An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider two bills Thursday that would effectively nullify the Supreme Court's rulings against patents on broad software processes and human genes. Open source and Internet freedom advocates are mobilizing and pushing back. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (or PERA, S. 2140), sponsored by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), would amend US Code such that "all judicial exceptions to patent eligibility are eliminated." That would include the 2014 ruling in which the Supreme Court held, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing, that simply performing an existing process on a computer does not make it a new, patentable invention. "The relevant question is whether the claims here do more than simply instruct the practitioner to implement the abstract idea of intermediated settlement on a generic computer," Thomas wrote. "They do not." That case also drew on Bilski v. Kappos, a case in which a patent was proposed based solely on the concept of hedging against price fluctuations in commodity markets. [...] Another wrinkle in the PERA bill involves genetic patents. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that pieces of DNA that occur naturally in the genomes of humans or other organisms cannot, themselves, be patented. Myriad Genetics had previously been granted patents on genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which were targeted in a lawsuit led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The resulting Supreme Court decision -- this one also written by Thomas -- found that information that naturally occurs in the human genome could not be the subject to a patent, even if the patent covered the process of isolating that information from the rest of the genome. As with broad software patents, PERA would seemingly allow for the patenting of isolated human genes and connections between those genes and diseases like cancer. [...] The Judiciary Committee is set to debate and potentially amend or rewrite PREVAIL and PERA (i.e. mark up) on Thursday.

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The entertainment company behind "The Hunger Games" and "Twilight" plans to start using generative AI in the creation of its new movies and TV shows, a sign of the emerging technology's advance in Hollywood. From a report: Lions Gate Entertainment has agreed to give Runway, one of several fast-evolving AI startups, access to its content library in exchange for a new, custom AI model that the studio can use in the editing and production process. The deal -- the first of its kind for Runway and one that could become a blueprint in the entertainment industry -- comes as creatives, actors and studio executives debate whether to use the new technology and how to protect their copyright material. Advocates say generative AI can enhance creators' work and help a cash-strapped industry save time and money. Michael Burns, vice chairman of Lionsgate Studio, expects the company to be able to save "millions and millions of dollars" from using the new model. The studio behind the "John Wick" franchise and "Megalopolis" plans to initially use the new AI tool for internal purposes like storyboarding -- laying out a series of graphics to show how a story unfolds -- and eventually creating backgrounds and special effects, like explosions, for the big screen.

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LinkedIn is using its users’ data for improving the social network’s generative AI products, but has not yet updated its terms of service to reflect this data processing, according to posts from various LinkedIn users and a statement from the company to 404 Media. Instead, the company says it will update its terms “shortly.”

The move is unusual in that LinkedIn appears to have gone ahead with training AI on its users’ data, even creating a new option in its settings, without updating its terms of service, which is traditionally one of the main documents that can explain how users’ data is collected or used.

Its community has been keeping the flame burning for years

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We want to believe that Pixar, the industry standard for ambitious creativity and childlike wonder, has a positive workplace culture. Instead, a new report from IGN indicates it's the industry standard for animation (derogatory). In other words, serious grind, for little money, until everyone starts losing their minds. And like every major studio, Pixar execs have been "acting in a fear-based way" since the pandemic and strikes, as one source put it, "So I think morale is really low because people no longer trust that they're being led with their best interests at heart."

Pixar was in a bit of a slump before Inside Out 2 became the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The Pixar employees interviewed described the atmosphere of Inside Out 2's production as "a life or death situation" and "an all-hands-on-deck studio emergency.” Though a Pixar representative told IGN that the workload was normal, these insiders describe the crunch as "unprecedented." Here are just a few of the things the sources said about working on Inside Out 2 and its follow-up, Elio:

"I think for a month or two, the animators were working seven days a week. Ridiculous amounts of production workers, just people being tossed into jobs they'd never really done before… It was horrendous."

"The internal culture of Pixar right now is really rough. There is just an incredible amount of people who are like, ‘I can't do this anymore.'"

"It was rushed work, paranoid work, paranoid leadership, mixed messaging ...You're just working 24/7. And so after a while, your body just starts breaking down."

"It was a shitshow."

Notably, these employees observed that Pixar leadership really believes Lightyear failed because of the same-sex kiss in the movie, which led to a lot of hand-wringing about making Riley seem "less gay" in Inside Out 2, reportedly even "requiring edits to the lighting and tone of certain scenes to remove any trace of 'romantic chemistry,'" according to the outlet. One source describes it as "just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight."

Then, after all that, many of the employees who worked seven days a week for multiple months on Inside Out 2 were laid off. Ex-employees describe the heartache of being shut out of Pixar before even getting to see the project across the finish line; worse, they lost not only their modest salaries but also the bonus pay that was promised should Inside Out 2 become a success. (Spoiler alert: It did!) "To be told by our HR reps that we were not going to qualify for that bonus felt like an ultimate 'fuck you' from Disney," one ex-employee said. Another is quoted as saying, "I would venture that at least 95% of the people that got laid off are financially fucked right now." You can read the full, messy report here.

Annapurna Interactive is embarking on a new mission. According to a report from Bloomberg, the studio's entire video game team has resigned following a dispute with owner Megan Ellison. In recent years, the team has produced popular and award-winning titles Stray, Outer Wilds, Neon White, What Remains Of Edith Finch, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and more.

According to Bloomberg, Annapurna Interactive's (now former) president Nathan Gary had been in talks with Annapurna Pictures owner Megan Ellison (the daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison) to spin-off the gaming studio into its own separate entity. Ellison apparently backed out of those negotiations, however, leading Gary and a few other executives to resign. They were shortly followed by the rest of the imprint's staff.

"All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned," Gary and his group said in a joint statement to Bloomberg. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."

A spokesperson for the parent company confirmed that Ellison and Gary failed to reach an agreement, which led to the mass exodus. "Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition," Ellison said in her own statement. “We’re committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater."

That means fans of Stray and its dedicated meow button can rest easy knowing that the previously announced movie adaptation is likely still on the table. Annapurna's spokesperson also confirmed to Bloomberg that all existing games and projects will remain under its control. Hypothetically, anticipated games like Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth and Wanderstop should also be fine. According to multiple sources, new video game arm president Hector Sanchez has told developers that the company will honor existing contracts and replace the staff who left. Sanchez recently rejoined the company after co-founding Annapurna Interactive with Gary in 2016. He worked at Epic Games in the interim. 

Annapurna's studio arm is also staying busy. Last year, they released the Oscar-nominated animated film Nimona, and this year, if nothing else, they have Nightbitch to look forward to.