Stephen Crown
Kevin BeaumontBuzzfeed journey:
- Successful
- Pivoted to GenAI for content
- Laid everybody off
- Now admits it probably can't stay in business
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/buzzfeed-disastrous-earnings-ai
Joonq@GossiTheDog The AI BOOM is here guys everybody join in! 😂 What about dont put all your eggs in one basket investing advice. How has everyone forgoten that when it comes to investing in AI.
Joseph Dickson@joonq @GossiTheDog if they have I've got NFTs and meme coins they might be interested in. 😉
João Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)@joonq because AI told them not to think about it, and AI knows best, right? Right? @GossiTheDog
fuzzyfuzzyfungus@GossiTheDog I wish that the "We replaced people interested in creating value with people interested in cutting costs" where an isolated incident at a marginally relevant company; not a eulogy for a surprising percentage of the early 21st century.
T2R@GossiTheDog Hopefully that's a lesson, but probably isn't, to other companies.
Morgan ⚧️@T2R @GossiTheDog oh well. If we reach a turning point where the only businesses that can stay in business are the ones that aren't being leeched off of by investors and run by capitalists trying to get as much value from the working class as possible without even paying us to work, I'm all for that 🤷 out with the techbros, in with the co-ops
stony kark@GossiTheDog lol. FAFO.
Michael Weiss@GossiTheDog the order of events is true, but they were a dying company either way. Their revenue stream largely depended on social media companies promoting their content. When those companies concluded that promoting links that took eyeballs away from them was counter to their own engagement goals, they took that revenue stream away.
The AI pivot was mostly the "burn the furniture" cost-cutting strategy that dying companies engage in as a last ditch effort to stay alive, hoping that something will change in that borrowed time to make it possible to have a long term strategy again.
There are plenty of bad AI business decisions out there. This one probably isn't one of them.
Simon Zerafa (Status: 
😊)
Kim Crawley 😷 (she/her)You laugh but Sarah Grey, who led the editing of my 2023 O'Reilly Media book Hacker Culture: A to Z, says Tim O'Reilly makes her and all of his editing staff show him how many ways they're using Gen AI, the more, the better. 🙃🙃🙃
Perhaps they won't survive long enough for my title suggestion to be published? 🤔🤷♂️
Which ironically would justify the titles existence but prevent it's publication thus becoming a logical paradox 😂
Zazzoo 🇨🇦@kimcrawley @simonzerafa @GossiTheDog How on earth are you supposed to write any new ideas if all you're doing is regurgitating stuff that humans have already written about before? Maybe somebody should write O'Reilly a book about entropy.
GrumpyDad 🇺🇦🇵🇸@GossiTheDog Why do I get the urge to play "Another one bites the dust" by Queen al of a sudden?
Garret 
Top ten reasons your website failed. Number 7 will shock you!
Variaxocellus mastodonte@GossiTheDog So building a business based on asking ChatGPT to write about stuff when the only people who want to read whatever slop ChatGPT spits out can instead go ask directly is a failing strategy? Who could have known?
Baron Vonskinnback@GossiTheDog go anti-folk, go broke...
Bonsai861@GossiTheDog Finally some good news
Drado, The Hobbit 👾@GossiTheDog como quase toda empresa que usa IA
HoubaWow, Buzzfeed still exists. I'm more shocked by that.
frykitty likes Halloween@GossiTheDog Corporate suicAIde.
Come On Giant Asteroid!1) Hire all the old staff
2) Name the new org FuzzBeed
3) ???
4) Profit!
Nicole ParsonsPraying that many more in on the AI Con will join BuzzFeed in bankruptcy.
Start with:
1. Meta and Zuckerberg
2. Amazon and Bezos
3. Palantir and Thiel
4. Oracle and Larry Ellison
5. Google and Brin
6. Twitter and Elon Musk
MostlyTato
WintergreenZuck is starting to look like this recurring character from the Onion:
https://theonion.com/poll-nearly-1-in-10-adults-have-postponed-retirement-due-to-healthcare-costs/
Jaxon McCurdy, Curtain Tasseler
(Have to click the link)
Just to be extra clear.
Poll: Nearly 1 In 10 Adults Have Postponed Retirement Due To Healthcare Costs
A survey from West Health-Gallup found that nearly one in 10 adults say they’ve postponed retirement because of healthcare costs, with many respondents also reporting delaying job changes, home buying, or having a child. What do you think?
