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☆ Alice Munro, Nobel Prize winner and ‘master of the short story,’ dies aged 92
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Yahya Salem | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Alice Munro, the Nobel Literature Prize winner best known for her mastery of short stories and depictions of womanhood in rural settings, has died in Ontario, Canada, at the age of 92. The news was confirmed to CNN “with great sadness” by a spokesperson at her publisher, Penguin Random House. It largely sets the tone for Munro’s prose; semi-autobiographical in nature and exploring the universality of the human urge for self-discovery, love, and independence, through the mundanity of everyday life in small, rural communities. Alice Munro, left, and Margaret Atwood at the National Arts Club in February 2005. Munro’s mastery of short stories and literature has been lauded by many of her contemporaries.

Persons: Alice Munro, Munro, “, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lucy Maud Montgomery, ”, ” Stephen Pearson, James Munro, Catherine, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, —, General’s, ” Munro, Margaret Atwood, Atwood, Diane Bondareff, James Wood Organizations: CNN, Penguin Random, “ The Paris, Guardian, Fairfax Media, University of Western, CBC, Yorker, National Arts Club, Literature Locations: Ontario, Canada, Wingham , Ontario, ”, University of Western Ontario, Vancouver, Victoria, Canadian, Russian

☆ Book bans are accelerating across the country amid right-wing pressure campaign
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But, as they try to claim that mantle, many of those same forces in media and politics are behind a disturbing wave of book bans sweeping the nation. PEN America, a non-profit organization committed to protecting free expression, published an alarming report Tuesday indicating that the “book ban crisis” is only getting worse. “There were over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of this school year—more than all of last school year as a whole. In doing so, they have also disproportionately targeted books by women and nonbinary authors,” PEN America said. Ted Shaffrey/APSuch brazen book bans — unprecedented in modern American history — is at its worst in the red states of Florida and Texas.

Persons: New York CNN —, Nikole Hannah, Margaret Atwood’s, ” Amy Reed’s, Rupi, “, ”, ’ ‘, Ted Shaffrey, Ron DeSantis, Abdi Nazemian, I’ve, ” Nazemian, “ I’ve, ” Kasey Meehan, Read, we’re Organizations: New York CNN, PEN America, The New York Times, ” PEN America, Central Library, Brooklyn Public Library, PEN Locations: New York, USA, birthed, ’, New York City, Florida, Texas, In Florida, In Texas, Iranian, Iowa

☆ Stephen King’s First Book Is 50 Years Old, and Still Horrifyingly Relevant
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Margaret Atwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Stephen King’s “Carrie” burst upon an astonished world in 1974. It made King’s career. It has sold millions, made millions, inspired four films and passed from generation to generation. This is, to put it mildly, not the world’s sexiest topic, and especially not for young men. Failing to convince himself, King scrunched up the few pages he’d written and tossed them into the garbage.

Persons: Stephen King’s, Carrie ”, King, King scrunched, Tabitha —

☆ ‘Fourteen Days’ is a ‘collaborative novel’ from 36 literary giants. But who wrote what?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Zara Khan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

From left: the authors Diana Gabaldon, R. L. Stine, Celeste Ng, John Grisham and Margaret Atwood, all of whom contributed to "Fourteen Days." Though some readers will draw connections between the latter work and “Fourteen Days,” Preston notes there are many differences. Perhaps most notably, “Fourteen Days” follows those left behind amid a pandemic — people without “the financial wherewithal to escape,” he told CNN. In "Fourteen Days," residents of New York apartment building begin gathering on the rooftop during Covid-19 lockdowns. Read: “The Interestings” (2014)The tenth novel from author Meg Wolitzer — who also contributed to “Fourteen Days” — follows a group of close-knit friends that meet at an arts summer camp in the 1970s from adolescence through to middle age.

