Tag Archives: region|US

AI Marilyn Monroe adds to the list of dead celebrities digitally resurrected without consent

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There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about the practice of capitalizing on celebrities’ digital likenesses without their consent, whether after they die or while they’re still alive. Zelda Williams, for one — the Lisa Frankenstein director and daughter of Robin Williams — slammed the “disturbing” trend of people trying to recreate the voices and faces of the deceased last year, as striking actors fought for, among other things, better protections around studios’ potential use of AI clones. Yet despite the obvious ethical issues, companies keep doing it. The latest? Soul Machines just unveiled “Digital Marilyn,” an AI chatbot designed to look and talk just like Marilyn Monroe.

The company, which specializes in what it refers to as Biological AI-powered Digital People, debuted the Marilyn bot at SXSW on Friday in a partnership with Authentic Brands Group. ABG owns the rights to Monroe’s likeness and those of numerous other celebrities both dead and living, including Elvis Presley and Shaq. Digital Marilyn, powered by GPT 3.5, is “hyper-real” and capable of responding with “emotions and nuanced expressions,” Soul Machines says in a press release. She can hold a roughly 20-minute conversation.

“More than just an impressive impersonation, Digital Marilyn is an autonomous Digital Person capable of engaging in natural, dynamic conversations that feel authentic and responsive,” Soul Machines wrote in a blog post. “It’s as if the spark of Marilyn herself has been translated into the AI age, offering a unique and deeply personal connection for both devoted fans and curious newcomers.” Anyone else’s skin crawling?

Soul Machines touts its digital celebrities (there are others, including an upcoming Carmelo Anthony bot) as a way for famous people to “engage 1-on-1 with their fans, without limits” and “deliver 24/7 connection.” Notably, all of the other AI celebrities the company currently offers chats with — Mark Tuan, Francis Ngannou and Jack Nicklaus — are men who are alive and thus able to weigh-in on their inclusion. Soul Machines introduced its Marilyn Monroe AI to the public with an Instagram post for International Women’s Day, because nothing says “celebrate women” like exploiting the likeness of a female celebrity who is no longer around to give permission.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai-marilyn-monroe-adds-to-the-list-of-dead-celebrities-digitally-resurrected-without-consent-184554216.html?src=rss

Activision’s union, with 600 members, is now the biggest one in video games

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The number of unionized workers for Microsoft's video game subsidiaries keeps growing, and the latest group to join the pool is the largest one yet. Approximately 600 quality assurance workers at Activision have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), making them the biggest certified union in the US video game industry. They're also the first Activision workers to organize under the agreement between Microsoft and the CWA. If you'll recall, Microsoft agreed to respect the right of Activision Blizzard workers to unionize as part of its efforts to secure regulatory approval for its $68.7 billion takeover of the video game developer. 

CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said Microsoft kept its promise to let workers decide for themselves whether they want a union. Part of Microsoft's pledge when it agreed to make a pact with the CWA was that it would take neutral approach during a union campaign, and the company said it didn't interfere or influence people's votes. 

Another element of their agreement was giving employees access to "innovative technology-supported and streamlined process for choosing whether to join a union," which includes not having to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. In this instance, the workers only had to sign a union authorization card or to vote online. According to The New York Times, 390 workers voted in favor of forming a union, while eight people were opposed to it. Around 200 more didn't cast their vote. 

In early 2023, Microsoft also recognized a union with 300 workers for Zenimax, the owner of Bethesda and another one of the company's video gaming subsidiaries, which was the largest one for the video game industry at the time. Those workers also unionized under the simpler process enabled by the company's agreement with CWA. By the end of the year, Microsoft agreed to hire 77 temporary QA contractors as full-time unionized Zenimax employees, which was a welcomed win for workers in an industry beset by layoffs.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/activisions-union-with-600-members-is-now-the-biggest-one-in-video-games-143000869.html?src=rss

Activision’s union, with 600 members, is now the biggest one in video games

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The number of unionized workers for Microsoft's video game subsidiaries keeps growing, and the latest group to join the pool is the largest one yet. Approximately 600 quality assurance workers at Activision have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), making them the biggest certified union in the US video game industry. They're also the first Activision workers to organize under the agreement between Microsoft and the CWA. If you'll recall, Microsoft agreed to respect the right of Activision Blizzard workers to unionize as part of its efforts to secure regulatory approval for its $68.7 billion takeover of the video game developer. 

CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said Microsoft kept its promise to let workers decide for themselves whether they want a union. Part of Microsoft's pledge when it agreed to make a pact with the CWA was that it would take neutral approach during a union campaign, and the company said it didn't interfere or influence people's votes. 

Another element of their agreement was giving employees access to "innovative technology-supported and streamlined process for choosing whether to join a union," which includes not having to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. In this instance, the workers only had to sign a union authorization card or to vote online. According to The New York Times, 390 workers voted in favor of forming a union, while eight people were opposed to it. Around 200 more didn't cast their vote. 

In early 2023, Microsoft also recognized a union with 300 workers for Zenimax, the owner of Bethesda and another one of the company's video gaming subsidiaries, which was the largest one for the video game industry at the time. Those workers also unionized under the simpler process enabled by the company's agreement with CWA. By the end of the year, Microsoft agreed to hire 77 temporary QA contractors as full-time unionized Zenimax employees, which was a welcomed win for workers in an industry beset by layoffs.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/activisions-union-with-600-members-is-now-the-biggest-one-in-video-games-143000869.html?src=rss

Refurbished Sonos Era 300 speakers are $90 off in a rare deal

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Sonos has been excluding its first music speaker designed for spatial audio from previous sales events since it was released last year, so listen up: The company is selling refurbished units of the Era 300 for $359, or $91 less than retail. Yes, it's not brand new, but Sonos' refurb program has a good track record. At the moment, only the white Era 300s are available at a discount — the black version is sold out — but if you don't care about color, then you will get three free months of Apple Music with your purchase. 

We found the Era 300 to be one of the best-sounding speakers Sonos has made when we reviewed it. The model's spatial audio experience can be a hit or miss in that sometimes, the Atmos versions of songs could sound like they have too much reverb that the vocals get lost in the mix. But overall, it exhibited excellent sound quality and can make songs shine by reproducing bass, vocal and instrumentation in great detail. It makes songs sound rich, crisp and vibrant. We advised not buying the Era 300 only for the sake of spatial audio in our review, since the library of tracks that support the feature remains quite small. That could change in the future, though, especially if Apple truly does start rewarding artists for offering their music in spatial audio.

It's worth noting that Sonos recommends pairing two Era 300 speakers for "mind-bendlingly realistic surround sound," and getting the cheaper versions would make that a more affordable prospect. The model is pretty easy to set up anyway — just add the speaker to your Sonos app and then pair it with your music services of choice — so having two or more won't be an issue. In case you're looking for something else, though, Sonos is selling more refurbished devices on its website.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/refurbished-sonos-era-300-speakers-are-90-off-in-a-rare-deal-120057132.html?src=rss

Refurbished Sonos Era 300 speakers are $90 off in a rare deal

Posted on by

Sonos has been excluding its first music speaker designed for spatial audio from previous sales events since it was released last year, so listen up: The company is selling refurbished units of the Era 300 for $359, or $91 less than retail. Yes, it's not brand new, but Sonos' refurb program has a good track record. At the moment, only the white Era 300s are available at a discount — the black version is sold out — but if you don't care about color, then you will get three free months of Apple Music with your purchase. 

We found the Era 300 to be one of the best-sounding speakers Sonos has made when we reviewed it. The model's spatial audio experience can be a hit or miss in that sometimes, the Atmos versions of songs could sound like they have too much reverb that the vocals get lost in the mix. But overall, it exhibited excellent sound quality and can make songs shine by reproducing bass, vocal and instrumentation in great detail. It makes songs sound rich, crisp and vibrant. We advised not buying the Era 300 only for the sake of spatial audio in our review, since the library of tracks that support the feature remains quite small. That could change in the future, though, especially if Apple truly does start rewarding artists for offering their music in spatial audio.

