A new Pew study offers data to back up what we have suspected for a while now: AI answers are draining all the traffic out of the web

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The Google study that told us what we already suspected

When users see AI overviews, clicks fall in half. How does the web survive?

Pay to boost your newsletter in Substack Notes! Pre-roll ads on your podcasts and videos! Your writing licensed to train new AI models! I wrote about how Substack can live up to its new billion-dollar valuation

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Let’s all try to help Substack live up to its new valuation

The company's new unicorn status has already led its founders to reverse their position on advertising. What other compromises are they prepared to...

The dream of the Fediverse is alive on Threads (and Mastodon)

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The dream of the Fediverse is alive on Threads

Decentralized media is off to an agonizingly slow start — but there are glimmers of progress

Is OpenAI making the same mistake Humane did?

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Is OpenAI making the same mistake Humane did?

Expectations for the company's AI device are already sky-high — and Jony Ive keeps raising them

Meta's AI teams need more than a reorg.

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Meta rests its case

The company looks poised to put its antitrust woes behind it. But its other trials may only be just beginning

The AI companies have been caught building AIs that only tell us what we want to hear. If we don't get a handle on it, that's gonna go really badly:

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The AIs are trying too hard to be your friend

Meta AI, ChatGPT, and the dangers of being glazed and confused

I wrote about revelations that Google had an exclusive deal to put Gemini on Samsung phones *this month*, despite the fact that these deals have now twice been deemed illegal in court

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Google just helped the government’s case against it

Revelations that the company pursued pre-install deals for Gemini are giving the government fresh ammunition just as the trial heats up

NEW: AI bots caused Wikipedia's bandwidth costs to increase by 50 percent last year, and are still growing exponentially. I wrote about its plan to fight back — and whether it will be enough.

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How AI bots are suffocating Wikipedia

Scrapers caused the online encyclopedia's bandwidth to increase by 50 percent last year — and its plan to fight back may not be enough

I wrote about Google's leaked 'AI mode' for search and the dwindling number of reasons to post anything for free on the web

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Google slings more AI at the web

A leaked AI mode for search gives publishers fresh reason for worry — and maybe reasons to strike a deal

I wrote about Google unveiling its 'responsible AI progress report' by quietly deleting the part of its AI principles where it promised not to work on weapons

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Google is ready to work on AI weapons now

The company’s promise to avoid building AI applications that cause harm has been deleted