Digital Digest #39 - ChatGPT challenged, TikTok's campaign backfires, Gen Z search behaviors

Welcome to this week's edition of Digital Digest!

In this week's edition: TikTok's public affairs campaign appears to backfire, LinkedIn bucks the trend and leans in to mainstream news sharing on its platform, a study reveals that Gen Z - believe it or not - are not homogenous in their search behavior, and the New York Times uncovers a network of Russian propaganda sites masquerading as local news. But first, there's a new AI chatbot on the market and early reviews suggest it may give ChatGPT's performance a run for its money.

1. New chatbot gives ChatGPT a run for its money

Anthropic announced Claude 3, a new chatbot that the company says outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 model across a variety of benchmarks. (CNBC)

• Why it matters: GPT-4 (used by the paid version of ChatGPT) has for some time now held top spot for performance across most benchmarks. One notable area where Claude 3 claims primacy is graduate-level reasoning, which suggests it may perform better with complex queries.

Also:

• A new study from IBM found images created by Adobe's generative AI tool Firefly outperformed non-AI generated ads. (Axios)
• Anthropic’s Claude 3 causes stir by seeming to realize when it was being tested. Gulp. (Ars Technica)
• Ads are coming to chatbots. Because once again, it seems, we can't have nice things. (Axios)

2. TikTok's anti-ban campaign backfires

TikTok launched a campaign against potential legislation aimed at tackling concerns over national security in relation to the popular platform, leading to lawmakers' phones ringing off the hook. However, widespread coverage suggested that the campaign may have backfired, with legislators expressing their annoyance at the tactic. (Semafor, Politico, Axios, Gizmodo, Business Insider)

• Why it matters: The proposed legislation is materially important to TikTok as it aims to force its divestiture by parent company Bytedance, with a failure to do so leading to a ban of the app, so it's not surprising that the company pushed back.
• The call-to-action of the campaign - to call your local legislator and express your opinion - seemed fairly straight-down-the-middle in terms of political advocacy campaigns (albeit radically supercharged by TikTok's choice to use its app as a vehicle for the campaign). However, it drew surprisingly public backlash from lawmakers. Why? A cynic might suggest some less-than-savory conclusions, but it was apparent that the tactic fell into the trap of supporting their narratives that a platform owned by a geopolitical adversary wields an inappropriate level of influence with the US population.

3. LinkedIn leans in to news

As Facebook and X (Twitter) continue to have a mixed (at best) relationship with mainstream news, LinkedIn is leaning into the space, partnering with over 400 publishers. (Axios)

• Why it matters: While traffic to news sites from the other networks craters, traffic from LinkedIn is slowly ticking up (albeit still much lower).

4. Search behaviors of Gen Z

While the headlines about Gen Z turning to TikTok for search continue to flow, a study from Insider Intelligence shows that the true picture isn't that simple. (Insider Intelligence)

• Why it matters: TikTok gets the headlines, but there are lots of other channels in the mix, including YouTube which is preferred for more in-depth searches.

5. Disinformation via fake local news sites

A number of local news sites have appeared in the U.S. in recent weeks - Chicago Chronicle, New York News Daily are two examples. However, these sites are not really "local news sites" at all - they are created as part of a Russian attempt to influence discourse in the U.S., and amidst coverage of real events they're interspersing Russian propaganda and divisive content. In fact, the purpose of these sites isn't even to actually draw people into reading the sites widely - it is primarily to give the veil of legitimacy to the propaganda when it is shared through social media platforms. (New York Times)

• Why it matters: This isn't a new tactic by any means - for example, last year the French government revealed an information manipulation campaign against France by Russian operatives - and everyone is already expecting Russia to do its utmost to influence the upcoming U.S. election, with undermining support for Ukraine a key objective. This campaign signals that that work may be beginning.

Have a great week!

Dave