Posts tagged with "The New York Times"

Above, Elon Musk took a defiant stance against advertisers on Wednesday at the DealBook Summit, telling them, “Don’t advertise.” (Photo source: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times)

Advertisers say they do not plan to return to X after Musk’s comments

December 4, 2023

Advertisers said on Thursday, November 30, that they did not plan to reopen their wallets anytime soon with X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner, Elon Musk, insulted brands using an expletive and told them not to spend on the platform, reports The New York Times.

At least half a dozen marketing agencies said the brands they represent were standing firm against advertising on X, while others said they had advised advertisers to stop posting anything on the platform. Some temporary spending pauses that advertisers have enacted in recent weeks against X are likely to turn into permanent freezes, they added—noting that Musk’s comments giving them no incentive to return.

Advertisers are “not coming back” to X, said Lou Paskalis, the founder and chief executive of AJL Advisory, a marketing consultancy. “There is no advertising value that would offset the reputational risk of going back on the platform.”

Musk has repeatedly criticized and alienated advertisers since buying Twitter last year. At one point, he threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” against advertisers who paused their spending because they were concerned about his plans to loosen content moderation rules on X.

In recent weeks, more than 200 advertisers had halted their spending on X after Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory and researchers called attention to instances of ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi posts on the platform. The company, which has made most of its revenue from advertising, is at risk of losing up to $75 million this quarter as brands back away.

The situation was compounded on Wednesday when Musk made incendiary comments against advertisers at the DealBook Summit in New York. In a wide-ranging interview at the event, Musk apologized for the antisemitic post, calling it “one of the most foolish” he had ever published, but also said that advertisers were trying to “blackmail” him. He singled out Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, who also attended the DealBook Summit.

“Don’t advertise,” Musk then said, using an expletive multiple times to emphasize his point.

Hours later, Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, tried to mitigate the damage. In a post on X, she shifted attention to Musk’s apology for associating himself with antisemitism and appealed to advertisers to return.

“X is enabling an information independence that is uncomfortable for some people,” Yaccarino wrote. “X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street—and the X community is powerful and here to welcome you.”

A representative for X did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the brands that have been big spenders on X and that have recently halted their campaigns are Apple, Disney, and IBM. Other brands have remained, including the National Football League and The New York Times’ sports site, The Athletic.

At the DealBook event on Wednesday, Musk acknowledged that an extended advertiser boycott could bankrupt X. But the public would blame the failure on brands, he said, not on him.

“I will certainly not pander,” he said.

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, former President Donald Trump. (Photo source: Dark Star Pictures)

Trump parrots Hitler—calling foes ‘Vermin,’ saying critics will be ‘Crushed,’ envisioning ‘Detention Camps’

November 15, 2023

Former President Donald Trump said that his political opponents were the most pressing and pernicious threat facing America during a campaign event in New Hampshire on Saturday, November 12—and that he would root them out like vermin, reports The New York Times.

Trump’s campaign rejected criticism that he was echoing the language of fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini—then doubled down: It said on Monday that the “sad, miserable existence” of those who made such comparisons would be “crushed” when Trump was back in the White House.

“Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said, “and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.”

At the Saturday campaign event, Trump vowed to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” He then said his political opposition was the most pr

“The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within,” Trump said. “Our threat is from within.”

What’s more, Trump said he is planning a widespread expansion of his first administration’s hardline immigration policies if he is elected to a second term in 2024, including rounding up undocumented immigrants already in the United States and placing them in detention camps to await deportation, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to CNN.

An earlier version of Cheung’s statement—in which he said the “entire existence” of those critics would be crushed—was reported by The Washington Post on Sunday. Cheung said on Monday that he edited his initial statement “seconds” after sending it, and the Post amended its article to include both versions.

Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, said in a statement that Trump at his Veterans Day speech had “parroted the autocratic language” of “dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting, in order to defeat exactly the kind of un-American ideas Trump now champions.”

Though violent language was a feature of Trump’s last two campaigns, his speeches have grown more extreme as he tries to win a second term.

At recent rallies and events, Trump has compared immigrants coming over the border to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from the horror movie “The Silence of the Lambs.”

