Hollywood’s actors and writers have both gone on strike for the first time since 1960 to protest against a number of decisions by major studios that include not just job cuts but also a potentially unsettling future in which they could be replaced by artificial intelligence. The leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood union representing 160,000 television and movie actors, went on strike on Thursday, joining the industry’s screenwriters who have already been picketing for over 70 days. Among the many issues flagged by both the writers and actors in the protests has been how generative AI tools could replace their roles in the industry. Over the last decade, AI has found several uses in the movie and television industry, from de-aging actors, analysing patterns and behaviours of viewers on streaming platforms, bringing back the voices of late actors and even helping stitch together entire movie trailers. One of the proposals, as explained by SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, feels like it is straight out of dystopian science fiction series Black Mirror. During a press conference on Thursday, Mr Crabtree-Ireland alleged that a proposal from Hollywood studios was to use “groundbreaking AI” to scan background performers and only offer them a day’s pay while the companies get to own the scans and use them for any project they want. “This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation,” the executive said. “If you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again,” Mr Crabtree-Ireland said. A statement from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), that represents the studios, claims the “groundbreaking AI” proposal “protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members”. “We are being victimized by a very greedy enterprise... The entire business model has been changed by streaming and AI If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in jeopardy,” the actors’ guild president Fran Drescher said on Thursday. Follow along here for real-time updates on the SAG-AFTRA strike Writers who have already been protesting since May have also sought assurances from studios that their jobs would not be threatened by AI. With the steady rise of online streaming services looking to rack up user subscriptions by churning out endless amounts of digital content, writers on strike have sought new pay structures, guaranteed periods of work as well as better discussions on the limits of AI use. Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) shared concerns that producers may seek to use AI to write scripts or at least use the technology to complete unfinished screenplays, and have also urged production houses to agree to safeguards around its usage. Screenwriters fear AI could be used to churn out a rough first draft with a few simple prompts and writers may then be hired after this initial step to punch such drafts up – albeit at a lower pay rate. Without further dialogue with studios, writers have raised concerns there could be a number of new ways that AI could be used to craft outlines for stories, fill in scenes and even come up with mock-up drafts. “There are ways it can be useful. But too many people are using it against us and using it to create mediocrity. They’re also in violation of copyright. They’re also plagiarizing,” Michael Winship, president of the WGA East, said in May. With these risks in mind, the WGA seeks more safeguards on how AI can be applied to the screenwriting process. Read More Hollywood actors and writers strike after ‘disgusting’ studios turn down deal. Here’s what it means for you Hollywood in historic shutdown as actors union joins writers strike: ‘The eyes of the world are upon us’ Cast of Oppenheimer walk out of UK premiere ahead of actors’ strike announcement What happens next as striking actors send Hollywood into meltdown? Issa Rae and Jamie Lee Curtis lead A-listers voicing support for actors strike Hollywood in historic shutdown as actors union joins writers strike

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has made a $200 million commitment to pull carbon from the air. That includes

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Scientists have found an array of “dashes” within our universe, all arranged in an unexpected pattern. The vast structures are lying in the middle of our Milky Way galaxy and point towards the black hole at its core. There are hundreds of them, each five to 10 light-years long, researchers say. “It was a surprise to suddenly find a new population of structures that seem to be pointing in the direction of the black hole,” Northwestern University’s Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, who led the research. “I was actually stunned when I saw these. We had to do a lot of work to establish that we weren’t fooling ourselves. And we found that these filaments are not random but appear to be tied to the outflow of our black hole. By studying them, we could learn more about the black hole’s spin and accretion disk orientation. It is satisfying when one finds order in a middle of a chaotic field of the nucleus of our galaxy.” Scientists have no confirmed explanation for where the structures came from, and much about their existence remains a mystery. But one possible explanation is that they were thrown out from after some activity a few million years ago. In the early 1980s, Professor Yusef-Zadeh found a set of gigantic, one-dimensional filaments hanging across our galaxy, near Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. The new filaments were previously undiscovered, and are much shorter and lie across, spreading out from the black hole. “We have always been thinking about vertical filaments and their origin,” he said. “I’m used to them being vertical. I never considered there might be others along the plane.” The research is described in a new paper, ‘The Population of the Galactic Center Filaments: Position Angle Distribution Reveal a Degree-scale Collimated Outflow from Sgr A* along the Galactic Plane’, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Read More Most powerful space telescope ever built identifies ancient star-studded galaxy Academics prepare for mission to Mars in bid to prove water theory Japan to launch satellite made of wood in 2024

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A new study into the Earth beneath our feet has discovered that an ancient ocean floor structure could be wrapped around the planet's core which could be taller that Mount Everest in some areas. A brand new high-resolution mapping of the core has uncovered things that scientists previously didn't know according to a study that was first published in April. The discovery found that a thin but dense layer sits at around 2,900 kilometers below the surface at the Core Mantle Boundary where rocks meet the molten outer core of the planet. Geologist Samantha Hansen from the University of Alabama is quoted in the study saying: "Seismic investigations, such as ours, provide the highest resolution imaging of the interior structure of our planet, and we are finding that this structure is vastly more complicated than once thought." She adds: "Our research provides important connections between shallow and deep Earth structure and the overall processes driving our planet.” Hansen and her team conducted the research from 15 different stations in Antarctica by using seismic waves created by Earthquakes to create a map of what the inside of the planet looks like. The team identified the unexpected energy within seconds of the boundary-reflected wave from the seismic data. The findings show that although the layer is very thin it does spread for many, many kilometers and has been called the ultra-low velocity zone (ULVZs) due to its strong wave speed reductions. Due to the properties of the ULVZs the experts believe that the layer could vary dramatically in height. Geophysicist Edward Garnero from Arizona State University adds: "The material's thickness varies from a few kilometers to [tens] of kilometers. This suggests we are seeing mountains on the core, in some places up to five times taller than Mt. Everest." These underground mountains could play a significant role in how heat escapes from the Earth's core and power magnetic fields and volcanic eruptions. The team's studies suggest that the layer could encase all of the core but further research will have to be carried out to determine if that is the case. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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