Beware the Cost of Attention: Quality Suffers in Ad-Based Models

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Ad-based models create significant incentives that prioritize gaining attention over providing value, leading to a proliferation of misinformation and low-quality content on the internet. This design is time-disrespectful, fostering partial engagement rather than meaningful interaction. Successful alternatives exist, such as direct payment or donation-based models, which encourage trust and higher quality. Wikipedia exemplifies a better model through its reliance on donations rather than advertisements, highlighting that when businesses profit from users' time instead of delivering value, it undermines the overall integrity of online content. Furthermore, the rise of AI has exacerbated the situation, resulting in a surge of low-quality content without any corresponding increase in quality. The current dynamics of the advertising-driven internet continue to degrade the overall experience, limiting genuine knowledge-sharing and improvement.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Tony Stubblebine of Medium joins Alex.

(3:10) The broken internet and ad-based models

(5:57) Impact of AI on content creation and platform quality

(10:01) Medium's curation and financial model

(11:18) Notion - Try notion projects for free at https://www.notion.so/twist

(18:23) Medium's growth, geographic expansion, and AI translation

(20:02) Brex - Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at ⁠https://www.brex.com/twist24

(22:05) AI-driven media platforms and the impact of AI spam

(29:32) OpenPhone - TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠

(30:59) Medium's subscriber growth and financial milestones

(34:35) AI data exclusivity and challenges in forming training data cohorts