Early last year, Josh Meisel and his wife wanted to watch a new buzzy Peacock drama, “Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne. But Mr. Meisel, a scientist who lives outside Boston, did not subscribe to Peacock. He paid for half a dozen other streaming services and was reluctant to sign up for another. So he and […]
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In the coming days, Congress may advance a bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company. Politicians in both parties call the app a threat to national security. But its reach is felt most acutely in our culture. Since it first arrived in the United States in 2018 (after merging with […]
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Netflix added 9.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2024, it announced on Thursday, outperforming analysts’ expectations and solidifying its status as the entertainment industry’s dominant streaming company. It also generated $2.3 billion in net income and its revenue was $9.3 billion, 15 percent higher compared with the same time last year. Netflix now […]
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Back in, say, 2019, if a filmmaker signed a deal with Netflix, it meant that he or she would be well paid and receive complete creative freedom. Theatrical release? Not so much. Still, the paycheck and the latitude — and the potential to reach the streaming service’s huge subscriber base — helped compensate for the […]
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On a recent afternoon, I held a bagel in front of me and said: “Look and tell me if this is healthy.” A monotone voice responded that the bagel was unhealthy because it was high in carbohydrates, which could contribute to weight gain. I wasn’t talking to a tech bro obsessed with the ketogenic diet. […]
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The first five minutes of the Netflix series “3 Body Problem” were hard to watch. I tried not to shut my eyes at the coldblooded beating of a physics professor at the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1967. By the end of it, he was dead, with blood and gruesome wounds all over his […]
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In late 2021, OpenAI faced a supply problem. The artificial intelligence lab had exhausted every reservoir of reputable English-language text on the internet as it developed its latest A.I. system. It needed more data to train the next version of its technology — lots more. So OpenAI researchers created a speech recognition tool called Whisper. […]
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On Feb. 26, 1998, hundreds of people gathered to watch a total solar eclipse. The crowd gasped as the moon gobbled up the sun. They oohed and aahed as the feathery streams of the top of the solar atmosphere burst into view. Applause erupted moments later, when the sun peeked back out from behind the […]
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Is it possible that on X — the social media site formerly known as Twitter and sometimes called “the hell site” — there remains a font of delight and edification, a place to witness laughter and even love? The answer, believe it or not, is yes. It is the account of Dan Wuori, an education […]
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