• Home
• About
• Writers
• Landscape
• Wizards Index
• Fraud
• Wanna Be Like Larry?

 Subscribe

Will Smart Software Take Customer Service Jobs? Do Grocery Stores Raise Prices? Well, Yeah, But

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

I have suggested that smart software will eliminate some jobs. Who will be doing the replacements? Workers one finds on Fiverr.com? Interns who will pay to learn something which may be more useful than a degree in art history? RIF’ed former employees who are desperate for cash and will work for a fraction of their original salary?

“Believe it or not, I am here to help you. However, I strong suggest you learn more about the technology used to create software robots and helpers like me. I also think you have beautiful eyes. My are just blue LEDs, but the Terminator finds them quite attractive,” says the robot who is learning from her human sidekick. Thanks, MidJourney, you have the robot human art nailed.

The fact is that smart software will perform many tasks once handled by humans? Don’t believe me. Visit a local body shop. Then take a tour of the Toyota factory not too distant from Tokyo’s airport. See the difference? The local body shop is swarming with folks who do stuff with their hands, spray guns, and machines which have been around for decades. The Toyota factory is not like that.

Machines — hardware, software, or combos — do not take breaks. They do not require vacations. They do not complain about hard work and long days. They, in fact, are lousy machines.

Therefore, the New York Times’s article “Training My Replacement: Inside a Call Center Worker’s Battle with AI”  provides a human interest glimpse of the terrors of a humanoid who sees the writing on the wall. My hunch is that the New York Times’s “real news” team will do more stories like this.

However, it would be helpful to people like to include information such as a reference or a subtle nod to information like this: “There Are 4 Reasons Why Jobs Are Disappearing — But AI Isn’t One of Them.” What are these reasons? Here’s a snapshot:

• Poor economic growth
• Higher costs
• Supply chain issues (real, convenient excuse, or imaginary)
• That old chestnut: Covid. Boo.

Do I buy the report? I think identification of other factors is a useful exercise. In the short term, many organizations are experimenting with smart software. Few are blessed with senior executives who trust technology when those creating the technology are not exactly sure what’s going on with their digital whiz kids.

The Gray Lady’s “real news” teams should be nervous. The wonderful, trusted, reliable Google is allegedly showing how a human can use Google AI to help humans with creating news.

Even art history major should be suspicious because once a leader in carpetland hears about the savings generated by deleting humanoids and their costs, those bean counters will allow an MBA to install software. Remember, please, that the mantra of modern management is money and good enough.

Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2023

Hedge Funds and AI: Lovers at First Sight

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

One promise of AI is that it will eliminate tedious tasks (and the jobs that with them). That promise is beginning to be fulfilled in the investment arena, we learn from the piece, “Hedge Funds Are Deploying ChatGPT to Handle All the Grunt Work,” shared by Yahoo Finance. What could go wrong?

Two youthful hedge fund managers are so pleased with their AI-infused hedge fund tactics, they jumped in a swimming pool which is starting to fill with money. Thanks, MidJourney. You have nailed the happy bankers and their enjoyment of money raining down.

Bloomberg’s Justina Lee and Saijel Kishan write:

“AI on Wall Street is a broad church that includes everything from machine-learning algorithms used to compute credit risks to natural language processing tools that scan the news for trading. Generative AI, the latest buzzword exemplified by OpenAI’s chatbot, can follow instructions and create new text, images or other content after being trained on massive amounts of inputs. The idea is that if the machine reads enough finance, it could plausibly price an option, build a portfolio or parse a corporate news headline.”

Parse the headlines for investment direction. Interesting. We also learn:

“Fed researchers found [ChatGPT] beats existing models such as Google’s BERT in classifying sentences in the central bank’s statements as dovish or hawkish. A paper from the University of Chicago showed ChatGPT can distill bloated corporate disclosures into their essence in a way that explains the subsequent stock reaction. Academics have also suggested it can come up with research ideas, design studies and possibly even decide what to invest in.”

Sounds good in theory, but there is just one small problem (several, really, but let’s focus on just the one): These algorithms make mistakes. Often. (Scroll down in this GitHub list for the ChatGPT examples.) It may be wise to limit one’s investments to firms patient enough to wait for AI to become more reliable.

