I spend a fair amount of time reading articles across a wide variety of sources. If I have a question with what the writer/author is talking about, I go look for other articles on that same subject. Some agree, others don’t. Opinion is opinion, and I respect that. Facts, however, are facts.
It gets difficult sometimes to separate what is fact from what is opinion, especially when opinion is told as fact. This is a Presidential Election year, and mixed with further divides on social media, a tidal wave of opinion pieces comes crashing down. And then there’s the “trojan horses” out there, designed to look like opinions, but are completely false stories propped up by opposing sides, trying to make the opposite side look foolish and stupid. One way this is so successful is because of bias.
Ah, yes. The ever blinding personal bias, which shapes what we say, what we believe, and how we react to opposing views. This is what makes clickbait so valuable to some writers. (Seriously, it wouldn’t be too hard to make one of these. I’ve thought about it more than I should.) So what makes someone hold on to bias despite evidence that supports a different idea?
In Artificial Intelligence, when you create a learning bot/AI, you need a core value or point in which it can reference itself from. Something in which all accumulated knowledge is based on. This is a hard thing to think about. What will the foundation of your knowledge be?
Let’s do a thought experiment. Borrowing a line from Spock, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.’ Let’s make this a core belief. Now let’s apply a couple of recent items.
Transgender bathrooms, which have used up so much digital ink, are a hot button issue. You would be against it using this core belief. It doesn’t help the majority. It only helps just a fraction of people. Gun Rights, which is always an explosive topic. You would be against that, too. Where does that put you on the political divide, anyway?
So, let’s apply this core belief for sources. Especially sources on the internet. What do you believe is a core source? Something that you can check other sources against for validity?
Here is my ultimate crux. There isn’t one. Though central news places deal in facts, intermixed are opinion pieces from reporters and editors. And how many stories give the full, unfiltered truth? Everyone has a bias.
I’m going to end this with a question, because I’m curious: What site on the internet do you consider your core source, that you trust what they say above all others?