To combat dropping user engagement on older social media platforms, it appears Meta/Facebook plans to add AI-generated users that will post AI-generated content. Below is a quote from an article in the Financial Times:
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going,” he added.
A social network for interacting with bots, called SocialAI, already exists. However, on a platform where both function concurrently, differentiating between them will likely become increasingly difficult. In the end, a stale, lifeless feeling already pervades the internet. Drowning in information overload, perhaps only bots will survive, quietly processing through the digital debris.
A new video from Le dessous des images discusses “micro-dramas,” short (1-2 minute) soap opera-style videos made for and shown on platforms such as Reelshorts. Webtoons also came to my mind; their monetization and distribution—short, cliffhanger-filled chapters, some locked unless paid for—are similar.
Years ago, I dropped Spotify due to the increasing number of playlists, like those for jazz, featuring little-known artists with single-track covers of popular songs. It was obvious to me that Spotify populated the playlists with songs as a way to reduce royalty payments to artists. This process, internally known as the “Perfect Fit Content program,” is the subject of a recent Harper’s Magazine article by Liz Pelly. This excerpt from her article perfectly captures how the process is changing our relationship with music.
A model in which the imperative is simply to keep listeners around, whether they’re paying attention or not, distorts our very understanding of music’s purpose. This treatment of music as nothing but background sounds—as interchangeable tracks of generic, vibe-tagged playlist fodder—is at the heart of how music has been devalued in the streaming era. It is in the financial interest of streaming services to discourage a critical audio culture among users, to continue eroding connections between artists and listeners, so as to more easily slip discounted stock music through the cracks, improving their profit margins in the process. It’s not hard to imagine a future in which the continued fraying of these connections erodes the role of the artist altogether, laying the groundwork for users to accept music made using generative-AI software.
In Gimpo, a Starbucks opened in the South Korean border observatory, close to where I live. #NotTheOnion
The South Korean city of Gimpo said hosting Starbucks was part of efforts to develop its border facilities as a tourist destination and said the shop symbolizes “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
ARTE’s Le dessous des images released a video about the CrowdStrike-related IT outages in July 2024. This video traces the history of the “blue screens of death” in Windows and explores how it relates to larger themes present in speculative fiction.
An article in the Korea Herald I read today discussed the use of funeral wreaths as a protest metho in South Korea. These wreaths, traditionally used for funerals, are now being sent with messages to convey dissatisfaction.
One recent example of this is K-Pop fans who protested against a dispute between artists and their management company.
In reaction, some fans sent funeral wreaths to the agency’s headquarters in Seoul with messages such as “Hong Seunghan Out,” “Remove Hong Seunghan,” and “Riize is Forever Six” to protest his return.
The following video from “Le dessous des images” explores the popularity of cooking videos on platforms like TikTok. Those cooking videos offer a seductive experience with quick edits and a POV perspective. Furthermore, the video compares these new formats format by looking into the history of cooking shows on television. What crossed my mind was how those videos simplify the cooking process, making it seem easier for everyone. However, this approach also means that they omit many of the steps involved in cooking, especially in comparison to older educational cooking shows. One surprising example is the segment showcasing an old French show centred on rural cuisine, even showing the actual process of butchering a duck.
In this article, Ian Bogost discusses the introduction of email reactions and how they have evolved on the internet. As a user of dedicated email software (Thunderbird), I found it awkward when I first received a thumbs-up reply to an email. Although these reactions can be useful to indicate receipt of a message, I also agree with Bogost’s view that they can be futile and add work. Worse, it is often saddening when someone can’t respond more thoughtfully.
The arrival of reactions in our email, of all places, represents their final success and inevitable futility. Adding confetti to a Gmail conversation affirms that reactions underpin the internet—that online life has become reaction-driven in a deep sense. Much of what we make and share online is made or shared precisely in the hope of eliciting emoji. At this point, we’re so overrun with these attempts—with things to make us laugh or cry or throw confetti—that the very work of having a reaction may soon be obsolete.
The NO TECH MAGAZINE reader shared some intriguing links worth checking out:
This article from the Financial Times provides some funny criticisms on the “invention” of Italian food traditions based on the work of Alberto Grandi. The article also points out a link with food and nationalistic politics:
Today, Italian food is as much a leitmotif for rightwing politicians as beautiful young women and football were in the Berlusconi era. As part of her election campaign in 2022, prime minister Giorgia Meloni posted a TikTok video in which an old lady taught her how to seal tortellini parcels by hand. This month, Meloni’s minister of agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, suggested establishing a task force to monitor quality standards in Italian restaurants around the world. He fears that chefs may get recipes wrong, or use ingredients that aren’t Italian. (Officially listed “traditional food products” now number a staggering 4,820.)