#Data Crawling Companies

[actowiz-123]

Actowiz Solutions: Pioneers in Web Scraping and Data Crawling Services in the USA

In an age where data reigns supreme, businesses, researchers, and organizations across the United States are constantly seeking innovative ways to gain a competitive edge. One such way is through web scraping and data crawling services, and Actowiz Solutions has emerged as a leader in this field, providing top-notch services to clients nationwide. In this blog post, we will explore Actowiz Solutions and how they have earned their reputation as a top data crawling and web scraping service company in USA.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Google is now the only search engine that can surface results from Reddit, making one of the web’s most valuable repositories of user generated content exclusive to the internet’s already dominant search engine. If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where the links go or why, instead only saying that “We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.” Older results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer able to “crawl” Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward. Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid search engine that buys part of its search index from Google. The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its search results. And while neither Reddit or Google responded to a request for comment, it appears that the exclusion of other search engines is the result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products.

July 24 2024

[tinystepsforward]

What do you think the chances are that Mud Pit is gonna be ousted by the people who need Automattic to have good will in the eyes of the community to actually get anything out of this site and wattpad

I know it’s probably low but the fact that he’s acting like a poorer Elon Musk is making my skin crawl and making me hope that a second lawsuit hits the company

ok here's the thing. he is meant to be on sabbatical. automattic gives employees a three-month paid sabbatical every 5 years, so that they can have a break from the product they work on and come back rested and with a new perspective.

matt has never taken one before now. he spent the entire leadup to his sabbatical posting increasingly wild shit in public channels at the company (like the chess thing, or trying to get people to buy a friend's product, or the entire fracas with taking over the wordpress.org twitter account. wordpress.org is an independent non-profit that he is not the ceo of).

i mention this because people were hoping (including me) that he really would actually log off, have a chill time (or, idk, whatever kind of time CEOs who go off the grid bc they got flooded in at burning man like to have), and let the interim CEO get a chance to do a better job. that would help the board make a decision based on data.

he was very clearly spiraling before he even left, and then within the first few days of Company Sanctioned Log Off Time he's pulled multiple Classic Matt things on multiple parts of the company before showing up here. this whole thing is so deeply unfunny but it also is a bit of a tom and jerry or looney tunes bit, where i can only imagine HR or Legal is chasing him around the various accounts/platforms with a comically large inflatable baseball bat and he's just evading them.

he can't do that in person, but he still gets a lot of leeway generally. at the last division meetup (irl meeting for employees, flown from all over the world) he showed up twitchy and exhausted and hyped in a way that was very familiar to me from flatmates who used to steal and snort my adhd medication, then proceeded to drink so much over the course of an evening answering questions from his employees that he had to be firmly babysat off the stage and walked back into the lobby of the hotel to sober up.

i made eye contact with him that night, before he dropped his head back into his hands. two people relatively high up in the company were sitting with him, silently watching him as he struggled to sober up. it wasn't the first drunk shenanigan of his i witnessed at one of these, and this is purely opinion but i have to assume that his current behavior is the result of suddenly having time on his hands to have the world's longest bender and post through it.

back to your question: i do not know if what he's done is enough to get the board to remove him. i wish it didn't have to come to this to hope that they will. but we'll find out.

[dcxdpdabbles]

Danny's Grill Part 2

Special thanks to @mkarchin713 for letting me use their idea.

Tim's night had been hectic.

Not only have things at WE taken a turn for the worst due to some random influencer that decided Wayne Enterprises was the cause of global warming and convinced all his fans of the same- despite the fact they were the nation's leading company in green energy- sales have been down.

The board was breathing down his neck to fix the stocks while being no help at all to get the youth back on their side. He's already pulled twelve hours of overtime this week and it was only Wednesday.

He's been dealing with the PR nightmare while trying to get to the bottom of data theft across multiple big-name technology companies. Reports of scams and total funds lost were reported all through Gotham and only his city.

Tim suspects someone had been planting screen recording devices in one of Gotham's shipping factories before they left the buildings, stealing all the information from new buyers.

Since his theory is so hard to trace, he's been having difficulty pinpointing the base of operations, never mind having enough proof for his thesis. After Bruce's lost-in-time fiasco, Tim learns to have evidence before going to the family with anything.

So that means he's been trying to fight his way on his own, which usually isn't too much to handle, but stress and lack of sleep have really been slowing him down.

Thankfully, a specific food truck appears in his line of sight, and his mood improves drastically. He finds a safe roof to quickly change into his civilians, already fantasizing about what delicious food he would eat.

Dressed in his typical Alvin Draper disguise- black, almost second-skin tights and an oversized sweater- he all but skips to Danny's Grill.

"Night, Danny," He says, smiling at the back of the chef. He leans on the little extended table outside the truck's small window. He takes a sniff of the air, mouth watering at the scent.

Looks like tonight is cheeseburgers, as Danny carefully flips some patties. Danny whirls around with a smile of his own, only to drop the spatula in horror.

"Alvin! What happened!?" Danny shouts, nearly flinging himself through the tiny opening. The vigilante blinks in confusion before catching his reflection in the napkin dispenser.

In his haste to have some of Danny's food, he forgot to cover up a black eye, swollen right cheekbone, and busted lip from his last faulty lead. A goon had gotten him by surprise and had nearly rearranged his face before he was able to get his wits about him.

"Nothing, really; it comes with the job, you know?" Tim tries to play off, laughing nervously when Danny's expression crumbles into pure rage. "Look, it's no big deal-"

"How can it not be a big deal!? Half your face is swollen!"

That happens when someone hits you with a metal pipe in the face. He thinks hysterically. "I've had worse."

"That's not comforting!" Danny screams, throwing off his apron. "Let me close down, and I'll take you to a doctor-"

"No hospitals. They'll ask where I got this, and I can't answer that." Tim cuts in, voice hard. There is a tense moment where he thinks Danny will force him to go anyway, but after a moment the other man growls slamming his hands on the counter.

"Fine. Fine. No hospitals. At least let me ice it." It takes everything in Tim not to shrink back from the hateful tone. He barely has the mind to nod as Danny quickly unlocks the little door that leads into his truck, ushering the Bat inside with barely controlled rage.

He knows it's not aimed at him, but being around someone so upset makes his skin crawl. Tim has problems with offending people; his parents had been masters in drilling into him from a young age.

That's why Tim always sought the approval of everyone around him, even if he couldn't stand the person.

He has been working on it, but old habits died hard.

"Sorry." He mumbles as Danny quickly gets a zippy bag full of ice.

"Don't. Apologize." Danny bites before taking a large breath, clearly trying to calm down. He gently places the ice against Tim's cheek, staring at him with such tender worry Tim can't help but feel butterflies. "You don't have to apologize for getting roughed up. Never. Okay?"

Tim nods, shyly looking away as his stomach is rapidly overrun by even more butterflies. "Okay."

"Come home with me." Danny suddenly blurts as if the words were forced out of him. He looked just as surprised by them as Tim was.

"What?"

