Jan 31 2025
The Rise Of Authenticity: Why Genuine Connections Will Drive Social Media In 2025 via @sejournal, @donutcaramel13

Looking back on last year, fake content has reached new highs, challenging marketers to stand out with authentic, engaging campaigns that resonate with increasingly skeptical audiences.

Overly polished or shallow content – such as slick paid media attempts, spammy posts, or poorly executed AI-generated content – is increasing, creating challenges for marketers to stand out with original material.

Fake content can also impact ad performance and SEO rankings thanks to Google prioritizing helpful, authentic content.

Note that the FTC has released a final rule and banned fake reviews and testimonials in August 2024, which includes AI-generated fake reviews, and encouraged brands to reevaluate their contracts with influencers and ensure compliance.

In this article, I will outline five things that marketers need to know to avoid the pitfalls of inauthentic content.

1. The Growing Demand For Authenticity In A Social Media-Saturated World

According to a 2023 survey, over 70% are concerned about deepfakes that circulate on social media.

My educated guess is that audiences are turned off by misleading content and that they are looking for new platforms, like Threads, to stay connected in a positive way by sharing bite-sized anecdotes with real people instead of bots and sales-focused influencers.

Brands sharing real advice like workplace challenges and authentic storytelling can resonate with audiences in specific industries, be it lifestyle brands or B2B SaaS platforms.

Across TikTok and Instagram, and even Threads, sharing pro advice and motivational tips has always been a trend. Examples include Grammarly’s writing productivity tips on Threads and Nike’s #1000Victories 19-part documentary campaign featuring women in sport community.

Check out this guide on how you can create interactive posts to engage communities on social.

For online shops, here’s an example of a content creator promoting other small businesses for free to potential customers. The desire to reciprocate is a result of the very emphatic conversations and experiences many have shared, prompting each other to become motivated and best practices for industry and protect their livelihood.

By simply listening to people talk about it, truly caring, and engaging in the comments section with the original posters, these interactions create a sense of community in a way that AI or paid sponsorships can’t replicate.

2. The Fall Of Inauthentic Content

Three in four consumers are worried about fake reviews and 63% think brands should be solving this. These insights highlight evolving expectations for brands to put up a fight and to maintain their trust.

49% of U.S. consumers are confident they have seen fake reviews on Amazon for 2024.

But how easy are they to spot?

Learning How To Spot AI Content

It’s not easy to spot at all.

While it can be hard to tell the difference with text (AI art is easier to spot), there are ways to detect it.

Researchers from the University of Michigan used a dataset of 10,000 real and fake hotel reviews in 10 languages to find differences:

“Despite the difficulty humans have in distinguishing between real hotel reviews and those generated by LLMs, we discovered that these posts have noticeable differences in style, structure, and semantics.” (read: MAiDE-up: Multilingual Deception Detection of GPT-generated Hotel Reviews).

A research group at the University of Pennsylvania proves that people can be trained to tell the difference.

They also partnered with CNN to demonstrate how to discern between AI and human-written text and how fact-checking and logic can spell the difference.

If more and more people are trained to fact-check and present their findings in the comments section, it becomes more difficult to pass off AI-generated content as human.

Around 31% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about AI. Digital marketers need to be aware of how AI-generated content can backfire, especially for highly regulated fields like Law, Medicine, and Media, Finance.

Fraud And Undisclosed Influencer Ads

Deceptive affiliates on YouTube exaggerate “must-haves” and promote products by exclaiming, “Run, don’t walk to the store.”

There are sponsored product reviews by influencers who have never even tried the retail products yet recommend them, and audiences become skeptical and unfollow or unsubscribe.

Because de-influencing content has become very popular over the past year, it could lead to less revenue and a negative reputation for your brand. Among the business categories: Technology, Fashion/Beauty/Wellness, Food/Beverage, and Travel/Hospitality – the fashion/beauty/wellness category has been hit the hardest.

Meanwhile, Instagram influencer fraud was found at 49% in 2023 (buying followers, likes, stories, views, etc.). And according to The Hyper Auditor’s internal research, only 55% of Instagram followers are real people. But these platforms are trying to push back.

Major Platforms Are Pushing Back Vs. Fake Reviews

Yelp had started removing fake reviews and cracked down on fraudulent groups in 2022. Meta has started requiring an AI label on generated posts, too.

Amazon and Google have filed against a fake reviews broker website in October 2024. The latter is also part of The Coalition of Trusted Reviews with other highly popular booking and review sites.

As more and more platforms and consumers fight against fake content, your brand must verify content authenticity and discourage misleading sponsored ads in other to maintain trust in your platform or product on the platform.

3. Threads And The Surge Of Genuine Storytelling Via Microblogging

Instagram seems to have become a highlight reel of everyone’s picture-perfect moments: Weddings, travel, shiny purchases, and branded outfits. However, not everyone can relate to high-end living, so take note, marketers of aspirational brands.

Threads, the microblogging app built by the Instagram people, allows brands to foster real conversations and share relatable messaging. People from all walks of life, regardless of education, language, and nationality, share perspectives through their life stories or give free professional advice.

This is an example of a service business that personalized his handyman content on Threads and found success in the community aside from his recent achievement of 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. Learn how short-form storytelling works on Threads and try it out.

This kind of user-generated content without the ad-heavy feed drives community as more and more users can relate to and reply to these posts.

