Software: Last News

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America has proposed allowing artificial intelligence to write scripts, as long as it does not affect writers’ credits or residuals. The guild had previously indicated that it would propose regulating the use of AI in the writing process, which has recently surfaced as a concern for writers who fear losing out on jobs. But contrary to some expectations, the guild is not proposing an outright ban on the use of AI technology. Instead, the proposal would allow a writer to use ChatGPT to help write a script without having to share writing credit or divide residuals. Or, a studio executive could hand the writer an AI-generated script to rewrite or polish and the writer would still be considered the first writer on the project.

follows last year’s acquisition of the platform by Epic Games– one of the world’s largest video game and software development companies.Although the partnership was completed in March last year, the decision left some fans nervous that the platform – which has become one of the most artist-friendly alternatives to Apple Music and Spotify – would no longer provide adequate support for independent musicians.A year in, Bandcamp remains relatively untouched following the acquisition – however numerous employees have come forward saying that change is needed, and unionised under the name Bandcamp United.“Many of us work at Bandcamp because we agree with the values the company upholds for artists: fair pay, transparent policies, and using the company’s social power to uplift marginalised communities,” said Bandcamp employee, Cami Ramirez-Arau (via Rolling Stone).

A pervert who watched horrific sexual abuse images of children who 'appeared to be drugged' has avoided jail.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic At last, a video game movie that’s more than just a video game movie. In theory, “Tetris” — that primitive and highly addictive block-stacking strategy game — doesn’t lend itself to the big-screen treatment any more than Rubik’s Cube or Tic-Tac-Toe might. But Noah Pink has found an ingenious solution to a classic puzzle. The screenwriter realized that there’s more to Tetris than most people knew. Namely, there’s a terrific backstory about how this Soviet-hatched computer software made its way over the Iron Curtain, and telling it could play like a Cold War thriller as three teams of Western rivals race one another to Russia to secure the rights.

Gary Glitter will now die behind bars after being recalled to prison just weeks after his release, the former head of Scotland Yard's Paedophile Unit has said. Mike Hames predicted the 1970s glam rocker, real name Paul Gadd, would now spend the rest of his life in jail as he will always represent a danger to children. The Probation Service confirmed on Monday that the 78-year-old paedophile was being recalled to prison following a breach of his licence conditions.

Samsung has released a new update that patches a glitch with the Android operating system that puts devices at risk from hackers.

Kaare Eriksen Information Editor Note: This article is based on content from Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report “2023 Media & Tech Trend Tracker,” available exclusively to subscribers. Sony Interactive Entertainment in February announced PlayStation Playmakers, a new initiative to partner with names like LeBron James on promoting the console brand. For anyone else in gaming, this move would come across as a plea for consumers to spend at levels not seen since 2021. But for Sony, it’s capping off a return to form.

Tara Karajica In her debut film, exec produced by Oscar winner Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”), Syrian activist-journalist Lina chronicles the real-time transition from peaceful revolution, ushered in by the Arab Spring more than a decade ago, to civil war in Syria. The film plays in the Newcomers Competition at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. At first, Lina thought she would document the women’s involvement in the Syrian uprising. “I was thinking that despite how much women are involved in every aspect of what is happening, once everything is over, somehow, we’re going to slip through the cracks and disappear from the story. So, I decided it was best to start documenting what we do as we do it, to make sure that memories were not erased. But as things progressed, and took unexpected turns, I had more and more reasons to keep making the film. And, some of the reasons changed because, as I was making it, I felt that documenting the role of women isn’t exactly an objective for the film. It’s just part of the texture of the film. I don’t need to aim for it anymore. It’s there.”

Naman Ramachandran Documentary “The First Code,” which explores how Ukrainian techies are an integral pillar of the global IT industry, will debut in the spring. The film, from EASE (the European Association of Software Engineering), chronicles the birth and formation of Ukrainian IT, from the creation of the first computer by Ukrainian engineers in the 1950s to the present day, where it has become a powerful industry and an important front in the war with Russia. The film was made based on interviews with representatives of leading Ukrainian IT companies, including EPAM Ukraine, 3DLOOK, ELEKS, Looksery, Techiia holding, Sigma Software Group, SoftServe, Uklon, Infopulse Ukraine and Preply. The V. M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, have also participated in the film.

Lecturers have warned that ”chatbot” platforms can churn out passable university essays in just two minutes – and the Daily Record’s tested the theory to prove the case.

Pushing themselves too far. Since Survivor premiered in 2000, there have been several players who had to exit the game due to a medical evacuation — and some of them have been downright scary.

