An Illinois appellate court has upheld Jussie Smollett’s conviction for staging a hate crime.
According to Variety, the First District Appellate Court rejected his appeal in a 2-1 vote conducted on Friday.
A jury convicted Smollet in December 2021. An Illinois judge sentenced him to 150 days in the Cook County jail for five felony charges of disorderly conduct.
Smollett took his acting from the small screen to the streets of Chicago five years ago in a staged assault. The 41-year-old orchestrated the hoax with two brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/REX/Sh
The disgraced actor claimed strangers beat him while spewing racist and homophobic remarks. He reported they poured bleach on him and tied a noose around his neck. Smollett also told police the assailants yelled he was in “MAGA country.”
The hoax went viral in 2019 after investigators discovered the Empire actor paid the men to execute the staged “assault.” The series subsequently dropped the fibbing thespian from the final season.
Despite the brothers’ confession and the jury’s guilty verdict, Jussie maintained his innocence. Upon sentencing, he yelled in the courtroom, “I am not suicidal!” with a raised fist. Smollett’s defense team appealed the conviction, and he secured a release after only serving six days.
Jussie Smollet appeals his conviction for staging a hate crime
Source: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty
During the appeal, Smollett’s attorneys challenged “virtually every aspect” of the hoax case. Justice David R. Navarro called their objections to jury selection, the sentence and the appointment of a special prosecutor “excessive.” The falsifier’s attorney also stated COVID-19 capacity limits in the courtroom hindered his right to a public trial.
Navarro’s arguments were rejected on the grounds that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion and swiftly corrected any mistakes.
The justices wrote, “For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court of Cook County.”
Justice Freddrenna Lyle contested as she argued that Smollett should not have been re-prosecuted after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office initially dropped all charges against the former child star.
The decision resulted in a firestorm of vitriol. The judge appointed Dan Webb to reexamine the case and bring forth charges if he saw fit. The court official contended the state’s attorney did not accurately recuse herself. Lyle asserted reversing the decision caused the state to back out on a deal that was made with Jussie’s defense team, thus they should have upheld the initial outcome.
The justice wrote, “Public policy considerations and reverence for our justice system disfavor reneging on such agreements and should never be outweighed by a cacophony of criticism as to the terms of the agreement.”
The Mighty Ducks actor’s reps stated he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The officials released a statement: “We wish to highlight that the decision was divided, with Justice Lyle offering a detailed analysis in favor of Smollett. We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Illinois Supreme Court, armed with a substantial body of evidence.”
The special prosecutor on the case, Dan Webb, also released a statement citing the appellate decision as a “resounding victory for justice.”
“We are proud to have prevailed in a case that, we believe, can help restore the public’s confidence in the Cook County justice system,” Webb said.
“We hope this decision will reassure the community that our legal system is fair, just, and impartial.”
Jussie’s character on Empire, Jamal Lyon, clearly had a fitting last name, considering he is going to ride this untruth until the transmission gives out.
BUENOS AIRES — Representatives of Ibero-American film industry collectives gathered to discuss diversity, parity and equality in the audiovisual sector at a pair of panels held by Ventana Sur’s Punto Genero and industry strands in Buenos Aires on Thursday.
Credit: Holly Jones
Moderated by Lyara Oliveira, São Paulo promotion agency Spcine’s director of innovation and audiovisual policies, the Punto Genero discussion focused on regional strategies toward greater diversity in the field.
Panelists included Annamaría Muchnik, president of Argentina’s Asociación La Mujer y el Cine, Cristina Andreu, president of Spain’s CIMA, Mitzuko Villanueva, president of Mexico’s Mujeres en Cine y Televisión and Mónica Hernández, producer and member of the REC Sisters collective, a space for women in Colombia’s audiovisual sector.
Muchnik opened with an emotive recounting of her experience in the sector, remembering a worthwhile yet unrelenting and diligent climb toward broader acceptance for women in cinema.
