4 ms·

One person's fake news is another person's entertainment. The problem is not a technical issue. It is a cultural issue. ML cannot solve a cultural issue.

tedmiston 10y ago
It'd be cool if I could adjust a parameter on how gossip-y or factual I want my news sources to be. Google News seems to have something in place with the "Interested in? / Not interested" underneath some story abstracts.
- grzm 10y ago
  Another knob I'd like would be terseness. Sometimes I want a nice, wandering, more literary piece. Sometimes I just want the facts.
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    That would be incredible. The Information is an unpopular, I think even blacklisted, news source here due to their paywall. But they do a really great job writing a very terse and high signal two-sentence takeaway for each article. I'm not a subscriber anymore (too pricy IMO), but here are some recent examples: Surge-Price Builder Leaves Uber By Amir Efrati · Monday Oct 17, 2016 > THE TAKEAWAY: One of Uber’s secret weapons in recent years was an economics professor, Keith Chen. He overhauled Uber’s surge-price algorithm and made other key contributions that helped riders, and Uber, save money. How Dropbox Doubled Down on Business Market By Steve Nellis · Thursday Sep 15, 2016 > THE TAKEAWAY: Dropbox founder Drew Houston has come to terms with the fact that his company probably isn’t the next consumer tech giant like Facebook or Google. That was reflected in a decision halfway through last year to sharpen the company’s focus on the business market, including shutting off consumer-focused apps like Carousel. I would love to have that for all tech news.
    - grzm 10y ago
      I've heard good things about The Information as well. One of the reasons they're able to do that, I suspect, is because it's behind a paywall: they can pay their journalists for quality content. There are ML systems out there for summarization. I wonder how long until the systems are good enough to provide this as well. The examples I've seen (e.g., Summly, which uses SRI tech, IIRC), are likely good enough if you just want the facts. I still want it to be well-written. Ouch. I just checked out the subscription rates for The Information. AFAICT, you can't even see the rates without supplying your name and email address. :/ Edit to add: From other sources on the internet, it looks like subscription rates are $399/year.
      - tedmiston 10y ago
        I feel the same way. Maybe there's room for a small service ($5/month) where we can submit articles that might be interesting and the most popular ones get summarized in a well-written way. I do remember the rates being hard to find as well: $39/month or $399/annual [1]. They do offer you half-price initially etc for a few months. [1]: https://www.theinformation.com/payment-policy https://www.theinformation.com/payment-policy
        grzm 10y ago
        I've thought about something along the same lines, though more in terms of "news source/quality certification". I just don't see a way to prevent the summaries/ratings from being pirated/"re-used" elsewhere.
        tedmiston 10y ago
        Hmm, well… I don't think a paywall is desirable. Maybe the summaries are free and users can pay for individual summaries that they like with microtransactions. A fractional penny up to a quarter perhaps.
        grzm 10y ago

tedmiston 10y ago

It'd be cool if I could adjust a parameter on how gossip-y or factual I want my news sources to be. Google News seems to have something in place with the "Interested in? / Not interested" underneath some story abstracts.

grzm 10y ago
Another knob I'd like would be terseness. Sometimes I want a nice, wandering, more literary piece. Sometimes I just want the facts.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  That would be incredible. The Information is an unpopular, I think even blacklisted, news source here due to their paywall. But they do a really great job writing a very terse and high signal two-sentence takeaway for each article. I'm not a subscriber anymore (too pricy IMO), but here are some recent examples: Surge-Price Builder Leaves Uber By Amir Efrati · Monday Oct 17, 2016 > THE TAKEAWAY: One of Uber’s secret weapons in recent years was an economics professor, Keith Chen. He overhauled Uber’s surge-price algorithm and made other key contributions that helped riders, and Uber, save money. How Dropbox Doubled Down on Business Market By Steve Nellis · Thursday Sep 15, 2016 > THE TAKEAWAY: Dropbox founder Drew Houston has come to terms with the fact that his company probably isn’t the next consumer tech giant like Facebook or Google. That was reflected in a decision halfway through last year to sharpen the company’s focus on the business market, including shutting off consumer-focused apps like Carousel. I would love to have that for all tech news.
  - grzm 10y ago
    I've heard good things about The Information as well. One of the reasons they're able to do that, I suspect, is because it's behind a paywall: they can pay their journalists for quality content. There are ML systems out there for summarization. I wonder how long until the systems are good enough to provide this as well. The examples I've seen (e.g., Summly, which uses SRI tech, IIRC), are likely good enough if you just want the facts. I still want it to be well-written. Ouch. I just checked out the subscription rates for The Information. AFAICT, you can't even see the rates without supplying your name and email address. :/ Edit to add: From other sources on the internet, it looks like subscription rates are $399/year.
    - tedmiston 10y ago
      I feel the same way. Maybe there's room for a small service ($5/month) where we can submit articles that might be interesting and the most popular ones get summarized in a well-written way. I do remember the rates being hard to find as well: $39/month or $399/annual [1]. They do offer you half-price initially etc for a few months. [1]: https://www.theinformation.com/payment-policy https://www.theinformation.com/payment-policy
      - grzm 10y ago
        I've thought about something along the same lines, though more in terms of "news source/quality certification". I just don't see a way to prevent the summaries/ratings from being pirated/"re-used" elsewhere.
        tedmiston 10y ago
        Hmm, well… I don't think a paywall is desirable. Maybe the summaries are free and users can pay for individual summaries that they like with microtransactions. A fractional penny up to a quarter perhaps.
        grzm 10y ago