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☆ TV and film writers are fighting to save their jobs from AI. They won’t be the last
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A powerful new crop of AI tools, trained on vast troves of data online, can now generate essays, song lyrics and other written work in response to user prompts. While there are clearly limits for how well AI tools can produce compelling creative stories, these tools are only getting more advanced, putting writers like August on guard. But as part of their demands, the WGA is also fighting to protect their livelihoods from AI. Stephanie Elam/CNNWhile film and TV writers in Hollywood may currently be leading the charge, professionals in other industries will almost certainly be paying attention. “Watch this #WGA strike carefully,” Justine Bateman, a writer, director and former actress, wrote in a tweet shortly after the strike kicked off.

First Horizon and TD said in a statement they had mutually decided to end the deal because there was no clarity on when they would get regulatory approvals. TD will pay $200 million to First Horizon, in addition to a $25 million fee reimbursement. 2 lender came under pressure from some investors to scrap the purchase after the U.S. regional banking crisis. TD agreed to buy First Horizon in February last year to expand its presence in the United States. Average deposits at First Horizon fell 4% to $62.2 billion in the first quarter, compared to the end of last year.

☆ ‘God’s Time’ Review: Out for Revenge on New York’s Streets
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Ben Groh Photo: IFC FilmsThere’s nothing nostalgic, per se, about “God’s Time”—the characters walk and talk and bike and roll and spatter each other with vulgarities within a very contemporary New York; they shatter the fourth wall with impunity; they occasionally instruct the camera. God’s Time Friday, AMC+Mr. Antebi may have a very casual attitude about structured narrative, but there’s little room for formality in “God’s Time,” which the writer-director has clearly based on his exposure to 12-step meetings and the occasional windbag therein: Regina (the startling Liz Caribel Sierra ) holds forth regularly about her addiction and—more persistently—about her unspeakable boyfriend. And the apartment from which he evicted her. And her dog, which he appropriated. After vowing to kill him, she inevitably reverses course, saying she’s going to pray that Russel ( Jared Abrahamson ) gets what’s coming to him “in God’s time.”

☆ ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Review: Battles Royal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

India Amarteifio Photo: NETFLIX‘Bridgerton” isn’t exactly “Downton Abbey,” or Coca-Cola, but it is certainly a brand, one poised to provide ample opportunities for prequels, sequels, different flavors and, to judge by “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” even a diet option, if storylines had calories. The original series, based on Julia Quinn ’s fanciful period novels, has thus far been Royalty Lite, but has included a colony’s worth of characters, many of whom could be the subject of their own spinoffs. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Thursday, Netflix“Queen Charlotte,” developed by star producer Shonda Rhimes , concerns the imperious sovereign (Golda Rosheuvel) who ruled over the first two seasons of the original “Bridgerton” and has reason to be tart: Her husband, George III , is mad. Her feckless son is running the country. And she distracts herself by manipulating the social hierarchy, atop which she presides with her outlandish headpieces aspiring further heavenward, like the spires on a cathedral.

LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Reuters) - Hollywood writers have for decades penned sci-fi scripts featuring machines taking over the world. The Writers Guild of America is seeking to restrict the use of artificial intelligence in writing film and television scripts. A spokesperson for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is negotiating the contract on behalf of the studios, did not comment. The dispute over AI is one of several issues that led Hollywood’s film and TV writers to strike Monday, marking the first work stoppage in 15 years. Screenwriter John August, a member of the WGA negotiating committee, said writers have two concerns regarding AI.

☆ New: The Man Who Keeps Disappearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNew: The Man Who Keeps DisappearingJust as the illusive person of interest in the missing persons case of John and Linda Sohus is traced to Connecticut, he disappears once more. Watch Blood & Money Tuesdays at 10pm ET on CNBC.

☆ John Blake: The story about race I didn't know how to tell
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

John Blake, seen here in a second-grade photo, grew up as the son of a White mother and Black father. What I didn’t know was that my community had died long before the Freddie Gray protests. That’s the story I wanted to tell, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know how to tell Harlow any of that because my story doesn’t fit traditional narratives about race or identity. My white family members didn’t change because I shamed them with an impressive lecture on systemic racism.