“When La Mujer y el Cine was born 35 years ago, women in this country were fighting to have access to relevant places in culture, in politics, in society as a whole. We came from very dark, very painful times and we fought against a lot of resistance to expand into the most diverse social areas,” she lamented.
“We, women, knew that we were on a path of growth and progress and a path that was going to be long and difficult, it depended on our effort, no one was going to pave the way for us. We needed ideological clarity, conviction, commitment and solidarity,” she added.
The panel then traveled to Spain, as Goya-nominated director Andreu spoke to the importance of creating solid footing for women in the industry through state aid and further incentives that afford them the same ease of entry to the field that’s often enjoyed by their male counterparts, taking into consideration economic and situational barriers.
She recounted being told by producers that there were no good female directors in Spain and admitted she “was in tears, because I knew there were. What’s more, there are some that are winning awards. Another thing they like to say is that what we have to measure is talent, but talent can’t be measured without equality. When we all have the same rights, then we can measure talent.”
“Despite not having that equality, in recent years [prizes at] almost all the international and national festivals in Spain are being swept by women directors, women are winning many Spanish Academy Goya Awards. Without even reaching our goal, which would be 50-50 in the year 2025, we’re already achieving all of this,” she added.
Andreu went on to speak to changes being made to forge that access, from working in tight-knit groups effecting change, to ensuring women who wish to enter the field aren’t restricted.
“At film festivals we now have nurseries, at some festivals we’re also making these day-care centers available to the public so they can attend and leave their children there. We’re very happy because we want to create a network of Ibero-American women,” she concluded.
Speaking to the power of the collective, multi-platform Mexican producer Villanueva addressed the need for networking in all corners of the sector in a country that has long suffered the erasure of women in these fields.
“In Mexico, the issue of machismo and equality has cost us a lot of work. This is a cultural issue that we’ve been fighting for and so far we’ve achieved quite relevant positions,” she stated.
Her group helps to destigmatize women’s roles in every facet of the business and train those that wish to advance in tech and production work, with AI becoming more advanced and tools of the trade updating rapidly. Ongoing education and tips for women just entering the field are an additional priority.
“Technological progress is constant and what we have observed is that now, with artificial intelligence, we have an issue. There are many women in the Mexican industry who are over 50 and many of them find it difficult to adapt. Training in these areas seems fundamental to us and we’re working on that,” she explained.
Villanueva has contributed to a registry that lists the female professionals in the country so that productions can take advantage of a women-led workforce, offering incentives for producers who decide to support them.
She pointed to the pride in having a strong technical team in place to provide assistance to larger projects and stated that “today in Mexico we can pull off huge productions, and 100% of the crew will be made up of women, gaffers, staff, electricians.” She further credited local programs like Las Amazonas Electricas, an electric and grip team that give training workshops to women who are interested in that side of the industry.
The conversation then opened up to Hernández, who works to impart a sense of safety for women in the audiovisual realm and pin down definitions for the harassment that plagues many professionals.
“Our work revolves around three fundamental axes, one axis is prevention. From there, through training, we promote safe and equitable spaces with parity within the audiovisual guild. These training sessions are carried out on the sets with people who are already professionals and in film schools and public institutions,” she relayed.
“The second is a detection pillar, which is where we try to identify possible situations of harassment or, let’s say, different levels of equity and parity, and we sit at discussion tables and talk about it. The third is attention, and this pillar offers psychosocial or legal help to people who come to the collective and have been victims of harassment, abuse or discrimination in any workplace,” she added.
The panel wound down as participants noted the diversity among women and held firm that it’s essential to retain the ability to tell stories from these varied perspectives.
With Argentina facing the possibility of the closure of its INCAA film-TV Agency, Muchnik closed the discussion with a fierce reminder that without state aid, the country’s best and brightest will set out to produce their projects elsewhere, leaving a large gap in the cultural landscape.
“A film is the image of a country. It’s not only a work of art. When you see a film, you see how the people of that country live, how they feel, how they succeed, how they fail. Maybe Europe can have the enormous support that the platforms and the institutions have. We haven’t reached that point. We’re fighting for it, but we believe that there has to be some kind of support from the state, because that’s what has allowed us to make films that win international festivals.”
