The problem will increasingly be "whose algorithm do we believe". Internet has revealed that people believe mostly what they want to. We have seen that a large subset of people are believing Bill Gates is behind the pandemic. Why would masses somehow be more rational in picking the most rigorous and objective neural network to recognize deepfakes, than they are in making sense of the world in general? In the end we w…
This is absolutely right. I've become frustrated with people trying to fight misinformation by just telling anonymous strangers "facts". Algorithms are not going to help win the argument. There are a lot of people who hate those who they perceive to be "elite technocrats". And its not completely unwarranted! Its a really tricky challenge. The "steady state" of conversations online is mutual distrust. Unless we handle…
It’s even worse when you realize that most mistruths are factual. You can very easily lie with facts.
The texas sharpshooter falaft is a great example.
You get 500 samples, take 10 good samples, and say “Look! An objective truth in 10 samples we have success!”. You omit the other 490
You never said a lie, facts only, but the interpretation you lead people towards is a lie.
Or a more common example: Thing Y increases your risk of X by up to ten times!!!
Risk goes from 0.0001% to 0.001%. It’s completely irrelevant and you got a nice scary clickbait with objective facts.