Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of June 19, 2023
Microsoft takes on the FTC in court, TikTok does the executive shuffle, and Warner Bros. Discovery thins out Turner Classic Movies.
Welcome back to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more.
Video Games 🎮
Microsoft Takes On The FTC Over Activision-Blizzard
This week Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began a multi-day hearing involving the regulatory agency’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the United States District court for the Northern District of California began hearing arguments in the case, with Microsoft and the FTC making their cases before the judge. For Microsoft’s part, the company believes that if the injunction is awarded, the acquisition deal will be dead in the water, citing a “three-year administrative nightmare” from the FTC investigation.
The hearing isn’t complete yet, with another two sessions happening on June 27 and June 28. In these days of the hearing, we’re expecting to hear from Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan. Given that, it’s hard to have a comprehensive summary already. Instead, I’ll hit a few of the major revelations from the first two days of the hearing.
PlayStation Boss Isn’t Actually Worried About Losing Call of Duty: In an email from January 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan admits that he’s not particularly worried about losing Call of Duty access in the acquisition. Via ArsTechnica:
It’s not an exclusive play at all. They are thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with both [Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer] and Bobby [Kotick] over the past day. I’m pretty sure we will continue to see CoD on PlayStation for many years to come. I’m not complacent and I’d rather this hadn’t happened but we’ll be OK, more than OK.
Xbox Boss Admits They’ve “Lost The Console Wars”: Outside of looking at actual sales and corporate strategy, there’s nothing less interesting than discussions of the “console wars”. Sadly, those discussions are getting some heat this week, as Microsoft submitted documentation stating that it had lost the console wars, landing in third place behind Nintendo and PlayStation.
Sony is the dominant player in consoles. Xbox’s console has consistently ranked third (of three) behind PlayStation and Nintendo in sales.
Having lost the console wars, Xbox is betting on a different strategy than Sony and Nintendo by making games more widely accessible.
Xbox’s Primary Reason For Deal Is Mobile, Not Call of Duty or Cloud Gaming: As part of the documentation linked above, Microsoft stated that the primary reason behind its interest in Activision-Blizzard is increasing its mobile presence.
While maintaining existing revenue streams (including sales of Activision games to PlayStation users) is required to justify the purchase price, the strategic value of the transaction is to (i) help Xbox meet the billions of gamers who choose to play on mobile devices instead of a console or PC and (ii) learn how to make games that appeal to and engage gamers wherever they want to play.
Spencer also revealed that Microsoft tried to buy Zynga, but was beat out by Take-Two. The move forced the company to think bigger.
Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Demanded Bigger Revenue Share To Bring CoD To Xbox: During testimony at the hearing, Xbox vice president Sarah Bond explained that Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick wanted a larger revenue share to keep Call of Duty on Xbox platforms. According to IGN, Bond said that Xbox acquiesced to the demand. "Time was limited. We had players whose expectations we wanted to meet, so we ultimately made a decision that it was the best thing for the business,” she stated.
The Exclusive Question Comes Up Again and Again: A big part of the FTC’s argument involved pointing at the areas where Xbox has made games exclusive to its consoles. An email revealed at the hearing states that MachineGames’ upcoming Indiana Jones game was originally coming to PlayStation, but after acquisition it was moved to Xbox and PC only. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that Microsoft and Bethesda are undecided on whether The Elder Scrolls 6 will be Xbox exclusive as the game is still “five plus years away.” In addition, Spencer said Starfield was potentially going to skip Xbox until the acquisition closed.
In an odd bit of information, Spencer also explained why there’s not a native version of Minecraft on PlayStation 5. IGN reports that Spencer said that Sony withheld PS5 development kits from Mojang because it was owned by Microsoft.
Sony was reluctant to send us development kits for the PlayStation 5 at the same time they were sending them to other developers, which put us at a disadvantage relative to other developers. I think Sony could have sent the development kits to Microsoft just as easily as they sent them to any other publisher.
Of course, Minecraft doesn’t have an Xbox Series S/X version either. Axios’ Stephen Totilo also reported that Sony has stated that it couldn’t tell Activision-Blizzard about its next console if the deal closes.
