How to Fix the Fake News Phenomenon

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Academics, medical professionals, humorists and others gathered in New York City last week at the Future Today Summit to share their expertise in how technology is changing the world, and how man can and will adjust to it. Amy Webb, After the event, Founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute, and also an adjunct professor on futures forecasting at the New York University Stern School of Business, connected with the IBM Research Blog to discuss a range of topics. The following is an excerpt of the interview which pertains specifically to the phenomenon of fake news. For the full interview visit IBM Research Blog. 

IBM Research Blog: How does the (near) future deal with fake news?

Amy Webb: This is a bigger and more complicated problem than most of us realize. One of the challenges has to do with data: what’s fake to [one person] may seem very real to someone else. As every research scientist knows, even empirical data is still subject to outside interpretation once a project is reported in the media or talked about by non-scientists. And that’s compounded in this age of social media.

We have machine learning algorithms that are just performing their prescribed functions – deliver us content that we’re likely to click on. The platforms have a financial incentive for us to click, because more clicks equal more income.

Amy Webb, Founder & CEO, Future Institute Today

The people who create those realistic looking URLs and who’ve copied popular news sites like CNN – they are also financially incentivized to create scandalous headlines and news stories that people will click on. And our attention spans are decreasing because there’s just so much competition for our eyes, ears and minds.

Let’s be clear – it’s not because of the recent [US] election that people suddenly developed this idea of fake news. Humans have been spreading misinformation since we were first grunting at each other in caves.

About six or seven years ago, we at FTI forecasted this would be an emerging problem. We recommended to a consortium of newspapers that they develop a verification system – a simple line of code – that would travel digitally wherever the news story did. At the time, there wasn’t yet a critical mass of problematic stories as we’re now seeing today, and without an immediate need they didn’t feel a sense of urgency.

I still believe this is the best way forward – to certify and verify news organizations. But now, people are looking to platforms to make that value judgment, and that’s something that makes me uncomfortable. Clearly something needs to be done – but now, everyone is scrambling, and that includes the social platforms.

Leaders should never make decisions under duress. Had they have been using the tools of a futurist, they could have foreseen today’s fake news debacle as a likely scenario and planned accordingly before the crisis hit.

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For the complete interview, visit the IBM Research Blog