Persons: —, Margaret Atwood, ’, John Grisham, Celeste Ng, Diana Gabaldon, Stine, Atwood, Douglas Preston, Yessie, Preston, Emma Donoghue, “, ”, ” Giovanni Boccaccio’s, ” Preston, Donoghue, Tess Gerritsen, Gerritsen, Harper Collins, Ah Poh, ” Donoghue, Pier Pasolini, Steven Soderbergh’s, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, Craig Blankenhorn, Meg Wolitzer — Organizations: CNN, British, Guardian, Agence France, Presse, Hulu Watch Locations: New York, —, Chaucer’s “, Covid, York City

☆ 36 Authors Times ‘Fourteen Days’ Adds Up to a Mixed Literary Experiment
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Alexandra Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

FOURTEEN DAYS, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas PrestonNew Yorkers generally don’t talk to their neighbors. This is to preserve psychological boundaries while living stacked on top of one another like ice cubes in trays. A new novellus about Lower East Side neighbors called “Fourteen Days” seeps creepy, in this fine tradition, through most of its 350-plus pages. “Novellus” is Latin for new, but the “us” sounds extra-right here because this is collaborative fiction, by 36 authors of various ages, ethnicities, genres and degrees of fame (John Grisham and Scott Turow are among the higher-flying contributors). Why would anyone organize such an experiment, with its air of an overbooked open-mic night with a few surprise guest stars and peanuts scattered on the sticky floors?

Persons: Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, —, Seinfeld, Ira Levin, “, John Grisham, Scott Turow Locations: Lower East

☆ The winner of a prestigious Japanese literary award has confirmed AI helped write her book
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Christy Choi | Francesca Annio | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —After Japanese author Rie Kudan won one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards, she admitted she’d had help from an unusual source — ChatGPT. The author then confirmed at a press conference that around 5% of her book “The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy” — which was lauded by committee members as “practically flawless” — was word-for-word generated by AI. The novel centers around the dilemmas of an architect tasked with building a comfortable high-rise prison in Tokyo where law breakers are rehabilitated, and features AI as a theme. Kudan said that, in her own life, she would consult ChatGPT about problems she felt she couldn’t tell anyone. “It seems that the story that Rie Kudan’s award-winning work was written using generative AI is misunderstood… If you read it, you will see that the generative AI was mentioned in the work,” he wrote.

Persons: CNN —, Rie Kudan, she’d, “, ”, Kudan, Boris Eldagsen, George R, Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood, Keiichiro Hirano, Rie Kudan’s Organizations: CNN, Sony, OpenAI Locations: Tokyo, Berlin

☆ Media executives urge Congress to enact legislation to prevent AI models from training on ‘stolen goods’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-10 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Roger Lynch, Condé Nast’s chief executive, told senators that current AI models were built using “stolen goods,” with chatbots scraping and displaying news articles from publishers without their permission or compensation. News organizations, Lynch said, seldom have a say in whether their content is used to train AI or is output by the models. To avoid the pilfering of news publishers’ content and, thereby, their coffers, Lynch proposed AI companies use licensed content and compensate publishers for content being used for training and output. Coffey also noted AI models have introduced inaccuracies and produced so-called hallucinations after scraping content from less-than-reputable sources — which runs the risk of misinforming the public or ruining a publication’s reputation. “The risk of low-quality [generative] AI content dominating the internet is amplified by the drastic economic decline of news publications over the past two decades,” Coffey said.

Persons: ChatGPT, Roger Lynch, Condé, Lynch, ”, they’ve, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, George R, Martin, ” Lynch, Danielle Coffey, Coffey, ” Coffey, ” Curtis LeGeyt, ” LeGeyt Organizations: CNN, The New York Times, News Media Alliance, National Association of Broadcasters

☆ Booker Prize 2023 won by Irish writer Paul Lynch’s dystopian novel ‘Prophet Song’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

London, UK Reuters —Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize on Sunday for his novel “Prophet Song,” the story of a family and a country on the brink of catastrophe as an imaginary Irish government veers towards tyranny. “This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave.”A copy of "Prophet Song" pictured prior to the Booker Prize award ceremony on Sunday. He became the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright, the organizers of the competition said. The Northern Irish writer Anna Burns won in 2018. “Prophet Song” is published in the UK by Oneworld which also won the prize in 2015 and 2016 with Marlon James’s “A Brief History of Seven Killings” and Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout.”

