AI content licensing and the value of niche expertise

I was recently watching an episode of Murder, She Wrote from 1991 where Jessica Fletcher (played by the late, great, Dame Angela Lansbury) was finally forced to abandon her trusty typewriter for a computer. This was treated as a Very Big Deal, and the store that sold her a new PC also ran classes to help new computer owners come to grips with their purchase. When we see her in class later in the episode, the other students complain about how mind-bogglingly difficult computers are, and many of them struggle to grasp the idea that computers might actually make their lives easier. To a modern audience, the whole idea of needing a special class to learn how to use a basic PC seems laughable, and many of the cutting-edge technologies that are mentioned in dialog are now about as outdated as the abacus (the salesman actually asks her if she wants a CD-ROM!). The episode is a relic of a bygone era when digital literacy was much rarer. Of course, teaching the characters in Murder, She Wrote about digital literacy was a fairly straightforward affair, but that’s not the case in 2023.

Hi there! It’s Jason Loch again. José asked me to do another post about my experience as a content creator, this time focusing on my interactions with my readers and how I’ve used their feedback to shape my online persona. These can be some of the scariest parts of being a creator. Not only is the Internet not known for kindness and charity, but feedback can easily leave you feeling overwhelmed and confused.

An interview with Pascal Messer of the Asser Institute.

Writing in the 1st century BCE, the Roman author Publilius Syrus observed that “a good reputation is more valuable than money” (Honesta fama melior est pecunia). That sentiment remains true over two millennia later. In the Internet Age, our online personas contribute a great deal to our reputation, and they are particularly important for those who seek to position themselves as authorities. Simply producing authoritative content isn’t enough (for a refresher on what, exactly, is authoritative content, check out this post). You also need to have an online persona that bolsters your credibility.

The other day, a colleague sent me an article about the ten most recognizable brands in the world. Many of them have consistent and distinctive brand identities (think Apple’s bitten-apple logo or McDonald’s ubiquitous golden arches) that have helped them become household names across the globe. But good branding involves more than just a snazzy logo; it also reflects an organization’s culture and values as well. I suspect many of us tend to assume that branding is only something only corporations and cattle need to worry about, but savvy content creators know how to develop a persona that can help convey their values and their authority.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about AI and how it can shape human creativity going forward. Today, we’re going to place this discussion in the proper historical context. While it can be tempting to assume that the modern debates over AI and art are unprecedented, they’re just the latest example of a far larger trend.

Unless you happen to have been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that AI has been in the news a lot lately. Yoshua Bengio–one of the three so-called ‘godfathers’ of AI–recently made headlines when he put out a statement declaring that “[m]itigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” But while it would be reckless to ignore the potential dangers of AI, at the same time, it also has the potential to be a powerful creative force. Many creators have already found innovative uses for AI, such as when Grimes decided to lend her voice to AI-generated songs. Today, we’re going to look at some of the exciting ways generative AI can help fan the fires of creativity.

An interview with Dr. Michael Eburn of Australian Emergency Law.

The doctrine of ‘fair use’ is one of the cornerstones of modern copyright law. It establishes that there are certain situations in which someone can use a copyrighted work without the owner’s permission. But if you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you know that boundaries of fair use are hotly contested. And the emergence of AI has made the waters even murkier since many of the leading AI tools have been trained on other (copyrighted) works. In this post, we’re going to look at the messy intersection of AI and copyright law.

If you’ve ever taken a journalism class, your instructor probably stressed the importance of the ‘five W’s and an H’: Who? What? Why? Where? When? How? These six simple questions are the backbone of all journalism, and they help reporters construct a compelling narrative for their readers. But they’re not just for Woodward and Bernstein wannabes. A smaller subset of questions can be useful for anyone hoping to produce trustworthy, authoritative content: Who? Why? How? The stakes are high. There’s a good chance there are other publications writing about your subject matter, and it’s imperative that you make a good first impression as soon as possible. The beauty of these questions lies in their versatility. Not only can they help you write better content, but they’ll also go a long way to showing your readers and Google that you’re trustworthy.

If you’ve been following this blog over the past few months, you know the importance of creating ‘people-first content.’ Novice content creators often assume that all they need to do is write for Google and they’ll be set, but if they do that, they’re setting themselves up for failure. A site can have as much traffic as New York’s Grand Central Station, but it won’t amount to much if visitors don’t find the content genuinely engaging. Winning the SEO game means being mindful of your audience’s needs and creating high-quality, authoritative content for humans not machines.

When it comes to getting eyes on your content, your place in a search engine’s results can make all the difference in the world. Studies suggest that 95 percent of web traffic goes to sites that show up on the first page of Google’s results. Moreover, sites at the top of the page get more traffic than those at the bottom. The moral of the story is that ranking highly is incredibly important. Today, we’re going to look at some ways to make sure your content rises to the top.

Dave Clarke shares how AeroCar Journal evolved from emerging tech coverage to trusted industry voice. Key insights for specialized publishers.

Back in March, the US Chamber of Commerce’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation published a report from their Artificial Intelligence Commission urging the government and industry leaders to cooperate on a “a risk-based approach to AI regulation.” Writing in the foreword, the President and CEO of the Chamber’s Technology Engagement Center, David Hirschmann, observed that, “for Americans to reap the benefits of AI, people must trust it.” The fact that an organ of the US Chamber of Commerce, a body not exactly known for its love of government regulation, should endorse such a call illustrates just how disruptive AI has become in recent months. The arrival of ChatGPT, Midjourney, and the like has made something that was once the preserve of tech elites into tools accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. And while this has the potential to greatly benefit society, it can also be quite dangerous if not handled carefully.

