I think there’s a third big thing: really good UX. I don’t have an Android phone, so I don’t know about Jerboa, but the web interface … could use some work. I know the bug with new posts pushing the feed down is on track to be fixed soon, but wow, it can be really quite bad. iOS apps are getting way better quickly, too, but overall they’re nascent.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but additionally, I think the ranking algorithm(s) could use some work. I can see there’s tons of content, if I sort by new, but sorting by active results in stale posts, and sorting by hot doesn’t seem to quite hit the sweet spot on tenured/good quality content vs. newness. The recent ranking bug(s) haven’t helped matters there either.
Personally: I’m skeptical the status quo changes much. The “pre-AI” world was not exactly filled to the brim with shining truth. Propaganda, dishonest arguing, and just plain ignorance have existed for a long time. True, generative AI appears to be great at fabricating stuff, so verifying sources is arguably more important than ever.
Thinking about it, I guess deepfakes are more concerning to me than the textual stuff. I don’t follow the state of the art there, but what few I do run across (e.g. fake phone calls “from” famous people) does seem… concerning. It’s not quite good enough to be convincing yet, but if it were a perfect replication, recordings would be suspect. (On the other hand, audio recordings haven’t existed for all of recorded history, so maybe it’s not quite the end of the world, I dunno.)
Anyway, anyone want to take bets on how poorly this comment ages? 😛