User-generated content posts that look and feel like everyday life will resonate better with communities on Threads. With this type of content, brands can humanize their storytelling and build trust over time.

4. The Balance Between AI And Authenticity: A New Kind Of Content Creation

There are practical roles for AI in content creation, but there are limits when it comes to creating art with emotional impact.

  • What AI can do: Help collect and manage customer data, boost customer experience with personalized content, support content writers, and correct human errors to name a few.
  • What AI can’t do: According to the AI Coke ads they can’t elicit positive emotional responses.

While the AI Coke ads may not have performed as expected, their holiday campaign, Create Real Magic invited fans to create images with ChatGPT-4 and DALL-E using their own archive of assets, successfully appealing to their target Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

For B2B SaaS, AI can be a product offering that ties in seamlessly with your platform. An example is Canva launched More Canva Magic! AI Music Generators which empowers creators to create custom soundtracks for presentations, videos, and social media legally using royalty-free music.

For retailers, it’s nice to know that customers see AI-generated summaries of product reviews as a top feature, and is great to read alongside actual human reviews. Nike’s “By You” uses AI to help customers design their own shoes. Context and execution matter when it comes to AI-produced content using new technology, and campaigns that require active participation seem to be more successful.

5. How To Adapt To Maintain Transparency

Ensure Authenticity

42% of marketers use generative AI to make social media copy. Make sure content is fact-checked by copywriters and editors, integrating a workflow that can catch inaccuracies.

This year, now more than ever, it’s important to build and maintain meaningful customer relationships to stay relevant in 2025. Consumers (64%) wish for brands to connect with them, underlining the growing demand for genuine engagement.

In order to meet this expectation, brands need to align their values, humanize their content, and be consistent in their messaging to foster audiences’ trust.

Disclose Partnerships And Monitor Content

Back in 2022, the SEC fined Kim Kardashian $1.26 million after she was caught promoting cryptocurrency, EthereumMax, without disclosure of her paid partnership.

For influencers, disclosing paid ads partnered with a brand is essential instead of passing it off as organic. The European Commission found 97% of published content with commercial intent, but only 20% disclosed it. Brands need to ensure that the influencers hired follow FTC guidelines.

Additionally, if you use AI when creating content, disclose or add labels for the AI technologies you use.

If you follow FTC guidelines, brands and influencers who are honest can thrive with meaningful connections and steer clear of the backlash surrounding fake content.

Conclusion: Embrace Authenticity As The Future Of Social Media

I personally believe that authenticity is the foundation for social media success. As social media evolves and AI becomes more sophisticated, authenticity is no longer optional – it’s vital.

By prioritizing genuine connections and transparent content, marketers can build trust, drive engagement, and secure their place in the digital future.

More tools are cropping up to filter out the noise and more mods on every platform serve as a village watch group to protect misinformation.

Brands, creators, and platforms could hypothetically run 100% fake content with fake bots spamming the comments to seem engaging. But, real people will exit, and it’ll reflect poorly on the brand and actual product sales.

As online consumers, we are growing in social awareness and learning to discern every post, so it’s time for marketers to ensure their social media strategy addresses that.

If you want to thrive as a business, you need to strive to commit to genuine connections and spark conversations naturally. If you want attention, then what you offer needs to be worthy of it.

Run authenticity audits of your content, listen to customer pain points, and create campaigns that truly resonate with them.

More Resources:

Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

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Jan 31 2025
You.com Deploys USA-Hosted DeepSeek AI Model via @sejournal, @martinibuster

You.com AI Assistant and Search announced the deployment of the new open-source DeepSeek AI model, joining advanced models from Anthropic, Meta, Grok, and OpenAI. DeepSeek-R1 is safely hosted on U.S. servers, ensuring that no user data is sent overseas.

DeepSeek-R1

DeepSeek-R1 is a new reasoning model developed in China that has shaken up the AI technology space because of its high performance and novel training methodology which dramatically lowered costs. The model was released as open source which allows anyone to download it, customize it and host it on their own servers, which is what You.com did.

You.com

You.com is a free AI assistant and search engine that provides access to top AI models at lower rates than their individual subscriptions. For example, users that pay $15/month can take advantage of OpenAI’s models for tasks they excel at, then switch to Anthropic’s Claude for creative work, where many find it superior, without the need to subscribe to both services. That’s a saving of approximately $25/month for access to models that cost about $20/month.

Screenshot Of DeepSeek-R1 Availability On You.com

DeepSeek-R1 Integrated Into You.com

You.com Pro users can access DeepSeek’s model in addition to all the other available models. The official You.com X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted:

“@deepseek_ai is officially live at you(dot)com. The hype is real, and it’s spectacular 🔥

DeepSeek R1 & V3 are crushing benchmarks and pushing the boundaries of what LLMs can do. Give them a spin and see why everyone’s buzzing.”

Richard Socher, You.com’s CEO and founder, tweeted:

“@deepseek_ai’s AI models are officially live at ydc. This is the best way to test out these great models and have them be accurate and up-to-date.

For folks worried about their data or China: We do not use the official API, there is zero data retention for our enterprise users and the servers are in the US. The magic of open source dispels these concerns.”

He followed up that tweet with another one accompanied by a screenshot showing how DeepSeek takes a little extra time to output because it’s a reasoning model that takes multiple steps to generate the output.