She concluded with a sobering call to action, “Simone de Beauvoir once said ‘Never forget that it only takes one political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be put in jeopardy. Those rights are never to be taken for granted; you must remain vigilant throughout your life.’”
“If we’re not able to fight against all kinds of violence against us, if we can’t put together common projects that allow us to grow, that give us a hand in the difficult moments we’re going through, we won’t be able to count on the support of those who are in charge of pulling the strings of power. We won’t be able to open doors that are still closed or, even if they were open, could close again. I say to you, friends, comrades, from my country and from all the countries that have joined us, believe me, in times of uncertainty and despair, it’s essential that there are collective projects from which to plan together for hope.”
Presentation of the Second Report on Gender Equality In The Ibero-American Audiovisual Industry
Panelists Lola Díaz-González García, director for the promotion of Mexican cinema, Micaela Domínguez Prost, a journalist at LatAm Cinema.com and Juliana Funaro, international director at + Mujeres Lideranças do Audiovisual Brasileiro, joined moderator Ignacio Catoggio, general coordinator of the Conference of Ibero-American Audiovisual and Cinematographic Authorities (CAACI), to preview the sophomore report on the state of gender and sexual diversity in the Ibero-American audiovisual sector.
An ambitious set of curated data points, Catoggio admitted the information was previously, “scattered, in many cases it didn’t exist.”
“CAACI has become the think tank, the apparatus of thought on the audiovisual sector. At the same time, we’re the controllers, the ones who monitor the application of the American Union of Co-Production agreement. We regulate the way in which the region co-produces and, in turn, that’s what shapes the Ibermedia program and the application of the Ibermedia program fund,” he explained.
Meant to urge reflection and nudge action in regards to bolstering greater diversity in the sector, the data collection proved similar to a consultancy effort for the team, often working alongside governments to glean this valuable insight.
Credit: Holly Jones
Since documentation began in 2021, the countries reporting grew from 13 to 17. What may seem a modest advance is met with optimism, Catoggio pointing out that, “ if we take into account that we’re talking about 23 countries and 17 of the 23 are now included, that’s almost 80% included.”
The report has been bolstered by broader participation and organized succinctly, resulting in a more professional and systemic analysis of gender and diversity trends in the Ibero-American audiovisual sector. This year’s report is divided into four basic categories and their respective sub-indices that include institutional framework, budget support, information management and stakeholder participation.
An incremental increase of women in the sector was seen across production, direction and screenwriting fields, while parity regarding funding is still something to strive for. The two years between data sets shows that more funding and implementation for gender-specific regulations and spaces in the Ibero-American cinematic fabric have been set in place. Proving that holding the industry to account pays off in the growth of programs and initiatives year-on-year.
“In 2018 you have 178 productions made by men and 120 made by women. All the growth that there was between 2018 and 2022 is basically in productions made by women. In screenwriting it’s more or less the same. In 2018 we have 223 productions scripted by men and 80 by women. In 2022 we have 207 made by men and 130 made by women,” Catoggio noted.
Funaro added that, “In Brazil we’ve achieved 17% of women writing scripts, 19% of women in directing and 40% in production. So, still very little participation from women in script writing and direction.”
When it came to financial risk and reward, an interesting and potentially problematic trend was uncovered.
“What’s reflected is that the more money there is, the more the participation rates of women go down. In terms of production and direction, there are more women directing and producing documentaries than fiction, more women producing short films than feature films,” Catoggio went on.
The panel wrapped as participants questioned what leads women to leave the audiovisual industry, offering solutions to curb the exodus by pointing to the incorporation of best practices, quota systems for productions and programs to remove barriers and fill the decreasing but still-present void in women-led audiovisual projects.
The finalized report will be unveiled in February at the Berlin Film Festival.
Trusted By Over 500,000 SMBs, Bluevine Is Now On Par With The Top 20% Of FDIC-Insured Banks and Savings Institutions Ranked By Deposit Volume
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Bluevine, the one-stop digital banking platform specifically designed for small businesses, on Friday announced it has surpassed $1 billion in managed deposits by its small business banking customers.
