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The SAG-AFTRA union today called for a strike against several major video game publishers after failing to reach an accord over AI use. The action will take effect at 12:01 am on July 26. "We're not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members," SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said."Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live and work with, we will be here, ready to negotiate." SAG-AFTRA performers working in games "deserve and demand the same fundamental protections as performers in film, television, streaming, and music: fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the A.I. use of their faces, voices, and bodies," said the union's National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. The union has been lobbying the video game industry to agree to protections against its members' likenesses and voices being recreated with AI. SAG-AFTRA entered negotiations with the companies for the Interactive Media Agreement in October 2022. Other studios, such as Replica Games, have agreed to the union's contract. The union also secured a similar deal for animated TV shows earlier this year. A spokesperson for the gaming companies included in the Interactive Media Agreement, Audrey Cooling, provided a statement on behalf of the businesses. We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said. "We have already found common ground on 24 out of 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional safety provisions. Our offer is directly responsive to SAG-AFTRAs concerns and extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA. These terms are among the strongest in the entertainment industry." The strike includes the following studios: Activision Productions Inc. Blindlight LLC Disney Character Voices Inc. Electronic Arts Productions Inc. Formosa Interactive LLC Insomniac Games Inc. Llama Productions LLC Take 2 Productions Inc. VoiceWorks Productions Inc. WB Games Inc. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/video-game-performers-will-strike-over-ai-concerns-201733660.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
OpenAI on Thursday announced a new AI-powered search engine prototype called SearchGPT. The move marks the companys entry into a competitive search engine market dominated by Google for decades. On its website, OpenAI described SearchGPT as a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources. The company plans to test out the product with 10,000 initial users and then roll it into ChatGPT after gathering feedback. The launch of SearchGPT comes amid growing competition in AI-powered search. Google, the worlds dominant search engine, recently began integrating AI capabilities into its platform. Other startups like the Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity have also aimed to take on Google and have marketed themselves as answer engines that use AI to summarize the internet. The rise of AI-powered search engines has been controversial. Last month, Perplexity faced criticism for summarizing stories from Forbes and Wired without adequate attribution or backlinks to the publications as well as ignoring robots.txt, a way for websites to tell crawlers that scrape data to back off. Earlier this week, Wired publisher Condé Nast reportedly sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity and accused it of plagiarism. Perhaps because of these tensions, OpenAI appears to be taking a more collaborative approach with SearchGPT. The company's blog post emphasizes that the prototype was developed in partnership with various news organizations and includes quotes from the CEOs of The Atlantic and News Corp, two of many publishers that OpenAI has struck licensing deals with. SearchGPT is designed to help users connect with publishers by prominently citing and linking to them in searches, the companys blog post says. Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links. OpenAI also noted that publishers will have control over how their content is presented in SearchGPT and can opt out of having their content used for training OpenAI's models while still appearing in search results. SearchGPT's interface features a prominent textbox asking users, "What are you searching for?" Unlike traditional search engines like Google that provide a list of links, SearchGPT categorizes the results with short descriptions and visuals. OpenAI For example, when searching for information about music festivals, the engine provides brief descriptions of events along with links for more details. Some users have pointed out, however, that the search engine is already presenting inaccurate information in its results. In ChatGPT's recent search engine announcement, they ask for "music festivals in Boone North Carolina in august" There are five results in the example image in the ChatGPT blog post : 1: Festival in Boone ... that ends July 27 ... ChatGPT's dates are when the box office is pic.twitter.com/OBwNgNcLto kif (@kifleswing) July 25, 2024 We reiterate: Please don't get your news from AI chatbots. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-unveils-searchgpt-an-ai-powered-search-engine-195235766.