This decision harms libraries. It locks them into an e-book ecosystem designed to extract as much money as possible while harvesting (and reselling) reader data en masse. It leaves local communities’ reading habits at the mercy of curatorial decisions made by four dominant publishing companies thousands of miles away. - MIT Technology Review
The organization argued that AI helps disabled or marginalized writers who don't have industry connections. As one of many now-former members put it, "It’s pretty insulting to imply that the only way members of marginalized communities can get their foot in the door is through the use of a plagiarism machine." - Slate (MSN)
“We’re calling ourselves the ‘City of the Arts’ in St. Pete so it’s just the right thing for the city to contribute to that and not just leave it up to the free market economy because the free market economy does not necessarily provide for diverse programming." - 83 Degrees Media
Critics have painted a nearly apocalyptic picture of its impact, calling it a threat to startups, open source developers, and academics. Supporters call it a necessary guardrail for a potentially dangerous technology — and a corrective to years of under-regulation. - The Verge
"Prosecutors retrying Weinstein’s overturned rape conviction disclosed last week that they had begun presenting to a grand jury evidence of ... three additional allegations against Weinstein, dating as far back as the mid-2000s. … The indictment will remain under seal until Weinstein’s arraignment on the new charges, which is scheduled for Sept. 18." - AP
A judge in Tennessee has ruled that Spotify will not be liable for any lost royalties, despite finding that Spotify did not have a license to stream the tracks. - BBC
Brand partnerships saw the Deadpool and Wolverine characters shilling for everything from Xbox and Heineken, to Adidas, Aviation Gin (natch), Old Spice, DiGiornio pizzas, and more. - Fast Company
Google isn’t making things up when it says the AI hosts will “banter” with each other, either. When trying out Audio Overview for myself, I plugged in one of the sample notebooks about the invention of the lightbulb, and the results were... a bit uncanny. - The Verge
Often the adaptation is in the style of a radio play, with sound design providing context for the original's dialogue. Sometimes the original visuals are replaced with newly-written narration. dialogue read by actors. In any case, a job which seemed near-impossible to audio publishers 20 years ago is becoming commonplace. - Publishers Weekly
Historically, eugenics and racism have operated in tandem, but neither is reducible to the other. Eugenics attributes socioeconomic inequality—both within and between racially defined groups—to varying levels of intelligence, which it defines as a biological quality shaped largely by our DNA. - LA Review of Books
“We will extend our minds many millions-fold by 2045,” writes Kurzweil. “We are finally getting to the steep part of a fifty-year-old exponential trend…. Humanity’s millennia-long march toward the Singularity has become a sprint.” - The New Republic
As Wikipedia’s visibility diminishes, reduced to mere training data for AI applications, it also loses prominence in the minds of readers and potential contributors. - The Guardian
"There’s a reason, aside from name recognition, that they keep coming back. Though products of vastly different times and cultures, they dig so deep into their specific truths that they reach a common, eternal one, from which many others may spring." - The New York Times
For most groups, the proportion of their budgets coming from earned income (mostly ticket sales) has fallen by a third to a half from 2012 levels (let alone the levels of the 1990s). With the trend of philanthropy turning away from the arts, the outlook in the city appears grim. - Urban Milwaukee
For a decade until 2019, local lawmakers kept Indy Arts Council's budget stagnant at $1 million, and there were only small increases and some federal money added during the pandemic. From that budget, over 100 organizations must share grants. So IAC is requesting a budget increase from $1.3 million to $3 million. - WFYI (Indianapolis)
