Ecolution talks disinformation, fake news and fact vs opinion
In this episode of Ecolution, RTÉ's climate podcast for young people, we take on the scurge of disinformation.
On the show your host Evy speaks to the organisations at the Voices International Festival of Journalism in Zagreb who are fighting fake news on all fronts. Plus, we talk lies and misinformation with our brain trust from 3rd class at Stepaside ETNS.
Listen to the Ecolution podcast on RTÉ, Apple or Spotify now. And, watch our panel discuss disinformation and fake news on RTÉ Kids YouTube up top.
Once you're online there can be a big divide between what's a fact and what is nothing but opinion. A fact is backed up by research and science. An opinion is nothing but a feeling people have about a subject. And can be informed by other people. Or by only finding your news online.
People say no news is good news. But over the past year it seems we've been bombarded with news that seems confusing, scary, hard to decipher and yet impossible to ignore. Information that claims the climate crisis is a hoax. Or that having a more sustainable place to live is a conspiracy built to control people. And lots of people want to listen. Because the bigger and louder the story, the more it spreads.
Disinformation is false information. Information that is not true but that is being shared as if it's a fact. And these "alternative facts" are offered to intentionally mislead people. Sometimes by people in positions of real power. The rise of deepfake videos and AI generated images that seem totally real has made the line between fact and fiction even more blurry. Children and adults alike can be caught out. And when big social media companies are removing the people they once employed to check facts, that online space becomes a place where disinformation grows.
When we're trying to work out if a statement is true or false we use lots of different senses. It depends on who is saying it. Their tone of voice. How they build their sentences, and then what kind of body language they use to help them explain. And, for all of that, there's still a chance that there is more behind what people say than we can know. And, when we see something online, even more of these signals are either missing, or impossible to read.
Increasingly, we get most of our information about climate and news online. The key to making sense of it is to become more Media Literate. Media literacy is all about how we consume content - from TikTok to TV, to news articles online, and how we learn to ask the right questions of ourselves when we see something that doesn't seem right.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Journal
9 hours ago
- The Journal
What the hell happened to Google search?
LET'S SAY YOU want a list of Irish ministers. So you google it, of course. The fact that it's its own verb sums up pretty neatly Google's total dominance of online search. 'I'll Bing it,' said no-one, ever. (Sorry, Microsoft.) is the world's most used website . Ninety percent of internet searches go through the company's search engine. It's the front door to the internet, and a navigational tool on which we have become entirely dependent. Who among us has typed out a url in the last decade? Whether you have an Android or an Apple phone, that's Google search you're using when you open your browser. But something has gone wrong. Search for 'Irish ministers' and the top result is… Pat Breen? ( The Journal checked this on several users' desktop browsers with the same result.) Breen was never a minister. He was a junior minister – and that was a while ago now. He lost his seat two elections ago, in 2020. A government website with a full list of current government ministers is quite a bit down the results page. Pat Breen, the Platonic ideal of an Irish minister, according to Google. Google Google Sponsored posts The utility of the search engine has been particularly eroded when it comes to anything that could be sold to you, with top results likely to all be from companies that have paid to skip up the ranking to a position where they would not have organically surfaced. These paid-for top results, which take up more and more space on the search engine results page, are also partly based on your browsing history rather than what you are currently looking for. So a search from an Irish location for 'the best place to buy children's shoes', for instance, can contain sponsored top results for (a) shops that don't sell children's shoes or (b) British online-only retailers. (Good luck buying children's shoes without trying them on.) There are useful results amid the debris of sponsored links and below the paid-for top table, but it feels like harder work than it once was to find them. This isn't helped by the fact that sponsored links are not very visually distinct from organic results. It's hard not to click on them. Ads on search are how Google makes most of its money. ChatGPT's challenge to Google And then, of course, there's the new AI Overview that, for the past year, has appeared in response to certain types of queries. Now, the integration of AI into search is about to be turbocharged