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While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important and try to include a bunch of resources & opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter.

Important Items

Florida district bars trans teachers from using preferred pronouns and bathrooms to comply with state law

HT @ErinInTheMorn Teachers will be fired for going by pronouns not of their “assigned sex at birth.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-district-bars-trans-teachers-using-preferred-pronouns-bathroom-rcna98734

Students must get parent permission to be called by nickname in some Central Florida schools

Per this article, any deviation from the legal name will need a parent’s consent. Preferred pronouns are banned. And tons of teachers are quitting.

Per @JudiHayesFL In case you were wondering just how ridiculous the Republican overreach is in Florida… I have to sign permission slips for my sons John and William to be referred to as Jack and Will.

https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-schools-nicknames-permission/44766231

Florida appears to reverse course on AP Psych, but some schools still won’t offer it

The Florida Education Department and the College Board appeared to come to a resolution over the inclusion of LGBTQ topics in the state’s Advanced Placement Psychology classes. That hasn’t stopped some school districts from going forward with plans to scrap the course.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/florida-appears-reverse-course-ap-psych-schools-still-wont-offer-rcna98812

America isn’t a world leader on gender equity — and other democracies are paying attention

HT @GenderAvenger The Women’s Empowerment Index ranked America 21st in the second-highest ranking of “upper-middle women’s empowerment,” behind countries like Lithuania, Finland, Slovenia, Canada, Germany, France and Singapore. Six countries were labeled “high”: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The analysis of 114 countries called for policy action on universal access to reproductive health, a focus on STEM education, quality child care and flexible work schedules, more equal participation in public life, and measures aimed at violence prevention.

https://19thnews.org/2023/07/the-amendment-errin-haines-united-states-falls-short-gender-equity/

Ten symptoms of new rising Covid strain Eris – from headache to altered sense of smell

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/ten-symptoms-new-rising-covid-30643261

COVID-19 took a toll on heart health and doctors are still grappling with how to help

“For up to a year after a case of COVID-19, people may be at increased risk of developing a new heart-related problem, anything from blood clots and irregular heartbeats to a heart attack –- even if they initially seem to recover just fine.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/08/10/covid19-long-covid-heart/2b2fdc36-3734-11ee-ac4e-e707870e43db_story.html

Long Covid May Affect Organs Like The Heart And Kidneys After Lungs Recover, New Research Says

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/09/long-covid-may-affect-organs-like-the-heart-and-kidneys-after-lungs-recover-new-research-says/

CDC, HHS COVID data for your state and county

“We put together a 1-stop shop dashboard for COVID19 metrics that you can check at any time for 1000s of US jurisdictions. We have wastewater levels, hospitalization rates & capacities, ICU census data, death rates, & some testing data.”

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/benjamin.renton/viz/InsideMedicineCOVID-19MetricsDashboard/Dashboard1

Innovation

AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine

Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules.

https://www.wired.com/story/labgenius-antibody-factory-machine-learning/

Technology

Google says AI systems should be able to mine publishers’ work unless companies opt out

The tech company’s latest proposal about generative AI turns copyright law on its head, and could especially hurt smaller content creators, say experts

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/09/google-says-ai-systems-should-be-able-to-mine-publishers-work-unless-companies-opt-out

News outlets demand new rules for AI training data

News orgs open letter urges lawmakers to regulate transparency in training datasets, consent of rights holders before using data for training, identify AI-generated content, + mandates that AI companies eliminate bias and misinformation.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/10/23827316/news-transparency-copyright-generative-ai

The New York Times Updates Terms of Service to Prevent AI Scraping Its Content

RT @trishlaostwal Hot off the press: The NYT just snuck in a new AI rule – no more scraping their content for machine learning. Or face penalties. To that, AI firms & several big publishers are in talks for licensing deals that go beyond just $$$ matters.

https://www.adweek.com/media/the-new-york-times-updates-terms-of-service-to-prevent-ai-scraping-its-content/

Authors are losing their patience with AI, part 349235

On Monday morning, numerous writers woke up to learn that their books had been uploaded and scanned into a massive dataset without their consent. A project of cloud word processor Shaxpir, Prosecraft compiled over 27,000 books, comparing, ranking and analyzing them based on the “vividness” of their language. Many authors — including Young Adult powerhouse Maureen Johnson and “Little Fires Everywhere” author Celeste Ng — spoke out against Prosecraft for training a model on their books without consent. Even books published less than a month ago had already been uploaded. After a day full of righteous online backlash, Prosecraft creator Benji Smith took down the website, which had existed since 2017.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/07/authors-ai-prosecraft/

