夜雨聆风
Football is right to be worried about AI
No technology is so vitalthat its cultivationshould involve the state sanctioning systematictheft. That is what the government proposed when it suggested intellectual property (IP) — such as images and text from published sources protected by copyright — should be freely available to artificial intelligence (AI) companies seeking to develop software. Access to such material should, ministers suggested, be denied to AI firms only if the owner of the IP actively withdrew consent for the scavenging.
This scandalousproposal to ransack Britain’s hugely profitable creative sector in the cause of fostering AI expansion has, thankfully, been put on ice after an almighty backlash from writers, songwriters, publishers and — we now discover — the Premier League.
The Premier League is one of the few great British success stories of the past 30 years. It is a global brand, commandingaudiences in all corners of the world, by revenuethe biggest football league on the planet.Yet, according to the league’s submissionto a government consultation on AI and its impact on the creative sector, it is not clear if ministers even considered the effect of scrapingIP on sport. The league thinks not.
If nothing else, this shows how shallowwas — and possibly still is — ministers’ understanding of what is at stake in this matter. The Premier League is one of the most watched sport leagues in the world. It claims to support 90,000 jobs in Britain and generates £8 billion in “gross value added” for the economy each year. In its submission the league points out that strong copyright protection was and is essentialto its success. That goes for all of the UK’s £124 billion-a-year creative sector.
Britain needs AI to flourish here but the growth of one industry must not be based on the destruction of another. It cannot be a zero-sumgame.
读到这里，请大家做一道考研英语阅读仿真模拟题：
According to the text, the Premier League believes that ________.
[A] the government has fully evaluated the proposal’s influence on sports
[B] its economic contribution relies heavily on effective copyright protection
[C] AI development will bring considerable benefits to the football industry
[D] it should take the lead in promoting technological innovation in sports
第二遍，我带上翻译，形成英中对照译文，大家可以再读一遍，充分查漏补缺：
No technology is so vitalthat its cultivationshould involve the state sanctioning systematictheft. That is what the government proposed when it suggested intellectual property (IP) — such as images and text from published sources protected by copyright — should be freely available to artificial intelligence (AI) companies seeking to develop software. Access to such material should, ministers suggested, be denied to AI firms only if the owner of the IP actively withdrew consent for the scavenging.
没有任何一项技术重要到需要国家默许系统性的窃取行为来推动其发展。而英国政府此前提出的方案正是如此：政府建议，受版权保护的已公开图片、文字等知识产权内容，应当无偿提供给研发软件的人工智能企业使用。大臣们表示，除非知识产权所有者主动明确拒绝被抓取使用，否则人工智能公司均可自由获取这些资料。
This scandalousproposal to ransack Britain’s hugely profitable creative sector in the cause of fostering AI expansion has, thankfully, been put on ice after an almighty backlash from writers, songwriters, publishers and — we now discover — the Premier League.
这项为扶持人工智能发展而肆意掠夺英国高收益创意产业的荒唐提案，所幸在作家、词曲作者、出版商，以及如今我们了解到的英超联盟的强烈反对下，已被暂时搁置。
The Premier League is one of the few great British success stories of the past 30 years. It is a global brand, commandingaudiences in all corners of the world, by revenuethe biggest football league on the planet.Yet, according to the league’s submissionto a government consultation on AI and its impact on the creative sector, it is not clear if ministers even considered the effect of scrapingIP on sport. The league thinks not.
英超联赛是过去30年间英国为数不多的成功典范之一。它是一个全球性品牌，在世界各地拥有海量观众，按营收计算更是全球规模最大的足球联赛。然而，根据英超联盟向政府提交的关于人工智能及其对创意产业影响的意见书显示，大臣们甚至未必考虑过知识产权抓取行为对体育领域的冲击。英超方面认为他们并未考虑到这一点。
If nothing else, this shows how shallowwas — and possibly still is — ministers’ understanding of what is at stake in this matter. The Premier League is one of the most watched sport leagues in the world. It claims to support 90,000 jobs in Britain and generates £8 billion in “gross value added” for the economy each year. In its submission the league points out that strong copyright protection was and is essentialto its success. That goes for all of the UK’s £124 billion-a-year creative sector.
退一步讲，这至少表明，大臣们过去对这件事的利害关系认知极为浅薄，如今或许依然如此。英超是全球观看人数最多的体育联赛之一，据称在英国支撑着9万个就业岗位，每年为英国经济创造80亿英镑的总增加值。英超在意见书中指出，强有力的版权保护过去是、现在仍是其取得成功的关键。这一点同样适用于英国年产值达1240亿英镑的整个创意产业。
Britain needs AI to flourish here but the growth of one industry must not be based on the destruction of another. It cannot be a zero-sumgame.
英国需要人工智能蓬勃发展，但一个产业的增长绝不能建立在摧毁另一个产业的基础之上。这绝不该是一场零和博弈。
最后，让我们一起学习一个语言点：zero-sum game。
zero = 零
sum = 总和、总数
game = 博弈、游戏
连起来直译：总和为零的游戏
其实也就是：零和博弈/ 你赢我就必须输的游戏
什么叫“零和博弈”？就是：一块蛋糕就这么大，你多吃一口，我就必须少吃一口，总量不变。一方的收益 = 另一方的损失。
比如：赌博就是典型zero-sum game
两个人分一个饼，也是zero-sum game
但文章里作者说：AI 产业发展，不能是 zero-sum game。意思就是：不能 AI 发展起来了，创意产业、体育版权就被搞死。不能你活我死，要双赢。
这是一个写作超级加分词，作文里只要写到“合作、共赢、竞争、发展”，都能套：
举个🌰：We should avoid a zero-sum game and seek mutual benefits. 我们应避免零和博弈，寻求共赢。
阅读态度题信号看到作者说“not a zero-sum game”，= 作者反对恶性竞争、牺牲一方成全另一方= 态度一般是 critical / rational
好啦，今天的文章就到这里啦。
明天，我们不见不散！
