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Why Hollywood writers are striking — and what happens next · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 2nd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, the Hollywood writers' strike is now on - we'll explain what you need to know - how artificial intelligence is saving peoples' voices, plus, hopes for a new gold rush after California's heavy rainfall.
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  But first, let's briefly catch up on several big stories developing. We're entering a critical moment for the U.S. debt ceiling with a new warning that a default could be just weeks away. President Biden wants to meet with the top four Congressional leaders from both parties next week. This high-stakes invite comes as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns lawmakers that America could default on its debt as soon as June 1st, maybe later, if they don't make a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
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  Maybe you would think that that date would be a little more precise, but it's an estimate that's kind of tricky to pin down because timing of a theoretical default depends on how much tax revenue the U.S. brings in, which can't be predicted exactly.
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  In other news, at least six people are dead and dozens injured in Illinois after a dust storm blinded drivers, causing dozens of vehicles to crash yesterday. "CNN" meteorologist Chad Myers reports on how the combination of high wind and work on farmland near Interstate-55 turned into a deadly series of crashes.
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  Chad Myers: All of a sudden, you have all the farmers with their discs and their harrows and their plows making this dust loose. And when the wind blew today, 45 miles per hour, the dust from that equipment made this dust storm.
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  On now to the latest in Texas where investigators are still looking for a man they say killed five neighbors with an assault rifle after they asked him to stop doing target practice in his yard. While the manhunt unfolds, people in Cleveland, Texas are asking questions about the initial law-enforcement response.
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  "NBC" spoke to one of the survivors of the shooting, Wilson Garcia. He says he called 911 before the gunman started shooting at them. He told dispatchers he was threatened. Another shooting survivor, Ramiro Guzman, says he called 911 repeatedly while hiding in a closet. Dispatchers said deputies were already there. By the time deputies actually did arrive, five people were dead and the gunman had escaped. The local sheriff said that he had only three deputies covering a 700 square-mile county. Garcia says it took half an hour for someone to arrive after they first called for help, and he says maybe people would still be alive if help had come sooner.
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  It's official. Writers in Hollywood are on strike. Producers failed to agree on a new contract with the Writers Guild of America. The deadline to avoid a strike was midnight Pacific Time. Now, union writers are preparing to walk picket lines at media companies in L.A. and New York.
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  There is a lot at stake in this standoff. Before the strike, we talked to Alissa Wilkinson, a senior culture reporter and critic for "Vox." She says the outcome here will set the tone for the future of entertainment.
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  Alissa Wilkinson: With the business just coming out of a really, really hard time during the pandemic, there's a lot of people who don't want to stop working because it means foregoing income, but also wonder, if they don't set a great baseline now, if there will even be a Hollywood to work in, in 10 years. So, this is a really, really pivotal moment.
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  The Writers Guild says that streaming is cutting into writers' incomes. Writers can make a lot of money on TV reruns, earning fees called "residuals" when something they wrote runs again. But they earn less with streaming. To get a sense of how much less they make when episodes are streamed versus aired on broadcast TV, "NPR" spoke to Brittani Nichols, a writer for the show "Abbott Elementary."
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  Brittani Nichols: There's no reason for them to replay it on television where I would get that network residual. They're only gonna put it on these streamers where I'm gonna be making at best $700. You know, you're getting checks for $3, $7, $10. It's not enough to put together any sort of consistent lifestyle.
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  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Another major sticking point for writers is the "mini room," a practice that has become more common. This is where people are hired to write scripts before a show is picked up for production. Now, a standard writers' room might hire seven or eight people, but mini rooms might only have two or three. And the jobs generally pay less than a traditional writers' room.
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  Besides lower pay, writers say mini rooms hurt their careers because it's harder to advance to bigger production roles when writing and production are split up. Writers Guild members say that makes it tough for early-career workers to make connections and move up the ladder. Here's Wilkinson again.
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  Wilkinson: That presents an issue because, again, it means that you might only be able to get to be a writer if you have some other source of income, or, you know, some kind of a way to pay your bills outside of your writing, which limits the kind of work that can be done. But it also just means that people are scrambling more and they're not sharing in the profits that the platform or the network are making.