Greg Rutkowski Was Removed From Stable Diffusion, But AI Artists Brought Him Back

HT @benedictevans More popular than Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci among AI artists, Greg Rutkowski opted out of the Stable Diffusion training set. The community just created a LoRA to mimic his style.

https://decrypt.co/150575/greg-rutkowski-removed-from-stable-diffusion-but-brought-back-by-ai-artists

Dungeons & Dragons Publisher to Tighten Artist Guidelines After AI Art Found in Book

Wizards of the Coast, publisher of the popular Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role playing game, acknowledged that one of its hired artists had used AI in creating imagery included in one of its upcoming books, and said updated guidelines are coming. “Artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their creation process for developing D&D art.”

https://decrypt.co/151515/dungeons-dragons-ai-artificial-intelligence-art-artwork-artist-ilya-shkipin

Generative AI Technology Can Support Book Publishing

HT @LWShanley The upside of AI. Via @kenbrooks

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/92965-generative-ai-technology-can-support-book-publishing.html

Free report: How technology especially AI & Web 3.0 will shape the future of media

https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/special-report-how-technology-especially-ai-web-3-0-will-shape-the-future-of-media/

Will Building LLMs Become the New Revenue Driver for Academic Publishing?

How can academic publishers leverage and monetize their content?

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/08/08/will-building-llms-become-the-new-revenue-driver-for-academic-publishing/

Amazon Offers Sellers AI Tool to Write Product Descriptions

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-offers-sellers-ai-tool-to-write-product-descriptions

DALL-E 3 could take AI image generation to the next level

The prompt: A painting of a pink jester giving a high five to a panda while in a cycling competition. The bikes are made of cheese and the ground is very muddy. They are driving in a foggy forest. The panda is angry.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/dall-e-3-testing-leaked-revealing-interesting-new-text-features/

ChatGPT expands its ‘custom instructions’ feature to free users

For example, you could ask ChatGPT to keep its answers to a specific character count or customize the tone of the response it provides.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/10/chatgpt-expands-its-custom-instructions-feature-to-free-users/

Zoom Vows Not To Use Your Calls To Train Artificial Intelligence

A recent terms of service update from Zoom implied customer video calls could be used to train AI models. Those terms said that “service generated data” and “customer content” could be used “for the purpose of product and service development,” such as “machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training or tuning of algorithms and models.” There was a bit of real-world uproar at that.

https://deadline.com/2023/08/zoom-vows-not-to-use-calls-to-train-artificial-intelligence-1235460819/

U.S. Bans Future Investments in Chinese AI, Semiconductor, and Quantum Computing

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/us-order-bans-future-investments-in-chinese-ai-semiconductor-and-quantum-computing

YouTube experiments with AI auto-generated video summaries

HT @benedictevans Computers never knew what was inside videos or pictures – they only knew the title and the metadata. They could infer and associate, but couldn’t watch the video and take notes. Now they can.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/01/youtube-experiments-with-ai-auto-generated-video-summaries/

How Reuters uses AI to speed up discoverability of video news content

HT @BoSacks The latest tech enhancement enables journalists to quickly find, identify, edit and publish material from video library Reuters Connect

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-reuters-uses-ai-to-speed-up-discoverability-of-video-news-content/s2/a1055917/

Meta’s AI music generator could be the new synthesizer — or just muzak

The new open-source AI models can make sounds entirely based on a text prompt.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/2/23816431/meta-generative-ai-music-audio

Amazon is building a supply-side platform for publishers to sell ads and staffing up for it with a new ads team called PubTech

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-building-a-publisher-focused-adtech-tool-to-compete-with-google-2023-8

It’s Not a Computer, It’s a Companion!