He called on shoplifters to be shot in a speech in California and, over the weekend in New Hampshire, he again called for drug dealers to be subject to the death penalty. He has insinuated that a military general whom he appointed as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed for treason.

Last month, Trump told a right-wing website that migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”—a phrase recalling white supremacist ideology and comments made by Hitler in his manifesto “Mein Kampf.”

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, for months, Senator Joe Manchin has flirted with No Labels, a centrist group that has floated the idea of running a third-party candidate for president. (Photo source: Kent Nishimura for The New York Times)

Joe Manchin’s retirement adds fuel to 2024 rumors

November 14, 2023

Almost since he arrived in Washington in 2010, Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, has complained about the partisan nature of the Capitol and insisted that Americans aren’t as politically divided as the people they send to Congress, reports The New York Times.

With his announcement on Thursday, November 9, that he will not seek re-election next year, Manchin again floated the possibility that he thinks the solution to America’s polarized politics lies in the mirror.

“What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” Manchin said in his retirement video.

He added, “I know our country isn’t as divided as Washington wants us to believe. We share common values of family, freedom, democracy, dignity, and a belief that together we can overcome any challenge. We need to take back America and not let this divisive hatred further pull us apart.”

What Manchin actually plans to do remains a mystery. His closest aides and advisers insist they don’t know. A conservative Democrat who has served as one of his party’s key votes in the Senate, he has long kept his own counsel on his biggest decisions and made up his mind at the last minute.

Manchin has flirted this year with No Labels, a group that has made noise about running a centrist candidate for the White House. No Labels officials said Thursday that Manchin’s announcement had taken them by surprise, although they commended him “for stepping up to lead a long-overdue national conversation about solving America’s biggest challenges.”

“Regarding our No Labels Unity presidential ticket, we are gathering input from our members across the country to understand the kind of leaders they would like to see in the White House,” the group said in a statement.

Some allies of Manchin are skeptical that he will run for president. For one, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to run a credible independent or third-party campaign, and Manchin has never been a formidable fund-raiser on his own.

Fellow Senate Democrats and their super PAC subsidized much of his 2018 re-election effort and were poised to do so again next year, had he chosen to run. He did hold a fund-raising event for his political action committee last weekend at the Greenbrier, the West Virginia resort owned by Governor Jim Justice, a Republican who is running for the state’s Senate seat.

But the odds of him winning the presidency would be extremely long, especially at this relatively late date.

“I wouldn’t say that he can’t or won’t run, but I know he hasn’t run for anything that he doesn’t want to win, ever,” said Phil Smith, a longtime lobbyist and official at the United Mine Workers of America and an ally of Manchin’s. “If you look at independent candidates for president, even well-known ones, those who started this late never got more than 2% to 3% of the vote.”

Then there’s the question of Manchin’s age. He is 76, and would be running in a race with heightened attention and concern about the ages of President Joe Biden, 80, and the likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, 77.

Manchin—a former West Virginia University quarterback—remains in good physical condition for a septuagenarian. In May, he completed a three-mile race in Washington in just over 40 minutes.

One thing Manchin has always enjoyed since he won a special election to the Senate in 2010, when he was West Virginia’s governor, is the attention that comes with being a critical vote when Democrats control the chamber.

That has often afforded him a platform that has made him popular among cable television bookers and centrist donors, while drawing the ire of the Democratic Party’s progressive activists. He said this summer that he was thinking “seriously” about leaving the Democratic Party.

“If he sees that Biden continues to be the Democratic nominee and Trump the Republican nominee, I think he truly sees a huge slice of the American electorate, both Republican and Democratic, fed up with both of their parties’ nominees,” said former Representative Nick Rahall, a fellow West Virginia Democrat who has known Manchin for decades.

For months this year, Manchin has cozied up to No Labels, which has so far secured ballot access in 12 states in its attempt to offer an alternative to Biden and Trump. The group’s president, Nancy Jacobson, has told potential donors that the group intends to select a Republican to lead its ticket—a decision that would exclude Manchin if No Labels maintains that position.