Socher observed:

“I like how it says that one source confirms the information from another source.

Because of the more advanced reasoning, it is slower that our default modes for now.”

Screenshot Of DeepSeek-R1 on You.com

You.com Continues To Exceed Expectations

You.com offers users an exceptional AI Assistant that allows users to choose between different AI models at essentially discounted prices, enabling users to be more productive at a competitive price.

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Jan 31 2025
This quantum computer built on server racks paves the way to bigger machines

A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a new quantum computer it says can be easily scaled up to achieve the computational power needed to tackle scientific challenges ranging from drug discovery to more energy-efficient machine learning.

Aurora is a “photonic” quantum computer, which means it crunches numbers using photonic qubits—information encoded in light. In practice, this means combining and recombining laser beams on multiple chips using lenses, fibers, and other optics according to an algorithm. Xanadu’s computer is designed in such a way that the answer to an algorithm it executes corresponds to the final number of photons in each laser beam. This approach differs from one used by Google and IBM, which involves encoding information in properties of superconducting circuits. 

Aurora has a modular design that consists of four similar units, each installed in a standard server rack that is slightly taller and wider than the average human. To make a useful quantum computer, “you copy and paste a thousand of these things and network them together,” says Christian Weedbrook, the CEO and founder of the company. 

Ultimately, Xanadu envisions a quantum computer as a specialized data center, consisting of rows upon rows of these servers. This contrasts with the industry’s earlier conception of a specialized chip within a supercomputer, much like a GPU.

But this work, which the company published last week in Nature, is just a first step toward that vision. Aurora used 35 chips to construct a total of 12 quantum bits, or qubits. Any useful applications of quantum computing proposed to date will require at least thousands of qubits, or possibly a million. By comparison, Google’s quantum computer Willow, which debuted last year, has 105 qubits (all built on a single chip), and IBM’s Condor has 1,121.

Devesh Tiwari, a quantum computing researcher at Northeastern University, describes Xanadu’s progress in an analogy with building a hotel. “They have built a room, and I’m sure they can build multiple rooms,” he says. “But I don’t know if they can build it floor by floor.”

Still, he says, the work is “very promising.” 

Xanadu’s 12 qubits may seem like a paltry number next to IBM’s 1,121, but Tiwari says this doesn’t mean that quantum computers based on photonics are running behind. In his opinion, the number of qubits reflects the amount of investment more than it does the technology’s promise. 

Photonic quantum computers offer several design advantages. The qubits are less sensitive to environmental noise, says Tiwari, which makes it easier to get them to retain information for longer. It is also relatively straightforward to connect photonic quantum computers via conventional fiber optics, because they already use light to encode information. Networking quantum computers together is key to the industry’s vision of a “quantum internet” where different quantum devices talk to each other. Aurora’s servers also don’t need to be kept as cool as superconducting quantum computers, says Weedbrook, so they don’t require as much cryogenic technology. The server racks operate at room temperature, although photon-counting detectors still need to be cryogenically cooled in another room. 

Xanadu is not the only company pursuing photonic quantum computers; others include PsiQuantum in the US and Quandela in France. Other groups are using materials like neutral atoms and ions to construct their quantum systems. 

From a technical standpoint, Tiwari suspects, no single qubit type will ever be the “winner,” but it’s likely that certain qubits will be better for specific applications. Photonic quantum computers, for example, are particularly well suited to Gaussian boson sampling, an algorithm that could be useful for quickly solving graph problems. “I really want more people to be looking at photonic quantum computers,” he says. He has studied quantum computers with multiple qubit types, including photons and superconducting qubits, and is not affiliated with a company. 

Isaac Kim, a physicist at the University of California, Davis, points out that Xanadu has not demonstrated the error correction ability many experts think a quantum computer will need in order to do any useful task, given that information stored in a quantum computer is notoriously fragile. 

Weedbrook, however, says Xanadu’s next goal is to improve the quality of the photons in the computer, which will ease the error correction requirements. “When you send lasers through a medium, whether it’s free space, chips, or fiber optics, not all the information makes it from the start to the finish,” he says. “So you’re actually losing light and therefore losing information.” The company is working to reduce this loss, which means fewer errors in the first place. 

Xanadu aims to build a quantum data center, with thousands of servers containing a million qubits, in 2029.

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Jan 31 2025
Three questions about the future of US climate tech under Trump

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

Donald Trump has officially been in office for just over a week, and the new administration has hit the ground running with a blizzard of executive orders and memos.

Some of the moves could have major effects for climate change and climate technologies—for example, one of the first orders Trump signed signaled his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the major international climate treaty.

The road map for withdrawing from the Paris agreement is clear, but not all the effects of these orders are quite so obvious. There’s a whole lot of speculation about how far these actions reach, which ones might get overturned, and generally what comes next. Here are some of the crucial threads that I’m going to be following.

Will states be able to set their own rules on electric vehicles? 

It’s clear that Donald Trump isn’t a fan of electric vehicles. One of the executive orders issued on his first day in office promised to eliminate the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate.” 

The federal government under Biden didn’t actually have an EV mandate in place—rather, Trump is targeting national support programs, including subsidies that lower the cost of EVs for drivers and support building public chargers. But that’s just the beginning, because the executive order will go after states that have set their own rules on EVs. 

