Leftovers

• James G ☛ Happy Festivus

  Seinfeld is one of my favourite shows. On my trip to New York earlier this year, what I learned in Seinfeld became grounded in reality. I was on the Van-Wyck Expressway, mentioned in an episode where George picked up Jerry from the airport. I saw signs for the "Adopt a Highway" program, in which the character Kramer participated. Avid Seinfeld fans like myself know that Decemebr 23rd marks a special day on the calendar: Festivus.

• James G ☛ Advent of Technical Writing: Publishing Contributor Blog Posts

  In this post, I am going to talk about a few tips for managing internal contributors' work. I will focus on internal contributors, since managing content written by third parties is a separate process. I plan to document said process in another blog post.

• Bozhidar Batsov ☛ A Bad Year for Blogging

  There are still a ton of topics on my backlog that I’d like to write about in the future (e.g. the lessons I’ve learned as a long-time OSS developer/maintainer, updates on OSS projects and some ideas for their future, more musings on Emacs and Lisp), but I’ll get to those when I get to those. If ever. Let’s see if 2024 will be better on this front. Perhaps I find my inspiration every other year!

• Science

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Ancient stars could make elements with more than 260 protons

    The team looked at 42 stars in the Milky Way for which the elemental composition is well understood. Rather than simply looking for the presence of heavier elements, they looked at the relative abundances of elements across all the stars. They found that the abundance of some elements such as silver and rhodium doesn't agree with the predicted abundance from known r-process nucleosynthesis. The data suggests that these elements are the decay remnants from much heavier nuclei of more than 260 atomic mass units.

• Education

  • Byte Cellar ☛ The Era of American Computer Magazines Has Drawn to a Close

    It was then that I did a bit of searching on the web and was rather alarmed to find Technologizer‘s recent post, “The End of Computer Magazines in America,” subtitled “With Maximum PC and MacLife’s abandonment of print, the dead-tree era of computer journalism is officially over. It lasted almost half a century—and was quite a run.” I lament that the April 2023 issues of both of the aforementioned magazines’ were there last. Indeed, I do lament.

  • [Old] Technologizer ☛ The End of Computer Magazines in America

    The April issues of Maximum PC and MacLife are currently on sale at a newsstand near you—assuming there is a newsstand near you. They’re the last print issues of these two venerable computer magazines, both of which date to 1996 (and were originally known, respectively, as Boot and MacAddict). Starting with their next editions, both publications will be available in digital form only.

    But I’m not writing this article because the dead-tree versions of Maximum PC and MacLife are no more. I’m writing it because they were the last two extant U.S. computer magazines that had managed to cling to life until now. With their abandonment of print, the computer magazine era has officially ended.

• Hardware

  • The Straits Times ☛ India arrests two senior employees of Chinese firm Vivo, says source

    India’s financial crime-fighting agency has arrested two senior employees working for Chinese smartphone maker Vivo’s India unit, a source directly involved with the case said on Dec 23, which the company vowed to challenge legally.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Seasons greetings (and an announcement)

    Given that the holiday known as Christmas, which is as much a secular holiday these days as a religious holiday, has snuck up on us before Orac could do one more post and is now less than two days away, Orac has decided that it is time to continue recharging his Tarial cells at least until December 26, when he plans on doing his usual Monday thing on a Tuesday and posting something that might seem familiar to anyone familiar with his other persona.

  • Science Alert ☛ Christmas Weight Gain Is a Common Problem. Here's How to Avoid It.

    The struggle is real.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Versus Evil shuts down after ten years, lays off staff before Christmas

    In another indication of the overall health of the games industry (and not a promising one), video game publisher Versus Evil has closed its doors just days before Christmas - laying off its entire staff in the process.

    The publisher, which helped launch the likes of Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga, Abrakam's Faeria, and the Switch port of Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, released a statement on X confirming the news after social posts from members of the team.

  • Ethan Zuckerman ☛ How Big is YouTube?