"Just for tonight. Just so I know you're safe." Danny all but pleas, and Tim- well, Tim has never been known to be strong enough to resist his impulses. Sure, the family might worry, but he can send them a message claiming to be undercover, and frankly- it's been so long since Tim's had a break.

He's always wanted to know more about Danny outside his food truck. He hadn't been able to find much on him. Tim is a detective by heart. He wants to know everything there is to know about Danny Fenton.

"I can leave when I want." He says, as Danny carefully places a warm hand on his other cheek. "And I sleep in my own space. No bed sharing. I also want to take a shower but I don't have anything to sleep in."

"You can borrow something of mine/ Whatever you need." The words are practically a warm hug, and Tim feels relaxed. Already the shitty week feels less terrible, and he finds himself growing bold enough to take an obvious sniff of the air.

"Can I have a burger?"

There is a hint of an amused smile, but it does not cover up the worry. "Of course you can."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shower is running in Danny's house.

It's a bit out of the way, about a forty-minute drive outside of Gotham limits, but it's spacious and private, just the way Danny liked it.

Ever since he inherited his title, he's found this house on the list of properties, and that was why he chose to take Gotham by storm in his little truck.

Danny isn't really sure what the story of the property was- the suspects the place was built around the same time Gotham got its curse; seeing as it was overseeing the city and had enough natural ectoplasm in the air, he would suspect the curse affecting the town lead to here. He never cared to check.

No, rather Danny had some ghosts remodel the old building to include wiring and functioning plumbing but asked that the general overall of the mansion stay the same.

He sort of like pretending to be a Lord of the Oldden days. If anyone asked if he walked around acting out old romances of the Victorian era, that was not else business but his own.

Alvin was undoubtedly impressed when they pulled up to his house. Maybe it shouldn't have felt so prideful to have the handsome man be impressed with his mansion given the circumstances.

He seemed to accept the excuse of having been willed the house by his late grandfather. He just hoped Alvin didn't think him the same as his wealthy clients.

Speaking of, he better make the call before Alvin finished.

Stepping to his balcony, he pulled out his burner phone and pressed the speed dial five. There are four rings before the call connects.

He gets no greeting, but he's not expecting one. Danny looks over his shoulder to ensure the bathroom door is connected to the master room- his bedroom, where Alvin will be staying, seeing as it has a bigger fireplace. He needs to have them install a heating system. Danny never bothered, what with his ice core and all- before he spoke.

"Hey, Red Hood, it's Danny. I'm calling in that favor."

There is a long pause before the other man grunts. "What is it?"

"My friend is a pro whose pimp or johns have been abusing lately. Can you help me....take care of the issue? I don't want to overstep in his life, but I'm pretty sure they broke his check bone tonight, and he claimed to have had worse before." Danny sighs, his stomach overturning at what that could mean. He hasn't gone out as Ghost King to show those assholes a thing or two because this isn't his haunt.

It's Red Hood's.

Danny had met the other man when a rouge attack had busted up all the main highways he usually worked in and had no choice but to try to sell in Crime Alley. He was right off the territory's edge, freaking out about entering without the main ghost's permission, until Red Hood confronted him.

Danny's frantic fretting had been suspicious enough that the main honcho had gone to find out why he was so nervous.

They worked a deal where Danny would sell his ware in peace, and as long as he let kids eat for free, Red Hood had no quarrels with him. He even got a favor from the crime lord after Danny provided free meals to some of his men's families struggling to get food a few months back.

He also allowed Hood to use his house as a safe house to hide a few people who needed to be out of the city. Is he part of Red Hood's gang? No.

Is he an alley? Yes.

Danny had been saving the favor for such an occasion.

There is silence on Hood's side, so Danny goes in for the kill. "My friend is seventeen; in a few months, he'll be eighteen, but he said he has been doing this since he was younger."

The silence is now laced with malice. If there was one thing they both agreed on it was that kids were never meant to be hurt by the scum of the city. "Give me his name and the area he usually works in."

"Alvin Draper. He changes per night, but I've often seen him on the east side of Crime Alley."

"I'll look into it. Is Alvin safe?"

"Yeah, he's going to be staying with me tonight. Don't come by until I convince him to extend his stay." Danny knows Hood will understand. This is one of many pros to see the Zone- his mansion's name- as a sanctuary.

"That's fine. Can you get me a picture of Alvin?"

"No, he's too skimmish."

Hood grunts again, his voice coming out tired despite the voice monitor. "Kids always are. I'll have my boys find Alvin's primp and johns. Ensure there aren't any other younglings before they make them swim with the fish."

Danny almost falls over in relief. "Thank you. Alvin...Alvin means a lot to me."

" Don't mention it. Stay well, Victorian."

Victorian is the code name Hood has given him to ensure Danny isn't tired of his gang. Yes, it's because his house is a Victorian mansion, but Danny also likes to think it's cause the other man appreciates the aesthetics of his house a little too much.

He once caught Hood admiring his Pride and Prejudice hardcover book displayed in his green sitting room.

"You too Hood. And thank you."

How would he convince Alvin that his house was a better place to call home than the orphanage and street corners without coming off as a wannabe savior or hopelessly in love creep?

Danny pauses at his own train of thought.

Hopelessly in love? He thinks in shock as the bathroom door swings open, and out comes Alvin, dressed in Danny's extra pajama set. He offers Danny a shy smile; even with the injuries, it is the loveliest sight he's ever seen, and- oh no, Danny is in love with him.

"You up for a late-night snack?" He asks, trying to not show the world-shattering realization on his face, and Alvin's smile grows wider.

"You're going to make me fat." The other laughs. Danny's heart skips a beat.

Danny Fenton loves Alvin Draper and will do everything he can to protect him. Even if Alvin will hate him for it.

[lavenderfilledcoffin]

quo vadis

latin

where are you going?

tags: depiction of mutilation, gore—sebastian basically kills you but in a disturbing way, all in all—dont read if you have a sensitive heart.

•*¨*•.¸¸♪✧•*¨*•.¸¸

“Do you think we’re soulmates in every universe?” You absentmindedly asked, staring at the ceiling that was adorned in paper stars.

Oh, how you loved those stars.

You enjoyed stargazing before your life went to shit, it was an everyday ritual of yours.

It was a pleasant surprise when Sebastian told you to cover your eyes and lay down on the cold floor.

“Just trust me, lay down.” You could hear a smile in his voice, so you chose to trust him.

You settled into a comfortable position, letting your body relax.

“Open your eyes now.” And you did. The ceiling was filled with all sorts of stars that were made with paper and pencil.

“You… remembered?”

“Of course I did.” He laid down next to you, rolling his tail up so that it wouldn’t be in your way.

“In every universe? Of course! I don’t see it any other way.” He interlocked his fingers with yours. No matter how many times he does it, it still makes your face heat up.

“Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.”

You smile at the reassurance, closing your eyes and letting yourself fall into a peaceful slumber.

Sebastian didn’t notice it until he heard soft snores next to him.