as Google goes on the offensive against ChatGPT. It may not be its own verb yet, but for many people, OpenAI's chatbot is becoming as automatic and intuitive a go-to as Google. Liz Carolan, a tech consultant and author of The Briefing newsletter, says that while Google hasn't shared data on the drop-off in people using its search engine, all the signs are that the switch to ChatGPT has been 'profound'. Where once we would have googled, 'what time is the Eurovision', now we are asking chatbots. So Google is becoming a chatbot too. In May, Google began to roll out the next step up from AI Overview. AI Mode, which has been launched in the US, will deliver customised answers to users' questions, including charts and other features, rather than serving up a lists of links. These answers will be personalised based on past browsing history. You will even be able to integrate it with your Gmail account to allow further personalisation. At first, AI Mode will be a distinct option in search, but its features and capabilities will gradually be integrated into the core search product, Google has said . Carolan says this will be as fundamental a change to how we interact with the internet as the original arrival of Google search. 'Instead of navigating between links, we're going to end up using a single interface: a chatbot querying the websites that exist and delivering back to you its interpretation of that, in a conversational style,' she explains. An example of an AI Overview result in Google. Google Google AI nonsense The first problem is, Google's AI results can be nonsense . Kris Shrisnak, a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties working on AI and tech, says people need to understand one fundamental point about the large language models (LLMs) on which chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google's Gemini AI are based: they are not designed to be accurate. 'When they're accurate, they are coincidentally accurate,' Shrisnak says. 'They're accurate by accident, rather than by design.' For example, Carolan recently wanted to check how many working days there are in June. Google's AI-generated top result helpfully explained that there are 21 working days and no public holidays in June. If you specify 'in Ireland', Google says there are 22 working days and no public holidays. Both answers are wrong. There are 20 working days in June, and the first Monday is always a public holiday. ChatGPT didn't know that either. It counted the bank holiday twice. Google isn't planning to take Monday off. Google Google 'It's just blatantly inaccurate,' Carolan says. 'People are relying on it, and it's giving them inaccurate information.' Aoife McIlraith, managing director of Luminosity Digital marketing agency, says Google had almost certainly released its AI search product sooner than it wanted to. 'There's huge pressure on them. It's the first time they actually had competition in the market for search. It will definitely get better, but it's going to take some time,' McIlraith says. Google defended AI Overviews, telling The Journal that people prefer search with this feature. It said AI Overview was designed to bring people 'reliable and relevant information' from 'top web results', and included links. Advertisement Enshittification Even setting aside the incorporation of undercooked AI answers into results, Google's traditional search product does not seem to be working as well as it once did. Journalist Cory Doctorow coined the term 'enshittification ' in 2022 to describe the pattern whereby the value to users of platforms – be it Amazon, TikTok, Facebook or Twitter – gradually declines over time. Doctorow argued that platforms start by offering something good to users (like an excellent search engine), then they abuse their users to serve business customers (search results buried under ads), and then they abuse both users and business customers to serve their shareholders. Documents released in 2023 as part of a US Department of Justice antitrust case against Google gave a rare insider view of the top of the company, revealing that in 2019 there were tensions over the direction of search. The documents suggested a boardroom struggle over whether Google's search team should be more focused on the effectiveness of the product, or on growing the number of user queries (a better search engine would mean fewer queries, and therefore fewer ads viewed). In one email, the head of search complained his team was 'getting too involved with ads for the good of the product'. Google said this weekend that this executive's testimony at trial had 'contextualised' these documents and clarified the company's focus on users. 'The changes we launch to search are designed to benefit users,' Google said. 'And to be clear: the organic results you see in search are not affected by our ads systems.' Carolan says it's impossible to know exactly what has happened within Google's algorithm, but the quality filters that were once in place to keep low-quality results further down the ranking seem to be struggling to hold back the tide. Visibility on Google can be gamed using certain practices known as search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is the reason why, for example, online recipes often contain weird, boring essays above the list of ingredients. All publishers use SEO, but the quality of search results is degraded when low quality websites are able to abuse SEO to boost their Google ranking. 