Why “Sorry, I don’t know” is sometimes the best answer: The Washington Post’s technology chief on its first AI chatbot

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Tuesday, July 23, 2024 [Why “Sorry, I don’t know” is sometimes the best answer: The Washington Post’s technology chief on its first AI chatbot]( “For Google, that might be failure mode…but for us, that is success,” says the Post’s Vineet Khosla By Andrew Deck. [Browser cookies, as unkillable as cockroaches, won’t be leaving Google Chrome after all]( Google — which planned to block third-party cookies in 2022, then 2023, then 2024, then 2025 — now says it won’t block them after all. A big win for adtech, but what about publishers? By Joshua Benton. [Would you pay to be able to quit TikTok and Instagram? You’d be surprised how many would]( “The relationship he has uncovered is more like the co-dependence seen in a destructive relationship, or the way we relate to addictive products such as tobacco that we know are doing us harm.” By Peter Martin. What We’re Reading Popular Information / Judd Legum [A top Sinclair anchor resigned over concerns about biased and inaccurate content →]( “One of the primary issues that prompted Ramirez’s resignation was the requirement to include at least three stories produced by Sinclair’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) on a nightly basis…a look at the RRT’s stories over the course of the year shows that the group frequently produces pieces that have more in common with right-wing agitprop than journalism.” Intelligencer / John Herrman [AI chatbots have a Donald Trump problem →]( “You might say that AI companies are outsourcing the difficult and costly task of making contentious and disputed claims to the industry [the news industry] that is qualified, or at least willing, to do it, hopefully paying enough to keep the enterprises afloat.” The Verge / Andrew Liszewski [Slack introduces iPhone widgets to make your editors more inescapable →]( “Slack finding its way onto all of our devices has already made work feel like a nonstop thing. If you really want to bring more work into your life, adding these widgets could go even further, putting work front and center every time you open your phone.” IJNet / Wei Xing [Behind the scenes of China’s first independent fact-checking initiative →]( “Almost 200 volunteers have participated to varying degrees in our projects. Their dedication enables us to remain operational without external funding, keeping the project non-profit.” The Verge / Wes Davis [EU threatens to fine Meta for saying Facebook is “free” →]( “Didier Reynders, EU Commissioner for Justice, says customers shouldn’t be ‘lured into’ thinking they won’t see ads if they pay the subscription, or that it’s free despite the company profiting from their personal data. Companies must be transparent upfront about how they use user data, he added.” Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt [1 million newsletter subscribers, 10 staffers — and no editors →]( “So we thought, well, rather than sell licenses for brands to have access to use this tool in their own way, why don’t we launch loads of our own newsletters that we own…publications that we own, where they’re all powered by this AI and we can generate our revenue by selling advertising, sponsorship and lead gen with these newsletters?” Semafor [Semafor launches Semafor Gulf to target the Middle East market →]( “Semafor Gulf will launch with a team of staff reporters as well as columnists covering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and will continue to expand through 2025.” Deadline / Max Goldbart [BBC to lay off hundreds more staff with financial deficit projected to nearly double next year →]( “BBC headcount has fallen by 2,000 — or 10% — over the past five years, the corporation said, and a further 500 net public service posts will go over the next 20 months. A voluntary redundancy scheme was launched today. Headcount this year sat at 17,611.” The Information / Sahil Patel and Stephanie Palazzolo [Condé Nast sends cease-and-desist letter to AI search engine Perplexity →]( “The legal demand from Condé Nast comes a month after Forbes sent a similar letter to Perplexity, accusing it of infringing Forbes’ copyright. In Condé Nast’s letter, sent on Monday, the publisher accused Perplexity of plagiarizing its content. The challenge adds to a growing tide of legal actions facing AI startups over their use of news outlets’ content for training their large-language models.” The Washington Post / Amy Argetsinger [Hunter Biden drops his lawsuit over Fox News’ “mock trial” miniseries →]( “But ‘The Trial of Hunter Biden,’ a six-part miniseries released on the Fox Nation streaming platform in 2022, portrayed an imagined courtroom prosecution of Biden on charges of violating bribery and foreign-agent laws that he has never faced in real life.” The Guardian / Jim Waterson [Half a million households cancelled their BBC license fee last year →]( “The stark extent of the BBC’s challenges are set out in the corporation’s annual report, which shows the total number of British households paying the £169.50 license fee fell to 23.9 million, suggesting a growing number of people feel able to go without BBC services. The fall has hit the BBC’s income at a time when its finances were already struggling owing to a decade of funding cuts and high inflation.” Press Gazette / Bron Maher [With its new recipe app Feast, The Guardian is trying a version of The New York Times’ bundling strategy →]( “…giving more to our high-value supporters — we’ve gifted Feast to our subscribers on the classic subscription packages. And we have also made it available with an extended free trial to other supporters as well…We know that the more people read, the more they engage, the happier they are, and the better their retention is.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](