Digital Digest #22 - Fog of war; ChatGPT and the news; Threads in growth mode and more

Hi everyone,

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.

It was a challenge sifting through everything this week. Alongside the ongoing Israel/Hamas war - which influenced my choice of the first couple of stories in this week's edition - there were a tonne of developments in the AI space this week along with a variety of platform updates. Let's get into it.

1. Social media in the fog of war

Social media is a good place to get bad information, especially during a war. One way to get better information: The SIFT method: "Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context." (Vox)

• Why it matters: The problem of misinformation has been widely covered amidst the ongoing Israel/Hamas war, but in a new way - it is so widespread that it is having a big overall impact on the information landscape, not just on individual organizations. Digital and media literacy is a hot topic right now, as even journalists are falling foul of the challenges. Also: YouTube is making it easier for users to access news from ‘credible’ sources (TechCrunch)

2. ChatGPT and the news

ChatGPT has reinstituted its connection to the latest news (for ChatGPT Plus subscribers). Reuters Institute looked at the quality of the tool in this respect, and gave it a solid grade: "Overall, ChatGPT can and does bring the news to paying subscribers who ask for it. In my experience, it’s been accurate and impartial in doing so, although sometimes not quite up-to-date." (Reuters Institute)

• Why it matters: Chatbots' ability to surface useful results from the open web have been mixed in my experience, with far too many incidents of hallucinations from some tools. This report is reassuring and reinforces my own experience which - this time around, at least - has been positive to-date.

Also in generative AI:

• DALL-E 3 is Now Available for ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise Users (AI Business)
• New study shows AI chatbots perpetuate medical racism (Fortune)
• ChatGPT might be doing well with the news, but every generative AI platform received a failing grade in a new study on transparency (Stanford, Axios)
• Meta Develops Invisible Watermarks to Track AI Image Origins (AI Business)

3. Threads back to growing

Meta's Threads platform is back in growth mode with almost 100m active monthly users as it continues to build out new features. This week the platform added GIFs, polls, inviting friends to contribute to image carousels, and tested branded content tags (The Verge; WSJ, Social Media Today, Adam Mosseri on Threads, x2)

• Why it matters: After a period of concern amidst falling users after its astronomical initial launch, Threats has been continually launching new features and tweaks in recent months - and it appears this is beginning to show in user numbers.
• Also: The vast majority of X's (Twitter's) biggest advertisers have stopped advertising since Elon Musk took over the company last October, according to a new report. (Yahoo News)
• Meanwhile: While Threads builds out its platform, Elon Musk is attacking Wikipedia - presumably because it has the temerity to house credible information. (Bloomberg; full text also here)

4. Meta sued over risks to kids

It wasn't all roses for Meta this week, though - this week dozens of states announced a lawsuit against the company for allegedly misleading people about mental health risks to children and teens (Axios)

• Why it matters: This is perhaps the most significant result to-date of long-standing controversy around social media and its impact on kids (see this piece from last week's Digital Digest for a recent story touching on this).

5. LinkedIn updates Collaborative Articles

LinkedIn has continued to evolve its Collaborative Articles - AI-generated article outlines to which people can contribute - increasing the visibility of contributors, adding user reactions and improving its notifications to help people find posts to which they can contribute. (Social Media Today)

• Why it matters: Collaborative articles have apparently become a significant engagement driver, as people seek the coveted "Top Voices" badge on their areas of expertise.

Have a great week,

Dave