I see a lot of comments here reduce the argument to “Ads are bad” . . . Well, Remember that ad-supported business models have underwritten the vast majority of

I see a lot of comments here reduce the argument to “Ads are bad” . . . Well, Remember that ad-supported business models have underwritten the vast majority of technology R&D and improvements over the past two decades. Yes, including Apple. Hardware devices would never have the utility they do at present without large scale, low margin, high throughput ad models that benefit developers building insanely complex systems around said hardware. The whole advancement in AI we’re seeing today would never have been accelerated the way it has been this past decade without the monetization models of the present internet. It is a fine balance to strike where we don’t want to kill off the model that works so well, for fear of parts of it. The alternative monetization models are things that many people here would despise much more: - More closed-source , paid services , apps, devices that are more expensive without the scale of ad supported models - Smaller (and arguably harder to oversee) spin offs of major ad supported services. - etc