Cynthia Murrell, July 26, 2023

Silicon Valley and Its Busy, Busy Beavers

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

Several stories caught my attention. These are:

• The story “Google Pitches AI to Newsrooms As Tool to Help Reporters Write News Stories.” The main idea is that the “test” will allow newspaper publishers to become more efficient.
• The story “YouTube Premium Price Increase 2023: Users Calls for Lawsuit” explains that to improve the experience, Google will raise its price for YouTube Premium.” Was that service positioned as fixed price?
• The story “Google Gives a Peek at What a Quantum Computer Can Do” resurfaces the quantum supremacy assertion. Like high school hot rodders, Google suggests that its hardware is the most powerful, fastest, and slickest one in the Quantum School for Mavens.
• The story “Meta, Google, and OpenAI Promise the White House They’ll Develop AI Responsibly” reports that Google and other big tech outfits cross their hearts and hope to die that they will not act in an untoward manner.

Google’s busy beavers have been active: AI, pricing tactics, quantum goodness, and team building. Thanks, MidJourney but you left out the computing devices which no high value beaver goes without.

Google has allowed its beavers to gnaw on some organic material to build some dams. Specifically, the newspapers which have been affected by Google’s online advertising (no I am not forgetting Craigslist.com. I am just focusing on the Google at the moment) can avail themselves of AI. The idea is… cost cutting. Could there be some learnings for the Google? What I mean is that such a series of tests or trials provides the Google with telemetry. Such telemetry allows the Google to refine its news writing capabilities. The trajectory of such knowledge may allow the Google to embark on its own newspaper experiment. Where will that lead? I don’t know, but it does not bode well for real journalists or some other entities.

The YouTube price increase is positioned as a better experience. Could the sharp increase in ads before, during, and after a YouTube video be part of a strategy? What I am hypothesizing is that more ads will force users to pay to be able to watch a YouTube video without being driven crazy by ads for cheap mobile, health products, and gun belts? Deteriorating the experience allows a customer to buy a better experience. Could that be semi-accurate?

The quantum supremacy thing strikes me as 100 percent PR with a dash of high school braggadocio. The write up speaks to me this way: “I got a higher score on the SAT.” Snort snort snort. The snorts are a sound track to putting down those whose machines just don’t have the right stuff. I wonder if this is how others perceive the article.

And the busy beavers turned up at the White House. The beavers say, “We will be responsible with this AI stuff.  We AI promise.” Okay, I believe this because I don’t know what these creatures mean when the word “responsible” is used. I can guess, however.

Net net: The ethicist from Harvard and the soon-to-be-former president of Stanford are available to provide advisory services. Silicon Valley is a metaphor for many good things, especially for the companies and their senior executives. Life will get better and better with certain high technology outfits running the show, pulling the strings, and controlling information, won’t it?

Stephen E Arnold, July 21, 2023

Smart Software: Good Enough Plus 18 Percent More Quality

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

Do I believe the information in “ChatGPT Can Turn Bad Writers into Better Ones”? No, I don’t. First, MIT is the outfit which had a special relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Yep, that guy. Quite a pal. Second, academic outfits are known to house individuals who just make up or enhance research data. Does MIT have professors who do that? Of course not. But With Harvard professionals engaging in some ethical ballroom dancing with data, I want to be cautious. (And, please, navigate to the original write up and read the report. Subscribe too because Mr. Epstein is indisposed and unable to contribute to the academic keel of the scholarly steamboat.)

What counts, however, is perception, not reality. The write up fosters some Chemical Guys’s shine on information, so let’s take a look. It will be a shallow one because that is the spirit of some research today, and this dinobaby wants to get with the program. My writing may be lousy, but I do it myself, which seems to go against the current trend.

Here’s the core point in the write from my point of view in rural Kentucky, a state known for its intellectual rigor and fine writing about basketball:

A new study by two MIT economics graduate students … suggests it could help reduce gaps in writing ability between employees. They found that it could enable less experienced workers who lack writing skills to produce work similar in quality to that of more skilled colleagues.

