Month: September 2023
PSA: Reddit is Forcing Users to Accept Personalized Ads
Reddit this week announced that it will no longer allow Reddit users to opt out of ad personalization, which means that ads on the platform will be targeted based on site usage.
Right now, users can choose to toggle off an option to “personalize ads based on your Reddit activity and account info,” but this toggle is being removed going forward. Reddit claims that it requires “very little personal information” and the change will be able to predict ads that are more relevant to each person.Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity–what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals–to get an idea of what you might be interested in.
The vast majority of redditors will see no change to their ads on Reddit. For users who previously opted out of personalization based on Reddit activity, this change will not result in seeing more ads or sharing on-platform activity with advertisers. It does enable our models to better predict which ad may be most relevant to you.Reddit claims that the “vast majority” of Reddit users will not see changes to their ads, nor will users be seeing more ads. With no option to opt-out of ad personalization, Reddit is adding new toggles to limit ads from specific categories, including Alcohol, Dating, Gambling, Pregnancy & Parenting, and Weight Loss. Machine learning will be used to classify ads, so users will not be able to opt out of these ad categories entirely.
In select countries, the option to turn off ad personalization will remain, allowing Reddit to continue to comply with GDPR restrictions. Reddit users without the option to turn off ad targeting can expect to see ads that are based on subreddits they belong to, content that is upvoted, and more.
Reddit earlier this year made changes to the cost of its API, cutting out almost all third-party apps and forcing the majority of users to view Reddit on the website or on the Reddit app, both of which support ads.
Reddit says that these ad changes started rolling out yesterday.Tag: RedditThis article, “PSA: Reddit is Forcing Users to Accept Personalized Ads” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Reddit this week announced that it will no longer allow Reddit users to opt out of ad personalization, which means that ads on the platform will be targeted based on site usage.
Right now, users can choose to toggle off an option to “personalize ads based on your Reddit activity and account info,” but this toggle is being removed going forward. Reddit claims that it requires “very little personal information” and the change will be able to predict ads that are more relevant to each person.Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity–what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals–to get an idea of what you might be interested in.
The vast majority of redditors will see no change to their ads on Reddit. For users who previously opted out of personalization based on Reddit activity, this change will not result in seeing more ads or sharing on-platform activity with advertisers. It does enable our models to better predict which ad may be most relevant to you.Reddit claims that the “vast majority” of Reddit users will not see changes to their ads, nor will users be seeing more ads. With no option to opt-out of ad personalization, Reddit is adding new toggles to limit ads from specific categories, including Alcohol, Dating, Gambling, Pregnancy & Parenting, and Weight Loss. Machine learning will be used to classify ads, so users will not be able to opt out of these ad categories entirely.
In select countries, the option to turn off ad personalization will remain, allowing Reddit to continue to comply with GDPR restrictions. Reddit users without the option to turn off ad targeting can expect to see ads that are based on subreddits they belong to, content that is upvoted, and more.
Reddit earlier this year made changes to the cost of its API, cutting out almost all third-party apps and forcing the majority of users to view Reddit on the website or on the Reddit app, both of which support ads.
Reddit says that these ad changes started rolling out yesterday.
This article, “PSA: Reddit is Forcing Users to Accept Personalized Ads” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
Google will let publishers hide their content from its insatiable AI
Google has announced a new control in its robots.txt indexing file that would let publishers decide whether their content will “help improve Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs, including future generations of models that power those products.” The control is a crawler called Google-Extended, and publishers can add it to the file in their site’s documentation to tell Google not to use it for those two APIs. In its announcement, the company’s vice president of “Trust” Danielle Romain said it’s “heard from web publishers that they want greater choice and control over how their content is used for emerging generative AI use cases.”
Romain added that Google-Extended “is an important step in providing transparency and control that we believe all providers of AI models should make available.” As generative AI chatbots grow in prevalence and become more deeply integrated into search results, the way content is digested by things like Bard and Bing AI has been of concern to publishers.
While those systems may cite their sources, they do aggregate information that originates from different websites and present it to the users within the conversation. This might drastically reduce the amount of traffic going to individual outlets, which would then significantly impact things like ad revenue and entire business models.
Google said that when it comes to training AI models, the opt-outs will apply to the next generation of models for Bard and Vertex AI. Publishers looking to keep their content out of things like Search Generative Experience (SGE) should continue to use the Googlebot user agent and the NOINDEX meta tag in the robots.txt document to do so.
Romain points out that “as AI applications expand, web publishers will face the increasing complexity of managing different uses at scale.” This year has seen an explosion in the development of tools based on generative AI, and with search being such a huge way people discover content, the state of the internet looks set to undergo a huge shift. Google’s addition of this control is not only timely, but indicates it’s thinking about the way its products will impact the web.
Update, September 28 at 5:36pm ET: This article was updated to add more information about how publishers can keep their content out of Google’s search and AI results and training.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-let-publishers-hide-their-content-from-its-insatiable-ai-202015557.html?src=rss
Google has announced a new control in its robots.txt indexing file that would let publishers decide whether their content will “help improve Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs, including future generations of models that power those products.” The control is a crawler called Google-Extended, and publishers can add it to the file in their site’s documentation to tell Google not to use it for those two APIs. In its announcement, the company’s vice president of “Trust” Danielle Romain said it’s “heard from web publishers that they want greater choice and control over how their content is used for emerging generative AI use cases.”
Romain added that Google-Extended “is an important step in providing transparency and control that we believe all providers of AI models should make available.” As generative AI chatbots grow in prevalence and become more deeply integrated into search results, the way content is digested by things like Bard and Bing AI has been of concern to publishers.