The Shout-Out: There are two shout-outs this week. One, if you want to dive deep into everything involving the case, IGN has done a great full court press on the hearing, as you can tell from links in the “Exclusive Question” section. The second is once again FOSS Patents, offering a look at some of the legal arguments surrounding the hearing. Florian Mueller is definitely on Microsoft’s side in this entire thing, but the analysis is still useful overall.
E3 May Not Return in 2024 and 2025
E3 was canceled in 2023, but the Electronic Software Association (ESA) and new show organizer ReedPop stated that it was looking to bring the show back next year. That doesn’t seem to be the case, as a report from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission shows. The report states that some of its numbers include “E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025”.
The ESA told Axios’ Stephen Totilo that they’re still in discussions about the future of the show. “ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the events have been made at this time,” the organization said in a statement.
Of course, having some experience in convention negotiations from my time with Otakon, I will say that if you don’t have a convention contract way ahead of time, you don’t have a show. If the Los Angeles Convention Center doesn’t believe E3 is coming back for 2024 and 2025, that means the show either found another venue—unlikely—or it's canceled.
Why It's Worth Knowing: With its cancellation this year, E3 ceded ground to Summer Game Fest. And if it’s not returning next year, it only cements Summer Game Fest as the event of that spot of the calendar year. The cold truth is the world doesn’t need two North American gaming events in the summer.
Electronic Arts Separates Its General Gaming and Sports Divisions
Electronic Arts announced a corporate restructuring this week. In a statement to EA employees, CEO Andrew Wilson revealed that EA Sports and EA Entertainment are now going to be two different divisions within the company. Cam Weber has been appointed president of EA Sports. Laura Miele will be president of EA Entertainment, Technology & Central Development, with Vince Zampella, Samantha Ryan, and Jeff Karp leading divisions within this new group. Zampella continues to lead Apex Legends, Star Wars, and Battlefield; Ryan runs "lifestyle franchises and blockbuster single-player experiences" (I assume this means BioWare); and Karp continues to handle mobile.
“This evolution of our company continues to empower our studio leaders with more creative ownership and financial accountability to make faster and more insightful decisions around development and go to market strategies. These steps will accelerate our business, drive growth, and deliver long-term value for our people, our players and our communities,” stated Wilson.
“EA Entertainment encompasses extraordinary owned IP, including some of the world’s most beloved blockbuster franchises, as well as licensed IP through powerful collaborations. We’re building the future of interactive entertainment on a foundation of legendary franchises and innovative new experiences, which represents massive opportunities for growth,” he added.
Tech ⌨️
Meta Finally Decides To Pull News From Facebook and Instagram In Canada
Ahead of Canada’s Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect, Meta has decided to pull all news from Facebook and Instagram. As an announcement, the company updated its previous messaging on the bill.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” says the statement.
The aim of the bill is to force social media platforms like Facebook to compensate news organizations that they use to prop up their platforms, giving those organizations a percentage of ad revenue generated from their stories. Of course, Meta doesn’t want to pay. Meta has made similar threats elsewhere in the past, but one in particular didn’t work: in Australia, the law led to A$200 million ($132 million) in payments to regional outlets. Now it’s time to see how the Canadian iteration will work out.
Why It's Worth Knowing: If you can’t get local people to support regional news, then at least you can get the companies that profit off their work to kick a few dollars their way. Advertising as a whole is on the struggle right now, but a small percentage of revenue can keep regional news alive, which is really important. And it’s better than throwing money away on the metaverse.
Regulators Step In To Investigate Adobe’s Acquisition of Figma
Microsoft isn’t the only company feeling the eye of regulators. Back in September of last year, Adobe announced that it was going to spend $20 billion to acquire Figma, a web-based design service. Figma is one of the biggest names in the mobile design space, which is why Adobe was willing to pay a premium despite having its own existing platform for the same purpose, Adobe XD.
