“You could have a bunch of AI slop<\/a> that kind of keeps dumb people clicking,” Best said.<\/p>\n But that the same technology could enable a very different outcome: a “future where there’s way more creative leverage” for independent creators, he said.<\/p>\n Best also said that the real bottleneck for media isn’t content, but attention.<\/p>\n “We’ve entered a world where attention is the scarce resource,” he said. “We have won the war on boredom.”<\/p>\n “There’s no scarcity of content, but there’s a huge scarcity of good content,” he added.<\/p>\n With tech advancing, Best said much of the internet is being optimized purely for engagement, which he compared to “drug addiction.”<\/p>\n “That side of the media is going to get supercharged,” he said. “We have very sophisticated AI goon bots now.”<\/p>\n Still, he sees hope in an alternative future.<\/p>\n “The other purpose of media is culture,” he said. “That is something that people really, really want as well.”<\/p>\n Substack, which lets writers earn directly from subscribers, raised $100 million in July<\/a>. The round valued the newsletter platform at about $1.1 billion.<\/p>\n Best and Substack did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<\/p>\n Related stories<\/p>\n Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n The AI era of social media<\/p>\n Social media platforms are already being swamped with AI-generated content.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754989098_269_placeholder.png\")
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