The point in my opinion is that cheaper workers can do what more expensive workers can do.

Just to drive home the point, the write up included this point:

The writers who chose to use ChatGPT took 40% less time to complete their tasks, and produced work that the assessors scored 18% higher in quality than that of the participants who didn’t use it.

The MidJourney highly original art system produced this picture of an accountant, trained online by the once proud University of Phoenix, manifests great joy when discovering that smart software can produce marketing and PR collateral faster, cheaper, and better than a disgruntled English major wanting to rent a larger apartment in a big city. The accountant seems to be sitting in a modest thundershower of budget surplus.

For many, MIT has heft. Therefore, will this write up and the expert researchers’ data influence people; for instance, owners of marketing, SEO, reputation management, and PR companies?

Yep.

Observations:

1. Layoffs will be accelerating
2. Good enough becomes outstanding when financial benefits are fungible
3. Assurances about employment security will be irrelevant.

And what about those MIT graduates? Better get a degree in math, computer science, engineering, or medieval English poetry. No, strike that medieval English poetry. Substitute “prompt engineer” or museum guide in Albania.

Stephen E Arnold, July 19, 2023

Financial Analysts, Lawyers, and Consultants Can See Their Future

It is the middle of July 2023, and I think it is time for financial analysts, lawyers, and consultants to spruce up their résumés. Why would a dinobaby make such a suggestion to millions of the beloved Millennials, GenXers, the adorable GenY folk, and the vibrant GenZ lovers of TikTok, BMWs, and neutral colors?

I read three stories helpfully displayed by my trusty news reader. Let’s take a quick look at each and offer a handful of observations.

The first article is “This CEO Replaced 90% of Support Staff with an AI Chatbot.” The write up reports:

The chief executive of an Indian startup laid off 90% of his support staff after the firm built a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence that he says can handle customer queries much faster than his employees.

Yep, better, faster, and cheaper. Pick all three which is exactly what some senior managers will do. AI is now disrupting. But what about “higher skill” jobs than talking on the phone and looking up information for a clueless caller?

The second article is newsy or is it newsie? “Open AI and Associated Press Announce Partnership to Train AI on New Articles” reports:

[The deal] will see OpenAI licensing text content from the AP archives that will be used for training large language models (LLMs). In exchange, the AP will make  use of OpenAI’s expertise and technology — though the media company clearly emphasized in a release that it is not using generative AI to help write actual news stories.

Will these stories become the property of the AP? Does Elon Musk have confidence in himself?

Young professionals learning that they are able to find their future elsewhere. In the MidJourney confection is a lawyer, a screenwriter, and a consultant at a blue chip outfit selling MBAs at five times the cost of their final year at university.

I think that the move puts Google in a bit of a spot if it processes AP content and a legal eagle can find that content in a Bard output. More significantly, hasta la vista reporters. Now the elimination of hard working, professional journalists will not happen immediately. However, from my vantage point in rural Kentucky, I hear the train a-rollin’ down the tracks. Whooo Whooo.

The third item is “Producers Allegedly Sought Rights to Replicate Extras Using AI, Forever, for Just $200.” The write up reports:

Hollywood’s top labor union for media professionals has alleged that studios want to pay extras around $200 for the rights to use their likenesses in AI – forever – for just $200.

Will the unions representing these skilled professionals refuse to cooperate? Does Elon Musk like Grimes’s music?

A certain blue chip consulting firm has made noises about betting $2 billion on smart software and Microsoft consulting. Oh, oh. Junior MBAs, it may not be too late to get an associate of arts degree in modern poetry so you can work as a prompt engineer. As a famous podcasting person says, “What say you?”

Several questions:

1. Will trusted, reliable, research supporting real news organizations embrace smart software and say farewell to expensive humanoids?
2. Will those making videos use computer generated entities?
3. Will blue chip consulting firms find a way to boost partners’ bonuses standing on the digital shoulders of good enough software?

I sure hope you answered “no” to each of these questions. I have a nice two cruzeiro collectable from Brazil, circa 1952 to sell you. Make me an offer. Collectible currency is an alternative to writing prompts or becoming a tour guide in Astana. Oh, that’s in Kazakhstan.