That visibility is why regulators are now starting to take a look at the deal. Back in March, Bloomberg reported that The U.S. Department of Justice was looking to block the deal. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also began a probe into the acquisition in May, with a deadline of June 30 for its Phase 1 decision. This week, the pile on continued, with the Financial Times reporting that EU regulators are also looking at the deal.
The worry in all three regions is the same. Adobe XD, Figma, and Canva are three of the biggest products in this space and allowing Adobe to acquire Figma leaves Canva as the only competition standing. The EU isn’t blocking the deal yet, however, with the report noting that the regulatory body is looking to start a formal investigation.
The FTC Files Complaint Against Amazon For Tricking Folks Into Prime Subs
Microsoft isn’t the only company feeling-- wait, I already wrote that once. Regardless, the FTC is taking action against another major company. This week, it filed a legal complaint against Amazon, alleging that the online shopping giant tricks users into signing up for Prime subscriptions and then makes it prohibitively difficult to cancel.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike. The FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from ‘dark patterns’ and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets.”
Why It's Worth Knowing: Surprisingly enough, this is the first time that the current FTC has taken Amazon to court. Why is it a surprise? Well, Khan actually rose to prominence when she penned an antitrust argument against Amazon as a law student. That it has taken this long for her FTC to pursue Amazon is a show of restraint. Regardless, Khan’s FTC isn’t afraid to take swings at major companies, so add Amazon to the list.
TikTok’s COO Leaves The Company, And a New Challenger Joins
As the heat increases around TikTok in the United States, it looks like the company’s chief operating officer has decided now is the time to move on. V. Pappas, who has moved up the ladder as the U.S. general manager, interim CEO, and then COO for the company, was also largely the face of TikTok in the region. Pappas announced the news via Twitter.
“Given all the successes reached at TikTok, I finally feel the time is right to move on and refocus on my entrepreneurial passions,” said Pappas.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sent an email to employees about Pappas’ departure and a new addition within the company. The Verge obtained the email, which revealed that TikTok chief of staff Adam Presser is becoming head of operations. It also announced that Disney communications veteran Zenia Mucha will join the company as Chief Brand and Communications Officer.
“After nearly five years as a valued leader on TikTok’s executive team, V. Pappas has decided to step down to refocus on their entrepreneurial passions. As part of that, they will be exiting as COO, and in addition to their new pursuits will be serving as a strategic advisor to the company,” wrote Chew.
“In her new role as TikTok’s Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Zenia will focus on advancing the strategic vision of our brand and advising key businesses. She will be in charge of overseeing the following key corporate functions: Global Marketing and Global Communications,” he added.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Mucha’s addition highlights TikTok’s struggles currently. Mucha spent 20 years at Disney as chief communications officer, where she was known as “acid-tongued” and the “Director of Revenge”. She prefers an affirmative defense and was already advising Chew on his appearance before Congress. It’s clear that in her new position, the spin doctor will go on the offensive in defending the platform against the lawmakers.
Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️
The Academy Changes Best Picture Eligibility Rules
In a surprise move, the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a huge change in the eligibility rules for the Best Picture category. For the 97th Academy Awards, covering films released in 2024, the Academy has expanded the qualifying run, which was previously a one-week theatrical release in one of the six U.S. qualifying cities.
The new list of requirements includes:
Expanded theatrical run of seven days, consecutive or non-consecutive, in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after the initial release in 2024.
For late-in-the-year films with expansions after January 10, 2025, distributors must submit release plans to the Academy for verification.
Release plans for late-in-the-year films must include a planned expanded theatrical run, as described above, to be completed no later than January 24, 2025.
Non-U.S. territory releases can count towards two of the 10 markets.
Qualifying non-U.S. markets include the top 15 international theatrical markets plus the home territory for the film.
That’s a much larger theatrical commitment than previously required and it looks to largely be aimed at strengthening theatrical distribution. “In support of our mission to celebrate and honor the arts and sciences of moviemaking, it is our hope that this expanded theatrical footprint will increase the visibility of films worldwide and encourage audiences to experience our artform in a theatrical setting. Based on many conversations with industry partners, we feel that this evolution benefits film artists and movie lovers alike,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang in a joint statement.