A person who works with the group, American Edge Project, told CNBC that the $34 million was from Facebook. A Meta spokesman declined to comment and referred CNBC to American Edge instead. The person who works with American Edge told CNBC that the $4 million was also entirely from Facebook. American Edge launched a wave of TV and digital ads from late 2020 through 2021, taking on antitrust proposals. American Edge spent over $5 million between TV and digital ads in 2021, according to data from AdImpact.

☆ Opinion: From Woody Woodpecker to Mickey Mouse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. The term is credited to animator Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker. “While I would love to see a progressive in the White House, I am terrified of another Donald Trump presidency. Mickey Mouse warBill Bramhall/Tribune Content Agency“President Franklin Roosevelt launched a war against the Great Depression,” noted Julian Zelizer. “Women still have less access to the internet, with men being 21% more likely to be online than women globally.

☆ ‘Fatal Attraction’ Review: Not Another Potboiler
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson Photo: Paramount+Adrian Lyne ’s steamy, scary, sordid “Fatal Attraction” was an era-defining film, a philanderer’s horror feature, an AIDS allegory and a palliative for those left reeling by campaigns for sexual equality. How were we supposed to read Glenn Close ’s Alex Forrest, after all, other than as the successful single woman as a knife-wielding monster, i.e., the end result of feminism? Fatal Attraction Begins Sunday, Paramount+It was a movie that got a lot more mileage out of controversy than quality, however, and while the new production of “Fatal Attraction” is part of a seemingly desperate effort by Paramount to remake its old theatrical titles for TV (“The Italian Job,” “Flashdance,” “The Parallax View”), co-developer and writer Alexandra Cunningham ’s first-rate reimagining is far more complex, engrossing and adult than the 1987 original. And it shows that there was much more to be mined out of James Dearden ’s Oscar-nominated screenplay than Mr. Lyne probably ever imagined.

☆ Powerful Swiss central bank faces reform calls in wake of Credit Suisse rescue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( John Revill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] The Swiss National Bank (SNB) building is seen near the Limmat river in Zurich, Switzerland March 23, 2023. The governance concerns have been brought centre-stage by the search for a new member to replace Andrea Maechler, the first woman to serve on the SNB's governing board. The Swiss parliament would have to approve any expansion of the SNB's board. Still, the SNB Observatory, a group of economists set up to stimulate a debate about the SNB, has suggested that the small committee meant the central bank was susceptible to group think. Thomas Stucki, a former head of asset management at the SNB, said it was typical for central bank chairmen to dominate decision-making.

☆ Jane Roberts, who is married to Chief Justice John Roberts, made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms, whistleblower documents show
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Jane Roberts was paid more than $10 million by a host of elite law firms, a whistleblower alleges. At least one of those firms argued a case before Chief Justice Roberts after paying his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I realized that even the law firms who were Jane's clients had nowhere to go. Mark Jungers, another one of Jane Roberts' former colleagues, said that Jane was smart, talented, and good at her job. But whether that committee has the authority to discipline Thomas or any other Supreme Court Justice remains a matter of murky constitutional interpretation, to be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court itself.

☆ ‘Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories With David Rubenstein’ Review: National Explorations on PBS
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Fenway Park at sunrise Photo: Boston Red SoxDavid Rubenstein —business leader, Washington insider, mover, shaker and a philanthropist of considerable renown—is too smart to imagine himself an electrifying TV personality. As host of “Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories With David Rubenstein,” he might best be described as endearingly colorless. Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories With David Rubenstein Wednesday, 10 p.m., PBSAs explored in the eight-episode series, the subjects are not the big-ticket, big-budget Ken Burns -style thematic launch points—jazz, or the Old West or the Civil War. But each chapter does represent something about America that is under-explored and worth exploring, if only because it is so sorely taken for granted. Or Fenway Park, the focus of episode 1.

