPo's Cat Zakrzewski, Anthony Faiola, and Gerrit De Vynck put it in a headline, "Doom is on the agenda." Read their curtain raiser here.

TOO MANY TABS

"How do you regulate something that has the potential to both help and harm people, that touches every sector of the economy and that is changing so quickly even the experts can't keep up?" Kevin Roose asks, noting that the question has "been the main challenge for governments when it comes to artificial intelligence." (NYT)
The United Nations' recently minted A.I. advisory board will produce a preliminary report on how to best govern the technology, detailing risks and opportunities, for member nations. (Reuters)
While in the U.K., Elon Musk will sit for a live interview with prime minister Rishi Sunak. (BBC)
Google Brain co-founder Andrew Ng argued Big Tech is inflating the fears of A.I., arguing they are using it as a "weapon" to "argue for legislation that would be very damaging to the open-source community." (Insider)
"Lost in translation": Research from Brown University suggests one way to get around ChatGPT's guardrails is to give it commands in less frequently used languages. (ZDNET)
Alex Heath published the full transcript of Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino's all-hands meeting with X employees earlier this month. (The Verge)
Apple announced three new M3 chips — the standard M3, the M3 Pro, and the M3 Max — during its "scary fast," prime-time event on Monday, which will be released in forthcoming MacBook Pros and iMacs. (CNN)
China has moved to strip some social media accounts boasting over 500,000 followers of their anonymity. (Reuters)
TikTok is juicing its music offering, inking a deal with DistroKid that will draw more independent artists to its platform. (The Verge)
Pinteresting: Engagement at Pinterest is on the rise, with shares soaring 17%, reflecting renewed interest in the platform that largely stems from Gen Z. (Reuters)

THE INFO WARS

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

"It was always going to end badly": In an excerpt from his new book, "Network of Lies," Brian Stelter looks at "the untold story of Tucker Carlson's ugly exit from Fox News." (Vanity Fair)
Stelter's conclusion on Carlson's downfall? "Think, for just a moment, about the worst relationship in your past—and why it ended. Odds are, there wasn't just one reason, it wasn't one thing, it was everything: a book's worth of fights and slights and resentments and grievances. Maybe there was a final indignity — an affair, a betrayal, the discovery of a derogatory text — but even if one party was blindsided, the other could list a dozen long-gestating reasons for the breakup. That's why Fox dropped Carlson. It wasn't one thing. It was everything." (Vanity Fair)
Speaker Mike Johnson has provided more access to Fox News, this time by way of an interview with Kayleigh McEnany. And it is no wonder why. Colby Hall writes that she went "full dear leader" in the interview, lavishing immense praise on him. (Mediaite)
Steve Bannon made clear what hardline Republicans really want, and it isn't just border security: "We're interested in shutting down the border hard, I mean hard so not one person can come through. Not one. And to start the mass deportations." (MMFA)
Verified Rumble host Stew Peters "called for the murder of Catholic Charities workers," Eric Hananoki reports. (MMFA)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Trick or Treaty: SAG-AFTRA was back at the negotiating table with the major studios on Tuesday as both sides continue to work on crafting a deal that can bring the historic strike to an end. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, affirmed in a video posted online that he is "cautiously optimistic" about securing an agreement, but said that some "important pieces" of a deal "are not there yet," singling out A.I. Crabtree-Ireland encouraged the guild's 160,000 members to "stay strong" on the picket lines in the meantime. "We'll get there," he added.

HOLLYWOOD HELL

Reporting from Katie Kilkenny: "While expressing that talks are headed in the right direction, one studio-side source says it could take a few days to work through remaining issues. Two additional studio-side sources said talks are progressing overall in a substantive way, and that a deal could be imminent. Multiple prominent actors said they have received word that a deal could be at hand soon, as well." (THR)
Hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike is coming to an end has boosted the market outlook, Scott Roxborough reports. (THR)
Meanwhile, Natasha Jokic has the lowdown on which actors broke the supposed SAG-AFTRA Halloween costume guidelines. (BuzzFeed)

OFF STAGE

"Shame on you!": Robert De Niro testified against his former employee, calling the entire case "nonsense." (TheWrap)
Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is headed back to IMAX screens for one more week starting Nov. 3. (THR)
Netflix is celebrating 10 years of stand-up comedy. (Forbes)
The Leonardo DiCaprio-produced animated film "Ozi: Voice of the Forest" was picked up by Signature Entertainment for the U.K. and Ireland. (THR)
MGMT announced their fifth album, "Loss of Life," which will drop on February 23. (Pitchfork)

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. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.