This significant asset threshold has largely been attracted by Bluevine Business Checking, the company’s unique no monthly fee,1 high-yield SMB checking account with a growing suite of built-in business applications, launched only three years ago – and now puts Bluevine on par with the top 20% of FDIC-insured banks and savings institutions2 ranked by deposit volume, according to the most recent FDIC quarterly report.
Over the past decade since its inception, Bluevine has built a market-leading digital banking platform that has served over 500,000 business owners and delivered more than $14 billion in loans to help simplify financial operations and facilitate access to growth capital for its customers, which have been historically underserved by traditional banks.
“We knew that a checking account could be more than just a utility for business owners, and actually evolve into an essential application to run their companies successfully. The Bluevine approach was to provide greater transparency and value by stripping out the extraneous fees and penalties that exist in traditional business banking along with providing high yield on operating balances. In addition, we built a digital-first experience that eliminated the need for even a single branch visit, and integrated a range of sophisticated business features that would empower customers to streamline their financials – supporting the way they prefer to run their companies,” explained Eyal Lifshitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Bluevine.
“The introduction of Bluevine Business Checking has filled a long-standing void in the market, evidenced by the steady growth rate of customer accounts, deposits, and payments volume in a relatively short time period. Today marks a significant company milestone – we are humbled by and grateful to our customers for trusting Bluevine with more than $1 billion in managed deposits,” Lifshitz continued.
Throughout 2023, Bluevine has added key capabilities to its Bluevine Business Checking account, which offers 2.0% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on balances up to $250,000,3 with no monthly fees and unlimited transactions as part of its standard plan. Notably, the company recently introduced a small business credit card and launched accounts payable, giving small business owners and their teams sophisticated bill management, automation, user access control, and enhanced payment capabilities. Bluevine also expanded FDIC insurance coverage on balances up to $3 million4 (12x the industry standard of $250,000) and added an international payments and FX solution in partnership with Wise.
In November, the company launched Bluevine Premier, providing business owners with all the features of the standard plan, plus the opportunity to earn 4.25% APY on their Bluevine Business Checking balances up to $3 million, along with 50% off most standard plan payments fees, and priority access to customer support. Designed for scaling companies with growing needs, Bluevine Premier provides APY and payment fees on par with commercial offerings that are typically reserved only for large corporations with much higher balances and volumes of transactions compared to a typical small business.
Bluevine Premier customers who both maintain a $100,000 minimum average daily balance across their Bluevine Business Checking account and sub-accounts and spend at least $5,000 on their Bluevine Business Debit Mastercard® during each billing cycle incur no monthly fee. Businesses that do not meet these criteria can still benefit from Premier for a monthly fee of $95. Business owners can also take advantage of a one-month free trial for Bluevine Premier.
About Bluevine
Bluevine provides a one-stop digital banking platform specifically designed for small businesses. Since launching in 2013, Bluevine’s innovative and intuitive products, including business checking, integrated accounts payable, and lines of credit, have helped over 500,000 business owners save time and money so they can focus on what matters most: growing their business.
Bluevine is backed by leading private and institutional investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, ION Crossover Partners, SVB Capital, Nationwide Insurance, and M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Arm). Bluevine is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking Services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. Lines of credit are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, please visit bluevine.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
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1No monthly fee only applies to the Bluevine Business Checking Account Standard plan.
2FDIC-insured banks and savings institutions include commercial banks or savings institutions that are state or federally chartered.
3Customers will earn 2.0% interest on total balances up to and including $250,000 only if they meet the monthly debit transaction or deposit requirements described in section M of the Account Agreement. No interest earned on balances over $250,000. Any interest accrued and payable for an Account or Sub-Account will be paid to your main Account.
4Bluevine accounts are FDIC insured up to $3,000,000 per depositor through Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC and our program banks. $3,000,000 in FDIC insurance is offered by multiplying the standard $250,000 FDIC coverage across multiple banks. For complete details, please visit https://www.bluevine.com/business-checking/fdic-protection.
