In this issue: Matthew Perry sober memories / NYTimes strife over NYT employees returning to office / Microsoft Office AI strategy + more!
Welcome to Context Collapse, the world’s best comms newsletter. I’m Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about journalism, public relations, marketing, and advertising.
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Happy spooky Halloween. Today’s links = short and sweet, just like those chocolates they’re giving out today.
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“Potty mouth Chandler sat across from me, and he must’ve sensed some thing about me because he promptly asked if I wanted a Diet Coke, and then he got us two Diet Cokes. And then when we were done, I got us two more diet Cokes. And it went on like that for the rest of the night. I didn’t sleep well that night (because I had had easily seven Diet Cokes) but I woke up the next morning not hungover, while still having had a great evening.
I think of him and that night all the time. He was clearly something my higher power sent to me on a fidgety autumn evening, 13 years ago.”
“Tech workers at the New York Times plan to walk out Monday afternoon to protest the company's return-to-office policy.
Why it matters: The Times' Tech Guild, which represents more than 600 staffers, is trying to negotiate its first contract with management after voting to unionize in March 2022.
Catch up quick: The guild has argued that new remote-work policies violate the terms and conditions set when their union was ratified in 2022.”
”After months of speculation about how generative AI might transform business, Microsoft is poised to make its AI Copilot available through its 365 platform, a test of whether CIOs believe the technology will generate enough value to justify a premium price.
CIOs say they are eager to test out the AI assistant, even though the cost is a consideration for some. Copilot leverages generative AI across the Microsoft 365 suite by doing most things you might ask a business assistant to do, like summarizing video calls, writing draft responses to emails and transforming Word documents into PowerPoint presentations, said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Modern Work and Business Applications at Microsoft.
The $30-a-month price tag per user can seem steep considering the existing license for the most premium level of the Microsoft office suite is $50."
”Web Summit has named a new CEO: Katherine Maher — previously CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (between 2019 and 2021). Maher is also chair of the board of the foundation behind the private messaging app Signal, and holds various other board and fellowship positions — including on the Atlantic Council and the Truman National Security Project. She also has a history of involvement in tech advocacy, with a focus on human and digital rights.
In a brief video announcing her appointment, Maher made no mention of the controversy that ousted Web Summit’s long-standing CEO and co-founder, Paddy Cosgrave earlier this month — after outrage triggered by remarks he made following the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.
Cosgrave’s remarks and attitude in response to criticism led to a number of high-profile tech figures and others to make public statements saying they would no longer participate in the conference.”
”In November, we will be offering people who use Facebook or Instagram and reside in these regions the choice to continue using these personalised services for free with ads, or subscribe to stop seeing ads. While people are subscribed, their information will not be used for ads.
People in these countries will be able to subscribe for a fee to use our products without ads. Depending on where you purchase it will cost €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android.”
”One of the most intense and widespread endeavors at Apple Inc. right now is its effort to respond to the AI frenzy sweeping the technology industry.
The company has some catching up to do. Apple largely sat on the sidelines when OpenAI’s ChatGPT took off like a rocket last year. It watched as Google and Microsoft Corp. rolled out generative AI versions of their search engines, which spit out convincingly human-like responses to users’ queries. Microsoft also updated its Windows apps with smarter assistants, and Amazon.com Inc. unveiled an AI-enhanced overhaul of Alexa.
All the while, the only noteworthy AI release from Apple was an improved auto-correct system in iOS 17.”
Traditions.