'Maybe investment within search engines are going more towards AI than they are towards just sustaining the core search product,' Carolan says. 'It's very hard to say because all of this is happening in very untransparent ways. Nobody gets to see how decisions are being made.' McIlraith says it's widely believed in her industry that recent changes to Google's algorithm – in particular an August 2022 update called, ironically, 'Helpful Content' – have corrupted results. She believes this is having a bigger impact in smaller markets such as Ireland, with more . websites appearing in Irish users' results, for example. 'A lot of people in my industry have been shouting about this, particularly in the past 18 months,' McIlraith says. Google said it makes thousands of changes to search every year to improve it, and it's continuously adapting to address new spam techniques. 'Our recent updates aim to connect people with content that is helpful, satisfying and original, from a diverse range of sites across the web,' it said. For what it's worth, Shrisnak doesn't use Google now, favouring DuckDuckGo, an alternative search engine based on Google that feels a lot like the Google of old. It doesn't collect user data (and is capable of correctly identifying the current government of Ireland). What happens next? Google says AI is getting us to stay where it wants us: on Google. CEO Sundar Pichai has suggested that AI encourages users to spend more time searching for answers online, growing the overall advertising market. Google says AI Overviews have increased usage by 10% for the type of queries that show overview results. Soon, Irish users are likely to see advertising integrated into AI Overview. The company is telling advertisers this will be a powerful tool, putting their ads in front of us at an important, previously inaccessible moment when we are just beginning to think about something. But AI raises existential questions for the production of content for the web as we know it, both in its ability to generate content and as it's being applied in search. In the jargon of digital marketing, the problem is known as 'zero click'. You ask Google a question and get an answer – maybe an AI-generated one – without ever having to click on a blue link. McIlraith says: 'The biggest challenge for all of my clients and the wider industry is that Google is flatly refusing to give us any data around zero click. We cannot see how much our brand is showing up in search results where no click is being attributed.' Until now, there was an unwritten contract: websites provided Google with information for free, and benefited from Google-generated traffic. This contract is broken when Google morphs into a single interface scraping the web to feed its AI in a way that negates the need to click through links to websites to find information. 'The challenge then really becomes, why would I create content?' McIlraith says. 'Why would I create content on my website just for these AIs to come along and scrape it?' Already there are challenges to ChatGPT's practices, with publishers led by the New York Times suing OpenAI over its use of copyrighted works. News/Media Alliance, the trade association representing all the biggest news publishers in the US, last month condemned AI Mode as 'the definition of theft'. 'Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue,' the alliance said. 'Now Google just takes content by force.' Google CEO Sundar Pichai was grilled about this by US tech news website The Verge last week. He said AI Mode would provide sources, adding that for the past year Google has been sending traffic to a broader base of websites and this will continue. He did not give a definitive answer when asked by whether a 45% increase in web pages over the past two years was the result of more of the web being generated by AI, stating that 'people are producing a lot of content'. Carolan speculates that in the single interface, linkless future, with the business model of web publishing broken, the risk is that the internet starts to eat itself: regurgitating AI slop rather than sustaining the production of original material. The information Google's AI Mode and ChatGPT and the rest are feeding off will then degrade. Late stage enshittification. AI search itself may improve, but these improvements will be undermined by this disintegration of the information environment. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... Our Explainer articles bring context and explanations in plain language to help make sense of complex issues. We're asking readers like you to support us so we can continue to provide helpful context to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Learn More Support The Journal
RTÉ News
17 hours ago
- RTÉ News
In the age of AI, is doubt becoming a political strategy?