    Interesting as Reddit and Twitter are, they are much less widely used than YouTube, which is used by virtually all internet users. Pew reports that 93% of teens use YouTube – the closest service in terms of usage is Tiktok with 63% and Snapchat with 60%. While YouTube has a good, well-documented API, there’s no good way to get a random, representative sample of YouTube. Instead, most research on YouTube either studies a collection of videos (all videos on the channels of a selected set of users) or videos discovered via recommendation (start with Never Going to Give You Up, objectively the center of the internet, and collect recommended videos.) You can do excellent research with either method, but you won’t get a sample of all YouTube videos and you won’t be able to calculate the size of YouTube.

  • Futurism ☛ 80 Percent of Americans Think Presenting AI Content as Human-Made Should Be Illegal

    The two first questions yielded the strongest responses, with 84 percent of participants agreeing that such a use of AI would be unethical and 80 percent agreeing that it should be fully illegal. These feelings even appeared to reach across divided party lines — in either poll, Democrats, Republicans, and independents all fell within nine points of each other.

    The questions about watermarking in general yielded much vaguer responses, but that could be because the questions are about a more particular possible solution. While someone could, say, generally consider a lack of AI disclosure unethical, they could be unsure about how effective watermarking might actually be; it could also be true that they don't totally understand what watermarking would entail, or think another possible solution — like requiring that publishers of AI content denote its use through explicit and visible disclaimers — could be more effective overall.

  • Old VCR ☛ When the Power Macintosh ran NetWare (featuring Wormhole and Cyberpunk)

    But Novell wanted NetWare servers to be more than just PCs (and the PC ecosystem to be more than just Microsoft), and in an attempt to gain footholds elsewhere the company accumulated some strange bedfellows. HP, Sun and Data General were on board, and IBM did so in grander form, but surely the most unexpected company Novell tried to court was ... Apple.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Big Questions About AI in 2024

    Let us be thankful for the AI industry. Its leaders may be nudging humans closer to extinction, but this year, they provided us with a gloriously messy spectacle of progress. When I say “year,” I mean the long year that began late last November, when OpenAI released ChatGPT and, in doing so, launched generative AI into the cultural mainstream. In the months that followed, politicians, teachers, Hollywood screenwriters, and just about everyone else tried to understand what this means for their future. Cash fire-hosed into AI companies, and their executives, now glowed up into international celebrities, fell into Succession-style infighting. The year to come could be just as tumultuous, as the technology continues to evolve and its implications become clearer. Here are five of the most important questions about AI that might be answered in 2024.

  • Futurism ☛ We Are Completely Mystified by This AI-Generated Image of Jack and Rose Taking a Selfie in "Titanic"

    A new AI-generated image that's making its rounds on social media has us completely mystified. The almost-photorealistic image shows the pair as they were portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in James Cameron's 1997 epic "Titanic," having an intimate photo opp.

  • Dedoimedo ☛ DuckDuckGo browser - Capable, noisy, and not strict enough[Ed: DuckDuckGo is a Microsoft proxy, avoid it]

    As I've told you countless times before, my mobile browsing combo is Firefox + UBlock Origin (UBO). That seems to be the only truly complete solution that matches my taste and needs. Occasionally, though I go about testing alternative browsers, just to see whether there is anything that could potentially offer similar results. Reasonable choice is not a bad thing.

    So far in my search, I only briefly had exposure to Safari + Adblock Plus (ABP), and Firefox Focus, also as an extension for said browser. I don't have enough experience to say more. Then, I did a proper test of the lightweight Firefox Focus browser, and the results were okay, but not stellar. The tracking protection was decent, but the ad blocking was not. This brings me to DuckDuckGo. 'Tis a search engine, and I reviewed it several times in the past. Seems quite alright. And there's also a mobile browser. So let's see if perhaps this one can be a solid option for those not keen on the stupidities of the modern Internet.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Massive influx of migrants crosses US-Mexico border on Saturday in search of asylum

    In November, authorities encountered 242,418 illegal immigrants at the border, another record for the month. This followed the unprecedented fiscal year 2023, when nearly 2.5 million people were caught crossing the border illegally, along with an estimated 670,000 “gotaways” who avoided capture.