While the US Environmental Protection Agency does set some rules around EVs through what are called tailpipe standards, last year California was granted a waiver that allows the state to set its own, stricter rules. The state now requires that all vehicles sold there must be zero-emissions by 2035. More than a dozen states quickly followed suit, setting a target to transition to zero-emissions vehicles within the next decade. That commitment was a major signal to automakers that there will be demand for EVs, and a lot of it, soon.

Trump appears to be coming after that waiver, and with it California’s right to set its own targets on EVs. We’ll likely see court battles over this, and experts aren’t sure how it’s going to shake out.

What will happen to wind projects?

Wind energy was one of the most explicit targets for Trump on the campaign trail and during his first few days in office. In one memo, the new administration paused all federal permits, leases, and loans for all offshore and onshore wind projects.

This doesn’t just affect projects on federal lands or waters—nearly all wind projects typically require federal permits, so this could have a wide effect.

Even if the order is temporary or doesn’t hold up in court, it could be enough to chill investment in a sector that’s already been on shaky ground. As I reported last year, rising costs and slow timelines were already throwing offshore wind projects off track in the US. Investment has slowed since I published that story, and now, with growing political opposition, things could get even rockier.

One major question is how much this will slow down existing projects, like the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho, which got the green light from the Biden administration before he left office. As one source told the Washington Post, the new administration may try to go after leases and permits that have already been issued, but “there may be insufficient authority to do so.”

What about the money?

In an executive order last week, the Trump administration called for a pause on handing out the funds that are legally set aside under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. That includes hundreds of billions of dollars for climate research and infrastructure.

This week, a memo from the White House called for a wider pause on federal grants and loans. This goes way beyond climate spending and could affect programs like Medicaid. There’s been chaos since that was first reported; nobody seems to agree on what exactly will be affected or how long the pause was supposed to last, and as of Tuesday evening, a federal judge had blocked that order.

In any case, all these efforts to pause, slow, or stop federal spending will be a major source of fighting going forward. As for effects on climate technology, I think the biggest question is how far the new administration can and will go to block spending that’s already been designated by Congress. There could be political consequences—most funds from the Inflation Reduction Act have gone to conservative-leaning states.  

As I wrote just after the election in November, Donald Trump’s return to office means a sharp turn for the US on climate policy, and we’re seeing that start to play out very quickly. I’ll be following it all, but I’d love to hear from you. What do you most want to know more about? What questions do you have? If you work in the climate sector, how are you seeing your job affected? You can email me at casey.crownhart@technologyreview.com, message me on Bluesky, or reach me on Signal: @casey.131.

Now read the rest of The Spark

Related reading

EVs are mostly set for solid growth this year, but what happens in the US is still yet to be seen, as my colleague James Temple covered in a recent story. 

The Inflation Reduction Act set aside hundreds of billions of dollars for climate spending. Here’s how the law made a difference, two years in.

For more on Trump’s first week in office, check out this news segment from Science Friday (featuring yours truly). 

small chip rises away from large chip

STEPHANIE ARNETT/ MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | RAWPIXEL

Another thing

DeepSeek has stormed onto the AI scene. The company released a new reasoning model, called DeepSeek R1, which it claims can surpass the performance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1. The model appears to be incredibly efficient, which upends the idea that huge amounts of computing power, and energy, are needed to drive the AI revolution. 

For more, check out this story on the company and its model from my colleague Caiwei Chen, and this look at what it means for the AI industry and its energy claims from James O’Donnell. 

Keeping up with climate

A huge surge in clean energy caused China’s carbon emissions to level off in 2024. Whether the country’s emissions peak and begin to fall for good depends on what wins in a race between clean-energy additions and growth in energy demand. (Carbon Brief)

In a bit of good news, heat pumps just keep getting hotter. The appliances outsold gas furnaces in the US last year by a bigger margin than ever. (Canary Media)
→ Here’s everything you need to know about heat pumps and how they work. (MIT Technology Review)

People are seeking refuge from floods in Kentucky’s old mountaintop mines. Decades ago, the mines were a cheap source of resources but devastated local ecosystems. Now people are moving in. (New York Times)

An Australian company just raised $20 million to use AI to search for key minerals. Earth AI has already discovered significant deposits of palladium, gold, and molybdenum. (Heatmap News)

Some research suggests a key ocean current system is slowing down, but a new study adds to the case that there’s no cause to panic … yet. The new work suggests that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, hasn’t shown long-term weakening over the past 60 years. (Washington Post)
→ Efforts to observe and understand the currents have shown they’re weirder and more unpredictable than expected. (MIT Technology Review)

Floating solar panels could be a major resource in US energy. A new report finds that federal reservoirs could hold enough floating solar to produce nearly 1,500 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 100 million homes each year. (Canary Media)

What sparked the LA wildfires is still a mystery, but AI is hunting for clues. Better understanding of what causes fires could be key in efforts to stop future blazes. (Grist)

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Jan 31 2025
The Download: climate tech under Trump, and scaling up quantum computing

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Three questions about the future of US climate tech under Trump

Donald Trump has officially been in office for just over a week, and the new administration has already issued a blizzard of executive orders and memos.

Some of the moves could have major effects for climate change and climate technologies—for example, one of the first orders Trump signed signaled his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the major international climate treaty.

