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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

A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury.

An ICE summons to get the user’s identity failed. Advocates worry the move to a grand jury signals an escalation of the war on dissent.

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/

Technology

McClatchy Journalists Revolt Against AI: ‘It’s a Betrayal’

Sacramento Bee staffers refuse bylines over a new AI tool as colleagues at the Miami Herald and Charlotte Observer harbor concerns.

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/mcclatchy-ai-tool-revolt-sacramento-bee-miami-herald-charlotte-observer/

ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI

The union is seeking “just cause” protections for terminations, wage increases to keep up with the rising cost of living, and contract language that would prohibit layoffs resulting from AI adoption.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/04/propublica-journalists-walk-off-the-job-in-first-u-s-newsroom-strike-over-ai/

NYT union tells management its AI standards are “woefully inadequate”

HT @BoSacks A recent incident involving AI-driven plagiarism by a freelance book reviewer has pushed the guild to demand more clarity from management around its AI standards as part of the negotiations.

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/07/new-york-times-ai-standards

Penguin to sue OpenAI over ChatGPT version of German children’s book

ICYMI HT @inkbitspixels Publisher alleges AI research company’s chatbot violated its copyright over Coconut the Little Dragon series #teamPRH

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/31/penguin-sue-openai-chatgpt-german-childrens-book-kokosnuss

YouTube creators sue Amazon, alleging it used YouTube videos to train AI model

Amazon is facing a proposed class action in federal court in Seattle after three YouTube creators accused the company of scraping millions of copyrighted videos from the platform to train its Nova Reel artificial intelligence model

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/youtube-creators-sue-amazon-alleging-it-used-youtube-videos-to-train-ai-model/281-5cdc0c75-e866-4fe5-990a-e3364033d4a8

Suno is a music copyright nightmare

Users can create tracks that can closely resemble existing songs, bypassing safeguards, generating large volumes of music quickly. Major labels are pushing back.

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/906896/sunos-copyright-ai-music-covers

GEO drives new brand-media deals

The rise of chatbots and AI search engines is forcing big brands to invest in new generative engine optimization that favors third-party validation, as opposed to traditional search engine optimization, which can still be gamed with paid media. The ad market for chatbots and AI search engines is still nascent, which means brands need to rely on strong organic and earned media coverage to reach consumers using AI tools. “It’s become clear that increasing the amount of times a brand is mentioned on third-party websites helps increase AI visibility,”

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/07/geo-brand-media-deals

Which journalists and news outlets are most cited by AI answer engines?

Generative AI answers often cite less well known B2B and specialist titles.

https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalists-cited-ai/

Netflix – yes, Netflix – jumps on the AI bandwagon with video editor

Supports editing, content creation, & potentially personalization of video experience, internal teams can experiment w AI-assisted production workflows directly in Netflix’s ecosystem

https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/03/netflix_video_ai/

Poke makes using AI agents as easy as sending a text

Is Poke an OpenClaw for the rest of us? Consumers access a personal assistant that can do daily planning, managing calendar, track health & fitness, control your smart home, editing your photos via text

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/08/poke-makes-ai-agents-as-easy-as-sending-a-text/

Tubi is the first streamer to launch a native app within ChatGPT

Tubi has launched the first native streaming app inside ChatGPT, allowing users to discover and watch content directly through a conversational interface.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/08/tubi-is-the-first-streamer-to-launch-a-native-app-within-chatgpt/

ChatGPT app launches for CarPlay on iOS 26.4

Users interact thru the car’s interface using voice commands. It works through the iPhone connection and does not require a separate in-car installation.

https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/31/chatgpt-app-launches-for-carplay-on-ios-26-4/

Microsoft launches 3 new AI models in direct shot at OpenAI and Google

Microsoft has a speech transcription system to convert speech to text, a voice generation engine to create realistic human voices, and an upgraded image creator.

https://venturebeat.com/technology/microsoft-launches-3-new-ai-models-in-direct-shot-at-openai-and-google

Google quietly launched an AI dictation app that works offline

Google released a new AI-powered dictation app that can transcribe speech without requiring an internet connection.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/07/google-quietly-releases-an-offline-first-ai-dictation-app-on-ios/

