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☆ What’s Lost When Censors Tamper With Classic Films
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Niela Orr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

This particular change to “The French Connection” came unexplained and unannounced, so we can only guess at the precise reasoning behind it. We see a bit of banter between two policemen working in what was then called the “inner city,” dialogue underlining their “good cop, bad cop” dynamic; in certain ways, it’s not so different from the set pieces you would find in Blaxploitation films of the era. He is one in a long line of characters that would stretch forward into shows like “The Shield” and “The Wire”: figures built on the idea that “good cop, bad cop” can describe not just an interrogation style or a buddy-film formula but also a single officer. The one newly smuggled into “The French Connection” reveals, to use a period term, the hand of the Man, even if it’s unclear from which direction it’s reaching. Censors, like overzealous cops, can be too aggressive, or too simplistic, in their attempts to neutralize perceived threats.

Persons: it’s, —, Doyle, we’re, they’re, Gene Hackman, megacorporations, Friedkin Organizations: State, Disney

☆ HSBC is downsizing its headquarters and leaving London’s Canary Wharf
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —HSBC is halving the size of its global headquarters and moving out of Canary Wharf, a business district built in the abandoned docklands of east London in the 1980s. It follows similar moves by other big companies to get rid of expensive office space in cities around the world. The bank has long been a mainstay of Canary Wharf, where it occupies 1.1 million square feet of office space. HSBC is a key tenant in Canary Wharf, and its planned departure raises questions about whether other companies will also think about leaving. Canary Wharf Group, which manages real estate in the area, declined to comment when asked about the matter Monday.

Persons: San Francisco —, Knight Frank, Noel Quinn, Quinn, Jones Lang, Elizabeth, — Hanna Ziady Organizations: CNN, HSBC, Europe’s, Panorama St, City of, San, Canary, Canary Wharf Group, Lloyds, Standard Chartered, Barclays, BCS, Jones Locations: Canary Wharf, London, Panorama, City, City of London, Asia, Wharf, Canada, San Francisco, Canary, Jones Lang LaSalle .

The CEO role will be handed over to Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group, while Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will take over Zhang as chairman. "The idea or expectation that one person could manage the business' crown jewel Cloud and at the same time manage the entire Alibaba Group is an unreasonable expectation." "It would be inappropriate for me to continue serving as chairman and CEO of both companies at the same time during the spin-off process." Alibaba thanked Zhang for his "extraordinary leadership in navigating unprecedented uncertainties affecting the company's business over the past few years." Wu, who co-founded Alibaba alongside Ma and Tsai over two decades ago, will continue to concurrently serve as chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba said.

Persons: Zhang, Joseph Tsai, Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, Eddie Yongming Wu, Alibaba's, Daniel, Brian Wong, Jack Ma, Joe, Eddie, Eric Chen, Wu, Ma, Tsai, Alipay, Jacob Cooke, Cooke, China's, J, Michael Evans, Abinaya, Brenda Goh, Scott Murdoch, Anne Marie Roantree, Josh Ye, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Alibaba, HK, Tmall, Reuters, Cloud Intelligence Group, Analysts, Alibaba Health, Technologies, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Japan, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Tokyo, Taobao, Bengaluru, Sydney

☆ A war between 2 billionaire hedge-fund founders spilled out into the open in an alarming filing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

John Overdeck and David Siegel created hedge-fund giant Two Sigma, amassing billions in wealth. Here's the relevant section of the filing:There have been a variety of management and governance challenges at the Adviser. These disagreements can affect the Adviser's ability to retain or attract employees (including very senior employees) and could continue to impact the ability of employees to fully implement key research, engineering, or corporate business initiatives. Nor can it agree on the org chart, the management structure, corporate governance, or succession plans. These disagreements might hurt Two Sigma's ability to retain and attract star employees, and those employees' ability to actually implement research, tech, or business initiatives.

