DataDownload: The Anxiety of Influencers and a Whole New Google?

7 min readMay 22, 2021

DataDownload: The Anxiety of Influencers and a Whole New Google? A weekly summary of all things Media, Data, Emerging Tech View this email in your browser

What starts as an exploration into TikTok houses ends in a 42-minute epic read from Harper’s on how social media is transforming the way society interacts with information. GPT-3 and NLP might seem far removed from 20-year old TikTok influencers, but our other must-read piece from the MIT Tech Review examines how complex AI language models are also distorting the way we process information.

Traditional media giants are doing big media deals. Nieman Lab points us to a database that connects the dots of who owns what news outlets. The Stories format are the new videos which were the new text (perhaps the future of media remains post-text).

CAPTCHAs are getting harder (and fun fact: the creator of the CAPTCHA is also the founder of DuoLingo), and Simon Sinek helps us discover our “why”. Finally, Andrew Ng thinks our companies might be doing AI wrong (hint: start small).

One quick housekeeping note, we’re very excited for the 5th annual Machines + Media conference coming up on June 9th. The articles curated in this week’s newsletter provide a number of perspectives on the way technology is transforming media (and consequently our lives and minds) and this annual conference is where we dig into the companies, people, and technologies leading the way.

As always, look forward to hearing from you.

Steve

Steven Rosenbaum
Steve@NYCMedialab.org
Executive Director
The NYC Media Lab Must-Read The Anxiety of Influencers According to Harper’s, the influencer marketing industry is predicted to be worth $15Bn by 2022 and currently accounts for roughly 15% of global ad spend. It’s big business by any measure, but what kind of impact is it having on the (mostly) young people that are essentially its means of production and its labor force?

Barrett Swanson, a college English professor, went to live with the teenage and early twenty-year-old residents of Clubhouse For the Boys (FTB) to find out. ClubhouseFTB is what’s known interchangeably as a collab or content house — sometimes also called a TikTok mansion. Its $35k a month rent is paid for by entrepreneurs who take up to 20% of their resident influencer’s earnings from brands eager to reach the followers and audience of these young men.

Much of what Swanson saw disturbed him and led him to insights about our society at this moment in time. “This is where we are as a country: when content gets expurgated because of blatant misinformation, it is taken as a sure sign of that source’s truthfulness.”

Harper’s Magazine / 42 min read Read More Language Models Like GPT-3 Could Herald a New Type of Search Engine

PageRank made Google the gateway to the internet and helped build one of the world’s most successful corporations. But Google’s underlying search technology is over 20 years old — is it time for a radical rethink?

Google is highly proficient at providing multiple resources in response to search queries. But according to MIT Technology Review, “It’s as if you asked your doctor for advice and received a list of articles to read instead of a straight answer.”

Natural language processing (NLP) models might give users a straighter answer at some point, but there are still many obstacles to overcome. Currently, with large language models like GPT-3, “There’s no way to tell if GPT-3 is parroting trustworthy information or disinformation — or simply spewing nonsense of its own making.”

LaMDA is yet another intriguing NLP innovation from Google. Unlike most language models, LaMDA was trained on dialogue. The goal is for LaMDA to carry on an open-ended, free-flowing conversation the same way humans do. This addresses one of the significant limitations of existing chatbots, which “tend to follow narrow, pre-defined paths.”

MIT Technology Review / 4 min read

Read more Tech+Media In a Deal With Discovery Hatched in Secret, AT&T Sheds Its Media Business In an unexpected blockbuster deal, AT&T is spinning off WarnerMedia and merging it with Discovery — creating a media juggernaut. CNN, HBO, TNT, and TBS are among the networks that will all be under one roof. According to Discovery’s chief executive, David Zaslav, “I believe we’re going to be the best media company in the world with an ability to reach everyone in the world because our stories play well everywhere in the world.”

NY Times / 8 min read Read More The U.S. Media Index Database Shows News Consumers Who Owns What It’s now easier than ever to track down who owns a news outlet, thanks to The U.S. Media Index database, created by Harvard’s Future of Media Project.

According to the Future of Media Project, “At a time when sources of information have proliferated at an extraordinary pace, a map or index seemed necessary. Our empirical claim is that radical transparency in U.S. media ownership will improve trust in newsrooms by empowering people to understand their media landscape and, in turn, deter them from feeling duped.”

Nieman Lab / 1 min read Read More ‘Where the Action Is’: Vice Media Group Now Produces More Stories Than Text or Video

Vice Media Group now produces more Stories than text or videos. After launching its Story Studio last June, 250+ Vice employees use it to “generate over 3,000 pieces of original content a month,” says Olly Osbourne, managing director of Europe at Vice Digital.

Vice can easily distribute Stories across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Google, and even LinkedIn. According to DigiDay, average impressions per post are up 72% across Vice Media Groups, and stories-centric content has “helped grow its Instagram audience from just over 100,000 followers to more than 600,000 followers over the past six months.”

Digiday / 3 min read

Read More What We’re Watching Why Captchas Are Getting Harder

Does it seem like those annoying Captcha tests you have to complete seemingly dozens of times a day are getting harder? That’s because they are.

In this brief history of the Captcha and an interview with its creator, Luis Von Ahn, Vox takes a surprisingly fascinating look at one of the internet’s most irritating security measures. It turns out there’s a lot more going on under the hood of Captcha and its descendants than you might think.

Vox (YouTube) / 8 min watch

Watch Now What We’re Listening To Podcast: How to Discover Your “Why” in Difficult Times

In this TED Talks Daily, Simon Sinek, best-selling author of Leaders Eat Last and Start With Why, discusses his own experience with self-care during the global pandemic. He underlines how crucial it is to nurture friendships, how anyone can become a leader — “and reveals the secret to discovering your “why” in life.”

Spotify / 16 min listen

Listen Now Virtual Events NYC Media Lab & Bloomberg Present “Machines + Media 2021: Facing the Future”
Date: June 9th

NYC Media Lab & Bloomberg present the 5th annual gathering of technologists, media professionals, and academic thought leaders for “Machines + Media 2021: Facing the Future.”

With Big Tech under fire and innovation moving rapidly, we’re convening expert panelists to discuss how we can both embrace and manage the impact of technology on our increasingly essential media ecosystem. Livestreamed panel discussions include:

The Future of Tech in NYC
AI & Local News
Surveillance, Tech, and Transparent & Fair AI Systems
Living With Disinformation

The thought-provoking virtual event will be held on June 9th from 10am-3pm EDT. Register for free today!

Free Event: Data + AI Summit 2021
Date: May 24–28
This weeklong virtual Data + AI Summit features outstanding keynote speakers, training and breakout sessions. Speakers include technology pioneer Bill Inman, and even Bill Nye, The Science Guy. Register Here.

Paid Event: What Microsoft & Mesh Mean For Future Of AR/VR
Date: May 27, 2021, 3PM — 4PM EDT
MIT’s Enterprise Forum hosts this expert panel discussion on the future of AR/VR in the wake of Microsoft’s recent contract with the US Army worth up to $22B. Register Here. A Deeper Look Andrew Ng Thinks Your Company Is Doing AI Wrong

When it comes to AI, Andrew Ng thinks companies should start small. “I still see companies jump in and make investments in projects that I would consider technically impossible or technically not feasible with today’s technology or the near-term generations of technology,” he told Protocol. “Learn to walk first. It’s fine that the first project you do is not a $10 million AI project.”

In this wide-ranging interview, the founder of Landing AI shares his in-depth knowledge of AI’s capabilities and its limitations — and his recommendations for companies seeking to build AI-powered solutions.

Protocol / 6 min read