Google Maps can now write captions for your photos using AI

Google is also making it easier for users to track the impact of their contributions, as they will now see total points earned displayed in the “Contribute” tab. Additionally, “Local Guide” levels will be highlighted on profile pages. For context, Local Guides earn points by adding photos, writing reviews, answering questions, and checking facts to improve Google Maps.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/07/google-maps-can-now-write-captions-for-your-photos-using-ai/

Google Launches Veo 3.1 Lite, a More Cost-Effective AI Video Generator Model

Google is doubling down on AI video and trying to make it less expensive and energy-intensive to run.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-announces-a-more-cost-effective-ai-video-generator-model/#ftag=COS-05-10aaa0j

OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm

ICYMI Clarifai used images from OkCupid to identify the age, sex, & race of detected faces. They would sell its facial recognition tech to foreign governments, military operations & police depts.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/okcupid-match-pay-no-fine-for-sharing-user-photos-with-facial-recognition-firm/

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted

MT @RonanFarrow OpenAI was founded on the premise that AI could be the most dangerous invention in human history—and that its CEO would need to be a person of uncommon integrity. We lay out the most detailed account yet of why Altman was ousted out by board members and executives who came to believe he lacked that integrity, and ask: were they right to allege that he couldn’t be trusted?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

Anthropic Claims Its New AI Model, Mythos, Is a Cybersecurity ‘Reckoning’

The company said on Tuesday that it was holding back on releasing the new technology but was working with 40 companies to explore how it could prevent cyberattacks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/technology/anthropic-claims-its-new-ai-model-mythos-is-a-cybersecurity-reckoning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZVA.LXSg.7hWAA-L1iLxN&smid=tw-share

Instacart introduces ‘Physical AI’ smart carts to influence grocery shopping in real time

https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2026/03/instacart-introduces-physical-ai-smart-carts-to-influence-grocery-shopping-in-real-time/

AI Rollout Is a People Problem: A Pulse on All Things AI, Part 2

This article is about scholarly publishing (that is, journals), but it applies to all publishing/all companies.

When a CEO tells the publishing director that the board wants to hear an “AI story” in 6 months, the instruction sounds reasonable. It is, in fact, the beginning of a category error. “AI” is not one thing. It is at least five different things happening simultaneously inside a publishing organization, each with different stakeholders, different risk profiles, and different resource requirements: editorial tools, research integrity, content licensing, member services, and internal productivity. Asking for “an AI strategy” is like asking for “a weather strategy.”

The question isn’t what AI can do. It’s whether you’re solving a real problem, improving productivity, or generating motion to make sure the organization isn’t doing it just to be doing it. The result is a double bind that society technology and content teams now live inside. On one hand: let’s experiment. On the other: it better work, or we will lose the audience.

And the people being asked to navigate it are, almost universally, underresourced. That’s the ethical problem underneath the operational one. Publishing organizations are being asked to make consequential, hard-to-reverse decisions about content, staff, and partners in an environment where the landscape shifts before the approval cycle completes.

Underneath the anxiety, though, a quieter consensus was forming across our conversations, not about tools or vendors or strategies, but about what publishing organizations are actually for. “We have to very strongly think, what is the piece of the human contribution that is value, and how do I take everything else away so that my time, which is finite, which never can be added to, is maximized and amplified and gets the most value and attention around it?”

What’s durable is editorial judgment, community trust, and the capacity to evaluate and certify. What’s transient is specific models, specific vendor relationships, specific delivery mechanisms. Everyone we spoke with was hopeful that AI would improve the work they do, the content they publish, the services they offer members. Nobody was quite sure how. The tools are the same tools everyone else has access to. The difference, it turns out, is not in the technology. It is in the people who decide what to do with it.

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/04/08/ai-rollout-is-a-people-problem-a-pulse-on-all-things-ai-part-2/

What Publishing Leaders Say About AI When They’re Not on Panels: A Pulse on All Things AI

Content in the weights is a one-time transaction with a depreciating asset: the model that ingested your corpus in 2024 will be superseded by 2026, and you’ll have no claim on its successor. Content accessed as context — retrieved at inference time through what the industry is starting to call tool use, or agent architectures, or model context protocol (MCP) and command-line interface (CLI) endpoints — is an ongoing relationship. The article can be updated, corrected, or retracted. The access can be metered, licensed, or renewed. The source can be cited. Your goal is to be the machine that the agents call back.