  • RFERL ☛ Czech Republic Observes National Day Of Mourning For Victims Of University Mass Shooting

    Flags on public buildings are being flown at half-mast on December 23 across the Czech Republic as it observes a national day of mourning for the victims of a mass shooting at a Prague university that left 14 people dead and 25 others wounded.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • YLE ☛ Traficom: Russian airline unlikely to get a licence to operate in Finland

      According to the German newspaper Bild, Russian nationals have established Southwind Airlines in Turkey, which Polish authorities believe that the company intends to transport migrants to the EU borders.

    • France24 ☛ Russia bars pro-peace candidate from presidential poll

      A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine hit a roadblock in her campaign Saturday, when Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to accept her initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the documents submitted.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine says it shot down three Russian fighter-bombers in Kherson

      Ukraine's military said it has shot down three Russian fighter-bombers in the south of the country.

    • LRT ☛ How Lithuanian-Americans are trying break deadlock on US support for Ukraine

      American voters of Lithuanian and Central Eastern European descent are calling every day to their elected representatives, hoping Congress can finally agree on financial support for Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Awaits Delivery Of First F-16 Jets In Coming Days As Kyiv Seeks To Counter Russian Air Superiority

      Ukraine will likely receive it first shipment of advanced F-16s in the next few days, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call as Kyiv seeks to disrupt Russia’s air superiority over Ukrainian skies.

    • RFERL ☛ Polish Farmers To Suspend Protest At Ukrainian Border, Truckers To Remain

      The Polish government said farmers will on December 24 suspend their protest at the Medyka border crossing with Ukraine, helping to ease tensions between the two normally friendly nations.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Forces Repelled Russian Attacks In Several Directions Over The Past Day, Kyiv Says

      Seventy-five clashes took place between Ukrainian forces and the invading Russian Army over the past 24 hours, Kyiv said on December 23, adding that its troops repelled Russian attacks on six front lines in the country’s east and northeast.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Defense Ministry Official Arrested In Alleged Arms Procurement Fraud Case

      Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the Defense Ministry said on December 22 they had uncovered a scheme that involved the embezzlement of the equivalent of nearly $40 million and arrested the head of one of the main departments of the Defense Ministry under suspicion of involvement in the scheme.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Accuses Senior Defense Official of Embezzling $40 Million

      The Ukrainian authorities said they had uncovered a scheme for the purchase of artillery shells at inflated prices, amid a wider effort to tackle wartime corruption.

    • Meduza ☛ Estonia ready to extradite draft-eligible Ukrainians — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ The New York Times: Russia gains ground in Ukraine using manpower advantage — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine’s Defense Ministry considers sending out electronic draft notices — Meduza

    • JURIST ☛ Russia opens unprecedented number of treason cases in 2023

      The Russian authorities opened 70 cases in 2023, either for state treason or for confidential cooperation with a foreign state or organization, according to a report from the human rights organization Perviy Otdel, comprising Russian activist lawyers, released on Thursday detailing the alarming outcomes of the year.

    • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Central Election Commission rejects Yekaterina Duntsova’s application to run for president — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Yekaterina Duntsova urges Yabloko party to support her nomination after Russia’s election commission rejects her application to run for president — Meduza

    • YLE ☛ Former Finnish President Halonen reflects on Russia relations and Nato membership

      As Finland's former President Tarja Halonen approaches her 80th birthday, she dismisses claims of naivety in Finland's foreign policy towards Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Kyiv Dismantles Monument To Bolshevik Uprising Of 1918

      The authorities in Kyiv continued their policy of removing Soviet-era monuments in the capital, dismantling a memorial to the January 1918 communist uprising, “another symbol of Bolshevik tyranny,” according to the city council.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Quietly Signals He Is Open to a Cease-Fire in Ukraine

      Despite its bravado in public, the Kremlin has indicated its interest in striking a deal to halt the war — so long as it could still declare victory.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia's Communist Party Nominates 75-Year-Old Member To Run Against Putin

      Russia’s Communist Party on December 23 nominated Nikolai Kharitonov, 75, to run against President Vladimir Putin in next March’s presidential election.

