Artificial Intelligence in the modern world undoubtedly continues to have a profound impact on our way of life. Innovation has implications to fundamentally change the way we engage in day-to-day activities regarding work, school and entertainment. Although AI may not be able to cause substantial damage within its current scope, like the depiction in most Hollywood movies, it is important to assess the technologies consequences. The article addresses a diverse range of applications that AI has influence and a number of areas. One such challenge that AI may pose that was, in my opinion, not adequately addressed is its use in our media. More specifically, the technologies potential to isolate groups of people as well as introduce bias to current events reporting.

In the 2016 election, the US saw the birth of the term "fake news" which was used as a political device to influence people to pay attention to or ignore news outlets providing certain "truths" (or the most favorable bias). The aggregation of news and media sources on platforms like Facebook that promote sensationalism and extreme bias promotes the dilution and consumerism of current events news. AI comes into play when we look at the way these sources reach their viewers, analyzing the users interest and political affiliations and providing content accordingly. AI may provide avenues for news and media outlets to generate content that may cater to acquiring the most buzz or views, regardless of where the data or information is sourced. This proliferation of "fake news" for the sake of profit and influence may cause information about political figures and ideas to be diluted and disingenuous. AI could provide avenues through individualized analysis to target certain consumer groups inherently creating thought bubbles, in which two sides of a story our provided in complete isolation to one another. I personally saw the isolation take affect in my Facebook feed as a generally one sided set of articles and content was continuously displayed. The scale of AI consumer analysis to provide news could have a real potential to cause selectivity in information for the benefit of major media outlets. This is an over generalization, but necessarily a debate about AI's usage in media. As a final caveat, social media as a platform for news is in itself a generally new precedent during major political elections and events.

However, AI may be the first line of defense to preventing the dissemination of fake news by analyzing and selectively filtering out those sources. Facebook has started working on AI based technology to weed out some of the falsified or fake news sources. This could have a very positive impact, but care must be taken in how these learning networks our setup. As the article discussed, the use of these sort of filtering systems has the potential for abuse if certain bias based on political leanings of the entity is introduced. In effect, certain introduced bias may cause similar bubbles of information as the "fake news" sources. Regulatory entities will have to take necessary precautions in order to ensure that information filtering is done both ethically and honest.

AI is shaping how we digest and share current event information. It is working on both sides of the field, combatting fake news and generating it. The concern is primarily one of education, how can we appropriately and accurately inform people about events that have an impact in their lives.