Why It's Worth Knowing: It’s clear the rules changes are aimed at streamers, who are only growing in the awards category. It’s likely that Apple’s run for last year’s Best Picture winner CODA would not have qualified under the new rules. Netflix has also started racking up nominations for its films like All Quiet on the Western Front, and the streamer generally does the bare minimum for qualifying purposes. That’s likely not going to change; all these rules do is raise what the “bare minimum” is.
The Hollywood Strike: The DGA Members Ratify Their Contract
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has sidestepped solidarity and ratified its tentative contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Membership approved the new three-year agreement with a vote of 87% in favor of the new contract.
“Our new contract secures gains on wages, global streaming residuals, safety, diversity and creative rights that build for the future and impact every category of member in our Guild,” said DGA president Lesli Glatter.
Glatter did acknowledge the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). While the WGA is on strike, SAG-AFTRA is in the middle of negotiations.
“We support the actors who are in negotiations and the writers who remain on strike, and we will stand with the IA and Teamsters when they negotiate their agreement next year. We won’t be satisfied until we all have fair contracts that reward us for our creative work — we must create a vibrant, sustainable industry that fairly values us all,” said Glatter.
Warner Bros. Discovery Guts Turner Classic Movies
Warner Bros. Discovery is on another round of layoffs, this time focused on the television side of the company. Notable is the company cutting Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to the bone. As the name suggests, TCM is the home of many classic Hollywood films from Warner Bros, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the defunct RKO Pictures, and more.
Folks noticed things weren't going well when it was announced that TCM executive Pola Changnon was leaving the company. “As you know, Pola has decided to step down after more than 15 years with the network and more than 25 years with the company. Under her stewardship, TCM cemented its position as the dominant classic movie brand and a favorite among classic film aficionados. We are enormously grateful for her leadership and innovation over the years and wish her well,” said Kathleen Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group, in an email to employees obtained by Deadline.
Michael Ouweleen, who previously oversaw TCM, will once again add its management duties to his list. Ouweleen is currently the president of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family, and Boomerang for WBD.
A number of other TCM executives followed Changnon out the door, including senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy. The cuts gave Hollywood pause, enough that veteran directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson called up WBD CEO David Zaslav to have a conversation about the network, according to IndieWire.
“Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel. It is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week. And while it has never been a financial juggernaut, it has always been a profitable endeavor since its inception,” said the three directors in a statement to Deadline. “We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him. Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”
Their conversation must have worked, as it was announced two days later that part of TCM’s programming was going to be under the control of Warner Bros. Film CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. The pair came to WBD from MGM, so they have some affinity for classic films. According to THR, the change was aimed at calming Hollywood veterans and letting them know the network won’t be sold.
Of course, what will be sold at Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV music publishing assets. The company is looking to part with half of its catalog for $500 million, according to Variety. Sony is said to be in the lead to pick them up, including songs from Rent, Evita, Purple Rain, and many of the Batman films.
Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion Has AI Opening Credits And Folks Hate Them
Marvel Studios decided to step on a rake this week. The studio released the first episode of Secret Invasion, its spy-themed series focused on Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and the shape-shifting Skrulls. When fans tuned in for the first episode, they noticed the opening credits looked like they were AI-generated.
Marvel Studios and Secret Invasion director Ali Selim confirmed to Polygon that they were. Selim said the opening credits were done by Method Studios, but fit with his conception of the series as alien and a part of the “the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity”. Feeling the backlash, Method Studios released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, stressing that the credits work did not cost any artist jobs at the studio.
“It involved a tremendous effort by talented art directors, animators (proficient in both 2D and 3D), artists, and developers, who employed conventional techniques to craft all the other aspects of the project. However, it is crucial to emphasize that while the AI component provided optimal results, AI is just one tool among the array of toolsets our artists used. No artists’ jobs were replaced by incorporating these new tools; instead, they complemented and assisted our creative teams,” said the company in its statement.