Persons: John Overdeck, David Siegel, Juliet Chung, Gregory Zuckerman, Chung, Zuckerman, Jamie Nash, Kleinberg Kaplan, I've Organizations: Sigma, Bloomberg, Wall Street, Management, Management Committee, Chief Investment Officers

☆ The man convicted of the biggest CIA leak in history says he doesn't have enough typewriter ribbon to craft his own defense for a separate child pornography trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The man convicted of the biggest leak in CIA history faces a separate federal trial in September. Joshua Schulte is facing child pornography charges, a case where he is representing himself. According to court documents first shared by CourtWatch, ex-CIA staffer and convicted leaker Joshua Schulte is set to stand trial in a separate child pornography case in September. Federal prosecutors alleged that as Schulte represented himself in those cases, he stored up to 2,400 images of "likely" child pornography on the laptop he used while detained, Law and Crime reported. In the latest court filing, prosecutors said his requests for more materials threaten to delay his new September trial.

Persons: Joshua Schulte, —, CourtWatch, leaker Joshua Schulte, Schulte —, Schulte, Mr Organizations: Service, WikiLeaks, CIA, Metropolitan Detention, Wikileaks, The New York Times Locations: New York

☆ Opinion: The fifth Beatle is artificial intelligence
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Opinion Jere Hester | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Who’s the fifth Beatle? But now there’s a 21st century contender for the honor: artificial intelligence. The band took some flak for releasing two songs years after Lennon’s murder in 1980. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album with trippy loops and other innovations that changed the course of popular music. But in the right hands — in this case, Jackson and McCartney’s — AI can be a tool that wields magic.

Persons: Jere Hester, Craig Newmark, CNN —, Jere Hester John Smock, Sir George Martin, Brian Epstein, Stuart Sutcliffe, Sir Paul McCartney’s, John Lennon’s, Lennon, McCartney, Peter Jackson, ”, Yoko Ono, Lennon’s, Jackson, McCartney’s, Facebook McCartney, Ringo Starr, Ono, George Harrison’s, Olivia, Let’s Organizations: Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY, CNN, BBC Radio, Twitter, Beatles Locations: Liverpool

☆ What It’s Like to Write an MLK Jr. Biography
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jonathan Eig’s book “King: A Life” is the first comprehensive biography in decades of Martin Luther King Jr., drawing on reams of interviews and newly uncovered archival materials to paint a fuller picture of the civil rights leader than we have received before. “This is a very human, and quite humane, portrait,” our critic Dwight Garner wrote in his review. “I was a newspaper reporter for a long, long time — and you know, working on daily stories, if you got five days to work on a story, it was a luxury. It took me two years to find, even though I knew it was out there, this unpublished autobiography that Martin Luther King’s father wrote. So stuff like that just gets me really, really pumped up.”We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general.

Persons: Jonathan Eig’s, Martin Luther King Jr, Dwight Garner, “, Eig, Gilbert Cruz, I’ve, ” Eig, they’ve, Martin Luther King’s, Nobody

☆ The world's top H.P. Lovecraft expert weighs in on a monstrous viral meme in the A.I. world
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Mike Calia | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Lovecraft's novella "At the Mountains of Madness" — aren't quite perfect, according to the world's leading Lovecraft scholar, S.T. "While I'm sure Lovecraft would be grateful (and amused) by the application of his creation to AI, the parallels are not very exact," Joshi wrote. Read more: How to talk about AI like an insiderFirst of all, it's "shoggoth," not "Shoggoth," Joshi said. "It is a species name, not a proper name," Joshi wrote in an email to CNBC. For instance, a recent fake Toronto Blue Jays ad, created by a TSN producer who used text-to-video AI tech, is packed with horrifying images such as people feasting on each other's hot dog tentacles.