Even so, No Labels’s drive to get a slot on the ballot in all 50 states appears to have stalled at 12. Thirty-four states allow a group like No Labels to claim a place-holder slot without a candidate, but 16 others and the District of Columbia require a ticket.

What’s more, there will be no shortage of unsolicited advice for Manchin from Democrats when it comes to his plans.

Matt Bennett, the co-founder of the centrist Democratic group, Third Way, who is organizing efforts to stop No Labels and dissuade Manchin from joining its ticket, said he was “not worried” about Manchin running as an independent candidate.

Rahna Epting, the executive director of the progressive group MoveOn, said Thursday that Manchin should “reject any overtures from No Labels’s dangerous ploy.”

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, David Axelrod, former Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama. (Photo source: Drew Gurian/UChicago News)

Axelrod suggests Biden drop out of 2024 presidential race

November 7, 2023

On Sunday, November 5, former President Barack Obama’s Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested that President Joe Biden  should drop out of the 2024 presidential race in the wake of a new poll showing the incumbent trailing former President Donald Trump, reports The Hill.

Pointing to a poll by The New York Times and Siena College poll published on Sunday, Axelrod wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “It’s very late to change horses; a lot will happen in the next year that no one can predict & Biden’s team says his resolve to run is firm.”

Arguing Biden is “justly proud of his accomplishments,” Axelrod said Biden’s poll numbers will “send tremors of doubt” through the Democratic Party.“Not ‘bed-wetting,’” but legitimate concern, Axelrod wrote.

“Trump is a dangerous, unhinged demagogue whose brazen disdain for the rules, [norms], laws, and institutions or democracy should be disqualifying,” Axelrod wrote in a separate post. “But the stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.”

“Only @JoeBiden can make this decision,” he continued. “If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?”

The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states—including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania—by margins of 3 percentage points to 10 percentage points among registered voters. In Wisconsin, Biden was ahead by 2 percentage points, according to the poll.

The poll’s findings serve as a major blow to Biden’s campaign after the incumbent carried all six states in 2020 when up against Trump, The New York Times reported.

Biden’s reelection campaign has faced growing concerns from voters within his own party over his age and policy actions on various issues, notably the economy.

The poll found that 71% of registered voters said they agree to some degree that Biden is “just too old to be an effective president,” while only 39% said the same about Trump.

Asked if Biden has the “mental sharpness to be an effective president,” 62% of participants said no, while 35% agreed with the statement. Meanwhile, 52 % of participants said they believe Trump has the mental sharpness to be an effective president, while 44% said he does not.

Biden has faced criticism over his age since his 2020 campaign and this criticism has continued throughout his time in the White House. At 80, Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history.

If reelected in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.

Axelrod called Biden’s age is “his biggest liability” and something he cannot change.

“Among all the unpredictables there is one thing that is sure: the age arrow only points in one direction,” Axelrod wrote on X.

Axelrod’s comments follow a series of calls from some Democrats who have suggested Biden’s age makes him “too old” to run for reelection next year. The president has argued it is fair for voters to discuss his age, but he has said they should judge him on his ability to perform the job.

Research contact: @thehill

Above, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado) said he would step aside because of his differences with the contemporary Republican Party. (Photo source: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times)

GOP’s Buck won’t seek re-election, citing his party’s election denialism

November 6, 2023

Representative Ken Buck—a conservative Colorado Republican who played a central role in ousting Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership—said he will not seek re-election next year, citing his party’s election denialism and many members’ refusal to condemn the January 6. 2021, assault on the Capitol, reports The New York Times.

Buck, who currently is serving his fifth term, said he had decided to step aside because his differences with the contemporary Republican Party had grown too great to continue serving in its ranks. He condemned his party’s reluctance to take on big issues and said it had badly damaged itself with voters.

“We lost our way,” said Buck, 64, who announced his intentions in interviews and a video news release. “We have an identity crisis in the Republican Party. If we can’t address the election denier issue and we continue down that path, we won’t have credibility with the American people that we are going to solve problems.”

His announcement followed one earlier on Wednesday, November 1, by Representative Kay Granger (R-Texas), chair of the Appropriations Committee, who said she also would not run again next year. She too played a prominent role in the speaker showdown.