“You’re hopeless, I love you.” Sebastian whispered before reaching his free hand up to his lure, flicking it down to let the room be consumed in darkness.

When you awoke, Sebastian was nowhere to be seen. There was a mild ache in your back from sleeping on the hard floor, but your main focus was looking for Sebastian.

After sitting up, you crawled towards the vent’s opening.

You peeked your head out, the doors were closed, and it was silent.

You knew it was a bad idea, you did, but your curiosity got the better of you.

He told you to never leave his hideout without him. He was afraid of you getting hurt.

With a slight push, you were out of the vent. The air seemed thick, thicker than when you made your way through these halls the first few times.

You decided to go to the doors that were in descending order, figuring that it would be pointless for Sebastian to go through the newer doors.

It was lonely. Sebastian wasn’t here to distract you from the horrors down here, it was scary, almost.

You shook the thoughts away, continuing on.

You found data scattered throughout the levels, how did he miss them?

You shoved as many vials and usb sticks into your pockets as you could since you didn’t bring a bag.

Shit.

You had no proper protection.

Oh, well. At least the creatures down here could be easily countered.

You passed through at least seven doors, and yet, there was no sign of Sebastian.

You were starting to grow more and more paranoid, would it be too late to turn back?

No, keep pushing. You needed to see him.

You could hear your heartbeat in your ears, and cold sweat made your clothing cling to your body uncomfortably.

You heard quiet footsteps behind you, thank goodness Sebastian was here.

He didn’t have legs though.

You turned around with a relieved smile, but that was quickly wiped off of your face as you were met with what you assumed to be an Urbanshade guard.

Shit.

“Hands. Up.” He pointed his gun straight at your face.

Your anxiety was through the roof. You had no choice but to comply with his demand.

You held your hands up, the weight of your selfish actions could be described as a pressing weight on your chest.

“You little brat. The company knew something was up when your PDG was rendered destroyed.” He continued on, his grip on his gun tightening ever so slightly. “Don’t think we don’t know about Z-13 at door 50.“ Your eyes widened at the mention of your beloved’s code name.

“You will come with me.” He walked towards you, the gun never lowering.

Your body felt heavy. This was all your fault, wasn’t it?

The guard got behind you. He holstered his gun and grabbed your arms harshly enough to make you wince.

“Shut up.” He cuffed your wrists together. The cold metal felt uncomfortable, and the cuffs were adjusted a little too tight.

He grabbed his gun again, pointing it at your head. “Walk.”

So you did.

Thoughts were running rampant in your mind. Where was Sebastian? Was he okay? Were you going to die? Will you ever see him again?

You were trying your best to hold back tears. You felt so helpless, you hated it.

The numbers on the doors got smaller and smaller. Would it be so bad to let him kill you right then and there?

A loud yell was heard behind the two of you, the guard turned around, leaving you with an opportunity.

You kicked the guard’s legs with your dominant leg, causing him to fall on his back.

You ran.

“You little bitch, get back—“

His words were cut off, but you didn’t stop. You ran as far as you could, trying to stay balanced.

Adrenaline. That’s all that was keeping you going. You had passed through three doors, and you felt your muscles ache.

You knew you should have worked out more.

You tripped on your own feet, landing face first onto the cold, smooth, concrete floor.

Harsh winces escaped from your throat, you lifted your face up to see blood on the once greyish-white floor. It must be from your nose.

Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t get up as your hands were cuffed.

You felt so pathetic. You couldn’t save yourself.

Whatever had gotten the guard was about to get you, too.

It came into the room, ripping the door off of the hinges and coming near you.

It flipped you over, and you saw Sebastian.

He was covered in blood. He didn’t look anything like the Sebastian you knew.

The Sebastian who would hold you close at night.

The Sebastian who would company you on small scavenges.

Bloodlust was all that you saw in his eyes.

Before you could even speak, he began to attack you.

His claws dug into your chest, and he harshly pulled them out, leaving deep cuts in your chest. “Sebastian—!” You cried out, he couldn’t hear you, could he?

His head dipped down towards your arm, and he bit your bicep.

He bit your bicep.

His razor sharp teeth easily tore through your skin, hitting your bone.

The noises of your bones being crunched made you cringe. The pain wasn’t registering yet.

The flesh that once protected your arm was now being chewed by Sebastian.

Your beloved was about to eat you alive.

In a desperate attempt to make him stop, you screamed, loudly.

The high pitched noise snapped him out of it.

The darkness that clouded his eyes was now gone.

His sworn spouse.

The person he ‘married’.

Sebastian ate their flesh.

He felt nauseous.

How were you even conscious?

Sebastian’s eyes met your half-lidded ones.

Poor Sebastian.

It wasn’t his fault, right?

He didn’t mean to.

No, he just wanted to protect you.

Sebastian weakly called your name.

Your breathing was labored, your hand was weakly clutching at your chest where blood quickly seeped out of, and your head was lolling back due to the lack of strength in your body.

It felt like you were high. You could feel your body tingle, trying its best to keep you conscious.

Sebastian cradled your body in his arms, fat tears falling from all of his eyes. “[Name]… Nononono. This isn’t—happening?! Don’t go. Please. Please stay with me.”

It was hard to make out what he was saying, you couldn’t hear him properly, nor could you speak in the current state that you were in.

The pain was hitting you at full speed now.

You cried.

All you could do was weakly cry. Your body was messed up beyond comprehension, there was no way that you were going to survive this.

Every breath was agony. Every inhale felt like needles were being inserted into your chest.

Sebastian just watched. He couldn’t reverse what just happened.

He was powerless. He couldn’t save you. Not this time.

[cfiesler]

Elon Musk did not create an AI trained on your fanfiction.

Hi, AI ethicist + fanfiction expert here. (This is one of those times where I feel uniquely qualified to comment on something...)

I’m seeing this weird game of telephone about the Sudowrite AI that I think started out pretty accurate, but now has become “Elon Musk created an AI that is stealing your fanfiction” (which frankly gives him far too much credit). I can probably say more about this, but here are a few things that I want to clarify for folks, which can be boiled down to “Elon Musk has nothing to do with this” and “this is nothing new”: Elon Musk is not involved in any way with Sudowrite, as far as I can tell. Sudowrite does, however, use GPT-3, the widely-used large language model created by OpenAI, which Elon Musk co-founded. He resigned in 2018, citing a conflict of interest due to Tesla’s AI development. It wasn’t until after he left that OpenAI went from being a non-profit to a capped for-profit. Elon Musk doesn’t have anything to do with OpenAI currently (and in fact just cut off their access to Twitter data), though I can’t find anything that confirms whether or not he might have shares in the company. I would also be shocked if Elon actually contributed anything but money to the development of GPT-3.

Based on Sudowrite’s description on their FAQ, they are not collecting any training data themselves - they’re just using GPT-3 paired with their own proprietary narrative model.  And GPT-3 is trained on datasets like common crawl and webtext, which can simplistically be described as “scraping the whole internet.” Same as their DALL-E art generator. So it’s not surprising that AO3 would be in that dataset, along with everything else (e.g., Tumblr posts, blogs, news articles, all the words people write online) that doesn’t use technical means to prohibit scraping. 

