IggyTheSmidge
joined 1 year ago
"The mudbloods are stealing our magic!"
You joke, but crop milk is a thing:
Crop milk is a secretion from the lining of the crop of parent birds in some species that is regurgitated to young birds. It is found among all pigeons and doves where it is also referred to as pigeon milk. Crop milk is also secreted from the crop of flamingos and the male emperor penguin, suggesting independent evolution of this trait. Unlike in mammals where only females produce milk, crop milk is produced by both males and females in pigeons and flamingos; and in penguins, only by the male. Lactation in birds is controlled by prolactin, which is the same hormone that causes lactation in mammals.
I think that was definitely the impetus - I first read about the changes in this article back in April: https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/reddit_charging_ai_api/
The closing statement is interesting:
The spokesperson we talked to also wanted to make clear the Data API was still freely accessible for appropriate use cases through the Reddit developer platform; hopefully app developers and other small-scale operators won't have any surprises ahead this summer.
I suspect they ran the numbers and started seeing dollar signs - they don't care about the third-party apps (which don't make them any money directly), they're just trying to cash in on Microsoft etc.
I have a sneaking suspicion they're going to end up back-pedalling, but it will be too little, too late.