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Kite News

kite.kagi.com

131–140 of 155 posts

Re: Kite News

#131
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Echo chambers exist in all communities, and you may be in one whether or not you're aware of it. The only way to step outside of them, if you're at all interested in doing so, is to experience what's happening in other communities. Sometimes those external viewpoints are extreme, and your instinct might be to ignore them. But I would rather know that they exist and what they are, than to completely isolate myself fro…

Reciprocally though, the mainstreamification of alternative facts has been a constant drumbeat for a decade now. 'Go find your own news/views/facts! The mainstream is bad! The echo chambers: oh no!' I definitely want a massive diversity of views and opinions. But I'm severely anti-interested in people crusading against consensual reality, anyone who seems to dance around truth. So many alternate views obscure reality…

I agree that the intentional spreading of disinformation is harmful to civilized discourse. It's definitely not practical to give it the same attention as you would factual information. But I think we can do something about it.

The reason disinformation dominates our communication channels is because the people who engage in it are given the same voice and platform as reliable sources of information. I'm not a believer in censorship or deplatforming, but we should attack this from the other side. Make factual sources even more prominent, give them more visibility, and make the signal louder than the noise. The way to fight (m|d)isinformation is to drown it with factual information.

The first step towards this is to establish trustworthy sources of information, both in the form of traditional media and online. This can be done by making news outlets non-profit public services, and journalism a licensed profession. An international standards body with independent oversight can be established to hold official news outlets accountable. By removing the profit incentives and ensuring that reporting is done with transparency and integrity, the public will rely on official sources more than random social media influencers. The noise will continue to exist, but it won't matter if people know who can be trusted.

I don't see another way out of our current situation. Those who believe that the truth will float to the top among the noise, and that people are smart enough to tell them apart, are deluding themselves. This will only get worse now that we have AI out in the wild, and it's easier than ever to generate content that appears accurate. If nothing is done about this we will continue to regress into chaos, while the 1% in power only grow richer and more powerful. Perhaps we are past the point of no return already.

Re: Kite News

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi First, it's a great idea! The "introductory" speech is interesting then... the result is really disappointing :-( You see: I'm French (and European). So, I don't necessarily consider that "Trump" is the center of the "World" (actually quite the opposite). However, on the "World" tab, 50% of the news are about "Trump". I would have thought that the aim of this kind of newsfeed is to challenge Trump tactic's of "new…

Your feelings against news focused on America are valid, but there's no denying that the second Trump administration is such a world-shaking event, in a scale not foreseen by mainstream media or markets, that it would be weird not to have it everywhere. "President of the richest country in history unilaterally tariffs the entire world without approval of Congress" is, like it or not, a bigger headline than Europe's e…

Actually, I dont need a "smart newsfeed" to hear about Trump. Smart is not about who is doing the show every day, it's about what's important and may be missed

Re: Kite News

#133

Remember when we paid for Kagi because it was "search"? I was basically an unpaid sponsor of them for the last year or so, but damn this constant pipeline of new shiny stuff is getting on my nerves. How can a company focus on building a good search engine with a good index and algo if they are also developing a translator, an LLM assistant and now a damn news app? Please, Vlad, just build different companies and stop…

You forgot browser and email. Have some faith, young padavan.

Re: Kite News

#134

Kagi founder here. This is prematurely shared and not ready for prime time yet. Official launch with mobile apps will happen soon. Thanks!

Hi First, it's a great idea! The "introductory" speech is interesting then... the result is really disappointing :-( You see: I'm French (and European). So, I don't necessarily consider that "Trump" is the center of the "World" (actually quite the opposite). However, on the "World" tab, 50% of the news are about "Trump". I would have thought that the aim of this kind of newsfeed is to challenge Trump tactic's of "new…

It is not by choice, but because that is what all major world outlets are writing about (and Kagi News has super diverse selection of sources). What makes an event 'significant' is number of publishers writing about it.

Re: Kite News

#135

The announcement talks a big talk of trying to avoid echo-chambers, but the sources it quotes seem to be exclusively on the center-right (i.e. liberal) to far-right spectrum. Not a single left wing source as far as I can see. Everything contained within the pro-capitalist echochamber. No Jacobin, No Novara Media, No WSWS. Just another way of rearranging the same pro-market propaganda. As a paying Kagi subscriber, it'…

> No Jacobin, No Novara Media, No WSWS.

Thanks for the idea.

Re: Kite News

#136
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> News never changed. It was always exactly like this. That's not true. Bias and agenda have always existed, but there was a time when news sources clearly distinguished facts from opinions. In the US the shift arguably happened in 1987 when the fairness doctrine was abolished, and for-profit media companies were given freedom to publish anything they wanted. The 24/7 news cycle was established, and news sources oper…

>That's not true. Bias and agenda have always existed, but there was a time when news sources clearly distinguished facts from opinions. In the US the shift arguably happened in 1987 when the fairness doctrine was abolished, and for-profit media companies were given freedom to publish anything they wanted. It's plausible that pre-1987 that journalism was better but I very much doubt it. There's tons of Vietnam war er…

> It's plausible that pre-1987 that journalism was better but I very much doubt it.

Thankfully, you can look up archive footage and print media to confirm this. Or talk to people who lived it.

> There's tons of Vietnam war era journalism that was terribly bad.

I didn't say all of it was good. I said that that the line between fact and opinion was clearer. I'm not that old, but I remember when newspapers had an editorial section. This was a single-page essay about popular topics written by senior editors that was clearly labeled as an opinion piece. This meant that the rest of the paper was not an opinion, and contained purely facts.

