The results of a Twitter project to fight fake news and propaganda were released just hours before Elon Musk took over the company on October 27. This suggests that they may have been rushed out before the change at the top.
In January of last year, Twitter started the Birdwatch project to stop the spread of false information in the US. The company asks a small group of users to label tweets that could be misleading and add notes that give more information. Then, an algorithm can choose which of these notes to show under the original tweet for US users.
For example, a tweet that says a vaccine has side effects could be put next to a note that says research shows this is only true for a small number of people who get the vaccine. This kind of claim doesn't always break Twitter's rules, which would lead to it being taken down, so these notes are meant to refute claims that are false or misleading.
Birdwatch uses a "bridging" ranking system that tries to get feedback from people with a wide range of views to get rid of bias and "bridge" the gap between different points of view. Some social media platforms use simple up-and-down voting to make content more or less visible.
Notes are only shown next to tweets if enough people with different views and from both ends of the political spectrum have rated them as helpful based on how they have interacted with other content in the past.
In its first few months, the scheme was criticized for promoting notes that weren't very accurate and didn't have any citations. But Twitter kept making changes to the tool, and the project report shows that progress was made.
In April, Twitter researchers ran a survey in which tweets picked up by the bridging algorithm were shown to users who aren't part of Birdwatch, along with some of the notes that went with them.
They found that 64% of the people who looked at the notes along with the tweets thought they were helpful. On average, notes chosen by the algorithm made it 26% less likely that people would agree with the content of a tweet that could be misleading. There were no statistically significant differences between people who said they voted for Republicans or Democrats, which suggests that political bias wasn't a problem.
Alex Mahadevan, who works at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida, says that it was "heartbreaking" to see how quickly the report was made public because it showed that Birdwatch could be shut down.
"I think the fact that many of the people who work on Birdwatch have been quiet lately makes me think that it might be in danger now that it is owned by a new company. "It looks like they're cutting back on the number of human moderators who can check on false information," he says, referring to reports that the company was denying content moderators access to the tools they needed to do their jobs.
"If it goes away, we'll lose a chance to fight misinformation in what I think is one of the least political and most palatable ways we've seen."
Musk didn't respond to a request for comment, but he has tweeted that "Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That's what we want to do."
He also wrote on Twitter that Birdwatch will be renamed Community Notes and that the project has "incredible potential" to improve the accuracy of information. A Birdwatch note was made about another of Musk's tweets, which was about Twitter's falling revenue. The note included a link to a news story about the subject.
Keith Coleman has been in charge of Twitter's Birdwatch since it started. When asked for a comment, he didn't respond, but he is thought to still be working there. In a recent tweet, he said that Twitter would keep adding 10 percent more users to Birdwatch every week. When Twitter was asked for a comment, no one was there.
If you think that SpaceX and Tesla are Musk’s only companies, then you are wrong.
He also has a company named Neuralink that is going to work on a system that works as the brain-computer interface.According to the story published in the UK paper, Musk claims that they are working on an advanced project.
Neuralink is working on a chip that will be placed just directly on the surface of your brain.
Musk’s past statement hinted that the chips by Neuralink could help you in curing depression and addiction by the process of “retraining.” The chip has passed the animal testing stage, which seems to be quite interesting.
The human trial is going to start at the end of this year, but there are no official details out about further testing and procedure.The Advanced Chip Will Take Technology To Another LevelIt will prove handy and amazing when you can stream music directly to your brain.There must be some questions in your mind like, “Will the system rewrite your personality?” “Can you edit the content of your character?” These questions might go answered until the results of the human trial come out.
Neuralink said that using this device is like learning touch-and-play musical instruments like a piano.
