Inside Attention Factory: The Business of Manufacturing Momentum
Marketers used to buy ads. Now they buy conversations. Inside the growth operation turning obscure brands into things people can't stop talking about.
AI
Reporting on artificial intelligence: the companies building it, the data feeding it, and the people living with its consequences.
AI Slop Is Strangling the Hobby Forums That Trained It
Moderators of woodworking, aquarium, and ham radio communities describe a losing war against generated posts designed to farm ad revenue.
An AI Grief Startup Scraped Obituaries to Build Chatbots of the Dead
Everlume trained 'memorial companions' on scraped obituaries and funeral home guestbooks — without asking the families.
The Internet's Biggest Secret Isn't AI. It's Attention.
Everyone worried about bots and fake news. The real force shaping what billions of people see online is attention—and it has quietly become an industry.
Meet the Companies Deciding What Goes Viral
Most people think viral content happens by accident. Behind many of the internet's biggest hits is an invisible industry built to make you pay attention.
The Internet's New Reality: Nothing Goes Viral by Accident Anymore
'It just went viral' sounds increasingly outdated. What looks like spontaneity is often the end stage of a system designed to manufacture visibility.