‘The ability to read and write’ is a definition of literacy presented by Merriam-Webster. However, to put this more in detail, it would contain the ability to find a hidden intention behind given information. People have started paying more attention since the 2020 United States presidential election due to the distinct nature of media publishing and spreading fake news like wildfire.
The rapid development of AI technology also contributed to the confusion surrounding visual ‘information’, leading us to create a forum that covers another dimension of media literacy.
Oren Etzioni, a professor at Washington University came up with ‘TrueMedia’ as a response. Right under its slogan, ‘Identifying Political Deepfakes in Social Media Using AI’, shows a countdown to the 2024 United States presidential election: which shares the goal of this nonprofit organization straightforwardly.
A two-minute demo video by TrueMedia showed us several distinctive points. Its design to guide users to put social network services’ links instead of traditional media is the first; it recognizes the shift of main sources needed for people’s decision-making. Secondly, its ability to provide various confidences of probability calculated by seven AI models shows its careful approach to minimizing errors.
Of course, TrueMedia isn’t open for everyone – yet it will provide us better opportunities to navigate, therefore questioning the hidden intention behind visual information we bump into the political decision-making process – since “we must learn how to use this technology” to survive through this “can no longer believe your own eyes and ears” era as Amitai Etzioni revealed in the interview with Oren Etzioni.
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