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  The first place you'll notice the strike's impact is on late-night comedy shows, which need people to write timely jokes. If the strike drags on, TV and movie production could slow down, too. Next month, contracts for directors and actors are up for renegotiation. And if talks between writers and producers keep faltering, other Hollywood creators may consider strikes as well.
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  There are so many questions about the future of artificial intelligence and the ways it's gonna change how we work and live. A story from "The Washington Post" caught our attention because it looks at a deeply personal way that AI is giving people something they thought they could never get back: their ability to speak after disease silenced them.
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  [START THE WASHINGTON POST ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Ron Brady: Losing my voice is difficult because I lose the ability to engage with other people. Having my synthetic voice helps give me some of that back.
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  That's Ron Brady speaking to "The Post" using a simulation of his voice created by AI. At 52 years old, he was diagnosed with ALS, which eventually causes most people to lose their speaking ability. Before that happened, Brady turned to AI to help preserve his voice. Now, he can talk with his daughter.
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  Ron Brady's Daughter: Hi, Daddy!
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  Ron Brady: Hi, sweetie pie!
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  [END THE WASHINGTON POST ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  It's called "voice banking." It's a process where companies record a person speaking, then they make a synthetic voice that can be pretty similar to that person's real voice. And it sounds way less robotic than computer-generated voices of the past. A person can just type whatever they want their new voice to say.
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  Voice banking can be expensive and time-consuming, but advancements in AI have brought the cost down and made the service more accessible. Demand has been rising in recent years. Customers include ALS patients, like Brady, but also people with Parkinson's, throat cancer and more.
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  There are still a few hurdles to be worked out, but for the most part, people who use AI voice technology tell "The Post," being able to speak in a voice that sounds like their real voice helps them feel more confident and connected to the world and to the ones they love most. Brady says it best.
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  Ron Brady: When I heard my improved voice, it felt like it was the first time since being diagnosed that any part of me actually physically became better.
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  California has been pummeled by severe rain this year, and we're seeing some surprising domino effects from all that water impacting everyone from winemakers to amateur gold hunters.
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  One colorful consequence of all this rain is super blooms of wildflowers. Fields of orange poppies, yellow fiddlenecks and lavender-blue lupines blanket parts of the state. There are so many flowers, the "San Francisco Chronicle" notes they can be seen from space.
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  Now for vineyards, "Wine Enthusiast" explains how the heavy rain could help them. The water filled up aquifers that were dried up by drought, and it also washed away salt deposits in vineyards. Now, that salt can be toxic, so the heavy rain was a refresh. Or as one Sonoma winemaker puts it, it renews "the life force in the soils."
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  And then there's gold. Heavy rain and runoff loosened up gold deposits in the Sierra Nevada rivers. And that has some treasure hunters gearing up to try their luck. "Good Morning America" caught up with one, on a riverbank. He says he has seen several success stories.
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  [RIVER RUSHING]
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  Goldminer: Everybody that has come here to look for gold has found gold since the rain.
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  [END GOOD MORNING AMERICA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Now, even those who do strike gold probably won't strike it rich. Also, it is hard work. A geologist explains to "SFGATE" that heavy equipment is banned to protect the environment, so amateur gold hunters have to put in a lot of back-breaking work: crouching, panning and sifting for hours. Another geologist describes it kinda like fishing. You may not get a bite, but you will have a nice day hanging out on the river.
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  Before we let you go, a little update on a story we talked about yesterday on the show. Last night was the Met Gala, honoring the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. And there was a lot of speculation as to whether his cat Choupette would attend. She did not. But there were a lot of nods to her on the red carpet, including from Lil Nas X, Doja Cat, Jared Leto and Janelle Monáe, who all paid tribute to Choupette with their outfits.
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  You can see their looks and all the coverage of the event in our curated collection on the Apple News app.
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  And if you're listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article from "New York" magazine that sticks with the fashion-world theme. It asks a tricky question: What was, and is, the 'It girl"?
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  That is cued up to play for you next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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