tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/google-119/articlesGoogle – The Conversation2024-03-26T17:01:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262572024-03-26T17:01:56Z2024-03-26T17:01:56ZHow long before quantum computers can benefit society? That’s Google’s US$5 million question<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583117/original/file-20240320-26-rmpub2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3828%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/quantum-computer-black-background-3d-render-1571871052">Bartlomiej K. Wroblewski / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Google and the XPrize Foundation have launched a competition worth US$5 million (£4 million) to develop <a href="https://blog.google/technology/research/google-gesda-and-xprize-launch-new-competition-in-quantum-applications/">real-world applications for quantum computers</a> that benefit society – by speeding up progress on one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, for example. The principles of quantum physics suggest quantum computers could perform very fast calculations on particular problems, so this competition may expand the range of applications where they have an advantage over conventional computers.</p>
<p>In our everyday lives, the way nature works can generally be described by what we call <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_physics#:%7E:text=Classical%20physical%20concepts%20are%20often,of%20quantum%20mechanics%20and%20relativity.">classical physics</a>. But nature behaves very differently at tiny quantum scales – below the size of an atom. </p>
<p>The race to harness quantum technology can be viewed as a new industrial revolution, progressing from devices that use the properties of classical physics to those utilising the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsquantum-mechanics#:%7E:text=Quantum%20mechanics%20is%20the%20field,%E2%80%9Cwave%2Dparticle%20duality.%E2%80%9D">weird and wonderful properties of quantum mechanics</a>. Scientists have spent decades trying to develop new technologies by harnessing these properties. </p>
<p>Given how often we are told that <a href="https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/quantum-technologies">quantum technologies</a> will revolutionise our everyday lives, you may be surprised that we still have to search for practical applications by offering a prize. However, while there are numerous examples of success using quantum properties for enhanced precision in sensing and timing, there has been a surprising lack of progress in the development of quantum computers that outdo their classical predecessors.</p>
<p>The main bottleneck holding up this development is that the software – using <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi201523">quantum algorithms</a> –
needs to demonstrate an advantage over computers based on classical physics. This is commonly known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-advantage-a-quantum-computing-scientist-explains-an-approaching-milestone-marking-the-arrival-of-extremely-powerful-computers-213306">“quantum advantage”</a>.</p>
<p>A crucial way quantum computing differs from classical computing is in using a property known as <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-is-quantum-entanglement">“entanglement”</a>. Classical computing <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html">uses “bits”</a> to represent information. These bits consist of ones and zeros, and everything a computer does comprises strings of these ones and zeros. But quantum computing allows these bits to be in a <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-a-qubit">“superposition” of ones and zeros</a>. In other words, it is as if these ones and zeros occur simultaneously in the quantum bit, or qubit.</p>
<p>It is this property which allows computational tasks to be performed all at once. Hence the belief that quantum computing can offer a significant advantage over classical computing, as it is able to perform many computing tasks at the same time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-advantage-a-quantum-computing-scientist-explains-an-approaching-milestone-marking-the-arrival-of-extremely-powerful-computers-213306">What is quantum advantage? A quantum computing scientist explains an approaching milestone marking the arrival of extremely powerful computers</a>
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<h2>Notable quantum algorithms</h2>
<p>While performing many tasks simultaneously should lead to a performance increase over classical computers, putting this into practice has proven more difficult than theory would suggest. There are actually only a few notable quantum algorithms which can perform their tasks better than those using classical physics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Quantum chips - rendering" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583127/original/file-20240320-20-fnde2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/futuristic-cpu-quantum-processor-global-computer-1210158169">Yurchanka Siarhei / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The most notable are the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/quvis/simulations_html5/sims/cryptography-bb84/Quantum_Cryptography.html">BB84 protocol</a>, developed in 1984, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95973-w">Shor’s algorithm</a>, developed in 1994, both of which use entanglement to outperform classical algorithms on particular tasks. </p>
<p>The BB84 protocol is a cryptographic protocol – a system for ensuring secure, private communication between two or more parties which is considered more secure than comparable classical algorithms.</p>
<p>Shor’s algorithm uses entanglement to demonstrate how current <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2023/09/when-a-quantum-computer-is-able-to-break-our-encryption.html#:%7E:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20important,secure%20internet%20traffic%20against%20interception.">classical encryption protocols can be broken</a>, because they are based on the factorisation of very large numbers. <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/365700">There is also evidence</a> that it can perform certain calculations faster than similar algorithms designed for conventional computers. </p>
<p>Despite the superiority of these two algorithms over conventional ones, few advantageous quantum algorithms have followed. However, researchers have not given up trying to develop them. Currently, there are a couple of main directions in research.</p>
<h2>Potential quantum benefits</h2>
<p>The first is to use quantum mechanics to assist in what are called <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.02279">large-scale optimisation tasks</a>. Optimisation – finding the best or most effective way to solve a particular task – is vital in everyday life, from ensuring traffic flow runs effectively, to managing operational procedures in factory pipelines, to streaming services deciding what to recommend to each user. It seems clear that quantum computers could help with these problems.</p>
<p>If we could reduce the computational time required to perform the optimisation, it could save energy, reducing the carbon footprint of the many computers currently performing these tasks around the world and the data centres supporting them.</p>
<p>Another development that could offer wide-reaching benefits is to use quantum computation to simulate systems, such as combinations of atoms, that behave according to quantum mechanics. Understanding and predicting how quantum systems work in practice could, for example, lead to better drug design and medical treatments. </p>
<p>Quantum systems could also lead to improved electronic devices. As computer chips get smaller, quantum effects take hold, potentially reducing the devices’s performance. A better fundamental understanding of quantum mechanics could help avoid this.</p>
<p>While there has been significant investment in building quantum computers, there has been less focus on ensuring they will directly benefit the public. However, that now appears to be changing.</p>
<p>Whether we will all have quantum computers in our homes within the next 20 years remains doubtful. But, given the current financial commitment to making quantum computation a practical reality, it seems that society is finally in a better position to make use of them. What precise form will this take? There’s US$5 million dollars on the line to find out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Lowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Quantum computing has huge promise from a technical perspective, but the practical benefits are less clear.Adam Lowe, Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Digital Technologies, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2258542024-03-21T17:26:20Z2024-03-21T17:26:20ZAI’s excessive water consumption threatens to drown out its environmental contributions<p>Water is needed for development, production and consumption, yet we are overusing and polluting an unsubstitutable resource and system. </p>
<p>Eight safe and just boundaries for five domains (climate, biosphere, water, nutrients and aerosols) have been identified beyond which there is significant harm to humans and nature and the risk of crossing tipping points increases. Humans have already crossed the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8">safe and just Earth System Boundaries for water</a>. </p>
<p>To date, seven of the eight boundaries have been crossed, and although the aerosol boundary has not been crossed at the global level, it has been crossed at city level in many parts of the world.</p>
<p>For water, the safe and just boundaries specify that surface water flows should not fluctuate more than 20 per cent relative to the natural flow on a monthly basis; while groundwater withdrawal should not be more than the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/groundwater-recharge">recharge rate</a>. Both of these boundaries have been crossed.</p>
<p>These thresholds have been crossed even though the minimum needs of the world’s poorest to access water and sanitation services <a href="https://www.unicef.org/wash#:%7E:text=Worldwide%2C%202.2%20billion%20people%20still,to%20handwashing%20facilities%20with%20soap">have not been met</a>. Addressing these needs will put an even greater pressure on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00995-5">already-strained water systems</a>.</p>
<h2>AI’s potential</h2>
<p>Technological optimists argue that artificial intelligence (AI) holds the potential to solve the world’s water problems. Supporters of AI argue that it can help achieve both the environmental and social <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs), for example by designing systems to address shortages of teachers and doctors, increase crop yields and manage our energy needs.</p>
<p>In the past decade, research into this area has grown exponentially, with potential applications including increasing <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8622984">water efficiency and monitoring in agriculture</a>, <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10058801">water security</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2019.11.014">enhancing wastewater treatment</a>. </p>
<p>AI-powered biosensors can more accurately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2022.100888">detect toxic chemicals in drinking water</a> than current quality monitoring practices.</p>
<p>The potential for AI to change the water used in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3232485">agriculture</a> is evident through the building of smart machines, robots and sensors that optimize farming systems. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3232485">smart irrigation</a> automates irrigation through the collection and analysis of data to optimize water usage by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772427122000791">improving efficiency</a> and <a href="http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijnc.20170701.01.html">detecting leakage</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="rows of lettuce beds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583274/original/file-20240320-20-ot4d8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A smart irrigation system for green oak lettuce in Chiang Mai, Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>As international development scholars who study the relationship between water, the environment and global inequality, we are curious about whether AI can actually make a difference or whether it exacerbates existing challenges. Although there is peer-reviewed literature on the use of AI for managing water and the SDGs, there are no peer-reviewed papers on the direct and indirect implications of AI on water use. </p>
<h2>AI and water use</h2>
<p>Initial research shows that AI has a significant water footprint. It uses water both for <a href="https://puiij.com/index.php/research/article/view/39/23">cooling the servers</a> that power its computations and for producing the energy it consumes. As AI becomes more integrated into our societies, its water footprint will inevitably grow. </p>
<p>The growth of ChatGPT and similar AI models has been hailed as “<a href="https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/is-chatgpt-the-new-google-5fdd0170c861">the new Google</a>.” But while a single Google search requires <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2010.5466789">half a millilitre of water in energy</a>, ChatGPT consumes <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.03271">500 millilitres of water for every five to 50 prompts</a>. </p>
<p>AI <a href="https://puiij.com/index.php/research/article/view/39">uses</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.08.061">pollutes</a> water through related hardware production. Producing the AI hardware involves resource-intensive mining for rare materials such as silicon, germanium, gallium, boron and phosphorous. Extracting these minerals has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5897/JGRP2015.0495">significant impact on the environment and contributes to water pollution</a>. </p>
<p>Semiconductors and microchips require large volumes of water in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watcyc.2023.01.004">manufacturing stage</a>. Other hardware, such as for various <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b01653">sensors</a>, also have an associated water footprint.</p>
<p>Data centres provide the physical infrastructure for training and running AI, and their energy consumption <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024">could double by 2026</a>. Technology firms using water to run and cool these data centres potentially require water withdrawals of 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="an aerial view of uniformly arranged rectangular buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583276/original/file-20240320-30-2qnook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Microsoft data centers located in Noord-Holland, The Netherlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>By comparison, <a href="https://sustainability.google/reports/google-2023-environmental-report/.">Google’s data centres</a> used over 21 billion litres of potable water in 2022, an increase of 20 per cent on its 2021 usage.</p>
<p>Training an AI at the computing level of a human brain for one year can cost <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7855594">126,000 litres of water</a>. Each year the computing power needed to train AI <a href="https://openai.com/research/ai-and-compute">increases tenfold</a>, requiring more resources. </p>
<p>Water use of big tech companies’ data centres is grossly underestimated — for example, the <a href="http://www.aquatechtrade.com/news/industrial-water/microsoft-data-centre-uses-too-much-water">water consumption at Microsoft’s Dutch data centre was four times their initial plans</a>. Demand for water for cooling will only <a href="https://procido.com/2023/09/27/how-artificial-intelligence-ai-is-stealing-your-drinking-water/">increase</a> because of rising average temperatures due to climate change.</p>
<h2>Conflicting needs</h2>
<p>The technology sector’s water demand is so high that communities are protesting against it as it threatens their livelihoods. Google’s data centre in drought-prone The Dalles, Ore. is sparking concern as it uses a <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2022/12/googles-water-use-is-soaring-in-the-dalles-records-show-with-two-more-data-centers-to-come.html">quarter of the city’s water</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Associated Press looks at Google’s water consumption in The Dalles, Ore.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Taiwan, responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2023/03/06/taiwans-dominance-of-the-chip-industry-makes-it-more-important">advanced semiconductor chip production</a>, has resorted to cloud seeding, water desalination, interbasin water transfers and halting irrigation for 180,000 hectares <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/technology/taiwan-drought-tsmc-semiconductors.html">to address its water needs</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-microchip-industry-would-implode-if-china-invaded-taiwan-and-it-would-affect-everyone-206335">The microchip industry would implode if China invaded Taiwan, and it would affect everyone</a>
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<h2>Locating data centres</h2>
<p>As water becomes increasingly expensive and scarce in relation to demand, companies are now strategically placing their data centres in the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/the-cloud-vs-drought-water-hog-data-centers-threaten-latin-america-critics-say/">developing world</a> — even in dry sub-Saharan Africa, <a href="https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/africas-data-centre-boom/156344/">data centre investments are increasing</a>. </p>
<p>Google’s planned data centre in Uruguay, which recently suffered its <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/running-dry-the-battle-for-water-security-in-uruguay-and-why-it-foreshadows-a-greater-issue/">worst drought in 74 years</a>, would require 7.6 million litres per day, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/uruguay-drought-water-google-data-center">sparking widespread protest</a>. </p>
<p>What emerges is a familiar picture of geographic inequality, as developing countries find themselves caught in a dilemma between the economic benefits offered by international investment and the strain this places on local water resources availability. </p>
<p>We believe there is sufficient evidence for concern that the rapid uptake of AI risks exacerbating the water crises rather than help addressing them. As yet, there are no systematic studies on the AI industry and its water consumption. Technology companies have been tightlipped about the water footprint of their new products. </p>
<p>The broader question is: Will the social and environmental contributions of AI be overshadowed by its huge water footprint?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joyeeta Gupta receives funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), under grant number 5000005700 and case number 31184622</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilmer Bosch receives funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), under grant number 5000005700 and case number 31184622</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luc van Vliet receives funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), under grant number 5000005700 and case number 31184622</span></em></p>Artificial intelligence promises revolutionary solutions to global challenges, but the water costs to produce and power AI hardware and infrastructure may exceed the benefits.Joyeeta Gupta, Professor, Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of AmsterdamHilmer Bosch, Postdoctoral researcher on the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, University of AmsterdamLuc van Vliet, Researcher, Human Geography, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262192024-03-20T04:06:40Z2024-03-20T04:06:40ZTerrorist content lurks all over the internet – regulating only 6 major platforms won’t be nearly enough<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583026/original/file-20240320-17-wn83c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C241%2C2619%2C1761&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burning-car-unrest-antigovernment-crime-581564755">Bumble Dee/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s eSafety commissioner <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-19/social-media-esafety-commissioner-terrorist-violent-extremist/103603518">has sent legal notices</a> to Google, Meta, Telegram, WhatsApp, Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) asking them to show what they’re doing to protect Australians from online extremism. The six companies <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/tech-companies-grilled-on-how-they-are-tackling-terror-and-violent-extremism">have 49 days to respond</a>.</p>
<p>The notice comes at a time when governments are increasingly cracking down on major tech companies to address online harms like <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-fined-x-australia-over-child-sex-abuse-material-concerns-how-severe-is-the-issue-and-what-happens-now-215696">child sexual abuse material</a> or <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-apologizes-parents-victims-online-exploitation-senate-hearing/">bullying</a>.</p>
<p>Combating online extremism presents unique challenges different from other content moderation problems. Regulators wanting to establish effective and meaningful change must take into account what research has shown us about extremism and terrorism.</p>
<h2>Extremists are everywhere</h2>
<p>Online extremism and terrorism have been pressing concerns for some time. A stand-out example was the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack on two mosques in Aotearoa New Zealand, which was live streamed on Facebook. It led to the <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/nz-and-france-seek-end-use-social-media-acts-terrorism">“Christchurch Call” to action</a>, aimed at countering extremism through collaborations between countries and tech companies.</p>
<p>But despite such efforts, <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA1458-2.html">extremists still use online platforms</a> for networking and coordination, recruitment and radicalisation, knowledge transfer, financing and mobilisation to action.</p>
<p>In fact, extremists use the same online infrastructure as everyday users: marketplaces, dating platforms, gaming sites, music streaming sites and social networks. Therefore, all regulation to counter extremism needs to consider the rights of regular users, as well.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-5-years-on-terrorists-online-history-gives-clues-to-preventing-future-atrocities-225273">Christchurch attacks 5 years on: terrorist’s online history gives clues to preventing future atrocities</a>
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<h2>The rise of ‘swarmcasting’</h2>
<p>Tech companies have responded with initiatives like the <a href="https://gifct.org/membership">Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism</a>. It shares information on terrorist online content among its members (such as Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, X and others) so they can take it down on their platforms. These approaches aim to <a href="https://gifct.org/hsdb/">automatically identify and remove</a> terrorist or extremist content.</p>
<p>However, a moderation policy focused on individual pieces of content on individual platforms fails to capture much of what’s out there.</p>
<p>Terrorist groups commonly use a <a href="https://static.rusi.org/20190716_grntt_paper_06.pdf">“swarmcasting” multiplatform approach</a>, leveraging 700 platforms or more to distribute their content.</p>
<p>Swarmcasting involves using “beacons” on major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Telegram to direct people to locations with terrorist material. This beacon can be a hyperlink to a blog post on a website like Wordpress or Tumblr that then contains further links to the content, perhaps hosted on Google Drive, JustPaste.It, BitChute and other places where users can download it.</p>
<p>So, while extremist content may be flagged and removed from social media, it remains accessible online thanks to swarmcasting. </p>
<h2>Putting up filters isn’t enough</h2>
<p>The process of identifying and removing extremist content is far from simple. For example, at a recent US Supreme Court hearing over internet regulations, <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/podcasts/the-netchoice-cases-reach-the-supreme-court/">a lawyer argued</a> platforms could moderate terrorist content by simply removing anything that mentioned “al Qaeda”.</p>
<p>However, internationally recognised terrorist organisations, their members and supporters do not solely distribute policy-violating extremist content. Some may be discussing non-terrorist activities, such as those who engage in humanitarian efforts.</p>
<p>Other times their content is borderline (awful but lawful), such as misogynistic dog whistles, or even “hidden” <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/isj.12454">in a different format</a>, such as memes.</p>
<p>Accordingly, platforms can’t always cite policy violations and are compelled to use other methods to counter such content. They report using various content moderation techniques such as redirecting users, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/google-to-expand-misinformation-prebunking-initiative-in-europe">pre-bunking misinformation</a>, promoting counterspeech and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57697779">offering warnings</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-shadowbanning-how-do-i-know-if-it-has-happened-to-me-and-what-can-i-do-about-it-192735">implementing shadow bans</a>. Despite these efforts, online extremism continues to persist.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disinformation-threatens-global-elections-heres-how-to-fight-back-223392">Disinformation threatens global elections – here's how to fight back</a>
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<h2>What is extremism, anyway?</h2>
<p>All these problems are further compounded by the fact we lack a <a href="https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/terrorism/module-4/key-issues/defining-terrorism.html">commonly accepted definition</a> for terrorism or extremism. All definitions currently in place are contentious.</p>
<p>Academics attempt to seek clarity by using <a href="https://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/view/3809">relativistic definitions</a>, such as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>extremism itself is context-dependent in the sense that it is an inherently relative term that describes a deviation from something that is (more) ‘ordinary’, ‘mainstream’ or ‘normal’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, what is something we can accept as a universal normal? Democracy is not the global norm, nor are equal rights. Not even our understanding of <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/humanrights/2016/09/14/are-human-rights-really-universal-inalienable-and-indivisible/">central tenets of human rights</a> is globally established.</p>
<h2>What should regulators do, then?</h2>
<p>As the eSafety commissioner attempts to shed light on how major platforms counter terrorism, we offer several recommendations for the commissioner to consider.</p>
<p>1. Extremists rely on more than just the major platforms to disseminate information. This highlights the importance of expanding the current inquiries beyond just the major tech players.</p>
<p>2. Regulators need to consider the differences between platforms that resist compliance, those that comply halfheartedly, and those that struggle to comply, such as small content storage providers. Each type of platform <a href="https://ksp.techagainstterrorism.org/">requires different regulatory approaches</a> or assistance. </p>
<p>3. Future regulations should encourage platforms to transparently collaborate with academia. The global research community is well positioned <a href="https://gifct.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GIFCT-TaxonomyReport-2021.pdf">to address these challenges</a>, such as by developing actionable definitions of extremism and novel countermeasures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marten Risius is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Australian Discovery Early Career Award funded by the Australian Government. Marten Risius has received project funding from the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Karanasios has received funding from Emergency Management Victoria, Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, and the International Telecommunications Union. Stan is a Distinguished Member of the Association for Information Systems.</span></em></p>Online extremism is a unique challenge – terrorists use methods that can’t be captured by standard content moderation. So, what can we do about it?Marten Risius, Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems, The University of QueenslandStan Karanasios, Associate Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2249662024-03-07T03:15:46Z2024-03-07T03:15:46ZFirst Newshub, now TVNZ: the news funding model is broken – but this would fix it<p>The announcement last week that <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/510398/newshub-to-shut-down-in-june">Newshub would be shut down</a> was not the “canary in the coalmine” some suggested – it was the explosion. If it is not to be the first of many, then New Zealand needs a new model for its fourth estate.</p>
<p>The fate of Newshub and today’s <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/511058/live-tvnz-to-cut-up-to-68-jobs-in-proposed-restructure">projected newsroom cuts at TVNZ</a> threaten to leave a significant gap in the news sector, particularly television. But beyond that, the causes and solutions are very much up for debate.</p>
<p>There are both specific institutional factors and deeper structural trends at play within the television and news sectors. And Newshub’s <a href="https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/02/29/a-plan-to-rescue-newshub-on-a-beer-budget/">tangled financial history</a> serves as a reminder of the dangers of foreign ownership of strategic media assets. </p>
<p>Beyond the shifting fortunes of one company, however, the local news ecology has faced wider structural problems. The imminent loss of so many working news producers and journalists makes finding workable solutions even more urgent.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1765445020255912375"}"></div></p>
