Hello this is Christopher Brennan.
This week we’re taking a closer look at what’s on everyone’s mind: what does the Omicron variant mean for another coronavirus winter?
Each new strain means new waves of misinformation. Early in the crisis was particularly difficult: everything like lockdowns and restrictions and variants was all so new.
Newness is of course one of the key features of “news.” This makes the job of sorting truth from fiction quite difficult. Even if you had a giant database of all the knowledge in the world written down (and who would decide what goes in?), it would be next to useless in determining whether new events were true or false.
Then how do you sort through information online?
Part of Overtone’s answer is context. You can’t automatically check any article out there for truth, but you can use technology to say that it looks very similar to a debunked article that was published a year ago, using similar language and emotions. Our AI systems help with this process, by comparing thousands of articles for relevant signals.
So it’s good to dive in deeper into what AI really is, what it does, what it can do – and what it cannot not do. This week I chatted about some of the topics from last newsletter’s discussion of Data, data, data, with Carl-Gustav Lindén, of the University of Bergen, Norway.
“Journalists basically misunderstand what AI is about. They look at it as robots, The Terminator. While AI is keyword extraction, comment moderation. It’s all of these tedious processes that no journalists want to do [...]”
- Carl-Gustav Lindén
Looking at how information is conveyed is particularly useful when something new comes along, like the Omicron variant. Conspiracy theorists have already shoehorned it into their own evolving explanations of the way the world works, and their articles and posts are similar to the ones they were putting out a year ago.
Your risk of getting bad information is also reduced if you focus on content features like quality. This week’s articles showcase original reporting not just around Omicron but around the world of health, which we think gives good context about where we are in the pandemic.
How does media compete with tech? It’s data, not robots
An interview with Carl-Gustav Lindén of University of Bergen
Quality stories you might have missed that our algorithm suggests:
Will we always need Covid-19 boosters? Experts have theories - STAT News
Hospital workers told to get own lateral flow tests amid NHS shortage - The Independent
I disguised myself as a Covid ICU doctor to care for my grandmother. Now, the Russian government is after me - Coda Story
The First Year of COVID: Half of San Diego Pandemic Deaths Were Immigrants - Voice of San Diego
How can New Mexico solve its nurse shortage? It’s complicated. - Searchlight NM
Post-Pandemic, What’s a Phone Call From Your Physician Worth? - Kaiser Health News
Did Omicron evolve in an immuno-suppressed person? If so, what can be done? - London Evening Standard
Inside the Botswana lab that discovered Omicron - Al Jazeera
Beyond Omicron: what’s next for COVID’s viral evolution - Nature
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