SENTENCED, AGAIN — The man convicted of plotting to kidnap then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and bludgeoning her husband, Paul, in the head with a hammer at their San Francisco home has once again been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison over the 2022 attack. A judge’s error had thrown the federal case into disarray after defendant David DePape’s attorneys said the court violated his rights when he wasn’t given a chance to speak to the court at his May 17 sentencing. Today, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley offered DePape a do-over to speak to the court while she denied his attorneys’ requests to send the case to another judge. DePape spoke for about a minute. He apologized for harming Paul Pelosi and said he regretted not leaving the house after he broke in and realized Nancy Pelosi was out of town. “I should have left when Nancy wasn’t there,” DePape said as he broke into tears and one of his attorneys patted him on the back. “I feel horrible about hurting Paul Pelosi.” Read more here from our colleague Dustin Gardiner. AI ARTISTRY — Songs emulated without musicians’ consent. Actors losing out on entry-level gigs. Visual artists’ work fed into image-generating models. Representatives of California’s creative class warned lawmakers today about the many ways artificial intelligence threatens to deprive artists of work and income. The joint Assembly informational hearing unfolded as Sacramento advances bills to give artists and their living heirs more control over their digital likenesses — the kinds of issues that sustained protracted Hollywood strikes last year. Witnesses pointed to beneficial uses of AI like reviving the voices of country singer Randy Travis and actor Val Kilmer. But they warned about large AI models non-consensually using copyrighted content and original work to churn out imitative songs, images and other visual pieces. “These companies are openly robbing hardworking, taxpaying Californians of their livelihood and relabeling it as a poor excuse for innovation,” warned concept designer Drew Leung, who has worked on films like “Black Panther.” Actor Jason George said supportive roles like voiceover artists, stunt performers and background actors were most at risk of digital replacement, and he cautioned studios could use actors’ images to “insert us into scenes we would not have consented to” like sex scenes. Ideally, George said, artists would both control the use of their likenesses and be compensated when models use their work. Like multiple other speakers, he invoked Scarlett Johansson accusing OpenAI of stealing her voice (OpenAI has denied the claim). “If you said ‘give me a warm, Southern-sounding African-American gentleman,’ Morgan Freeman’s going to pop up every time,” and “you just need to pay Morgan Freeman,” George said. “If you put into the prompt, ‘Scarlett Johansson Lake Bell,’ then you have to pay Scarlett Johansson and Lake Bell.” — Jeremy B. White
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