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☆ A NSFW Reddit community is now a 'Christian Minecraft server' as moderators attack the site's 'disgusting' and 'disrespectful' monetization moves
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A popular NSFW Reddit community has been transformed into a "Christian Minecraft server." An adult content community on Reddit says it's turned into a "Christian Minecraft server" in protest over the platform's "treacherous" pricing policy. Its moderators said it's "bidding farewell" to its NSFW content and is attempting to become an "amusing" place instead. "The important takeaway here is Reddit does not care about this community and Reddit does not care about you," they wrote. Another moderator for the community r/IndianSkincareAddicts said it's making its subreddit private "indefinitely" from June 23 and called the company's actions "disgraceful, disrespectful and downright disgusting."

Persons: subreddit, it's, subreddits, Reddit, Steve Huffman, VinlandSaga, IndianSkincareAddicts, Reddit didn't Organizations: Financial Times Locations: Reddit

☆ Reddit sent messages to its protesting mods threatening to boot them if they don't get in line and end their virtual protest, The Verge reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Verge reported that Reddit admins reached out to protesting mods to urge them to work or be removed. Critics argue the move is punishing users for protesting changes to the platform. Reddit administrators sent messages to protesting moderators threatening to kick them out of their roles if they don't get in line and end their virtual blackout, The Verge reported. Rathschmidt told Insider that mods currently being removed from their posts were being removed for violating the code of conduct, not for protesting. As if the mod code of conduct is some kind of moral or legally binding document.

Persons: Reddit, Tim Rathschmidt, That's, Redditors, Rathschmidt, Reddit's, Casey Newton, Newton

☆ People are starting to place bets on Reddit's civil war
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Hundreds of punters have placed a bet on whether Reddit will reverse its API pricing move. BetUS told Insider that people are "undecided" about the site walking back that decision. Almost all bets think Steve Huffman will still be CEO of Reddit by the end of the year. Hundreds of people are putting money on whether the company will back-track on its new API pricing policy or oust its CEO Steve Huffman, BetUS told Insider. Almost all bets have been on Huffman still being CEO by December 31, BetUS added.

Persons: BetUS, Steve Huffman, Huffman, Christian Selig, Reddit, Reddit didn't Organizations: Financial Times

☆ What’s Going On With Reddit?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you tried to find information on Reddit over the last week, you might have had a hard time. The platform recently announced it would begin charging other companies that want to access its content using an API (Application Programming Interface). Reddit announced the changes earlier this spring after the rise of generative artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, which used Reddit’s rich trove of human conversations to train ChatGPT for free. Once Reddit starts charging at the end of the month, Apollo has said it will close down rather than pay an estimated bill of $20 million per year. Reddit has long been bolstered and operated by a network of unpaid moderators who keep subreddits from disintegrating into chaos.

Persons: Reddit

☆ Reddit CEO says app founders who are shutting down in protest over API charges made millions: 'These aren't like side projects or charities'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told The Verge that popular third-party app developers have made millions. They've made millions," Huffman said. In an interview with The Verge, Steve Huffman, Reddit's CEO, has doubled down on the policy change, which could cost popular third-party apps millions. Additionally, he emphasized that apps like Apollo and RIF, another popular third-party app that gives users access to Reddit, aren't "side projects or charities." Apollo's Selig did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment regarding the "millions" Huffman claims he has made.

Persons: Steve Huffman, They've, Huffman, Christian Selig, Apollo's Selig, Selig, Andrew Shu Organizations: Morning, Reddit's, Ars Technica, Apollo Locations: Reddit

☆ Reddit CEO says the mods leading a punishing blackout are too powerful and he will change the site's rules to weaken them
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Lindsay Dodgson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman thinks the site's mods are too powerful. So a politician needs to be elected, and a business owner can be fired by its shareholders," he told NBC. Reddit mods hold a lot of power, and many believe it has been earned due to the amount of unpaid labor they put into the site. He told NBC it was "really important" to ensure "protests, now or in the future, are actually representative of their communities." Huffman told NBC there was no set timeline for his proposed changes.

