Can crowd-sourced journalism be a medicine for the fake news epidemic?

15

October

2019

5/5 (1)

The world is experiencing a fake news epidemic, and clickbait hype, that has been affecting the news industry for the past years and reduced the credibility of legacy publishers (Knight foundation, 2018). So where can we still find reliable news? Within the news industry, one innovation particularly stands out: the ‘wisdom of crowds’ machine of Nwzer (Innovation Factory, 2017). It is based on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ philosophy by James Surowiecki, who believed that  ‘large groups of people are smarter than an elite few’ (Surowiecki, 2014), and.  combines artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to create trustworthy news articles by using user input (Innovation Factory, 2017). It’s reinventing the way news articles are written by giving consumers the possibility to contribute to, and edit, articles instead of saving these roles solely for a handful of journalists and editors in established publishing houses.

Nwzer’s founder, Karim Maassen (2017), describes it as the result of when Twitter, Reddit, and Wikipedia had a baby. Maassen (2017) noticed that consumers have a need to share their opinions with the world and engage with the news, as they currently do on existing social media outlets. However, the classical editorialism in existing publishing houses leaves most of such user input untapped.

Nwzer aims to give everyone the power to participate in a global discussion free from bias or influence and tackles the issues that come from parallel collaboration, as is the case with Wikipedia, where different inputs can ‘conflict, erase or duplicate content’ (Maassen, 2017). Through the use of machine learning the drawbacks of a parallel collaboration are tackled. It is used to merge user inputs simultaneously in real-time into ‘one semantically correct article, ready for syndication’ (Innovation Factory, 2017). AI is used to ensure that cohesive articles are produced out of all the generated user inputs. Blockchain technology is used to make sure credit can be given to collaborators as it serves as the public ledger of all transactions and user inputs, with its main function being to prevent revisionist history, while also being transparent (Hernández, 2018).

Considering that Wikipedia, based on the same ‘wisdom of crowds’ principle, is found to often provide a similar quality level as existing encyclopaedias, the question rises whether Nwzer could do the same for the news industry (Terdiman, 2005). And going even further, will it be able to provide a trustworthy news source for consumers in this age of fake news? What do you think?


Hernández, O. (2018). Nwzer. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@Ornella/nwzer-dc6acc4b03eb

Innovation Factory (2017). Nwzer funded by Google Digital News Initiative. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@BrightlandsIF/nwzer-funded-by-google-digital-news-initiative-59f1c3508384

Knight foundation (2018). INDICATORS OF NEWS MEDIA TRUST. [online] Available at: https://knightfoundation.org/reports/indicators-of-news-media-trust

Maassen, K. (2017). What if Reddit, Twitter and Facebook had a baby?. [online] Medium. Available at: https://buzzrobot.com/what-if-reddit-twitter-and-facebook-had-a-baby-e5f392715b8d

Terdiman, D. (2005). Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica. [online] CNET. Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/study-wikipedia-as-accurate-as-britannica/.

 

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Can AI save our animals?

16

September

2019

5/5 (2)

Humanity has wiped out 60% of animals worldwide in just over 40 years. Deforestation, plastic pollution in our oceans, poaching activities are some of the ways in how we are pushing many animals to extinction (WWF, 2018). Thus if we want to halt wildlife decline we should engage in effective conservation programs. However, to make sure conservation is effective we need to understand animal behaviour and be able to make correct population estimates. This is where AI can come into place.
The elephant listening project in the Republic of Congo is one of many examples where AI is showing great potential to support scientists and protect the animals. A Microsoft AI for Earth grantee, Conservation Metrics, is using machine learning to ‘distinguish between forest elephant calls and all the other sounds in a noisy tropical rainforest’ (IT-online, 2018). Where in the past shifting through this data could take several months the use of AI is increasing the efficiency of this procedure. The information generated from this can then be used to ‘ build more accurate and frequent population estimates, track their movements, provide better security and potentially to identify individual animals, which can’t be easily seen from the air’ (IT-online, 2018).
AI is also used in projects related to saving the world’s tallest animal, the giraffe. Giraffe numbers have decreased by 40% in the past 30 years across Africa. Biologists are rushing to better understand their numbers, movements and preferred habitat so that those areas can be better protected (Casselman, 2018). Wild me, a conservation tech non-profit, developed the Wildbook software program to be able to automatically identify individual giraffes based on their unique coat pattern or other specific characteristics. Giraffe photos and the respective location data is uploaded to the Giraffespotter database and from this, a population assessment emerges (Casselman, 2018). The database is accessible for the public so everyone from park rangers to tourists can help with the research (Giraffespotter, n.d.)
With worldwide depletion of animal populations, it is now more important than ever to have effective and efficient conservation programs. AI might just be the tool that can help save our animals.

Casselman, A. (2018, November 13). How artificial intelligence is changing wildlife research. Retrieved from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/artificial-intelligence-counts-wild-animals/
Giraffespotter. (n.d.). GiraffeSpotter – Wildbook for Giraffe. Retrieved from Giraffespotter: https://giraffespotter.org/overview.jsp
IT-Online. (2018, August 16). AI, IoT take on wildlife conservation. Retrieved from IT-Online: https://it-online.co.za/2018/08/16/ai-iot-take-on-wildlife-conservation/
WWF. (2018). Living Planet Report 2018: Aiming Higher. Gland, Switzerland: WWF.

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