This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss the mainstreaming of Flock, media appearances, and Spotify's AI move.

EMANUEL: The news that Spotify will start tagging artists on its platform as being AI generated, and that it will not promote them, might be a sign that we’re approaching peak AI slop. What that moment looks like, to me, is not about the sheer quantity of AI generated content in the world, but about the tipping point where people and more importantly platforms, start rejecting that content algorithmically. Platforms could do this by attempting to detect and limit the spread of that content, and people will do it organically by expressing their preferences with clicks, time on page, and other signals that inform the algorithm.

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Flock blogging, "rare" books, and Jesus Christ.

EMANUEL: I was out last Friday so I want to talk about the story I published two weeks ago about AI companies buying printed books so they can scan them for training data. 

The story has gone mega viral on X, but mostly in the form of a post from an engagement farming account that both misrepresented my article and didn’t properly link back to our website. This is frustrating because it means a lot of other people siphoned traffic from our site and also because it caused a fair bit of confusion about what is happening. 

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss going into the woods, a "he admit it" moment, and a tofu sandwich.

JOSEPH: Thank you to everyone who came to Thursday’s FOIA Forum. It was a great turnout with a ton of really good questions. We spoke mostly about mining city council meetings for tips or context you can then use to fuel your public records requests. I’ll upload the video soon and put it on the site for everyone to watch.

The other 404 Media co-founders have been writing in Behind The Blog about disconnecting recently. I’m doing something related to that shortly: going to an Airbnb in the woods to do a makeshift ‘silent retreat’.