It's worth noting that Sonos recommends pairing two Era 300 speakers for "mind-bendlingly realistic surround sound," and getting the cheaper versions would make that a more affordable prospect. The model is pretty easy to set up anyway — just add the speaker to your Sonos app and then pair it with your music services of choice — so having two or more won't be an issue. In case you're looking for something else, though, Sonos is selling more refurbished devices on its website.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/refurbished-sonos-era-300-speakers-are-90-off-in-a-rare-deal-120057132.html?src=rss

Google fires engineer who protested at a company-sponsored Israeli tech conference

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Google has fired a Cloud engineer who interrupted Barak Regev, the managing director of its business in Israel, during a speech at an Israeli tech event in New York, according to CNBC. "I'm a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance!" the engineer was seen and heard shouting in a video captured by freelance journalist Caroline Haskins that went viral online. While being dragged away by security — and amidst jeers from the audience — he continued talking and referenced Project Nimbus. That's the $1.2 billion contract Google and Amazon had won to supply AI and other advanced technologies to the Israeli military. 

Last year, a group of Google employees published an open letter urging the company to cancel Project Nimbus, in addition to calling out the "hate, abuse and retaliation" Arab, Muslim and Palestinian workers are getting within the company. "Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger! I refuse to build technology that is gonna be used for cloud apartheid," the engineer said. After he was removed from the venue, Regev told the audience that "[p]art of the privilege of working in a company, which represents democratic values is giving the stage for different opinions." He ended his speech after a second protester interrupted and accused Google of being complicit in genocide.

The incident took place during the MindTheTech conference in New York. Its theme for the year was apparently "Stand With Israeli Tech," because investments in Israel slowed down after the October 7 Hamas attacks. Haskins wrote a detailed account of what she witnessed at the event, but she wasn't able to stay until it wrapped up, because she was also thrown out by security. 

The Google engineer who interrupted the event told Haskins that he wanted "other Google Cloud engineers to know that this is what engineering looks like — is standing in solidarity with the communities affected by your work." He spoke to the journalist anonymously to avoid professional repercussions, but Google clearly found out who he was. In a statement to Engadget, a Google spokesperson said, "Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation – interfering with an official company-sponsored event. This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies." 

Update, March 9 2024, 1:58PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Google.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-fires-engineer-who-protested-at-a-company-sponsored-israeli-tech-conference-090430890.html?src=rss

Google fires engineer who protested at a company-sponsored Israeli tech conference

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Google has fired a Cloud engineer who interrupted Barak Regev, the managing director of its business in Israel, during a speech at an Israeli tech event in New York, according to CNBC. "I'm a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance!" the engineer was seen and heard shouting in a video captured by freelance journalist Caroline Haskins that went viral online. While being dragged away by security — and amidst jeers from the audience — he continued talking and referenced Project Nimbus. That's the $1.2 billion contract Google and Amazon had won to supply AI and other advanced technologies to the Israeli military. 

Last year, a group of Google employees published an open letter urging the company to cancel Project Nimbus, in addition to calling out the "hate, abuse and retaliation" Arab, Muslim and Palestinian workers are getting within the company. "Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger! I refuse to build technology that is gonna be used for cloud apartheid," the engineer said. After he was removed from the venue, Regev told the audience that "[p]art of the privilege of working in a company, which represents democratic values is giving the stage for different opinions." He ended his speech after a second protester interrupted and accused Google of being complicit in genocide.

The incident took place during the MindTheTech conference in New York. Its theme for the year was apparently "Stand With Israeli Tech," because investments in Israel slowed down after the October 7 Hamas attacks. Haskins wrote a detailed account of what she witnessed at the event, but she wasn't able to stay until it wrapped up, because she was also thrown out by security. 

The Google engineer who interrupted the event told Haskins that he wanted "other Google Cloud engineers to know that this is what engineering looks like — is standing in solidarity with the communities affected by your work." He spoke to the journalist anonymously to avoid professional repercussions, but Google clearly found out who he was. In a statement to Engadget, a Google spokesperson said, "Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation – interfering with an official company-sponsored event. This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies." 

Update, March 9 2024, 1:58PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Google.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-fires-engineer-who-protested-at-a-company-sponsored-israeli-tech-conference-090430890.html?src=rss

Sam Altman is back on the OpenAI board. We still don’t know why he was fired.

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Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI, nearly four months after the CEO was ousted, and quickly reinstated, from the company he founded. Although Altman had returned as the AI company’s top executive in November, a temporary board oversaw his return and the subsequent investigation into his conduct.

