OpenAI on Tuesday announced a partnership with Cond Nast, in which the startup's products, such as ChatGPT and SearchGPT, will be able to display its content.

Anthropic, the Amazon-backed AI startup, on Monday was hit with a class-action lawsuit in California federal court over alleged copyright infringement.

Great breakdowns of dragons, environments and more.The post Watch Rodeo FXs VFX breakdown for House of the Dragon, s2 appeared first on befores & afters.

Mental health and performance go hand in hand. Thats one reason why the U.S. Olympics and Paralympic Committee started expanding its team in 2020, and currently employees 15 full-time staff while maintaining a network of hundreds of other providers. (In a first, the medical team even received a sponsorship from the medical apparel brand Figs, which outfitted healthcare professionals for the event.)Psychologist Dr. Kweku Smith started working for the Olympics last year, and was on site in Paris this month providing mental health services to athletes and staff, often working between 12- and 18-hour days. He shared his experience with Fast Company.Paint the picture for us. What did a typical day look like?Its so hard to describe. The best way I can say it, [its like] the longest day in the world. The best comparison is when youre in college and you have final exams and youre just going and you havent slept in 24 hours. Thats how it was. There was something constantly going on.We were housed within the village, where all the athletes lived. There was something called a High Performance Center (HPC) where American athletes do their practice. Wed go down there and give an elevator talk, or just provide support by showing up.We also had something called the ART, which was the athlete resource center. There was a room for the athletes, where they could come and get away from everything. We also did one-on-one visits within the ART. One of the best resources was something called the Mind Zone, which had VR sets. Its a very Zen setting, and you go in, and the athlete puts on the VR set. They can walk into the arena or stadium and you can talk through what it feels like to deal with an audience: What are the things that we do to regulate our breathing? If were too high, how do we come down? If were too low, how do we come up?There were also just places to rest and relax. For those who love to draw, who love to paint, there was a drawing section, a painting session, and one of the best things was they had free postcards. Athletes could write to their families and friends, which helped them take their mind off of the sport.Another thing we get to do, because some of us are embedded more in teams, is well teach teams how to have better camaraderie, how to improve upon teamwork, and work on global goals that trickle into the individual goals. Its a huge variety.I also still had clients back in the U.S. who didnt make it to the Olympics, whom Id need to see after the day ended.What are the most common issues you see?Oh, there were so many different types of issues. But we do divide them into performance or clinical issues, and Id say it was about 65% performance and 35% clinical.Sometimes it has nothing to do with sports. Its purely clinical about things that are going on in their lives. If we can help you in your life, make you a better person, thats going to pay dividends on your field of play. Then theres athletes who do feel good but they want the extra advantage. So well talk about dealing with anxiety, regulating your breathing and emotions.We saw athletes because sometimes they just wanted to get away. Sometimes it was because of sleep. Sometimes it was anxiety. Sometimes they just want a friendly face because something that just happened at home, something that happened with the coach, something that happened with the teammate. Its one of those things where you say, I didnt know I needed it until I needed it, and then it was there to have.So many times people look at the athletes who won, or who medaled, but you have got to remember, theres athletes who never made it to the semifinal, or who made it to the semifinal, didnt make it to the final, or went to the final, and their name was never called. They need the same type of love, care, and compassion. We could celebrate the highs with the athletes and the team, but were also there those individuals who needed people at a crucial time.I look at psychological services sometimes as a fire person who gives you a smoke detector, and once you get the smoke detector, thats going to prevent the fire. And I think having us there meant a lot of fires were sniffed out before they could even happen.In an environment where its your job to care for other people, how do you handle taking care of yourself?Thats a great question. I actually lost a family member while I was at the Olympics, but I knew that it would help me to workand what helped was my team. We have self-care measures and we also we had each other. We had an unprecedented number of staff this year.[Photo: Courtesy of FIGS]What do you do to prepare athletes for transitioning back home after the Olympics?We started this work well before the Olympics. During the training for the Olympics, we talk about, what are our goals? What are we going to do prior to the Olympics? What are we going to do during the games? What are we going to do post-game?Some factors to consider are wheres the athlete expecting to go next? Was this their last Olympics because they are retiring? Then we talk about what they need to do not only post-Olympics but post-athletic career. We have a pivot program that helps retiring people transition. We also talk about how to celebrate your time at the Olympics and commemorate it, while also how do you move on to the next thing? A lot of athletes hate that question, but we do talk about it. We prepare for whats next. Do I need to rest or take care of an injury? What are resources that are available and how do I access them?Im a therapist, but Ill tell you, the post-Olympic blues are also a thing for us. One of the things I did right away when I got home was a basketball camp with Jason Terry, former NBA player.I also think that the Olympics does a great thing with the opening ceremony and the closing. The closing is like a graduation . . . Its the ending, but a beginning. Theres sadness, but it brings closure, while also springboarding to whats next. So even passing the torch from Paris 2024 to Los Angeles 2028, were saying its over, but its not over.Anything else youd like to add?We need to be kind to each other.There were certain incidents, including a bronze medal being taken away and a boxer who was accused of being a man, and there were a lot of athletes who suffered major abuse on social media. Sometimes people who did very well, they were just hated on, and they would get death threats. We had over 1,000 social media hits that alerted staff that theres a threat. Its not just athletes, its coaches and judges.Sometimes people turn off their social media, but their family and friends and community who are also invested hear things too, and they have a vicarious trauma. Obviously, we have a freedom of speech, but we need to use it responsibly.

When Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter, he enlisted the help (and financial assistance) of seven major banks to back his offer, ultimately securing loans of $13 billion. It seemed a good bet for the financial institutions at the time.Musk, after all, had a history of success with businessesand banks tend to sell that sort of debt, clearing their balance sheet and moving onto the next loan. Those banks, however, havent been able to sell the debt, in part because of the financial performance of Twitter, which is now known as X, and in part because of higher interest rates. And while interest payments have been made, the principal of the loans remains. Thats causing problems.Musk paid $44 billion for the social media site in October 2022. As of March 31, the holding has lost an estimated 71.5% of its valueand the underperformance of those loans, reports the Wall Street Journal, is the worst the banking industry has seen since the real estate crisis of 2008.In banking parlance, the loans are hung, meaning banks cant offload them. Pitchbook data, cited by the Journal, says theyve been hung longer than every other hung loan since 2008. They could, in some instances, be sold at a loss, but if Musk does ultimately repay them, the banks would not only recoup their initial investment, but interest payments that were set several points higher than what other investment companies are normally charged, due to the excessively high purchase price. (Annual interest payments total about $1.5 billion.)Whether the loans will ultimately be paid off, of course, is still something of an X factor, if you will. Advertisers have reportedly fled the platform and dont seem to be rushing back (though X has insisted many of those who left have returned). Musk, earlier this month, sued an advertising trade group, alleging they conspired to boycott X.We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words. Now, it is war, Musk said in a post on X.While the election seems to be revitalizing some interest in X, with Musk interviewing Donald Trump recently to a seemingly significant number of listeners, the site has not found a way to monetize that interest, which will likely continue to act as a barrier for the banks to sell the loans.That wont help their standing in investment banking league tables, which ranks the market share of those sorts of financial institutions and is a key marketing tool for banks. The Journal notes that before the Twitter deal, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley led that list. In 2023 and 2024, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs (who were not part of the deal) have been on top.Some investment bankers have also seen their salaries or bonuses shrink, the Journal adds.Banks arent the only ones facing financial exposure from the Twitter deal, of course. Several high-profile co-investors, including the Andreessen-Horowitz VC fund, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Sequoia Capital, and Ron Baron, put up nearly $5 billion to help finance the deal. And Fidelity and Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund swapped their Twitter holdings for X stock rather than taking the payout investors were offered at the time of the sale.(Fidelitys valuation of that investment is one of the primary ways onlookers have been able to monitor Twitters financial fortunes in the Musk era.)Musks own shares havelost an estimated $17 billion or so of their value.Plenty of others have spoken out aboutnonfinancial harm they say they have suffered since the change in ownership as well. Musks decision to kill the companys safety board has resulted in numerous complaints about harassment and the Anti-Defamation League has spoken out about rising hate speech on the social media platform. Most recently, J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk were named in a cyberbullying lawsuit by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won the womens welterweight division at the 2024 Paris Olympics, after sharing and posting comments attacking her gender eligibility.