Persons: H.P, S.T, Joshi, Lovecraft, it's Joshi, He's, Kevin Roose, Roose, Harlan Ellison's Organizations: Lovecraft, Providence, The New York Times, CNBC, Times, Workers, Toronto Blue Jays, TSN Locations: A.I, Antarctica

☆ Trump was recorded saying he knew he had a classified document.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Former President Donald J. Trump declared at a meeting in July 2021, six months after leaving the White House, that a document in front of him was “classified” and “highly confidential,” according to a person briefed on the matter. That meeting, with people helping his former chief of staff with a book, has been previously reported but new details of Mr. Trump’s specific comments appear to demonstrate explicitly that he was aware that materials he had taken with him from the White House included classified information. The recording is expected to be a key piece of evidence in the case against him that the special counsel Jack Smith brought this week, with seven counts related to his possession of reams of classified material. Mr. Trump also indicated he couldn’t show the document to the people in front of him — many if not all of whom didn’t have security clearances that would allow them to see sensitive government material — and added, “As president, I could have declassified them, now I can’t,” according to the person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Mr. Trump then said the document was “classified,” and a woman in the room replied, “Now we have a problem,” according to the person familiar with the recording.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith, “ Organizations: White, House, “

June 8 - Legal AI company EvenUp has raised an additional $50.5 million in Series B funding from new investors including Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, the San Francisco-based company said Thursday, valuing the company at $325 million. EvenUp provides a product to personal injury law firms that automates the workflow for demand letters, using generative AI and a proprietary legal dataset. These have been boom times for the legal AI market, as legal firms have lined up to embrace generative AI. Law is an ideal use case for generative AI because what lawyers do – analyze content and then synthesize it in prose – is exactly what generative AI products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was trained on reams of text, do best, said Bessemer partner Sameer Dholakia. He estimated there are about 300,000 personal injury attorneys and 20 million personal injury cases per year.

Persons: EvenUp, Rami Karabibar, Sameer Dholakia, Karabibar, Anna Tong, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, NFX, Reuters, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

☆ Who is Amy Entelis? CNN exec who lead award-winning documentary unit will take over from Chris Licht
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Trisha Gopal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Entelis notably led the network's original series and feature-length documentary unit. Entelis, who joined joined CNN in 2012, revitalized the network's original series and feature-length documentary unit, launching high-profile shows like "Parts Unknown" with Anthony Bourdain and "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy." Entelis notably lead the charge at CNN Films, the network's longform documentary unit. According to the company's website, Entelis has been responsible for overseeing 45 documentary series and 60 feature length films, earning CNN 100 awards and 445 nominations. Before joining CNN, Entelis spent three decades at ABC, where she managed talent for shows like "20/20," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," and "World News Tonight."

Persons: Chris Licht, Amy Entelis, Entelis, Jeff Zucker, Anthony Bourdain, Stanley Tucci, Alexei Navalny, Licht, David Zaslav, David Leavy, Zaslav's, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling, Chris, Zaslav Organizations: CNN, Morning, CNN Worldwide, CNN Films, BAFTA, ABC, Warner Bros, Discovery Locations: Italy

☆ Biden and McCarthy's plan to change SNAP work requirements in the debt-ceiling deal could actually expand benefits — but not employment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

She led some of her Democratic colleagues in introducing an amendment to remove the new SNAP work requirements from the debt-ceiling bill. "Come see me in a year, and I'll show you how much we actually saved," McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday night. How the work requirements will impact employmentDespite McCarthy and Republicans' belief that work requirements will bolster employment, some experts aren't so sure. Work requirements in SNAP have increased employment less; in Medicaid, they appear to have had little effect on employment." "I think it goes to the principle of this bureaucratic red tape that we call work requirements," Jayapal said.

Persons: —, Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Biden, McCarthy, — McCarthy, Cori Bush, Lauren Bauer, there's, Bauer, Bernard Yaros, it's, Yaros, Congressional Progressive Caucus Pramila Jayapal, Jayapal Organizations: SNAP, CBO, Service, Supplemental, Assistance, Democratic, Office, White, Economic, Brookings Institution, The, Brookings, Moody's, Congressional Progressive Caucus Locations: Missouri, TANF

But the focus on the tapes is the latest effort by Mr. Smith to determine whether Mr. Trump or his aides engaged in any sort of obstructive behavior. There is no indication that Mr. Taveras is a subject of Mr. Smith’s investigation. All three men — Mr. Taveras, Mr. Deoliveira and Mr. Nauta — have been questioned extensively by prosecutors over their roles in handling the boxes and the tapes. Nonetheless, one person briefed on the events said the interactions concerning the security tapes were enough to arouse suspicion among Mr. Smith’s investigators. Moreover, people briefed on witness interviews say, it has become clear that Mr. Smith views a number of people connected to Mr. Trump with skepticism.