When video footage of French President Emmanuel Macron appearing to have an altercation with his wife Brigitte circulated online last week, the Élysée Palace initially suggested the footage could have been created using AI. The footage was later confirmed to be real. As references to AI become more common in political discourse, what happens when democratic governments begin using it to question the authenticity of real events? Last Sunday the Associated Press (AP) captured footage showing French President Emmanuel Macron stepping off a plane in Vietnam, followed closely by his wife, Brigitte Macron. As the doors open, she appears to push him in the face with both hands. In the video, President Macron looks momentarily startled, before quickly regaining his composure and waving out through the plane's open doorway. With Brigitte Macron mostly hidden by the plane, it's hard to know the full context or what preceded the push — but the clip still spread widely online. As the clip gained traction, journalists covering the president sought answers. According to a French political journalist who spoke to RTÉ, a senior adviser to President Macron initially suggested to reporters asking questions about the push that the video may have been AI-generated. The explanation was offered before any formal verification had taken place and, according to those briefed, was the first line of response to a potentially sensitive story. However, the Élysée Palace later acknowledged that the footage was genuine and described the incident as a private interaction between the couple. But this clarification only came after the AP published the video in its entirety, which ruled out the suggestion that it was generated using AI. The response from the senior adviser also came just weeks after Macron was the target of a viral disinformation campaign, in which he was falsely accused of handling a bag of cocaine during a diplomatic meeting, an incident that some suggest may have influenced their instinct to invoke AI as an explanation. While debate about the Vietnam plane video, and what may have prompted the push from Brigitte, has continued throughout the week, less attention has been paid to the early suggestion that AI might have been involved. That offhand remark, reported widely in the hours after the clip emerged, raises broader questions about how some democracies are beginning to invoke AI in moments of uncertainty, according to some experts. Dr Tetyana Lokot, an associate professor at Dublin City University who researches digital governance and state media strategies, says moments like this can erode trust in democratic institutions. "It's not just the deepfakes themselves that undermines people's trust in the media or in, political officials or leaders but also very often the shorthand is like, 'oh, this is a deepfake.' It becomes harder for people to distinguish between claims of credibility or how to verify something," Dr Lokot said. It also raises a tougher question, according to Dr Lokot. If a democratic government casts doubt on real footage, what happens when an authoritarian regime does the same, and people can't tell the difference? "It almost amplifies this effect of like 'we don't really know who to trust,' which I think is a much bigger problem. It basically undermines trust in the democratic process." Dr Lokot also notes that beyond questions of public trust, AI is increasingly being used not just as a threat to guard against, but as a way for governments to shape narratives and reassert a sense of control during moments of uncertainty. "When you have a situation where you don't feel like you're in control, which you could argue this was one such situation, you can fall back on the myth of AI as a very powerful technology that's very easily appropriated," Dr Lokot said. "The key concern [for governments] is: 'how do we make sure that we're in control?'" she added. Others say that while governments may reach for AI as a way to reassert control, sometimes it's just a sign of how wired we've become to question everything, especially when AI is involved. Claire Wardle, a professor at Cornell University in New York and a leading expert on misinformation, says the Macron case may also reflect a more instinctive response, a symptom of how easily doubt creeps in when AI is part of the conversation. "What I don't know about this... is did they [the Élysée Palace] know and they were trying to cover it up, or did they just go, 'oh, there's no way that she would appear like that, so it must be a deepfake,'" Ms Wardle said. "It's just a horrible reminder to advisers. Never say something is a deepfake until you know it's verified," Ms Wardle added. She adds that in a climate where trust in institutions is already at a low point, even a throwaway remark can deepen public suspicion. "We already know that we're in trouble here and people are not trusting politicians. They believe they're being lied to, which in some countries they increasingly are. This becomes just another way they can do it: by telling us it's a deepfake when it's not." Ms Wardle also says the confusion around the Macron clip taps into a deeper problem that researchers like her have been warning about for years — the risk that AI doesn't just create fake content, but also gives people cover to dismiss real events. "Photography came along and we were like, 'we can hold people accountable.' And then AI technology took that away. It's broken the foundations upon which we stand." And when those foundations crack, whether it's the French president having an altercation with his wife or something more mundane, Ms Wardle says the result can be the same: a sense that nothing can be trusted. "Whether it's frivolous Instagram posts, or it's French politicians, or war crimes. In a very short space of time, the foundation we've relied on to understand reality has disappeared. And that's what's so terrifying."
