5 ms·

AI is killing the grand bargain at the heart of the web

18 points by skilled 3y ago

skilled 3y ago
https://archive.is/LwVyQ https://archive.is/LwVyQ
sharemywin 3y ago
Would that be so bad? Advertising has destroyed the internet in my opinion.
- sumanthvepa 3y ago
  All that would be left is advertising. Everything else will be paywalled.
  - throw9away6 3y ago
    I’d almost be ok with that but the paywall doesn’t actually contain good content and the key to each gate is pretty expensive
  - qbxk 3y ago
    that wouldn't be so bad if the paywalls were itty-bitty, like fractions of a cent. and we had a more seamless way to pay them, like some kind of in-browser wallet that responded to "requires-payment" http headers in fact, i think that'd be great
- bradgessler 3y ago
  Yeah, the results of search engines these days is so poor. They seem to only want to send people to the most profitable page instead of the most useful page.
JohnFen 3y ago
> Creators share abundant information and exchange ideas online freely because they know consumers will visit and either see an ad, subscribe, or buy something. Some, sure, but hardly all of them. I don't think that this is "the grand bargain at the heart of the web" at all. If it is, then it should die. What AI is killing, in at least some circles, is the willingness to share anything on the web at all, even when no monetization was involved. That's the heart of the web that the dagger is aimed at.
- jfengel 3y ago
  A lot of the actual creators do it for free. Like your comment and mine right here. But often, the one providing the infrastructure on which they do it is making money via some mechanism. That's also part of the "grand bargain". You make your YouTube video or your TikTok or your Facebook comment or your Wordpress page. The company provides the hosting, in exchange for ads shown to the people who see your content. (That's not exactly true of our comments here on HN, and I admit I don't entirely understand that. It seems to be a combination of an inexpensive-to-provide service and a general goodwill-generator, along with a medium for some content they want distributed.) I think that comprises a very significant majority of creators: somebody somewhere is subsidizing it, even if there's an extra step involved. Though yeah, the creators themselves are probably getting demoralized, too. They want to feel their creative juices flowing and to experience some kind of connection with other people in sharing it. AI dilutes the former and sucks up the latter.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > But often, the one providing the infrastructure on which they do it is making money via some mechanism. I count those as being commercial in nature. The specific creator might not be, but the platform itself is, so it counts anyway. I'm talking more about those people who actually put stuff up with no commercial intent and who don't monetize in any way. In my view, they're "the heart of the web". The monetizing sites are just the things we have to put up with.
mensetmanusman 3y ago
The love of money may kill the open web? What if we use AI to generate 1,000,000x more nonsense on the web to make crawling ineffective instead? Could the dead internet theory put into practice be the solution?

18 points by skilled 3y ago

skilled 3y ago

https://archive.is/LwVyQ https://archive.is/LwVyQ

sharemywin 3y ago

Would that be so bad? Advertising has destroyed the internet in my opinion.

sumanthvepa 3y ago
All that would be left is advertising. Everything else will be paywalled.
- throw9away6 3y ago
  I’d almost be ok with that but the paywall doesn’t actually contain good content and the key to each gate is pretty expensive
- qbxk 3y ago
  that wouldn't be so bad if the paywalls were itty-bitty, like fractions of a cent. and we had a more seamless way to pay them, like some kind of in-browser wallet that responded to "requires-payment" http headers in fact, i think that'd be great
bradgessler 3y ago
Yeah, the results of search engines these days is so poor. They seem to only want to send people to the most profitable page instead of the most useful page.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Creators share abundant information and exchange ideas online freely because they know consumers will visit and either see an ad, subscribe, or buy something. Some, sure, but hardly all of them. I don't think that this is "the grand bargain at the heart of the web" at all. If it is, then it should die. What AI is killing, in at least some circles, is the willingness to share anything on the web at all, even when no monetization was involved. That's the heart of the web that the dagger is aimed at.

jfengel 3y ago
A lot of the actual creators do it for free. Like your comment and mine right here. But often, the one providing the infrastructure on which they do it is making money via some mechanism. That's also part of the "grand bargain". You make your YouTube video or your TikTok or your Facebook comment or your Wordpress page. The company provides the hosting, in exchange for ads shown to the people who see your content. (That's not exactly true of our comments here on HN, and I admit I don't entirely understand that. It seems to be a combination of an inexpensive-to-provide service and a general goodwill-generator, along with a medium for some content they want distributed.) I think that comprises a very significant majority of creators: somebody somewhere is subsidizing it, even if there's an extra step involved. Though yeah, the creators themselves are probably getting demoralized, too. They want to feel their creative juices flowing and to experience some kind of connection with other people in sharing it. AI dilutes the former and sucks up the latter.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > But often, the one providing the infrastructure on which they do it is making money via some mechanism. I count those as being commercial in nature. The specific creator might not be, but the platform itself is, so it counts anyway. I'm talking more about those people who actually put stuff up with no commercial intent and who don't monetize in any way. In my view, they're "the heart of the web". The monetizing sites are just the things we have to put up with.

mensetmanusman 3y ago

The love of money may kill the open web? What if we use AI to generate 1,000,000x more nonsense on the web to make crawling ineffective instead? Could the dead internet theory put into practice be the solution?