Fake News Consumers - Computerphile

Facebook & fake news - Dr Stuart Moran is part of a team using eye-tracking to look at how people get conned by fake news stories.

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[kristinaification]

something that bothers me about this study is that the people in the study are being asked to look for the fake news and then the researchers are assuming that people would do so other wise. That is a pretty big leap to make.

[Majoen]

I am sure this comment section will have a healthy objective discussion.

[rawkolf]

I like the wine analogy - taking that further: Some are interested in the label, others just want to get drunk

[SockTaters]

Honestly, I have 0 trust in *any* organization that censors news online. Even if it's done by an AI, they'd have to feed it training data, which would doubtlessly be affected by the biases of whoever chose that training data.
EDIT: censures > censors

[DrRChandra]

I think if you rely on a computer program or AI to rate things for "truthiness, " what you get is not necessarily a better result, but perhaps the biases of whoever programmed the system.

[LazerLord]

Oh no, they're talking about something that Trump talks about and it's not a black and white answer to a math problem! I better get enraged and hit the dislike button and leave a ranty comment about agendas, propaganda, narratives, and leftism before it's too late!

[CharalamposKoundourakis]

Only 15 comments and already you see people being "Oh but my thing isn't fake." Hoo boy.

[kraken-sxys]

Fake news can be for an economical reson, lets say more clicks = more money.

[WilliamLeeSims]

I've started using 1 very simple rule: does the article allow comments. Other factors (named author, multiple sources) matter, but if no comments can be left, I assume that the article may contain false information.

[SPL-]

We are all biased and we're all going to die.

[toucaninterieur]

By reading the comments, I realised people's political orientation can greatly influence the way they look at science. It's sad, but I guess it's a human thing.

[DeoMachina]

In this objective, unbiased video, Dr Moran explains the nuances of news consumption habits, and how things like satire can easily be mistaken for real news reports. He also discusses ways of counteracting this with computers. He raises questions such as "how do we know what isn't fake news" and "can our own biases effect this effort?"

Nobody spamming the dislike button knows this though, they just read the title and felt personally attacked. Who knows why? Do they just deny the concept itself?

[juggernaut]

I actually do not understand all the dislikes. It's a good video.

[Bildungsromancuddy]

'North American House Hippo'
Like if you know what I mean.

[martixy]

But is the judgement "is this true or not" or is it "do I care if it's true or not"?

[vipero]

For everyone who has watched this video and thought "well the AI is programmed so it is biased by the programer" That isn't actually true... not in the classical sense at least. It isn't something programmed it is trained and processed via a neural network. I would think people who watch computerphile would know this... but based on the comments this doesn't seem to be the case. That doesn't change the fact that a person could train bias into it though.

I feel like this video is actually more important than just a left / right agenda argument anyhow. Viewers who took "this is just part of the (left or right) agenda" and walked away aren't quite getting the idea. Because the problem introduced is how do we actually determine truthyness without introducing bias.

Clearly everything from the BBC can't be accepted as true, likewise everything from Breitbart can't be. Every news outlet has some opponent that says whatever the opposite is. Sheer numbers in favor of one side would also not determine truthyness. This is precisely the problem.

[grn]

10:40 Do the people or organizations telling us what the truth is have any biases? 3 years later I can say quite emphatically YES, they do.

[grassyclimer]

Well just keep trying to make computer programs that can find that ultimate magical truth. Im sure it will be worth the expense.

[TechyBen]

It's like asking "how to make a hammer that does not hit people on the head"?

[Tritium]

So what's being described is a smart filter-bubble. new and improved with the developer's political bias, no effort on the user required at all.