In early July, amid contract negotiations, employees of the National Education Association (NEA) went on strike for three days. But rather than push the nations largest labor union to engage with its staff on a new contract, the strike began a standoff that has been going for six weeks and counting.The NEA works with its 3 million members to support their collective bargaining effortsincluding strikes when necessaryand pushes for pay raises, better benefits, and improved working conditions for educators.But the NEAs response to its own 300-plus employee union, the NEA Staff Organization (NEASO), has included the anti-union tactics it typically opposes. The Wall Street Journal said NEA itself would call its actions actions sadistic, and NEASO members say it offers a model of hardball tactics that other employers could use to quash organizing efforts. Additionally, the dispute is delaying critical get-out-the-vote efforts to support Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walza former teacher and NEA member.NEASO members timed their strike to NEAs largest annual event, its representative assembly held July 4-7. With NEA employees on strike, President Joe Biden wouldnt cross the picket line and canceled his scheduled speech. In response, the NEA took the drastic measure of locking out its own union on July 8. That prevents employees from working until they agree on a contract and resulted in picket lines at its Washington, D.C. offices.Since then, employees say the organization has brought in scab labor and briefly threatened to revoke workers health insurance at the end of July if they didnt agree to the terms of a contract NEASO found unsatisfactory.NEA and NEASO announced a tentative agreement on Aug. 15, but it still needs to be ratified. Employees who spoke to Fast Company for this story did so before the tentative agreement was reached.In a statement to Fast Company, an NEA spokesperson said: Due to confidentiality agreements, we cannot comment at this time beyond the joint press release issued by NEA and NEASO. NEASO members say the lockout is causing NEA to miss a consequential moment in the lead up to the election.According to NEASO, one in 28 voters come from an NEA household, and voter participation from those households is almost 25% higher than the general public. With Walz on the Democratic ticket, the union has a mandate to maintain enthusiasm and step up its typically robust get-out-the-vote efforts. (In addition to his support of public education, Walz was the preferred VP choice among labor leaders, in part because of his track record of backing pro-worker laws and being a presence on picket lines.)When Walz was announced as the VP nominee, NEA sent out a press release about him that employees say was done by scab workers. With the election kicking into high gear, Erin Wagner, an NEA senior digital strategist who has been at the organization for more than six years, says employees should be at the Democratic National Convention this week. NEASO also notes that there hasnt been polling of NEA members to identify important campaign issues while workers are locked out.I mostly just feel a lot of anger and sadness that were missing so many moments, said Wagner. An electionparticularly one in which a new candidate comes in at such a late stage and picks a former NEA member as running mateis an all hands on deck effort. Wagner says the organization is missing an opportunity to educate voters about the presidential candidates, as well as pro-education candidates down the ballot.Thats typically the work of NEAs Education Votes website, which includes a tool for comparing candidates records on education and labor. I cant imagine they have updated that, says Wagner, who works on the site. There was also a tool in the works to help people check their registration status and request absentee ballots, as well as create sample ballots that included candidates all the way down to school board races. As of Tuesday, the Education Votes site features a page with NEAs recommended candidates by state, but it does not feature national candidates, and clicking its 2024 Election link returns an error message. The vote-planning feature appears to be live. That focus on down-ballot races is particularly critical amid ongoing attacks on public education. During his interview with X CEO Elon Musk on Aug. 12, former President Donald Trump repeated his desire to close up the federal Department of Education. The lockout prevented any action from NEA, even as another union, the United Auto Workers, filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk for comments in the interview that it alleges threaten workers who engage in protected activity.We see Donald Trump, whos appealing to the worst people in education policy, and were on the sidelines, says Justin Conley, a seven-year NEA employee. During the lockout, not working meant not doing our jobs sharing why its so important that we elect pro-public education, pro-labor, pro-worker lawmakers.Conley notes that the lockout sets a dangerous precedent. On the picket line, a state-affiliated staffer told him that school districts and business are paying attention to the tactics NEA is using against NEASO. So NEA can do this to us, [theyre] basically saying anybody can do it to any worker, Conley says. He says right now, were in a beautiful moment in which labor unions are more popular now than ever, citing Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, and more who are fighting for fair contracts. I can see someone be like, Why cant I do this to my workers, when the largest union in the country can do it to theirs? he says.Thats among the reasons that NEASOs commitment to securing a fair contractand demanding that NEA uphold its union valuesis especially impactful. With the DNC underway and less than 80 days until the presidential election, the stakes of ensuring workers can return to their jobs are high.Right now, workers are continuing to show up on the picket line, organize, and fight to do their jobs with a fair contract. They want stay, Conley says, because they love what they do. We love the members, we love fighting for public schools and the students that they serve, he explains, adding that its much like what happens to educators: People take advantage of how much they care about the work they do. We love what we do. We wouldnt be fighting this hard if we didnt.

