Writers Strike, Amazon's AI Bet, and the Oldest Aquarium Fish

Writers Strike Nears End

The Writers Guild of America leadership is expected to vote as soon as today on whether to approve the terms of a new three-year contract with top entertainment companies after reaching a tentative deal over the weekend. If approved, the union's 11,000 members will then vote to ratify the contract, officially putting an end to one of the longest-running labor disputes in Hollywood. 

Details of the preliminary agreement have not been made public; however, reports suggest the Writers Guild has been able to secure most of its demands, including higher royalty payments from streaming content and stipulations related to artificial intelligence. The union suspended picketing yesterday.

While writers will be able to resume work once the final contract passes two key votes, production on movies and TV shows will still be halted. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists—which represents 160,000 actors, performers, and more—has been striking separately for a new contract. 

This year marked the first time in 63 years in which two Hollywood unions went on strike at the same time. 

Amazon Invests in AI

Amazon announced yesterday a potential multibillion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The company will reportedly invest $1.25B initially and will assume a minority stake in Anthropic with the option to increase its investment up to $4B.

Anthropic, known for its AI-powered text-generating chatbot Claude 2 that rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, aims to develop an advanced model, Claude-Next—expected to cost nearly $1B over the next year. Claude-Next is projected to be 10 times more capable than current AI models.

Under the deal, Amazon will use Anthropic’s AI technology in its products and services, and its Amazon Web Services will become the primary cloud platform to facilitate Anthropic’s AI model development. Amazon plans to incorporate future Anthropic models across its products, including Amazon Bedrock, an AI platform for businesses to build, train, and deploy machine learning models.

Separately, ChatGPT announced a new text-to-speech model for paying users to interact with the chatbot.

'Last Godfather' Dies

Matteo Messina Denaro, the convicted killer and one-time head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra Mafia, died Monday at the age of 61 of colon cancer in a hospital in L'Aquila, Italy, where he was serving time in a maximum-security prison.

After evading capture for three decades as one of Italy's most-wanted fugitives, he was captured in January while seeking chemotherapy treatments. Denaro was previously tried and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2002 for his involvement in multiple terrorist attacks and murders in 1992 and 1993, including the killing of two anti-Mafia prosecutors. He received another life sentence in 2012 for his role in the torture and murder of the 12-year-old son of a former Mafia informant. Overall, he is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 50 people.

Learn about a man leading the fight against the Italian Mafia here.

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In-Depth

> What It’s Like To Be 13

NY Times | Jessica Bennett. A dive into the lives of three teenage girls from three different states during one year of their lives in an attempt to show what it is like to be 13 years old in the age of multiple media platforms. (Read)

> The Taliban's Luxury Hotel

Neue Zürcher Zeitung | Andreas Babst. Look inside The Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, once Afghanistan's premier luxury hotel and famed for its legendary parties, which now finds itself under Taliban control. (Read)

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