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Late Night Shows Go Dark As Writers' Strike Starts - The Wednesday AM Quickie 5/3/23

By Robert Hitt —

This was sent out yesterday by mistake. My apologies. But we have updated show notes for today's MR. – Robert

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THE BIG NEWS

Writers Guild Goes on Strike; Late Nate Shows Temporarily Shut Down

Over 11,000 television writers went on strike yesterday, writes CNN. Many programs have already halted production, including the late-night shows of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers. To their credit, many of the hosts have expressed public support for the strikers. Among the usual demands for higher pay and expanded protections for writers, the writers’ guild is demanding restrictions on AI usage. Per the New York Times:

It wants to ensure that no literary material — scripts, treatments, outlines or even discrete scenes — can be written or rewritten by chatbots. “A terrible case of like, ‘Oh, I read through your scripts, I didn’t like the scene, so I had ChatGPT rewrite the scene’ — that’s the nightmare scenario,” Mr. August said.
The guild also wants to ensure that studios can’t use chatbots to generate source material that is adapted to the screen by humans, the way they might adapt a novel or a magazine story.

Personally, I think it’s good to push back on this. A future of passable quality, but soulless, AI-generated television isn’t the kind of “innovation” we should root for.

Dems Lay Out “Long Shot” Strategy to Increase Debt-Limit

With Treasury Secretary Yellen saying the U.S. could default as early as June, Democrats are getting creative on ways to raise the debt limit with little Republican support. According to the New York Times, House Dems have been laying the groundwork to bring a debt ceiling increase out of committee, and up to a floor vote, using a discharge petition. The move would still need five Republican signatures, a hard get in this polarized Congress. Dems are using this strategy both as a way to pressure the House GOP step back on their draconian cuts, and a potential Hail Mary if negotiations with Republican leadership break down.

Jack Dorsey’s BlueSky Emerges as a Competitor to Twitter

BlueSky, the Twitter clone created by the original site’s founder Jack Dorsey, is pulling in big names, such as AOC, James Gunn, and Dril, the Seattle Times reports.Current “head twit” Elon Musk is making Twitter so unappealing that famous people are publicly declaring they don’t want gifted Twitter Blue subscriptions–blue checks are now a mark of shame. The number of users for the currently invite-only BlueSky platform doubled in a single day last Thursday, according to the Financial Times. Dorsey seems to understand that influential users are the pull for a platform like Twitter in a way that Musk does not.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Jury in Trump Rape Case Hears Testimony of from Another Victim E. Jean Carroll's rape lawsuit against Trump continued yesterday with testimony from a former business woman testified that Trump groped her during a flight. via the Daily Beast.
  • AI Godfather’ Quits Google to Warn About Dangers of His Creation Neural network creator Geoffrey Hinton says his former company is no longer a responsible steward of this emerging technology. via the Guardian.
  • AI running 50 “Content Farms” The anti-misinformation group Newsguard found the sites creating fake stories on politics, health, environment, and finance. via the Guardian.
  • Google Fighting Brazil Bill to Combat Misinformation The bill would require companies to flag and remove criminal content, and levy fines against paid advertising that are deemed to be harmful. via FT.

SOME NUMBER

1,500

That's the number of federal troops that the Biden administration is planning to send to the U.S.-Mexico border as Title 42 is set to expire. via Politico.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

5/3: It's Hump Day! Sam hosts Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent at Vox, to discuss the upcoming cases that will be before the Supreme Court this term.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS

Sam Welcomes Ai SamBot Takeover

Here’s some more AI fun in an unexpectedly tech-heavy newsletter.

Ted Nugent's Vile Attack On Obama STUNS Kyle Rittenhouse

Wherein Nugent speculates Obama’s daughters are fake???

PARTING WORDS

“I think people can make it on $999 million. I think that they can survive just fine.”

-- Senator Benie Sanders, defending his proposal of a 100% marginal tax rate for earners making $1 billion and over on Chris Wallace’s HBO Max program. via the Guardian.

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