Allied with AI: Get the Upper Hand on Misinformation

[ UUID ] d54af153-be09-4dda-8737-a0b2a802634a

[ Session Name ] Allied with AI: Get the Upper Hand on Misinformation [ Primary Space ] Web Literacy [ Secondary Space ] Openness

[ Submitter's Name ] Hugo Williams [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Logically

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Clara-Laeila Laudette

What will happen in your session?

We'll discuss terms like post-truth, fake news, and credibility, and try to define them as a group.

We'll also explore concepts like confirmation bias, disinformation, and claim repetition.

We'll divide workshoppers into teams, giving each an algorithmic tool to analyse news coverage. These’ll include: an Entity Sentiment Monitor (which outlets criticise/favour public figures, and at what points?); Story Continuance Graph (news-stories’ birth, growth, lifespan); First Source (tracing first recorded mentions of statistics/claims); and Headline/Body Dissonance (detecting misleading/clickbaitey headlines).

Teams then choose topics/events/entities whose news presence they’d like to analyse.

Finally, we'll assess results together, and draw possible conclusions from the editorial decisions/trends which the exercise revealed with the opportunity for participants to suggest their own tools to combat these issues.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

We’d like to test whether algorithmic tools make a tangible difference to our news consumption. Can AI help combat the digital proliferation of misinformation?

We hope our immersive exercise will trigger thoughtful engagement with misinformation. We will be urging MozzFesters to propose their own ideas at the end of the session. They’ll have just deployed new tools allowing them to investigate detailed or big-picture aspects of the news ecology. With that in mind, what different tools would they like to create?

By providing a platform where consumers can step back and assess news content qualitatively and quantitatively, we hope to increase web literacy. We’d like to help fellow netizens recognise nuances of misinformation, from satire to inaccuracies, hyperpartisanship to hoaxing.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

Projector please

Time needed

60 mins