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Sonos seriously stepped in it a couple of months back when it released an overhauled first-party mobile app that shipped with a number of missing features. These included core functions like sleep timers and alarms. Many of the companys speakers would not appear as a pairing option and it became extremely difficult to precisely adjust the volume level of a paired speaker.Additionally, music search and playback were both negatively impacted by the change, leading to numerous customer complaints. Now, the company has apologized for releasing the half-baked app. CEO Patrick Spence whipped up a blog post to address the significant problems with the new software. There isnt an employee at Sonos who isnt pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority, he wrote. Spence also wrote that the company had planned to quickly incorporate the missing features and patch up any errors, but these fixes were delayed by a number of issues that were unique to the update. He did confirm that Sonos has been actively pushing out patches approximately every two weeks to address a wide variety of concerns. Additionally, he outlined the companys future roadmap for getting the app into proper working order. Upcoming fixes include increased stability when pairing new products and enhancing configuration options with regard to the music library. Volume responsiveness is also getting a refresh, as is the alarm clock. As a matter of fact, the entire user interface is getting a complete overhaul that is based on customer feedback. All of these changes will be released via a number of app updates from now until October. Spence says he knows the company has work to do to earn back the trust of loyal Sonos customers. In better news, it did just release some nifty headphones.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-apologized-for-messing-up-its-app-and-has-offered-a-roadmap-for-fixing-everything-191528422.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Tesla car culture is full of hacks and shortcuts, some more effective than others. One, known as the wet towel trick, required the Tesla Charging department or whatever remains of it to publicly tell customers to knock it off. The wet towel trick involves wrapping a damp, cool cloth around a Supercharger cable handle as a way to presumably speed up the charging time. The Supercharger has temperature monitors that keep it from overheating as it charges Tesla vehicles. Some Tesla owners believe that cooling down the charging handle will trick the temperature monitor into topping off their vehicles faster. Here's the problem, at least in Tesla's telling: If the sensor in the charging handle believes that the temperature is lower than it actually is while its charging, the towel-wrapped charger can create a "risk of overheating or damage" according to the company. This may sound like the biggest duh statement in tech news history but its taken more than two months for Tesla to warn its customers not to do the wet towel trick on their cars, even after it became a well known hack on other auto news websites and Reddit forums. The official Tesla Charging account on X posted a warning on Wednesday in response to an article from InsideEVs.com explaining the dangerous car charging trick. Placing a wet cloth on Supercharger cable handles does not increase charging rates and interferes with temperature monitors creating risk of overheating or damage. Please refrain from doing this so our systems can run correctly, and true charging issues can be detected by our Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) July 25, 2024 This kind of epic communication breakdown is what happens when a major automaker doesnt have a public relations department. Tesla dissolved its entire PR team in 2020 and Elon Musk publicly refused to hire one on his X account the following year saying he didnt want to spend money on advertising & manipulating public opinion, according to Electrek.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-warns-against-wet-towel-charging-trick-two-months-too-late-190237430.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
I rarely used WhatsApp before moving from the United States to the United Kingdom a couple of years ago, opting for the built-in messaging app on my iPhone or fellow Meta-owned platform Messenger. No one I knew in the US used it, and, in fact, I had to get friends and family members to download it when I moved so we could communicate without being charged you're welcome, Mark Zuckerberg. Well, that seems to be changing, with the head of Meta announcing WhatsApp has reached 100 million monthly active users across the United States with about 10 million in Texas alone. WhatsApp has more than two billion users worldwide. Meta enlisted former Modern Family cast members for an ad in June that highlighted frustrations when some people have an iPhone, and others have an Android. Now, a very targeted PR stunt accompanies the 100 million user milestone, with Meta installing a 200-foot bubble between the Apple and Samsung stores in The Americana Mall in Los Angeles. Zuckerberg previously took aim at Apple, allegedly once stating, "We need to inflict pain" on Apple and claiming that his company's products were superior. In my experience, it's true that WhatsApp creates a more streamlined experience between different phone models, with easier reactions and formatting and no worries about being charged when traveling internationally. Meta claims that a WhatsApp-commissioned survey found one in four Americans don't communicate with a close friend or family member as regularly due to incompatible devices. We can take a survey undertaken by a for-profit company that demonstrates why said company is good with a grain of salt. However, as a daily WhatsApp user, I am excited about the idea of more Americans using it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-hits-100-million-monthly-active-us-users-185541159.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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