The other day I saw someone with a shirt reading “Eppur si muove” (“And yet it moves” in Italian). Supposedly, the 17th-century Italian polymath Galileo Galilei said these words under his breath after the Roman Inquisition forced him to recant his claim that the Earth moved around the Sun. But while it makes for a very compelling vignette, there’s just one problem: there’s no proof Galileo actually said it. In fact, the quote first appears over a century after his death, meaning it’s highly likely to be spurious. Yet as Ralph Keyes points out in The Quote Verifier, this quote has become central to Galileo’s intellectual legacy. This is a prime example of why fact-checking is so important.

Over the weekend, I decided to reinstall one of my all-time favorite video games: Planescape Torment. When the game first released back in 1999, it was praised by critics, yet sales were sluggish. But almost a quarter-century later, we’re still talking about it. It regularly shows up on lists of the best video games of all time, recently received a remaster, and paved the way for a number of spiritual successors. Wizards of the Coast has even announced that they plan to reissue the campaign setting that inspired the game. Now you might be wondering what this has to do with online content creation. The answer is that it illustrates the importance of shareability. Planescape Torment should’ve faded away into obscurity, but it’s so compelling that diehard fans like me have kept the conversation going long after the official marketing efforts ended. Tapping into the power of shareability can help you make sure your content reaches its full potential.

According to a recent study, 59% of links shared on social media aren’t actually clicked on, suggesting that they were shared on the basis of their headlines alone. Writing headlines is an often-overlooked part of the writing process. After working hard to craft a stellar piece of authoritative content, it can be really tempting to fashion a headline out of the first thing that springs to mind. This would be a mistake. Good headlines are an indispensable part of authoritative content, and today we’re going to look at how you can make your headlines shine just as brightly as the rest of your content.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the importance of producing high-quality content. But this requires more than just authenticity and authority. Your content also needs to be structured effectively. If you don’t pay attention to structure, your content might be less impactful than you’d like. Writing a well-laid-out blog post is a bit more complicated than the five-paragraph essays that our high-school English teachers loved so much. Today, we’re going to look at how you can structure your content for success.

An interview with Jenny Town of 38 North.

Humans are natural storytellers. We’ve probably been regaling our associates with entertaining narratives from the moment we first started to talk to one another. Now you might be inclined to think that storytelling is something that’s only relevant to folks like Stephen King or James Cameron, but that’s not the case. On the contrary, storytelling makes for effective communication in any discipline. In the business arena, it can help you craft a memorable brand image, which in turn bolsters your authenticity.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the importance of originality and how it’s absolutely essential if you want your content to be noticed. Authenticity is a key ingredient of original content. But what, exactly, is authenticity and why does it matter?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of creating high-quality content. Today, we’re going to look at some publications from Newstex’s roster of authoritative content and how they use research to create material that’s helpful, reliable, and meant for people rather than algorithms. To recap, SEO in 2023 requires more than just stuffing keywords into articles. Content quality is more important than ever.

An interview with Lynn Wood of IdeaSpies.

Last week we talked about how Google assesses content based on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). Today, we’re going to dive a bit deeper into the subject of authoritative content and how you can craft the kind of helpful, reliable, people-first content that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Succeeding as a content creator requires more than just mastering the minutiae of style and mechanics. You also need to know how to write for the web, and search-engine optimization (SEO) is a huge part of that. Ignoring SEO will make it a lot harder for you to grow your audience. Now you may think that SEO is an impediment to good writing. After all, we’ve all seen articles that are overstuffed with keywords and look clunkier than a hippo on roller skates. Luckily, AI is making SEO easier than ever.

In last week’s post, we talked about the importance of making sure your content is reaching the right audience. But identifying your audience isn’t enough. You also need to make sure that your content is engaging. Think of it this way: you want to give your readers material that’s as meaningful and useful to them as possible. One of the best ways to do this is through content arbitrage.

An interview with Deepak Puri of Democracy Labs.

When starting an online publication, it can be tempting to assume that, if you write it, they will come. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. You can write the most brilliant content imaginable, but it won’t reach its full potential if nobody sees it. But this isn’t just a matter of getting your content in front of people. You also want to make sure you’re reaching the right people. In this post, we’ll look at some of the ways you can make sure your content is being seen by the people who need it most.

In November 1919, Walter Lippmann published an article in The Atlantic entitled “The Basic Problem of Democracy.” Despite the passage of time, it feels eerily prescient.

An interview with W. James Au of New World Notes.

Researchers, businesspeople, academics, and professionals use platforms such as LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters Westlaw to find reliable information to inform their work. They are looking for newsworthy information, professional commentary, and independent insights. They need authoritative content that covers in-demand topics.

Can people find your publication? Chances are the answer is no. It can be expensive and time-consuming to optimize your content for search engines, but your content matters. People who need it should be able to find it without having to click through thirty pages of search results. Content syndication provides a solution to that problem.

An interview with David Belle of Macrodesiac.

An interview with James Smith of The Crafty Pint.

An interview with Professor Howard Friedman of Religion Clause.