Will AI Wipe Out Mainstream Media?

 

Available in over 30 languages and able to transmit bespoke news stories faster than ever, its threat to the mainstream media is clear. But can we trust it? And would anybody actually watch a channel that lacks the human touch? The Guardian visited the channel’s creators in Los Angeles to find out more - and to audition for a role.

Emerging artificial intelligence technology is making it even more difficult to discern what's real and what's not, worrying some about the potential impacts on politics. ABC News senior reporter Emmanuelle Saliba has more on the risks the emerging technology presents for misinformation, and how to spot fake images.

1) What is an AI news channel?

2) Who is the audience?

3) How real is it? How can you tell?

4) Is this what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the 1st Amendment? What dangers does it pose?

5) Do you think AI will wipe out mainstream media? Why/ not?

I Robot, I Media

Q. How can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communications technology?

A. By playing an active role in our media consumption, trusting reporters who demonstrate fairness and reliability over time, offering corrections when they get something wrong, and when we care enough--reading the original documents they worked from.

What is the ‘Singularity?’

Has Mark Zuckerberg already started to create it? Would you want to live there? Why/not?

Don't Panic

So long and thanks for all the fish...

Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  Do movie trailers appeal to our 'deep' or 'hyper' attention?

Douglas Adams cult classic may have been the stuff of Science Fiction in the 1970s, but one can't help compare his fictitious guide to existing modern-day technology.  Never before have we had access to so much information at our fingertips.  So why is it we seem to know so little?  

Isn't now the time to panic?

Chapter 11: Influencing Machine

Remember Jimmy Jet and his TV set?

How does TV affect our brain chemistry?

How has the Corona Pandemic affected recommendations on 'screen time?'  What are the 3 C's?

Can you put each of these innovations in the correct chronological order by numbering them from 1-18?

1) Which had the most impact on the way we get the news? The least? Explain.

2) Where do you get most of your news from? Why?

3) What new technologies have changed media in your lifetime?  The future?

Radio Free Europe

 

R.E.M. had a hit song in 1983 named after "Radio Free Europe," inspired by the federally funded news service that helped spread American ideals abroad. Now, the struggling organization, which says the Trump administration is withholding millions in funding that Congress had appropriated, is hoping a little bit of rock and roll can help keep them afloat.

The iconic rock band answered their call: They're now giving their 45-year-old smash a remix, sharing all of the proceeds from it directly to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. It's being issued on digital and on vinyl, with four other R.E.M. rarities. 

1) What is 'Radio Free Europe?'

2) How was it important, especially during the Cold War?

3) Why is it ironic that President Trump wants to shut it down?

4) How are law firms targeted by Trump responding to White House pressure?

5) Was it brave or stupid of 60 Minutes to run this story after the resignation of their own Chief Editor? Explain why?

The Matrix In Me

You can see it when you look out your window...  when you turn on your television... when you go to work.  It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.  The truth that like everyone else you were born into a prison that you can not smell or taste or touch.  A prison for your mind.  More precisely the prison OF your mind.  

We think we know the difference between when we are being rational and when we are being impulsive, but what does research show? 

Implicit.harvard.edu


How do the outcomes of this test compare to similar tests on racial bias?

1) Which of these dolls is the 'good' one?  Why?

2) Which of these dolls is the bad one?  Why?

3) Which of these dolls looks most like you?

Can we learn to be less biased?