Persons: Steve Huffman, subreddits, Reddit, Christian Selig, Huffman, We've Organizations: NBC, Ars Technica, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Northwestern University Locations: Reddit

☆ Reddit’s fight with its most powerful users enters new phase as blackout continues
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —After nearly a week of mass protests on Reddit directed at its management, the company’s strategy appears to be simple: power through. That approach was reflected Thursday in a series of media interviews conducted by Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman. In response, some moderators have vowed to put pressure on Reddit’s advertisers and investors. Some 100,000 forums remain open, the company said in a blog post, including 80% of its 5,000 most actively engaged subreddits. In addition, one company administrator said Thursday, Reddit may soon view communities that remain private as an indicator that the moderators of those communities no longer wish to moderate.

Persons: Reddit, Steve Huffman, Huffman, ”, ” Huffman, they’re, Greg Doherty, Omar, ” Omar, “, “ Reddit, They’ve Organizations: CNN, Reddit, Variety, Wynn Las, NPR, NBC News Locations: Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas , Nevada

Budrul Chukrut | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesAt midnight on Tuesday, the moderators of the Reddit community r/Gaming decided to go dark. "We're talking hundreds of thousands of volunteers putting in hours a day to keep the site safe, entertaining and enjoyable for community members. As a private company, Reddit doesn't have to disclose its financials or provide revenue and profit projections. "You have a lot of people, both professionals and general community members, who are running the numbers on this," Croach said. Jacqueline Sheeran, known as "MCHammerCurls," is the head moderator of r/Fitness, which has more than 10 million members.

Persons: Budrul, Dacvak, Slack, weren't, Croach, Reddit, Christian Selig, Selig, Steve Huffman, Huffman, Horacio Villalobos, subreddits, they're, –, David DeWald, subreddit, Shane McCarthy, McCarthy, Meepster23, ModCoord, Omar, Jacqueline Sheeran, Sarah Gilbert, Gilbert, Huffman's, RamsesThePigeon, that's, there's Organizations: Lightrocket, Reddit, CNBC, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, Corbis, NBC, Wall, NBC News, Cornell University, school's Citizens, Technology Locations: U.S, Lisbon, Portugal

Wendy's will pilot its new AI drive-thru tech this month at some locations in the Columbus, Ohio, area. The hesitancy to discuss any generative AI implementation is understandable. That said, we think that generative AI opportunities at Starbucks are still worth considering. This is where we think there's a clear opportunity for margin improvement as generative AI adoption goes mainstream. There are going to be a lot of opportunities to invest in to play the adoption of generative AI outside of tech.

Persons: hasn't, WEN, Jack, JACK, we've, Todd Penegor, Jim Cramer, Wendy's, Darin Harris, Jim, Harris, It's, —, China's, Jim Cramer's, Scott Mlyn Organizations: Microsoft, Nvidia, Club, Del, Starbucks, AIs, chatbots, Global, Companies, CNBC Locations: Columbus , Ohio, U.S, QSRs, Wendy's, Glassdoor, Dana Point , California

☆ Jack Dorsey worries Apple Vision Pro will turn us all into 'WALL-E' characters — glued to chairs and plugged into constant entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Jack Dorsey was asked what he thought about high-tech headsets, like Apple's new Vision Pro. In the interview, Dorsey shared his thoughts on companies developing augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. Just a week earlier, Apple announced its new Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, a strong competitor product to Meta's own line of virtual reality headsets. Jack Dorsey admitted that virtual reality was "going to happen," but said it's time to have an "honest conversation" about its possible effects. Will Apple's Vision Pro turn us all into "WALL-E"-like characters?

Persons: Jack Dorsey, Dorsey, Krystal Ball, Saagar, we're, Enjeti, he's, MARCO BELLO, Neal Stephenson, Ernest Cline's, They're, Apple's, Apple Organizations: Morning, Twitter, Pixar, Apple

☆ The Reddit blackout shows no signs of stopping
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A widespread Reddit blackout affecting some of the site’s largest communities has continued into its third day with no signs of stopping, as a number of groups on the site vowed to remain closed off indefinitely to protest changes to the platform’s data policies. The blackout includes popular forums such as r/aww, r/videos and r/music, each of which claims more than 25 million subscribers on the platform. For Reddit, the stakes are also high to grow revenue, as the company reportedly looks to go public later this year. Huffman reportedly dismissed the blackout in a leaked internal memo obtained by The Verge. As of Wednesday morning, many groups participating in the blackout had lifted their self-imposed restrictions.

