Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Democracy and the information ecosystem are inextricably linked

Fake vs. Fact
joreks/Getty Images

Frazier is an assistant professor at the Crump College of Law at St. Thomas University. Starting this summer, he will serve as a Tarbell fellow.

Artificial intelligence has rightfully caused a lot of folks to become concerned about our marketplace of ideas. In an information ecosystem already flooded with fake news, harmful content and hot takes, the last thing we needed was new tools to make creating and sharing that content even easier. Our lack of preparedness for this glut of generated trash was made clear this month when deceptive and sexually explicit AI-generated content claiming to depict Taylor Swift went viral. Platforms tried to stop the spread but policing the internet for bad content is like playing whack-a-mole across the solar system – you’re going to lose.


Still the fight to preserve our information ecosystem is one we can’t surrender. And thankfully a lot of smart folks are thinking through ways to reduce the virality of certain content, give users more control over their feeds, increase the supply of verified news, or some combination of all three. I applaud and appreciate these efforts. Count me among those who think we can and must take drastic action.

My own proposal is a “Right to Reality” — in exchange for creating a platform with a specific feed reserved for verified news institutions that would help shore up our information ecosystem and sustain local and nonprofit news organizations, companies could receive a government subsidy. Is it a complete fix? No. Is it a step toward making it easier for more people to access more reliable and actionable news? Yes, and that’s not nothing at a time when it’s becoming harder and harder for folks to trust and understand what they read and see.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

But we also need to wake up to a much more basic reality: “reliable and actionable” news isn’t in high demand. You can label content. You can fact-check articles. You can verify users. All of that won’t necessarily change the fact that many people prioritize content that makes them feel understood or part of a larger community than news that covers the local city council, the state budget, or the ins and outs of the economy.

The upshot is that our information ecosystem won’t improve until our democracy improves. People will only seek out “good” news if they think it’s worth reading. For a lot of folks, reading about democracy’s slow, deliberate processes is even worse than eating vegetables — at least those do something good for you. Why stay up on news that seems entirely out of your control? Why track bills that reflect the controls of special interests more so than Main Street concerns?

I get it. There are certainly days I’d rather not dig into the weeds of the latest debates in D.C. or my state legislature. And there are definitely times I opt for Netflix over watching hearings. But, in the same way you don’t need to exclusively eat veggies to be healthy, reading “good” news and participating in our democracy doesn’t have to consume you to still lead to positive outcomes.

The point is that we have to make democratic reform a part of the larger conversation about our marketplace of ideas. We can’t expect people to read about candidates who don’t listen to them. Nor can we anticipate people will read NPR’s breakdown of legislation that is likely to fail. If we want a more engaged and informed public, we need a more responsive and participatory democracy.

Read More

People standing outside the Capitol

Dozens of members of Congress have had their likeness used in nonconsensual intimate imagery, otherwise known as deepfake porn. The majority of those impacted are women.

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

AI enters Congress: Sexually explicit deepfakes target women lawmakers

Originally published by The 19th.

More than two dozen members of Congress have been the victims of sexually explicit deepfakes — and an overwhelming majority of those impacted are women, according to a new study that spotlights the stark gender disparity in this technology and the evolving risks for women’s participation in politics and other forms of civic engagement.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nvidia building and logo

The world came to a near standstill last month as everyone awaited Nvidia’s financial outlook.

Cheng Xin/Getty Images

Is AI too big to fail?

This is the first entry in “Big Tech and Democracy,” a series designed to assist American citizens in understanding the impact technology is having — and will have — on our democracy. The series will explore the benefits and risks that lie ahead and offer possible solutions.

In the span of two or so years, OpenAI, Nvidia and a handful of other companies essential to the development of artificial intelligence have become economic behemoths. Their valuations and stock prices have soared. Their products have become essential to Fortune 500 companies. Their business plans are the focus of the national security industry. Their collapse would be, well, unacceptable. They are too big to fail.

The good news is we’ve been in similar situations before. The bad news is we’ve yet to really learn our lesson.

Keep ReadingShow less

Berwyn Collaborative: Understanding Community Needs

“We have good people here, and if we have help highlighting our good people, we can connect more, collaborate more, be more creative, and resist harder,” said Berwyn resident Isabel Gonzalez Smith.

On a breezy November Saturday afternoon, members of the Cook County suburban city, had the opportunity to meet with local journalists and be heard at the Liberty Cultural Center in Berwyn, IL.

Keep ReadingShow less
disinformation spelled out
TolikoffPhotography/Getty Images

Listening in a time of disinformation

The very fabric of truth is unraveling at an alarming rate; Howard Thurman's wisdom about listening for the sound of the genuine is not just relevant but urgent. In the face of the escalating crisis of disinformation, distortion and the unsettling normalization of immoral and unethical practices, particularly in electoral politics and executive leadership, the need to cultivate the art of discernment and informed listening is more pressing than ever.
Keep ReadingShow less