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Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

boringreport.org

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Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the news isn't that it's sensationalized, which of course it is, but that an ever increasing amount of it is completely made up.

Hm, maybe from some news outlets. I think the main issue for big news outlets isn't outright falsehoods, it's the coverage bias. You really can't get a full sense of what's going on if you don't make an effort to get news from divergent sources because each outlet covers the news that fits its preferred narrative.

What are "divergent sources" anyway?

On anything that matters, all sources just copy AP or each other, and maybe splice in some random tweets. Once you're looking at a topic where the news source is providing some kind of opinion, it's a clear sign you're dealing with some thoroughly irrelevant bullshit non-issue, and closing the tab is the best thing you could do now.

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#152

I've also been thinking about processing news with LMs, but from a different angle. One big complaint I have for reading news through RSS, is that there's no natural hierarchy/priority to the news. There's no front page, no headline, no size in RSS feeds. Given the way news agencies generates those feeds, there are _tons_ of repetition, tiny updates, some insignificant one-liner interview about some significant event…

I had nearly the same idea as you around surfacing what is "important" vs just a large list of RSS articles. The main differences compared to what you are thinking are two things. One for the `Significance of the event` I've used the number of publishers talking about that event. So more publishers == more important. Two, I've done this in a daily fashion instead of a weekly report. I can also confirm that the LM has…

Are you curating the list of publishers somehow? I would imagine the AP/AFP newswire repost circuit/echo chamber would result in overestimating importance of a lot of crapola and underestimate the importance of investigative pieces for example.

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#154
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is precisely the type of editorial affordance I would expect the AI to strip. This is just another way for media organizations to distort the news. I look forward to those enhancements

False metadata for rich media is a damned tough problem to target. Putting aside any actually truthful captions, how do I know that "image of X" is actually an image of X? Reading some of the Bellingcat investigations, and time spent, doesn't bode well. I guess you could TinEye and index/hash the entire web's worth of rich media, then spot discrepancies (listed as X here, but Y there), but that seems horrendous in co…

>>seems horrendous in compute/bandwidth/storage terms

Yes, but the usefulness of being able to automate that identification in near-real-time to debunk the firehose of falsehoods we get from everywhere would be astronomical

Anyone reading would have a huge edge in both being more accurately grounded in reality and being able to identify the biggest/hottest disinformation streams

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#155
post #41
post #22

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified before a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on September 22, 2022. Dimon mentioned that as the U.S. nears a potential default on its sovereign debt, markets could experience panic. ... [1] He said that today, but in an interview with Bloomberg. The source article[2] just illustrates it with an archive photo from 2022, when he testified in a Senate hearing. Simi…

In fairness to the AI, I have often been confused by stock images or old images on news articles that are not from the event in question.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come around to there being legitimate usecases for this type of generative AI, but I don't think producing anything that's supposed to be "True" or "Correct" is one. I think the only useful usecases is for when you want to generate fiction.

Writing summaries of documents and correspondence is one of the major use cases of those models. Desensitionalization and debullshittification are very similar to summarization, so it stands to reason LLMs should handle these tasks just as well.

Summarized bullshit is still bullshit akin to a polished turd.

Given that the choice of which articles to write is incredibly biased to begin with this approach does not seem effective.

What could theoretically work is an “AI news agency” that “summarizes” many different sources to generate unbiased articles.

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the news isn't that it's sensationalized, which of course it is, but that an ever increasing amount of it is completely made up.

Hm, maybe from some news outlets. I think the main issue for big news outlets isn't outright falsehoods, it's the coverage bias. You really can't get a full sense of what's going on if you don't make an effort to get news from divergent sources because each outlet covers the news that fits its preferred narrative.

Ah, the sweet aroma of coverage bias, isn't it just the spice of the journalistic world? The quest to avoid blatant falsehoods is relatively straightforward, much like a game of whack-a-mole. Identify the blabbermouths, the rumor-mongers, the peddlers of deceit, and voila! You've successfully exiled them from your daily news diet. A glorious accomplishment, indeed!

However, when it comes to bias, things get somewhat...messy. It's like trying to play chess on a board that keeps shifting under your fingers. An insidious infiltrator, bias sneakily weaves itself into the fabric of reporting, subtly influencing what gets attention and what doesn't. We're all detectives in this narrative, sifting through data, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

News, like science, isn't a perfect process. What's chosen for investigation often matters as much as the ensuing results. News sources, then, become our guides in this complex labyrinth, and their credibility can make or break our understanding of the world. The elusive "objective narrative" might be a mirage, but some news oases are certainly closer to the wellspring of reality than others.

Now, consider the ill-advised adventurer who thinks they're diversifying their media intake by adding a dash of conspiracy theory and a sprinkle of sensationalism. Suddenly, they're questioning whether 5G is responsible for a global pandemic. A fascinating thought, no doubt, but one that's more suited for a science fiction novel, perhaps?

Practicality is key. If you're a trans individual or a parent of a trans child in Florida, news headlines like "Florida's Draconian Measures Against Trans Kids" are crucial for your well-being. If, however, you're more interested in the intricate dance of global finances, a business-centric outlet would be your go-to.

Media mammoths like The Washington Post and The New York Times attempt to cater to this myriad of needs, breaking down their content into neatly packaged sections like sports, economy, politics, culture, and so on. Yet, their own peculiar biases can sometimes stain the narrative (ahem, New York Times and your unfortunate penchant for trans panic stories).

In short, my dear friend, finding balance in news consumption is less like a serene ballet and more like a lively tango. You're constantly adjusting, recalibrating, and challenging your understanding of the world. Bias will always be there, lingering in the shadows. The trick is not to eliminate it, but to dance with it.

Re: Show HN: Boring Report, a news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

#159

Do you generate the headline from the original headline, or do you desensationalize the body of the article and then ask OpenAI to generate a headline based off of the new article body? It seems like the latter might be better, since it ensures the headline actually matches the article below, as opposed to relying on a likely-clickbaity title that would no longer match the desensationalized article body. Probably wor…

Also, in a couple of cases the desensationalising has removed (useful) information. E.g. in https://www.boringreport.org/app/all/645d396cf7c90670355a6c7... the headline is "Supreme Court Decisions in Two Cases" missing any of the stuff about corruption in the original headline "Supreme Court sides with ex-Cuomo aide and Buffalo developer in disputes over corruption convictions".

(also, that click jacking to prevent copy/paste is a PITA)

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