Curio - Trusted News Companion

How Not to Use AI 101: Replace every functional feature with a less functional, impersonal AI. I used to love this app for its simple interface that made it easy to navigate topics, categories, and sources. It enabled me to seek out topics I was actually interested in learning more about with intentional and was a nice reprieve from the mindless nature of other media apps. Now, it’s bloated with half-baked AI features that completely undermine its usability, charm, and value. The UI is no longer functional, and the AI-generated article readings are some of the most robotic and unnatural voices I’ve heard in 2024. Disappointed and ending my subscription.

The app interface is frustrating and most of the articles are AI voices which is beyond annoying. Articles are hardly curated. I’m paying way too much for what the offer today. I liked the previous interface and article selection.

Wasn’t sure how much worse Curio could have been to Audm, and have been awarded with this: the single greatest performance in Dumb-Infuriating-Silicon Valley Inventions. It’s so dumb you should download it, show it to your kids, and tell them this is why everything is dumb now.

When I paid for an annual subscription last year, this service was pretty awesome. Now I guess to save money they have ingested the AI Kool-Aid. There is no way to download content for off-line listening. There is no way to search through recent article releases. Worst of all, instead of the illustrious and familiar narrators with human personalities, the narrator is now a generative AI that pauses randomly at punctuation. Definitely not worth renewing to me.

The application has been updated recently, changing it from an explorable page to a chatbot interaction. The change reminds me of a grocery store that locked every valuable item in a store. Sure, one can still buy everything. But why do I need to ask to get access to the goods? I come to explore and check news/opinions that I’m not familiar with. All I want are good articles, view different curations and top trends. Yes, I can access them in the small portion in the bottom of the screen. I don’t want to chat with the bot at all. Why is it not an optional interface? Why can’t I just scroll through different headlines and outlets when I open the application?

I signed up for the previous version. The new version is some bad implementation of a pseudo AI interface that makes it impossible to scan the articles and choose what you read. It chooses for you. Once you get it to show you some articles you have to page through an incredibly slow interface to see what is available one article at a time. It’s unusable. I would have paid for this version of the application. It is fundamentally different and they should allow users to cancel. Maybe somebody wants it, but it’s not me. What a rip off. To get a refund outside of the 90 day limit, go to Apple support chat. Explain to them that the app is no longer usable and encourage them to look at the current reviews. They can submit a request to refund. Make sure they don’t route you into the normal refund request if you are outside of the 90 day purchase window.

I loved Curio Then I updated to this ridiculous AI interface

The real reason for a subpar and annoying chatbot appears to be good old fashioned cost cutting on content. It is interesting to see how there have been no new Atlantic articles since July. They only seem to be retaining content from short form providers like FT and low circulation journals that lack any negotiating leverage over the price for content. Don’t use a parlor trick chatbot to hide a lack of good content. Otherwise, why not just go to another chatbot that’s free. This move definitely burned the trust bridge.

This app was fantastic before the latest update. No one asked for a stupid AI chat bot and horrible side scrolling format of the recommendations it gives. I WANT THE OLD CURIO BACK!!! You know… a visual representation of the audio articles with the magazine logos, being able to scroll DOWN the list and add things to the queue. There are no menus and no way to listen without interacting with the AI bot. Very frustrating.

I was a paid subscriber. Loved it that interesting articles came my way without the need to answer annoying questions or choose the topic that’s interesting to me. Super bummed with the latest version. So much so that I won’t use the app even though it’s free.