While those systems may cite their sources, they do aggregate information that originates from different websites and present it to the users within the conversation. This might drastically reduce the amount of traffic going to individual outlets, which would then significantly impact things like ad revenue and entire business models.
Google said that when it comes to training AI models, the opt-outs will apply to the next generation of models for Bard and Vertex AI. Publishers looking to keep their content out of things like Search Generative Experience (SGE) should continue to use the Googlebot user agent and the NOINDEX meta tag in the robots.txt document to do so.
Romain points out that “as AI applications expand, web publishers will face the increasing complexity of managing different uses at scale.” This year has seen an explosion in the development of tools based on generative AI, and with search being such a huge way people discover content, the state of the internet looks set to undergo a huge shift. Google’s addition of this control is not only timely, but indicates it’s thinking about the way its products will impact the web.
Update, September 28 at 5:36pm ET: This article was updated to add more information about how publishers can keep their content out of Google’s search and AI results and training.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-let-publishers-hide-their-content-from-its-insatiable-ai-202015557.html?src=rss
Google opens its AI-generated search experience to teens
Google is opening its AI-powered search experience to teens. In addition, the company’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is adding new context pages to shed light on generated responses and individual web links within answers.
The company is opening its search-based AI tool to US teenagers between 13 and 17. Google says it received “particularly positive feedback” from 18- to 24-year-olds who tested SGE, which influenced its decision. (Younger people being more open to AI isn’t exactly a shock, given older adults’ tendency to be more suspicious of new technologies.) SGE has been available as part of Google Search Labs since late May.
Google says it has added safeguards to prevent inappropriate or harmful content based on its research with experts in teen development. “For example, we’ve put stronger guardrails in place for outputs related to illegal or age-gated substances or bullying, among other issues,” the company wrote on Thursday. Google says it will continue to gather feedback and work with specialists to fine-tune SGE for teens.
Google
Starting today, the company is also adding an “About this result” tool to SGE responses, helping users understand how the AI settled on its answers. Soon, it will also produce “About this result” responses for individual URLs within AI-generated answers “so people can understand more about the web pages that back up the information in AI-powered overviews.”
To help newcomers understand generative AI, Google has published an AI Literacy Guide, serving as a welcome manual to SGE and other AI projects like Bard. It includes tips, FAQs and discussions about its capabilities and limitations.
Finally, Google says it’s making “targeted improvements” to AI-powered results that are false or offensive. It’s rolling out an update to train the AI model to better detect “hallucinations” or inappropriate content. (Chatbots spreading misinformation has been an issue from the get-go.) The company is also working on using large language models to “critique” their first draft responses and rewrite them with quality and safety in mind.
“Generative AI can help younger people ask questions they couldn’t typically get answered by a search engine and pose follow-up questions to help them dig deeper,” the company wrote. “As we introduce this new technology to teens, we want to strike the right balance in creating opportunities for them to benefit from all it has to offer, while also prioritizing safety and meeting their developmental needs.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-opens-its-ai-generated-search-experience-to-teens-201357386.html?src=rss
Google is opening its AI-powered search experience to teens. In addition, the company’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is adding new context pages to shed light on generated responses and individual web links within answers.
The company is opening its search-based AI tool to US teenagers between 13 and 17. Google says it received “particularly positive feedback” from 18- to 24-year-olds who tested SGE, which influenced its decision. (Younger people being more open to AI isn’t exactly a shock, given older adults’ tendency to be more suspicious of new technologies.) SGE has been available as part of Google Search Labs since late May.
Google says it has added safeguards to prevent inappropriate or harmful content based on its research with experts in teen development. “For example, we’ve put stronger guardrails in place for outputs related to illegal or age-gated substances or bullying, among other issues,” the company wrote on Thursday. Google says it will continue to gather feedback and work with specialists to fine-tune SGE for teens.
Starting today, the company is also adding an “About this result” tool to SGE responses, helping users understand how the AI settled on its answers. Soon, it will also produce “About this result” responses for individual URLs within AI-generated answers “so people can understand more about the web pages that back up the information in AI-powered overviews.”
To help newcomers understand generative AI, Google has published an AI Literacy Guide, serving as a welcome manual to SGE and other AI projects like Bard. It includes tips, FAQs and discussions about its capabilities and limitations.
Finally, Google says it’s making “targeted improvements” to AI-powered results that are false or offensive. It’s rolling out an update to train the AI model to better detect “hallucinations” or inappropriate content. (Chatbots spreading misinformation has been an issue from the get-go.) The company is also working on using large language models to “critique” their first draft responses and rewrite them with quality and safety in mind.
“Generative AI can help younger people ask questions they couldn’t typically get answered by a search engine and pose follow-up questions to help them dig deeper,” the company wrote. “As we introduce this new technology to teens, we want to strike the right balance in creating opportunities for them to benefit from all it has to offer, while also prioritizing safety and meeting their developmental needs.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-opens-its-ai-generated-search-experience-to-teens-201357386.html?src=rss
Losing subscribers, Disney+ starts fighting password sharing, too
The enforcement is starting with Canada.
Like Netflix, Disney+ is getting more stringent about sharing account login information. Disney+’s subscriber agreement already says users can’t share account information, but the streaming service on Tuesday informed its Canadian users that it is “implementing restrictions on account sharing.”
As spotted by MobileSyrup Wednesday, Disney+ emailed Canadian subscribers informing them of updates to the subscriber agreement as of November 1, including the addition of an “account sharing” section. Although the rules seem to be launching with Canada first, it’s likely they’ll eventually roll out to other geographies, like the US. Netflix initially tested its password-sharing crackdown in other countries before bringing it to the US.
MobileSyrup reported the update to Disney+’s Canadian agreement as saying;