Technologies

AI Is Eating the Internet, but Many Are Hopeful Human-Made Content Will Win Out

Publishers, including CNET’s owner, are taking a wide range of approaches to try to make it through AI’s changes.

With AI encroaching on all corners of the internet, from bogus articles to Instagram Reels, there’s concern that human-made content is under threat, and as a result, so are the film, music and publishing industries.

There are AI actresses, AI-generated music filling up Spotify and AI answers at the top of Google Search, above the 10 blue links.

But consumers of news and media remain uncomfortable with the idea of fully AI-generated content. A recent Reuters Institute survey of people in six countries, including the US, found that only 12% of people are comfortable with fully AI-generated news, compared to 62% who prefer their news entirely human-produced.

That desire for human-made content has some publishing executives optimistic, including Vivek Shah, CEO of CNET owner Ziff Davis. He said as much in a recent episode of the podcast Channels with Peter Kafka.

«The narrative around is that the declines in search traffic somehow are existential and I just don’t see it that way,» said Shah.

«I still think we prefer words and sounds and videos from humans,» he added. «Do I think that the robots will eat into some of that? I do.»

Internet search and content analysts see the same preferences among consumers.

«I also agree that as Google continues to roll out new AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, users will continue to seek authentic content from real humans,» said Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive, a marketing agency, «and when the AI answer isn’t sufficient to meet those needs, they will continue to search for content that provides that sense of real human connection.»

As AI is rapidly shifting how people find information online, publishers are moving quickly to strike deals. News Corp, Axel Springer and Future PLC have signed content licensing deals with OpenAI, for example. Other companies are taking on AI companies directly.

AI models are trained on the entire corpus of information found online, which includes published journalistic content. Recently, Penske Media, which owns Variety and Rolling Stone, sued Google over its use of AI Overviews, which gives AI-generated answers at the top of search. Penske alleges that Google is abusing its monopoly power in online search and that AI Overviews steals Penske content, circumventing the need for readers to click on articles directly.

Ziff Davis, along with the New York Times, has sued ChatGPT creator OpenAI for scraping journalistic content to train AI models rather than signing a licensing deal. Shah told Kafka that OpenAI rebuffed Ziff Davis’ attempts to negotiate a licensing deal.

OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Ziff Davis said Shah was unavailable for comment.

The strong response from publishers comes as Wall Street rewards Google, chipmaker Nvidia and OpenAI partner Microsoft with record valuations even as the publishing industry is contracting. There have been major drops in traffic across the internet in 2025. This year, too, the publishing industry has seen layoffs at CNN, Vox Media, HuffPost, the LA Times and NBC.

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Another way publishers are fighting back is by trying to block AI crawlers from scraping their content for free. Along with blocks in robots.txt, a file on a website that lays out certain permissions from online crawlers, Ziff Davis has signed on to the RSL standard, which is a more robust layer of tech that can block AI bots for sucking up content. The hope is that if enough publishers sign on, it can be enough of a united front to better bargain with Big Tech.

Despite the growing popularity of AI, Shah feels that ultimately people prefer «words and sounds and videos from humans.» He also notes that brands are increasingly trying to get their products to fill up AI search results, which isn’t good for objective purchasing decisions.

«If you start to look into citations in LLM chatbots, you’re going to see that sources have gone from journalism sources to marketing sources,» said Shah. «And so, someone’s got to measure this because I am amazed at how many citations are not publisher.com but a brand.com.»

Technologies

Pluto TV to Stream 49 ‘Survivor’ Seasons for Free

The 50th season of the competition series is set to air on CBS in February.

Pluto TV might help you plan your next reality TV binge. All 49 seasons of the competition series Survivor will stream on demand on the service later this month.

The Survivor catalog will arrive ahead of the landmark 50th season of Survivor, which airs on CBS on Feb. 25. You can currently watch the previous 49 seasons with a Paramount Plus subscription, which starts at $8 per month (or $9 after a price hike on Jan. 15). Pluto’s route is free, but it comes with ads.

There will be two ways to watch: Pluto’s dedicated 24/7 Survivor channel, which will stream episodes in chronological order, or you can stream episodes on demand.

The channel marathon and on-demand availability begin on Jan. 24 at 5:15 p.m. ET.

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For more information on Pluto and other free, ad-supported streaming services, check out our roundup of the best options.

Technologies

Apple Picks Google Gemini to Power Siri

Sorry OpenAI, Apple went back to its old lover.

Apple has chosen Google’s Gemini to power its next iteration of Siri, coming later this year, both companies said in a joint statement on Monday.

Apple and Google’s Siri deal follows months of rumors saying that the iPhone maker had chosen Gemini to advance Siri over OpenAI’s ChatGPT. A report in November said that Apple would pay Google $1 billion per year for Google’s AI prowess. It helps that last November’s release of Gemini 3 made a huge impact and reportedly put OpenAI in a «code red» position.

