AI Changed the Internet, and WOLF STREET Needs You More than Ever: Please Donate, Fall 2026 Reminder

Your generous donations have kept WOLF STREET free and open to all, without paywall. Thank you!!

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The internet has changed. AI labs have stolen everyone’s work, including mine. The internet giants are trying to siphon all internet traffic to their AI bots and search bots. They’re training people to read content that AI presents them, instead of reading that content at the source. This has shifted internet traffic and advertising revenues away from open websites, such as WOLF STREET, to these AI bots and search bots run by giants.

But, but, but… You, Dear Readers, have continued to come to WOLF STREET, for the articles and comments created by humans for humans. YOU are the core of what makes this site tick. WOLF STREET can live without the internet traffic. But without you, Dear Readers, WOLF STREET would vanish. So thank you for still coming to my site!

And… your generous support has made it possible for WOLF STREET to continue operating free and open to all, not hidden behind a paywall, so that people anywhere can read the articles and comments, despite the years-long collapse in advertising revenues for small publishers, and despite the loss of a substantial portion of internet traffic.

I love this job in my little corner of the internet between the boots of the giants and AI, and part of what I love is keeping the articles and comments available without paywall to everyone who is willing to go past AI, and I want to keep it that way.

Thank you for coming to WOLF STREET, thank you for your many comments, and thank you for your generous support over the years!! Many of you donate throughout the year. Many of you donate year after year. Thank you!!!

There are 4 ways to donate:

1. Zelle (if you use it): fast and free for both of us. Please contact me at [email protected] to get my Zelle email.

If you donated via Zelle to Wolf Street in the past: nothing has changed, same Zelle email as last time.

2. Credit card via PayPal: The “Donate” button takes you to WOLF STREET’s PayPal page. You do not need an account with PayPal. If it asks you to set up an account, back out and try again.

Tip: On that initial PayPal page: first, enter the amount where it says “$0”; second, click on the WHITE button, “Donate with a Debit or Credit Card”:

3. Mail a check (much appreciated); note the new address:

Wolf Street Corp
P.O. Box 475183
San Francisco, CA 94147

4. Mail USD cash via regular mail and a Forever Stamp, to the same address as above. USPS still operates reliably. If you wish to donate anonymously, or only in your commenting screen name, or first name, or whatever, this works.

Thank-you gift: a WOLF STREET mug if you donate $100 or more:

I will send you one of our second-generation 12-oz glass mugs (see photo below) to thank you for your very generous donation of $100 or more if your address is in the US, and if you would like a mug.

San Francisco artist Erika “Kitten” Lopez created the wraparound art on the mug: a funny wolf howling the WOLF STREET dictum, “Nothing Goes to Heck in a Straight Line.”

If you would like a mug, please email me and include your shipping address in the US (I cannot ship outside the US). Send the email to: [email protected]

Thank you!!

Wolf Richter