Submitted 1 year ago by pexavc@lemmy.world to general@lemmy.world
Have had a few pet projects in the past that around RSS aggregation/news reading, and could fact-check the sources/article while reading, also determining the biases from the grammar and linguistic patterns used by the journalist for the article. Same could be applied to comments.
Wonder if such a feature had value for a reader app for Lemmy? I feel a definitive score is toxic. But, if it were to simply display the variables to look out for it can help making an objective decision yourself?
Apart from what @AlataOrange has said, I think your “on-device model” would die of overload in its first 5 minutes of operation. Most comments are biased. Everyone has an agenda, whether they are conscious of it or not. If I want factual things, I’ll read the factual things elsewhere on the internet. If I want some buttery popcorn, I’ll microwave some and read the comments.
I guess it would only help for reading articles if anything. Or a comment that has a tone for informing such as “Actually, this is so and so because of so and so”. But, I see your point.
So, your software would go to the link provided (if there’s a link provided) and scan the text of the article for language that sounds biased. This is an interesting exercise in computer programming, but it wouldn’t be useful. Imagine the biased reaction of the user that wants or does not want the article to be judged “biased” by a computer program. I could just hear people muttering to themselves, “damn algorithm.” This is something software is getting better at, but it’s still not reliable. Take, for example, some software from my field: The kind that detects plagiarism. When I get student papers, I have to scan them through the plagiarism detector. After that, I have to inspect the ones that were flagged as “potential plagiarism.” I’ve had to use this type of software for over a decade, and it’s still problematic. I’ve had situations in which I found the plagiarism and the software did not. I’ve had countless situations in which the software found plagiarism but there was no plagiarism. So, I don’t know, your goals as a computer scientist are lofty. Still, I want you to keep your bias detecting software away from my reading in my day to day. Anyway, human beings either have the reading skills and knowledge about where to get the facts from or they do not. If they are ignorant enough to require a computer program to judge for them, they will question the software’s judgment, anyway, whether it’s right or wrong. Why? Everybody’s got an agenda.
I don’t really think this can be effectively handled by automated mechanisms tbh. If it could it might be nice, but this is tackling a social problem with a technical solution, and typically those don’t really jive, in large part because the technical solutions make the mistake of supposing an original creative position of null bias or objectivity. Alternatively, they stem from a position of overestimation of one’s knowledge and/or abilities related to subjects that they don’t in fact know much about nor have much experience in.
For example, how would this kind of software handle a case in which the facts are not fully known yet (much less the more esoteric matter of what even makes a fact)? Similarly, how would you define a bias such that it could determine the biases, and ensure that the bias determination remained accurate over time or locality (biases are notorious for changing over time and varying by place)?
This kind of software would demand not only software/programming folks but also sociologists and philosophers for handling both surveying to assess & try to define biases as well as facts and parsing the ethical impacts of making those assessments, definitions, & determinations. You’d also probably want more specialists in fields I’m unaware of or forgetting at the moment to really thoroughly handle this kind of project. Anything less, I’d argue, would result in a blunder of a project and be rather irresponsible, to say the least.
From your first paragraph, was wondering (kind of, but not related to the OP). If there is an obvious variable around education that was physically experienced how can one incorporate tech (if it’s their only tools available) to safely address the problem while being aware of original creative position of null bias or objectivity. Alternatively, they stem from a position of overestimation of one’s knowledge and/or abilities related to subjects that they don’t in fact know much about nor have much experience in.. Especially when they do not have the resources to gather data at the scale needed from every sociologist/philosopher of different focus, culture/subculture. Or the ability to be a part of higher education where you might people of this caliber?
yeah definitely agreed
If there’s a topic that you really care about, it helps to have trusted sources who also care about it in the same way that you do. Even though that means they might share your biases, it also means that they will notice and report information that matters to your shared interests.
For example, if you have a religious or ethical injunction against eating particular foods, and you want to know whether some food product meets your requirements, you probably need information from other people who share your specific rules.
If you’re kosher or vegan or locavore, you don’t need some random dude’s opinion about whether a particular food is kosher or vegan or locavore; some random dude might well be a troll trying to trick you into eating foreign cheeseburgers for the lulz. You need information from someone who cares about the same thing you do.
If you care about your town government’s decisions — like whether there should be a new bike lane put in on one particular road — you’re probably not going to get good information from a source that isn’t local. And you might additionally care about whether that source is a frothing anti-cyclist maniac or a wacko “fuck cars” ideologue or an “everything the government does is thereby wrong” libertarian or something.
I think we need more education rather than relying on technology to distinguish truth from fiction.
Yeah that is true, technology being the facilitator for teaching is still a shortcut. And a shortcut still kind of hurts the critical thinking.
A nifty thing, but it’s not really addressing the actual problem. The problem with disinformation isn’t that it merely exists, rather that it’s shoved at such a volume by groups/people who build pseudo-credibility.
Rather than targeting individual instances of disinformation, sources should be dealt with. I think it’d be far easier and more efficient if disseminators were identified and popped a warning.
Yeah that’s a great thought, focusing on the author. Like in that long thread with another user, they also identified entertaining “punditry” instead may be more useful.
AlataOrange@lemmy.world 1 year ago
My thoughts are mostly my implicit bias against machine automation, that giving over one’s thinking to machines will only lead to you being controlled by the person who controls the machine.
pexavc@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, that was an interesting shift in perspective. Good point