OpenAI does make money now, including from companies like Sudowrite paying for access to GPT-3. And Sudowrite itself is a paid service. So yes, someone is profiting from its use (though OpenAI is capped at no more than 100% return on investment) and I think that the conversations about art (whether visual or text) being used to train these models without consent of the artist are important conversations to be having.

I think it’s possible that what OpenAI is doing is legal (i.e., not copyright infringement) for some of the same reasons that fanfiction is legal (or perhaps more accurately, for reasons that many for-profit remixes are found to be fair use), but I think whether it’s ETHICAL is a completely different question, and I’ve seen a huge amount of disagreement on this.

But the last thing I will say is that this is nothing new. GPT-3 has been around for years and it’s not even the first OpenAI product to have used content scraped from the web.

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest.

Room 1015 - Gareth

Day #23 - Up and Coming | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: E | CW: Sex | POV: Gareth | Pairing: Gareth/Di (OC) | Tags: Famous Corroded Coffin, Touring, Winding Down After The Gig, New and Exciting Love

1 Night, 4 Rooms Each is standalone, but takes place on the same hotel floor.

Eddie | Goodie | Gareth | Jeff | Steve (Bonus morning after!)

Gareth hears it on both sides, and tries to block out the sound. The last thing he wants to be thinking about is any of his bandmates, his friends, having sex while he's hopefully getting ready to do the same thing himself.

They really need to start booking rooms on different floors. But that would just make more work for Steve, so that's probably not gonna happen. They're on the bus most of the time these days, anyway. Hotels are for special days off, like tonight, because Di was coming in to meet him.

Sounds like they all made good use having rooms tonight. A clean sweep, a home run, the full monty. All of them coming home from the bar with company.

That almost never happens. It's more rare than, well, fuck, just about anything. 

But, one-by-one, they left the bar. First Eddie, but that was with Steve, so that's hardly a surprise and should really be thrown out of all present and future statistics. It's skewing the data. A done deal.

A constant. 

But then Jeff picked up a girl, then another girl kept circling the table, and Gareth couldn't exactly tell if she was trying to catch his eye, or Goodie's.

And it was Goodie she wanted to fuck, apparently.

Gareth wasn't interested anyway, but still. Way to make him feel like the last loser left behind. Goodie eventually struck up a conversation with her at the bar, and then he was gone, too. 

And that left Gareth, all alone to pay the tab that the rest of them conveniently left for him. He didn't even drink tonight, not wanting to be sloshed when Di showed up, so having to pay the entire tab was really kind of fucked.

Now, he's on the bed in his own room, waiting. Somewhat patiently. This thing between them in still pretty new, and long distance, but hot and fucking heavy. Maybe he should check with the front desk again. Make sure she's not waiting. He left very specific instructions that she was to be given a key and let up. 

When the door finally swings open, Di's standing there in a floral sundress that she immediately strips over her head, leaving her in her bra and panties, as soon as her suitcase hits the floor. 

And he's lucky. 

Very, very lucky.

She crawls up on the bed, and straddles his thighs. Pressing right down against him. He runs his hands all over her back, just wanting to touch her.

"I missed you," he says.

Her flight was delayed, and she missed the show. They were both disappointed about that, but she's here now.

"I missed you, too," Di says, rocking on his clothed dick. "I'm sorry I missed the show. I tried. Believe it or not, you can't just talk your way onto a plane with a sob story."

Gareth laughs. If anyone could, it'd be her, though. 

He wishes she'd made it, but knows it was totally out of her control. If Steve couldn't make it happen, it was impossible. That much Gareth knows. There'll be other shows. A lifetime of them, maybe.

At least they'll have tomorrow, a day off, together. It's a travel day, so they'll have to get on the bus, but he's called dibs on the back bedroom. The only bit of privacy. 

She feels good on him, and he knows they could both get off like this, have, they are that fucking horny for each other. He met his match in her, somehow. And he wants more, but has other plans first. He anchors himself, rolling them, flipping her onto her back. Settling between her thighs. 

She laughs, touching his forehead, brushing his hair back. He yanks down her panties and breathes in the smell of her, as his tongue gets to work. He didn't need to drink tonight at the bar, he'll get drunk on her.

It's his favorite thing. Always has been, always will be. 

Eating pussy. That's his gift. Well, and drumming. Equal talents, he's pretty sure. 

He loves her. 

He hasn't told her that, it's probably too soon. But he's loved her since the first night, he's quickly realizing. Love at first sight always seemed like such bullshit, even after he basically saw it happen with Eddie and Steve.

He still didn't believe.

Now, he thinks he just might.

His tongue licking upwards, then back down, delving inside her, getting her even wetter than she already is. Wanting to make her happy, wanting to make her come, over and over. 

He circles her clit with the tip of his tongue, and her breathing changes. Raggedy, as she works towards an orgasm, thighs shaking around his ears. 

She's quiet, though. Unlike whatever the fuck is happening in the room next door. Goodie ain't that good in bed. No way in hell. 

He pushes it out of his mind, focusing only on Di. She makes a breathy noise and clenches around his ears, coming. 

If he keeps it up, he might be about to stretch it into a second.

She cards her fingers through his hair, rubbing his scalp, "Gare. Now." 

He's happy right where he is, but he comes up, reluctantly, and can smell her on his upper lip in a way that makes his dick throb as he reaches for a condom, rolling it down. He expects to slide on top of her, but she's climbing on his lap, guiding herself down onto his cock. 

"Like that," she says, and he'll continue to do anything she wants, for as long as she'll let him. Forever, even. 

Chest-to-chest, she's just rolling her hips, fucking him. He hugs her close, both hands on her back, his face buried in her neck. 

She's perfect. He doesn't know how he existed before her, honestly. He knows he's got lots of shit, lots of baggage, and he's nowhere near perfect.

But he wants to keep her, keep them. 

He really, really wants to love her. 

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @corrodedcoffinfest and follow along with the fun! 🦇

[mackjlee9]

Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Male!Reader [Angst&Fluff]

Warning; typical cod violence, mentions of death, reader speaks Spanish, my cod theory for og mw2, code name is night because I'm too dumb to think of something better, reader is kind of a medic for tf-141, medical inaccuracies, kinda messy narrative/plot.

Masterlist.

Hopefully, this is good enough 😬

Ever since (M/n) joined the Task Force 141 team and met the masked man named Ghost, this recurrent nightmare has plagued his dreams, leaving him shaking, crying, and restless for the rest of the night until he felt reassured that no one was hurt.

For months, the same nightmare repeated itself.

They arrive at the site, get ambushed by the enemy, secure the data from the safe house, and get betrayed by Shepherd when the extraction team arrives.

At first, (M/n) would also be killed, along with Roach and Ghost, the bullet wound feeling like a grace when their bodies were set on fire, leaving them there while he hears Price's voice through the communication device in his ear.

