fake news – Impact Lab

Big Problems, Business, Coronavirus, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Covid-19 could trigger ‘media extinction event’ in developing countries

May 20, 2020

Critical reporting under threat as revenue losses leave independent news outlets hostage to government subsidies or whims of billionaires

Press freedom groups warn that the integrity of independent journalism could be at risk.

Fake news laws and political interference along with growing financial pressures has left many independent media groups in developing countries fighting to survive during the pandemic.

News outlets around the world have faced measures to muzzle critical reporting in an environment that has already seen dozens of journalists harassed, arrested and censored by governments, according to editors and press freedom groups.

Continue reading… “Covid-19 could trigger ‘media extinction event’ in developing countries”

AI, communication, Internet, Science & Technology News

AI can automatically rewrite outdated text in Wikipedia articles

February 23, 2020

It’s good to be skeptical of Wikipedia articles for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the possibility of outdated info — human editors can only do so much. And while there are bots that can edit Wikipedia, they’re usually limited to updated canned templates or fighting vandalism. MIT might have a more useful (not to mention more elegant) solution. Its researchers have developed an AI system that automatically rewrites outdated sentences in Wikipedia articles while maintaining a human tone. It won’t look out of line in a carefully crafted paragraph, then.

The machine learning-based system is trained to recognize the differences between a Wikipedia article sentence and a claim sentence with updated facts. If it sees any contradictions between the two sentences, it uses a “neutrality masker” to pinpoint both the contradictory words that need deleting and the ones it absolutely has to keep. After that, an encoder-decoder framework determines how to rewrite the Wikipedia sentence using simplified representations of both that sentence and the new claim.

The system can also be used to supplement datasets meant to train fake news detectors, potentially reducing bias and improving accuracy.

Continue reading… “AI can automatically rewrite outdated text in Wikipedia articles”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Education, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

8 powerful examples of AI for good

February 17, 2020

Amid the cacophony of concern over artificial intelligence (AI) taking over jobs (and the world) and cheers for what it can do to increase productivity and profits, the potential for AI to do good can be overlooked. Technology leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, Huawei and Google have entire sections of their business focused on the topic and dedicate resources to build AI solutions for good and to support developers who do. In the fight to solve extraordinarily difficult challenges, humans can use all the help we can get. Here are 8 powerful examples of artificial intelligence for good as it is applied to some of the toughest challenges facing society today.

There are more than 1 billion people living with a disability around the world. Artificial intelligence can be used to amplify these people’s abilities to improve their accessibility. It can facilitate employment, improve daily life and help people living with disabilities communicate. From opening up the world of books to deaf children to narrating what it “sees” to those with visual impairments, apps and tools powered by artificial intelligence are improving accessibility.

Continue reading… “8 powerful examples of AI for good”

Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, facebook, Science & Technology News, Social Media

Human actors are changing the spread of disinformation

October 28, 2019

Disinformation campaigns used to consist of trolls and bots orchestrated and manipulated to produce a desired result. Increasingly, though, these campaigns are able to find willing human participants to amplify their messages and even generate new ones on their own.

The big picture: It’s as if they’re switching from employees to volunteers — and from participants who are in on the game to those who actually believe the disinformational payload they’re delivering.

Why it matters: Understanding this changing nature is critical to preparing for the next generation of information threats, including those facing the 2020 presidential campaign.

Speaking at Stanford University Tuesday, researcher Kate Starbird — a University of Washington professor who runs a lab that studies mass participation — traced the change across the stories of three different campaigns.

Continue reading… “Human actors are changing the spread of disinformation”

Big Problems, facebook, Google, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

The web had failed to serve humanity: Tim Berners-Lee was crushed when Russia used Facebook to meddle in U.S. elections

July 6, 2018

World wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was “devastated” by recent abuses of the web, in an interview with Vanity Fair.

He is working on a new platform, named Solid, to re-decentralise the internet and take power away from monopolies like Google and Facebook.

He still has hope that the internet can become a something that serves humanity well.

Continue reading… “The web had failed to serve humanity: Tim Berners-Lee was crushed when Russia used Facebook to meddle in U.S. elections”

Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, Internet

The era of fake video begins

May 5, 2018

The digital manipulation of video may make the current era of “fake news” seem quaint.

In a dank corner of the internet, it is possible to find actresses from Game of Thrones or Harry Potter engaged in all manner of sex acts. Or at least to the world the carnal figures look like those actresses, and the faces in the videos are indeed their own. Everything south of the neck, however, belongs to different women. An artificial intelligence has almost seamlessly stitched the familiar visages into pornographic scenes, one face swapped for another. The genre is one of the cruelest, most invasive forms of identity theft invented in the internet era. At the core of the cruelty is the acuity of the technology: A casual observer can’t easily detect the hoax.

Continue reading… “The era of fake video begins”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, facebook, Human Behavior, Social Media

Face-swapping videos could lead to more ‘fake news’

April 15, 2018

Fake news has been a problem swamping the internet. Now there is a way to make fake videos with nothing more than your laptop. FakeApp can be used to make fake videos of people using images or other videos of them. Several social media platforms are filled with these deepfakes. While the technology still needs works, it’s been used to put celebrities into pornographic films. What would happen if world leaders became digital puppets? Following is a full transcript of the video.

Continue reading… “Face-swapping videos could lead to more ‘fake news’”

Analysis, Big Problems, communication, Crazy Stuff

How Did Astronaut DNA Become ‘Fake News’?

March 18, 2018

For a brief moment, NASA found itself at the center of a digital misinformation campaign.

“After year in space, astronaut Scott Kelly no longer has same DNA as identical twin,” the headline of a story on the Today show’s website, published Thursday, declared. Seven percent of his DNA, the story says, “has not returned to normal since he returned from space.”

Continue reading… “How Did Astronaut DNA Become ‘Fake News’?”

Analysis, Culture, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News, Social Media

The grim conclusions of the largest-ever study of fake news

March 9, 2018

Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.

A large megaphone projects lies, fake news, falsehoods, and images of Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, and Hillary Clinton. A smaller megaphone projects truth.

Continue reading… “The grim conclusions of the largest-ever study of fake news”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Biotech, brain-computer interfaces, Futurist, Science & Technology News

The most futuristic predictions that came true in 2017

December 29, 2017

The trouble with the future is that it never seems to arrive. That’s why we call it the future. We consequently have this bad habit of taking the present, and all the wondrous and horrific things it has to offer, for granted. As a reminder that we’re actually living in the future of a not-so-distant past, we present to you a list of the most futuristic things that happened in 2017.

Continue reading… “The most futuristic predictions that came true in 2017”