    • NYPost ☛ Anti-war candidate Yekaterina Duntsova barred from running against Putin in election

      Members of the central electoral commission voted unanimously to reject her candidacy, citing "numerous violations" in the papers she had submitted in support of her bid.

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ People once lived in a vast region in north-western Australia—and it had an inland sea

    For much of the 65,000 years of Australia's human history, the now-submerged northwest continental shelf connected the Kimberley and western Arnhem Land. This vast, habitable realm covered nearly 390,000 square kilometers, an area one-and-a-half times larger than New Zealand is today.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ What Abandoning Fossil Fuels Could Look Like in the Arab World

      This story was originally co-published by Grist and The Public Source, and is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

      For the second year in a row, world leaders met in the Arab world to negotiate the future of the planet. As a backdrop to the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, it’s a fitting venue for a planet-wide shift that scientists say needs to happen: The region has extensive deposits of oil and gas, but also immense, untapped potential for renewable energy.

    • Engadget ☛ 2023-12-22 [Older] Hyperloop One is shutting down

    • Futurism ☛ Cybertruck Manufacturing Is a Disaster, Tesla Insiders Say

      If Tesla wants to produce 250,000 Cybertrucks, it would need to produce almost one million 4680 cells a day. According to the report, Tesla's Giga Texas factory is only producing them at a rate that's sufficient for 24,000 Cybertrucks a year right now.

    • Reuters ☛ Tesla Cybertruck deliveries hostage to battery production hell

      Tesla's Giga Texas factory is currently churning out 4680 battery cells at rate only sufficient to power about 24,000 Cybertrucks a year, or about a 10th of the required output, according to Reuters calculations based on a combination of public data and unpublished figures provided by sources.

      Being able to ramp up battery output massively by dry-coating electrodes - rather than using the slower, more costly wet-coating - was a key factor behind Tesla's forecasts in 2020 that it would more than halve battery costs, cut investment significantly, and create smaller, greener factories.

    • The Verge ☛ GM stops selling the Chevy Blazer EV to deal with ‘software quality issues’

      In a statement provided to The Verge, Chevrolet communications executive director Chad Lyons said, “Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update.” Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell said, “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries.” GM did not confirm how many vehicles are affected, other than saying it’s a “limited” number.

    • CarMax Inc ☛ Our Chevy Blazer EV Has 23 Problems After Only 2 Months

      Considering this all occurred over the span of about 24 hours, we knew we had to get the Blazer into service. But the next day, none of the error messages displayed. A bit flummoxed, we took our Blazer EV to the dealership to see if all of this was a red herring or if something really was wrong. What we got back from the dealer was alarming: the single longest list of major faults we at Edmunds have ever seen on a new car.

    • Hackaday ☛ UK’s JET Tokamak Retires After 40 Years And 105,842 Pulses

      The UK’s most famous fusion reactor – the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak – saw its first plasma on June 25th of 1983. Its final plasma pulse was generated on December 18th of 2023, for a total of 105,842 pulses over forty-and-a-half years and countless experiments.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Substack Says It Will Not Ban Nazis or Extremist Speech

    “I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either — we wish no one held those views,” Hamish McKenzie, a co-founder of Substack, said in a statement. “But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away — in fact, it makes it worse.”

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ How a new way to vote is gaining traction in states — and could transform US politics

    Ranked choice voting, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand since 2016, when Maine became the first state to adopt it. But increasingly, RCV is being paired with a new system for primaries known as Final Five — or in some cases, Final Four — that advances multiple candidates, regardless of party, to the general election.

