3 ms·
Not the OP but I think he might be referencing this study from Columbia where they found that the “Featured” articles were mostly left-leaning: https://dl.acm.o
by temikus 5y ago
Not the OP but I think he might be referencing this study from Columbia where they found that the “Featured” articles were mostly left-leaning: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300683 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300683
The cause of this is debatable though - be it editorialisation, unconscious bias on behalf of people working on the algorithms or some common qualities to the websites that lean a certain way politically.
- quacked 5y agoNo, it's overt--I wish I could find this for you, but I saw a tweet from an apparently reputable source, it was a Google engineer saying "I'm so proud of the work our team has done to make it more difficult to find misinformation using Google". Naturally, "misinformation" means whatever the G-engineers want it to mean.
- temikus 5y agoI used to work for GOOG and one thing I can attest to that bias is taken VERY seriously, so it’s not quite that simple.
- quacked 5y agoI'm not necessarily saying I don't believe you--obviously you'd know more about working there than I would. But can you explain to me why in 2010 if I googled "evidence the moon landing was faked" I got a huge list of conspiracy sites, and now if I Google the same query I only receive articles and websites alleging the exact opposite of what I searched?
- temikus 5y agoI would apply Occam’s razor for this - the topic is becoming less and less relevant: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0kw5f https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0...
- P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul 5y agoI currently work for Youtube. We identify conspiracy-seeking queries, and then boost results from authoritative sources. Don't see why we wouldn't also be doing this on Google. Maybe people don't bother searching for things when the results suck (or maybe they just use alternative means of searching)?
- quacked 5y agoSee, this is what I assumed was going on, and also what that engineer from Google was saying.
- quacked 5y agoHow long ago were you working there? I noticed this trend only in the past five years.
- temikus 5y agoNot that long ago. 2 years.
- tonymet 5y agobias is taken seriously and compensated for, hence ML Fairness. it's applied bias to counterbalance prior bias.