University of Kwazulu-Natal

An Ai Powered Bias Meter For News Really Forbes

Bonisiwe Shabane
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an ai powered bias meter for news really forbes

The story of how technology is driving changes in the way journalism is done, is always full of interesting twists. Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong recently announced plans to introduce an AI-powered bias meter for news at the paper. It’s not entirely clear how it’d work, but it is supposed to analyze a story to understand if it’s skewed in favor of a specific point of view, and then provide, on demand, a... The rationale behind the introduction of the feature seems to be the idea that news and opinion are not separated enough, nowadays, and that readers are losing trust in the media. There’s certainly some truth in that, but I can see why journalists feel outraged and think that "the newspaper’s owner has publicly suggested his staff harbors bias, without offering evidence or examples". However, what’s interesting to me here is not so much the debate itself, but the proposed cure for the supposed problem.

Using some kind of algorithm to make up for a perceived lack of credibility is precisely the idea a tech (biotech, in this case) entrepreneur could have - and in fact the tool will... On a deeper level, it seems to fit into the "solutionist" line of thinking made famous by Evgeny Morozov a few years ago - the idea that there’s a technological solution to any kind... Even typically human issues, such as the lack of trust in a relationship (the one between readers and writers, in this case), could be solved frictionlessly with the right app or code. This is problematic on many levels. First, one could argue that the mutual distrust that we are currently witnessing in society in general and between mainstream media and a significant part of the audience in particular, is actually fuelled and... L.A.

Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has announced he will incorporate a bias meter in the paper's coverage that will be powered by AI. This comes after a stream of controversies at the storied paper. The Los Angeles Times has been mired in controversy the last few months. In October, the paper's owner, billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked the paper from endorsing then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, causing some staffers to quit in protest. Then, earlier this month, he announced a bias meter that he says will accompany LA Times coverage.

So what does all of this mean for the LA Times and other news organizations? For more, we're joined now by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Hi, David. CHANG: OK, so just help us understand what's going on here. Like, how long has this shake-up at the Times been going on, from what you can tell? FOLKENFLIK: Well, look.

You know, Dr. Soon-Shiong is a billionaire medical innovator and inventor, and he was seen as something of a savior nearly seven years ago, when he stepped into the breach to buy the LA Times. And he's subsidized a heck of a lot of losses since, and they've had some real job cuts in recent times. There's been a lot of concern and anxiety inside the paper. His decision to cancel the endorsement and, in subsequent weeks, to really speak out affirmingly about President-elect Trump and some of the folks coming into the medical and health side of the administration has... He's recruited from CNN a conservative commentator, Scott Jennings, and, you know, now he's embarked on this latest innovation, it appears.

CHANG: Right - the bias meter - I want to play some tape for you of Soon-Shiong talking about this so-called bias meter. The first 2024 U.S. presidential debate happened on June 27, with then-candidate President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump sharing the stage for the first time in four years. Penn computational social scientist Duncan Watts considered that an ideal moment to test a tool his lab had been developing: the Media Bias Detector. “The debates offer a real-time, high-stakes environment to observe and analyze how media outlets present and potentially skew the same event,” said Watts, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the Annenberg School,... “We wanted to equip regular people with a powerful, useful resource to better understand how major events, like this election, are being reported on.”

The Media Bias Detector uses artificial intelligence to analyze articles from major news publishers, categorizing them by topic, detecting events, and examining factors like tone, partisan lean, and fact selection. Watts says the idea of the Detector had been brewing for years, long before he joined Penn in 2019, when he’d read articles on topics he happened to have expertise in and started to... “But that really got me thinking: What about the stuff that I don’t know about? Is that all just fine, and the only problematic information out there is just the stuff I happen to know about?” Los Angeles, California – The owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has revealed plans to introduce an artificial intelligence-driven “bias meter” in the newspaper’s reporting. Soon-Shiong, a prominent biotech billionaire, acquired the Los Angeles Times in 2018 and discussed his latest initiative on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is set to join the LA Times...

The proposed implementation of the “bias meter” has stirred controversy within the newspaper, which has experienced a series of departures and layoffs since Soon-Shiong’s ownership began. Recently, Soon-Shiong made headlines for preventing the paper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential election, prompting backlash from staff members. The “bias meter” is intended to offer readers insight into the potential biases of an article’s sources while promoting balanced reporting. Soon-Shiong emphasized the importance of avoiding confirmation bias and providing access to multiple perspectives on a given issue through the tool. Soon-Shiong disclosed that the development of the AI tool has been ongoing behind the scenes, with a projected launch date in January. The announcement sparked a response from the union representing many Los Angeles Times newsroom employees, who defended the publication’s commitment to journalistic integrity and impartiality.

