Its Technical

[ap215]

This whole thing is one colossal joke.

HBO Max Will Relaunch in May as Max for the Same Monthly Price

HBO Max as we know it is changing.

April marks one year since the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. Last year, the new Warner Bros. Discovery promised to introduce by summer 2023 a revamped streaming service that combines content from HBO Max and Discovery Plus, and the rebranded platform now has a name: Max.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and- ... hly-price/

[ap215]

Twitter revamps monetized subscriptions tool

Twitter is launching a program to let users offer their followers paid subscriptions to content, an apparent revamp of the platform’s old “Super Follows” monetized subscription tool.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Thursday invited users to “apply to offer your followers subscriptions of any material, from longform text to hours long video!”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... ions-tool/

[ap215]

House Democrats Frame TikTok Issues as Part of Industrywide Problem

Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce Committee have a lot of unanswered questions about embattled short-form video site TikTok that they want the company to clear up, but they have also given the social media outlet some input on how it might save itself amid calls for an outright ban.

TikTok has been promoting its pro-social uses — helping diverse small businesspeople and veterans — in high-profile ads in the Washington, D.C., market as it attempts to avoid such a ban.

https://www.nexttv.com/news/house-democ ... de-problem

[ap215]

Spotify CEO pushes for antitrust app store bill

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is pushing Congress to take up an antitrust bill that aims to rein in the power of domain app companies.

The CEO and founder of the audio streaming app will meet with key members of Congress and the Biden administration Wednesday and Thursday in a push to reinvigorate support for the proposal in his first visit to D.C. to advocate for legislation.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... tore-bill/

[ap215]

He's a spoiled ignorant child.

Microsoft Removes Twitter From Ad Program; Musk Threatens Suit

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. said its social media planning and scheduling tools for advertisers will no longer support Twitter, after the Elon Musk-owned social network started charging for access to its programming interface.

Musk responded to the announcement by accusing Microsoft of using Twitter data “illegally” and threatening a lawsuit. The billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, is changing the company’s policy to charge businesses for access to its stream of data.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsof ... 21298.html

[ap215]

US Supreme Court rejects computer scientist's lawsuit over AI-generated inventions

WASHINGTON, April 24(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's refusal to issue patents for inventions his artificial intelligence system created.

The justices turned away Thaler's appeal of a lower court's ruling that patents can be issued only to human inventors and that his AI system could not be considered the legal creator of two inventions that he has said it generated.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-suprem ... 023-04-24/

[ap215]

Biden administration warns it will crack down on harmful AI business practices

U.S. federal agencies announced on Tuesday their intentions to crackdown on automated systems that can cause harmful business practices, including unlawful bias and discrimination.

The agencies, which include the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, pledged in a joint statement that they will uphold “core principles of fairness, equality, and justice as emerging automated systems… become increasingly common in our daily lives – impacting civil rights, fair competition, consumer protection, and equal opportunity.”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... practices/

[ap215]

Controversial bill to regulate online streaming becomes law

A controversial government bill to overhaul Canadian broadcasting laws to regulate streaming services has passed the final hurdle in the Senate and received royal assent Thursday evening.

After years of debate, the Senate gave its final approval Thursday to Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act. It received royal assent shortly after.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/c11-on ... -1.6824314

[ap215]

Judge rules against Google, allows antitrust case to proceed

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected a motion from Google to toss out the government’s antitrust case against it.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled the lawsuit alleging Google wields monopolistic power in the world of online advertising can proceed in its entirety.
https://apnews.com/article/google-antit ... 7beae73da4

[ap215]

Who is Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk’s pick for new Twitter CEO?

Elon Musk said he has picked NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of Twitter.

Musk announced on Thursday that he had chosen his replacement as the chief executive of Twitter and its parent company, X, and that “she” (without naming who) will be starting in about six weeks. Musk confirmed his selection on Friday morning.

https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/5/1 ... -yaccarino

[ap215]

Supreme Court hands Twitter, Google wins in internet liability cases

The Supreme Court on Thursday punted the issue of determining when internet companies are protected under a controversial liability shield, instead resolving the case on other grounds.

The justices were considering two lawsuits in which families of terrorist attack victims said Google and Twitter should be held liable for aiding and abetting ISIS, leading to their relatives’ deaths.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... y-shields/

[ZoWie]

SCOTUS punts more often than a small-college football team with three injured quarterbacks.

[Motor City]

Biden administration warns it will crack down on harmful AI business practices

U.S. federal agencies announced on Tuesday their intentions to crackdown on automated systems that can cause harmful business practices, including unlawful bias and discrimination.

The agencies, which include the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, pledged in a joint statement that they will uphold “core principles of fairness, equality, and justice as emerging automated systems… become increasingly common in our daily lives – impacting civil rights, fair competition, consumer protection, and equal opportunity.”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... practices/

I dont think I believe him, if we look at the aid that was supposed to go to vulnerable people during the covid crisis a lot of it went unspent and never came near the vulnerable and instead got spent on various technologies like facial recognition, license plate readers, shot spotter, and other invasive, abusive, authoritarian technologies that make communities more insecure and unequal.

