Hollywood studios are still trying to negotiate through the writers’ strike: In a W for the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA), studios have agreed upon a structure where writers will receive bonuses for popular shows on streaming platforms. As of yesterday, the WGA has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, but that doesn’t signify the end of the strikes, the New York Times reports. The union must still ratify the agreement with a vote, and SAG-AFTRA members — tens of thousands of actors — are still on the picket line, with no talks between them and the studios scheduled.

REFRESHER- The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have brought production in Hollywood to a grinding halt for the first time in 60 years, sparked by Hollywood studios’ tight-fisted unwillingness to fairly compensate writers and actors for their work. The movie capital of the US has been coming up with new ways to avoid paying royalties, aided by the murky legalese of streaming networks and digital doubles, which comes hot on the heels of many studios using CGI to exploit the likeness of deceased actors without the consent of their estates.

Studios and SAG-AFTRA members are both under pressure to reach an agreement. Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that the strikes would reduce its projected annual earnings by approximately USD 500 mn, and studio stock prices have taken a hit. Analysts estimate that screenland will lose 26% of its annual global ticket sales due to postponed debuts. Union members are also in jeopardy during the production halt, with workers resorting to hardship withdrawals from the Motion Picture Pension Plan to stay afloat. If studios grant SAG-AFTRA their demands, it would only add USD 23 mn to the expenses of each studio per annum — 2% of their yearly revenue.

Artificial intelligence can tell us which genes make us sick: Google DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is helping biologists find the variation responsible for causing sickness through scouring the genetic code, The Wall Street Journal reports. The model found that some genetic variants in the structure of proteins could lead to disease. For instance, sickle-cell anemia is caused by an irregular form of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood. Meanwhile, cystic fibrosis is caused by protein mutations which regulate salt and fluids, these are two of the 71 mn mutations that this AI machine-learning model has cataloged.

The AI model looks at structural mutations in proteins and predicts harm. This process scans for mutations where the structure of a protein differs by one amino acid, which is the most common variance. The model — AlphaMissense — forecasted 32% of the mutations to likely cause disease, and predicted that 57% are unharmful. AlphaFold, a project by AlphaMissense, records 3D structures of over 200 mn proteins, based on amino acids. The rationale behind this is to assess the impact of changes in protein structure, which can help molecular biologists, geneticists, and doctors. This is useful for upgrading diagnosis of rare-disease, and for developing solutions that target genetics.

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