<h2>Fragmenting audiences</h2>
<p>Over the past 25 years, the TV sector’s share of the advertising market has <a href="https://www.asa.co.nz/industry/asa-advertising-turnover-report/">roughly halved</a>, from 34.3% in 1999 to just 17.7% by 2022.</p>
<p>The capture of advertising revenue by Google and Meta (the parent of Facebook and Instagram) has played a key role. Google alone now accounts for almost <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/510750/bailout-warning-went-to-minister-melissa-lee-s-office-before-newshub-s-collapse">two-thirds</a> of the roughly NZ$1.8 billion digital advertising spend in New Zealand.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-end-of-newshub-the-slippery-slope-just-got-steeper-for-nz-journalism-and-democracy-224625">With the end of Newshub, the slippery slope just got steeper for NZ journalism and democracy</a>
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<hr>
<p>But the decline in TV revenues is also related to the fragmentation of audiences, as viewers shift to new on-demand services. TV3’s daily audience reach for its linear services <a href="https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/research/where-are-the-audiences-2023/">declined by almost 50%</a>, from 35% in 2014 to 17% in 2023.</p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, Newshub’s demise has amplified calls from the news sector to expedite the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2023/0278/latest/whole.html">Fair News Digital Bargaining Bill</a>. This would require the online platforms to negotiate payments to news providers for hosting, linking and sharing news content. </p>
<p>Some estimates suggest this could be worth $30–50 million annually to the news sector. On the face of it, this may appear to be a logical solution – but it’s not that simple.</p>
<h2>A flawed bill</h2>
<p>There are a number of <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCEDSI_EVI_fc7faac0-2ec0-4e47-7ab5-08db9ebb2302_EDSI122/f9a94645093fe85c6e9450a7c377e42daeb7da04">problems with the proposed bill</a>. Fundamentally, it misdiagnoses the market relationship between the platforms and the news media.</p>
<p>The tech platforms’ capture of digital advertising stems not from its co-option of news content, but from the mass harvesting of audience data (enabling targeted advertising), and algorithmic influence over content discovery.</p>
<p>The bill also provides no fixed benchmarks for payments. And the arbitration process in the event of non-agreement is potentially very complex, because different media outlets will have varying relationships with each platform.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-wont-keep-paying-australian-media-outlets-for-their-content-are-we-about-to-get-another-news-ban-224857">Facebook won't keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban?</a>
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<p>Making those agreements will depend on the goodwill of the platforms. But arbitration could well determine the advantages the platforms confer on news providers (increasing their visibility and directing traffic to their websites) outweigh the commercial benefits to the platforms of hosting or sharing news content.</p>
<p>Indeed, Meta’s resistance to the news bargaining frameworks in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/01/facebook-news-tab-shut-down-end-australia-journalism-funding-deals">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67755133">Canada</a> underlines the risk of a platform exempting itself from bargaining obligations by prohibiting the hosting and sharing of news. </p>
<p>News media depending on platform payments might also be motivated to provide content that maximises value to the platforms – for example, populist or controversial content more likely to be shared. Or they may be less inclined to critically investigate issues involving their benefactors.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there is no guarantee any platform payments will actually be reinvested in news production, let alone commercially unattractive genres such as local government or regional reporting.</p>
<h2>A new form of funding</h2>
<p>There is no realistic possibility of the government bailing out Newshub or any other individual news outlet.</p>
<p>And while the news media’s function in upholding democratic processes and holding power to account remains vital, it doesn’t follow that market competition and plurality are sufficient to sustain that.</p>
<p>Indeed, it was the introduction of commercial competition for eyeballs and advertising that drove <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279455908_The_State_the_Media_and_Thin_Democracy">measurable declines</a> in the length and substance of television news through the 1990s.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/breaking-news-making-google-and-facebook-pay-nz-media-for-content-could-deliver-less-than-bargained-for-196030">Breaking news: making Google and Facebook pay NZ media for content could deliver less than bargained for</a>
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<p>Democracy cannot thrive if the fourth estate is in a commercial race to the bottom. It requires diversity of perspectives and competition for substance that treats the audience as citizens, not just fodder for advertisers.</p>
<p>This requires a new form of funding and a new institutional arrangement. One way to achieve this would be through a small levy on digital advertising expenditure, and potentially other commercial revenues such as internet and streaming services. The revenue would be reinvested in news content through an independent agency on a contestable basis.</p>
<p>There are different possible mechanisms, but an initial model could apply a levy to digital advertising spend across the media sector. This would mean the advertising spend currently going to Google and Meta would generate the majority of the revenue. </p>
<p>Although the spend going to other media would, in principle, also incur the levy, there could be rebates for local content producers. News operators would, in any case, be the recipients of the journalism funding which the levy makes possible.</p>
<p>Even a 1% levy on the $1.8 billion digital advertising spend would generate as much revenue as the (now defunct) <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300932677/public-interest-journalism-fund-closes">Public Interest Journalism Fund</a>. A 3% levy would equal the higher estimates of what the proposed Fair News Digital Bargaining Bill would deliver.</p>
<h2>Collaborative news sharing</h2>
<p>Being administered by an independent agency (perhaps NZ On Air) would help ensure the levy supported news based on public service principles – including investigative, local government, regional and minority coverage – and that a wide range of news operations received support.</p>
<p>There is also a need for some form of collaborative news-sharing model. RNZ already shares its news content, and there have been proposals for a <a href="https://www.rnn.co.nz/">regional news network</a> to cover local issues often overlooked by the mainstream. </p>
<p>An independent, multi-platform news publisher model could underpin such an initiative. It would operate across both broadcasting, print and online media, and allow members to make use of any pooled content on their own channels or websites. </p>
<p>A levy mechanism and public news publisher model would be a far better basis for rescuing New Zealand’s fourth estate than throwing the news media some crumbs from Big Tech’s table.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Thompson is a founding member and chair of the Better Public Media Trust. He has previously undertaken commissioned research for the Canadian Department of Heritage, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and NZ On Air. </span></em></p>Calls for the Fair News Digital Bargaining Bill to be fast-tracked are misguided. A better solution would be a straight levy on digital advertising to fund public interest news production.Peter Thompson, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246652024-03-05T12:46:21Z2024-03-05T12:46:21ZEurope’s tech industry is lagging behind the US – but it gives the continent a chance to write the rules of the game<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579147/original/file-20240301-16-17taok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C8192%2C5432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The US largely dominates the technology landscape.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kazan-russia-oct-31-2021-facebook-2066815178">Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Europe invests a lot in research, and publishes and patents many ideas. But it <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/european-rd-review-finds-lagging-high-tech-performance-despite-major-science-investment">fails to compete</a> with the US and China when it comes to translating its innovation effort into large, global technology firms. The seven largest US tech companies, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, are <a href="https://www.euronews.com/business/2023/12/21/why-cant-european-tech-firms-compete-with-their-us-counterparts">20 times bigger</a> than the EU’s seven largest, and generate more than ten times more revenue.</p>
<p>That isn’t to say Europe has no tech <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/craigsmith/2023/02/14/europes-venture-capital-scene-is-narrowing-the-gap-with-the-us-despite-global-investment-slowdown/">success stories</a>. The world leader in music streaming is Spotify, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnforde/2022/01/19/spotify-comfortably-remains-the-biggest-streaming-service-despite-its-market-share-being-eaten-into/">Swedish company</a>. Dutch company ASML produces the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/23578430/chip-war-chris-miller-asml-intel-apple-samsung-us-china-decoder">world’s most advanced</a> computer chips, and Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/184617f3-9a88-4d23-8e23-d1a08d5577dd">leading</a> the extremely profitable market for weight-loss drugs.</p>
<p>European start-ups are also actually a <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/europe-leads-us-startup-vc-gray-equidam/">better deal</a> for venture capitalists on average than US ones. But they rarely develop into major global players. The main reason for this is that Europe regulates more.</p>
<p>Research has found that Europeans are <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20162015">less optimistic</a> than Americans about social mobility, want to <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/705551">redistribute income</a> more than they do in the US, and have a more cautious relationship to <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp2270%7E9c72a27c18.en.pdf">owning risky assets</a>. This leads to some <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/securing-europes-competitiveness-addressing-its-technology-gap#/">very predictable outcomes</a>. Environmental, inequality and life expectancy metrics perform better in Europe, while the US does better on purely economic indicators.</p>
<p>This is not necessarily bad news. In the competition to define the rules of the technological game, combining the huge US tech ecosystem and the European obsession for regulation may be the best chance to protect consumers, freedom of expression, accountability and transparency around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="EU flags in front of European Commission in Brussels on a sunny day." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578982/original/file-20240229-28-6si2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Europe has the chance to write the global rules for the tech industry according to its own values.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eu-flags-front-european-commission-brussels-162128453">symbiot/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The world leader in regulation</h2>
<p>The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6983504/">faster to expedite</a> its approval of new drugs than the European Medicine Agency. Pharmaceutical firms are also allowed a larger profit: drugs in the US are on average more than <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2956.html">three times more expensive</a> than in the rest of the OECD. </p>
<p>So it makes sense for pharmaceutical companies to develop their products in the US first. The same is true if you want to develop a new synthetic meat, a modified crop, or a product linked to Artificial Intelligence (AI). </p>
<p>Europe could grow faster by changing its model. But ask European leaders which precise regulation they are happy to relax, and you will hear a deafening silence. </p>
<p>Britain is perhaps the best illustration. A large part of the Brexit project was to simplify European rules that were perceived as excessive. However, the UK is yet to make any major regulatory change eight years after the referendum, and the government <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/07c98087-3914-4107-a6ee-56cc4086459e">shows no interest</a> in changing tack.</p>
<p>In the US, innovation has gone hand in hand with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv24w62m5">market concentration and market power</a>. When companies have high market power, they may have fewer incentives to innovate. They also start to gain <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4390776">political power</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Assorted app icons representing some of the major big tech companies in the US, including Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Twitter, as seen on an iPhone screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578985/original/file-20240229-30-iujk0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The US is home to tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Meta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portland-usa-apr-21-2022-assorted-2148379161">Tada Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is where the role of Europe as an independent regulator is very important. The largest companies <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-eu/tiktoks-compliance-with-the-dma">tend to abide by EU law </a>because they want to keep access to the EU. They also have a tendency to offer the same products all over the world, which means European rules <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-usb-c-charger-rule-shows-how-eu-regulators-make-decisions-for-the-world-184763">apply to everyone</a>.</p>
<p>European rules have clear objectives. The EU’s <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3783436">Digital Markets Act</a>, which <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_6423">comes into force</a> in March 2024, establishes rights and rules for large online platforms – so-called <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_4328">“gatekeepers”</a> such as Google, Amazon or Meta – to prevent them from abusing their market power.</p>
<p>Europe is also credible when it comes to protecting consumers, citizens and transparency. It cannot be suspected of favouring European tech champions, because there are none. Europe can, for instance, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-opens-formal-proceedings-against-tiktok-under-digital-services-act-2024-02-19/">judge Tiktok</a> based on whether it breaches child protection rules, and not based on fears that a Chinese company is taking market share away from a European one. </p>
<h2>Technology and democracy</h2>
<p>Perhaps the best example of the benefits of old regulating Europe and unleashed America is the current race for AI. The US is positioned as the market leader in AI technology, which can power products and applications such as image generators, voice assistants and search engines. <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/ai-investment-forecast-to-approach-200-billion-globally-by-2025.html">Roughly half</a> of the world’s investment in AI currently happens in the US. </p>
<p>At the same time, Europe has already taken several steps to regulate. The EU’s <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-countries-strike-deal-ai-law-act-technology/">Artificial Intelligence Act</a>, for example, defines <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai">different levels</a> of transparency and the auditing of algorithms depending on how dangerous they could become.</p>
<p>Europe will certainly not win the global innovation race for AI. But it has the chance to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/59b9ef36-771f-4f91-89d1-ef89f4a2ec4e">write the global rules</a> according to its own values. This means it can make companies liable for the actions of their AI tools and transparent on the data used for training them. It also means it can require a company’s AI algorithms to be audited.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="TikTok app logo on a smartphone screen and flags of China and United States." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578988/original/file-20240229-22-cklp59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Short-form video hosting service TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stone-uk-october-25-2019-tiktok-1541597285">Ascannio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But for the EU to write the new rules of AI, western companies must win the innovation race. The main competitor is China, where companies are given massive access to government data, including facial recognition. The Chinese government can largely <a href="https://academic.oup.com/restud/article/90/4/1701/6665906">choose its champions</a> by deciding who gets access to data. </p>
<p>China’s concerns about regulation could not be further away from those in Europe. China is not interested in improving transparency and fair political competition – it wants to use data to promote the policies of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2023/04/18/can-xi-jinping-control-ai-without-crushing-it">Chinese Communist Party</a>, and discipline and foster the national economy.</p>
<p>Far from a competition between Europe and the US for tech dominance, western democracies should see their different approaches as a unique opportunity to promote their shared values. In that context, the lack of large, global European tech leaders might actually be a blessing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renaud Foucart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lack of large, global European tech leaders might actually be a blessing.Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2242892024-03-04T19:13:57Z2024-03-04T19:13:57ZGoogle’s Gemini showcases more powerful technology, but we’re still not close to superhuman AI<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578996/original/file-20240229-28-s0hsi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5775%2C3682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Google's new suite of artificial intelligence products showcases AI trained on different modalities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In December 2023, <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-ai">Google announced the launch</a> of its new large language model (LLM) named <a href="https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini">Gemini</a>. Gemini now provides the artificial intelligence (AI) foundations of Google products; it is also a direct rival to <a href="https://openai.com/research/gpt-4">OpenAI’s GPT-4</a>. </p>
<p>But why is Google considering Gemini as such an important milestone, and what does this mean for users of Google’s services? And generally speaking, what does it mean in the context of the current hyperfast-paced developments of AI? </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/googles-gemini-is-the-new-ai-model-really-better-than-chatgpt-219526">Google's Gemini: is the new AI model really better than ChatGPT?</a>
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<h2>AI everywhere</h2>
<p>Google is betting on Gemini to transform most of its products by enhancing current functionalities and creating new ones for services such as search, Gmail, YouTube and its office productivity suite. This would also allow improvements to their online advertising business — their main source of revenue — as well as for Android phone software, with trimmed versions of Gemini running on limited capacity hardware.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UIZAiXYceBI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video from Google highlights Geminis capabilities.</span></figcaption>
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<p>For users, Gemini means new features and improved capacities that would make Google services harder to shun, strengthening an already dominant position in areas such as search engines. The potential and opportunities for Google are considerable, given the bulk of their software is easily upgradable cloud services.</p>
<p>But the huge <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/technology/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence.html">and unexpected success</a> of ChatGPT attracted a lot of attention and enhanced the credibility of OpenAI. Gemini will allow Google to reinstate itself as a major player in AI in the public view. Google is a powerhouse in AI, with large and strong research teams at the origin of many major advances of the last decade. </p>
<p>There is public discussion about these new technologies, both on the benefits they provide and the disruption they create in fields such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-ai-be-permitted-in-college-classrooms-4-scholars-weigh-in-212176">education</a>, design and <a href="https://theconversation.com/faster-more-accurate-diagnoses-healthcare-applications-of-ai-research-114000">health care</a>.</p>
<h2>Strengthening AI</h2>
<p>At its core, Gemini relies on <a href="https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2017/hash/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Abstract.html">transformer networks</a>. Originally devised by a research team at Google, the same technology is used to power other LLMs such as GPT-4. </p>
<p>A distinctive element of Gemini is its capacity to deal with different data modalities: text, audio, image and video. This provides the AI model with the capacity to execute tasks over several modalities, like answering questions regarding the content of an image or conducting a keyword search on specific types of content discussed in podcasts. </p>
<p>But more importantly, that the models can handle distinct modalities enables the training of globally superior AI models, compared to distinct models trained independently for each modality. Indeed, such multimodal models are deemed to be stronger since they are exposed to different perspectives of the same concepts. </p>
<p>For example, the concept of birds may be better understood through learning from a mix of birds’ textual descriptions, vocalizations, images and videos. This idea of multimodal transformer models has been explored in <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.06175">previous research</a> <a href="https://proceedings.mlr.press/v229/zitkovich23a.html">at Google</a>, Gemini being the first full-fledged commercial implementation of the approach.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a flock of small colourful birds taking off" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579303/original/file-20240301-16-2k1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An AI would understand the concept of birds better from a mix of birds’ textual descriptions, vocalizations, images and videos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Such a model is seen as a step in the direction of stronger generalist AI models, also known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2478/jagi-2014-0001">artificial general intelligence</a> (AGI).</p>
<h2>Risks of AGI</h2>
<p>Given the rate at which AI is advancing, the expectations that AGI with superhuman capabilities will be designed in the near future generates discussions in the research community and more broadly in the society. </p>
<p>On one hand, some anticipate the risk of catastrophic events if a powerful AGI falls into the hands of ill-intentioned groups, and request that <a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/">developments be slowed down</a>. </p>
<p>Others claim that we are still very far from such actionable AGI, that the current approaches allow for a shallow modelling of intelligence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922">mimicking the data on which they are trained</a>, and lack an effective <em>world model</em> — a detailed understanding of actual reality — required to achieve human-level intelligence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a digital representation of a brain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579302/original/file-20240301-22-tkfnxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Additional technological breakthroughs are needed to produce artificial general intelligence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the other hand, one could argue that focusing the conversation on existential risk is distracting attention from more immediate impacts brought on by recent advances of AI, including <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMms2004740">perpetuating biases</a>, producing incorrect and misleading content — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/google-ai-tool-historical-inaccuracies-portraits-1.7122704">prompting Google to pause its Gemini image generator</a>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/">increasing environmental impacts</a> and <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/05/1084393/make-no-mistake-ai-is-owned-by-big-tech">enforcing the dominance of Big Tech</a>.</p>
<p>The line to follow lies somewhere in between all of these considerations. We are still far from the advent of actionable AGI — additional breakthroughs are required, including introducing stronger capacities for symbolic modelling and reasoning.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we should not be distracted from the important ethical and societal impacts of modern AI. These considerations are important and should be addressed by people with diverse expertise, spanning technological and social science backgrounds. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, although this is not a short-term threat, achieving AI with superhuman capacity is a matter of concern. It is important that we, collectively, become ready to responsibly manage the emergence of AGI when this significant milestone is reached.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Gagné receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Fonds de recherche du Québec, Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé, Mitacs, CIFAR and Mila. </span></em></p>What is the meaning of the recent release of Google Gemini and where it stands regarding the fast developments of AI technology and its foreseen impacts.Christian Gagné, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248722024-03-02T09:28:32Z2024-03-02T09:28:32ZHow will Meta’s refusal to pay for news affect Australian journalism – and our democracy?<p>When we speak of media freedom, we generally mean it in terms of freedom <em>from</em> unnecessary legal restrictions, so journalists and their sources are not threatened with prosecution for exposing the misdeeds of governments. </p>
<p>But yesterday’s announcement by Meta (Facebook’s parent company) that it will <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/meta-won-t-renew-deal-with-australian-news-media/103533874">stop paying for Australian news content</a> poses a different kind of threat to media freedom. </p>
<p>The most progressive <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-push-to-make-social-media-companies-liable-in-defamation-is-great-for-newspapers-and-lawyers-but-not-you-127513">media freedom laws</a> in the world are meaningless if news companies can’t afford to hire experienced journalists to run expensive investigations. It doesn’t matter how free the laws are if there are no journalists to do the reporting. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-37265-1_4">key part of any successful democracy</a> is a free media, capable of interrogating the powerful and holding governments to account. Even in a world overflowing with digital content, we recognise the need for good journalism, produced to ethical and professional standards, to help inform public debate and good policy-making. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-wont-keep-paying-australian-media-outlets-for-their-content-are-we-about-to-get-another-news-ban-224857">Facebook won't keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban?</a>
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<h2>It was always going to fall apart</h2>
<p>Three years ago, in 2021, under <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">the News Media Bargaining Code</a>, the government forced Meta and Google to negotiate with news organisations and pay for the right to access and post their stories. </p>
<p>The government introduced the code after <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/3/1/facebook-owner-meta-to-end-deals-funding-news-in-australia-germany-france">Facebook and Google were accused of putting news content on their platforms</a>, while denying news organisations the advertising revenues that used to pay for journalism.</p>
<p>Although we don’t know exactly who gets paid what, it is estimated that the two digital giants injected <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/1b-for-journalism-at-risk-in-new-warning-over-google-facebook-20240223-p5f78j.html">about $250 million a year</a> into Australian journalism.</p>
<p>It wasn’t enough to end the crisis in news caused by the collapse of the old business models, but it <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Regionalnewspapers/Report/Section?id=committees%2Freportrep%2F024888%2F79305">helped prop up</a> a lot of struggling companies. In some cases, it helped pay for otherwise unprofitable forms of journalism. </p>
<p>One of the big problems with the code was that it pushed media companies into inherently unstable and unpredictable deals with commercial behemoths, whose only interest in news was as a commodity to help drive profits. It was always going to fall apart, if and when news became too expensive and Facebook users became disinterested. </p>
<p>It is hard to criticise Meta for deciding the deals weren’t worth it. The company is doing what it is supposed to, making hardheaded commercial decisions and maximising shareholder returns. But Meta’s interests are not the same as the Australian public’s.</p>
