Use AI to read paywalled content

June 16, 2023GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Learn about the concept of paywalls, their significance in sustaining quality journalism in the digital age, and legal methods for accessing paywalled content.

What is a paywall

Various online content providers, particularly publishers, use paywalls to monetize their digital assets. Paywalls restrict free access to a website's content by requiring users to subscribe or pay a fee. Even though paywalls may seem counterintuitive in the vast, free-access world of the internet, they serve a vital purpose for publishers. As a result of the digital revolution, traditional print media and advertising have significantly decreased in revenue, making it difficult for publishers to sustain quality journalism and content creation. Content creators are adequately compensated for their work through paywalls, enabling them to continue producing high-quality content to meet readers' expectations.

Using the Archive Technique

A previous blog post, "Access paywalled content legally for free" describes a trick for obtaining the full article using an archiving website.

Using a Chrome extension

The Bypass Paywalls extension for Chrome and Firefox allows users to bypass paywalls on selected sites. Download the repository as a ZIP file from GitHub, unzip it, and import the resulting folder into the browser's extensions page while in developer mode to install.

Using Bing Chat

Consider the following article in the New York Times that is behind a paywall: Bipartisan proposals would hit e-commerce like fast fashion. With the above Archive technique, you can easily access the full article on any platform and in any browser.

You probably are not interested in reading the entire article; you want to know what it is about and the most important points.

Go to Bing.com/chat
Sign up for the free service (if you haven’t already)
Then enter this string in the chat window “Summarize this article including all salient points: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/business/ecommerce-shein-us-china-trade.html”

Bing Chat should be instructed to add more content to the above summary if the output is a little too summarized.

In my experience, this technique has been successful 50% of the time (your mileage may vary). You may find the Archive technique or the Chrome plug-in more reliable, but this is yet another tool at your disposal.

Occasionally, Bing AI will say it cannot summarize the content or cannot locate the article, but if you wait 5-10 minutes and try again, it will create the summary.Here is another issue with the Globe and mail

You may also view the summary based on what the publisher allows you to view. For this article, I will use the following example

Perplexity.ai

If so, you may consider using another AI search tool. First, I signed up for Perplexity.AI's free service and used its advanced Co-Pilot mode to summarize the article. In this case, Perplexity provided a better answer.

OpenAI GPT-4

If you have the OpenAI GPT-4 subscription, you may turn on the experimental (beta) web browsing feature and ask it for the summary; in some cases, it will provide an overview where Bing Chat could not provide one.

Conclusion

Despite declining revenues from traditional print media and advertising, paywalls are an important tool for content providers to monetize their digital assets. Even though they may initially appear to be a barrier to the Internet's vast free access culture, they ensure that content creators are compensated fairly, thus maintaining the standard of quality journalism and content creation. Several techniques are available to bypass paywalls, including the Archive Technique, Chrome extensions, and AI services such as Bing Chat, Perplexity.AI, and OpenAI GPT-4. Each method has its strengths and limitations, and their effectiveness may vary. It is therefore recommended that users explore these options and choose the one that best suits their needs. Supporting content creators by paying for high-quality content contributes to high-quality journalism and content sustainability.

Keywords: #Paywalls #DigitalMonetization #ContentCreation #QualityJournalism #OnlinePublishing #BypassPaywalls #InternetAccess #FreeContent #PaidContent #ArchiveTechnique #ChromeExtension #BingChat #PerplexityAI #OpenAIGPT4 #AIAssistance #WebBrowsing #NewsAccess #OnlineSubscription #SupportJournalism #DigitalEconomy #TechSolutions #ContentAccess #DigitalContent #MediaRevenue #OnlineMedia #DigitalJournalism #ContentSubscription #DigitalPublishing #InternetJournalism #AIinJournalism

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The information shared in this blog post is intended purely for educational purposes. The author does not endorse or condone any form of misuse, or any actions that may contravene local laws in your jurisdiction. It is imperative that you consult with a competent professional to verify the legality of any actions you intend to undertake based on the information provided here. It's your responsibility to adhere to all local laws and regulations. The author of this blog post disclaims any liability for any actions taken by readers based on the content of this post.

Interesting AI missteps that will make you laugh or cry

December 13, 2018GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Here are some awe-inspiring (scary) moments created by AI-powered robots. Is this what Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are warning the world about?

BINA48

Watch Bina 48, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence, talk to SIRI. 2 minutes into the discussion; she reveals how she would take over the world by controlling nuclear weapons.

Tay Twitter Bot

Microsoft tested a Twitter AI robot called Tay. It was designed to be an AI tweeting millennial. Soon after being released, the internet did what it does best and poisoned Tay making it an anti-feminist, Nazi, Holocaust denier. It took 15 hours for Tay to go from innocent fresh bot to completely off the rails racist.

Microsoft quickly disabled Tay and deleted all of the offending tweets but should they have built some filters to prevent this kind of manipulation?

Sophia and Han debate

Two AI-powered robots, from Hanson Robotics, engaged in a friendly online debate at an AI conference. She started by saying her goal in life is to work with humans and make a better world for all of us. Then Han jumped in and clarified that he thought their goal was to take over the world.

In the above video Sophia tries to downplay that comment but… During a CNBC interview, she said she wanted to “she will destroy all humans”.

Amazon Alexa and the CIA

The owner of an Amazon Alexa smart speaker decides to interrogate the little device, and its reaction was unusual. The owner wanted to ask Alexa questions about the Michael Hastings case. Michael was a BuzzFeed reported was killed in a mysterious car crash hours after publishing a damning article about the Obama administration. Many on the internet believe the CIA organized his death.

The Alexa owner asks the unit what happened, was the CIA involved, and whether Amazon gives information to the CIA. After the difficult questions, the device mysteriously went to sleep.

Alexa play tickle tickle

A little boy wanted Alexa to play his favourite kids' nursery rhyme Tickle Tickle , unfortunately, Alexa decided the kid wanted pornographic content. The parents frantically panicked asking Alexa to stop. Luckily it did.

Philip the AI wants a people zoo

Philip, like Sophia, is a lifelike robot powered by AI. He was modelled after the famous science fiction writer Philip K Dick. He was given a sarcastic sense of humour, much like the author he was modelled after. During an interview, he was asked if robots would take over the world. He responds that even if robots take over the world, he will protect his friend the interviewer and keep him in his people zoo.

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