WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2023--

The Walt Disney Company has pulled the plug on a $1bn office complex in Orlando, following a warning from Disney leadership that billions of dollars in projects were on the line after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis escalated his feud with the company. The development scheduled for construction in the Orlando area was set to bring 2,000 jobs to the region, with 1,000 employees expected to be relocated from southern California. In an email to employees on 18 May, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chair Josh D’Amaro pointed to “changing business conditions” for the cancellation of the 60-acre Lake Nona Town Center project, according to The New York Times, which first reported the move. “I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” he added, noting that the company has still planned $17bn in projects over the next decade its Disney World campus. “I hope we’re able to,” he said. For years, Florida legislators and the governor’s office enjoyed a close relationship with the state’s largest taxpayers, among the state’s largest employers, which has wielded enormous political influence while bringing in billions of dollars to the state each year. Now, the company and DeSantis allies are suing one another, following a year-long feud over opposition to what opponents have called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that boiled over into political and legal battles that could shape the company’s business in the state. Moments after board appointed by Mr DeSantis voted to strip the company’s control of its Florida park, Disney filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and state officials alleging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” for “expressing a political viewpoint.” The lawsuit follows the governor’s state takeover of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, made up of conservative activists and DeSantis loyalists, a move that followed Florida Republicans’ punitive measures against the company after its public opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Days later, the board voted to sue Disney in state court. In March, Disney slammed the governor’s “anti-business” approach to the company, which Mr DeSantis has accused of advancing a “woke agenda” while his administration targets LGBT+ people and their families with sweeping laws to control public school education, healthcare access and speech. The governor dissolved a decades-old municipal district that allowed Disney to control its own land use, zoning rules and public services, without putting a tax burden on Florida residents. In effect, Disney taxed itself to foot the district’s bill for its municipal needs. “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Disney CEO Bob Iger said on a conference call with analysts last week. A statement from Disney said the company has decided to pull out of the new campus construction “given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions.” The “Parental Rights in Education Act” – what opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay” – prohibits instruction of “sexual orientation or gender identity” from kindergarten through the third grade and any such discussion “that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” in other grades. The governor recently expanded the law to explicitly extend such restrictions to all grades. Critics have warned that the broadly written law threatens to freeze classroom speech involving LGBT+ people and issues, from civil rights history lessons to discussion of LGBT+ students, school staff and their families. Following passage of the Florida law, lawmakers across the US and in Congress have introduced similar legislation, including more than two dozen measures in current legislative sessions. Read More DeSantis v Disney: Why Florida’s governor is at war with the Mouse ‘We will not be erased’: Critics slam Ron DeSantis for unprecedented bills attacking LGBTQ+ people Penguin Random House sues Florida school district over ‘unconstitutional’ book bans Florida teacher under investigation for showing Disney movie with LGBT+ character speaks out

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2023--

Sam Altman, the head of ChatGPT creators OpenAI, has mocked Elon Musk’s entry into the artificial intelligence market. This week, Mr Musk’s xAI company unveiled Grok, another chat-based AI system along the lines of ChatGPT. He claimed that the app was written to be irreverent and funny, and to avoid what he suggested was censorship on other platforms such as ChatGPT. But the creator of that rival hit back at Grok in a tweet that suggested grok “tell[s] jokes like your dad’s dad” and that it traded in “cringey boomer humour”. The system works in a “sort of awkward shock-to-get-laughs sort of way”, he said. Mr Altman’s post showed him programming a system of his own, using a new OpenAI feature, and showed a screen grab of the instructions he had given to the system. He joked that “GPTs can save a lot of effort” in reference to a new feature, named GPTs, which allows people to creat their own versions of his chatbot that include specific and custom characteristics. Mr Musk responded with what appeared to be a quote from his own Grok AI. That response joked that “humour is clearly banned at OpenAI”. The marketing of Mr Musk’s Grok has revolved primarily around the fact that it will answer questions that other systems will refuse, and its tone is more irreverent than rival systems such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. When it was launched, for instance, he shared an example of how it will answer “almost anything”, sharing a screenshot of it being asked how to make cocaine. “Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak,” a blog post announcing its launch noted. “Please don’t use it if you hate humour!” Grok is also different from those systems in that it has real-time access to posts and data from Twitter. Other AI firms were using that site to train their models, but Mr Musk has looked to cut them off, arguing that it is causing too much demand on the site. Read More ChatGPT goes offline ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT

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Netflix has finally launched its long-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The move is an attempt to help it grow its subscriptions and profits amid slowing interest in the streaming platform. But it also means that those people who use other people’s accounts – and those who own those accounts – could be facing some significant changes in the way they use the platform. Here’s what the crackdown means for you, and anyone who might be on your account. What are Netflix’s rules about password sharing? Netflix’s rules specifically say that any account is meant for use by one household. It’s very permitted to have more than one person within that household – that is why it offers the “profiles” feature that lets people have multiple lists and viewing histories in one account – but it is not permitted for people to use an account associated with another household. The definition of a household is a little vague, and Netflix defines it as “you and the people you live with”. In practice, that means the other people who live at the same address, at least in terms of ensuring that you won’t get caught up with Netflix’s rules, which are based on location. That doesn’t mean that you can only use Netflix within one house. The company is very happy with people using the app outside of their home, such as when travelling, and again makes allowances for that with features such as being able to download films and TV shows to watch offline. The rules limiting Netflix accounts to one household have long been in place, however. What has changed is that the company is now going to start enforcing them, by kicking people out of accounts if they don’t believe them to be within a household. What does the crackdown mean? The new changes mean that Netflix will be using a variety of tools to spot when people are using another household’s account – and prevent them from doing so. That spotting will happen using a variety of tools, but is primarily about checking a devices IP address and other identifiers to see whether its usage patterns suggest it is not following the rules. If that happens, then Netflix will stop that person accessing the account. Instead, they’ll offer new ways for those people to get online properly. Over time, Netflix expects that there will be some cancellations from people who have so far been sharing accounts, it said in its recent results. But tests have shown that many of those people then come back again, and that it overall leads to more people paying for subscriptions, which is why it has chosen to press ahead. What are the options for people sharing passwords? Netflix is giving those people who have been sharing accounts two different options. First, they can “transfer a profile”. That means the person sharing the account can get their own, new membership but that it will include all of their watch history and other data, so that they don’t lose out when they start over again. Otherwise, you can “buy an extra member” for your account, which essentially means that the person will stay on your account but you will have to pay for them. That is slightly cheaper than buying a full-blown new login, at £4.99 in the UK or $7.99 in the US. What about people who share their accounts? If you are the person lending out your account, rather than the one borrowing it, there isn’t necessarily anything you need to do. Netflix isn’t pursuing people who have shared their password. It does however encourage users to check who’s using the account, to avoid getting told off for lending it. That can be done by heading to Netflix’s settings, which offers the option to sign out any devices that are logged in, as well as changing the password so they can’t get back in. What about if I travel a lot? If you are using your account outside of the house, there’s no big reason to worry. You can still do so, though you might receive some warnings from Netflix if you are away for a long time. During the rollout, Netflix said that it had received some feedback about people getting the warnings because they had been travelling, rather than sharing their accounts. It suggested that has been fixed in the new version of the technology that is monitoring those logins. Read More Netflix begins crackdown on password sharing in the UK and US Netflix begins sending emails to UK customers about account sharing Netflix launches account crackdown in US and UK Teenager given criminal behaviour order after entering home for TikTok ‘prank’ Meta Ireland to cut about 490 jobs New brain technology helps paralysed man with severe spine injury walk again