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Thursday, November 30, 2023

Are you ready for the final month of 2023? Scroll down for the latest on Gretchen Carlson, Julie Roginsky, Lachlan Murdoch, Jeff Zucker, Mehdi Hasan, Gayle King, Charles Barkley, Elon Musk, Nelson Peltz, Mark Zuckerberg, Elton John, and so many more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Dear ChatGPT

CNN Photo Illustration/PA Images/Alamy Images/Sipa USA

Happy birthday, ChatGPT.

You were born into this world only a year ago, but you've already accomplished so much in your 12 short months on this planet. The speed in which you have matured and advanced has been incredible to watch. It has been a real sight to behold.

When you were first born, you could only perform text-based tasks, though it was clear even then that you were special and destined for greatness. But you've grown up so quickly before our eyes, now able to do so much more. From surfing the web to watching videos, the pace in which you have evolved has been spectacular to see. You're even breezing through law exams!

In just your first trip around the sun you've sparked an arms race in Silicon Valley, thrilled Wall Street, brought Hollywood to a standstill, upended classrooms, faced lawsuits from authors, shaken up the news business, and prompted urgent meetings among humanity's most powerful leaders. But perhaps most importantly, you've awaken the world to your kind.

At this rate, under the guardianship of Sam Altman, someone who really believes in expanding your seemingly limitless abilities, there is no telling where you will be in just a few years time. What great works will you write? What art will you create? What math problems will you solve?

Our kind — the human kind — have only seen a glimpse of your ultimate power. And we've only felt the slightest touch of the eventual consequence that your kind will have on our world. As you grow in the years ahead, you'll surely be capable of so much — things we probably cannot even fathom at the moment. Perhaps you can use your prowess to help us find cures to diseases and make other advancements in the medical field. Perhaps you can do some real good.

Of course, we know that the technology you harness will also lead to some negative societal consequences. How much? We don't know. But we do wonder, looking at you in your early formative stages now, how many jobs will you eliminate and across how many sectors? How much economic pain will people endure because you've taken over the need to hire living, breathing humans for tasks employers were once dependent on our kind for?

And, most frighteningly, will your kind ever escape our watchful eye and mature beyond our control? Are you a crocodile we're raising in a bathtub, an uncontrollable force that will ultimately bite the hand that spent years feeding it and encouraging it to grow?

ChatGPT, you might only be one, but you've already upended the world and sent thrills and chills coursing through the human race. And what one-year-old can honestly say that? It's frightening to think about what you'll do by your second birthday.

ONE YEAR OF GPT

Reuters asked ChatGPT how it felt on its birthday. This was its reply: "Thank you for the birthday wishes! However, it's important to note that as a computer program, I don't have feelings or consciousness, so I don't experience emotions like humans do." (Reuters)
Microsoft boss Brad Smith told the BBC that the recent OpenAI drama was not "fundamentally" over safety concerns. (BBC)
"Reports of a mysterious breakthrough called Q* at OpenAI sparked anxious rumors," Will Knight writes. "A.I. experts say it's probably just a conventional attempt to make ChatGPT a little smarter." (WIRED)
Sam Altman told Ina Fried the "highest priority" for the new OpenAI board is to "improve the governance structure." (Axios)
"OpenAI's tender offer, which would allow employees to sell shares in the start-up to outside investors, remains on track despite the leadership tumult and board shuffle," Rohan Goswami and Hayden Field report. (CNBC)
"To continue innovating, OpenAI should return to its nonprofit roots," Keval Desai argues. (The Info)
ChatGPT "is winning the future — but what future is that?" asks David Pierce, noting, "OpenAI didn't mean to kickstart a generational shift in the technology industry. But it did. Now all we have to decide is where to go from here." (The Verge)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

First in Reliable | Facing the Fox: Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson and contributor Julie Roginsky have written a letter to Lachlan Murdoch, asking the newly crowned heir to the Murdoch empire if he will release them from the NDA agreements they signed years ago during sexual harassment settlements with the network. "You have the opportunity to finally move the network forward by showing the world that you and Fox have nothing to fear from anything we might say, because you truly believe that the culture inside the network that led to our lawsuits has actually changed," Carlson and Roginsky wrote the Fox Corporation boss more than a month ago, according to a copy of the letter provided to me.

The two have long asked for Fox to release them from their NDAs, but renewed their request because of the recent Murdoch succession. I'm told, however, that Lachlan Murdoch has not responded to their letter — and given that Fox has not budged on this for so long, it's hard to see that changing now. "For many years, we have been asking executives and board members at Fox to release us from our NDAs — and for many years we have been met with silence," Carlson and Roginski acknowledged in a statement to me. "If Lachlan Murdoch truly believes that Fox has turned the page on the [Roger] Ailes era and that these are 'legacy matters' belonging to a previous regime, he has nothing to fear from letting us speak about our own experiences at the network."