Via @a16z: Unlike humans, AI-powered conversation partners are always available, interested in talking with you, and can discuss any topic. This has made AI companions, in our opinion, one of the first few killer use cases of generative AI for everyday consumers.

https://a16z.com/2023/06/22/its-not-a-computer-its-a-companion/

Media & Publishing

The Publishing Industry Has a New Nightmare

Consolidation was supposed to be books’ biggest threat. Is private equity worse? Private equity came for newspapers and local news coverage in America is decimated. The world is dumber and poorer when newspapers are hollowed out and it is similarly worse off when good books are less readily available.

https://slate.com/business/2023/08/simon-schuster-kkr-private-equity-publishing-consolidation.html

Simon & Schuster Deal Contains A Financial Mystery

KKR plans to write a new story on books, but the ending is a little fuzzy. Unless something in the calculus changes dramatically, it probably will be hard to offload Simon & Schuster to a rival, considering the position taken by competition authorities against consolidation. Far smaller Bloomsbury Publishing Scholastic are both publicly traded, but whether fund managers will back an additional standalone publisher is questionable. And the idea of a different media company adding Simon & Schuster to its sprawl sounds dubious. It leaves KKR’s final chapter shrouded in mystery.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4626922-breakingviews-simon-and-schuster-deal-contains-a-financial-mystery

I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)

Per @JaneFriedman: “We desperately need guardrails on this landslide of misattribution and misinformation. Amazon and Goodreads, I beg you to create a way to verify authorship, or for authors to easily block fraudulent books credited to them.”

https://janefriedman.com/i-would-rather-see-my-books-pirated/

A New Frontier for Travel Scammers: AI-Generated Guidebooks

HT @BookRiot The online travel guide market is being swamped with crappy AI-generated stuff

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/travel/amazon-guidebooks-artificial-intelligence.html

Proposed Internet Archive Judgment Would Bring Down Infringing Files Right Away

https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2023/08/proposed-internet-archive-judgment-would-bring-down-infringing-files-right-away/

How #BookTok is creating a reading revolution

#BookTok has a whopping 162 billion views and has inspired a new generation of readers. NBC’s Savannah Sellers speaks to Satoria Ray, a content creator whose passion for literature opened the door to a unique online community, and learns how the hashtag is reshaping the book world all together.

https://www.today.com/video/how-booktok-is-creating-a-reading-revolution-190433349580

UK publishers donate 25,000 books to Ukraine for Unbreakable Libraries scheme

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-publishers-donate-25000-books-to-ukraine-for-unbreakable-libraries-scheme

Celebrate Neurodiverse-owned and/or managed bookstores during #MarginsBookselling Month

https://twitter.com/wordisdiversity/status/1689328334990094342

Robert Gray: Books Across America–50 States, Books, Authors & Indies in 50 Days

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4542#m60984

As New Law Looms, Follett Asks Publishers to Help ‘Rate’ Their Own Books for Sale in Texas

MT @FReadomFighters This is utterly disappointing from ⁦Follett⁩ – Instead of offloading this impossible task on publishers, they should be part of the TX lawsuit. Per Author’s Guild: “Rather than try to prepare for the law to take effect, Follett should oppose it and refuse to comply based on [the law’s] blatant unconstitutionality and its attack on…free speech, as well as students’ right to read.”

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/92927-as-new-law-looms-follett-asks-publishers-to-help-rate-their-own-books-for-sale-in-texas.html

Publishers Refuse to Become Complicit in Texas Book Banning

In a statement, publisher Hachette said, “We strongly disagree with the idea that rating our books to flag certain content, or having retailers or wholesalers do this, is appropriate or helpful. We trust our teachers, trust our librarians, trust our parents, trust our student readers who are hungry to experience the world in all the ways that books allow.”

https://bookriot.com/publishers-refuse-to-become-complicit-in-texas-book-banning/

Top librarian calls ‘Marxist lesbian’ tweet backlash ‘regrettable’

GOP lawmakers in several states have called for defunding the American Library Association because of Emily Drabinski’s identity and political beliefs. Montana became the first state last month to cut ties, and conservative Republican lawmakers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming have pushed their states’ libraries to withdraw from the ALA, citing a since-deleted tweet Drabinski wrote after her election in April 2022. The last time that state chapters withdrew from the ALA, according to the organization, was during the Jim Crow era after the national office said it would not host events in segregated states.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-library-association-president-marxist-lesbian-rcna98254

The plot thickens: The battle over books comes at a cost

RT @PENamerica “No longer are just books under fire, but also the library administrators, teachers and long-beloved librarians who are defending them. They’re being shouted down… vilified… reported to the police, and trolled… leaving many fearing for their safety.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/11/1192034923/the-plot-thickens-the-battle-over-books-comes-at-a-cost

