When OpenAI released examples of its new video-generating software last month, say Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on The Rest is Entertainment, it “sent a chill” through the TV and film industry. One of the directors of the Apple TV hit Slow Horses said the technology would probably be producing feature films in three to five years; Tyler Perry, a huge US movie producer, cancelled a planned $800m expansion of his Atlanta studio. And no wonder. From simple text prompts, platforms like OpenAI’s Sora can generate unbelievably life-like videos: woolly mammoths treading through a snowy meadow; an animated monster playing with a candle; anything. No need for a film set, production crew or cast – just type in what you want, and out pops the video. The technology, which hasn’t yet been released, is already “easily” good enough to make adverts, and probably soap operas too. Which means it’s going to destroy “an awful lot of jobs”.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times. In almost every educated field – law, accounting, engineering, psychology, everything – AI will soon be able to do the work faster and better than humans. “Don’t kid yourself otherwise.” And that raises some rather tricky questions. Those incredible Sora videos didn’t come out of thin air – the algorithm must have been trained on all manner of films, photos, novels, paintings, and so on. Should the creators of those works be paid? It’s the same with every industry. A brilliant new AI tool that can identify cancerous growths from CT scans more effectively than humans, for example, was trained on “untold hours of past human labour and expertise”. How these contributions should be accounted for is a question for the lawyers. But when it comes to AI, it’s worth remembering the words of King Lear: “Nothing will come of nothing.”

When Theresa May was first promoted to the Conservative front bench in 1999, says The Spectator’s James Heale on X, she began receiving letters of congratulation from “appreciative young men”. One typical missive read: “We’ve been watching you on television for years, congratulations, good to see someone from that background getting into Parliament!” It turned out that people were confusing her for Teresa May, a popular adult film star. Brilliantly, the two women went on GMTV later that year for a joint interview. They were both extremely complimentary – “I’m sure she does her job well,” the politician said of the porn star – and enjoyed their chat so much that they went out for coffee together afterwards.

The Knowledge Premium

If you’re wondering where the Property and Heroes and Villains sections are, you’ll find them in The Knowledge Premium, available now on our new website. It’s free for the next four weeks, and features podcasts, books, TV series and much more. Click here to have a look.

The raffish gang boss taking over Haiti

The “most powerful man in Haiti” right now is a “raffish, rifle-wielding” gang leader known as “Barbecue”, say Tom Phillips and Luke Taylor in The Guardian. Jimmy Chérizier insists his nickname comes from his mother’s job of selling fried chicken, but others say it’s because of his “habit of incinerating his victims”. The 47-year-old has united several gangs into the “G9” alliance, and in recent weeks his men have stormed the country’s ports and prisons and gained control of 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has been stranded outside the country and announced his resignation this week. Chérizier clearly has a taste for violence: he was kicked out of the police force in 2018 after accusations of murder, rape and torching homes. But he “poses as a God-fearing Caribbean Robin Hood” fighting for the poor. In the slums he rules, there are murals likening him to Che Guevara.

Unlike other gang leaders in Haiti, Chérizier is “a man with a brain”, says Amalendu Misra in The Conversation. The current chaos he has orchestrated is “a cleverly thought-out survival strategy”, as it could scare off a proposed UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti that would massively undermine gang power. It’s also an “astute reading” of the national mood: Haitians are proud of their successful slave revolt against the French during “the high noon of European colonialism”, and usually oppose foreign intervention. Over the past year, Chérizier has given a series of articulate interviews to the “succession of foreign reporters” invited into his territory. He says he’s fighting against a system of “corrupt oligarchs and corrupt traditional politicians”, and “some suspect he may have political aspirations of his own”. Don’t bet against him.

Enjoying The Knowledge? Click below to share

“Big ideas murdered my grandmother. I like small, British ideas.”
Daniel Finkelstein

That’s it. You’re done.