Money was supposed to aid people but instead implemented what basically is a poison to the relations between business the public and authorities.

[ZoWie]

You are correct that a lot of the covid money was misspent or tied up in the usual procedural shenanigans, but still, I appreciated my free vaccines and tests. It's probably why we still have low unemployment and and a generally positive outlook despite the worst inflation in 50 years. The inflation is not due to covid prevention measures though of course these did contribute to scarcities that made the inflation a bit worse for a limited time.

Mostly the blame rests with the Fed, which was slow to act due to pandemic related policy timidity, and with flaws in the offshoring business practices encouraged mostly by the economic elites.

[ap215]

I've said this many times & i'll say it again i 100% really loathe mergers it is so out of control.

Paramount+ & Showtime Will Merge on June 27th

Earlier this year, we learned that Paramount+ would be merging with SHOWTIME. Now we have learned the date for when this merger will happen thanks to Apple.

Here is an email being sent to subscribers of Showtime by Apple:

https://cordcuttersnews.com/paramount-s ... june-27th/

[ZoWie]

The merger/acquisition thing has been going on for a very long time, and your previous posts indicate to me that you understand the problem, especially in the media. I get the idea that both of us were involved in one way or another, and that's why we're familiar with the process and its dire consequences for the social order.

[Number6]

The merger/acquisition thing has been going on for a very long time, and your previous posts indicate to me that you understand the problem, especially in the media. I get the idea that both of us were involved in one way or another, and that's why we're familiar with the process and its dire consequences for the social order.

The major problem with mergers is it reduces competition in the marketplace. One of the often mentioned aspects of capitalism is that it encourages competition but we know that's just an allusion in the real world.

[ZoWie]

Mergers are one way to lessen competition, so the government seems to have something of a rule of threes here, where they try to keep a few players in a given market. The question then becomes what these players talk about at their heavily guarded executive retreats. We know they sing old Yale songs about eating the poor, but what else do they do?

Mergers are also actually kind of old hat, and the kind of leveraged buyouts talked about in the comic strip posted elsewhere on this board are more the real problem right now. It's not just that businesses merge, but it's about how they merge and who eventually gets stuck paying for it. The more you know about it, the more scared you get.

My previous post was specifically about the media. They love to conglomerate. I don't know how many times Time/Warner/CNN/Joe's Tune 'n' Lube, for example, has reincarnated itself. The name changes every three years. They have buildings all over Manhattan, and I am always one or two entities behind on which tower is actually running things this year.

MGM became essentially a casino company, i mean real casino, not the gambling casino known as feature film production, but the real thing where the slots take credit cards now. The lot sold so many times I can't figure out who owns it this year. It's still nominally Sony Pictures, but what's in a name?

We grunts who actually try to make the stuff never really know who's signing the checks, and when it comes time to question such issues as essentially unlimited work hours on location, it's hard to find out who actually owns the production entity this year.

If we tried to run a war this way, we'd lose every time.

[ProfX]

Whoops. Technical glitches. Failure to launch.

DeSantis’ launch marred by horrendous tech failures
https://money.yahoo.com/desantis-launch ... 18397.html

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was set to announce his highly-anticipated presidential bid during a Twitter spaces session Wednesday.

Then Twitter broke.

The app repeatedly crashed Wednesday night as thousands of listeners attempted to tune in to hear the Florida governor announce he was entering the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Thirty minutes into the event, DeSantis was finally able to begin speaking.

[snip]

The spectacle represented a major embarrassment for both DeSantis and Elon Musk, Twitter’s relatively new owner, one that could haunt the former as he embarks on a bid to win the GOP’s nomination and the latter as he tries to position himself as a political kingmaker in the new media landscape.

[snip]

Musk has used Twitter Spaces before as a way to directly reach his 140 million followers and avoid going through outside media. However, his Twitter Spaces — which have drawn tens of thousands of listeners in the past — have been known to shut down suddenly due to technical glitches. Ever since Musk bought Twitter last October, he’s laid off nearly two-thirds of the employees, including large swaths of engineering staff, leading to shutdowns and regular technical problems on the platform.

Wednesday’s Twitter Spaces marks the first time the audio-only feature on the platform has been used for a presidential launch. Spaces first publicly launched in May 2021 and mimicked the audio-only app ClubHouse that launched in April 2020, but has faced a shrinking user base in recent years.

[snip][end]

[Number6]

Whoops. Technical glitches. Failure to launch.

DeSantis’ launch marred by horrendous tech failures
https://money.yahoo.com/desantis-launch ... 18397.html

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was set to announce his highly-anticipated presidential bid during a Twitter spaces session Wednesday.

Then Twitter broke.

The app repeatedly crashed Wednesday night as thousands of listeners attempted to tune in to hear the Florida governor announce he was entering the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Thirty minutes into the event, DeSantis was finally able to begin speaking.

[snip]

The spectacle represented a major embarrassment for both DeSantis and Elon Musk, Twitter’s relatively new owner, one that could haunt the former as he embarks on a bid to win the GOP’s nomination and the latter as he tries to position himself as a political kingmaker in the new media landscape.