Persons: Paul Lynch, Booker, Song ’, Adrian Dennis, Lynch, “, ” Lynch, Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Anna Burns, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Yann Martel, ”, Marlon James’s “, Paul Beatty’s “ Organizations: Reuters, Esi, Getty, Sunday Tribune, Northern, Oneworld, Seven Locations: London, Irish, Syria, Ireland, AFP, Northern Irish

☆ Paul Lynch wins Booker Prize with dystopian novel 'Prophet Song'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize on Sunday for his novel 'Prophet Song', the story of a family and a country on the brink of catastrophe as an imaginary Irish government veers towards tyranny. Lynch, who was previously the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper, said he wanted readers to understand totalitarianism by heightening the dystopia with the intense realism of his writing. He became the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright, the organisers of the competition said. The Northern Irish writer Anna Burns won in 2018. 'Prophet Song' is published in the UK by Oneworld which also won the prize in 2015 and 2016 with Marlon James’s 'A Brief History of Seven Killings' and Paul Beatty’s 'The Sellout.'

Persons: Paul Lynch, Booker, Lynch, Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Anna Burns, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Yann Martel, Marlon James’s, Paul Beatty’s, William Schomberg, Giles Elgood Organizations: Sunday Tribune, Northern, Oneworld, Seven, Thomson Locations: Syria, Ireland, Irish, Northern Irish

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica is creating the world’s first marine protected area for one of earth’s largest animals: the endangered sperm whale. Sperm whales defecate near the surface because they shut down non-vital functions when they dive to depths of up to 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). And sperm whales in Dominica are believed to defecate more than whales elsewhere, said Shane Gero, a whale biologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, a research program focused on sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean. He noted that sperm whales are a matrilineal society, with young males leaving and switching oceans at some point in their lives. Another sperm whale was nicknamed “Fruit Salad” because a researcher happened to be snacking on that at the time.

Persons: “, Roosevelt Skerrit, Shane Gero, Gero, ” Gero, Vincent, ”, Enric Sala, ‘, ’ ” Gero, Margaret Atwood Organizations: JUAN, ”, Geographic Locations: Puerto Rico, Dominica, ” Dominica, St, Guadeloupe, Caribbean, ‘ I’m

TORONTO (AP) — Author Sarah Bernstein won the Scotiabank Giller Prize on Monday for her novel “Study for Obedience.”The Montreal-born, Scotland-based author accepted the $100,000 award remotely from Scotland, where she had a baby just 10 days ago. Her novel is about a young woman moving to the remote north where after her arrival, a series of inexplicable events occur. The 100,000 Canadian dollar ($72,000 U.S.) Giller prize honors the best in Canadian fiction. Political Cartoons View All 1244 ImagesThe celebrations were also interrupted early in the broadcast when several anti-Israel protesters jumped onstage. The Giller was created in 1994 by late businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

Persons: Sarah Bernstein, Giller, Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Jack Rabinovitch, Doris Giller Organizations: TORONTO, Scotiabank, Israel Locations: Montreal, Scotland, Israel

☆ Why even those winning 'the capitalist game' feel insecure, says Debt Collective co-founder
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The security cameras were there, at least in part, to make the workers feel insecure about holding on to their jobs, Taylor writes. "We can see the degree to which unnecessary suffering is widespread even among those who appear to be 'winning' according to the logic of the capitalist game," Taylor writes. Astra Taylor: I think there is existential insecurity. by author Astra Taylor Courtesy: Astra TaylorAN: How would being more honest about our own vulnerabilities help? Working with the Debt Collective, I see how lucky we were that we didn't have to take on a lot of medical debt.