  • India Times ☛ OpenAI in talks to raise new funding at $100 billion valuation: report

    OpenAI is set to complete a separate tender offer led by Thrive Capital in early January, which would allow employees to sell shares at a valuation of $86 billion, according to the report.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Idiomdrottning ☛ Disinfo

      One of the main goals of disinformation campaigns is, rather to get you to believe what the poster is saying (although they’d love that), it’s instead to get you to doubt everything and everyone.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFA ☛ Hong Kong court rejects bid to get Jimmy Lai's sedition charge dropped

    Beijing imposed the law – which criminalizes public criticism of the authorities – as part of a crackdown on massive pro-democracy protests in 2019, insisting that the move was necessary to quell unrest. Lai has been an outspoken supporter of the pro-democracy movement, and several editors at his former paper are also awaiting sentencing for calling for international sanctions in columns and opinion pieces.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Russia: Ex-reporter barred from challenging Putin in 2024

    Duntsova, 40, would have been a challenger to President Vladimir Putin, and was planning to run on a platform of ending the war in Ukraine and freeing political prisoners.

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Bars Anti-War Journalist From Running For President

    The former local legislator from the western town of Rzhev was summoned by prosecutors last month after she called for peace in Ukraine, the release of political prisoners, and democratic reforms in Russia.

  • The Hill ☛ Russia bars former journalist who pushed for end to Ukraine war from challenging Putin

    Duntsova, who has pushed for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war, filed an application on Dec. 20 to be an independent candidate, marketing herself as pro-peace and pro-democracy. She secured the endorsement of more than 500 supporters, as is required for candidates, The Moscow Times reported.

  • JURIST ☛ Russia opens unprecedented number of treason cases in 2023

    According to Perviy Otdel, most of these cases were instigated by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Frequently, FSB conducted online sting operations, engaging individuals opposing war. Subsequently, they orchestrated stings targeting those supporting the Ukrainian Army, providing aid to Ukraine, intending to travel to Ukraine, or expressing a desire to join the “Freedom of Russia Legion” or defect from the Russian army to volunteer against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Successful stings led to arrests under Article 275 for treason or Article 275.1 for confidential cooperation with foreign entities.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Says Swedish Citizen Faces Iran Execution 'Shortly'

    [...] The comments came amid fears that a Swedish appeals court decision confirming the conviction of former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury could jeopardize the fate of several Swedish prisoners in Iran.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Meduza ☛ Unknown assailant hurls grenade at BBC Russia journalists inside bar in Riga, Latvia — Meduza

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • EFF ☛ Artificial Intelligence and Policing: Year in Review 2023

    But in another way, the possibility of plugging a vast amount of information into a system and getting automated responses or directives is also rapidly becoming a major problem for innocent people hoping to go un-harassed and un-surveilled by police. So much has been written in the last few years about how predictive policing algorithms perpetuate historic inequalities, hurt neighborhoods already subject to intense amounts of surveillance and policing, and just plain-old don’t work. One investigation from the Markup and WIRED found, “Diving deeper, we looked at predictions specifically for robberies or aggravated assaults that were likely to occur in Plainfield and found a similarly low success rate: 0.6 percent. The pattern was even worse when we looked at burglary predictions, which had a success rate of 0.1 percent.”

    This year, Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology also released an incredible resource: Cop Out. This is a massive and useful  investigation into automation in the criminal justice system and the several moments from policing to parole when a person might have their fate decided by a machine making decisions.

    EFF has long called for a ban on predictive policing and commended cities like Santa Cruz when they took that step. The issue became especially important in recent months when Sound Thinking, the company behind ShotSpotter—an acoustic gunshot detection technology that is rife with problems—was reported to be buying Geolitica, the company behind PredPol, a predictive policing technology known to exacerbate inequalities by directing police to already massively surveilled communities. Sound Thinking acquired the other major predictive policing technology—Hunchlab—in 2018. This consolidation of harmful and flawed technologies means it’s even more critical for cities to move swiftly to ban the harmful tactics of both of these technologies.