Smart software is a cost reducer because humanoids [a] require salaries and health care, [b] take vacations, [c] create security vulnerabilities or are security vulnerabilities, and [d] require more than high school science club management methods related to sensitive issues.

Money and good enough will bring changes in news, Hollywood, and professional services.

Stephen E Arnold, July 17, 2023

Amazon: Machine-Generated Content Adds to Overhead Costs

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

“Amazon Has a Big Problem As AI-Generated Books Flood Kindle Unlimited” makes it clear that Amazon is going to have to re-think how it runs its self-publishing operation and figure out how to deal with machine-generated books from “respected” publishers.

The author of the article is expressing concern about ChatGPT-type outputs being assembled into electronic books. That concern is focused on Amazon and its ageing, arthritic Kindle eBook business. With voice to text tools, I suppose one should think about Audible audiobooks spit out by text-to-voice. The culprit, however, may be Amazon itself. Paying a person read a book for seven hours, not screw up, and making sure the sound is acceptable when the reader has a stuffed nose can be pricey.

A senior Amazon executive thinks to herself, “How can I fix this fake content stuff? I should really update my LinkedIn profile too.’ Will the lucky executive charged with fixing the problem identified in the article be allowed to eliminate revenue? Yep, get going on the LinkedIn profile first. Tackle the fake stuff later.

The write up points out:

the mass uploading of AI-generated books could be used to facilitate click-farming, where ‘bots’ click through a book automatically, generating royalties from Amazon Kindle Unlimited, which pays authors by the amount of pages that are read in an eBook.

And what’s Amazon doing about this quasi-fake content? The article reports:

It [Amazon] didn’t explicitly state that it was making an effort specifically to address the apparent spam-like persistent uploading of nonsensical and incoherent AI-generated books.

Then, the article raises the issues of “quality” and “authenticity.” I am not sure what these two glory words mean. My impression is that a machine-generated book is not as good as one crafted by a subject matter expert or motivated human author. If I am right, the editors at TechRadar are apparently oblivious to the idea of using XML structure content and a MarkLogic-type tool to slice-and-dice content. Then the components are assembled into a reference book. I want to point out that this method has been in use by professional publishers for a number of years. Because I signed a confidentiality agreement, I am not able to identify this outfit. But I still recall the buzz of excitement that rippled through one officer meeting at this outfit when those listening to a presentation realized [a] Humanoids could be terminated and a reduced staff could produce more books and [b] the guts of the technology was a database, a technology mostly understood by those with a few technical conferences under their belt. Yippy! No one had to learn anything. Just calculate the financial benefit of dumping humans and figuring out how to expense the contractors who could format content from a hovel in a Myanmar-type of low-cost location. At night, the executives dreamed about their bonuses for hitting their financial targets and how to start RIF’ing editorial staff, subject matter experts, and assorted specialists who doodled with front matter, footnotes, and fonts.

Net net: There is no fix. The write up illustrates the lack of understanding about how large sections of the information industry uses technology and the established procedures for dealing with cost-saving opportunity. Quality means more revenue from decisions. Authenticity is a marketing job. Amazon has a content problem and has to gear up its tools and business procedures to cope with machine-generated content whether in product reviews and eBooks.

Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2023

Pricing Smart Software: Buy Now Because Prices Are Going Up in 18 hours 46 Minutes and Nine Seconds, Eight Seconds, Seven…

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

I ignore most of the apps, cloud, and hybrid products and services infused with artificial intelligence. As one wit observed, AI means artificial ignorance. What I find interesting are the pricing models used by some of the firms. I want to direct your attention to Sheeter.ai. The service let’s one say in natural language something like “Calculate the median of A:Z rows.” The system then spits out the Excel formula which can be pasted into a cell. The Sheeter.ai formula works in Google Sheets too because Google wants to watch Microsoft Excel shrivel and die a painful death. The benefits of the approach are similar to services which convert SQL statements into well-formed SQL code (in theory). Will the dynamic duo of Google and Microsoft implement a similar feature in their spreadsheets? Of course, but Sheeter.ai is betting their approach is better.