Why It's Worth Knowing: The logic of Method’s statement makes some sense. Generative-AI can be simply another tool in an artist’s repertoire. The issue is the additional questions: What was Method’s AI model trained on? How much of the work was done by the tool as opposed to the artists within the company? And of course, that does beg the question of whether or not the opening credits were any good. They immediately scream “AI”, which is a point against their overall artistic creativity and the studio’s sense of taste.
Across The Spider-Verse Producers Slammed With Complaints of Unsustainable Working Conditions
When the credits for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse finish, a title card reveals that Miles Morales will return in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. That film is planned for a March 29, 2024 release, but some doubt was cast on that date when Gwen Stacy voice actress Hailee Steinfeld told THR that she hadn’t recorded a single line for the third film yet.
That doubt became much stronger when Vulture released a report on the difficulties of working on Across the Spider-Verse. The accounts of four VFX artists who worked on the film allege poor working conditions that all seem to come down to the same problem: producer and writer Phil Lord, who frequently iterates and changes the film right up until the last minute. The Vulture article presents their statements separately and in their own words, so I’ll merely offer snippets as block quotes here:
Artist #1
The majority of the crew were sitting idle for half a year because Phil was holding up sequences in layout. That’s a lot of money. Those people are sitting there getting paid to do nothing. Because we hired a massive team of artists to accomplish the October date and then we found out it was pushed. The water behind the dam kept growing because Phil was holding off sequences. Then at a certain point, we ran out of time. The dam broke, water came flooding in, and all the departments were swamped, doing overtime. But that didn’t stop all the changes from coming in. Things just kept getting changed and cut and redone over and over again, even though shots were getting pushed through all the departments. The whole experience felt like one step forward, two steps back, until we were forced to sprint to make up ground in the last few months. There are sequences that we started in 2021 that we just finished in May. That is a lot of artists’ hours and time and energy and stress. This production has been death by a thousand paper cuts.
They’ve announced that Beyond the Spider-Verse will be released in March of next year. I’ve seen people say, “Oh, they probably worked on it at the same time.” There’s no way that movie’s coming out then. There’s been progress on the pre-production side of things. But as far as the production side goes, the only progress that’s been made on the third one is any exploration or tests that were done before the movie was split into two parts. Everyone’s been fully focused on Across the Spider-Verse and barely crossing the finish line. And now it’s like, Oh, yeah, now we have to do the other one.
Artist #2
Because it’s such a cool project, people want to get their shots in. They want to finish them and make sure it’s in the movie and they can keep it for their reel. So people have been working like crazy. The hardest thing on the animators has not been working 11 hours a day, 70 hours a week. It’s been the wasted work and the frustration of putting in that many hours just to see it changed or thrown away. You work like nuts on a shot and then in a review, suddenly they’re like, “Oh, you didn’t get the latest edit? That’s not how it is anymore.” In every movie I’ve worked on, there have been revisions. You’re always working on a movie that is evolving. But definitely not on this level.
The biggest issue we’ve had is the writing. Phil had no idea what he wanted. Maybe he has difficulties making up his mind. I don’t know! Of course, it’s part of every movie where the director says, “What if we could do this or that?” And normally, it’s the producer’s role to push back. The problem is, Phil is the producer. He can’t push back against himself.
Artist #3
On my last project, I worked with a few artists who had done the first Spider-Verse, and one of them said to me, “As long as I work at Sony, I’m never working on a Phil Lord movie ever again.” All these artists at Sony who worked on the first one and Mitchells vs the Machines were like, “My God, I don’t know if I want to put myself through this again. Is it worth it?” I was warned. It was like they were amping themselves up to run a marathon.
Something like 90 percent of the shots in the trailer are not in the movie. We re-engineered or reanimated, had different characters doing the same thing. It was purely a sequence of cool ideas they made us slap together while they “rested” the production. We were “idle”; that’s what they called it. And that was probably the biggest de-motivator for a lot of people: some of them had been flown over to Vancouver, gotten an apartment to work on this movie and then sat on their hands for maybe three months. The worst thing you can do to an artist is hire them and then tell them to do nothing. These people were like, How do you expect us to make this huge movie in less and less time? Each week that went by idle meant that later on it was going to be more insane. An avalanche of work is waiting.
