2. FOSTERING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH NON-FORMAL EDUCATION AI against fake news Fake news

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Lesson 5, Topic 4

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Fake news

Mil 3 September 2021

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Misleading people can occur accidentally – hence the importance of well defining our intention before starting to share something, but you certainly got this idea now -, but it can also lead deliberately. It is what we call “Fake News”. Sometimes, these Fake News are so convincing that we take them as true.

So let’s venture ourselves into the Fake News field now; in taking note of some examples of them firstly, in producing some of them at our turn secondly, and in learning from the hands-on how to become more able to identify them and to avoid, because of that, falling into the trap.

Mislead people

Display the 2 articles with the diplodocus in the PowerPoint.

Look at these two Fake News articles.

As you can notice, it is clear that it’s obviously not true. It looks like nothing more than a simple joke.

But let’s see with this kind of Fake News : https://www.kaggle.com/c/fake-news/data, or this article drawing a list of about 300 species of dinosaurs (to include inside the PowerPoint).

=> for this, ask Paulius because I didn’t understand completely if they are fake news or not.

Is it as clear as the previous article, that they are Fake News?

As a matter of fact, Fake News can sometimes have another face, more subtle, misleading people in a more pernicious way, more underlying and at the same time, more mastered. And it is precisely because of this expertise that it is easy to be manipulated.

This article shows us how far they can lead this influence : https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.17249.pdf

As you can see, many possibilities are reachable if we want to falsify the truth in a crafty way, surreptitiously : in keeping the same fundamentals, but in changing its surface, first appearance, first sight. It is in that way that the same celebrity can take on different emotions, hair, make-up… And so on.

So, it is what Fake News is. Pursue to the next, in producing yourself some Fake News in your turn ; and you’ll understand why this process is important to become able to identify them easier : and it will be our last subsection of this chapter.

Watch the sequence of Nightcrawler, directed by Dan Gilroy, in the Powerpoint.

Some examples : Fake News Generator

The hands-on of this Chapter 3 occurs in the middle of the chapter, unlike the two previous chapters.

Please open the Powerpoint for the hands-on!

Get straight to the heart of the matter. Cast a look at this link that draws a list of 6 websites, enabling to produce Fake News in a very feasible way : https://www.rootreport.com/fake-news-generator/

The two examples seen before, about the Diplodocus found at Uzupis, in Vilnius, came from 2 of them, that you can try at your convenience:

If you are brave enough to launch into a process slightly complex, or if you feel so comfortable with this Fake News Generator, you can also try this one :

https://colab.research.google.com/github/orpatashnik/StyleCLIP/blob/main/notebooks/StyleCLIP_global.ipynb?fbclid=IwAR3u9u0iKty0DBh3_p1bXY-uUkrapJVXne9OnexLZtG_OS_EJFcv80dfOOw

It will enable you to realise the same kind of manipulation as the ones on the pdf shared just before.

The difference between what you can generate from the first Generators and this last one, is that this last can occur more “professional”, more hard to dissect.

Can you see right now how much it doesn’t really require either skills or time and that everybody can produce some Fake News? Especially with the first websites ; but even so, a little involvement and you can become able to master the second option.

This exercise empowers you to become aware of the ease to produce Fake News, and so the ease to very frequently read Fake News without noticing there are ; these last being mixed and confused with the truth.

So, if it is so easy to relate rubbish and to manipulate people’s minds, how to be careful and not fall into this; take a step back and succeed in identifying it?

How to recognize them

Let’s start with the answer to the last question: you have already done it, partly, without realising.

Abaraham Lincoln said: “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend”.

This is exactly the philosophy of a very interesting tool that names “Grover”, and to give you an idea of its purpose, cast a glance over this article: https://cyfuture.com/blog/grover-countering-fake-news-with-ai/.

It explains that the outcome could be different according to the use of it ; and in that way, it is suggested to first and foremost understand how Fake News acts, and to develop the ability to ourselves create Fake News before pretending to be able to counter them.

This other article displays some examples of Grover capabilities concerning Fake News, and its degree of convincing : https://www.fastcompany.com/90390287/this-ai-generates-fake-news-about-anything-you-want-try-it.

Of course, Grover has a margin of error and it’s interesting to take into account that 8% of time, it is unable to detect its own fakery. And it’s also a food for thought to consider this kind of ‘mise en abyme’ it is able to realise and the reasoning that come out from that, in a philosophically way.

“Mise en abyme”, because Grover’s skills can detect Fake News, including its own Fake News, but without success in every instance ; and sometimes it can mislead itself, with its own tricks. And this idea can bring very interesting questions about this kind of leeway on which the tool can’t be influential, and that is leaving free to itself.

What is certain, is that you noticed that everything shared needs always to be reconsidered and questioned, again and again : is it the truth? Which evidence I have to prove that it is? Am I being manipulated, despite myself?

The idea to bring this chapter to a conclusion with this subsection, was to make you practice before asking yourself this question: in familiarizing with some tools during the previous subsection, you became more able to apprehend how Fake News works, and so, despite yourselves, you also became able to figure them out ; in part at least.

And, on the top of that, without knowing again, with these tools, you used AI.

Because again, isn’t it more relevant to make you be close to the heart of the matter by the experience first, before understanding its theory? So, by practising, you became aware of one of the numerous capabilities of AI: overcoming Fake News.

And so, to close this subsection and this chapter, I would like to bring another food for thought. If these tools, to counter Fake News, are generated by AI, and if Fake News themselves are also AI, can you feel the moral question behind our use of it?

It makes us think about the concept and question: the end justifies the means.

If we can indeed, from this, contribute as well as for the good or for the bad, the weight of our responsibility suddenly takes a whole different scale : can we use the same way, for a different purpose?

Otherwise, this would amount to supporting the idea of “the end justifies the means” ; in thinking about the end before even putting carefulness into our ways and means, to make them valuable and straight. And as you certainly noticed, since the beginning of the course, the emphasis is put on the idea to estimate the weight of words and all the ways you could use to convey an idea.

Because when intention is here, when you know when you want to go and the final purpose of your process, and when this is right for you, not neglecting the way to communicate them becomes as indispensable as the outcome is.

This article gives food for thought about this question: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/08/130983/were-fighting-fake-news-ai-bots-by-using-more-ai-thats-a-mistake/

You’re now ready to pass to the next chapter, the one about Artificial Intelligence, that is going to help you to not be influenced by Fake News and to be able to grasp them ; but most of all, to help you bring your words into line with your values.

Watch the sequence of Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton.

And seeing that the hands-on is already accomplished, you just now have to answer the Quiz of this last subsection.

Little conclusion before passing to the next course:

From the beginning to the end of this course, you have navigated throughout the Universe of the Words.

You have figured out how much a word isn’t just a word, that it can have a weight and destiny, and especially because of that, Fake News exists and can have a big and negative impact on people’s minds.

As the future journalists you are, it is under your responsibility to become aware of it, to become able to grasp it to not fall into its pitfalls, and for that, mastering it is a priority to better overcome it.

As mentioned; without noticing, you used AI in generating some Fake News, so you had a first glimpse of what it will result from this course, in the next one, about Investigative journalism through analytics.

Let’s pursue the coming course, so!