«After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,» according to the statement on Monday. «Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.»

Google referred to the joint statement when asked for comment. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Despite Apple being one of the most valuable companies in the world, it’s behind in the AI race. Instead of developing its own foundational models, which reports suggested hadn’t been going well, Apple instead worked with OpenAI to power Apple Intelligence. Even with the Siri refresh under Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI assistant fell short of expectations, although subsequently it’s proving to be more useful.

Apple’s deal with Google further marries two American tech giants who had already been exchanging billions of dollars. During the Department of Justice antitrust trial against Google, court documents showed that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to ensure that Google Search would remain the default search engine across Apple devices. Now, some of that money will be flowing back to Google so that Siri can get a much-needed leveling up.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold Is a Phone-Tablet Hybrid With a Clear Purpose

I got my hands on the new foldable at CES. It feels like a wildly practical two-in-one device, thanks to the massive display and overall sleek build.

I’ve tested my fair share of thin and foldable phones over the years, but something about Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold struck me as particularly unique when I held it for the first time at CES 2026 in Las Vegas.

At last, it seems foldables are approaching their long-desired goal: a two-in-one device that fits neatly in your pocket.

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The Galaxy Z TriFold — which technically folds twice but has three panels — is like a true phone-tablet hybrid that stands apart from its bar-style counterparts. Its value lies less in flashy specs about its thinness and more in its utility and practicality.

Yes, the Galaxy Z TriFold feels impressively sleek when open: It’s just 3.9mm at its thinnest point and 4.2mm at its thickest, not accounting for the camera bump. It also feels wonderfully normal in my hands, to the degree that I didn’t really think about its weight of 309 grams as I used it.

Still, the foldable doesn’t inspire the same ergonomic awe as Samsung’s book-style Galaxy Z Fold 7 or the bar-style Galaxy S25 Edge, which primarily lean on an ultrathin, lightweight design.

The Galaxy Z TriFold is all about getting things done on a portable scale. Need to shoot off a quick text or check an email? The 6.5-inch cover display is similar to using a nonfolding phone — minus the slightly chunky 12.9mm thickness when the trifold is closed. And when it’s time to watch a movie, multitask or type up a paper, the expansive 10-inch internal display offers plenty of real estate.

Read more: The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold was selected as a winner in the Best Mobile Tech category for the Official Best of CES 2026 Awards.

That duality makes the Galaxy Z TriFold work like a true hybrid device, filling a niche that book-style foldables have yet to satisfy, despite their numerous efforts.

Comparing the Z TriFold and the Z Fold 7 at a glance

Placing Samsung’s Z TriFold and its two-panel Galaxy Z Fold 7 side by side underscored just how different each phone is.

Yes, you can watch videos at a larger scale on the Z Fold 7’s inside display, but that experience pales in comparison to the true tablet-like feel of the unfurled Z TriFold. You can open up to three apps simultaneously on both phones, but doing so on the trifold feels like a less significant compromise thanks to its larger screen. And with Samsung DeX, turning your phone into a mini computer of sorts has never felt more practical, since there’s more room to work with.

One of the biggest indicators of how far foldables have come is the fact that both the Z TriFold and the Z Fold 7 pack pretty impressive cameras: a 200-megapixel wide, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 10-megapixel telephoto camera on the back, along with two 10-megapixel selfie cameras. So if you’re choosing between the larger and smaller Samsung foldables, that’s one key factor they have in common.

Two hinges on the trifold means double the screen creases, but they’re thankfully less visible than the Z Fold 7’s, which is already pretty subdued. Learning how to close the trifold correctly can be a bit of a learning curve, especially if you’re right-handed like me; you’ll need to close the left panel first. But each time you (I) mess up, the phone gives haptic feedback and an alert that you (we) are doing it wrong, which is helpful.

What’s perhaps most assuring is the trifold’s 5,600-mAh battery, which can hopefully allow the phone to power through a full day’s use, and then some. The Z Fold 7 has a 4,400-mAh battery, which lasted all day in my initial testing, but without much juice to spare. Hopefully, the Z TriFold remedies that. The trifold’s 45-watt super-fast charging is a nice perk, too.

Speaking of charging: Samsung told me the Z TriFold will come with not just a charging cable in the box, but also a charging brick. Nature is healing.

US release and price

The Z TriFold is already available in Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, my colleague Prakhar Khanna beat me to the punch and got his hands on the phone in Dubai last month.

Samsung has said the Z TriFold will launch in the US in the first quarter of this year. It’ll be interesting to see if people in the US respond similarly to those in other countries like Korea, where the phone reportedly sold out in minutes.

Another looming question remains: the price. Samsung didn’t share the US price at CES, but we’ll likely learn more as we approach the (also unknown) release date. Given the Z Fold 7’s $2,000 price tag, though, you might want to start saving up now.