• FIR #366: DIY GPT

Pundits are proclaiming social media dead (or dying), and they have data to back up their beliefs. If it’s true, what does it mean—for society, for networking, and for business? Neville and Shel examine the evidence and trends and discuss the implications in the monthly long-form episode for November. Also in this episode:

• ChatGPT pauses new signups and other news
• A look at ChatGPT’s GPT Builder
• The state of news on social media
• Generative AI and journalism
• A high-profile executive’s fake Twitter accounts
• In his Tech Report, Dan York talks about Twitter’s woes, WhatsApp news, Automattic backing off Tumblr growth, and the Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 20.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Is Social Media Dying? What That Could Mean for Marketers
• First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere to Go
• The Age of Social Media Is Ending
• Social media is doomed to die
• Sam Altman (@sama) on X
• OpenAI Status - Incident History
• OpenAI pauses ChatGPT Plus sign-ups as capacity exceeded
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman departs the company and leaves its board after a board review found he wasn’t “consistently candid in his communications with the board”
• Neville Hobson (@nevillehobson) on Threads
• OpenAI has put ChatGPT Plus sign-ups on pause
• Introducing GPTs
• With GPT Builder you can create your own personalised ChatGPT
• Neville Hobson on LinkedIn: With GPT Builder you can create your own personalised ChatGPT
• Personalized A.I. Agents Are Here. Is the World Ready for Them?
• The Best of OpenAI’s New GPTs, Ranked
• The 23 Best GPTs of 2023 (Weekly Updates)
• Is Threads winning the war with X?
• Twitter’s decentralized offshoot Bluesky now has 2 million users
• Social media traffic to top news sites craters
• Instagram head says Threads is ‘not going to amplify news on the platform’
• Blue-Checked, ‘Verified’ Users on X Produce 74 Percent of the Platform’s Most Viral False or Unsubstantiated Claims Relating to the Israel-Hamas War
• The hate speech problem on X: a test of conscience for users and brands
• Telegraph journalists told use of ChatGPT will result in same sanctions as plagiarism
• ChatGPT six months on: Insight from 12 news leaders on generative AI and journalism
• Global State of the Media Report from Cision (PDF)
• HBO Chief Casey Bloys Concedes Fake Twitter Accounts Were a “Very Dumb Idea”
• HBO Bosses Used ‘Secret’ Fake Accounts to Troll TV Critics
• The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped (Published 2007)

Links from Dan York’s Report

• How 13 news publishers are using WhatsApp Channels
• WhatsApp Privacy Checkup: Know the features and how to use it
• WhatsApp releases new security features to protect users’ IP addresses
• WhatsApp is adding a new way to voice chat with large groups
• WhatsApp Adds New Audio Chat Option for Groups
• Mark Zuckerberg Taps the Strengths of WhatsApp
• Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is the ‘next chapter’ for Meta and could become a bedrock for business messaging
• Tumblr is betting big on going small
• Tumblr is downscaling after failing to ‘turn around’ the site
• ‘Hallucinate’ chosen as Cambridge dictionary’s word of the year
• Hallucinate is Cambridge Dictionary AI-inspired word of 2023