Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories
A decision by Elon Musk’s X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of “lies and conspiracy theories”, a former UK technology minister has warned.Damian Collins accused Musk’s firm of “leaving it to bots to edit the news” after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language models to write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before users approve them for publication.The notes have previously been written by humans.X said using AI to write factchecking notes – which sit beneath some X posts – “advances the state of the art in improving information quality on the internet”.Keith Coleman, the vice-president of product at X, said humans would review AI-generated notes and the note would appear only if people with a variety of viewpoints found it useful.
“We designed this pilot to be AI helping humans, with humans deciding,” he said.“We believe this can deliver both high quality and high trust.Additionally we published a paper along with the launch of our pilot, co-authored with professors and researchers from MIT, University of Washington, Harvard and Stanford laying out why this combination of AI and humans is such a promising direction.”But Collins said the system was already open to abuse and that AI agents working on community notes could allow “the industrial manipulation of what people see and decide to trust” on the platform, which has about 600 million users.It is the latest pushback against human factcheckers by US tech firms.
Last month Google said user-created factchecks, including by professional factchecking organisations, would be deprioritised in its search results.It said such checks were “no longer providing significant additional value for users”.In January, Meta announced it was getting rid of human factcheckers in the US and would adopt its own community notes system on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.X’s research paper outlining its new factchecking system criticised professional factchecking as often slow and limited in scale and said it “lacks trust by large sections of the public”.AI-created community notes “have the potential to be faster to produce, less effort to generate, and of high quality”, it said.
Human and AI-written notes would be submitted into the same pool and X users would vote for which were most useful and should appear on the platform,AI would draft “a neutral well-evidenced summary”, the research paper said,Trust in community notes “stems not from who drafts the notes, but from the people that evaluate them”, it said,But Andy Dudfield, the head of AI at the UK factchecking organisation Full Fact, said: “These plans risk increasing the already significant burden on human reviewers to check even more draft notes, opening the door to a worrying and plausible situation in which notes could be drafted, reviewed, and published entirely by AI without the careful consideration that human input provides,”Samuel Stockwell, a research associate at the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security at the Alan Turing Institute, said: “AI can help factcheckers process the huge volumes of claims flowing daily through social media, but much will depend on the quality of safeguards X puts in place against the risk that these AI ‘note writers’ could hallucinate and amplify misinformation in their outputs.
AI chatbots often struggle with nuance and context, but are good at confidently providing answers that sound persuasive even when untrue.That could be a dangerous combination if not effectively addressed by the platform.”Researchers have found that people perceive human-authored community notes as significantly more trustworthy than simple misinformation flags.An analysis of several hundred misleading posts on X in the run-up to last year’s presidential election found that in three-quarters of cases, accurate community notes were not being displayed, indicating they were not being upvoted by users.These misleading posts, including claims that Democrats were importing illegal voters and the 2020 presidential election was stolen, amassed more than 2bn views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Pound and UK bonds recovering after Starmer backs Reeves, easing market panic – business live
The market’s attention is now turning to whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves is really as safe as Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suggested, says Kallum Pickering, chief economist at UK investment bank Peel Hunt.Pickering suggests there are three possible outcomes, writing:Reeves stays because Starmer realises that markets see her as less bad than the alternatives and because, put plainly, history shows that Prime Ministers who sack their Chancellors rarely last long either;Reeves is replaced by a presumed safe pair of hands (such as Pat McFadden) once markets have settled – but to restore credibility her replacement will need to stare down and win a budget fight with the far-left fringe of the Labour Party, which now appears to be the tail that wags the dog on fiscal policy; orStarmer may brief against Reeves to suggest she is the reason Labour promised not to raise the big three taxes (income tax, VAT and employee NI) before forcing her to raise one of them at the budget to get the finances on track, then sack her and let her to take the blame for the fiscal failures during the first 18 months in office.Pickering also warns that the next few days and weeks may be choppy in the run-up to 9 July, when the pause on Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs is due to end.Following on from my initial reaction yesterday, a few more thoughts on the situation in UK bond markets:1. For all the talk about big market moves, we must not lose sight of the fact that GBP/USD is up 9% year-to-date (see chart) and a 4
