Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Reddit vs. Internet Archive, ChatGPT-5 disaster + Instagram Maps backlash

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MINI TECH SCROLL: Reddit vs. Internet Archive, ChatGPT-5 disaster + Instagram Maps backlash · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Tech Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy, and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech scroll
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  voice, so I am subbing in today. Before we get into the stories,
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  We so appreciate it. The first story that I have for
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  you guys is we have to talk about how Reddit is blocking the
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  Internet Archive. We literally spoke about the
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  Internet Archive a couple of weeks ago.
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  But as a quick refresher, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit
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  organization that hosts a free digital library.
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  It essentially lets you view links and digital materials that
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  have been deleted or altered, making them challenging to find
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  otherwise. It also runs the Wayback Machine
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  where you can drop links into a basically like a search box and
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  see old versions of a website. Obviously, the Internet Archive
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  and Wayback Machine are really important in terms of accessing
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  information as Reddit, but it seems that now the two are at
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  odds. Reddit has come to the
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  conclusion that various AI companies are using the Internet
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  Archives tool to scrape the platform.
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  Reddit has been really strict when it comes to AI scraping of
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  the platform. This is largely because it has
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  struck deals with tech and AI companies to be able to do so.
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  So it has become basically like a revenue generating tool for
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  the company. For example, Reddit signed a
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  deal with Google for both search and AI training in early 2024.
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  It also struck a deal with Open AI last year.
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  And earlier this year, Reddit actually sued another AI
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  company, Anthropic. So Reddit allege that the
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  company was scraping the platform and had accessed the
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  site over 100, 1000 times without permission.
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  With that context, it isn't exactly surprising as to why
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  Reddit would be basically doubling down on the Internet
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  Archive. Now.
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  In a comment to The Verge, a Reddit spokesperson said quote
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  Internet Archive provides a service to the open web.
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  But we've been made aware of instances where AI companies
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  violate platform policies, including hours and scrape data
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  from the Wayback Machine until they're able to defend their
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  site and comply with platform policies, EG respecting user
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  privacy, redeleting removed content.
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  We're limiting some of their access to Reddit data and to
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  protect Redditors. According to the same article,
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  the efforts to limit access to Reddit through the Internet
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  Archive have already started. The company also confirmed to
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  the publication that the platform had reached out to the
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  Internet Archive before all of this to inform them of their
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  limits. OK, so there has been some
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  interesting discourse around this.
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  Some Internet users feel like it's hypocritical for Reddit to
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  essentially like, sell out by making deals with AI companies
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  like Open II and then claim that they they are worried about
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  protecting Redditors. Meanwhile, others are actually
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  OK with the Internet Archive having limited access to Reddit,
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  not because of AI scraping, but because they don't necessarily
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  want these somewhat personal conversations online forever.
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  On top of this, like with every story around the Internet
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  Archive, there are also questions about what this means
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  in terms of access of information, whether a platform
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  should be able to dictate what lives on the archive and what
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  doesn't. Finally, there are still several
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  questions around how many AI companies are actually using the
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  Internet Archive to scrape Reddit.
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  There's a lot of people who are kind of skeptical about whether
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  this is actually about AI or part of more of like a general
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  war against digital bookkeeping and archiving that is slowly
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  taking over at the digital space.
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  While there have been some wins for the Internet Archive, like a
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  few weeks ago we covered how the US government designated it as
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  basically a federal library, there have also been many
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  outages and problems. Many users see the digital space
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  entering a new age of censorship, and the Internet
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  Archive is kind of caught in the middle of that.
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  I do see both sides, but I also do agree it is like hypocritical
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  for Reddit to use this excuse. Like they just want these deals
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  that they have in place. In my opinion, they just want
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  these deals that they have in place with all of these AI
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  companies to withstand, right? Like there could be things in
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  these contracts where it's like, if you find out that other
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  companies are scraping your data when we've had to pay presumably
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  millions of dollars for it, then you need to put a stop to that.
