Afternoon Coffee Reading

The blind AI-ification of search

The tech world has decided that the web search we know today should be replaced by information search, where answers are delivered by AI. That AI derives the information from content published on the web, which it ingests into its models, before summarising and collating it into an answer. And many of those publishers rely on search traffic to keep publishing the information the AI learns from.

Ergo, AI search will kill what it needs to sustain it.

Right now, as this WIRED article highlights, the tech companies' approach to solving this dilemma involves throwing money at the largest publishers, then sticking their head in the sand, and hoping for the best.

And that's before we even start examining if users actually want to trust AI search…

The AI Search War Has Begun

And tech companies might not be the winners.

The AtlanticMatteo Wong

A good example: Perplexity gets caught ignoring instructions not to use sites for training, and is accused of plagiarism, so… it throws some money at publishers.

Perplexity launches “Publishers’ Program” after plagiarism accusations - The Media Leader

Perplexity unveils its “Publishers’ Program,” offering a share of ad revenue to content creators

The Media Leader - 100% Media: news analysis, opinion, trends, data & jobsSabrina Quagliozzi

Reaching users on the new social media

There's plenty of evidence that users are retreating from global-scale social networks, and using small, community-based groups instead. Many people experienced this during the pandemic, with neighbourhood groups springing up. In my own life, the parents of my elder daughter's primary school class initially gathered in a Facebook group. The parents of my younger daughter’s class? WhatsApp all the way.

For all Reach's problems, one area they have been leading in is adapting to this new reality by using WhatsApp in their work. There's plenty more work to be done in this space — but this is a useful starting point.

Reach turns to WhatsApp to drive audience growth and engagement - The Media Leader

Reach’s engagement director, Dan Russell, discusses how WhatsApp has become a “big win” in reaching new audiences.

The Media Leader - 100% Media: news analysis, opinion, trends, data & jobsJack Benjamin

Useful Stuff

Some practical tools or advice for your work

Search public domain images

A great tool, if US-centric, for finding public domain works:

Public Work by Cosmos

Public Work is a visual search engine for public domain content. Explore 100,000+ copyright-free images from The MET, New York Public Library, and other sources

[via Kottke]

Identifying weapons in social media footage

It's an indictment of the state of the world that an article like this is widely useful. But that is the world we live in, and it is…

A Beginner’s Guide to Identifying Explosive Ordnance in Social Media Imagery - bellingcat

Learn to identify some of the more common types of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in online images using open-source tools and resources.

bellingcatAndro Mathewson