<p>Or more accurately, Meta’s interests are not the same as our democracy’s. Meta doesn’t need high-quality news, particularly if its users are more interested in sharing family photos than sober reporting on inflation rates. But collectively, our society does need it. </p>
<p>High-quality news is expensive. It doesn’t cost much to send someone to report on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-taylor-swift-tickets-so-hard-to-get-the-economics-are-complicated-208567">Taylor Swift’s</a> Melbourne concert, but it is hugely expensive to cover <a href="https://theconversation.com/other-nations-are-applying-sanctions-and-going-to-court-over-gaza-should-nz-join-them-224132">the war in Gaza</a> or investigate allegations of government corruption. </p>
<p>I suspect not that many Australians have read Adele Ferguson’s reporting about the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/adele-ferguson-on-the-cost-of-whistleblowing-and-need-for-a-bank-royal-commission-20160505-gomxc4.html">corrupt practices of our biggest banks</a>. Her investigations took years of work, and cost far more than the Sydney Morning Herald would have recovered in subscriptions and advertising revenue for her stories. </p>
<p>But her reporting triggered the <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/banking">Banking Royal Commission</a> and a suite of reforms that benefit everyone with a bank account.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-third-of-australians-think-banks-do-nothing-for-the-greater-public-good-111346">One-third of Australians think banks do nothing for the greater public good</a>
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<h2>A news levy?</h2>
<p>If we accept that news is a public good, not something we can treat as a product to be traded like soap, then we have to develop economic models that somehow get the public to pay for it. It could be something like a levy – similar to Medicare’s – that recognises even if we don’t all consume news equally, we are collectively better off by having good journalism that’s free from commercial or political pressure.</p>
<p>It is a difficult conversation to have, particularly when most Australians say <a href="https://www.edelman.com.au/trust/2023/trust-barometer">they don’t trust the media</a>, and more and more of us are <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/uc-alumni-canvas/canvas-articles/posts/news-blues-over-half-of-australians-avoid-the-news">giving up on news altogether</a>. </p>
<p>And that brings us to the other truth this crisis has exposed: our consumption of media <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/media/newsroom/2023/june/digital-news-report-australia-2023-tiktok-and-instagram-increase-in-popularity-for-news-consumption,-but-australians-dont-trust-algorithms">has changed irreversibly</a>. Fewer and fewer people are reading long news stories or wading through heavy TV bulletins. Now, short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook are dominant. The news industry needs to meet audiences where they are, and accept that the ways of presenting news must also radically change.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3RW1U9Q-lzw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Our ways of consuming the news have changed, with short-form videos now dominant.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This is not to suggest all journalism should henceforth be presented as TikTok videos. But forcing digital giants to prop up analogue-era news companies cements a system that is no longer fit for purpose. </p>
<p>By trying to make the big digital giants pay for content they ultimately profit from, the News Media Bargaining Code started with the right intention. But now that Meta has decided it is no longer worth it, we have a chance to radically rethink and redesign how we finance and deliver news – in a way that works for us all. </p>
<p>Our democracy depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the Executive Director of the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom.</span></em></p>Meta’s announcement it will stop paying for news poses a threat. High-quality news is expensive, but important. Do we need economic measures that somehow get the public to pay for it?Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223942024-02-05T19:09:27Z2024-02-05T19:09:27ZFascination, persistence and optimism: how Fei-Fei Li helped shape the AI revolution in a field dominated by alpha males<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573324/original/file-20240205-27-gb5sa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C4473%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peshkova/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Public debate on Artifical Intelligence has escalated in the past six months, with an outpouring of opinion pieces on the risks and ethics of a science that is undergoing an exponential period of advance. </p>
<p>One of the key figures in this, as a contributor to both the science and the debate, is <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/fei-fei-li">Fei-Fei Li</a>, Sequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford, and co-director of <a href="https://ai-4-all.org/">AI4All</a>, a non-profit organisation promoting diversity and inclusion in the field of AI.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Worlds I See – Fei-Fei Li (Flatiron Books)</em></p>
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<p>Aside from one controversy during her tenure as Chief Scientist for Google Cloud, involving a proposed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/technology/google-project-maven-pentagon.html">partnership between Google and the Pentagon</a>, Li has been something of a role model, not least because of her prominence in an area dominated by alpha-male personalities.</p>
<p>Free of the influence of stylists and image-makers, she comes across in interviews with the fluency of someone who wants to think their way through ideas as they arise, rather than deliver platform statements.</p>
<p>Li describes <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250897930/theworldsisee">The Worlds I See</a> as “a double helix memoir”. One thread is the coming-of-age of the science of AI; the other is an account of her own coming-of-age as a scientist. The personal dimension came to the fore, she says, after what was initially a “very nerdy book” was given the thumbs-down by a colleague. </p>
<h2>Matter becomes mind</h2>
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<span class="caption">Fei-Fei Li at AI for Good Global Summit, Geneva, June 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fei-Fei_Li_at_AI_for_Good_2017.jpg">ITU Pictures, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The story begins in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province. As the only child of a family “in a state of quiet upheaval”, Li had a sense that her elders had been through more than they could tell. Her academically trained maternal grandparents found themselves on the wrong side of history during the Cultural Revolution. Her mother’s intellectual energies were thwarted.</p>
<p>As if there were some braided version of Yin and Yang in her heritage, her father’s free-spirited personality provided a complementary, if antithetical, form of influence. He was, says Li, the kind of parent a child might design for themselves if left to their own devices. He was impulse-driven, possessed of miscellaneous fascinations, which took him on excursions through the rice fields looking for butterflies, stick insects, wild rodents. </p>
<p>Her mother, meanwhile, was determined to escape. This ambition was realised in 1992, when the family moved to the United States. They settled in Parsippany, New Jersey, where 15-year-old Li, grappling with the demands of high school in a foreign language, demonstrated a capacity for long hours of work directed towards the academic goals her mother valued. </p>
<p>Her father’s fascination with natural life forms transferred to the object world of garage sales. He continued to involve Li in the practice of “studying everything in sight”.</p>
<p>Throughout The Worlds I See, Li reflects on the influence of this parental binary on her advancing career as a scientist. Without the fierce intellectual determination of her mother, she could not have persevered with her high school studies, given the family’s ongoing struggle for economic survival. Without her father’s childlike capacity to pay total attention to random phenomena, her research might never have found its innovative path.</p>
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<p>The braid of fascination and intellectual drive twists in unexpected ways. It eventually fuses into an almost visionary faith in what Li terms the North Star of her life: a vocation to shift the parameters of understanding by asking “audacious questions” of the kind pursued by the great physicists who inspire her: Albert Einstein, Roger Penrose, Erwin Schrödinger.</p>
<p>Her own audacious question – “what is vision about?” – came into focus by degrees. For someone given to describing her enterprise in terms of revelation and revolution, her actual research on vision seems anything but visionary.</p>
<p>Undergraduate study in physics and computational mathematics at Princeton yielded an opportunity for vacation work as an assistant to a neuroscience team at UC Berkeley. They were attempting to capture the neuronal responses of a cat to visual stimuli. The targeted area of the brain was probed by hairline electrodes to pick up signals. </p>
<p>These signals were translated first into to sound waves, then back to visual patterns from which the team were able to <a href="https://newsarchive.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/10-15-1999.html">recompose something approximating the original image shown to the animal</a>. </p>
<p>Hardly the stuff of romance, yet Li comments: “Something transcendent happens. Matter somehow becomes mind.” </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-is-our-promethean-fire-using-it-wisely-means-knowing-its-true-nature-and-our-own-minds-219320">AI is our ‘Promethean fire': using it wisely means knowing its true nature – and our own minds</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is data?</h2>
<p>This insight sustains Li through her protracted labours. She becomes convinced that the principle can be applied to machine learning. </p>
<p>Following evidence that visual recognition in the human brain moves from the general to the increasingly specific (bird, water bird, duck, mallard), Li and her postgraduate collaborator set out to feed the computer with a comprehensive range of examples in a limited set of categories. </p>
<p>New image technologies in other domains came to their assistance. <a href="https://www.google.com/streetview/">Google Street View</a> identified 2,657 models of car on the road in 2014. <a href="https://www.mturk.com/">Amazon Mechanical Turk</a> escalated the scale and speed of their research as categories multiplied, from the original ten to thirty, a hundred, a thousand.</p>
<p>But the project had all the burdens that faced Charles Darwin as he attempted a comprehensive taxonomy of pigeons, or James Murray compiling the Oxford English Dictionary.</p>
<p>For Li, the apparently humdrum conviction that learning should be driven by data rather than algorithms arrives as “a moment of epiphany”. The audacious questions “what is vision?” and “what is intelligence?” merge. They become associated with a third question: “what is data?” </p>
<p>A rapid thaw in the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter">AI winter</a>” of the first decade of the 21st century commenced in 2012, when research into machine learning made a breakthrough in the direction of “big data”. It was all about scaling up, increasing the retention capacities of AI to incorporate the range and complexity of phenomena in the world itself. </p>
<p>Li found her approach converging with that of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hinton">Geoffrey Hinton</a>, the Toronto-based cognitive psychologist often credited with spearheading the AI paradigm shift. Data can be exponentially multiplied, Hinton proposed, when machines talk among themselves. Digital agents scan diverse areas of data and exchange what they have learned to generate more sophisticated modes of correlation. </p>
<p>Intelligence comes to be seen not as an inherent property of a machine or a human brain, but as something out there. It arises from interactions between objects, events, beings and environments. There is more of the gatherer than the hunter in its development.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ai-industry-is-on-the-verge-of-becoming-another-boys-club-were-all-going-to-lose-out-if-it-does-219802">The AI industry is on the verge of becoming another boys' club. We’re all going to lose out if it does</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Distributed intelligence</h2>
<p>Distributed intelligence means distributed opportunities to participate in the co-evolution of human and machine intelligence. Big science and high technology cease to be the exclusive preserve of specialists whose modes of knowledge are beyond the understanding of ordinary people. Anyone who has had an exchange with Chat GPT on Open AI is contributing.</p>
<p>Li insists, however, that effective human learning requires education. The most important figure in her own education was her high-school maths teacher, Bob Sabella, who kept her on track as she struggled with the English language curriculum. He remained a friend and mentor through every stage of her academic advancement. </p>
<p>It is the dedicated school teacher, Li says, who is the real emblem of the future in human technology. She co-founded AI4All in 2017 with the aim of providing hands-on training for high-school students, especially girls, students of colour and those from immigrant families or low income communities. Li herself fits most of these categories. </p>
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<span class="caption">Fei-Fei Li speaking at Stanford, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnhfeNDc0eI">YouTube</a></span>
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<p>The experiences Li recounts in The Worlds I See display an extraordinary capacity for persistence in the face of obstacles. She completed high school while supplementing the family income with a $2 an hour job in a Chinese restaurant. As a graduate student, she was running the family dry-cleaning business.</p>
<p>Her exams at Princeton were done by special arrangement at the hospital clinic where her mother was undergoing surgery for a deteriorating cardiovascular condition. </p>
<p>But it is as if everything she experiences is turned to account in the pursuit of the North Star. Recurring crises in her mother’s health gave her a familiarity with hospitals, which led her to explore how AI might be deployed, not to replace the vital role of human nurses and health workers, but to support them. </p>
<p>If Li’s efforts can be seen as a feminist enterprise, it is perhaps because the field in which she works is dominated by male celebrities, who persist in seeing the future as a Darwinian struggle between human and machine intelligence. </p>
<p>“Which is smarter?” is less an audacious question than one that needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Speaking in 2018 to a Congressional hearing on Power and Responsibility in the application of advanced technologies, Li said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s nothing artificial about AI. It’s inspired by people, created by people, and most importantly it has an impact on people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Explicitly distancing herself from those, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/02/geoffrey-hinton-godfather-of-ai-quits-google-warns-dangers-of-machine-learning">like Hinton</a>, who are seeing the current breakthrough in AI potential as an existential crisis, Li is concerned with tangible social risks, and specific ways to address them. </p>
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<p>In a recent discussion with former US Secretary of State <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/condoleezza-rice">Condoleezza Rice</a>, now Head of the Hoover Institution at Stanford, Li expressed her belief that policy intervention can install the important safeguards in areas where the impact of AI is likely to be greatest.</p>
<p>These include its benign potential in health and education, as well as the dangers opening up through disinformation, the loss of privacy and the replacement of human work.</p>
<p>If there is an overriding theme in The Worlds I See, it is that human and artificial intelligence form a double helix. How this evolves, and with what consequences, will depend, Li says, on whether we create “a healthy ecosystem” in which talent, technology and public sector participation are co-ordinated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Goodall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If there is an overriding theme in The Worlds I See, it is that human and artificial intelligence form a double helix.Jane Goodall, Emeritus Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215012024-01-23T18:59:47Z2024-01-23T18:59:47ZWhy are Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta facing antitrust lawsuits and huge fines? And will it protect consumers?<p>Following a lengthy investigation, the United States Justice Department is set to file a lawsuit against Apple for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-17/justice-department-to-file-apple-antitrust-case-as-soon-as-march">potentially breaching antitrust laws</a>.</p>
<p>The department alleges Apple is using hardware and software limitations that make it harder for rival companies to compete with iPhones and iPads. </p>
<p>If the filing goes ahead, it will mean each of the “big four” tech companies – Amazon, Meta, Google and Apple – will have been sued by the US federal government within the past five years for monopolistic business practices. </p>
<p>As the digital market continues to grow, many countries including the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, the US, China, South Korea, India and Australia have all either introduced, or plan to introduce, competition legislation <a href="https://iccwbo.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/2023-ICC-Global-report-on-competition-enforcement-in-the-digital-economy-1.pdf">specific to tech firms</a>. </p>
<p>But what are antitrust laws? And how are the tech giants breaching them?</p>
<h2>What are antitrust laws?</h2>
<p>Antitrust laws originated with the US <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3112&context=dlj">Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890</a>. This law banned business arrangements which restrained trade, and <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/catoj9&id=743&men_tab=srchresults">prohibited attempts to monopolise</a>.</p>
<p>Over time, the Sherman Antitrust Act evolved into what are today’s antitrust laws, adopted in countries all over the world. </p>
<p>Antitrust laws are <a href="https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2977&context=faculty_scholarship">enforced at domestic levels</a> and allegations of breaches of these laws pertain to domestic markets. These laws – also known as competition laws – prohibit business practices that promote unfair monopolies, stifle competition and reinforce dominance or power. </p>
<p>In recent years, technology products – whether apps or physical products like phones and computers – have been under an enormous amount of scrutiny. Calls for regulating the development and use of technology have a <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/222945-ai-regulation-its-time-to-act-australia/">dominant focus on artificial intelligence</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the business practices of tech giants are garnering less public attention. So it’s noteworthy that the antitrust lawsuits filed against the big four focus on the companies, not just their products. </p>
<p>The allegation is these companies are concentrating the market and therefore charging higher markups for their goods and services, while having less incentive to innovate <a href="https://www.publicaccountant.com.au/features/a-lack-of-competition-is-hurting-consumers-and-the-economy-2">in ways that benefit consumers</a>.</p>
<h2>How are tech giants breaching antitrust laws?</h2>
<p>Of the big four, Apple is not the first to be accused of breaching antitrust laws.</p>
<p>In the past decade, the European Union has fined Google <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-last-ditch-effort-overturn-26-bln-eu-antitrust-fine-2023-09-19/">a total of €8.25 billion</a> (A$13.6 billion) for three separate breaches of EU’s antitrust laws.</p>
<p>These related to misuse of Google Shopping to disadvantage competitors <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/es/MEMO_17_1785">in 2017</a>, unfair dominance of the Android operating system market <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_4581">in 2018</a>, and abusive practices in online advertising <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_1770">in 2019</a>. The advertising business accounts for <a href="https://theconversation.com/ais-threat-to-google-is-more-about-advertising-income-than-being-the-number-one-search-engine-200094">80% of Google’s income</a>.</p>
<p>While Google and its parent company Alphabet did enact some changes to their practices following these EU rulings, to date Google <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-pay-multibillion-fine-antitrust-shopping-case-eu-106286458">has not paid</a> these fines and continues <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-last-ditch-effort-overturn-26-bln-eu-antitrust-fine-2023-09-19/">to appeal them</a> in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/14/eu-court-backs-antitrust-ruling-against-google-but-reduces-fine.html">various instances</a>.</p>
<p>In 2020, the US Justice Department also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for monopolising multiple <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies">digital advertising technology products</a>.</p>
<p>The ongoing lawsuit claims Google monopolised the “ad tech stack” – the key technologies publishers and advertisers use to sell and buy ads. It is alleged Google neutralised or eliminated ad tech competitors through acquisitions, which forced publishers and advertisers to use its products. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-taking-on-google-in-a-huge-antitrust-case-it-could-change-the-face-of-online-search-148519">The US is taking on Google in a huge antitrust case. It could change the face of online search</a>
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<p>In 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 US states sued Meta, claiming the tech company eliminated competition by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/technology/facebook-antitrust-monopoly.html">buying up its rivals</a>. </p>
<p>The two biggest purchases under scrutiny are Instagram, which was purchased for US$1 billion in 2013, and WhatsApp, which was purchased for US$19 billion in 2015. The lawsuit alleges these purchases eliminated competition which had the potential to challenge Meta’s dominance. </p>
<p>In 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon, claiming the tech company used anticompetitive and unfair strategies to maintain a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power">position of dominance in the market</a>.</p>
<p>The US lawsuits against <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/9/11/23864514/google-search-antitrust-trial">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/24/instagram-lawsuit-meta-sued-teen-mental-health-us">Meta</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/26/amazon-antitrust-lawsuit-ftc/">Amazon</a> are ongoing, with no decisions handed down as yet. </p>
<h2>What is Australia doing to protect consumers?</h2>
<p>The Australian federal government has also been investigating global tech giants. Since 2021, the government has investigated legislative methods <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/30/what-is-the-australian-government-doing-to-crack-down-on-big-tech-and-why">for protecting Australian consumers</a>.</p>
<p>One example is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) news media bargaining code. The code requires digital platforms operating in Australia to <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">compensate domestic news publishers</a> for the use of their content. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-2021-was-the-year-governments-really-started-to-wise-up-against-big-tech-172871">How 2021 was the year governments really started to wise up against big tech</a>
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<p>Despite these advancements, Chandni Gupta, Deputy CEO and Digital Policy Director at the Consumer Policy Research Centre, <a href="https://lsj.com.au/articles/what-the-us-federal-trade-commission-v-amazon-case-means-for-australia/">points out</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are gaps in both Australia’s privacy laws and the consumer law, which can leave Australians with far fewer protections online than consumers in the US and other countries.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ACCC released its second Digital Platform Services Inquiry <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/publications/serial-publications/digital-platform-services-inquiry-2020-2025/digital-platform-services-inquiry-march-2021-interim-report">interim report in 2021</a>. The report’s findings indicate Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store have significant market power in the distribution of mobile apps in Australia, and measures are <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/dominance-of-apple-and-googles-app-stores-impacting-competition-and-consumers">needed to address this</a>. Examples of measures the ACCC proposed include increasing transparency and providing greater choice of default apps for consumers.</p>
<p>In 2023, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb publicly addressed <a href="https://thewest.com.au/technology/gina-cass-gottlieb-goes-after-apple-microsoft-amazon-google-and-meta-in-call-for-competition-law-fix-c-12231673">the dangers of the big four</a>. The commissioner referred to the tech giants as “serial acquirers” and raised concerns about their measures for extending and protecting their market power. </p>
<p>Antitrust laws exist to maintain fair competition among businesses. Breaches of these laws mean companies are influencing the market to the detriment of other, usually smaller companies.</p>
<p>If governments are successful in holding tech giants to account, this could drastically redefine the tech market, making way for more equitable competition and more ethical business practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zena Assaad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Governments around the world keep filing antitrust lawsuits against the ‘big four’ tech companies. Here’s why that matters for everyone who uses their products.Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195262023-12-15T13:57:45Z2023-12-15T13:57:45ZGoogle’s Gemini: is the new AI model really better than ChatGPT?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566003/original/file-20231215-27-jc6k6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/google-announced-new-ai-model-called-2397506587">MeSSrro/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Google Deepmind <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-ai/">has recently announced</a> Gemini, its new AI model to compete with <a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-cant-think-consciousness-is-something-entirely-different-to-todays-ai-204823">OpenAI’s ChatGPT</a>. While both models are examples of “generative AI”, which learn to find patterns of input training information to generate new data (pictures, words or other media), ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) which focuses on producing text. </p>
<p>In the same way that ChatGPT is a web app for conversations that is based on the neural network know as GPT (trained on huge amounts of text), Google has a conversational web app called <a href="https://uk.pcmag.com/ai/148146/google-bard">Bard</a> which was based on a model called LaMDA (trained on dialogue). But Google is now upgrading that based on Gemini.</p>
<p>What distinguishes Gemini from earlier generative AI models such as LaMDA is that it’s a “multi-modal model”. This means that it works directly with multiple modes of input and output: as well as supporting text input and output, it supports images, audio and video. Accordingly, a new acronym is emerging: LMM (large multimodal model), not to be confused with LLM.</p>
<p>In September, OpenAI <a href="https://openai.com/research/gpt-4v-system-card">announced a model</a> called GPT-4Vision that can work with images, audio and text as well. However, it is not a fully multimodal model in the way that Gemini promises to be. </p>
<p>For example, while ChatGPT-4, which is powered by GPT-4V, can work with audio inputs and generate speech outputs, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-can-now-see-hear-and-speak">OpenAI has confirmed</a> that this is done by converting speech to text on input using another deep learning model called Whisper. ChatGPT-4 also converts text to speech on output using a different model, meaning that GPT-4V itself is working purely with text. </p>
<p>Likewise, ChatGPT-4 can produce images, but it does so by generating text prompts that are passed to <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2">a separate deep learning model</a> called Dall-E 2, which converts text descriptions into images.</p>
<p>In contrast, Google designed Gemini to be “natively multimodal”. This means that the core model directly handles a range of input types (audio, images, video and text) and can directly output them too. </p>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>The distinction between these two approaches might seem academic, but it’s important. The general conclusion from <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/gemini/gemini_1_report.pdf">Google’s technical report</a> and other <a href="https://arstechnica.com/ai/2023/12/chatgpt-vs-google-bard-round-2-how-does-the-new-gemini-model-fare/">qualitative tests</a> to date is that the current publicly available version of Gemini, called Gemini 1.0 Pro, is not generally as good as GPT-4, and is more similar in its capabilities to GPT 3.5.</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-ai/">Google also announced</a> a more powerful version of Gemini, called Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and presented some results showing that it is more powerful than GPT-4. However, it is difficult to assess this, for two reasons. The first reason is that Google has not released Ultra yet, so results cannot be independently validated at present. </p>