The innovation for which Sheeter.ai deserves a pat on the back is its approach to pricing. The screenshot below makes clear that the price one sees on the screen at a particular point in time is going to go up. A countdown timer helps boost user anxiety about price.

I was disappointed when the graphics did not include a variant of James Bond (the super spy) chained to an explosive device. Bond, James Bond, was using his brain to deactivate the timer. Obviously he was successful because there have been a half century of Bond, James Bond, films. He survives every time time.

Will other AI-infused products and services implement anxiety patterns to induce people to provide their name, email, and credit card? It seems in line with the direction in which online and AI businesses are moving. Right, Mr. Bond. Nine, eight, seven….

Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2023

Step 1: Test AI Writing Stuff. Step 2: Terminate Humanoids. Will Outrage Prevent the Inevitable?

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

I am fascinated by the information (allegedly actual factual) in “Gizmodo and Kotaku Staff Furious After Owner Announces Move to AI Content.” Part of my interest is the subtitle:

God, this is gonna be such a f***ing nightmare.

Ah, for whom, pray tell. Probably not for the owners, who may see a pot of gold at the end of the smart software rainbow; for example, Costs Minus Humans Minus Health Care Minus HR Minus Miscellaneous Humanoid costs like latte makers, office space, and salaries / bonuses. What do these produce? More money (value) for the lucky most senior managers and selected stakeholders. Humanoids lose; software wins.

A humanoid writer sits at desk and wonders if the smart software will become a pet rock or a creature let loose to ruin her life by those who want a better payoff.

For the humanoids, it is hasta la vista. Assume the quality is worse? Then the analysis requires quantifying “worse.” Software will be cheaper over a time interval, expensive humans lose. Quality is like love and ethics. Money matters; quality becomes good enough.

Will, fury or outrage or protests make a difference? Nope.

The write up points out:

“AI content will not replace my work — but it will devalue it, place undue burden on editors, destroy the credibility of my outlet, and further frustrate our audience,” Gizmodo journalist Lin Codega tweeted in response to the news. “AI in any form, only undermines our mission, demoralizes our reporters, and degrades our audience’s trust.” “Hey! This sucks!” tweeted Kotaku writer Zack Zwiezen. “Please retweet and yell at G/O Media about this! Thanks.”

Much to the delight of her significant others, the “f***ing nightmare” is from the creative, imaginative humanoid Ashley Feinberg.

An ideal candidate for early replacement by a software system and a list of stop words.

Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2023

Databricks: Signal to MBAs and Data Wranglers That Is Tough to Ignore

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

Do you remember the black and white pictures of the Pullman riots? No, okay. Steel worker strikes in Pittsburgh? No. Scuffling outside of Detroit auto plants? No. Those images may be helpful to get a sense of what newly disenfranchised MBAs and data wranglers will be doing in the weeks and months ahead.

“Databricks Revolutionizes Business Data Analysis with AI Assistant” explains that the Databricks smart software

interprets the query, retrieves the relevant data, reads and analyzes it, and produces meaningful answers. This groundbreaking approach eliminates the need for specialized technical knowledge, democratizing data analysis and making it accessible to a wider range of users within an organization. One of the key advantages of Databricks’ AI assistant is its ability to be trained on a company’s own data. Unlike generic AI systems that rely on data from the internet, LakehouseIQ quickly adapts to the specific nuances of a company’s operations, such as fiscal year dates and industry-specific jargon. By training the AI on the customer’s specific data, Databricks ensures that the system truly understands the domain in which it operates.

MidJourney has delivered an interesting image (completely original, of course) depicting angry MBAs and data wranglers massing in Midtown and preparing to storm one of the quasi monopolies which care about their users, employees, the environment, and bunny rabbits. Will these professionals react like those in other management-labor dust ups?

Databricks appears to be one of the outfits applying smart software to reduce or eliminate professional white collar work done by those who buy $7 lattes, wear designer T shirts, and don wonky sneakers for important professional meetings.