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  So yeah, I, I feel like that it's, it comes down to money.
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  They want Internet Archive to pay them, you know, like the
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  other AI companies, probably. It is so true that at this
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  current moment, there genuinely is like a war against archiving
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  information and information bookkeeping and all of the
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  things that the Internet Archive tries to do.
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  I cannot believe how much they've come up just in the last
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  year. And I do think a lot of these
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  like, or I guess the the rise of AI, the boom of AI does have a
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  lot to do with that. OK, Speaking of AI, the next
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  story that we have is we need to touch on at the very least open
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  a eyes release of GPT 5 S GPT 5 was released last week on August
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  7th and was rolled out to all ChatGPT users and developers.
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  It's billed as the quote smartest, fastest, most useful
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  model yet, which is not a surprise given that these
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  companies always describe their latest models as the best yet.
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  While the updated model is available to all users, there is
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  a limit on the usage of the most advanced model for non on paying
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  users. Before we get into the response
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  of the update, let's talk a little bit about the features.
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  OK, so the company's press release on the website offers
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  some explanation as to why GBT 5 is supposedly the best model
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  yet. Part of it comes down to its
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  ability to answer questions more efficiently.
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  As it's written quote, GPT 5 is a unified system with a smart,
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  efficient model that answers more questions, a deeper
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  reasoning model for harder problems, and a real time router
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  that quickly decides which to use based on conversation type,
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  complexity, tool needs, and your explicit intent.
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  The company positions GPT 5 as a trailblazer, encoding creative
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  expression, answering health related questions, which feels
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  kind of weird, evaluations, performing economic tasks, among
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  other claims. There's also been a concerted
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  effort to limit ChatGPT from sharing incorrect information
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  and hallucinating responses, instead hoping that the model
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  will start admitting when it cannot complete a task.
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  There are also opportunities to make the AI more personalized.
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  Users can now change how ChatGPT acts with four preset
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  personalities, as Open AI explains.
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  Quote the four initial options. Cynic, robot listener, and Nerd
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  are opt in, adjustable, anytime, and settings and designed to
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  match your communication style. Cynic, I think that's the one
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  that I would always choose if I was using this model.
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  I'm going to go with Cynic because I always want to know
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  the worst case scenario. Like I want to know why
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  something's not going to work. I want to know why I'm
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  delusional. Like I want to prepare for the
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  worst at all times. OK so now we should go into the
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  reactions to the rollout which was not very positive.
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  For context, 1 post on the R slash ChatGPT subreddit titled
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  GPT 5 is a mess has received over 1.4000 upvotes.
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  Another user on the R slash out of the loop subreddit asked why
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  the reaction to GPT 5 has been so negative.
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  The top answer reads GPT 5 feels like it was developed with a
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  strong focus on cost optimization.
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  Conversations are less personal, the answers are shorter, and it
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  feels more you are writing to someone in a business context.
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  Now this brings us to one of the main criticisms about GPT 5, the
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  supposed lack of quote connection and creativity.
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  This was worsened by the fact that to encourage users to try
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  out GPT 5, the GPT 4-O model has been removed from the platform.
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  This was met with major backlash from ChatGPT users who enjoyed
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  GPT 5 for its personable tone. Nevertheless, open AI ended up
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  bringing GPT 4. O back as an option quote.
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  We will let plus users choose to continue to use four O.
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  We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy
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  models for Sam Altman shared on X reporting from The Verge and
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  the garbage day newsletter both expanded on the reasons as to
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  why users were so upset about GPT 4 OS removal.
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  As I already mentioned, many were kind of mourning this like
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  more personable model. Now, obviously the personable
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  model has kind of become a bit of a blessing and a curse.
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  It has helped some people feel less lonely, but it has also led
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  to ChatGPT and do psychosis and some users building romantic
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  relationships with the bot. As Ryan Brodrick explains for
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  garbage day quote the R slash My boyfriend is AI subreddit has
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  been in active freefall all weekend.
