In the early 2000s, I was publishing short stories on my blog for fun and fame. Quite taken by many popular bloggers’ ability to make money online, I too decided to place Google ads on my blog sidebar. Google Adsense scans the contents of a web page and displays ads that are related to what that page is talking about.

But while this system worked great for web pages that contained information (software and gadget reviews, travelogues, recipes etc.), it proved impossible for Adsense to scan a story about a werewolf travelling incognito in a land ruled by magical cows and come up with suitable contextual ads. I don’t remember what exactly it gave me, but the best it could probably do was an ad about a dairy farm or something.

There was no context because art is not information, at least not in the way we mostly understand it these days.

I am sure you have heard of websites that provide you with short summaries of books that you can go through and pretend to have read them. There are now generative AI tools that can do the same to movies, novels, long-form articles, and even YouTube videos. Apparently, spending five or fifteen minutes on a short film is a luxury many of us can no longer afford.