Research suggests that the memory profiles that AI platforms store about users can make the models more sycophantic and users have less control over what gets stored than the platforms promise. I wrote a piece for @columjournreview.bsky.social about this! Reach out with your feedback/reading recs!
Very interesting new work from my @towcenter.bsky.social colleagues - building on excellent @wired.com article on LLMs and breaking news. Who is making decisions on when to ‘turn on’ web search for chatbots and when not to? www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
Such a great story
When asking AI about the news, readers “know the answers they are getting are not perfect.” They keep asking anyway.
@klaudia.bsky.social @aisvarya17.bsky.social
www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
Research suggests people who use AI tools to find news seem to prefer them over clicking on individual stories, despite being conscious of their limits when it comes to accuracy. @aisvarya17.bsky.social and I wrote about what publishers can learn from this www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
When asking AI about the news, readers “know the answers they are getting are not perfect.” They keep asking anyway. Read @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social of @towcenter.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
@aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social:
People say they are turning to AI platforms for information-related queries.
While these tools are, in theory, capable of responding to queries about the news, they may not necessarily be optimized for those tasks.
www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
When ChatGPT said that the US capture of Maduro didn't happen, Wired characterized it was "expected behavior." But @aisvarya17.bsky.social and I think AI platforms' failure to activate web search for a breaking news-related query is not expected, it's a product defect. www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...
the illustrations are stunning! Very cool site
Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
Today's additions:
- a commercial partnership that allows Google to test new experimental features
- new licensing partners for Gemini
- a deal between ProRata and the Danish Press Publications’ Collective Management Organization
Research Tools: New Tracker From Tow Center for Digital #Journalism "Monitors Developments Between News #Publishers and #AI Companies" www.infodocket.com/2025/12/04/r... #lawsuits #deals #grants @towcenter.bsky.social
Announcing a new tool to keep track of disputes and deals between news publishers and AI companies. Read @klaudia.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/analysis/law...
Today the @towcenter.bsky.social is releasing a tracker (built by my talented colleague @aisvarya17.bsky.social) that monitors developments between news publishers and AI companies—including lawsuits, deals, and grants—based on publicly available information. tow.cjr.org/ai-deals-law...
@technologyreview.com blocks all of OpenAI's and Perplexity's disclosed web crawlers in their robots.txt. Despite this, both OpenAI’s Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet retrieved the full text of a subscriber-exclusive article when asked to. How?
Read @klaudia.bsky.social and my recent CJR article:
In a shock development - AI companies are failing to benchmark what matters in newsrooms. More excellent work from our Tow Center research team @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social
In our latest piece for CJR, @aisvarya17.bsky.social and I argue that third-party evaluation of AI models is not just a technical matter; it’s a matter of accountability. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...
The performance tests used by AI companies don’t measure what matters in the newsroom. By @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social for @towcenter.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...
The Tow Center has looked into how good LLMs are at verifying and geolocating an image. Gentle reminder: "on multiple occasions models blatantly lied about the steps they took to arrive at an answer to our query" www.cjr.org/tow_center/w... #ai #osint
We asked seven different AI models to identify the location, date and source of photos taken by photojournalists, they collectively only answered 14 out of 280 queries completely correctly.
@aisvarya17.bsky.social @klaudia.bsky.social @columjournreview.bsky.social
www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
New Research: Can AI models be used to fact-check images?
www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
I cannot summarize this piece better than @klaudia.bsky.social did in this thread. The methodology and data from the experiment are linked in the article. Reach out with any questions, comments, or feedback!
NEW in @columjournreview.bsky.social: Why AI models are bad at fact-checking photos www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
Great work by @aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social. Read more below!
www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
More testing of LLMs for journalism, this time on identifying image location, date, and source.
By @aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social with some of my own commentary.
www.cjr.org/tow_center/w... @columjournreview.bsky.social
The Future of News and Search:
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism interviewed news and tech industry representatives about AI’s impact on platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation. By Klaudia Jaźwińska. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
SPARC has invited @klaudia.bsky.social & @aisvarya17.bsky.social (Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia U) @davehansen.bsky.social (Authors Alliance) & @petersuber.bsky.social (Harvard U) to discuss AI issues on May 29 at 1 pm EDT. SPARC members can register at: sparcopen.org/event/sparc-...
I wrote about the report - and publishers' anxiety around the decline of traditional search - in today's @columjournreview.bsky.social newsletter www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
A new report I co-authored for the @towcenter.bsky.social is out today! We interviewed representatives from the news and technology industries about AI’s impact on the relationship between platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
Google's "AI Mode" in action. To the extent anyone uses it, this will be a traffic killer for news: two clicks to actually visit a site and you have to click the link icon for the sidebar to update with the sources so it also limits source credibility signals.
2️⃣ At 10:15 GMT we'll examine the power dynamics emerging between news organisations and AI developers, focusing on content licensing and data valuation
Featuring @fedecherubini.bsky.social @felixsimon.bsky.social @agstrait.bsky.social @mattrogerson.bsky.social @klaudia.bsky.social
buff.ly/dEmIIrg
