Corporate executives often sound like bots during their post-earnings conference calls with Wall Street analysts.

Ari Emanuel, CEO of talent agency Endeavor and owner of the UFC, has taken this idea to an extreme. On Tuesday afternoon, a synthetic version of Emanuel’s voice delivered the opening remarks on Endeavor’s fourth-quarter earnings call, rather than Emanuel himself.

Emmanuel’s voice was reproduced using technology from Florida-based Speechify, a company that provides text-to-speech software. Endeavor became a minority investor in Speechify last year. One of the English-speaking voices featured on Speechify is Snoop Dogg, a client of Hollywood talent agency WME, which is owned by Beverly Hills-based Endeavor.

We used a recording of Ari’s voice and our own generative AI [artificial intelligence] “A system for creating a synthesized version of Aryan’s voice,” Speechify CEO Cliff Weitzman said in a statement.

Speechify launched a new product line on Tuesday that will Create AI voice-overs.

It took just over six months of testing and learning to create a synthetic version of Emmanuelle’s voice, according to Endeavor. The company said it is looking at potential opportunities in artificial intelligence for Endeavor and its customers.

So is Ari Emanuel, the voice of the AI, ready for the role of Ari Emanuel, the entertainment mogul?

Good enough, perhaps, to handle the earnings call’s open notes, which are usually a sober summary of a company’s results with bullish generalities about the company’s overall position in the industry.

“As we end our first full year as a public company, we are encouraged by our performance in 2022,” the AI ​​voice told Emanuel. “We have seen strong growth across our sectors. Our business has proven resilient despite persistent macroeconomic headwinds.”

Actual human Emanuel handled the Q&A portion of the call, fielding questions from the analysts about the business specifics. He said this is the right time to put Speechify’s technology on the quarterly earnings call, “so you can hear what it’s like.”

The effort comes as the industry grapples with new technologies that could change the way production and writing are handled in batches. It is an issue written by the Writers Guild of America may cure In its upcoming negotiations with studios, it regulates the AI ​​in writing, along with concerns about payment from broadcasting and the use of so-called mini-rooms. Studios are already preparing for the possibility of a strike by film and television writers.

The real Emanuel addressed the prospect of a business outage and whether it would hurt Endeavor’s business.

“I think we’re well positioned in terms of the strike,” Emanuel said, citing the company’s diversified business, which includes sports and music. “A large percentage of our economy comes from outside writing, directing businesses.”

By all accounts, James Jordan was a perfect Uber driver. Starting in 2016, he’s been working 10 hours a day, six days a week. Over the course of 5 1/2 years, it has logged 27,000 rides and maintained a rating of 4.95.

He drove a lot because he needed the money. At 55, a single father of five in Inglewood, there were a lot of expenses, and Uber was the source of his family’s income. Then, one day in March 2022, that source is suddenly shut down.

He was driving in the morning when he left the car to pick up his daughter. When he unlocked his phone to prepare for his next shift, he got the message: It’s “permanently disabled” — the euphemism used by the stunt industry.

It was a complete shock. “My guts fell out, and my feelings ran all over the place,” Jordan said. “For 5 1/2 years my family has relied on Uber earnings, to pay rent, pay for my car, all of that. To pull that out when the lease is due, there’s no recourse, no kind of due process.” “It feels bad.”

Jordan isn’t the only one suffering from this particular kind of bad feeling. A new survey of 810 Uber and Lyft drivers in California shows that two-thirds of them have been deactivated at least once. Of those, 40% of Uber drivers and 24% of Lyft drivers have been permanently terminated. The third did not get an explanation from the gig app companies.

Color drivers experienced a higher deactivation rate than white drivers – 69% to 57%, respectively. The vast majority of drivers (86%) experienced economic hardship after being kicked off the app, and 12% lost their homes.

The deactivation affected even the most experienced drivers: The report, conducted by Rideshare Drivers United and Asian Law Caucus, found that deactivated drivers had worked, on average, 4 1/2 years for Uber and four years for Lyft.