Granger, 80, surprised her colleagues by refusing to back Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the party’s nominee for speaker, on the floor. That prompted some calls for her to lose her gavel on the Appropriations Committee. She voted instead for Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican who had won the first internal G.O.P. contest for the nomination to succeed McCarthy, but withdrew when he determined he did not have the votes on the floor. She is bumping up against party term limits for her time as chair, and is part of an all-female team leading the House and Senate spending panels for the first time in Congress’s history.

“Although I am not running for re-election, I plan to serve out the remainder of my term and work with our new speaker and my colleagues to advance our conservative agenda and finish the job I was elected to do,” she said in a statement.

Buck’s decision comes after several months in which his frustration and dissatisfaction with his party have been evident. He is the third House member to declare this week that he will not seek re-election next year after Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), a House member since 1996, said on Monday, October 30, that he would not run again.

Buck—one of eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy—is also the second GOP member of Congress to break publicly with his party in announcing he would not run again, and to denounce the cultural dominance of the hard right and its continuing allegiance to former President Donald J. Trump.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced in September that he would not seek a second term, saying the “Trump wing of the party talks about resentments of various kinds and getting even and settling scores and revisiting the 2020 election.”

What’s more, during the thick of the speaker fight, Representative Debbie Lesko (R-Arizona) announced that she would leave Congress after her current term, declaring that, “Right now, Washington is broken.”

Buck said he intended to finish his term, but would begin exploring other opportunities. He has substantially raised his media profile as a Republican willing to challenge current party orthodoxy and said he thought there were better ways to participate outside the House.

“I have a passion for staying in this fight,” he said. “Whether it’s a tech issue, or foreign policy issue, or other issues, I think that our traditional conservative values have a place in this marketplace of ideas and need to be promoted.”

Research contact: @nytimes

Above1, swastikas are signs of rampant antisemitism at colleges and universities nationwide. (Photo source: PEN America)

Two dozen elite law firms warn universities about antisemitism on campus

November 3, 2023

With universities across the United States grappling with a rise in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, elite law firms are putting schools on notice. In a letter to some of the nation’s top law schools obtained by The New York Times’ DealBook, about two dozen major Wall Street firms warned that what happens on campus could have corporate consequences.

“We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses,” the firms wrote.

Among the firms that signed the letter are:

  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore
  • Debevoise & Plimpton
  • Kirkland & Ellis
  • Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
  • Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
  • Skadden
  • Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Another signatory, Davis Polk & Wardwell, last month rescinded job offers over letters blaming Israel for the October 7 Hamas attack.

The letter follows a series of recent antisemitic episodes at universities. New York Governor Kathy Hochul sought this week to reassure Jewish students at Cornell after online posts threatening violence against them. Students at other schools have said they feel increasingly unsafe amid rallies and other acts that, in some instances, have become violent.

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, a colored transmission electron micrograph showing an intestinal endocrine cell, with granules containing serotonin in green. (Photo source: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source)

Scientists offer a new explanation for long COVID

October 18, 2023

COVID, based on their findings that serotonin levels were lower in people with the complex condition, reports The New York Times.

In their study—published on Monday, October 16, in the journal, Cell— researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggest that serotonin reduction is triggered by remnants of the virus lingering in the gut. Depleted serotonin could especially explain memory problems and some neurological and cognitive symptoms of long COVID, they say.

This is one of several new studies documenting distinct biological changes in the bodies of people with long COVID—offering important discoveries for a condition that takes many forms and often does not register on standard diagnostic tools such as X-rays.

Research could point the way toward possible treatments, including medications that boost serotonin. And the authors said the biological pathway that their research outlines could unite many of the major theories of what causes long COVID: lingering remnants of the virus, inflammation, increased blood clotting, and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system.

“All these different hypotheses might be connected through the serotonin pathway,” said Christoph Thaiss, a lead author of the study and an assistant professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Second of all, even if not everybody experiences difficulties in the serotonin pathway, at least a subset might respond to therapies that activate this pathway,” he said.