Artist #4
Phil and Chris have a reputation. As producers, they used to come onto a project when it was 80 percent finished. Once they could ingest the movie properly and see what it is going to be like, they would come through with the guillotine and start enthusiastically editing. They’d come in and start to rewrite lines, throw out entire sequences, throw out animations all over the place, everywhere. And this is animation that people have been working on for a long time. Finished work, not some mock-up thing. I heard on Mitchells they did that. On Spider-Verse 1, they did that. Lego, same thing.
What that means is you have artists who feel extremely vulnerable. Sony lowballs them on their salary with the promise that overtime pay will boost their income to the level that it should be.
The entire article is worth a read and stands as another excellent expose from Chris Lee, who has done the same for projects from Marvel Studios in the past. The problem of working conditions in VFX is, of course, bigger than just one studio or one project.
On My Mind 🧠
James Cameron On The Titan Submarine: Most of the week was spent with mainstream news channels breathlessly covering every bit of news surrounding the OceanGate Titan submarine that got lost diving into the Titanic shipwreck. Wreckage was found on Thursday, leaving rescuers to conclude that the sub was destroyed due to catastrophic implosion. (An implosion that the U.S. Navy believes it heard days ago.)
Director James Cameron had words about the situation in an interview on ABC News:
I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed up full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result and for us a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site.
Why is Cameron’s butting in? Well, when he’s not directing films like Avatar and Titanic, the director is figuring how to get Hollywood to fund his hobbies, which include deep-sea diving. Cameron has made 33 trips to the Titanic wreckage site and even been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, so he does actually know what he’s talking about. Cameron and others in the submergence community raised issues with OceanGate’s submarine in the past.
The Verge Talks To The Underclass That Makes AI Work: In an extensive feature, The Verge talked to the folks who label AI training data and correct the systems when they misread data. Annotating data sets, labeling exactly what’s in every single image, is a large part of what makes AI work, and that work is all done by cheaply-paid labor.
The anthropologist David Graeber defines “bullshit jobs” as employment without meaning or purpose, work that should be automated but for reasons of bureaucracy or status or inertia is not. These AI jobs are their bizarro twin: work that people want to automate, and often think is already automated, yet still requires a human stand-in. The jobs have a purpose; it’s just that workers often have no idea what it is.
The job of the annotator often involves putting human understanding aside and following instructions very, very literally — to think, as one annotator said, like a robot. It’s a strange mental space to inhabit, doing your best to follow nonsensical but rigorous rules, like taking a standardized test while on hallucinogens. Annotators invariably end up confronted with confounding questions like, Is that a red shirt with white stripes or a white shirt with red stripes? Is a wicker bowl a “decorative bowl” if it’s full of apples? What color is leopard print? When instructors said to label traffic-control directors, did they also mean to label traffic-control directors eating lunch on the sidewalk? Every question must be answered, and a wrong guess could get you banned and booted to a new, totally different task with its own baffling rules.
Worries about AI-driven disruption are often countered with the argument that AI automates tasks, not jobs, and that these tasks will be the dull ones, leaving people to pursue more fulfilling and human work. But just as likely, the rise of AI will look like past labor-saving technologies, maybe like the telephone or typewriter, which vanquished the drudgery of message delivering and handwriting but generated so much new correspondence, commerce, and paperwork that new offices staffed by new types of workers — clerks, accountants, typists — were required to manage it. When AI comes for your job, you may not lose it, but it might become more alien, more isolating, more tedious.
Annotators generally know only that they are training AI for companies located vaguely elsewhere, but sometimes the veil of anonymity drops — instructions mentioning a brand or a chatbot says too much. “I read and I Googled and found I am working for a 25-year-old billionaire,” said one worker, who, when we spoke, was labeling the emotions of people calling to order Domino’s pizza. “I really am wasting my life here if I made somebody a billionaire and I’m earning a couple of bucks a week.”
Another story that’ll probably haunt me. I bring that pain to you as well.