Nearly 1,000 Britons will keep shorter working week after trial
Nearly 1,000 British workers will keep a shorter working week after the latest trial of a four-day week and similar changes to traditional working patterns.All 17 British businesses in a six-month trial of the four-day week said they would continue with an arrangement consisting of either four days a week or nine days a fortnight. All the employees remained on their full salary.The trial was organised by the 4 Day Week Foundation, a group campaigning for more businesses to take up shorter working weeks.The latest test follows a larger six-month pilot in 2022, involving almost 3,000 employees, which ended in 56 of 61 companies cutting down their hours from a five-day working week
Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories
A decision by Elon Musk’s X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of “lies and conspiracy theories”, a former UK technology minister has warned.Damian Collins accused Musk’s firm of “leaving it to bots to edit the news” after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language models to write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before users approve them for publication. The notes have previously been written by humans.X said using AI to write factchecking notes – which sit beneath some X posts – “advances the state of the art in improving information quality on the internet”.Keith Coleman, the vice-president of product at X, said humans would review AI-generated notes and the note would appear only if people with a variety of viewpoints found it useful
AI helps find formula for paint to keep buildings cooler
AI-engineered paint could reduce the sweltering urban heat island effect in cities and cut air-conditioning bills, scientists have claimed, as machine learning accelerates the creation of new materials for everything from electric motors to carbon capture.Materials experts have used artificial intelligence to formulate new coatings that can keep buildings between 5C and 20C cooler than normal paint after exposure to midday sun. They could also be applied to cars, trains, electrical equipment and other objects that will require more cooling in a world that is heating up.Using machine learning, researchers at universities in the US, China, Singapore and Sweden designed new paint formulas tuned to best reflect the sun’s rays and emit heat, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the science journal Nature.It is the latest example of AI being used to leapfrog traditional trial-and-error approaches to scientific advances
Owen Farrell in line for Lions call-up to Australia after Elliot Daly arm injury
Andy Farrell is understood to be on the verge of calling up his son Owen to join the British & Irish Lions squad in Australia as a replacement for Elliot Daly who is set to be ruled out of the tour with a broken forearm. Farrell Jr, consequently, is in line to feature on his fourth Lions expedition at the age of 33.With 112 caps for England and six Lions Test appearances, there is no question about Farrell’s big game experience nor his relentless competitive edge. He has endured an injury-plagued Top 14 season at Racing 92, however, and has not played international rugby since the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.In January last year Farrell announced he was stepping away from Test rugby to “prioritise his and his family’s mental wellbeing” but his father suggested when the squad was announced that the door could yet re-open
Architect behind MCG’s Shane Warne Stand says mooted upgrades ‘don’t pass the pub test’
The architect who helped design the MCG’s Shane Warne Stand has urged the Melbourne Cricket Club to reconsider plans to demolish and replace the venerated grandstand, given the mooted upgrades – estimated to cost $200,000 per additional seat – don’t “pass the pub test”.The towering structure formerly known as the Great Southern Stand, which won a prominent design award as recently as 2020 and is younger than Collingwood midfielder Steele Sidebottom, was completed in 1992 on the narrow envelope between the hallowed MCG turf and Brunton Avenue, adjacent to the train tracks south of the stadium. It was renamed in honour of Warne after the leg-spinner’s death in 2022.MCC president, Fred Oldfield, told members at his organisation’s AGM last year the 45,000-seat stand, which received a $55m refurbishment in 2012, will need a “complete rebuild” at some stage, and the chief executive, Stuart Fox, has described it as a “priority”.The MCC operates the ground on behalf of the Victorian government-appointed MCG Trust, the organisation chaired by former Victorian premier Steve Bracks with former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire on its board
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