This doesn't pass a cursory sniff test: Web traffic is 17% of Internet traffic, so even if we accept 25% of that is ads (I'm dubious) that would be 4.5% of traffic. That would add up to 0.3% of emissions.<p><a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/271735/internet-traffic-share-by-category-worldwide/" rel="nofollow">https://www.statista.com/statistics/271735/internet-traffic-...</a>
I was recently thinking about going back to the idea of Butter (<a href="https://butter.sonnet.io" rel="nofollow">https://butter.sonnet.io</a>) and expanding it a little bit. Can we build a proof-of-concept of a universal ad blocker™ running on your phone? It uses AI (it's very fancy):<p>- model 1: use screen capture to detect ads<p>- model 2: once an ad is detected, hide it in a context specific way (e.g. if it's the native YT app, find and click the skip button, if it's a podcast, seek past the sponsored segment etc...)<p>both model 1 and model 2 gradually learn, perhaps share knowledge between users, in a manner similar to blocklists.<p>Perhaps in 3-5 years our devices (mobile G/CPUs and batteries) will get powerful enough to support this. Imagine the possibilities!<p>It's a ridiculous idea. I also think it's <i>possible</i> we'll see something like this in the future, because it <i>feels</i> like a simpler solution than dealing with the systemic issues related to advertising.
Wait until you see how much physical advertising contributes. :D<p>Especially if you consider branding, which I don't know why it wouldn't be in this, it is tough to compete with shenanigans like how merchandising for the losing side of stuff like the super bowl are dealt with.