Extra.ie
19 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Cynthia vs Mary? Fianna Fáil may soon choose between key contenders for presidency battle
Former Minister Mary Hanafin has discussed her potential presidential candidacy with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and is now actively lobbying members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to be given a run at the Áras. Senior party figures this weekend confirmed that they are considering approaching a number of candidates and hope to have come close to a decision next month. After soundings by the party leadership, enthusiasm for an 'RTÉ' candidate such as Joe Duffy or Miriam O'Callaghan has waned, and the party appears to be leaning towards an established or former politician. It's understood that a wing of the party would like to see the party select newly elected MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú as its presidential candidate, as her RTÉ associations are in the distant past. Cynthia Ni Mhurchu Pic: Leah Farrell/© It was early discussions about a potential Ní Mhurchú candidacy that inspired supporters to ask her fellow MEP, Barry Andrews, to put his name forward; however, he has shown no obvious public enthusiasm as yet. Ms Hanafin approached members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last week seeking their support. She confirmed to them that she had spoken to Mr Martin, the ultimate decision-maker, and claimed that the discussion on her potential candidacy went well. However, many powerful figures in Fianna Fáil, underwhelmed by the calibre of potential candidates, do not favour running any candidate in next November's election. Mary Hanafin. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. The party estimates a presidential election campaign, coming the year after the local, European and general election, would cost between €700,000 and €1m. However, other senior party figures argue it is necessary to field a candidate to prevent voters who have returned to Fianna Fáil from voting for another party, and also to block the election of an extreme or populist candidate. Many within the political system have been uneasy about the increasingly controversial interventions, particularly in foreign affairs matters, of the outgoing President, Michael D. Higgins. Pic: Joe Giddens –There is hope that the next successful candidate would adhere to the established parameters of the office and not make controversial statements about government policy. Former EU Commissioner, MEP and RTÉ broadcaster Mairead McGuinness could well be selected unopposed as Fine Gael's candidate as the party leadership is firmly behind her candidacy. There was speculation that singer and Senator Frances Black could run as a leftwing candidate with the support of Sinn Féin, but she recently denied interest. Pic:Within Sinn Féin circles, it has been rumoured that Northern MP John Finucane could be a candidate for the party. There is also a belief within Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that a strong candidate on both tickets could help the other to be elected, with transfers between the two candidates in the accelerated manner that was witnessed on general election ballots. However, relations between the two old Civil War parties are deteriorating every day in Government, and there is little hope of Fianna Fáil acquiescing to a Fine Gael suggestion that they back their candidate, most likely Ms McGuinness. There is also a lack of enthusiasm across the centrist parties for a presidential election so soon after a bruising and expensive 2024, during which there were three nationwide elections. One Fianna Fáil minister told the Irish Mail on Sunday: 'I see the advantage of there being some co-operation between the two parties. However, I don't see that we should be selecting a candidate just to get Mairead McGuinness elected, that's not the way. 'Established politicians that would have a good chance of attracting a strong vote have no interest in that office as they would feel they have things to achieve. Otherwise, the Áras is something of an open prison, with all the public focus and no power. 'And a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael president will not be given the latitude Michael D has.' Fianna Fáil MEPs Barry Andrews and Billy Kelleher were spotted in Leinster House last week, but it is believed any interest they may have in a presidential run is lukewarm. It is understood that their recently elected colleague, Ms Ní Mhurchú, would be more open to a run for the Park. Those who joined her on the European election campaign trail last summer described her as an impressive campaigner. One TD said: 'She doesn't hold back, that's for sure, but she has the basic talent of confidently asking voters for their vote, in an engaging manner. You'd be surprised how that is lacking in some.' Asked about a potential presidential run, Ms Ní Mhurchú told the MoS: 'I am an MEP for Ireland South. That is what I am focused on right now. It's a job I love and I am grateful for voters giving me this opportunity to serve them. I have given no thought whatsoever to a race for the presidency nor have I canvassed or sought a nomination within Fianna Fáil. 'I was flattered and honoured to be mentioned in press coverage on it, but like I said no plans, and now I am focused on the very busy task at hand – being an MEP – and preparing for another presidency, that of Ireland's presidency of the Council of the EU in 2026.' Mary Hanafin became an education minister under Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004, after serving as government chief whip from 2002 to 2004. She subsequently served as Minister of Social Protection and as Minister of Arts. Ms Hanafin was deputy leader of the party for five weeks at the start of 2011, appointed by Mr Martin after he succeeded Brian Cowen as Fianna Fáil leader. She lost her seat in the 2011 election and failed to regain it in 2016. She was elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in 2014 and 2019, serving as Cathaoirleach between 2022 and 2023. In 2020, she again unsuccessfully contested the general election. Ms Hanafin, whose husband, Eamon Leahy, a senior counsel, died suddenly in 2003 at the age of 46, has started practising as a barrister in recent years.