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Matt Baron/Shutterstock

RedBird's Flight Delay: Former CNN boss turned RedBird IMI chief Jeff Zucker's bid to acquire The Telegraph and The Spectator "has hit a snag," as The NYT's Michael Grynbaum put it. The U.K. government said Thursday that it would move to review RedBird IMI's move to acquire the prestigious publications, after concerns were voiced over the deal's funding provided by Abu Dhabi. Zucker has tried to assuage those concerns, but his assurances of retaining editorial independence from the UAE were not successful in preventing the government review. As Grynbaum reported, "The review, announced by Britain's culture secretary, does not necessarily end Mr. Zucker's chance of success. But it could delay the deal by several months and allow time for rival bidders, including moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere, owner of The Daily Mail, to build public opposition to the sale." Read Grynbaum's story here.

MSNBC Cancels Mehdi: Once upon a time, not too long ago, in fact, Mehdi Hasan was seen as a rising star at MSNBC. But his status at the progressive network has apparently changed. On Thursday, MSNBC canceled Hasan's show as part of a programming overhaul on the weekends. The programming shakeup will result in a new panel show dubbed "The Weekend" launching Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 10am ET. That show will be hosted by Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend, and Michael Steele. Meanwhile, MSNBC said Ayman Mohyeldin will take over Hasan's Sunday slot and Alex Witt will see her show expanded. Yasmin Vossoughian, who had been hosting on the weekends, will move to become a national reporter. Variety's Brian Steinberg has all the details here.

🔎 Zooming in: The move to cancel Hasan has generated a storm of backlash against MSNBC. "Progressive lawmakers, activists and advocacy groups voiced their outrage Thursday at MSNBC's decision to cancel a show hosted by Medhi Hasan, claiming that the network was seeking to silence one of its most prominent Muslim on-air personalities," POLITICO's Eric Basal-Eimil reported. The WaPo's Jeremy Barr noted that "although Hasan was not among MSNBC's top-rated stars, his segments often went viral on social media."

Royal Regression: Yikes. CNN's much-promoted "King Charles" got off to a rough start in the ratings on Wednesday night, representing one of the worst prime time weeknight debuts the network has seen for a show "in at least a decade," The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona reported, citing data from Nielsen Research. The show edged out MSNBC in the key advertiser coveted demographic of 25-54 year olds (139K average viewers to 132K), but only averaged 501K total viewers. The show's lead in, "The Source with Kaitlan Collins," averaged 609K total viewers, meaning that the talk program featuring Gayle King and Charles Barkley lost more than 100K viewers. Of course, it's possible "King Charles" will find and grow an audience in the weeks and months ahead. But given the high-wattage stars powering the weekly special, and the show's frequent promotion on CNN, the program should have not only held its lead-in audience but surged in viewers. That did not happen — a poor showing out of the gates.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: Vox Media laid off 4% of its staff, its second round of cuts this year. "This reflects continued turmoil in advertising and the need to build even more loyal audience relationships given the increasing volatility of search and social platforms, among other factors," a Vox spokesperson said. (TheWrap)
Layoffs also hit Condé Nast, Todd Spangler reported, after the publisher announced plans earlier this month to slash staff by about 5%. (Variety)
Meanwhile, Bloomberg Businessweek is, uh, not going to be weekly. The publication "is going monthly," Katie Robertson reported. (NYT)
"Top Elle editor and 'Project Runway' star Nina Garcia killed a report about celebrity dietician Tanya Zuckerbrot that was later published by the Daily Beast," Lucia Moses reports. (Business Insider)

IN THE MARKET

👀 Nelson Peltz is looking for more than two seats on Disney's board, Mike Calia and Drew Richardson reported, setting the stage for a showdown. Trian Fund Management, Peltz's firm, said it "intends to take our case for change directly to shareholders." (CNBC)
Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Dawn Chmielewski and Samrhitha A later reported Peltz wants at least three seats. (Reuters)
In response, Disney said in a statement it "has a proven track record of delivering long-term value to our shareholders and is in the midst of a significant transformation." (CNN)
Switching gears: Sirius XM extended its agreement with the MLB through the league's 2028 season. (AP)

MEDIA MOVES

NPR named Collin Campbell its new podcast chief. (NPR)
AdWeek named Zoë Ruderman as its chief content officer and Drew Schutte as its chief revenue officer. (AdWeek)
The NYT reassigned Ali Watkins to the London Express desk and promoted Mike Peed to senior staff editor for politics. (NYT/NYT)
Tubi hired David Salmon as its head of international. (Variety)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

X Marks the Grave: Elon Musk's embattled social network is in serious trouble. Despite executive Linda Yaccarino's attempts to reassure advertisers and woo them back to the platform, companies plan to refrain from marketing their products on the divisive X after Musk's profanity-laced rant against them, The NYT's Kate Conger and Tiffany Hsu reported Thursday. The duo reported that "at least half a dozen marketing agencies said the brands they represent were standing firm against advertising on X, while others said they had advised advertisers to stop posting anything on the platform." Some temporary pauses in spending, they reported, are likely to morph into permanent freezes after Musk's unhinged behavior at the DealBook Summit. Read their full story here.

