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While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important. I also try to include some resources & opportunities. Please let me know what you think.

Important Items

FCC Commissioner Slams Paramount’s New ‘Truth Arbiter’ for the Trump Regime

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says Paramount-Skydance agreed to “never-before-seen forms of government control over newsroom decisions” through a “truth arbiter”

https://gizmodo.com/fcc-commissioner-slams-paramounts-new-truth-arbiter-for-the-trump-regime-2000640818

Innovation

New brain implant could rewire stroke rehab

A chip was implanted in a 52-year-old US partially paralyzed man. The chip detects brain activity patterns linked to movement and translates them to computer commands, allowing patients to control cursors or robotic hands.

https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2025/07/29/uw-brain-implant-stroke-rehabilitation-trial

Technology

Bloomsbury Explores AI Licensing

Bloomsbury began communicating with authors about potentially licensing their work for AI training, focusing on academic and professional backlist titles. They are “inviting authors to opt-in to AI licensing opportunities.”

https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2025/08/bloomsbury-explores-ai-licensing/

‘AI slop versions’ of books on retailers like Amazon ‘risk harming consumer confidence’  

Low quality AI books “risk harming consumer confidence”, the Publishers Association (PA) has said after comedian Rhys James shared online that he had found a number of “AI slop versions” of his upcoming memoir You’ll Like It When You Get There: A Life Lived Reluctantly for sale on Amazon.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/ai-slop-versions-of-books-on-retailers-like-amazon-risk-harming-consumer-confidence

Reimagining Book Publishing in the AI Era: From Resistance to Renaissance

Recommendations for embracing AI for publishers, authors, translators, and narrators.

https://thenewpublishingstandard.com/2025/08/03/reimagining-book-publishing-in-the-ai-era-from-resistance-to-renaissance/

Is the White House Trading Copyright for AI Dominance? Creators Fear the Cost.

https://creativelicensinginternational.com/licensing-brief/mr-president-say-it-aint-so/

Canadian Author Sues Four AI Companies for Copyright Infringement

J.B. MacKinnon of Vancouver has filed class action lawsuits against Anthropic, Databricks, Meta, and Nvidia, alleging they illegally used copyrighted works by Canadian writers to train their large language models.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/98333-canadian-author-sues-four-ai-companies-for-copyright-infringement.html

Study: Writers Among Most Threatened by AI

Writers and broadcast announcers are among the jobs most vulnerable to being replaced by AI, said a study by Microsoft.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/31/top-ai-jobs-replace

The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die

Families and funeral directors are using AI obituary generators to more efficiently memorialize the dead. What happens when they get it wrong?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/08/03/ai-obituaries-funeral-homes/

Inside Unilever’s AI beauty marketing assembly line — and its implications for ad agencies

HT @benedictevans Unilever is using generative AI to create an average of 400 creative assets per product: “Before, we’d be doing 20 assets per campaign, and now we’re doing hundreds.” The universal automation question: does this mean fewer people doing the same work, the same number of people doing far more work, or more people doing more work? Here – how many people do you need to hire to check all those generated assets? And do you hire more creatives to feed the prompts?

https://digiday.com/marketing/inside-unilevers-ai-beauty-marketing-assembly-line-and-its-implications-for-agencies/

Apple’s upcoming AI voice-control feature for Siri could be an under-the-radar hit

Apple is testing upgraded App Intents with Uber, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, WhatsApp, and other apps to transform Siri into a true voice-first interface

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-08-10/apple-app-intents-voice-control-feature-for-siri-apps-ios-26-release-timing

Amazon CEO wants to put ads in your Alexa+ conversations

Amazon plans to subtly integrate ads into conversations with its AI assistant Alexa+ to boost monetization, despite concerns over privacy and user experience.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/31/amazon-ceo-wants-to-put-ads-in-your-alexa-conversations/

Dhanush Slams AI-Altered ‘Raanjhanaa’ as ‘Deeply Concerning Precedent for Both Art and Artists’: ‘This Alternate Ending Has Stripped the Film of Its Very Soul’

HT @benedictevans A Bollywood studio used AI to create a new, happy ending for a classic hit movie. The talent are not happy.

https://variety.com/2025/film/global/eros-aanand-l-rai-dispute-ai-altered-raanjhanaa-ending-1236470128/

A ‘Moana’ deepfake and a cursing Darth Vader: Inside Disney’s AI trials

The stakes are especially high for the studio, caught between how to use artificial intelligence in the filmmaking process and how to protect its famed characters against it.