The National Association of Theatre Owners has appointed Michael P. O’Leary as President and CEO of the Association beginning May 1, 2023. He takes over for outgoing NATO Boss John Fithian, who announced his retirement back in October after working with the exhibitor trade org for three decades.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Michael P. O’Leary, an executive who has straddled the worlds of government, lobbying and media, has been named as president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. He will take over from John Fithian, whose retirement after decades at the exhibition industry advocacy group was announced last year. O’Leary will begin the transition into his new role at NATO in April. He officially takes the reins from Fithian in May. NATO said that O’Leary has served in senior positions at The Entertainment Software Association, 21st Century Fox, the Motion Picture Association, on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Justice.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees released a survey Wednesday finding that visual effects workers lack access to portable health insurance and retirement plans. The survey found that among visual effects workers who work on the “client side” of the business, only 12% have a health insurance plan that they can take from job to job. Another 45% get healthcare only for the duration of their project, while 43% do not have health insurance at all. The union released the results as it wages a campaign to organize VFX workers, who have not had labor representation. The survey also highlighted the lack of other benefits that come with union jobs, including employer-sponsored retirement plans, breaks and rest periods, and overtime pay. The survey found that some workers on the lower end of the pay scale barely make minimum wage, when unpaid overtime is factored in.

Jillian Michaels suffered a spinal injury in 2021 that led her to believe her life was over. Michaels, 49, revealed the pain was "so bad," she had to "crawl on the ground" at times. "I wish it was some gangster motorcycle story where I told you I was racing motorcycles or Lindsey Vonn-ing downhill at 60 miles an hour, but it wasn't," Michaels told People magazine.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Most of the nation’s biggest TV companies are planning to gather under one roof next week and discuss something that has little to do with traditional boob-tube economics but is likely to play a critical role in them in weeks to come. When Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Walt Disney speak Tuesday morning at an event convened by The Trade Desk, they will give a tacit nod to the growing importance of so-called “programmatic” advertising to their many TV networks. In the not-too-distant past, programmatic sales were an add-on to mainstay TV commercials — and the networks were wary of ceding control to a technology that gave advertisers the ability to essentially use a software algorithm to insert an ad during a particular household’s streaming session or FAST watch, all according to the type of customer seen as most likely to be interested.

Daron James Along with its record setting box office numbers and four Oscar nominations, “Avatar: The Way of Water” brings a “Metkayina” wave of impressive next-gen technology that will undeniably set new industry standards in motion capture, animation and underwater photography.  The original facial motion capture rig that also impressively immersed Andy Serkis as Gollum and Caesar, received an overhaul. Not only physically but also in the way the software replicates a performance.  “We looked at how the muscles in the face, eyes and lips are all related and created a neural network that maps all the connections between them,” says senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri. “This gave us this sympathetic motion in the actor’s face which allowed us to translate the performance to the character and make each frame more believable.” 

Karen Idelson The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out its Technical Achievement awards on Friday night, with Sébastien Deguy, Christophe Soum, Sylvain Paris and Nicolas Wirrmann for Adobe Substance 3D Designer software among those honored. It was the first time since 2019 that the awards were given. Iain Neil received the Gorden E.

The U.S. Copyright Office has decided that a comic book created with an artificial intelligence program can have a copyright registration. But the office also said individual AI-generated images couldn’t be granted protection, according to a Wall St. Journal report.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer After struggling to re-create the magic of the “Harry Potter” film franchise with the lackluster spinoff trilogy “Fantastic Beasts,” Warner Bros. has finally struck galleons anew with its latest piece of Wizarding World IP: video game “Hogwarts Legacy.” The action role-playing game, produced by Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software, has clicked with Potterheads since its Feb. 10 release. Sales figures are yet to come, but it’s clear from the buzz factor and other measures — including sales charts in Japan, the U.K. and Europe — that fans are engaged. For one, the arrival of the game spurred the highest traffic in the “Harry Potter” community on fan platform Fandom in more than seven years.

Berlinale Series Market’s annual project pitching event, “Tipping Point” walked off Tuesday morning with the Series Mania Award. The prize is an invitation to the production’s team to present again at the industry centrepiece at next month’s Lille-based get-together, the Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. “Tipping Point” joins 15 other projects as a sixteenth project presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.  Set in the extraordinary Svalbard – an archipelago half way between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole, it  turns on a feisty young eco-activist at constant odds with her father, an oil exec, until he is murdered. Teaming with some of his friends to investigate his death, she discovers another man from the one she knew, as she chases a stolen software which could solve climate crisis or destroy the world.