Persons: didn’t, Reddit, Steve Huffman, ” Huffman, Elon Musk, Huffman Organizations: CNN Locations: Reddit

☆ Flipkart and PhonePe could be $100 billion businesses in India, Walmart says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Siddharth Cavale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) - Walmart's (WMT.N) Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe payments business in India could be $100 billion businesses buoyed by strong growth, the retailer's chief financial officer said on Wednesday at an investor conference. In its most recent quarter ended April 30, Walmart said its Flipkart business generated double-digit sales growth, boosted by new shoppers in some cities and a 50% jump in ad sales. Flipkart was valued at more than $40 billion in 2022 and counts itself among India's most valuable startups. PhonePe controlled 46% share of the payments market in December, according to National Payments Corporation of India, and has 400 million registered users. "It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 billion businesses in the future," Walmart's Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said.

Persons: Flipkart, John David Rainey, Siddharth Cavale, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: YORK, Walmart, Unified, National Payments Corporation of India, Thomson Locations: India, New York

☆ I use an AI chatbot after my mom died to ask for advice on mundane things. It won't replace her, but it's been a huge comfort.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Amy Ettinger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Amy Ettinger used to ask her mom for advice on mundane stuff all the time, but then her mom passed away. She tried talking to Pi, a personal assistant chatbot that's supposed to act as an unflappable sounding board. So recently I decided to turn to AI for the kind of questions I used to ask my mom. I decided to try Pi, a personal assistant chatbotInflection AI launched its personal intelligence chatbot earlier this spring. I don't like the other terms," I typed in a confrontational tone I often used with my mom.

Persons: Amy Ettinger, chatbot that's, Pi, that's, it's, Geoffrey Hinton, Pi's, Mustafa Suleyman, Suleyman, I'd, I've, Ettinger, Amy Ettinger Pi, they've, Kelly, Edmunds Organizations: Morning, Google Locations: Northern California

☆ I stumbled into a really powerful use for the ChatGPT iPhone app: super fast, super accurate voice-to-text transcription
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Nicholas Carlson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A couple weeks ago, OpenAI finally came out with a native iOS app for ChatGPT. The voice-to-text transcription the app was doing was better than any voice-to-text transcription I'd ever seen. Here's how one of the leading AI-powered transcription services, Otter.ai, transcribed White's answer:"Now likely, since a summons demand, he'll he'll technically surrender to the US Marshal. He told me the reason the ChatGPT app is so good at this is that it's using another OpenAI technology called "Whisper." Altman mentioned to me that there are some apps and services out there beyond the ChatGPT app using Whisper.

Persons: OpenAI, cohost Josh Barro, Ken White, Trump, he'll, it's, they'll, they'd, Judge Cannon, It's, Sam Altman, Mel spectrogram, ChatPDF, that's, Altman Locations: he'll, Otter.ai

☆ What you need to know about the 48-hour Reddit user blackout, which kicks off today and affects more than 7,000 subreddits
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As of press time, the moderators of 7,266 subreddits are expected to stage a blackout on Monday, according to a Reddit post. Why are Reddit users protesting right now? According to the ELI5 post, these third-party apps scraped Reddit posts by using something called the Application Programming Interface, or API. How are Reddit users protesting? Reddit users are protesting by making certain subreddits inaccessible to users for 48 hours.

Persons: —, Reddit's, Reddit Organizations: BBC

☆ Reddit Communities Go Dark to Protest New App Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The moderators of hundreds of Reddit forums, known as subreddits, closed off access to their groups on Monday to protest the company’s plan to charge for access to the data that outside developers need to run apps on the site. Many said the new pricing scheme could kill off some of the most popular third-party apps that many users rely on to browse and comment on the site. Others said the charges had sowed uncertainty about the tools that moderators use to manage discussions. An estimated 57 million people a day visit the platform. Reddit said it no longer wanted to give away such a valuable asset to companies like Google, OpenAI and Microsoft, which have been using Reddit’s data to develop artificial intelligence systems that many in Silicon Valley see as the next big thing.