Stefan@GossiTheDog i find the fist bullet point funny enough. they have been failing for 10 solid years.
WXQ4987 (RSX9983)@GossiTheDog I thought they had already tanked to be honest. Everytime I hear their name I think of that weird super early Twitter Nokia Lumia Gossip Girl era and think “must be dead like the rest of it.”
XOXO
Snippety Snap (she/her)@GossiTheDog
LOL
"The brutal reality check seemingly hasn’t put [Buzzfeed CEO] Peretti off from pursuing AI, though. He now says he’s hoping to bring “new AI apps to the market” this year."
CrowjaneOh look! A Canary in a coal mine.
⁂ L. Rhodes@GossiTheDog "Produces sub-BuzzFeed level content" is a hell of an endorsement for LLMs.
John Faithfull 🌍🇪🇺🏴🧡✊🏻✊🏿@GossiTheDog ...and CEO entirely unrepentant - waltzing off still saying "AI" is the answer... 😭🤬🤮
Kaifi@GossiTheDog can't be happier. never liked their content either.
𝔱.𝔥.@GossiTheDog huh, i thought buzzfeed obliterated itself more than a decade ago...
BenderIsGreat34@GossiTheDog @bobjmsn And doubling down on AI regardless.
Eli the BeardedAnd that last paragraph...
«The brutal reality check seemingly hasn't put [BuzzFeed CEO Jonah] Peretti off from pursuing AI, though. He now says he's hoping to bring "new AI apps to the market" this year.»
That's some addictive Kool-Aid
aspraggShort *everything* that guy has touched. I am going to try to find moral redemption at the roulette table.
— Mark Baum (Steve Carell), *The Big Short*, 2015
JWM (Joe No Se)@GossiTheDog Should we start calling this #slopruptcy ?
Kyle Memoir 🍉🐧
Janie Karma S 🏳️🌈🖖🏿"In 2023, the company’s stock price jumped aggressively, from around $3 per share to north of $15. "
"Reality soon set in. After the initial spike in enthusiasm, the company’s stock took a massive beating; as of this week, its shares are hovering around 70 cents."
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/buzzfeed-disastrous-earnings-ai
Jimmothy Baggins@GossiTheDog this is the future every company is heading toward. But not before mass layoffs
WesDym
estelle@GossiTheDog "it seems this pivot to ai has tanked my once very profitable business. what do you think we should do about this?"
*turns towards mirror, revealing only other employee*
"perhaps we can solve this with more ai-assisted apps,"
Really Lazy Bear 
@GossiTheDog Awww, they thought AI was awesome, but the CEO even wanna double down !
I'm pretty open-minded with what people want to do for themselves so I say let them have what's coming for 'em. They wanted more "AI" shoved down their throats so let them have more "AI".
Let 'em choke to death with the fucking slop.
Bernie the Wordsmith
Welp Welp@GossiTheDog It's not like there were other examples of businesses borking themselves with AI + heavy layoffs. No one could have seen this coming!
Apparently BuzzFeed tried to require all of their content creators to submit their work to AI for some mystery AI project. The maker of Chikn Nugit nearly bowed out until BuzzFeed made an exception for her show.
mtc_uk
Drew 🇵🇭 ♾️@GossiTheDog Excellent. Fuck Buzzfeed.
QCCEクリス@GossiTheDog There was much rejoicing
TheHCJ@GossiTheDog I guess they messed around and found out that actually people do not care about #AI slop
Simonoid@GossiTheDog mild shock 😐
divya@GossiTheDog actually they did the original pivot to video that caused them to start hemorrhaging visitors
Jason Stuart@GossiTheDog "Bankruptcy lawyers HATE this ONE trick!!! Click Here to learn how!"
Dawn Tåke 🌙 
@GossiTheDog
It's like, radio has known this for decades national syndicated shows are cheaper, but they never pull in as Amby listeners as local programming. That's why most corp stations have at least some of their drive time with local DJs/morning zoo/whatever. Going all syndicated, you better not have a lot of overhead.
AI is even worse. With syndication, whoever the modern equivalent of Howard Stern is at least human.
Kit Paul@GossiTheDog Dismantling a Pulitzer Prize-winning news division and replacing it with AI is not an artificial intelligence problem, but rather a human stupidity one.
Franklin Delano Stallone@GossiTheDog nothing of value was lost.