 |
|
|
|||||
In the week since the New York City mayoral primary, national news reporters, elected officials, and casual observers have been wondering how a little-known, 33-year old state assemblyman beat a former governor of New York for the democratic nomination. To help them out, that candidate did what he has done best throughout his campaign so farhe made a candid, insightful, charming video explaining how he won. The data-packed video, which was viewed over 4.5 million times on X alone in its first 24 hours, features the candidate breaking down how he managed to get an unusually large number of new and infrequent voters to the polls. As he spends a sunny day amid the lush greenery, soaring skyline and vivid graffiti of New York City, Mamdani recounts how his campaign sought out Trump votersnot to lecture, but to listenreached out to election-abstainers, and crafted a message targeting citizens of all stripes who felt ignored by other politicians. Its an illuminating video, perhaps most notable for its transparency, authenticity, humor, and his knowledge of New York cultureall of which have been evident since Mamdani released his first campaign video, a viral joint about the rising cost of halal food, which he dubbed halalflation. The candidate created his videos with Brooklyn-based agency Melted Solids, run by Debbie Saslaw and Anthony DiMieri, who collaborated with videographer Donald Borenstein, campaign photographer Kara McCurdy, and comms director Andrew Bard Epstein. Together, they made campaign material that was as informative as it was accessible, and primed for virality. A typical video, for instance, illustrated exactly what Mamdani plans to do to help small businesses, and precisely why his plans will work, featuring the candidate making his case from within the quintessential New York small business: a deli. @zohran_k_mamdani Small businesses account for over 90% of all companies in NYC and employ nearly half of all workers in the private sector. But the economic outlook for small businesses in New York state is dead last nationwide, and too many in our city are forced to close because staying open costs too much and navigating the bureaucracy is too difficult. That costs New Yorkers their jobs, small business owners their dreams, and our city the places that give it character. Were going to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business: Cut fines and fees for small businesses in half Speed up permitting and make online applications easier Increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500 percent original sound – Zohran Mamdani Other videos attempted to defang some of the arguments used against him. In response to attacks on his plan to make city buses free, he put out a video revealing that the famously free Staten Island ferry used to charge its riders a fee. When people tell you buses cant be free, dont ask them to take a hike, he says in the clip. Ask them to take a ferry. Meanwhile, another factor in the candidates incredible reach has been his willingness to tailor his message to each segment of his audience. We ran a campaign that tried to talk to every New Yorker, Mamdani says in the new video explaining his victory, whether I could speak their language or just tried. Its a reference to a series of dedicated videos in which he pitches himself to voters by speaking in fluent Bengla and Urdu, and in so-so Spanish. Anyone who doubts whether Americans with international backgrounds really care when politicians take the time to speak to them on their own terms need only watch a video clip of the reaction at Bayo, a recent Caribbean music festival at Barclays Center, when Mamdani briefly took the stage and pronounced Haiti the way French and Creole-speaking Haitians wouldayiti. He then talks about two critical issues to Haitians in New Yorkits place among 11 other countries on President Donald Trumps travel ban, and the president ending temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. @descendants.rec @Zohran Mamdani at the Barclays Center #haiti original sound – DESCENDANTS The masterstroke of Mamdanis campaign, however, may have been when he spent the Friday before the election, June 20, walking the entire length of Manhattan. Over a period of seven and a half hours, he traversed the streets from Inwood Hill to Battery Park, making video content every step of the way. The journey proved a clever opportunity for the andidate to demonstrate how well he knows the city, and how well the citys residents were starting to know him. Its difficult to imagine his key primary opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid several harassment allegations in 2021, and held limited public appearances throughout the primary campaign, being able to replicate this feat. What might be most incredible about Mamdanis videos is the contrast between how the candidate comes across in them and how his loudest critics portray him. Donald Trump, for instance, has taken to calling him a Communist lunatic, adding in a Truth Social post that Mamdani looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, [and] hes not very smart. During a press conference on Tuesday, in which he threatened to have Mamdani arrested if he defies ICE as mayor, Trump threw his weight instead behind Mayor Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent. In the same press conference, he suggested Mamdani, a naturalized citizen born in Uganda, was “here illegally. Trump also mentioned having previously helped [Adams] out a little bit, seemingly referring to when the Department of Justice dropped its corruption charges against the mayor back in April. Responding to those moments from the press conference would probably make a great campaign video for Mamdani ahead of the election in Novembernot that his video team needs any help.