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-ai-hollywood-movies-5982a925

Google DeepMind Unveils Genie 3, a Real-Time Virtual World Model for Advancing AI

It builds interactive environments with memory that can be used for gaming and robot training as it enables agents to train in real time across virtual scenarios.

https://observer.com/2025/08/google-agi-interactive-world-model/

The Netflix of AI? San Francisco AI startup’s Showrunner lets fans create TV shows in minutes

Users can make custom TV episodes in minutes with simple prompts w this Amazon-backed AI streaming platform. Its first AI-generated show is animated and lets viewers modify scenes, insert themselves, and upload content

https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/showrunner-ai-interactive-tv-20792462.php

Generative AI and the Collapse of the Learning Pyramid

Generative AI is overturning the traditional learning pyramid by enabling students and workers to produce high-level outputs like essays, code, and designs before mastering foundational skills. This shift challenges long-held ideas about how learning should progress. While AI can boost motivation and access to advanced work, it also risks shallow understanding and fragile competency. Educators and employers must now rethink how they assess knowledge, teach skills, and define expertise in a world where creation can come before comprehension.

https://www.unaligned.io/p/generative-ai-and-the-collapse-of-the-learning-pyramid

Why sleep-time compute is the next big leap in AI

Sleep-time compute is a new way to scale AI capabilities: letting models “think” during downtime. Instead of sitting idle between tasks, AI agents can now use their “sleep” time to process information and form new connections by rewriting their memory state.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91368307/why-sleep-time-compute-is-the-next-big-leap-in-ai

Why context engineering – not prompting – is the key to building reliable AI agents

“Context Rot” is the tendency for models to become less reliable as the volume of data stored in their short-term memory grows.

https://diginomica.com/why-context-engineering-not-prompting-key-building-reliable-ai-agents

OpenAI Finally Launched GPT-5. Here’s Everything You Need to Know

OpenAI released GPT-5 to both free users of ChatGPT and paying subscribers.

https://www.wired.com/story/openais-gpt-5-is-here/

‘It fundamentally changes what it means to be an e-commerce brand’: What a ChatGPT checkout system could mean for retail

OpenAI created a checkout function where users complete transactions entirely within ChatGPT. Merchants that opt to receive and fulfill orders this way will pay a commission to OpenAI.

https://www.modernretail.co/technology/it-fundamentally-changes-what-it-means-to-be-an-e-commerce-brand-what-a-chatgpt-checkout-system-could-mean-for-retail/

China pitches global AI governance group as the US goes it alone

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/28/tech/china-global-ai-cooperation-organization-waic-hnk-spc

Cloudflare Says Perplexity AI Ignores Scraping Blocks

Cloudflare found Perplexity AI “repeatedly modifying” the company’s web-crawling bots to evade data-scraping measures on 3rd-party websites.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/cloudflare-perplexity-ai-acts-like-north-korean-hackers-ignores-scraping

Zuckerberg is pouring billions into plans for ‘personal superintelligence’

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zuckerberg-is-pouring-billions-into-plans-for-personal-superintelligence-193923036.html

Decoding Zuck’s Superintelligence Memo

The newest memo is very much on point for Zuck and in keeping with every single time his company has faced an existential crisis.

https://om.co/2025/07/30/decoding-zucks-superintelligence-memo/

Meta’s Ray-Ban Killer? Alibaba Drops AI-Powered Glasses Bombshell for 2025

Alibaba announced plans to release AI-powered smart glasses by the end of 2025. They’re powered by Alibaba’s Qwen large language model and advanced AI assistant Quark. The Quark AI Glasses promise hands-free calling, music streaming, real-time language translation, and meeting transcription. The integration with Alibaba’s broader ecosystem will allow users to access navigation services, make payments through Alipay, and compare prices on Taobao directly through the glasses.

https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/metas-ray-ban-killer-alibaba-drops-ai-powered-glasses-bombshell-for-2025/

This robot scans rare library books at 2,500 pages per hour

After two years of research, archivists at the University of Tulsa’s McFarlin Library recently tried out a machine called the Treventus ScanRobot 2.0. Built in Austria, the bot autonomously scans and digitizes manuscripts. Whereas it might take a single librarian days or weeks to scan a single book, the ScanRobot 2.0 can handle up to 2,500 per hour. It’s not sacrificing safety for speed, however. The setup relies on a unique toolkit to ensure it digitizes a book quickly, but with the least amount of direct contact possible.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/book-scanning-robot/

Publishing & Media

Spotify Audiobooks+ is launching in the USA

Via @goodereadermike Spotify Audiobooks+ is launching in the USA for $11.99 per month, which unlocks 15 hours of audiobook streaming.

https://goodereader.com/blog/audiobooks/spotify-audiobooks-is-launching-in-the-usa

Tariffs + You: BISG Offers Guidance on How to Navigate the Changes

Book publishers should look at their supply chains for increasing production costs from tariffs (i.e., ink, printing plates, + machinery parts) & work w customs brokers exporting books.

https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2025/08/tariffs-and-you-bisg-offers-guidance-on-how-to-navigate-the-changes/

Publishing sees ‘largest drop’ in career optimism of all creative sectors, research suggests

