Tech Topics

Combating fake news with comedy, community, digital literacy and oreos

(Photo credit @nelly13)

When I started at Google back in 2011, one of my favorite ways to gauge the hot topic of the day among Googlers was to check out Memegen. One of the engineers I worked with in CAM had created the site, so our growing office had a special affinity for it. Sadly, just like many other social media platforms, it has since devolved into chaos so Google is working to implement a community moderation approach. 

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I joined the Facebook in May 2004, soon after it launched - so I’ve been on the platform longer than the vast majority of its 2.7 billion users. It started as a site to replace the paper directories (or “facebooks”) that we used to get in college to help us get to know one another. (I remember our freshman facebook being called ‘the menu’ by many upperclassmen at Princeton...but I digress.) It seemed like such a cool way to engage with students & alums at different universities. Then it evolved into a place to keep up with friends and family and to learn the news of the day. And then it too quickly devolved. 

We’ve all heard the term ‘fake news’ - what is it & why is it a hard problem to solve? 

Fake news’ is often defined as news stories that have zero basis in fact and/or have no verifiable sources. Seems like a clean distinction? Sure, removing propaganda should be easy. The challenge comes in when you add satire and partially true stories to the spectrum of ‘fake news.’ So for the tech companies, designing algorithms which can detect this nuance is really challenging (especially when many of the algorithms are designed to capture attention & keep you on the platform). An MIT study in 2018 showed that falsehoods on Twitter won out over the truth almost every time. When you then add in sophisticated deepfake videos (where tech manipulates & combines real videos with body doubles), it gets really hard for frequent and infrequent social media users to distinguish what’s real and what’s not. This continues to cause huge societal trust issues between individuals, families, communities and governments. 

So what can we do about this? Encourage institutions and individuals to become more educated on this topic and force action. One, tech companies need to take responsibility for how their recommendation engines have been hijacked to spread lies. FB recently banned QAnon from their platform, but there is so much more they and other social media platforms can do.  Two, the US federal government needs to develop informed regulation to combat misinformation. Three, individuals have personal responsibility to actually read items critically before sharing them. MediaWise from the Poynter Institute and libraries offer guides to help distinguish real from fake news, and even comedians have ways to teach readers to identify fake news


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Why is 5G important?

(Photo credit @blackodc)

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m an Apple fangirl. The phones & devices are beautiful and the MacOS is just completely intuitive to me. And yes, I had 2 phones when I worked at Google: my personal iPhone + my work Android phone. And yes, I took heat for having both (but I wasn’t alone - many colleagues did too!) So I am always on the lookout for Apple device announcements. 

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Last week Apple debuted its newest line of iPhone 12 in 4 flavors (mini, regular, pro, pro max). Lots of great improvements in the camera, the processor, the display and color choices -- but the big news was that it’s 5G-capable. Verizon was also on stage to announce their new 5G low-band network (though T-Mobile had already launched their version in Dec 2019 and A&T’s version came out in Jul 2020). And Samsung had already launched 5G capable phones 18 months ago

So why is Apple’s launch important? Apple tends to wait to launch a technology until it thinks the market is ready for it. Their iPhone 12 launch may signal to the major carriers that it’s time to improve the patchy 5G coverage as the 5G usage may start to take off with both major smartphone makers now in the game. This launch may also signal that 

But what is 5G and why should you care? If we ever want self-driving cars to be a reality, we need 5G networks or faster to ensure that the lightning-fast decisions are made & communicated back to vehicles. 5G can also help support the vast network of connected devices, the streaming services for music/video/gaming and other areas like telehealth.  Wired has a really great 5G primer that outlines what 5G is and why its growth is critical to the growth of tech in the US. 5G promises to ultimately allow 10gigabit per second downloads (which is 600 times as fast as 4G services) -- but we are a loooong way from that level of performance and coverage across most of the US. Only certain city blocks in certain cities have that speed -- and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the carriers to truly expand coverage.


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What is the role of AI in a digital workplace?

(Photo credit @austindistel)

It’s been a busy past few weeks, with the launch of my new Coaching offerings and getting to participate in my first tweetathon! I maaaay have also spent some time watching the recent Pres and VP debates, and maaaay have scared my dog when I was yelling at the TV. (I’m just as passionate about public service & politics as I am about tech!) For those in the US, please make sure you are registered to vote and have a plan for when and how you will vote! It’s really important that you participate in the voting process.  

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Earlier this week, I was invited to participate in The Digital Workplace Tweetathon, where around 100 panelists interacted with thousands of attendees on Twitter over a 24-hour period. We discussed a wide variety of topics related to the Digital Workplace. My panel’s focus was on “The role of AI in a digital workplace” and I was joined by Paul Datta, Head of Digital Workplace for ASEAN/Japan for Tata Consultancy Services, and Mitch Zenger, CEO of Synctrics

We were each asked to record a video or written response in advance to 4 questions, and I’ve linked here to the Twitter thread for each question. I hope you take a look - I’m especially interested to hear if you know of companies working on my prediction for Q2. 

Pro tip: Tweetdeck made it so much easier to participate in this tweetathon as you could have multiple threads for notifications, hashtags, etc, open in just one window (check it out if you want an easier Twitter experience). 


#random

You might have missed this important news tidbit last week. Maybe we’ll be able to go back and erase some of 2020 someday?? Physicists prove time travel is 'mathematically possible' 🤯


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