Dear John,

Artificial intelligence is coming for the news industry. Pew Research just released a report showing that AI is already throttling the web traffic Google’s search engine sends to news sites, replacing links to stories with “AI summaries.” According to another report, publishers can lose up to 79 percent of Google traffic from the addition of these summaries. The consequences for the media industry could be dire. Business Insider recently laid off 21 percent of its staff, citing “extreme traffic drops outside of our control.” 

Veterans of the news industry have seen this story before. Facebook, in the wake of the 2016 election, pivoted away from news, choking off what was a huge source of attention and web traffic to publishers. Traffic declined, journalists were laid off, and there was further fracturing and consolidation in the industry. It sometimes feels like we’re headed toward a future with two or three newspapers and innumerable Substacks—all behind paywalls, no doubt.

This trend is deeply concerning on multiple levels. First, it is unclear how this industry can absorb another blow to its business model after years of decline. With social media functionally useless to news publishers seeking new audiences (thanks, Elon Musk), how are publishers going to attract enough attention and engagement to sustain their businesses? 

Second, and perhaps more concerning, we’re turning over a critical part of a functioning democracy—the collection, reporting, and distribution of facts—to an unaccountable piece of technology prone to hallucination and owned by a set of monopolistic corporations that only care about a functioning news industry to the extent that it increases shareholder value. 

This is why we need you to help us. With your support, we’re able to continue publishing fearless reporting and analysis that tells you who has power and what they are doing with it. We can do this without fear or favor because of you, our readers, who keep us independent and sustainable.

We’re also in the trenches reporting on technology companies and how artificial intelligence is already impacting consumers everywhere. One year ago, the Prospect introduced the term “surveillance pricing” to describe the emerging practice of using Americans’ personal information to set individualized prices that exploit desperation. Our reporting led to a Federal Trade Commission investigation of the practice of surveillance pricing, and just this week, Rep. Greg Casar introduced a bill that would ban companies from using technology and artificial intelligence to create personalized prices for consumers. 

This reporting and the impact it has is only possible with your support.

Thank you for being part of what we have built at the Prospect.

–David Dayen

P.S. You know what will never be threatened by AI slop? Our beautiful print magazine. If you want to read us free of distraction you can subscribe to our print magazine here with a limited time offer.