 

The DEO of Databricks (a data management and analytics firm) says:

By training their AI assistant on the customer’s specific data, Databricks ensures that it comprehends the jargon and intricacies of the customer’s industry, leading to more accurate and insightful analysis.

My interpretation of the article is simple: If the Databricks’ system works, the MBA and data wranglers will be out of a job. Furthermore, my view is that if systems like Databricks works as advertised, the shift from expensive and unreliable humans will not be gradual. Think phase change. One moment you have a solid and then you have plasma. Hot plasma can vaporize organic compounds in some circumstances. Maybe MBAs and data wranglers are impervious? On the other hand, maybe not.

Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2023

Canada Bill C-18 Delivers a Victory: How Long Will the Triumph Pay Off in Cash Money?

News outlets make or made most of their money selling advertising. The idea was — when I worked at a couple of big news publishing companies — the audience for the content would attract those who wanted to reach the audience. I worked at the Courier-Journal & Louisville Times Co. before it dissolved into a Gannett marvel. If a used car dealer wanted to sell a 1980 Corvette, the choice was the newspaper or a free ad in what was called AutoTrader. This was a localized, printed collection of autos for sale. Some dealers advertised, but in the 1980s, individuals looking for a cheap or free way to pitch a vehicle loved AutoTrader. Despite a free option, the size of the readership and the sports news, comics, and obituaries made the Courier-Journal the must-have for a motivated seller.

Hannibal and his war elephant Zuckster survey the field of battle after Bill C-18 passes. MidJourney was the digital wonder responsible for this confection.

When I worked at the Ziffer in Manhattan, we published Computer Shopper. The biggest Computer Shopper had about 800 pages. It could have been bigger, but there were paper and press constraints If I recall correctly. But I smile when I remember that 85 percent of those pages were paid advertisements. We had an audience, and those in the burgeoning computer and software business wanted to reach our audience. How many Ziffers remember the way publishing used to work?

When I read the National Post article titled “Meta Says It’s Blocking News on Facebook, Instagram after Government Passes Online News Bill,” I thought about the Battle of Cannae. The Romans had the troops, the weapons, and the psychological advantage. But Hannibal showed up and, if historical records are as accurate as a tweet, killed Romans and mercenaries. I think it may have been estimated that Roman whiz kids lost 40,000 troops and 5,000 cavalry along with the Roman strategic wizards Paulus, Servilius, and Atilius.

My hunch is that those who survived paid with labor or money to be allowed to survive. Being a slave in peak Rome was a dicey gig. Having a fungible skill like painting zowie murals was good. Having minimal skills? Well, someone has to work for nothing in the fields or quarries.

What’s the connection? The publishers are similar to the Roman generals. The bad guys are the digital rebels who are like Hannibal and his followers.

Back to the cited National Post article:

After the Senate passed the Online News Act Thursday, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms.  The act, which was known as Bill C-18, is designed to force Google and Facebook to share revenues with publishers for news stories that appear on their platforms. By removing news altogether, companies would be exempt from the legislation.

The idea is that US online services which touch most online users (maybe 90 or 95 percent in North America) will block news content. This means:

1. Cash gushers from Facebook- and Google-type companies will not pay for news content. (This has some interesting downstream consequences but for this short essay, I want to focus on the “not paying” for news.)
2. The publishers will experience a decline in traffic. Why? Without a “finding and pointing” mechanism, how would I find this “real news” article published by the National Post. (FYI: I think of this newspaper as Canada’s USAToday, which was a Gannett crown jewel. How is that working out for Gannett today?)
3. Rome triumphed only to fizzle out again. And Hannibal? He’s remembered for the elephants-through-the-Alps trick. Are man’s efforts ultimately futile?

What happens if one considers, the clicks will stop accruing to the publishers’ Web sites. How will the publishers generate traffic? SEO. Yeah, good luck with that.

Is there an alternative?

Yes, buy Facebook and Google advertising. I call this pay to play.

The Canadian news outlets will have to pay for traffic. I suppose companies like Tyler Technologies, which has an office in Vancouver I think, could sell ads for the National Post’s stories, but that seems to be a stretch. Similarly the National Post could buy ads on the Embroidery Classics & Promotions (Calgary) Web site, but that may not produce too many clicks for the Canadian news outfits. I estimate one or two a month.