☆ ‘Clock’ Review: Hulu’s Hormonal Horror Movie
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Is the hormonal urgency to go one way or the other something that can—or should—be “fixed”? Comedy contusions aside, “Clock” is a movie that finds horror in biology, as well as in peer pressure and the impulse to conform. Upon being asked, she immediately drifts into a reverie about her daily regimen—swimming, sex, cooking, work, volunteering, massages. “All women have a biological clock,” says her gynecologist ( Nikita Patel ). “Maybe yours is just broken.” An appalling thing for a doctor to say, perhaps, but Ella has been wondering the same thing.

☆ Big money donors rally behind Biden as he launches his reelection bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Big donors in the business world started rallying around President Joe Biden soon after he announced Tuesday that he's running for reelection next year. A Biden campaign spokesperson didn't return a request for comment before publication. Katzenberg told CNBC in an exclusive interview Tuesday night that he believes the Biden campaign will raise more this time around than in 2020. Biden's campaign raised over $400 million from donors that gave under $200 during his last run for president, according to OpenSecrets. Venture capitalist Ron Conway has told friends he will help the president's campaign, according to a person close to him.

“See, this is the great part,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters who questioned how — if he could barely get his colleagues to elect him — he would ever be able to govern his slim and unruly House Republican majority. Mr. McCarthy is set as early as Wednesday to bring to the floor his proposal to lift the debt ceiling for a year in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes. That includes soliciting “yes” votes from right-wing members who have never before voted to increase the debt ceiling and take pride in that fact. But after late-night wrangling on Tuesday, Mr. McCarthy appeared to have acquiesced at least in part, moving up the imposition of stricter requirements by a year, to 2024. “The last five votes, you’re standing there begging,” Mr. Gingrich said he has told Mr. McCarthy of his own experience with tough bills.

☆ China doesn’t want US cars like Ford and General Motors. That’s a big problem for their futures.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

America has a problem: China — the world's largest car market — doesn't want its vehicles. In 2022, data shows Ford and General Motors' car sales in China each dropped more than 20% from the year before. My colleagues Alexa St. John and Nora Naughton break down how the future of US automakers hinges on China. Although Google founder Larry Page's flying car company Kittyhawk majorly flopped, it left us with some interesting vehicles. Hop aboard to see all the funky flying car models here.

☆ Tesla's price cuts highlight Elon Musk's last advantage in the EV business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Teslas are cheaper than everA Tesla Model Y. Patrick Pleul/Getty ImagesIn the market for a new car? Elon Musk's hoping that recent price cuts might turn you on to a Tesla. The billionaire might just be turning to his one remaining advantage in the EV business. But Tesla can cut prices and still deliver profits, something rival automakers struggle to do in their EV businesses. While Tesla investors are worrying about profits, Musk's rivals have their own reasons to be concerned, Stephen Beck, founder and managing partner of consultancy cg42, told Insider.

☆ Factbox: What is embattled British business group the CBI?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Below is some information about the CBI and its role:WHAT IS THE CBI? Founded in 1965, the CBI is Britain's top business lobby group. A not-for-profit organisation, the CBI says it represents 190,000 businesses employing nearly 7 million people, including many of Britain's biggest companies. In his speech, Sunak called the CBI "a valued institution in this country and a powerful voice for business". A spokesperson for NatWest said the bank had no confidence in the CBI's capacity to be a strong representative voice for British business at present.

The survey's flash services sector PMI rose to 53.7, the highest reading in a year, from 52.6 in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI falling to 51.5. Flash PMIIn the euro zone, the bloc's dominant services industry saw already-buoyant demand rise too, more than offsetting a deepening downturn in manufacturing. However, the manufacturing PMI fell to 45.5 from 47.3, its lowest since the coronavirus pandemic was cementing its grip on the world three years ago. "The PMI sheds a positive light on the economic performance in the euro zone, as a pickup in service sector activity is boosting growth," said Bert Colijn, senior euro zone economist at ING, noting manufacturing weakness remained a concern.

