#platform-monetization

#platform-monetization

Apple and Google have made millions of dollars from AI apps that let users undress people even as both companies claim to ban such software from their stores, according to a new study. Researchers with the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project found 55 such apps in Google's Play store and 47 in Apple's App Store. All told, those apps were downloaded 705 million times and have generated $117 million in revenue, they say.

Social media, for many people, can be a way to stay in touch with friends, an ego exercise, or a vehicle to argue with strangers. But for some especially focused users, it can be a side hustle with income potential. Converting your feed into something that generates cash isn't the easiest side hustle-and it takes time. But if you can build a large enough following, it can be a lucrative side business.

Sometimes a term is so apt, its meaning so clear and so relevant to our circumstances, that it becomes more than just a useful buzzword and grows to define an entire moment," the columnist Kyle Chayka writes, in a review of Cory Doctorow's book "Enshittification.

The cost of making high-quality media is collapsing. The cost of getting anyone to care about it is not. As generative A.I. turns production into a near-commodity, cultural power is shifting from studios and galleries to the platforms that allocate attention and the algorithms that determine who gets paid. The new patrons are not moguls with checkbooks; they are recommendation systems tuned for engagement and brand safety.