Category:
E-Commerce
“Human beings can be run through the digital copy machine and be misused for all sorts of purposes and I’m not willing to accept that,” Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt recently told The Guardian after Denmark introduced an amendment to its copyright legislation so people could own their own likeness. “In the bill we agree and are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice, and their own facial features, which is apparently not how the current law is protecting people against generative AI.” The Danish culture minister is right. We need to stop this problem decisively. Deepfakes are a serious problemone that is fundamentally altering our perception of reality. People are getting bullied, coerced into doing things against their will, and even framed for crimes they didnt commit. Stopping the software will not work. That ship sailed a long time ago. And normal people dont have the resources to fight in court for a deepfake to be taken down. The answer, like the Danish government has done, is to include personal likeness in copyright law. The proposal establishes legal definitions for unauthorized digital reproductions, specifically targeting “very realistic digital representation of a person, including their appearance and voice.” The Danish administration intends to introduce the legislative proposal for public input ahead of the summer parliamentary break, with formal submission planned for autumn. Under the revised copyright framework, Danish citizens would gain legal authority to request removal of nonconsensual deepfake content from digital platforms. The legislation extends protection to cover unauthorized artificial recreations of artistic performances, with potential financial remedies for victims. Creative works such as parody and satirical content remain exempt from these restrictions. “Of course this is new ground we are breaking, and if the platforms are not complying with that, we are willing to take additional steps,” Engel-Schmidt said. Digital platforms that fail to comply face substantial financial penalties, with potential escalation to European Commission oversight. “That is why I believe the tech platforms will take this very seriously indeed,” the minister added. Denmark plans to leverage its upcoming EU presidency to promote similar legislative approaches across European nations. Fix copyright to fix the deepfake problem If imposing heavy penalties on any social network or video service that hosts a copyrighted work sounds familiar, thats because it is how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) works in the United States. Under U.S. copyright law and similar systems globally, copyright protection is granted exclusively to original creative works fixed in a tangible form, such as writings, music, artwork, software, films, or photographs. Crucially, copyright law explicitly excludes protection for abstract concepts like ideas, facts, systems, methods, or short phrases, which may fall under trademark law but cant be copyrighted. Most importantly, it does not extend to fundamental aspects of an individual’s identity, including their likeness, voice, or persona. Copyright protects specific, authored expressionslike a particular photograph of you or a recording of your voice singing a songbut not the underlying person. Your face, body, or general identity can be reproduced, although there are rights concerning the commercial or personal use of one’s likeness, voice, or identity. They are addressed by separate legal doctrines, primarily the right of publicity and the right to privacy. The problem is that, to fight someone from using your likeness under that framework, you will need a lot of power and money. Someone like Scarlett Johansson could take down OpenAIs version of her voice because it sounded too much like her with a simple tweet and the threat of litigation. Likewise, the lawyers of famous people like President Obama or footballer Christiano Ronaldo can strike down any unsanctioned use of their likeness. “If Ronaldo complains about a deepfake video of him, a platform will take the video down, Metaphysic CEO Tom Graham told me in an interview last year talking about his companys efforts to copyright anonymous peoples likeness. “But if Joe Schmoe complains about his right of publicity or privacy, the platform will shrug. Unless Mr. Schmoe fires a DMCA complaint, that is. Then YouTube will take down the deepfake instantly, because not complying with a DMCA takedown notice will have serious consequences for YouTube that could reach millions of dollars.” Graham has been trying to fix this issue for a while. Metaphysic was the company that made deepfake Tom Cruise viral and then went on to work with iconic brands like ABBA, Tom Hanks, and Elvis himself, to make legal digital clones for use in concerts, movies, and TV. The last time I spoke with him, his company was working on a pioneering system that allowed famous people and individuals to register the copyright of AI-generated versions of themselves. “Copyright law says that you can’t copyright anything other than works of human authorship,” Graham explains. “So, you can’t copyright yourself because you are from nature, right? You are not a work of human authorship.” But what if you could use AI to create a digital self and copyright that? That will effectively give you right over any digital representation of yourself, potentially putting you under DMCA protection without the Danish copyright patch. “What we’re doing here is we are creating the AI character of you. So, just like Disney can own Mickey Mouse and the Avatar characters, you can own the character that happens to look exactly, perfectly like you,” he told me. The process involves creating an AI-generated avatar from user-provided video, which becomes a copyrightable work because it’s technically an artificial creation, even though it looks identical to the real person. “If somebody takes a video of you in real life, you don’t have any claim. But if someone makes a character that looks just like you, that looks exactly like your character, then we are trying to say that that unauthorized character infringes your character,” Graham described. “So, you’re not copywriting yourself. You’re copywriting this AI character of yourself.” In theory, this would give people instant practical enforcement benefits. Under current takedown procedures, when someone with registered copyright complains about infringing content, platforms must remove it withn 24 hours. “That’s the remedy. That’s the thing you’re looking to do,” Graham says. For deepfake victims, this creates a powerful tool. He already submitted his own AI likeness for copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office, though he’s still awaiting a decision. The process was designed specifically to address recent Copyright Office decisions that denied protection for AI-generated images from tools like Midjourney, which were deemed to lack sufficient human authorship. “We designed this system to embed that human control and authorship into every layer of the process. Just the same as if you were using Photoshop to design a new character,” Graham explains. The system requires users to manually curate their video data and select specific frames, creating what Graham argues is sufficient human involvement to qualify for copyright protection. If that sounds convoluted to you, you are not wrong. Denmark’s legislative approach offers a more direct path than the complex workarounds required in countries like the United States. By explicitly granting individuals rights over their digital likeness, the Danish law could provide the legal foundation needed to effectively combat deepfake abuse. Whether the European Union follows Denmark’s lead may determine how quickly this new form of digital rights protection spreads across the world, hopefully changing the mind of U.S. legislators in the process.
