Artifical Intelligence and Fake News

[engine]

Definition of News: Noteworthy information about recent events which may not be known.
Fact checking ought to be easier through automation, and surely, Artificial Intelligence could be put to good use in identifying "fake news" stories and highlighting it for human interaction, should that be required, imho.

Similarly, AI could be used to create fake news, too.

Can we ever be sure that the news we're reading is objective, factual, and newsworthy?

[birdbrain]

"Can we ever be sure that the news we're reading
is objective, factual, and newsworthy?"

I cannot speak for anyone else, but for me the answer is no.

To make sure that my mind is unsullied, I neither buy or read
newspapers, and I never watch television news or listen to
radio news.

This procedure, which I have practiced for over twenty years
has certainly had no ill effects on my life whatsoever.

I would even go further and state that the benefits of a non-
polluted mind are actually inestimable.

birdbrain

[NickMNS]

The Good'ol stick your head in the sand strategy.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I agree with birdbrain, I buy one newspaper per week, on a Sunday and only because it is sympathetic to my political leanings. The press are not to be trusted. This has become more apparent since it became so easy to fact check their nonsense. Better news can be found online provided you know when to fact check it. (I seldom spread any news without doing this.)

As Denzel Washington said recently (quoting Mark Twain I believe), "If you don't read the papers you're uninformed. If you do read them you're misinformed."

[engine]

News is out there. If you choose to follow it or not is a matter of individual choice.

Of course, millions of people follow the news. My point being that AI could be put to good use. It should also be possible to tune it to individual tastes.

I do prefer to follow respected journalists. They would not be respected journalists is they allowed fake news to appear in their articles.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

One man's "respected journalist" is another's charlatan, The UK press and the BBC are notorious for fake news. The fact that the BBC is like this may surprise those of you outside the UK.

[birdbrain]

"The Good'ol stick your head in the sand strategy."

You may call it that, if you feel that it helps justify your position.

The reason that I freed my mind of the stupefying influence of
what is commonly referred to by the masses as "News" is that
I came to the conclusion that today's "News" was identical to
yesterday's "News" and would, without doubt, be replicated in
tomorrow's "News".

The world, unfortunately, learns nothing from history other than,
of course, to repeat it ad infinitum. :(

birdbrain

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

birdbrain, just in case you haven't heard, Donald Trump has been elected as POTUS. ;)

[LifeinAsia]

News is out there.

The problem is that nowadays, news does not necessarily equate to facts. Even "facts" can be reported to fit the political leanings of the person doing the reporting. The past year has really hurt the credibility of even "trusted" sources.

[RhinoFish]

You can't avoid bias, or abstain from all that has bias (which is everything), so learn to recognize it, and always be skeptical.

[keyplyr]

And avoid room 101

[birdbrain]

"...just in case you haven't heard, Donald Trump has been elected as POTUS."

Of course, I may hear the occasional snippet of so called
"News" from acquaintances and the odd passer by.

But I just smile benignly as it goes in one ear and out the
other without even touching the sides.

birdbrain

[keyplyr]

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the Truth is a revolutionary act."- George Orwell

[ken_b]

When it comes to news I subscribed the "variety is the spice of life" theory.

[seoskunk]

Interesting you quote Orwell, I have been thinking allot about what he said recently, specifically the endless wars in the Middle East....

Am I right in saying that the media is under more control whilst we are at war ? We have been at war now for 13 years.....

[tbear]

Very often, the 'news' that gets published, and the way it is presented to us, is controlled by the 'news' editor....... It might not be representative of what the reporter/journalist intended.....
Though, the quality of journalism in the last decades has fallen considerably, in my opinion.

Most often, the emphasis is on selling copy, rather than informing. Misleading headlines used to draw readers in, etc......
And the general public seem to love it...... Go figure......


I tend to be of the 'birdbrain' camp..... Not that interested in 'news' anymore, not for decades.......

[iamlost]

I treat the news as vectors of varying directions and velocities weighted according to how the sources/outlets have been found to adhere to fact over time. Using my personal cranial neural network.

If I have to treat general news reporting and commentary as increasingly slipping from n-degree of bias to representing fallacy as fact I most assuredly am not going to accept what some other organisation to says, is probably, statistically, correct. Two wrongs do not make something right.

Especially, as mentioned above, with the switch to news as entertainment and entertainment as news. And presenters/anchors as celebrities. Yuck, Yuck, and by the way, Yuck.