The road map for withdrawing from the Paris agreement is clear, but not all the effects of these orders are quite so obvious. There’s a whole lot of speculation about how far these actions reach, which ones might get overturned, and generally what comes next. Here are some of the crucial threads that I’m going to be following. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

This quantum computer built on server racks paves the way to bigger machines

The news: A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a new quantum computer it says can be easily scaled up to achieve the computational power needed to tackle scientific challenges ranging from drug discovery to more energy-efficient machine learning.

Why it matters: Xanadu envisions a quantum computer as a specialized data center, consisting of rows upon rows of these servers. This contrasts with the industry’s earlier conception of a specialized chip within a supercomputer, much like a GPU. But this work is just a first step toward that vision. Read the full story.

—Sophia Chen

Vote for the 11th breakthrough

Earlier this month, we unveiled our annual list of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, encompassing everything from promising stem-cell therapies to robots that learn quickly. Now, we’re asking you to help us choose the 11th honorary technology we should keep an eye on over the next 12 months.

Cast your vote for one of the four extra exciting breakthroughs before 1 April. Readers of The Download will be among the first to know once we announce your pick. 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Trump advisers were blindsided by Elon Musk’s team’s offer to federal workers
Officials weren’t consulted about plans to induce civil service workers to resign. (WP $)
+ The radical sweeping measures are just the beginning. (Vox)
+ The email workers received cribs from Musk’s controversial Twitter memo. (Ars Technica)
+ If Musk gets his way, the US government could end up like X. (NY Mag $)

2 Meta has agreed to pay Trump $25 million
To settle the censorship lawsuit Trump brought against it back in 2021. (CNN)
+ Mark Zuckerberg predicts 2025 will be a big year for Meta’s government relations. (Insider $)+ Facebook is still focused on winning over creators to make it cool again. (The Information $)

3 How tech workers are quietly fighting the rise of MAGA 
While their employers are shifting rightwards, workers are resisting. (NYT $)

4 Microsoft and Meta have defended their AI spending
DeepSeek’s success has raised serious questions about Big Tech’s AI budgets. (Reuters)
+ Zuckerberg claims not to be worried by the Chinese startup’s rapid rise. (The Verge)
+ How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Mr Beast is getting serious about buying TikTok 
The YouTuber is a part of an investor group that’s secured more than $20 billion. (Bloomberg $)

6 How the US plans to use space lasers to destroy hypersonic missiles
It bears more than a passing resemblance to Ronald Reagan’s 1983 program. (FT $)
+ How to fight a war in space (and get away with it) (MIT Technology Review)

7 Waymo’s autonomous taxi service is expanding to new US cities
San Diego, Las Vegas, and Miami are on the list. (WSJ $)
+ Self-driving Tesla taxis will hit Austin’s road in June, apparently. (TechCrunch)
+ EV batteries boast an incredibly long lifespan. (IEEE Spectrum)

8 The perfect cryptographic machine is possible
It’s just a bit of a pain to build. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Cryptography may offer a solution to the massive AI-labeling problem. (MIT Technology Review)

9 This mobile game is helping scientists identify new deep-sea species
Verifying ocean creatures can take decades, but AI and gaming speeds up the process. (Bloomberg $)
+ There’s an incredible amount of life down in the depths. (Quanta Magazine)

10 How the internet fell in love with capybaras
The world’s largest rodent is a social media sensation. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“Hold the line! Don’t resign!”

—US federal workers rally together on Reddit to protest the Trump administration’s offer for them to take ‘deferred resignation’.

The big story

The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits

April 2024

As the number of satellites in space grows, and as we rely on them for increasing numbers of vital tasks on Earth, the need to better predict stormy space weather is becoming more and more urgent.

Scientists have long known that solar activity can change the density of the upper atmosphere. But it’s incredibly difficult to precisely predict the sorts of density changes that a given amount of solar activity would produce.

Now, experts are working on a model of the upper atmosphere to help scientists to improve their models of how solar activity affects the environment in low Earth orbit. If they succeed, they’ll be able to keep satellites safe even amid turbulent space weather, reducing the risk of potentially catastrophic orbital collisions. Read the full story.

—Tereza Pultarova

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Happy birthday to the one and only Phil Collins—74 years young today.
+ Great news for Britain’s loneliest bat: he may have found a mate at long last. 🦇
+ After years in the cocktail wilderness, the Black Russian is coming in from the cold.
+ Death to members clubs!

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Jan 31 2025
How to Create Print-on-Demand Products

Launching a drop-shipping business selling print-on-demand products can be as simple as uploading an image and opening an online shop, but the process may seem daunting to a new entrepreneur.

In 2024, total U.S. sales from on-demand printing on items such as apparel and posters reached an estimated $2.3 billion. Print-on-demand dropshipping will reportedly grow more than tenfold in the next decade, reaching roughly $26 billion in 2034.

Let’s consider two examples: (i) an AI-sourced t-shirt uploaded to Printful and (ii) a simple wall art design added to Prodigi.

Sourcing Artwork

Whether a shop sells t-shirts, postcards, or wall art, the design is the product. The shopper is buying the art. Where does an entrepreneur find art, and what are the arrangements to resell it?

One of the examples below uses an AI-generated image; the other is a simple text-only design from Adobe Photoshop. But more broadly, there are at least seven ways to source artwork for print-on-demand products.