Persons: Mr, Taveras, Smith, Trump, Trump’s, Stanley Woodward Jr, Deoliveira’s, John Irving, Deoliveira, Nauta Organizations: Justice Department, National Archives, Mr

☆ Google plans to use new A.I. models for ads and to help YouTube creators, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on-stage during the Google I/O keynote session at the Google Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023. Google 's effort to rapidly add new artificial intelligence technology into its core products is making its way into the advertising world, CNBC has learned. The company has given the green light to plans for using generative AI, fueled by large language models (LLMs), to automate advertising and ad-supported consumer services, according to internal documents. For creators, the company has been using the technology to experiment with the idea of providing five video ideas based on topics that appear relevant. Specific to Google, paid search advertising conversion rates have decreased this year across most industries.

☆ Amy Silverstein, Who Chronicled a Life of Three Hearts, Dies at 59
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Alex Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As her condition deteriorated, Ms. Silverstein rose to the top of the waiting list for a donor heart, which she received at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York. It was only as she recovered from the operation that she began to learn the price of coronary salvation. “With the medicines that she took and the repeated infections, she felt bad at some point virtually every single day,” Mr. Silverstein said in a phone interview. To check for signs of rejection, she had to undergo frequent heart biopsies in which doctors “run a catheter down through your blood vessels and pluck pieces of your heart out,” Mr. Silverstein said. “She had over 90 of them.”After “Sick Girl” was published, Ms. Silverstein received reams of fan letters from other transplant recipients, hailing her for her courage in bringing to light the odd mix of joy and misery that can accompany life with a new organ — what she called the “gratitude paradox.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference at the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum in Titusville. The group has raised more than $225 million for DeSantis and currently boasts nearly $86 million in cash on hand. Friends of Ron DeSantis could soon try to transfer a moneybag roughly 800 times the size of Donalds'. The state committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, appears to be positioning itself for the transfer. Friends of Ron DeSantis is allowed to accept unlimited contributions from donors, and it shows.

☆ Britain’s Economy Needs a Pick-Me-Up. Is the Coronation Enough?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Eshe Nelson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dawn Anchor, who runs a pub in the village of Kings Worthy, about 60 miles southwest of London, has everything she needs: reams of red, white and blue bunting, mini Union Jack flags and a life-size cardboard cutout of King Charles III. This weekend’s coronation of Britain’s new monarch has been a gift for her establishment, one of just a handful of pubs in Britain aptly called The King Charles. And like many business people enduring Britain’s economic doldrums, Ms. Anchor hopes the coronation will bring some much-needed cheer (and sales). At The King Charles, the celebrations will begin on Friday with a 17-hour day, serving breakfast through dinner, with afternoon tea in between. Fuller’s Coronation King’s Ale, a special edition bitter, will be on tap and likely to contribute to the estimated 17 million extra pints that are expected to be poured around the country over the three-day weekend, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.

☆ I use ChatGPT and it's like having a 24/7 personal assistant for $20 a month. Here are 5 ways it's helping me save time and make more money.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

She says using ChatGPT is like having an assistant and gives her more time to focus on her children. It also helps me answer client questions in a contextually appropriate way and has afforded me more time to concentrate on my kids' extracurriculars or helping them with homework. I've created a list of common questions that potential clients ask about particular properties, buildings, or locations, such as "What's the square footage?" And once we receive a response from the potential client, we can forward their information to the relevant team for a more personalized follow-up. I'm able to engage with a larger number of potential clients at any given time.