“This is an excellent study that identifies lower levels of circulating serotonin as a mechanism for long COVID,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. Her team and colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently published a study that identified other biological changes linked to some cases of long COVID, including levels of the hormone cortisol. These studies could point to specific subtypes of long COVID or different biological indicators at different points in the condition.

Researchers analyzed the blood of 58 patients who had been experiencing long COVID for between three months and 22 months since their infection. Those results were compared to blood analysis of 30 people with no post-COVID symptoms and 60 patients who were in the early, acute stage of coronavirus infection.

Maayan Levy, a lead author and assistant professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, said levels of serotonin and other metabolites were altered right after a coronavirus infection—something that also happens immediately after other viral infections.

But in people with long COVID, serotonin was the only significant molecule that did not recover to pre-infection levels, she said.

Here’s the idea: Viral remnants prompt the immune system to produce infection-fighting proteins called interferons. Interferons cause inflammation that reduces the body’s ability to absorb tryptophan, an amino acid that helps produce serotonin in the gut. Blood clots that can form after a coronavirus infection may impair the body’s ability to circulate serotonin.

Depleted serotonin disrupts the vagus nerve system, which transmits signals between the body and the brain, the researchers said. Serotonin plays a role in short-term memory, and the researchers proposed that depleted serotonin could lead to memory problems and other cognitive issues that many people with long COVID experience.

“They showed that one-two-three punch to the serotonin pathway then leads to vagal nerve dysfunction and memory impairment,” Dr. Iwasaki said.

There are caveats. The study was not large, so the findings need to be confirmed with other research. Participants in some other long COVID studies, in which some patients had milder symptoms, did not always show depleted serotonin—a result that Dr. Levy said might indicate that depletion happened only in people whose long COVID involves multiple serious symptoms.

Scientists want to find biomarkers for long COVID—biological changes that can be measured to help diagnose the condition. Dr. Thaiss said the new study suggested three: the presence of viral remnants in stool, low serotonin, and high levels of interferons.

Most experts believe that there will not be a single biomarker for the condition; but that several indicators will emerge and might vary, based on the type of symptoms and other factors.

There is tremendous need for effective ways to treat long COVID, and clinical trials of several treatments are underway. Dr. Levy and Dr. Thaiss said they would be starting a clinical trial to test fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor often marketed as Prozac, and possibly also tryptophan.

“If we supplement serotonin, or prevent the degradation of serotonin, maybe we can restore some of the vagal signals and improve memory and cognition and so on,” Dr. Levy said.

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, Trump with Australian businessman Anthony Pratt (left) and former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (Photo source: Doug Mills for The New York Times)

Trump told nuclear sub secrets to Australian billionaire—who went on to tell 45 others

October 9, 2023

Former President Donald Trump reportedly shared details about America’s nuclear submarine program with an Australian billionaire, who then went on to tell journalists, foreign officials, and others about the sensitive information, HuffPost reports.

ABC News first reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith had learned about Trump’s disclosure to the billionaire—a cardboard magnate named Anthony Pratt —as part of his investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents. Trump allegedly told Pratt several government secrets about the submarines during an event at his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where the billionaire is a member.

Pratt reportedly told prosecutors and FBI agents that Trump brought up the submarine fleet in April 2021, after he had left the White House. The former president then revealed the supposed number of nuclear warheads that are on board U.S. submarines at any time and how close the vessels can get to a Russian submarine without detection.

The billionaire, ABC News added, shared that information with at least 45 people, including three former Australian prime ministers, a half dozen journalists and other foreign officials. Australia recently inked a deal with the United States to spend up to $245 billion over the next three decades to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

It’s unclear if the details were accurate, or if they were bluster or exaggerations, but ABC News reported that Pratt was informed by investigators not to share the numbers he was reportedly given.

The New York Times, which confirmed the report with people familiar with the matter, said the details would be highly protected information and could endanger the U.S. nuclear fleet if made public.

A former Australian ambassador to the United States told the paper the information wasn’t new to his country, saying: “If that’s all that was discussed, we already know all that.