Bill C-18 may not have the desired effect. Facebook and Facebook-type outfits will want to sell advertising to the Canadian publishers in my opinion. And without high-impact, consistent and relevant online advertising, state-of-art marketing, and juicy content, the publishers may find themselves either impaled on their digital hopes or placed in servitude to the Zuck and his fellow travelers.

Are these publishers able to pony up the cash and make the appropriate decisions to generate revenues like the good old days?

Sure, there’s a chance.

But it’s a long shot. I estimate the chances as similar to King Charles’ horse winning the 2024 King George V Stakes race in 2024; that is, 18 to 1. But Desert Hero pulled it off. Who is rooting for the Canadian publishers?

Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2023

« Previous Page — Next Page »

• 

• Search the site

•  

  Subscribe to Beyond Search

  • 
  • 
   
  • 
   
  
  Feature archive
  News archive
   
  
  
  Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.

• Categories

  • 3D-Printing
  • Acquisition
  • Advertising
  • Aggregation
  • AI
  • Alexa
  • algorithms
  • Amazon
  • Amazonia
  • Analytics
  • Appliance
  • Applications
  • Audio
  • Augmented Reality
  • Big data
  • Bing
  • Bitcoin
  • Bitext
  • Book review
  • Business intelligence
  • Business process
  • Business strategy
  • Censorship
  • Cloud computing
  • Company Profile
  • Conferences
  • Connectors
  • Consulting
  • Consumer
  • Content processing
  • Copyright
  • Corporate Concerns
  • Cost
  • Crawl
  • Crowdfunding
  • cryptocurrency
  • Customer support
  • Cyber OSINT
  • cybercrime
  • cybersecurity
  • Dark Web
  • DarkCyber
  • Data
  • Data mining
  • Database
  • Deepfakes
  • Digital Assistant
  • Digital Library
  • E2EE
  • ECommerce
  • EDiscovery
  • Editorial opinion
  • Education
  • Emoticons
  • Enterprise
  • Enterprise search
  • Entity extraction
  • Ethics
  • Facebook
  • Faceted search
  • Factualities
  • Feature
  • Federated search
  • Financial
  • Fogint
  • Google
  • Governance
  • Government
  • Hackers
  • healthcare
  • IBM Watson
  • Image search
  • Indexing
  • Infrastructure
  • Innovation
  • Integration
  • intelware
  • Interface
  • Internet
  • Interview
  • Investment
  • law enforcement
  • Legal matters
  • Library automation
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Metadata
  • Microsoft
  • Mobile
  • Natural language processing
  • News
  • NGIA
  • Online (general)
  • Open Access
  • Open source
  • OSINT
  • Osint Radar
  • Overflight
  • Palantir
  • Patents
  • Personnel
  • Podcast
  • Policeware
  • Portals
  • Predictive coding
  • Privacy
  • Profile
  • Publishing
  • Quotation
  • Real time search
  • Reference tool
  • Rich media
  • Robot Writer
  • Search
  • Search enabled applications
  • search engine
  • Search quality
  • Security
  • Semantic
  • Sentiment analysis
  • SEO
  • SharePoint
  • Short Honks
  • Smart Technology
  • Social
  • Social Media
  • software
  • Statistics
  • Taxonomy
  • Technology
  • Text analytics
  • Text processing
  • Tools
  • Tor
  • Training
  • Translation
  • Twitter
  • Uncategorized
  • Unstructured Data
  • User experience
  • User Interface
  • Vertical search
  • Video
  • visualization
  • Voice search
  • Voice technology
  • Web 3
  • Web Services
  • Webinar
  • Windows
  • Work flow
  • XML
  • Yahoo

• Archives

  Archives Select Month January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 5

• Recent Posts

  • Meta and Zuck Make Free Speech News
  • GitHub Identifies a Sooty Pot and Does Not Offer a Fix
  • AI Outfit Pitches Anti Human Message
  • Be Secure Like a Journalist
  • FOGINT: The French Method for Communicating with Telegram Works

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org