HONG KONG — (BUSINESS WIRE) — AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” (Excellent) of NongHyup Property and Casualty Insurance Company Limited (NH P&C) (South Korea). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
The ratings reflect NH P&C’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The ratings also reflect the implicit and explicit support the company receives from its ultimate parent, National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF).
NH P&C’s risk-adjusted capitalisation is assessed at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The company’s solid expansion of retained earnings in recent periods, backed by its no-dividend policy and improved earnings, provided a partial buffer against the negative capital pressure (under IFRS 4) due to the valuation loss on available-for-sale bonds from rapid interest rate hikes in 2022. NH P&C’s financial flexibility is supported by its good accessibility to the capital market underpinned by its previous issuances of subordinated bonds and additional financial support from its immediate parent, NongHyup Financial Group Inc. (NHFG). The company has a conservative investment portfolio consisting mainly of fixed-income assets, with increased focus on asset-liability management to enhance its capital management.
AM Best assesses NH P&C’s operating performance as adequate, with a weighted five-year average operating ratio of 96.4% (2018-2022) and a return-on-equity ratio of 6.3%. The year-over-year increase in the company’s net income in 2022 was mainly driven by improved investment returns, supported by stable interest income from its bond portfolio amid the elevated interest rate environment and favourable excess return on alternative investments. Albeit moderately volatile depending on weather events, AM Best expects NH P&C’s prospective underwriting performance to remain supported by growing long-term protection products with favourable margins, coupled with improved profitability of government policy insurance lines.
NH P&C is a domestic non-life insurer in South Korea, with a 4.6% market share in terms of gross premiums written in 2022. The company is an exclusive (or major) provider of government policy insurance products for the country’s farmers, such as crop, livestock and agricultural vehicle insurances.
In its largest business line of long-term insurance, which NH P&C maintains a modest market share, the company has been gradually expanding protection-type product sales to secure its profitability and aims to diversify into non-cooperative channels, such as general agent and tied-agent channels. However, overall premium growth of the long-term line has remained limited due to strong market competition. Distribution remains highly concentrated in the cooperative channel, which is a network of NACF’s members.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of NHFG, which is the financial arm of NACF and one of the largest financial groups in South Korea, NH P&C is strategically important to NACF, given its role as the exclusive provider of government policy insurance products to cooperative members. AM Best also recognises various forms of explicit support, such as capital support from NHFG, as well as direct reinsurance support and full expense reimbursement from the government for its crop insurance line.
Negative rating actions could occur if there is a sustained deteriorating trend in NH P&C’s operating performance. Negative rating actions could also arise if the level of support or the company’s strategic importance to NACF is reduced to a degree that no longer supports the current level of enhancement. Positive rating actions could occur if NH P&C’s business profile improves in a sustainable manner, for example, through successful channel diversification that results in a materially enhanced market presence without deterioration in its risk-adjusted capitalisation and operating profitability. Positive rating actions could also occur if the company’s balance sheet strength fundamentals demonstrate sustained improvement.
Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.
This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
EDISON, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — According to new research released by Opengear, a Digi International company (NASDAQ, DGII, www.digi.com) and provider of secure and SmartOut of Bandmanagement solutions, a staggering 97% of U.S.-based CIOs surveyed expressed serious concerns about at least one cybersecurity threat.
This comprehensive survey encompassed responses from 502 CIOs and 510 network engineers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Australia. The primary cybersecurity concerns highlighted in the research included malware (42%), spam and phishing (34%), social engineering (31%), and insider threats (30%). Remarkably, malware also emerged as a significant threat for 42% of the surveyed network engineers.
While only 23% of U.S. CIOs reported distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks as a threat, 38% of network engineers reported a higher level of concern for this specific type of attack, most likely due to their close proximity to the network. To add to these concerns, U.S. engineers said that insufficient investments are enhancing the risk of cyberattacks and/or downtime (59%). This suggests that lack of budget spent on software upgrades and network upgrades, for example, leaves organizations more vulnerable to attack and has the potential to affect business continuity, which is a high priority for 97% of CIOs in the U.S. and 88% of CIOs globally.
