December 20, 2023
Media Mergers, Major Hacks, and Monopolies
AI powerhouse OpenAI has struck a deal with global news publisher Axel Springer to bring news content to ChatGPT. Similar to an agreement made earlier this year with the Associated Press, OpenAI will be able to train its large language models on the news publisher’s data. Progressive magazine Mother Jones is merging with the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting to form a new nonprofit news outlet.
Google disclosed the details of a $700 million payout it’s making as a result of a class action lawsuit that determined the company had maintained a monopoly of its Google Play store on Android phones. The tech giant also lost an antitrust lawsuit brought on by Epic Games. Nearly 36 million users’ data has been compromised in a major hack of Xfinity, Comcast’s cable television and Internet division.
More Businesses Moving Away from Remote Work
While remote work remains popular among employees, more businesses are moving away from it. A new survey showed that only 1% of businesses are fully remote, sharply down from a year ago. Nearly 90% of businesses have implemented an in-office mandate, with 80% requiring at least three-days-a-week attendance.
Overall, PR agencies are much less optimistic about growth and revenue than a year ago. According to a new study, just over one-half of firms surveyed expect 2023 to yield higher revenues than the year before—down from 88% a year ago.
Health and Political Misinformation Remain Problematic for Social Media
New data details the long-lasting impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on health information. A survey of U.S. adults from October 2023 were less likely to view vaccines as safe than in 2021. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is calling for social media companies to verify human users and implement reputation-based functionality to stem the tide of political misinformation.
A new study suggests fact-checking by professional organizations on social media is less effective at preventing misinformation than algorithmic fact-checkers—when content is flagged as suspicious by the algorithm. Sports Illustrated is under fire for using AI-generated authors to write articles.
Sequence Summaries: Data Deals, Work Trends, and Misinformation Mentions
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