<p>The second reason why it’s hard to assess Google’s claims is that it chose to release a somewhat deceptive demonstration video, see below. The video shows the Gemini model commenting interactively and fluidly on a live video stream. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UIZAiXYceBI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>However, as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-07/google-s-gemini-ai-model-looks-remarkable-but-it-s-still-behind-openai-s-gpt-4">initially reported by Bloomberg</a>, the demonstration in the video was not carried out in real time. For example, the model had learned some specific tasks beforehand, such the three cup and ball trick, where Gemini tracks which cup the ball is under. To do this, it had been provided with a sequence of still images in which the presenter’s hands are on the cups being swapped. </p>
<h2>Promising future</h2>
<p>Despite these issues, I believe that Gemini and large multimodal models are an extremely exciting step forward for generative AI. That’s both because of their future capabilities, and for the competitive landscape of AI tools. As I noted <a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-struggles-with-wordle-puzzles-which-says-a-lot-about-how-it-works-201906">in a previous article</a>, GPT-4 was trained on about 500 billion words – essentially all good-quality, publicly available text. </p>
<p>The performance of deep learning models is generally driven by increasing model complexity and amount of training data. This has led to the question of how further improvements could be achieved, since we have almost run out of new training data for language models. However, multimodal models open up enormous new reserves of training data – in the form of images, audio and videos. </p>
<p>AIs such as Gemini, which can be directly trained on all of this data, are likely to have much greater capabilities going forward. For example, I would expect that models trained on video will develop <a href="https://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/papers/Files/QRG_Dist_Files/QRG_2009/FriedmanTaylorForbus-Analogy2009submitted.pdf">sophisticated internal representations </a> of what is called “naïve physics”. This is the basic understanding humans and animals have about causality, movement, gravity and other physical phenomena.</p>
<p>I am also excited about what this means for the competitive landscape of AI. For the past year, despite the emergence of many generative AI models, OpenAI’s GPT models have been dominant, demonstrating a level of performance that other models have not been able to approach. </p>
<p>Google’s Gemini signals the emergence of a major competitor that will help to drive the field forward. Of course, OpenAI is almost certainly working on GPT-5, and we can expect that it will also be multimodal and will demonstrate remarkable new capabilities. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/googles-gemini-ai-hints-at-the-next-great-leap-for-the-technology-analysing-real-time-information-219538">Google's Gemini AI hints at the next great leap for the technology: analysing real-time information</a>
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<p>All that being said, I am keen the see the emergence of very large multimodal models that are open-source and non-commercial, which I hope are on the way in the coming years. </p>
<p>I also like some features of Gemini’s implementation. For example, Google has announced a version called <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/12/a-new-foundation-for-ai-on-android.html">Gemini Nano</a>, that is much more lightweight and capable of running directly on mobile phones. </p>
<p>Lightweight models like this reduce the environmental impact of AI computing and have many benefits from a privacy perspective, and I am sure that this development will lead to competitors following suit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael G. Madden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the current version of Gemini isn’t mind blowing, later iterations are likely to be much more powerful.Michael G. Madden, Established Professor of Computer Science, University of GalwayLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195382023-12-11T13:55:59Z2023-12-11T13:55:59ZGoogle’s Gemini AI hints at the next great leap for the technology: analysing real-time information<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564837/original/file-20231211-15-3ck8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5716%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/december-9-2023-brazil-google-gemini-2398210611">Rafapress / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/6/23990466/google-gemini-llm-ai-model">Google has launched Gemini</a>, a new <a href="https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/#introduction">artificial intelligence (AI) system</a> that can seemingly understand and talk intelligently about almost any kind of prompt – pictures, text, speech, music, computer code and much more. </p>
<p>This type of AI system is known as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimodal_learning">multimodal model</a>. It’s a step beyond just being able to handle text or images as previous ones have. And it provides a strong hint of where AI may be going next: being able to analyse and respond to real-time information coming from the outside world.</p>
<p>Although Gemini’s capabilities might not be quite as advanced as they seemed in a viral video, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67650807">which was edited from carefully curated text</a> and still image prompts, it is clear that AI systems are rapidly advancing. They are heading towards an ability to handle more and more complex inputs and outputs.</p>
<p>To develop new capabilities, AI systems are highly dependent on the kind of “training” data they have access to. They are exposed to this data to help them improve at what they do, including making inferences such as recognising a face in a picture, or writing an essay. </p>
<p>At the moment, the data that companies such as Google, OpenAI, Meta and others train their models on are still mainly harvested from <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-personal-information-is-probably-being-used-to-train-generative-ai-models/">digitised information on the internet</a>. However, there are efforts to radically <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/machine-learning-is-going-real-time-heres-why-and-how/">expand the scope of the data</a> that AI can work on. For example, by using always-on cameras, microphones and other sensors, it would be possible to let an AI know what is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2023/01/12/the-real-time-ai-data-race-is-on/">going on in the world as it happens</a>.</p>
<h2>Real-time data</h2>
<p>Google’s new Gemini system has shown that it can understand real-time content such as live video and human speech. With new data and sensors, AI will be able to observe, discuss and act upon occurrences in the real world.</p>
<p>The most obvious example of this is with self-driving cars, which already <a href="https://innovationatwork.ieee.org/how-data-is-being-used-to-train-autonomous-vehicles-to-navigate-roadways/">collect enormous amounts of data</a> as they are driving on our roads. This information ends up on the manufacturers’ servers where it is used not just in the moment of operating the vehicle, but to build long term computer-based models of driving situations that can support better traffic flow, or help authorities identify suspicious or criminal behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cruise driverless car in San Francisco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564840/original/file-20231211-17-r8pwap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self-driving cars are one area where real-time data is already important.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/san-francisco-ca-usa-feb-23-1654017340">Tada Images / Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the home, motion sensors, voice assistants and security cameras are already used to detect activity and pick up on our habits. Other “smart” appliances are appearing on the market all the time. While early uses for this are familiar, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/mar/30/how-smart-thermostats-can-save-you-fuel-and-money">optimising heating for better energy usage</a>, the understanding of habits will get much more advanced. </p>
<p>This means that an AI can both infer activities in the home, and even predict what will happen in the future. This data could then be used, for instance, by doctors <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12652-021-03612-z">to detect early onsets of ailments </a>such as diabetes or dementia, as well as to recommend and follow up on changes in lifestyle.</p>
<p>As AI’s knowledge of the real world gets even more comprehensive, it will act as a companion in all instances of life. At the grocer’s, I can discuss the best and most economical ingredients for a meal I am planning. At work, AI will be able to remind me of the names and interests of clients in a face to face meeting – and suggest the best way to secure their business. When on a trip in a foreign country, it will be able to maintain an ongoing conversation about local tourist attractions, while the AI keeps an eye on any potentially dangerous situations I might encounter.</p>
<h2>Privacy implications</h2>
<p>There are enormous positive opportunities that come with all this new data, but there is an equal <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/protecting-privacy-in-an-ai-driven-world/">risk of overreach and intrusion</a> on people’s privacy. As we have seen, users have so far been more than happy to trade a staggering amount of their personal information in return for access to free products, such as social media and search engines.</p>
<p>The trade offs in the future will be even greater and potentially more dangerous, as AI gets to know and support us in every aspect of everyday life. </p>
<p>If given a chance, the industry will continue to expand its data collection into all aspects of life, even offline ones. Policy makers need to understand this new landscape, and ensure that the benefits balance the risks. They will need to monitor not just the power and pervasiveness of the new AI models, but also the content they collect.</p>
<p>When AI expands its capabilities into the next frontier – the real world – only our imaginations will limit the possibilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lars Erik Holmquist received funding from the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.</span></em></p>Learning about the world from live events is the next step for AI.Lars Erik Holmquist, Professor of Design and Innovation, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185172023-12-05T22:42:16Z2023-12-05T22:42:16ZWikipedia’s volunteer editors are fleeing online abuse. Here’s what that could mean for the internet (and you)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562311/original/file-20231129-17-hg57m4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C11%2C7304%2C4120&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re now sadly used to seeing toxic exchanges play out on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and TikTok. </p>
<p>But Wikipedia is a reference work. How heated can people get over an encyclopedia? </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad385">research</a>, published today, shows the answer is very heated. For example, one Wikipedia editor wrote to another:</p>
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<p>i will find u in real life and slit your throat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s a problem for many reasons, but chief among them is if Wikipedia goes down in a ball of toxic fire, it might take the rest of the internet’s information infrastructure with it. </p>
<hr>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/let-the-community-work-it-out-throwback-to-early-internet-days-could-fix-social-medias-crisis-of-legitimacy-213209">Let the community work it out: Throwback to early internet days could fix social media's crisis of legitimacy</a>
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<h2>The internet’s favourite encyclopedia</h2>
<p>In some ways, Wikipedia is both an encyclopedia and a social media platform. </p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.semrush.com/website/top/">the fourth most popular website</a> on the internet, behind only such giants as Google, YouTube and Facebook. </p>
<p>Every day, <a href="https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects">millions of people worldwide</a> use it for quick fact-checks or in-depth research. </p>
<p>And what happens to Wikipedia matters beyond the platform itself because of its central role in online information infrastructure. </p>
<p>Google search relies heavily on Wikipedia and the quality of its search results would <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14883/14733">decrease substantially</a> if Wikipedia disappeared. </p>
<p>But it’s not just an increasingly authoritative source of knowledge. Even though we don’t always lump Wikipedia in with other social media platforms, it shares some common features. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1724890300441895152"}"></div></p>
<p>It relies on contributors to create the content that the public will view and it creates spaces for those contributors to interact. Wikipedia relies solely on the work of volunteers: no one is paid for writing or editing content. </p>
<p>Moreover, no one checks the credentials of editors — anyone can make a contribution. This arguably makes Wikipedia the most successful collaborative project in history. </p>
<p>However, the fact that Wikipedia is a collaborative platform also makes it vulnerable. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Harassment_survey_2015">2015 survey</a> found 38% of surveyed Wikipedia users had experienced harassment on the platform.</p>
<p>What if the collaborative environment deteriorates, and its volunteer editors abandon the project? </p>
<p>What effect do toxic comments have on Wikipedia’s editors, content and community?</p>
<h2>Abusive comments lead to disengaging</h2>
<p>To answer this question, we started with Wikipedia’s “user’s talk pages”. A user’s talk page is a place where other editors can interact with the user. They can post messages, discuss personal topics, or extend discussions from an article’s talk page. </p>
<p>Every editor has a personal user’s talk page, and the majority of toxic comments made on the platform are on these pages. </p>
<p>We collected information on 57 million comments made on the user’s talk pages of 8.5 million editors across the six most active language editions of Wikipedia (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian) over a period of 20 years. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/students-are-told-not-to-use-wikipedia-for-research-but-its-a-trustworthy-source-168834">Students are told not to use Wikipedia for research. But it's a trustworthy source</a>
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<p>We then used a <a href="https://perspectiveapi.com/">state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm</a> to identify toxic comments. The algorithm looked for attributes a human might consider toxic, like insults, threats, or identity attacks.</p>
<p>We compared the activity of editors before and after they received a toxic comment, as well as with a control group of similar editors who received a non-toxic rather than toxic comment. </p>
<p>We found receiving a single toxic comment could reduce an editor’s activity by 1.2 active days in the short term. Considering that 80,307 users on English Wikipedia alone have received at least one toxic comment, the cumulative impact could amount to 284 lost human-years. </p>
<p>Moreover, some users don’t just contribute less. They stop contributing altogether. </p>
<p>We found that the probability of leaving Wikipedia’s community of contributors increases after receiving a toxic comment, with new users being particularly vulnerable. New editors who receive toxic comments are nearly twice as likely to leave Wikipedia as would be expected otherwise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The wikipedia logo on a yellow office wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562555/original/file-20231129-21-2li5ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wikipedia is just as vulnerable to toxic commentary as other popular websites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Office_Globe.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wide-ranging consequences</h2>
<p>This matters more than you might think to the millions who use Wikipedia. </p>
<p>First, toxicity likely leads to poorer-quality content on the site. Having a diverse editor cohort is a crucial factor for maintaining content quality. The vast majority of Wikipedian editors <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0065782">are men</a>, which is reflected in the content on the platform. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448211023772">fewer articles about women</a>, which are shorter than articles about men and more likely to centre on <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14628">romantic relationships and family-related issues</a>. They are also more often linked to articles about the opposite gender. Women are often described as wives of famous people rather than for their own merits, for example.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/30-years-of-the-web-down-under-how-australians-made-the-early-internet-their-own-212542">30 years of the web down under: how Australians made the early internet their own</a>
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<p>While multiple barriers confront women editors on Wikipedia, toxicity is likely one of the key factors that contributes to the gender imbalance. Although men and women are <a href="https://www.datasociety.net/pubs/oh/Online_Harassment_2016.pdf">equally likely</a> to face online harassment and abuse, women experience more severe violations and are more likely to be affected by such incidents, including self-censoring. </p>
<p>This may affect other groups as well: our research showed that toxic comments often include not just gendered language but also ethnic slurs and other biases.</p>
<p>Finally, a significant rise in toxicity, especially targeted attacks on new users, could jeopardise Wikipedia’s survival. </p>
<p>Following a period of <a href="https://icwsm.org/papers/2--Almeida-Mozafari-Cho.pdf">exponential growth</a> in its editor base during the early 2000s, the number has been <a href="https://wikipedia20.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/lifecycles/release/2">largely stable</a> since 2016, with the exception of a brief activity spike during the COVID pandemic. Currently about the same number of editors join the project as leave, but the balance could be easily tipped if the people left because of online abuse.</p>
<p>That would damage not only Wikipedia, but also the rest of the online information infrastructure it helps to support. </p>
<p>There’s no easy fix to this, but our research shows promoting healthy communication practices is critical to protecting crucial online information ecosystems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivan Smirnov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s the fourth most popular website in the world, but our new study shows toxic commentary can still thrive on Wikipedia. There’s a lot at stake if too many editors are driven away.Ivan Smirnov, Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185222023-11-30T19:03:44Z2023-11-30T19:03:44ZThe news is fading from sight on big social media platforms – where does that leave journalism?<p>According to a <a href="https://newsmediauk.org/blog/2023/11/02/editors-warn-of-existential-threat-to-journalism-from-big-tech/">recent survey</a> by the News Media Association, 90% of editors in the United Kingdom “believe that Google and Meta pose an existential threat to journalism”. </p>
<p>Why the pessimism? Because being in the news business but relying on social media platforms and search engines has become very risky. The big tech companies are de-prioritising news content, making it harder for citizens to find verified information produced by journalists.</p>
<p>It is arguable the threat isn’t necessarily existential. News companies are also <a href="https://www.inma.org/blogs/research/post.cfm/the-un-conscious-uncoupling-of-platforms-and-news-publishers-is-happening-quickly">leaving social media platforms</a>, potentially claiming back some control and building resilience into their revenue models. </p>
<p>Leading New Zealand digital publisher Stuff, for example, recently decided to stop <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300988705/stuff-group-withdraws-from-x-formerly-twitter">posting its content</a> on X (formerly Twitter), “except stories that are of urgent public interest – such as health and safety emergencies”.</p>
<p>But as I describe in my new book, <a href="https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/from-paper-to-platform/">From Paper to Platform</a>, news organisations that continue to conduct their news business via these platforms will have limited control. As social media companies and search engines change the terms of their services at will, news companies are left to deal with the consequences. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/breaking-news-making-google-and-facebook-pay-nz-media-for-content-could-deliver-less-than-bargained-for-196030">Breaking news: making Google and Facebook pay NZ media for content could deliver less than bargained for</a>
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<h2>Risks of ‘platformed publishing’</h2>
<p>Platforms such as Google and Facebook play various roles in the modern media ecosystem. Consequently, their actions create multiple risk points for news media. The impacts differ, of course, depending on each news company’s own goals and strategies.</p>
<p>As one <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849211031363">Scandinavian study</a> of media risk management noted, “platforms pose a competitive threat to news organisations”. But that threat varies, depending on how news organisations respond, and how reliant they are on those platforms for audience reach or funding.</p>
<p>News companies distribute their content on platforms such as Facebook or X because that’s where their audience is – at least a large proportion of it, anyway. But news is poorly promoted by those platforms, and Google and Facebook admit news makes up only a tiny fraction of their overall content.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-experts-struggle-to-tell-which-social-media-posts-are-evidence-based-so-what-do-we-do-217448">Even experts struggle to tell which social media posts are evidence-based. So, what do we do?</a>
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<p>Furthermore, the visibility of news within these platforms is rapidly declining. The result is described by the authors of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-power-of-platforms-9780190908867?lang=en&cc=us">The Power of Platforms</a> as “<a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/power-platforms">platformed publishing</a>”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a situation where some news organisations have almost no control over the distribution of their journalism because they publish primarily to platforms defined by coding technologies, business models, and cultural conventions over which they have little influence.</p>
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<p>As a recent <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-is-giving-up-on-news-again/">Wired article observed</a>, “Facebook is done with news”: its parent company Meta is “killing off the News tab in France, Germany and the UK”, having already temporarily blocked access to news content in Australia in 2021 and more recently in Canada where the blackout continues.</p>
<p>Instagram’s new Threads app (also owned by Meta) has no appetite for hard news, Google’s search results offer <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/google-core-update-news-search-october-2023/">less news</a>, and X has stopped showing news headlines and links on tweets.</p>
<h2>Weakening democracy</h2>
<p>The New Zealand news publishers I spoke to generally believe platform algorithms don’t prioritise factual news content. As <a href="https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/from-paper-to-platform/">one observed</a>, the “platforms have the control over algorithms”. Another noted how platforms “can bury or promote you as they like, their tweaks in algorithms determine your fate”.</p>
<p>This has real consequences beyond the impact on media metrics and advertising revenue. Platforms have an influence on democratic processes – including elections.</p>
<p>The same News Media Association survey quoted at the start of this article also reveals 77% of UK editors believe platform antics such as news blackouts will weaken democratic societies. </p>
<p>When people cannot access (or have limited access to) verified and trusted news, other things fill the void. The Israel-Gaza conflict, to take just the most recent example, has seen an <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/11/eus-thierry-breton-gives-elon-musk-24-hour-ultimatum-to-deal-with-israel-hamas-misinformat">increase in disinformation</a> on X – to the extent the European Union’s digital rights chief warned owner Elon Musk he was potentially breaching EU law.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/41-us-states-are-suing-meta-for-getting-teens-hooked-on-social-media-heres-what-to-expect-next-216914">41 US states are suing Meta for getting teens hooked on social media. Here’s what to expect next</a>
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<h2>Terms of payment</h2>
<p>There has been some cause for optimism recently due to Google and Facebook becoming funders of journalism and news, having been either mandated or coerced to pay publishers for their content. </p>
<p>Australia was first to introduce a law requiring platforms to compensate news companies, followed by Canada. The previous New Zealand government introduced a <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCEDSI_SCF_FC7FAAC0-2EC0-4E47-7AB5-08DB9EBB2302/fair-digital-news-bargaining-bill">similar bill</a> to parliament, but there is no certainty it will become law under the new administration. </p>
<p>In Australia and Canada, the platforms implemented news “blackouts” in their services as a response to these laws, effectively making news invisible to their users.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-google-and-meta-owe-news-publishers-much-more-than-you-think-and-billions-more-than-theyd-like-to-admit-216818">Why Google and Meta owe news publishers much more than you think – and billions more than they’d like to admit</a>
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<p>And while these platform payments have brought additional revenue to many news publishers, the terms of the payments are not public. It’s hard to estimate how much Google and Facebook have actually paid for news content, but it has been <a href="https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/logic-behind-australias-news-media-bargaining-code">estimated in Australia</a> to be A$200 million annually. </p>
<p>If that sounds substantial, consider this: <a href="https://policydialogue.org/publications/working-papers/paying-for-news-what-google-and-meta-owe-us-publishers-draft-working-paper/">a recent US study</a> suggested Google and Meta should be paying far more than they do, estimating Facebook owes news publishers US$1.9 billion and Google US$10-12 billion annually.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see those platforms agreeing to such figures, or increasing any payments for news. More likely, the payments will gradually dwindle as Google and Meta continue prioritising other services and products over news. </p>
<p>Newsrooms will likely have to say goodbye to platformed publishing and social media news distribution. It’s clear it isn’t working as well as many hoped, and it will almost certainly not work in the long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merja Myllylahti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media platforms are abandoning news – which is bad news for traditional media organisations that have come to rely on them for consumers.Merja Myllylahti, Senior Lecturer, Co-Director Research Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165812023-11-22T17:05:13Z2023-11-22T17:05:13ZThe vast majority of us have no idea what the padlock icon on our internet browser is – and it’s putting us at risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559630/original/file-20231115-15-zfe1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5568%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The padlock icon which appears in most internet browser address bars. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/web-browser-closeup-on-lcd-screen-1353121223">Robert Avgustin/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you know what the padlock symbol in your internet browser’s address bar means? If not, you’re not alone. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10447318.2023.2266789">New research</a> by my colleagues and I shows that only 5% of UK adults understand the padlock’s significance. This is a threat to our online safety. </p>
<p>The padlock symbol on a web browser simply means that the data being sent between the web server and the user’s computer is encrypted and cannot be read by others. But when we asked people what they thought it meant, we received an array of incorrect answers.</p>
<p>In our study, we asked a cross section of 528 web users, aged between 18 and 86 years of age, a number of questions about the internet. Some 53% of them held a bachelor’s degree or above and 22% had a college certificate, while the remainder had no further education. </p>
<p>One of our questions was: “On the Google Chrome browser bar, do you know what the padlock icon represents/means?” </p>
<p>Of the 463 who responded, 63% stated they knew, or thought they knew, what the padlock symbol on their web browser meant, but only 7% gave the correct meaning. Respondents gave us a range of incorrect interpretations, believing among other things that the padlock signified a secure web page or that the website is safe and doesn’t contain any viruses or suspicious links. Others believed the symbol means a website is “trustworthy”, is not harmful, or is a “genuine” website. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A symbol of a circle next to a straight line over a straight line and a circle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559903/original/file-20231116-19-zm7pen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Google’s new ‘tune icon’ which replaces the padlock icon in Chrome’s address bar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.chromium.org/2023/05/an-update-on-lock-icon.html">Google Chromium</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Not understanding symbols like the padlock icon, can pose problems to internet users. These include increased security risks and simply hindering effective use of the technology.</p>
