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Another reminder that emotion trumps (unintentional pun) reasoning on social media. I find it depressing that people don't spend any time verifying stories and

Another reminder that emotion trumps (unintentional pun) reasoning on social media. I find it depressing that people don't spend any time verifying stories and separating facts from fiction. I would classify the #deleteuber event as a form of fake news. You know what would be a good personal assistant or bot to build (using ML)? One that detects and informs users about fake news. Apparently the vast majority of people are pathetic at detecting fake news and this fact has real implications.

kkhire 10y ago
>I find it depressing that people don't spend any time verifying stories and separating facts from fiction. I would classify the #deleteuber event as a form of fake news. The worst part is, this problem will only continue. It's so easy to fake news these days, and lets say a bot was built to vet authenticity...which bot do you trust, the one made by CNN or breitbart? it just feeds back to the original problem, except a bot doing it would just increase the volume of bias news stories that are "vetted" by their version of the truth.
- ianai 10y ago
  Maybe the thing to do is make a fake news app. Just pump that channel so full with fake news that the only rational option is to seek less news, higher quality.
  - abpavel 10y ago
    You mean The Onion?
3131s 10y ago
Considering that the user base of HN can't even agree on what is and isn't fake news, I'd say your fake news bot is an AI-complete problem.
cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
The problem with fake news is not the fake news itself. Fake articles have existed for a long time. The real problem is people becoming idiots and sharing stuff they want to believe even though they question whether it's fake or not.
makomk 10y ago
It's worse than that - people don't care. I've seen people admit that something they post is fake, then say that they'll go on spreading it anyway. Even respectable, well-known members of the tech industry whose names most people here would recognize.

kkhire 10y ago

>I find it depressing that people don't spend any time verifying stories and separating facts from fiction. I would classify the #deleteuber event as a form of fake news. The worst part is, this problem will only continue. It's so easy to fake news these days, and lets say a bot was built to vet authenticity...which bot do you trust, the one made by CNN or breitbart? it just feeds back to the original problem, except a bot doing it would just increase the volume of bias news stories that are "vetted" by their version of the truth.

ianai 10y ago
Maybe the thing to do is make a fake news app. Just pump that channel so full with fake news that the only rational option is to seek less news, higher quality.
- abpavel 10y ago
  You mean The Onion?

3131s 10y ago

Considering that the user base of HN can't even agree on what is and isn't fake news, I'd say your fake news bot is an AI-complete problem.

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago

The problem with fake news is not the fake news itself. Fake articles have existed for a long time. The real problem is people becoming idiots and sharing stuff they want to believe even though they question whether it's fake or not.

makomk 10y ago

It's worse than that - people don't care. I've seen people admit that something they post is fake, then say that they'll go on spreading it anyway. Even respectable, well-known members of the tech industry whose names most people here would recognize.