Persons: Astra Taylor, Taylor, Massey, Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Annie Nova, I've Organizations: Astra, Astra Taylor's, Brooklyn café, Finance, Social Security, Security, Canadian Broadcasting Corp Locations: American

☆ George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and other famous writers join Authors Guild in class action lawsuit against OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company’s technology is illegally using their copyrighted work. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen are among the 17 prominent authors who joined the suit led by the Authors Guild, a professional organization that protects writers’ rights. “Generative AI threatens to decimate the author profession,” the Authors Guild wrote in a press release Wednesday. Two other authors sued OpenAI in June over the company’s alleged misuse of their works to train ChatGPT. Authors should have the right to decide when their works are used to ‘train’ AI,” author Jonathan Franzen said in the release on Wednesday.

Persons: OpenAI, George R.R, Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Rasenberger, “, Sarah Silverman, Silverman –, ” Sam Altman, Rasenberger, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood —, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, OpenAI, Authors, of, CNN, Amazon, Meta, San, Microsoft Locations: New York, Southern, of New York, San Francisco federal

☆ The raw materials for creating AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Alistair Barr | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The AI models behind this technology are built using high-quality datasets from millions of different sources. These are the raw materials for model "training," in industry parlance. Nvidia GPUs are the main hardware required for AI model training. AdvertisementAdvertisementOver 8,000 authors, including Margaret Atwood and James Patterson, signed an open letter demanding compensation from AI companies for using their works to train AI without permission. Got a tip or insights about the leading AI companies OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Meta?

Persons: ChatGPT, Nat Friedman, Ben Thompson, Friedman, There's, OpenAI, Reddit, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, JK Rowling's Harry Potter, Alistair Barr Organizations: Service, Nvidia, Tech, Amazon, LexisNexis, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Twitter Locations: Wall, Silicon, abarr@insider.com

The Holbrooke award, named for the late U.S. diplomat, is presented by the Ohio-based Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. In 1995, Holbrooke helped broker the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian War, a conflict Cisneros has thought of often. Civilians and unborn generations ever after suffer with the shrapnel of that conflict embedded in their psyche like hidden landmines. I just returned from Sarajevo, and I know this is true,” Cisneros said in a statement. Previous recipients of the Holbrooke award include Elie Wiesel, Margaret Atwood and Louise Erdrich.

Persons: Sandra Cisneros, Richard C, Holbrooke, ” Cisneros, Alfredo Cisneros, Cisneros, “, Carla Hayden, Elie Wiesel, Margaret Atwood, Louise Erdrich Organizations: Macondo Foundation, Moral Foundation, Dayton, Dayton Peace Accords Locations: Mango, U.S, Ohio, Dayton, Bosnian, Sarajevo

☆ Stephen King won't forbid AI from training on his writing, and he's not afraid of AI ... yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

King said that he's not opposed to programmers using his works to teach AI about creativity. Thousands of other authors have objected to their work being used in AI without permission. Uploading the works of others to computers, or "state-of-the-art digital blenders" as he put it, can teach AI how to produce better art. AdvertisementAdvertisementKing said that forbidding programmers from using his to teach AI is essentially pointless. Or a Luddite trying to stop industrial progress by hammering a steam loom to pieces," King wrote.

Persons: Stephen King, King, he's, Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, King Canute Organizations: The Atlantic, Morning, Authors, Apple

☆ ‘Swifterature:’ Belgian university launches course to analyze Taylor Swift lyrics
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Leah Dolan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Poetry, prose and now songwriting: Ghent University in Belgium is launching a new literature course dedicated to the literary merit of Taylor Swift’s discography. “Highly prolific and autobiographical in her songwriting, Swift makes frequent allusions to canonical literary texts in her music,” the class syllabus explains. “Using Swift’s work as a springboard, we will explore, among other topics, literary feminism, ecocriticism, fan studies, and tropes such as the anti-hero. In 2016, the University of Texas launched an English Literature course unpacking Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” and its relationship to Black feminism. “But if anyone can teach you a lesson in how to respond to trolls, it’s Taylor Swift,” she concluded.