☆ ‘Ghosted’ Review: Chris Evans Falls For Ana de Armas’s Spy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Chris Evans and Ana de Armas Photo: AppleTV+Aside from the real classics of cinema, Hollywood tradition has been largely about extremely attractive people doing extraordinarily silly things—which makes “Ghosted” an old-fashioned movie. Ghosted Friday, Apple TV+It is also, it turns out, a spoof of those movies and of entire genres, notably the spy thriller and the rom-com of the hate-at-first-sight variety. Cole Turner ( Chris Evans ), a self-described “farmer” who lives outside Washington (with his parents), sells his honey at a D.C. sidewalk market; Sadie Rhodes ( Ana de Armas ) is a CIA operative who wings her way around the world firing automatic weapons at bad guys. The gender flip, such as it is, is less clever than it once would have been; likewise the fact that their meet-cute isn’t cute at all. Thanks for the tip.

☆ ‘The Diplomat’ Review: Keri Russell’s New Assignment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ato Essandoh and Keri Russell Photo: NETFLIXSometime during episode 3 of “The Diplomat,” a character puts the show’s entire premise in the proverbial nutshell: “Can you imagine hiring someone for a key governing position just because you think they’d be good at it?” What could possibly go wrong? The Diplomat Thursday, Netflix“Plenty” is the answer to the second question in what is a mischievously clever, amusing and absorbing eight-part Netflix series created by Debora Cahn (“Fosse/Verdon”). The answer to the first question is more complicated. Who exactly are we talking about? And to whom does “The Diplomat” even refer?

☆ Netflix's co-founder says Blockbuster execs tried not to laugh when they pitched a $50 million partnership — it's now worth $149 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marc Randolph said the Blockbuster team tried not to laugh when Netflix pitched a $50 million partnership. Netflix is now worth $149 billion and had 230.75 million subscribers as of the end of 2022. After the dot-com crash and burning $50 million on costs, the founders decided to approach the "movie rental king" at the time – Blockbuster – about a potential partnership. When asked about how much the deal would cost, Hastings proposed $50 million. As of the end of 2022, it had amassed 230.75 million subscribers and currently has a market cap of $149 billion.

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: A Nun’s Anti-AI Crusade
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Magic of the presto-chango variety always depends on distraction, but the distractions are the magic of “Mrs. Davis,” which throughout its exhilarating mix of comedy, action, obscure movie references and gothic-Catholic sleight-of-hand mounts a very plausible and therefore disturbing premise: God isn’t dead. He is just less influential than an algorithm. The algorithm is known as Mrs. Davis—or “Ma’am” in the U.K., or “Madonna” in Rome—and is the all-seeing, all-knowing, not-quite-all-merciful manifestation of artificial intelligence to whom humanity has plighted its troth in this eight-part manifestation of real intelligence from creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof . Mrs. Davis is, was and ever shall be—unless a heretical nun named Simone, aka Lizzie ( Betty Gilpin ), can win the bet she has made with the omniscient formulation that she calls “it” and find the Holy Grail, on which occasion Mrs. Davis has agreed to self-destruct.

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: A Sci-Fi Nun’s Anti-AI Crusade
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Betty Gilpin Photo: PEACOCKMagic of the presto-chango variety always depends on distraction, but the distractions are the magic of “Mrs. Davis,” which throughout its exhilarating mix of comedy, action, obscure movie references and gothic-Catholic sleight-of-hand mounts a very plausible and therefore disturbing premise: God isn’t dead. He is just less influential than an algorithm. Mrs. Davis Begins Thursday, PeacockThe algorithm is known as Mrs. Davis—or “Ma’am” in the U.K., or “Madonna” in Rome—and is the all-seeing, all-knowing, not-quite-all-merciful manifestation of artificial intelligence to whom humanity has plighted its troth in this eight-part manifestation of real intelligence from creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof . Mrs. Davis is, was and ever shall be—unless a heretical nun named Simone, aka Lizzie ( Betty Gilpin ), can win the bet she has made with the omniscient formulation that she calls “it” and find the Holy Grail, on which occasion Mrs. Davis has agreed to self-destruct.

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