<p>Our findings corroborate research by <a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/222182314/the-lock-icon-replaced-with-a-tune-icon-in-the-google-chrome-address-bar?hl=en">Google</a> itself, who in September, replaced the padlock icon with a <a href="https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/google-to-replace-the-padlock-icon-in-chrome-version-117/#:%7E:text=But%20that's%20about%20to%20change,to%20have%20HTTPS%20by%20default.">neutral symbol</a> described as a “tune icon”. In doing so, Google hopes to eradicate the misunderstandings that the padlock icon has afforded. </p>
<p>However, Google’s update now raises the question as to whether other web browser companies will join forces to ensure their designs are uniform and intuitive across all platforms.</p>
<h2>Web browser evolution</h2>
<p>Without a doubt, the browser, which is our point of entry to the world wide web, comes with a lot of responsibility on the part of web companies. It’s how we now visit web pages, so the browser has become an integral part of our daily lives. </p>
<p>It’s intriguing to look back and trace the evolution of the web’s design from the early 1990s to where we are today. Creating software that people wanted to use and found effective was at the heart of this <a href="https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-interaction">evolution</a>. The creation of functioning, satisfying, and most importantly, consistently designed user interfaces was an important goal in the 1990s. In fact, there was a drive in those early days to create web interface designs that were so consistent and intuitive that users would not need to think too much about how they work. </p>
<p>Nowadays, it’s a different story because the challenge is centred on helping people to think before they interact online. In light of this, it seems bizarre that the design of the web browser in 2023 still affords uncertainty through its design. Worse still, that it is inconsistently presented across its different providers. </p>
<p>It could be argued that this stems from the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/browser-wars-netscape-internet-explorer.asp">browser wars</a> of the mid-1990s. That’s when the likes of Microsoft and former software company, Netscape, tried to outdo each other with faster, better and more unique products. The race to be distinct meant there was inconsistency between products. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The rise and fall of Netscape and the browser wars of the 1990s.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Internet safety</h2>
<p>However, introducing distinct browser designs can lead to user confusion, misunderstanding and a false sense of security, especially when it is <a href="https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/principle-of-consistency-and-standards-in-user-interface-design">now widely known</a> that such inconsistency can breed confusion, and from that, frustration and lack of use. </p>
<p>As an expert in human-computer interaction, it is alarming to me that some browser companies continue to disregard <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/">established guidelines</a> for usability. In a world where web browsers open the doors to potentially greater societal risks than the offline world, it is crucial to establish a consistent approach for addressing these dangers. </p>
<p>As a minimum, we need web browser companies to join forces in a concerted effort to shield users, or at the very least, heighten their awareness regarding potential online risks. This should include formulating one unified design across the board that affords an enriched and safe user experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Carroll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The padlock symbol simply means that the data being sent between the web server and the user’s computer is encrypted and cannot be read by others. But many people don’t know that.Fiona Carroll, Reader in Human Computer Interaction, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168182023-11-14T03:02:16Z2023-11-14T03:02:16ZWhy Google and Meta owe news publishers much more than you think – and billions more than they’d like to admit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559209/original/file-20231114-17-yg49ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C47%2C3946%2C2616&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a time of war and populism, the world needs quality information and credible news outlets. Local news is a part of this healthy ecology. </p>
<p>But news publishers have struggled to find ways to make money in recent years – especially as referral traffic and ad revenue from social media sites <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/technology/news-social-media-traffic.html?searchResultPosition=1">continue to fall</a>.</p>
<p>The monopoly power of large platforms, and the control they exert over news distribution, was one reason Australia’s competition authorities introduced the News Media Bargaining Code in 2021.</p>
<p>This code has prompted Google and Meta to strike deals with a number of Australian media organisations, addressing the longstanding conundrum of how to get platforms to pay for news. It has even become a template for other countries looking to compensate their own media businesses. </p>
<p>But what exactly is fair compensation in this case? <a href="https://policydialogue.org/publications/working-papers/paying-for-news-what-google-and-meta-owe-us-publishers-draft-working-paper/">Our new report</a> suggests the amounts of money Google and Meta should be paying news publishers are far greater than anyone imagined, and far more than the tech companies themselves claim.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1722630742772257280"}"></div></p>
<h2>When Australia’s bargaining code went global</h2>
<p>Australia broke new ground when it passed the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">News Media Bargaining Code</a>, <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2022-343549#:%7E:text=The%20review%20considered%20it%20reasonable,been%20made%20without%2">successfully</a> pushing Google and Meta to reach voluntary commercial agreements with a number of media organisations. </p>
<p>It was a world-first piece of legislation, as La Trobe University Professor Andrea Carson <a href="https://techpolicy.press/australias-new-soft-power-bargaining-codes-start-to-spread-globally/">put it</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-news-media-bargaining-code-led-the-world-its-time-to-finish-what-we-started-188586">Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code led the world. It's time to finish what we started</a>
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<p>According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, payments made under the code total about A$200 million each year. It’s no surprise <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2023/news-publishers-facebook-meta-google-money/">other governments</a> are looking at Australia’s law to find ways to get payments for their news too.</p>
<p>Indonesia, <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/big-online-platforms-pay-fair-price-local-news-content#:%7E:text=The%20Government%20will%20legislate%20to,Broadcasting%20Willie%20Jackson%20announced%20today.">New Zealand</a>, <a href="https://www.compcom.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MDPMI_Administrative-timetable_final22.pdf">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/google-should-pay-millions-for-swiss-news--says-study/48369030">Switzerland</a> have all considered similar laws. <a href="https://www.jftc.go.jp/en/pressreleases/yearly-2023/September/230921.html">Japan</a> conducted a study on the online distribution of news content, and in September warned tech platforms low payments to publishers <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/09/22/japan/fair-trade-commission-online-news-platforms-antimonopoly-law/">could violate antimonopoly laws</a>.</p>
<p>In Brazil, attempts to introduce <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2022/an-unholy-coalition-torpedoes-social-media-reform-legislation-in-brazil/">platform remuneration legislation were scuppered</a> in May after significant pressure from Google, but are currently <a href="https://techpolicy.press/brazil-diary-brasilia-tries-again-to-regulate-tech-get-platform-to-pay-for-news/">being revived</a>. </p>
<p>In the United States, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1094">the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act</a>, which would allow collective bargaining by news publishers, was introduced by Democratic Minnesota Senator <a href="https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=A3EDE58E-206C-4283-B1ED-3EA07DAC8EF8">Amy Klobuchar</a> in March. </p>
<p>Then, in June, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-meta-big-tech-journalism-fee-california-lawmakers-ec3a926252f59e589e5d48b067c7904e">the California State Assembly passed</a> the California Journalism Preservation Act, which would require large tech companies to share their advertising revenue with news outlets. However, <a href="https://a14.asmdc.org/press-releases/20230707-assemblymember-wicks-senator-umberg-reach-agreement-two-year-bill-ab-886">the bill</a> has been put <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-07-07/california-journalism-bill-on-hold-until-2024">on hold</a> until 2024.</p>
<p>Whether or not the laws pass, Google and Facebook are coming out against them, threatening to drop news from their platforms in several <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-is-giving-up-on-news-again/">countries</a>. Facebook dropped news in Canada in August, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/technology/facebook-google-australia-news.html">in Australia</a> in February 2021 (before bringing it back a short while later).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stuff-up-or-conspiracy-whistleblowers-claim-facebook-deliberately-let-important-non-news-pages-go-down-in-news-blackout-182673">Stuff-up or conspiracy? Whistleblowers claim Facebook deliberately let important non-news pages go down in news blackout</a>
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<p>Google and Meta suggest news isn’t core to their business and can be dropped or de-emphasised. At the same time, reports say they’re continuing to give small amounts of money to publishers. </p>
<p>In fact, interviews we conducted over the past couple of months with people working for different outlets suggest Google has recently been raising payments made to publishers worldwide, in what we think is an attempt to forestall legislation.</p>
<p>Globally, publishers have estimated what <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2023/news-publishers-facebook-meta-google-money/">they believe they’re owed</a> under platform remuneration acts similar to Australia’s. But these amounts are covered under non-disclosure agreements when publishers make direct deals with Google and Meta.</p>
<p>Our working paper is the first to estimate what Google and Meta owe US publishers. We have made our methodology public so it can be checked and replicated.</p>
<p>We found that in the US, Google and Meta owe news publishers between US$11 billion and US$14 billion per year. This is much more than the sums being paid out, which we know about through interviews and specific cases in which amounts have been made public. </p>
<h2>Sharing surplus value fairly</h2>
<p>At the core of our study and its conclusions is what economists call “surplus” – the additional value created when two sides enter into a mutually beneficial interaction. Importantly, the value generated from the interaction is larger than if the two sides were to operate in isolation.</p>
<p>Digital platforms benefit from having varied, credible and timely news content provided by publishers. This enhances user engagement and makes their platform more attractive to advertisers. News publishers benefit by finding an avenue through which they can distribute their content, thereby reaching more readers.</p>
<p>Our methodology found this additional surplus value generated from the platform-publisher interaction, and then used insights from the economics of bargaining, and from historical benchmarks, to calculate a “fair” payment owed to news publishers.</p>
<p>Our methodology is transparent and replicable, and offers the flexibility to change underlying assumptions based on the market and geography being analysed. With this report, we hope to broaden the discussion over the payments that large digital platforms such as Google and Facebook owe news publishers.</p>
<p>It’s more important than ever that deals between platforms and media businesses are fair and transparent, and that publishers stick together as they negotiate. More value is created when bargaining is collective.</p>
<p><em>The Conversation reached out to Google for comment but did not receive a response before the deadline.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our research is the first to estimate what the tech giants owe publishers. The actual sums paid out are usually covered by non-disclosure agreements.Anya Schiffrin, Senior Lecturer in Discipline of International and Public Affairs, Columbia UniversityHaaris Mateen, Assistant Professor, University of HoustonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102432023-10-20T12:34:12Z2023-10-20T12:34:12ZWhy Google, Bing and other search engines’ embrace of generative AI threatens $68 billion SEO industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553349/original/file-20231011-29-da1o92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C44%2C2176%2C1250&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Search engines are expected to increasingly incorporate generative AI. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1367731673/vector/search-engine-and-web-browser-concept-illustration.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=hW9gV8C9nl7UlterArEFpxdlZsd8pRTwGH-GQDWF1oo=">ArtemisDiana/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Google, Microsoft and others boast that generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-search/">will make searching the internet</a> <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/">better than ever for users</a>. For example, rather than having to wade through a sea of URLs, users will be able to just get an answer combed from the entire internet. </p>
<p>There are also some <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-information-retrieval-a-search-engine-researcher-explains-the-promise-and-peril-of-letting-chatgpt-and-its-cousins-search-the-web-for-you-200875">concerns with the rise of AI-fueled search engines</a>, such as the opacity over where information comes from, the potential for “hallucinated” answers and copyright issues.</p>
<p>But one other consequence is that I believe it may destroy the <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5140303/search-engine-optimization-seo-global">US$68 billion search engine optimization</a> industry that companies like Google helped create. </p>
<p>For the past 25 years or so, websites, news outlets, blogs and many others with a URL that wanted to get attention <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo/seo-history/">have used search engine optimization</a>, or SEO, to “convince” search engines to share their content as high as possible in the results they provide to readers. This has helped drive traffic to their sites and has also spawned an industry of consultants and marketers who advise on how best to do that.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pvxc54kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">associate professor of information and operations management</a>, I study the economics of e-commerce. I believe the growing use of generative AI will likely make all of that obsolete. </p>
<h2>How online search works</h2>
<p>Someone seeking information online opens her browser, goes to a search engine and types in the relevant keywords. The search engine displays the results, and the user browses through the links displayed in the result listings until she finds the relevant information. </p>
<p>To attract the user’s attentions, online content providers use various search engine marketing strategies, such as <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">search engine optimization</a>, <a href="https://www.mv3marketing.com/glossary/paid-placement/">paid placements</a> and <a href="https://searchengineland.com/4-tips-for-creating-visually-stunning-display-ads-378028">banner displays</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, a news website might hire a consultant to help it highlight key words in headlines and in metadata so that Google and Bing elevate its content when a user searches for the latest information on a flood or political crisis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a closeup of a phone's screen shows a prompt about the ease of learning piano or guitar and a google bard's response." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553535/original/file-20231012-29-ndnxpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Google Bard answers your question or prompt in a single reply, as opposed to the lists of links generated by regular search engines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1246902236/photo/the-google-bard-ai-is-seen-on-a-mobile-device-in-this-illustration-photo-in-warsaw-poland-on.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=JgrkX-mzjQ_YEn5TdkfcHPu0yD5pAx9tQQzeS5rkBOE=">Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How generative AI changes search process</h2>
<p>But this all depends on search engines luring tens of millions of users to their websites. And so to earn users’ loyalty and web traffic, search engines must continuously work on their algorithms to improve the quality of their search results.</p>
<p>That’s why, even if it could hurt a part of their revenue stream, search engines have been quick to experiment with <a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-is-generative-ai/">generative AI</a> to improve search results. And this could fundamentally change the online search ecosystem.</p>
<p>All the biggest search engines have already adopted or are experimenting with this approach. Examples include <a href="https://bard.google.com/?hl=en">Google’s Bard</a>, <a href="https://www.bing.com/new">Microsoft’s Bing AI</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinas-baidu-cancels-chatgpt-like-ernie-bots-livestreamed-product-launch-2023-03-27/">Baidu’s ERNIE</a> and <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/try-duckduckgos-new-ai-feature-duckassist-now-for-free/">DuckDuckGo’s DuckAssist</a>.</p>
<p>Rather than getting a list of links, both organic and paid, based on whatever keywords or questions a user types in, generative AI will instead <a href="https://www.engadget.com/how-ai-will-change-the-way-we-search-for-better-or-worse-200021092.html">simply give you a text result</a> in the form of an answer. Say you’re planning a trip to Destin, Florida, and type the prompt “Create a three-day itinerary for a visitor” there. Instead of a bunch of links to Yelp and blog postings that require lots of clicking and reading, typing that into Bing AI will result in a detailed three-day itinerary. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two screenshots side by side of Bing and Bing AI searches of the same prompt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553533/original/file-20231012-29-ijwlrz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Side-by-side comparison of search results in regular Bing and the AI version from the prompt: ‘Create a 3-day itinerary for a visitor to Destin Florida.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Microsoft Bing</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over time, as the quality of AI-generated answers improve, users will have less incentive to browse through search result listings. They can save time and effort by reading the AI-generated response to their query. </p>
<p>In other words, it would allow you to bypass all those paid links and costly efforts by websites to improve their SEO scores, rendering them useless.</p>
<p>When users start ignoring the sponsored and editorial result listings, this will have an adverse impact on the revenues of SEO consultants, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/search-engine-marketing-sem/">search engine marketers</a> consultants and, ultimately, the bottom line of search engines themselves. </p>
<h2>The financial impact</h2>
<p>This financial impact cannot be ignored.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5140303/search-engine-optimization-seo-global">SEO industry generated $68.1 billion globally in 2022</a>. It had been expected to reach $129.6 billion by 2030, but these projections were made before the emergence of generative AI put the industry at risk of obsolescence.</p>
<p>As for <a href="https://geekflare.com/generative-ai-search/">search engines</a>, monetizing online search services is a <a href="https://searchengineland.com/search-ad-revenue-84-billion-395575">major source of their revenue</a>. They get a cut of the money that websites spend on improving their online visibility through paid placements, ads, affiliate marketing and the like, collectively known as search engine marketing. For example, approximately <a href="https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-does-google-make-money">58% of Google’s 2022 revenues</a> – or almost $162.5 billion – came from Google Ads, which provides some of these services. </p>
<p>Search engines run by massive companies with many revenue streams, like Google and Microsoft, will likely find ways to offset the losses by coming up with strategies to make money off generative AI answers. But the SEO marketers and consultants who depend on search engines – <a href="https://seo.co/market-size">mostly small- and medium-sized companies</a> – will no longer be needed as they are today, and so the industry is unlikely to survive much longer. </p>
<h2>A not-too-distant future</h2>
<p>But don’t expect the SEO industry to fade away immediately. Generative AI search engines are still in their infancy and must address certain challenges before they’ll dominate search.</p>
<p>For one thing, most of these initiatives <a href="https://siliconangle.com/2023/08/02/google-updates-experimental-search-generative-experience">are still experimental</a> and often available only to certain users. And for another, generative AI has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/09/google-ai-chatbot-bard-error-sends-shares-plummeting-in-battle-with-microsoft">notorious for providing incorrect</a>, <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/02/generative-ai-wont-revolutionize-search-yet">plagiarized</a> or simply <a href="https://twitter.com/dsmerdon/status/1618816703923912704">made-up answers</a>. </p>
<p>That means it’s unlikely at the moment to gain the trust or loyalty of many users.</p>
<p>Given these challenges, it is not surprising that generative AI has yet to <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/02/generative-ai-wont-revolutionize-search-yet">transform online search</a>. However, given the resources available to researchers working on generative AI models, it is safe to assume that eventually these models will become better at their task, leading to the death of the SEO industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ravi Sen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Search engines run by generative AI could fundamentally change the online ecosystem.Ravi Sen, Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131502023-09-11T03:44:03Z2023-09-11T03:44:03ZGoogle Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads. Here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547371/original/file-20230910-23-xd0q9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C319%2C4693%2C3317&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Yang/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late last week, Google announced something called the Privacy Sandbox has been rolled out <a href="https://privacysandbox.com/intl/en_us/news/privacy-sandbox-for-the-web-reaches-general-availability">to a “majority” of Chrome users</a>, and will reach 100% of users in the coming months. But what is it, exactly? </p>
<p>The new suite of features represents a fundamental shift in how Chrome will track user data for the benefit of advertisers. Instead of third-party cookies, Chrome can now tap directly into your browsing history to gather information on advertising “topics” (more on that later).</p>
<p>In development since 2019, this change has attracted <a href="https://gizmodo.com/google-privacy-sandbox-now-on-every-chrome-browser-1850812404">a great deal of controversy</a>, as some commentators have deemed it <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/">invasive in terms of privacy</a>.</p>
<p>Understanding how it works – and whether you want to opt in or out – is important, since Chrome remains the most widely used browser in the world, with a 63% market share <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/268254/market-share-of-internet-browsers-worldwide-since-2009/">as of May 2023</a> (Safari is in second place with 13%).</p>
<h2>Wait, what is a cookie?</h2>
<p>In 1994, computer engineer Lou Montulli at Netscape revolutionised the way we browsed the internet with his <a href="https://montulli.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-reasoning-behind-web-cookies.html">invention of the “cookie</a>”. For the first time, web pages could remember our passwords, preferences, language settings and even shopping carts.</p>
<p>This method was supposed to be a private exchange of information just between a user and a website – what’s known as a first-party cookie. But within two years, advertisers worked out how to “hack” cookies <a href="https://qz.com/2000350/the-inventor-of-the-digital-cookie-has-some-regrets">to track users</a>. These are third-party cookies.</p>
<p>You can think of a first-party cookie like a shop assistant who listens to your preferences and is happy to hold your bags or clothes while you make your selection – but only while you are inside their store.</p>
<p>A third-party cookie is like a bug from an old spy movie. It listens to everything in your room, but only shares the info with its allies. The “spy” can place this cookie on other people’s sites, to record what you visit and what data you enter. If you’ve ever wondered how Facebook has served you an ad about something related to a news story you just read, chances are it’s because you have third-party cookies enabled.</p>
<p>Unregulated online tracking and surveillance via cookies were the default until 2018, when the European Union’s <a href="https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/">General Data Protection Regulations</a> (GDPR) and the <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa">California Consumer Privacy Act</a> (CCPA) were introduced. If you have noticed more pop-ups notifying you of cookies and asking for your informed consent, you have the GDPR and CCPA to thank.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cookies-i-looked-at-50-well-known-websites-and-most-are-gathering-our-data-illegally-176203">Cookies: I looked at 50 well-known websites and most are gathering our data illegally</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://clearcode.cc/blog/third-party-cookies-demise/#safari-and-firefox-turn-off-support-for-third-party-cookies">first browsers</a> to turn off support for third-party cookies were Apple’s Safari in 2017 and Mozilla’s Firefox in 2019.</p>
<p>But Google is also a major online advertising company, with ads <a href="https://www.doofinder.com/en/statistics/google-revenue-breakdown">making up 57.8% of Google’s revenue</a> as of 2023. They <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/09/12/the-slow-death-of-third-party-cookies">have been slowest off the mark</a> in turning off third-party cookies in Chrome. With the introduction of the Privacy Sandbox, they now hope to start turning cookies off sometime in 2024.</p>
<h2>How is the Privacy Sandbox different from cookies?</h2>
<p>The details on how the Privacy Sandbox collection of features works <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/en/blog/shipping-privacy-sandbox/#whats-shipping">are rather technical</a>. But here are a few of the most important aspects.</p>
<p>Instead of using third-party cookies to serve you ads across the internet, Chrome will provide something called advertising Topics. These are high-level summaries of your browsing behaviour, tracked locally (such as in your browsing history), that companies can access on request to serve you ads on particular subjects.</p>
<p>Additionally, there are features such as <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/docs/privacy-sandbox/protected-audience/">Protected Audience</a> that can serve you ads for “remarketing” (for example, Chrome tracked you visiting a listing for a toaster, so now you will get ads for toasters elsewhere), and <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/docs/privacy-sandbox/attribution-reporting/">Attribution Reporting</a>, that gathers data on ad clicks.</p>
<p>In short, instead of third-party cookies doing the spying, the features these cookies enable will be available directly within Chrome.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1327238487750434831"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is user tracking necessarily bad?</h2>
<p>While Google pitches the Privacy Sandbox as something that will improve user privacy, <a href="https://movementforanopenweb.com/googles-privacy-sandbox-a-closer-look-at-claims-and-contradictions/">not everyone agrees</a>.</p>
<p>If these features are switched on, Google – one of the world’s biggest advertising companies – is essentially able to listen to you everywhere on the web.</p>
<p>Tracking technology can arguably benefit us as well. For example, it could be helpful if an online store reminds you every three months you need a new toothbrush, or that this time last year you bought a birthday card for your mum.</p>
<p>Offloading cognitive effort, such as reminders like these, is a great way automation can assist humanity. When used in situations where pinpoint accuracy is required, it can make our lives easier and more pleasant.</p>
<p>However, if you are not comfortable with surveillance, the alternative to third-party cookies may not necessarily be the new Privacy Sandbox in Chrome.</p>
