(This article is part of Today’s Cache, The Hindu’s newsletter on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.)
Hollywood writers protest against AI
The Writers Guild of America, which includes Hollywood movie and TV show writers, began striking this week over contracts and compensation. However, one issue on the agenda includes the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting and media production. A WGA negotiating committee member said writers were concerned that their original work could be used without consent to create AI-generated media. Furthermore, there were worries that writers would be called in to edit the work of AI-powered systems instead of producing creative output of their own.
Hollywood studios, meanwhile, are against the idea of restricting the use of AI while creating films and TV shows.
Big Tech and AI chiefs called to White House
The heads of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic have been called to the White House in order to speak with Vice President Kamala Harris and top officials about the safety challenges surrounding artificial intelligence and AI-powered products. The invite stressed on implementing safeguards and protections before launching AI offerings for public use. The meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is backed by Microsoft, released late in 2022 with a version made publicly available for free. Since then, the chatbot has become the fastest-growing consumer app on record as other companies race to bring out their own.
Elon Musk threatens news company
Twitter CEO Elon Musk reportedly emailed the news outlet NPR and gave them an ultimatum: start tweeting again or lose their Twitter handle. NPR said it was pausing its activity on Twitter, after it had been labelled as a ‘government-funded’ organisation and Musk made explicit jokes about the company. However, the NPR reporter who received the emails said Musk warned that unless the company began tweeting again, its handle would be recycled and given to another user.
The news comes as Business Insider reported that Twitter’s employee count had dropped down to around 1,000. In a BBC interview last month, Musk said that Twitter had roughly 1,500 employees.