Category:
E-Commerce
Companies are struggling with the rise of AI, high levels of employee burnout, and managing hybrid teams. Now, theres a new challenge: no one wants to be a leader. According to DDI’s 2025 HR Insights report, based on a survey of 2,185 HR professionals and 10,796 leaders, 75% of companies prioritize promoting employees to leadership roles from within. However, less than 20% of Chief Human Resource Officers say they actually have employees who are ready to fill critical leadership roles. On average, there are only enough internal candidates to fill less than half (49%) of open leadership positions. Going forward, it looks like the leadership vacuum is likely to get worse. According to the report, Gen Z is 1.4 times more likely than other generations to reject a leadership role. At the same time, Gen Z is also 2.8 times more likely to quit a job because of subpar leadership. However, as Fast Company contributor Tracey Brower points out, the dearth of qualified candidates creates an opportunity for anyone who wants to be a leader. What can companies do to create more leaders? Historically, leadership roles have been desirable but as navigating the business landscape becomes more complicated, leadership roles have become less attractive. Leadership is becoming a tougher job every day, said Tacy M. Byham, Ph.D., CEO of DDI, in a press release. While organizations cant control the deluge of external challenges they face this year, strategic HR executives can build resilience by using trusted people analytics to forecast needs, build their bench, and reinvigorate the next generation of leaders. Essentially, companies need to create a strong leadership pipeline. Promotions are six times more likely when employees receive adequate coaching from managers. Likewise, companies should always be thinking about their strongest employees’ potential, even before leadership positions become available. Tara Rasmussen, a hiring manager for Hapi, a hospitality tech company, points out that employee expectations have evolved. While she says older professionals cling to habits like “micromanagement” and “habits of overworking,” young employees are pushing backeven those who want to be leaders are setting firm boundaries around their personal time. “Elder millennials and Gen Z employees are more inclined to say ‘No thanks’ to giving up personal time even with decent salary increases,” she explains. In the past while future leaders stood out by working long hours, today selection committees need to understand that even leaders want time off. What can employees looking for leadership roles do to stand out? Cultivate soft skills Strong leadership is built on a solid foundation of soft skills. Rasmussen, notes that when it comes to new leadership, “soft skills,” like communication and interpersonal skills, are more important than ever before. She notes that soft skills are the ability to navigate nuance while communicating with others and doing work. Its not a one way lane,” Rasmussen explains. “Leaders in the current climate cannot expect to step into a role and communicate one way to all team members and be successful because everyone is different.” Humility Given the current environment where leaders face all kinds of challenges from technological changes to a turbulent economy, Rasmussen also points out “humility” is a key attribute modern leaders must have. “The ability to say, ‘I dont know but Ill find out,’ is absolutely critical,” she explains. “Leaders we look for now are not just ‘bosses’ that micromanage and order employees around. They must be able to be, well, human. Admit when wrong and grow alongside their teams.” Embracing AI and adaptability Jeffrey Pole, CEO and cofounder of Warden AI, tells Fast Company that, in 2025, leaders have to be innovative, adaptable, and knowledgeable about how to work alongside AI. There is much fear in the workforce today, with economic uncertainty, technology disruption, and a constant need for new skills and new career paths,” Pole explains. “The best leaders of this generation will be the ones who can adapt to change, embrace new opportunities, and motivate people to explore and experiment with the technologies and markets that are opening up.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||