In addition to the introduction of the “bias meter,” Soon-Shiong has expressed a desire to include more conservative voices in the paper’s opinion section as part of an effort to foster diverse viewpoints and... His decision to bring Scott Jennings onto the editorial board signifies a broader strategy to broaden the range of perspectives represented within the publication. The Los Angeles Times' owner on saving the newspaper. The Los Angeles Times could roll out an artificial intelligence-powered "bias meter" as soon as January, in the latest shakeup as the paper's owner tries to reshape the outlet. LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announced the upcoming AI feature on Wednesday in an interview with conservative commentator and newly appointed Times editorial board member Scott Jennings on "The Mike Gallagher Show," which Jennings was guest-hosting.

"Whether it be news or opinion — more likely the opinion or the voices — you have a bias meter so somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article... He added that readers could then "press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments." Los Angeles Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is planning to add an artificial intelligence-powered "bias meter" to his outlet’s news articles to help give readers "both sides" of a story, CNN reported. "Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias," he said on CNN’s top Republican commentator Scott Jennings’s Thursday podcast. "And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias and then that story automatically, the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story... Soon-Shiong told Jennings—who will be joining the Times’s editorial board—he believes major media outlets have failed to separate news and opinion, which he suggested "could be the downfall of what now people call mainstream...

The new plan comes after Soon-Shiong, the biotech guru who acquired the Times in 2018, faced an uproar from his staff the week before the election for blocking the paper’s endorsement of Vice President... Numerous Times staff, including members of its editorial team, resigned in protest and thousands of readers canceled their subscriptions to the paper. "I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent," said Mariel Garza, the Times editorials editor. "In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up." Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and plans to overhaul its editorial board, says he will implement an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” on the paper’s news...

Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who acquired the Times in 2018, told CNN political commentator Scott Jennings — who will join the Times’ editorial board — that he’s been “quietly building” an AI meter “behind... “Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias,” he said on Jennings’ “Flyover Country,” podcast. “And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias and then that story automatically, the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story... Soon-Shiong said major publishers have so far failed to adequately separate news and opinion, which he suggested “could be the downfall of what now people call mainstream media.” Related article Donald Trump weaponizes non-endorsements from The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times The billionaire owners of media companies are increasingly making their voices heard.

Elon Musk is X’s top poster, and notably used the social media platform to help Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election. Jeff Bezos recently put a halt to the practice of presidential endorsements at the Washington Post, just in time to (again) help Trump. Now, amidst other drastic changes to its workforce and culture, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times has said that he wants to integrate an AI-powered “bias meter” into the paper’s coverage, in... News of the bias meter was first spotted by blogger Oliver Darcy, who wrote Wednesday about the apparent plan. Soon-Shiong initially mentioned the bias meter on the podcast of pro-Trump CNN contributor (and recent LA Times editorial board member) Scott Jennings. The point of the meter would be so that “someone could understand, as a reader, that the source of the article has some level of bias,” he told Jennings.

Soon-Shiong elaborated that readers would be able to “press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments.” Soon-Shiong has said he wants to... Little is known about how such a meter would actually work. However, Soon-Shiong’s apparent push for algorithmically enforced “neutrality” comes at a time when sources close to the paper claim the billionaire is increasingly showing his own lack of it. Indeed, Darcy’s article notes that Soon-Shiong has increasing “morphed into a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jennings fanboy” and that since “Trump’s victory in November, Soon-Shiong has turned to X to criticize the news media, praise Trump’s cabinet picks, and appeal to a MAGA audience.” Soon-Shiong also previously sought...

Soon-Shiong recently fired a huge amount of staffers at the paper, laying off 115 people—in one of the single largest workforce reductions in the paper’s history. Other notable figures, like its editorials editor, have recently stepped down. All of the changes at the paper, combined with Darcy’s apparent rightward shift, have forced Times writers into a pessimistic corner. “The man who was supposed to be our savior has turned into what now feels like the biggest internal threat to the paper,” one anonymous staffer apparently told Darcy. Another anonymously quoted employee made the situation at the West Coast’s largest paper sound grim: “We’ve gone through ups and downs,” they said. “But in previous times, there were always people who saw the upside.

It is different now.”

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