“The skills shortage and insufficient investment in networks are two factors that have combined to encourage cybercriminals to breach businesses,” said Gary Marks, President at Opengear. “Smart Out of Band solutions enable organizations to manage their networks at all times from local and remote sites, even during an outage. Network engineers can make smarter, real-time decisions to achieve consistent network resilience and unparalleled visibility, with security and encryption features ensuring that management policies remain continually enforced.”
Continued technology investment is essential to enable engineers to safeguard networks during cyberattacks. The latest research further highlights a concerning trend, indicating that 27% of U.S. network engineers are actively contemplating leaving their current roles due to inadequate funding — an alarming contrast to the global average of 21%.
About Opengear
Opengear, a Digi International company, delivers secure, resilient access and automation to support critical IT infrastructure on the First Day, Every Day and Worst Day. Through presence and proximity, Opengear solutions enable provisioning, orchestration, and remote management of network devices through innovative software and appliances. Opengear solutions are trusted by global organizations across financial, digital communications, retail, and manufacturing sectors. The company is headquartered in New Jersey, with an R&D center in Brisbane, Australia.
Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) is a leading global provider of business and mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and solutions. We help our customers create next-generation connected products and solutions to deploy, monitor, and manage critical communications infrastructures and compliance standards in demanding environments with high levels of security, relentless reliability, and bulletproof performance. Founded in 1985, the company has helped customers connect more than 100 million things – and counting. For more information, visit www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444 (U.S.) or 952-912-3444 (International).
Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes and the Mercer County Division of Culture & Heritage announce that Mercer County has a public art Request for Qualifications on the CaFÉ (Call for Entry) website www.callforentry.org.
The County is issuing a Request for Qualifications (Phase 1), inviting artists/artist teams who wish to be considered to submit their interest and qualifications for the creation of a public mural by Dec. 8, 2023.
This mural is to be installed on an exterior 319 ft (w) x 19 ft (h) wall located at 600 Cass Street, Trenton, N.J., on the New Jersey State Prison. This project is known as the Mercer County Cass Street Prison Mural Project.
The initial Request for Qualifications for this project will be offered only through the CaFÉ site, which is also used by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for the Council’s Arts Inclusion opportunities.
Artists interested in submitting qualifications for this RFQ are encouraged to immediately set up a free artist’s account on CaFÉ. This free registration gives artists access to monthly listings of public arts project opportunities in New Jersey and across the nation.
Through CaFE, artists can upload up to 100 images of their work, as well as their resumes, bios and other materials that can be used in applying for commissions announced through the website.
Questions regarding the “Call for Artists” for this RFQ may be directed through CaFE once the call is posted. Artists who would like further information regarding the Mercer County Cass Street Prison Mural Project may email the Division of Culture & Heritage at cultureandheritage@mercercounty.org.
Scan the QR code or click the image or here to be redirected to the site.
— Failed coups, as seen at OpenAI, often accelerate the thing that they were trying to prevent
— Over the past week, OpenAI’s board went through four CEOs in five days.
Over the past week, OpenAI’s board went through four CEOs in five days.
It accused the original chief executive, Sam Altman, of lying, but later backed down from that and refused to say what that meant.
Ninety per cent of the organisation’s staff signed an open letter saying they’d quit if the board didn’t. Silicon Valley was both riveted and horrified.
By Wednesday, Altman was back, two of the three external board members had been replaced, and everyone could get some sleep.
It would be easy to say that this chaos showed that both OpenAI’s board and its curious subdivided non-profit and for-profit structure were not fit for purpose. One could also suggest that the external board members did not have the appropriate background or experience to oversee a $90bn company that has been setting the agenda for a hugely important technology breakthrough.
One could probably say less polite things too, and all of that might be true, but it would also be incomplete. As far as we know (and the very fact that I have to say that is also a problem), the underlying conflict inside OpenAI was one that a lot of people have pointed to and indeed made fun of over the past year.
