Dear FO° Reader,

It is a cliché to say that we live in the age of AI. The evangelists tell us that AI will unleash productivity at a scale we have not seen before. We will soon live in an age of abundance, and there will be rivers of milk and honey in an El Dorado that is just around the corner. The alarmists tell us that AI will destroy jobs, go rogue and destroy humanity itself. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.

AI and metrics complicate things

I can share with you what AI is doing to us. Google AI summarizes our articles, and fewer people are clicking on them. Over the years, Google has become the medium through which people discover information. This advantages the Goliaths like The New York Times, who appear on the first page, but Davids like us are hidden away on the 15th page of search results. But, the search function is changing too. 

Earlier, Facebook and Google had knocked out the revenue models of news media organizations. They took the lion’s share of advertising, leaving little for anyone else. In the quest for reach, few media organizations put up paywalls. Even now, Goliaths are the only ones who can put up paywalls.

Media organizations have far too long been judged by metrics such as visitors, pageviews and time on the website. This has encouraged gaming algorithms, clickbait and a race to the bottom. We have not stooped to clickbait, but we have tried to increase our audience. We are present on social media despite all our misgivings. Lately, we have come to the conclusion that we have to heed our misgivings and move to a new way of thinking.

Fair Observer is committed to free and fair discourse

For a start, we are deliberately not targeting readers on the basis of ideology. In the US, UK or India, media organizations target readers or viewers based on party lines. They preach to their choirs. We do not. This confuses many of our readers/listeners/viewers. They wonder what we stand for, what we believe in and what change we want in society. We believe in a free and fair discourse because we see that as a bedrock of a healthy society and a functioning democracy.

For this reason, even during times of war, we publish diametrically opposing views. You can find Iranian Mehdi Alavi cheek by jowl with Israeli Josef Olmert. In a nutshell, we are one of the few media organizations that refuse to become a monoculture. We aim to become an ecosystem for an exchange of views between thoughtful people from around the world. 

Today, we have more than 3,000 authors from over 90 countries. They do not write for the attention economy. They share perspectives you do not find elsewhere easily. We can say with confidence that many perspectives we share will not be found elsewhere. Hardly any Indian newspaper cares about publishing Kenyans and American media organizations rarely look across their shores. For anyone who wants to be a citizen of the world, we are an invaluable resource.