☆ Exclusive: Google's VC firm just led a $12 million Series A investment in Range, a startup that's training AI to give financial advice
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The company is training an AI model to give financial advice and hopes to make human advisors obsolete within a decade. Enter Range, a startup that's looking to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make human financial planners obsolete. The company is building out a suite of financial planning tools aimed at aging millennials and designed to help streamline investing, saving, and estate planning. 'We're looking to replace you'These recommendations are reviewed and "massaged" by human advisors before being passed on to clients. She said she's excited about the prospect of making her own job obsolete if it means more people having access to financial planning.

☆ I use ChatGPT and it's like having a 24-7 personal assistant for $20 a month. Here are 5 ways it's helping me save time and make more money.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

She says using ChatGPT is like having an assistant and gives her more time to focus on her children. It also helps me answer client questions in a contextually appropriate way and has afforded me more time to concentrate on my kids' extracurriculars or help them with homework. I've created a list of common questions that potential clients ask about particular properties, buildings, or locations, such as, "What's the square footage?" I'm able to engage with a larger number of potential clients at any given time. Generates data reportsChatGPT can generate data reports that allow me to analyze the performance of particular client interactions, as well as outreach and marketing campaigns.

☆ Goldman Sachs CIO Tests Generative AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Goldman Sachs has a number of generative AI proof of concepts in place. Photo: Brendan McDermid/REUTERSThe pace of new developments in artificial intelligence came faster than expected for corporate technology leaders. Many have spent the past few months grappling with how and where they can leverage the new capabilities of generative AI and large language models, or LLMs, from categorizing reams of business documents to writing code. “The technology is changing so fast in front of our eyes that I think it’s almost like the limit is ourselves and being able to rationalize it,” said Marco Argenti, chief information officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

☆ Bond investors fearing recession, boost safety bets ahead of FOMC
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Going long duration reflects expectations U.S. yields will fall because the Fed will be forced to cut rates. During the Fed's aggressive rate-hike phase last year, investors shortened their duration exposure. In terms of price action, U.S. 5-year yields dropped 67 bps since March, suggesting increased demand from investors. U.S. Treasuries rallied in March, pushing yields lower, as the market sought safety during the banking crisis. U.S. two-year yields, which reflect rate expectations, fell nearly 60 bps in March, the largest monthly fall since December 2007.

☆ The CEOs of the world's biggest advertising companies just outlined how AI is about to transform their businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Advertising agency CEOs are eager to signal their companies' AI expertise to Wall Street. Speaking on this quarter's earnings calls, executives at the world's largest advertising agency groups also outlined some of their recent AI client projects and technology task forces. "What's changed over the last six months is the application of AI through generative AI into the creative process," Read said. Omnicom is running more than 20 projects where it combines Omnicom's historical data with GPT's automation technology, Wren said, though he didn't specify exactly how it was being deployed. That will require more creative assets, Sadoun said on the Publicis earnings call.

Generative AI gobbles up reams of computing power, amplifying the urgency of Meta's capacity scramble, said five of the sources. Executives also that spring set about reorganizing Meta's AI units, naming two new heads of engineering in the process, including Janardhan, the author of the September memo. According to four of the sources, Meta did not prioritize building generative AI products until after the launch of ChatGPT in November. Zuckerberg announced a new top-level generative AI team in February that he said would "turbocharge" the company's work in the area. Carvill, the Meta spokesperson, said the company has been building generative AI products on different teams for more than a year.

☆ Inside Meta's scramble to catch up on A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

For more than a year, Meta has been engaged in a massive project to whip its AI infrastructure into shape. He declined to comment on whether Meta abandoned its AI chip. Generative AI gobbles up reams of computing power, amplifying the urgency of Meta's capacity scramble, said five of the sources. By 2021, that two-pronged approach proved slower and less efficient than one built around GPUs, which were also more flexible in running different types of models than Meta's chip, the two people said. Executives also that spring set about reorganizing Meta's AI units, naming two new heads of engineering in the process, including Janardhan, the author of the September memo.

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