Author: NY TIMES

The talent agency WME announced a partnership with the technology firm Vermillio on Tuesday that it hopes will protect its clients from having their likenesses misused through artificial intelligence technology.Vermillio has created a platform, Trace ID, that could insulate WME clients from thefts of their likeness and intellectual property by using A.I. technology to track images. The partnership will also look for ways to use the technology to allow clients to monetize their likeness and image themselves.The use of A.I. and how to protect these assets was a major point of contention in last year’s actors strike. Even after a…

You might have heard of the Stanley tumbler, the hip, trendy water bottle that has people camping outside stores or getting into fights to get their hands on one.They’ve become a fashion accessory, especially since the company that makes the cups, Stanley 1913, has made use of influencer culture to target women and make the tumbler’s sales skyrocket. The reach of the bottles has been amplified by social media users.But social media giveth and social media taketh away. In recent weeks, several widely shared posts on TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X have amplified concerns Stanley cups may contain lead, with…

Stacy L. Smith, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the study’s lead author, was cautiously celebratory of the findings. While the latest numbers are up, she noted, women still represented an average of only about 23 percent of performer credits on all surveyed songs since 2012. (Some years that figure has been as low as 17 percent.)“For the second year in a row, the percentage of women artists on the popular charts has increased,” Dr. Smith said in a statement. “This is a notable milestone and worthy of celebration. However, it is still important…

To many people outside Gaza, the war flashes by as a doomscroll of headlines and casualty tolls and photos of screaming children, the bloody shreds of somebody else’s anguish.But the true scale of death and destruction is impossible to grasp, the details hazy and shrouded by internet and cellphone blackouts that obstruct communication, restrictions barring international journalists and the extreme, often life-threatening challenges of reporting as a local journalist from Gaza.There are pinholes in the murk, apertures such as the Instagram feeds of Gaza photographers and a small number of testimonies that slip through. With every passing week, however, the…

The political chief of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, announced on Tuesday that the militant group had received a proposal to pause the fighting in Gaza, after representatives from four nations agreed to present the group with a framework that would begin with a six-week cease-fire to allow for the release of more hostages.Mr. Haniyeh said in a statement that Hamas was studying the proposal that had emerged from talks over the weekend in Paris, which included officials from the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt. Mr. Haniyeh added that Hamas had received an invitation to Cairo to discuss “the framework agreement…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The most important run of the night might not be Christian McCaffrey’s. Or Deebo Samuel. Or even an epic catch-and-run by George Kittle.No. Probably the game administrator did it. Brock Purdy was the most capable of seizing momentum, grueling, and taming the Lions’ run as the San Francisco 49ers beat Detroit 34-31 in NFC play on Sunday (Detroit) game, he directed a 17-point comeback. championship.”I blocked my man and the next thing I heard was screaming,” left guard Aaron Banks said at a postgame party in the 49ers locker room at Levi’s Stadium. “Brock is 20…

In terms of social media oxygen consumed, not even Taylor Swift’s making it into the Super Bowl could compete with the weekend’s real main event: the very public drawing of battle lines between two titans of contemporary hip-hop.Within 72 hours, Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion debuted dis tracks aimed at each other with varying degrees of directness. Here’s what you need to know about “Hiss,” “Big Foot” and what led up to hip-hop’s beef du jour.What’s going on?At midnight on Friday, Megan Thee Stallion released “Hiss,” a three-minute dis track that comes in hot and gets hotter. The song,…

The eurozone economy stagnated late last year as a lingering energy crisis sparked a loss of competitiveness in some European industries, and consumers reined in spending to grapple with high living costs, Europe’s statistics agency reported Tuesday.But economists believe the worst may be over, as the European Central Bank continues its campaign to wring out inflation without plunging the eurozone economy into a deep downturn.Economic output in the 20 countries that use the euro currency grew at zero percent in the last three months of 2023 versus the previous quarter, after contracting in the third quarter, narrowly avoiding a recession.…

Last year, Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 to be a “year of efficiency.” His company, Meta, soon laid off a third of its employees. Amazon, Google and Microsoft also cut tens of thousands of workers.Their worlds did not stop. Not only that, the companies were rewarded. Their stock prices soared. Some divisions were more productive. And the companies — including X, formerly known as Twitter, which has chopped nearly 80 percent of its staff since late 2022 — continued operating.Other chief executives took notice. And a month into 2024, tech companies have entered a new phase of cost cutting.After last year’s…

Why It Matters: Penguins are already under pressure.The familiar black-and-white birds are facing numerous threats, including climate change, pollution and commercial fishing. Three Antarctic penguin species — emperor penguins, southern rockhopper penguins and macaroni penguins — are listed as vulnerable or near threatened.Before H5N1 arrived in the Antarctic region last fall, highly pathogenic bird flu viruses had never been documented in the area before. That means that the penguins are likely to have little existing immunity. And because they breed in large, crowded colonies, once one penguin is infected, the virus could spread rapidly, causing mass mortalities. (As the virus…