Like everything else in the world of work, disruption happens through application. There is little or no human contact at all, in most cases. There are no phone calls or Zoom, no text or email, and certainly no in-person meetings. Most of the affected drivers said they logged into the app to start their work day, only to find a notification that they had been deactivated.

“It’s tough, man,” Jordan said. “It’s as if Uber sees its drivers like they’re a piece of equipment or a tool or something, and they can just flip a switch and get you off.”

this path. Uber’s main innovation is not its technology per se, but rather the story it tells about its technology. Its innovative product was very rudimentary—a GPS plus smartphone app with a sleek user interface—but felt new enough to allow the company to present itself as the future of transportation. We don’t call a taxi anymore, we summoned Uber.

This was not a concern for an old taxi. It was a unicorn software company, One that does not hire taxi drivers, but rather one Facilitated driver connection to an independent contractor. This story helped the company elude rules and regulations governing taxis and black cabs – and interest consumers and investors – in cities around the world.

But what makes or breaks Uber is the same old taxi cartel’s deadliest: Drivers who make excursions. Uber’s core technology is still human labor, and Jordan is right: He treats those humans like equipment. need to ; They are not visible, and compatible machines are part of the story. And when Uber deems that equipment is no longer useful to the company, it is not terminated, laid off, or fired — it is disabled.

For a long time, this semantic reference to Uber’s larger narrative about itself helped obscure the ways in which it wielded power over its workforce. This made drivers feel they had few options when their accounts were closed.

“When a company gives algorithms the ability to disrupt our activity without even listening to our evidence or testimony, it adds more subtlety to an already risky job,” said Nicole Moore, a driver and president of Rideshare Drivers United. “Unlike other workers, we don’t have a bridge to unemployment insurance until it gets us disabled.”

Moore recounts the experience of a friend and co-driver, sober for 20 years, who was disabled because someone reported her drunk. The police weren’t breathing it in because no crime had been reported, and they couldn’t prove to the company that she was sober, which she had been for decades. It cost a week’s income.

“Companies act like we’re extensions of the app, but we’re real people and these algorithm fires are really hurting us as people, and our families who depend on the income we generate,” Moore said.

Jordan believes this was a combination of factors that held it up: In the week it was shut down, three separate riders complained about having to hide their car, which was Uber policy at the time. He also turned down a series of requests that would have taken him too far to make a lot of money. But he is still not sure.

Appealed the deactivation via official Uber channels and heard nothing. “It was a formality,” he said. “They weren’t responding. I was asking for details, like just give me the time and date, and tell me what you’ve done.”

In the end, he took Uber to small claims court, where he could finally argue his case. Only there did he learn that one passenger complained about his use of profanity – which he denies – and another said he described the relationship in inappropriate detail. He also denies it; So badly that he begged Uber to let him share the dashcam footage to prove his innocence. (Uber disputes this.)

In the end, it was an open and closed case. The judge said that while he sympathized with Jordan, it didn’t matter, because he agreed to submit to the whims of Uber when he became a driver in the first place. It is written in fine print. Uber reserves the right to deactivate the account if it determines that the driver has violated its policies.

“We know drivers depend on Uber for their earnings, so the decision to deactivate a driver’s account is one we don’t take lightly,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “We have a rigorous evaluation process, led by humans, that reviews reports and determines whether a temporary or permanent account deactivation is warranted.”

An Uber representative also directed me to the company’s website, where it states that each case should be reviewed by a human before deactivation. “When possible, we will tell the driver or delivery person if they are at risk of losing access to their account.” Policy states. However, there are times when we may need to remove access without notice.

There will certainly be cases in which the accounts of someone determined to be dangerous or unfit to drive should be deactivated immediately, but it is not clear how Uber can justify not informing drivers of specific allegations or complaints against them, or refusing to give drivers a fair hearing that is not Only “human led” but with actual humans. But doing so will cost time and resources, and it will cost Uber Historically unprofitable enterprise It may not be able to bear the burden of undertaking such an endeavor as humanely engaging its enormous workforce.