But with time, as the same pattern kept repeating itself, corrupting (M/n)'s sleep, he began being able to take control of his actions and rewrite history.

For days- weeks, (M/n) failed to save them both at the same time, and inevitably, he would also end up dying due to the enemy fire, but not this time. He refused to fail again. He was tired of being unable to sleep- of being afraid because of a nightmare.

Waking up from it was painful, and because of it, (M/n) started growing attached to Ghost, always following him around and making sure he was out of lethal danger when out on missions.

Of course, Ghost found that annoying at first, constantly looking like a lost puppy while trailing behind him, but whenever he was having a hard time, be it during a mission or at the base, he knew (M/n) would always be with him, silently taking care of him. He grew used to it even though he knew he shouldn't blindly trust someone so easily.

That night, after getting the intel from El Sin Nombre about the missile, they regrouped and slept for a few hours before starting the mission. Through the whole time Graves was in their team back at Las Almas, he was wary, knowing Shadow Company was under Shepherd's command.

It was dumb really, not trusting his teammates because of something that didn't even happen in the first place. But something about that nightmare told (M/n) to believe it. How? It may have been some parallel universe, his past self telling him to save himself, save Roach... To save Simon Riley from Shepherd's betrayal.

And with that, (M/n) has never trusted Shepherd again, and he didn't trust Shadow Company as they were an added asset to their small team.

And right as he fell asleep, it happened.

Stumbling his way on the grass while holding tightly onto the lone of one of the enemy trucks, watching with blurry eyes how the executions occurred again, hearing Price's voice, telling them to not trust Shepher, hearing the desperation in his voice made tears fill (M/n)'s eyes, but he quickly blinked them away.

(M/n) watched with hatred how Graves poured gasoline on them and as if in slow motion, he saw Shepherd throw his cigar on their weak, wounded bodies. He crawled as fast yet quietly as he could, watching them retreat to their helicopter, and soon as they were out of range, (M/n) ran to them and placed the lone on them, mitigating the flames to prevent lethal burns.

He took off his tactical gear, rid with bullets, and dropped it on top of them, keeping the lone in place with the heavy bulletproof vest, and he grabbed their vests, dragging them to the woods, hiding in the tall grass, being covered by the trees.

Keeping himself low and steady, (M/n) saw and heard enemies approaching before leaving, reaching for his radio, (M/n) tried to put pressure on Ghost's wound, "Captain," he said quietly, helping Roach stay awake, his hand pressing under his vest where the bullet was. He was trying so hard to keep them alive.

"Sergeant! Are you okay?" (M/n) took a deep breath and tried to fight back the tears, he still didn't know if Ghost will make it out of this one alive.

Swallowing the knot in his throat, (M/n) responded back. "I'm okay, but Roach and Ghost need medical attention immediately," with those words, Price called for an extraction helicopter with medics to (M/n)'s position, reassuring the Sergeant that help was on the way.

Roach had managed to stay unconscious and was keeping as much pressure on the wound as he could, resting against the nearest tree and signaling (M/n) to help their Lieutenant instead.

He focused on trying to wake up Ghost, occasionally glancing at Roach to make sure he wouldn't pass out. Hurriedly, he took off Ghost's sunglasses and balaclava, leaning close to his face, hearing and feeling his slow, short breathing, and something in (M/n) seems to have found peace, such a great peace that made him cry.

"Simon... wake up, please, for the love of God, wake up," he mumbled to himself, trying to shake him away, gently tapping his face while leaving his blood-covered hand on his bleeding wound, and somehow, by some kind of miracle, he opened his eyes.

"(M/n)...?" He smiled at Ghost and gently stroked his face, "W-what-? Sh-Shepherd-!"

"Is okay, is okay, he's gone," he softly said, preventing him from sitting up, "Try to stay with me, Simon, c'mon," after that, the incoming pilot needed to know the exact location, so groaning, (M/n) took a smoke flare for his vest and threw it far enough for the pilot to spot, and soon, help arrived.

Two medics rushed out and scouted the area until they spotted the three men hiding in the shadows of the trees. They ran toward them and helped Roach up, taking him to the helicopter while another group of two came out with a stretcher, soon carrying Ghost to the helicopter, and (M/n) followed close behind them, his vest in his hand as they take off.

(M/n) watches how the medics stabilize and clean Roach and Ghost's wounds. Now, he finally relaxes, knowing he changed history...

Even if it only was the history of a dumb, meaningless nightmare that put him through so much pain and guilt.

No one commented on how tired yet relieved (M/n) looked when he woke up, they just got ready to carry on with the mission and stop the missile.

//////

Well, (M/n) kinda wished he wasn't right.

He got off of the back of the jeep as they arrived at Alejandro's base, and he immediately knew something was off.

"I'm calling Shepherd," Soap said turning around and heading back to the jeep, but Graves' words stopped him.

"General Shepherd sends his regards, he told me y'all wouldn't take this well," keeping an eye out for any Shadow soldiers, (M/n) reached his hand to grab his SMG that he left on one of the empty seats, and pretty soon, things got nasty.

With gritted teeth, (M/n) shot a few Shadows coming his way while running to cover. He kept an eye on Ghost and Soap as much as he could, earning him a shot on his left thigh, making him wince and grip tightly on his gun. The bastard that shot him got close to him, trying to finish him, but (M/n) was quick to grip his knife, knocking the weapon off his hands and piercing the skin of his throat with the sharp blade.

He used the man's dead body as a shield and with scary accuracy, he threw the knife at the man that had knocked Alejandro unconscious.

But even if he wanted to help the rest of the team, the enemies were closing in on them, quickly outnumbering them, and they were only left to retreat and regroup somewhere safe.

Ghost, Soap, and he got separated, and left to deal with Shadows by themselves, but it was okay, they were more than capable of that.

//////

Finding a place to rest for a moment, (M/n) took the empty utility belt from his right thigh and used it to put pressure above the gushing bullet wound on his left thigh, ripping the long sleeve of his shirt and using it to stop the bleeding, holding in a hiss at the pain that had begun to numb his leg.

His hearing picked up the sound of static and he realized it came from his radio, and when he looked at it, he realized it was pretty much busted, but somehow was still alive, letting him hear Soap's voice followed by Ghost's, well, at least he knew they were alive.

Groaning, (M/n) stood up from the wet ground and gripped onto his gun tightly, reaching for the suppressor in the pocket of his vest, attaching it to his SMG, and feeling around the pockets, realizing he only had a spare magazine, so he had to make his shots count.

"-A church... RV there-" Ghost's voice was cut off, but at least, (M/n) now knew where to head.

Well, kind of.

He sneaked around as quickly and swiftly as he could, taking out Shadows easier thanks to the suppressor on his gun, sneaking in a few knives kills and staying in the shadows, letting them pass when they were too many or were distracted shooting civilians. 

Every now and then, the static of his radio would get his attention, relaxing him as he knew his two closest friends were still kicking ass. And he heard the smallest bit of a conversation that got his attention.

"Show-... face?" Ghost said, followed by Soap.