Persons: Reddit Organizations: Google, Microsoft Locations: Silicon

☆ Explainer: Reddit protest: Why are thousands of subreddits going dark?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Subreddits such as r/Music, r/gaming, r/science and r/todayilearned - all with more than 30 million subscribers - are participating. Unlike most other social media platforms, Reddit is heavily dependent on community moderators, "or mods", who police their subreddits for free to weed out offensive or illegal content. What are third-party app developers saying? Elon Musk's Twitter in January restricted all third-party clients and apps and updated their rules for developers accessing its APIs. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta, Akash Sriram and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Reddit, Steve Huffman, Christian Selig, Huffman, Elon, Tiyashi Datta, Akash Sriram, Jaspreet Singh, Devika Organizations: Apple Inc, Microsoft, New York Times, Elon Musk's Twitter, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Thousands of Reddit communities go dark to protest company’s controversial new policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Thousands of Reddit forums are going dark Monday in one of the largest user-driven protests ever to hit the social media platform. For years, Reddit users could browse posts, write comments and share pictures and video on Reddit from third-party apps. Some users have said they were not even aware it is possible to access Reddit from third-party apps. Twitter’s move prompted an outcry from third-party app makers, misinformation researchers and public service account-holders who said the move would harm transparency and accessibility. For Reddit and its future shareholders, the company’s value derives from the infrastructure the site provides for conversation.

Persons: Reddit, Christian Selig, Selig, Steve Huffman, ” Huffman, Elon Musk, Twitter’s, reddit, “ I’ve Organizations: CNN, Twitter Locations: Reddit

☆ Reddit users are going on a 48-hour blackout. Here are the biggest subreddits that won't be available during this time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Lina Batarags | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reddit users are going on a 48-hour blackout starting today, June 12. Twenty-four subreddits with more than 20 million users a piece are currently affected. Reddit users are going on a 48-hour blackout starting today, June 12, and it's affecting some of the site's most popular subreddits. In total, 7,266 subreddits are going to be taking part in the blackout, per the Reddit post. They range in size from fewer than 5,000 users to more than 40 million users.

Persons: Reddit, Insider's Jyoti Mann, Mann Organizations: BBC Locations: Reddit

☆ Inside Amazon's rush to respond to ChatGPT. 'Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this," one Amazon employee said in an interview. The same rules apply to the new Microsoft Bing search engine that uses ChatGPT's technology, an internal document said. "Since generative AI is all the rage right now, it will be included in the themes, and there will be a special award for the project that best demonstrates generative AI," the email said. Mike Blake/ReutersEmployees are still curious about Amazon's response to ChatGPT and generative AI, frequently bringing up the topic in internal town-hall meetings. He also said that Amazon's top leadership team, called the S-team, was "very excited about it" and that generative AI was a "big area of focus for us."

Persons: ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Sven Hoppe, It's, hackathons, Andy Jassy, Mike Blake, Adam Selipsky, Jassy, Eugene Kim Organizations: Amazon, Echo, Microsoft, Employees, Getty, Bloomberg, Burnham, Reuters Employees

☆ Reddit API charges spark community outrage, dayslong blackout
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, delivers remarks on 'Redesigning Reddit' during the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 8, 2017. More than 6,000 Reddit communities have gone dark and are restricting access to protest the changes to the company's developer billing structure, beginning Monday morning. The blackout comes after Reddit told developers that it would begin to charge thousands of dollars for access to an application programming interface, or API. Among the concerns for the blackout organizers is allowing third-party apps to run advertising for the third-party developer's benefit. Developers use APIs to communicate directly with a website's software or infrastructure, and they allow Reddit's third-party developer ecosystem to build applications and services for users.

