To take one of their examples, a superintelligent chatbot “trained to delight and retain users so that they can be charged higher monthly fees to keep conversing” could end up wanting to replace us with simpler and more reliable automated conversation partners. - The Atlantic
Though late-night shows still attract millions of viewers across more channels than ever—including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram—writers say that networks have still not figured out how to monetize that engagement. There are mitigating factors, but sources say the networks themselves have dropped the ball, in increasingly catastrophic ways. - Vanity Fair
Zenetta Drew, who presided over last year’s fiasco — which cost the company $560,000 in a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board and $248,000 in withdrawn city funding — will retire later this year. Meanwhile, the board unanimously accepted the recommendations in an advisory task force’s report on repairing DBDT. - KERA (Dallas)
“A state-commissioned community advisory committee brought the curtain down on the $5.4 billion plan to redevelop an office tower into a Caesars Palace-branded hotel, gambling and entertainment complex … in a vote that occurred after public hearings in which actors, stagehands, restaurant owners and neighborhood residents lined up to oppose the project.” - AP
“Some 140 books by women — including titles like "Safety in the Chemical Laboratory" — were among 680 books found to be of ‘concern’ due to ‘anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.’ The universities were further told they were no longer allowed to teach 18 subjects, including human rights.” - BBC (Yahoo!)
“Rhode Island’s newly created public media entity will not lay off any employees, after enough workers opted to take voluntary buyouts, Pam Johnston, CEO of Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio, said in an email to company employees Wednesday.” - Rhode Island Current
The musicians, who voted 97.4% in favor of the authorization, have been without a contract since July and have been negotiating with management since April. Their main complaint is being paid roughly 25% less than their peer orchestras in Canada while living in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets. - CBC
Base salary will increase by 12% from $92,811 to $101,350 over the next three years. The musicians’ union and orchestra management described the deal as the “most financially ambitious contract in more than a decade.” - The Baltimore Banner
This report analyzes the gender distribution of Artistic, Executive, and Associate/Assistant Directors, as well as Heads of Schools, Heads of Second Companies, Rehearsal Directors, and, for the first time, music directors and conductors among the 150 largest ballet and classically-based dance companies in the US. - Dance Data Project
“SOM's all-encompassing makeover of the 1.6 million-square-foot building involved returning to the original blueprints and faithfully restoring details that had been gradually altered over the years.” - Dezeen
The character sketch is a genre that is descriptive by nature, and that today reads as a little sociological, a little literary, and more than a little comic. While a part of our everyday discourse, this genre has a long history, stretching all the way back to ancient Greece. - Aeon
By taking the work into unconventional, donated spaces, they’re betting on a future where audiences don’t just consume theater but inhabit it. Time Out New York
Sado Island, just northwest of central Honshu, is home to 34 of the roughly 100 Noh theaters remaining in Japan. Elsewhere, Noh is considered an arcane genre practiced by specialized professionals; on Sado it’s an integral part of the local culture, learned by schoolchildren and performed by community members. - The New York Times
To manage the thousands of people who descend daily, operators have studied visitors’ behavior and engineered their parks to move people around without anyone realizing they’re being nudged. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Media organizations do not want cultural criticism the same way they do not want war reporting or fluffy opinion pieces as those specific things. They want those things as a way of getting what they actually want. - Notebook
