Elon Musk plans to launch an article-based payment feature for publishers on the Twitter platform

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for Twitter that would allow media publishers to charge users on an article-by-article, one-click basis.

He added that the plan will start appearing next month, but he did not give details of the exact prices or the percentage that the Twitter platform will charge.

The announcement comes as Musk struggles to make Twitter profitable amid controversial plans.

Media organizations have long struggled to set up reliable subscription plans to cover their operating costs, even though readers have become accustomed to free news on the Internet.

The challenge for Musk is how to make the micro-pay-for-content approach work where others have failed.

British journalist James Poole reported in the Columbia Journalism Review a series of problems with partial payment, an idea he says "certainly has had major publishers around the world".

Many users will immediately turn away once they hit a pay-to-read system, and publishers "largely" like to sign up for permanent subscribers because it gets them much more ad revenue than the 20 cents or so per article they read.

And many people on Twitter raised other objections, as some considered that reading on a per-article basis would encourage “click bait” to attract readers with deceptive titles, and that preference could be given to large publishers at the expense of small ones, in addition to that it is not clear if the writers will also share. proceeds with publishers.

But others on Twitter reacted positively to the plan.

“A great idea,” Greg Autry tweeted, adding, “As a regular columnist for publications like Forbes, Foreign Policy, and Ad-Astra, I often get frustrated when my work ends up behind a payment system that my followers don’t want to sign up for. This is the right solution.”

Carlos Gil, author of a book on marketing, tweeted, “Finally, pay-per-view in the world of news won't make you feel like you're buying beer at an overpriced stadium. Get your articles on demand now and keep your wallet happy.”

Twitter takes action against 'state-funded' media

Berlin: After the objections of many public media outlets in a number of countries, the social networking platform “Twitter” decided to delete the phrase “funded by the government” or “affiliated with the state” from the pages of these media accounts.

This step also includes the accounts of the new Chinese news agency “Xinhua” and the “Russia Today” Russian state television channel, which is banned in Europe, and whose accounts no longer bear the phrase “funded by the government.”

Twitter used these phrases to suggest that governments might exercise influence over publicly funded public media. However, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, faced severe criticism and anger on the part of the public media that rejected this classification, especially from the American public broadcaster “EPR”, which was the first media to be classified by the Twitter platform as “state-affiliated”, and then After "funded by the state".

After that, Twitter placed this rating on the accounts of many international media outlets, such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

And earlier this month, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced that it would stop its activities on Twitter after Musk put the phrase “funded by the state” on the account of the broadcaster.

The Canadian Commission’s decision came days after the American National Public Radio “NPR” announced that it would stop broadcasting its content on the platform due to a dispute over the platform’s characterization of it.

"Twitter can be an effective tool for our journalists' communication with Canadians, but it destroys the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do by allowing our independence to be misrepresented," said Leon Marr, a spokesperson for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Associated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Canada News".

The CBC said it was a "crown institution", meaning it was wholly owned by the state but "operated at a sufficient distance from government" and was editorially independent.

For its part, the Twitter platform said that “state-funded media institutions are defined as the media to which the government provides some or all of its funding, and the degree of government interference in their editorial content may vary.”

And the American National Public Radio withdrew from Twitter after describing it as a “state media,” which puts it alongside the propaganda mouthpieces in authoritarian countries, according to the broadcaster.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said it was contacting Twitter after describing it as "state-funded". (dpa)

Ministers: The G7 should adopt “risk-based” regulations for artificial intelligence

TAKASAKI: G7 digital ministers agreed Sunday that the group of developed nations should adopt "risk-based" regulations for artificial intelligence, as European parliamentarians rush to enact an artificial intelligence law to impose rules to regulate emerging tools such as ChatGBT chatbot

But the ministers said in a joint statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Japan that those regulations should also "maintain an open and encouraging atmosphere" for the development of AI technologies and be based on democratic values.

And with the ministers acknowledging that “policy tools aimed at achieving the common vision and goal that the field of artificial intelligence be trustworthy may differ from one country to another in the Group of Seven,” the agreement sets a milestone that defines how major countries regulate the field of artificial intelligence in light of concerns related to privacy and security risks.

"The outcome of this G7 meeting shows that we are certainly not alone in this," European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager told Reuters ahead of the agreement.

Governments are keenly interested in the popularity of generative AI tools such as ChatGBT, a chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI that has become the fastest-growing app in history since its launch in November.

"We intend to hold discussions of the G7 in the future regarding generative artificial intelligence, and it could include topics such as governance and protection of intellectual property rights, including copyright, as well as such as enhancing transparency and confronting disinformation," which includes the manipulation of information by foreign powers, the ministers' statement said.

Besides concerns about intellectual property, the G7 countries have also acknowledged the security risks of AI. "Generative AI ... provides society with fake news and disruptive solutions if it is fed fake data," Japan's Digital Affairs Minister Taro Kono said at a press conference following the agreement.

Japan will host the G7 summit in Hiroshima in late May, where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to discuss rules governing artificial intelligence with world leaders. (Reuters)

Italy lifts ban on GBT chat after addressing privacy concerns

ROME: Popular chatbot developed by artificial intelligence company OpenAI is now available again in Italy after addressing privacy concerns.

The data protection authority, known as “Guaranti”, said in a statement that “Open AI” has restarted its service in Italy, “by improving transparency and the rights of European users.”

The authority said that “Open AI” now complies with a number of conditions that the authority demanded in order to lift the ban it imposed on it in late March.

Specifically, OpenAI has improved transparency on its site regarding the way it handles user data, granted users certain opt-out rights, and placed barriers for children under 13.

The company, "Open AI", backed by Microsoft, has faced accusations of not informing its users of the information that is stored from them and of not having a legal basis to protect and store the data. (dpa)