  • Create it. Artists and designers can make the art from Canva or Photoshop and sell it on their own online shop. No licensing is required.
  • Hire a freelance designer. Entrepreneurs can commission custom artwork from freelance designers on platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork. Some companies have successfully hired local art students.
  • Collaborate with artists. Find artists on Behance or ArtStation and strike a deal. The collaboration could be a licensing fee, revenue sharing, or a combination. Art Licensing International and MHS Licensing are also sources.
  • Buy stock images. Licensed stock images from sites such as Shutterstock or Adobe Stock are helpful as a basis for designs, ensuring the ecommerce shop has the right to use the imagery commercially.
  • Use ready-made designs. Many print-on-demand companies have designs available.
  • Use public domain art. Artwork in the public domain can be used and modified for print-on-demand products. The National Gallary of Art, for example, has more than 50,000 free, public-domain images.
  • Have AI generate it. Finally, use artificial intelligence models such as Midjoury to create the artwork.

In 2023, Kevin Stecko from 80sTees.com described in an “Ecommerce Conversations” episode how his company licenses artwork, adding that characters from Disney, Star Wars, or Marvel comics require permission.

Printful

Let’s look at creating and publishing a product in Printful. This example assumes the seller has a Printful account integrated with a Shopify store using an app.

Screenshot of a Printful product template

Products are “templates” in Printful. A merchant can add new products after creating a collection.

Creating a new product starts with selecting the item to sell. Printful offers wall art, phone cases, and more, but this example is a t-shirt. A merchant can choose its colors and sizes.

Screenshot of a Printful setup process

Printful walks online sellers through the setup process, often allowing updates to selections such as color and size on more than one screen.

Uploading the t-shirt design, which is AI-generated from my prompt, is the same as any internet file.

Screenshot of Printful's upload screen for the AI image

Uploading the design is simple and fast. This 14.8 MB AI image loaded in less than a second.

The merchant can apply logos or other artwork to the t-shirt’s sleeves, back, or labels.

Printful screen to add logos or other graphics

With Printful, merchants can add graphics to several areas of the t-shirt.

The merchant can add the newly designed t-shirt to her integrated Shopify shop almost immediately.

First, she can select the mockups. Printful offers many, but keeping it simple often works best.

Printful screen showing the mockups of the AI-image t-shirt

Printful creates the mockups for the merchant, a very nice feature.

Next, Printful permits users to name the product and customize its description before moving it to Shopify. The merchant should select the Shopify collection in which the product will reside and set the profit for each item.

The t-shirt on a Shopify product page

Printful automatically pushes the t-shirt — with pricing and description — to Shopify, requiring no changes or updates on that platform.

Prodigi

Prodigi is another print-on-demand provider. In this example, I’ve connected my Prodigi account to a Squarespace shop. I initially created the products in Squarespace and then configured Prodigi.

Prodigi screen for naming and describing the product

Prodigi must know the type of product. The Prodigi and Squarespace integration requires merchants to work in both platforms to complete the process.

The Prodigi process begins when the merchant selects one or more items to be variations of the Squarespace product. This item is a “Box Frame, EMA 200gsm Fine Art Print, Mount / Matted, Perspex Glaze, 30x30cm/12×12.”

Prodigi product-editing screen

Prodigi’s editor permits placement and alignment.

Finally, the seller completes the finishing touches, such as a product mockup and description, back in Squarespace since the Prodigi to Squarespace integration is not automatic.

Squarespace screen of the product, description, and artwork

The merchant adds the product’s description and artwork to Squarespace, but Prodigi will automatically fulfill orders.

Print-on-demand

The steps — source art, select product, upload art — are similar for nearly every print-on-demand service. There are many other suppliers beyond Printful and Prodigi. Examples include Gooten, Gelato, and Sellfy.

Each supplier has strengths and weaknesses and different levels of integration with a given ecommerce platform. Prodigi’s fulfillment integrates with Squarespace, for example, but not necessarily for other platforms.

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Jan 31 2025
New Ecommerce Tools: January 30, 2025

Every week we publish a list of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce merchants. This installment includes updates on automated marketing, social commerce, product reviews, AI-powered shopping agents, value-added tax, drone deliveries, and more.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

TikTok Shop U.K. introduces automated ad campaigns for sellers. TikTok Shop U.K. has launched GMV Max, an AI-powered campaign management tool that maximizes sellers’ gross merchandise value. Available for products and live shopping sessions, GMV Max automates campaign creation — audience targeting, bidding, creative — to optimize results. Sellers can choose a performance target.

Web page for TikTok GMV Max

TikTok Shop: GMV Max

Wix partners with YouTube on social shopping. Wix has integrated with YouTube Shopping, enabling merchants to sell products directly through the video platform. Merchants can display their products in a store format directly on their YouTube profiles and tag products in videos, live streams, and shorts. Merchants can track performance using YouTube’s analytics tools. Product details such as descriptions and images automatically sync between Wix and YouTube.

Test Squared connects sellers with product testers. Test Squared has launched its platform to help sellers generate product reviews quickly and ethically. The platform connects businesses with verified product testers to gather authentic feedback, offering sellers a way to build trust and increase product visibility while ensuring compliance with review regulations.

OpenAI introduces Operator with shopping agents. OpenAI has released Operator⁠, an agent that can perform online tasks, including shopping. Using its own browser, Operator can interact with a web page by typing, clicking, scrolling, and executing browser tasks such as filling out forms and ordering groceries. As part of the release, OpenAI is collaborating with companies such as DoorDash, Instacart, OpenTable, Priceline, StubHub, Thumbtack, and Uber.