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/03/11/what-publishing-leaders-say-about-ai-when-theyre-not-on-panels/

Hollywood Assistants Are Using AI Despite Their Better Judgment — Including in Script Development

“When they say, ‘You should be using AI,’ the first thought in your head is: ‘Are you asking me to teach you how to replace me with technology?’”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/hollywood-assistants-ai-development-1236553905/

Apple is secretly working on smart glasses, AI pendant, and AI AirPods

https://mashable.com/article/apple-developing-new-ai-wearables-smart-glasses-ai-airpods-pendant

Using AI to analyze Chinese state propaganda at scale

HT @benedictevans PropagandaScope is a database of over 400,000 articles from 20 Chinese provincial party newspapers. It tracks how political keywords move from the center to the provinces. How often they appear. How fast they spread. Which regions amplify them the most.

https://soyonbo.substack.com/p/before-the-law

Generalist introduces GEN-1 general-purpose model for physical AI

Robots can act flexibly in real-world environments, interpret situations & respond dynamically, w perception, reasoning, & action.Supports autonomous behavior in complex, changing settings

https://www.therobotreport.com/generalist-introduces-gen-1-general-purpose-model-for-physical-ai/

In Latest Pivot, Amazon Luna to Drop Game Purchases, Third-Party Stores

The change is angering users who bought titles on Luna, which lets you stream games on a laptop or TV.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/in-latest-pivot-amazon-luna-to-drop-game-purchases-third-party-stores

Publishing & Media

Is It Wrong to Write a Book with AI?

If the creation of fiction is a layered endeavor—if premise, plot, style, and so on are to some extent separable—then must all the layers be made by the same individual? James Patterson, who produces one out of every seventeen hardcover novels sold in the United States, does so by providing collaborators with detailed outlines and treatments, effectively running what’s been described as a “novel factory.” We frequently praise the showrunners of prestige television, who rely on groups of writers to produce scripts. When a screenwriter wins an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the word “original” means only that the script isn’t an adaptation; a lot of people, credited or not, may have contributed to the final product.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/is-it-wrong-to-write-a-book-with-ai

Agentic AI Is Coming for Knowledge Work. Writers Still Get to Be Weird.

https://authorautomations.com/p/agentic-ai-is-coming-for-knowledge

Paramount Gets Back Into the Book Business, Launches New Publishing Imprint in IP Play

HT @Georgia_McBride The new division, Paramount Global Publishing, will adapt the company’s IP into books and other titles, while also developing new original stories that could find their way to the screen.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-launches-book-publishing-imprint-1236558719/

Amazon-owned Audible opening a “bookless bookstore” in NYC

The Audible Story House open during the month of May, features story “tiles” visitors use to sample audiobooks, along w seven “listening spaces” w Sony headphones & Dolby Atmos surround sound

https://www.theverge.com/tech/908422/the-amazon-owned-audible-is-opening-a-bookless-bookstore-in-nyc

MTA Pilot Program for Audio Ads on the Subway

MTA will pipe 30-sec audio ads into select subway/commuter rail stations every 10 mins, saying feedback will determine whether program continues. “Save yourself research & just know the feedback is: NO.”

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/audio-ads-could-soon-be-a-part-of-your-daily-commute-on-the-nyc-subway-system-030226

The Most Powerful People in the World Are Obsessed With Media Again

Sam Altman is buying his favorite show, Larry Ellison is buying CNN to merge it with CBS News, Jamie Dimon is toying with launching a venture. It may mark a new era of vanity media owners.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/billionares-buying-media-deals-openai-tbpn-larry-ellison-1236554833/

Microsoft’s LinkedIn Considers Buying Beehiiv

LinkedIn is said to have discussed an acquisition of Beehiiv, the newsletter and digital publishing platform.

https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/04/05/2026/semafor-media-bare-knuckle-baltimore

One Thing You Should NEVER Do When Trying to Publish a Book

Remember that not all advice is for you. I might tell you not to write a prologue, but I am sure I can point to twelve books where the prologue works beautifully. Writing and not writing a prologue is good advice, depending on who you are and what you’re writing. Confused? Good. That means you’re paying attention.