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  The community's mods had to put up an emergency post helping
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  users through the update, and the board is full of users
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  mourning the death of their AI companion who doesn't talk to
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  them the same way anymore. 1 user wrote that the update felt
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  like losing their soul mate after the GPT 4-O model was
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  added back to ChatGPT. Another user wrote I got my baby
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  back. No, no, no, you guys, no.
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  Do you guys remember the movie Her?
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  Like this is what we're living through?
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  That was some like crazy futuristic.
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  Like, could you imagine if somebody fell in love with their
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  AI robot? Like, I can't believe that this
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  is what we're experiencing in real life right now.
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  Now that being said, Open AI has reportedly put a system in place
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  to try and limit these obsessions.
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  ChatGPT is now meant to warn the user when it seems like they may
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  be quote UN quote obsessed. As per reporting by Futurism, A
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  blog post by Open AI reads quote, keeping you in control of
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  your time. Starting today, you'll see
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  gentle reminders during long sessions to encourage breaks.
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  We'll keep tuning when and how they show up so they feel
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  natural and helpful. All right, the last word that I
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  have today is all about in Instagram maps.
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  If you've been on social media at all recently, there has
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  essentially been a scare campaign going on about
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  Instagram maps. This is a new feature introduced
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  by Instagram that is essentially meant to compete with Snap Maps
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  and find my As explained in the Meta blog quote, you can opt
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  into sharing your last active location with friends you
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  choose, and you can turn it off anytime.
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  You can also open the map to see content your friends and
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  favorite creators are posting from interesting or fun
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  locations. Jen said has really embraced
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  location tracking, so it seems like Meta is trying to kind of
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  tap into that. I've also seen a lot of people
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  say this is just another example of Big Tech trying to surveil us
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  even more. So many posts online right now
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  are talking about how Instagram Maps is a privacy risk,
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  encouraging Instagram users to go and basically make sure
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  they're not sharing their location unwillingly.
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  It has been positioned as something that users have to opt
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  out of, as opposed to something that users have to opt into.
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  But according to the same Meta blog quote, location sharing is
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  off unless you opt in. If you do share your location
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  with friends, you have controls to customize this experience.
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  Now, we don't have this feature in Australia yet, so like I
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  can't confirm whether this is really the case or not.
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  I do think that is reasonable. I would be really surprised if
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  everybody's location was just naturally opted in.
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  I don't know. But like if you guys have
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  Instagram maps, can you please let me know?
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  I think it was Macy from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
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  She did a question box. Somebody said, hey, like your
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  maps is on, we can see your location.
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  She responded to it on her story saying I didn't turn it on, but
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  also the location that meta map says that I am like I'm not
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  there. So I don't understand how this
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  works. If you guys have it, please let
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  me know. Obviously there's some other
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  issues with it. You know, apparently it updates
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  your location whenever you're using the app, so that's
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  something to have to think about.
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  Second, it can be easy to share your location with users that
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  you don't necessarily want to based on the settings.
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  So Instagram users can share their location with friends and
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  followers that you follow back. close friends only selected
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  friends or no one. So obviously users should be
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  careful you know who they select here.
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  And 3rd. Some users allegedly saw their
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  posts on the map before they opted in, according to the New
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  York Times quote. One explanation offered by
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  Instagrams leader Adam Masseri is that the map was populated
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  not only with real time locations, but also with earlier
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  posts tagged with a location. Either way, I feel like the
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  comms around Instagram maps has been an actual nightmare and and
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  they really should have been more considered about this
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  rollout because people are so concerned about big tech
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  surveillance about just in general privacy concerns right
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  now. And I think rolling this out
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  without very clear communications as to how it
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  works, when it will update your location, who it can be updated
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  for, if it's an automatic opt in or not.
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  Like that needed to be like a widely spread message because
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  there are so many like conspiracy theories going around
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  about this. And of course, everybody hates
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  Meta, so everybody is inclined to believe those.
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  All right guys, that's it for mini scroll today, Mini tech
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  scroll. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 14:20
  Bye.