<p>The alternative is to completely disable tracking altogether.</p>
<h2>What can you do?</h2>
<p>If you don’t want your online activities to be tracked for advertising purposes, there are a few straightforward choices.</p>
<p>By far the most private browsers are specialist non-tracking browsers that prioritise no tracking, such as <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a> and <a href="https://brave.com/">Brave</a>. But if you don’t want to get that nerdy, Safari and Firefox already have third-party cookies blocked by default.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of a Chrome settings page listing Ad topics, Site-suggested ads and Ad measurement" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547410/original/file-20230911-19-1eiqz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tools found in Google Chrome are nestled under Settings - Ads privacy. You can toggle each section on or off individually, and click on them to look at more details.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot via The Conversation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you don’t mind some useful targeted advertising, you can leave the Chrome Privacy Sandbox settings on.</p>
<p>If you want to adjust these settings or switch them off, click the three dots in the upper-right corner and go to <em>Settings > Privacy and Security > Ad privacy</em>. It’s unclear if toggling these features off will stop Chrome from collecting these data altogether, or if it just won’t share the data with advertisers. You can find out more details about each feature on <a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/13355898">the Google Chrome Help page</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, it’s good to remember nothing truly comes for free. Software costs money to develop. If you’re not paying towards that, then it’s likely you – or your data – are the product. We need to revolutionise how we think about our own data and what value it truly holds.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ugly-truth-tech-companies-are-tracking-and-misusing-our-data-and-theres-little-we-can-do-127444">The ugly truth: tech companies are tracking and misusing our data, and there's little we can do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Mealy is member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Information Security Association (AISA).</span></em></p>Google is paving the way to serve you ads based directly on your browsing history, instead of cookies.Erica Mealy, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2123672023-09-03T20:02:50Z2023-09-03T20:02:50ZGoogle turns 25: the search engine revolutionised how we access information, but will it survive AI?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545886/original/file-20230901-27-6t1m2h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C3976%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergio28/2839726384/">Flickr/sergio m mahugo, Edited by The Conversation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today marks an important milestone in the history of the internet: Google’s 25th birthday. With billions of search queries submitted each day, it’s difficult to remember how we ever lived without the search engine. </p>
<p>What was it about Google that led it to revolutionise information access? And will artificial intelligence (AI) make it obsolete, or enhance it? </p>
<p>Let’s look at how our access to information has changed through the decades – and where it might lead as advanced AI and Google Search become increasingly entwined.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545519/original/file-20230830-21-abx530.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Google’s homepage in 1998.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brent Payne/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1950s: public libraries as community hubs</h2>
<p>In the years following the second world war, it became <a href="https://www.yfanefa.com/record/2585">generally accepted</a> that a successful post-war city was one that could provide civic capabilities – and that included open access to information. </p>
<p>So in the 1950s information in Western countries was primarily provided by local libraries. Librarians themselves were a kind of “human search engine”. They answered phone queries from businesses and responded to letters – helping people find information quickly and accurately. </p>
<p>Libraries were more than just a place to borrow books. They were where parents went to look for health information, where tourists requested travel tips, and where businesses sought marketing advice. </p>
<p>The searching was free, but required librarians’ support, as well as a significant amount of labour and catalogue-driven processes. Questions we can now solve in minutes took hours, days or even weeks to answer.</p>
<h2>1990s: the rise of paid search services</h2>
<p>By the 1990s, libraries had expanded to include personal computers and online access to information services. Commercial search companies thrived as libraries could access information through expensive subscription services.</p>
<p>These systems were so complex that only trained specialists could search, with consumers paying for results. Dialog, developed at Lockheed Martin in the 1960s, remains one of the best examples. Today it claims to <a href="https://clarivate.com/products/dialog-family/">provide its customers access</a> “to over 1.7 billion records across more than 140 databases of peer-reviewed literature”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545517/original/file-20230830-15-dsrqp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo from 1979 shows librarians at the terminals of online retrieval system Dialog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">U.S. National Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another commercial search system, The Financial Times’ FT PROFILE, enabled access to articles in every UK broadsheet newspaper over a five-year period. </p>
<p>But searching with it wasn’t simple. Users had to remember typed commands to select a collection, using specific words to reduce the list of documents returned. Articles were ordered by date, leaving the reader to scan for the most relevant items.</p>
<p>FT PROFILE made valuable information rapidly accessible to people outside business circles, but at a high price. In the 1990s access cost <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024396">£1.60 a minute</a> – the equivalent of £4.65 (or A$9.00) today.</p>
<h2>The rise of Google</h2>
<p>Following the world wide web’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/30/1172276538/world-wide-web-internet-anniversary#">launch in 1993</a>, the number of websites grew exponentially.</p>
<p>Libraries provided public web access, and services such as the State Library of Victoria’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicnet">Vicnet</a> offered low-cost access for organisations. Librarians taught users to find information online and build websites. However, the complex search systems struggled with exploding volumes of content and high numbers of new users.</p>
<p>In 1994, the book <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Managing_Gigabytes_Compressing_and_Index.html?id=q_9RAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">Managing Gigabytes</a>, penned by three New Zealand computer scientists, presented solutions for this problem. Since <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6182576/">the 1950s</a> researchers had imagined a search engine that was fast, accessible to all, and which sorted documents by relevance.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, a Silicon Valley startup began to apply this knowledge – Larry Page and Sergey Brin used the principles in Managing Gigabytes to design Google’s iconic architecture.</p>
<p>After launching on September 4 1998, the Google revolution was in motion. People loved the simplicity of the search box, as well as a novel presentation of results that <a href="https://hughewilliams.com/2012/04/02/snippets-the-unsung-heroes-of-web-search/">summarised</a> how the retrieved pages matched the query.</p>
<p>In terms of functionality, Google Search was effective for a few reasons. It used the innovative approach of delivering results by counting web links in a page (a process called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank">PageRank</a>). But more importantly, its algorithm was very sophisticated; it not only matched search queries with the text within a page, but also with other text linking to that page (this was called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text">anchor text</a>).</p>
<p>Google’s popularity quickly surpassed competitors such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/so-farewell-then-altavista-we-hardly-knew-ye-15740">AltaVista</a> and Yahoo Search. With more than 85% of the market share today, it remains the most popular search engine. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1249495303893536775"}"></div></p>
<p>As the web expanded, however, access costs were contested. </p>
<p>Although consumers now search Google for free, payment is required to download certain articles and books. Many consumers still rely on libraries – while libraries themselves struggle with the rising costs of purchasing material to provide to the public for free.</p>
<h2>What will the next 25 years bring?</h2>
<p>Google has expanded far beyond Search. Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Pixel devices and other services show Google’s reach is vast. </p>
<p>With the introduction of AI tools, including Google’s Bard and the recently announced <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/google-gemini-is-a-serious-threat-to-chatgpt-heres-why">Gemini</a> (a direct competitor to ChatGPT), Google is set to revolutionise search once again. </p>
<p>As Google continues to roll <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-search/">generative AI capabilities into Search</a>, it will become common to read a quick information summary at the top of the results page, rather than dig for information yourself. A key challenge will be ensuring people don’t become complacent to the point that they blindly trust the generated outputs. </p>
<p>Fact-checking against original sources will remain as important as ever. After all, we have seen generative AI tools such as ChatGPT make headlines due to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-tools-are-generating-convincing-misinformation-engaging-with-them-means-being-on-high-alert-202062">hallucinations</a>” and misinformation.</p>
<p>If inaccurate or incomplete search summaries aren’t revised, or are further paraphrased and presented without source material, the misinformation problem will only get worse. </p>
<p>Moreover, even if AI tools revolutionise search, they may fail to revolutionise access. As the AI industry grows, we’re seeing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/everyones-having-a-field-day-with-chatgpt-but-nobody-knows-how-it-actually-works-196378">shift towards</a> content only being accessible for a fee, or through paid subscriptions.</p>
<p>The rise of AI provides an opportunity to revisit the tensions between public access and increasingly powerful commercial entities.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-cost-of-the-ai-boom-social-and-environmental-exploitation-208669">The hidden cost of the AI boom: social and environmental exploitation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Sanderson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Thomas receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Google Australia has contributed funding to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, which he leads. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran Hegarty receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology through a Digital Humanism Junior Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for Human Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology.</span></em></p>It’s hard to remember life before Google, when the closest thing to it was your local librarian. Soon the search engine will be offering AI-based summaries in its search results.Mark Sanderson, Professor of Information Retrieval, RMIT UniversityJulian Thomas, Distinguished Professor of Media and Communications; Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT UniversityKieran Hegarty, Research Fellow (Automated Decision-Making Systems), RMIT UniversityLisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110782023-08-10T15:12:32Z2023-08-10T15:12:32ZCanadian government’s battle with big tech platforms and what it means for the future of journalism<p>Canada recently passed a law to address the continuing financial woes of its traditional news media, trust in which has steadily fallen to <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Digital_News-Report_2022.pdf">42% in 2022</a>. The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-news.html">Online News Act,</a> known as Bill C-18, passed in June 2023 but is yet to come into force. It will require digital media companies to compensate news organisations for hosting their content on sites such as Facebook and Instagram and via search engines such as Google. </p>
<p>In response, it is reported that Meta has begun to block news stories from its sites Facebook and Instagram. News companies are reported to have <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/8/8/canadian-publishers-seek-antitrust-probe-of-meta-blocking-news#:%7E:text=Canada's%20Online%20News%20Act%2C%20part,the%20end%20of%20this%20year.">called on the country’s antitrust regulator to investigate</a>, arguing: “Meta seeks to impair Canadian news organizations’ ability to compete effectively in the news publishing and online advertising markets.”</p>
<p>It’s the latest episode in the digital transformation of the global news industry whose business model has been severely disrupted as news revenues have moved to online platforms rather than the producers of the news themselves. In Canada, 80% of all online advertising revenue (CAD$9.7 billion for 2020) now goes to <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/06/changes-to-news-availability-on-our-platforms-in-canada/">Meta</a> and <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/an-update-on-canadas-bill-c-18-and-our-search-and-news-products/">Google</a>. </p>
<p>By requiring them to provide a digital dividend to news outlets, the act aims to reinvigorate Canada’s news industry, which was <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021/canada">hit particularly hard during the COVID pandemic</a>, with the closure of at least 40 news outlets. Meta’s decision to block news from its platforms is likely to make life even harder for the country’s news industry.</p>
<p>Sue Gardner, a journalist and influential media commentator in Canada <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/max-policy/c-18">has criticised the legislation</a> as trying to fix a “tragedy without a villain” – apart from perhaps the internet itself. She says: “News publishers want to appear on those platforms, because that’s where people are finding news.” </p>
<p>She also says news companies must come up with better ways of monetising their content – and that waging war on the platforms where most people consume that content is not the best way forward.</p>
<h2>The Australian experience</h2>
<p>Any deals struck under C-18 are likely to disproportionately benefit the more powerful, larger, established news companies. This has already been happening in Australia where similar legislation was passed in 2021. </p>
<p>In response to the Australian law, Facebook (as it was then) initially blocked all news content before relenting and agreeing on a <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">news media bargaining code</a>. This enabled media companies to negotiate with platforms and has reportedly resulted in revenues of about AUD$200 million (£102 million) flowing to news organisations. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Digital_News-Report_2022.pdf">Reuters Institute</a>, the lion’s share of this initially went to the big players: Nine Entertainment Co, News Corp. Australia,
Australian Community Media, the Guardian, and the ABC. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp reportedly receives <a href="https://jninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Rod-Sims_News-Bargaining-Code_2022.pdf">15%-20% of these funds</a>. But a deal was struck by a group of smaller publishers
who were able to <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/australia-news-media-bargaining-code-google-deal/">collectively bargain</a> for recompense from Google for use of their content.</p>
<h2>Funding quality journalism</h2>
<p>It’s tempting to focus on the stand off between online media and the government on this matter, but the debate obscures a far deeper issue that societies are wrestling with all over the world: how do we fund quality journalism in an era of fast media? </p>
<p>Where clickbait and entertainment – <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap9559">even misinformation</a> – are better at attracting eyeballs (and therefore generating more revenue) than news produced by newspaper and broadcast companies, the latter can easily become a diminishing presence in people’s lives.</p>
<p>News consumption is in freefall around the world, whether measured in terms of interest in news, which has <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Digital_News-Report_2022.pdf">fallen globally from 63% in 2017 to 51% in 2022</a>), or in the proportion of people who will admit to actively avoiding news, which has risen over the same period from 29% to 37% (46% in the UK). </p>
<p>Only about 17% of people (in countries where payment for news is an established thing) say they are willing to pay for news. And the picture gets far worse when you look at the same factors for young people.</p>
<p><a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/Digital_News-Report_2022.pdf">Research</a> shows that the vast majority of people under the age of 30 get their news via mobile devices. They want their content to be free and are ambivalent about the notion that the choice of what they get to see is made via an algorithm (in fact the Reuters Institute found that many younger people trust algorithm-based news choices more than the gatekeeping of human news editors).</p>
<h2>Future of journalism</h2>
<p>Scandals – such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/doreen-lawrence-and-prince-harrys-lawsuit-against-daily-mail-publisher-underlines-need-for-leveson-inquiry-part-two-192753">phone hacking</a> by newspapers in the UK – and perceived biases of different news organisations have destroyed trust in much of the established news media. </p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/01/algorithms-and-the-reflexive-turn/">algorithms have done the rest</a>. By showing people more of what they are perceived to want, they force news “consumers” into silos where the ideas being received by people at one end of the spectrum are barely recognised by people at the other.</p>
<p>This is why the aim, if not the effect, of Canada’s new legislation should be seen as worthy. It’s an attempt to preserve a form of mainstream journalism by encouraging a negotiated future between legacy media and online media. </p>
<p>If Canada does find a way forward to encourage Meta and Google back to the table, then other countries may follow. We could begin to see more settlements and funds flow back into the news media, reversing the trend of the past two decades. Yet, even if it does work, it may not go far enough in thinking through how to ensure the news media remains sustainable in the long term.</p>
<p>Without an organic shift in public trust in the value of high-quality journalism, there will be further erosion to the idea that there is a necessary, public good brought uniquely by our professional news media – which would leave democracy all the poorer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Miah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new law in Canada attempts to force big tech to pay for the news stories on its sites. But big tech isn’t playing ball, which is a huge problem for journalism.Andy Miah, Chair in Science Communication & Future Media, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076802023-07-05T12:24:46Z2023-07-05T12:24:46ZAI is an existential threat – just not the way you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534922/original/file-20230629-25452-lnyw5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C1482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">AI isn't likely to enslave humanity, but it could take over many aspects of our lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/humanoid-robot-controlling-business-people-royalty-free-illustration/1363296681">elenabs/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rise of ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence systems has been accompanied by a sharp <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/06/21/as-ai-spreads-experts-predict-the-best-and-worst-changes-in-digital-life-by-2035/">increase in anxiety about AI</a>. For the past few months, executives and AI safety researchers have been offering predictions, dubbed “<a href="https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-doom-ai-boom-and-the-possible-destruction-of-humanity/">P(doom)</a>,” about the probability that AI will bring about a large-scale catastrophe.</p>
<p>Worries peaked in May 2023 when the nonprofit research and advocacy organization Center for AI Safety released <a href="https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk">a one-sentence statement</a>: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.” The statement was signed by many key players in the field, including the leaders of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, as well as two of the so-called “godfathers” of AI: <a href="https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/hinton_4791679.cfm">Geoffrey Hinton</a> and <a href="https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/bengio_3406375.cfm">Yoshua Bengio</a>.</p>
<p>You might ask how such existential fears are supposed to play out. One famous scenario is the “<a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2016/06/23/frankensteins-paperclips">paper clip maximizer</a>” thought experiment articulated by Oxford philosopher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oQwpz3QAAAAJ&hl=en">Nick Bostrom</a>. The idea is that an AI system tasked with producing as many paper clips as possible might go to extraordinary lengths to find raw materials, like destroying factories and causing car accidents. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/cyberlaw-podcast-how-worried-should-we-be-about-existential-ai-risk">less resource-intensive variation</a> has an AI tasked with procuring a reservation to a popular restaurant shutting down cellular networks and traffic lights in order to prevent other patrons from getting a table.</p>
<p>Office supplies or dinner, the basic idea is the same: AI is fast becoming an alien intelligence, good at accomplishing goals but dangerous because it won’t necessarily align with the moral values of its creators. And, in its most extreme version, this argument morphs into explicit anxieties about AIs <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/05/03/should-we-stop-developing-ai-for-the-good-of-humanity/">enslaving or destroying the human race</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eQ6Q6HINX7I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A paper clip-making AI runs amok is one variant of the AI apocalypse scenario.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Actual harm</h2>
<p>In the past few years, my colleagues and I at <a href="http://umb.edu/ethics">UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center</a> have been studying the impact of engagement with AI on people’s understanding of themselves, and I believe these catastrophic anxieties are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02094-7">overblown and misdirected</a>.</p>
<p>Yes, AI’s ability to create convincing deep-fake video and audio is frightening, and it can be abused by people with bad intent. In fact, that is already happening: Russian operatives likely attempted to embarrass Kremlin critic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/25/kremlin-critic-bill-browder-says-he-was-targeted-by-deepfake-hoax-video-call">Bill Browder</a> by ensnaring him in a conversation with an avatar for former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Cybercriminals have been using AI voice cloning for a variety of crimes – from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/14/huge-bank-fraud-uses-deep-fake-voice-tech-to-steal-millions/">high-tech heists</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-deepfakes-are-calling-heres-what-they-are-and-how-to-avoid-getting-scammed-201449">ordinary scams</a>. </p>
<p>AI decision-making systems that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases-Inequality/dp/0553418815">offer loan approval and hiring recommendations</a> carry the risk of algorithmic bias, since the training data and decision models they run on reflect long-standing social prejudices.</p>
<p>These are big problems, and they require the attention of policymakers. But they have been around for a while, and they are hardly cataclysmic. </p>
<h2>Not in the same league</h2>
<p>The statement from the Center for AI Safety lumped AI in with pandemics and nuclear weapons as a major risk to civilization. There are problems with that comparison. COVID-19 resulted in almost <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">7 million deaths worldwide</a>, brought on a <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide">massive and continuing mental health crisis</a> and created <a href="https://unctad.org/meeting/world-economic-situation-after-covid-19-shock-and-policy-challenges-ahead">economic challenges</a>, including chronic supply chain shortages and runaway inflation. </p>
<p>Nuclear weapons probably killed <a href="https://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html">more than 200,000 people</a> in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, claimed many more lives from cancer in the years that followed, generated decades of profound anxiety during the Cold War and brought the world to the brink of annihilation during the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. They have also <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/05/04/rattling-nuclear-saber-what-russia-s-nuclear-threats-really-mean-pub-89689">changed the calculations of national leaders</a> on how to respond to international aggression, as currently playing out with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>AI is simply nowhere near gaining the ability to do this kind of damage. The paper clip scenario and others like it are science fiction. Existing AI applications execute specific tasks rather than making broad judgments. The technology is <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/cyberlaw-podcast-how-worried-should-we-be-about-existential-ai-risk">far from being able to decide on and then plan out</a> the goals and subordinate goals necessary for shutting down traffic in order to get you a seat in a restaurant, or blowing up a car factory in order to satisfy your itch for paper clips. </p>
<p>Not only does the technology lack the complicated capacity for multilayer judgment that’s involved in these scenarios, it also does not have autonomous access to sufficient parts of our critical infrastructure to start causing that kind of damage.</p>
<h2>What it means to be human</h2>
<p>Actually, there is an existential danger inherent in using AI, but that risk is existential in the philosophical rather than apocalyptic sense. AI in its current form can alter the way people view themselves. It can degrade abilities and experiences that people consider essential to being human. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a robot hand points to one of four photographs on a shiny black surface" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534924/original/file-20230629-23-zxgy6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As algorithms take over many decisions, such as hiring, people could gradually lose the capacity to make them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/robot-selecting-candidate-photograph-royalty-free-image/924555488">AndreyPopov/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, humans are judgment-making creatures. People rationally weigh particulars and make daily judgment calls at work and during leisure time about whom to hire, who should get a loan, what to watch and so on. But more and more of these judgments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2021-0026">being automated and farmed out to algorithms</a>. As that happens, the world won’t end. But people will gradually lose the capacity to make these judgments themselves. The fewer of them people make, the worse they are likely to become at making them.</p>
<p>Or consider the role of chance in people’s lives. Humans value serendipitous encounters: coming across a place, person or activity by accident, being drawn into it and retrospectively appreciating the role accident played in these meaningful finds. But the role of algorithmic recommendation engines is to <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-is-killing-choice-and-chance-which-means-changing-what-it-means-to-be-human-151826">reduce that kind of serendipity</a> and replace it with planning and prediction.</p>
<p>Finally, consider ChatGPT’s writing capabilities. The technology is in the process of eliminating the role of writing assignments in higher education. If it does, educators will lose a key tool for teaching students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1187%2Fcbe.06-11-0203">how to think critically</a>. </p>
<h2>Not dead but diminished</h2>
<p>So, no, AI won’t blow up the world. But the increasingly uncritical embrace of it, in a variety of narrow contexts, means the gradual erosion of some of humans’ most important skills. Algorithms are already undermining people’s capacity to make judgments, enjoy serendipitous encounters and hone critical thinking. </p>
<p>The human species will survive such losses. But our way of existing will be impoverished in the process. The fantastic anxieties around the coming AI cataclysm, singularity, Skynet, or however you might think of it, obscure these more subtle costs. Recall T.S. Eliot’s famous closing lines of “<a href="https://allpoetry.com/the-hollow-men">The Hollow Men</a>”: “This is the way the world ends,” he wrote, “not with a bang but a whimper.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston receives funding from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Nir Eisikovits serves as the data ethics advisor to Hour25AI, a startup dedicated to reducing digital distractions.