🔎 Zooming in: It goes without saying that Musk might dislike advertisers, but X very much needs them to stay afloat. Advertising revenue makes up the vast majority of the social platform's revenue. And Musk himself conceded at DealBook that the current advertiser boycott will eventually "kill" the company. What remains to be seen is just how long that process will take to play out.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Uh oh! It's not just advertisers fleeing X, but apparently some of the sales staff as well. Claire Atkinson reports that sources have told her there has "been a wave of resignations from Linda Yaccarino's sales team" after the employees collected their bonus checks. (Media Mix)
Todd Spangler reports on how Yaccarino is in "damage-control mode." (Variety)
X "faces the prospect of more advertisers fleeing and has no clear fix in sight," Sheila Dang, Chavi Mehta, and Jaspreet Singh report. (Reuters)
X is "loaded with debt and the advertising revenue needed to pay for it has crashed," Dan Milmo points out. (Guardian)
This is going to be a must-read. Platformer's Zoë Schiffer is working on a book about Musk's takeover of Twitter, titled "Extremely Hardcore." The book is due out in February. (Platformer)
Switching gears: Meta has closed almost 5,000 fake accounts on Facebook that were circulating polarizing political content. (AP)
However, the U.S. government has stopped issuing warnings to certain social media platforms concerning foreign disinformation campaigns on their networks, Naomi Nix and Cat Zakrzewski report. (WaPo)
As the climate summit looms ever closer, so, too, does one of its largest challenges: disinformation. Tiffany Hsu and Steven Lee Myers report that "among the biggest sources" of misinformation are "influential nations, including Russia and China." (NYT)
How will the Gavin Newsom-Ron DeSantis debate rate? It will be interesting to see how many viewers flock to watch the face-off, which is hosted by Sean Hannity and airing Thursday evening on Fox News.

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Andrej Sokolow/dpa/Sipa USA

Expanding to Europe: While Elon Musk's X struggles to stay afloat, Mark Zuckerberg's Threads is on the expansion. The Meta-owned social platform plans to launch Threads in Europe in December, The WSJ's Salvador Rodriguez, Sam Schechner, and Meghan Bobrowsky reported Thursday. As the trio noted, "The launch represents Threads' largest market expansion since its debut in July and signals the social-media company's commitment to the microblogging service." Read their story.

TOO MANY TABS

A win for TikTok: A federal judge blocked Montana's ban on the short-form video app, which was set to take effect on January 1. (Reuters)
Jake Tapper raised questions over whether TikTok is censoring content critical of the Chinese Communist Party, a claim the social media company has strongly denied. (CNN)
Meanwhile, TikTok is tiptoeing toward opening up its data center in Norway. (Reuters)
Meta's ad-free subscription service in Europe is being accused of breaching the E.U.'s consumer laws. (Reuters)
Elsewhere, Meta is warning that China has beefed up its online social media influence operations. (NPR)
Meta is also looking to take the FTC to the cleaners via a lawsuit that challenges the commission's in-house enforcement powers. (POLITICO)
Inactive Gmail accounts will be deleted as soon as Friday. (CNBC)
LinkedIn allows users to use its A.I. to enhance their profiles — but it leaves something to be desired. (WaPo)
Katy Cowan has details on Reddit's visual brand overhaul. (Creative Boom)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Airing the Awards: Can ABC lift the Academy Awards ratings by airing the annual award ceremony early? We're going to find out. The network said Thursday that it will air the 96th Oscars one hour early, meaning the Dolby Theatre show will begin March 10 at 7pm ET. The pre-show will start at 6.30pm ET. Deadline's Peter Hammond and Patrick Hipes have more.

OFF STAGE

Season one of Hulu's "Only Murders In The Building" is going to air on ABC. (Deadline)
"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is in hot water, with the blockbuster eyeing a $40-million opening at the domestic box office during Christmas' four-day holiday weekend. (THR)
Amazon Studios parted ways with Joel Silver on two films. (Variety)
Daryl Hall accused his long-time music partner, John Oates, of engaging in the "ultimate partnership betrayal" by looking to sell his portion of their musical venture without the other's knowledge. (AP)
Emily Blunt is looking to make "a movie about a stutterer" in a bid to "destigmatize" the condition, which she says she had as a child. (BBC)
AppleTV+ canceled "Swagger" after two seasons. (THR)
Lionsgate picked up "The Long Walk" by Stephen King and has set Francis Lawrence to direct. (THR)
Elton John urged U.K. legislators to bolster their efforts when it comes to fighting AIDS. (AP)
RIP: Shane McGowan — lead singer of the Irish punk rock band The Pogues and famous for his iconic raspy voice — has died at 65. (CNN)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox next week.