Forget banning books — a rural WA county may close its library

MT @jenniferlagarde This isn’t about books. It’s about disenfranchising and marginalizing vulnerable people. “For many people in this county the library has the ONLY WiFi, computers for Internet access … and it is the ONLY place for young ppl to have any access at all to books…”

https://crosscut.com/news/2023/08/forget-banning-books-rural-wa-county-may-close-its-library

Florida Schools Are Slashing Shakespeare to Comply With DeSantis Agenda

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/shakespeare-cut-florida-schools-desantis-agenda-1234802500/

In Katy ISD (TX) one “constituent” stopped delivery of hundreds of library books, based on disapproval of the inclusion of books that contain “ideologies” and “themes” they disagree with

HT @AnneRussey @frankstrong Trustee Morgan Calhoun, referred to a list of books she had received from a constituent who she said had done the board’s “homework” (of identifying inappropriate titles) for them. Some examples: “Activist book against marine parks.” (Aquanaut) “Weird, awkward focus on gays” (Poison Jungle) “Climate change” (Arctic Code) “Anti-parents theme” (Apple Crush) “Racist generalization that Americans don’t buy Chinese food on the 4th of July” (Apple Pie 4th of July). The problem is that HB900 requires districts to remove/ban “educationally unsuitable” books but doesn’t define what that means. This is the result–ANY book can be censored.

https://twitter.com/AnneRussey/status/1688754622452699136

Louisiana Republican Policymaker Proposes Banning Kids Under 18 From Visiting Library Without an Adult

Residents in Botetourt County have recently filed multiple requests to get books they claim are sexually explicit removed from the local library system. Many of the books at the center of complaints have LGBTQ+ themes. During a Botetourt County Board of Supervisors meeting, Board Chair Donald “Mac” Scothorn proposed prohibiting anyone under 18 from visiting the county’s library without adult supervision.

https://themessenger.com/news/republican-policymaker-proposes-banning-kids-under-18-from-visiting-library-without-an-adult

Proposed Florida rule would favor only one side in book challenges

MT @PENamerica Florida rule would give parents no right to dispute a ban affecting their own child. Puts “parentalrights & First Amendment rights of some over the parental rights of all—& the First Amendment rights of students,” says @FLFreedomRead‘s Stephana Ferrell

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/08/10/proposed-florida-rule-would-favor-only-one-side-book-challenges/

Clay County District Schools (FL) adds another 40 titles to its 23/24 challenge list

HT @FLFreedomRead Reminder: their secondary libraries require a parent opt-in.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iP1nVObzc_x1LgOUTEwf7w_t9Q7j4zRXan_mTL_6k0I/edit#gid=369888666

John Green calls Hamilton East Public Library’s decision to move ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ out of the YA section ‘an embarrassment’

HT @SueGreenbergPR “It’s political theater of the lowest and most embarrassing order,” Green said. Meanwhile, The library said the review process comes with a cost of upwards of $300,000 due to the library needing to hire more staff to read the books for any mention of sexual content. To date, Hamilton East Public Library has relocated 1,385 titles to the Adult section but still has nearly 75% of the library’s content to be vetted.

https://fox59.com/indiana-news/john-green-calls-hamilton-east-public-librarys-decision-to-move-the-fault-in-our-stars-out-of-the-ya-section-an-embarrassment/

The Impact of Access: Libraries, Bookstores, Literacy Programs Continue to Provide Banned Titles to Teens

Getting books to kids who are denied them elsewhere is a critical piece in the ongoing fight for intellectual freedom.

https://www.slj.com/story/The-Impact-of-Access-Libraries-Bookstores-Literacy-Programs-Continue-to-Provide-Banned-Titles-to-teens

LGBTQ+ book bans are hitting California schools. How teachers can fight back

MT @PENamerica The front lines of the culture war in public schools may be in Florida and Texas, but efforts to ban books have spread from coast to coast. If you’re an educator who encounters book bans or attempts to ban at your school, here’s what you need to know.

https://news.yahoo.com/lgbtq-book-bans-hitting-california-120007846.html

Book bans foreshadow more than empty shelves: NJ has an obligation to fight back against attempts to restrict access to information

https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/news/book-bans-foreshadow-more-empty-shelves