OpenAI was created to try to build a machine version of something approximating to human intelligence (so-called “AGI,” or artificial general intelligence). The premise was that this was possible within years rather than decades, and potentially very good but also potentially very dangerous, not just for pedestrian things such as democracy or society but for humanity itself.
That’s the reason for the strange organisational structure — to control the risk. Altman has been building this thing as fast as possible, while also saying very loudly and often that this thing is extremely dangerous and governments should get involved to control any attempts to build it. Well, which is it?
Many in tech think that airing such concerns is a straightforward attempt at anti-competitive regulatory capture. This particularly applies to broader moves against open-source AI models (seen in the White House’s executive order on AI last month): people think that OpenAI is trying to get governments to ban competition. That might be true, but I personally think that people who claim AGI is both close and dangerous are sincere, and that makes their desire to build it all the more conflicted. That seems to be the best explanation of what has happened at OpenAI: those who think we should slow down and be careful mounted a coup against those who think we should speed up and be careful.
Part of the problem and conflict when it comes to discussing AGI is that it’s an abstract concept — a thought experiment — without any clear or well-understood theoretical model. The engineers on the Apollo Program knew how far away the moon was and how much thrust the rocket had but we don’t know how far away AGI is, nor how close OpenAI’s large language models are, nor whether they can get there.
You could spend weeks of your life watching videos of machine-learning scientists arguing about this and conclude only that they don’t know either. ChatGPT might scale all the way to the Terminator in five years, or in five decades, or it might not. This might be like looking at a 1920s biplane and worrying that it might go into orbit. We don’t know. This means most conversations about the risk of AI become hunts for metaphors (it’s “like” nuclear weapons, or a meteorite, or indeed the Apollo Program).
Or they dredge up half-forgotten undergraduate philosophy classes (Pascal’s wager! Plato’s cave!), or resort to argument from authority (Geoff Hinton is worried! Yann LeCun is not!). In the end, this comes down to how you, instinctively, feel about risk. If you cannot know what is close or not, is that a reason to worry or a reason not to worry? There is no right answer.
Unfortunately for the “doomers”, the events of the last week have sped everything up. One of the now resigned board members was quoted as saying that shutting down OpenAI would be consistent with the mission (better safe than sorry). But the hundreds of companies that were building on OpenAI’s application programming interfaces are scrambling for alternatives, both from its commercial competitors and from the growing wave of open-source projects that aren’t controlled by anyone.
AI will now move faster and be more dispersed and less controlled. Failed coups often accelerate the thing that they were trying to prevent.
Indeed, a common criticism of the doomers is that their idea that one powerful piece of software and a few brilliant engineers can transform the world is just another form of naive and simplistic tech utopianism — it fails to understand the real nature of power, complexity and human systems. The doomers on the board demonstrated exactly that — they did not know how power works.
OLDWICK, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — #insurance—AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “a-” (Excellent) to CM Select Insurance Company (CM Select) (Merrill, WI), which is under new ownership.
The outlook assigned to CM Select’s Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. Concurrently, AM Best has withdrawn the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a” (Excellent) of CM Select Insurance Company (Merrill, WI); ratings that were influenced by CM Select’s prior ownership.
The assigned ratings reflect CM Select’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.
AM Best expects CM Select to maintain the strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), which supports prospective growth in the company’s underwriting risks. The company’s business plan consists of writing commercial products for small and medium business, including serving the religious and non-profit market, primarily business owner policies in Texas and various states, and expanding into minority and veteran-owned markets over the next five years. CM Select will continue to leverage Church Mutual Insurance Group’s (Church Mutual) agency force while expanding into adjacent markets. While the company adopted its risk framework and underwriting guidelines from Church Mutual, the concentration of property-related business and reinsurance dependence remain core risk factors.