"Are-... ugly?" Well, he didn't have to be a genius to know what Soap had asked their Lieutenant.

"Quite- opposite," was all Ghost responded.

And that brought back the memory of seeing his face in his dream, but there was no way, that was just his imagination giving someone he cared for so dearly a face. He has never seen Ghost's face. Not that he cared either way.

But soon after, Shadows started running in the same direction, pulling away injured soldiers, and well, (M/n) put them out of their misery, but he also headed toward the same direction, because the only reason they would attack so aggressively would be because they found Ghost and Soap.

And hearing Shadows yelling 'it's them!' was a dead giveaway.

Limping, (M/n) moved through the houses, finding the quickest, safest way to both of them, seeing as he couldn't exactly run for long, and eventually, he found both of them right as Ghost climbed over the fence of the church.

They saw him before he got a chance to call for them.

"(M/n)!" Soap called him and stood by his side, helping him steady himself.

"I'm okay, Soap..." Ghost looked at them, but they heard Shadows approaching, so they really couldn't stay still for long.

"We need a vehicle, on me!" Running ahead, (M/n) reassured Soap that he could move by himself, and with no need to be quiet anymore, (M/n) grabbed an enemy's weapon and fired back, following both males close behind, "Pick up truck, ahead!"

"I see it!" Soap and he yelled, and while Ghost got on the driver seat and Soap took shotgun, (M/n) got on the back of the truck, keeping every Shadow soldier that got close to them at bay.

Of course, that didn't prevent Ghost from running them over, and that kinda made (M/n) chuckle.

"Get back!" (M/n) heard Soap yell, looking to his right where he saw an enemy falling to the ground, a few more behind him, and (M/n) shot them down since they were shooting at them, and soon Ghost drove off.

The whole ride was quiet, and (M/n) loosened the belt over his wound a little, feeling the lack of circulation affecting his leg, and he still had to take the bullet out, clean, and disinfect it... hopefully whenever they're going will have what he needs for it.

Thanks to the busted glass of the truck, (M/n) heard Ghost and Soap talking about Graves' betrayal, and how Shepherd was in on it right before the truck stopped, the light of dawn slowly illuminating their surroundings.

They got off the truck, and (M/n) winced when he put more weight than intended on his legs, walking past them as they grabbed their weapons and closed the truck doors.

"You can't be betrayed if you never trusted them," he said while walking ahead, soon stopping in front of the structure. (M/n) heard Ghost telling them that this was Alejandro's safehouse, and (M/n) looked at the ground, noticing the pressure plates by the entrance.

Spotting the window as a viable entrance, they made their way inside.

(M/n) stayed outside, keeping guard while waiting for Ghost, just in case.

"Don't move!" The Lieutenant's voice caught his attention, glancing up at him and soon hearing Rodolfo's voice.

(M/n) quickly climbed in with Ghost's help, carefully landing on his right foot.

"Night, que bueno verte," he nodded.

"Lo mismo digo, Rudy."

//////

After coming up with a plan to save Alejandro, everyone was getting stuff ready, and while that happened, (M/n) had found medical supplies and was tending to his wound.

He ripped his pant open just enough to have a better view of what he was working with. He got the bullet out and stitched the wound after cleaning and disinfecting it. He has never clenched his jaw as hard as he did just then, but the skin around the hole in his legs was pretty much numb, so sewing it was easier than expected.

While he was wrapping a clean bandage around it, Ghost came by, observing how he took care of his wound.

"Did you know? About Graves," (M/n) wasn't startled because he heard him walk up to him, so he just looked up at him, trying to maintain a stoic expression.

He couldn't tell Ghost he didn't trust Graves and Shepherd just because of a nightmare of him being shot by Shepherd, he would seem crazy and he needed to have a cool, leveled head at all times in the military, so he just shrugged at Ghost's question.

"No, but it felt... off, no puedo explicarlo, Ghost," he simply looked at (M/n) and nodded.

"Alright, I trust you, Sergeant."

He couldn't help the smile on his face at his superior's words, "Thank you, Lieutenant."

Ghost helped him stand up and (M/n) took the necessary stuff to help patch up Soap's wound, despite having the Scotsman refuse over and over again, saying he was fine.

//////

"I'm out. Watch for me," Ghost left the security room while Soap kept an eye on the CCTV feed, and (M/n) kept an eye out near the door, occasionally hearing Ghost's voice through the communicator followed by Soap's instructions.

A short while after, Rodolfo found Alejandro in solitary, and they followed Ghost's orders of meeting outside the cellblock.

On the way to Alejandro's cell, they were swarmed with Shadows trying to stop them, but to no avail, and they soon got to Alejandro, who almost broke Soap's face if it wasn't for Rudy stopping him.

The way back out wasn't easy either, with gunfire back and forth, they struggled against so many Shadow soldiers, but the sound of a helicopter got everyone's attention.

However, the enemy helicopter was soon shot down by an RPG, followed by Ghost saying Price was there.

They all ran to the wall where Price and Gaz were covering them from the enemy fire. They stood guard and downed Shadows, exploding their vehicles while the ropes were placed on the other side of the wall, and right after hearing Price's order, all of them got down.

In the sheep, Price told everyone what happened with Shepherd, Shadow Company, and the missiles, it was quick and direct, and without realizing it, (M/n)'s fatigue caught up to him, and he fell asleep on the sheep on the ride back to base.

That time, the nightmare was gone, but now, he was with Ghost in the base's infirmary instead of on the battlefield. He was watching over the unconscious male, his wound slowly but surely, healing. (M/n) saw Ghost waking up, and before he could realize what his body was doing, he leaned down to place a soft kiss on his lips, observing his eyes flutter open.

"You just kissed an unconscious person, Sergeant," (M/n) chuckled at his playful words, and he gently pushed his hair away from his face.

"I'm just happy you're alive, Simon."

Damn, he has never woken up as flustered as he was just now, right when the sheep stopped too, realizing he had fallen asleep on none other than Simon himself.

The masked male had been watching over (M/n), gently drying the tears that fell down his face, something (M/n) hadn't realized until Ghost pointed it out.

"The same nightmare?" He said in a soft voice, kinda weird coming from him, but his words made (M/n) remember the first few times he had to deal with that nightmare.

He would always wake up crying and he had to take a breather, walking out of his quarters to take some fresh air, and Ghost found him one time, asking him what was bothering him.

"A nightmare," was all he said, and Ghost hummed, standing next to him under the soft yellow glow of the lamp, feeling the cool breeze touching their exposed skin.

They stayed quiet for a few seconds, until Ghost broke it, "You wanna talk about it?" He asked gently, having a lot of experience when it came to having nightmares. Sometimes, forgetting them was easier than talking about them, but there was the rare occasion when talking about it was better than ignoring those ever happened.

(M/n) looked at him, chuckling when he saw him wearing a plain balaclava.

"No, I'm good, sir," after that, both of them said a quiet good night and went back to their respective rooms.

