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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, January 26th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, Russia's response to Western countries sending tanks to Ukraine. The controversy surrounding a children's book written by AI. And it's not just you. Why more TV watchers are turning on subtitles.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, parents and politicians sometimes talk about the value of teachers, but paying them is another story. Salaries have been relatively stagnant for decades. We're talking about a profession that's always been demanding, that's seeing new social and political pressures during the pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Congress is going to consider a bill that would boost teachers' pay nationally. But it may be too little too late for the waves of teachers who have left or are considering it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Former teacher Maggie Perkins told Fox Business why she left the classroom to go work at Costco. They remind you, remember your why and remember your passion. But my passion couldn't pay my bills and my passion couldn't help me sleep at night when I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some states have individually moved to channel more money into teachers' pay in the past two years. This federal bill, called the American Teacher Act, attempts to create a standard salary floor across the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jackie Valli is covering the story for the Christian Science Monitor.
--:-- Jackie Valli: I think that's where some of this concern is coming from, because if you look at starting pay, the National Education Association pegs it at about $41,000 on average. So that's a pretty significant bump to get up to $60,000.
--:-- Jackie Valli: And I think there's concern that, yes, states would sign on, But can they realistically get up to that level on their own within that four-year time frame?
--:-- Jackie Valli: Congress is now divided over spending in general. Valley says there's a question of political will, whether lawmakers would want to take on more debt to pay teachers more.
--:-- Jackie Valli: But with many school districts straining to staff their classrooms the conversation around what we owe teachers isn going away If teacher pay is not addressed I think you will continue to see more teachers leaving the field I think you'll see more protests, potentially strikes, internal debates in state legislatures.
--:-- Jackie Valli: The issue certainly isn't going away. I think the question is, well, how do we keep them in the field and also attract them?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Russia is launching a new wave of air attacks. Ukraine put the entire country under air raid alert as more Russian strikes came in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This comes after the U.S. and Germany said they would grant a longstanding request from Ukrainian commanders, sending powerful tanks for Ukraine to battle Russian forces, a move that the West knew Moscow wouldn't like.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The controversy surrounding a children's book written by AI. Alice and Sparkle is a children's book that looks simple enough The cover features a young girl and her robot friend. They go on adventures together. It's only 26 pages long. And yet it's raising questions about ethics, technology, art, and what makes us human.
--:-- Shamita Basu: See, if you take a closer look, you'll understand why. The author is Amar Reshi, but he also gives credit to artificial intelligence. He used ChatGPT to write the story, and he used MidJourney to generate the illustrations. It took a weekend.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reshi told NBC about the commands that he gave to the artificial intelligence he used. I think it was write a children's book about a young girl who creates her own AI.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post looks at the book and their responses. Actual human artists are pushing back hard against the idea of using AI to make art.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some arguments are philosophical. What does it mean to make something based on the depths of human experience? And what's lost without that perspective? And some are legal arguments. One way that AI technology learns is by scooping up all kinds of writing and images made by real people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Human writers and illustrators argue that's stealing their work without compensation or consent. We wouldn't let humans get away with that. Why should technology?
--:-- Shamita Basu: The AI children's book author, Reshi, says he understands why some people are worried about what this technology means for the future of creative professions. But he's hoping these tools will help not replace artists and their work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I don't know about you, but in my house, when we're kicking back to watch a show or a movie, turning on subtitles is essential. Otherwise, we feel like we miss a lot of mumbly little moments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Take this line from Pete Davidson in the movie The King of Staten Island. I think it'll always be hard. He's saying, I think it'll always be hard. But it's hard to know that without the subtitles on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You also get this effect in a lot of Christopher Nolan movies. A separate structure within the other Staten Island. What is that? Are you right? We checking out of orbit
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those clips came from a Vox explainer video and I can tell you how validated I felt watching it It not just me and it not just you thinking it so hard to hear what anyone saying on TV these days
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox recently surveyed over 100,000 people on YouTube and found more than half said they often use subtitles because they can't follow the dialogue in films and TV.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One professional dialogue editor tells Vox, there are a few explanations. Part of it has to do with the tech you're using, and part of it has to do with the tech that film crews are using.
--:-- Shamita Basu: See, microphones today are smaller and more powerful than the ones used in old Hollywood. Back then, a scene would be recorded on one big, bulky microphone. Actors had to project and speak into it at just the right angle to be heard.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These days, there's usually a microphone or two overhead, plus wireless mics hidden on each actor, so they don't have to speak as loudly. They can be more natural. They can whisper at times. They can mumble.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, you might be wondering why audio engineers don't just turn the volume up on their dialogue. Seems like an easy solution, right? Well, not exactly.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They're thinking a lot about creating contrast between sounds. Vox uses the example of a conversation and an explosion. Those two things have to sound different to a viewer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's why dialogue can be especially tricky to follow in big, explodey action movies. It's a similar idea with music. It needs to work with the dialogue, not compete with it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from Time magazine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It looks at why India is such an important player in the fight to protect the planet. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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