PrePro, the mentorship program designed to expose culturally diverse students to careers in postproduction and music and sound for brands and ad agencies, is now accepting applications for its Fall 2017 session. Co-sponsored by AICE and AMP, the program is expanding to the Chicago market with this new session and is actively recruiting post production and music companies to participate. Full details on PrePro can be found here.
PrePro is open to students between the ages of 18 and 23. The program matches eligible students with working professionals, who provide hands-on learning opportunities in editing, audio mixing, visual effects, music scoring and related disciplines. In addition, mentors share up-close looks at the day-to-day operations of their companies and provide guidance that can help them obtain the skills needed to land an entry level position. “The kinds of professional relationships developed through PrePro will be invaluable when these mentees are ready to launch their careers,” said PrePro co-organizer Gloria Pitagorsky, president of AICE’s New York Chapter and EP and managing director of audio post studio Heard City.
PrePro’s inaugural session, which kicked off in New York this past January, saw approximately 20 students from high schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx paired with mentors from such companies as BANG Music, Big Sky Edit, Blast, Bodega Studios, Butter Music & Sound, COPILOT Music + Sound, Cutters, Exile Editorial, Freefolk, Groove Guild, Heard City, Human Music and Sound Design, KYLE, Northern Lights, PS 260, The Mill and Uppercut.
Jon Desir, executive producer at Optimus in Chicago and co-organizer of the program, is heading up the expansion of PrePro to Chicago for the upcoming session, working with Optimus producer Terra Zenteno. He noted that the PrePro committee is in discussion with Free Spirit Media, a non-profit group that provides arts education, access, and opportunity in media production to over 700 underserved youth in Chicago every year. Simultaneously, Desir is working to build a roster of potential mentors from Chicago-area post and music studios. (For more on the benefits of being a mentor, click here.)
“After our successful first run in New York, Chicago is ready to follow suit,” said Desir. “Growing a more diverse talent base for the postproduction and advertising music and sound industries is needed now more than ever. We’re confident there’s going to be tremendous support in our community and in various communities outside of post that are related to production overall.”
Commenting on the program’s value to mentors and companies, Marlene Bartos, managing director of Yessian Music in New York, past national president of AMP and a PrePro mentor herself, noted that “this is such a positive program for our community. We can give a young person a chance to discover all the wonderful opportunities in our industry and have a positive impact, while also bringing in new and diverse talent. It’s a win/win for all parties.”
Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.
"Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More