This kept happening a few more times, especially when he would wake up crying and covered in sweat. He would leave his room and quietly cry while the chill air messed with his clothes and hair, drying the tears that had fallen down his face. Ghost noticed how often this nightmare would make (M/n) up, and the Sergeant only said it was always the same one. The exact same one. So he didn't ask more, he just... stood there until they would leave back to bed.

(M/n) never told him mainly because he was embarrassed, and he thought it was just a bad dream, nothing else. And that brings him back to reality

"Not exactly, it was... a nice dream," he muttered while drying his tears himself, "I'm happy to have you as my Lieutenant, sir."

Ghost looked at him, seeing (M/n)'s eyes shining with something that made his heart race.

//////

This wasn't the first time...

It really wasn't.

(M/n) couldn't help but stare at Ghost with wide eyes when he saw him take his balaclava off.

He looked exactly like the Ghost in his dream, despite having never seen his face before. There's no way...

Maybe... it wasn't just a bad dream after all...

[captaindibbzy]

I think the internet is objectively worse now than it was ten years ago.

And I'm sure people will hop up and down and talk about how superwholock was bad for some reason, but that's just people being people. What I mean is things like companies figured out how to market online in about 2012 and it has gone rapidly down hill since. Websites are unusable due to pop ups and ads. Algorithms have become more refined in order to make it harder to find helpful results when trying to search for information on a problem. Every how to is a video these days. Articles written by AI using buzz words to get clicks for ad revenue with net zero information in it and no answers. Helpful information is locked away on private discord servers rather than in forums. Everyone wants you to download their app. Everyone wants your data. Microtransactions in games. Information can be faked easier than it is to get real info. Rabbit holes and railroads locking people further and further in to their bubbles of Us Vs Them and if you even contemplate stepping a toe out of line you are basically one of Them and no longer welcome. Perpetual online outrage.

10 years ago had its issues but the attention economy hadn't crawled out it's hell pit yet.

[actowiz-123]

Actowiz Solutions: Pioneers in Web Scraping and Data Crawling Services in the USA

In an age where data reigns supreme, businesses, researchers, and organizations across the United States are constantly seeking innovative ways to gain a competitive edge. One such way is through web scraping and data crawling services, and Actowiz Solutions has emerged as a leader in this field, providing top-notch services to clients nationwide. In this blog post, we will explore Actowiz Solutions and how they have earned their reputation as a top data crawling and web scraping service company in USA.

[probablyasocialecologist]

To bring about its hypothetical future, OpenAI must build a new digital ecosystem, pushing users toward the ChatGPT app or toward preëxisting products that integrate its technology such as Bing, the search engine run by OpenAI’s major investor, Microsoft. Google, by contrast, already controls the technology that undergirds many of our online experiences, from search and e-mail to Android smartphone-operating systems. At its conference, the company showed how it plans to make A.I. central to all of the above. Some Google searches now yield A.I.-generated “Overview” summaries, which appear in tinted boxes above any links to external Web sites. Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, described the generated results with the ominously tautological tagline “Google will do the Googling for you.” (The company envisions that you will rely on the same search mechanism to trawl your own digital archive, using its Gemini assistant to, say, pull up photos of your child swimming over the years or summarize e-mail threads in your in-box.) Nilay Patel, the editor-in-chief of the tech publication the Verge, has been using the phrase “Google Zero” to describe the point at which Google will stop driving any traffic to external Web sites and answer every query on its own with A.I. The recent presentations made clear that such a point is rapidly approaching. One of Google’s demonstrations showed a user asking the A.I. a question about a YouTube video on pickleball: “What is the two-bounce rule?” The A.I. then extracted the answer from the footage and displayed the answer in writing, thus allowing the user to avoid watching either the video or any advertising that would have provided revenue to its creator. When I Google “how to decorate a bathroom with no windows” (my personal litmus test for A.I. creativity), I am now presented with an Overview that looks a lot like an authoritative blog post, theoretically obviating my need to interact directly with any content authored by a human being. Google Search was once seen as the best path for getting to what’s on the Web. Now, ironically, its goal is to avoid sending us anywhere. The only way to use the search function without seeing A.I.-generated content is to click a small “More” tab and select “Web” search. Then Google will do what it was always supposed to do: crawl the Internet looking for URLs that are relevant to your queries, and then display them to you. The Internet is still out there, it’s just increasingly hard to find. If A.I. is to be our primary guide to the world’s information, if it is to be our 24/7 assistant-librarian-companion as the tech companies propose, then it must constantly be adding new information to its data sets. That information cannot be generated by A.I., because A.I. tools are not capable of even one iota of original thought or analysis, nor can they report live from the field. (An information model that is continuously updated, using human labor, to inform us about what’s going on right now—we might call it a newspaper.) For a decade or more, social media was a great way to motivate billions of human beings to constantly upload new information to the Internet. Users were driven by the possibilities of fame and profit and mundane connection. Many media companies were motivated by the possibility of selling digital ads, often with Google itself as a middle man. In the A.I. era, in which Google can simply digest a segment of your post or video and serve it up to a viewer, perhaps not even acknowledging you as the original author, those incentives for creating and sharing disappear. In other words, Google and OpenAI seem poised to cause the erosion of the very ecosystem their tools depend on.

[titoist]

in podgorica, they have these electrified benches. they charge your phone, when you put it down on the thing. the charger symbol. on the bench.

i thought about how things like this might condition a person to think of the internet & electronic devices not as a discrete modality of interfacing with a network but as an abstract field of matter that encompasses the globe flawlessly. which you might happen to bump into accidentally, inevitably, anywhere. on a park bench, for example. podgorica, it wants you to notice, is a very cosmopolitan city with modernity & QR codes on statues and the word 'european' stamped as a prefix on every sign. everything costs at least 5 euros. i felt very little. i felt nowhere at all. podgorica is a city without any history, basically, it is a testament to human will that it was built at all, a planned miracle. it grows off of the mountains & hills like a kind of concrete tumor. so much music everywhere, so much plastic. it got me to thinking about Niš and Aleksinac and Crna Trava and all of the places i know as home that are dying all of the time. being killed, decimated by an evil that gestates not in people (though individuals can serve to articulate it's manifestations to such an extent that they become sufficient representatives of it's logic) but in systems, crawls up your spine from the cracks in sidewalks. it felt less like a city and more like a resort town for german pensioners. today if it were isolated it could never be anything nearing self-sufficient. it's economy is based on smuggling cigarettes into germany. suddenly i understand the emotions behind the petulant misdirected nationalism of montenegrin serbs; if i was witness to such a blatant artificial division being used to justify the creation of what amounts to an opportunistic shell company of a country, i would be tearing my hair out. it made me start thinking about how Crna Trava's genocide is reaching such a feverish pitch that i can look at the census data of individual villages and deduce exactly which people i remember from childhood have died in destitution and there was so much cigarette smoke i felt my lungs bleeding and voices were yelling but i never saw anyone. everyone here is something and everyone outside is nothing, everyone who won't ever manage to crawl their way here will continue to never be something, anything

electric benches

[mariacallous]

Less than three months after Apple quietly debuted a tool for publishers to opt out of its AI training, a number of prominent news outlets and social platforms have taken the company up on it.