But it is a toxic arrangement worse than unfair to the workers. As the report explains, the deliberately opaque policy opens the door for discrimination to affect drivers’ livelihoods.

Most ride-hailing drivers have faced discrimination — Jordan, who is black, recounts being threatened by a rider who called him the N-word — and there’s no way of knowing how Uber responds internally to complaints against drivers who may be motivated by race, gender or sexual orientation. Immigrant drivers are frequent targets of yellow riders, and women report high levels of harassment. With the arbitration process closed behind Uber’s doors, it’s impossible to definitively say why color drivers are deactivated more frequently than white ones — but it’s pretty easy to guess.

Across the country, drivers are organizing their efforts to push for more transparency and due process during the holdup. In New York, Uber drivers Strike at LaGuardia Airport to demand higher wages and Put an end to unfair disruptions. In Portland, Oregon, they are Call an advisory board Which has long been powerless to help restore incorrectly broken drivers. The city of Chicago is Consider a decree It would allow disabled drivers to appeal gig companies’ decision. And Proposed Legislation in Colorado It will force companies to be more transparent about the process.

For its part, the new report calls for just cause and due process in the disruption process, labor protections afforded to employees, and urges Uber to address workplace discrimination and gender discrimination. It recommends that just cause decisions be enforced by an independent third party; Otherwise, Uber and Lyft will continue to exercise absolute power over their workers.

“They need to be held accountable, and we need an appeals process for deactivation that these companies have no control over,” Moore said.

I would like to add that we must also restore the language itself. This battle takes place in the land of Uber and Lyft, within the confines of their respective narratives. But they’re not limited to “deactivation” accounts here — they’re firing workers, often seemingly at random, and stripping men and women of their livelihoods.

For those affected, it is far more horrific than “disrupting”. It loses everything in an app. Uber will not change course on its own. Colorado and Chicago are right to move to enact policies that protect drivers; To stop the indiscriminate firing of workers who make riding possible.

“I’ve given up on trying to get Uber to do the right thing,” Jordan said. I hope this will inspire the courts and lawmakers Make Uber is doing the right thing.”

He was hooked. “Science fiction is kind of like my church,” said Smith, who is now 47 and lives in Philadelphia. “It’s spiritual and very connected to who I am as a queer black person.” However, the problem with his church is that there is not a lot of black (or queer) representation.

Mainstream science fiction features black characters such as Morpheus from matrixMace Windu from star Warsand Lieutenant Commander LaForge and Nyota Uhura from Star Trek. But in general, black characters are not given the same prominence and screen time as their white counterparts. And when blacks are present, they tend to presumptuously and traditionally appeal. Fat and black bodies are rare.

Smith said, pointing to a figure Baron Vladimir Harkonnen V.I Dune.UndefinedUndefinedHe added, “I was doing a weird sci-fi reading series called Laser Life, and when I was looking for guest readers, the first story I got portrayed a fat villain. The character’s obesity was described in hateful terms and taken as a clear indication of their vice. It’s really disappointing.”

So when accessible AI art generators came out last year, Smith, already an established visual artist, adopted these tools to get creative. Many black, fat, and queer characters From a more inclusive futuristic world. Among them was Marcus, whom Smith brought to life using Midjourney and an act, which is an artificial intelligence platform that creates talking avatars. Marcus heads a department at the Afro Electrosciences Institute, which Smith has called “an independent, superhero-led African future organization working in biomechanics, cosmic engineering, nanotechnology, and medicinal chemistry.”

An eccentric, Smith described Marcus as “a kind of smart alcoholic. A big, likable geek who thinks he’s a bit of a gangster. He likes to study moths and ants and tries to see what about insect life can be replicated in human life.” In one gif of Marcus, which Smith posted to his Instagram, the character asks, “Who here is going to draw me?”