They should never have watched Terminator

AI is basically Buffalo Bill doing an unsettling impression of human noises in The Silence of the Lambs. But that has not stopped people who are susceptible to marketing and James Cameron movies from seeing it as an apocalypic threat to humanity. 

A small group of anti-AI activists has been waging a campaign they see as existential against some of the artists who are featured in Christie's sale of AI art, which it says is the first ever by a major auction house, opening this week. Via WhatsApp, one of those artists, Mat Dryhurst, told us that his run-ins with the group have been worthy of a documentary-series. 

"All of this is very new," he said, "which is what makes it so interesting and worthy of art and ideas." He feels for those who are afraid. "Art and art labor is changing for good and I get it." But, he added, bullying artists into silence is not the way.

Roark to depart CBS

(Exclusive.) A top CBS News executive is set to depart the network after just six months in her role, two people familiar with the matter tell us. Adrienne Roark, who leads all news gathering for CBS News and stations is expected to join TEGNA in a senior role. It comes at a tumultuous moment for CBS News. Its flagship current affairs show 60 Minutes is locked in litigation with Donald Trump over the network’s editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. Roark did not respond to a request for comment and a representative for CBS News declined to comment.

CAA’nt touch this

(Exclusive.) Hollywood/everything agency CAA has signed Kamala Harris as a client. Harris joins Joe Biden and the Obamas on the agency’s roster. CAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reading list

A zoological study of Adélie penguins that was so shocking it was suppressed for a century (scroll to page six).

The mathematics of moving a sofa into your apartment: 

The MoMA catalogue for an exhibition of machine art in 1934 (which solved the entire issue of AI art, kind-of). 

Undercover sting, working-titled "UNDERCOVERJEW", backfires.

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