Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 64 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Friday Five
I. OpenAI, AxelSpringer Team Up To ‘Strengthen Independent Journalism’
II. News Publishers Fear Worst from Google AI Innovations
III. Instagram’s New AI Tool is Cool, But Could Cause Problems
IV. Threads To Play Nice with Mastodon in Nod To Fediverse
V. Google To Test Cookie Restrictions on 1 Percent of Chrome Users in Early 2024
VI. Other Important Updates
I. OpenAI, AxelSpringer Team Up To ‘Strengthen Independent Journalism’
Axel Springer and OpenAI have entered a global partnership aimed at bolstering independent journalism through artificial intelligence.
The collaboration will integrate content from Axel Springer's media brands, such as POLITICO, into ChatGPT's responses.
ChatGPT will offer summaries of selected global news, including paid content, with clear attribution and links to full articles.
🛠 Why does this matter?
The collaboration is a strategic move to develop sustainable financial models for journalism in the digital age, leveraging AI to create new revenue opportunities.
This sounds great for AxelSpringer, but what about small, independent news outlets?
Many outlets, in fact, have blocked ChatGPT (and other bots) from scraping their content. Will link attribution and potential traffic entice some to change course?
It sounds like a win-win for OpenAI and Axel Springer. The former will have access to up-to-date content that will improve its LLM, while the latter will be front-and-center on chat results for the world’s most popular and far-reaching AI tool.
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II. News Publishers Fear Worst from Google AI Innovations
News publishers are worried about the potential negative impact of Google's AI on organic search traffic.
Publishers estimate a potential loss of 20-40 percent of traffic generated from Google due to the AI integration, despite Google's assertion of prioritizing publisher traffic.
Major news media organizations are advocating for regulation of AI model operators, particularly regarding the use of copyrighted materials.
-WSJ
🛠 Why does this matter?
With social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter already reducing news distribution, Google, which accounts for a significant portion of publishers' traffic, could exacerbate the situation.
The potential loss of traffic and revenue for publishers could significantly change how news is consumed and monetized.
The call for regulation reflects growing concerns about the ethical use of AI in disseminating information, with implications for content creators' rights and the sustainability of journalism.
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III. Instagram’s New AI Tool is Cool, But Could Cause Problems
“Our AI media editing tool backdrop is available on Instagram in the US! With backdrop, you can reimagine your image’s background with just a few taps and a prompt like ‘chased by dinosaurs’ or ‘surrounded by puppies’ to create an entirely new image for your Story.”
-Ahmad Al-Dahle, GenAI Lead at Meta, on Threads
🛠 Why does this matter?
Innovative features like these make it easier for users to implement AI into their content creation routine. They also have other effects, though.
They put the squeeze on third-party apps users might abandon in favor of Instagram’s (and other social networks’) native tools.
On the flip side, they’ll make it even more difficult to know when something is real.
Sure, surrounding yourself with puppies or putting yourself on the edge of a volcano could be a fun edit. The bigger concern will be around bad actors who create false images and exploit vulnerable, less-savvy users who can’t tell the difference and/or are less skeptical of media from untrusted sources.
This caution is not at all limited to Instagram/Meta, and is not meant to be a criticism of this feature.
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