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/publishing-sees-largest-drop-in-career-optimism-of-all-creative-sectors-research-suggests

National Association of Black Bookstores Announces Official Launch

The first-of-its-kind collective was created to uplift Black bookstore owners and booksellers across the United States

https://people.com/national-association-of-black-bookstores-announces-official-launch-11785915

On the Future of Small Presses in the Aftermath of the NEA Grant Chaos

HT @publishingtrend Elizabeth Cook Breaks Down the “Uncertainty, Disrespect, and Bullying” of the Federal Government.

https://lithub.com/on-the-future-of-small-presses-in-the-aftermath-of-the-nea-grant-chaos/

Dotdash Meredith gets a new name: People Inc.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2025/07/31/dotdash-meredith-new-name-people-inc-des-moines/85427719007/

Amazon to Shut Down Wondery Podcast Studio, Reorganize Audio Business

As podcasting becomes video-oriented, Amazon is shuffling Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team while cutting approximately 110 staff members.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-04/amazon-to-shut-down-wondery-podcast-studio-reorganize-audio-business

Ghost newsletter service says creators have earned $100M

Newsletter service Ghost says publishers have earned $100M+ on it, its annual revenue is $8.5M+, it now supports ActivityPub, and is upping new member pricing.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/ghost-makes-it-easier-to-publish-to-the-social-web/

Nexstar Media Group is in advanced talks to acquire rival Tegna

Nexstar, which owns or partners with over 200 TV stations, is in advanced talks to acquire Tegna, which has 64 TV stations in a litmus test for the FCC’s deregulation push.

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/nextar-tegna-deal-talks-0e1d7524

Inside Ikea’s ‘Dream Factory’ Powering 70,000 Productions a Year

In addition to a typical copywriter and art director duo, creative teams include an interior designer who helps develop innovative ways of using the products.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/inside-ikeas-dream-factory-powering-70000-productions-a-year/

The Anti-Book Ban Laws Passed in 2025 (& What They Mean)

Anti-book ban bills only address the actual removal of books. That still leaves plenty of room for libraries to redact, restrict, and relocate materials, as well as engage in quiet/silent censorship.

https://bookriot.com/2025-anti-book-ban-laws/

NH Gov. vetoes Republican-backed public school book ban bill

HT @inkbitspixels

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-07-15/ayotte-vetoes-republican-backed-public-school-book-ban-bill

Resources & Opportunities

WMG Luncheon with Molly Jong-Fast

9/10 12-2pm, Barbetta Restaurant, NYC. $65 members, $75 non-members. Join WMG for a very special luncheon featuring outspoken journalist, political commentator, columnist, and podcaster Molly Jong-Fast. Jong-Fast returns to WMG to discuss her New York Times bestselling book, How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir. The only child of the groundbreaking feminist writer Erica Jong, whose influential 1973 novel, The Fear of Flying, influenced the founders of WMG, Jong-Fast examines her childhood of privilege set against the backdrop of an erratic mother who was often inaccessible and focused primarily on herself. When her mother slips into dementia, Jong-Fast struggles with “the bereft, broken feeling of something ending before it ever got the chance to start.”

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6277261

WMG Members-Only Small Group Socials

WMG Members: There are a ton of in-person and virtual members-only Small Group Socials to choose from! Including lunch w me. (It’s sold out, but sign up for the waitlist!) Hope to see you there!!

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/events

Money Matters: Know Your Worth and Charge It: Setting Fair Freelancer Rates

8/11 4pm ET virtual. Via @AuthorsGuild

https://authorsguild.org/event/know-your-worth-and-charge-it-setting-fair-freelancer-rates/

The Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship

The yearlong @IRE_NICAR program provides assistance to attend Data Journalism Bootcamp, the NICAR Conference, the IRE Conference + more. Deadline 9/1.

https://www.ire.org/training/fellowships-and-scholarships/ire-journalist-of-color-investigative-reporting-fellowship/

“Made in NY” Production Assistant Information Sessions

This FREE, 4-week job training program prepares low-income NYC residents to work as Production Assistants on major film/TV productions and connect grads to gigs after they complete the program.

https://bwiny.org/event-category/made-in-ny/

NABJ A&E Task Force COVID-19 Hardship Grant 

The National Association of Black Journalists in conjunction with the NABJ Task Force and the NABJ Hardship Relief Committee is offering hardship relief grants to NABJ members who are experiencing financial difficulties or job loss as a result of COVID-19.

https://thenabj.wufoo.com/forms/nabj-ae-task-force-covid19-hardship-grant/

Bright Light

Want to give back but don’t know where to start? Bright Light is a NYC-based nonprofit creating fun, social volunteer events outside the 9-to-5, think care kit assembly nights, sandwich-making drives, and weekend food pantry shifts.

https://beabrightlightorg.galaxydigital.com/need/

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