With Great Progress Comes Great Responsibility

The dark side of technology was among the topics explored at NYC Media Lab's second Machines Media conference, which was sponsored and hosted by Bloomberg at its global headquarters in the city on May 15. Though some of the sessions were more about looking at what tech is currently available to media, even those brought up the shadow of manipulation and misinformation. In the session entitled "State of the Art," Gilad Lotan, VP, head of data science, Buzzfeed, pointed out that the problem of fake or misleading news cannot be blamed solely on media companies or new technology. "People aren't necessarily searching for facts," he said. He added that feeding that desire for stories and favored narratives can result in fake news that is "more manipulation than false information." In fact, the story delivered may not include anything false at all.