Fighting For The Freedom To Read And The Freedom To Write

RT @AuthorsGuild In our latest blog for United Against Book Bans, we highlight how you can support book ban advocacy efforts including: speaking out against bans, joining a banned book club, and what to do if your own book gets banned.

https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/freedom-to-read-write/

Know Your Rights: A Handbook for Public School Students in Florida

https://www.aclufl.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-handbook-public-school-students-florida

Resources & Opportunities

Unleash Your Branding & Writing Potential: Substack Basics for Content Creators

Want to grow your own newsletter audience? Need to understand Substack? Come hear @KathMSchmidt on 8/16 at noon ET via zoom. FREE for @WMG_NYC members, $15 for non-members. Proceeds support the Women’s Media Group Educational Foundation.

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5310747

Lamda Literary Prospect Park Hangout

RT @LambdaLiterary Are you ready to hang out in the park? Join us at Prospect Park on August 18th to hang out with other LGBTQ writers, publishing professionals, and more!

https://twitter.com/LambdaLiterary/status/1687494018165321729

PAGE TURNER 2023: The AAWW Publishing Conference

https://aaww.org/curation/page-turner-2023-the-aaww-publishing-conference/

Markus Dohle, Ethan Mollick to Keynote AI Webinar

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/trade-shows-events/article/92954-markus-dohle-ethan-mollick-to-keynote-ai-webinar.html

Romance for Maui

Romance Book Authors Holding Online Auction to Benefit Survivors of the Maui Wildfires 8/15-8/21.

https://www.32auctions.com/romanceformaui

Annual #DVpit giveaway

MT @DVpit_ 📢 reminder! our annual #DVpit giveaway is next week! from Aug 14-18, 2023 you can enter via google form to win a critique from an incredible pub pro! more details and our donor bios can be found below. The google form will be posted Aug 14!

https://www.dvpit.com/critique-giveaway

BIPOC Bookseller Award

MT @wordisdiversity Nominate BIPOC Booksellers for the Leadership Award: For those who dedicated their career to supporting, uplifting & leading BIPOC booksellers in their stores, communities, fighting for systemic change for all BIPOC booksellers.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6DB5J_7zgjhrnnJnWirXPvNa5zjk_IfolkbzcuDc4zl1Igg/viewform

Raise Funds for Diverse Books this #NaNoWriMo

MT @diversebooks Participating in #NaNoWriMo 2023? Help WNDB & win prizes too! This November we’re partnering with @the_mighty_pens to raise money by writing words—each word goal you reach can help diversify books and fight book bans. Find out how to join here:

https://themightypens.org

The Andy Awards

MT @GothamGhosts Ghostwriters and authors, nominate your collaboration for the inaugural Andy Awards from Gotham Ghostwriters and ASJA. Books published between 1/1/22-6/30/23 are eligible.

https://gothamghostwriters.com/eligibility-and-rules/

Win Free Books for Your Classroom

MT @diversebooks ATTENTION EDUCATORS: The Latinx KidLit Book Festival has dozens of book sets to give away BEFORE Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month! Get your school year off to a sprinting start as you prepare to participate live in the 2023 festival with your new classroom set of books!

https://www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com/education

Business Clinic: When You’re Too Nice

HT @jkhoey Free webinar 8/22 1pm ET from @JaneFriedman

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tARL6UbKTE-vpTj3C1vT6w#/registration

SLJ Presents: A Censorship Town Hall

https://www.slj.com/event/take-control-coalition-building-crisis-management-and-legal-recourse

Things You Can Do to Fight Censorship

Via @FReadomFighters

https://twitter.com/FReadomFighters/status/1689458316701757441

Workshop Against Book Banning

RT @ryanestrada My Banned Books Week Dance Card is already bustling, but here’s your reminder that I do 100% free virtual Freedom To Read workshops for any library! Tell your favorite librarian to drop me a line and I’ll give them a link to schedule a free workshop or author visit!

https://twitter.com/ryanestrada/status/1688350608234070016

Documentary Development Initiative

MT @NYWIFT The Documentary Development Initiative is BACK presented by The Gotham Film & Media Institute, HBO Documentaries & Warner Bros. Discovery Access! Created for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or storytellers with disabilities receive $50k grants & resources for development of early stage doc projects. Deadline 8/31

https://thegotham.org/documentary-development-initiative/

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