</span></em></p>From open letters to congressional testimony, some AI leaders have stoked fears that the technology is a direct threat to humanity. The reality is less dramatic but perhaps more insidious.Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088272023-07-04T16:50:44Z2023-07-04T16:50:44ZBill C-18: Google and Meta spark crucial test for Canadian journalism<p>Three events have recently marked a powerful inflection point in Canadian journalism. </p>
<p>First, <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/an-update-on-canadas-bill-c-18-and-our-search-and-news-products/">Google</a> and <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/06/changes-to-news-availability-on-our-platforms-in-canada/">Meta</a> announced they will no longer share Canadian news links on their platforms in response to the new <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-news.html">Online News Act (Bill C-18),</a> designed to make them pay for their use of Canadian journalism. Their actions are receiving global media attention as other countries navigate platform monopolies of digital advertising dollars and the large financial losses for national commercial journalism ecosystems.</p>
<p>Second, two of the country’s largest English-language commercial newspaper companies, Nordstar Capital and Postmedia Network, announced they are <a href="https://www.postmedia.com/2023/06/27/postmedia-and-nordstar-capital-address-merger-speculation/">exploring a possible merger</a>.</p>
<p>And third, Bell Media, which owns CTV, Canada’s largest commercial broadcaster with 35 local stations in French and English, announced it would like to <a href="https://broadcastdialogue.com/bell-media-appeals-to-crtc-for-regulatory-relief-on-local-news-programming-requirements/">reduce its local news commitments</a> as currently required under CRTC regulations.</p>
<p>These events reflect the changing nature of contemporary journalism systems, described by respected global media economists as “characterized by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2016.1176781">volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity</a>.” </p>
<h2>What’s at stake?</h2>
<p>At stake is the nature of the country’s communications ecosystem, affecting how Canadians get news and information that matters to them.</p>
<p>As former journalists, researchers and co-founders of <em>The Conversation Canada</em>, a national not-for-profit news organization dedicated to sharing insights from academics, we support the emergence of the best possible journalism ecosystem given the conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Screen view of the Google and Facebook icons" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535416/original/file-20230703-267655-brbpwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Canadians still be able to see Canadian news via Google and Facebook?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada is becoming a crucial test for what these systems could and should look like in the 21st century, addressing concerns of what journalism could and should do — and who should do it. Related questions include what is quality journalism content and how much of it is needed.</p>
<p>As important is how much power platforms such as Google and Meta should have to control Canada’s communications infrastructures and impact free speech, let alone considerations about the economic conditions for journalism organizations and journalists. </p>
<h2>The role of Google and Meta</h2>
<p>The decisions by Google and Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) to remove news will affect almost one in two Canadians (45 per cent) who <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/canada">cite social media as their go-to place for news</a>. Social media is the third most-used method to access news in Canada, after the internet (69 per cent), which is the main source of news for Canadians, followed by TV news (49 per cent). </p>
<p>For now, Canadians won’t notice anything different as Google says the changes will take place when the law comes into effect over the coming months. Similarly, Meta plans to phase out news by the end of the year.</p>
<p>If these announcements come into effect, Canadians will still be able to go directly to news sites and receive alerts about news content. Some companies have been planning alternative networks and ways to share their content.</p>
<p>Google also announced that it would close down its Google News Showcase program, <a href="https://blog.google/products/news/google-news-showcase-canada/">launched in 2021</a>. This will impact revenues of more than 150 Canadian news publishers that it currently pays to license their work, including the <em>Globe and</em> <em>Mail</em> and the <em>Toronto Star</em>. Neither Google nor the news organizations have publicly acknowledged the value of these deals.</p>
<h2>Act expected to take six months to be in place</h2>
<p>These moves by Google and Meta were precipitated by the Online News Act, which became law on June 22. It is likely to take six months to come into force as the Department of Canadian Heritage works out the details on how to enforce it.</p>
<p>The act was intended to help Canada’s ailing news industry by forcing Google and Meta to pay for news links on their platforms, with the Parliamentary Budget Office estimating it would bring in over <a href="https://www.pbo-dpb.ca/en/publications/RP-2223-017-M--cost-estimate-bill-c-18-online-news-act--estimation-couts-lies-projet-loi-c-18-loi-nouvelles-ligne">$300 million annually for Canadian media</a>. </p>
<p>There would be winners and losers under the act’s funding model, with larger conventional journalism organizations — mostly the big broadcasters, including the CBC — being the big winners. Small digital-born organizations would benefit the least.</p>
<h2>How we got here</h2>
<p>Both Google and Facebook have been working to negotiate with Canadian media in a pre-emptive strategy to avoid legislation and/or to impact the legislation in their interests.</p>
<p>The main <a href="https://www.cjr.org/widescreen/a-canadian-platforms-and-publishers-timeline.php/">focus of Google’s activities</a> has involved funding individual organizations through direct payment deals for content on Showcase. The company has also provided funding for digital innovation and training, oriented within their own proprietary systems, and boot camps for startup entrepreneurs. For example, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google provided <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/gni-continues-work-towards-supporting-canadian-journalism-all-sizes/">$1.5 million to 230 Canadian newsrooms</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, Meta has been active in securing deals with Canadian media in advance of the Online News Act, funding dozens of news publishers through its Local News Accelerator program.</p>
<p>Meta had also been funding local reporters <a href="https://www.thecanadianpress.com/about/partnerships/facebook/">through The Canadian Press</a>, investing $1 million through a one-year fellowship, which <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/meta-ends-contract-for-journalism-fellowship-program-as-bill-c-18-fallout-continues-1.1939676">has been discontinued</a> in response to the passing of the act.</p>
<p>The Canadian act was modelled on 2020 legislation in Australia. There too, the platforms threatened to and did shut down news content during the negotiations. While Australia passed the legislation, it has not been used, leaving Google and Meta to <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-online-news-act-may-let-meta-and-google-decide-the-winners-and-losers-in-the-media-industry-208088">make private deals with media</a>. With the Canadian legislation, Google’s concern is the tax on links leaves them in a position with a potential unlimited requirement to pay. </p>
<h2>Why now?</h2>
<p>The Online News Act is one part of the Liberal government’s recent efforts to directly have a hand in subsidizing the journalism industry, a historic approach used in other countries, largely in northern Europe. This is separate to its support of the CBC, the country’s public broadcaster. </p>
<p>Ottawa has allocated more than $600 million since 2017 directly to fund journalism organizations through labour and subscriptions tax credits, which are subsidising operations, and other funding mechanisms such as pandemic relief and other financial supports.</p>
<p>And this is where the proposed moves by media giants Postmedia, Nordstar (publisher of the <em>Toronto Star</em>) and Bell come in. </p>
<p>These crises raise complicated questions about a wide range of policy directions — from financial issues for commercial journalism organizations, to changing audience consumption and trust relationships with conventional media (only 11 per cent of Canadians paid for online news in the last year) and technology companies playing a dominant role in the communications ecosystem. </p>
<p>The dominant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2016.1176781">perspectives on the policy responses</a> focused on “preservation” of existing players through various forms of protectionist policy, such as the $600 million in media funding from government. Less prominent are “conservation” approaches, recognizing that the legacy system is facing sustainability challenges that need to be managed but can’t be stopped. </p>
<p>These approaches can pit legacy or conventional journalism against digital media, which is a winner-take-all strategy of change that is “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2016.1176781">not supported by the facts</a>” or the conditions. </p>
<p>The larger questions for Canadians are about the nature, amount and quality of journalism and who controls its communications infrastructures. </p>
<h2>Impact of Postmedia-Nordstar merger</h2>
<p>Examples such as the proposed merger of Postmedia and Nordstar illustrate one of the trade-offs under consideration about the amount of journalism content and who is doing it, in addition to journalist economic conditions. </p>
<p>Postmedia and Nordstar account for 57 per cent of Canadian daily newspaper titles.</p>
<p>The last time the two companies made a deal to swap papers in 2017 resulted in 291 job losses and continuing centralization of content. More recently, Postmedia cut <a href="https://dailyhive.com/canada/postmedia-11-editorial-layoffs">11 per cent of editorial staff</a>. </p>
<p>A second question is having commercial organizations as Canada’s dominant media. BCE Inc., the parent company of Bell Media, has revenues in Canada far exceeding those of the tech platforms. Bell Media reported <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/bce-reports-2022-q4-and-full-year-results-announces-2023-financial-targets-891658807.html">revenues up 7.2 per cent in 2022</a>, but BCE CEO Mirko Bibic said the company’s news division incurs annual operating losses of “$40 million and growing” and that’s why “we need to accelerate our shift away from how telecom and media companies have operated in the past.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315167497-21/economic-contexts-journalism-rasmus-kleis-nielsen">As a social good</a>, journalism is in a unique position in part because its impact is not just about economics — it has a proven impact on <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/news-hole/86C7B8933122EB6EC229E4B05BBAA27C#">democratic accountability</a>.</p>
<p>How we understand what is happening now and how we got here is necessary to make sound policy decisions moving forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfred Hermida receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is a co-founder and board member of The Conversation Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Lynn Young receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is a co-founder of The Conversation Canada. </span></em></p>A series of crises in the Canadian media sector will become a crucial test for what the country’s media landscape could and should look like in the 21st century.Alfred Hermida, Professor, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British ColumbiaMary Lynn Young, Professor, School of Journalism, Writing and Media, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080882023-06-26T15:46:48Z2023-06-26T15:46:48ZCanada’s Online News Act may let Meta and Google decide the winners and losers in the media industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533842/original/file-20230625-72129-6np9vj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C234%2C4197%2C2512&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Australian law meant to force tech companies to fund news media lacks transparency in terms of how much money some outlets have received.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Online News Act, Bill C-18, was <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2023/06/online-news-act-receives-royal-assent.html">barely a few hours old</a> when <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/06/changes-to-news-availability-on-our-platforms-in-canada/">Meta announced</a> it will soon start blocking Canadians from accessing and sharing news on Facebook, Instagram and all of its platforms.</p>
<p>The act is meant to change the way journalism in Canada is funded by requiring tech giants like Meta and Google to bargain with Canadian media businesses for using news content on their platforms. The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated <a href="https://distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca/cc009955611c336af6d46f82af210ac3445e6c551b3841adae30c1088f487b41">news organizations could share a total compensation of $329 million annually</a>. </p>
<p>But Meta explained its decision to block news by saying journalism content contributes a pittance to the company’s annual earnings — and so it would be easier to pull news altogether than comply with the legislation.</p>
<p>The Online News act was modelled on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC), legislation that was the first to compel Meta and Google to pay for third-party news content on their sites. </p>
<p>Since the NMBC was passed in 2021, other countries, including the <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/google-facebook-payments-uk-publishers/">United Kingdom</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/01/california-news-publishers-law-meta-google">United States</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/proposed-new-law-could-earn-sa-media-houses-millions-from-google-facebook-20220815">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/09/us-tech-companies-regulations-brazil">Brazil</a>, have considered imposing similar laws. </p>
<p>But it looks as though Canada will be the first to succeed in implementing legislation that Ottawa says will <a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-eyes-australias-media-code-to-pay-for-news-but-wants-more-transparency-178402">“improve” on the Australian code</a>. </p>
<h2>Meta’s predictable response</h2>
<p>For Australians watching the legislation proceed through the Canadian Parliament, Meta’s actions seem to signal a case of history repeating. </p>
<p>Meta acted in much the same way while the NMBC was being debated, <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-has-pulled-the-trigger-on-news-content-and-possibly-shot-itself-in-the-foot-155547">blocking Australians from accessing or posting news content</a>. The ban included links to both Australian and international news publications — and even charities, emergency services and Australian government Facebook pages, such as the Bureau of Meteorology.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man swipes a news story on a smart phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533844/original/file-20230625-17-wgicpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians may soon not be able to access news articles on Facebook and other platforms owned by Meta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The move was a highly public attempt to force changes to the Australian legislation to avoid being “designated” in the legislation, which would name the platforms forced to negotiate with news organizations under the code. </p>
<p>The stunt was largely successful — the government made the concessions and effectively watered down the law.</p>
<p>The Australian media industry is now feeling the effects of that decision. </p>
<h2>The Australian NMBC one year on</h2>
<p>Late last year, the Australian Federal Treasury completed <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/c2022-264356">the first review of the NMBC</a> and positioned the legislation as a success. In a lot of ways, it was. There were 34 deals made amounting to more than <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/accc-estimates-deals-under-news-media-bargaining-code-total-over-200m-726561">AU$200 million</a> across the media sector, which represents about 61 per cent of the market being covered by at least one deal. </p>
<p>There was, however, a significant difference between Google and Meta when it came to the deals made. Meta only made deals with 13 media organizations, whereas Google secured about 23 deals.</p>
<p>I was part of an Australian research team that wanted to understand how Google and Meta were able to have such different responses to the code. We examined policy documents and interviewed news media executives about their experience of negotiating with the platforms.</p>
<p>What we found wasn’t all good news for journalism.</p>
<h2>Lack of transparency under the NMBC</h2>
<p>Some of the news executives of smaller organizations said lack of transparency around the funding led to an unintended shift. The market imbalance between media organizations and platforms was now felt much more among the media organizations themselves.</p>
<p>Commercial confidence provisions in the legislation means news organizations and platforms are not required to report how much money they received, how they invested the money they received or whether that investment aligned with the NMBC’s policy aim of supporting public interest journalism. </p>
<p>Most interviewees who secured larger deals did not want to see transparency about the amounts of money secured because they considered that information commercially sensitive.</p>
<p>But lack of transparency around the type and amount of funding effectively meant smaller, independent organizations competing for market share in a highly concentrated Australian media ecosystem were losing talent and investment. They were going to the larger media groups that were likely to have been given more funding under the code. </p>
<p>Misha Ketchell, editor of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au">The Conversation Australia</a>, said more transparency might have improved the “information asymmetry” between larger corporations and smaller independent organizations. </p>
<p>“We had no idea, and we struck a deal for a very modest amount of money,” Ketchell said. “We were really at a huge disadvantage.” </p>
<p>Ketchell told us his organization only got enough money to hire one new journalist, and that another newsroom poached one of their key staff because the other company used the funding it secured under the NMBC to offer a salary above the usual market rate. </p>
<h2>Platforms opting out of NMBC negotiation</h2>
<p>This impact was compounded by a second issue — the removal of “designation” in the code. That meant that regardless of whether a news organization was eligible under the code, there was no requirement that a platform negotiate with the organization. </p>
<p>As Nick Shelton, publisher of lifestyle-focused <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/">Broadsheet Media</a>, argued: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The platforms are the ones who are in a position to determine who they deal with … . So all of a sudden you have Google and Meta, huge multinational businesses, deciding the winners and losers of the Australian media industry.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Platforms could refuse to negotiate with organizations they deemed ineligible as public-interest journalism or alternatively, to remunerate organizations they had a business interest in supporting. Our interview participants suggested both scenarios had occurred. </p>
<p>Lastly, our interviews also showed that platforms were also able to push for individual deals that aligned with their own business priorities for news on the platform. This impacted the kinds of journalism being invested in, and reliance on particular forms of funding to pay for it. </p>
<p>Some interviewees claimed the platforms were pushing media organizations toward more grant-based funding and other specific programs offered by the tech companies — such as <a href="https://support.google.com/news/publisher-center/answer/10018888">Google News Showcase</a> — to avoid negotiating individual deals under the code.</p>
<p>Others interviewed indicated that deals were framed around investment in particular types of content according to needs of the platform, such as the <a href="https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/">Google News Initiative</a>, rather than being paid for news content published on the platforms.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for Canadians?</h2>
<p>There are valuable lessons to be learned from the framing of the Australian code.</p>
<p>Lack of transparency and designation means the tech platforms have been able to act in the best interests of their own business priorities, rather than in the interest of the code’s stated aim of supporting public-interest journalism.</p>
<p>Canadians should consider how much influence platforms already have and how much they might seek to gain once the Online News Act comes into effect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Bossio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s law to force tech giants like Meta and Google to pay media organizations has not always meant better outcomes for journalism. Will the same happen in Canada?Diana Bossio, Associate Professor, Media and Communications, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064192023-06-20T16:18:50Z2023-06-20T16:18:50ZMicrosoft and Google rivalry could supercharge development of AI<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530970/original/file-20230608-23-rzr94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C9%2C5984%2C3947&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The two companies have made major investments in AI companies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/uk-london-january-30-2023-microsoft-2260520033">kovop / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Microsoft and Google have recently made big investments in two of the most valuable companies in artificial intelligence (AI). OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, has received a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/microsoft-makes-multibillion-dollar-investment-in-openai">staggering investment of US$10 billion (£7.8 billion) from Microsoft</a>, while Google has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/583ead66-467c-4bd5-84d0-ed5df7b5bf9c">invested US$300 million in Anthropic</a>. </p>
<p>The companies’ financial support for AI has pushed an ongoing rivalry in to the public spotlight. Google’s struggle for dominance with Microsoft is increasingly at the forefront of discussions about AI’s future success.</p>
<p>Google has made enormous contributions to the field of AI development, including the invention of transformers – a particular form of machine learning, where an algorithm improves at tasks as it is “trained” on data – the advancement of techniques for automating the translation of languages and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/27/google-acquires-uk-artificial-intelligence-startup-deepmind">acquisition of AI company DeepMind</a>.</p>
<p>Although Google has consistently positioned itself at the forefront of AI development, a significant milestone was reached with the introduction of ChatGPT. California-based company OpenAI <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt">released ChatGPT in November 2022</a> and a <a href="https://sg.style.yahoo.com/chatgpt-4-openai-releases-version-075830243.html">more advanced version, GPT-4</a>, was unveiled in February 2023. </p>
<p>The arrival of ChatGPT sparked widespread discussion about artificial general intelligence (AGI) – where machines surpass human intellect. This was also the focus of warnings by Geoffrey Hinton, an influential figure in AI, who <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65452940">gave several interviews</a> outlining his concerns about the technology after resigning from Google earlier this year. </p>
<p>Consequently, <a href="https://arxiv.org/search/?query=large+language+models&searchtype=all&source=header&start=150">the number of research papers</a> focusing on large language models (LLMs) – the type of AI technology ChatGPT is based on – surged. Other AI research areas, such as dialogue systems and information retrieval, stand to lose out. </p>
<p>Amid this rapid technological disruption, it seems that Google <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/05/google-engineer-open-source-technology-ai-openai-chatgpt">fears losing its technological edge</a> and market dominance. </p>
<h2>Contradictory position?</h2>
<p>This concern is not unwarranted. ChatGPT, made by a direct competitor, has made use of Google’s pioneering internet search techniques to generate significant profit. Furthermore, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-openai-microsoft-hired-former-google-meta-apple-tesla-staff-2023-2?r=US&IR=T">flow of talent from Google to OpenAI</a> – along with the latter’s rapid growth – has become a worrying trend for the search giant. </p>
<p>When OpenAI was founded, one of its principles was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-readies-new-open-source-ai-model-information-2023-05-15/">making software that was “open source”</a>, where software is publicly available, allowing developers to share and modify it. Google, meanwhile, has maintained a relatively consistent commercial approach regarding its plans and ambitions. </p>