After media companies became for-profit organizations, the editorial didn't make sense, since they could fill the entire edition with opinions. And, wouldn't you know it, if they reported more of a certain type of event and gave it a specific spin, they would get more eyeballs, and more profit from advertisers. Outrage media and spin doctors were born.

> Depends on your point of view. From government point of view it's terrible. If it's journalists being held accountable for their lies and agendas, way worse.

You have a twisted perspective that governments, and somehow by association journalists, are the only ones with an agenda, and can't be trusted.

While that might be the case, what makes you trust a random social media influencer more? Influencers are even more susceptible to being corrupted by whoever's sponsoring them. At least with propaganda from governments and traditional media you know what their agendas are. I know what to expect from Fox News and CNN. It's practically impossible to know the type of agenda of a million different voices all shouting into the void.

> That's how freedom of the press works correct. If you dont have moral and integrity, good luck getting an audience.

Wow. Are you new to the internet? That statement is blatantly false if you check any social media site.

> The government regulating the news is literally the opposite of freedom of the press.

I'm not advocating for the government to regulate the news. What I'm advocating for is for establishing certain standards that media outlets must adhere to in order to operate. This could ideally be done via an international body with independent oversight, and not just by a single government. The financial incentive must also be removed, and news outlets should operate as non-profit public services rather than corporations.

If done correctly, this could ensure transparency and integrity in news reporting, and bring ethics back into journalism.

> So the government will revoke freedom of the press and license journalists? Just dont do that in my country, thanks.

Freedom of the press doesn't mean that everyone should have an equal voice in reporting facts about the world. You really think that a social media influencer can be relied on to report facts more than a news agency with actual journalists? That's delusional.

The reason licenses for journalists are a good idea is the same reason why we require one for doctors, civil engineers, and other professions where human lives are at stake. Information is one of the most important factors in the wellbeing of a modern society. By ensuring that only individuals who study the craft and pledge to abide to certain ethical and integrity standards can practice journalism, we could establish trustworthy news sources, and regain public trust in news agencies. This would make whatever nonsense is spewed on social media irrelevant.

> You want the government to license journalists. You want to make the government the arbiter of truth.

You are intentionally misinterpreting what I say, so I'll refrain from replying again. What I said was that if only facts are reported there wouldn't need to be an arbitrer of truth, because the facts could be easily verified. If multiple independent and trustworthy sources report the same story with the same facts, then it must be true. The government nor anyone else couldn't have a say in the matter.

Re: Kite News

#137

The announcement talks a big talk of trying to avoid echo-chambers, but the sources it quotes seem to be exclusively on the center-right (i.e. liberal) to far-right spectrum. Not a single left wing source as far as I can see. Everything contained within the pro-capitalist echochamber. No Jacobin, No Novara Media, No WSWS. Just another way of rearranging the same pro-market propaganda. As a paying Kagi subscriber, it'…

> No Jacobin, No Novara Media, No WSWS. Thanks for the idea.

If you mean it - hvala ti brate, from a fellow Jugosloven ;)

I love the search product - thank you for keeping the internet usable!

Re: Kite News

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are echo chambers on both ends of the political spectrum (and for various subcultures) but it’s obvious they are real if you are in the centre and find yourself politically homeless between two progressively extreme groups who are doing the same shit with different flavours.

> if you are in the centre and find yourself politically homeless This is also an echo chamber

every downvote is proving my point :)

Re: Kite News

#139
post #4

> World doesn't live in echo chambers. The reality emerges from the collision of different viewpoints and perspectives - that's how we separate signal from noise To be honest, when people start talking about "echo chambers" it's usually because they are upset that I won't listen to bigoted alt-right hate. For me this term has gained a really negative connotation. I understand the problem but hearing the same tired ra…

I said this before in another comment a while ago, but we have echo chambers in real life: they're called friends.

I won't be friends with assholes, but, for some reason, there's this sort of expectation to humor crazy people. I'd rather just call you crazy and move on. Bonus points if we don't interact in the first place.

Re: Kite News

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say this like you think you're making some kind of clever point. Just to pick one easy example, the confederate states of america employed agents to advocate for peace treaties and cease fires during the civil war. By all reasonable classifications, they were "enemy agents trying to weaken our resolve". Would some people have benefitted from a peace treaty? Of course. Would everyone have benefitted equally? Obvio…

Exactly, I'm with you. People who claim to "advocate for moderation" or for "depolarization" are always enemy agents or AI bots who get paid a salary from the enemy to try to weaken us. We must stand firm in our psychological self defence, and only listen to verified and trusted sources and people. We have to diligently prune our friend groups and family from those who have been infected with wrongthink and started w…

Jesus Christ, the sarcasm is thick. You even used the word "wrongthink".

It's not a conspiracy or anything like you're describing, it's that moderate politics is often just... wrong. Believe it or not, there's sometimes a right answer, and a wrong answer. And if you go "in the middle" you end up being wrong.

I mean, take a small gander a history. There's usually a right answer... and a wrong one. Typically, in the moment, the people don't know that. So some construct middle-ground that they believe seems reasonable. Then, we look back on it, and say "what the fuck were you thinking". And that's how we end up with bullshit like the 3/5ths compromise. Seriously, what the fuck was that?

Point being, simply being moderate or depolarized doesn't save you. Consider that, in some countries right now, moderate positions are pro-genocide. Because that's how far gone the politics in said country are.

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