Persons: Steve Huffman, Reddit, Condé Nast, Elon Musk, Christian Selig Organizations: Advance Publications, Charter Communications, Warner Bros ., Twitter Locations: Lisbon, Portugal

☆ Reddit users are planning a 48-hour blackout to protest its new pricing policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Users are protesting Reddit's new pricing policy that charges third-party apps for using its API. Nearly 3,500 subreddit forums are set to go private for 48 hours on Monday to protest Reddit's new pricing policy, BBC News reported. The user also wrote that if Reddit didn't "fix what they've broken" then the community would take further action. Its developer, Christian Selig, said in a Reddit post that it's being asked by the platform to pay $0.24 for every 1,000 requests to its API. The pricing policy will take effect from July 1.

Persons: Steve Huffman, Reddit, Toptomcat, aren't, Huffman, Christian Selig, Reddit didn't Organizations: BBC News, Google, Microsoft, New York Times

☆ Apple’s new challenge: making VR headsets look cool
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But behind this speculation is a more serious potential problem: even Apple may struggle to make VR headsets look cool. The new headset, which blends both virtual reality and augmented reality, is Apple’s most ambitious – and riskiest – new hardware product in years. In one early marketing image, a woman is shown wearing the headset while dressed in very chic clothing and lounging in an upscale living room. Apple’s silhouette ads in the early 2000s somehow managed to make not just iPods look cool, but also wired headphones. People use phones as Apple's Vision Pro headsets are on display at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S. June 5, 2023.

Persons: Tim Cook, Palmer Luckey, Oculus, memed, It’s, Robert Scoble, Larry Page, “ Robert, “ They’re, ” Lisa Peyton, “, Loren Elliott Loren Elliott, Reuters “, ” Marcus Collins, Collins, “ you’re, Alan Dye, it’s, ”, ” Peyton, “ It’s, they’ll Organizations: New, New York CNN, Apple, Facebook, Google, University of Oregon, CNN, Developers, REUTERS, Reuters, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Locations: New York, —, Cupertino , California, U.S

☆ Opinion: Apple Vision Pro augmented reality could change the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Opinion Rizwan Virk | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —It’s not surprising that Apple’s debut Monday of its $3,499 Vision Pro headset integrating virtual and augmented reality was greeted with mixed reactions, including skepticism, criticism and even lampooning. Each previous incarnation of a headset that immerses the wearer in a virtual world (called virtual reality, or VR) or lets wearers see their surroundings with virtual objects overlaid on them (augmented reality, or AR) started with overhyped expectations only to flame out. I am also doing my doctoral research on the history of virtual and augmented reality (known together as “extended reality”). These apps will be available to Vision Pro users as well. It’ll do anything your Mac or iPhone can do — and more.”And that’s why I believe that over time Apple’s Vision Pro will actually make science fiction scenarios of ubiquitous computing a reality.

Persons: Rizwan Virk, CNN — It’s, Rizwan, Tom Cruise’s, ’, Mark Zuckerberg’s, Tiago Amorim, Adrees Latif, I’m, Cathy Hackl, Samantha Kelly, I’d, Bob Iger, Tim Cook, CNN’s Kelly, Ivan Sutherland, Apple, ”, Cook, “, you’ll, Tom Cruise Organizations: Labs, MIT, Physics, Eastern, Arizona State University’s College of Global Futures, Twitter, CNN, Meta, Google, Microsoft, HTC, Samsung, Sony, Reuters, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Apple, VR, Vision, Disney, Facebook Locations: Brazil, Manhattan , New York

☆ Retailers are gamifying shopping with virtual storefronts to boost engagement, loyalty
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | In Gabrielle-Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Crew virtual beach house. Crew virtual beach house. Crew virtual beach house. Crew virtual beach house. Crew virtual beach house.

Persons: Crew's, Derek Yarbrough, J, Yarbrough, Obsess, Neha Singh, Singh, Elizabeth Arden, Dior, Ralph Lauren, Corona, Johnson, metaverse, it's, Crew's Yarbrough Organizations: CNBC, American, Mattel, Maybelline, Amazon Locations: New York, Los Angeles, Laneige

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