Veteran media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. has submitted a roughly $4.3 billion bid to take over Paramount Global through the acquisition of National Amusements, the family holding company that owns a controlling stake in the media company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.The competing offer for the home of Paramount Pictures, the CBS broadcast network and MTV is a fresh twist in a sale process marked by a number of unexpected turns.It threatens to undo a planned acquisition by David Ellisons Skydance Media, which signed a deal in early July. The agreement included a 45-day go-shop period that is set to expire on Aug. 21.Here are the key events in the takeover sagaDecember 2019 CBS Corp and Viacom merge to form ViacomCBS, combining mogul Sumner Redstones media units 13 years after a split. ViacomCBS acquires a 49% stake in film studio Miramax from BeIN Media Group for $375 millionSeptember 2020: ViacomCBS rebrands a CBS streaming service to Paramount+ and launches it in international markets. Sells CNET Media Group to Red Ventures for $500 millionNovember 2021: ViacomCBS agrees to sell CBS Studio Center to private firms for $1.85 billionFebruary 2022: ViacomCBS changes its name to Paramount GlobalDecember 2023: The chief executives of Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount are reported to be in talks for a potential deal between the companiesJanuary 2024: Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly explores an all-cash bid to acquire Paramount parent, National AmusementsJanuary 2024: Media entrepreneur Byron Allen submits a $30 billion offer for Paramount, including debt and equityMarch 2024: Indias Reliance Industries agrees to buy Paramounts entire 13.01% stake in local entertainment network, Viacom18 Media, for about $517 millionApril 2024: Paramounts board reportedly agrees to enter into exclusive merger talks with SkydanceApril 2024: Paramount replaces CEO Bob Bakish with an office of CEO comprising CBS President and CEO George Cheeks, Paramount Pictures studio chief Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy, head of Showtime, MTV and other networksJune 2024: Edgar Bronfman Jr, former chairman of Warner Music, reportedly expresses an interest in buying National Amusements, Paramounts controlling shareholderJune 2024: Sumners daughter and National Amusements President Shari Redstone abruptly ends talks with SkydanceJuly 2024: Barry Dillers digital media conglomerate, IAC, reportedly explores a bid for Paramount and enters into non-disclosure agreements with National AmusementsJuly 2024: National Amusements reportedly reaches a preliminary deal to sell its controlling interest in Paramount to SkydanceJuly 2024: Skydance Media and Paramount agree to merge in a two-step process, offering shareholders $4.5 billion in cash or stockAugust 2024: Paramount says it wrote down the value of its cable networks by nearly $6 billion and that it would cut 15% of its US workforcePriyanka.G, Yuvraj Malik and Akash Sriram, Reuters

Burrito chain Chipotle is bringing back its popular trivia game, Chipotle IQ. Not only will fans have the change to test their queso knowledge, they also have the chance to win free grub.The fast-casual chain is giving away $1 million in free food, so your chances of snagging some are about as good as the famous guac.This marks the fifth year that were testing our fans knowledge with Chipotle IQ, said Chris Brandt, chief brand officer, in the announcement. With four million game plays since we introduced the concept, we believe theres an appetite for competition and free burritos. For anyone looking to get ahead, one hint is that we use 48 avocados in every batch of our hand-mashed guac.Chipotle said the game will begin August 20 at 9:01 a.m. ET and end August 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The chain will give out 5,000 buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) codes per hour to the first Chipotle Rewards members who score 10 out of 10 on the trivia game.The questions will be about anything and everything Chipotle, like the brands history and ingredients. The game features several different kinds of questions, including true or false, multiple choice, and write-in answers. Fans can play Chipotle IQ once per day during the select dates.You can also win extra credit! If you get a perfect score, youll unlock an extra question, which, if answered correctly, will enter you to win free burritos for an entire year. Chipotle will give the prize to 50 lucky (or very queso-savvy) winners.Chipotle said in the announcement that BOGO Codes entitle the holder to one (1) free regular menu entre item, with the purchase of one (1) regular menu entre item at regular price, when ordered in-restaurant or via the Chipotle mobile app or order.chipotle.com from a participating Chipotle restaurant in the United States. The company specified that a regular menu item includes a burrito, a burrito bowl, tacos, a quesadilla, or a salad, but not kids menu items, three-point meals, or single tacos.The deal certainly sounds delicious, so if youre ready to test your knowledge, head to www.chipotleiq.com and start playing.