[snip]

Musk has used Twitter Spaces before as a way to directly reach his 140 million followers and avoid going through outside media. However, his Twitter Spaces — which have drawn tens of thousands of listeners in the past — have been known to shut down suddenly due to technical glitches. Ever since Musk bought Twitter last October, he’s laid off nearly two-thirds of the employees, including large swaths of engineering staff, leading to shutdowns and regular technical problems on the platform.

Wednesday’s Twitter Spaces marks the first time the audio-only feature on the platform has been used for a presidential launch. Spaces first publicly launched in May 2021 and mimicked the audio-only app ClubHouse that launched in April 2020, but has faced a shrinking user base in recent years.

[snip][end]

Let's just tell the truth of what happened. The Twitter Blue Bird just shitted on DeSantis.

[Motor City]

AI in the Arts Is the Destruction of the Film Industry. We Can't Go Quietly

What does it mean to be human?

You look human, you act human, you learn lessons, you have challenges, you feel emotions.

And yet, in 2023, we've shrunk decidedly away from being human.

The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) is currently on strike against the AMPTP, the representation of the Hollywood studios and streamers. A number of demands were made and were met with the expected pushback, but one pushback was alarming: the refusal to even have a conversation about the potential for AI to displace screenwriters in films and series.

As a WGA writer, a Directors Guild of America (DGA) director, a former Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) board member, former SAG negotiating committee member, and coder who holds a UCLA degree in computer science and digital media management, I knew this signaled that they were not only thinking about using AI to displace us, but that they had already begun.

AI stands for....

[ap215]

I really hate this for the consumers.

Why platforms like HBO Max are removing streaming TV shows

ALEXI HOROWITZ-GHAZI, HOST:

When it comes to sifting through the overwhelming amount of streaming TV shows these days, Emme Lund has a pretty simple strategy.

EMME LUND: I don't watch things to the end if I don't like them. If a show doesn't hold me for the first few episodes, I'm like, well, it's not for me.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1161382179

[Toonces]

I thought it was to stop having to pay residuals.

[ZoWie]

It's about residuals and AI. Both. Why settle for one disaster when you can have two for the same amount of effort?

Both relate to the effects of technology on the business. At one time, people in the business dreamed about a third screen. We got that. Streaming.

They also dreamed about streamlining production. No more bringing shows in months late and millions over budget because there was some hurricane or whatever. ("Force Majeure" in the contracts.) We got that. First CGI, now also AI.

Now it's sinking in that you have to be careful what you wish for. Streaming trashed the resid system that has kept talent solvent for generations. AI threatens to trash everything else. The prospect of rich guys in suits in New York towers going through the day's computer output to see which AI scripts the business software sees upside potential in submitting to the geeks over in the imaging department is no longer just an unpleasant fantasy.

We've already hosed the distribution end. I'm just barely old enough to remember when theatrical features went out in two large metal cans, which were threaded up and run through machines that looked like 19th century cannons with arc lamps and huge rectifiers that buzzed.

I was there, I saw the transition away from people with talent pitching ideas to big time producers, who were replaced by computer programs telling people with MBA degrees what to make and how fast to make it. The business people trashed the whole industry and replaced it with electronics. You know who you are. One of you is named George and has a lot of money up in the northern part of our state where they never met a machine they didn't like. Why stop at droids in the story when we can have REAL ones that actually MAKE the stuff while we count our teenage dollars?

Say, how's that going? Looks like SAG-AFTRA is about to walk too. Problems?

[Number6]

It's about residuals and AI. Both. Why settle for one disaster when you can have two for the same amount of effort?

Both relate to the effects of technology on the business. At one time, people in the business dreamed about a third screen. We got that. Streaming.

They also dreamed about streamlining production. No more bringing shows in months late and millions over budget because there was some hurricane or whatever. ("Force Majeure" in the contracts.) We got that. First CGI, now also AI.

Now it's sinking in that you have to be careful what you wish for. Streaming trashed the resid system that has kept talent solvent for generations. AI threatens to trash everything else. The prospect of rich guys in suits in New York towers going through the day's computer output to see which AI scripts the business software sees upside potential in submitting to the geeks over in the imaging department is no longer just an unpleasant fantasy.

We've already hosed the distribution end. I'm just barely old enough to remember when theatrical features went out in two large metal cans, which were threaded up and run through machines that looked like 19th century cannons with arc lamps and huge rectifiers that buzzed.

I was there, I saw the transition away from people with talent pitching ideas to big time producers, who were replaced by computer programs telling people with MBA degrees what to make and how fast to make it. The business people trashed the whole industry and replaced it with electronics. You know who you are. One of you is named George and has a lot of money up in the northern part of our state where they never met a machine they didn't like. Why stop at droids in the story when we can have REAL ones that actually MAKE the stuff while we count our teenage dollars?

Say, how's that going? Looks like SAG-AFTRA is about to walk too. Problems?

I wonder if the companies that are making the AI programs are going to demand a cut of show business profits because their programs wrote the scripts. Note, not all writers will be replaced because there will always be rewrites required depending upon the producer(s)/director's interpretation of the written script.