Web page for OpenAI Operator

OpenAI Operator

Amazon Ads launches Brand+ to leverage shopping, browsing, streaming. Amazon Ads is launching Brand+, which combines data from shopping, browsing, and streaming across the company’s total footprint. The data-powered offering seeks to predict consumers looking for a brand’s product or service within the next three months. Marketers can use Brand+ to deliver messages on (i) video streaming platforms such as Prime Video and Twitch, (ii) video publishers such as BuzzFeed and Fox, and (iii) the streaming marketplace with Fire TV.

Meta introduces ads in Threads. Businesses can extend their existing Meta ad campaigns to Threads by checking a box in Ads Manager. During early testing, ads in the Threads feed will be images that appear between content in the Threads home feed for a small percentage of users. Meta will also give users control over the ads they see.

Klaviyo to be the preferred marketing solution for WooCommerce. Klaviyo, a marketing automation platform, has been named the preferred marketing automation partner for the WooCommerce WordPress plugin. Klaviyo says more than 15,000 brands use its WooCommerce integration to gather and unify real-time data. The consolidated data allows brands to create and manage personalized omnichannel marketing campaigns, streamline product reviews, and improve performance through actionable insights.

Home page of Klaviyo

Klaviyo

Amazon unveils location of first drone delivery in the U.K. In 2023, Amazon announced plans to launch drone deliveries in the U.K. It has now identified the northern city of Darlington as the location of the first planned U.K. Prime Air drone delivery. Amazon will seek permission to build flight operations facilities at the site and apply for authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly drones in the airspace.

eBay U.K. helps sellers with value-added tax. eBay U.K. is running a trial program to help merchants manage value-added tax. Merchants who sell goods in any E.U. country or the U.K. may be required to collect and remit VAT on sales. The eBay trial program enables sellers to automatically download VAT invoices while providing buyers with accessible VAT receipts — all from the view order details page.

PriceSpider launches an API to customize ecommerce shopping and analytics. PriceSpider, a provider of omnichannel selling tools, has launched API Accelerate Suite, featuring two integrations, Custom Commerce and Data Share. Custom Commerce enables brands to access PriceSpider’s omnichannel data to power personalized user experiences across brand-owned media. Data Share provides access to PriceSpider’s data, powered by Snowflake, to track product performance, shopper engagement, and sales.

Ad management platform Shirofune integrates LinkedIn Ads. Shirofune, a Japan-based advertising automation tool, has integrated with LinkedIn Ads. The integration allows advertisers to manage LinkedIn campaigns alongside other ad platforms, including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Pinterest, TikTok, X, BigCommerce, and Shopify. Shirofune’s AI-powered platform automates budget allocation and bid adjustments on LinkedIn. It also features enhanced targeting capabilities with automated audience segmentation and performance tracking.

Home page of Shirofune

Shirofune

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Jan 30 2025
Google Launches AI Phone Assistant To Call Businesses For You via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has launched a new tool called “Ask For Me” that uses AI to help you make phone calls to local businesses.

“Ask For Me” is designed to streamline the process of calling multiple businesses to compare quotes and schedule appointments.

This feature is being rolled out first for auto repair shops and nail salons, and following this initial experiment, it may expand to other businesses.

“Ask For Me” is available to people in the United States who opt-in via Google’s Seach Labs.

How “Ask For Me” Works

If you’re located in the US, you can opt-in via the landing page.

Here’s what it looks like:

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

Clicking the toggle button will activate the “Try it out” button.

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

Clicking “Try it out” will send you to a list of example queries to try.

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

You can also manually enter queries like “oil change near me” or “nail salons nearby,” and look for the “Ask For Me” option.

Then, you’ll see a “Get Started” button, which prompts you to provide more details about your desired service.

Google’s AI will call local businesses on your behalf and summarize the results. This saves time by combining service quotes and scheduling options in one place.

Pilot Program

The pilot program focuses on auto services and nail salons. You can search for an oil change or a nail appointment, enter your preferences, and let Google handle the calls.

This feature uses the same technology as Google Duplex, which helps with restaurant reservations and updating business listings on Search and Maps.

Opt-Out Option

The “Ask For Me” feature is still in the testing phase, so it may not be available to everyone.

Businesses can choose not to receive automated calls if they prefer. Participating businesses will be informed about automated calls.

AI Data and Privacy Considerations

Like other AI tools, Google monitors and tracks how you use it. This includes your feedback, queries, and other engagement data.

Google says it uses human reviewers to check the quality of its AI-generated results.

All automated calls and data collection are explained to the person who receives the call.

What’s Next?

After opting in through Search Labs, search for “oil change near me” to test it out. You might get placed on a waitlist due to limited capacity, but once approved, you can experience how AI handles calls.

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Jan 30 2025
DeepSeek Terms Make Users Liable for Company’s Travel Expenses via @sejournal, @martinibuster

DeepSeek’s terms of use contain requirements that may make users reconsider using the app, as they could shift the balance between benefits and perceived risks by imposing significant financial obligations. One such requirement makes users liable for travel and litigation expenses if they violate the terms and the violation results in legal action.

