> While the ecosystem in which the Web thrived had one colossal flaw, namely, Surveillance Capitalism,b it had a stable business model. That business model is now being threatened by GenAI
Good. If there is one silver lining to generative AI, then it is that programmatic advertising will become less viable as a source of income.
If the internet were to overnight become a place where it is impossible to make money via advertising revenue, it could very well save the internet, if not the world.
It already has, and it will destroy quite a lot more before all is said and done.
Fundamentally, it breaks the social and generational contracts needed for societal organization to operate. While these structures won't vanish overnight, the consequences are cascading failures that will produce dire outcomes the longer they are allowed to fester.
Likely. The ecosystem it trains on now wont continue to be created. There is kind of no point in writing those anymore, if ai swallows it and wont direct to you.
But even more importantly, communities that created those wont form anymore.
Need to add AI agents are also raising hosting web content costs. The freebie won’t last for too long before AI will have to pay something to crawl the web
The "AI" training robber barons still need the web. Otherwise, "AI" just induces web and computer fatigue. All these genius corporations will find that they are destroying perfectly working revenue streams with their collective "AI" cult. They don't seem to remember that they got filthy rich before 2023.
Browsing "the web" has been painful for years thanks to SEO and ads. Most people already spend their time in walled gardens, selectively jumping out to specific linked sites. Does AI fundamentally change this, or is it just a better front-end for the search engine?
The OP is claiming that no one is interested in his article, just the "information" that can be harvested in it. He has committed the rather obvious fallacy of equating the web with web search. There are real risks to information providers, but that's not all the web is.
The web is full of garbage but one can find sources of specific and detailed information, and also to contact friends directly. So, I choose to go to sites for information (product, “how-to”, or Wikipedia-like), to use aggregators like Hacker News to get a broad brush picture of what’s going on (because no “news” site can be so diverse) and to contact friends directly, and not via a “social” site with billions (?) of users.
Likewise, AI is biased, tries to be all things to all people, and is outright wrong in many cases. It is too easy to nudge in strange directions, and is NOT a nice companion. The lure of advertising is too big not to enshittify it.
However, in strict verticals, it can be helpful.
Since it is by structure non-social, it can’t be used to connect people.
It’s really a matter of choice, and people choose poorly.
“My Internet World” consists mainly of two aggregators, heavily moderated, sites that serve my interests directly, and communications with friends. The latter could be improved by “group forums” outside of the surveillance capitalism monster sites, but nobody seems to care, and should be part of operating systems, but Apple, Google and Microsoft, for example, will never agree on anything, so it’s left to third parties to crack a billion-device market. Fat chance.
As an example, I used to host Moodle on laptops and servers for docs, where people could comment, and it had built-in controls. Perhaps, some outside hosting? Small is beautiful.
People and information. They’ve been poisoned and probably always will as long as people use “big” sites.
Oh, and as for advertising. If I want information, I’ll just go get it. Anyone who pushes information on me is poisoning my cache. Out, damned slop.
Precisely. Thus people will stop going there. Which leads to people not creating content there. Which kinda stops the very model genAI has used to grow.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 33.8 ms ] threadGood. If there is one silver lining to generative AI, then it is that programmatic advertising will become less viable as a source of income.
If the internet were to overnight become a place where it is impossible to make money via advertising revenue, it could very well save the internet, if not the world.
Fundamentally, it breaks the social and generational contracts needed for societal organization to operate. While these structures won't vanish overnight, the consequences are cascading failures that will produce dire outcomes the longer they are allowed to fester.
But even more importantly, communities that created those wont form anymore.
a nothing burger article with no real ideas.
Seems like the same logic to me. Isn't the Web where the information came from?
You want the ability to look at 4-5 sources, vet them, and draw your own conclusions.
Likewise, AI is biased, tries to be all things to all people, and is outright wrong in many cases. It is too easy to nudge in strange directions, and is NOT a nice companion. The lure of advertising is too big not to enshittify it.
However, in strict verticals, it can be helpful.
Since it is by structure non-social, it can’t be used to connect people.
It’s really a matter of choice, and people choose poorly.
“My Internet World” consists mainly of two aggregators, heavily moderated, sites that serve my interests directly, and communications with friends. The latter could be improved by “group forums” outside of the surveillance capitalism monster sites, but nobody seems to care, and should be part of operating systems, but Apple, Google and Microsoft, for example, will never agree on anything, so it’s left to third parties to crack a billion-device market. Fat chance.
As an example, I used to host Moodle on laptops and servers for docs, where people could comment, and it had built-in controls. Perhaps, some outside hosting? Small is beautiful.
People and information. They’ve been poisoned and probably always will as long as people use “big” sites.
Oh, and as for advertising. If I want information, I’ll just go get it. Anyone who pushes information on me is poisoning my cache. Out, damned slop.
there were a few months when a neighbor couldn't get the oil he needed to heat his home ...
another one fried a circuit and his solar cells were ... well ... powerless ... I mean they weren't, except they were, but you know what I mean.
I had a bicycle stolen once and a car got smashed on the rail tracks to my university ... it was horribly bloody and messy.
A friend broke his good arm once. His other arm was useless.
And we shouldn't touch the Gen part of your AI.