WIRED can confirm that Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist, Tumblr, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Vox Media, the USA Today network, and WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast, are among the many organizations opting to exclude their data from Apple’s AI training. The cold reception reflects a significant shift in both the perception and use of the robotic crawlers that have trawled the web for decades. Now that these bots play a key role in collecting AI training data, they’ve become a conflict zone over intellectual property and the future of the web.

This new tool, Applebot-Extended, is an extension to Apple’s web-crawling bot that specifically lets website owners tell Apple not to use their data for AI training. (Apple calls this “controlling data usage” in a blog post explaining how it works.) The original Applebot, announced in 2015, initially crawled the internet to power Apple’s search products like Siri and Spotlight. Recently, though, Applebot’s purpose has expanded: The data it collects can also be used to train the foundational models Apple created for its AI efforts.

Applebot-Extended is a way to respect publishers' rights, says Apple spokesperson Nadine Haija. It doesn’t actually stop the original Applebot from crawling the website—which would then impact how that website’s content appeared in Apple search products—but instead prevents that data from being used to train Apple's large language models and other generative AI projects. It is, in essence, a bot to customize how another bot works.

Publishers can block Applebot-Extended by updating a text file on their websites known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol, or robots.txt. This file has governed how bots go about scraping the web for decades—and like the bots themselves, it is now at the center of a larger fight over how AI gets trained. Many publishers have already updated their robots.txt files to block AI bots from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other major AI players.

Robots.txt allows website owners to block or permit bots on a case-by-case basis. While there’s no legal obligation for bots to adhere to what the text file says, compliance is a long-standing norm. (A norm that is sometimes ignored: Earlier this year, a WIRED investigation revealed that the AI startup Perplexity was ignoring robots.txt and surreptitiously scraping websites.)

Applebot-Extended is so new that relatively few websites block it yet. Ontario, Canada–based AI-detection startup Originality AI analyzed a sampling of 1,000 high-traffic websites last week and found that approximately 7 percent—predominantly news and media outlets—were blocking Applebot-Extended. This week, the AI agent watchdog service Dark Visitors ran its own analysis of another sampling of 1,000 high-traffic websites, finding that approximately 6 percent had the bot blocked. Taken together, these efforts suggest that the vast majority of website owners either don’t object to Apple’s AI training practices are simply unaware of the option to block Applebot-Extended.

In a separate analysis conducted this week, data journalist Ben Welsh found that just over a quarter of the news websites he surveyed (294 of 1,167 primarily English-language, US-based publications) are blocking Applebot-Extended. In comparison, Welsh found that 53 percent of the news websites in his sample block OpenAI’s bot. Google introduced its own AI-specific bot, Google-Extended, last September; it’s blocked by nearly 43 percent of those sites, a sign that Applebot-Extended may still be under the radar. As Welsh tells WIRED, though, the number has been “gradually moving” upward since he started looking.

Welsh has an ongoing project monitoring how news outlets approach major AI agents. “A bit of a divide has emerged among news publishers about whether or not they want to block these bots,” he says. “I don't have the answer to why every news organization made its decision. Obviously, we can read about many of them making licensing deals, where they're being paid in exchange for letting the bots in—maybe that's a factor.”

Last year, The New York Times reported that Apple was attempting to strike AI deals with publishers. Since then, competitors like OpenAI and Perplexity have announced partnerships with a variety of news outlets, social platforms, and other popular websites. “A lot of the largest publishers in the world are clearly taking a strategic approach,” says Originality AI founder Jon Gillham. “I think in some cases, there's a business strategy involved—like, withholding the data until a partnership agreement is in place.”

There is some evidence supporting Gillham’s theory. For example, Condé Nast websites used to block OpenAI’s web crawlers. After the company announced a partnership with OpenAI last week, it unblocked the company’s bots. (Condé Nast declined to comment on the record for this story.) Meanwhile, Buzzfeed spokesperson Juliana Clifton told WIRED that the company, which currently blocks Applebot-Extended, puts every AI web-crawling bot it can identify on its block list unless its owner has entered into a partnership—typically paid—with the company, which also owns the Huffington Post.

Because robots.txt needs to be edited manually, and there are so many new AI agents debuting, it can be difficult to keep an up-to-date block list. “People just don’t know what to block,” says Dark Visitors founder Gavin King. Dark Visitors offers a freemium service that automatically updates a client site’s robots.txt, and King says publishers make up a big portion of his clients because of copyright concerns.

Robots.txt might seem like the arcane territory of webmasters—but given its outsize importance to digital publishers in the AI age, it is now the domain of media executives. WIRED has learned that two CEOs from major media companies directly decide which bots to block.

Some outlets have explicitly noted that they block AI scraping tools because they do not currently have partnerships with their owners. “We’re blocking Applebot-Extended across all of Vox Media’s properties, as we have done with many other AI scraping tools when we don’t have a commercial agreement with the other party,” says Lauren Starke, Vox Media’s senior vice president of communications. “We believe in protecting the value of our published work.”

Others will only describe their reasoning in vague—but blunt!—terms. “The team determined, at this point in time, there was no value in allowing Applebot-Extended access to our content,” says Gannett chief communications officer Lark-Marie Antón.

Meanwhile, The New York Times, which is suing OpenAI over copyright infringement, is critical of the opt-out nature of Applebot-Extended and its ilk. “As the law and The Times' own terms of service make clear, scraping or using our content for commercial purposes is prohibited without our prior written permission,” says NYT director of external communications Charlie Stadtlander, noting that the Times will keep adding unauthorized bots to its block list as it finds them. “Importantly, copyright law still applies whether or not technical blocking measures are in place. Theft of copyrighted material is not something content owners need to opt out of.”

It’s unclear whether Apple is any closer to closing deals with publishers. If or when it does, though, the consequences of any data licensing or sharing arrangements may be visible in robots.txt files even before they are publicly announced.

“I find it fascinating that one of the most consequential technologies of our era is being developed, and the battle for its training data is playing out on this really obscure text file, in public for us all to see,” says Gillham.

[asleepinawell]

"we'll all have flying cars in the future" bro we cannot even do a web search anymore

here's a chunk of it since it's subscribe walled

"If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where the links go or why, instead only saying that “We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.” Older results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer able to “crawl” Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward. Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid search engine that buys part of its search index from Google.

The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its search results. This exclusion of other search engines also comes after Reddit locked down access to its site to stop companies from scraping it for AI training data, which at the moment only Google can do as a result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products.

“They’re [Reddit] killing everything for search but Google,” Colin Hayhurst, CEO of the search engine Mojeek told me on a call.

Hayhurst tried contacting Reddit via email when Mojeek noticed it was blocked from crawling the site in early June, but said he has not heard back."

[echo]

pretty interesting article:

it reminds me how much of the Internet is still a pinky swear to follow the rules sometimes