Terms Of Use

Nobody reads the terms of use and sometimes businesses will have fun with that by burying Easter eggs in the terms to see how long it takes before someone notices. For example, Amazon used to have an acceptable use policy for a game engine they distributed that said they don’t apply in the event of an actual zombie apocalypse.

Here’s an excerpt from an archived Amazon TOS Easter egg:

“However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”

But the terms of use published by DeepSeek in section 7.2 are no joke and users of the service and app should consider reading the them.

Users Liable For DeepSeek Travel Expenses

The section has three parts that are fairly standard.

The first part establishes their right to “independently” make decisions about moderating the use of their services including taking “measures against you.” Again, this is fairly standard.

“In response to your violation of these Terms or other service terms, DeepSeek reserves the right to independently judge and take measures against you, including issuing warnings, setting deadlines for correction, restricting account functions, suspending usage, closing accounts, prohibiting re-registration, deleting relevant content, etc., without the need for prior notification. We have the right to announce the results of the actions taken and, based on the actual circumstances, decide whether to restore usage.”

The second part affirms their right to keep records of activities that may violate laws or regulations and turn them over to the “competent authorities.”

“For behaviors suspected of violating laws and regulations or involving illegal activities, relevant records will be retained, and reports will be made to the competent authorities in accordance with the law, cooperating with their investigations.”

The following part shifts a load of legal liabilities on users, including travel expenses and the costs for collecting evidence and for paying fines.

It reads:

“You shall be solely responsible for any legal liabilities, claims, demands, or losses asserted by third parties resulting therefrom, and you shall compensate us for any losses incurred, including litigation fees, arbitration fees, attorney fees, notary fees, announcement fees, appraisal fees, travel expenses, investigation and evidence collection fees, compensation, liquidated damages, settlement costs, and administrative fines incurred in protecting our rights.”

DeepSeek Terms Do Not Override Consumer Legal Protections

A key point about DeepSeek’s terms of use is that there’s a section that says a consumer’s legal rights cannot be changed or taken away by agreeing to the terms of use. So any laws that protect a consumer cannot be overridden by agreeing to the terms of use.

DeepSeek’s terms affirms those legal rights:

“Nothing in these terms shall affect any statutory rights that you cannot contractually agree to alter or waive and are legally always entitled to as a consumer.”

Should You Delete The DeepSeek App?

I recently was messaging with friends who are a part of the digital marketing industry and they mentioned that they had downloaded the DeepSeek app because it’s a part of their business to be aware of the latest technologies. I showed them the above terms of use and one of my friends commented that this specific section went far beyond what they were comfortable with. Another friend in that conversation also decided to immediately deleted the app.

Terms of use are fairly comprehensive in what they cover, and it’s not unusual for companies to use them to shield themselves from legal consequences. However, because the company is based in China, where information control, censorship, and data transparency issues are well-documented, some may be more cautious, while others may see the benefits as outweighing any perceived risks.

Read the DeepSeek terms of use here.

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Jan 30 2025
Google To Migrate All reCAPTCHA Services To Cloud Platform via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google is informing users that its reCAPTCHA service will migrate to Google Cloud by the end of the year.

An email states that all existing reCAPTCHA keys must be moved to Google Cloud projects.

WordPress developer Jeff Starr shared a screenshot of the email that was sent out.

Why Is Google Doing This?

Google says this move aims to bring all reCAPTCHA customers under one set of terms and pricing.

Additionally, Google wants to give developers access to new security features.

After the migration, you can immediately use dashboards in Google Cloud for analytics, monitoring, logging, and auditing.

Phased Rollout

The transition will occur in stages throughout the year.

You can expect to receive periodic email updates notifying you when existing keys are eligible for migration.

At that time, Google will automatically create a corresponding Google Cloud project and link the keys.

To avoid interruptions, Google recommends taking action early. You can proactively migrate keys from reCAPTCHA Classic to the Google Cloud environment by following the company’s guidelines.

For a visual guide on migrating your reCAPTCHA keys, you can refer to the following video:

What It Means For Businesses & Developers

  • Deadline: Complete all migrations by the end of 2025.
  • Pricing Model: reCAPTCHA will be free up to 10,000 assessments per month.
  • Enhanced Security: You will get better security and management tools with the new Google Cloud setup.
  • Action Required: If you use reCAPTCHA, start the migration process now to ensure a smooth transition and keep your protection against spam and abuse.

Tessa Hudson, Software Engineer at Google, confirms any usage below 10,000 assessments per month will remain free.

A post on the Google Cloud Community forums reads:

“There is no fee for migrating the key, however, your monthly usage may qualify for reCAPTCHA Standard or Enterprise. You will only be charged once you have reached 10,000 assessments each month. Any usage below this amount will remain free. If you have not set up billing on the Google Cloud project, you will receive an email at 10,000 assessments notifying you that your free assessments for the month have been used up and you will not receive reCAPTCHA scores for that key until the next month unless you enable billing.

The email you received should include your average usage for the past 3 months. You can input that number into this pricing calculator to get an idea of how much you will pay monthly if your usage stays the same. For more details on the different pricing tiers, please see our pricing table.

You can read more about how reCAPTCHA billing works here.”

Looking Ahead

If you want to keep using reCAPTCHA after this year, it’s important to plan ahead and move to the new system.

This will help avoid disruptions and allow you to take advantage of new security features.

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