That investigation is now complete, according to the company, which added three new members to its board of directors. The additions include: Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fidji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, economist Larry Summers and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who served on the temporary three-seat board, will remain in their positions with Taylor continuing as chair.

The announcement caps off a tumultuous several months for the AI company, which was rocked by Altman’s abrupt ouster last fall.

On Friday, OpenAI also published a summary of the findings from WilmerHale, a law firm that the company’s board retained in December 2023 to conduct an independent investigation into the events that led to Altman’s firing. Despite that, however, we’re no closer to finding out exactly why Altman, who rejoined the company as CEO within five days, was fired to begin with.

“WilmerHale [found] that the prior Board’s decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners,” the summary said. “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also concluded that OpenAI’s previous board fired Altman abruptly without giving notice to “key stakeholders”, and without giving Altman an opportunity to respond to its concerns.

To come to this conclusion, the firm reviewed more than 30,000 documents and conducted dozens of interviews with OpenAI staffers including previous board members over the last few months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-back-on-the-openai-board-we-still-dont-know-why-he-was-fired-002358008.html?src=rss

Sam Altman is back on the OpenAI board. We still don’t know why he was fired.

Posted on by

Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI, nearly four months after the CEO was ousted, and quickly reinstated, from the company he founded. Although Altman had returned as the AI company’s top executive in November, a temporary board oversaw his return and the subsequent investigation into his conduct.

That investigation is now complete, according to the company, which added three new members to its board of directors. The additions include: Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fidji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, economist Larry Summers and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who served on the temporary three-seat board, will remain in their positions with Taylor continuing as chair.

The announcement caps off a tumultuous several months for the AI company, which was rocked by Altman’s abrupt ouster last fall.

On Friday, OpenAI also published a summary of the findings from WilmerHale, a law firm that the company’s board retained in December 2023 to conduct an independent investigation into the events that led to Altman’s firing. Despite that, however, we’re no closer to finding out exactly why Altman, who rejoined the company as CEO within five days, was fired to begin with.

“WilmerHale [found] that the prior Board’s decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners,” the summary said. “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also concluded that OpenAI’s previous board fired Altman abruptly without giving notice to “key stakeholders”, and without giving Altman an opportunity to respond to its concerns.

To come to this conclusion, the firm reviewed more than 30,000 documents and conducted dozens of interviews with OpenAI staffers including previous board members over the last few months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-back-on-the-openai-board-we-still-dont-know-why-he-was-fired-002358008.html?src=rss

Joe Biden says he would sign bill that would force a sale or ban of TikTok

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TikTok’s future is looking increasingly uncertain as support grows for a new bill that would force the company to sell itself or face a ban in the United States. Now, President Joe Biden has come out in support of the measure, one day after it cleared its first legislative hurdle in the House.

"If they pass it, I'll sign it,” he said, in remarks reported by CBS News. The bill, called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which was introduced earlier this week, would give TikTok a six-month window to divest itself from parent company ByteDance or face an app store-level ban in the US. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives could bring the bill to a floor vote as early as Wednesday, Semafor reported.

TikTok has said the bill is a thinly-veiled effort to force a “total ban” of its app. "This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," the company said in a statement earlier this week. "The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”

The company has also encouraged its millions of users to oppose the measure. On Thursday, ahead of the committee vote on the bill, the app sent push notifications prompting users to call their representatives and ask them to oppose the legislation. The notifications reportedly led to a flood of calls in many Congressional offices as staffers fielded hundreds of calls from teens.

Notably, the bill has another prominent opponent: former President Donald Trump. Though Trump also sought to force a sale of TikTok to a US company during his time in office, the former president said he no longer believes the app should be banned. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Though clearing the House would be significant milestone for the bill, it’s unclear where the Senate stands on it. As Semafor points out, some prominent senators have been a bit more cautious in their comments about whether they would support the legislation. At a recent Senate hearing about child safety, several senators pressed TikTok CEO Shou Chew on his own citizenship (he's Singaporean) as well as the app’s ties to China and the practices of its parent company ByteDance.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/joe-biden-says-he-would-sign-bill-that-would-force-a-sale-or-ban-of-tiktok-232221156.html?src=rss