<p>However, OpenAI’s recent shift towards commercialism and closed-source practices seems to contradict its original corporate philosophy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Representation of ChatGPt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532379/original/file-20230616-27-carmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ChatGPT has been successfully using search techniques pioneered by Google.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/screen-smartphone-chatgpt-chat-ai-tool-2261871807">Giulio Benzin / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some industry insiders <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/03/17/sam-altman-rivals-rip-openai-name-not-open-artificial-intelligence-gpt-4/">have criticised OpenAI</a> for its somewhat contradictory posture. While it presents itself as a champion of open-source AI, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/17/844721/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/">it is undeniably a commercial entity</a>, a fact it does not readily admit. </p>
<p>This tension between OpenAI’s public image and business realities has made the rivalry with Google even more intriguing.</p>
<p>One likely outcome of this competition is the continued evolution and refinement of AI technology, spurred by the need to stay ahead in the market. Google’s techniques, once exploited by OpenAI for commercial gain, will probably undergo further innovation. </p>
<p>This evolution will not only enhance the functionality of AI applications, but also greatly improve user experiences.</p>
<p>Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president at Microsoft, recently indicated that the company didn’t feel it necessary to overhaul the search landscape, as even <a href="https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-vp-yusuf-mehdi-bing-google-generative-ai">a single point increase in market share represented a US$2 billion hike in value</a> This strategic downsizing of their ambitions could be an attempt to lessen competitive pressures in the tech industry. </p>
<h2>Stronger scrutiny</h2>
<p>It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s association with OpenAI adds another layer to this complex rivalry. Google has also shown a willingness to invest in external AI projects to extend its influence. </p>
<p>For instance, the company’s investment in Anthropic, an AI research company, reflects Google’s strategy to maintain its technological lead through strategic partnerships.</p>
<p>One concern that resonates with many people, including me, is the potential for misinformation, disinformation and distortion created by ChatGPT. With over 200 million users, it serves around 2.53% of the global population. </p>
<p>Widespread disinformation on social media has significantly <a href="https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/misinformation-in-action-fake-news-exposure-is-linked-to-lower-trust-in-media-higher-trust-in-government-when-your-side-is-in-power/">eroded trust in online content</a> and reportedly <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07761-2">influenced the 2016 US presidential election</a>. </p>
<p>With such a vast user base for ChatGPT, it is conceivable that tech companies could manipulate conversations, subtly swaying users’ preferences and decisions in numerous ways. Therefore, the need for stronger scrutiny and regulation of these large language models is becoming increasingly urgent.</p>
<p>Despite the growing competition over AI, Google remains a respected entity in the global tech industry. The AI rivalry between Google and Microsoft has driven both companies to push the boundaries of this technology, promising exciting advancements in the years to come. </p>
<p>The various strategies employed in this competition, from talent acquisition to strategic investments, reflect the significance of the stakes in the AI landscape. Specifically, acquiring top talent allows these companies to advance their AI capabilities, giving them a competitive edge. </p>
<p>Strategic investments, on the other hand, allow for diversification and expansion into new AI applications and sectors, increasing their influence and market share in the AI field. These actions underscore the high value and potential of AI technology in shaping our future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yali Du does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A competition is heating up between the two tech giants over AI.Yali Du, Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077732023-06-15T01:33:06Z2023-06-15T01:33:06ZEU files antitrust charges against Google – here’s how the ad tech at the heart of the case works<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532046/original/file-20230614-17-rgue1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7621%2C5076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager discusses the EU's antitrust case against Google.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BelgiumEUGoogleAdtechAntitrust/db596e9918664450ac89d24705dc1553/photo">AP Photo/Virginia Mayo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The European Union <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3207">filed an antitrust case</a> against Google on June 14, 2023, charging that the company abused its power in the online advertising market to disadvantage its competition. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies">similar civil antitrust suit</a> against Google on Jan. 24, 2023.</p>
<p>The online ad ecosystem is largely built around “<a href="https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/publishers-whats-the-difference-between-direct-and-programmatic-ads/">programmatic advertising</a>,” a system for placing advertisements from millions of advertisers on millions of websites. The system uses computers to automate bidding by advertisers on available ad spaces, often with transactions occurring faster than would be possible manually. Google runs the dominant advertising platform and has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-antitrust-regulators-charge-google-anti-competitive-adtech-practices-2023-06-14/">28% market share</a> of global advertising revenue.</p>
<p>Most websites outsource the task of selling ads to a complex network of advertising tech companies that do the work of figuring out which ads are shown to each particular person. Programmatic advertising is also a powerful tool that allows advertisers to target and reach people on a huge range of websites.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=y5yR8WIAAAAJ&hl=en">postdoctoral researcher in computer science</a>, I study these technologies and companies, including how sketchy ads, like those for miracle weight-loss pills and suspicious-looking software, sometimes appear on legitimate, well-regarded websites. </p>
<h2>Programmatic advertising, explained</h2>
<p>The modern online advertising marketplace is meant to solve one problem: match the high volume of advertisements with the large number of ad spaces. The websites want to keep their ad spaces full and at the best prices, and the advertisers want to target their ads to relevant sites and users.</p>
<p>Rather than each website and advertiser pairing up to run ads together, advertisers work with demand-side platforms – tech companies that let advertisers buy ads. Websites work with supply-side platforms – tech companies that pay sites to put ads on their page. These companies handle the details of figuring out which websites and users should be matched with specific ads. </p>
<p>Most of the time, ad tech companies decide which ads to show through a real-time bidding auction. Whenever a person loads a website, and the website has a space for an ad, the website’s supply-side platform will request bids for ads from demand-side platforms through an auction system called an ad exchange. The demand-side platform will decide which ad in their inventory best targets the particular user, based on any information they’ve collected about the user’s interests and web history from <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-protect-your-privacy-online">tracking users’ browsing</a>, and then submit a bid. The winner of this auction gets to place their ad in front of the user. This all happens in an instant.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram showing the different entities involved in real time bidding, and the requests and responses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457773/original/file-20220412-23-9qtbd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When you see an ad on a web page, behind the scenes an ad network has just automatically conducted an auction to decide which advertiser won the right to present their ad to you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Zeng</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Google runs a supply-side platform, demand-side platform and an exchange. These three components make up an ad network. Google’s control of these three components sets the stage for the company to manipulate the market, as the EU and Justice Department allege the company has done. A variety of smaller companies such as Criteo, Pubmatic, Rubicon and AppNexus also operate in the online advertising market.</p>
<p>This system allows an advertiser to run ads to potentially millions of users, across millions of websites, without needing to know the details of how that happens. And it allows websites to solicit ads from countless potential advertisers without needing to contact or reach an agreement with any of them.</p>
<h2>Screening out bad ads</h2>
<p>Malicious advertisers, like any other advertiser, can take advantage of the scale and reach of programmatic advertising to send scams and links to malware to potentially millions of users on any website. I study how malicious online advertisers take advantage of this system. This means that online advertising companies have a big responsibility to prevent harmful ads from reaching users, but they sometimes fall short.</p>
<p>There are some checks against bad ads at multiple levels. Ad networks, supply-side platforms and demand-side platforms typically have content policies restricting harmful ads. For example, Google Ads has an extensive content policy that forbids illegal and dangerous products, inappropriate and offensive content, and a long list of <a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955">deceptive techniques</a>, such as phishing, clickbait, false advertising and doctored imagery. </p>
<p>However, other ad networks have less stringent policies. For example, MGID, a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/native-advertising-guide-businesses">native advertising</a> network my colleagues and I examined for <a href="https://badads.cs.washington.edu/files/Zeng-ConPro2020-BadNews.pdf">a study</a> and found to run many lower-quality ads, has a much shorter <a href="https://help.mgid.com/prohibited-content-products-and-services">content policy</a> that prohibits illegal, offensive and malicious ads, and a single line about “misleading, inaccurate or deceitful information.” Native advertising is designed to imitate the look and feel of the website that it appears on, and is typically responsible for the sketchy looking ads at the bottom of news articles. Another native ad network, content.ad, has no content policy on their website at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three screenshots of misleading political ads" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457639/original/file-20220412-26-ftg3ry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These political ads from the 2020 election are examples of potentially misleading techniques to get you to click on them. The ad on the left uses Donald Trump’s name and a clickbait headline promising money. The ad in the center claims to be a thank-you card for Dr. Anthony Fauci but in reality is intended to collect email addresses for political mailing lists. The ad on the right presents itself as an opinion poll but links to a page selling a product.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshots by Eric Zeng</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Websites can block specific advertisers and categories of ads. For example, a site could block a particular advertiser that has been running scammy ads on their page, or specific ad networks that have been serving low-quality ads. </p>
<p>However, these policies are only as good as the enforcement. Ad networks typically use a combination of manual content moderators and automated tools to check that each ad campaign complies with their policies. How effective these are is unclear, but a report by Confiant, a firm that tracks malware in advertising, suggests that between 0.14% and 1.29% of ads served by various supply-side platforms in the third quarter of 2020 <a href="https://www.confiant.com/demand-quality-report#def">were low quality</a>. </p>
<p>Malicious advertisers adapt to countermeasures and figure out ways to evade automated or manual auditing of their ads, or exploit gray areas in content policies. For example, in a study my colleagues and I conducted on deceptive political ads during the 2020 U.S. elections, we found <a href="https://badads.cs.washington.edu/political.html">many examples of fake political polls</a>, which purported to be public opinion polls but asked for an email address to vote. Voting in the poll signed the user up for political email lists. Despite this deception, ads like these may not have violated Google’s content policies for political content, data collection or misrepresentation, or were simply missed in the review process.</p>
<h2>Bad ads by design</h2>
<p>Lastly, some examples of “bad” ads are intentionally designed to be misleading and deceptive, by both the website and ad network. Native ads are a prime example. They apparently are effective because <a href="https://www.outbrain.com/blog/native-ads-vs-display-ads/">native advertising companies claim</a> higher clickthrough rates and revenue for sites. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022243719879711">Studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0002764216660140">have</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2015.1115380">shown</a> that this is likely because users have difficulty telling the difference between native ads and the website’s content.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A grid of three native ads that look like news articles. One ad is selling CBD gummies, another is a clickbait story, and the last is trying to sell financial advice." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457631/original/file-20220412-18-uz1ze5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">These are examples of native ads found on news websites. They imitate the look and feel of links to news articles and often contain clickbait, scams and questionable products.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot by Eric Zeng</span></span>
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<p>You may have seen native ads on many news and media websites, including on major sites like CNN, USA Today and Vox. If you scroll to the bottom of a news article, there may be a section called “sponsored content” or “around the web,” containing what look like news articles. However, all of these are paid content. My colleagues and I conducted a study on native advertising on news and misinformation websites and found that these native ads disproportionately contained <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Bad-News%3A-Clickbait-and-Deceptive-Ads-on-News-and-Zeng-Kohno/a7d7a8e1eca1dee63e871751dad4e0481079acb4">potentially deceptive and misleading content</a>, such as ads for unregulated health supplements, deceptively written advertorials, investment pitches and material from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135514220/webs-content-farms-grow-audiences-for-ads">content farms</a>. </p>
<p>This highlights an unfortunate situation. Even reputable news and media websites are struggling to earn revenue, and turn to running deceptive and misleading ads on their sites to earn more income, despite the risks it poses to their users and the cost to their reputations.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bad-ads-appear-on-good-websites-a-computer-scientist-explains-178268">an article</a> originally published on April 13, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Zeng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Antitrust suits against Google for its advertising practices center on the technology for buying and selling online ads. A computer scientist explains how these ad networks work.Eric Zeng, Postdoctoral Researcher in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2070332023-06-08T20:07:12Z2023-06-08T20:07:12ZWhat is the ‘splinternet’? Here’s why the internet is less whole than you might think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530739/original/file-20230608-28-h3pjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C188%2C5712%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Splinternet” refers to the way the internet is <a href="https://theconversation.com/country-rules-the-splinternet-may-be-the-future-of-the-web-81939">being splintered</a> – broken up, divided, separated, locked down, boxed up, or otherwise segmented.</p>
<p>Whether for nation states or corporations, there’s money and control to be had by influencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-the-internet-looks-brighter-thanks-to-an-eu-court-opinion-109721">what information people can access and share</a>, as well as the costs that are paid for this access. </p>
<p>The idea of a splinternet isn’t new, nor is the problem. But recent developments are likely to enhance segmentation, and have brought it back into new light. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meta-just-copped-a-a-1-9bn-fine-for-keeping-eu-data-in-the-us-but-why-should-users-care-where-data-are-stored-206186">Meta just copped a A$1.9bn fine for keeping EU data in the US. But why should users care where data are stored?</a>
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<h2>The internet as a whole</h2>
<p>The core question is whether we have just one single internet for everyone, or whether we have many.</p>
<p>Think of how we refer to things like the sky, the sea, or the economy. Despite these conceptually being singular things, we’re often only seeing a perspective: a part of the whole that isn’t complete, but we still experience directly. This applies to the internet, too.</p>
<p>A large portion of the internet is what’s known as the “deep web”. These are the parts search engines and web crawlers generally don’t go to. Estimates vary, but a rule of thumb is that approximately 70% of the web is “deep”.</p>
<p>Despite the name and the anxious news reporting in some sectors, the deep web is mostly benign. It refers to the parts of the web to which access is restricted in some ways.</p>
<p>Your personal email is a part of the deep web – no matter how bad your password might be, it requires authorisation to access. So do your Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive accounts. If your work or school has its own servers, these are part of the deep web – they’re connected, but not publicly accessible by default (we hope).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/searching-deep-and-dark-building-a-google-for-the-less-visible-parts-of-the-web-58472">Searching deep and dark: Building a Google for the less visible parts of the web</a>
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<p>We can expand this to things like the experience of multiplayer videogames, most social media platforms, and much more. Yes, there are parts that live up to the ominous name, but most of the deep web is just the stuff that needs password access.</p>
<p>The internet changes, too – connections go live, cables get broken or satellites fail, people bring their new <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-things-every-consumer-should-know-about-the-internet-of-things-78765">Internet of Things devices</a> (like “smart” fridges and doorbells) online, or accidentally open their computer ports to the net.</p>
<p>But because such a huge portion of the web is shaped by our individual access, we all have our own perspectives on what it’s like to use the internet. Just like standing under “the sky”, our local experience is different to that of others. No one can see the full picture. </p>
<h2>A fractured internet poised to fracture even more</h2>
<p>Was there ever a single “Internet”? Certainly the US research computer network called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ARPANET">ARPANET</a> in the 1960s was clear, discrete, and unfractured.</p>
<p>Alongside this, in the ‘60s and '70s, governments in the Soviet Union and Chile also each worked on similar network projects called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGAS">OGAS</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn">CyberSyn</a>, respectively. These systems were proto-internets that could have expanded significantly, and had themes that resonate today – OGAS was heavily surveilled by the KGB, and CyberSyn was a social experiment destroyed during a far-right coup.</p>
<p>Each was very clearly separate, each was a fractured computer network that relied on government support to succeed, and ARPANET was the only one to succeed due to its significant government funding. It was the kernel that would become the basis of the internet, and it was <a href="https://home.cern/science/computing/where-web-was-born">Tim Berners-Lee’s work on HTML at CERN</a> that became the basis of the web we have today, and something he <a href="https://theconversation.com/snowden-and-berners-lees-campaign-for-an-open-internet-24329">seeks to protect</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pencil drawing on a stamp showing a smiling man next to two computer screens with www on them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Marshall Islands released a postal stamp in 1999 celebrating English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee as the inventor of the World Wide Web.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/marshall-islands-circa-2000-postage-stamp-150910184">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Today, we can see the unified “Internet” has given way to a fractured internet – one poised to fracture even more.</p>
<p>Many nations effectively have their own internets already. These are still technically connected to the rest of the internet, but are subject to such distinct policies, regulations and costs that they are distinctly different for the users.</p>
<p>For example, Russia maintains a Soviet-era-style surveillance of the internet, and is far from alone in doing so – thanks to Xi Jinping, there is now “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown">the great firewall of China</a>”.</p>
<p>Surveillance isn’t the only barrier to internet use, with harassment, abuse, censorship, taxation and pricing of access, and similar internet controls being a major issue <a href="https://rsf.org/sites/default/files/a4_predateur-en_final.pdf">across many countries</a>.</p>
<p>Content controls aren’t bad in themselves – it’s easy to think of content that most people would prefer didn’t exist. Nonetheless, these national regulations lead to a splintering of internet experience depending on which country you’re in.</p>
<p>Indeed, every single country has local factors that shape the internet experience, from language to law, from culture to censorship.</p>
<p>While this can be overcome by tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks) or shifting to blockchain networks, in practice these are individual solutions that only a small percentage of people use, and don’t represent a stable solution.</p>
<h2>We’re already on the splinternet</h2>
<p>In short, it doesn’t fix it for those who aren’t technically savvy and it doesn’t fix the issues with commercial services. Even without censorious governments, the problems remain. In 2021, Facebook <a href="https://theconversation.com/stuff-up-or-conspiracy-whistleblowers-claim-facebook-deliberately-le">shut down Australian news content</a> as a protest against the News Media Bargaining Code, leading to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wechat-model-how-facebooks-ban-could-change-the-business-of-news-155629">potential change in the industry</a>.</p>
<p>Before that, organisations such as Wikipedia and Google <a href="https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12/">protested the winding back of network neutrality provisions</a> in the US in 2017 following <a href="https://sopastrike.com/">earlier</a> <a href="https://www.battleforthenet.com/sept10th/">campaigns</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-news-blockade-in-australia-shows-how-tech-giants-are-swallowing-the-web-155832">Facebook's news blockade in Australia shows how tech giants are swallowing the web</a>
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<p>Facebook (now known as Meta) attempted to create a walled garden internet in India called Free Basics – this led to a massive outcry about corporate control in late 2015 and early 2016. Today, <a href="https://theconversation.com/meta-just-copped-a-a-1-9bn-fine-for-keeping-eu-data-in-the-us-but-why-should-users-care-where-data-are-stored-206186">Meta’s breaches of EU law</a> are placing its business model at risk in the territory.</p>
<p>This broad shift has been described in the past by my colleague Mark Andrejevic in 2007 as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714420701715365">digital enclosure</a> – where states and commercial interests increasingly segment, separate and restrict what is accessible on the internet.</p>
<p>The uneven overlapping of national regulations and economies will interact oddly with digital services that cut across multiple borders. Further reductions in network neutrality will open the doors to restrictive internet service provider deals, price-based discrimination, and lock-in contracts with content providers.</p>
<p>The existing diversity of experience on the internet will see users’ experiences and access continue to diverge. As internet-based companies increasingly rely on exclusive access to users for tracking and advertising, as services and ISPs overcome falling revenue with lock-in agreements, and as government policies change, we’ll see the splintering continue.</p>
<p>The splinternet isn’t that different from what we already have. But it does represent an internet that’s even less global, less deliberative, less fair and less unified than we have today.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tim-berners-lees-plan-to-save-the-internet-give-us-back-control-of-our-data-154130">Tim Berners-Lee's plan to save the internet: give us back control of our data</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robbie Fordyce is affiliated with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.</span></em></p>There’s really no such thing as one global internet – it all depends on your perspective. But the internet is poised to fracturing even more.Robbie Fordyce, Lecturer, Communications and Media Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.