“We have had Australians serving with Americans on U.S. submarines for years, and we share the same technology and the same weapons as the U.S. Navy,” the former ambassador, Joe Hockey, said.

The reported information was not included in Smith’s federal indictment of Trump earlier this year related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. Trump was charged with 40 counts related to willful retention of documents and obstruction of justice. But it could be used as part of the ultimate case against him to bolster any pattern of Trump’s handling of sensitive material.

A Trump spokesperson told ABC that the former president did “nothing wrong,” adding the report lacked “proper context and relevant information.”

“President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law,” the spokesperson told ABC News.

Research contact: @HuffPost

Above, Tom Hanks warns about AI fake. (Image source: Talk Easy)

Tom Hanks warns of dental ad using A.I. version of him

October 6, 2023

Actor Tom Hanks and Gayle King, a co-host of “CBS Mornings,” have separately warned their followers on social media that videos using artificial intelligence likenesses of them were being used for fraudulent advertisements, reports The New York Times.

“People keep sending me this video and asking about this product and I have NOTHING to do with this company,” King wrote on Instagram on Monday, October 2—attaching a video that she said had been manipulated from a legitimate post promoting her radio show on August 31.

The doctored footage, which she shared with the words “Fake Video” stamped across it, showed King saying that her direct messages were “overflowing” and that people should “follow the link” to learn more about her weight loss “secret.”

“I’ve never heard of this product or used it!” she wrote. “Please don’t be fooled by these AI videos.”

It was not immediately clear what weight-loss product the ad was promoting or what company was behind it.

Hanks issued a similar warning on Saturday, September 30— saying that an advertisement for a dental plan using his likeness without his consent was fraudulent and based on an artificial intelligence version of him.

“Beware!!” he wrote on Instagram over a screen shot of the apparent ad. “There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it.”

It was unclear what company had used Hanks’s likeness or what products it was promoting. Hanks did not tag the company or mention it by name. There was no evidence of the video anywhere on social media.

Representatives for Hanks declined to respond on Monday to questions about the ad—including whether he planned to take legal action or if he had requested that the ad be removed from social media.

In an email, a spokesman for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, did not comment directly on the ads but said that it was “against our policies to run ads that use public figures in a deceptive nature in order to try to scam people out of money.”

“We have put substantial resources towards tackling these kinds of ads and have improved our enforcement significantly, including suspending and deleting accounts, pages, and ads that violate our policies,” the spokesperson said.

Christa Robinson, a spokesperson for CBS News, said in an email that King learned about the video featuring her likeness when friends called her attention to it. “Representatives on her behalf have requested the fake video be taken down several times,” Robinson said.

The use of A.I. was one of many sticking points during the monthslong Writers Guild of America strike, which ended late last month.

Lawyers for the entertainment companies came up with language that addressed guild concerns about A.I. and old scripts that studios own. Similarly, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors that has been striking since July 14, also is concerned about A.I. It worries that the technology could be used to create digital replicas of actors without payment or approval.

Hanks spoke about the use of A.I. at length earlier this year, just days before the Hollywood writers’ strike began. He said on “The Adam Buxton Podcast” that he first used similar technology on the film “Polar Express,” which was released in 2004.

“We saw this coming,” he said. “We saw that there was going to be this ability in order to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now that has only grown a billion-fold since then, and we see it everywhere.”

Hanks said the guilds, agencies, and law firms all were discussing the legal ramifications around an actor claiming his or her face and voice as intellectual property.

He mused that he could pitch a series of movies starring him at 32 years old. “Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of A.I. or deep-fake technology,” he said.

“I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that’s it, but performances can go on,” he said. “And outside of the understanding that it’s been done with A.I. or deep-fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone. And it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality. That’s certainly an artistic challenge, but it’s also a legal one.”

As A.I. begins to take root in various forms, and as companies begin experimenting with it, there are concerns about how confidential data might be handled, the accuracy of A.I.-generated answers, and how the technology could be harnessed by criminals.

For now, there are more questions than answers. Policy experts and lawmakers signaled this summer that the United States was at the start of what will very likely be a long and difficult road toward the creation of rules regulating A.I.

Research contact: @nytimes