Wave of Fake News Is Proving a Boon for the Need for Humans in Tech
October 20, 2017
We are often the first to praise the ingenious algorithms and tools that utilize big data and search muscle for good. But we are also one of the first to admit when things need to be scaled back a bit. The current news climate makes a perfect argument for that, as we discovered in a fascinating Yahoo! Finance piece, “Fake News is Still Here, Despite Efforts by Google and Facebook.”
The article lays out all the failed ways that search giants like Google and social media outlets like Facebook have failed to stop the flood of fake news. Despite the world’s sharpest algorithms and computer programs, they can’t seem to curb the onslaught of odd news.
The article wisely points out that it is not a computer problem anymore, but, instead, a human one. The solution is proving to be deceptively simple: human interaction.
Facebook said last week that it would hire an extra 1,000 people to help vet ads after it found a Russian agency bought ads meant to influence last year’s election. It’s also subjecting potentially sensitive ads , including political messages, to ‘human review.’
In July, Google revamped guidelines for human workers who help rate search results in order to limit misleading and offensive material. Earlier this year, Google also allowed users to flag so-called ‘featured snippets’ and ‘autocomplete’ suggestions if they found the content harmful.
Bravo, we say. There is a limit to what high powered search and big data can do. Sometimes it feels as if those horizons are limitless, but there is still a home for humans and that is a good thing. A balance of big data and beating human hearts seems like the best way to solve the fake news problem and perhaps many others out there.
Patrick Roland, October 20, 2017
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