CNET Is Quietly Publishing Entire Articles Generated By AI

Off we go with Robot Journalism ... 

CNET Is Quietly Publishing Entire Articles Generated By AI,   By Futurism, January 12, 2023

CNET is far from the first; the Associated Press has been using AI to automatically write thousands of earnings reports since 2015.

Next time you're on your favorite news site, you might want to double check the byline to see if it was written by an actual human.

CNET, a massively popular tech news outlet, has been quietly employing the help of "automation technology" — a stylistic euphemism for AI — on a new wave of financial explainer articles, seemingly starting around November of last year.

In the absence of any formal announcement or coverage, it appears that this was first spotted by online marketer Gael Breton in a tweet on Wednesday.

The articles are published under the unassuming appellation of "CNET Money Staff," and encompass topics like "Should You Break an Early CD for a Better Rate?" or "What is Zelle and How Does It Work?"

From Futurism   View Full Article    

Meta Designated as Extremest

 In BBC, already seen widely in the news.

Russia confirms Meta's designation as extremist

The Russian authorities have added Meta - which owns Facebook and Instagram - to a list of terrorist and extremist organisations, the country's Interfax agency reports.

The two platforms were banned in Russia in March for "Russophobia".

It followed Meta's announcement it would permit posts such as "death to Russian invaders" but not credible threats against civilians

Meta appealed against the ban but it was upheld by a Moscow court in June.

The ban did not apply to WhatsApp, which Meta also owns. ... ' 

Pre Bunking against Misinformation

Mostly,  always consider the source

Fighting Against Misinformation

By Associated Press, August 30, 2022

The researchers said short online videos that teach basic critical thinking skills can make people better able to resist misinformation online.

Researchers at the U.K.'s Cambridge University and University of Bristol, the University of Western Australia, and Google have found that "pre-bunking" is a simple and promising method to prevent misinformation.

Pre-bunking involves using fictional examples to teach people how misinformation works and how to become resistant to it.

The researchers created short online videos akin to public service announcements, highlighting certain misinformation techniques, like emotionally charged language, personal attacks, and false comparisons of unrelated items.

After giving participants a series of claims, the researchers found that those who watched the videos were better able to distinguish between false and accurate information.

Google now will issue a series of pre-bunking videos on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok in Eastern Europe on scapegoating, which has been seen in misinformation campaigns about Ukrainian refugees. 

   APNews   

Google Assistant will Play You the News

Interesting next step .....  though every aggregation of news from multiple sources has a pre existing narrative driven bias.    Learned or scripted in some way.     And if we disagree with the aggregation, or algorithm how do we unravel it to find the sources?  This is an 'algorithmic news feed'.      Will be testing it.

Hey Google, play me the news   By Liz Gannes
Product Manager, News in the Google Blog

Podcasting and digital audio are booming, but in many ways the audio web is like the text web of the 1990s. When newspapers first came online, their early sites were hard to navigate and search, didn’t link stories together and often published stories on the web after they went to print. Audio is similar today. It’s an evocative, powerful, massively popular and convenient medium—but because the digital experience has lagged, it’s difficult to find things, especially timely, relevant stories that are meaningful to you. 

At Google, we saw an opportunity to help move digital audio forward by focusing on audio news. By analyzing what’s being said within a given audio file, we can apply our understanding around what text articles are about, how news stories evolve, how topics link together and what might be most relevant to a particular user’s interests. 

Today, we’re introducing Your News Update, a smarter way to listen to the news hosted by the Google Assistant. You can try it today by updating your Assistant news settings.

When you say, “Hey Google, play me the news” on any Assistant-enabled phone or smart speaker, Your News Update will begin with a mix of short news stories chosen in that moment based on your interests, location, user history and preferences, as well as the top news stories out there.

If you’re a Steelers fan who follows the stock market and lives in Chicago, for example, you might hear a story about the latest “L” construction, an analysis of last Thursday’s Steelers game and a market update, in addition to the latest national headlines. Keep listening and the experience will extend into longer-form content that dives deeper on your interests. In between stories, the Google Assistant serves as your smart news host that introduces which publishers and updates are next.  .... "

Google Wants to be Your AI Edited News Radio

So Google will control editing and presentation of news.  Placement of Ads.  Assembled with AI analysis.  Already being delivered to some assistants.  Right now assistants stream selected radio stations.  More control from mega computing?  What are the implications?

Google wants to replace your radio as an audio news source

Google is getting into AI-curated news playlists
By Shannon Liao@Shannon_Liao  in theVerge

You’ll soon be able to listen to an audio news playlist curated by Google Assistant to inform you on the topics you’re interested in. Google’s latest Assistant feature uses artificial intelligence to help make these custom news bundles, and it’s available today for a limited number of users.  ... "