  • EFF ☛ Sketchy and Dangerous Android Children’s Tablets and TV Set-Top Boxes: 2023 in Review

    Though more reputable Android devices are available for watching TV and keeping the little ones occupied, they come with a higher price tag as well. This means that those who can afford such devices get more assurance in the security and privacy of these devices, while those who can only afford cheaper devices by little-known manufacturers are put at greater risk.

    The digital divide could not be more apparent. Without a clear warning label, consumers who cannot afford devices from well-known brands such as Apple, Amazon, or Google are being sold devices which come out-of-the-box ready to spy on their children. This malware opens their home internet connection as a proxy to unknown users, and exposes them to legal risks. 

  • Vox ☛ Police are solving fewer crimes. Why?

    According to Asher’s analysis of the UCR data, “For all violent crimes, the clearance rate went from almost 46 percent in 2019 to 36.7 percent in 2022. The same thing happened with property crimes. Property crime went from a 17 percent clearance rate to a 12 percent clearance rate from 2019 to 2022. And so you look at crime by crime, and with the exception of burglary, every crime has seen really a nosedive in the last three or four years.”

  • India Times ☛ Twitter violated contract by failing to pay millions in bonuses, US judge rules

    In denying Twitter's motion to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that Schobinger plausibly stated a breach of contract claim under California law and he was covered by a bonus plan.

    "Once Schobinger did what Twitter asked, Twitter's offer to pay him a bonus in return became a binding contract under California law. And by allegedly refusing to pay Schobinger his promised bonus, Twitter violated that contract," the judge wrote.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Starlink coming to Zimbabwe through Dandemutande partnership? Is the wait over folks?

    We have to note that the video could have been tampered with to make Mpando seem to be saying what he never said. Dandemutande has not communicated this news via official channels. However, the video looks legit and it supports what we had gathered before.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Software Patents

    • The Morning After: The Apple Watch ban and Sony seems to be winning the console war

      It's Christmas Eve Eve, so I've phoned in this week's TMA and shouted "Lost In Space!" to myself. What a time to be alive. I'm also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn't offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ "90% of All Pirated Films are Recorded in Movie Theaters"

    In the streaming age, most films are never shown in movie theaters. Despite this fact, we recently saw the claim that "90 percent of all pirated films are illegally recorded in theaters". This mythical statistic, which is clearly incorrect today, first appeared online roughly two decades ago when counterfeit DVDs were still in fashion.

  • NYPost ☛ Harvard must wake up — Claudine Gay needs to be removed as president after antisemitism, plagiarism controversies

    When it’s not being used as a punchline, Harvard is held up as an example of all that’s wrong with American higher education.

  • India Times ☛ Apple explores AI deals with news publishers

    Some publishers contacted by Apple were lukewarm on the overture. After years of on-again-off-again commercial deals with tech companies like Meta, the owner of Facebook, publishers have grown wary of jumping into business with Silicon Valley.

    Several publishing executives were concerned that Apple's terms were too expansive, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. The initial pitch covered broad licensing of publishers' archives of published content, with publishers potentially on the hook for any legal liabilities that could stem from Apple's use of their content.

  • New York Times ☛ Apple Explores A.I. Deals With News Publishers

    Apple was also vague about how it intended to apply generative A.I. to the news industry, the people said, a potential competitive risk given Apple’s substantial audience for news on its devices.

  • India Times ☛ Apple explores AI deals with news publishers

    The technology giant has floated multiyear deals worth at least $50 million to license the archives of news articles, said the people with knowledge of talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The news organizations contacted by Apple include Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker; NBC News; and IAC, which owns People, The Daily Beast and Better Homes and Gardens.