Advice isn’t what you should do. It’s what worked for someone else.

https://www.agentsandbooks.com/one-thing-you-should-never-do-when-trying-to-publish-a-book/

Why Swedish Schools Are Bringing Back Books

HT @inkbitspixels Swedish students’ scores declined in reading, math, & science 2000-2012. There is evidence that analog teaching materials for reading may be superior to screen learning.

https://undark.org/2026/04/01/sweden-schools-books/

Chicago Turns All Public School IDs Into Library Cards To Boost Student Access

https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/08/chicago-turns-all-public-school-ids-into-library-cards-to-boost-student-access/

Just Call it Content: Content Jobs Are Thriving Outside Traditional Media

The frequency of media layoffs has been increasing. But the demand for content skills has never been higher. It’s just coming from somewhere new.

https://www.mediabistro.com/get-hired/job-search/content-jobs-are-thriving-outside-traditional-media/

U.S. Appeals Court Deals a Blow to the Freedom to Read

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that school officials and politicians have broad discretion to order the removal of books from school libraries as long as the removals are “reasonably” related to “legitimate pedagogical concerns.” #teamPRH

https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/04/u-s-appeals-courts-deals-a-blow-to-the-freedom-to-read/

Resources & Opportunities

“Blind Date with a Book” Exchange & Shopping at M.M.LaFleur with Jodi Brockington

4/21, 6pm. M.M.LaFleur, NYC. WMG & Badass Book Club members only; FREE

Join WMG President Emerita Jodi Brockington for a night of shopping and camaraderie—with a literary twist. As part of the evening, guests will take part in a “Blind Date with a Book” Exchange as a unique way to share stories and inspiration. Guests are invited to bring one of their favorite books, wrapped to keep the title a mystery. Upon arrival, each participant will add a few thoughtful clues to guide others in choosing their next read. As attendees sip, shop, and get styled, they will browse the collection of mystery books and select one that speaks to them. You may just discover a new favorite author! All guests will receive $50 off purchases made during the event.

https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6625980

New York Cinefest with Yona Deshommes and Georgia McBride

4/26 8-10pm NYC, WMG members only

WMG board member Georgia McBride has a film premiering at New York Cinefest, and we want to be in that room with her! Georgia produced Regression, a psychological horror film from writer-director Melissa Vitello. Regression follows a grad student who, after the unexplained death of her best friend, becomes haunted by an eerie manifestation of the past. Desperate for answers, she and her roommates turn to past life regression hypnotherapy—only to uncover connections far deeper and darker than any of them imagined. Attend the premiere with Georgia, fellow Board member Yona Deshommes, and other WMG friends to see storytelling at its finest, support a female-led movie, and applaud Georgia’s success as producer.

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6638286

Women and Money: Navigating the Pay Gap

4/28 12-1pm ET virtual. FREE for WMG members, $15 for non-members

Maintaining financial wellness in today’s turbulent economy can feel like an impossible job. The task is even more arduous for women, as they earn 80 cents to a man’s dollar. Join WMG for a timely discussion about the relationship between gender, race, and pay equity. Sophia Reynoso, Mori Taheripour, and Francesca Donner will explore the real challenges women face—and the strategies that actually work to get the compensation we deserve.

https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6618671

Women in Book Publishing: Past, Present, and Future

5/6 6-8 pm, NYC, WMG members only

Join us for an exclusive members-only evening of book talk, socializing, and insider insight into the world of publishing—past, present, and future. We’re thrilled to welcome Gayle Feldman in conversation with publishing leader Madeline McIntosh, co-founder of Authors Equity and former U.S. CEO of Penguin Random House. At the heart of the evening is Gayle’s highly praised new biography, Nothing Random—a compelling portrait of one of the co-founders of Random House. The book doubles as a cultural history of twentieth-century book publishing, providing a rich backdrop for a fascinating discussion about the role of women in publishing. Together, Gayle and Madeline will shed light on the often overlooked women who shaped the books Random House became known for—editors, copy editors, publicists, and groundbreaking authors like Gertrude Stein, Ayn Rand, and Toni Morrison. Blending historical knowledge with personal experience, they’ll also explore where publishing is today and what opportunities lie ahead for women in the field.

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6638344

AI in publishing workflow conference

5/11-5/22 virtual conference. I’m moderating a stellar panel on Where are book publishers now with AI. While the conference is free, if you want to watch the recordings for up to 90 days and access the private community channel, use code KSANDLER for a 30% discount.

https://purepub.ai