Persons: Taylor, Elly McCausland, McCausland, Sylvia Plath, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare —, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “, Criseyde, Charlotte Brontë’s “, Margaret Atwood, Simon Armitage, “, Swift, Taylor Swift, ” McCausland, ”, Sylvia Plath’s, —, I’ll, “ I’m, There’s, it’s Taylor Swift Organizations: CNN, Ghent University, Oxford University, University of York, University of Oslo, New York University, Arizona State University, Berklee College of Music, Rice University, University of Texas, University of Copenhagen Locations: Belgium, Charlotte Brontë’s “ Villette, ”, ’, United Kingdom, Norway, Europe, United States, Houston

☆ An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Others have said they don’t want their work being used to train AI models, which could then be used to imitate them. Amazon removed the fake books being sold under Friedman’s name and said its policies prohibit such imitation. Author Jane Friedman found several books being sold under her name on Amazon, only she didn't write them — she suspects artificial intelligence did. The Authors Guild has been working with Amazon since this past winter to address the issue of books written by AI, Rasenberger said. And, she said, companies and publishers should continue investing in creative work made by humans, even if AI appears more convenient.

Persons: Jane Friedman, I’ve, ” Friedman, —, ” Mary Rasenberger, Rasenberger, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood —, OpenAI, Friedman, they’d, Ashley Vanicek, ”, Suzanne Skyvara Organizations: New, New York CNN, Amazon, CNN, Authors, Microsoft, Twitter Locations: New York

☆ Zoom says it won't use your calls to train AI 'without your consent' after its terms of service sparked backlash and prompted people to talk about ditching the service
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Sarah Jackson | Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Zoom angered users after its terms of service suggested it could use calls to train AI. Zoom also says it won't use the content of calls to train its AI models "without your consent." On August 6, the tech news blog Stack Diary pointed out the section of Zoom's terms of service. But as Stack Diary points out, the clarification may not fully protect your calls, based on the specific language in Zoom's terms of service. The clarifications in Zoom's terms of service come as members of the public have expressed outrage over their data being used to train AI.

Persons: Gabriella Coleman, Brianna Wu, Smita Hashim, Aparna Bawa, Sean Hogle, — includingSuzanne Collins, Margaret Atwood, — Organizations: Harvard, Hacker, Hacker News

☆ Adding one line of code can now prevent OpenAI from accessing a website's data to train ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI launched a new web crawler called GPTBot to browse the internet and collect information. However, adding one line of code to a website will block the crawler from accessing the site's data. Adding just one line of code to a website will now block OpenAI from using the site's data to train its AI models. A web crawler is a bot that browses the internet to collect information. Search engines like Google use web crawlers to collect information for their search results, while AI companies use these crawlers to collect data to train their models.

Persons: OpenAI, Michael Veale, ChatGPT —, James Patterson, Margaret Atwood — Organizations: Morning, University College London, MIT Technology, OpenAI

☆ Diana Athill’s Only Novel, About Coming of Age in 1950s London
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Sadie Stein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, by Diana AthillTwenty-three years ago, Diana Athill wrote “Stet,” a memoir of her life as an editor in which she outlined the pleasures of her profession. And she did a good bit of gift-wrapping herself: In her long life Athill published no fewer than 10 memoirs, two collections of short stories and, in 1967, “Don’t Look at Me Like That,” her only novel. By the time of its writing, she already had her first autobiography, “Instead of a Letter,” under her belt. Although the novel is set primarily in the 1950s — its protagonist, Meg Bailey, is some years younger than her creator — Athill and her heroine share a similar social status (both had titled grandfathers) and an artistic London milieu. “They buttoned over the chest, had an obscene vent between the legs and were very warm.”