CM Select is now owned by MGT Partners LLC, which provides an element of financial support as it contributed capital to support growth initiatives at the time of the acquisition with additional capital available to support future growth. Further, strategic support comes in the form of risk and operational oversight from the board of directors with extensive insurance experience. The ratings and outlooks consider transitional and service agreements between CM Select and Church Mutual, along with a 100% reinsurance agreement on all legacy business, including new and renewal religious and non-profit-related business. The company anticipates placing external reinsurance ahead of writing retained business in 2024.
At the time of the withdrawal, CM Select Insurance Company’s prior ratings were under review with negative implications following the announcement that MGT Partners LLC would be acquiring CM Select Insurance Company from Church Mutual earlier in the year. MGT Partners LLC completed the acquisition of CM Select Insurance Company on Oct. 1, 2023, and the closing has resulted in AM Best withdrawing the entity’s ratings. While AM Best’s policy is for a final rating to be completed along with the withdrawal, a final rating was not able to be completed since it is no longer able to be rated under the prior structure.
This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
— Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella made a huge bet on the world’s hottest AI company. After it nearly blew up on him, he now emerges with closer ties to its leader, Sam Altman.
Satya Nadella couldn’t help himself.
Microsoft’s MSFT -0.11%decrease; red down pointing triangle. Itschief executive was supposed to be singularly focused on saving his prized asset during one of the most chaotic weekends in the history of Silicon Valley. Instead his mind kept drifting to cricket.
He couldn’t pay close attention to his native India playing Australia in the Cricket World Cup because he found himself in the middle of another game with more action and a whole lot more at stake. Still, in the midst of frantic negotiating and disaster planning, Nadella kept checking the score and reporting updates about his favorite sport to less fanatical colleagues. His team was in trouble, but there was still hope for his company.
The nuttiest weekend in his nearly 10 years on the job started last Friday, when Nadella learned just minutes before the rest of the world that OpenAI’s board had just ousted Sam Altman, its co-founder and CEO. The company behind ChatGPT had been seeking a valuation at $90 billion. Rarely has one board decision threatened to destroy so much value in so little time.
Despite the fact that Microsoft had paid billions for a 49% stake in OpenAI, using its technology to power a new generation of software that it promised could revolutionize work, the startup’s biggest investor didn’t have a board seat. Nadella found out at more or less the same time as everyone else that his investment—one that almost single-handedly catapulted Microsoft to the forefront of the artificial-intelligence revolution—had suddenly gone wrong.
But when the board turned on Altman, Altman immediately turned to Nadella. Hours after the boardroom coup last Friday, they were on the phone, discussing how to restore Altman to OpenAI—or join Microsoft. If Altman wasn’t hired back to his place atop OpenAI, the former CEO of the glitziest AI company would become an employee of Microsoft.
By the end of the frenetic weekend, Altman had agreed to start a new AI divisionat the tech giant, so he could keep working with Nadella and take advantage of Microsoft’s access to computing power. Soon it became clear that hundreds of researchers were ready to join Altman at a corporation as sexy as soup. Microsoft prepared to give those engineers everything they needed to continue their work: a floor in LinkedIn’s offices, plentiful cloud-computing resources, Applelaptops. The trillion-dollar company’s employees assured their potential colleagues that they wouldn’t even have to use Microsoft’s workplace-communications app Teams.
OLDWICK, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — #insurance—AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “a+” (Excellent) of Farmers New World Life Insurance Company (FNWL) (Bellevue, WA).
At the same time, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a” (Excellent) of Farmers Reinsurance Company (Farmers Re) (Woodland Hills, CA). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
The ratings of FNWL reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also recognize the continued strategic value that FNWL provides to its ultimate parent, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.
FNWL’s ratings are supported by its risk-adjusted capitalization being maintained at the very strong level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), a history of positive operating earnings, and material contributions to the overall group from new business value and operating profits. The company’s previously announced reinsurance agreement with Resolution Life Group Holdings Ltd. will allow a strategy shift going forward, enabling it to focus on a simplified product portfolio that is easier to sell and has shorter cycle times.
The ratings of Farmers Re reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM. The ratings also reflect the company’s strategic importance to Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.
This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
