Meta Has Launched Threads, A Direct Twitter Competitor. Can It Replicate The Experience?
Tens of millions of people have quickly signed up to Meta's new app, Threads, as it aims to compete with Twitter - a sign that users are looking for an alternative to the social media platform that has undergone a series of unpopular changes since Elon Musk bought it. Meta Platforms' CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that 30 million people had registered for the app, including 10 million in the first seven hours of its launch Wednesday in the U.S. and over 100 other countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.” Instagram users can log in with their existing usernames and follow the same accounts on the new app, giving Threads users a ready-made audience and an edge over other Twitter challengers like Bluesky and Mastodon. Threads poses a fresh headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion. Analysts said combining Twitter-style features with Instagram’s look and feel would drive user engagement. Musk has made a series of changes that have triggered backlash, the latest being daily limits on the number of tweets people can view to try to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll speak with social media business reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Salvador Rodriguez, and executive director of Aspen Digital and former global chair of news at Twitter, Vivian Schiller about what Meta is really hoping to accomplish with this new platform, whether it can plant a flag in a field that’s already so saturated with Twitter alternatives.
With files from the Associated Press
Police Departments Are Starting To Use Drones As First Responders – How Is It Working So Far?
Drone technically and use has evolved rapidly. Police departments quickly found uses for the technology and some over recent years have even started using the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as first responders in a way. The Santa Monica Police Department initiated its program almost two years ago and the department says it changes the game for officers in the field. Most of the time, the drone arrives on scene before other officers and it can help paint a picture of the situation. But concerns about surveillance and privacy remain. Santa Monica authorities say those are always the biggest questions when it comes to this. Joining to discuss how Santa Monica’s program works and how regulations have evolved over time is Peter Lashley, Santa Monica police officer and lead pilot of the department’s Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program, and Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
Music That Is (Partly) AI Created Can Win A Grammy--What Does This Mean For The Music Industry?
Last month, the Recording Academy announced a series of changes to the Grammy Awards to better reflect an evolving music industry. Of those newly instituted guidelines, protocols involving technological advancements in machine learning sparked headlines: “Only human creators” could win the music industry’s highest honor in a decision aimed at the use of artificial intelligence in popular music. “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category,” the rules read in part. If an AI or voice modeling program performs the lead vocal on a song, the track would be eligible in a songwriting category, for example, but not a performance category, because “what is performing is not human creation,” he explains. “Conversely, if a song was sung by an actual human in the studio, and they did all the performing, but AI wrote the lyric or the track, the song would not be eligible in a composition or a songwriting category.” So, could Grammy viewers expect to see work at least partially created with AI nominated for an award as early as next year?
Today on AirTalk, we’ll speak with Jem Aswad, executive music editor at Variety and Clay Chaplin, Director of Computer Music & Experimental Media Studios at CalArts about what these guidelines mean for the music industry moving forward.
With files from the Associated Press
FilmWeek: ‘Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One,’ ‘Joy Ride,’ “The Lesson’ And More
Larry Mantle and LAist film critics Amy Nicholson and Andy Klein review this weekend’s new movie releases in theaters, streaming, and on demand platforms.
- “Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One” In Select Theaters July 10; Expands to Wide Release July 12
- “Biosphere” Alamo Drafthouse Cinema [DTLA] & Landmark Nuart Theatre [West LA]
- “Joy Ride” Wide Release
- “The Lesson” In Select Theaters
- “Amanda” Laemmle Royal [West LA]; Expands to Laemmle Town Center [Encino], Laemmle Glendale & Laemmle Claremont July 14
- “The Out-Laws” Streaming on Netflix
- “The YouTube Effect” Alamo Drafthouse Cinema [DTLA]
- “Once Upon A Time In Uganda” Alamo Drafthouse Cinema [DTLA]; Expanding to Select Theaters July 14
- “The Passengers Of The Night” Laemmle Monica Film Center [Santa Monica]
Larry Mantle Interviews Gale Anne Hurd And Alex Winter Of ‘The YouTube Effect’
Social media’s effects on our daily lives is constantly being examined as the technology and pervasive nature of these platforms evolves more quickly than we can process. In the new documentary ‘The YouTube Effect,’ director Alex Winter goes in-depth on the history and influence of one of the largest video sharing platforms in the world, YouTube. Larry Mantle sits down with the documentary’s director, Alex Winter, and its producer, Gale Anne Hurd, to discuss the making of the film and YouTube’s legacy as a platform.