Persons: Diana Athill, “ Stet, ”, Athill, André, Simone de Beauvoir, V.S, Naipaul, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, Meg Bailey, — Athill, Helen Oyeyemi, Meg Organizations: André Deutsch Ltd Locations: London

☆ Thousands of authors demand payment from AI companies for use of copyrighted works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington CNN —Thousands of published authors are requesting payment from tech companies for the use of their copyrighted works in training artificial intelligence tools, marking the latest intellectual property critique to target AI development. In an open letter they signed, posted by the Authors Guild Tuesday, the writers accused AI companies of unfairly profiting from their work. “Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the ‘food’ for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill,” the letter said. “The high commerciality of your use argues against fair use,” the authors wrote to the AI companies. In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to acknowledge more needs to be done to address concerns from creators about how AI systems use their works.

Persons: Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, Philip Pullman, “, OpenAI, didn’t, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Atwood Rich Fury, Monika Skolimowska, Goldsmith, Andy Warhol, Prince, Warhol, Sam Altman, “ We’re, ”, –, Catherine Thorbecke Organizations: Washington CNN, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Warhol

☆ James Patterson, Margaret Atwood, and 8,000 other authors want AI companies to pay them for using their works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

There has been deepening criticism of AI companies from across the media and entertainment industries. Over 8,000 authors — including Margaret Atwood and James Patterson — have signed an open letter demanding compensation from AI companies for using their works to train AI without permission. The letter is addressed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. AI systems are trained on large volumes of data, much of which is text scraped from the internet. These authors aren't alone in voicing collective discontent towards AI companies.

Persons: Margaret Atwood, James Patterson —, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Emad Mostaque, Arvind Krishna, Satya Nadella, Guild's, Dan Brown, Suzanne Collins —, OpenAI, Sarah Silverman, aren't, —, Sarah Andersen —, they've, Insider's Matthew Loh Organizations: Morning, Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, Google, IBM

☆ Protesters Rally Across Israel in New Push Against Legal Overhaul
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Patrick Kingsley | More About Patrick Kingsley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thousands of Israelis blocked major highways and held dozens of rallies across central Israel on Tuesday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to finalize a law next week that would limit the power of the Supreme Court. Despite temperatures of more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit in some places, protesters marched through several cities in a renewed effort to stop the government proceeding with a binding vote on the law in Parliament, which is likely to be on Monday. Some held huge roadside banners that read “Netanyahu divides the nation,” while others displayed a giant picture of Theodor Herzl, a founding father of modern Zionism, emblazoned with the slogan: “This is not what I meant.”One group hung a giant version of the Israeli declaration of independence from a highway flyover, and another blocked the doors to the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Women’s rights activists — dressed in crimson robes inspired by characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a novel by Margaret Atwood about a patriarchal, totalitarian state that was made into a television series — rallied in Raanana, central Israel.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Netanyahu, Theodor Herzl, —, ”, Margaret Atwood Organizations: Tel Locations: Israel, Tel Aviv, Raanana

☆ Opinion | What’s the Story With Colleen Hoover?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Pamela Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There are the novels the literary world acclaims and there are the novels people actually read. With rare exceptions, these books are written by women, for women. And for the past few years, these books have been written by Colleen Hoover. In 2022 alone, Hoover’s novels sold 14.3 million copies and in total, more than 24 million copies to date. As Hoover herself explained her popularity in an interview in The Times: “It’s not me.

Persons: Colson Whitehead, Margaret Atwood, James, Stephanie Meyer’s, Meyer, Anne Rice, Danielle Steel, Sidney Sheldon, Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins, Tom Clancy, Colleen Hoover, Hoover, ”, “ Organizations: The Times Locations: Ocean, Rice’s, TikTok

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